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THE AFRICAN GORILLA IN HIS NATIVE HAUNT. Page 2.
The Popular Natural History

THE POPULAR #
NATURAL HISTORY

By The REV. J. G. WOOD, M. A.

Author of ‘‘The Illustrated Natural History’? and ‘‘The Illustrated
Natural History of Man.”

WITH 600 ILLUSTRATIONS BY
WOLF, ZWECKER, WEIR, COLEMAN AND OTHERS

A. L. BURT COMPANY -x ost ost
ot st PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

PREFACE.

Ir is now just twenty-five years ago when I was asked
to write, for the use of the young, a book on Zoology
which should be tolerably comprehensive, intelligible, and
free from the conventional errors which had been handed
down from one writer to another. Since that time the book
has passed through many editions and now takes an entirely
new shape, embodying the most recent discoveries in zoology,
being much enlarged in size, and illustrated with many addi-
tional engravings. If it should be as well received as its

predecessors I shall be most satisfied.

J. G W.

: INTRODUCTION.

In order to understand any science rightly, it needs that the student should
proceed to its contemplation in an orderly manner, arranging in his mind the
various portions of which it is composed, and endeavouring, as far as possible,
to follow that classification which best accords with nature. The result of
any infringement of this rule is always a confusion of ideas, which is sure to
lead to misapprehension. So, in the study of living beings, it is necessary to
adhere to some determinate order, or the mind becomes bewildered among
the countless myriads of living creatures that fill earth, air, and water.

As a general arranges his army into its greater divisions, and each division
into regiments and companies, so does the naturalist separate the host of living
beings into greater and smaller groups. The present state of zoological
science gives five as the number of divisions of which the animal kingdom
is composed. These are called Vertebrates, Molluscs, Articulates, Radiates,
and Protozoa. Of each of these divisions a slight description will be given,
and each will be considered more at length in its own place.

ist. The VERTEBRATES include Man and all the Mammalia, the Birds, the
Reptiles, and the Fish.

The term Vertebrate is applied to them because they are furmshed with a
succession of bones called “ vertebre,” running along the body and forming
a support and protection to the nervous cord that connects the body with the
brain by means of numerous branches.

2nd. The MOLLUusCaA, or soft-bodied animals, include the Cuttle-fish, the
Snails, Slugs, Mussels, &c. Some of them pessess shells, while others are
entirely destitute of such defence. Their nervous system is arranged on a
different plan from that of the Vertebrates. They have no definite brain,
and no real spinal cord, but their nerves issue from certain masses of nervous
substance technically called ganglia.

3rd. The ARTICULATES, or jointed animals, form an enormously large
division, comprising the Crustaceans, such as the Crabs and Lobsters, the
Insects, Spiders, Worms, and very many creatures so different from each
other, that it is scarcely possible to find any common characteristics.

4th. The next division, that of the RADIATED animals, is so named on
account of the radiated or star-like form of the body, so well exhibited in the
Star-fishes and the Sea-anemones.

5th. The PROTOZOA, or primitive animals, are, as far as we know, devoid
of internal organs or external lin bs, and in many of them the signs of life
are so feeble, that they can scarcely be distinguished from vegetable germs.

B

2 QUADRUMANA, ;
The Sponges and Infusorial Animalcules are familiar examples of this
division.

VERTEBRATES.

The term Vertebrate is derived from the Latin word vertere, signifying a to
turn” ; and the various bones that are gathered round and defend the spinal
cord are named vertebrz, because they are capable of being moved upon each
other in order to permit the animal to flex its body.

MAMMALIA,

The vertebrated animals fall naturally into four great classes. These four
classes are termed MAMMALS, BIRDS, REPTILES, and FISHES,—their pre-
cedence in order being determined by the more or less perfect development
of their structure.

QUADRUMANA ;
OR, THE MONKEY TRIBE,

The QUADRUMANOUS, or Four-handed animals, are familiarly known by
the titles of Apes, Baboons, and Monkeys. nN

The APES are at once distinguished from the other Quadrumana by the
absence of those cheek-pouches which are so usefully employed as temporary
larders by those monkeys which possess them; by the total want of tails,
and of those callosities on the hinder quarters which are so conspicuously
characteristic of the baboons.

The first in order, as well as the largest of the Apes, is the enormous ape
from Western Africa, the GORILLA. The first modern writer who brought
the Gorilla before the notice of the public seems to be Mr. Bowdich, the
well-known African traveller ; for it is evidently of the Gorilla that he speaks
under the name cf Ingheena. The natives of the Gaboon and its vicinity use
the name Gina, when mentioning the Gorilla. The many tales, too, that are
told of the habits, the gigantic strength, and the general appearance of the
Ingheena, are precisely those which are attributed to the Gorilla.

The outline of the Gorilla’s face is most brutal in character, and entirely
destroys the slight resemblance to the human countenance which the full
form exhibits. As in the Chimpansee, an ape which is placed in the same
genus with the Gorilla, the colour of the hair is nearly black; but in some
lights, and during the life of the animal, it assumes a lighter tinge of greyish
brown, on account of the admixture of variously coloured hairs. On the top
of the head and the side of the cheeks it assumes a grizzly hue. The
length of the hair is not very great, considering the size of the animal, and
is not more than two or three inches in length.

As to the habits of the Gorilla many conflicting tales have been told, and
many have been the consequent controversies. In order to settle the disputed
questions, Mr. Winwoode Reade undertook a journey to Western Africa, where
he remained for a considerable time. After careful investigation, he sums
up the history of the animal as follows :—

“The ordinary cry of a Gorilla is of a plaintive character, but in rage it is
a sharp, hoarse bark, not unlike the roar of the tiger. Owing to the negro
propensity for exaggeration, I at first heard some very remarkable stories
about the ferocity of the Gorilla ; but when I questioned the real hunters, I
found them, as far as I could judge, like most courageous men, modest, and
rather taciturn than garrulous. Their account of the ape’s feroc'ty scarcely
bears out those afforded by Drs. Savage and Ford. They deny that the

THE GORILLA, 3

Gorilla ever attacks man without provocation. ‘Leave Njina alone, they say,
‘and Njina leave you alone.’ But when the Gorilla, surprised while feeding
or asleep, is suddenly brought to bay, he goes round ina kind of half-circle,
keeping his eyes fixed on the man, and uttering a complaining, uneasy cry.

GORILLA.—( Tvoglodytes Gorilla).

If the hunter shoots at him, and the gun misses fire, or if the ape is wounded,

he will sometimes run away ; sometimes, however, he will charge, with his

fierce look, his lowered lip, his hair falling on his brow. He does not, how-

ever, appear to be very agile, for the hunters frequently escape from him.
B2

4 THE CHIMPANSEE.

“His charge is made on all-fours: he seizes the offensive object, and,
dragging it into his mouth, bites it. The story of his crushing a musket-
barrel between his teeth is general, and a French officer told me that a gun
was exhibited at the French settlements in the Gaboon, twisted ‘comme une
papillote.”’ This, however, is not very wonderful, for the cheap Birmingham
guns, with barrels made of ‘sham-dam-skelp’ iron, which are sold to the
natives, might easily be bent and twisted by a strong-jawed animal. I heard
a great deal about men being killed by Gorillas, but wherever | went I found
that the story retreated to tradition. That a man might be killed by a Gorilla
I do not affect to doubt for a moment, but that a man has not been killed
by one within the inemory of the living, I can most firmly assert. '

“T once saw a man who had been wounded by a Gorilla. It was Etia,
the Mchaga hunter, who piloted me in the forests of Ngumbi. His left hand
was completely crippled, and the marks of teeth were visible on the wrist.
I asked him to show me exactly how the Gorilla attacked him. I was to be
thehunter, he the Gorilla. 1 pretended to shoot at him. He rushed towards
me on all-fours, and seizing my wrist with one of his hands, dragged it to
his mouth, bit it, and then made off. So, he said, the Njina had done to
him. Itis by these simple tests that one can best arrive at truth among
the negroes. That which I can attest from my own personal experience in
my unsuccessful attempts to shoot a Gorilla, is as follows :—I have seen the
nests of the Gorillas, as I have described them ; I cannot say positively whether
they are used as beds, or only as lying-in couches. I have repeatedly seen
the tracks of the Gorillas, and could tell by the tracks that the Gorilla goes
habitually on all-fours.”

CLOSELY connected with the preceding animal is the large black ape which
is now well known by the name of CHIMPANSEE.

This creature is found in the same parts of Western Africa as the Gorilla,
being very common near the Gaboon. It ranges over a considerable space
of country, inhabiting a belt of land some ten or more degrees north and
south of the torrid zone.

The title zZger, or black, sufficiently indicates the colour of the hair which
envelops the body and limbs of the Chimpansee. The tint of the hair is
almost precisely the same as that of the gorilla, being nearly entirely black ;
the exception being a few whiter hairs scattered thinly over the muzzle.

It is a remarkable fact that the Chimpansees are partly groundlings, and are
not accustomed to habitual residence among the branches of trees. Although
these apes do not avail themselves of the protection which would be afforded
by a loftier habitation, yet they are individually so strong, and collectively so
formidable, that they dwell in security, unharmed even by the lion, leopard,
or other members of the cat tribes, which are so dreaded by the monkey
tribes generally.

The food of these creatures appears to be almost entirely of a vegetable
nature, and they are very unprofitable neighbours to any one who has the mis-
fortune to raise crops of rice, or to plant bananas, plantains, or papaus, within
an easy journey of a Chimpansee settlement. Asis the case with many of the
monkey tribes, the animat will eat food of a mixed character when it is living
in a domesticated state

Many specimens have been brought to Europe, and some to England ; but
this insular climate seems to have a more deleterious effect on the constitu-
tion of this ape than even on that of the other Quadrumana.

As long as they resist the untoward influence of our climate, the specimens
which we have known have always been extremely gentle and docile. Taught
by the instinctive dread of cold, they soon appreciate the value of clothing,
and learn to wrap themselves up in mats, rugs, or blankets, with perfect

THE CHIMPANSEE. 5
gravity and decorum. Dress exercises its fascinations even over the ape, for

one of these animals has been known to take such delight in a new and
handsome costume, that he repudiated the previous dress, and, in order to

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re : NY " NI i
AN

THE CHIMPANSEE.—( 7roglodytes niger.)

guard against the possibility of reverting to the cast-off garment, tore it to
shreds.

The head of the Chimpansee is remarkable for the large development of
the ears, which stand prominently from the sides of the head, and gives a
curiously peculiar expression to the contour of the head and face.

THE ORANG-OUTAN.

The ORANG-OUTAN is a native of Asia, and only to be found upon a small
portion of that part of the globe. Borneo and Sumatra are the lands most

6 THE ORANG OUTAN.

favoured by the Orang-outan, which inhabits the woody districts of thosc
islands, and there rules supreme, unless attacked by man.

THE ORANG-OUTAN. —(Stmia Satyrus.)

There seems to be at least two species of this animal that are found in
Borneo, and some zoologists consider the Gumatran ape to be a third species.

The natives distinguish the two Bornean species by the names of Mias-
kassar and Mias-pappan, the latter of which animals is the Szmza satyrus, so
well represented in the engraving. j

The walk of the Orang-outan is little better than an awkward hobble, and
the creature shuffles along uneasily by help of its arms. The hands are
placed on the ground, and are used as crutches in aid of the feet, which are
often raised entirely from the ground, and the body swung through the arms,

THE GIBBONS. 7

Sometimes it bends considerably backwards, and throwing its long arms over
its head, preserves its equilibrium by their means.

Among the trees the Orang-outan is in its element, and traverses the
boughs with an ease and freedom that contrasts strongly with its awkward
movements when on the ground. It has a curious habit of making for itself
a temporary resting-place, by weaving together the branches so as to make a
rude platform or scaffold on which it reposes. The powerful limbs of the
animal enable it to execute this task in a very short time.

The adult male animal is singularly hideous in aspect, owing much of its
repulsiveness to the great projection of the jaws and the callosities that appear
on the cheeks, As is the case with all the larger apes, it becomes sullen and
ferocious as it approaches its adult state, although in the earlier years of its
life it is docile, quiet, and even affectionate. Several young specimens have
been brought to Europe, and were quite interesting animals, having many
curious tricks, and exhibiting marks of strong affection to any one who treated
them kindly. One of these animals learned to take its meals in a civilized
manner, using a spoon, or a cup and saucer, with perfect propriety.

When brought to colder climates than that of its native land, the animal
covets warmth, and is fond of wrapping itself in any woollen clothes or
blankets that it can obtain. On board ship it has been known to rob the
sailors or passengers of their bedding, and to resist with much energy any
attempt to recover the stolen property.

In its native woods the Orang-outin seems to be an unsocial animal, de-
lighting not in those noisy conversazzones which rejoice the hearts of the
gregarious monkeys and deafen the ears of their neighbours It does not
even unite in little bands of eight or ten as do many species, but leads a
comparatively eremitical existence among the trees, sitting in dreamy indo-
lence on the platform which it weaves, and averse to moving unless impelle.l
by hunger, anger, or some motives equally powerful. When it does move, it
passes with much rapidity from tree to tree, or from one branch to another,
by means of its long limbs, and launches itself through a considerable dis-
tance, if the space between the branches be too great for itsreach of arm.

The hair of the Orang-outan is of a reddish chestnut hue, deepening here
and there into brown. The texture of the hair is coarse, and its length varies
according to the part of the body on which it is placed. Over the face, back,
breast, shoulders, and arms, it falls in thick profusion, becoming especially
long at the elbow-joint, where the hairs of the upper and fore-arm meet.
The face is partly covered with a beard, which seems to increase in size as
the animal grows older. The hair of the face takes a lighter tinge of red
than that of the body, and merges the red or auburn tint in the brown, on
the inside of the limbs.

Ata little distance the face appears to be black ; but if examined closely,
is found to present a bluish tint.

THE GIBBONS.

The GIBBONS possess, although in a small degree, those singular callosi-
ties on the hinder quarters which are so conspicuous in the baboon family,
and assume such strange tints. The Gorilla, Chimpansee, and the Orangs are
entirely destitute of these peculiarities, but the Gibbons are found to possess
them, although the callosities are very small, and hidden by the fur from a
casual view.

As in the great apes, the arms of the Gibbons are of enormous length, and
endowed with exceeding power of muscle, though the strength which resides
in these largely-developed limbs is of a different character.

‘

8 THE AGILE GIBBON.

All the Gibbons are gifted with voices as powerful as their limbs, and the
creatures seem to lose few opportunities of exercising lungs or limbs. The
cry which these animals utter is a singular one, loud and piercing, and has
been represented by the syllables “ wou-wou,” which duplex combination of
intonations is often used as a general name common to the whole family.
Some writers express the sound by the words “ oa-oa,” and others as “ woo-
woo,” among which the reader is left to choose.

Of the habits of the Gibbons in a wild state very little is known, as they
are shy in their nature, and by means of their wonderful agility escape among
the trees ina manner that baffles pursuit or observation. As to the species
which is represented in the accompanying engraving, it seems to be the most
active of this agile family, and well deserves the name that has been given to
it. Rather more has been noticed of this wonderful creature, and a further
insight into its habits has been gained, by means of a female specimen, which
was captured, and brought safely to London, where it lived for some time. _

In their native woods, these animals are most interesting to the observer, if
he is only fortunate enough to get near them without being seen by the vigi-
lant creatures. A good telescope affords an excellent mode of watching the
customs of animals that are too timid to permit a human being to come near
their haunts.

When startled, the Agile Gibbon flits at once to the top of the tree, and
then, seizing the branch that seems best adapted to its purpose, it swings
itself once or twice to gain an im-
petus, and launches itself through
the air like a stone from a sling,
gaining its force very much on the
same principle. Seizing another
branch, towards which it had aimed
itself, and which it reaches with
unerring certainty, the creature re-
peats the process, and flings itself
with ease through distances of thirty
or forty feet, flying along as if by
magic. Those who have seen it
urging its flight over the trees, have
compared its actions and appear-
ance to those of a bird. Indeed,
these creatures seem to pass a life
that is more aerial than that of
many birds, putting out of ques-
tion the heavy earth-walking birds
which have not the power of rais-
ing themselves from the ground
even if they had the will.

The colour of this species is ex-
tremely variable, and as may be
seen by reference to the figure the
offspring is not necessarily of the same colour as the parent. This differ-
ence of tint is not solely caused by age, for it frequently happens that a
cream-coloured mother has a dark infant, and vice versdé. Of the specimens
in the British Museum, hardly any two are alike in the tint of their soft
woolly fur. Some are nearly black, some are brown, and some are of a light
cream colour.

A VERY different group of animals now comes before us, separated even by
the outer form from the ares,

AGILE GIBBON.—(Avlobates agiiés.)

THE SIMPAI. 9

The chief distinction which strikes the eye is the presence of a tail, which
is of some length, and in several species, among which we may mention the
SImPAI itself, is extremely long and slender in proportion to the body. The
arms of these animals are not of that inordinate length which is seen in
the limbs of the apes, but are delicate and well proportioned. The hinder
paws, or hands, are extremely slender, their thumbs being short, and, as will
be seen by reference to the engraving, are twice the length of the fore-paws.

Some of these monkeys are furnished with small cheek-pouches, while
others appear to be destitute of these natural pockets. The callosities of the
hinder quarters are well shown.

In this group of the Quadrumana, the characteristics of the apes disap-
pear, and the animals betray more clearly their quadrupedal nature. Very
seldom do they assume the erect attitude, preferring to run on all fours like
a dog, that being their legitimate mode of progression. Even when they do
stand on their hind feet, the long tail at once deprives them of that grotesque
semblance of the human form, which is so painfully exhibited in the tail-less

THE SIMPAI.—(Presbytes melalophos.)

apes. Besides these external distinctions, there are many remarkable peculiari-
ties in the anatomy of the internal organs, which also serve to settle the
position of the animal in the order of nature. Among these internal organs,
the stomach displays the most remarkable construction, being very large, and
divided into compartments that bear some resemblance to those in the
stomach of ruminating animals.

These monkeys are distributed through several parts of the world, the
Simpai making its residence in Sumatra.

This is a beautiful little animal, and is pleasing both for elegance of shape
and the contrasting tints with which its fur is decorated. The prevailing
colour of the body is a light-chestnut, with a perceptible golden tinge showing
itself when the light falls obliquely on the fur. The inside of the limbs and
the abdomen are not so bright as the rest of the body, but take a most sober
tint of grey. At the top of the head the hair is straight, and is set on nearly
perpendicularly, so as to form a narrow crest, The colour of the crest,

10 THE HOONUMAN AND PROBOSCIS MONKEY.

together with that of a narrow band .running over the eyes and temples, is
bleele From this conspicuous peculiarity, the Simpai 1s also called
the Black-crested Monkey.
The name _ Presbytes ae
nifies an old man, and is ==
given to these monkeys on ECG /
account of the wizened, old- Wor Z—
fashioned aspect of their Sy
countenances. The term
“melalophos” is literally
“black-crested,” and there-
fore a very appropriate
name for this species.

The length of this animal,
measured from the nose to
the root of the tail, is about
twenty inches, and that of
the tail itself is not very far
from three feet. Its fur is
very soft and glossy.

A well-known example of
this group of monkeys is ENTELLUS.—(Presbytes Entellus.)
the HOONUMAN or ENTEL-

Lus. This is a consider-

ably larger animal than the Simpai, as the adult Hoonuman measures three
or four feet from the nose to the root of the tail, and the tail itself rather
exceeds the body in length. The colour of this monkey when young, is a grey-
ish brown, excepting a dark brown line along the back and over the loins. As
the animal increases in years, the fur darkens in colour, chiefly by means of
pee hairs that are inserted at intervals. The face, hands, and fret are
black.

It is a native of India, and, fortu-
nately for itself, the mythological reli-
gion is so closely connected with it that
it lives in perfect security. Monkeys are
never short-sighted in spying out an ad-
vantage, and the Entellus monkeys are
no exception to the rule. Feeling them-
selves masters of the situation, and
knowing full well that they will not be
punished for any delinquency, they take
up their position in a village with as
much complacency as if they had built
it themselves. They parade the streets,
they mix on equal terms with the inha-
bitants, they clamber over the houses,
they frequent the shops, especially those
of the pastrycooks and fruit-sellers, keep-
ing their proprietors constantly on the
watch.

The PROBOSCIS MONKEY, or KAHAU,
= At is pee ed called, on account
of its cry bearing some resemblance to that word, is an i i
and probably of several neighbouring countries. ; It sage Cae
the engraving, an animal of very unattractive features, principally on eK:

KAHAU.—(Presbytes carvatus.)

THE COLOBUS. Ir

of its enormously lengthened nose. This feature does not present itself in
perfection until the Kahau has reached its maturity.

In size, the Kahau is about equal to the Hoonuman, and seems to be an
active animal, leaping from branch to branch, through distances of fifteen
feet or more.

For the preternatural ugliness of the countenance the Kahau is partially
compensated by the beautiful colouring of its fur, which is thick, but not
woolly, nor very long. The principal colour in the body is a bright chestnut
red : the sides of the face, part of the shoulders, and under part of the body
being of a golden yellow. Arich brown tint is spread over the head and
between the shoulders; the arms and legs taking a whiter tinge than the
shoulders.

iN

URSINE COLOBUS.—(Colobus ursinus).

THE COLOBUS.

THE scientific name which is given to this genus of monkeys explains—as is
the proper office of names—one of the leading peculiarities of the animals.
The title “Colobus” is a Greek word, signifying “stunted,” or “ maimed,”
and is given to these animals because the thumbs of the two fore-limbs giye
but little external indication of their presence, so that the hand consists
merely of four fingers. They are exclusively African animals. They are
rather handsome creatures, and their hair is sufficiently long and silky to
be valuable as a fur.

The Ursine, or Bearlike Colobus, is so named because the general colour
of its long black fur, and the form of the monkey itself, with the exception of
the tail, has something of the bearish aspect. The cheeks and chin of this
animal are covered with white hair; there is a white patch on the hind legs ;
and, with the exception of a few inches at its root, which retain the black hue

12 THE WHITE:NOSE MONKEY AND THE GRIVET.
' ; F ll
of the body, the tail is of a beautiful white, terminated witha. & and fu
white tuft. ne :
The little animal, the White-Nose Monkey of Western. Africa, is a curious

i i ; ‘ch it is indebted to the
i uaint conceit, for which it 1s inde 1e
fe ee rr fringe of white hairs that surrounc 5

i e, and the conspicuous white
ee the nose, which has earned
for it the title of White-Nose. As
is so often the case in these animals,
the under side of the body and
inside of the limbs is of a much
lighter tint than the upper portions.
This distinction is peculiarly well
marked in the long tail, which is
nearly black above, and beneath
takes a greyish hue.

It isa very graceful little creature,
playful, but petulant and coquettish,
disliking to be touched, but fond of
notice and nuts, and often balanced
in curious perplexity between its coy
shyness and the charms of an offered

WHILE-NOSE MONKEY.—(Cercopithecus dainty. When in perfect health, it

Petaurista.) is seldom still, but flits with light

grace from one spot to another, per-

forming the most difficult muscular efforts with exquisite ease, and profoundly

sensible -of the admiration which its pretiy antics never fail to excite in the
spectators.

Itis by no means a large animal, its head and body only measuring fifteen
or sixteen inches, the tail being little short of two feet in length.

We now arrive at a group of small monkeys with exceedingly long names.
The term “Cercopithecus” is composed from two Greek words, signifying
“ tailed ape.”

It is worth notice that the word “ monkey” is derived from the name of
one of this group, the Mona. The diminutive of Mona is Monikin, the
transition from which word to our “monkey ” is sufficiently evident.

The GRIVET, or TOTA, as it is called by some writers, is of a sombre green
colour; the green being produced by alternate rings of black and yellow on
each hair. The limbs and tai! are of a greyer tint than the rest of the body,
the yellow portion of the hair being changed to a dull white. The inside of
the limbs and the abdomen are slightly tinged with white. In the male ani-
mal the canine teeth are rather protuberant, showing themselves beyond the
lips. The naked skin of the face, ears, and palms, is black, dashed with that
deep violet hue that is found in so many of the monkeys. At each side of
the head the white hairs stand out boldly, whisker fashion, and give a very
lively character to the head. It is an African animal, and common in
Abyssinia.

The left hand figure of the group on the next page represents the GREEN
MONKEY, sometimes called the Callithrix, or Beautiful-haired Monkey, on
account of the exquisitely delicate marking of each separate hair. The insice
of the limbs is nearly white, as is the under surface of the body, and the
outer side of the limbs takes a greyish tinge. The hairy fringe that grows
eee oa of the face is of a delicate golden yellow.

is monkey is a native of Senegal and the neighbouring par i
frequently brought to this country. 8 s § parts, and is

THE GREEN MONKEY AND THE VERVET. 13

The VERVEr is the last of the figures. This is rather a variable animal in
point of colour, some specimens being decidedly pale, while others assume a
blackish hue. In general, the colour of the animal is as follows. The

GRIVET.— (Cercopithecus Engythithia.)

prevailing tint of the fur is much the same as that of the Grivet, to which
animal the Vervet bears a strong resembiance. The head, the throat, and

=— ZF ape:

GREEN MONKEY. VERVET.
(Cercopithecus sabeus.) (Cercopithecus pygerythrus.)

breast are of a light dun, the paws being very dark. In the male Vervet the
canines are rather long, and show their points beyond the lips.

MACAQUES.

The various species of monkeys which are ranged under the common title
of MACAQUES are mostly well-known animals ; being plentiful in their native
lands, and frequently domesticated both in their own and ia foreign
countries, :

14 THE MAGOT, OR BARBARY APE.

The animal which is shown in the opposite engraving is one of the best
known of the monkey tribe ; as it is tolerably hardy, it endures the change-
able and chilly European climates better than most of its race.

As its name implies, it is a native of Barbary, where it is found in great
numbers, but has also been naturalized upon the Rock of Gibraltar. The

fa

BO :
ei A Oa oN
AYE SAW PU,

MAGOT, OR BARBARY APE.—(Macacus Jnnuus),

‘Gibraltar MaGoTs are frequently mentioned in books of travel, and display
great ingenuity in avoiding pursuit and discovering food. They keep to the
most inaccessible portions of the rock, and scamper away hurriedly on the
slightest alarm. But with the aid of a moderately good telescope, theit move-
ments may be watched, and are very amusing.

This monkey is not very widely spread, for, with the exception of the Rock
of Gibraltar, it seems to be confined to Northern Africa.

It is not a very large animal, as the full-grown males only measure
about a yard in length, and the females are rather smaller. The general
size of the Magot is about that of an ordinary bull-terrier dog.

The colour of the fur is tolerably uniform, differing chiefly in depth of
shade, and is of a clear greyish tint.

Its walk on level ground is rather awkward, the animal making use of feet
and hands for that purpose; but it climbs with ease and agility up trees
or rocks, and in a domesticated state is fond of running up and down
ropes, and swinging itself about in its cage.

One of the last of the Macaques which we shall notice in this work is the
monkey which is well known under the name of WANDEROO, or OUANDEROO,

- as it is sometimes written,

THE WANDEROO, 15

This very singular animal is a native of the East Indies, and is found
commonly enough in Ceylon. The heavy mass of hair that surmounts the
head and envelops the entire face gives it a rather dignified aspect, reminding
the observer of the huge peruke under whose learned shade the great legal
chiefs consider judgment. The hair on the top of the head is black, but

WANDEROO. —(Silenus veter).

the great beard that rolls down the face and beneath the chin is of a grey
tint, as if blanched by the burden of many years. In some instances this
ae roeni almost entirely white, and then the Wanderoo looks very venerable
indeed. :

From the form of the tail, which is of a moderate length, and decorated
with a hairy tuft at its extremity, the Wanderoo is also known by the name
of the Lion-tailed Baboon. '

The greater part of the fur of this animal is of a fine black, but the colour
assumes a lighter hue on the breast and abdomen. The callosities on the
hinder quarters are of a light pink.

It is not a very large animal, being rather less than three feet from the
nose to the tip of the tail.

In the absence of a tail, and in general form, the BLACK MACAQUE bears
some resemblance to the Magot, but in colour and arrangement of hair, it is
entirely distinct from that animal.

The tint of the fur is as deep a black as that of the Budeng, or Black
Colobus. Both these monkeys are possessed: of crests which give a peculiar
character to the whole aspect. That of the Black Colobus, however, is
reverted forward, and curves to a point over the forehead, while that of the

16 THE BLACK MACAQUE AND THE BABOONS.

animal before us rises from the head and bends backward over the neck in a
manner not unlike that of the cockatoo, ;

BLACK MACAQUE.—(Macacus niger).

Like the Magot, the Black Macaque has been called an ape by some
writers, and a baboon by others, on account of the apology for a tail with
which its hinder quarters are terminated, but not decorated. It is an inhabitant
of the Philippines and the neighbouring countries.

BABOONS, OR DOG-HEADED MONKEYS.

A well-marked group of animals now come before us, popularly known by
the name of BABOONS. Sa ae

One distinguishing characteristic of these creatures is that ‘the nostrils are
situated at the extremity of the muzzle, instead of lying nearly flat upon its
base, and just under the eyes, as in the apes and other quadrumanous
animals. The muzzle, too, is peculiar in its form, being, as it were, cut off
abruptly, leaving a round and flattened extremity.

Of the Dog-headed Baboons, the species which is most celebrated for its
feats of prowess is the well-known animal called the CHACMA, or URSINE
BABOON. _

This animal, when it has attained its full age, equals in size a large mastiff
or an ordinary sized wolf; while, in bodily strength and prowess, it is a
match for any two dogs that can be brought to attack it.

The Chacma is a most accomplished robber, executing his burglaries openly
whenever he knows that he will meet with no formidable opposition, and
having recourse to silent craft when there are dogs to watch for trespassers,
and men with guns te shoot them.

With such consummate art do these animals plan, and with such admir-
able skill do they carry out their raids, that even the watchful band of dogs

THE CHACMIA, 7)

is comparatively useless; and the cunning robbers actually slip past the vigi-
lant sentries without the stirring of a grass blade or the rustling of a dried
twig, to give notice to the open ears of the wakeful but beguiled sentries.

FEw animals present a more grotesque mixture of fantastic embellishments
and repulsive ferocity than the baboon which is known under the name of
MANDRILL.

The colours of the rainbow are emblazoned on the creature’s form, but
always in the very spots where one would least expect to see them. A
bright azure glows, not in its “ eyes of heavenly blue,” but on each side of its

THE CHACMA.—( Cynocephalus porcarius.)

nose, where the snout is widely expanded, and swollen into two enormous
masses. The surfaces of these curious and very unprepossessing projections
are deeply grooved, and the ridges are bedizened with the cerulean tint above
mentioned. Lines of brilliant scarlet and deep purple alternate with the
blue, and the extremity of the muzzle blazes with a fiery red like Bardolph’s
nose.

That all things should be equally balanced, the opposite end of the body
is also radiant with chromatic effect, being plenteously charged with a ruddy
violet, that is permitted to give its full effect, by the pert, upright carriage of
the tail,

c

16 THE MANDRILL.

The general colour of the fur is of an olive brown tint, fading into grey on
the under side of the limbs, and the chin is decorated with a small yellow
pointed beard. The muzzle is remarkable for a kind of rim or border, which
is not unlike the corresponding part in a hog, and is well shown in the
engraving. The ears are small, devoid of fur, and of a black colour with a
tinge of blue.

Only the male Mandrill possesses these strange adornments in their full
beauty of size and colour, the females being only gifted with “he blue tint
upon the muzzle, and even that is of a much less brilliant hue than in the
male.

THE MANDRILL.—(C,zocephalus Mormon.) .

In this country the Mandrill is seldom seen to equal a tolerably large
terrier in size, but in its native land a full-grown male measures more than
five feet when standing upright, a stature which equals, if not exceeds, that
of the Chacma.

In its native land the usual food of the Mandrill is of a vegetable nature,
although, in common with the rest of the Baboons, it displays a great liking
for ants, centipedes, and similar creatures.

The tail of this animal is a remarkable feature, if it may be so termed, in

AMERICAN MONKEYS, 19

the general aspect of the baboon. It is short, set high on the back, and
curved upwards in a manner that is most singular, not to say ludicrous, in
the living animals, and conspicuously noticeable in the skeleton. ;

It is a very common animal in its own country, but on account of its great
strength, cunning, and ferocity, is not so often captured as might be expected.
Even when a specimen is made prisoner, it is generally a very young one,
which soon loses in captivity the individuality of its being, and learns to
accommodate itself to the altered circumstances among which it is placed.

ANOTHER well-known species of the Dog-headed Baboons is the PAPION,
an animal of rather a more :
refined aspect than the
Chacma, or, more pro-
perly speaking, not quite
so brutal.

The face, although un-
attractive enough, is yet
not so repulsive as that
of the Chacma, and the
colours are rather more
bright than those of that
animal.

Great reverence was paid
to these creatures, and
specially to certain selected
individuals which were fur-
nished with a safe home
in or near their temples,
liberally fed while living,
and honourably embalmed
when dead. Many mum-
mied forms of these ba-
boons have been found in
the temple caves of Egypt,
swathed, and spiced, and
adorned, just as if they
had been human beings.

Some authors say that
the Thoth Baboon was an
object of worship among the Egyptians, but hardly with sufficient reason.
Various animal forms were used as visible living emblems of the attributes
of deity and the qualities of the human intellect, but were no more objects
of idolatrous worship than the lion of England or the eagle of America.

The fur of the Papion is of a chestnut colour; in some parts fading intoa
sober fawn, and in others warmed with a wash of ruddy bay. The paws are
darker than the rest of the body. When young, it is of a lighter hue, and
deepens in colour until it reaches its full age. In the prime of existence its
colours are the lightest, but as years begin to lay their burden on the animal,
the hairs begin to be flecked with a slight grizzle, and, in process of time, the
snows of age descend liberally, and whiten the whole fur with hoary hairs.

THE PAPION.—(Cynocephalus Sphinx.)

AMERICAN MONKEYS.

WE have now taken a rapid survey of the varied forms which the Quadru-
mana of the Old World assume; forms so diversified that there hardly
seems to be scope for further modifications. Yet the prolific power of nature

C2

20 THE COAITA.

is so inexhaustible, that the depth of our researches only brings to view
objects of such infinite variety of shape that the mind is lost in wonder
and admiration. We will now take some of the Quadrumana of the New
World.

The CoaITA, or QUATA, as the word is frequently written, is one of the
best known of this group of animals, which are called by the name of
SPIDER MONKEYS on account of their long sprawling limbs, and their
peculiar action while walking.

The name “Ateles,” which is given to the entire genus to which this
animal belongs, signifies “imperfect,” and has been applied to the creatures
because the fore-paws are devoid of useful thumbs. Sometimes that member
is almost entirely absent, and in other instances it only just shows itself.

The Spider Monkeys are also remarkable for the long and prehensile
tail. With such singularly delicate sense of touch is it furnished, that it
almost seems to be possessed of the power of sight, and moves about among
the branches with as much decision as if there were an eye in its tip. Should
the monkey discover some prize, such as a nest of eggs, or any little dainty,
which lies in a crevice too small for the hand to enter, it is in nowise discon-

certed, but inserts the end of its

tail into the cranny, and hooks out
the desired object.

There is a beautiful formation of
the tail of this creature, by means of
which the grasp of that member re-
tainsits hold evenafterthe death of the
owner. If a Spider Monkey be mor-
tally wounded and not killed outright,
it curls its tail round a branch, and
thus suspended yields up its life.
The tail does not lose its grasp when
the life has departed ; and the dead
monkey hangs with its head down-
wards until decomposition sets in and
the rigid muscles are relaxed.

The Coaita is by no means a
large animal, measuring very little

‘more than a foot from the nose to the
root of the tail, while the tail itself is
two feet in length. Its colour is very
dark and glossy ; so dark, indeed, as
to be almost black. The hair varies

CoaITa.—(Ateles Paniscus.) much in length and density. Onthe

back and the outside of the limbs it

hangs in long drooping locks, forming a thick covering through which the

skin cannot be seen. But on the abdomen the hair is quite scanty, and

is so thinly scattered that the skin is plainly visible. The skin of the face is
of a dark copper colour.

ANOTHER example of this wonderful group of monkeys is -found in the
MARIMONDA ; an inhabitant, like the last-named animal, of Central Ame-
rica, and found in greatest numbers in Spanish Guiana, where, according to
Humboldt, it fills the place of the Coaita.

The general shape, the formation of its limbs, and the long prehensile tail,
point it out at once as another of the Spider Monkeys, It is certainly a very
appropriate name for these animals. Their heads are so small, their bodies
so short, their limbs so slender, and their tail so limb-like, that the mind

EW
\' 3
Be aa

THE MARIMONDA. 21

unconsciously draws a parallel between these monkeys and the long legged
spiders that scuttle so awkwardly over the ground, and are so indifferent
respecting their complement of legs.

_ The resemblance holds good even when the monkey is at rest, or when
it only appears before the eye in an illustration. But when the creature
begins to walk on level ground, and especially if 1t be hurried, its clumsy
movements are so very spider-like, that the similitude is ten times more
striking. Be it remarked, that both creatures are supposed to be placed in
uncongenial circumstances. The spider is deft and active enough among
the many threads of its air-suspended nets, as is the monkey among the slight
twigs of the air-bathed branches. But when both animals are subjected to
circumstances which are directly opposed to their natural mode of existence,
they become alike awkward, and alike afford subjects of mirth.

—
7 SN eth bine

MARIMONDA.—( Aféeles Belzebuth.)

The mode by which a Spider Monkey walks on level ground is rather
singular, and difficult to describe, being different from that which is employed
by the large apes. They do not set the sole of either paw, or hand, flat upon
the ground, but, turning the hinder feet inwards, they walk upon their outer
sides. The reverse process takes place with the fore-paws, which are twisted
outwards, so.that the weight of the animal is thrown upon their inner
edges. ‘

it will easily be seen how very awkward an animal must be which is forced
to employ so complicated a means for the purpose of locomotion. Although
the Spider Monkey has been known to walk in a manner much more steady
than that of any other monkey, yet this bipedal progression was only em-
ployed for a few paces, and with a haven of rest in view in the shape of a
window-sill, on which the creature could rest its hands. The tail is also
curled over the head, like the letter S, by way of a balance,

J

22 THE URSINE HOWLER.

In captivity, the Marimonda is a gentle and affectionate animal, attaching
itself strongly to those persons to whom it takes a fancy, and playing many
fantastic gambols to attract their attention, Its angry feelings, although per-
haps easily roused, do not partake of the petulant malignity which so oftun
characterises the monkey race, and are quite free from the rancorous
vengeance which is found in the baboons. Very seldom does it attempt to
bite, and even when such an event does take place, it is rather the effect of
sudden terror than of deliberate malice.

On account of its amiable nature it is often brought into a domesticated
state, and, if we may give credence to many a traveller, is trained to become
not only an amusing companion, but a useful servant.

The colour of this animal varies much, according to the age of the indi-
vidual.

When adult, the leading colour is of a uniform dull black, devoid of the
glossy lustre which throws back the sunbeams from the coaita’s furry mantle.
On the back, the top of the head, and along the spine, the hair is of a dense,
dead black, which seems to have earned for the animal the very inapposite
name with which its nomenclators have thought fit to dedecorate the mild
and amiable Marimonda. P

The throat, breast, inside of the limbs, and the under side of the tail are
much lighter in tint, while in some individuals a large, bright chestnut patch
covers the latter half of the sides.

It seems to be of rather a listless character, delighting to bask in the sun’s
rays, and lying in the strangest attitudes for hours without moving. One of
the postures which is most in vogue is achieved by throwing the head back
with the eyes turned up, and then flinging the arms over the head. The
position in which this animal is depicted in the illustration is a very favourite
one with most of the Spider Monkeys.

THE animal which is here engraved is an example of the celebrated
group of HOWLING Mon-
KEYS, cr ALOUATTES, as
they are termed by some
naturalists, whose strange
customs have been so often
noticed by travellers, and
whose reverberating cries
rend their ears. Little
chance is there that the
Howling Monkeys should
ever fade from the memory
of anyone who has once
suffered an unwilling mar-
tyrdom from their mourn-
ful yells.

Several species of Howl-
ing Monkeys are known to
science, of which the
= ARAGUATO, as it is called
URSINE HOWLER.—(Mycetes ursinus.) in its own land, or the
URSINE HOWLER, as it is
popularly named in this country, is, perhaps, the commonest and most con-
spicuous. It is larger than any of the New World monkeys which have
hitherto been noticed ; its length being very nearly three feet when it is fully
grown,,and the tail reaching to even a greater length.

The colour of the fur is a rich reddish brown, or rather bay, enlivened by

THE CAPUCIN. 23

a golden lustre when a brighter ray of light than usual plays over its surface.
The beard which so thickly decorates the chin, throat, and neck, is of a
deeper colour than that of the body.

Few animals deserve the name which they bear so well as the Howling
Monkeys. Their horrid yells are so loud, that they can be heard plainly
although the animals which produce them are more than a mile distant ; and
the sounds that issue from their curiously-formed throats are strangely simu-
lative of the most discordant outcries of various other animals—the jaguar
being one of the most favourite subjects for imitation. Throughout the
entire night their dismal ululations resound, persecuting the ears of the
involuntarily wakeful traveller with their oppressive pertinacity, and driving
far from his wearied senses the slumber which he courts, but courts in vain.

In order that an animal of so limited a size should be enabled to produce
sounds of such intensity and volume, a peculiar structure of the vocal organs
is necessary.

The instrument by means of which the Howlers make night dismal with
their funestral wailings, is found to be the “hyoid bone,” a portion of the

THE CAPUCIN.—(Cebus Apella )

form which is very slightly developed in man, but very largely in these
monkeys. In man, the bone in question gives support to the tongue and is
attached to numerous muscles of the neck. In the Howling Monkeys it
takes a wider range of duty, and, by a curious modification of structure,
forms a bony drum which communicates with the windpipe and gives to the
voice that powerful resonance which has made the Alouattes famous.

The CAPUCIN MONKEYS, an example of which is here given, are active
little animals, lively and playful. In habits, all the species seem to be very
similar, so that the description of one will serve equally for any other. In
consequence of their youth and sportive manners they are frequently kept in
a domesticated state, both by the native Indians and by European settlers.
Like several other small monkeys, the Capucin often strikes up a friendship
for other animals that may happen to live in or near its home, the cat being
one of the most favoured of their allies. Sometimes it carries its familiarity
so far as to turn the cat into a steed for the nonce, and, seated upon her back,
to perambulate the premises. More unpromising subjects for equestrian
exercise have been pressed into the service by the Capucin. Humboldt

24 THE BLACK YARKE,

mentions one of these creatures which was accustomed to catch a pig every
1uorning, and, mounting upon its back, to retain its seat during the day.
Even while the pig was feeding in the savannas its rider remained firm,
and bestrode its victim with as much pertinacity as Sinbad’s old man of
the sea.

There is some difficulty in settling the species of the Capucins, for their
fur is rather variable in tint, in some cases differing so greatly as to look like
another species. The general tint of the CAPUCIN is a golden olive, a whiter
fur bordering the face in some individuals, though not in all.

There are several monkeys known by the name of Sakis, among which
are reckoned the Cuxio, a rather odd little animal, and two other species,
which are easily distinguished from each other by the colour of their heads,

A
“\) C \ /
Mie

J)

BLACK YARKE.—(Pithecta leucocephala.)

The first of these animals is the BLACK YARKE, or WHITE-HEADED Sak],
and the other the CACAJAO, or BLACK-HEADED SAKI.

The former of these Sakis is a rather elegant creature in form, and of
colour more varied than those of the Cuxio. As will be seen from the accom-
panying engraving, the head is surrounded with a thick and closely-set fringe
of white hair, which is rather short in the male, but long and drooping in the
female. The top of the head 1s of a deep black, and the remainder of the
body and tail is covered with very long and rather coarse hair of a blackish-
brown. Under the chin and throat the hairs are almost entirely absent, and
the skin is of an orange hue.

Beside the difference of length in the facial hairs of the female Yarke
there are several distinctions between the sexes, which are so decided as to
have caused many naturalists to consider the male and female to belong to

THE DOUVROUCOULL 25

different species. The hair ofthe female Yarke is decorated near the tip with
several rings of a rusty brown colour, while the hair of the male is entirely
devoid of these marks.

The natural food of these animals is said to consist chiefly of wild bees and

‘their honeycombs. Perhaps the long furry hair with which the Sakis are
covered may be useful for the purpose of defending them from the stings of
the angry insects. On account‘ of the full and bushy tail with which the
members of this group are furnished, they are popularly classed together
under the title of Fox-tailed Monkeys.

THE term “ Nyctipithecus,” or Night-monkey, which is used as the generic
title of the DOUROUCOULLI, refers to its habits, which are more strictly noctur-
nal than those of the animals heretofore mentioned. The eyes of this little
creature are so sensitive to light, that it cannot endure the glare of day,
and only awakes to activity and energy when the shades of night throw their
welcome veil over the face of nature.

DOUROUCOULL.—(Wyctipithecus trivergatus.)

In its wild state, it seeks the shelter of some hollow tree or other darkened
place of refuge, and there abides during the hours of daylight, buried in a
slumber so deep that it can with difficulty be aroused, even though the rough
hand of its captor drag it from its concealment. During sleep, it gathers all
its four feet closely together, and drops its head between its fore-paws. It
seems to be one of the owls of the monkey race.

The food of this Douroucouli is mostly of an animal nature, and consists
chiefly of insects and small birds, which it hunts and captures in the night
season. After dark, the Douroucouli awakes from the torpid lethargy in
which it has spent the day, and, shaking off its drowsiness, becomes filled with
life and spirit. The large dull eyes, that shrank from the dazzling rays of the
sun, light up with eager animation at eventide; the listless limbs are instinct
with fiery activity, every sense is aroused to keen perception, and the creature
sets off on its nightly quest. Such is then its agile address, that it can capture

26 THE MARIKINA.

even the quick-sighted and ready-winged flies as they flit by, striking rapid
blows at them with its little paws.

The general colour of the Douroucouli is a greyish-white, over which a
silvery lustre plays in certain lights. The spine is marked with a brown line,
and the breast, abdomen, and inside of the limbs are marked with a very
light chestnut, almost amounting to orange. The faceis remarkable for three
very distinct black lines, which radiate from each other, and which have
earned for the animal the title of “Trivergatus,” or “ Three-striped.” There
are but very slight external indications of ears, and in order to expose the
organs of hearing, it is necessary to draw aside the fur of the head. On
account of this peculiarity, Humboldt separated the Douroucouli from its
neighbours, and formed it into a distinct family, which he named “ Adtes,”
or “ Earless.”

MARIKINA.—(Jacchus Rosalia.)

Guiana and Brazil are the countries where this curious little animal is
found. Although by no means an uncommon species, it is not taken very
plentifully, on account of its monogamous habits. The male and its mate
may often be discovered sleeping snugly together in one bed, but never in
greater numbers, unless there may be a little family at the time. Its cry is
singularly loud, considering the small size of the animal which utters it, and
bears some resemblance to the roar of the jaguar. Besides this deep-toned
voice, it can hiss or spit like an angry cat. mew with something of a cat-like
intonation, and utter a guttural, short, and rapidly-repeated bark. The fur
is used for the purpose of covering pouches and similar articles.

AMONG the various members of the monkey tribe there is hardly any
species that can compare with the exquisite little MARIKINA, either for grace
of form, or soft beauty of colour,

THE MARMOSET. 27

The hair with which this creature is covered is of a bright and lustrous
chestnut, with a golden sheen playing over its long glossy locks. To the
touch, the fur of the Marikina is peculiarly smooth and silken ; and from this
circumstance it is sometimes called the Silky Monkey.

Both-for the texture and colour of the hair, the name is happily chosen, for
the tint of the Marikina’s fur is just that of the orange-coloured silk as it is
wound from the cocoon, while in texture it almost vies with the fine fibres of
the unwoven silk itself.

Another name for the same animal is the Lion Monkey, because its little
face looks out of the mass of hair like a lion from out of his mane.

The colour of the hair is nearly uniform, but not quite so. On the paws
it darkens considerably, and it is of a deeper tint on the forehead and the
upper surface of the limbs than on the remainder of the body. Some speci-
mens are wholly of a darker hue. In no place is the fur very short ; but on
the head, and about the shoulders, it is of very great length in proportion to
the size of the animal.

The Marikina is rightly careful of its beautiful clothing, and is fastidious to
a degree about preserving its glossy brightness free from stain. Whether
when wild, it keeps its own house clean, or whether it has no house at all,
is not as yet accurately ascertained; but in captivity, it requires that all
cleansing shall be performed by other hands. This slothfulness is the more
peculiar, because the creature is so sensitive on the subject, that if it be in
the least neglected, it loses its pretty gaiety, pines away, and dies.

It is fond of company, and can seldom be kept alone for any length of time.
The food of the Marikina is chiefly composed of fruits and insects; but in
captivity, it will eat biscuit and drink milk. It is a very timid animal, unable
to fight a foe, but quick in escape and adroit in concealment. Its voice is
soft and gentle when the animal is pleased, but when it is excited by anger or
fear, it utters a rather sharp hiss. The dimensions of the Marikina are much
the same as those of the following animal.

THE beautiful little creature which is so well known by the name of the
MARMOSET, or OUISTITI, is a native of Guiana. The fur is long and
exquisitely soft, diversified with bold stripes of black upon a ground of
white and reddish yellow. The tail is long and full; its colour is white,
encircled with numerous rings of a hue so deep that it may almost be called
-black. A radiating tuft of white hairs springs from each side of the face,
and contrasts well with the jetty hue of the head.

On account of the beauty of its fur, and the gentleness of its demeanour
when rightly treated, it is frequently brought from its native land and forced
to lead a life of compelled civilization in foreign climes. It is peculiarly
sensitive to cold, and always likes to have its house well furnished with soft
and warm bedding, which it piles up in a corner, and under which it delights
to hide itself.

The Marmosets do not seem to be possessed of a very large share of
intelligence, but yet are very engaging little creatures if kindly treated.
They are very fond of flies and other insects, and will often take a fly from
the hand of the visitor. One of these animals, with whom I struck up an
acquaintance, took great pleasure in making me catch flies for its use, and
taking them daintily out of my hand. When it saw my hand sweep over a
doomed fly, the bright eyes sparkled with eager anticipation ; and when I
approached the cage, the little creature thrust its paw through the bars as
far as the wires would permit, and opened and closed the tiny fingers with
restless impatience. It then insinuated its hand among my closed fingers,
and never failed to find and capture the imprisoned fly

Generally, the Marmoset preserves silence; but if alarmed or irritated, it

28 LEMURS,

gives vent to a little sharp whistle, from which it has gained its name of
Ouistiti. It is sufficiently active when in the enjoyment of good health,
climbing and leaping about from bar to bar with an agile quickness that
reminds the observer of a squirrel,

MARMOSET.—( Yacchus vulgaris.)

Its food is both animal and vegetable in character; the animal portion
being chiefly composed of various insects, eggs, and, it may be, an occasional
young bird, and the vegetable diet ranging through most of the edible fruits.
A tame Marmoset has been known to pounce upon a living gold fish and to
eat it. In consequence of this achievement, some young eels were given to
the animal, and at first terrified it by their strange writhings, but in a short
time they were mastered and eaten.

The length of the full-grown Marmoset is from seven to eight inches,
exclusive of the tail, which measures about a foot.

LEMURS.

THE form of the monkeys which are known by the name of LEMURS is of
itself sufficient to show that we are rapidly approaching the more quadru-
pedal mammaalia.

The head of all the Lemurs is entirely unlike the usual monkey head, and
even in the skull the distinction is as clearly marked as in the living being.
Sharp, long, and pointed, the muzzle and jaws are singularly fox-like, while
the general form of these animals, and the mode in which they walk, would
lead a hasty observer to place them among the true quadrupeds. Yet, on a
closer examination, the quadrumanous characteristics are seen so plainly,
that the Lemurs can but be referred to their proper position among, or rather
at the end of, the monkey tribe.

The word Lemur signifies “a night-wandering ghost,” and has been
applied to this group of animals on account of their nocturnal habits, ang

THE SLENDER LORIS. 29

their stealthy noiseless step, which renders their progress almost as inaudible
as that of the unearthly beings from whom they derive their name.

The RuFFED LEMUR is one of the handsomest of this family, challenging
a rivalship even with the Ring-tailed Lemur in point of appearance.

The texture of the fur
is extremely fine, and its
colour presents bold con-
trasts between pure white
and jetty: blackness. The
face of the Ruffed Lemur
is black, and a fringe of
long white hairs stands
out like a ruff round the
face.

As is the case with all the
Lemurs, it is a native of
Madagascar and of the ad-
jacent islands, and seems to
take the place of the ordin-
ary monkeys. Of all the
Lemurs this species is the
largest, its size equalling
that of a moderately

RUFFLED LEMUR.—(Lemur Macaco.) grown cat. Its voice is

a sepulchral, deep roar,

peculiarly loud, considering the size of the animal, and can be heard at a
great distance in the stilly night.

The SLENDER LorRIS is a small animal, measuring only nine inches in
length, and possessed of limbs so delicately slender as to have earned for it
its popular name. Its colour is
grey, with a slight rusty tinge, the
under portions of the body fading
into white. Round the eyes, the fur
takes a darker hue, which is well
contrasted by a white streak running
along the nose.

Small though it be, and apparently
without the power to harm, it is a
terrible enemy to the birds and in-
sects on which it feeds, and which it
captures “like Fabius, by delay.”

Night, when the birds are rest-
ing with their heads snugly sheltered
by their soft feathers, is the time
when the Loris awakes from its daily
. ion slumbers, and stealthily sets forth

SLENDER LoRIs.—(Loris gracilis.) on its search. Its movements are

so slow and silent, that not a sound
falls on the ear to indicate the presence of a living animal.

Alas for the doomed bird that has attracted the fiery eyes of the Loris!
With movements as imperceptible and as silent as the shadow on the dial,
paw after paw is lifted from its hold, advanced a step and placed again on
the bough, until the destroyer stands by the side of the unconscious victim.
Then, the hand is raised with equal silence,until the fingers overhang the
bird and nearly touch it. Suddenly the slow caution is exchanged for light-

30 THE SLOW-PACED LORIS.

ning speed, and with a movement so rapid that the eye can hardly follow it,
the bird is torn from its perch, and almost before its eyes are opened from
slumber, they are closed for ever in death.

The SLOW-PACED LORIS, or KUKANG, is very similar in its habits to the
animal just mentioned, but differs from it in size, colour, and several parts of
its form.

The fur is of a texture rather more woolly than that of the Slender Loris,
and its colour has something of a chestnut tinge running through it, although
some specimens are nearly as grey as the Slender Loris. As may be seen
from the engraving, a dark stripe surrounds the eyes, ears, and back of the
head, reaching to the corners of the mouth. From thence it runs along the
entire length of the spine. The colour of this dark band is a deep chestnut.
It is rather larger than the preceding animal, being a little more than a foot
in length.

In the formation of these creatures some very curious structures are
found, among which is the singular grouping of arteries and veins in the
limbs.

KUKANG, OR SLOW-PACED LORIS.—(Ayelacebus Favarincus.)

Instead of the usual tree-like mode in which the limbs of most animals are
supplied with blood—one large trunk-vessel entering the limb, and then
branching off into numerous subdivisions—the limbs of the Loris are
furnished with blood upon a strangely modified system. The arteries and
veins, as they enter and leave the limb, are suddenly divided into a great
number of cylindrical vessels, lying close to each other for some distance,
and giving off their tubes to the different parts of the limb. It is possible
that to this formation may be owing the power of silent movement and slow
patience which has been mentioned as the property of these monkeys, for a
very similar structure is found to exist in the sloth.

THE AVAHT, OR INDRI. 31

The tongue of the Loris is aided in its task by a plate of cartilage, by
which it is supported, and which is, indeed, an enlargement of the tendinous
band that is found under the root of the tongue. It is much thicker at its
base than at the extremity, which is so deeply notched that it seems to have
been slit with a knife. It is so conspicuous an organ that it has been often
described as a second tongue. The throat and vocal organs seem to be but
little developed, as is consistent with the habits of an animal whose very sub-
sistence depends upon its silence. Excepting when irritated, it seldom or
never utters asound ; and even then its vocal powers seem to be limited to a
little monotonous plaintive cry.

In captivity this Loris appears to be tolerably omnivorous, eating both
animal and vegetable food, preferring, however, the former. Living animals
best please its taste, and the greatest dainty that can be afforded to the
creature is a small bird, which it instantly kills, plucks, and eats entirely, the

AVAHI, OR INDRI.—(Judris laniger.)

bones included. Eggs are a favourite food with it, as are insects. It will
take butcher’s meat, if raw, but will not touch it if cooked in any way. Of
vegetable substances, sugar appears to take its fancy the most, but it will eat
fruits of various kinds, such as oranges and plantains, and has been known
to suck gum arabic. :

ANOTHER curious inhabitant of Madagascar is the INDRI, or AVAHI, a
creature that has sometimes been considered one of the lemurs, and placed
among them by systematic naturalists. From the curled and woolly hair
with which the body is covered it derives its name of “ Laniger,” or Wool-
bearer. Just over the loins and partly down the flanks, the soft wool-like
hair takes a firmer curl than is found to be the case in any other part of the
body or limbs. It is but a small animal, the length of its head and body
being only a foot, andits tail nine inches. The general colour of the fur is a

32 THE TARSIER,

lightish brown, with a white stripe on the back of the thigh, and a tinge of
chestnut in the tail. In some individuals a rusty red, mingled with a yellow
hue, takes the place of the brown ; and in all the under parts are lighter than
the upper. Its face is black, and the eyes are grey, with a greenish light
playing through their large orbs.

The name Indri is a native word, signifying, it is said, “man of the woods.”
Its voice is not very powerful, but it can be heard at some distance. Itis of
a melancholy wailing character, and has been likened to the cry of a child.

THERE are two animals which bear a close resemblance to each other,
namely, the Galago of Madagascar and the little animal which is here figured.
The ears, however, are not so large as those of the Galago, and the tail is less
thickly covered with fur, being almost devoid of hair, except at its extremity,
where it forms a small tuft. On reference to the figure, it will be seen that

TARSIER.—( Zarsius spectrum.)

the hands are of extraordinary length, in proportion to the size of the crea-
ture. This peculiarity is caused by a considerable elongation of the bones
composing the “ Tarsus,” or back of the hands and feet, and has earned
for the animal the title of TARSIER. This peculiarity is more strongly
developed in the hinder than in the fore-paws.

The colour of the Tarsier is a greyish-brown, with slight olive tint washed
over the body. A stripe of deeper colour surrounds the back of the head
and the face and forehead are of a warmer brown than the body and limbs
It is a native of Borneo, Celebes, the Philippine Islands, and Banca. From
the latter locality it is sometimes called the Banca Tarsier. Another of the
titles by which it is known is the Podji.

It is a tree-inhabiting animal, and skips among the branches with little quick
leaps that have been likened to the hoppings of a frog. In order to give the

THE AYE-AYE. 33

little creature a firmer hold of the boughs about which it is constantly leap-
ing, the palms of the hands are furnished with several cushions. The backs
of the hands are covered with soft downy fur, resembling the hair with which
the tail is furnished. Excepting on the hands and tail, the fur is very thick
and of a woolly character, but at the root of the tail, and at the wrists and
ankles, it suddenly changes to the short downy covering.

THE true position of that very rare animal the AYE-AYE seems very doubt-
ful, some naturalists placing it in the position which it occupies in this work,
and others, such as Van der Hoeven, considering it to form a link between
the monkeys and the rodent animals, the incisor teeth bearing some resem-
blance to those of the rodents.

;

bn
Ahi

Hh

W

Ke

‘K\ \\ \

i

AYE-AYE. —(Cheiromys Madagascariensis.)

These curious teeth are extremely powerful, and are very decply set in the
jawbones, their sockets extending nearly the entire depth of the bone.

They are used just like the rodent teeth, the animal biting deeply into the
trees, and so laying bare the burrows of various wood-boring grubs,

The colour of the animal is a dull black on the upper portions of the body,
the under parts, as well as the cheeks and throat, being of a light grey. The
paws are nearly black. The fur of the body is thickly set, and is remarkable
for an inner coating of downy hair of a golden tint, which sometimes shows
itself through the outer coating. On the tail the hair is darker than on the
body, greater in length, and in texture much coarser. The tail, which is jetty
black, seems to be always trailed at length, and never to beset up over the

D

# THE COLUGO.

body like the well known tail of the squirrel. The ears are large, and nearly
destitute of hair. : ; .

The natural food of the Aye-aye, like that of the preceding animals, is of
a mixed character, the creature eating fruits and insects indiscriminately.
But in its wild’state it is said to search the trees for insects as well as fruits,
and to drag their larve from their concealment by means of its delicate
fingers.

The fine specimen in the Zoological Gardens, however, does not touch in-
sects, but feeds on a mixture of honey and hard-boiled eggs beaten into a
paste and moistened with milk. Still she uses her teeth freely on the
branches that are placed in her cage, and very soon cuts them to pieces, as if

COLUGO.—(Galeopithecus volans.)

in search after grubs. She is very active, and climbs about the cage or on
the branches, in almost any position. Like the squirrel, she covers herself
with her bushy tail when in repose.

It is a nocturnal animal like the Galagos and Lemurs, and seeks its
prey by night only, spending the day in sleep, curled up in the dark
hollow of a tree, or in some similar spot, where it can retire from view and
from light.

As is shown by the scientific name of the Aye-aye, it is a native of Mada-
gascar, and even in that island is extremely scarce, appearing to be limited
to the western portions of the country, and to escape even the quick eyes of
the natives.

BATS. 35

The eyes are of a brownish yellow colour, and very sensitive to light, as
may be expected in a creature so entirely nocturnal in its habits. It is not a
very small animal, measuring almost a yard in total length, of which the tail
occupies one moiety.

THE strange ail which is known by the name of the FLyING LEMUR,
or COLUGO, affords an intermediate link of transition between the four-handed
and the wing-handed mamunals. ; ;

By means of the Jargely-developed membrane which connects the limbs
with each other, and the hinder limbs with the tail, the Colugo is enabled to
leap through very great distances, and to pass from one bough to another with
ease. This membrane is a prolongation of the natural skin, and is covered
with hair on the upper side as thickly as any part of the body, but beneath
it is almost naked. When the creature desires to make one of its long
sweeping leaps, it spreads its limbs as widely as possible, and thus converts
itself into a kind of living kite, as is shown in the figure. By thus presenting
a large surface to the air, it can be supported in its passage between the
branches, and is said to vary its course slightly by the movement of its arms.

It is said that the Colugo will thus pass over nearly a hundred yards,

Among other bat-like habits, the Colugo 1s accustomed to suspend itself by
its hinder paws from the branch of a tree, and in this pendent attitude it
sleeps. Its slumbers are mostly diurnal, for the Colugo is a night-loving animal,
and 1s seldom seen in motion until the shades of evening draw on. But on
the approach of night, the Colugo awakes from its drowsiness, and unhooking
its claws from the branch on which it has hung suspended during the hours
of daylight, sets off on its travels in search of food.

It is found in many of the islands that belong to the Indian Archipelago,
and is tolerably common.

The colour of the fur is very uncertain, even in the same species, some
specimens being of a light brown, others of a grey tint, more or less deep ;
while many individuals have their fur diversified with irregular marblings or
stripes, or spots of different shades and tints. -

The Colugo is by no means a small animal, as, when it is full grown, it
equals a large cat in size.

CHEIROPTERA ;
OR, WING-HANDED ANIMALS, POPULARLY CALLED BATS.

IN general form the Bats are clearly separated from any other group of
animals, and by most evident modifications of structure, can be recognised
by the most cursory glance.

The first peculiarity in the Bat form which strikes the eye. is the wide —..d
delicate membrane which stretches round the body, and which is used in the
place of the wings with which birds are furnished.

In order to support this beautiful membrane, \» extend it to its requisite
width, and to strike the air with it for the purposes of flight, the bones of the
fore-part of the body, and especially those of the arms and hands, undergo a
singular modification.

The finger-bones are strangely disproportioned to the remainder of the body,
the middle finger being considerably longer than the head and body together.
The thumb is very much shorter than any of the fingers, and furnished with
a sharp and curved claw. By means of this claw, the Bat is enabled to proceed
along a level surface, and to attach itself to any object that may be convenienc.

The lower portions of the body and limbs are singularly small in proportion

D2

36 : THE VAMPIRE BAT.

to the upper limbs. The legs are short and slender, and so arranged that
the feet are rather turned outward, for the purpose of using their sharp claws
freely. A kind of slender and spur-like bone is seen to proceed from the
heel of each foot.

The VAMPIRE BAT is a native of Southern America, and is spread over a
large extent of country. It is not a very large animal, the length of its dy
and tail being only six inches, or perhaps seven in large specimens, and the
spread of the wing two feet, or rather more. The colour of the Vampire’s
fur is a mouse tint, with a shade of brown.

Many tales have been told of the Vampire Bat, and its fearfula Ks upon
sleeping men—tales which, although founded on fact, were so sadly exag-
gerated as to cause a reaction in the opposite direction. It was reported to
come silently by night, and to search for the exposed toes of a sound sleeper—
its instinct telling it whether the intended victim were thoroughly buried in
sleep. Poising itself above the feet of its prey, and fanning them with its
extended wings, it produced a cool atmosphere, which, in those hot climates,
aided in soothing the slum-
ber into a still deeper
repose. The Bat then
applied its needle-pointed
teeth to the upturned foot,
and inserted them into
the tip of a toe with such
adroit dexterity that no
pain was caused by the
tiny wound. The lips
were them brought into
action, and the blood was
sucked until the Bat was
satiated. It then dis-
gorged the food which it
had just taken, and began
afresh, continuing its al-
ternated feeding and dis-
gorging, until the victim
THE VAMPIRE BAT.—(Vampyrus spectrum.) perished from sheer loss

of blood.

For a time this statement gained dominion, but after a while was less and
less believed, until at last naturalists repudiated the whole story as a “ travel-
ler’s tale.” However, as usual, the truth seems to have lain between the two
extremes ; for it is satisfactorily ascertained, by more recent travellers, that
the Vampires really do bite both men and cattle during the night, but that
the wound is never known to be fatal, and in most instances causes but little
inconvenience to the sufferer.

When they direct their attacks against mankind, the Vampires almost
invariably select the foot as their point of operation, and their blood-loving
propensities are the dread of both natives and Europeans. With singular
audacity, the Bats even creep into human habitations, and seek out the
exposed feet of any sleeping inhabitant who has incautiously neglected to
draw a coverlet over his limbs.

ONE of the most common, and at the same time the most elegant, of the
British Cheiroptera, is the well-known LONG-EARED Bart.

This pretty little creature may be found in all parts of England; and on
account of its singularly beautiful ears and gentle temper has frequently been
tamed and domesticated. I have possessed several specimens of this Lat,

THE LONG EARED BAT. 37

and in every case have been awarded for the troubie by the curious little
traits of temper and disposition which have been exhibited. ; ’

One of my Bat favourites was captured under rather peculiar cir-
cumstances. ‘

It had entered a grocer’s shop, and to the consternation of the grocer
and his assistant had got among the sugar loaves which were piled on an upper
shelf. So terrible a foe as the Bat (nearly two inches long) put to rout their
united forces, and beyond poking at
it with a broom as it cowered
behind the sugar, no attempts were
made to dislodge it. At this junc-
ture my aid was invoked ; and I
accordingly drew the Bat from its
hiding-place. It did its best to
bite, but its tiny teeth could do no
damage even to a sensitive skin.

The Bat was then placed in an
empty mouse-cage, and soon be-
came sufficiently familiar to eat and
drink under observation. It would
never eat flies, although many of
these insects were offered, anu
seemed to prefer small bits of raw Se et
beef to any other food. It was a LONG-EARED BAT. —(Pleistus Communis.)
troublesome animal to feed, for it
would not touch the meat unless it were freshly cut and quite moist ; forcing
me to prepare morsels fit for its dainty maw six or seven times daily.

It spent the day at the top or on the side of its cage, being suspended by
its hinder claws, and would occasionally descend from its eminence in order
to feed or to drink. While eating, it was accustomed to lower itself from the
cage roof, and to crawlalong the floor until it reached the piece of meat. The
wings were then thrown forward so as
to envelop the food, and under the shelter
of its wings the Bat would drop its head
over the meat and then consume it. On
account of the sharp surface of its teeth,
it could not eat its food quietly, but was
forced to make a series of pecking bites,
something like the action of a cat in similar
circumstances.

It would drink in several ways, some-
times crawling up to the water vessel and 2
putting its head into the water, but usually HEAD “OB LONG-EARED: BAT:
lowering itself down the side of the cage
until its nose dipped in the liquid. When it had thus satisfied its thirst, it
would re-ascend to the roof, fold its wings about itself, and betake itself to
slumber once more.

I kept the little animal some time, but it did not appear to thrive, having,
in all probability, been hurt by the broom-handle which had been used so
freely against it, and at last was found dead in its cage from no apparent
cause. Although dead, it still hung suspended, and the only circumstance
that appeared strange in its attitude was, that the wings drooped downwards
instead of being wrapped tightly round the body.

In the attitude of repose, this Bat presents a most singular figure. The
wings are wrapped around and held firmly to the body ; the immense ecais

38 THE FLYING FOX, OR KOUSSETTE,

are folded back, and the pointed inner ear, or “tragus,” stands boldly out

giving the creature a totally different aspect.
” THE Bats which have heretofore been mentioned feed on animal substances,

FLYING FOX, OR ROUSSETTE.—(Pteropus rubricollis.)

insects appearing to afford the principal nutriment, and raw meat or fresh
blood being their occasional luxuries. But the Bats of which the accompany-
ing engraving is an example, are chiefly vegetable feeders, and, in their own
land, are most mischievous among the fruit-trees,

THL CAT (RIDE, 39

They are the largest of the present Bat tribe, some of them measuring neaily
five feet in expanse of wing. Their popular name is FLYING FOXES, a term
which has been applied to them on account of the red, fox-like colour of tlic
fur, and the very vulpine aspect of the head. Although so superior in size
to the Vampires, the Flying Foxes are not to be dreaded as personal
enemies, for, unless roughly handled, they are not given to biting animated
beings.

But though their attacks are not made directly upon animal life, they arc
of considerable importance in an indirect point of view, for they are aimed
against the fruits and other vegetable substances by which animal life is
sustained.

I have often seen the Kalong engaged in eating fruit. It would accept a
slice of apple or pear, while suspended by its hind legs. It then bent its
head upwards, brought its winged arms forward so as to enclose head and
in together, and then would devour its meal with a series of snapping

ites.

The Kalongs do not seem to care much for dark and retired places of
abode ; and pass the day, which is their night, suspended from the trunks of
large trees, preferring those which belong to the fig genus. On these boughs
they hang in vast numbers, and by an inexperienced observer might rea‘ily
be taken for bunches of large fruits, so closely and quietly do they hang.
If disturbed in their repose, they set up a chorus of sharp screams, and
flutter about in a state of sad bewilderment, their night-loving eyes being
dazzled by the hateful glare of the sun.

FELIDE ;
OR, THE CAT TRIBE,

THE beautiful animals which are known by the general name of the CAT
Tribe now engage our attention.

With the exception of one or two of the enigmatical creatures which are
found in every group of beings, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, the
Cats, or FELID& as they are more learnedly termed, are as distinct an order as
the monkeys or the bats. Pre-eminently carnivorous in their diet, and destruc-
trive in their mode of obtaining food, their bodily form is more exquisitely
adapted to carry out the instincts which are implanted in their nature.

All the members of the Cat tribe are light, stealthy, and silent of foot, quick
of ear and eye, and swift of attack. Most of them are possessed of the power
of climbing trees or rocks, but some few species, such as the LION, are
devoid of this capability.

Of the magnificent and noble creatures called LIONS, several species are
reported to exist, although it is thought by many experienced judges that
there is really but one species of Lion, which is modified into permanent
varieties according to the country in which it lives.

The best known of these species or ‘varieties is the SOUTH AFRICAN LION,
of whom so many anecdotes have been narrated.

The colour of the Lion is a tawny yellow, lighter on the under parts of the
body, and darker above. The ears are blackish, and the tip of the tail is
decorated with a tuft of black hair. This tuft serves to distinguish the Lion
from any other member of the Cat tribe. The male Lion, when fully grown,
is furnished with a thick and shaggy mane of very long hair, which falls from
the neck, shoulders, and part of the throat and chin, varying in tint according

40 THE LION.

to the age of the animal, and possibly according to the locality which it
inhabits. The Lioness possesses no mane, and even in the male Lion it is
not properly developed until the animal has completed his third year.

When fully grown, the male Lion measures some four feet in height at
the shoulder, and about eleven feet in total length.

The Lioness is a smaller animal than her mate, and the difference of size
appears to be much greater than really is the case, because she is devoid of
the thick mane which gives such grandeur and dignity to her spouse.

In the attack of large animals, the Lion seldom attempts an unaided
assault, but joins in the pursuit of several companions. Thus it is that the
stately giraffe is slain by the Lion, five of which have been seen engaged in
the chase of one giraffe, two actually pulling down their prey, while the other
three were waiting close at hand. ‘he Lions were driven off, and the neck
of the giraffe was found to be bitten through by the cruel teeth of the assailants.

Owing to the uniform tawny colour of thé Lion’s coat, he is hardly distin-
guishable from surrounding objects even in broad daylight, and by night 1 «

= Se

THE LION.—(Leo barbarus.)

walks secure. Even the practised eyes of an accomplished hunter have been
unable to detect the bodies of Lions which were lapping water at some
twenty yards’ distance, betraying their vicinity by the sound, but so blended
in form with the landscape, that they afforded no mark for the rifle even at
that short distance.

Upon the African continent the Lion reigns supreme, sole monarch over
the feline race. But in Asia his claims to undivided royalty are disputed by
the TIGER, an animal which equals the Lion in size, strength, and activity,
and certainly excels him in the elegance of its form, the grace of its move-
ments, and the beauty of its fur. The range of the Tiger is not so widely

THE TIGER. 41

spread as that of the Lion, for it is never found in any portions of the New
World, nor in Africa, and, except in certain districts, is but rarely seen even
in the countries where it takes up its residence. Some portions of country
there are, which are absolutely infested by this fierce animal, whose very
appearance is sufficient to throw the natives into a state of abject terror.

In its colour the Tiger presents a most beautiful arrangement of markings
and contrast of tints. On a bright tawny yellow ground, sundry dark stripes
are placed, arranged, as may be seen by the engraving, nearly at right angles
with the body or limbs. Some of these stripes are double, but the greater
number are single dark streaks. The under parts of the body, the chest,
throat, and the long hair which tufts each side of the face, are almost white,
and upon these parts the stripes become very obscure, fading gradually into
the light tint of the fur. The tail is of a whiter hue than the upper portions of
the body, and is decorated in like manner with dark rings. :

So brilliantly adorned an animal would appear to be very conspicuous
«mong even the trees and bushes, and to thrust itself boldly upon the view. But

THE TIGER. —(7igris regalis.)

there is no animal that can hide itself more thoroughly than the Tiger, or
which can walk through the underwood with less betrayal of its presence.

The vertical stripes of the body harmonize so well with the dry, dusky
jungle grass among which this creature loves to dwell, that the grass and
fur are hardly distinguishable from each other except by a quick and
experienced eye. A Tiger may thus lie concealed so cleverly, that even when
crouching among low and scanty vegetation it may be almost trodden on
without being seen. .

The Tiger is very clever in selecting spots from whence it can watch the
approach of its intended prey, itself being crouched under the shade of foliage
or behind the screen of some friendly rock. It is fond of lying in wait by
the side of moderately frequented roads, more particularly choosing those

42 THE LEOPARD.

spots where the shade is the deepest, and where water may be found at hand
wherewith to quench the thirst that 1t always feels when consuming its prey.
From such a point of vantage it will leap with terrible effect, seldom making
above a single spring, and, as a rule, always being felt before it is seen or
heard.

It is a curious fact that the Tiger generally takes up his post on the side of
the road which is opposite his lair, so that he has no need to turn and drag
his prey across the road, but proceeds forward with his acquisition to his den.
Should the Tiger miss his Jeap, he generally seems bewildered and ashamed
of himself, and instead of returning to the spot to make a second attempt,
sneaks-off discomfited from the scene of his humiliation. The spots where
there is most danger of meeting a Tiger, are the crossings of nullahs, or the
deep ravines through which the watercourses run. In these localities the
Tiger is sure to find his two essentials, cover and water. So apathetic are
the natives, and so audacious are tne Tigers, that at some of these crossings
aman or a bullock may be carried sff daily, and yet no steps will be taken to
avert the danger, with the excepti 1 of a few amulets suspended about the
person. Sometimes the Tigers seem to take a panic, and make a general
emigration, leaving, without any apparent reason, the spots which they had
Jong infested, and making a sudden appearance in some locality where they
had but seldom before been seen.

Many modes are adopted of killing so fearful a pest as the Tiger, and some
of these plans are very ingenious—such as the spring-bow, which is discharged
by the movements of the animal itself; the pitfall, f-om which it cannot
escape ; the leaves smeared with bird lime, by which the Tiger blinds itself,
and so falls an easy prey ; the fall-trap, and many others. Among Europeans,
however, the Tiger is hunted in due form, the sportsmen being mounted on
elephants, and furnished with a perfect battery of loaded rifles. The shell
bullet, which explodes as it enters the body, has come much into vogue.

The Tiger is a capital swimmer, and will take to the water with perfect
readiness, either in search of prey, or to escape the pursuit of enemies.

It swims rather high in the water, and therefore affords a - »d mark to
those who are quick of aim. The natatory abilities are by no means small,
and while swimming it can strike out with its paws most effectively, inflict-
ing deep wounds wherever its outspread talons made good their aim. So
cunning is the animal, that if there should be no cause for hurry, it will halt
on the river’s brink, and deliberately put its paw into the water, so as to ascer-
tain the force of the stream. This point being made clear, it proceeds either
up or down the river, as may best suit its purpose, and so makes allowance
for the river stream or the ocean tide.

UNLIKE the Tiger, which is confined to the Asiatic portion of the world, the
LEOPARD is found in Africa as well asin Asia, and is represented in America
by the Jaguar, or, perhaps more rightly, by the Puma.

This animal is one of the most graceful of the graceful tribe of Cats, and,
although far less in dimensions than the tiger, challenges competition with
that animal in the beautiful markings of its fur and the easy elegance of its
movements. It is possessed of an accomplishment which is not within the
powers of the lion or tiger, being able to climb trees with singular ability,
and even to chase the tree-loving animals among their familiar haunts. On
account of this power, it is called by the natives of India “ Lakree-baug,” or
Tree-tiger. Even in Africa it is occasionally called a “ Tiger,” a confusion of
nomenclature which is quite bewildering to a non-zoologist, who may read in
one book that there are no tigers in Africa, and in another may peruse a
narrative of a tiger-hunt at the Cape. Similar mistakes are made with regard
to the American Felidae, not to mention the numerous examples of miscalled

THE LEOPARD—THE OUNCE. 43

animals that are insulted by false titles in almost every part of the globe.
For in America the Puma is popularly known by the name of the Lion, or
the Panther, or “ Painter” as
the American forester prefers
to call it, while the Jaguar is
termed the “ Tiger.”

In Africa the Leopard is
well known and much dreaded,
for it possesses a most crafty
brain, as well as an agile body
and sharp teeth andclaws. It
commits sad depredations on
flocks and herds, and has suf-
ficient foresight to lay up a
little stock of provisions for a
future day.

When attacked, it will gene-
rally endeavour to slink away, ,
and to escape the observation
of its pursuers; but if it is
wounded, and finds no means LEOPARN.—(Leopardus varius.)
of eluding its foes, it becomes
furious, and charges at them with such determinate rage, that, unless it falls
a victim to a well-aimed shot, it may do fearful damage before it yields up
its life. In consequence of the ferocity and courage of the Leopard, the
native African races make much of those warriors who have been fortunate
enough to kill one of these beasts.

In its own country the Leopard is as crafty an animal as our British fox;
and, being aided by its active limbs and stealthy tread, gains quiet admission
into many spots where no less cautious a creature could plant a step without
giving the alarm. It is an inveterate chicken-stealer, creeping by night into
the hen-roosts, in spite of the watchful dogs that are at their posts as senti-
nels, and destroyingin one fell
swoop the entire stock of poul-
try that happen to be collected
under that roof. Even should
they roost out of doors they
are no less in danger, for the
Leopard can clamber a pole or
tree with marvellous rapidity,
and with his ready paw strike
down the poor bird before it
is fairly awakened.

There are two titles for this
animal, namely the Leopard
and Panther, both of which
creatures are now acknow-
ledged to be but slight varie- :
ties of the same species. The ee
OUNCE, however, which was a a
once thought to be but a OUNCE. —(Leopardus uncia.)
longer-haired variety of the
Leopard, is now known to be truly a separate species.

In general appearance it bears a very close resemblance to the leopard,
but may be distinguished from that animal by the greater fulness and rough-

4 THE ¥AGUAR.

ness of its fur, as well as by some variations in the markings with which it is
decorated. The spots exhibit a certain tendency to form stripes, and the tail
is exceedingly bushy when compared with that of a leopard of equal size. The
general colour of the body is rather paler than that of the leopard, being a

JAGUAR.-~(Leopardus Onca.)

greyish white in which a slight yellow tinge is perceptible. The Ounce is an
inhabitant of some parts of Asia, and specimens of this fine animal have
been brought from the shores of the Persian Gulf. In size, it equals the
ordinary leopard of Asia or Africa.

PASSING to the New World, we find the feline races well represented by

THE PUMA. 45

several most beautiful and graceful creatures, of which the JAGUAR is the
largest and most magnificent example.

Closeiy resembling the leopard in external appearance, and in its arboreal
habits, it seems to play the same part in America as the leopard in the trans-
atlantic continents. It is a larger animal than the leopard, and may be dis-
tinguished from that animal by several characteristic differences.

In the first place, across the breast of the Jaguar are drawn two or three
bold black streaks, which are never seen in the leopard, and which alone
serve as an easy guide to the species. But the chief point of distinction is
found in a small mark that exists in the centre of the dark spots which cover
the body and sides. In many instances this central mark is double, and, in
order to give room for it, the rosettes are very large in proportion to those of
the leopard. Along the spine runs a line, or chain, of black spots and
dashes, extending from the back of the head to the first foot, or eighteen
inches of the tail.

In its native land the Jaguar ranges the dense and perfumed forests in search
of the various creatures which fall victims. to its powerful claws. The list of
animals that compose its bill of fare isa large and comprehensive one, includ-
ing horses, deer, monkeys, capybaras, tapirs, birds of various kinds, turtles,
lizards, and fish ; thus comprising examples of all the four orders of verte-
brated animals. Nor does the Jaguar confine himself to the vertebrates.
Various shell-fish, insects, and other creatures fall victims to the insatiate
appetite of this ravenous animal.

FEW animals have been known by such a variety of names as the PUMA of
America. Travellers have
indifferently entitled it the
American Lion, the Pan-
ther, the Couguar, the Car-
cajou (which is an entirely
different animal), the Gou-
azoura, the Cuguacurana,
and, many other names.

Itis rather a large animal,
but, on account of its ‘small
head, appears to be a less
powerful creature than real-
ly is the case. The total
length of the Pum iis about
six feet and a half, of which
thetail occupies rathermore
than two feet. The tip of
the tail is black, but is des-
titute of the long tuft of
black hair which is so cha-
racteristic of the lion.

The colour of the Puma is a uniform light tawny tint, deeper in some indi-
viduals than in others, and fading into a greyish. white on the under parts.
It is remarkable that the young Puma displays a gradual change in its fur,
nearly in the same way as has been narrated of the lion cub. While the
Puma cubs are yet in their first infancy, their coat is marked with several
rows of dark streaks extending along the back and sides, and also bears upon
the neck, sides, and shoulders many dark spots resembling those of the ordi-
nary leopard. But, as the animal increases in size, the spots fade away, and,
when it has attained its perfect development, are altogether lost in the uniform
tawny hye of the fur, :

46 ZHE TIGER CATS.

The flesh of this animal is said, by those who have made trial of it, to bea
pleasant addition to the diet scale, being white, tender, and of good flavour.
When taken young, the Puma is peculiarly susceptible of domestication, and
has been known to follow its master just like a dog. The hunters of the
Pampas are expert Puma slayers, and achieve their end either by catching
the bewildered animal with a lasso, and then galloping off with the poor
creature hanging at the end of the leather cord, or by flinging the celebrated
dolas—metal balls or stones fastened to a rope—at the Puma, and laying it
senseless on the ground with a blow from the heavy weapon.

Many of the members of the large genus Leopardus are classed together
under the title of OCELOTS, or, more popularly of TIGER CaTs. They are
all most beautiful animals, their fur being diversified with brilliant contrasts
of a dark spot, streak, or dash upon a lighter ground, and their actions filled
with easy grace and elegance.

The common OCELOT is a native of the tropical regions of America, where
it is found in some profusion. In length it rather exceeds four feet, of which
the tail occupies a considerable portion. Its height averages eighteen inches.
The ground colour of the fur is a very
light greyish fawn, on which are
drawn partially broken bands of a
very deep fawn colour, edged with
black, running along the line of the
body. The band that extends along
the spine is unbroken. On the head,
neck, and the inside of the limbs,
the bands are broken up into spots
and dashes, which are entirely black,
the fawn tint in their centre being
totally merged in the deeper hue;
the ears are black, with the ex-
ception of a conspicuous white spot
upon the back and near the base of
each ear. Owing to the beauty of

OCELOT. the fur, the Ocelot skin is in great

request for home use and exporta-

tion, and is extensively employed in the manufacture of various fancy articles
of dress or luxury. ee

Inits habits the Ocelot is quick, active, and powerful, proving itself at all
points a true leopard, although but in miniature. ; ;

The eye of the Ocelot is a pale yellowish brown, and tolerably full, with
the linear pupil smaller than is found in the ordinary Felide. ;

There are several species of these pretty and agile animals, among which
the most conspicuous are the Common, the Grey, and Painted Ocelots, and
the Margay, or Marjay,,as it is sometimes called, The habits of these ani-
mals are very similar. .

Although so gentle in its demeanour when domesticated as to have earned
for itself the name of “ AZétis,” or “ placid,” the Chati is, when wild, a suffi-
ciently destructive animal. Itis not quite so large as the ocelots, with which
creatures it is a compatriot. :

The colour of the Chati resembles that of the leopard, only is paler in
general hue. The dark patches that diversify the body are very irregular—
those which run along the back are solid, and of a deep black, while those
which are placed along the sides have generally a deep fawn-coloured centre,
Towards the extremity of the tail, the spots change into partial rings, which
nearly, but not quite, surround the tail, All specimens, however, are not

THE CHATI. 47

precisely alike, either in the colour or the arrangement of the markings, but
those leading characteristics which have just been mentioned may be found
in almost every individual. : ;

When at large in its native woods, it wages incessant and destructive war-
fare against small quadrupeds and birds, the latter creatures being its favourite
prey. The Chati is a vexatious and expensive neighbour to any one who
may keep fowls, for it seems to like nothing so well as a plump fowl, and is
unceasing in its visits to the henroost. It is so active and lithe an animal
that it can climb over any palisade, and msinuate itself through a surprisingly
small aperture ; and it is so wary and cautious in its nocturnal raids, that it
generally gives no other indication of its movements than that which is left
next morning by the vacant perches, and a few scattered feathers flecked
with blood-spots. ' ; :

During the day it keeps itself closely hidden in the dark shades of the
forest, sleeping away its time until the sun has set, and darkness reigns over
its world. It then awakes from its slumber, and issues forth upon its de-
structive quest. On moonlight nights, however, it either stays at home, or

THE CHATI.—(Leopardus mitis.)

confines its depredations to the limits of its native woods, never venturing
near the habitations of man. Stormy and windy nights are the best adapted
for its purpose, as it is sheltered from sight by the darkness, and from hearin
by the rushing wind, which drowns the slight sounds of its stealthy footsteps.
On such nights it behoves the farmer to .cep a two-fold watch, and see weil
to his doors and windows, or he may chance to find an empty henroost in
the morning.

In two years, no less than eighteen of these animals were caught by a land-
owner within a space of five miles round his farm, so that their numbers must
be truly great. They do not congregate together, but live in pairs, each pair
seeming to appropriate its own hunting-ground.

In captivity it is a singularly gentle, and even affectionate, animal, possessed
of most engaging habits, and full of pretty graceful tricks. One of these
creatures, which was captured by the above-mentioned landowner, became

48 THE DOMESTIC CAT.

so entirely domesticated that it was permitted to range at liberty. But,
although so gentle and tractable towards its owner that it would sleep on the
skirts of its master’s gown, its poultry-loving habits were too deeply implanted
to be thoroughly eradicated, and it was quietly destructive among his neigh-
bours’ fowls. This propensity cost the creature its life, for the irritated
farmers caught it in the very deed of robbing their henroosts, and killed it
on the spot.

The native name for the Chati is Chibiguazu. It was found by experiment-
ing on the captured Chatis, that the flesh of cats and of various reptiles was
harmful to their constitution. Cat’s-flesh gave them a kind of mange, which
soon killed them, while that of snakes, vipers, and toads caused a continual
and violent vomiting, under which they lost flesh and died. Fowls however,
and most birds, were ravenously devoured, being caught by the head, and killed
by a bite and a shake. The Chatis always stripped the feathers from the
birds before beginning to eat them.

FEw of the Felidz are so widely spread or so generally known as the WILD
Cat. It is found not only in this country, but over nearly the whole of
Europe, and has been seen in Northern Asia and Nepaul.

THE CAT.—(Felis domestica.)

Whether the Wild Cat be the original progenitor of our domestic cat 1s
still a mooted point, and likely to remain so, for there is no small difficulty in
bringing proofs to bear on such a subject. There are several points of dis-
tinction between the wild and the domestic cat; one of the most decided
differences being found in the shape and comparative length of their tails.

As may be seen from the accompanying figure,
the tails of the two animals are easily distinguished
from each other. The upper figure represents the
tail of the domestic cat, which is long, slender, and
tapering, while the lower represents the tail of the
Wild Cat, which is much shorter and more bushy.

In the eyes of any one who has really examined

CATS’ TAILS. and can support the character of the Domestic Cat,
she must appear to be a sadly calumniated creature.

She is generally contrasted with the dog, much to her disfavour. His
docility, affectionate disposition, and forgiveness of injuries ; his trustworthy

THE CANADA LYNX. 49

character, and his wonderful intellectual powers, are spoken of, as truly
they deserve, with great enthusiasm and respect. Rat these amiable traits
of character are brought into violent contrast with sundry ill-conditioned
qualities which are attributed to the Cat, and wrongly so. The Cat 1s hell
up to reprobation as a selfish animal, seeking her own comfort and dis-
regardful of others ; attached only to localities, and bearing no real affection
for her owners. She is said to be sly and treacherous, hiding her talons in
her velvety paws as long as she is in a good temper, but ready to use them
upon her best friends if she is crossed in her humours.

Whatever may have been the experience of those who gave so slanderous
a character to the Cat, my own rather wide acquaintance with this animal
has led me to very different conclusions. ‘The Cats with which I have been
most familiar have been as docile, tractable, and good-tempered as any dog
could be, and displayed an amount of intellectual power which would be
equalled by very few dogs, and surpassed by none.

RETURNING once more to the savage tribe of animals, we come to a small,
but clearly-marked group of Cats, which are distinguishable from their f-line
relations by the sharply-pointed erect ears, decorated with a tuft of hair of
varying dirnensions. These animals are popularly known by the title of
LynxeEs. In all the species the tail is rather short, and in some, such as the
Peeshoo, or Canada Lynx, it is extremely abbreviated.

By name, if not by sight, the common LyNxX of Europe is familiar to us,
and is known as the type of a quick-sighted animal. The eyes of the Lynx
and the ears of the “ Blind Mole” are generally placed on a par with each
other, as examples of especial acuteness of either sense.

The European Lynx is spread over a great portion of the Continent, being
found in a range of country which extends from the Pyrenees to Scandinavia.
It is also found in the more northern forests of Asia.

The usual colour of the Lynx is a rather dark grey, washed with red, on
which are placed sundry dark patches, large and few upon the body, and
many and small on the limbs. On the body the spots assume an oblong or
oval shape, but upon the limbs they are nearly circular. The tail of the
Lynx is short, being at the most only seven or eight inches in length, and
sometimes extending only six inches. The length of the body and head is
about three feet.

The fur of the Lynx is valuable for
the purposes to which the feline skin
is usually destined, and commands a
fair price in the market. Those who
hunt the Lynx for the purpose of
obtaining its fur, choose the winter
months for the time of their opera-
tions, as during the cold season the
Lynx possesses a richer and a warm-
er fur than is found upon it during
the warm summer months.

The New World possesses its ex-
amples of the Lyncine group as well
as the Old World, and even in the (ale S
cold regions of North America are- canapa tynx.—(Lyncus Canadensis.)
presentative of these animals may be
found. This is the CANADA LyNx, commonly termed the “Peeshoo” by
the French colonists, or even dignified with the title of Ze Chaz.

The hair of this animal is longer than that of its southern relatives, ana 15
generally of a dark grey, flecked or besprinkled with black.

&

to THE CHETAH,

The limbs of this Lynx are very powerful, and the thick heavily made feet
are furnished with strong white claws that are not seen unless the fur be put
aside. It is not a dangerous animal, and, as far as is known, feeds on the.
smaller quadrupeds, the American hare being its favourite article of diet. _

While running at speed it presents a singular appearance, owing to its
peculiar mode of leaping in successive bounds, with its back slightly arched,
and all the feet coming to the ground nearly at the same time. It is a good
swimmer, being able to cross the water for a distance of two miles or more.
Powerful though it be, it is easily killed by a blow on the back, a slight stick
being a sufficient weapon wherewith to destroy the animal. The flesh of the
Peeshoo is eaten by the natives, and is said, though devoid of flavour, to be
agreeably tender. The range of this animal is rather extensive, and, in the
wide district where it takes up its residence, is found in sufficient plenty to
render its fur an important article of commerce. The length of this animal
slightly exceeds three feet. Botte tena :

The CHETAH, YOUZE, or HUNTING CAT, as it is indifferently named, is,
like the leopard, an inhabit-
ant of Asiaand Africa. It
is rather a large animal, ex-
ceeding an ordinary leopard
in stature.

The title “jubata,” or
crested, is given to the
Chetah on account of a
short, mane-like crest of
stiff long hairs which passes
from the back of the head
to the shoulders.

The Chetah is one of
those animals which gain
their living by mingled craft
and agility. Its. chief food
is obtained from the various

2 deer and antelopes which
CHETAH.—(Gueparda jubata.) inhabit the same country,
and in seizing and slaying
its prey no little art is required. The speed of this animal is not very great,
and it has but little endurance ; so that an antelope or a stag could set the
spotted foe at defiance, and in a quarter of an hour place themselves beyond
his reach. But itis the business of the Chetah to hinder the active and swift-
footed deer from obtaining those invaluable fifteen minutes, and to strike
them down before they are aware of his presence.

In order to obtain this end, the Chetah watches for a herd of deer or
antelopes, or is content to address himself to the pursuit of a solitary indi-
vidual, or a little band of two or three, should they be placed in a position
favourable for his purpose. Crouching upon the ground so as to conceal
himself as much as possible from the watchful eves of the intended prey, the
Chetah steals rapidly and silently upon them, never venturing to show him-
self until he is within reach of a single spring. Having singled out one
individual from the herd, the Chetah leaps upon the devoted animal and
dashes it to the ground. Fastening his strong grip in the throat of the dying
animal, the Chetah laps the hot blood, and for the time seems forgetful of
time or place.

Of these curious habits the restless and all-adapting mind of man has
taken advantage, and has diverted to his own service the wild destructive

INTERVIEW WITH TWO CHETAHS. 51

properties of the Chetah. In fact, man has established a kind of quadru-
pedal falconry, the Chetah taking the place of the hawk, and the chase being
one of earth and not of air. The Asiatics have brought this curious chase
to great perfection, and are able to train Chetahs for this purpose in a
wonderfully perfect manner.

When a Chetah is taken out for the purpose of hunting game, he is hooded
and placed in a light native car, in company with his keepers. When they .
perceive a herd of deer, or other desirable game, the keepers turn the
Chetah’s head in the proper direction, and remove the hood from his eyes.
The sharp-sighted animal generally perceives the prey at once, but if he fails
so to do, the keepers assist him by quiet gestures,

No sooner does the Chetah fairly perceive the deer than his bands are
loosened, and he gently slips from the car. Employing all his innate artifices,
he approaches the game, and with one powerful leap flings himself upon the
animal which he has selected. The keepers now hurry up, and take his
attention from the slaughtered animal by offering him a ladleful of its blood,
or by placing before him some food of which he is especially fond, such as
the head and neck of a fowl. The hood is then slipped over his head, and
the blinded animal is conducted patient and unresisting to the car, where he
is secured until another victim may be discovered.

The natural disposition of this pretty creature seems to be gentle and
placid, and it is peculiarly susceptible of domestication. It has been so
completely trained as to be permitted to wander where it chooses like a
domestic dog or cat, and is quite as familiar as that animal. Even in a state
of semi-domestication it is sufficiently gentle. One sleek and well-conditioned
specimen with which I made acquaintance behaved ina very friendly manner,
permitting me to pat its soft sides, or stroke its face, and uttering short self-
sufficient sounds, like the magnified purr of a gratified cat. Unfortunately,
the acquaintance was rudely broken up by an ill-conditioned Frenchman, who
came to the front of the cage, and with his stick dealt the poor animal a
severe thrust in the side. The Chetah instantly lost its confident expression,
and was so irritated by this rough treatment that it would not permit a repe-
tition of the former caresses.

Some time ago, while engaged in examining the larger Felide, I wished to
investigate the structure of the Chetah’s foot, some persons having said that
its claws were retractile like those of the cat, while others stated that they
were constructed like those of the dog. So I went into the Chetahs’ cage at
the Zoological Gardens, and rather to the surprise of the animals. Thinking
that the Cat tribe were tolerably alike in disposition, and supposing that if I
went up to either of them they would be alarmed, I sat down with my back
against the wall, and quietly waited, taking no notice whatever of the
Chetahs.

In a short time the curiosity of the cat-nature overcame distrust, the two
Chetahs came closer and closer, until at last the male, who was larger and
stronger than his mate, began to sniff at my hand with outstretched neck,
Finding that no harm ensued, he came a little closer, and I began to stroke
his nose lightly. This he rather liked, and before long I was able to stroke
his head, chin, neck, and back, the animal being as pleased as a-cat would
have been. Presently he came and.gat down by me, and I then got from his
neck to his legs, just as Rarey used to “ gentle” a horse. ,

The next move was to lift up his foot and put it down again, and then,
taking hold lightly of his wrist, to press the fore-finger on the base of the
claws so as to press them from their sockets. This rather startled him, and
with a sharp hissing sound he struck smartly forwards, As he struck, I
slipped my hand up his leg, so that the blow was ineffectual, and presently

Ez

52 THE STRIPED HYANA,

made another attempt. He now found out that no harm was intended, and
in a very short time I had his paw on my knee, and was allowed to push out
the claws as I liked, proving that they were as retractile as those of a cat.
The oddest part of the proceeding was, that he appropriated me to himself,
and would not allow his mate to come near me, exemplifying the jealousy of
all animals when brought into contact with man.

The spots which so profusely stud the body and limbs are nearly round in
their form and black in their tint. Excepting upon the face there seem to
be no stripes like those of the tiger, but upon each side of the face there is a
bold black streak which runs from the eye to the corner of the mouth. The
hair about the throat, chest, and flanks is rather long, and gives a very
determinate look to the animal.

The Chetah is known as an inhabitant of many parts of Asia, including
India, Sumatra, and Persia, while in Africa it is found in Senegal and at the
Cape of Good Hope.

HYANAS.

The group of animals which are so well known by the title of HY NAS, are,
although most repulsive to the view, and most disgusting in their habits, the
very saviours of life and health in the countries where they live, and where
there is necessity for their existence. In this land, and at the present day,
there is no need of such large animals as the Hyzenas to perform their
necessary and useful task of clearing the earth from the decaying carcases
which cumber its surface and poison its air, for in our utilitarian age even the
very hairs from a cow’s hide are turned to account, and the driest bones are
made to subserve, many uses.

In those countries, as well as in our own, there are carnivorous and flesh-
burying insects, which consume the smaller animal substances; but the
rough work is left to those industrious scavengers the Hyzenas, which con-
tent themselves with the remains of large animals.

In the semi-civilized countries of Africa and Asia, the Hyzna is a public
benefactor, swallowing with his accommodating appetite almost every species
of animal substance that can be found, and even crushing to splinters
between his iron jaws the bones which would resist the attacks of all other
carnivorous animals.

Useful as is the Hyzena when it remains within its proper boundaries, and
restricts itself to its proper food, it becomes a terrible pest when too numerous
to find sufficient nourishment in dead carrion. Incited by hunger, it hangs
on the skirts of villages and encampments, and loses few opportunities of
making a meal at the expense of the inhabitants. It does not openly oppose
even a domestic ox, but endeavours to startle its intended prey, and cause it
to take to flight before it will venture upon an attack. In order to alarm the
cattle it has a curious habit of creeping as closely as possible to them, and
then springing up suddenly just under their eyes. Should the startled
animals turn to flee, the Hyzna will attack and destroy them ; but, if they
should turn to bay, will stand still and venture no farther. It will not even
attack a knee-haltered horse. So it often happens that the Hyzena destroys
the healthy cattle which can run away, and is afraid to touch the sickly and
maimed beasts which cannot flee, and are forced to stand at bay.

The STRIPED HyYNA is easily to be distinguished from its relations by
the peculiar streaks from which it derives its name. The general colour of
the fur is a greyish brown, diversified with blackish stripes, which run along
the ribs and upon the limbs. A large singular black patch extends over the
front of the throat, and single black hairs are profusely scattered among the

“gs

THE CIVET. 53

fur. When young, the stripes are more apparent than in the adult age, and
the little animal has something of a tigrine aspect about its face.

In proportion to its size, the Hyzena
possesses teeth and jaws of extraordi-
nary strength, and between their tre-
mendous fangs the thigh-bones of an
ox fly in splinters with a savage crash
that makes the spectator shudder.

The muzzle is but short, and the
rough thorn-studded tongue is used,
like that of the feline groups, for rasp-
ing every vestige of flesh from the
bones of the prey.

The SPOTTED HyNa, or TIGER
WOLF, as it is generally called, is, for
a Hyeena, a fierce and dangerous ani-
mal, invading the sheepfolds and cattle-
pens under the cover of darkness, and
doing in one night more mischief than
can be remedied in the course of years.

The spots, or rather the blotches with which its fur is marked, are rather
scanty upon the back and sides, but upon the legs are much more clearly
marked, and are set closer together. The paws are nearly black.

The Tiger Wolf is celebrated for the strange unearthly sounds which it
utters when under the influence of strong excitement. The animal is otten
called the “ Laughing Hyzna” on account of the maniacal, mirthless, hy-
sterical laugh which it pours forth, accompanying these horrid sounds with
the most absurd gestures of body and limbs. During the time that the
creature is engaged in uttering these wild fearful peals of laughter, it dances
about in a state of ludicrously frantic excitement, running backwards and
forwards, rising on its hind legs, and rapidly gyrating on those members,
nodding its head repeatedly to the ground ; and, in fine, performing the most
singular antics with wonderful rapidity.

STRIPED OR CRESTED HY/ENA.
(Hyena striata.)

CIVETS.

The CIVET, sometimes, but wrongly, called the Civet Cat, is a native of
Northern Africa, and is found plentifully in Abyssinia, where it is eagerly
sought on account of the peculiarly scented substance which is secreted in
certain glandular pouches. This
Civet perfume was formerly consi-
dered as a most valuable medicine,
and could only be obtained at a very
high price ; but in the present day it
has nearly gone out of fashion as a
drug, and holds its place in com-
merce more as a simple perfume
than as a costly panacea.

The substance which is so prized : :
on account of its odoriferous quali- civET.—(Viverra Civetia.)
ties is secreted in a double pouch,
which exists under the abdomen, close to the insertion of the tail. As this
curious production is of some value in commerce, the animal which furnishes
the precious secretion is too valuable to be killed for the sake of its scent-

64 THE GENETTS.

pouch, and is kept in a state of captivity, so as to afford a continual supply
of the odoriferous material.

The claws of the Civet are only partially retractile. The eyes are of a dull
brown, very protuberant, and with a curiously changeable pupil, which by
day exhibits a rather broad linear pupil, and glows at night with a brilliant
emerald refulgence. The body is curiously shaped, being considerably flat-
tened on the sides, as if the animal had been pressed between two boards.

Altogether, the Civet is a very handsome animal, the bold dashing of black
and white upon its fur having a very rich effect. The face has a curious
appearance, owing to the white fur which fringes the lips, and the long pure
white whisker hairs of the lips and eyes. When young it is almost wholly
black, with the exception of the white whisker hairs and the white. fur of the
lips.

GENETTS.

A small, but rather important, group of the Viverrine animals, is that the
members of which are known by the name of the GENLTTS. These crea-

Ss Sq y

Wi

Buus CHED GENETT.—(Genetla Zigrina.)

tures are all nocturnal in their habits, as are the civets, and, like those ani-
mals, can live on a mixture of animal and vegetable food, or even on vegetable
food alone. The Genetts possess the musk-secreting apparatus which much
resembles the pouch of the civet, although in size it is not so large, nor daes
it secrete so powerfully smelling a substance as that of the civets.

The best known of these animals is the COMMON, or BLOTCHED GENETT,
an inhabitant of Southern Africa and of various other parts of the wor!d,
being found even in the south of France. It is a very beautiful and graceftl
animal, and never fails to attract attention from an observer. The generel
colour of the fur is grey, with a slight admixture of yellow. Upon this
groundwork dark patches are lavishly scattered, and the full, furry ‘tail is
ccvered with alternate bands of black and white. The muzzle would be cn-

THE ICHNEUMONS. 55

tirely black but for a bold patch of white fur on the upper lip, and a less
decidedly white mark by the nose, The feet are supplied with retractile
claws, so that the animal can deal a severe blow with its outstretched talons,
or climb trees with the same ease and rapidity which is found in the cat
tribe.

VERY different from the Genetts in its appearance is the CACOMIXLE,
although it is closely allied to them.

It is remarkable as being a Mexican representative of the Genett group of
animals, although it can hardly be considered as a true Genett or a true
Moongus. The colour of this animal is a light uniform dun, a dark bar
being placed like a collar over the back of the neck. In some specimens
this bar is double, and in all it is so narrow that when the animal throws its
head backwards the dark line is lost in the lighter fur. Along the back runs

ri 2

CACOMIXLE.—(Bassaris Astuta.)

a broad, singular, darkish stripe. The tail is ringed something like that of
the Ringed Lemur, and is very full. The term Cacomixle is a Mexican word,
and the animal is sometimes called by a still stranger name, “ Tepemaxthalon.”
The scientific title “ Bassaris ” is from the Greek, and signifies a fox.

ICHNEUMONS.

The ICHNEUMONS appear to be the very reptiles of the mammalian ani-
mals, in form, habits, and action, irresistibly reminding the spectator of the
serpent. The sharp and pointed snout, narrow body, short legs, and flexible
form, permit them to insinuate themselves into marvellously small crevices
and to seek and destroy their prey in localities where it might well deem
itself secure.

_ The common Ichneumon, or Pharaoh’s Rat, as it is popularly but most
improperly termed, is plentifully found in Egypt, where it plays a most useful
part in keeping down the numbers of the destructive quadrupeds and dange-

56 THE MOONGUS.

rous reptiles. Small and insignificant as this animal appears, it is a most
danzerous foe to the huge crocodile, teeding largely upon its eggs. Snakcs,
rats, lizards, mice, and various birds fall a prey to this Ichneumon, which
will painfully track its prey to its hiding-place, and wait patiently for hours
until it makes its appearance, or will quietly creep up to the unsuspecting
animal, anu flinging itself boldly upon it destroy it by rapid bites with its
long sharp teeth.

Taking advantage of these admirable qualities, the ancient Egyptians
were wont to tame the Ichneumon, and admit it to the free range of their
houses.

The colour of this animal is a brown, plentifully grizzled with grey, each
hair being ringed alternately with grey and brown. The total length of the
aninial is about three feet three inches, the tail measuring about eighteen

ICHNEUMON.—( Herfestes Ichneumon.)

inches, The scent-gland of the Ichneumon is very large in proportion to the
size of its bearer, but the substance which it secretes has not as yet been
held of any commercial value. The claws are partially retractile.

The word Ichneumon is Greek, and literally signifies “ a tracker.”

The Mooncus, sometimes called the INDIAN ICHNEUMON, is, in its
Asiatic home, as useful an animal as the Egyptian Ichneumon in Africa. In
that country it is an indefatigable destroyer of rats, mice, and the various
reptiles, and is on that account highly valued and protected. Being, as
are Ichneumons in general, extremely cleanly in manners, and very susceptible
of domestication, it is kept tame in many families, and does good service in
keeping the houses clear of the various animated pests that render an Indian
town a disayreeable and sometimes a dangerous residence.

In its customs it very much resembles the cat, and is gifted with all the
inquisitive nature of that animal. When first introduced into a new locality
it runs about the place, insinuating itself into every hole and corner, and
sniffing curiously at every object with which it comes in contact. Even in its

aes feck.

THE CRYPTOPROCTA. 57

wild state it exhibits the same qualities, and by a careful observer may be
seen questing about in search of its food, exploring every little tuft of vegeta-
tion that comes in its way, running over every rocky projection, and thrusting
its sharp snout into every hollow. Sometimes it buries itself entirely in some
little hole, and when it returns to light drags with it a mole, a rat, or some
such creature, which had vainly sought security in its narrow domicile.

While eating, the Ichneumon is very tetchy in its temper, and will very
seldom endure an interruption of any kind. In order to secure perfect quiet
while taking its meals, it generally carries the food into the most secluded
hiding-place that it can find, and then commences its meal in solitude
and darkness. The colour of the Moongus is a grey, liberally flecked with
darker hairs, so as to produce a very pleasing mixture of tints. It is not so
large an animal as its Egyptian relative.

<a
Aap ae BS RASS

MOONGUS.—(Herfestes Griseus),

THE last of the great Viverine group of animals is the CRYPTOPROCTA, a
creature whose rabbit-like mildness of aspect entirely belies its nature. ,

It is a native of Madagascar, and has been brought from the southern
portions of that wonderful island. It is much to be wished that the zoology
of so prolific a country should be thoroughly explored, and that competent
naturalists should devote much time and severe labour to the collection
of specimens, and the careful investigation of animals while in their wild
state.

Gentle and quiet as the animal appears, it is one of the fiercest little
creatures known. Its limbs, though small, are very powerful, their muscles
being extremely full and well knit together. Its appetite for blood seems to
be as insatiable as that of the tiger, and its activity is very great, so that it may
well be imagined to be a terrible foe to any animals on whom it may choose
to make an attack. For this savage nature it has received the name of
“Ferox,” or fierce. Its generic name of Cryptoprocta is given to it on ac-
count of the manner in which the hinder quarters suddenly taper down and

58 DOGS.

merge themselves in the tail. The word itself is from the Greek, the former
half of it signifying “hidden,” and the latter half, “ hind-quarters.”
The colour of the Cryptoprocta is a light brown, tinged with red. The

CRYPTOPROCTA.—(Cryptoprocta ferox).

ears are very large and rounded, and the feet are furnished with strong claws,
The toes are five in number on each foot.

DOGS.

The large and important group of animals which is known by the general
name of the Dog Tribe embraces the wild and domesticated Dogs, the
Wolves, Foxes, Jackals, and that curious South African animal, the Hunting
Dog. Of these creatures, several have been brought under the authority of
man, and by continual intermixtures have assumed that exceeding variety of
form which is found in the different “ breeds” of the domestic Dog.

The original parent of the Dog is very doubtful, some authors considering
that it owes its parentage to the Dhole, or the Buansuah of India; others
thinking it to be an offspring of the Wolf; and others attributing to the Fox
the honour of being the progenitor of our canine friend and ally.

All the various Dogs which have been brought under the subjection of
man are evidently members of one single species, Canis familiaris, being
capable of variation to an almost unlimited extent.

It is hardly possible to conceive an animal which is more entirely formed
for speed and endurance than a well-bred GREYHOUND.

The chief use--if use it can be termed—of the Greyhound is in coursing
the hare, and exhibiting in this chase its marvellous swiftness and its endu-
rance of fatigue. :

The narrow head and sharp nose of the Greyhound, useful as they are for
aiding the progress of the animal by removing every impediment to its pas-

GREYHOUND, AND NEWFOUNDLAND DOG. 59

sage through the atmosphere, yet deprive it of a most valuable faculty, that
of chasing by scent. The
muzzle is so narrow in pro-
portion to its length, that
the nasal nerves have no
room for proper develop-
ment, and hence the animal
is very deficient in its powers
of scent. The same circum-
stance may be noted in many
other animals.

The large and handsome
animal which is called from
its native country the NEw-
FOUNDLAND DoG belongs to
the group of spaniels, all of
which appear to be possess-
ed of considerable mental
powers, and to be capable of S: :
instruction to a degree that GREYHOUND.—(Cawis familiaris.)
is rarely seen in animals.

As is the case with most of the large Dogs, the Newfoundland permits the
lesser Dogs to take all kinds of liberties without showing the least resent-
ment ; and if it is worried or pestered by some forward puppy, looks down
with calm contempt, and passes on its way. Sometimes the little conceited
animal presumes upon the dignified composure of the Newfoundland Dog,

NEWFOUNDLAND bOG.—(Canis famitliaris.)

and, in that case, is sure to receive some quaint punishment for its insolence,
The story of the big Dog that dropped the little Dog into the water and then
rescued it from drowning, is so well known that it needs but a passing refe-
rence, But I know of a Dog, belonging to one of my friends, which behaved

60 POMERANIAN DOG.

in a very similar manner. Being provoked beyond all endurance by the con-
tinued annoyance, it took the little tormentor in its mouth, swam well out to
sea, dropped it in the water, and swam back again.

Another of the animals, belonging to a workman, was attacked by a small
and pugnacious bull-dog, which sprung upon the unoffending canine giant,
and, after the manner of bull-dogs, “ pinned” him by the nose, and there
hung, in spite of all endeavours to shake it off. However, the big Dog
happened to be a clever one, and spying a pailful of boiling tar, he bolted
towards it, and deliberately lowered his foe into the pail. The bull-dog had
never calculated on such a reception, and made its escape as fast as it could
run, bearing with it a scalding memento of the occasion.

Iori te

Ee ny vy WS
BAN

Ay ( /
f \

f \

! \

: POMERANIAN DOG.— (Canis familiaris.)

Of late years, a Dog has come into fashion as a house-dog, or as a com-
panion. This is the POMERANIAN Fox Doc, commonly known as the
“ Loup-loup.”

It is a great favourite with those who like a dog for a companion, and not
for mere use, as it is very intelligent in its character, and very handsome in
aspect. Its long white fur, and bushy tail, give it quite a distinguished
appearance, of which the animal seems to be thoroughly aware. Sometimes
the coat of this animal is a cream colour, and very rarely is deep black.
The pure white, however, seems, to be the favourite. It is a lively little
creature, and makes an excellent companion in a country walk.

Of the Spaniel Dogs there are several varieties, which may be classed
under two general heads, namely, Sporting and Toy Spaniels; the former

THE SPANIELS, THE MALTESE DOG. 61

being used by the sportsman in finding game for him; and the latter being
simply employed as companions,

The FIELD SPANIEL is
remarkable for the intense
love which it bears for hunt-
ing game, and the energetic
manner in which it carries
out the wishes of its master.
There are two breeds of
Field Spaniels, the one
termed the “ Springer,” be-
ing used for heavy work
among thick and_ thorny
coverts, and the other be-
ing principally employed
in woodcock shooting, and
called in consequence the
“Cocker.” The Blenheim
and King Charles Spaniels : Paros
derive their origin from the WATER SPANIEL.—(Cazis familiarts.)
Cocker.

While hunting, the Spaniel sweeps its feathery tail rapidly from side to
side, and is a very pretty object to any one who has an eye for beauty of
movement. It is a rule, that however spirited a Spaniel may be, it must
not raise its tail above the level of its back.

MALTESE DOG.—(Cavis familiar.s.)

A very celebrated but extremely rare “toy” Dog is the MALTESE Doc,
the prettiest and most lovable of all the little pet Dogs.

The hair of this tiny creature is very long, extremely silky, and almost
unique in its glossy sheen, so beautifully fine as to resemble spun glass. In
proportion to the size of the animal, the fur is so long that when it is in rapid
moveinent, the real shape is altogether lost in the streaming mass of flossy

62 THE POODLE.

hair. One of these animals, which barely exceeded three pounds in weight,
measured no less than fifteen inches in length of hair across the shoulders.
The tail of the Maltese Dog curls strongly over the back, and adds its wreath
of silken fur to the already superfluous torrent of glistening tresses.

As the name implies, it was originally brought from Malta. It is a very
scarce animal, and at one time was thought to be extinct; but there are
still specimens to be obtained by those who have no objection to pay the
price which is demanded for these pretty little creatures.

Of all the domesticated Dogs, the POODLE seems to be, take him all in all,
the most obedient and the most intellectual, Accomplishments the most
difficult are mastered by this clever animal, which displays an ease and
intelligence in its performances that appear to be far beyond the ordinary
canine capabilities.

A barbarous custom is prevalent of removing the greater portion of the

THE POODLE.—(Canis familiaris.)

Poodle’s coat, leaving him but a rf round the neck and legs, and a puff on
the tip of the tail, as the sole relic ., nis abundant fur.

Such a deprivation is directly in spposition to the natural state of the Dog,
which is furnished with a peculiarly luxuriant fur, hanging in long ringlets
from every portion of the heac, body, and limbs. The Poodle is not the only
Dog that suffers a like tonsorial abridgment of coat ; for under the dry arches
of the many bridges that cross the Seine, in Paris, may be daily seen a mourn-
ful spectacle. Numerous dogs of every imaginable and unimaginable breed
lie helpless in the shade of the arch, their legs tied together, and their eyes
contemplating with woeful looks the struggles of their fellows, who are being
shorn of their natural covering, and protesting with mournful cries against
the operation.

THE MEXICAN LAPDOG, THE BLOODHOUND. 63

The very tiniest of the dog family is the MEXICAN LAPDOG, a creature so
very minute in its dimensions as to appear almost fabulous to those who
have not seen the animal itself. a

One of these little canine pets is to be seen in the British Museum, and

=
nique

tN

ff
1 f(\
|

YAYMA

SYD

MEXICAN LAPDOG.—(Canis familiaris.)

always attracts much attention from the visitors. Indeed, if it were not in
so dignified a locality, it would be generally classed with the mermaid, the
flying serpent and the Tartar lamb, as an admirable example of clever work-
manship. It is precisely
like those white woollen
toy Dogs which sit upon M \\
a pair of bellows, and when oN :
ressed give forth a nonde- WS
leriot sound. intended to \\' \
do duty for the legitimate
canine bark. To say that
it is no larger than these
toys would be hardly true,
fo. I have seen in the shop
windows many a toy Dog
which exceeded in size the
veritable Mexican Lapdog.
The magnificent animal
which is termed the BLoop-
HOUND, on account of its
einen peered BLOODHOUND.— (Canis familiaris.)
all the mazes of its devious
course, is very scarce in England, as there is now but little need of these Dogs.
In the “good old times,” this animal was largely used by thief-takers, for
the purpose of tracking and securing the robbers who in those days made
the country unsafe and laid the roads under a black mail. Sheep-stea‘ers,

64 THE FOXHOUND, THE POINTER.

who were much more common when the offence was visited with capital
punishment, were frequently detected by the delicate nose of the Bloodhound,
which would, when once laid on the scent, follow it up with unerring precision,
unravelling the single trail
from among a _ hundred
crossing footsteps, and
only to be baffled by water
or blood.

The Bloodhound is gene-
rally irascible in temper,
and therefore a rather dan-
gerous animal to be med-
dled with by any one ex-
cepting its owner. So fierce
is its desire for blood, and
so utterly is it excited when
it reaches its prey, that it
will often keep its master
at bay when he approaches,
and receive his overtures
with such unmistakable in-
: bet dications of anger that he

FOXHOUND.— (Canis familiaris.) will not venture to approach

until his Dog has satisfied

its appetite on the carcase of the animal which it has brought to the ground.

When fairly on the track of the deer, the Bloodhound utters a peculiar, long,
loud, and deep bay, which, if once heard, will never be forgotten.

The colour of a good Bloodhound ought to be nearly uniform, no white
being permitted, except on the tip of the tail. ‘The prevailing tints are a
blackish tan, or adeep fawn. The tail of this Dog is long ard sweeping.

Of all the Dogs which are knc wn by the common title of “ hound,” the Fox-
HOUND is the best known.
It is supposed that the
modern Foxhound derives
its origin from the old
English hound, and its va-
rious points of perfection
from judicious crosses with
other breeds. For example,
in order to increase its speed
the greyhound is made to
take part in its pedigree,
and the greyhound having
already some admixture of
the bull-dog blood, there is
an infusion of stubbornness
as well as of mere speed.
iE According to the latest

coy eee . Tyaeg authorities, the best average
POINTER.—(Canis familiaris.) height for Boxhounds =

from twenty-one to twenty-five inches, the female being generally smaller than
the male. However the size of the Dog does not matter so much ; but it is ex-
pected to match the rest of the pack in height as well as in general appearance.

There are two breeds of the POINTER, namely, the modern English Pointer,
and the Spanish Pointer. The latter of these Dogs is now seldom used in the

THE SHEPHERD'S DOG. 65

field, as it is too slow and heavily built an animal for the present fast style
of sporting.

_ The modern English Pointer is a very different animal, built on a much
lighter model, and altogether with a more bold and dashing air about it.
While it possesses a sufficiently wide muzzle to permit the development of
the olfactory nerves, its limbs are so light and wiry that it can match almost
any dog in speed. Indeed, some of these animals are known nearly to equal
a greyhound in point of swiftness.

This quality is specially useful, because it permits the sportsman to walk
forward at a moderate pace, while his Dogs are beating over the field to his
right and left. The sagacious animals are so obedient to the voice and gesture
of their master, and are so well trained to act with each other, that at a
wave of the hand they will separate, one going to the right and the other to
the left, and so traverse the entire field in a series of “tacks,” to speak
nemies crossing each other regularly in front of the sportsman as he walks

orward.

When either of them scents a bird, he stops suddenly, arresting even his
foot as it is raised in the air, his head thrust forward, his body and limbs fixed,
and his tail stretched out straight behind him. This attitude is termed a
“point,” and on account of this peculiar mode of indicating game, the animal
is termed the “ Pointer.” The Dogs are so trained that when one of them
comes to a point he is backed by his companion, so as to avoid the disturb-
ance of more game than is necessary for the purpose of the sportsman.

The most useful variety of the canine species is the sagacious creature on
whose talent and energy depends the chief safety of the flock.

As the SHEEP-DOG is constantly exposed to the weather, it needs the
protection of very thick and
closely-set fur, which in this
Dog is rather woolly in its
character, and is especially
heavy about the neck and
breast.

The muzzle of this dog
is sharp, its head is of mo-
derate size, its eyes are
very bright and intelligent,
as might be expected in an
animal of so much sagacity
and ready resource in time
of need. Its feet are strongly
made, and sufficiently well
protected to endure severe
work among the harsh
stems of the heather on
the hills, or the sharply- , i iy:
cutting stones of the high SHEPHERD’S DOG.—(Canis famitiaris.)
road. Probably on account
of its constant exercise in the open air, and the hardy manner in which it is
brought up, the Sheep-dog is perhaps the most untiring of our domesticated
animals.

As a general rule, the Sheep-dog cares very little for any one but his master,
and so far from courting the notice or caresses of a stranger, will coldly with-
draw from them, and keep his distance. Even with other Dogs he rarely
makes companionship, contenting himself with the society of his master
a’one.

F

66 THE BULL DOG.

The BULL-DoG is said, by all those who have had an opportunity of judg-
ing its capabilities, to be, with the exception of the game-cock, the most
courageous animal in the world.

Its extraordinary courage is so well known as to have passed into a
proverb, and to have so excited the admiration of the British nation that we
have been pleased to symbolize our peculiar tenacity of purpose under the
emblem of this small but most determined animal. In height the Bull-dog
is but insignificant, but in strength and courage there is no Dog that can
match him. Indeed, there is hardly any breed of sporting dog which does
not owe its high courage to an infusion of the Bull-dog blood; and it is
chiefly for this purpose that the pure breed is continued.

It is generally assumed that the Bull-dog must be a very dull and brutish
animal, because almost every specimen which has come before the notice of
the public has held such a character.

BULL-DOG.—(Canis Jamiliaris.)

My own experience does not at all coincide with this notion. I once
possessed one of these animals, and a better dog I never had. He was gentle
almost to a fault, never taking offence except at an insult by a big dog. He
was docile, obedient, and wonderfully intelligent, a good retriever, and one
of the most accomplished water-dogs I ever saw. Active and broad-chested
as a greyhound, his leaping powers were astonishing ; and his brown eyes
had a look in them that was almost human,

The shape of this remarkable animal is worthy of notice. The fore-
quarters are particularly strong, massive, and muscular; the chest wide and
roomy; and the neck singularly powerful. The hind-quarters, on the con-
trary, are very thin and comparatively feeble; all the vigour of the animal
seeming to settle in its fore-legs, chest, and head. Indeed, it gives the

THE MASTIFF. 67

spectator an impression as if it were composed of two different Dogs; the
one a large and powerful animal, and the other a weak and puny quadruped,
which had been put together by mistake.

The MAstiFF, which is the largest and most powerful of the indigenous
English Dogs, is of a singularly mild and placid temper, seeming to delight
in employing its great powers in affording protection to the weak, whether
they be men or dogs.

Yet, with all this no-
bility of its gentle na-
ture, it is a most deter-
mined and courageous
animal in fight, and,
when defending its
master or his property,
becomes a foe which
few opponents would
like to face. These
qualifications of ming-
led courage and gentle-
ness adapt it especially
for the service of watch-
dog, a task in which
the animal is as likely
to fail by overweening
zeal as by neglect of
its duty. It sometimes
happens that a watch-
dog is too hasty in its
judgment, and attacks
a harmless stranger, on
the supposition that it is resisting the approach of an enemy.

The head of the Mastiff bears a certain similitude to that of the blood-
hound and the bull-dog, possessing the pendent lips and squared muzzle of
the bloodhound, with the heavy muscular development of the bull-dog. The
under-jaw sometimes protrudes a little, but the teeth are not Jeft uncovered
by the upper-lip, as is often the case with the latter animal. The fur of the
Mastiff is always smooth, and its colour varies between a uniform reddish
fawn and different brindlings and patches of dark and white. The voice is
peculiarly deep and mellow. The height of this animal is generally from
twenty-five to twenty-eight inches, but sometimes exceeds these dimensions.
One of these Dogs was no less than thirty-three inches in height at the
shoulder, measured fifty inches round his body, and weighed a hundred and
seventy-five pounds.

The TERRIER, with all its numerous variations of crossed and mongrel
breeds, is more generally known in England than any other kind of Dog.
Of the recognized breeds, four are generally acknowledged, namely, the
English and Scotch Terriers, the Skye, and the little Toy Terrier.

The ENGLISH TERRIER possesses a smooth coat, a tapering muzzle, a high
forehead, a bright intelligent eye, and a strong muscular jaw. As its instinct
leads it to dig in the ground, its shoulders and fore-legs are well developed,
and it is able to make quite a deep burrow in a marvellously short time,
throwing out the loose earth with its feet, and dragging away the stones and
other large substances in its mouth. It is not a large Dog, seldom weigh-
ing more than ten pounds, and often hardly exceeding the moiety of that
weight.

MASTIFF. —( Canis familiaris.)

2

68 ENGLISH AND SCOTCH TERRIERS—THE JACKAL.

The colour of the pure English Terrier is generally black and tan, the
richness of the two tints determining much of the animal’s value. The nose
and the ;alate of the Dog ought to be always black, and over each eye a
small patch of tan colour. The tail ought to be rather long and very fine,
and the legs as light as is consistent with strength.

ENGLISH TERRIER.—(Canis familiaris.) | SCOTCH TERRIER.—(Cants familiaris )

The quaint-looking SKYE TERRIER has of late years been much affected
by all classes of dog-owners, and for many reasons deserves the popularity
which it has obtained.

When of pure breed the legs are very short, and the body extremely long
in proportion to the length of limb; the neck is powerfully made, but of
considerable length, and the head is also rather elongated, so that the total
length of the animal is three times as great as its height. The “dew-claws”
are wanting in this variety of domestic Dog. The hair is long and straight,
falling heavily over the body and limbs, and hanging so thickly upon the face
that the eyes and nose are hardly perceptible under their luxuriant covering.
The quality of the hair is rather harsh and wiry in the pure-bred Skye
Terrier.

The size of this animal is rather small, but it ought not to imitate the
minute proportions of many “toy” Dogs. Its weight ought to range from
ten to seventeen or eighteen pounds. Even amongst these animals there are
at least two distinct breeds, while some dog-fanciers establish a third.

It is an amusing and clever Dog, and admirably adapted for the companion-
ship of mankind, being faithful and affectionate in disposition, and as brave
as any of its congeners, except that epitome of courage, the bull-dog. Some-
times, though not frequently, it is employed for sporting purposes, and is
said to pursue that vocation with great credit.

THERE are several species of the Jackal, one of which will be noticed and
figured in this work.

The common JACKAL, or KHOLAH, as it is termed by the natives, is an
inhabitant of India, Ceylon, and neighbouring countries, where it is found in
very great numbers, forcing itself upon the notice of the traveller not only by
its bodily presence, but by its noisy howling, wherewith it vexes the ears of
the wearied and sleepy wayfarer, as he endeavours in vain to find repose.
Nocturnal in their habits, the Jackals are accustomed to conceal themselves
as much as possible during the daytime, and to issue out on their hunting
expeditions together with the advent of night.

THE ¥ACKAL. 69

Always teady to take advantage of every favourable opportunity, the
Jackal is a sad parasite, and hangs on the skirts of the larger carnivora as
they roam the country for prey, in the hope of securing some share of the
creatures which they destroy or wound. On account of this companionship
between the large and small marauders, the Jackal has popularly gained the
name of the Lion’s Frovider. But, in due justice, the title ought to be re-
versed, for the lion is in truth the Jackal’s provider, and is often thereby

JACKAL.—( Canis aureus.)

deprived of the chance of making a second meal on an animal which he has
slain. Sometimes, it is said, the Jackal does provide the lion with a meal
by becoming a victim to the hungry animal in default of better and more
savoury prey.

The name of “aureus,” or golden, is derived from the yellowish tinge of
the Jackal’s fur. In size it rather exceeds a large fox, but its tail is not
proportionately so long or so bushy as the well-known “brush” of the fox.

WOLVES.

FEW animals have earned so widely popular or so little enviable a fame
as the WOLVES. Whether in the annals of history, in fiction, in poetry, or
even in the less honoured but hardly less important literature of nursery
fables, the Wolf holds a prominent position among animals.

There are several species of Wolf, each of which species is divided into
three or four varieties, which seem to be tolerably permanent, and by many
observers are thought to be sufficiently marked to be considered as separate
species. However, as even the members of the same litter partake of several

40 THE WOLF,

minor varieties in form and colour, it is very possible that the so called
species may be nothing more than very distinctly marked varieties. These
voracious and dangerous animals are found in almost every quarter of the
globe ; whether the country which they infest be heated by the beams of the
tropical sun or frozen by the lengthened winter of the northern regions.
Mountain and plain, forest and field, jungle and prairie, are equally infested
with Wolves, which possess the power of finding nourishment for their united
bands in localities where even a single predacious animal might be perplexed
to gain a livelihood.

The colour of the common WOLF is grey, mingled with a slight tinting of
fawn, and diversified with many black hairs that are interspersed among the
lighter coloured fur. In the older animals the grey appears to predominate
over the fawn, while the fur of the younger Wolves is of a warmer fawn tint.
The under parts of the
animal, the lower jaw, and,
the edge of the upper lip
are nearly white, while the
interior facing of the limbs
is of a grey tint. Between
the ears the head is almost
entirely grey, and without
the mixture of black hairs,
which is found in greatest
profusion along the line of
the spine.

When hungry—and the
Wolf is almost always
hungry—it is a bold and
dangerous animal, daring
almost all things to reach
; its prey, and venturing to

WOLF. —(Canis lupus.) attack large and powerful

animals,—such as the buf-

falo, the elk, or the wild horse. Sometimes it has been known to oppose
itself to other carnivora, and to attack so unpromising a foe as the bear.

It is by no means nice in its palate, and will eat almost any living animal
—from human beings down to frogs, lizards, and insects. Moreover, it is a
sad cannibal, and is thought by several travellers who have noted its habits
to be especially partial to the flesh of its own kind. A weak, sickly, or
wounded Wolf is sure to fall under the cruel teeth of its companions; who
are said to be so fearfully ravenous that if one of their companions should
chance to besmear himself with the blood of the prey which has just been
hunted down, he is instantly attacked and devoured by the remainder of
the pack.

iit ther hunting expeditions the Wolves usually unite in bands, larger or
smaller in number, according to circumstances, and acting simultaneously
for a settled purpose, If they are on the trail of a flying animal, the foot-
steps of their prey are followed up by one or two of the Wolves, while the
remainder of the band take up their positions to the right and left of the
leaders, so as to intercept the quarry if it should attempt to turn from its
course. Woe be to any animal that is unlucky enough to be chased by a pack
of Wolves. No matter how swift it may be, it will most surely be overtaken
at last by the long slouching, tireless gallop of the Wolves; and no matter
what may be its strength, it must at last fail under the repeated and constant
attacks of the sharp teeth,

THE FOX AND HER YOUNG. Page 71.
The Popular Natural History

THE FOX, 7

ACCORDING to some systematic naturalists the FOXES are placed in the
genus Camzs, together with the dogs and the wolves. Those eminent zoolo-
gists, however, who have arranged the magnificent collections in the British
Museum, have decided upon separating the Foxes from the dogs and wolves,
and placing them in the genus Vu/fes. To this decision they have come
for several reasons, among which may be noted the shape of the pupil of the
eye, which in the Foxes is elongated, but in the animals which compose the
genus Cazzs is circular. The ears of the Foxes are triangular in shape, and
pointed, and the tail is always exceedingly bushy.

A very powerful scent is poured forth from the Fox in consequence of some
glands which are placed near the root of the tail, and furnish the odorous
secretion. Glands of a similar nature, but not so well developed, are found
in the wolves.

It is by this scent that the hounds axe able to follow the footsteps of a
flying Fox, and to run it down by their superior speed and endurance. The
Fox, indeed, seems to be aware that its pursuers are guided in their chase
by this odour, and puts in practice every expedient that its fertile brain can
produce in order to break
the continuity of the scent,
or to overpower it by the
presence of other odours,
which are more powerful
though not more agreeable.

Even when tamed it pre-
serves its singular cunning.
A tame Fox, that was kept
in a stable-yard, had ma-
naged to strike up a friend-
ship with several of th2
dogs, and would play with
them, but could never in-
duce the cats to approach
him. Cats are very sensi-
tive in their nostrils, and
could not endure the odour.
They would not even walk FOX —( Vulpes vulgaris.)
upon any spot where the
Fox had been standing, and kept as far aloof as possible from him.

The crafty animal soon perceived that the cats would not come near him,
and made use of his knowledge to cheat them of their breakfast. As soon
as the servant poured out the cats’ allowance of milk, the Fox would run to
the spot and walk about the saucer, well knowing that none of the rightful
owners would approach the defiled locality. Day after day the cats lost their
mnilk until the stratagem was discovered, and the milk was placed in a spot
where it could not be reached by the Fox.

The Fox resides in burrows, which it scoops out of the earth by the aid of
its strong digging paws, taking advantage of every peculiarity of the ground,
and contriving, whenever it is possible, to wind its subterranean way among
the roots of large trees or between heavy stones. In these “earths,” as the
as the burrows are called in the sportsman’s phraseology, the female Fox
produces and nurtures her young, which are odd little snub-nosed creatures,
resemvling almost any animal rather than a Fox. She watches over her
o-fspring with greit care, and teaches them by degrees to subsist on animal
food, which she and her mate capture for that purpose.

The colour of the common Fox is a reddish fawn, intermixed with black

—A
lh ‘]
oil DAS

72 THE ARCTIC FOX,

and white hairs. The hair is long and thick, being doubly thick during the
colder months of the year, so that the fur of a Fox which is killed in the
winter is more valuable than if the animal had been slain in the hot months.
The tail, which is technically termed the “ brush,” is remarkably bushy, and
partakes of the tints which predominate over the body, except at the tip,
which is white. The height of this animal is about a foot, and its length
about two feet and a half, exclusive of the tail.

One of the most celebrated species of the Foxes is the ARCTIC Fox,
called by the Russians PEsZI, and by the Greenlanders TERRIENNIAK. This
animal is in very great repute in the mercantile world on account of its
beautiful silky fur, which in the cold winter months becomes perfectly white.
During the summer the fur is generally of a grey or dirty brown, but is
frequently found of a leaden grey, or of a brown tint with a wash of blue.
Towards the change of the seasons the fur becomes mottled ; and by reason

ARCTIC FOX.—( Vulpes lagopus.)

of this extreme variableness has caused the animal to be known by several
different titles. Sometimes it is called the White Fox, sometimes the Blue
Fox, sometimes the Sooty Fox, sometimes the Pied Fox, and sometimes the
Stone Fox.

This animal is found in Lapland, Iceland, Siberia, Kamtschatka, and North
America, in all of which places it is eagerly sought by the hunters for the
sake of its fur. The pure white coat of the winter season is the most valu-
able, and the bluish grey fur of the summer months is next to the white the
colour that is most in request.

In.size, the Arctic Fox is not the equal of the English species, weigh-
ing only eight pounds on an average, and its total length being about
three feet. The eye is of a hazel tint, and very bright and intelligent. It

THE FENNEC. 73

lives in burrows, which it excavates in the earth during the summer months,
and prefers to construct its simple dwellings in small groups of twenty or
thirty.

The FENNKEC, or ZERDA, is an inhabitant of Africa, being found in Nubia
and Egypt. It is a very pretty and lively little creature, running about with
much activity, and anon sitting upright and regarding the prospect with
marvellous gravity. The colour of the Fennec is a very pale fawn, or
“isabel” colour, sometimes being almost of 2 creamy whiteness. The tail
is bushy, and partakes of the general colour of the fur, except at the upper
part of the base and the extreme tip, which are boldly marked with black.
The size of the adult animal is very inconsiderable, as it measures scarcely

more than a foot in length, exclusive of the bushy tail, which is about eight
inches long.

FENNEC.—(Vulges Zaarensis.)

_It is said that the Fennec, although it is evidently a carnivorous animal,
delights to feed upon various fruits, especially preferring the date. Such a
predilection is according to vulpine and canine analogies, for the common
English Fox is remarkably fond of ripe fruits, such as grapes or strawberries,
and the domestic dog is too often a depredator of those very gardens which
he was enjoined to keep clear from robbers. But that the animal should
enjoy the power of procuring that food in which it so delights is a very extra-
ordinary circumstance, and one which wonld hardly be expected from a
creature which partakes so largely of the vulpine form and characteristics.
The date-palm is a tree of a very lofty growth, and the rich clusters of the fruit
are placed at the very summit of the bare, branchless stem. Yet the Fennec
is said to possess the capability of climbing the trunk of the date-palm, and
of procuring for itself the coveted luxury.

74 THE ASSE,

Like the veritable Foxes, the Fennec is accustomed to dwell in subter-
ranean abodes, which it scoops in the light sandy soil of its native land.

As is the case with the greater number of predacious animals, the Fennec
is but seldom seen during the daytime, preferring to issue forth upon its
marauding expeditions under the friendly cover of night. Even when it has
spent some time in captivity, it retains its restless nocturnal demeanour, and
during the hours of daylight passes the greater portion of its time in seii-
somnolence or in actual sleep.

THE little animal which is known by the name of the ASSE, or the
CAAMA, is an inhabitant of Southern Africa, and is in great request for the
sake of its skin, which furnishes a very valuable fur.

It is a terrible enemy to ostriches and other birds which lay their eggs in
the ground, and is in consequence detested by the birds whose nests are
devastated. The ingenuity of the Caama in procuring the contents of an

ASSE, OR CAAMA.—( Vulfes caama.)

ostrich’s egg is rather remarkable. The shell of the egg is extremely thick
and strong ; and as the Caama is but a small animal, its teeth are unable to
make any impression on so large, smooth, hard, and rounded an object. In
order, therefore, to obviate this difficulty, the cunning animal rolls the egg
along by means of its fore-paws, and pushes it so violently against any hard
substance that may lie conveniently in its path, or against another egg, that
the sh-ll is broken and the contents attainable.

The fur of this animal is highly esteemed by the natives for the purpose
of making “ karosses,” or mantles. As the Asse is one of the smallest of the
Foxes, a great number of skins are needed to form a single mantle, and the
manufactured article is therefore held in high value by its possessor. Indeed,
so valuable is its fur, thut it tempts many of the Bechuana tribes to make

WEASELS—THE PINE MARTEN. 75

its chase the business of their lives, and to expend their whole energies in
capturing the animal from whose body the much-prized fur is taken.

The continual persecution to which the Caama is subjected, has almost
exterminated it in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, where it was formerly
seen in tolerable plenty. Gradually, however, it retreats more and more
northward before the tread of civilized man, and at the present day is but
very rarely seen within the limits of the colony.

WEASELS.

NEXT in order to the dogs, is placed the large and important family of the
WEASELS, representatives of which are found in almost every portion of the
earth. There is something marvellously serpentine in the aspect and struc-
ture of the members of.this family—the Mustelida, as they are called, from
the Latin word dA/uste/a, which signifies a Weasel. Their extremely long
bodies and very short legs, together with the astonishing perfection of the
muscular powers, give them the capability of winding their little bodies into
the smallest possible crevices, and of waging successful battle with animals
of twenty times their size and strength. :

First on the list of Weasels are placed the agile and lively MARTENS, or
MARTEN-CaTS, as they are sometimes termed. ‘Two species of British
Martens are generally admitted into
our catalogues, although the distinc-
tion of the species is even as yet a
mooted point.

The PINE MARTEN is so called
because it is generally found in
those localities where the pine-trees
abound, and is in the habit of climb-
ing the pines in search of prey. It
is a shy and wary animal, withdraw-
ing itself as far as possible from
the sight of man; and although a
fierce and dangerous antagonist when
brought to bay, is naturally of a timid
disposition, and shuns collision with
an enemy.

It is a tree-loving animal, being ac- = PINE MARTEN.—(Aartes Abietum.)
customed to traverse the trunks and
branches with wonderful address and activity, and being enabled by its rapid
and silent movements to Steal unnoticed on many an unfortunate bird, and
to seize it in its deadly gripe before the startled victim can address itself to
flight. It is a sad robber of nests, rifling them of eggs and young, and not
unfrequently adding the parent bird to its list of victims.

The damage which a pair of Martens and their young will inflict upon a
poultry-yard is almost incredible. If they can only gain an entrance into
the fowl-house, they will spare but very few of the inhabitants. They will
carry off an entire brood of young chickens, eat the eggs, and destroy the
parents.

The magpie’s nest is a very favourite resort of the Marten, because its
arched covering and small entrance afford additional security. A boy who
was engaged in bird-nesting, and had climbed to the top of a lofty tree in
order to plunder a magpie’s nest, was made painfully sensible of an intruder’s
presence by a severe bite which was inflicted upon his fingers as soon as he

46 THE SABLE,

inserted his hand into the narrow entrance. This adventure occurred in
Belvoir Park, County Down, in Ireland.

The length of the Pine Marten is about eighteen inches, exclusive of the
tail, which measures about ten inches. The tail is covered with long and
rather bushy hair, and is slightly darker than the rest of the body, which is
covered with brown hair. The tint, however, is variable in different speci-
mens, and even in the same individual undergoes considerable modifications,
according to the time of year and the part of the world in which it is found.
It has rather a wide range of locality, being a native of the northern parts of
Europe and of a very large portion of Northern America.

ONE of the most highly valued of the Weasels is the celebrated SABLE,
which produces the richly tinted fur that is in such great request. Several
species of this animal are sought for the sake of their fur. They are very
closely allied to the Martens that have already been described, and are
supposed by some zoologists to belong to the same species. Besides the
well known Martes Zibellina a North American species is known, together
with another which is an inhabitant of Japan. These two creatures, although
they are very similar to each other in
general aspect, can be distinguished
from each other by the different hue
‘of their legs and feet : the American
Sable, being tinged with white upon
those portions of its person, and the
corresponding members of the Japa-
nese Sable being marked with black.

The Sable is spread over a large ex-
tent of country, being found in Siberia,
Kamtschatka, and in Asiatic Russia.
; Its fur is in the greatest perfection
during the coldest months of the year, and offers an inducement to the
hunter to brave the fearful inclemency of a northern winter in order to obtain
a higher price for his small but valuable commodities. A really perfect Sable
skin is but seldom obtained, and will command an exceedingly high price.
An ordinary skin is considered to be worth from one to six or seven pounds,
but, if it should be of the very best quality, is valued at twelve or fifteen

ounds.

. In order to obtain these much-prized skins, the Sable hunters are forced
to undergo the most terrible privations, and often lose their lives in the snow-
covered wastes in which the Sable loves to dwell. A sudden and heavy
snowstorm will obliterate in a single half hour every trace by which the hunter
had marked out his path, and, if it should be of long continuance, may
overwhelm him in the mountain “ drifts” which are heaped so strangely by
the fierce tempests that sweep over those fearful regions.

The Sables take up their abode chiefly near the banks of rivers and in the
thickest parts of the forests that cover so vast an extent of territory in those
uncultivated regions. Their holes are usually made in holes which the
creatures burrow in the earth, and are generally made more secure by being
dug among the roots of trees. Sometimes, however, they prefer to make their
nests in the hollows of trees, and there they rear their young. Some authors
however, deny that the Sable inhabits subtcrranean burrows, and assert that
its nest is always made in a hollowtree. Their nests are soft and warm,
being composed chiefly of moss, dried leaves, and grass.

The Sables are taken in various modes. Sometimes they are captured in
traps, which are formed in order to secure the animal without damaging its
fur, Sometimes they are fairly hunted down by means of the tracks which

SABLE.—(ALartes Zibellina.)

THE POLECAT. 7

their little feet leave in the white snow, and are traced to their domicile. A
net is then placed over the orifice, and by means of a certain pungent smoke
which is thrown into the cavity, the inhabitant is forced to rush into the
open air, and is captured in the net. The hunters are forced to support
themselves on the soft and yielding surface of the snow by wearing “snow-
shoes,” or they would be lost in the deep drifts, which are perfectly capable
of supporting so light and active an animal as the Sable, but would engulf
a human being before he had made a second step.

It now and then happens that the Sable is forced to take refuge in the
branches of a tree, and in that case it is made captive by means of a noose
which is dexterously flung over its head.

On examining the fur of the Sable, it will be seen to be fixed to the skin
in such a manner that it will turn with equal freedom in all directions, and
lies smoothly in whatever direction it may be pressed. The fur is rather
long in proportion to the size of the animal, and extends down the limbs to
the claws. The colour is a rich brown, slightly mottled with white about
the head, and taking a grey tinge on the neck.

Lok |) il

=.
Didzo
POLECAT.—(Putorius fetidus.)

The PoLecaT has earned for itself a most unenviable fame, having been
long celebrated as one of the most noxious pests to which the farmyard is
liable. Slightly smaller than the marten, and not quite so powerful, it is
found to be a more deadly enemy to rabbits, game, and poultry, than any
other animal of its size.

It is wonderfully bold when engaged upon its marauding expeditions, and
maintains an impertinently audacious air even when it is intercepted in the act
of destruction. Not only dees it make victims of the smaller poultry, such as
ducks and chickens, but attacks geese, turkeys, and other larger birds with
perfect readiness. This ferocious little creature has a terrible habit of de-
stroying the life of every animal that may be in the same chamber with
itself, and if it should gain admission into a henhouse will kill every one of
the inhabitants, although it may not be able to eat the twentieth part of its
victims, It seems to be very fond of sucking the blood of the animals which

48 THE FERRET AND THE MINK.

it destroys, and appears to commence its repast by eating the brains. If
several victims should come in its way, it will kill them all, suck their blood,
and eat the brains, leaving the remainder of the body untouched.

This animal is not only farnous for its bloodthirsty disposition, but for the
horrid odour which exhales from its body, and which seems to be partially
under the control of the owner. When the Polecat is wounded or annoyed
in any way, this disgusting odour becomes almost unbearable, and has the
property of adhering for a long time to any substance with which it may
come in contact.

The Polecat does not restrict itself 79 terrestrial game, but also wages war
against the inhabitants of rivers and ponds. Frogs, toads, newts, and fish
are among the number of the creatures that fall victims to its rapacity. Even
the formidably defended nests of the wild bees are said to yield up their
honeyed stores to the fearless attack of this rapacious creature.

As to rabbits, hares, and other small animals, the Polecat seems to catch
and devour them almost at will. The hares it can capture either by stealing
upon them as they lie asleep in their “forms,” or by patiently tracking them
through their meanderings, and hunting them down fairly by scent. The
rabbits flee in vain for safety into their subterranean strongholds, for the
Polecat is quite at home in such localities, and can traverse a burrow with
greater agility than the rabbits themselves. Even the rats that are found so
plentifully about the waterside are occasionally pursued into their holes and
there captured. Pheasants, partridges, and all kinds of game are a favourite
prey with the Polecat, which secures them by a happy admixture of agility
and craft. So very destructive are these animals, that a single family is quite
sufficient to depreciate the value of a warren or a covert to no small extent.

The Polecat is a tolerably prolific animal, producing four or five young at
a litter. The locality which the mother selects for the nursery of her future
family is generally at the bottom of a burrow, which is scooped in light and
dry soil, defended if possible by the roots of trees. In this subterranean
abode a warm nest is constructed, composed of various dried leaves and of
moss, laid with singular smoothness. The young Polecats make their appear-
ance towards the end of May or the beginning of June.

The FERRET is well known as the constant companion of the rat-catcher
and the rabbit-hunter, being employed for the purpose of following its prey
into their deepest recesses, and of driving them from their strongholds into
the open air, when the pursuit is taken up by its master. The mode in which
the Ferret is employed is too well known to need a detailed description.

It is a fierce little animal, and is too apt to turn upon its owner and wound
him severely before Le suspects that the creature is actuated by any ill inten-
tions. I once witnessed a rather curious example of the uncertainty of the
Ferret’s temper. A lad who possessed a beautiful white Ferret had partially
tamed the creature, and thought that it was quite harmless. The Ferret was
accustomed to crawl about his person, and would permit itself to be caressed
almost as freely as a cat. But on one unfortunate morning, when its owner
was vaunting the performances of his proféeée—for it was a female—the
creature made a quiet but rapid snap at his mouth, and drove its teeth through
both his lips, making four cuts as sharply c’ Sned as if they had been made
with a razor.

ON account of its water-loving propensities, the MINK is called by various
names that bear relation to water. By some persons it is called the Smaller
Otter, or sometimes the Musk Otter, while it is known to others under
a title of the Water-Polecat. It also goes by the name of the NUREK

ISON.

The Mink is spread over a very large extent of country, being found in the

THE FERRET AND THE MINK. 79

most northern parts of Europe, and also in North America. Its fur is
usually brown, with some white about the jaws, but seems to be subject to

FERRET.—(AZustela Furo.)

considerable variations of tinting. Some specimens are of a much paler
brown than others ; in some individuals the fur is nearly black about the

MINK.—( Vison Lutreola.)

head, while the white patch that is found on the chin is extremely variable
in dimensions, The size, too, is rather variable,

80 . THE WEASEL.

It frequents the banks of ponds, rivers, and marshes, seeming to prefer
the stillest waters in the autumn, and the rapidly flowing currents in spring.
As may be supposed from the nature of its haunts, its food consists almost
wholly of fish, frogs, crawfish, aquatic insects, and other creatures that are
to be found either in the waters or in their close vicinity. The general shape
of its body is not quite the same as that of the marten or ferret ; and assumes
something of the otter aspect. The teeth, however, are nearer those of the
polecat than of the otter; and its tail, although not so fully charged with
hair as the corresponding member in the polecat, is devoid of that muscular
power and tapering form which is so strongly characteristic of the otter.
The feet are well adapted for swimming, on account of a slight webbing
between the toes.

The fur of this animal is excellent in quality, and is by many persons
valued very highly. By the furriers it passes under the name of “ Mcenk,”
and it is known by two other names, “ Tutucuri” and “ Neers.” As it bears a

SSS

2/EZ : :
(WEASEL.—JZustela Vulgaris.)

great resemblance to the fur of the sable, it is often fraudulently substituted
for that article,—a deception which is the more to be regretted, as the fur of
the Mink is a really excellent one, handsome in its appearance, and extremely
warm in character. By some authors, the identity of the Mink with the
water-polecat has been doubted, but, as it appears, without sufficient reason.

THERE is hardly any animal which, for its size, is so much to be dreaded
by the creatures on which it preys as the common WEASEL. Although its
diminutive proportions render a single Weasel ar insignificant opponent to
man or dog, yet it can wage a sharp battle even with such powerful foes, and
refuses to yield except at the last necessity.

The proportions of the Weasel are extremely small, the male being rather
larger than the opposite sex. In total length, a full-grown male does not
much exceed ten inches, of which the tail occupies more than a fifth, while
the female is rather more than an inch shorter than her mate. The colour
of its fur is a bright reddish brown on the upper parts of the body, and the

HABITS OF THE WEASEL. 8

under portions are of a pure white, the line of demarcation being tolerably
well defined, but not very sharply cut.

It is a terrible foe to many of the smaller rodents, such as rats and mice,
and performs a really good service to the farmer by destroying many of these
farmyard pests. It follows them wherever they may be, and mercilessly
destroys them, whether they have taken up their summer abode in the hedge-
rows and river-banks, or whether they have retired to winter quarters among
the barns and ricks. Many farmers are in the habit of destroying the
Weasels, which they look upon as “vermin,” but it is now generally thought
that, although the Weasel may be guilty of destroying a chicken or duckling
now and then, it may yet plead its great services in the destruction of mice
as acause of acquittal. The Weasel is specially dreaded by rats and mice,
because there is no hole through which either of these animals can pass
which will not quite as readily suffer the passage of the Weasel; and as the
Weasel is most determined and pertinacious in pursuit, it seldom happens
that rats or mice escape when their little foe has set itself fairly on their
track.

The Weasel has been seen to catch and to kill a bunting by creeping
quietly towards a thistle on which the bird was perching, and then to leap
suddenly upon it before it could use its wings. When it seizes an animal
that is likely to make its escape, the Weasel flings its body over that of its
victim, as if to prevent it from struggling. In single combat with a large
and powerful rat, the Weasel has but little hope of success unless it should
be able to attack from behind, as the long chisel-edged teeth of the rat are
terrible weapons against so small an animal as the Weasel. The modes of
attack employed by the two animals are of a different character, the rat
making a succession of single bites, while the Weasel is accustomed to fasten
its teeth on the head or neck of its opponent, and there to retain its hold
until it has drained the blood of its victim. The fore-legs of the Weasel are
of very great service in such a contest, for when it has fixed its teeth, it
embraces its opponent firmly in its fore-limbs, and rolling over on its side,
holds its antagonist in its unyielding grasp, which is never relaxed as long
as a spark of life is left.

Like the polecat and others of the same group of animals, the Weasel is
most destructive in its nature, killing many more animals than it can devour,
simply for the mere pleasure of killing. It is curious to notice how the
savage mind, whether it belongs to. man or beast, actually revels in destruc-
tion, is maddened to absolute frenzy by the sight of blood, and is urged by
a kind of fiery delirium to kill and to pour out the vital fluid. Soldiers in the
heat of action have often declared that everything which they saw was charged
with a blood-red hue, but that the details of the conflict had entirely passed
from theirminds, A single Weasel, urged by some such destructive spirit, has
been known to make its way into a cage full of freshly-caught song-birds,
and to destroy every single bird. The little assassin was -discovered lying
quite at its ease in a corner of the cage, surrounded with the dead bodies of
its victims.

To persons who have had but little experience in the habits of wild
animals, it is generally a matter of some surprise that the celebrated Ermine
fur, which is in such general favour, should be produced by one of those very
animals which we are popularly accustomed to rank among “vermin,” and
to exterminate in every possible way. Yet so it is. The highly-prized
Ermine and the much-detested Stoat are, in fact, one and the same animal,
the difference in the colour of their coats being solely caused by the larger
or smaller proportion of heat to which they have been subjected.

In the summer-time, the fur of the Stoat—by which name the animal will

G

82 THE STOAT, OR ERMINE,

be designated, whether it be wearing its winter or summer dress—is not
unlike that of the weasel, although the dark parts of the fur are not so ruddy
nor the light portions of so pure a white as in that animal. The toes and
the edges of the ears are also white. ;

The change of colour which takes place during the colder months of the
year is now ascertained, with tolerably accuracy, to be caused by an actual
whitening of the fur, and not by the gradual substitution of white for dark
hairs, as was for some time supposed to be the case.

The hairs are not entirely white, even in their most completely blanched
state, but partake of a very delicate cream-yellow, especially upon the under
portions, while the slightly bushy tip of the tail retains its original black
tinting, and presents a singular contrast to the remainder of the fur. In
these comparatively temperate latitudes, the Stoat is never sufficiently
blanched to render its fur of any commercial value. As may be supposed
from the extreme delicacy of the skin in its wintry whiteness, the capture of
the Stoat for the purpose of obtaining its fur is a matter of no small difficulty.
The traps which are used for the purpose of destroying the Stoat are formed

STOAT OR ERMINE (Winter Dyess).

so as to kill the animal by a sudden blow, without wounding the skin ; and
many of the beautiful little creatures are taken in ordinary snares.

In this country, where the lowest temperature is considerably above that
of the ordinary wintry degrees, the Stoat is very uncertain in its change of
fur, and seems to yield to or to resist the effects of the cold weather accord-
ing to the individuality of the particular animal.

The Stoat is considerably larger than the weasel, measuring rather more
than fourteen inches in total length, of which the tail occupies rather more
than four inches. There is, however, considerable difference in the size of
various individuals.

It is a most determined hunter, pursuing its game with such pertinacious
skill that it very seldom permits its intended prey to escape, and by dint of
perseverance can even capture the swift-footed hare.

When the female Stoat is providing for the wants of a young family, she

THE RATEL. 83

forages far and wide for ber offspring, and lays up the produce of her chase
in certain cunningly-contrived larders. In a wood belonging to Lord Bagot,
a Stoat nursery was discovered, having within it no less than six inhabitants,
another and her five young. Their larder was supplied with five hares and
four rabbits, neither of which had been in the least mangled, with the
exception of the little wound that had caused their death.

In the clumsy-looking animal which is called the RATEL, a beautiful
adaptation of nature is manifested. Covered from the tip of the nose to the
insertion of the claws with thick, coarse, and rough fur, and provided more-
over with a skin that lies very loosely on tl.e body, the Ratel is marvellously
adapted to the peculiar life which it leads,

Although the Ratel is in all probability indebted for its food to various
sources, the diet which it best loves is comvosed of the combs and young of
the honey-bee. So celebrated is the animal for its predilection for this sweet
dainty that it has earned for itself the title of Honey Ratel, or Honey Weasel.
The reason for its extremely thick coating of fur is now evident. The animal
is necessarily exposed to the attacks of the infuriated bees when it lays siege
to their fastnesses, and if it were not defended by a coating which is impene-
trable to their stings, it would soon fall a victim to the poisoned weapons of
its myriad foes.

During the daytime the Ratel remains in its burrow; but as evening begins
to draw near, it emerges from its place of repose, and sets off on its bee-
hunting expeditions. As the animal is unable to climb trees, a bees’ nest
that is made in a hollow tree-limb is safe from its attacks. But the greater
number of wild bees make their nests in the deserted mansions of the termite,
or the forsaken burrows of various animals. It is said that the Ratel finds
its way towards the bees’ nests by watching the direction in which the bees
return towards their homes.

The colour of the Ratel is black upon the muzzle, the limbs, and the whole
of the under portions of the body; but upon the upper part of the head,
neck, back, ribs, and tail, the animal
is furnished with a thick covering of
long hairs, which are of an ashy grey
colour. A bright grey stripe, about

~an inch in width, runs along each side
and serves as a line of demarcation
between the light and the dark por-
tions of the fur. The ears of the
Ratel are extremely short. The
lighter fur of the back is variously
tinted in different individuals, some
being of the whitish grey which has
been already mentioned, and others
remarkable for a decided tinge of
red. The length of the Cape Ratel
is rather more than three feet, inclu-
sive of the tail, which measures eight
or nine inches in length. In its walk
it is plantigrade, and has so much of
the ursine character in its movements that it has been called the Indian
or Honey Bear. It is sometimes known under the title of “ Bharsiah.”

The animal which has just been described is an inhabitant of Southern
Africa, being found in great profusion at the Cape of Good Hope. There is,
however, an Indian species of Ratel, which very closely resembles the African
animal, and in the opinion of some writers is identical with it.

Cee

RATEL.—(Afellivora Rat 1.)

G2

84 THE WOLVERENE.

The WOLVERENE, more popularly known by the name of the GLUTTON,
has earned for itself a world-wide reputation for ferocity, and has given
occasion to some of the older writers on natural history to indulge in the
most unshackled liberty of description.

It is known that the Glutton feeds largely on the smaller quadrupeds, and
that it is a most determined foe to the beaver in the summer months.
During the winter it has little chance
of catching a beaver, for the animals
are quietly ensconced in their home,
and their houses are rendered so
strong by the intense cold, that the
Glutton is unable to break through
their ice-hardened walls.

The Wolverene is an inhabitant
of Northern America, Siberia, and
of a great part of Northern Europe.
It was once thought that the Glutton
and the Wolverene were distinct ani-
mals, but it is now ascertained that they both belong to the same species.

The general aspect of this animal is not unlike that of a young bear, and
probably on that account it was placed by Linnzeus among the bears under
the title of Ursus Luscus. The general colour of the Wolverene is a brownish
black ; the muzzle is black as far as the eyebrows, and the space between
the eyes of a browner hue. In some specimens a few white spots are scat-
tered upon the under jaw. The sides of the body are washed with a tint of a
warmer hue. The paws are quite black, and the contrast between the jetty
fur of the feet and the alinost ivory whiteness of the claws is extremely
curious. These white claws are much esteemed among the natives for the
purpose of being manufactured into certain feminine adornments.

The SKUNK, which is so celebrated for the horrible odour which emanates
from it, belongs to the Weasel tribe.

SCARCELY less remarkable for its ill-odour than the skunk, the TELEDU is
not brought so prominently before the public eye as the animal which has
just been described.

It is a native of Java, and seems to be confined to those portions of the
country that are not less than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea.
On certain portions of these elevated spots, the Teledu, or Stinkard, as it is
popularly called, can always be found. The earth is lighter on these spots
than in the valleys, and is better suited to the habits of the Teledu, which
roots in the earth after the manner of hogs, in search of the worms and
insects which constitute its chief food. This habit of turning up the soil
renders it very obnoxious to the native agriculturists, as it pursues the worms
in their subterraneous meanderings, and makes sad havoc among the freshly-
planted seeds. It is also in the habit -of doing much damage to the sprouting
plants by eating off their roots.

We are indebted to Mr. Horsfield for an elaborate and interesting account
of the Teledu, an animal which he contrived to tame and to watch with
singular success. The following passages are selected from his memoir :—

“The Mydaus forms its dwelling at a slight depth bengath the surface, in
the black mould, with considerably ingenuity. Having selected a spot
defended above by the roots of a large tree, it constructs a cell or chamber
of a globular form, having a diameter of several feet, the sides of which it
makes perfectly smooth and regular; this it provides with a subterraneous
conduit or avenue, about six feet in length, the external entrance to which it
conceals with twigs and dry leaves. During the day it remains concealed,

WOLVERENE. —; Gulo luscus.)

THE TELEDU. 85

fike a badger in its hole ; at night it proceeds in search of its food, wnich
consists of insects and other larva, and of worms of every kind. It is par-
ticularly fond of the common lumbrici, or earth-worms, which abound in the
fertile mould. These animals, agreeably to the information of the natives,
live in pairs, and the female produces two or three young at a birth,

“ The motions of the Mydaus are slow, and it is easily taken by the natives,
who by no means fear it. During my abode on the Mountain Prahu, I
engaged them to procure me individuals for preparation; and as they
received a desirable reward, they brought them to me daily in greater
numbers than I could employ. Whenever the natives surprise them sud-
denly, they prepare them for food; the flesh is then scarcely impregnated
with the offensive odour, and is described as very delicious. The animals
are generally in excellent condition, as their food abounds in fertile mould.

“On the Mountain Prahu, the natives, who were most active in supplying
me with specimens of the Mydaus, assured me that it could only propel the
fluid to the distance of about two feet. The fetid matter itself is of a viscid

TELEDU. —(Mydaus meliceps.)

nature : its effects depend on its great volatility, and they spread through a
great extent. The entire neighbourhood of a village is infected by the odour
of an irritated Teledu, and in the immediate vicinity of the discharge it is so
violent as in some persons to produce syncope. The various species of
Mephitis in America differ from the Mydaus in the capacity of projecting
the fetid matter to a greater distance.

“The Mydaus is not ferocious in its manners, and, taken young, like the
badger, might be easily tamed. An individual which I kept some time in
confinement afforded me an opportunity of observing its disposition. It
soon became gentle and reconciled to its situation, and did not at any time
emit the offensive fluid. I carried it with me from Mountain Prahu to
Bladeran, a village on the declivity of that mountain, where the temperature
was more moderate. While a drawing was made, the animal was tied to
asmall stake. It moved about quietly, burrowing the ground with its snout
and feet, as if in search of food, without taking notice of the bystanders, or

86 THE BADGER.

making violent efforts to disengage itself; on earth-worms (lumbrici) being
brought, it ate voraciously ; holding one extremity of a worm with its claws,
its teeth were employed in tearing the other. Having consumed about ten or
twelve, it became drowsy, and making a small groove in the earth, in which
it placed its snout, it composed itself deliberately, and was soon sound asleep.”

The colour of the Teledu is a blackish brown, with the exception of the
fur upon the top of the head, a stripe along the back, and the tip of the
short tail, which is a yellowish-white. The under surface of the body is of a
lighter hue. The fur is long and of a silken texture at the base, and closely
set together, so as to afford to the animal the warm covering which is needed
in the elevated spots where it dwells. The hair is especially long on the
sides of the neck, and curls slightly upwards and backwards, and on the
top of the head there is a small transverse crest. The feet are large, and the
claws of the fore-limbs are nearly twice as long as those of the hinder paws.

In the whole aspect of the Teledu there is a great resemblance to the
badger, and, indeed, the animal looks very like a miniature badger, of rather
eccentric colours.

ALTHOUGH one of the most quiet and inoffensive of our indigenous animals,
the BADGER has been subjected to such cruel persecutions as could not be
justified even if tne creature were as destructive and noisome as it is harm-
less or innocuous. For the purposes of so-called “sport,” the Badger was
captured and put into a cage ready to be tormented at the cruel will of every
ruffian who might choose to risk his dog against the sharp teeth of the
captive animal.

Being naturally as harmless an animal as can be imagined, it is a terrible
antagonist when provoked to use the means of defence with which it is so
well provided. Not only are the teeth long and sharp, but the jaws are so
formed that when the animal closes
its mouth the jaws “lock” together
by a peculiar structure of their junc-
tion with the skull, and retain their
hold without any need of any special
effort on the part of the animal.

Unlike the generality of the weasel
tribe, the Badger is slow and clumsy
in its actions, and rolls along so awk-
wardly in its gait that it may easily
be mistaken for a young pig in the
dark of the evening, at which time it
first issues from its burrow. The dig-
ging capacities of the Badger are very
great, the animal being able to sink
itself into the ground with marvellous
rapidity. For this power the Badger
is indebted to the long curved claws
with which the fore-feet are armed,
and to the great development of the muscles that work the fore-limbs..

In its burrow the female Badger makes her nest and rears her young,
which are generally three or four in number.

The food of the Badger is of a mixed character, being partly vegetable and
partly animal. Snails and worms are greedily devoured by this creature,
and the wild bees, wasps, and other fossorial Hymenoptera find a most
destructive foe in the Badger, which scrapes away the protecting earth and
devours honey, cells, and grubs together, without being deterred from its
meal by the stings of the angry bees,

BADGER.—(A/eles Taxus).

THE OTTER. 87

As is the case with the generality of weasels, the Badger is furnished with
an apparatus which secretes a substance of an exceedingly offensive odour,
to which circumstance is probably owing much of the popular prejudice
against the “stinking brock.”

The colours of the Badger are grey, black, and white, which are rather
curiously distributed. The head is white, with the exception of a rather
broad and very definitely marked black line on each side, commencing near
the snout and ending at the neck, including the eye and the ear in its course.
The body is of a reddish grey, changing to a white grey on the ribs and tail.
The throat, chest, abdomen, legs, and feet are of a deep blackish brown.
The average length of the Badger is two feet six inches, and its height at
the shoulder eleven inches.

ALTHOUGH by no means a large animal, the OTTER has attained a
universal reputation as a terrible and persevering foe to fish. Being pos-
sessed of a very discriminating palate, and invariably choosing the finest
fish that can be found in the locality, the Otter is the object of the pro-
foundest hate to the proprietors of streams and to all human fishermen.

When the Otter is engaged in eating the fish it has captured, it holds the
slippery prey between its fore-paws, and, beginning with the back of the
neck, eats away the flesh from the neck towards the tail, rejecting the head,
tail, and other portions.

For pursuit of its finny prey the Otter is admirably adapted by nature.
The body is lithe and serpentine ; the feet are furnished with a broad web
that connects the toes, and is of infinite service in propelling the animal
through the water ; the tail is long, broad, and flat, proving a powerful and
effectual rudder by which its movements are directed ; and the short, power-
ful legs are so loosely jointed that the animal can turn them in almost any
direction.

The colour of the Otter varies slightly according to the light in which it is
viewed, but is generally of a rich brown tint, intermixed with whitish grey.
This colour is lighter along the back and the outside of the legs than on the
other parts of the body, which are of a paler greyish hue. Its habitation is
made on the bank of the river which it frequents, and is rather inartificial in
its character, as the creature is fonder
of occupying some natural crevice or
deserted excavation than of digging
a burrow for itself. The nest of the
Otter is composed of dry rushes,
flags, or other aquatic plants, and is
purposely placed as near the water
as possible, so that in case of a sud-
den alarm the mother Otter may
plunge into the stream together with
her young family, and find a refuge
among the vegetation that skirts the
river banks. The number of the young is from three to five, and they
make their appearance about March or April. en

The fur of the Otter is so warm and handsome that it is in some request
for commercial purposes. The entire length of the animal is rather under
three feet and a half, of which the tail occupies about fourteen or fifteen
inches. On the average it weighs about twenty-three pounds ; but there are
examples which have far surpassed that weight. Mr. Bell records an instance
of a gigantic Otter that was captured in the River Lea, between Hertford and
Ware, and which weighed forty pounds. _ ;

‘Although so fierce and savage an animal when attacked, the Otter is

OTTER. —(Lutra vulgaris )

88 BEAKS.

singularly susceptible of human influence, and can be taught to catch fish
for the service of its masters rather than for the gratification of its own
palate. The CHINESE or INDIAN OTTER affords an excellent instance of
this capability ; for in every part of India the trained Otters are alinost as
common as trained dogs in England. It seems odd that the proprietors of
streams should not press the Otter into their service instead of destroying it,
and manage to convert into a faithful friend the animal which at preseut is
considered but as a ruthless enemy.

BEARS.

The BEARS and their allies form a family which is small in point of numbers,
but is a very conspicuous one on account of the large size of the greater
number of its members.

These animals are found in almost every portion of the earth’s surface,
and are fitted by nature to inhabit the hottest and the coldest parts of the
world. India, Borneo, and other burning lands are the homes of sundry
members of this family, such as the Bruang and the Aswail; while the

BROWN BEAR.—(Ursus Arctos.)

snowy regions of Northern Europe and the icebound coasts of the Arctic
Ocean are inhabited by the Brown Bear and the Nennook or Polar Bear.

The paws of the Bears are armed with long and sharp talons, which are
not capable of retraction, but which are most efficient weapons of offence
when urged by the powerful muscles which give force to the Bear’s limbs.
Should the adversary contrive to elude the quick and heavy blows of the
paw, the Bear endeavours to seize the foe round the body, and by dint of
sheer pressure to overcome its enemy. In guarding itself from the blows
which are aimed at it by its adversary the Bear is singularly adroit, warding
off the fiercest strokes with a dexterity that might be envied by many a
pretender to the pugilistic art.

Several species of Bears are now recognised by systematic naturalists, the
principal examples of which will be noticed in the following pages.

THE BROWN BEAR. 89

The Bear which is most popularly known in this country is the BROWN
BEAR; a creature which is found rather plentifully in forests and the moun-
tainous districts of many portions of Europe and Asia. As may be supposed
from its title, the colour of its fur is brown, slightly variable in tint in differ-
ent indviduals, and often in the same individual at various ages.

The size to which a well-fed and undisturbed Brown Bear will grow is
really surprising, for although it loses its growing properties after its
twentieth year, it seems permanently to retain the capability of enlargement,
and when in a favourable situation will live to a very great age. The weight
of an adult Brown Bear in good condition is very great, being sometimes
from seven to eight hundred pounds when the creature is remarkably fine,
and from five to six hundred pounds in ordinary cases. Mr. Falk remarks,
that a Bear which he killed was so enormously heavy, that when slung on a
pole it was a weighty burden for ten bearers.

Ants form a favourite article of diet with a Bear, which scrapes their nests
out of the earth with its powerful talons, and laps up the ants and their
so-called “eggs” with its ready tongue. Bees and their sweet produce are
greatly to the taste of the Bear, which is said to make occasional raids upon
the beehives, and to plunder their contents.

Vegetables of various kinds are also eaten by the Bear, and in the selec-
tion of these dainties the animal evinces considerable taste. According to
Mr. Lloyd, “the Bear feeds on roots, and the leaves and small limbs of the
aspen, mountain-ash, and other trees: he is also fond of succulent plants,
such as angelica, mountain-thistle, &c. To berries he is likewise very partial,
and during the autumnal months, when they are ripe, he devours vast quan-
tities of cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cloudberries, and
other berries common to the Scandinavian forests. Ripe corn he also eats,
and sometimes commits no small havoc amongst it; for seating himself, as
it is said, on his haunches in a field of it, he collects with his outstretched
arms nearly a sheaf at a time, the ears of which he then devours.”

During the autumn the Bear becomes extremely fat, in consequence of the
ample feasts which it is able to enjoy, and makes its preparations for passing
the cold and inhospitable months of winter. About the end of October the
Bear has completed its winter house, and ceases feeding for the year.

A curious phenomenon now takes place in the animal’s digestive organs,
which gives it the capability of remaining through the entire winter in a state
of lethargy, without food, and yet without losing condition. —

From the end of October to the middle of April the Bear remains in his
den, in a dull lethargic state of existence; and it is a curious fact that if a
hibernating Bear be discovered and killed in its den, it is quite as fat as if it
had been slain before it retired to its resting-place. Experienced hunters say
that even at the end of its five months’ sleep, the Bear is as fat as_at its be-
ginning. Sometimes it is said that the Bear partially awakes, and in that case
it immediately loses its sleek condition, and becomes extremely thin. During
the winter the Bear gains a new skin on the balls of the feet, and Mr. Lloyd
suggests that the curious habit of sucking the paws,to which Bears are so
prone, is in order to facilitate the growth of the new integument.

The Bear is possessed of several valuable accomplishments, being a won-
derful climber of trees and rocks, aa excellent swimmer, and a good digger.

The number of cubs which the female Bear produces is from one to four,
and they are very small during the first few days of their existence. They
make their appearance at the end of January or the beginning of February,
and it is a curious fact that, although the mother has at the time been de-
prived of food for nearly three months, and does not take any more food
until the spring, she is able to afford ample nourishment toher young with-

90 THE SYRIAN BEAR.

out suffering any apparent diminution in her condition. It is said by those
who have had personal experience of the habits of the Bear, that the mother
takes the greatest care of her offspring during the summer, but that when
winter approaches, she does not suffer them to partake of her residence, but
prepares winter quarters for them in her immediate neighbourhood. During
the winter another little family is born, and when they issue forth from their
home they are joined by the elder cubs, and the two families pass the next
winter in the mother’s den.

The SyRtaN BEAR, which is otherwise known by the name of DuBB, or
Ritck, is doubly interesting to us,not only on account of its peculiarly
gentle character, but from the fact that it is the animal which is so often
mentioned in the Scriptural writings.

The colour of this animal is rather peculiar, and varies extremely during
the different periods of its life. While it is in its earliest years, the colour of
its fur is a greyish brown, but as the animal increases in years the fur be-
comes gradually lighter in tint, and, when the Bear has attained maturity, is
nearly white. The hair is long and slightly curled, and beneath the longer
hair is a thick and warm covering of closely-set woolly fur, which seems to
defend the animal from the extremes of heat or cold. Along the shoulders
and front of the neck, the hair is so perpendicularly set, and projects so firmly,
that it gives the appearance of a mane, somewhat resembling that of the
hyzena.

At the present day the Syrian Bear may be found in the mountainous parts
of Palestine, and has been frequently seen upon the higher Lebanon mountains,

The fur of this bearis rather valuable on account of its warmth and beauty
and the fat and the gall are also held in much esteem for various purposes,
chiefly medicinal.

AMERICA furnishes several species of the Bear tribe, two of which, the
GRIZZLY BEAR and the MUSQUAW, or BLACK BEAR, are the most conspicuous.

THE Black Bear is found in many parts of Northern America, and was
formerly seen in great plenty. But as the fur and the fat are articles of great
commercial and social value, the hunters have exercised their craft with such
determination that the Black Bears are sensibly diminishing in number. The
fur of the Black Bear is not so roughly shaggy as that of the European or
the Syrian Bear, but is smooth and glossy in its appearance, so that it presents
a very handsoine aspect to the eye, while its texture is as thick and warm as
that of its rougher furred relations.

THERE are few animals which are so widely and deservedly dreaded as the
GRIZZLY BEAR. This terrible animal is an inhabitant of many portions of
Northern America, and is the acknowledged superior of every animal that
ranges over the same country.

The other members of the ursine family are not given to attacking human
beings, unless they are alarmed or wounded, but the Grizzly, or “ Ephraim,”
as the creature is familiarly termed by the hunters, displays a most unpleasant
readiness to assume the offensive as soon as it perceives a man, be he mounted
or on foot, armed or otherwise.

So tenacious of life is the Grizzly Bear, ‘that unless it receives a wound in
the head or heart it will continue its furious struggles, even though it be
riddled with bullets and its body pierced with many a gaping wound. These
warlike capacities render the creature respected by the natives and colonists,
and the slaughter of a Grizzly Bear in fair fight is considered an extremely
high honour. Among the native tribes that dwell in the northern portions of
America, the possession of a necklace formed from the claws of the Grizzly
Bear is considered as enviable a mark of distinction as a blue ribbon among
ourselves, No one is permitted to wear such an ornament unless the Bear

THE GRIZZLY BEAR. oY

has fallen under his hand ; consequently the value of the decoration is almost
incalculably. So largely is this mark of distinction prized, that the Indian
who has achieved such a dignity can hardly be induced to part with his
valued ornament by any remuneration that can be offered.

The colour of the Grizzly Bear is extremely variable, so much so, indeed,
that some zoologists have suggested the existence of two distinct species.
sometimes the colour of the fur is a dullish brown, plentifully flecked with
grizzled hairs, and in other specimens the entire fur is of a beautiful steely
grey.

SA
3 = tip %
aww
GRIZZLY BEAR.—( Ursus ferox.)

THERE is a small group of these animals called SUN-BEARS, from their
habit of basking in the sun instead of hiding in their dens during the hours
of daylight. A very curious example of the Sun-Bears is found in the
species which is known by the name of the BRUANG, or MALAYAN SUN-BEAR,
and has been rendered famous by the spirited description of its appearance
and habits which has been given by Sir Stamford Raffles.

THERE is generally an aquatic member of each group of animals through-
out the vertebrate kingdom, and among the Bears this part is filled by the
NENNOOK, or PoLAk BEAR, sometimes called, on account of its beautiful
silvery fur, the WHITE BEaR. As has already been mentioned, the Bears
are goodswimmers, and are able to cross channels of cousiderable width, but
we have, in the person of the Nennook, an animai that is especially formed
for traversing the waters and for passing its existence among the ice-moun-
tains of the northern regions.

So active is this Bear, and so admirable are its powers o1 aquatic locomo-
tion, that it has been seen to plunge into the water in chase of a salmon,
and to return to the surface with the captured fish in its mouth. And when
it is engaged in the pursuit of seals, as they are sieeping on a rock or an ice-
raft, it is said to employ a very ingenious mode of approach. Marking
the position in which its intended prey lies, it quietly slips into the water, and
diving below the surface. swims in the intended direction, until it is forced to
return to the surface in order to breathe. As soon as it has filled its lungs
with fresh air, it again submerges itself, and resumes its course, timing its

92 THE POLAR BEAR.

submarine journeys so well, that when it ascends to the surface for the last
time, it is in close proximity to the slumbering seal. The fate of the unfor-
tunate victim is now settled, for it cannot take refuge in the water without
falling into the clutches of its pursuer, and if it endeavours to escape by land
it is speedily overtaken and destroyed by the swifter-footed Bear.

So powerful an animal as the Polar Bear must necessarily be very dangerous
when considered in the light of a foe. Sometimes it runs away as soon as it
sees or smells a human being, but at others it is extremely malicious, and will
attack a man without any apparent reason. As is the case with nearly all the
Bears, it is very tenacious of life, and even when pierced with many wounds,
will fight in the most desperate manner, employing both teeth and claws in
the combat, and only yielding the struggle with its life.

The colour of the Nennook’s fur is a silvery white, tinged with a slight
yellow hue, rather variable in different individuals. Even in specimens that
were confined in the Zoological Gardens there was a perceptible difference in

POLAR REAR.—(TZhalarctos maritimus.)

the tint of their fur, the coat of one of them being of a purer white than that
of the other. The yellowish tinge which has been just mentioned is very
similar to the creamy yellow hue which edges the ermine’s fur. The feet are
armed with strong claws of no very great length, and but slightly curved.
Their colour is black, so that they form a very bold contrast with the white
fur that falls over the feet. Even at a considerable distance, and by
means of its mere outline, the Polar Bear may be distinguished from every
other member of the Bear tribe by its peculiar shape. The neck is. although
extremely powerful, very long in proportion tothe remainder of the body, and
the head is so small and sharp that there is a very snake-like aspect about that
portion of the animal’s person. .

The young of the Nennook are generally two in number, and, when they
make their first appearance outside the snow-built nursery in which their few
months of existence have been passed, are about the size of shepherds’ dogs,
and in excellent condition.

PRESERVING somewhat of the ursine aspect and much of the ursine habits,
the RACOON, or MaPACH, as it is sometimes named, is an active, spirited, and

THE RACOON. 93

amusing animal. As it is readily tamed, although rather subject to occasional .
inhrmity of temper, and is inquisitive, quaint, and lively withal, it is a great
favourite with such persons as have kept it in captivity.

The colour of this animal is rather peculiar, and not very easy to describe,
The general tint of the body and limbs is an undecided blackish grey, the
grey and black predominating according to the position of the observer and
the arrangement of the fur. The hairs that form the coat of the Racoon are
of two kinds, the one of a soft and woolly character, lying next to the skin,
and the other composed of long and rather stiff hairs that project through
the wool for some distance. The woolly fur is of a uniform grey, while the
longer hairs are alternately marked with black and greyish white. Upon the
top of the head and across the eyes the fur is of a very dark blackish
brown ; and upon the knee-joint of each leg the fur is of a darker tint than
on the rest of the body. The tail is rather short and bushy in character, and
is marked with five, or sometimes six, blackish rings upon a ground of dark
grey.

As is indicated by the peculiar nature of its teeth, the Racoon is capable of
feeding on animal or vegetable food, but seems to prefer the latter. Indeed,
there seem to be few things which the Racoon will not eat. One of these
animals ate a piece of cedar pencil which it snatched out of my hand, and
tried very hard to eat the envelope of a letter on which I was making notes.
Not succeeding in the attempt, it consoled itself by tearing the paper into
minute morsels, employing teeth and paws in the attempt. It did its best to
get a ring off my finger, by hitching one of its crooked claws into the ring and
pulling with all its strength, which was very considerable in proportion to the
size of the animal. Its brown eyes lighted up with animation when engaged
in play, and it was very fond of pushing its paw through the bars of its cage,
in order to attract attention.

In its native state it is a great devourer of oysters, crabs, and other
similar animals, displaying singular ingenuity in opening the stubborn shells
of the oysters, or in despatching the
crabs without suffering from their
ready claws. Sometimes it is said
to fall a victim to the oyster, and to
be held so firmly by the closing shells
that it cannot extricate itself, and
perishes miserably by the rising tide.
Its oyster-eating propensities have
been questioned, but are now clearly
proven. The sand and soil that
fringe the oyster-beds are frequently
seen to be covered with the foot-
marks of this animal.

It is always fond of water, drink-
ing largely, and immersing its food,
so as to moisten it as much as pos-
sible. When engaged in this curious
custom it grasps the food in both its
fore-paws, and shakes it violently backward and forward in the water. On
account of this remarkable habit it has been dignified with the title of
Lotor, “a washer.” The German naturalists term it Wasch-Bdr, or Wash-
ing Bear.

Roving at night through the woods, and being gifted with singular subtlety
as well as agility, it is frequently chased by the residents, who think a ’Coon
huut to be one of the most exciting of sports. Certainly, to judge from the

RACOO? ——{ “rvcyou Lotor.)

94 THE COAITI-MONDI.

animated descriptions of such scenes, the whole affair must be marvellously
picturesque to the eye as well as exciting to the mind. The usual plan of
hunting the ’Coon is to set an experienced dog on its trail, and to chase it until
it takes refuge in a tree. A blazing fire of pine chips is then built under the
tree, which illuminates its branches and renders the smallest leaf perceptible.
A good climber then ascends the tree, and speedily dislodges the concealed
animal.

In size the Racoon equals a small fox, to which animal it bears a slight
external resemblance. The number of its young is usually two or three, and
they make their appearance in the month of May.

“(HE animals which compose the curious genus that is known by the name
of Narica are easily recognised on account of the singular length of the nose,
which is prolonged so as to form aminiature and mobile proboscis. In their
general habits and diet they very strongly resemble the racoons, and are as
admirable climbers of trees as can be found in the animal kingdom.

The extraordinary snout with which the Coaitis are gifted is very useful to
the possesser, being employed for the purpose of rooting in the ground in
search of worms and insects, together with other important uses. When
they drink, the Coaitis lap the water after the manner of dogs, and when so
engaged, turn up their flexible snouts, so as to keep that useful member from
being wetted more than is necessary. They are inhabitants of Southern
America, and are found in small companies upon the trees among which they
reside, and onthe thin branches of which they find the greater part of their
food. Two examples of the Coaitis will be briefly described.

The COAITI-MONDI, or RED CoAI1lI, derives its name from the reddish
chestnut hue which prevails over the greater portion of the fur, and is only
broken by the black ears and legs, the maroon-coloured bands upon the tail,
and the white hairs which edge the upper jaw and entirely cover the lower.
The texture of the fur is rather harsh and wiry, and of no very great im-
portance in commerce. Upon the paws are certain curious tubercles, which
alone would serve to identify the animal were it entirely destroyed with the
exception of a single foot. It is extremely active in the ascent and descent
of trees, and pursues its prey among the limbs with great certainty. Its food
consists of sundry vegetable and animal substances, but the creature seems
to prefer the latter to the former. sx Sr

It is a nocturnal animal, and does /
not show its true liveliness until the
shades of evening begin to draw on,
but lies curled up in a curious but
comfortable attitude, its long and
bushy tail serving for blanket and
pillow. Towards evening, however,
the Coaiti arouses itself from its
lethargy, and becomes full of life and
vigour, careering about the branches
with extraordinary rapidity of move-
ment and certainty of hold, and agi-
tating its mobile nose with unceasin .
energy, as if for the purpose of dis a SS
covering by the snout the presence of COAITI-MONDI.—(Masua Rufa.)
some welcome food. It is a merci-
less aad of birds’ nests, and will eat parent, eggs, or young with equal
appetite.

Although possessed of a very irritable temper, the Coaiti is tamed without
difficulty to a certain extent, but is always capricious in its affections, and

THE KINKAFOU. 95

cannot be trusted without danger. When attacked by men or dogs, the
Coaiti fights desperately, and can inflict such dangerous wounds with its
double-edged canine teeth, that it is, although so small an animal, no despi-
cable antagonist.

Another species of Coaiti inhabits the same regions as the last-mentioned
animal, This is the NARICA, or QUASJE, which is sometimes called the
BROWN CoalTI, in order to distinguish it from the red species. Sometimes
the name is spelled as “ Quaschi.” ;

THE singular creature which is known under the title of KINKAJOU, or
POTTo, is an inhabitant of Southern America, and is spread over a very large
extent of country, so that it is known in different places under different
appellations, such as Honey Bear, Manaviri, or Guchumbi. When fully
grown, the Kinkajou is equal to a large cat in size, but is very much stronger
in proportion to the dimensions of its body. The colour of the animal is a
very light dun, obscurely traversed by narrow darker bands, that run over the
back towards the ribs, and partly follow their course. Another darker band
is observable round the neck, but all these marks are so very indistinct that
they can only be seen in a favourable light.

The most remarkable point in this animal is the extreme length and
flexibility of the tongue, which it is able to protrude to a marvellous extent,
and which it can insinuate into the smallest crevices in search of the insects
which have taken shelter therein. It is said that the animal employs its long
tongue for the purpose of thrusting that organ into the bee-cells and licking
out the sweet contents of the waxen treasury. With its tongue it can perform
many offices of an elephant’s trunk, and will frequently seize and draw

KINKAJOU, OR POTTO.—(Cercoleptes caudivolvulus.)

towards its mouth the articles of food which may be beyond the reach of its
lips. It has also been seen to use its tail for the same purpose.

Assisted by its prehensile tail, the Kinkajou is an admirable and fearless
climber, possessing the capability of suspending its body by the hinder feet
and the tail, and remaining in this inverted attitude for a considerable space
of time. It is evidently nocturnal in its habits, being sadly distressed by the
effect of daylight upon its eyes. : :

It is easily tamed, and when domesticated is of a sportful nature, delight-
ing to play with those persons whom it knows and trusts, and making pretence

66 THE MOLE,

to bite, after the manner of puppies and kittens. It is very susceptible to
kindness, and is fond of the caresses which are offered by its friends. In its
wild state, however, it is a rather fierce animal, and, when assaulted, offers
such a spirited resistance, evento human foes, that it will beat off any but a
determined man, supposing him to be unarmed and unassisted, ~

INSECTIVORA.

THE animals which are comprised in the Insect-eating eating group are
well represented in England, in which country we find the Mole, the various
Shrews, and the Hedgehog, as examples of the TALPIDA, or the family of
the MOLEs.

Some of these creatures, such as the shrew, present so close an external
resemblance to the common mice, that they are popularly supposed to belong
to the same class, and are called by the same general name. Many species
live beneath the surface of the earth, and seek in that dark hunting-ground
the prey which cannot be enticed to the surface in sufficient numbers to supply
adequate nourishment for the ever-hungry worm-devourers. ;

Of aJl the insect-eating animals, there is none which is better known by
name than the common MOLE, and very few which are less known by their
true character.

On inspecting a living Mole that
has been captured on the surface of
earth, and comparing it with the
multitudinous creatures that find
their subsistence on the earth’s sur-
face, rejoicing in the full light of day,
and free to wander as they please,
we cannot but feel some emotions of
surprise at the sight of a creature
which is naturally debarred from all
these sources of gratification, and
which passes its life in darkness below the surface of the ground.

Yet this pity, natural though it be, will be entirely thrown away, for there is
scarcely any creature that lives which is better fitted for enjoyment, or which
is urged by more fiery passions. Dull and harmless as it may appear to be,
it is in reality one of the most ferocious animals in existence, and will engage
in the fiercest combats upon very slight provocation. While thus employed,
its whole faculties are so entirely absorbed in its thirst for revenge, that it will
leave the subterraneous shafts which it has been so busily excavating, and
join battle with its foe in the full light of day. Should one of the combatants
overpower and kill the other, the victorious Mole springs upon the vanquished
enemy, tears its body open, and eagerly plunging its nose into the wound,
drinks the blood of its slaughtered enemy, and feasts richly on the sanguine
banquet.

With the exception of sight, the senses of the Mole seem to be remarkably’
developed.

qr lie sence of smell is singularly acute, and enables the animal to discover
the presence of the earthworms on which it feeds, and to chase them success-
fully through their subterranean meanderings.

The hearing of the Mole is proverbially excellent ; and it is probable that
the animal is aided in its pursuit of worms by the sense of hearing as well as
that of smell. Much of the Mole’s safety is probably owing to its exquisite
hearing, which gives it timely notice of the approach of any living being, and

MOLE. —( Talpa Europea.)

HABITS OF THE MOLE. 97

enables it to secure itself by rapidly sinking below the surface of the earth.
To tread so softly that the blind Mole may not hear a footfall, is an expression
which has become a household word. :

The sense of touch is peculiarly delicate, and seems to be chiefly resident
in the long and flexible nose, which is employed by the Mole for other pur-
poses than those of scent. When the creature is placed upon the surface of
the ground, and is about to sink one of its far-famed tunnels, it employs its
nose for that purpose almost as effectually as its armed fore-paws.

It seldom happens that all the senses of an animal are developed to an
equal extent, so that where one or two are singularly acute, it is generally
at the expense of the others. Such is the case with the Mole; for although
the scent, touch, and hearing are remarkable for their excellence, the sight is
so extremely defective that it may almost be considered as a nullity. It is
true that the Mole possesses eyes ; but those organs of vision are so small,
and so deeply hidden in the fur, that they can be but of little use to the
owner, except to mark the distinctions between light and darkness. The eyes
are so exceedingly small that their very existence has been denied, and it is
only by a careful search that they can be seen at all.

The fore paws are extremely large, and furnished with strong and flattened
nails, They are turned rather obliquely, as seen in the figure, in order to give
free scope to their exertions. The paws are devoid of the soft fur that
shields the rest of the body, and are covered witha thick but naked skin. It
is chiefly to these paws that any mould is found adherent when the Mole is
captured, for the soft and velvet-like fur permits no earthy stain to defile its
glossy smoothness.

The Mole is said to bean excellent swimmer, and to be able to cross rivers
when led to such an act by any adequately powerful motive. How far true
this assertion may be I cannot prove by personal experience; but I think it
is likely to be possible, for I have seen a Mole swim across the bend of a
brook—a distance of some few yards—and perform its natatory achievement
with great ease. I was not near enough to ascertain the mode of its progres-
sion, but it seemed to use its fore-paws as the principal instruments of loco-
motion. This circumstance took place in Wiltshire.

From all accounts the Mole seems to be a thirsty animal, and to stand in
constant need of water, drinking every few hours in the course of the day.
In order to supply this want it is in the habit of sinking well-likepits in diffe-
rent parts of its “runs,” so that it may never be without the means of quench-
ing its thirst. Everything that the Mole does is marked with that air of
desperate energy which is so characteristic of the animal. The labourers in
different parts of England all unite in the same story, that the Mole works
for three hours “ like a horse,” and then rests for three hours, labouring and
resting alternately through the day, and with admirable perception of time.

The well-known “ mole-hills,” which stud certain lands, and which disfigure
them so sadly, however much their unsightliness may be compensated by
their real usefulness, are of various kinds, according to the sex and age of
the miner. The small hillocks which follow each other in rapid succession,
are generally made by the female Mole before she has produced her little
family, and when she is not able to undergo the great labour of digging in
the harder soil. Sometimes the “run” is so shallow as to permit the super-
incumbent earth to fall in, so that the course which the Mole has followed is
little more than a trench. This is said to be produced by the little coquetries
that take place between the Mole and its future mate, when the one flies in
simulated terror, and the other follows with undisguised determination.
Deeper in the soil is often found a very large burrow, sufficiently wide to
permit two Moles to pass each other. ‘This is one of the high-roads which

H

98 THE MUSK RAT.

en from one feeding ground to another, and from which the different shafts
radiate.

But the finest efforts of talpine architecture are to be found in the central
fortress, from which the various roads diverge, and the nest which the maternal
Mole forms for the security of her young.

The fortress is of a very peculiar construction, and is calculated to permit the
ingress or egress of the Mole from almost any direction, so that when its
acute senses give notice of the approach of an enemy, it can make its retreat
without difficulty.

The first operation is to build a tolerably large hill of compact and well-
trodden earth. Near the summit of this mound the excavator runs a circular
gallery, and another near the bottom, connecting the two galleries with five
short passages. It then burrows into the centre of the mound, and digs a
moderately large spherical hole, which it connects with the lower gallery by
three passages. A very large passage, which is a continuation of the high-
road, is then driven into the spherical chamber by dipping under the lower
gallery, and is connected with the circular chamber from below. Lastly, the
Mole drives a great number of runs, which radiate from the rest in all direc-
tions, and which all open into the lower circular gallery. It will be seen
from this short description, that if a Mole should be surprised in its nest, it
can withdraw through its central chamber and so reach the high road at
once, or can slip through either of the short connecting galleries and escape
into any of the numerous radiatory runs.

In the central or middle chamber of the edifice the Mole places a quantity
of dried grass or leaves, upon which it sleeps during its hours of repose. This
complicated room is seldom used during the summer months, as at that time
the Mole prefers to live in one of the ordinary hillocks.

The nest which the female contrives is not so complicated as the fortress,
but is well adapted for its purpose. The hillock in which the nest is made is
always a very large one, and is generally placed at some distance from the
fortress. Its interior is very large, and is generally filled with dried grass,
moss, or other similar substances, and it is said that in some of these nests
have been found certain roots on which the young Moles can feed. This state-
ment, however, is scarcely credible. The young are usually born about April,
but their appearance in the worldis not so determinately settled as that of many
animals, as young Moles are found continually from March until August.
The average of their number is four or five, although as many as seven
young have been found inone nest. There is but one brood in a year.

The colour of the Mole is usually of a blackish grey, but it is extremely
variable in the tinting of its fur, and it is not uncommon to find in a single
locality specimens of every hue from brown to white. There are specimens
in the British Museum of almost every tint, and I have long had in my
possession a cream-coloured mole-skin, which .was obtained I believe in Wilt-
shire, as it was furnished by a mole-catcher that resided in that county. The
fur is so beautifully smooth and soft that it has sometimes, though rarely,
been employed as an article of wearing apparel, or used as a light and delicate
coverlet. The fur, or “felt,” is best and most glossy if the animal is taken in
the winter.

PASSING in a regular gradation from the moles to the shrews and hedge-
hogs, we pause for a while at the powerfully scented animal that is called, by
virtue of its perfumed person, the MuSK RaT of India, and is also known by
the titles of MONDJOUROU, and SONDELI.

This animal is a native of various parts of India, and is very well known
on account of the extremely powerful scent which exudes from certain glands
that are situated in the under parts of the body and on the flanks.

THE SONDETL. 99

The odoriferous substance which is secreted by the above-mentioned
glands is of a musky nature, and possesses the property of penetrating and
adhering to every substance over which the Musk Rat has passed. The
musky odour clings so pertinaciously to the objects which are impregnated
with its tainting contact, that in many cases they become entirely useless.
Provisions of all kinds are frequently spoiled by the evil odour with which
they are saturated; and of so penetrating a nature is the musky scent,
that the combined powers of glass and cork are unable to preserve the con-
tents of bottles from its unpleasant influence. Let a Sondeli but run over a
a bottle of wine, and the contained liquid will be so powerfully scented with a
musky savour that it will be rendered unfit for civilized palates, and must be
removed from the neighbourhood of other wines, lest the contaminating
influence should extend to them also.

In colour it is not unlike the common shrew of England, having a slight
chestnut or reddish tinge, upon a mouse-coloured ground, fading into grey on

SONDELL,—(S07ex mus tnus.)

the under parts of the body. In size, however, it is much the superior of
that animal, being nearly as large as the common brown, or “ Hanoverian”
rat. The hair is very short, and the peculiar reddish brown hue of the fur
is caused by the different tintings of the upper and under fur.

DURING the autumnal months of the year, the country roads and bypaths
are frequently rendered remarkable by the presence of little mouse-like
animals, with long snouts, that lie dead upon the ground, without mark of
external injury to account for the manner of their decease. ;

These are the bodies of the SHREW MOUSE of England, otherwise known
by the name of ERD SHREW. ; re

The head of the Shrew is rather long, and its apparent length is increased
by the long and flexible nose which gives so peculiar an aspect to the animal,
and serves to distinguish it at a glance from the common mouse, which it
so nearly resembles in general shape and colour. The object of this elongated

H2

1co THE SHREW MOUSE.

nose is supposed to be for the purpose of enabling the animal to root in the
ground alter the various creatures on which it feeds, or to thrust its head
among the densest and closest herbage. Many insects and their larve are
found in such localities, and it is upon such food that the Shrew chiefly
subsists. Worms are also captured and eaten by the Shrew, which in many
of its habits is not unlike the mole.

The bite of the shrew is so insignificant as to make hardly any impress even
on the delicate skin of the human hand. Popular prejudice, however, here
steps in, and attributes to the bite of the shrew such venomous properties,
that in many districts of England the viper is less feared than the little harm-
less Shrew.

The very touch of the Shrew’s foot is considered a certain herald of evil,
and animals or men. which had been “ shrew-struck,” were supposed to labour
under a malady which was incurable except by a rather singular remedy,
which partakes somewhat of a homeeopathic principle, that “ similia similibus
curantur.”

The curative power which alone could heal the shrew-stroke lay in the
branches of a shrew-ash, or an ash-tree which had been imbued with the

a, i) WX
o WY c.g SN :

ERD SHREW, OR SHREW MOUSE.—(Corsira vulgaris.)

shrewish nature by a very simple process. A living Shrew was captured and
carried to the ash-tree which was intended to receive the healing virtues. An
auger-hole was made into the trunk, the poor Shrew was introduced into the
cavity, and the auger-hole closed by a wooden plug. Fortunately for the
wretched little prisoner, the entire want of air would almost immediately cause
its death. But were its little life to linger for ever so long a time in the ash-
trunk, its incarceration would still have taken place, for where superstition
raises its cruel head, humanity is banished.

The nest of the Shrew is not made in the burrow, as might be supposed,
but is built in a suitable depression in the ground, or ina hole ina bank. It
is made of leaves and other similar, substances, and is entered through a hole

THE WATER SHREW. 101

at the side. In this nest are produced the young Shrews, from five to seven
in number, and, as may be imagined, extremely diminutive in size. They are
generally born in the spring.

The total length of the adult Shrew is not quite four inches, of which the
tail occupies very nearly the moiety.

SIMILAR to the Erd Shrew in general aspect, but easily to be distinguished
from that animal by its colour and other peculiarities, the WATER SHREW
stands next on our list.

The fur of the Water Shrew is nearly black upon the upper portions of the
body, instead of the reddish brown colour which tints the fur of the Erd
Shrew. The under parts of the body are beautifully white, and the line of
demarcation between the two colours is very distinctly drawn. The fur is
very soft and silken in texture, and, when the animal is submerged under the
surface of the water, possesses the useful property of repelling moisture,
and preserving the body of the animal from the injurious effects of the
water.

When the Water Shrew is engaged in swimming, those parts of the fur
which are submerged below the sur-
face appear to be studded with an ; j RN
infinite number of tiny silvern bead- Gof ius ae. \
lets, that give to the whole animal a
very singular aspect. This pheno-
menon is produced by the minute
air-bubbles that cling to the fur, and
which exude from the space that is
left between the hairs. In fact, the :
Shrew Mouse, when immersed, bears é
a curious resemblance to the well- WATER SHREW.—(Crossopus Fodiens).
known Water Spider.

A further distinction, and one which is more valuable than that which is
furnished by the colour of the fur, is the fringe of stiff white hairs which
edges the tail and the toes.

Tn all its movements the Water Shrew is extremely graceful and active,
displaying equal agility, whether its movements be terrestrial or aquatic.

I have repeatedly observed the proceedings of a little colony of these
animals, and was able to sit within a yard or two of their haunts, without
their cognizance of my person. They are most sportive little creatures, and
seem to enjoy a game of play with thorough appreciation, chasing each other
over the ground and through the water, running up the stems of aquatic plants,
and tumbling off the leaves into the water, scrambling hastily over the stones
around which the stream ripples, and playing a thousand little pranks with
the most evident enjoyment. Then they will suddenly cease their play,
and begin to search after insects with the utmost gravity, rooting in the
banks and picking up stray flies, as if they never had any other business
in view.

From repeated observations, it seems that the Water Shrew is not entirely
confined to the neighbourhood of water, neither is it totally dependent for its
subsistence on aquatic insects, for it has been frequently seen at some distance
from any stream or pond. It must be remarked, however, that a very small
rivulet is amply sufficient for the purposes of the Water Shrew, which will
take up its residence for several years in succession on the banks of a little
artificial channel that is only used for the purpose of carrying water for the
irrigation of low-lying fields. ;

THE largest of the British Shrews is that species which is called the OARED
SHREW, on account of the oar-like formation of the feet and tail, which are

102 THE OARED SHREW.

cdged with even longer and stiffer hairs than those which decorate the same
parts in the Water Shrew.

As may be imagined from this structure, the habits of the animal are
aquatic in their nature, and its manners are so closely similar to those of the
preceding species, that it may easily be mistaken for that animal, when seen

- at a little distance, so as to render the difference in size less cunspicuous, and
the colour of the under portions of the body less apparent.

It has already been stated that the back of the Water Shrew is of a
velvety black, and the abdomen and under portions of the body of a beautiful
and clearly defined white. In the Oared Shrew, however, the black is pro-
fusely sprinkled with white hairs, and the fur of the abdomen and flanks is
blackish grey instead of pure white. The middle of the abdomen, however,
together with that of the throat, is strongly tinged with yellow: the throat
being more of an ashy yellow than the abdomen.

Although not so common as the Erd and the Water Shrew, it is of more

OARED SHREW, OR BLACK WATER SHREW. —(Crossopus ciliatus.)

frequent occurrence than is generally supposed, and has been found in many
parts of England where it was formerly supposed to be wanting. The total.
length of the Oared Shrew is about five inches and a quarter, the head andi
body measuring rather more than three inches, and the tail being about two
inches in length. Its nose is not quite so sharp or narrow as that of the
Water Shrew, and the ears are decorated with a slight fringe of white hair.
The latter third of the tail is flattened, as if for swimming, while the remain-
ing two-thirds are nearly cvlindrical, but are slightly squared, as has been
already mentioned of the common Shrew.

The elongation of the nose, which has already been noticed in the Tupaias
of Sumatra, seems to have reached the utmost limit in those curious inhabit-
ants of the Cape that are called, from their elephantine elongation of nose,
the ELEPHANT SHREWS. Several species of Elephant Shrews are known
to exist, all of which, with one exception, are inhabitants of Southern Africa.
The solitary exception, Macroscelides Roretti, is found in Algeria,

THE ELEPHANT SHREW. 103

The peculiarly long nose of the Elephant Shrew is perforated at its extremity
by the nostrils, which are rather obliquely placed, and is supposed to aid the
animal in its search after the insects and other creatures on which it feeds.
The eyes are rather large in proportion to the size of the animal.

The tail is long and slender, much resembling the same organ in the
common mouse, and in some specimens, probably males, is furnished at the
base with glandular follicles, or little sacs. The legs are nearly of equal size,
but the hinder limbs are much longer than the forelegs, on account of the
very great length of the feet, which are capable of affording support to the
creature as it sits in an upright position. As might be presumed from the
great length of the hinder limbs, the Elephant Shrew is possessed of great
locomotive powers, and when alarmed, can skim over the ground with such

Q Renn oneee =

ELEPHAN! SHREW.—(Macroscelides Proboscideus.)

celerity that its form becomes quite obscured by the rapidity of its move-
ment through the air. Its food consists of insects, which it captures in open
day.

Evhelieh the Elephant Shrew is a diurnal animal, seeking its prey in broad
daylight, its habitation is made below the surface of the ground, and consists
of a deep and tortuous burrow, the entrance to which is a perpendicularly-
sunk shaft of some little depth. To this place of refuge the creature always
flies when alarmed, and as it is so exceedingly swift in its movements, it is not
readily captured or intercepted.

The colour of the fur is a dark and rather cloudy brown, which is warmed
with a reddish tinge upon the side and flanks, and fades on the abdomen and
inner portions of the limbs into a greyish-white. The generic name, Macros-
celides, is of Greek origin, in allusion to the great length of its hinder limbs,
and signifies “long-legged.” It is but a small animal, as the length of the

104 THE PEN-TAIL.

head and body is not quite four inches in measurement, and the tail is about

three inches and a quarter.

THE extraordinary animal which has been recently brought before the
notice of zoologists, under the characteristic name of PEN-TAIL, is a native of
Borneo, from which country it was brought by Mr. Hugh Low.

PEN-TAIL.—(Péilocercus Lowit.)

a

It is about the size of a small rat,
but appears to be of greater dimen-
sions on account of its extremely
long tail with the remarkable ap-
pendage at its extremity. As may
be seen from the engraving, the tail
is of extraordinary length when
compared with the size of the body,
and is devoid of hair except at its
extremity, where it is furnished with
a double row of stiff hairs on each
side, which stand boldly out like the
barbs of a quill-pen or the feathers
of an arrow. The remainder of the
tail is covered with scales, which
are square in their form, like those
of the long-tailed rats, and of con-
siderable size. The colour of the
tail is black, and the bristly barbs
are white, so that this member pre-
sents a peculiarly quaint aspect.

The fur-which covers the body of
the Pen-tail is extremely soft in tex-
ture, and is of a blackish brown
tint above, fading into a yellowish
grey beneath. As the tips of the
hairs are tinged with a yellow hue,
the precise tint of the fur is rather
indeterminate, and is changeable,
according to the position of the
hairs which are exposed to view.
The specimen which is preserved in
the British Museum was captured by
Mr. Low in the house of Sir James
Brook, the first Rajah of Sarawak.

THE common HEDGEHOG, HEDGE
PIG, or URCHIN, is one of the most
familiar of our indigenous mam-
malia, being found in every part of
Great Britain which is capable of
affording food and shelter.

The hard round spines which
cover the upper part of its body are
about an inch in length, and of a
rather peculiar shape, which is well
represented in the accompanying

sketch. This form is wonderfully adapted to meet the peculiar objects which
the spine is intended to fulfil, as will be seen in the following account.

The spine, which is here given, is supposed to be lying nearly horizontally
voon the back of the animal, a position which it asswmcs whenever the

THE HEDGEHOG. 105

Hedgehog chooses to relax the peculiar muscle which governs the spines,
and which serves to retain the creature in its coiled attitude. The point of
the quill or spine is directed towards the tail. It will be seen that the quill
is not unlike a large pin, being sharply pointed at one ex-

tremity, furnished at the other with a round bead-like caine
head, and rather abruptly bent near the head. If the

skin be removed from the Hedgehog, the quills are seen
to be pinned as it were, through the skin, being retained i
by their round heads, which are acted upon by the peculiar muscle which has
already been mentioned.

It is evident, therefore, that whenever the head of the quill is drawn back-
ward by the contraction of the muscle, the point of the quill is erected in pro-
portion to the force which is exerted upon the head, so that when the animal
is rolled up, and the greatest tension is employed, the quills stand boldly out
from the body, and present the bayonet-like array of points in every direction.

These curiously-formed spines are useful to the Hedgehog for other pur-

aN hn

TDN

SPINE OF HEDGEHOG.

HEDGEHOG.—(Zrinaceus Europaus.)

poses than the very obvious one of protecting the creature from the attacks
of its foe. They are extremely elastic, as is found to be the case with hairs
and quills of all descriptions, and the natural elasticity is increascd by the
sharp curve into which they are bent at their insertion into the skin. Pro-
tected by this defence, the Hedgehog is enabled to throw itself from consider-
able heights, to curl itself into a ball as it descends, and to reachythe ground
without suffering any harm from its fall. A Hedgehog has been seen
repeatedly to throw itself from a wall, some twelve or fourteen feet in height,
and to fall upon che hard ground without appearing even to be incon\enienced
by its tumble. On reaching the ground it would unroll itself and trot off
with perfect unconcern. p ; ' :

Marching securely under the guardianship of its thorn-spiked armour, the
Hedgehog recks little of any foe, saveman. For, with this single exception,
there are, in our land at least, no enemies that need be dreaded by so well-

106 A TAME HEDGEHOG.

protected an animal. Dogs, foxes, and cats are the only creatures which _
possess the capability of killing and eating the Hedge-hog, and of these foes
it is very little afraid. For dogs are but seldom abroad at night while the
Hedgehog is engaged in its nocturnal quests after food ; and the fox would
not be foolish enough to waste its time and prick its nose in weary endeavours
to force its intended prey out of its defences. Cats, too, are even less
adapted to such a proceeding than dogs and foxes.

It is indeed said that the native cunning of the Fox enables it to overreach
the Hedgehog, and to induce it to unrol itself by an ingenious, but, I fear, an
apocryphal process. Reynard is said, whenever he finds a coiled-up Hedge-
hog, to roll it over and over with his paw towards some runnel, pond, or
puddle, and then to souse it unexpectedly into the water. The Hedgehog,
fearing that it is going to be drowned, straightway unrols itself, and 1s
immediately pounced on by the cunning fox, which crushes its head with a
single bite, and eats it afterwards at leisure. In America the puma is said to
eat the Hedgehog in a very curious manner. Seizing the animal by the head,
it gradually draws the animal through its teeth, swallowing the body and
stripping off the skin.

Man, however, troubles himself very little about the Hedgehog’s prickles,
and when disposed to such a diet, kills, cooks, and eats it without hesitation.

The legitimate mode of proceeding is to kill the animal by a blow on the
head, and then to envelop it, without removing the skin, in a thick layer of
well-kneeded clay. The enwrapped Hedgehog is then placed on the fire,

being carefully turned by the cook at proper intervals, and there remains ~

until the clay is perfectly dry and begins to crack. When this event has taken
place, the cooking is considered to be complete, and the animal is removed
from the fire. The clay covering is then broken off, and carries away with it
the whole of the skin. which is adherent by means of the prickles. By this
mode of cookery the juices are preserved, and the result is pronounced to be
supremely excellent.

This primitive but admirable form of cookery is almost entirely confined
to gipsies and other wanderers, as in these days there are few civilized
persons who would condescend to partake of such a diet. Uftilitarians,
however, can render the creature subservient to their purposes by using it as
a guardian to their kitchens. Its insect-devouring powers are of such a
nature that 1t can be made a most useful inhabitant of the house, and set in
charge of the “ black beeties.”

The rapidity with which it extirpates the cockroaches is most marvellous,
for their speed and wariness are so great that the Hedgehog must possess no
small amount of both qualities in order to destroy them so easily. A Hedge-
hog which resided for some years in our house was accustomed to pass a
somewhat nomad existence, for as soon as it had eaten all the cockroaches in
our kitchen, it used to be lent toa friend, to whom it performed the same
valuable service. In a few months those tiresome insects had again multi-
plied, and the Hedgehog was restored to its former habitation.

The creature was marvellously tame, and would come at any time to a
saucer of milk in broad daylight. Sometimes it took a fancy to prome-
nading the garden, when it would trot along in its own quaint style, poking its
sharp nose into every crevice, and turning over every fallen leaf that lay in
its path. If it heard a strange step, it would immediately curl itself into a
ball, and lie in that posture for a few minutes until its alarm had passed
away, when it would cautiously unrol itself, and peer about with its bead-like
eyes for a moment or two, and then resume its progress.

From all appearances it might have lived for many years had it not come
by its death in a rather singular manner, There was a wood-shed in the

FOOD OF THE HEDGEHOG. 107

kitchen garden, where the bean and pea sticks were laid up in ordinary
during the greater part of the year, and it seemed, for some unknown reason,
to afford a marvellous attraction to the Hedgehog. So partial to this locality
was the creature, that whenever it was missing we were nearly sure to find it
among the bean-sticks in the wood-shed. One morning, however, on search-
ing for the animal, in consequence of having missed its presence for some
days, we found it hanging by its neck in the fork of a stick, and quite dead.
The poor creature had probably slipped while climbing among the sticks, and
had been caught by the neck in the bifurcation.

The Hedgehog is accused of stealing and breaking eggs, to which indict-
ment it can but plead guilty.

lt is very ingenious inits method of opening and eating eggs ; a feat which
it performs without losing any of the golden contents. Instead of breaking
the shell and running the chance of permitting the contents to roll out, the
clever animal lays the egg on the ground, holds it firmly between its fore-feet,
bites a hole in the upper portion of the shell, and, inserting its tongue into
the orifice, licks out the contents daintily.

Not contenting itself with such comparatively meagre diet as eggs, the
Hedgehog is a great destroyer of snakes, frogs, and other animals, crunching
them together with their bones as easily as a horse will eat a carrot. Even
the thick bone of a mutton chop, or the big bone of the fish, is splintered by
the Hedgehog’s teeth with marvellous ease. On one account it is rather a
valuable animal, for it will attack a viper as readily as a grass-snake, trusting
apparently to its prickly armour as a defence against the serpent’s fangs.

Whether, in its wild state, it is able to catch the little birds, is not accurately
known, but in captivity it eats finches and other little birds with great
voracity. One of these animals, that was kept in a state of domestication,
ate no less than seven sparrows in the course of a single night, and another
of these creatures crushed and ate in the course of twenty-four hours
more than as many sparrow. heads, eating bones, bill, and neck with equal
ease.

Its legitimate prey is found among the insect tribe, of which it consumes
vast numbers, being able, not only to chase and capture those which run upon
the ground, but even dig in the earth and feed upon the grubs, worms, and
various larvee which pass their lives beneath the surface of the ground. A
Hedgehog has been seen to exhume the nest of the humblebee, which had
been placed in a sloping bank, as is often the case with the habitation of
these insects, and to eat bees, grubs, and honey, unmindful of the anger of
the survivors, who, however, appeared to be but little affected by the inroads
which the Hedgehog was making upon their offspring and their stores.

The home of the Hedgehog is made in some retired and well-protected
spot, such asa crevice in rocky ground, or under the stones of some old ruin,
It greatly affects hollow trees, wherever the decayed wood permits it to find
an easy entrance, and not unfrequently is found coiled up in a warm nest
which it has made under the large gnarled roots of some old tree, where the
rains have washed away the earth and left the roots projecting occasionally
from the ground. Besides these legitimate habitations, the Hedgehog is
frequently found to intrude itself upon the homes of other animals, and has
been often captured within rabbit burrows. Perhaps it may be led to these
localities by the double motive of obtaining shelter from weather and enemies,
and of making prey of an occasional young rabbit.

In its retreat the Hedgehog usually passes the winter in that semi-animate
condition which is known by the name of hibernation.

The hibernation of the Hedgehog is more complete than that of the dor-
mouse or any other of our indigenous hibernating quadrupeds, for they

108 MACROPIDA.

always have a stock of food on which they can rely, and of which they sparingly
partake during the cold months of the year. The Hedgehog, however, lays
up no such stores, nor, indeed, could it do so, for, as has already been men-
tioned, its food is almost entirely of an animal nature.

The sight of the Hedgehog does not appear to be so excellent as its powers
of scent, which are admirably developed, as may be seen by opening the side
of a Hedgehog’s face.

One of these animals has been seen to chase a partridge across a road, fol-
lowing her through the hedge with perfect precision ; and another was
observed to discover the presence of mankind by means of its powers of
scent, as it was in a position from whence it could not see its fancied
enemies. The Hedgehog had already passed the observers, who remained
perfectly quiet in order to watch its proceedings, but after it had run for a few
paces, it suddenly stopped, seemed suspicious of some danger, stretched its
nose in the air, and stood on its guard. In afew moments it seemed to have
set itself at ease, and resumed its course. The spectators then slightly
shifted their position, so as to bring the animal again within the range of their
“wind,” when the creature repeated the same process, and did not appear
entirely at its ease for some little time.

MACROPID&.

THE extraordinary animals which are grouped together under the title
of Macropidee are, with the exception of the well-known Opossum of
Virginia, inhabitants of Australasia, and the islands of the Indian Archi-

elago.

The peculiarity which gives the greatest interest to this group of animals
is that wonderful: modification of the nutritient organs which has gained for
them the title of MARSUPIALIA, or pouched animals—a name which is
derived from the Latin word marsupiunm, which signifies a purse or pouch.
This singular structure is only found in the female Marsupials, and in them is
variously developed according to the character of the animal and the mode
of life for which it is intended.

The lower part of the abdomen is furnished with a tolerably large pouch,
in the interior of which the mamma, or teats, are placed. When the young,
even of so large an animal as the kangaroo, make their appearance in the
world, they are exceedingly minute—the young kangaroo being only an inch
in length—and entirely unable to endure the rough treatment which they
would meet with were they to be nurtured according to the manner in which
the young of all other animals are nourished. Accordingly, as soon as they
are born they are transferred by the mother into the pouch, when they
instinctively attach themselves to the teats, and there hang until they have
attained considerable dimensions. By degrees, as they grow older and
stronger, they loosen their hold, and put their little heads out of the living
cradle, in order to survey the world at leisure. In a few weeks more they
gain sufficient strength to leave the pouch entirely, and to frisk about under
the guardianship of their mother, who, however, is always ready to receive
them again into their cradle if there is any rumour of danger, and if any
necessity for flight should present itself, flies from the dangerous locality,
carrying her young with her.

At the head of the Macropidz are placed a small but interesting band of
marsupial animals, which are called Phalangistines, on account of the curious
manner in which two of the toes belonging to the hinder feet are joined
together as far as the “phalanges.” The feet are all formed with great

THE FLYING MOUSE. 109

powers.of grasp, and their structure is intended to fit them for procuring
their food among the branches of the trees, on which they pass the greater
portion of their existence.

First and least of the Phalangistines, is the beautiful little animal which is
called the OPPOSSUM MOUSE in some parts of the country, and the FLYING
MOUSE in others.

This pretty little creature is about the size of our common mouse, and
when it is resting upon a branch, with its parachute, or umbrella of skin,
drawn close to the body by its own elasticity, it looks very like the comrnon
mouse of Europe, and at a little distance might easily be taken for that
animal. In total length it rather exceeds six inches, the Jength of its head
and body being about three inches and a half, and that of the tail not quite

y i)
Me
LEY

OPOSSUM MOUSE.—(Acrobates pygma@us.)

three inches. On account of its minute size this animal is also called the

IGMY PETAURIST. ,

7 Tn the colour of the upper portions of the body the Opossum Mouse is of
the well known mouse tint, slightly sprinkled with a reddish hue; but on
the abdomen and under portions of the skin parachute, the fur is beautifully
white. The line of demarcation between the hair is very well defined, and
there is a narrow stripe of darker brown that marks out the line of juncture.
When the animal is at rest, the parachute closes by its own elasticity, and
gathers itself into folds, which have a very pretty effect, on account of the
delicate white fur which becomes exposed by the action, and which undulates
in rich and graceful folds, alternating with the dark fur of the back and the
still darker stripe that forms the line of demarcation.

The tail of the Opossum Mouse is nearly as long as the body, very slender,
and remarkable for the manner in which the hairs are affixed to it. The
hairs that fringe the greater part of the tail are about one-sixth of an inch
in length, reddish grey in colour, rather stiff, and are set on the tail in a
double row, like the barks of a feather. A similar formation has alread ,
been described in the history of the pen-tail of Sarawak. This mode oi
arrangement is called “‘ distichous.”

110 THE ARIEL PETAURUS.

The food of the Petaurists is generally of a vegetable character, consisting
of leaves, fruits, and buds, but the sharply-pointed molars of the Opossum
Mouse approach so closely to the insectivorous type that the creature is
probably able to vary a vegetable diet by occasional admixture with animal
food. :

The parachute-like expansion of the skin is of very great service to the
animal when it wishes to pass from one branch or from one tree to another
without the trouble of descending and the laborious climbing up again.
Trusting to the powers of its parachute, the little creature will boldly launch
itself into the air, stretching out all its limbs, and expanding the skin to the
utmost. Upborne by this membrane, the Opossum Mouse can sweep through
very great intervals of space, and possesses no small power of altering its
course at will. It cannot, however, support itself in the air by moving its
limbs, like the bats, nor can it make any aérial progress when the original
impetus of its leap has expired.

ARIEL PETAURUS.—(Fetaurus Ariel.)

The beautiful little animal which has been called by the expressive name
of ARIEL, is about the size of a small rat, and in the hue of the upper portions
of the body is not unlike that animal.

The colour of the fur upon the upper portions of the body is a light brown,
which darkens considerably upon the parachute membrane. On the under
surface it is white, the white fur just turning over, the edge of the parachute,
and presenting a pretty contrast with the dark brown colour of its upper
surface. The tail is nearly of the same colour as the body, with the excep-
tion of the tip, which is dark. On account of its graceful movements, and
the easy undulating sweep of its passage through the air, it has earned for
itself the appropriate name of Ariel, in remembrance of the exquisite and
tricksy sprite that animates the world-celebrated drama of the “ Tempest.”

It is not an uncommon animal, and is frequently seen at Port Essington.

Fox-like in nature as well as in form, the VULPINE PHALANGIST has well
earned the name which has been given to it by common consent. It has also
been entitled the Vulpine Opossum, and in its native country is popularly
called by the latter of these names.

It is an extremely common animal, and is the widest diffused of all the
Australian opossum-like animals, Like the preceding animals, it is a noc-
turnal being, residing during the day in the hollows of decaying trees, and

THE VULPINE PHALANGIST. ii

only venturing from its retreat as evening draws on. The nature of its food
is of a mixed character, for the creature is capable of feeding on vegetable
food, like the Petaurists, and also displays a considerable taste for animal
food of all kinds. If a small bird be given to a Vulpine Phalangist, the
creature seizes it in its paws, manipulates it adroitly for a while, and then
tears it to pieces and eats it. It is rather a remarkable fact, that the animal
is peculiarly fond of the brain, and always commences its feast by crushing
the head between its teeth, and devouring the brain.

In all probability, therefore, the creature makes no small portion of its
meals on various animal substances, such as insects, reptiles, and eggs. As
to the birds on which it so loves to feed, it may very probably, although so
slow an animal, capture them in the same manner as has been related of the
lemurs, viz. by creeping slowly and cautiously upon them as they sleep, and
swiftly seizing them before they can awaken to a sense of their danger. It
is a tolerably large animal, equalling a large cat in dimensions, and is, there-
fore, able to make dire havoc among such prey whenever it chooses to issue

VULPINE PHALANGIST.—(Phalangista vulpina.)

forth with the intention of making a meal upon some small bird that may
chance to be sleeping in fancied security.

The fore-paws of the Vulpine Phalangist are well adapted for such pro-
ceedings, as they are possessed of great strength and mobility, so that the
animal is able to take up any small object in its paws, and to hold it after
the manner of the common squirrel. When feeding, it generally takes its
food in its fore-paws, and so conveys it to its mouth. In captivity it does not
seem to be a very intelligent animal, even when night brings forth its time of
energy, and it but little responds to the advances of its owner, however kind
he may be. It will feed on bread and milk, or fruits, or leaves, or buds, or
any substance of a similar nature, but always seems best pleased when it is
supplied with some small birds or animals, and devours them with evident

lee.
2 The flesh of the Vulpine Phalangist is considered to be very good, and the
natives are so fond of it that, notwithstanding the laziness that is engrained
in their very beings, except when they are under the influence of some potent
excitement, they can seldom refrain from chasing an “ opossum,” even though

112 THE KOALA.

they have been well fed by the white settlers. When the fresh body of a
Vulpine Phalangist is opened, a kind of camphorated odour is diffused from
it, which is probakly occasioned by the foliage of the camphor-perfumed
trees in which it dwells, and the leaves of which it eats.

The fur of this animal is not valued so highly as that of the Tapoa, prob-
ably because it is of more common occurrence, for the colour of the hair is
much more elegant, and its quality seems to be really excellent. Some few
experiments have been made upon the capabilities of this fur, and, as far as
has yet been accomplished, with very great success. Good judges have de-
clared that articles which had been made from this fur presented a great
resemblance to those which had been made from Angola wool, but appeared
to be of superior quality. The hat-makers have already discovered the value
of the fur, and are in the habit of employing it in their trade.

The natives employ the skin of the “ opossum” in the manufacture of their
scanty mantles, as well as for sundry other purposes, and prepare the skins
in a rather ingenious manner. As soon as the skin is stripped from the
animal’s body, it is laid on the ground, with the hairy side downwards, and
secured from shrinking by a number of little pegs which are fixed around its
edges. The inner side is then continually scraped with a shell, and by de-
grees the skin becomes perfectly clean and pliable. When a sufficient number
of skins are prepared, they are ingeniously sewn together with a thread that
is made from the tendons of the kangaroo, which, when dried, can be separated
into innumerable filaments. A sharpened piece of bone stands the sable
tailor in place of a needle. From the skin of the same animal is also formed
the “kumeel,” or badge of manhood, a slight belt, which no one is permitted
to wear until he has been solemnly admitted among the assembly of men.

In its colour, the Vulpine Phalangist is rather variable, but the general huc
of its fur is a greyish-brown, sometimes tinted with a ruddy hue. The tail
is long, thick, and woolly in its character, and in colour it resembles that of
the body, with the exception of the tip, which is nearly black. The dimensions
of an old male are given by Mr. Bennett as follows: Total length, two feet
seven inches; the head being four inches in length, and the tail nearly a
foot.

THE quaint looking animal which is popularly known by the native name of
KoaLa, or the AUSTRALIAN BEAR, is of some importance in the zoological
world, as it serves to fill up the gulf that exists between the phalangistines
and the kangaroos.

The Koala is nocturnal in its habits, and is not very unfrequently found,
even in the localities which it most affects. It is not nearly so widely spread
as most of the preceding animals, as it is never known to exist in a wild
state except in the south-eastern regions of Australia.

Although well adapted by nature for climbing among the branches of trees,
the Koala is by no means an active animal, proceeding on its way with very
great deliberation, and making sure of its hold as it goes along. Its feet
are peculiarly adapted for the slow but sure mode in which the animal pro-
gresses among the branches by the structure of the toes of the fore-feet or
paws, which are divided into two sets, the one composed of the two inner
toes, and the other of the three outer, in a manner which reminds the observer
of the feet of the scansorial birds and the chameleon. This formation,
although well calculated to serve the animal when it is moving among the
branches, is but of little use when it is upon the ground, so that the terres-
trial progress of the Koala is especially slow, and the creature seems to crawl
rather than walk.

It seems to be a very gentle creature, and will often suffer itself to be
captured without offering much resistance, or seeming to trouble itself about

THE KOALA. 113

its captivity. But it is liable, as are many gevtle animals, to sudden and
unexpected gusts of passion, and when it is excited by rage it puts on a very
fierce look, and utters sharp and shrill yells in a very threatening manner.
Its usual voice is a peculiar soft bark.

This animal is rather prettily coloured, the body being furnished with fur
of afine grey colour, warmed with a slight reddish tinge in the adult animal,
and fading to a whitish grey in the young. The claws are considerably
curved, and black ; and the ears are tufted with long white hairs. In size it
equals a small bull-terrier dog, being, when adult, rather more than two feet
in length, and about ten inches in height, when standing. The circumference
of the body is about eighteen inches, including the fur.

KOALA, OR AUSTRALIAN BEAR.—(L%ascolarctos cinereus.)

On account of the tree-climbing habits of the Koala, it is sometimes called
the Australian Monkey as well as the Australian Bear.

THE animals which come next under consideration are truly worthy of the
title of Macropidz, or long-footed, as their hinder feet are most remarkable
for their comparative length, and in almost every instance are many times
longer than the fore-feet. This structure adapts them admirably for leaping,
an exercise in which the Kangaroos, as these creatures are familiarly termed,

‘are pre-eminently excellent.

Among the largest of the Macropide is the celebrated KANGAROO, an
animal which ‘is found spread tolerably widely over its native land.

This species has also been called by the name of gigamteus, on account
of its very great size, which, however, is sometimes exceeded by the Woolly
Kangaroo. The average dimensions of an adult male are generally as fol-
lows :—The total lenzth of the animal is about seven feet six inches, count-
ing from the nose to the tip of the tail; the head and body exceed four
feet, and the tail is rather more than three feet in length ; the circumference
of the tail at its base is about a foot. When it sits erect after its curious
tripedal fashion, supported by its hind-quarters and tail, its height is rather
more than fifty inches ; but when it wishes to survey the country, and stands
erect upon its toes, it surpasses in height many a well-grown man. The
female is very much smaller than her mate, being under six feet in total

T

114 THE KANGAROO.

length, and the difference in size is so great that the two sexes might be
well taken for different species.

The weight of a full-grown male, or “ Boomer,” as it is more familiarly
called,is very considerable, one hundred and sixty pounds having often
been attained, and even greater weight being on record. The colour of the
animal is brown, mingled with grey, the grey predominating on the under
portions of the body and the under-faces of the limbs. The fore-feet are
black, as is also the tip of the tail.

As the Kangaroo is a valuable animal, not only for the sake of its skin,
but on account of its flesh, which is in some estimation among the human
inhabitants of the same land, it is eagerly sought after by hunters, both
white and black, and affords good sport to both on account of its speed, its
vigour, and its wariness. The native hunter, who trusts chiefly to his own
cunning and address for stealing unobserved upon the animal and lodging
a spear in its body before
it is able to elude its subtle
enemy, finds the Kangaroo
an animal which will test
all his powers before he can
attain his object, and lay
the Kangaroo dead upon
he ground.

The male Kangaroo, or
“ Boomer,” is a dangerous
antagunist to man and dog,
and unless destroyed by
missile weapons will often
prove more than a match
for the combined efforts of
man and beast.

When the animal finds
that it is overpowered in
endeavour by the swift and
powerful Kangaroo dogs,
which are bred for the ex-
press purpose of chasing
this one kind of prey, it
turns suddenly to bay, and

THE KANGAROO.--(Macropus major.) placing its back against a
tree-trunk, so that it cannot
be attacked from behind, patiently awaits the onset of its adversaries. Should
an unwary dog approach within too close a distance of the Kangaroo, the
animal launches so terrible a blow with its hinder feet, that the long and
pointed claw, with which the hinder foot is armed, cuts like a knife, and has
often laid open the entire body of the dog with a single blow. The claw
which is thus used is so long, hard, and sharp, that it is sometimes used as a
head to a spear. : ’

When running, the creature has a curious habit of looking back every
now and then, and has sometimes unconsciously committed suicide by leap-
ing against one of the tree-stumps which are so plentifully found in the
districts inhabited by the Kangaroo. 5

The doe Kangaroo displays very little of these running or fighting capa-
bilities, and has been known, when chased for a very short distance, to lie
down and die of fear. Sometimes, when pursued, she contrives to elude the
dogs by rushing into some brushwood, and then making a very powerful leap

THE KANGAROO RAT’ 115

to one Side, so as to throw the dogs off the scent. She lies perfectly stillas the
dogs rush past her place of concealment, and when they have fairly passed
her she quietly makes good her escape in another direction. When young,
and before she has borne young, the female Kangaroo afiords good sport,
and is called, from her extraordinary speed, the “ Flying Doe.”

The Kangaroo is a very hardy animal and thrives well in England, where
it might probably be domesticated to a large extent if necessary, and where
it would enjoy a more genial climate than it finds in many districts of its
native land. One of the favoured localities of this species 1s the bleak, wet,
and snow-capped summit of Mount Wellington.

The eye of the Kangaroo is very beautiful, large, round, and soft, and gives
to the animal a gentle, gazelle-like expression that compensates for the savage
aspect of the teeth, as they gleam whitely between the cleft lips.

The KANGAROO Rat, called by the natives the POTOROO, is a native of
New South Wales, where it is found in very great numbers.

(
Wain Ni
Hi "

\

KANGAROO RAT.—(Aypsiprymnus minor.)

It is but a diminutive animal, the head and body being only fifteen inches
long, and the tail between ten and eleven inches. The colour of the fur is
brownish black, pencilled along the back with a grey white. The under parts
of the body are white, and the fore-feet are brown. The tail is equal to the
body in length, and is covered with scales, through the intervals of which
sundry short, stiff, and black hairs protrude.

This little animal frequents the less open districts, and is very quick and
lively in its movements, whether it be indulging in its native gamesomeness
or engaged in the search for food. Roots of various kinds are the favourite
diet of the Kangaroo Rat, and in order to obtain these dainties the animal
scratches them from the ground with the powerful claws of the fore-feet.

It is not so exclusively nocturnal as many of the preceding animals, and
seems to be equally lively by day as by night. When the animal is sitting
upon its hinder portions, the tail receives part of the weight of the body, but
is not used in the same manner as the tail of the true Kangaroos, which,
when they are moving slowly and leisurely along, are accustomed to support
the body on the tail, and to swing the hinder legs forward like a man swinging
himself upon crutches,

12

116 ‘THE WOMBAT.

The WomBAT, or AUSTRALIAN BADGER, a
colonists, is so singularly unlike the preceding
aspect and habits, that it might well be suppose
order.

As might be imagined from its heavy body and short legs, the Wombat is
by no means an active animal, but trudges along at its own pace, with a heavy
rolling waddle’ or hobble, like the gait of a very fat bear. It is found in
almost all parts of Australia. The fur of the Wombat is warm, long, and
very harsh to the touch, and its colour is grey, mottled with black and white.
The under parts of its body are greyish white, and the feet are black. The
muzzle is very broad and thick. The length of the animal is about three
teet, the head measuring seven inches,

s it is popularly called by the
and succeeding animals in its
d to belong to quite a different

WOMBAT. —(Phascolomys ursinus.)

It is nocturnal in its habits, living during the day in the depths ofa
capacious burrow, which it excavates in the earth to such a depth that even
the persevering natives will seldom attempt to dig a Wombat out of its
tunnel,

The creature seems to be remarkably sensitive to cold, considering the
severe weather which often reigns in its native country. It is fond of hay,
which it chops into short pieces with its knife-edged teeth. The natives say
that if a Wombat is making a journey and happens to come across a river,
it is not in the least discomfited, but walks deliberately into the river, across
the bed of the stream, and, emerging on the opposite bank, continues its
course as calmly as if no impediment had been placed in its way.

The BANDICOOTS form a little group of animals that are easily recog-
nisable by means of their rat-like aspect, and a certain peculiar but indescrib-
able mode of carrying themselves. The gait of the Bandicoot is very
singular, being a kind of mixture between jumping and running, which is the
result of the formation of the legs and feet.

THE LONG-NOSED BANDICOV?. 117

The food of the LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT is said to be of a purely veget-
able nature, and the animal is reported to occasion some huvoc among the

LONG-NOSED BANDICOOT.—(Perameles nasuta.)

gardens and granaries of the colonists. Its long and powerful claws aid it
in obtaining roots, and it is not at all unlikely that it may, at the same time

that it unearths and eats a
root, seize and devour the
terrestrial larvae which are
found in almost every
square inch of ground. The
lengthened nose and sharp
teeth which present so
great a resemblance to the
same organs in insectivor-
ous shrews, afford good
reasons for conjecturing
that they may be employed
in much the same manner.
The CH@ROPUS was for-
merly designated by -the
specific title of ecaudatus, or
“tailless,” because the first
specimen that had been
captured was devoid of
caudal appendage, and
therefore its discoverers
naturally concluded that alt
its kindred were equally
curtailed of their fair pro-
portions. But as new speci-
mens came before the notice
of the zoological world, it
was found thatthe Chceropus

CHEROPUS.—(Charopus castanotis.)

was rightly possessed of a moderately long and somewhat rat-like tail, and
that the taillessness of the original specimen was only the result of accident

TIS THE CHEROPUS.

to the individual, and not the normal condition of the species. The size
uv. the Choeeropus is about equal to that of a small rabbit, and the soft,
woolly fur is much of the same colour as that of the common wild rabbit.

It is an inhabitant of New South Wales, and was first discovered by Sir
Thomas Mitchell on the banks of the Murray River, equally to the astonish-
ment of white men and natives, the latter declaring that they had never before
seen such a creature. The speed of the Chceropus is considerakle, and its
usual haunts are among the masses of dense scrub foliage that cover so vast
an extent of yround in its native country. Its nest is similar to that of the
bandicoot, being made of dried grass and leaves rather artistically put to-
gether, the grass, however, predominating over the leaves. The locality of
the nest is generally at the foot of a dense bush, or of a heavy tuft of grass,
and it is so carefully veiled from view by the mode of its construction that
it can scarcely be discovered by the eyes of any but an experienced hunter.

The head of the Cheeropus is rather peculiar, being considerably length-
ened, cylindrically tapering towards the nose, so that its form has been rather
happily compared to the neck and shoulders of a champagne bottle. The
hinder feet are like those of the bandicoots, and there is a small swelling at
the base of the toes of the fore-feet, which is probably the representative
of the missing joints, more especially as the outermost toes are always
extremely small in the bandicoots, to which the Chceropus is nearly allied.
The ears are very large in
proportion to the size of the
animal. The pouch opens
backwards.

The food of the Choeropus
is said to be of a mixed
character, and to consist of
various vegetable substances
and of insects.

THE teeth of the Dasyur-
ines, sharp-edged and
pointed, indicate the carni-
vorous character of those
animals to which they be-
long.

In the common DASYURE
the general colour of the
fur is brown, of a very
dark hue, sometimes deep-
ening into positive black,
diversified with many spots
of white, scattered appar-
ently at random over the
whole of the body, and
varying both in their posi-
tion and dimensions in al-
most every individual. In

DASYURE. —(Dasyurus viverrinus.) some specimens the tail is
washed with white spots

similar to those of the body, but in many examples the tail is umformly dark.
In all the Dasyures this member is moderately long, but not prehensile, and
is thickly covered with hair; a peculiarity which has caused zoologists to
give the title of Dasyure, or “hair-tail,” to these animals. This species

THE VELLOW-FOOTED POUCHED MOUSE. 119

is the animal which is known in Australia by the popular name of
Native Cat.

They are all inhabitants of Australasia, the Common Dasyure being found
numerously enough in New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land, and some parts of
Australia. The habits of all the Dasyures are so very similar that there is no
need of describing them separately. They are all rather voracious animals,
feeding upon the smaller quadrupeds, birds, insects, and other living beings
which inhabit the same country. The Dasyure is said to follow the exampie
of several allied animals, and to be fond of roaming along the sea-coasts by
night in search of food.

The Dasyures are all nocturnal animals, and very seldom make voluntary
excursions from their hiding-places so long as the sun is above the horizon.
They do not, like the Tasmanian wolf and the ursine Dasyure, lie hidden in
burrows under the earth, or in the depths of rocky ground, but follow the
example of the Petaurists, and make their habitations in the hollows of
decayed trees.

"WLU Ee

YELLOW-FOOTED POUCHED MOUSE.—(Antechinus flavipes.)

The YELLOW-FOOTED POUCHED MOUSE is a very pretty little creature, its
fur being richly tinted with various pleasing hues.

The face, the upper part of the head, and the shoulders, are dark grey,
diversified with yellow hairs, and the sides of the body are warmed with a
wash of bright chestnut. The under parts of the body, the chin, and the
throat are uniform white, and the tail is black. There is cften a slight tufting
of hair on the extremity of the tail. The total length of the animal is about
eight inches, the head and body being rather more than four inches and a
half in length, and the tail a little more than three inches.

The MYRMECOBIUS is remarkable for several parts of its structure, and
more especially so for the extraordinary number of its teeth, and the manner
in which they are placed in the jaw. Altogether, there are no less than fifty-
two teeth in the jaws of an adult and perfect specimen of the Myrmecobius,
outnumbering the teeth of every other animal, with the exception of one or
two cetacea and the armadillo, There is no pouch in this animal, but the

120 MYVRMECOBIUS.

tender young are defended from danger by the long hairs which clothe the
under portions of the body.

It is a beautiful little animal, the fur being of agreeable tints and diversified
by several bold stripes across the back. The general colour of the fur is a
bright fawn on the shoulders, which deepens into blackish-brown from the
shoulders to the tail, the fur of the hinder portions being nearly black. Across
the back are drawn six or seven
white bands, broad on the back
and tapering off towards their
extremities. The under parts
of the body are of a yellowish-
white. The tail is thickly
covered with long bushy hair,
and has a grizzled aspect,
owing to the manner in which
the black and white hairs of
which it is composed are
mingled together. Some hairs
are annulated with white, red-
rust, and black, so that the
tints are rather variable, and
never precisely the same in
two individuals,

The length of the body is
about ten inches, and the tail
measures about seven inches,
so that the dimensions of the
animal are similar to those of
the common water vole of
Europe.

It is an active animal,
and when running, its move-
ments are very similar to
those of the common squirrel.
When hurried it proceeds by
a series of small jumps, the
tail being elevated over its
back after the usual custom
of squirrels, and at short in-
tervals it pauses, sits upright,
and casts an anxious look in
all directions before it again
takes to flight. Although not
a particularly swift animal, it
is not an easy one to capture,

MYRMECOBIUS.-—(JZyrmecobius fasciatus.) as it immediately makes for

some place of refuge, under a
hollow tree or a cleft in rocky ground, and when it has fairly placed itself
beyond the reach of its pursuers, it bids defiance to their efforts to drive
it from its haven of safety. Not even smoke—the usual resort of a hunter
when his prey has gone to “earth” and refuses to come out again—has the
least effect on the Myrmecobius, which is either possessed of sufficient smoke-
resisting powers to endure the stifling vapour with impunity, or of sufficient
courage to yield its life in the recesses of its haven, rather than deliver
itself into the hands of its enenues.

THE OPOSSUM. 121

The food of the Myrmecobius is supposed chiefly to consist of ants and simi-
lar diet, as it is generally found inhzbiting localities where ants most abound.
For this kind of food it is well fitted by its long tongue, which is nearly.as
thick as a common black-lead pencil, and is capable of protrusion to some
distance. In confinement a specimen of the Myrmecobius was accustomed
to feed on bran among other sub-
stances. It is known that in the
wild state it will eat hay, as well as
the “manna” that exudes from the
branches of the Eucalypti. ‘

It is a very gentle animal in its
disposition, as, when captured, it
does not bite or scratch, but only
vents its displeasure in a series of
little grunts when it finds that it is
unable to make its escape. The
number of its young is rather
various, but averages from five to
eight. The usual habitation of the
Myrmecobius is placed in the de-
cayed trunk of a fallen tree, or, in
default of such lodging, is made in
a hollow in the ground. It is a
native of the borders of the Swan
River.

THERE are very few of the mar-
supiated acumals which are more
remarkable for their form, their
habits, or tneir character, than the
Opossums of America. They are
nearly all admirable climbers, and
are assisted in their scansorial
efforts by their long prehensile tails,
which are covered with. scales,
through the interstices of which a
few short black hairs protrude. The
hinder feet are also well adapted
for climbing, as the thumb is op-
posable to the other toes, so that
the animal is able to grasp the
branch of a tree with considerable
force, and to suspend its whole body
together with the additional weight
of its prey or its young.

The VIRGINIAN or COMMON
OPOSSUM is, as its name implies, a
native of Virginia as well as of
many other portions of the United
States of America. In size it
equals a tolerably large cat, being
rather more than three feet in -
total length, the head and body measuring twenty-two inches, and the tail
fifteen. The colour of this animal is a greyish white, slightly tinged with
yellow, and diversified by occasional long hairs that are white towards their
base, but of a brownish hue towards their points. These brown-tipped hairs

opossum. —(Didephys Virginiana.)

122 MERIAN'S OPOSSUM.

are extremely prevalent upon the limbs, which are almost wholly of the brown
hue, which also surrounds the eye to some extent. The under fur is com-
paratively soft and woolly, but the general character of the fur is harsh and
coarse. The scaly portion of the tail is white.

It is a voracious and destructive animal, prowling about during the hours

of darkness, and prying into every nook and corner in hope of finding
something that may satisfy the cravings of imperious hunger. Young birds,
eggs, the smaller quadrupeds, such as young rabbits, which it eats by the
brood at a time, cotton rats and mice, reptiles of various kinds, and insects,
fall victims to the appetite of the Virginian Opossum, which is often not
content with the food which it finds in the open forests, but must needs in-
sinuate itself into the poultry-yard and make a meal on the fowls and their
eggs.
Preside the varied animal diet in which the Opossum indulges, it also eats
vegetable substances, committing as much havoc among plantations and
fruit-trees as among rabbits and poultry. It is very fond of maize, procuring
the coveted food by climbing the tall stems, or by biting them across and
breaking them down. It also eats acorns, beech-nuts, chestnuts, and wild
berries, while its fondness for the fruit of the “ persimmon” tree is almost
proverbial. While feeding on those fruits it has been seen hanging by its
tail, or its hinder paws, gathering the “ persimmons” with its fore-paws, and
eating them while thus suspended. It also feeds on various roots, which it
digs out of the ground with ease.

Its gait is usually slow and awkward, but when pursued it runs with con-
siderable speed, though in a sufficiently clumsy fashion, caused by its habit
of using the limbs of the right and left sides simultaneously in a kind of
amble. As, moreover, the creature is plantigrade in its walk, it may be
imagined to be anything but elegant in its mode of progress upon the ground.
Although it is such an adept at “’possuming,” or feigning death, it does not
put this ruse in practice until it has used every endeavour to elude its
pursuers, and finds that it has no possibility of escape. It runs sulkily and
sneakingly forward, looking on every side for some convenient shelter, and
seizing the first opportunity of slipping under cover.

The nest of the Opossum is always made in some protected situation, such
as the hollow of a fallen or a standing tree, or under the shelter of some old
projecting roots.

In MERIAN’S OPOSSUM there is no true pouch, and the place of that curious
structure is only indicated by a fold of skin, so that during the infancy of
its young, the mother is obliged to have recourse to that singular custom
which has gained for it the title of dorsiyerus, or “ back-bearing.” At a very
early age the young Opossums are shifted to the back of their mother, where
they cling tightly to their mother’s fur with their Jittle hand-like feet, and
further secure themselves by twining their own tails round that of the parent.
The little group which is here given was sketched from a stuffed specimen in
the British Museum, where the peculiar attitude of mother and young is
wonderfully preserved, when the very minute dimensions of the young
Opossums are taken into consideration.

Many other species of Opossums are in the habit of carrying their young
upon their backs, even though they may be furnished with a well-developed
pouch ; but in the pouchless Opossums the young are placed on the back at
a very early age, and are retained there for a considerable period.

It is a very small animal, measuring when adult only six inches from the
nose to the root of the tail, the tail itself being more than seven inches in
length, thus exceeding the united measurement of the head and body. Its
general appearance is much like that of a very large mouse or a very small rat.

MERIAN’S OPOSSUM. 123

The fur of the Merian’s Opossum is very short, and lies closely upon the
skin. On the upper portions of the body its colour is a pale greyish brown,
fading-below into a yellowish white. Round the eyes is a deep brown mark,
which extends forward in front of each eye, and forms a small dark patch.

MERIAN’S OPOSSUM.—(Philander dorsigerus.)
(Size of Life.)

The forehead, the upper part of the head, and the cheeks, together with the
limbs and feet, are of a yellowish white, tending to grey.

“Towards the base the tail is clothed with hair of the same texture and
colour as that of the upper part of the body, but towards its extremity it
becomes white. Its native country is Surinam.

PHOCIDA, OR SEALS.

We now arrive at a very wonderful series of animals, which, although they
breathe atmospheric air like other mammalia, are yet almost entirely aquatic
in their habits, and are never seen except in the water or its immediate vicinity.
The first family of these aquatic mammalia is that which is formed of the
animals which are popularly known by the name of SEALS.

The COMMON SEAL is spread very widely over many portions of the globe,
and is of very frequent occurrence upon our own coasts, where it is found in
considerable numbers, much to the annoyance of the fishermen, who look
upon it with intense hatred, on account of the havoc which it makes among
the fish.

It is rather a handsome animal, with its beautifully mottled skin and large
intelligent eyes, and. although not so large as other species which are also
found upon the British coasts, yields to none of them in point of beauty. The

124 THE SEAL.

colour of its fur is generally of a greyish yellow, sprinkled with spots of
brown, or brownish black, which are larger and more conspicuous along the
back than upon the sides. The under portions of the body are of a much
lighter hue. The feet are short, and the claws of the hinder feet are larger
than those of the anterior limbs. The total length of the adult Seal is seldom
more than five feet, the head being about eight or nine inches long.

This creature is wonderfully active both in water and on land, although its
bodily powers are but awkwardly manifested when it is removed from the
watery element in which it loves to roam. It is a persevering hunter of fish,
chasing and securing them in a manner that greatly excites the wrath of the
fishermen, who see their best captives taken away from them without the
possibility of resistance. So cunning as well as active is the Common Seal,
that one of these animals will coolly hang about the fishing grcunds through-

"out the season, make itself familiar
with all the turns and angles of the
‘nets, and avail itself of their help
in capturing the fish on which it is
desirous to make a meal.

On the British coasts the chase
of the Seal is but of local ‘#mport-
ance, but on the shore of Newfound-
me land it assumes a different aspect,

SEAL. —|Phoca vitalina) and becomes an important branch
of commercial enterprise, employing
many vessels annually. In a successful season the number of Seals which
are taken amount to many hundred thousand. A large quantity of oil is
obtained from the bodies of the Seals, and is used for various purposes,
while their skins are of considerable value either when tanned into leather
or when prepared with the fur and used for making various articles of dress
and luxury.

The Common Seal is very easily tamed, and speedily becomes one of the
most docile of animals, attaching itself with strong affection to its human
friends, and developing a beautifully gentle and loving nature, hardly to be
expected in such an animal. Many of these creatures have been taken when
young, and have been strongly domesticated with their captors, considering
themselves to belong of right to the household, and taking their share of the
fireside with the other members of the family.

Of late days, performing Seals have come into vogue under various titles,
among which the “ Talking Fish ” is well known. These clever animals have
been taught to perform sundry ingenious feats, requiring not only an intelli-
gent mind to comprehend, but an activity of body to execute, apparently
incompatible with the conformation of the animal.

AMONG all the strange forms which are found among the members of the
Seal family, there is none which presents a more terribly grotesque appear-
ance than that of the WALRUS, MORSE, or SEA HORSE, as this extraordinary
animal is indifferently termed.

The most conspicuous part of this animal is the head, with its protuberant
muzzle bristling with long wiry hairs, and the enormous canine teeth that
project from the upper jaw. These huge teeth measure, in large specimens,
from fourteen inches to two feet in length, the girth at the base being nearly
seven inches, and their weight upwards of ten pounds each. In ordinary
specimens, however, the length is about one foot. In some examples they
approach each other towards their points, and in others they diverge consider-
ably, forming in the opinion of some writers two distinct species. As. how-
ever, the relative position of these teeth varies slightly in every specunes

THE WALRUS. 125

that has yet been examined, the structure seems to be of hardly sufficient
importance for the establishment of a separate species. The ivory which is
furnished by these extraordinary weapons is of very fine quality, and com-
mands a high price in the market.

A Walrus is a valuable animal, for even in this country its skin, teeth, and
oil are in much request, while among the Esquimaux its body furnishes them
with almost every article in common
use. Among civilized men, the skin
of the Walrus is employed for har-
ness and other similar purposes
where a thick and tough hide is
required. The tooth furnishes very
good ivory, of a beautiful texture,
and possessing the advantage of
retaining the white hue longer than
ivory which is made from the
elephant tusk. The oil is delicate,
but there is very little to be ob-
tained from each Walrus, the layer
of fatty matter being scarcely more
than a hand’s-breadth in thickness.
Among the Esquimaux the Walrus
is put to a variety of uses. Fish- WALRUS, OR MORSE.—(7vichecus
hooks are made from its tusks, the _ Rosmarus.)
intestines are twisted into nets, its
oil and flesh are eaten, and its bones and skin are also turned to account by
these rude but ingenious workmen.

The Walrus is found in vast herds, which frequent the coasts of the arctic
and antarctic regions, and which congregate in such numbers that their
united roarings have often given timely warning to fog-bewildered sailors,
and acquainted them with the near proximity of shore. These herds present
acurious sight, as the huge clumsy animals are ever in movement, rolling
and tumbling over each other in a strange fashion, and constantly uttering
their hoarse bellowings.

The movements of the Walrus when on land are of a very clumsy character,
as might be supposed from the huge, unwieldy body of the animal, and the
evident insufficiency of the limbs to urge the weighty
body forward with any speed. When this creature is
hurried or alarmed, it contrives to get over the ground
at a pace that, although not very rapid, is yet wonder-
fully so when the size of the animal is taken into account.
The movement is a mixture of jerks and leaps, and the
Walrus is further aided in its progress by the tusks. Should
it be attacked, and its retreat cut off, the Walrus advances
fiercely upon its enemy, striking from side to side with WALRUS’S SKULL.
its long tusks, and endeavouring to force a passage into
the sea. If it should be successful in its attempt, it hurries to the water's
edge, lowers its head, and rolls unceremoniously into the sea, where it is in
comparative safety. .

This animal attains to a very great size, so great, indeed, that its dimen-
sions can hardly be appreciated except by ocular demonstration. A full-
grown male Walrus is generally from twelve to fifteen feet in length, while
there are many specimens that have been known to attain a still greater size.
The skin is black and smooth, and is sparingly covered with brown hairs,
which become more numerous on the feet.

126 THE SEA ELEPHANT,

Another powerful and grotesque Seal now engages our attention. This
‘is the ELEPHANT SEAL, or SEA ELEPHANT, so called not only on account
of the strange prolongation of the nose, which bears some analogy to the
proboscis of the elephant, but also on account of its elephantine size. Large
specimens of this monstrous Seal measure as much as thirty feet in length,
and fifteen or eighteen feet in circumference at the largest part of their bodies.

The colour of the Sea Elephant is ather variable, even in individuals of
the same sex and age, but is generally as follows. The fur of the male is
usually of a blueish grey, which sometimes deepens into dark brown, while
that of the female is darker, and variegated with sundry dapplings of a yellow
hue. This animal is an inhabitant of the southern hemisphere, and is spread
through a considerable range of country. It is extensively hunted for the
sake of its skin and its oil, both of which are of very excellent quality, and,
from the enormous size of the animal, can be procured in large quantities.
It is not exclusively confined to the sea, but is also fond of haunting fresh-
water lakes or swampy ground.

It is an emigrating animal, moving southwards as the summer comes on,
and northwards when the cold weather of the winter months would make its
more southern retreats unendurable,
Their first emigration is generally
made in the middle of June, when
the females become mothers, and
remain in charge of their nurseries
for nearly two months. During
this time the males are said to form
a cordon between their mates and
the sea, in order to prevent them
from deserting their young charges.
At the expiration of this time, the
males relax their supervision, and
the whole family luxuriates together
in the sea, where the mothers soon
regain their Jost condition. They
then seek the shore afresh, and
SEA ELEPHANT, —(uidorunya proboscidea.) occupy themselves in settling their

matrimonial alliances, which are
understood on the principle that the strongest shall make his choice among
the opposite sex, and that the weakest may take those that are rejected
by his conquerors, or none at all, as the case may be. ;

During the season of courtship the males fight desperately with each other,
inflicting fearful wounds with their tusk-like teeth, while the females remain
aloof, as quiet spectators of the combat. They are polygamous animals,
each male being lord over a cansiderable number of females, whom he rules
with despotic sway. When the victorious combatants have chosen their
mates they are very caretul about their safety, and refuse to quit them if they
should be in any danger. Knowing this fact, the seal-hunters always direct
their attacks upon the females, being sure to capture the male afterwards. If
they were to kill the male at first, his harem would immediately disperse and
fly in terror, but as long as he lives they will continue to crowd round him.

Although these animals are of so great dimensions and bodily strength, and
are furnished with a very formidable set of teeth, they are not nearly such
dangerous antagonists as the walrus, and are most apathetic in their habits.
‘When roused from sleep they open their mouths in a threatening manner, but
do not seem to think of using their teeth, and if they find that their disturb: rs
do not run away, they take that office upon themselves, and move off deliber-

is THE WHALE. 127
ately for the water. As they proceed their huge bodies tremble like masses of
jelly, in consequence of the fat with which they are so heavily laden. So
plentiful is this fat, that a single adult male will furnish about seventy gallons
of clear and scentless oil.

WHALES.

The CETACEA, or WHALES, are more thoroughly aquatic than any other
animals which have already been described, and are consequently framed in
such a very fish-like manner that they have generally been considered as
fishes by those who are but little acquainted with the animal kingdom. The
entire livelihood of the Whale is obtained in the waters, and their entire
structure is only fitted for traversing the waves, so that if they should happen
to be cast upon the shore they have no means of regaining their native
element, and are sure to perish miserably from hunger.

When the Whales breathe, they are forced to rise to the surface of the sea,
and there make a number of huge respirations, which are technically called
“ spoutings,” because a column of mixed vapour and water is ejected from
the nostrils, or “ blow-holes,” and spouts upwards to a great height, some-
times as much as twenty feet. In order to enable the animal to respire
without exposing itself unnecessarily, the “blow-holes” are placed on the
upper part of the head, so that when a Whale is reposing itself on the surface
of the sea, there is very little of its huge carcass visible, except the upper
portion of the head and a part of the back. The “spoutings ” are made with
exceeding violence, and can be heard at some distance.

The limbs of the Whales are so modified in their form that they can hardly
be recognised by their external appearance alone as the limbs of a
veritable mammal. In shape they closely resemble the fins of fish, and it
is not until they are stripped of the thick skin which envelopes them that
the true limb is developed. They are, in fact, abnormal developments of
the legs in order to suit an aquatic life, just as are the wings of the bat for
an aérial life. The chief use of these organs seems to be that they assist the
animal in preserving its position in the water, for the huge carcass rolls over
on its back as soon as it is deprived of the balancing-power of its fins. They
are also employed for the purpose of grasping
the young whenever the mother Whale is
anxious for the safety of her offspring, but
they are of little use in urging the animal
through the water, that duty being almost
entirely performed by the tail.

The skin of the Whales is devoid of hair,
and is ofa rather peculiar structure, as is need-
ful to enable it to resist the enormous pressure
to which it is constantly subjected at the vast
depths to which the animal descends. The
skin is threefold, consisting first of the scarf-
skin, or epidermis ; secondly, of the vete-
mucosum, which gives colour to the animal;
and thirdly, of the true skin, which is modi- FLIPPER OF THE WHALE.
fied in order to meet the needs of the creature
which it defends. The blubber, indeed, is nothing more than the true skin,
which is composed of a number of interlacing fibres, capable of containing
a very great amount of oily matter. This blubber is never less than several
inches in thickness, and in many places is nearly two feet deep, and as

128 THE GREENLAND WHALE.

elastic as caoutchouc, offering an admirable resistance to the force of the
waves and the pressure of the water. In a large Whale the blubber will
weigh thirty tons. 2

The GREENLAND WHALE, NORTHERN WHALE, or RIGHT WHALE, as it
is indifferently termed, is an inhabitant of the Northern Seas, where it is still
found in great abund-
ance, although the con-
stant persecutions to
which it has been sub-
jected have consider-
ably thinned its num-
bers.

This animal is, when
fully grown, about sixty
or seventy feet in
length, and its girth
about thirty or forty
feet. Its colour is vel-
vety black upon the
upper part of the body,
the fins, and the tail ;
grey upon the junction
of the tail with the
body and the base of
the fins, and white
upon the abdomen and
the fore-part of the

THE WHALE.—(Balena mysticetus.) lower jaw. The velvety
aspect of the body is
caused by the oil which exudes from the epidermis, and aids in destroying
the friction of the water. Its head is remarkably large, being one-third of
the length of the entire bulk. The jaw opens very far back, and in a large
Whale is about sixteen
feet in length, seven
feet wide, and ten or
twelve feet in height,
affording space, as has
been quaintly remark-
ed, for a jolly-boat and
her crew to float in.

The most curious
part of the jaw and
its structure is the
remarkable substance
which is popularly
known by the name of
whalebone.

The whalebone, or
baleen, is found in a

: series of plates, thick
SKULL OF GREENLAND WHALE, and solid at the inser-
tion into the jaw, and
splitting at the extremity into a multitude of hair-like fringes. On each
side of the jaw there are more than three hundred of these plates, which in
a fine specimen are about ten or twelve feet long, and eleven inches wide

THE SPERMACETI WHALE. 129

at their base. The weight of baleen which is furnished by a large Whale
is, about one ton. This substance does not take its origin directly from the
gum, but from a peculiar vascular formation which rests upon it. These
masses of baleen are placed along the sides of the mouth for the purpose of
aiding the Whale in procuring its food and separating it from the water.

The mode of feeding which is adopted by the Whale is as follows. The
animal frequents those parts of the ocean which are the best supplied with the
various creatures on which it feeds, and which are all of very small size, as is
needful from the size of its gullet, which is not quite two inches in diameter.
Small shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, together with various molluscs and
medusze, form the diet on which the vast bulk of the Greenland Whale is
sustained. Driving with open mouth through the congregated shoals of
these little creatures, the Whale engulphs them by millions in its enormous
jaws, and continues its destructive course until it has sufficiently charged its
mouth with prey. Closing its jaws and driving out through the interstices of
the whalebone the water which it has taken together with its prey, it retains
the captured animals which are entangled in the whalebone, and swallows
them at its ease.

The Whale is an animal of very great value to civilized and to savage men.
The oil which is procured in great quantities from its blubber and other
portions of its structure is almost invaluable to us, while the bones and
baleen find their use in every civilized land. To the natives of the polar
regions, however, the Whale is of still greater value, as they procure many
necessaries of life from various parts of its body, eat the flesh, and drink the
oil. Repulsive as such a diet may appear to us who live in a comparatively
warm region, it is an absolute necessity in those ice-bound lands, such
oleaginous diet being needful in order to keep up the heat of the body by a
bountiful supply of carbon.

As far as is yet known, the Greenland Whale produces only a single cub
at a birth, When first born, the young Whale is without the baleen,
depending upon its mother for its subsistence like any other young mammal.
The maternal Whale keeps close to her offspring until the baleen is grown,
and does not forsake it until it is capable of supporting itself. The young
Whales, before the baleen has developed itself, are technically termed
“suckers,” and when the baleen is six feet in length they are called by the
name of “ size.”

THE CACHALOT, or SPERMACETI WHALE, is one of the largest of the
Whales, an adult male, or “old bull,” as it is called by the whalers, measuring
from seventy to eighty feet in length, and thirty feet in circumference. The
head is enormously long, being almost equal to one-third of the total length.
Upon the back there is rather a large hump, which rises abruptly in front
and tapers gradually towards the tail. The colour of the Cachalot is a
blackish grey, somewhat tinged with green upon the upper portions of the
body. Round the eyes and on the abdomen it is of a greyish white.

This species is chiefly notable on account of the valuable substances which
are obtained from its body, including oil and spermaceti. The oilis obtained
from the blubber, which is not very thick in this animal, being only fourteen
inches in depth on the breast and eleven inches on the other parts of the
body, and is therefore not so abundant in proportion to the size of the
animal as that which is extracted from the Greenland Whale. Its superior
quality, however, compensates fully for its deficiency in quantity. The layer
of blubber is by the whalers technically called the “blanket,” probably in
allusion to its office in preserving the animal heat.

The spermaceti is almost peculiar to a few species of the genus Catodon,
and is obtained as follows :—

&E

130 THE SPERMACETI WHALE.

The enormous and curiously formed head is the great receptacle of the
spermaceti, which lies in a liquid oily state, in two great cavities that exist
in the huge mass of tendinous substance of which the head is chiefly com-
posed. When the Whale is kiiled and towed to the ship’s side, the head is
cut off and affixed to tackles for the purpose of supporting it in a convenient
position for the extrac-
tion of this valuable
substance. A large
hole is cut in the top
of the head, and a
number of sailors lower
their buckets into the
cavity and bale out the
liquid matter.

When first exposed
to the air it has a clear
oily appearance, but
after it has been sub-
jected to the action of
the atmosphere for a
few hours, the sperma-
ceti begins to separate
itself from the oil, and
in a short time is suffi-
ciently firm to be re-
moved and put into a
different vessel.

SPERMACETI WHALE.—(Cdlodon Macrocéphalus.) The amount of sper-
maceti which is pro-
duced from the head of a single Whale is very large indeed. From a
Cachalot that only measured sixty four feet in length, and was therefore by
voor --=--., no means a large
one, twenty-four
barrels of sperma-
ceti and nearly one
hundred barrels of
oil were obtained.

Ambergris, that
curious substance
whose origin so long
haffled the keenest
inquirers, and which
was formerly only
found at rare inter-
vals floating on the
waves or cast upon
the shore, is now
often discovered
within the iniestines of the Cachalot, and is supposed to be a morbid secretion
peculiar to the animal, and analogous to biliary calculi. Fifty pounds weight
of this substance have been found in a single Whale, and on one occasion a
single piece of ambergris of the same weight was discovered on the coast of
the Bermudas by some sailors, who immediately deserted their ship and
escaped to England with their valuable prize. The value of the ambergris is
rather variable, but it is always a costly article.

SKULL OF SPERMACETI WHALE.

THE NARWHAL. 131

The Spermaceti Whale, when it is in the open seas, lives chiefly on the
“squids,” or cuttie-fish, which swarm in that ocean, and, when it approaches
land, feeds on various fish. It seems, however, to dislike the prepinquity of
the shore, and is very seldom taken in “soundings.” Itis a gregarious
animal, being seldom seen alone, but in large herds, technically called
“schools,” and consisting of several hundred in number. The “schools”
are generally divided into two bands, the one consisting of young males and
the other of females. Each band of females is under the command of several
large males, who exercise the strictest discipline over their harems, and will
not permit any intruder to join their society. From their office, these leaders
are called the schoolmasters.

The teeth of the Spermaceti Whale are conical and slightly curved, some-
times reaching the length of some eight or nine inches. To Europeans these
teeth are of great value, but to the Fijians, Tongans, &c., they are almost
priceless, a single tooth being thought a present fit for one king to make to
another, or to be laid up in a temple as an offering to the idol.

The Spermaceti Whale does not seem to chvose any particular portion of
the year for the production of its young, but is found at all seasons in
charge’ of its offspring. Moreover, young Whales, or “cubs,” are found at
all sizes and ages simultaneously roaming the seas, either in company with
their parents or turned loose upon the world to shift for themselves. There
is but a single cub at a birth. The milk of the animal is exceedingly rich
and thick, as indeed is the case with the milk of all Whales.

This animal is very widely spread over the world, as it is found in almost
every portion of the aqueous portions of the globe, with the exception of the
Polar Seas. Several of these creatures have been discovered off our own
coasts, and a few have been stranded on the beach. A Cachalot measuring
fifty-four feet in length was driven ashore in the Firth of Forth in 1769,
and its appearance off the Orkneys is said to be no very uncommon occurrence.

DOLPHINS.

THE members of this family do not possess the enormous head which
characterizes the true whales, and have teeth in both jaws, although they
are liable to fall out at an early age. The blow-holes are united together, so
as to form a single semilunar opening, which is set transversely on the
crown of the head.

The word NARWHAL is derived from the Gothic, signifying “ beaked
whale,” and is a very appropriate term for the SEA UNICORN, as the animal
is popularly entitled. The head of the Narwhal is round, and convex in
front, the lower jaw being without teeth, and not so wide as the upper jaw.
From the upper jaw of the Narwhal springs the curious weapon which has
gained for the animal a world-wide reputation.

In the upper jaw of the young or the female Narwhal are found two small
or hollow tusks, imbedded in the bone, which, in the female, are generally
undeveloped throughout the whole of the animal’s existence, but in the male
Narwhal are strangely modified. The right tusk remains in its infantine
state, excepting that the hollow becomes filled with bony substance ; but the
left tusk rapidly increases in length, and is developed into a long, spiral,
tapering rod of ivory, sometimes attaining to the length of eight or ten feet.
The tusks are supposed to be formed by an excessive growth of the canine
teeth, and not of the incisors, as might be supposed from the position which
they occupy in the jaw.

K 2

132 THE NARWHAL.

The food of the Narwhal consists chiefly of marine molluscs and of
occasional fish, but is found to be generally composed of the same kind of
squid, or cuttle-fish, which supplies the gigantic spermaceti whale with
subsistence. As the remains of several flat fish have been discovered in
the stomach of the Narwhal, it was supposed by some authors that the
animal made use of its tusk as a fish-spear, transfixing them as they lay
“sluddering” on the mud or sand, after their usual fashion, thus preventing
their escape from the toothless mouth into which the wounded fish are then
received. However this may be, the force of the tusk is terrific when urged
with the impetus of the creature driving through the water at full speed, for
the whole combined power of the weight and velocity of the animal is
directed along the line of the tusk. A Narwhal has been known to encounter
a ship, and to drive
its tusk through the
sheathing, and deeply
into the timbers. The
shock was _ probably
fatal to the assailant,
for the tooth was
snapped by the sudden
blow, remaining in the
hole which it had made
and acting as a plug
that effectually pre-
vented the water from
gaining admission into
the vessel.

The ivory of the
Narwhal's tusk is re-
markably good in
quality, being hard
and solid, capable of
receiving a high polish,
and possessing the
property of retaining
its beautiful whiteness
for a very long period, so that a large Narwhal horn is of no inconsiderable
commercial value.

The native Greenlanders hold the Narwhal in high estimation; for,
independently of its value, it is welcomed each succeeding year as the
harbinger of the Greenland Whale.

The oil which is extracted from the blubber is very delicate, but is not
present in very great amount, as the coating of fatty substance is seldom more
than three inches in depth. About half a ton of oil is obtained from a large
specimen. The flesh is much prized by the natives, and is not only eaten in
its fresh state, but is carefully dried and prepared over the fire.

The colour of this animal is almost entirely black upon the upper surface
of the body, but is slightly varied by streaks and patches of a deeper tint.
The sides fade into greyish white, diversified with sundry grey marks, and
the under portions of the body are white.

Most familiar of all the Dolphin fraternity is the well-known PORPOISE,
or SEA Hoc, an animal which may be seen on any of our coasts, tumbling
about on the waves and executing various gambols in the exuberance of its
sportive feelings.

The Porpoise is a very gregarious animal, herding together in large shoals,

NARWHAL.—(Ménodon Mondéceros.)

THE PORPOISE. 133

and sometimes swimming in “Indian file” as they shout over the surface of
the sea, just showing their black and glossy backs above the water, and
keeping such excellent line that they seem to be animated by one spirit and
one will.

As might be presumed from the formidable array of sharp teeth with which
the jaws are studded, and which are so arranged that the upper and lower
sets interlock when the animal closes its mouth, the food of the Porpoise
consists entirely of animal substances, and almost wholly of fish, which it
consumes in large quantities, much to the disgust of human fishermen.
Herrings, pilchards, sprats, and other saleable fish are in great favour with
the Porpoise, which pursues its finny prey to the very shores, and, driving
among the vast shoals in which these fish congregate, destroys enormous
quantities of them. The fish are
conscious of the presence of their
destroyer, and flee before it in
terror, often flinging themselves into
the certain death of nets or shallow
water in their hope to escape from
the devouring jaws of the Porpoise.
Even salmon and such large fish
fall frequent victims to their pur-
suer, which twists, turns, and leaps
with such continuous agility that it
is more than a match for its swift
and nimble prey. Not even the marvellous leaping powers of the salmon
are sufficient to save them from the voracious Porpoise, which is not to be
baffled by any such impotent d-vices.

The Porpoise seems to keep closely to the coasts, and is seldom seen in
mid-ocean. It appears to be a migratory animal, as the season of its dis-
appearance from one locality generatly coincides with its arrival on some
other coast. It is very widely spread, appearing to inhabit with equal security
the warm waters of the Mediterranean, the cool seas of our own coasts, or the
icy regions of the high latitudes.

The length of a full-grown Porpoise is extremely variable, the average
being from six to eight feet. The colour of the Porpoise is a blue-black on
the upper surface of the body, and a bright silvery white below ; so that when
the animal executes one of its favourite gyrations the contrasting tints produce
a strange effect as they rapidly succeed each other. The iris of the eye is
yellowish.

The word Porpoise is corrupted from the French term Porc-forsson,
ie. “Hog fish,” and bears the same signification as its German name,
Meerschwetn.

THE DOLPHIN is remarkable for the enormous number of teeth which stud
its mouth, no less than forty-seven being found on each side of both jaws,
the full complement being one hundred and ninety. In the head of one
specimen were found fifty teeth on each side of each jaw, making a comple-
ment of two hundred in all. Between each tooth there is a space equal to the
width of a single tooth, so that when the animal closes its mouth the teeth of
both jaws interlock perfectly. All the teeth are sharply pointed and flattened,
and slightly curved backwards, so that the entire apparatus is wonderfully
adapted for the retention of the slippery marine creatures on which the
Dolphin feeds. Fish of various kinds form the usual diet of the Dolphin,
which especially delights in the flat fishes of our coasts, and often prowls
about the shoals of herrings and pilchards that periodically reach our shores,

The Dolphin is not a very large animal, measuring, when fully grown, from

PORPOISE, OR PORPESSE.—(Phocena
commiintis.)

134 THE DOLPHIN.

six to ten feet in length, seven feet being the usual average. Its colour is
vlack upon the back, and silvery white upon the abdomen; while the flanks
are greyish white. ‘he beautiful colours which have been said to play about
the body of a dying Dolphin are
not entirely mythical, but belong
rightly to one of the fishes, the
coryphene, or dorado, which is
popularly called the Dolphin by
sailors,

The eyes of the Dolphin are
small, and are supplied with eye-_
lids ; the pupil of the eye is heart-
shaped. The ears have but a very

DOLPHIN.—(Lirdp.inus Delphis.) minute external aperture, barely
admitting an ordinary pin.

It is a lively and playful animal, and being remarkably active in its native
element, is fond of gambolling among the waves, and engaging in various
sports with its companions. Being of a very gregarious nature, it is seldom
seen alone, but prefers to associate in little flocks or herds, and is in the habit
of accompanying ships for considerable distances, hovering about the vessel
and executing various strange manceuvres.

The Dolphin only produces a single young one at a time, and nurses her
offspring with exceeding tenderness and assiduity.

The common Dolphin is found in the European seas, and in the Atlantic
and the Mediterranean, and may possibly have a still wider range.

RODENTS.

THE RODENTS, or gnawing animals, derive their name from the peculiar
structure of their teeth, which are specially fitted for gnawing their way
through hard substances. The jaws of the Rodents are heavily made, and
very large in proportion to the head, their size being not only needful for the
synport of the gnawing teeth, but for their continual development. There
arc no canines, but a wide gap exists between the incisors and the molars,
which are nearly flat on their surfaces, and are well suited for grinding the
soft substances on which these animals feed.

The structure of the chisel-edged incisor teeth is very wonderful, and may
be easily understood by inspecting the teeth of a rat, mouse, hare, or rabbit.

As their teeth are continually worn out by the severe friction which they
undergo continually, there must needs be some provision for renewing their
substance, or the creature would soon die of starvation. In order to obviate
this calamity, the base of the incisor teeth pass deeply into the jaw-bone,
where they are continually nourished by a kind of pulpy substance from which
the tooth is formed, and which adds fresh material in proportion to the daily
waste.

Something more is needed for the well-being of the animal than the mere
growth of its teeth; for unless their chisel-like edges were continually kept
sharp, they would be of little use for cutting their way through the hard
substances which the Rodents are in the habit of gnawing. This result is
attained as follows :—

The enamel which covers the front face of the incisor teeth is much harder
than that which is laid upon the remaining surfaces, while the dentine which
makes up the solid mass of each tooth is also harder in front than behind.
It is evident that when these teeth are employed in their usual task, the softer

THE RAT. 135

enamel and dentine are worn away very much more rapidly than the remainder
of the teeth, so that the peculiar chisel-edge of the teeth is continually
preserved. Following—perhaps unconsciously—the structure of these teeth,
our cutlers have long been accustomed to make their chisels on the same
principle; a thin plate of steel being strengthened with a thick backing
of iron.

The Rodent animals are widely spread over the entire globe, and are very
numerous, comprising nearly one-third of the mammalia.

FEw animals are so well known or so thoroughly detested as the common
Brown Rat, or Norway Rat, as it 15 sometimes erroneously called.

It is an exceedingly voracious animal, eating all kinds of strange food, and
not sparing its own species in times of scarcity. Vhe havoc which an army
of Rats will make among the corn-ricks is almost incredible, while they carry
on their depredation with so much secrecy that an unpractised eye would
think the stacks to be sound and unharmel. Fortunately they can easily be
dislodged from any rick by taking !t down and repiacing it on proper
“ staddles,” taking great care that no stray weeds or branches aflord a toot-
hold to these persevering marauders. While the rick is being rebuilt, no
particular care need be taken to shake the Rats out of the sheaves, for, as
they are thirsty animals, they will
be forced to leap from the stack
in search of water, and then will
not be able to return.

Mice can subsist in a stack by
means of the rain and dew which
moisten the thatch, and may be
often seen licking the straws in
order to quench their thirst. But
the Rats are less tolerant of thirst,
and are forced to evacuate their
premises. When mice and Rats are found inhabiting the same stack, the
former animals reside in the upper parts, and the Rats in the lower.

Rats are not without their use, especially in large towns, which but for
their never-failing appetites would often be in very sad case. Taking for
example the metropolis itself, we find that the sewers which underlie its whole
extent are inhabited by vast hordes of Rats, which perform the office of
scavengers by devouring the mass of vegetable and animal offal which is daily
cast into those subterranean passages, and which would speedily breed a
pestilence were it not removed by the ready teeth of the Rats. So that, when
kept within proper bounds, the Rat is a most useful animal, and will continue
to be so until the drainage of towns is constructed in a different manner.

Rats are very cleanly animals, always washing themselves after every meal,
and displaying the greatest assiduity in making their toilet. They also exhibit
considerable delicacy of palate wherever they find a sufficiency of provisions,
although they are in no way nice in their diet when pressed by hunger. If,
for example, a party of Rats discover an entrance into a butcher’s storehouse,
they are sure to attack the best parts of the meat, utterly disdaining the neck,
the shin, or other coarse pieces.

-There is one peculiarity in the structure of the Rat which is worthy of
notice. These animals are able not only to ascend a perpendicular tree or
wall by the aid of their sharp hooked claws, but also to descend head fore-
most with perfect ease. In order to enable them to perform this feat, their
hind legs are so made that the feet can be turned outwards, and the claws
hitched upon any convenient projections.

However unpromising a subject the Rat may appear, it has often been tamed,

THE RAT.—(Mus Décumanus.)

136 THE MOUSE.

and is a very much more educatable animal than could be supposed. It will
obey its master’s commands with promptitude, and has been known to learn
very curious tricks.

For further information on this subject the reader is referred to a work
published by Messrs. Routledge and Co., entitled “The Rat,” by James
Rodwell, in which may be found an elaborate account of the animal and its
habits, together with much curious and original information.

“Yy* little vulgar MOUSE,” as it is quaintly termed by old Topsel, is a truly
pretty little creature, with its brown-grey back, grey throat and abdomen, soft
velvety fur, its little bright black bead-like eyes, and squirrel-like paws. A
detailed description of so familiar
an animal would be quite unneces-
sary, and we will therefore proceed
to its habits and manners.

Like the rat, it frequents both
town and country, doing an infinity
of damage in the former, but com-
paratively little harm in the latter.
In the country it attaches itself

—eF i mostly to farmyards, where it gains

THE MOUSE.—(Mus Muisculus.) access to the ricks, and, when once

firmly established, is not so easily

dislodged as its larger relative the rat. However, if the rick be kept under

cover, the Mice cannot make any lengthened stay, for the cover keeps off the

rain, on which they chiefly depend for drink, and they are then obliged to

leave the stack in search of water. If the rick be placed on staddles, it will
then be safe from these little pests.

They are odd little animals, and full of the quaintest gamesomeness,
as may be seen by anyone who will only sit quite still and watch them
as they run about a room which they specially affect. They are to the
full as inquisitive as cats, and will examine any new piece of furniture with
great curiosity.

The Mouse is a marvellously prolific animal, producing its young several
times in the course of the year, and ata very early age. The nests are made
in any sheltered spot, and formed from any soft substance, such as rags,
paper, or wool, that the mother can procure.

SMALLEST, and perhaps the prettiest, of the British mammalia, the elegant
little HARVEST MOUSE next claims our attention. The totallength ofthis tiny
creature is not quite five inches, its tail being nearly two inches and a half in
length. The colour of its fur is a delicate reddish brown, the base of each
hair taking the darker tint and the point warming into red, while the under
parts of the abdomen are white. The line of demarcation between the brown
and white is well defined.

The description which is given of the Harvest Mouse and its wonderful
nest, by the Rev. Gilbert White, is so well known that it need only be
casually mentioned. I have fortunately had opportunities of verifying his
observations by means of a nest which was found in a field in Wiltshire by
some mowers.

Independently of its small size, the Harvest Mouse may be distinguished
from a young ordinary Mouse by its short ears, narrow head, slender body,
and less projecting eyes.

THE short, sturdy, stupid rodent which is so famous under the name of
the HAMSTER is widely spread over many parts of Northern Europe, where
it is an absolute pest to the agriculturists, who wage unceasing war against
so destructive an animal. Before proceeding to the habits and character

mia

THE HAMSTER. 137

of the Hainster, a short description of its external appearance will be
necessary.

The colour of its fur is a greyish fawn on the back, deepening into black
on the under portions of the body, and softening into a yellow hue upon the
head and face. The otherwise uniform tinting of the fur is relieved by some
patches of whitish yellow upon the cheeks, shoulders, and sides, ‘The
creature is furnished with two large cheek-pouches, which are capable
of containing a considerable
amount of food, and which can
be inflated with air at the plea-
sure of the animal. The length
of the adult Hamster is about
fifteen inches, the tail being only
three inches long.

The Hamster is most destruc-
tive to the crops, whether of
corn, peas, or beans, and, when
the autumn approaches, begins
to plunder the fields in a most
systematic manner, for the pur-
pose of laying up a winter store
of provisions. By dint of dexter-
ous management, the animal
fills its cheek-pouches with grain,
pressing it firmly with its paws,
so as to lose no space, and then
carries off its plunder to its
subterranean treasury, where it
disgorges the contents of the
pouches, and returns for another
supply. The husbandmen are
so well aware of this propensity
that they search after the habita-
tion of the Hamster after the
harvest is over, and often re-
cover considerable quantities
of the stolen grain. The de-
structive capability of the animal
may be gathered from the fact
that a single Hamster has been
known to hoard no less than
sixty pounds of corn in_ its

y (ie hi home, while a hundredweight

7K W wk of beans have been recovered

YAR Vb from the storehouses of another

! ie | \eieeere | specimen. :

HARVEST MOUSE.—(Aficromys miniitus.) The skin of the Hamster is

of some value in commerce, se
that the hunters make a double use of a successful chase, for they not
only recover the stolen property of the agriculturist, but gain some profit by
selling the skins. i :
THERE are many animals which have been saddled with a bad reputation
merely on account of an unfortunate resemblance to another animal of really
evil character. Among these misused innocents the WATER VOLE, popularly
called the WATER Rat, is very conspicuous, as the poor creature has been

138 THE WATER VOLE.

commonly supposed to be guilty of various poaching exploits which were
really achieved by the ordinary brown rat.

It is quite true that rats are often seen on the river-banks in the act of
eating captured fish, but these culprits are only the brown rats which have

ng
TA. Pg p= L——
LE LON re aL—LL————

HAMSTER. —(Cricétus frumentarius.)

migrated from the farmyards’for the summer months, and intend to return
as soon as autumn sets in. ‘ihe food of the true Water Rat, or Water Vole,
as it is more correctly named, is chiefly of a vegetable nature, and consists
almost entirely of various aquatic plants and roots. The common “ mare’s-

WATER VOLE.—(Arvicola amphibius.)

tail,” or Equisetum, is a favourite article of diet with the Water Vole, and I
have often seen it feeding on the bark of the common rush. Many years
ago J shot a Water Vole as it was sitting upon a water-lily leaf and engaged
in eating the green seeds; and on noticing the kind of diet on which the

THE CAMPAGNOL. 139

animal was feeding, I determined to watch the little creatures with more care.
My own testimony coincides precisely with those of other observers, for I
never yet saw the true snub-nosed, short-eared, yellow-toothed Vole engaged
in eating animal food, although the brown rat may be often detected in such
an act.

Many communications have been made to me on the subject, written for
the most part by persons who have seen water-side rats engaged in catching
and eating fish, and have thought that the delinquents were the true Water
Vole. Indeed, the Vole is allied very closely to the beaver, and partakes of
the vegetarian character of that animal.

The colour of the Water Vole is a chestnut brown, dashed with grey on
the upper parts and fading to grey below. The ears are so short that they
are hardly perceptible above the fur. The incisor teeth are of a light yellow,
and are very thick and strong. The tail is shorter than that of the common
rat, hardly exceeding half the length of the head and body. The average
length of a full-grown Water Vole is thirteen inches, the tail being about four
inches and three-quarters long.

CAMPAGNOL,—(<l vicola arvdits.)

THE CAMPAGNOL, or SHORT-TAILED FIELD MOUSE, is even more destruc-
tive in the open meadows than the common grey mouse in the barns or ricks ;
for, not contenting itself with plundering the ripened crops of autumn, it
burrows beneath the ground at sowing time, and devours the seed-wheat
which has just been laid in the earth. Besides these open-air depredations,
it makes inroads into ricks and barns, and by dint of multitudinous numbers
does very great harm.

The colour of the Campagnol is ruddy brown on the upper surface of the
body, and grey on the abdomen and chest. The ears are rounded and very
small, closely resembling those of the water vole. The tail is only one-third
the length of the body, and the total length of the animal is rather more than
five inches. As it belongs to.the same genus as the water vole, and is very
closely related to that animal, it sometimes goes by the name of Field Vole.

Av uncertain and distant intervals of time, many of the northern parts of

140 THE LEMMING.

Europe, such as Lapland, Norway, and Sweden, are subjected tu a strange
invasion. Hundreds of little, dark, mouse-like animals sweep over the land,
like clouds of locusts suddenly changed into quadrupeds, coming from some
unknown home, and going no one knows whither. These creatures are the
LEMMINGS, and their sudden appearances are so entirely mysterious, that the
eer look upon them as having been rained from the clouds upon the
earth.

Driven onwards by some overpowering instinct, these vast hordes travel
in a straight line, permitting nothing but a smooth perpendicular wall or rock
to turn them from their course. If they should happen to meet with any
living being, they immediately attack, knowing no fear, but only urged by
undiscriminating rage. Any river or lake they swim without hesitation, and
rather seem to enjoy the water than to fear it. Ifa stack or a corn-rick
should stand in their way, they settle the matter by eating their way through

eo EG See
LZ WEC Va 77
“nee Ay by faba
lV! Ah CAME, Nl Oil (Pt “Fe.

LEMMING.—(Myéddes Lemmus.)

it, and will not be turned from their direct course even by fire. The country
over which they pass is utterly devastated by them, and it is said that cattle
will not touch the grass on which a Lemming has trodden.

These migrating hosts are accompanied by clouds of predaceous birds, and
by many predaceous quadrupeds, who find a continual feast spread for them
as long as the Lemmings are on their pilgrimage. While they are crossing
the rivers or lakes, the fish come in for their share of the banquet, and make
great havoc among their columns. It is a very remarkable fact that the rein-
deer is often seen in chase of the Lemmings ; and the Norwegians say that
the deer is in the habit of eating them. This statement, however, seems to
be rather of doubtful character. The termination of these extraordinary
migrations is generally in the sea, where the survivors o! the much-reduced
ranks finally perish. Mr. Lloyd mentions that just before his visit to Werme-
land, the Lemming had overrun the whole country. ‘The primary cause
of these strange migrations is generally thought to be hunger. It is fortunate
for the country that these razzias only occur at rare intervals, a space of
some ten or fifteen years generally elapsing between them, as if to fill up

THE BEAVER. 141

the places of those which were drowned or otherwise killed in the preceding
migration.

The Lemming feeds upon various vegetable substances, such as grass,
reeds, and lichens, being often forced to seek the last-named plant beneath
the snow, and to make occasional air-shafts to the surface. Even when en-
gaged in their ordinary pursuits, and not excited by the migratorial instinct,
they are obstinately savage creatures. Mr. Metcalfe describes them as
swarming in the forest, sitting two or three on every stump, and biting the
dogs’ noses as they came to investigate the character of the irritable little
animals. If they happened to be in a pathway, they would not turn aside to
permit a passenger to move by them, but boldly disputed the right of way,
and uttered defiance in little sharp, squeaking barks.

The colour of the Lemming is dark brownish black, mixed irregularly with
a tawny hue upon the back, and fading into yellowish white upon the abdo-
ee Its length is not quite six inches, the tail being only half an inch
ong.

THE common BEAVER has earned a world-wide reputation by the wonder-
ful instinct which it displays, independently of its very great value in
producing costly fur and perfume.

This animal is found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia, but is found
in the greatest profusion in North America. In days long gone by, the
Beaver was an inhabitant of our own island.

The Beaver lives in societies, varying considerably in number, and united
together in the formation of works which may fairly be considered as belong-
ing to the profession of the engineer. They prefer to make their habitations
by small clear rivers and creeks, or close to large springs, although they
sometimes take up their abode on the banks of lakes.

Lest they should not have a sufficient depth of water in all weathers and
at all seasons, the Beavers are in the habit of building veritable dams, for the
purpose of raising the water to the required level. These dams are composed
of tree-branches, mud, and stones, and, in order effectually to resist the action
of the water, are about ten or twelve feet in thickness at the bottom,
although they are only two feet or so wide at the summit.

In forming the dam, the Beaver does not thrust the ends of the stakes
into the bed of the river, as is often supposed, but lays them down horizon-
tally, and keeps them in their place by heaping stones and mud upon them.
The logs of which the dam is composed are about three feet in length, and
vary extremely in thickness. Generally, they are about six or seven inches
in diameter, but they have been known to measure no less than eighteen
inches in diameter. An almost incredible number of these logs are required
for the completion of one dam, as may be supposed from the fact that a
single dam will sometimes be three hundred yards in length, ten or twelve
feet thick at the bottom, and of a height varying according to the depth of
water,

Before employing the logs in this structure, the Beavers take care to
separate the bark, which they carry away, and lay up for a winter store of
food.

Near the dams are built the beaver-houses or “lodges,” as they are termed ;
edifices as remarkable in their way as that which has just been mentioned.
They are chiefly composed of branches, moss, and mud, and will accommodate
five or six Beavers together. The form of an ordinarily sized Beaver’s lodge
is circular, and its cavity is about seven feet in diameter by three feet in
height. The walls of this structure are extremely thick, so that the external
measurement of the same lodges will be fifteen or twenty feet in diameter,
and seven or eight feet in height. The roofs are all finished off with a thick

142 THE BEAVER.

layer of mud, laid on with marvellous smoothness, and carefully renewed
every year. As this compost of mud, moss, and branches is congealed into
a solid mass by the severe frosts of a North American winter, it forms a very
sufficient defence against the attacks of the Beaver’s great enemy, the
wolverene, and cannot readily be broken through, even with the help of iron
tools. The precise manner in which the Beavers perform their various tasks
is not easy to discern, as the animals work only in the dark.

Around the lodges the Beavers excavate a rather large ditch, too deep to
be entirely frozen, and into this ditch the various lodges open, so that the
inhabitants can pass in or out
without hindrance. This precaution
is the more necessary, as they are
poor pedestrians, and never travel
by land as long as they can swim
by water. Each lodge is inhabited
by a small number of Beavers,
whose beds are arranged against
the wall, each bed being separate,
and the centre of the chamber being
left unoccupied.

In order to secure a store of
winter food, the Beavers take a
vast number of small logs, and
carefully fasten them under water
in the close vicinity of their lodges.

BEAVER.—(Castor Fiber.) When a Beaver feels hungry he
dives to the store-heap, drags out
a suitable log, carries it to a sheltered and dry spot, nibbles the bark away,
and then either permits the stripped log to float down the stream, or applies
it to the dam.

We must now bestow a little time on the curious odoriferous substance
which is called “castoreum” by the learned, and “bark-stone” by the
trappers. This substance is secreted in two glandular sacs which are placed
near the root of the tail, and gives out an extremely powerfu! odour.

To the castoreum the trapper is mostly indebted for his success, for the
Beavers are strangely attracted by this substance, and if their nostrils per-
ceive its distant scent, the animals will sit upright, sniff about in every direc-
tion, and absolutely squeal with excitement. Taking advantage of this
curious propensity, the hunter always carries a supply of castoreum, in a
closed vessel, and when he comes to a convenient spot for placing his trap,
he sets the trap and then proceeds to manufacture his bait. This process is
simple enough, consisting merely of taking a little twig of wood about nine
inches long, chewing one end of it, and dipping it in the castoreum. The
trap is now laid so as to be covered by about six inches of water, and the
stick arranged so that its perfumed tip projects from tue water. Any Beaver
which scents this bait will most certainly come to it, and will probably be
captured in the trap. :

THE ONDATRA, MUSQUASH, or MUSK Rat, is a native of Nortkern
America, where it is found in various places above the rwentieth degree of
north latitude.

The colour of this animal is a dark brown on the upper portions of its
body, tinged with a reddish hue upon its neck, ribs, and legs, the abdomen
being ashy yrey; the tail is of the same dark hue as the body. In total
length it rather exceeds two feet, of which measurement the tail occupies
about ten inches, The incisor teeth are bright yellow, and the naiis are

THE MUSQUASH. 143

white. The whole colouring of the animal is so wonderfully like the hue of
the muddy banks on which it resides, that a practised naturalist has often
mistaken the Ondatras for mere lumps of mud until they began to move, and
so dispelled the illusion. The hinder feet of the Ondatra are well webbed,
and their imprint on the soft mud is very like that of a common duck.

The food of the Ondatra in a wild state appears to be almost wholly of a
vegetable nature ; although, when confined in a cage, one of these animals
lvas been seen to eat mussels and oysters, cutting open the softest shells, and
extracting the inmates, and waiting for the hard-shelled specimens until they
either opened of their own accord or died. Although the Ondatra is a clumsy
walker, it will sometimes travel to some distance from the water-side, and has
been noticed on a spot nearly three-quarters of a mile from any water. These
animals have also been detected in ravaging a garden, which they had

MUSQUASH, OR MUSK RAT, OR ONDATRA.—(/iber Zibéthicus.)

plundered of turnips, parsnips, carrots, maize, and other vegetables. The
mischievous creatures had burrowed beneath them, bitten through their roots
and carried them away to their subterranean storehouses. The maize they.
had procured by cutting the stalks near the level of the ground.

The Ondatra lives mostly in burrows, which it digs in the banks of the
river in which it finds its food, but sometimes takes up its abode in a different
kind of habitation, according to the locality and the soil. In the stiff clay’
banks of rivers the Ondatra digs arather complicated series of tunnels, some,
of them extending to a distance of fifteen or twenty yards, and sloping
upwards. There are generally three or four entrances, all of which open
under water, and unite in a single chamber, where the Ondatra makes its
bed. The couch of the luxurious animal is composed of sedges, water-lily
leaves, and similar plants, and is so large as to fill a bushel basket. On

i

144. THE PORCUPINE.

marshy ground, and especially if it be supplied by springs, the Ondatra
builds little houses that rise about three or four feet above the water, and
look something like small haycocks.

THE PORCUPINE has long been rendered famous among men by the extra-
ordinary armoury of pointed spears which it bears upon its back, and which
it was formerly fabled to launch at its foes with fatal precision.

This animal inhabits many parts of the world, being found in Africa,
Southern Europe, and India, The spines or quills, with which it is furnished,
vary considerably in length, the longest quills being flexible and not capable
of doing much harm to an opponent. Beneath these is a plentiful supply of
shorter spines, from five to ten inches in length, which are the really effective
weapons of this imposing array. Their hold on the skin is very slight, so
that when they have been struck into a foe, they remain fixed in the wound,
and, unless immediately removed, work sad woe to the sufferer. For the
quill is so constructed that it gradually bores its way into the flesh, bur-
rowing deeper at every movement, and sometimes even causing the death of
the wounded creature. In
Africa and India, leopards
and tigers have frequently
been killed, in whose flesh
were pieces of Porcupine
quills that had penetrated
deeply into the body, and
had even caused suppura-
tion to take place. In one
instance a tiger was found
to have his paws, ears, and
head filled with the spines
of a Porcupine, which he
had vainly been endeavour-
ing to kill.

The Porcupine is a noc-
turnal animal, seldom ven-
turing out of its retreat as

PORCUPINE,—(Hystrix Cristdta.) long as the sun is above

the horizon, and is there-

fore not often seen even in the localities which it most prefers, It is said

not to require the presence of water, but to quench its thirst by eating the

succulent roots and plants which it digs out of the ground. Its food is

entirely of a vegetable nature, and consists of various kinds of herbage,

as well as of bark, fruit, and roots. This animal takes up its abode in

deep burrows which it excavates, and in which it is supposed to undergo a
partial hibernation. - ,

As the spines of the Porcupines are of some commercial value, and are
used for many purposes, the chase of the animal is rather popular in the
countries which it inhabits, and derives a further interest from the fact that
the Porcupine, although a timid creature, can make a very powerful resist-
ance when it is driven to despair. ;

The upper parts of the body are covered with hair instead of quills, and
upon the head and neck there is a kind of crest, composed of very long stiff
hairs, which can be erected or depressed at pleasure. Like the hedgehog, it
can coil itself into a ball when it is surprised at a distance from its haven of
refuge, and can present such an array of threatening spikes that it is quite
safe from any enemy excepting man. When, however, the animal is at peace,
it is capable of depressing the bristling spears, and can squeeze itself through

THE CANADIAN PORCUPINE. 145

an opening which would appear at first sight to be hardly large enough to
permit the passage of an animal of only half its size.

The total length of the common Porcupine is about three feet six inches,
the tail being about six inches long. Its gait is plantigrade, slow, and clumsy,
and as it walks, its long quills shake and rattle in a very curious manner.
Its muzzle is thick and heavy, and its eyes small and pig-like.

THE URSON, CaWQUAW, or CANADIAN PORCUPINE, is a native of North
America, where it is most destructive to the trees among which it lives.

Its chief food consists of living bark, which it strips from the branches as
cleanly as if it had been furnished with a sharp knife. When it begins to
feed, it ascends the tree, com- —
mences at the highest branches,
and eats its way regularly down-
ward. Having finished one tree,
it takes to another, and then
to athird, always choosing those
that run in the sare line; so
that its path through the woods
may easily be traced by the line
of barked and dying trees which
it leaves in its track. A single
Urson has been known to de-
stroy a hundred trees in a single
winter, and another is recorded
as having killed some two or
three acres of timber.

The Urson is not so fully
defended with spines as the
preceding animal, but is covered
with long, coarse, blackish brown
hair, among which the short
pointed quills are so deeply set,
that, except in the head, tail,
and hinder quarters, they are
scarcely perceptible. These
spines are dyed of various
colours by the American In-
dians, and are then used in the
decoration of their hunting-
pouches, mocassins, and other
articles, and after the quills are
extracted, the remainder of the
fur is sufficiently soft to be used
for clothing. The flesh .of the
Urson is considered eatable,
and is said to bear some re-
semblance to flabby pork.

The length of the Urson is
not quite four feet, the head
and body measuring rather more
than three feet, and the tail
about nine inches. The teeth are of a bright orange.

THE AGOUTI is a native of Brazil, Paraguay, Guiana, and other neigh-
bouring countries, but its numbers have been considerably thinned in many
spots where cultivation has been industriously carried on. In some of the

L

CANADIAN PORCUPINE OR URSON.
Lrethizon dorsdtum.

146 THE AGOUTI.

Antilles, where it formerly swarmed, it is now nearly extirpated, and in St.
Domingo is but rarely seen.

All its movements are sharp, quick, and active, and even while sitting
upright and engaged in feeding itself by the assistance of its fore-paws, its
head is continually being turned from side to side, and its bright eyes glance
in every direction in order to guard against a surprise. As it is a nocturnal
animal, and spends the whole of
the day in its dark hiding-place, its
ravages take place under cover of
night, and are the more difficult
to be repelled. Its usual resting
place is in the cleft of a rock, or
in the hollow of some decaying tree,
where twenty or thirty cf these
animals may be found living ami-
cably together.

AGOUTI.—(Dasyprocta Agouti.) In these dark recesses the young

Agoutis are born, and are laid

upon a soft bed of leaves, where they remain for a few weeks, and then sally

out with their parents on their nocturnal expedition. There are generally

two broods in each year, and the number of young at a birth is from three
iO Six.

The name Dasyprocta, which has been given to the genus, refers to the thick
hair which falls over the hind quarters, and nearly conceals the little pointed
stump ofa tail. The hair of this part of the body is a bright golden brown,
but on the back and sides the fur has a curious speckled aspect, on account
of the black, brown, and yellow tints with which each hair is marked.. On
the greater part of the body the fur is only about one inch in length, but the
golden brown hair of the hinder parts is more than four inches long. In
character it is coarse, though glossy.

THE CAPYBARA is a native of tropical America, and is by far the largest
of all the living rodent animals, rather exceeding three feet in total length,
and being ‘so bulkily made that when it walks its abdomen nearly touches the
ground. The muzzle of this animal is heavy and blunt, the eyes are set high
in the head and are moderate in
size, the tail is wanting, and the
toes are partially connected to-
gether by a development of the
skin. The colour of the Capybara
is rather indeterminate, owing to
the manner in which the hairs are
marked with black and yellow, so
that the general idea which its coat

: presents is a dingy, blackish grey,
CAPYBARA.—(Hydrocherus Capybdra.) with a tinge of yellow. :

It is a water-loving animal, using
its webbed feet with great power, and fleeing instinctively to the stream when
terrified by real or imaginary danger. It not only swims well, but is a good
diver ; and when endeavouring to escape from a foe, always tries to evade
its pursuer by diving as long as its breath will hold out, and only permitting
the top of its head to appear above the surface when it rises for the purpose
of respiration. As, however, it can remain under water for a space of eight
or ten minutes, it finds no difficulty in escaping from any ordinary foe, if
it can only gain the shelter of the welcome stream. The food of this
animal is exclusively vegetable, and its curious teeth are needed in order

Oe SS RH

THE GUINEA PIG. 147

to bruise the herbage on which it feeds into a mass sufficiently pulpy to
enable it to pass through the very narrow throat.

Few animals have received less appropriate names than the GUINEA PIG;
for it is not'a pig, but a rodent, and does not come from Guinea, but from
Southern America. Being a very pretty little creature, it is in some favour
as adomestic pet: and as itis remarkably prolific, it very rapidly increases in
numbers, if it is well defended from cold and preserved from damp.

The food of the Guinea Pig is exclusively of a vegetable nature, and while
feeding it generally sits on its hinder feet, and carries its food to its mouth
with its fore-paws.

An idea of the extreme fecundity of this animal may be formed from the
fact that it begins to breed at ten months of age, that each brood consists of
an average of six or eight, and that in less than six weeks after the birth ot

GUINEA PIG.—(Cdvia Aperéa.)

the young family they are driven to shift for themselves, and the mother is
then ready for another brood. The young Guinea Pigs are born with their
eyes open, and covered with hair, and do not attain their full dimensions
until they have reached the age of eight or nine months.

The colour of the Guinea Pig is very variable ; but is generally composed
of white, red, and black, in patches of different size and shape in each
individual.’ The bare portions of the skin are flesh-coloured, and the eye is
brown. The animal is of little direct use to mankind, as its flesh is held in
very low estimation, and its hair is so slightly attached to the skin that its
coat is useless to the furrier.

THE common HARE is known from the rabbit by the redder hue of its fur,
the great proportionate length of its black-tipped ears, which are nearly an
inch longer than the head ; by its very long hind legs, and its large and
prominent eyes. When fully grown it is of considerable size, weighing on
the average about eight or nine pounds, and sometimes attaining the weight
of twelve or even thirteen pounds. In total length it rather exceeds two feet,
the tail being about three inches long. The colour of the common Hare is
greyish brown on the upper portions of the body, mixed with a dash of yellow;
the abdomen is white, and the neck and breast are yellowish white. The
tail is black on the upper surface and white underneath, so that when the
creature runs it exhibits the white tail at every leap. Sometimes the colour.
of the Hare deepens into black, and there are many examples of albino
spécimens of this animal.

L2

148 THE HARE,

It is a wonderfully cunning animal, and is said by many who have closely
studied its habits to surpass the fox in ready ingenuity. Appearing to under-
stand the method by which the hounds are enabled to track its footsteps, it
employs the most crafty manceuvres for the purpose of throwing them off the
scent. Sometimes it will run forward for a considerable distance, and then,
after returning for a few hundred yards on the same track, will make a great
leap at right angles to its former course, and lie quietly hidden while the
hounds run past its spot of concealment. It then jumps back to its track,
and steals quietly out of sight in one direction, while the hounds are going in
the other.

The Hare does not live in burrows, like the rabbit, but only makes a slight
depression in the ground, in which she lies so flatly pressed to the earth that

sy

HARE. —(Lefus timidus.)

she can hardly be distinguished from the soil and dried herbage among which
she has taken up her temporary abode.

It is a tolerably prolific animal, beginning to breed when only a year old,
and producing four or five young at a litter. The young Hares, or “leverets,”
as they are technically termed, are born with their eyes open, and covered
with hair. For the space of four or five weeks they remain under the care of
their mother, but after that time they separate, and depend upon themselves
for subsistence. ‘ ‘

RESEMBLING the hare in general appearance and in many of its habits,
the Rapsit is readily distinguished from that animal by its smaller dimen-
sions, its different colour, its shorter and uniformly brown ears, and its
shorter limbs.

The Rabbit is one of the most familiar of British quadrupeds, having taken
firm possession of the soil into which it has been imported, and multiplied to
so great an extent that its numbers can hardly be kept within proper bounds
without annual and wholesale massacres. As it is more tameable than the
hare, it has long been ranked amongst the chief of domestic pets, and has been
so modified by careful management that it has developed itself into many

THE RABBIT. 149

permanent varieties, which would be considered as different species by one
who saw them for the first time.

The burrows in which the Rabbit lives are extremely irregular in their
construction, and often communicate with each other to a remarkable extent.

From many of its foes the Rabbit escapes by diving suddenly into its
burrow; but there are some animals, such as the stoat, weasel, and ferret,
which follow it into its subterranean abode and slay it within the precincts of
its own home.

When the female Rabbit is about to become a mother, she quits the
ordinary burrows, and digs a special tunnel for the purpose of sheltering her
young family during their first few weeks of life. At the extremity of the
burrow she places a large quantity of dried herbage intermixed with down
which she plucks from her own body, so as to make a soft and warm bed for
the expected occupants. The young Rabbits are about seven or eight in

RABBIT. —(Lepus cuntculus.)

number, and are born without hair and with their eyes closed. Not until
they have attained the age of ten or twelve days are they able to open their
eyelids and to see the world into which they have been brought.

Rabbits are terribly destructive animals, as is too well known to all residents
near a warren, and are sad depredators in field, garden, and plantation,
destroying in very wantonness hundreds of plants which they do not care to
eat. They do very great damage to young trees, delighting in stripping them
of the tender bark as far as they can reach while standing on their hind feet.
Sometimes they eat the bark, but in many cases they leave it in heaps upon
the ground, having chiselled it from the tree on which it grew, and to which
it afforded nourishment, merely for the sake ot exercising their teeth and keep-
ing them in proper order, just as a cat delights in clawing the legs of chaivs
and tables.

In its native state the fur of the Rabbit is nearly uniform brown, but when
the animal is domesticated its coat assumes a variety of hues, such as pure
white, jetty black, pied dun, slated grey, and many other tints.

THE CHINCHILLA, so well known for its exquisitely soft and delicate fur,
belongs to the group of animals which are known to zoologists under the
title of Jerboidee, and which are remarkable for the great comparative length
of their hinder limbs, and their long hair-clothed tails.

The Chinchilla is an inhabitant of Southern America, living chiefly among
the higher mountainous districts, where its thick silken fur is of infinite

tv0 THE CHINCHILLA.

service in protecting it from the cold. Itisa burrowing antmal, digging ix
subterranean homes in the valleys which intersect the hilly country in wh.c
it lives, and banding together in great numbers in certain favoured localities,
‘Lhe food of the Chinchilla is exclusively of a vegetable nature, and consists
chiefly of various bulbous roots. While feeding it sits upon its hinder feet
and conveys the food to its mouth with its fore-feet, which it uses with singular
adroitness. It is a most exquisitely cleanly animal, as might be supposed
from the beautiful delicacy of its fur, for we may always remark, that when-

CHINCHILLA —(Chinchilla léniger.)

ever an animal is reinarkable for the colouring or the texture of its natural
robes, it is always most assiduous in preserving them from any substance
that might stain their purity or clog their fibres.

The fur of the Chinchilla is of a delicate clear grey upon the back,
softening into a greyish white on the under portions, and its texture is
marvellously soft and fine.

THE GERBOAS bear a curious resemblance to the kangaroos, not only in
their general appearance, but in many of their habits. Like those animals,
they leap over distances which are absolutely enormous when the size of their
bodies is taken into consideration ; they constantly sit upright in order to
observe surrounding objects, their food is of the same nature, and they carry
it to their mouths in a similar manner. Their fore-limbs are extremely short,
while their hinder legs are developed to a very great extent, and they are all
furnished with a long, hair-clad tail, which serves to aid them in preserving
their balance while shooting through the air.

The most familiar of these singular creatures is the common GERBOA of
Northern Africa. This beautiful and active little animal is hardly larger than
an ordinary English rat, although its peculiar attitudes and its extremely long
tail give it an appearance of greater dimensions than it really possesses.
The general colour of its fur is a light dun, washed with yellow, the abdomen
being nearly white. The tail is of very great proportionate length, is

THE GERBOA. 157

cylindrical in shape, and tufted at its extremity with stiff black hairs, the
extreme tip being white. ;

The Gerboa is a burrowing animal, and lives in society, so that it forms
large natural “ warrens” in those parts of the country where it takes up its
residence. [It is much hunted by
the natives, who set some store
by its rather unpalatable flesh, and
is captured by stopping up as many
burrows as can conveniently be
reached, and killing the Gerboas
as they rush affrighted from the
open entrances. ‘This is, indeed,
almost the only successful mode
of capturing these fleet and agile
creatures ; for if they can once leap
away from the immediate vicinity
of their pursuers, they scour over
the ground with such wonderful
speed that they can hardly be
overtaken even by a trained grey
hound.

The food of these animals con-
sists chiefly of roots and similar substances, which it digs out of the earth,
but it also feeds on various kinds of grain.

NEXT in order to the Gerboas is placed the small group of animals which
are sufficiently familiar by the name of DORMICE. This term signifies
“Sleepy Mouse,” and is most appropriate to the lethargic little creatures,
which spend the greater part of their time in somnolency.

The common DORMOUSE is abundantly found in many districts of England,
as well as on the Continent, and is in great favour as a domestic pet. The
total length of this pretty little animal is rather more than five inches, the
tail being two inches and a half long. The colour of its fur is a light reddish
brown upon the back, yellowish white upon the abdomen, and white on the
throat. These tints belong to the adult animal only, as in the juvenile
Dormouse the fur is nearly of the same colour as that of the common mouse,
the ruddy tinge only appearing on the head and sides. It is not until the
little creatures have nearly completed a year of existence that they assume
the beautiful hues of adult age. The tail is thickly covered with hair, which
is arranged in a double row throughout its length, and forms a slight tuft at
the extremity. The head is rather large in proportion to the body, the ears
are large and broad, and the eye full, black, and slightly prominent.

The Dormouse is a nocturnal animal, passing the whole of the day in its
warm and neatly constructed nest, which is generally built in the most
retired spot of some thick bush or small tree. It is a very active little
creature, leaping from branch to branch, and traversing the intricate mazes
of the brushwood with such ready featness that it can scarcely be taken by
a human hand. The food of the Dormouse consists of various fruits and
seeds, such as acorns, nuts, haws, and corn, :

As the animal is one of the hibernators, it is in the habit of gathering
together a supply of dried food, to afford occasional nourishment during the
long wintry months when it lies in its bed, imprisoned in the bands of irre-
sistible sleep. Like many other hibernating animals, the Dormouse becomes
exceedingly fat towards the end of autumn, and is therefore enabled to
withstand the severity of the winter season better than if it retired into its
home in only its ordinary condition, As soon as the weather becomes cold,

1§2 THE DORMOUSE,

the Dormouse retires into its nest, and there slumbers throughout the entire
winter, waking up for a short period whenever a milder temperature breaks
the severity of the frost, and, after taking a little nourishment, sinking again
into its former lethargy.

The Dormouse is rather gregarious in its habits, so that whenever one nest
is discovered several others may generally be found at no great distance.
These nests are of considerable
dimensions, being about six
inches in diameter, and are
composed of grass, leaves, and
similar substances. The en-
trance io the nest is at the side.

The young animals are gener-
ally three or four in number at
a birth, and make their appear-
ance about the end of spring or
the beginning of summer. It
is probable that there may be a
second brood towards the end
of autumn, as Mr, Bell received
from one locality in the month
of September one half-grown
Dormouse, which had evidently
been born in the spring, and
three very little specimens, which
were apparently not more than
a week or two old. They are
born blind, but are able to see in
avery few days, and in a remark-
ably short space of time become
independent of their parents.

THE beautiful and active
group of animals of which our
English SQUIRREL is so familiar
an example, are found in almost
every portion of the globe, and,
with one or two exceptions, live
almost exclusively among the
branches of trees. In order
to enable them to maintain a
firm clasp upon the branches
and bark, they are furmished
with long finger-like toes upon
the fore-feet, which are armed
with sharp curved claws.

IN the FLYING SQUIRRELS,
of which the TAGUAN is a good example, the skin of the flanks is modified
in a method similar to that which has already been noticed in the Petaurists.
The skin is so largely developed, that when the animal is sitting at its ease,
its paws but just appear from under the soft folds of the delicate and fur-
clad membrane. When the creature intends to make one of its marvellous
leaps, it stretches all its four limbs to their fullest extent, and is upborne
through the air on the parachute-like expansion which extends along its sides.

This animal is a native of India, where it is tolerably common. ;

It is rather a large species, as its total length is nearly three feet, the tail

THE TAGUAN FLYING SQUIRREL. 153

occupying about one foot eight inches, measured to the extremity of the long
hairs with which it is so thickly clothed. The general colour of this animal
is a clear chestnut, deepening into brown on the back, and becoming more
ruddy on the sides. The little pointed ears are covered with short and soft
fur of a delicate brown, and the tail is heavily clad with bushy hairs, greyish
black on the basal portions of that member, and sooty black towards the
extremity. The parachute membrane is delicately thin, scarcely thicker than
ordinary writing-paper, when it is stretched to its utmost, and is covered with
hair on both its surfaces, the fur of the upper side being chestnut, and that

TAGUAN FLYING SQUIRREL.—(Pééromys Petaurista.)

of the lower surface nearly white. A stripe of greyish black hairs marks the
edge of the membrane, and the entire abdomen of the animal, together with
the throat and the breast, is covered with beautiful silver greyish white fur.

The true Squirrels possess no parachute flying membrane, as do the Flying
Squirrels, nor are they furnished with cheek-pouches, as is the case with the
Ground Squirrels in America.

ONE of the most handsome of the Squirrels is the JELERANG, or JAVAN
SQUIRREL, a native of Java, part of India, and Cochin China. Its total
length is about two feet, the tail and body being equal to each other in
measurement. In colour it is one of the most variable of animals, so that it has
been more than once described under different names. In the British
Museum are several specimens of this animal, and all of them present many
varieties in point of colour, while some are so very unlike each other that
most persons would consider them to be separate species. Some specimens of
thigYanimal are pale yellow, while others are deep brown ; in some the colour is
tolerably uniform, while in others it is variously pied, but in all there seems to

pl

be a tolerably decided contrast between a darker and lighter tint. From

154 THE ¥ELERANG.

this circumstance it has sometimes been termed Scc#rus bicolor, or the Two-
coloured Squirrel.

In general, the darker hue prevails on the back and upper portions of the
body, and the lighter tint is abruptly separated from it by a decided line of
demarcation. ‘Lhe usual colour of the Jelerang is a dark brownish black on
the back, the top of the head
yellowish, and the sides and
abdomen golden yellow.

The Jelerang is rather com-
mon i: the countries which it
inhabits, and as it is very retiring
in its habits, and dreads the
proximity of mankind, it is not
so mischievous a neighbour as
is the case with the greater num-
ber of the Squirrels. It lives
chiefly in the depths of the
forests, and feeds upon the wild
fruits that grow without any aid
from the hand of mankind. It
is easily tamed, and being an
active, arnusing animal, as well
as possessed of a_ beautifully
marked coat, is often domesti-
cated among the inhabitants of
the same country. The flesh of
the Jelerang is thought to be
very good, and is eaten by the
natives.

EVERYONE is familiar with the
lively English SQUIRREL, which
makes the woocs joyous with
its active gambols, and is so
often repaid for its gaiety by
being captured and comrelled
to make sport for its owner
within the nariow precincts of
a wie cage.

This little animal is plentiful
in many parts of England, and
indeed, is generally found
wherever there is a tolerably
large copse, or a wood of
moderate dimensions. In _pri-
vate grounds and parks it luxuri-
ates, knowing instinctively that
it may wander at its own will, unchecked and unharmed. Among the tree
branches its powers of activity are absolutely surprising, for it will fling
itself through such distances, and at such a height, that it seems likely to
be dashed to pieces every instant. Yet it very seldom makes a false step,
and even if it should lose its foothold, it is not at all disconcerted, but
spreads out its legs and bushy tail to their utmost expansion, so that it presegts
a large surface to the air, and comes quite lightly to the earth, even though
it may have leaped from a considerable height. at . :

On the ground it is not so much at its ease as when it is careering amid

JELERANG, OR JAVAN SQUIRREL.—(Scdvivus
Favensis.)

THE SQUIRREL. 155

the branches of some large tree, and, as soon as it feels alarmed, always
makes the best of its way towards the nearest tree-trunk. Its gait is a kind
of semi-gallop, and even when ascending a perpendicular tree-stem it main-
tains the same galloping movements, and ascends to a considerable height
in a very small space of time.

During the hotter hours of the day the Squirrel is never seen, being quietly
asleep in its lofty nest ; but in the early morning, or in the cooler hours of
the afternoon, it comes from its retreat, and may be seen leaping about the
branches in search of the various fruits on which it feeds.

The nest of the squirrel is an admirable specimen of natural architecture
and is almost invariably placed in the fork of some lofty branch, where it is
concealed from the view of anyone passing under the tree, and is out of the’
reach of any ordinary foe, even if its situation were discovered. Sometimes
it is built in the hollow of a decayed bough, but it is always admirably con-

SQUIRREL.—(Scizt us Europius.)

cealed from sight. In form it is neariy spherical, and is made of leaves,
moss, grass, and other substances, woven together in so artistic a manner
that it is impermeable to rain, and cannot be dislodged from its resting-place
by the most violent wind. A single pair of Squirrels inhabit the same nest,
and seem to consider some pu.rtucular tree as their home, remaining in it
year after year,

The female Squirrel produces about three or four young at a litter, the
little ones being born in the middle of summer, and remaining under the
care of their parents until the spring of the succeeding year, when they
separate and shift for themselves.

The food of the Squirrel is usually of a vegetable nature, and consists of
nuts, acorns, wheat, and other fruits and seeds. Being a hibernating
animal, the Squirrel is in the habit of laying up a winter store of provisions,
and towards the end of autumn, while acorns and nuts are in their prime,
becomes very busy in gathering certain little treasures, which it hides in all
kinds of nooks, crevices, and holes, near the tree in which it lodges. The
creature must be endowed with a very accurate memory, for it always

156 THE CHIPPING SQUIRREL.

remembers the spots where it has deposited its store of food, and even when
the snow lies thickly upon the earth, and has covered the ground with a
uniform white mantle, the Squirrel betrays no perplexity, but whenever it
requires nourishment, goes straight to the hidden storehouse, scratches away
tke snow, and disinters its hidden treasures.

Sometimes the food of the Squirrel is not limited to vegetable substances,
as the animal possesses something of the carnivorous nature, and has been
often found guilty of killing and eating sundry animated things. Young
birds, eggs, and various insects are eaten by the Squirrel, who has been
detected in the very act of plundering a nest, and carrying off one of the
young birds.

The usual colour of the Squirrel’s fur is a ruddy brown upon the back, and
a greyish white on the under portions of the body. It is, however, a most
variable animal in point of colour, the tint of its fur changing according to
the country which it inhabits. Even in England the ruddy fur is sometimes
changed to grey during a severe winter, and in Siberia it is generally of
a bluish grey. The feathery tufts of hair which fringe the ears are liable
to great modification, being very long and full in winter and in cold climates,
and almost entirely lost during the hotter summer months of our own
country. .

THERE are so many species of the Squirrel tribe, that even a cursory
notice of each animal would be wholly impracticable in a work of the present
dimensions, and we must content ourselves with a brief description of those
species which stand out more boldly from the rest, by reason of form, colour,
or peculiar havi.

GROUND SQUIRREL, OR HACKEE.—( Zémias Lystert.)

THE HACKEE, or CHIPPING SQUIRREL, as it is sometimes termed, is
one of the most familiar of North American quadrupeds, and is found in
great numbers in almost every locality. Itis a truly beautiful little creature,
and deserving of notice both on account of the dainty elegance of its form
and the pleasing tints with which its coat is decked. The general colour of
the Hackee is a brownish grey on the back, warming into orange-brown on
the forehead and the hinder quarters. Upon the back and sides are drawn

THE PRAIRIE DOG. 157

five longitudinal black stripes and two streaks of yellowish white, so that it
is a most conspicuous little creature, and by these peculiar stripes may
easily be distinguished from any other animal. The abdomen and throat are
white. It is slightly variable in colour according to the locality in which it
exists, and has been known to be so capricious of hue as to furnish specimens
of pure white and jet black. As a fur it is extremely elegant, and if it were
not quite so common would long since have taken nearly as high a rank as
the sable or ermine.

The length of the Hackee is about eleven inches, the tail being about four
inches and a half inlength. It is, however, slightly variable in dimensions
as well as in colour.

The Hackee is one of the liveliest and briskest of quadrupeds, and by
reason of its quick and rapid movements, has not inaptly been compared
with the wren. It is chiefly seen among brushwood and small timber ; and
as it whisks about the branches, or shoots through theii interstices with its
peculiar quick, jerking movements, and its odd, quaint, little clucking cry,
like the chip-chipping of newly-hatched chickens, the analogy between itself
and the bird is very apparent. As it is found in such plenty, and is a bold
little creature, it is much persecuted by small boys, who, although they are
not big or wise enough to be entrusted with guns, wherewith to work the
destruction of larger game, arm themselves with long sticks, and by dexterous
management knock down many a Hackee as it tries to escape frum its
pursuers by running along the rail fences. Among boys the popular name
of the Hackee is the “ Chipmuck.”

It is a burrowing animal, making its little tunnels in various retired spots,
but generally preferring an old tree, or the earth which is sheltered by a wall,
a fence, ora bank. The burrows are rather complicated, and as they run
to some length, the task of digging the animal out of its retreat is no easy one.

THE well-known PRAIRIE DoG, as it is called, is not a dog at all, but
belongs to the Marmots. It is found in very great plenty along the coast of
the Missouri and its tributaries, and also near the River Platte. It congregates
together in vast numbers in certain spots where the soil is favourable to its
subterranean habits of life, and the vegetation is sufficiently luxuriant to
afford it nourishment. The colour of this animal is reddish brown upon the
back, mixed with grey and black in a rather vague manner. The abdomen
and throat are greyish white, and the short tail is clothed for the first half
of its length with hair of the same tint as that of the body, and for the
remaining half is covered with deep blackish brown hair, forming a kind of
brush. The cheek-pouches are rather small, and the incisor teeth are large
and protruding from the mouth. The length of the animal rather exceeds
sixteen inches, the tail being a little more than three inches long. The cheek-
pouches are about three-quarters of an inch in depth, and are half that
measurement in diameter.

The Prairie Dog is a burrowing animal, and as it is very gregarious in its
habits, the spot on which it congregates is literally heneycombed with its
tunnels. There is, however, a kind of order observed in the “ dog-towns,”
as these warrens are popularly called, for the animals always leave certain
roads or streets in which no burrow is made. The affairs of the community
seem to be regulated by a single leader, called the Big Dog, who sits before
the entrance of his burrow, and issues his orders from thence to the com-
munity. In front of every burrow a small heap of mould is raised, which is
made from the excavated soil, and which is generally employed as a seat for
the occupant of the burrow.

As long as no danger is apprehended the little animals are all in lively
motion, sitting upon their mounds, or hurrying from one tunnel to another as

158 THE PRAIRIE DOG.

eagerly as if they were transacting the most important business. Suddenly
a sharp yelp is heard, and the peaceful scene is ina moment transformed into
a whirl of indistinguishable confusion. Quick barks resound on every side,
the air is filled with a dust-cloud, in the midst of which is indistinctly seen
an intermingled mass of flourishing legs and whisking tails, and in a moment
the populous “town” is deserted. Not a “dog” is visible, and the whole
spot is apparently untenanted. But ina few minutes a pair of dark eyes are
seen gleaming at the entrance of some burrow, a set of glistening teeth next
shine through the dusky recess, and in a few minutes first one and then
another Prairie Dog issues from his retreat, until the whole community is
again in lively action,

PRAIRIE DOG, OR WISH-TON-WISH.—(Spermédphilus Ludovicidnus.)

The title of Prairie Dog has been given to this animal on account of the
sharp yelping sounds which it is in the habit of uttering, and which have
some resemblance to the barking of a very small and very peevish lap-dog.
Every time that it yelps it gives its tail a smart jerk. This peculiar sound
is evidently employed as a cry of alarm ; for as soon as it is uttered all the
Prairie Dogs dive into their burrows, and do not emerge again until they
hear the shrill whistle which tells them that the danger is past.

The burrows of the Prairie Dogs are generally made at an angle of forty
degrees, and after being sunk for some little distance, run horizontally, or
even rise towards the surface of the earth. It is well known that these
burrows are not only inhabited by the legitimate owners and excavators, but
are shared by the burrowing owl and the rattlesnake. According to popular
belief, the three creatures live very harmoniously together; but careful
observations have shown that the snake and the owl are interlopers, living
in the burrows because the poor owners cannot turn them out, and finding
an easy subsistence on the young Prairie Dogs. A rattlesnake has been

THE MARMOT. 159
killed near a burrow, and when the reptile was dissected, a Prairie Dog was
found in its stomach.

THE common MARMOT is about the size of an ordinary rabbit, and not
very unlike that animal in colour. The general tint of the fur is greyish
yellow upon the back and flanks, deepening into black-grey on the top of the
head, and into black on the extremity of the tail. It is very common in all
the mountainous districts of Northern Europe, where it associates in small
societies. The Marmot is an expert excavator, and digs very large and rather
complicated burrows, always appearing to reserve one chamber as a store-
house for the heap of dried grasses and other similar substances which it
amasses for the purpose of sustaining life during the winter. The chamber
in which the animal lives and sleeps is considerably larger than the store-
house, measuring, in some cases, as much as seven feet in diameter. The
tunnel which leads to these chambers is only just large enough to admit the
body of the animal, and is about six feet in length,

WY

MARMOT.—(A7r’ctomys Marmotta.)

To these burrows the Marmot retires about the middle of September, and
after closing the entrance with grass and earth, enters into the lethargic
hibernating state, and does not emerge until the beginning of April. Like
other hibernating animals, they are very fat just before they take.up their
winter quarters, and as their fur is then in the best condition, they are
eagerly sought after by the human inhabitants of the same country. The
burrow of the Marmot is always dug in dry soil, and is seldom known to be
at all above, or very much below, the line of perpetual snow. :

AT the end of the rodents are placed the singular animals which are
grouped together under the title of Aspaldcide, or Mole Rats, the word
Aspalax, or Spalax, being the Greek term for a mole. The incisor teeth of
‘these animals are extremely large, and project beyond the lips. The external
ears are either wholly wanting or are of very smafl dimensions. The eyes are
small, and in some species are concealed by the skin. The body is heavily
and clumsily made, the tail is either very short or entirely absent, and the
head is large and rounded.

THE common MOLE RAT, which is also known by its Russian name of

160 THE SLEPEZ.

SLEPEZ, is a native of Southern Russia, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and
Syria. Like the ordinary mole, to which it bears no little external resem-
blance, it passes its existence in the subterranean tunnels which it excavates
by means of its powerful claws. As it but seldom ventures into the light
of day, it stands in no need of visual organs, but is compensated for their
absence by the very large development of the organs of hearing. The place
of the eyes is taken by two little round black specks, which lie under the fur-
covered skin, so that even if they were sensitive to light, they would be
unable to perceive the brightest rays of the noontide sun. The ears, however,

SLEPEZ MOLE RAT.—(Sfalax Typhlus.)

are extremely large, and the hearing is exceedingly sensitive, so that the
animal receives earlier information of danger through its sense of hearing
than through that of sight, which latter faculty would indeed be useless in its
dark abode. Sometimes the Slepez leaves the burrow and lies basking in
the warm sunshine, but upon the least alarm or unexpected sound it plunges
into its tunnel, and will not again make its appearance until it feels perfectly
assured of safety.

The general colour of the Slepez is a very light brown, slightly tinged with
red in some parts, and fading into an ashen grey in others. Its total length
is about ten or eleven inches, and the tail is wanting. The head is broad,
flat on the crown, and terminates abruptly at the muzzle. The feet are short,
and the claws small.

THE incisor teeth of the COAST RaT or SAND MOLE are even larger in
proportion than those of the preceding animal, and those of the upper jaw are
marked by a groove running throughout their length. The fore-feet are
furnished with long and powerful claws, that of the second toe being the
largest. The eyes are exceedingly small, the external ears are wanting, and
the tail is extremely short.

THE COAST RAT, OR SAND MOLE. 161

The Coast Rat is an inhabitant of the Cape of Good Hope and the coasts
of Southern Africa, where it is found in tolerable profusion, and drives such
multitudes of shallow tunnels that the ground which it frequents is rather
dangerous for horsemen, and not at all pleasant even to a man on foot. The

5 Se

COAST RAT, OR SAND MOLE.—(Bathyergus Maritimus.)

burrows are made at so short a distance from the surface that the earth gives
way under the tread of any moderately heavy animal. Mr. Burchell, the
well-known African traveller, narrates that in traversing the great sand flats of

BAY BAMBOO RAT.—(Rizzomys badius.)

Southern Africa he was often endangered by his feet sinking into the burrows

of the Coast Rat, which had undermined the light soil in every direction,

The animal is rather slow of foot upon the surface of the ground, but drives

its subterranean tunnels with marvellous rapidity, throwing up little sandy
M

162 THE DOMESTIC. OX.

hillocks at intervals, like those of the.common mole. On account of this
propensity it has received the name of Zand Mall, or Sand Mole, from the
Dutch Boers who inhabit the Cape.

The colour of the Sand Mole is a uniformly light greyish-brown, rather
variable in tinting. As it is very soft and full in texture, and can be obtained
in great quantities, it might be profitably made a regular article of trade.
The Sand Mole is as large as our ordinary wild rabbit, being about fifteen
inches in total length, the tail measuring about three inches.

THE Bay BaMBOO Rar is one representative of the genus Rhizomys, of
which there are several species.

This animal is a native of Nepal, Malacca, and China, and is very injurious
to the bamboos, on the roots of which it feeds. In size it equals a rather
small rabbit, and in colour it is of a uniform ruddy brown, slightly paler on
the throat and abdomen. The long incisor teeth are faced with bright red
enamel, which gives them a rather conspicuous appearance; the tail is short
and marked, and the claws are rather small. The head is of a peculiar form,
which will be better understood from the engraving than by description alone,

OXEN:

IN the large and important group of animals which now occupy our
attention, the incisor teeth are entirely absent in the upper jaw, and are eight
in number in the lower. There are six molars on each side of each jaw.
The two middle toes of each foot are separate, and are furnished with hoofs
instead of claws. From the frontal bones proceed two excrescences, which
are generally armed with horns, particularly in the male animal. The
structure of the stomach and gullet is very remarkable, and is employed in
producing that peculiar action which is called “ruminating,” or chewing
the cud.

The Domestic Ox of Europe has been so modified in form, habits, and
dimensions, by its long intercourse with mankind, that it has developed into
as many permanent varieties as the dog, the pigeon, or the rabbit, and would
in many cases be thought to belong to different species. Among the principal
varieties of this animal may be noticed the Long-horned, the Short-horned,
and the Polled or hornless breeds, and the Alderney cow, so celebrated for
the quantity and quality of the milk which it daily furnishes. In almost
every part of the world are found examples of the Ox, variously modified in
order to suit the peculiar circumstances amid which they are placed, but in
all instances they are susceptible of domestication, and are employed in the
service of mankind.

There are few animals which are more thoroughly useful to man than the
Ox, or whose loss we should feel more deeply in the privation of so many com-
forts. Putting aside the two obvious benefits of its flesh and its milk—both
of which are so needful for our comfort that we almost forget to think about
them at all—we derive very great benefit from its powers while living, and
from many portions of its body when dead.

In many parts of England, Oxen are still employed in agricultural labour,
drawing the plough or waggon with a slow but steady ploughing gait. The car-
penter would find himself sadly at a loss were his supply of glue to be suddenly
checked by the disappearance of the animal, from whose hoofs, ears, and
hide-parings the greater part of that useful material is manufactured. The
harness-maker, carriage-builder,and shoemaker would in that case be deprived
of a most valuable article in their trade; the cutler and ivory turner would
lose a considerable portion of the rough material upon which they work ; the

THE OX. 163

builder would find his best ;laster sadly impaired without a proper admixture
of cow’s hair ; and the practical chemist would be greatly at a loss for some
of his most valuable productions if the entire Ox tribe were swept from the
earth. Not even the very intestines are allowed to be wasted, but are
employed for a variety
of purposes and in
a variety of trades.
Sometimes the bones
are subjected to a pro-
cess which extracts
every nutritious par-
ticle out of them, and
even in that case, the
remaining innutritious
portions of the bones
are made useful by
being calcined, and
manufactured into the
animal charcoal which
has lately been so y
largely employed in sane

many of the arts and a BE el po

sciences. THE Ox.—(Bos.)

The Domestic Cow
is too well known to need any detailed description of form and colour.
Few persons, however, except those who have been personally conversant
with these animals, have any idea of their intelligent and affectionate
natures.

As the Oxen, in common with the sheep, camel, giraffe, and deer, require a
large amount of vegetable food, and are, while in their native regions, subject
to innumerable disturbing causes that would effectually prevent them from
Satisfying their hunger in an ordinary manner, they are furnished with a
peculiar arrangement of the stomach and digestive organs, by means of which
they are enabled to gather hastily a large ainount of food in any spot where
the vegetation is luxuriant, and to postpone the business of mastication and
digestion to a time when they may be less likely to be disturbed. The
peculiarity of structure lies chiefly in the stomach and gullet, which are
formed so as to act as an internal food-pouch, analogous in its use to the
cheek-pouches of certain monkeys and rodents, together with an arrange-
ment for regurgitating the food into the mouth at the will of the animal,
previous to its mastication and digestion.

The domestic cattle of India are commonly known by the name of ZEBU,
and are conspicuous for the curious fatty hump which projects from the withers,
These animals are further remarkable for the heavy dewlap which falls in
thick folds from the throat, and which gives to the forepart of the animal a
very characteristic aspect. The limbs are slender, and the back, after rising
towards the haunches, falls suddenly at the tail.

THE Zebu is a quiet and intelligent animal, and is capable of being trained
in various modes for the service of mankind. It is a good draught animal,
and is harnessed either to carriages or to ploughs, which it can draw with
great steadiness, though with but little speed. Sometimes it is used for
riding, and is possessed of considerable endurance, being capable of carrying
a rider for fifteen hours a day, at an average rate of five or six miles per hour.

The Zebu race has a very wide range of locality, being found in India,
China, Madagascar, and the eastern coast of Africa, It is believed, however,

M 2

164 THE ZEBU.

that its native land is India, and that it must have been imported from thence
into other countries. ;

There are various breeds of Zebu, some being about the size of our ordinary
cattle, and others varying in dimensions from a large Ox to a small New-
foundland dog. One of the
most familiar of these varie-
ties is the well-known Brah-
min Bull, so called because
it is considered to be sacred
to Bramah.

The more religious among
the Hindoos, scrupulously
observant of the letter of a
law which was intended to
be universal in its applica-
tion, but to which they give
only a partial interpretation,
indulge this animal in the
most absurd manner. They
place the sacred mark of
Siva on its body, and permit
it to wander about at its own

ZEBU.—(Bos Indicus.) sweet will, pampered by

every luxury, and never op-

posed in any wish or caprice which it may form. A Brahmin Bull will

walk along the street with a quaintly dignified air, inspect anything and any-

body that may excite his curiosity, force any one to make way for himself,

and if he should happen to take a fancy to the contents of a fruiterer’s or

greengrocer’s shop, will déliberately make his chvice and satisfy his wishes,

none daring to cross him. The indulgence which is extended to this animal

is carried to so great a height, that if a Brahmin Bull choses to lie down in
a narrow lane, no one can pass until he gets up of his own accord.

THE BUFFALO is spread over a wide range of country, being found in
Southern Europe, North Africa, India, and a few other localities.

This animal is subject to considerable modifications in external aspect,
according to the climate or the particular locality in which it resides, and
has in consequence been mentioned under very different names. In all cases
the wild animals are larger and more powerful than their domesticated
relations, and in many instances the slightly different shape and greater or
lesser length of the horns, or the skin denuded of hairs, have been considered
as sufficient evidence of separate species.

In India, the long, smooth-horned variety chiefly prevails, and is found
in tolerable profusion. This animal frequents wet and marshy localities,
being sometimes called the Water Buffalo on account of its aquatic predilec-
tions. It is a most fierce and dangerous animal, savage to a marvellous
degree, and not hesitating to charge any animal that may arouse its ready
ire. An angry buffalo has been known to attack a tolerably sized elephant,
and by a vigorous charge in the ribs to prostrate its huge foe. Even the
tiger is found to quail before the Buffalo, and displays the greatest uneasiness
in its presence.

THE ARNEE lives in large herds, arranged after the manner of all bovine
animals, the females and young being always placed in the safest spots,
while the males post themselves in all positions of danger. These herds are
never seen on elevated ground, preferring the low marshy districts where
water and mud are abundant. In this mud they love to wallow, and when

THE CAPE BUFFALO. 165

suddenly roused from their strange pastime, present a most terrible appear-
ance, their eyes glaring fiercely from amid the mud-covered dripping masses
of hair. Sometimes the Buffalo is said to fall a victim to its propensity for
wallowing in the mud, and to be stuck so firmly in the oozy slime, as it dries
under the scorching
sunbeams of that burn-
ing climate, that it can
be killed without dan-
ger. They generally
chewthecud while they
are lying immersed in
mud or water.

The CAPE BUFFALO
is quite as formidable
an animal as its Indi-
an relative, and much
more terrible in out-
ward aspect. The
heavy bases of the
horns, that nearly unite
over the forehead, and = ~
under which the little NISS SS
fierce eyes twinkle with BUFFALO.—(Budalus buffelus.)
sullen rays, give to the ‘
creature’s countenance an appearance of morose, lowering ill-temper, which
is in perfect accordance with its real character.

Owing to the enormous heavy mass which is situated on the forehead, the
Cape Buffalo does not see very well ina straight line, so that aman may some-
times cross the track of a Buffalo within a hundred yards, and not be seen
by the animal, provided that he walks quietly, and does not attract attention
by the sound of his foot-
steps. This animal is ever
a dangerous neighbour, but
when it leads a solitary life
among the thickets and
marshy places, it is a worse
antagonist to a casual pas-
senger than even the lion
himself. In such a case, it
has an unpleasant habit of ¥
remaining quietly in its lair
until the unsuspecting travel-
ler passes closely to its place
of concealment, and then,
leaping suddenly upon him
like some terrible monster 2
of the waters, dripping with Zi Ww,
mud, and filled with rage. at fi

Many such tragical in- CAPE BUFFALO.—(Bubalus Caffer.)
cidents have occurred,
chiefly, it must be acknowledged, owing to the imprudence of the sufferer :
and there are few coverts in Southern Africa which are not celebrated for
some such terrible incident. Sometimes the animal is so recklessly furious
in its unreasoning anger, that it absolutely blinds itself by its heedless rush
through the formidable thorn-bushes which are so common in Southern

166 s THE BISON.

Africa. Even when in company with others of their own species, they are
liable to sudden bursts of emotion, and will rush blindly on, heedless of every-
thing but the impulse that drives them forward. In one instance, the leader
of the herd, being wounded, dropped on his knees, and was instantly crushed
by the trampling hoofs of his comrades, as they rushed over the prostrate
body of their chief.

The Cape Buffalo, although so terrible an animal, is not so large as the arnee,
being little larger than an ordinary ox, but possessed of much greater strength.
The strangely shaped horns are black in colour, and so large that the distance
between their points is not unfrequently from four or five feet. On account
of their great width at their bases, they form a kind of bony helmet, which
is impenetrable to an ordinary musket ball, and effectually defend their
owner against the severe shocks which are frequently suffered by these testy
animals.

THE BISON is only found in Northern America, never appearing north of
lat. 33°. It gathers together in enormous herds, consisting of many thousand
in number, and in spite of the continual persecution to which it is subjected
by man and beast, its multitudes are even now hardly diminished. The
Bison is one of the most valuable of animals to the white hunter as well as
to the aboriginal Red Indian, as its body supplies him with almost every
necessary of life. : ;

The flesh of the fat cow Bison is in great repute, being juicy, tender, and
well-savoured, and possesses the invaluable quality of not cloying the appetite,
even though it be eaten with the fierce hunger that is. generated by a day’s
hunting. The fat is peculiarly excellent, and is said to bear some resemb-
lance to the celebrated green fat of the turtle. The most delicate portion of
the Bison is the flesh
that composes the
“hump,” which gives to
the animal’s back so
strange an aspect ; and
the hunters are so fond
of this delicacy that they
will often slay a magni-
ficent Bison merely fer
y the sake of the, hump,
\} the tongue, and the
\ marrow-bones, leaving
the remainder of the
body to the wolves and
birds.

The hide is greatly
valued both by Indians
and civilised men, for
the many purposes which
it fulfils. From this
hide the Indian makes
his tents, many parts of

BISUN.—(Bison Ameruanus.) his dress, his bed, and

his shield. For nearly

the whole of these uses the skin is deprived of hair, and is so dressed as
to be impervious to water, and yet soft and pliable. The shield is very
ingeniously made by pegging out the hide upon the ground with a multitude
of little wooden skewers round its edge, imbuing it with a kind of glue,
and gradually removing the pegs in proportion to the consequent shrinking

nadia

THE YAK. 167

and thickening of the skin. One of these shields, although ‘still pliable, is
sufficiently strong to resist an arrow, and will often turn a bullet that does
not strike it fairly.

Vast quantities of Bisons are killed annually, whole herds being sometimes
destroyed by the cunning of their human foes. The hunters, having dis-
covered a herd of Bisons at no very great distance from one of the precipices
which abound in the prairie lands, quietly surround the doomed animals,
and drive them ever nearer and nearer to the precipice. When they have
come within half a mile or so of the edge, they suddenly dash towards the
Bisons, shouting, firing, waving hats in the air, and using every means to
terrify the intended victims. The Bisons are timid creatures, and easily take
alarm, so that on being startled by the unexpected sights and sounds, they
dash off, panic-struck, in the only direction left open to them, and which
leads directly to the precipice. When the leaders arrive at the edge they
attempt to recoil, but they are so closely pressed upon by those behind them,
that they are carried forward and forced into the gulf below. Many hundreds
of Bisons are thus destroyed in the space of a few minutes.

The Bison is remarkably fond of wallowing in the mud, and when he
cannot find a mud-hole ready excavated, sets busily to work to make one for
himself. Choosing some wet and marshy spot, he flings himself down on
his side, and whirls round and round until he wears away the soil, and forms
a circular and rather shallow pit, into which the water rapidly drains from
the surrounding earth. He now redoubles his efforts, and in a very short
time succeeds in covering himself with a thick coating of mud, which is
probably of very great service in defending him from the stings of the gnats
and other noxious insects which swarm in such localities.

The Bison is a marvellously active animal, and displays powers of running
and activity which would hardly be anticipated by one who had merely seen
a stuffed specimen. The body is so loaded with hair that it appears to be of
greater dimensions than is really the case, and seems out of all proportion to
the slender legs that appear from under it and seem to bend beneath its
weight. Yet the Bison is
an enduring as well as a
swift animal, and is also re-
markably sure of foot, going
at full speed over localities
where a horse would be soon
brought to a halt.

THE YAK, or GRUNTING
Ox, derives its name from
its very peculiar voice, which
sounds much like the grunt
of a pig. It is a native of
the mountains of Thibet,
and according to Hodson,
it inhabits all the loftiest
plateaus of High Asia, be-
tween the Altai and the
Himalayas.

The heavy fringes of hair YAK.—(Poephagus grunniens.)
that decorate the sides of
the Yak do not make their appearance until the animal has attained three
month’ of age, the calves being covered with rough curling hair, not unlike
that of a black Newfoundland dog. The beautiful white bushy tail of the
Yak is in great request for various ornamental purposes, and forms quite an

168 THE MUSK OX,—ANTELOPES.

important article of commerce. Dyed red, it is formed into those curious
tufts that decorate the caps of the Chinese, and when properly mounted in
a silver handle, it is used as a fly-flapper in India under the name of
“chowrie.” These tails are carried before certain officers of state, their
number indicating his rank.

THE curiously-shaped horns of the Musk OX, its long woolly hair falling
almost to the ground in every direction, so as nearly to conceal its legs,
together with the peculiar form of the head and snout, are unfailing charac-
teristics, whereby it can be dis-
criminated from any other
animal. The horns of the
Musk Ox are extremely large
at their base, and form a kind
of helmet upon the summit

fi SN . : POA of the forehead. They then

if \ A sweep boldly downwards, and
‘i : are again hooked upwards
towards the tips. This
curious form of the horns is
only noticed in the male, as
the horns of the female are
set very widely apart from
the sides of the forehead, and
are simply curved. The
muzzle is covered with hair,
with the exception of a very
MUSK OX,—(Ovibos moscnatus.) slight line round the nostrils.
This animal is an inhabit-
ant of the extreme north of America, being seldom seen south of the sixty-
first degree of latitude, and ascending as high as the seventy-fifth. It
lives, in fact, in the same country which is inhabited by the Esquimaux,
and is known to them under the name of Oomingnoak. It is a fleet and
active animal, and traverses with such ease the rocky and precipitous
ground on which it loves to dwell, that it cannot be overtaken by any pursuer
less swift than an arrow or bullet. It is rather an irritable animal, and
becomes a dangerous foe to the hunters, by its habit of charging upon them
while they are perplexed amid the cliffs and crevices of its rocky home,
thus often escaping unharmed by the aid of its quick eye and agile limbs.
The flesh of this animal is very strongly perfumed with a musky odour, very
variable in its amount and strength. Excepting, however, a few weeks in
the year, it is perfectly fit for food, and is fat and well flavoured.

The Musk Ox is a little animal, but, owing to the huge mass of woolly hair
with which it is thickly covered, appears to be of considerable dimensions.
The colour of this animal is a yellowish brown, deepening upon the sides.

A
Kh (\s

ANTELOPES.

THE ANTELOPES form a large and important group of animals, finding
representatives in many portions of the globe. Resembling the deer in many
respects, they are easily to be distinguished from those animals by the
character of the horns, which are hollow at the base, set upon a solid core
like those of the oxen, and are permanently retained throughout the life of
the animal. Indeed, the Antelopes are allied very closely to the sheep and
goats, anc in some instances, are very goat-like in external form. In all cases

THE GAZELLE. 169

the Antelopes are light aud elegant of body, their limbs are gracefully
slender, and are furnished with small cloven hoofs. The tail is never of any
great length, and in many species is very short. The horns, set above the
eyebrows, are either simply conical or are bent so as to resemble the two
horns of the ancient lyre, and are therefore termed “lyrate” in technical
language.

The well-known GAZELLE is found in great numbers in Northern Africa,
where it lives in herds of considerable size, and is largely hunted by man
and beast.

Trusting to its swift limbs for its safety, the Gazelle will seldom, if ever,
attempt to resist a foe, unless it be actually driven to bay in some spot from

GAZELLE.—(Cazella Dorcas.)

whence it cannot escape ; but prefers to flee across the sandy plains, in which
it loves to dwell, with the marvellous speed for which it has long been
proverbial. The herd seems to be actuated by a strong spirit of mutual
attachment, which preserves its members from being isolated from their
companions, and which, in many instances, is their only safeguard against
the attacks of the smaller predaceous animals. The lion and the leopard can
always find a meal whenever they can steal upon a band of Gazelles without
being discovered by the sentries which watch the neighbourhood with jealous
precaution ; for the Gazelles are too weak to withstand the attack of such
terrible assailants, and do not even attempt resistance.

The eye of the Gazelle is large, soft, and lustrous, and has been long
celebrated by the poets of its own land as the most flattering simile of a
woman’s eye. The colour of this pretty little animal is a light fawn upon the
back, deepening into dark brown in a wide band which edges the flanks, and
forms a line of demarcation between the yellow-brown of the upper portions

170 THE SPRING-ROK.

of the body and the pure white of the abdomen. The face is rather curiously
marked with two stripes of contrasting colours, one a dark black-brown line
that passes from the eye to the curves of the mouth, and the other a white
streak that begins.at the horns and extends as far as the muzzle. The hinder
quarters, too, are marked with white, which is very preceptible when the
animal is walking directly from the spectator.

THE SPRING-BOK derives its very appropriate title from the extraordinary
leaps which it is in the constant habit of making whenever it is alarmed.

As soon as it is frightened at any real or fancied danger, or whenever it
desires to accelerate its pace suddenly, it leaps high into the air with a
curiously easy movement,
rising to a height of seven or
eight feet without any diffi-
culty, and being capable on
occasions of reaching the
3) height of twelve or thirteen
feet. When leaping, the back
is greatly curved, and the
creature presents a _ very
curious aspect, owing to the
sudden exhibition of the long
white hairs that cover the
\ croup, and are nearly hidden
by the folds of skin when
the creature is at rest, but
which come boldly into view
as soon as the protecting
skin-fold is obliterated by
the tension of the muscles
that serve to propel the animal in its aérial course. :

The Spring-bok is a marvellously timid animal, and will never cross a road
if it can avoid the necessity. When it is forced to do so, it often com-
promises the difficulty by leaping over the spot which has been tainted by
the foot of man. The colour of the Spring-bok is very pleasing, the ground
tinting being a warm cinnamon-brown upon the upper surface of the body,
and pure white upon the abdomen, the two colours being separated from
each other by a broad band of reddish brown. The flesh of the Spring-bok
is held in some estimation, and the hide is in great request for many useful
purposes. : : :

Inhabiting the vast plains of Southern Africa, the Spring-bok is accustomed
to make pilgrimages from one spot to another, vast herds being led by their
chiefs, and ravaging the country over which they pass as if they were locusts.

THE GEMS-BOK, or KOUKAAM, is a large and powerful member of the
Antelope tribe, equalling the domestic ass in size, and measuring about three
feet ten inches at the shoulder. The manner in which the hide is decorated
with boldly contrasted tints gives it a very peculiar aspect. The general hue
is grey, but along the back, upon the hinder quarters, and along the flanks,
the colour is deep black. A black streak also crosses the face, and, passing
under the chin, gives it the appearance of wearing harness. It has a short,
erect mane, and long, sweeping, black tail, and its heavy horns are nearly
straight from base to tip. no, .

The long and sharply-pointed horns with which its head is armed are
terrible weapons of offence, and can be wielded with marvellous skill.
Striking right and left with these natural bayonets, the adult Gems-bok is a
match for most of the smaller carnivora, and has even been known to wage a

SPRING-BOK—(Axtidorcas Euchore.)

THE GEMS-BOK. 171

successful duel with the lordly lion, and fairly to beat off its antagonist.
Even when the lion has overcome the Gems-bok, the battle may sometimes
be equally claimed by both sides, for in one instance the dead bodies of a
lion and a Gems-bok were found lying on the plain, the horns of the Antelope
being driven so firmly into the lion’s body, that they could not be extracted
by the efforts of a single man. The lion had evidently sprung upon the
Gems-bok, which had re-
ceived its foe upon the points
of its horns, and had sacri-
ficed its own life in destroy-
ing that of its adversary.

As is the case with many
long-horned animals, one of
the horns, usually the left, is
shorter than the other. In
a fine pair of Gems-bok horns
in my collection, the left horn
is nearly three inches shorter
than the right.

Although the Gems-bok /
is nearly independent of
water, it stands as much in
need of moisture as any other
animal, and would speedily
perish in the arid deserts
were it not directed by its
instincts towards certain suc-
culent plants whichare placed
in those regions, and which
possess the useful power of
attracting and retaining every GEMS-BOK.—(Oryx Gazella.)
particle of moisture which
may happen to settle in their vicinity. The most common and most valuable
of these plants is a bulbous root, belonging to the Liliacea, called, from its
peculiar property of retaining the moisture, the Water-root. Only a very
small portion of the valuable plant appears above the ground, and the
water-bearing bulb is so encrusted with hardened soil that it must be dug
out with a knife. Several other succulent plants also possess similar qualities,
among which may be noticed a kind of little melon which is spread over
the whole of the great Kalahari desert.

RESEMBLING the Gems-bok in many particulars, the ORYX can be easily
distinguished from its predecessor by the shape of the horns, which, instead
of being nearly straight, are considerably bent, and sweep towards the back
in a noble curve.

It uses these horns with as much address as its near relative the gems-bok,
and if it should be lying wounded on the ground, the hunter must beware of
approaching the seemingly quiescent animal, lest it should suddenly strike at
him with its long and keenly pointed horns, while its body lies prostrate on
the earth. Should it be standing at bay, it is a very dangerous opponent,
having a habit of suddenly lowering its head and charging forward with
a quick, lightning-like speed, from which its antagonist cannot escape with-
out difficulty.

The colour of this animal is greyish white upon the greater part of its
person, and is diversified by sundry bold markings of black and ruddy brown,
which are spread over the head and body in a manner that can be readily

LAN
\

WV)
AN

172 THE CHAMOIS,

comprehended from the illustration. The height of the Oryx is rather more
than three feet six inches, and the long curved horns are upwards of three
feet in length. These horns are set closely together upon the head, from
whence they diverge gradually to their extremities. These weapons are covered
with rings at their bases, but at their tips they are smooth and exceedingly
sharp. Their colour is black.

GOaAT-LIKE in aspect, and very hircine in many of its habits, the CHAMOIS
is often supposed to belong to the goats rather than to the Antelopes.

It is, however, a true Antelope, and may be readily distinguished from any
of its relations by the peculiar form of the horns, which rise straight from the
top of the head for some inches, and then suddenly curve backwards, so as to
form a pair of sharp hooks. In descending a precipitous rock, the Chamois
is greatly aided by the false hoofs of the hinder feet, which it hitches upon

CHAMOIS.—(Rupicapra Tragus.)

every little irregularity in the stony surface, and which seem to retard its
progress as it slides downwards, guided by the sharp hoofs of the fore-feet,
which are placed closely together, and pushed well in advance of the body.
Thus flattened against the rock, the Chamois slides downwards until it comes
to a ledge broad enough to permit it to repose itself for a while before
descending further. In this manner the active creature will not hesitate
to descend some twenty or thirty yards along the face of an almost per-
pendicular cliff, being sure to make good its footing on the first broad
ledge that may present itself.

The Chamois is one of the most wary of Antelopes, and possesses the
power of scenting mankind at an almost incredible distance. Even the
old and half-obliterated footmarks which a man has made in the snow
are sufficient to startle the sensitive fears of this animal, which has been

THE CHAMOIS, 173

observed to stop in mid career down a mountain side, and to bound away
at right angles to its former course, merely because it had come across
the track which had been left by the steps of some mountain traveller. Like
all animals which live in herds, however small, they always depute one of
their number to act as sentinel. They are not, however, entirely dependent
on the vigilance of their picket, but are always on the alert to take alarm at
the least suspicious scent, sight, or sound, and to communicate their fears to
their comrades by a peculiar warning whistle. As soon as this sound is
heard, the entire herd take to flight.

Their ears are as acute as their nostrils, so that there are few animals which
are more difficult of approach than the Chamois. Only those who have
been trained to climb the giddy heights of the Alpine mountains, to traverse
the most fearful precipices with a quiet pulse and steady head, to exist
for days amid the terrible solitudes of ice, rock, and snow, and to sustain
almost every imaginable hardship in the pursuit of their game,—only these,
or in very rare instances those who have a natural aptitude for the sport, and
are, in consequence, soon initiated into its requisite accomplishments, can
hope even to come within long rifle range of a Chamois when the animal is at
large upon its native cliffs.

The food of the Chamois consists of the various herbs which grow upon the
mountains, and in the winter season it finds its nourishment on the buds of
sundry trees, mostly of an aromatic nature, such as the fir, pine, and juniper.
In consequence of this diet the flesh assumes a rather powerful odour,
which is decidedly repulsive to the palates of some persons, while others
seem to appreciate the peculiar flavour, and to value it as highly as the
modern gourmand appreciates the “gamey” flavour of long-kept venison.
The skin is largely employed in the manufacture of a certain leather,
which is widely famous for its soft though tough character. The colour of
the Chamois is yellowish brown upon the greater portion of the body, the
spinal line being marked with a black streak. In the winter months the fur
darkens and becomes blackish brown. The face, cheeks, and throat are of a
yellowish white hue, diversified by a dark brownish black band which passes
from the corner of the mouth to the eyes, when it suddenly dilates and forms
a nearly perfect ring round the eyes. The horns are jetty black and highly
polished, especially towards the tips, which are extremely sharp. There are
several obscure rings on the basal portions, and their entire surface is marked
with longitudinal lines.

Several varieties of the Chamois are recorded, but the distinctions between
them lie only in the comparative length of the horns and the hue of the coat.
The full-grown Chamois is rather more than two feet in height, and the hurns
are from six to eight inches long.

OF all the Antelopes, the GNOO presents the most extraordinary conforma-
tion. At the first sight of this curious animal the spectator seems to doubt
whether it is a horse, a bull, or an Antelope, as it appears to partake nearly
equally of the nature of these three animals.

The Gnoos, of which there are several species, may be easily recognized
by the fierce-looking head, their peculiarly shaped horns, which are bent
downwards and then upwards again with a sharp curve, by their broad nose,
and long hair-clad tail. They live together in considerable herds, often
mixing with zebras, ostriches, and giraffes, in one huge army of living beings.
In their habits they are not unlike the wild cattle which have already been
described. Suspicious, timid, curious of disposition, and irritable of temper,
they display these mingled qualities in a very ludicrous manner whenever
they are alarmed by a strange object.

“They commence whisking their long white tails,” says Cumming, “in a

174 THE GNOO,

most eccentric manner ; then, springing suddenly into the air, they begin
pawing and capering, and pursue each other in circles at their utmost speed.
Suddenly they all pull up together to overhaul the intruder, when some of the
bulls will often commence fighting in the most violent manner, dropping on
their knees at every shock;
then, quickly wheeling about,
they kick up their heels, whirl
their tails with a fantastic
flourish, and scour across
the plain, enveloped in a
cloud of dust.” On account
ef these extraordinary ma-
noeuvres, the Gnoo is called
Wildebeest by the Dutch
settlers. The Gnoos in the
Zoological Gardens may often
be seen at their gambols.

The colour of the ordinary
Gnoo (Connochetes Guu) is
brownish black, sometimes
with a blue-grey wash. The
mane is black, with the ex-

THE GNOO.—(Connochetes Gnu.) ception of the lower part,

which is often greyish-white,

as is the lower part of the tail. The nose is covered with a tuft of reversed
hair, and there is a mane upon the chest. ;

The Gnoo is about three feet nine inches high at the shoulders, and
measures about six feet six inches from the nose to the root of the tail.

By far the most striking and imposing of all South African Antelopes, the
Kooboo, now claims our attention. ; ;

This truly magnificent creature is about four feet in height at the shoulder,
and its body is rather heavily made, so that it is really a large animal. The
curiously twisted horns are nearly three feet in length, and are furnished with
a strong ridge or keel, which extends throughout their entire length. It is
not so swift or enduring as many Antelopes, and can be run down without
difficulty, provided that the hunter be mounted on a good horse, and the
ground be tolerably fair and open. Its leaping powers are very great, for
one of these animals has been known to leap to a height of nearly ten feet
without the advantage of a run. .

The flesh of the Koodoo is remarkably good, and the marrow of the prin-
cipal bones is thought to be one of Africa’s best luxuries. So fond are the
natives of this dainty, that they will break the bones and suck out the marrow
without even cooking it in any way whatever. ‘The skin of this animal is
extremely valuable, and for some purposes is almost priceless. There is no
skin that will make nearly so good a “‘fore-slock,” or whip-lash, as that of the
Koodoo ; for its thin, tough substance is absolutely required for such a
purpose. Shoes, thongs, certain parts of harness, and other similar objects
are manufactured from the Koodoo’s skin, which, when properly prepared, is
worth a sovereign or thirty shillings even in its own land.

The Koodoo is very retiring in disposition, and is seldom seen except by
those who come to look for it. It lives in little herds or families of five or
six in number, but it is not uncommon to find a solitary hermit here or there,
probably an animal which has been expelled from some family, and is awaiting
the time for setting up a family ofhis own. As it is in the habit of frequent-
ing brushwood, the heavy spiral horns would appear to be great hindrances

THE ELAND. 175

to their owner’s progress; such is not, however, the case, for when the Koodoo
runs, it lays its horns upon its back, and is thus enabled to thread the
tangled bush without diffi- :
culty. Some writers say that
the old males will sometimes
establish a bachelors’ club,
and live harmoniously to-
gether, without admitting any
of the opposite sex into their
society.
The colour of the Koodoo
‘is a reddish grey, marked
with several white streaks
running boldly over the back
and down the sides. The
females ‘are destitute of | .4
horns. AN in
“THE ELAND, IMPOOFO, \\|
or CANNA, is the largest of R\
the South African Antelopes, &
being equal in dimensions to SS
a very iarge ox. =
A fine specimen of an
adult bull Eland will measure \
nearly six feet in height at wiz
the shoulders, and : more i
than proportionate pon- = ne KF
ype hs Gul ed being picket (Strepsiceros Kudu.)
heavily burdened with fat as well as with flesh. Owing to this great weigth
of body, the Eland is not so enduring as the generality of Antelopes, and
can usually be ridden :
down without much
trouble. Indeed the
chase of the animal is
sc simple a matter, that
the hunters generally
contrive to drive it to-
wards their encamp-
ment, and will not kill
it until it has approached
the waggon so closely
that the hunters will
have but little trouble in
conveying its flesh and |i
hide to their wheeled ¢
treasure-house. \
The flesh of the Eland y
is peculiarly excellent ;
and as it possesses the
valuable quality of being
tender immediately after
the animal is killed, it is
highly appreciated in the
interior of South Africa, where usually all the meat is as tough as shoe-leather,
and nearly as dry. In some strange manner, the Eland contrives to live for

ELAND.—(Oveas Canna.)

176 THE NYLGHAU.

months together without drinking, and even when the herbage is so dry
that it crumbles into powder in the hand, the Eland preserves its good
condition, and is, moreover, found to contain water in its stomach if opened.
For its abstinence from liquids the Eland compensates by its ravenous appetite
for solid food, and is so large a feeder that the expense of keeping the
animal would be almost too great for any one who endeavoured to domesticate
the animal in England with any hope of profit.

PASSING from Africa to Asia, we find a curious and handsome Antelope,
partaking of many of the characteristics which are found in the Koodoo and
Bosch-bok. ‘This is the NYLGHAU, an inhabitant of the thickly-wooded
districts of India.

This magnificent Antelope is rather more than four feet high at the
shoulders, and its general colour is a slate-blue. The face is marked with
brown or sepia; the long neck is furnished with a bold dark mane, and a
long tuft of course hair hangs from the throat. The female is smaller than
her mate, and hornless. Her
coat is generally a reddish
grey, instead of partaking of
the slate-blue tint which
colours the form of the male.
The hind legs of this animal
are rather shorter than the
forelegs. Its name, Nylghau,
is of Persian origin, and
signifies “‘ Blue Ox,”

It does not seem to be of
a social disposition, and is
generally found in pairs in-
habiting the borders of the
jungle. There are, however,
many examples of solitary
males. It is ashy and wary
animal, and the hunter who

NYLGHAU.—(Lortax tragocamelus.) desires to shoot one of these
animals is obliged to exert
his bush-craft to the utmost in order to attain his purpose. To securea
Nylghau requires a good marksman as well as a good stalker, for the animal
is very tenacious of life, and if not struck in the proper spot will carry off a
heavy bullet without seeming to be much the worse at the time. The native
chiefs are fond of hunting the Nylghau, and employ in the chase a whole
army of beaters and trackers, so that the poor animal has no chance of fair
play. These hunts are not without their excitement, for the Nylghau’s
temper is of the shortest, and when it feels itself aggrieved, it suddenly turns
upon its opponent, drops on its knees, and leaps forward with such astounding
rapidity that the attack can hardly be avoided, even when the intended victim
is aware of the animal’s intentions.

The Nylghau is not of very great value either to individual hunters or for
commercial purposes. The hide is employed in the manufacture of shields,
but the flesh is coarse and without flavour. There are, however, exceptions
to be found in the “hump” of the male, the tongue, and the marrow bones:
which are thought to be rather delicate articles of diet. Its gait is rather
clumsy, but very rapid, and generally consists of a peculiar long swinging
canter, which is not easily overtaken.

Jee ay

ip 6

THE IBEX. 177

GOATS AND SHEEP.

CLOSELY allied to each other, the Goats and SHEEP can be easily
separated by a short examination. In the Goats, which will first come under
consideration, the horns are erect, decidedly compressed, curved backwards
and outwards, and are supplied with a ridge or heel of horny substance in
front. The males generally possess a thickly-bearded chin, and are all notable
for a powerful and very rank odour which is not present in the male sheep.

Of the genus Capra, which includes several species, the IBEX, or STEIN-
BOCK, is a familiar and excellent example.

IBEX.—(Capra [bex.)

This animal, an inhabitant of the Alps, is remarkable for thé exceeding
development of the horns, which are sometimes more than three feet in
length, and of such extraordinary dimensions that they appear to a casual
observer to be peculiarly unsuitable for an animal that traverses the craggy
regions of Alpine precipices. . i. ee

To hunt the Ibex successfully is as hard a matter as hunting the chamois,
for the [bex is to the full as wary and active an animal, and is sometimes

“oN

178 THE GOAT.

apt to turn the tables on its pursuer, and assume an offensive deportment.
Should the hunter approach too near the Ibex, the animal will, as if suddenly
urged by the reckless courage of despair, dash boldly forward at its foe, and
strike him from the precipitous rock over which he is forced to pass. The
difficulty of the chase is further increased by the fact that the Ibex is a
remarkably endurant animal, and is capable of abstaining from food or water
for a considerable time.

It lives in little bands of five or ten in number, each troop being under the
command of an old male, and preserving admirable order among themselves.
Their sentinel is ever on the watch, and at the slightest suspicious sound,
scent, or object, the warning whistle is blown, and the whole troop make
instantly for the highest attainable point. Their instinct always leads them
upwards, an inborn “excelsior” being woven into their very natures, and as
soon as they perceive danger they invariably begin to mount towards the
line of perpetual snow. The young of this animal are produced in April,
and in a few hours after their birth they are strong enough to follow their

arent.

The colour of the Ibex is a reddish brown in summer, and grey brown in
winter ; a dark stripe passes along the spine and over the face, and the

is TOM
GoaT.—(Hircus Aigdgrus.)

abdomen and interior faces of the limbs are washed with whitish grey. The
horns are covered from base to point with strongly-marked transverse ridges,
the number of which is variable, and is thought by some persons to denote
the age of the animal. In the females the horns are not nearly so large nor
so heavily ridged as in the male. ‘The Ibex is also known under the name
of BOUQUETIN.

THERE are an enormous number of varieties of the common domestic
GOAT, many of them being so unlike the original stock from which they

THE CASHMIR GOAT, 179

sprang as to appear like different species. For the present, we will turn to
the common Goat of Europe, with which we are all so familiar. This animal is
often seen domesticated, especially in and about stables, as there is a prevalent
idea that the rank smell of the Goat is beneficial to horses. Be this as
it may, the animal seems quite at home in a stable, and a very firm
friendship often arises between the Goat and one of the horses. Sometimes
it gets so petted by the frequenters of the stables, that it becomes presump-
tuous, and assaults any one whom it may not happen to recognise as a
friend. Happily, a Goat, however belligerent he may be, is easily conquered
if his beard can only be grasped, and when he is thus captured, he yields
at once to his conqueror, assumes a downcast air and bleats in a very pitiful
tone, as if asking for mercy.

In its wild state the Goat is a fleet and agile animal, delighting in rocks
and precipitous localities, and treading their giddy heights with a foot as
sure and an eye as steady as that of the chamois or ibex. Even in domesti-

CASHMIR GOAT.

cated life, this love of clambering is never eradicated, and wherever may
be an accessible roof, or rock, or even a hill, there the Goat may be
generally found.

The varieties of the Goat are almost numberless, and it will be impossible
to engrave, or even to notice, more than one or two of the most prominent
examples. One of the most valuable of these varieties is the celebrated
Cashmir Goat, whose soft silky hair furnishes material for the soft and costly
fabrics which are so highly valued in all civilized lands.

This animal is a native of Thibet and the neighbouring locality, byt the
Cashmir shawls are not manufactured in the same land which supplies the

N 2

180 THE SHEEP.

material. The fur of the Cashmir Goat is of two sorts : a soft, woolly under-
coat of greyish hair, and a covering of long silken hairs that serve to defend
the interior coat from the effects of winter. The woolly under-coat is the
substance from which the Cashmir shawls are woven, and in order to make
a single shawl a yard anda half square, at least ten Goats are robbed of their
natural covering. Beautiful as are these fabrics, they would be sold at a very
much lower price but for the heavy and numerous taxes which are laid upon
the material in all the stages of its manufacture, and after its completion upon
the finished article. Indeed, the English buyer of a Cashmir shawl is forced
to pay at least a thousand per cent. on his purchase.

FROM time immemorial the SHEEP has been subjected to the ways of
mankind, and has provided him with meat and clothing, as well as with many
articles of domestic use. The whole carcass of the Sheep is as useful as that
of the ox, and there is not a single portion of its body that is not converted

=

HIGHLAND SHEEP,

to some beneficial purpose. The animal as we now possess it, and which
has diverged into such innumerable varieties, is never found in a state of ab-
solute wildness, and has evidently derived its origin from some hitherto
undomesticated species. In the opinion of many naturalists, the moufion
saay lay claim to the parentage of our domestic Sheep, but other writers
have separated the mouflons from the Sheep, and placed them in a different
enus.
. Although the Sheep is generally considered to be a timid animal, and is
really so when forced into adverse circumstances and deprived of its wonted
liberty, it is truly as bold an animal as can well be seen, and even in this
country gives many proofs of its courage. If, for example, a traveller comes
unexpectedly upon ‘a flock of the little Sheep that range the Welsh mountains,

VAN

THE MERINO SHEEP, 185

they will not flee from his presence, but draw together into a compact body,
and watch him with stern and unyielding gaze. Should he attempt to
advance, he would be instantly assailed by the rams, which form the first
line in such cases, and would fare but badly in the encounter. A dog, if it
should happen to accompany the intruder, would probably be at once charged
and driven from the spot.

Even a single ram is no mean antagonist when he is thoroughly irritated,
and his charge is really formidable. Sheep differ from Goats in their
manner of fighting ; the latter animals rear themselves on their hind legs,
and then plunge sideways upon their adversary, while the former animals
‘ hurl themselves forward, and strike their opponent with the whole weight as
well as impetus of the body. So terrible is the shock of a ram's charge, that
it has been known to prostrate a bull at the first blow. Nor is the sheep only
combative when irritated by opposition, or when danger threatens itself. A
Sheep that had been led into a slaughter-house has been known to turn
fiercely upon che butcher as he was about to kill one of its companions,
and to butt him severely in order to make him relinquish his grasp of its
friend.

In the British Isles the Sheep breeds freely, producing generally one or
two lambs every year, and sometimes presenting its owner with three lambs at
a birth. One instance is on record of a wonderfully prolific ewe. She had
hardly passed her second year when she produced four lambs. The next
year she had five ; the year after that she bore twins ; and the next year five
again. On two successive years she bore twins. Two out of the four and
three out of the five were necessarily fed by hand.

oe now advert shortly to some of the principal breeds or varieties of
the Sheep.

Of all the domestic varieties of this useful animal, the SPANISH, or MERINO
SHEEP, has attra¢ted the greatest attention.

Originally, this animal is a native of Spain, a country which has been for
many centuries celebrated for the quantity and quality of its wool. The
Merino Sheep, from whom the long and fine Spanish wool was obtained,
were greatly improved by an admixture with the Cotswold Sheep of England,
some of which were sent to Spain in 1464, and the fleece was so improved by
the crossing, that famous English wool was surpassed by that which was
supplied by Spain.

In Spain, the Merinos are kept in vast flocks, and divided into two general
heads, the stationary and the migratory. The former animals remain in the
same locality during the whole of their lives, but the latter are accustomed to
undertake regular annual migrations. The summer months they spend in
the cool mountainous districts, but as soon as the weather begins to grow
cold, the flocks pass into the warmer regions of Andalusia, where they remain
until April. The flocks are sometimes ten thousand in number, and the
organization by which they are managed is very complex and perfect. Over
each great flock is set one experienced shepherd, who is called the “ mayoral,”
and who exercises despotic sway over his subordinates. Fifty shepherds
are placed under his orders, and are supplied with boys and intelligent
dogs.

Unde: the guardianship of their shepherds, the Merino Sheep, which have
spent the summer in the mountains, begin their downward journey about the
month of September ; and after a long and leisurely march they arrive at the
pasture-grounds, which are recognized instinctively by the Sheep. In these
pasturages the winter folds are prepared, and here are born the young
Merinos, which generally enter the world in March or the beginning of Apri.
Towards the end of that month the Sheep begin to be restless, and unless

182 THE GIRAFFES.

they are at once removed, will often decamp of their own accord, a ais
times a whole flock will thus escape, and, guided by ate ieee .
instinct, will make their way to their old quarters, unharmed, except p

chance by some prowling wolf, who takes advantage of the shepherd’s absence.

WN
Ss

= = aS =
= = SSS SSS SS

MERINO, OR SPANISH SHEEP.

The very young lambs are not without their value, although they furnish
no wool, for their skins are prepared and sent to France and England, where
‘hey are manufactured into gloves, and called by the name of “ kid.”

GIRAFFES.

TALLEST of all earthly dwellers, the GIRAFFE erects its stately head far
above any animal that walks the face of the globe. It is an inhabitant of
various parts of Africa, and is evidently a unique being, comprising in itself
an entire tribe. The colour of the coat is slightly different in the specimens
which inhabit the northern and the southern portions of Africa, the southern
animal being rather darker than its northern relative.

The height of a full-grown male Giraffe is from eighteen to twenty feet, the
female being somewhat less in her dimensions. The greater part of this
enormous stature is obtained by the extraordinarily long neck, which is
nevertheless possessed of only seven vertebrze, as in ordinary animals. Those
bones are, however, extremely elongated, and their articulation is admirably

THE GIRAFFE. 183

adapted to the purpose which they are called upon to fulfil. The back of the
Giraffe slopes considerably from the shoulders to the tail, and at first sight
the fore legs of the animal appear to be longer than the hinder limbs. The
legs themselves are, however, of equal length, and the elevation of the
shoulders is due to the very great elongation of the shoulder-blades. Upon the
head are two excrescences which resemble horns, and are popularly called
by that name. They are merely growths or developments of certain bones
of the skull, somewhat similar to the bony cores on which the hollow horns

GIRAFFE.—(Giraffa Camelopardalis.)

of the oxen and antelopes are set... These quasi-horns are covered with skin,
and have on their summits a tuft of dark hair. On the forehead, and nearly
between the eyes, a third bony projection is seen occupying the same position
that was traditionally accredited to the horn of the unicorn.

The singular height of this animal is entirely in accordance with its habits
and its mode of acquiring food. As the creature is accustomed to feed upon
the leaves of trees, it must necessarily be of very considerable stature to be
able to reach the leaves on which it browses, and must also be possessed of

184 THE GIRAFFE.

organs by means of which it can select and gather such portions of the
foliage as may suit its palate. The former object is gained by the great
length of the neck and legs, and the latter by the wonderful development of
the tongue, which is so marvellously formed that it is capable of a consider-"
able amount of prehensile power, and can be elongated or contracted in a
very wonderful manner. Large as is the animal, it can contract the tip of its
tongue into so small a compass that it can pass into the pipe of an ordinary
pocket-key, while its prehensile powers enable its owner to pluck any selected
leaf with perfect ease. In captivity the Giraffe is rather apt to make too free
a use of its tongue, such as twitching the artificial flowers and foliage from
ladies’ bonnets, or any similar freak.

For grazing upon level ground the Giraffe is peculiarly unfitted, and never
attempts that feat. excepting when urged by hunger or some very pressing
cause. It is, however, perfectly capable of bringing its mouth to the ground,
although with considerable effort and much straddling of the fore-legs. By
placing a lump of sugar on the ground, the Giraffe may be induced to lower
its head to the earth, and to exhibit some of that curious mixture of grace
and awkwardness which characterises this singular animal.

In its native country its usual food consists of the leaves of a kind of acacia,
named the Kameel-dorn, or Camel-thorn (Acacza giraffe). The animal is
exceedingly fastidious in its appetite, and carefully rejects every thorn,
scrupulously plucking only the freshest and greenest leaves. When supplied
with cut grass, the Giraffe takes each blade daintily between its lips, and
nibbles gradually from the top to the stem, after the manner in which we eat
asparagus. As soon as it has eaten the tender and green portion of the
grass, it rejects the remainder as unfit for consumption. Hay, carrots,
onions, an.a different vegetables form its principal diet while it is kept in a
state of captivity. :

As far as is at present known, the Giraffe is a silent animal, like the eland
and the kangaroo, and has never been heard to utter a sound, even when
struggling in the agonies of death. When in its native land, it is so strongly
perfumed with the foliage on which it chiefly feeds, that it exhales a powerful
odour, which is compared by Captain Cumming to the scent of a hive of
heather honey.

To man it falls an easy prey, especially ifit can be kept upon level ground,
where a horse can run without danger. On rough soil, however, the Giraffe
has by far the advantage, as it leaps easily over the various obstacles that
lie in its way, and gets over the ground ina curiously agile manner. It is
not a very swift animal, as it can easily be overtaken by a horse of ordinary
speed, and is frequently run down by native hunters on foot. When running,
it progresses in a very awkward and almost ludicrous manner, by a series of
frog:like leaps, its tail switching and twisting about at regular intervals, and
its long neck rocking stiffly up and down in a manner that irresistibly
reminds the observer of those toy birds whose head and tail perform alter-
nate obeisances by the swinging of a weight below. As the tail is switched
sharply hither and thither, the tuft of the bristly hairs at the extremity makes
a hissing sound as it passes through the air.

Besides the usual mode of hunting and stalking, the natives employ the
pitfall for the purpose of destroying this large and valuable animal. For this
purpose a very curiously-constructed pit is dug, being about ten feet in
depth, proportionately wide, and having a wall or bank of earth extending
from one side to the other, and about six or seven feet in height. When the
Giraffe is caught in one of these pits, its fore limbs fall on one side of the
wall and its hind legs on the other, the edge of the wall passing under the
abdomen. The poor creature is thus balanced, as it were, upon its belly

THE DEER, 185

across the wall, and, in spite of all its plunging, is unable to obtain a foothold
sufficiently firm to enable it to leap out of the treacherous cavity into which
it has fallen. The pitfalls which are intended for the capture of the hippopo-
tamus and the rhinoceros are furnished with a sharp stake at the bottom,
which impales the luckless animal as it falls ; but it is found by experience
that, in the capture of the Giraffe, the transverse wall is even more deadly
than the sharpened spike.

The Giraffe is generally found in little herds, sometimes only five or six
in number, and sometimes containing thirty or forty members, the average
being about sixteen. These herds are always found either in or very close
to forests, where they can obtain their daily food, and where they can be
concealed from their enemies among the tree-trunks, to which they bear so
close a resemblance.

The flesh of the Giraffe is considered to be good when rightly prepared,
and its marrow is thought to be so great a delicacy that the natives eagerly
suck it from the bones as they are taken from the animal. When cooked
itis worthy of a place on a royal table. The flesh is well fitted for being
made into jerked meat. The thick, strong hide is employed in the manufacture
of shoe-soles, shields, and similar articles.

DEER.

FROM the Antelope the DEER are readily distinguished by the character
of the horns ; which only belong to the male animals, are composed of solid
bony substances, and are shed and renewed annually during the life of the
animal. The process by which the horns are developed, die, and are shed,
is a very curious one, and deserves a short notice before we proceed to
consider the various species of Deer which will be noticed in the present
work. Fora familiar instance, we will take the common Stag, or Red Deer
of Europe.

In the beginning of the month of March he is lurking in the sequestered
spots of his forest home, harmless as his mate and as timorous. Soon a pair
of prominences make their appearance on his forehead, covered with a
velvety skin. In a few days these little prominences have attained some
length, and give the first indication of their true form. Grasp one of these in
the hand and it will be found burning hot to the touch, for the blood runs
fiercely through the velvety skin, depositing at every touch a minute portion
of bony matter. More and more rapidly grow the horns, the carotid
arteries enlarging in order to supply a sufficiency of nourishment, and in
the short period of ten weeks the enormous mass of bony matter has been
completed. Such a process is almost, if not entirely, without parallel in
the history of the animal kingdom.

When the horns have reached their due development, the bony rings at
their bases, through which the arteries pass, begin to thicken, and by
gradually filling up the holes, compress the blood-vessels, and ultimately
obliterate them. The velvet now having no more nourishment, loses its
vitality, and is soon rubbed off in shreds against tree-trunks, branches, or
any inanimate object. The horns fall off in February, and in a very short
time begin to be renewed. These ornaments are very variable at the
different periods of the animal’s life, the age of the Stag being well indicat-
ed by the number of “tines” upon its horns.

THE MooSE or ELK is the largest of all the Deer tribe, attaining the

186 THE ELK, OR MOOSE.

extraordinary height of seven feet at the shoulders, thus equalling many
an ordinary elephant in dimensions. The horns of this animal are very
large, and widely palmated at their extremities, their united weight being so
great as to excite a feeling of wonder at the ability of the animal to carry so
heavy a burden. They do not reach their full development until the fourteenth
year. The muzzle is very large and is much lengthened in front, so as to
impart a most unique expression to the Elk’s countenance. The colour of
the animal is a dark brown, the legs being washed with a yellow hue. It is
a native of Northern Europe and America, the Moose of the latter continent
and the Elk of the former being one and the same species.

As the flesh of the Elk is palatable, and the skin and the horns extremely
useful, the animal is much persecuted by hunters. It is a swift and enduring
animal, although its gait is
clumsy and awkward in the
extreme. The only pace of
the Elk is a long, swinging
trot ; but its legs are so long
and its paces so considerable,
that its speed is much greater
than it appears to be. Ob-
stacles that are almost im-
passable to a horse are passed
over easily by the Elk, which
has been known to trot un-
interruptedly over a number
of fallen tree-trunks, some of
them five feet in thickness,
When the ground is hard
and will bear the weight of
so large an animal, the
hunters are led a very long
and severe chase before they
come up with their prey;
but when the snow lies soft
and thick on the ground,
} the creature soon succumbs

MOOSF, OR ELK.—(Alces Malchis.) to its lighter antagonists, who

invest themselves in snow

shoes and scud over the soft snow with a speed that speedily overcomes that

of the poor Elk, which sinks floundering into the deep snow-drifts at every
step, and is soon worn out by its useless efforts. |

It is as wary as any of the Deer tribe, being alarmed by the slightest sound
or the faintest scent that gives warning of an enemy. As the Elk trots along,
its course is marked by a succession of sharp sounds, which are produced by
the snapping of the cloven hoofs, which separate at every step, and fall
together as the animal raises its foot from the ground.

The enormous horns form no barrier to his progress through the woods,
for when the Elk runs, he always throws his horns well back upon his
shoulders, so that they rather assist than impede him in traversing the forest
glades. The Elk is a capital swimmer, proceeding with great rapidity, and
often taking to the water for its own amusement. During the summer
months of the year it spends a considerable portion of its time under
water, its nose and horn being the only parts of its form which appear
above the surface, Even the very young Moose 1s a strong and fearless
swimmer, :

THE REINDEER, 187

The skin of the Elk is extremely thick,-and has been manufactured into
clothing that would resist a sword-blow and repel an ordinary pistol-b1ll.
The flesh is sometimes dressed fresh, but is generally smoked like hams,
and is much esteemed. The large muzzle or upper lip is, however, the
principal object of admiration to the lovers of Elk-flesh, and is said to be
rich and gelatinous when boiled, resembling the celebrated green fat of
the turtle.

Two varieties of the REINDEER inhabit the earth ; the one, called the
Reindeer, being placed upon the northern portions of Europe and Asia, and
the other, termed the Caribou, being restricted to North America.

This animal is very variable in dimensions, specimens of very different
height being in the British Museum. The colour is also variable, according
to the season of the
year. In winter the
fur is long, and of a
greyish brown tint,
with the exception of
the neck, hinder quar-
ters, abdomen, and
end of nose, which are
white. In the summer,
the grey-brown hair
darkens into a sooty
brown, and the white
portions become grey.

The Laplanders
place their chief hap-
piness in the posses-
sion of many Reindeer,
which are to them the
only representatives of

ye

Ae
"yy;

ATIC,
ui Nv3! Wf,
dt

Diy
=)

PA py
y Hj nif
oP,

wealth. Those who = ; Vj
possess a herd of a WY x IN ;
thousand or more are Why >

reckoned among the REINDEER.—( Zurandus Réngifer.)

wealthy of their coun-

try ; those who own only a few hundreds are considered as persons of re-
spectability ; while those who only possess forty or fifty are content to act
as servants to their richer countrymen, and to merge their little herd in
that of their employers. In the waste, dry parts of Lapland, grows a kind of
white lichen, which forms the principal food of the Reindeer during winter,
and is therefore highly prized by the natives. Although this lichen may be
deeply covered with snow, the Reindeer is taught by instinct to scrape
away the superincumbent snow with its head, hoofs, and snout, and to
lay bare the welcome food that lies beneath. Sometimes the surface of
the snow is frozen so firmly that the animal can make no impression ;
and under these circumstances it is in very poor case, many of the unfor-
tunate creatures dying of starvation, and the others being much reduced in
condition.

The Reindeer is extensively employed as a beast of draught and carriage,
being taught to draw sledges and to carry men or packages upon its
back. Each Reindeer can draw a weight of two hundred and fifty or
even three hundred pounds, its pace being between nine and ten miles per
hour. There is, however, a humane law which prohibits a weight of more
than one hundred and ninety pounds upon a sledge, or one hundred and

188 THE FALLOW DEER.

thirty upon the back. It is a very enduring animal, as it is able to keep up
this rate of progress for twelve or more hours together.

The eyes of the Reindeer are very quick, and his hearing is also acute;
but his sense of smell is more wonderfully developed than either of the other
senses.

WE now come to the Deer which inhabit the warm or temperate regions
of the world, and which include the greater portion of the family.

The StTac, or RED DEER is spread over many parts of Europe and Asia,
and is indigenous to the British Islands, where it still lingers, though in vastly
reduced numbers.

In the olden days of chivalry and Robin Hood, the Red Deer were
plentiful in every forest ; and especially in that sylvan chase which was made
by the exercise of royal tyranny at the expense of such sorrow and suffering,
Even in the New Forest itself the Red Deer is seldom seen, and those few
survivors that still serve as relics of a bygone age are scarcely to be reckoned
as living in a wild state, and approach nearly to the semi-domesticated con-
dition of the Fallow Deer. Many of these splendid animals are preserved
in parks or paddocks, but they no more roam the wide forests in unques-
tioned freedom. In Scotland, however, the Red Deer are still to be found,
as can be testified by many a keen hunter of the present day, who has had
his strength, craft, and coolness thoroughly tested before he could lay low in
the dust the magnificent animal whose head with its forest of horns now
graces his residence.

The great speed of the Stag is proverbial, and needs no mention. It is an
admirable swimmer, having been known to swim for a distance of six or
seven miles, and in one instance a Stag landed in the night upon a beach
which he could not have reached without having swum for a distance of ten
miles. The gallant beast was discovered by some dogs as he landed, and
being chased by them immediately after his fatiguing aquatic exploit, was
overcome by exhaustion, and found dead on the following morning.

The colour of the Stag varies slightly according to the time of the year.
In the summer the coat is a warm reddish brown, but in the winter the ruddy
hue becomes grey. The hind-quarters are paler than the rest of the fur.
The young Red Deer are born about April, and are remarkable for the
variegated appearance of their fur, which is mottled with white upon the
back and sides. As the little creatuies increase in dimensions, the white
marking gradually fades, and the fur assumes the uniform reddish brown of
the adult animal.

THE FALLOW DEER may readily be distinguished from the stag by the
spotted coat, the smaller size, and the spreading, palmated horns.

The colour of the Falloy Deer is generally of a reddish brown, spotted
with white, and with two or three white lines upon the body. There is,
however, another variety which scarcely exhibits any of the white spots, and
is of a deep blackish brown.

It is from the Fallow Deer that the best venison is procured, that of the
stag being comparatively hard and dry. The skin is well known as fur-
nishing a valuable leather, and the horns are manufactured into knife-handles
and other articles of common use. The shavings of the horns are employed
for the purpose of making ammonia, which has therefore been long popularly
known under the name of hartshorn. The height of the adult Fallow Deer
is three feet at the shoulders. It is a docile animal, and can be readily tamed.
Indeed, it often needs no taming, but becomes quite familiar with strangers
in a very short time, especially if they should happen to have any fruit,
bread, or biscuit, and be willing to impart some of their provisions to their
dappled friends.

THE AXIS. 189

THE well-known Axis, CHITTRA, or SPOTTED Hoc DEER, of India and
Ceylon, belong to the Rusine Deer.

FALLOW DEER.—(Dama Vulgaris.)

The horns, like those of the sambur, a common Indian deer, are placed on
long footstalks and simply forked at their tips. The colour of this pretty

mS

AXIS DEER.— (Axis maculata.)

al is rather various, but is generally a rich golden brown, with a dark
brown stripe along the back, accompanied by two series of white spots, which

190 THE ROEBUCK.

at first sight appear to be scattered irregularly, but are seen on a careful
inspection to be arranged in oblique curved lines. There is also a white
streak across the haunches. There are, however, many varieties of the Axis
Deer, which differ in size as well as in colour. The height of the adult Axis
is almost equal to that of the Fallow Deer.

THE ROEBUCK is smaller than the Fallow Deer, being only two feet and
three or four inches in length at the shoulder, but, although so small, can be
really a formidable animal, on account
of its rapid movements and great com-
parative strength.

It is not found in large herds like the
Fallow Deer, but is strictly monogamous,
the single pair living together, contented
with each other’s society. The horns of
this animal have no basal snag, and rise
straight from the forehead, throwing out
one antler in front, and one or two behind,
according to the age of the individual.
From the base of the horn to the first
antler the horn is thickly covered with
wrinkles. It is a most active little Deer,
always preferring the highest grounds,
thence forming a contrast to the Fallow
Deer, which loves the plains. It is seldom
Q 7. seen in England in a wild state, but may
ROEBUCK.—(Cafréolus Caprea.) “une be met with in many parts of Scot-
and.

The colour of the Roebuck is very variable, but is generally as follows,
The body is always of a brown tint as a ground hue, worked with either red
or grey, or remaining simply brown. Round the root of the tail is a
patch of pure white hair, and the abdomen and inside of the limbs are
greyish white. The chin is also white, and there is a white spot on each
side of the lips. ;

THE MOSCHINE DEER are readily known by the absence of horns in both
sexes, the extremely long canine teeth of the upper jaw in the males, and the
powerfully odorous secretion in
one of the species, from which
they derive their popular as well
as their scientific title. There
are at least eight or nine species
of these curious animals.

THE most celebrated of these
little Deer is the common Musk
DEER, which is a native of the
northern parts of India, and is
found spread throughout a very
large range of country, always
preferring the cold and elevated
D mountainous regions. The height
MUSK DEER.—(Adoschus Moschiferus.) of the adult Musk Deer is about
two feet three inches at the
shoulders ; the colour is a light brown, marked with a shade of greyish
yellow. Inhabiting the rocky and mountainous locations of its native home,
it is remarkably active and sure-footed, rivalling even the chamois or the
goat in the agility with which it can ascend or descend the most fearful

THE KANCHIL. 191

precipices, The great length of the false hoofs adds much to the security
of the Musk Deer’s footing upon the crags.

It is only in the male that the long tusks are seen, and that the perfume
called musk is secreted. The tusks are sometimes as much as three inches
in length, and therefore project considerably beyond
the jaw. In shape they are compressed, pointed, and
rather sharp-edged. The natives say that their prin-
cipal use is in digging up the kastoree plant, a kind of
subterranean bulb on which the Musk Deer feeds, and
which imparts the peculiar perfume to the odorous secre-
tion. The musk is produced in a glandular pouch
placed in the Enabtven, and when the animal is killed ~~” “0° PPE®
for the sake of this treasure, the musk-bag is carefully removed, so as to
defend its precious contents from exposure to the air. When recently taken
from the animal, the musk is of so powerful an odour as to cause headache
to those who inhale its overpowering fragrance. The affluence of perfume
that resides in the musk is almost incredible, for a small piece of this
wonderful secretion may remain in a room for many years, and at the end
of that time will give forth an odour which is apparently not the least
diminished by time.

ANOTHER member of the Moschine group is the KANCHIL, or PIGMY
Musk (Trégulus pygmeus), a Deer which is found in the Asiatic islands,
and which is as celebrated for its cunning as is the fox among ourselves.

KANCHIL, OR PIGMY MUSK.—(T7rdgulus pygmaeus.)

This animal is not nearly so large as the Musk Deer, and although some-
what similar in colour, may be distinguished by a broad black stripe which
rans along the back of the neck, and forms a wide band across the chest,

192 THE CAMEL.

Instead of living in the cold and lofty mountain ranges which are inhabited
by the Musk Deer, the Kanchil prefers the thickly wooded districts of the
Javanese forests. Like many other animals, the Kanchil is given to
“possuming,” or feigning death when it is taken in a noose or trap, and as
soon as the successful hunter releases the clever actor from the retaining
cord, it leaps upon its feet and darts away before he has recovered from his
surprise.

FRoM the earliest times that are recorded in history, the CAMEL is men-
tioned as one of the animals which are totally subject to the sway of man,
and which in Eastern countries contribute so much to the wealth and influence
of their owners.

There are two species of Camel acknowledged by zoologists, namely, the
common Camel of Arabia, which has but one hump, and the Mecheri, or
Bactrian Camel, which possesses two of these curious appendages.

As the animal is intended to traverse the parched sand-plains, and to pass
several consecutive days without the possibility of obtaining liquid nourish-
ment, there is an internal
structure which permits
the animal to store up
a considerable amount
of water for future use.
~ For this purpose the

. honey-comb cells of
the “reticulum” are
largely developed, and
are enabled to receive
and to retain the water
which is received into
the stomach after the
natural thirst of the ani-
mal has been supplied.
After a Camel has been
accustomed to journey-
ing across the hot and
arid sand wastes, it
‘ a = learns wisdom by ex-
aye = — = perience, and contrives

a to lay by a much greater

CAMEL.—(Camélus Ardbicus.) supply of water than

: would be accumulated

by a young and untried animal. It is supposed that the Camel is, in some

way, able to dilate the honeycomb cells, and to force them to receive a
larger quantity of the priceless liquid.

A large and experienced Camel will receive five or six quarts of water into
its stomach, and is enabled to exist for as many days without needing to
drink. Aided by this internal supply of water, the Camel can satiate its
hunger by browsing on the hard and withered thorns that are found scattered
thinly through the deserts, and suffers no injury to its palate from their iron-
like spears, that would direfully wound the mouth of any less sensitive
creature. The Camel has even been known to eat pieces of dry wood, and to
derive apparent satisfaction from its strange meal.

The feet of the Camel are well adapted for walking upon the loose, dry sand,
than which substance there is no more uncertain footing. The toes are very
broad, and are furnished with soft, wide cushions, that present a considerable
surface to the loose soil, and enable the animal to maintain a firm hold upon

THE BACTRIAN CAMEL. 193

the shifting sands. As the Camel is constantly forced to kneel in order to be
loaded or relieved of its burden, it is furnished upon the knees and breast
with thick callous pads, which support its weight without injuring the skin.
Thus fitted by nature for its strange life, the Camel faces the desert sands
with boldness, and traverses the arid regions with an ease and quiet celerity
that has gained for the creature the title of “ Ship of the Desert.”

The Camel is invariably employed as an animal of carriage when in its
native land, and is able to support a load of five or six hundred pounds’
weight without being overtaxed.

The pace of the Camel is not nearly so rapid as is generally supposed, and
even the speed of the Heirie, or swift Camel, has been greatly exaggerated.

The speed of the Heirie is seldom more than eight or ten miles per hour,
but the endurance of the animal is so wonderful, that it is able to keep up-
this pace for twenty hours without stopping. .

The “hump” of the Camel is a very curious part of its structure, and is of
great importance in the eyes of the Arabs, who judge of the condition of their
beasts by the size, shape, and firmness of the hump. They say, and truly,
that the Camel feeds upon his hump, for in proportion as the animal
traverses the sandy wastes of its desert lands, and suffers from privation
and fatigue, the hump diminishes. At the end of a long and painful jour-
ney, the hump will often nearly vanish, and it cannot be restored to its
pristine form until the animal has undergone a long course of good feeding.
When an Arab is about to set forth on a desert journey, he pays
great attention to the humps of his Camels, and watches them with jealous
care.

Independently of its value as a beast of burden, the Camel is most
precious to its owners, as it supplies them with food and clothing. The
milk mixed with meal is a favourite dish among the children of the desert,
and is sometimes purposely kept until it is sour, in which state it is very
grateful to the Arab palate, but especially nauseous to that of a European.
The Arabs think that any man is sadly devoid of taste who prefers the sweet
new milk to that which has been mellowed by time. A kind of very rancid
butter is churned from the cream by a remarkably simple process, consisting
of pouring the cream into a goatskin sack, and shaking it constantly until
the butter is formed.

‘The long hair of the Camel is spun into a coarse thread, and is employed
in the manufacture of broad-cloths and similar articles. At certain times
of the year, the Camel sheds its hair, in order to replace its old coat by a
new one, and the Arabs avail themselves of the looseness with which the
hair is at these times adherent to the skin, to pluck it away without
injuring the animal. ;

The height of an ordinary Camel at the shoulder is about six or seven feet,
and its colour is a light brown, of various depths in different individuals, some
specimens being nearly black, and others almost white. The Dromedary is
the lighter breed of Camel, and is chiefly used for riding, while the ordinary
Camel is employed as a beast of burden. Between the two animals there is
about the same difference as between a dray-horse and a hunter, the Heirie
being analogous to the racehorse.

THE BACTRIAN CAMEL is readily to be distinguished from the ordinary
Camel by the double hump which it bears on its back, and which is precisely
analogous in its structure and office to that of the Arabian Camel.

The general formation of this animal ; its lofty neck, raising its head high
above the solar radiations from the heated ground; its valve-like nostrils, that
close involuntarily if a grain of drifting sand should invade their precincts ;
its wide cushion-like feet, and its powers of abstinence, prove that, like its

Q

194 THE BACTRIAN CAMEL.

Arabian relative, it is intended for the purpose of traversing vast deserts
without needing refreshment on the way. This species is spread through
Central Asia, Thibet, and China, and is domesticated through a large portion
of the world. It is not so enduring an animal as the Arabian species, requir-
ing a fresh supply of liquid every three days ; while the Arabian Camel can
exist without water for five or even six days.

The height of the Bactrian Camel is rather more than that of the Arabian
species, and its colour is generally brown, which sometimes deepens into
sooty black, and sometimes fades into a dirty white.

THE true camels are exclusively confined to the Old World, but find repre-
sentatives in the New World in four acknowledged species of the genus LLAMA,

These animals are comparatively small in their dimensions, and possess no
hump, so that they may easily be distinguished from the camels. Their hair
is very woolly, and their
countenance has a very
sheep-like expression, so
that a full-haired Llama
instantly reminds the
spectator of a long-
legged, long - necked
sheep. The feet of the
Llamas are very differ-
ent from those of the
camels, as their haunts
are always found to be
upon rocky ground, and
their feet must of neces-
sity be accommodated
to the ground on which
they are accustomed to
tread. The toes of the
= Llama are completely
divided, and are each
furnished with a rough
cushion beneath, and a

BACTRIAN CAMEL.—(Camdlus Bactriinus.) strong, claw-like hoof
above, so that the mem-
ber may take a firm hold of rocky and uneven ground.

Four species of Llamas are now acknowledged ; namely, the Vicugna, the
Guanaco, the Yamma, and the Alpaca.

THE VICUGNA is found in the most elevated localities of Batavia and
Northern Chili, and is a very wild and untameable animal, having resisted
all the attempts of the patient natives to reduce it to a state of domestication.
It is extremely active and sure-footed in its mountain home, and being
equally timid and wary, is seldom captured ina living state. It lives in herds
near the region of perpetual snow, and in its habits bears some resemblance
to the chamois. The short, soft, silken fur of this animal is very valuable.
The colour of the Vicugna is a nearly uniform brown, tinged with yellow on
the back, and fading into grey on the abdomen. Its height at the shoulder
is about two feet six inches.

THE GUANACO is spread over a very wide range of country extending over
the whole of the temperate regions of Patagonia. The colour of this species
is a ieddish brown, the ears and hind legs grey. The neck is long in com-
parison with the size of the body, and the height at the shoulder is about
three feet six inches.

THE LLAMA. 195

The Guanaco lives in herds varying in number from ten to thirty or forty,
but is sometimes seen in flocks of much greater numbers, resembling sheep,
not only in their gregarious habits, but in the implicit obedience with which
they rely upon their leader. Should they be deprived of his guardianship,
they become so bewildered that they run aimlessly from spot to spot, and can
be easily destroyed by experienced hunters.

The Guanaco is wonderfully sure-footed upon rocky ground, and is also a
good swimmer, taking voluntarily to the water, and swimming from one
island to another. When near the sea it will drink the salt water, and has
often been observed in the act of drinking the briny waters of certain
salt springs.

Ee

a

ALPACA LLAMA.—(Llama Pacos.)

THE YAMMA, or LLAMA, is of a brown or variegated colour, and its legs
are long and slender. In former days this animal was the only beast of
burden which was possessed by the natives, and it was largely used by
the Spaniards (who described it as a sheep) for the same purpose. It is
able to carry a weight of one hundred pounds, and to traverse about fourteen
or fifteen miles per diem. As a beast of burden it is now being rapidly
supplanted by the ass, while the European sheep is gradually taking its place
as a wool-bearer. The flesh of the Llama is dark and coarse, and is accord-
ingly held in bad repute.

THE ALPACA, or PACO, is, together with the last animal, supposed by
several zoologists to be only a domesticated variety of the Guanaco. Its
colour is generally black, but is often variegated with brown and white. The
wool of this species’ is long, soft, silky, and extremely valuable in the com.
mercial world.

O2

196 THE ARAB HORSE.

HORSES.

THE Horse has from time immemorial been made the companion and
servant of man, and its original progenitors are unknown. It is supposed,
however, that the Horse must have derived its origin from Central Asia,
and from thence have spread to almost every portion of the globe.

The elegant, swift, and withal powerful Horses of which England is so
proud, and which are employed in the chase or the course, owe their best
qualities to the judicious admixture of the Arabian blood. The ARAB
Horse has long been celebrated for its swift limbs, exquisite form, and
affectionate disposition.

There are several breeds of Arab Horses, only one of which is of very
great value. This variety, termed the Kochlani, is so highly prized, that a
mare of the pure breed
can hardly be procured
at any cost, and even
the male animal is not
easy of attainment.
The pedigree of these
Horses is carefully pre-
served, and written in
most florid terms upon
parchment. In some
cases the genealogy is
said to extend for
nearly two thousand
years. The body of
the Arab Horse is very
light, its neck long ard
arched, its eye full and
soft, and its limbs deli-
cate and slender. The
temper of the ,animal
==. is remarkably sweet,

4 for as it has been born

THE HORSE. and bred among the

family of its owner, it

avoids injuring even the little children that roll about among its legs as

carefully as if they were its own offspring. So attached to its owner is this

beautiful Horse, that if he should be thrown from its back, the animal will

stand quietly by its prostrate master, and wait until he gains strength to
remount.

The training of the Kochlani is not so severe as is generally imagined,
for the presence of water and abundant pasturage is absolutely necessary,
in order to rear the animal in a proper manner. Not until the strength
and muscles of the animal are developed is a trial permitted, and then it
is truly a terrible one. When the mare—for the male animal is never
ridden by the Arabs—has attained her full development, she is mounted for
the first time, and ridden at full speed for fifty or sixty miles without respite.
Hot and fainting, she is then forced into deep water, which compels her to
swim, and if she does not feed freely immediately after this terrific trial, she
is rejected as unworthy of being reckoned among the true Kochlani.

For the animals which will stand this terrible test the Arab has almost

THE RACEHORSE. 197

an idolatrous regard, and will oftentimes spare an enemy merely on account -
of his steed.

The RACEHORSE of England is, perhaps, with the exception of the fox-
hound, the most admirable example of the perfection to which a domesticated
animal can be brought by careful breeding and training.

Whatever may have been its original source, the Racer has been greatly
improved by the mixture of Arab blood, through the means of the Godolphin
and Darley Arabians. The celebrated horse Eclipse was a descendant, on
the mother’s side, of the Godolphin Arabian, that wonderful animal which
was rescued from drawing a cart in Paris, and which was afterwards destined
to play so important a part in regenerating the breed of English Racers. He
was also descended, on his father’s side, from the Darley Arabian.

The best bred Horses are generally the most affectionate and docile,
although their spirit is very high and their temper hot and quick. There are
few animals which are more affectionate than a Horse, which seems to feel a
necessity for attachment, and if his sympathies be not aroused by human
means, he will make friends with the nearest living being. Cats are great
favourites with Horses, and even the famous Chillaby, called, from his
ferocity, the Mad Arabian, had his little friend in the shape of a lamb, which
would take any liberties with him, and was accustomed. to butt at the flies as
they came too near his strange ally. The Godolphin Arabian was also
strongly attached to a cat, which usually sat on his back or nestled in the
manger. When he died, the cat pined away and soon followed her loved
friend.

These examples are sufficient to show that the ferocity of these animals
was caused by the neglect or ignorance of their human associates, who either
did not know how to arouse the affectionate feelings of the animal, or brutally
despised and crushed them. The Horse is 2 much more intellectual animal
than is generally supposed, as will be acknowledged by anyone who has
possessed a favourite Horse and treated it with uniform kindness.

There is no need for whip or spur when the rider and steed understand
each other, and the bridle is reduced almost to a mere form, as the touch of
a finger, or the tone of a voice, is sufficient to direct the animal. We are all
familiar with the elephantine dray-horses that march so majestically along
with their load of casks, and which instantaneously obey the singular sounds
which continually issue from the throats of their conductors, and back, stop,
advance, or turn to the right or left, without requiring the touch of a rein or
the blow of a whip. The infliction of pain is a clumsy and a barbarous
manner of guiding a Horse, and we shall never reap the full value of the
animal until we have learned to respect its feelings, and to shun the infliction
of torture as a brutal, a cowardly, and an unnecessary act. To maltreat a
child is always held to be a cowardly and unmanly act, and it is equally
cowardly and unworthy of the human character to maltreat a poor animal
which has no possibility of revenge, no hope of redress, and no words to
make its wrongs known. Pain is pain, whether inflicted on man or beast,
and we are equally responsible in either case.

As an unprejudiced observer, with no purpose to serve, and without
bias in either direction, I cannot here refrain from observing, that Mr.
Rarey'’s method of bringing the Horse under subjection is a considerable
step in the right direction, and a very great improvement on the cruel and
savage method which is so often employed by coarse and ignorant men,
and truly called “breaking.” Having repeatedly witnessed the successful
operations of that gentleman in subduing Horses that had previously defied
all efforts, I cannot be persuaded that it is a cruel process. The method by
which it is achieved is now sufficiently familiar, and I will only observe that

198 THE SHETLAND PONY.

the idea is a true and philosophical one. The Horse is mostly fierce because
it is nervous ; and bites and kicks, not because it is enraged, but because it
isalarmed. Restore confidence, and the creature becomes quiet, without any
desire to use its hoofs and teeth in an aggressive manner. It is clearly im-
possible to do so as long as the animal is at liberty to annihilate its teacher,
and the strap is only used until the Horse is convinced that the presence of
a human form, or the touch of a human hand, has nothing of the terrible in
it. Confidence soon takes the place of fear, and the animal seems to receive
its teacher at once into its good graces, following him like a dog, and rubbing
its nose against his shoulder.

SEVERAL breeds of partially wild Horses are still found in the British
Islands, the best known of which is the SHETLAND PONY.

This odd, quaint, spirited little animal is an inhabitant of the islands at
the northern extremity of Scotland, where it runs wild, and may be owned

SHETLAND PONY.

by anyone who can catch and hold it. Considering its diminutive proportions
which only average seven or eight hands in height, the Sheltie is wonderfully
strong, and can trot away quite easily with a tolerably heavy man on its back.
One of these little creatures carried a man of twelve stone weight for a
distance of forty miles in a single day. The head of this little animal is
small, the neck short and well arched, and covered with an abundance of
heavy mane, that falls over the face and irresistibly reminds the spectator of
a Skye terrier. It is an admirable draught-horse when harnessed to a
carriage of proportionate size ; and a pair of these spirited little creatures
when attached to a low lady’s carriage, have a remarkably piquant and
Dretty appearance,

THE ASS. 199

MAN has so long held the Domestic Ass under his control, that its
original progenitors have entirely disappeared from the face of the earth.

There are, as it is well known, abundant examples of wild Asses found in
various lands, but it seems that these animals are either the descendants of
domesticated Asses which have escaped from captivity, or the offspring of
wild and domesticated animals. In size and general appearance the Ass
varies greatly, according to the country which it inhabits and the treatment
to which it is subjected. The Spanish kind, for example, is double the size
of the ordinary English Ass, and even the latter animal is extremely variable
in stature and general dimensions.
As a rule, the Ass is large and sleek-
haired in warm countries, and small
and woolly-haired in the colder parts
of the globe.

Strong, sure-footed, hardy, and
easily maintained, the Ass is of in-
finite use to the poorer classes of the
community, who need the services of
a beast of burden and cannot afford
to purchase or keep so expensive an
animal as a horse.

It is a very great mistake to em-
ploy the name of Ass or donkey as
a metaphor for stupidity, for the Ass
is truly one of the cleverest of our
domesticated animals, and will lose ASS.—(Asinus vulgaris.)
no opportunity of displaying his
capability whenever his intelligence is allowed to expand by being freed
from the crushing toil and constant pain that are too often the concomi-
tants of a donkey’s life.
Everyone who has petted a
favourite donkey will remem-
ber many traits of its mental
capacities ; for, as in the case
of the domestic fool of the
olden days, there is far more

knavery than folly about the ~-4 \
creature. u “yy \ A

In the East, the Assis used & yf \\ i
even more extensively than 3 ; ZOPANN | NNN
in Europe, and is generally 5 aN

employed for carrying bur-
dens or for the saddle, the
horse being used more for
ostentation or for warfare
than for the mere convey-

. = ~ a
ance of human beings from = LS OS
one spot to another. DZIGGETAI, OR KOULAN.—(Asinus Onager.)

The colour of the Ass is
a uniform grey, a dark streak passing along the spine, and another stripe
being drawn transversely across the shoulders. In the quagga and zebra
these stripes are much more extended.

THE Wild Asses are all celebrated for their extreme fleetness and sureness
of foot, and among them the DzIGGETAI, KHUR, or KOULAN, deserves
especial mention.

200 THE QUAGGA.,

This animal is so wonderfully swift that it cannot be overtaken even by a
fleet Arabian horse, and if it can get upon hilly or rocky ground, it bids
defiance to all wingless enemies. Not even the greyhound can follow it with
any hope of success when it once leaves level ground. This great speed
renders it a favourite object of chase with the natives of the country which
it inhabits ; and whether in Persia or India, it is held to be the noblest of
game. Sometimes-the falcon is trained to aid in the chase of the Wild Ass,
but the usual method of
securing this animal is to
drive it towards rocky
ground, and to kill it with
a rifle bullet as it stands in
fancied security upon some
lofty crag.

It lives in troops, descend-
ing to the plains during the
winter months, and return-
ing to the cooler hills as
soon as the summer begins
to be unpleasantly warm.

It is very common in
Mesopotamia, and is always
a most shy and wary, as
well as swift animal, Each
troop is under the command

QUAGGA.—(Asinus Quagyu.) of a leader, who sways his

subjects with unlimited

authority, and takes upon himself to make all needful arrangements for
their welfare.

The colour of this animal is pale reddish brown in the summer, fading
into a grey-brown in the
winter, and marked with
a black stripe along the
spine, becoming wider
upon the middle of the
back.

Another species of Wild
Ass is the KIANG, or Wild
Ass of Thibet, sometimes,
but erroneously, called the
Wild Horse of Thibet, be-
cause its noise resembles
the neighing of that animal
rather than the braying of
the Ass.

AFRICA produces some
most beautiful examples
of the Wild Asses, equal-
ling the Asiatic species in
ZEBRA. —(Asinus Zebra.) speed and beauty of form,

and far surpassing them

in richness of colour and boldness of marking.

THE QuacGaA looks at first sight like a cross between the common wild ass
and the zebra, as it only partially possesses the characteristic zebra stripes, and
as decorated merely upon the hind and fore parts of the body. The streaks

THE ELEPHANT. 201

are not so deep as they are in the zebra, and the remainder of the body is
brown, with the exception of the abdomen, legs, and part of the tail, which
are whitish grey. The Quagga lives in large herds, and is much persecuted
by the natives of Southern Africa, who pursue it for the sake of its skin and
its flesh, both of which are in high estimation.

AMONG all the species of the Ass tribe, the ZEBRA is by far the most con-
spicuous and the most beautiful.

The general colour of the Zebra is a creamy white, marked regularly with
velvety black stripes that cover the entire head, neck, body, and limbs, and
extend down to the very feet. It is worthy of note that the stripes are drawn
nearly at right angles to the part of the body on which they occur, so that the
stripes of the legs are horizontal, while those of the body are vertical. The
abdomen and inside faces of the thighs are cream-white, and the end of the
tail is nearly black. This arrangement of colouring is strangely similar to that
of the tiger, and has earned for the animal the name of “ Hippotigris,” or
Horse-tiger, among some zoologists ancient and modern. The skin of the neck
is developed into a kind of dewlap, and the tail is sparingly covered with coarse
black hair. By the Cape colonists it is called W2/de Paard, or Wild Horse.

At the best of times the flesh of the Zebra is not very inviting, being
rather tough, coarse, and of a very peculiar flavour. The Boers, who call
themselves by the title of “baptized men,” think they would be derogating
from their dignity to partake of the flesh of the zebra, and generously leave
the animal to be consumed by their Hottentot servants. When wounded,
the Zebra gives a kind of groan, which is said to resemble that of a dying man.

In disposition the Zebra is fierce, obstinate, and nearly untameable. The —
efforts used by Mr. Rarey in reducing to obedience the Zebra of the Zoological
Gardens are now matter of history. The little brindled animal gave him
more trouble than the huge savages on whom he had so successfully operated,
and it overset some of his calculations by the fact that it was able to kick as
fiercely from three legs as a horse from four.

In its habits the Zebra resembles the Dziggetai, as it is always found in
hilly districts, and inhabits the high craggy mountain ranges in preference to
the plains. It isa mild and very timid animal, fleeting instinctively to its
mountain home as soon as it is alarmed by the sight of a strange object.

PACHYDERMATA ,
OR, THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS.

THE important family of the Elephantidz includes, according to the catalogue
of the British Museum, the Elephants, Tapirs, Swine, Hyrax, Rhinoceros,
and Hippopotamus. All these animals, however. different their aspect, are
nearly related to each other by means of certain members of the family,
which, although now extinct, have been recovered through the assistance of
geological researches. : bs cad ;

Of Elephants, two distinct species are found in different continents, the
one inhabiting Asia, and the other taking up its residence in Africa.
According to some zoologists these animals belong to different genera, but
the distinctions between the two creatures are not sufficiently determined to
warrant such a suggestion. Although the Asiatic and African Elephants are
very similar in external form, they may at once be distinguished from each
other by the size of the ear. In the Asiatic animal, the ears are of moderate
swe, while in the African Elephant they are of enormous magnitude, nearly
meeting on the back of the head, and hanging with their tips below the neck.

202 THE ELEPHANT.

The molar teeth also afford excellent indications of the country to which
their owner has belonged, for the enamel upon the surface of the teeth of the
Asiatic Elephant is moulded into a number of narrow bands like folded
ribands, while that of the African species is formed into five or six diamond
or lozenge-shaped folds. Indeed, each molar tooth seems to be composed of
a number of flat, broad teeth, which are fastened closely together, so as to
form a single large mass. Only a portion of each tooth is externally visible,
the remainder being hidden in the jaw, and moving forward as the exposed
portion is worn away. When the whole tooth is thus worn out, it falls from
the jaw, and its place is taken by another which has been forming behind it.
In this manner the Elephant sheds its molar teeth six or seven times in the
course of its life. The tusks, however, are permanent, and are retained
during the whole of the animal’s existence. In the Indian Elephant, only
the males are furnished with tusks, and not every individual of that sex,
whereas in the African species both sexes are supplied with these valuable
appendages, those of the male being much larger and heavier than those of
his mate.

The strangest portion of the Elephant’s form is the trunk or proboscis.
This wonderful appendage is in fact a development of the upper lips and the
nose, and is perforated through its entire length by the nostrils, and furnished
at its extremity with a kind of finger-like appendage, which enables the
animal to pluck a single blade of grass, or to pick a minute object from the
ground. The value of the proboscis to the Elephant is incredible ; without
its aid the creature would soon starve. The short, thick neck would prevent
it from stooping to graze, while the projecting tusks would effectually hinder
it from reaching any vegetables which might grow at the level of its mouth.
And as it would be unable to draw water into its mouth without the use of
the trunk, thirst would in a very short time end its existence.

In order to support the enormous weight of the teeth, tusks, and proboscis,
the head is required to be of very large dimensions, so as to afford support
for the powerful muscles and tendons which are requisite for such a task,
It is also needful that lightness should be combined with magnitude, and
this double condition is very beautifully fulfilled. The skull of the Elephant,
instead of being a mere bony shell round the brain, is enormously enlarged
by the separation of its bony plates, the intervening space being filled with
a vast number of honeycomb-like bony cells, their walls being hardly thicker
than strong paper, and their hollows filled during the life of the animal with
a kind of semi-liquid fat or oil. The brain lies in a comparatively small
cavity within this cellular structure, and is therefore defended from the severe
concussions which it would otherwise experience from the frequency with
which the animal employs its head as a battering ram.

In order to support the enormous weight which rests upon them, the legs
are very stout, and are set perpendicularly, without that bend in the hinder
leg which is found in most animals. There is an elongated cannon bone in
the Elephant, so that the hind legs are without the so-called knee-joint. This
structure, however, is of infinite use to the animal when it climbs or descends
steep acclivities, a feat which it can perform with marvellous ease. It may
seem strange, but it is nevertheless true, that localities which would be totally
inaccessible to a horse are traversed by the Elephant with perfect ease,

In descending from a height, the animal performs a very curious series of
manceuvres. Kneeling down with its fore-feet stretched out in front, and its
hinder legs bent backward, as is their wont, the Elephant hitches cne of its
fore-feet upon some projection or in some crevice, and bearing firmly upon
this support, lowers itself for a short distance. It then advances the other
foot, secures it in like manner, and slides still farther, never losing its hold |

THE ASITATIC ELEPHANT, 203

of one place of vantage until another is gained. Should no suitable projec-
tion be found, the Elephant scrapes a hole in the ground with its advanced
foot, and makes use of this artificial depression in its descent. If the declivity
be very steep, the animal will not descend in a direct line, but make an
oblique track along the face of the hill. Although the description of this
curious process occupies some time, the actual feat is performed with extreme
rapidity.

Though the foot of an Elephant is extremely large, it is most admirably
formed for the purpose which it is destined to fulfil, and does not, as might
be supposed, fall heavily upon the ground. The hoof that incloses the foot is
composed of a vast number of horny plates, that are arranged on the principle
of the common carriage-spring, and seem to guard the animal from the jarring

ASIATIC ELEPHANT.—(Llephas [ndicus.)

shock of the heavy limb upon the soil. Those who for the first time witness
the walk or the run of the Elephant are always surprised at the silent ease of
the creature’s free, sweeping step. As there is no short ligament in the head
of the thigh-bone, the hind foot is swung forward at each step, clearing the
ground easily, but being scarcely raised above the surface of the earth.

Having thus given a short sketch of the characteristics which are common
to both species of Elephants, I will proceed to a short account of the Asiatic
animal.

Tue ASIATIC ELEPHANT bears a world-wide fame for its capabilities as a
seivant and companion of man, and for the extraordinary development of

204 THE ASIATIC ELEPHANT.

its intellectual faculties. Hundreds of these animals are annually captured,
and ina very short period of time become whoily subjected to their owners,
and learn to obey their commands with implicit submission. Indeed, the
power of the human intellect is never so conspicuous as in the supremacy
which man maintains over so gigantic and clever an animal as the Elephant.
In all work which requires the application of great strength combined with
singular judgment, the Elephant is supreme ; but as a mere puller and hauler it
is of no very great value. In piling logs, for example, the Elephant soon learns
the proper mode of arrangement, and will place them upon each other with
a regularity that would not be surpassed by human workmen. Sir Emerson
Tennent mentions a pair of Elephants that were accustomed to labour con-
jointly, and which had been taught to raise their wood piles to a considerable
height by constructing an inclined plane of sloping beams, and rolling the
logs up the beams.

There are two modes of capturing the Asiatic Elephant, the one by pur-
suing solitary individuals and binding them with ropes as they wander at
will through the forests, and the other by driving a herd of Elephants into a
previously prepared pound, and securing the entrance so as to prevent their
escape.

athe former method, the hunters are aided by certain trained females,
termed “koomkies,” which enter into the spirit of the chase with wonderful
animation, and help their riders in every possible manner. When the
koomkies see a fine male Elephant, they advance carelessly towards him,
plucking leaves and grass, as if they were perfectly indifferent to his presence.
He soon becomes attracted to them, when they overwhelm him with endear-
ing feminine blandishments, and occupy his attention so fully that he does
not observe the proceedings of the *‘mahouts,” or riders. These men, seeing
the Elephant engaged with the “koomkies,” slip quietly to the ground and
attach their rope nooses to his legs, fastening the ends of the cords to some
neighbouring tree. Should no suitable tree be at hand, the koomkies are
sagacious enough to comprehend the dilemma, and to urge their victim
towards some large tree which is sufficiently strong to withstand his struggles.
As soon as the preparations are complete the mahouts give the word of
command to the koomkies, who move away, leaving the captive Elephant to
his fate. °

Finding himself deserted and bound, he becomes mad with rage, and
struggles with all his force to get free. In these furious efforts the Elephant
displays a flexibility and activity of body that are quite surprising, and
are by no ineans in accordance with the clumsy, stiff aspect of its body
and limbs. It rolls on the ground in despair, it rends the air with furious
cries of rage, it butts at the fatal tree with all its force, in hope of
bringing it to the ground, and has been known to stand with its hind legs
fairly off the ground, in its furious endeavours to break the rope. After a
while, however, it finds its exertions to be totally useless, and yields to its
conquerors.

The second mode of capturing Elephants is more complicated. The
inclosure into which the Elephants are driven is termed a “keddah,” and is
ingeniously constructed of stout logs and posts, which are supported by strong
buttresses, and are so arranged that a man can pass through the interstices
between the logs. When the keddah is set in good order, a vast number of
hunters form themselves into a huge circle, inclosing one or more herds of
Elephants, and moving gradually towards the inclosure of the keddah, and
arranging themselves in such a manner as to leave the entrance towards the
keddah always open. When they have thus brought the herd to the proper
spot, a business which will often consume several weeks, the Elephants are

THE AIRICAN ELEPHANT, 205

excited by shouts, the waving of hands and spears, &c., to move towards the
inclosure, which is cunningly concealed by the trees among which it is built,
If the operation should take place at night, the surrounding hunters are
supplied with burning torches, while the keddah is carefully kept in darkness.
Being alarmed by the noise and the flames, the Elephants rush instinctively
to the only open space, and are thus fairly brought within the precincts of
the keddah, from which they never emerge again save as captives.

The terrified animals run round and round the inclosure, and often attempt
a desperate charge, but are always driven back by the torch-bearers, who
wave their flaming weapons and discourage the captured animals from their
meditated assault. At last the poor creatures are so bewildered and fatigued
that they gather together in the centre of the keddah, and are then consi-
dered to be ready for the professional elephant hunters. These courageous
men enter the keddah either on foot or upon the back of their koomkies, and
contrive to tie every one of the captives to some spot from whence it
cannot move. Most ingenious stratagems are employed by the hunters in
this perilous task, the details of which may be found in many werks on
the subject.

The Elephant is always guided by a mahout, who sits astride upon its neck
and directs the movements of the animal by means of his voice, aided
by a kind of spiked hook, called the haunkus, which is applied to the animal’s
head in such a manner as to convey the driver’s wishes to the Elephant.
The persons who ride upon the Elephant are either placed in the howdah, a
kind of wheelless carriage strapped on the animal’s back, or sit upon a large
pad, which is furnished with cross ropes in order to give a firm hold. The
latter plan is generally preferred, as the rider is able to change his position at
will, and even to recline upon the Elephant’s back if he should be fatigued by
the heavy rolling gait of the animal. The Elephant generally kneels in order
to permit the riders to mount, and then rises from the ground with a peculiar
swinging motion. Very small Elephants are furnished with a saddle like
that which is used upon horses, and is fitted with stirrups. The saddle,
however, cannot be conveniently used on animals that are more than six
feet in height. ;

The size of Elephants has been greatly exaggerated, as sundry writers have
given fourteen or sixteen feet as an ordinary height, and have even mentioned
instances where Elephants have attained to the height of twenty feet. It is
true that the enormous bulk of the animal makes its height appear much
greater than is really the case. Eight feet is about the average height of a
large Elephant, and scarcely any, Elephant measures much more than ten
feet high at the shoulder. . ; :

The general colour of the Elephant is brown, of a lighter tint when the
animal is at liberty, and considerably deeper when its hide is subjected to
rubbing with a cocoa-nut brush and plenty of oil. Sometimes an albino or
White Elephant is seen in the forests, the colour of the animal being a pinky
white, and aptly compared to the nose of awhite horse. The king of Ava, one
of whose titles is “ Lord of the White Elephants,” generally contrives to
monopolize every White Elephant, and employs them for purposes of state,
decorating them with strings of priceless gems, pearls, and gold coins, and
lodging them in the most magnificent of houses, where their very eating-
troughs are of silver. ;

The AFRICAN ELEPHANT is spread over a very wide range of country,
extending from Senegal and Abyssinia to the borders of the Cape Colony.
Several conditions are required for its existence, such as water, clense forests,
and the absence of human habitations. ; aroun Paes

Although it is very abundant in the locality which it inhabits, it is not often

206 THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.

seen by casual travellers, owing to its great vigilance and its wonderful power
of moving through the tangled forests without noise and without causing any
perceptible agitation of the foliage. In spite of its enormous dimensions, it
is one of the most invisible of forest creatures, and a herd of Elephants, of
eight or nine feet in height, may stand within a few yards of a hunter without
being detected by him, even though he is aware of their presence.

The Kaffirs are persevering elephant hunters, and are wonderfully expert
in tracking any individual by the “spoor” or track, which is made by its
footsteps. The foot of a male is easily to be distinguished by the roundness
of its form, while that of the female is more oval, and the height of the animal
is also ascertained by measurement of the footmarks, twice the circumference
of the foot being equal to the height at the shoulder.

BASES — Spe a = =<SJ\

AFRICAN ELEPHANT. —(Loxudonta Africana.)

The death of a large Elephant is great matter of congratulation among the
natives, who rejoice at the abundant supply of food which will fall to their
share. Almost every portion of the animal is used by the Kaffirs, whose
strong jaws are not to be daunted by the toughest meat, and whose accom-
modating palates are satisfied with various portions which would be rejected
by any civilized being.

Some portions of the Elephant are, however, grateful even to European
palates, and the foot, when baked, is really delicious. This part of the
animal is cooked by being laid in a hole in the earth, over which a large fire
has been suffered to burn itself out, and then covered over with the hot earth.
Another fire is then built on the spot, and permitted to burn itself out as
before, and when the place is thoroughly cool, the foot is properly cooked.
The flesh of the boiled foot is quite soft and gelatinous, something resem-
bling calf’s head, and is so tender that it can be scooped away with a spoom

THE TAPIR, 207

The trunk and the skin around the eye are also enumerated as delicacies,
but have been compared by one who has had practical experience as
bearing a close resemblance to shoe-leather both in toughness and evil flavour.

The natives employ many methods of capturing Elephants, the pitfall
being the most deadly. Even this insidious snare is often rendered useless
by the sagacity of the crafty old leaders of the herds, who precede their little
troops to the water, as they advance by night to drink, and carefully beating
the ground with their trunks as they proceed, unmask the pitfalls that have
been dug in their course. They then tear away the covers of the pits and
render them harmless. These pits are terrible affairs when an animal gets
into them, for a sharp stake is set perpendicularly at the bottom, so that the
poor Elephant is transfixed by its own weight, and dies miserably. Each pit
is about eight feet long by four in width.

The ivory of the African Elephant is extremely valuable, and vast quantities
_are imported annually into this country. The slaughter of an Elephant is
therefore a matter of congratulation to the white hunter, who knows that he can
obtain a good price for the tusks and teeth of the animal which he has slain.
A pair of tusks weighing about a hundred and fifty pounds will fetch nearly
forty pounds when sold, so that the produce of a successful chase is extremely
valuable. One officer contrived to purchase every step in the army by the
sale of the ivory which he had thus obtained. On an average, each pair of
tusks, taking the small with the great, will weigh about a hundred and
twenty pounds.

ONE of the links which unite the elephants to the swine and rhinoceros is
to be found in the genus Zufirus. The animals which belong to this genus
are remarkable for the prolonged upper lip, which is formed into a kind of
small proboscis, not unlike that of the elephant, but upon a smaller scale,
and devoid of the finger-like appendage at the extremity. Only two species
are at present existing.

The common or-American TAPIR, sometimes called the Mbérebi, is a
native of tropical America, where it is found in great numbers, inhabiting the
densely wooded regions that fringe the banks of rivers. It is a great water-
lover, and can swim or dive
with perfect ease. The
tough, thick hide with which
the Tapir is covered is of
great service in enabling
the animal to pursue its
headlong course through
the forest without suffering
injury from the branches.
When it runs, it carries its
head very low, as does the
wild boar under similar cir-
cumstances.

The colour of the adult
Tapir is a uniform brown,
but the young is beautifully
variegated with yellowish
fawn spots and stripes upon
a rich brown black ground, = xya-avER, OR MALAYAN TAPIR.—(Zagérus
reminding the observer of Malaydnus.)
the peculiar tinting of the
Hood’s marmot. The neck is adorned with a short and erect black mane,

The. Tapir can easily be brought under the subjection of man, and is:

2c8 THE BOAR.

readily tamed, becoming unpleasantly familiar with those persons whom it
knows, and taking all kinds of liberties with them, which would be well
enough in a little dog or a kitten, but are quite out of place with an animal
as Jarge as a donkey.

THE second species of Tapir is found in Malacca and Sumatra, and is a
most conspicuous animal, in consequence of the broad band of white that
encircles the body, and which at a little distance gives it the aspect of being
muffled up in a white sheet.

The ground colour of the adult MALAYAN TaPIR is a deep sooty black,
contrasting most strongly with the greyish white of the back and flanks.
The young animal is as beautifully variegated as that of the preceding species,
being striped and spotted with yellow fawn upon the upper parts of the body,
and with white below. There is no mane upon the neck of the Malayan
Tapir, and the proboscis is even longer in proportion. In size it rather
exceeds the preceding animal. In many of its habits the Malayan animal is
exactly similar to the species which inhabits America, but it is said that
although the KUDA-AYER is very fond of the water, it does not attempt to
swim, but contents itself with walking on the bed of the stream. Although
a sufficiently common animal in its native country, it is but seldom seen,
owing to its extremely shy habits, and its custom of concealing itself in the
thickest underwood.

The hide of the Tapir is employed by the natives for several useful pur-
poses, but the flesh is dry, tasteless, and not worth the trouble of cooking.
The term Kuda-Ayer is a Malayan word, signifying “river-horse,” and it is
also known by the name of Tennu.

In the SWINE, the snout is far less elephantine than in the preceding
animals, and, though capable of considerable mobility, cannot be curled
round any object so as to raise it from the ground. Nor, indeed, is such a
power needed, as the Swine employ the snout for the purpose of rooting in

: the earth, and of distinguishing,
by its tactile powers and the
delicate sense of smell which
is possessed by these animals,
those substances which are suit-
able for food.

There are many species as
well as varieties of Swine, which
are found in different parts of
the earth, the first and most
familiar of which is the Do-
MESTIC Hoc of Europe.

EN =—= This species is spread over
THE BOAR.—(5Sus scrofa.) the greater portion of the habit-

able globe, and was in former
days common in a wild state even in England, from whence it has only been
expelled within a comparatively late period. The chase of the wild boar was
a favourite amusement of the upper classes, and the animal was one of
those which were protected by the terribly severe forest laws which were
then in vogue.

At the present time the wild Swine have ceased from out of England, in
spite of several efforts that have been made to restore the breed by importing
specimens from the Continent and turning them into the forests. There are,
however, traces of the old wild boars still to be found in the forest pigs ot
Hampshire, with their high crests, broad shoulders, and thick bristling manes.
These animals are very active, and are much fiercer than the ordinary Swine.

THE BABYROUSSA. 209

In this country the Hog is used not only for food, but for the sake of the
hide, which, when prepared after a peculiar fashion, is found to make the
best leather for saddles. The bristles which are so largely used in the manu-
facture of brushes are almost exclusively imported from the Continent.

In its wild and domesticated state the Hog is a most prolific animal,
producing from eight to twelve pigs twice in each year, when it is in full
vigour and in good health. Gilbert White records a sow which, when she
died, was the parent of no less than three hundred pigs.

There is a prevalent idea, that whenever the Hog takes to the water he
cuts his own throat with the sharp hoofs of his fore-feet. This, however,
is by no means the case, for the animal is an admirable swimmer, and
will often take to the water intuitively. In one of the Moray Islands, three
domestic pigs belonging to the same litter swam a distance of five miles ;
and it is said that if they had belonged to a wild family they would have
swum to a much greater distance.

The flesh and fat of the Hog is especially valuable on account of its apti-
tude for taking salt without being rendered hard and indigestible by the
process ; and the various breeds of domesticated Swine are noted for their
adaptation to form pork or bacon in the shortest time and of the best quality.
A full account of the various English varieties, together with the mode of
breeding them and developing their peculiar characteristics, may be found in
many books which are devoted especially to the subject.

ONE of the most formidable-looking of Swine is the BaByRoussa of
Malacca. This strange creature is notable for the curious manner in which
the tusks are arranged, four of
these weapons being seen to
project above the snout. The
tusks of the lower jaw project
upward on each side of the
upper, as is the case with the
ordinary boar of Europe, but
those of the upper jaw are
directed in a very strange man-
ner. Their sockets, instead of
pointing downwards, are curved
upwards, so that the tooth, in
filling the curvatures of the
socket, passes through a hole in
the upper lip, and curls boldly
over the face. The curve, as well as the comparative size of these weapons,
is extremely variable, and is seldom precisely the same in any two individuals.
The upper tusks do not seem to be employed as offensive weapons ; indeed,
in many instances they would be quite useless for such a purpose, as they
are so strongly curved that their points nearly reach the skin of the forehead.
The female is devoid of these curious appendages.

The skin of the Babyroussa is rather smooth, being sparsely covered with
short bristly hairs. The object of the upper tusks is at present unknown,
although certain old writers asserted that the animal was accustomed to
suspend himself to branches by means of the appendage. The Babyroussa
lives in herds of considerable size, and is found inhabiting the marshy parts
of its native land.

The BoscH VARK, or Bush Hog, of Southern Africa, is a very formidable
animal in aspect, as well as in character, the heavy, lowering look, the pro-
jecting tusks, and the callous protuberance on the cheek, giving ita ferocious
oxpression which is no way belied by the savage and sullen temper of the

P

BABYROUSSA. —(Aadirussa Alfurus.)

210 THE BOSCH VARK.

animal. The Bosch Vark inhabits the forests, and is generally found lying
in excavations or hollows in the ground, from which it is apt to rush if
suddenly disturbed, and to work dire vengeance upon its foe. In colour it is
extremely variable, some species being of a uniform dark brown, others of a
brown variegated with white, while others are tinged with bright chestnut.
The young is richly mottled with yellow and brown. For the following
account of the habits of the Bosch Vark I am indebted to Colonel Dray-
son’s MS.

“Where the locality is sufficiently retired and wooded to afford shelter tc.
the bush bucks which I have mentioned, we may generally expect to find
traces of the Bush Pig. His spoor is like the letter M without the horizontal
marks, the extremities of the toes forming two separate points, which is not
the case with the Antelopes, at least very rarely so, the general impression of
their feet being like the letter A with a division down the centre, thus /\.

“The Bush Pig is about two feet six inches in height and five feet in
length ; his canine teeth are very large and strong, those in the upper jaw
projecting horizontally; those in the lower upwards. He is covered with

= AN

BOSCH VARK.—(Chotropotamus Africanus.)

long bristles, and, taking him all in all, he is about as formidable-looking an
animal, for his size, as can be seen.

“The Bosch Varks traverse the forests in herds, and subsist on roots and
young shrubs. A large hard-shelled sort of orange, with an interior filled
with seeds, grows in great quantities on the flats near the Natal forests ; this
is a favourite fruit of the wild pigs, and they will come out of the bush of an
evening and roam over the plains in search of windfalls from these fruit-trees.

“The Kaffir tribes, although they refuse to eat the flesh of the domestic
pig, will still feast without compunction on that of its bush brother.

THE PECCARY. 211

“In the bush I always found the Kaffirs disinclined to encounter a herd of
these wild Swine, stating as their reason for doing so that the animals were
very dangerous; they also said that the wounds given by the tusks of this
wild pig would not readily heal. The Berea bush of Natal was a favourite
resort of these wild pigs, but although their spoor could be seen in all direc-
tions, the animals themselves were. not so frequently encountered,

“The Kaffirs are much annoyed by these wild pigs, which force a passage
through the imperfectly made fences, and root up the seeds, or destroy the
pumpkins in the various gardens. As a defence, the Kaffirs leave nice
enticing little openings in different parts of their fences, and the pigs, taking
advantage of these ready-made doorways, frequently walk through them, and
are then engulfed in a deep pit in which is a pointed stake, and they are
assagaied with great delight by the expecting Kaffirs, who are on the alert,
and who hear the cries of distress from piggy himself.

“The tusks are considered great ornaments, and are arranged on a piece
of string and worn round the neck.”

AMERICA possesses a representative of the porcine group in the PECCARIES,
two species of which animals inhabit the Brazils. :

The common PECCARY, or TaJAcu, although it is of no very great dimen-
sions, resembling a small pig in size, is yet a terrible animal. Ever fierce
and irritable of temper, the Peccary is as formidable an antagonist as can be

PECCARY. —(Dicotyles Zajacit.)

seen in any land, for it knows no fear, and will attack any foe without

hesitation. Although the Peccary is a very harmless animal to outward view,

being only three feet long and weighing fifty or sixty pounds, and its armature

consists of some short tusks that are barely seen beyond the lips, yet these

little tusks are as fearful weapons as the longer teeth of the Bosch Vark, fox
2 a

212 THE RHINOCEROS.

they are shaped like a lancet, being acutely pointed and double-edged, so
that they cut like knives and inflict very terrible wounds.

No animal seems to be capable of withstanding the united attacks of the
Peccary, even the jaguar being forced to abandon the contest and to shrink
from encountering the circular mass of Peccaries as they stand with angry
eyes and gnashing teeth ready to do their worst on the foe.

The usual resting-place of the Peccary is in the hollow of a fallen tree, or
in some burrow that has been dug by an armadillo and forsaken by the
original inhabitant. The hollow tree, however, is the favourite resort. and
into one of these curious habitations a party of Peccaries will retreat, each
backing into the aperture as far as he can penetrate the trunk, until the
entire hollow is filled with the odd little creatures. The one who last enters
becomes the sentinel, and keeps a sharp watch on the neighbourhood.

The colour of the Peccary is a grizzled brown, with the exception of a white

strip that is drawn over the neck, and has earned for the animal the name of
the Collared Peccary.

INDIAN RHINOCEROS.—(RAinoceros unicornis.)

SEVERAL species of the RHINOCEROS are still inhabitants of the earth.
Of the existing species, two or three are found in various parts of Asia
and its islands, and the remainder inhabit several portions of Africa. Before
examining the separate species we will glance at some of the characteristics
which are common to all the members of this very conspicuous group.

The so-called horn which projects from the nose of the Rhinoceros is a
very remarkable structure, and worthy of a brief notice. It is in no way
connected with the skull, but is simply a growth from the skin, and may take
rank with hairs, spines, or quills, being indeed formed after a similar manner.
If a Rhinoceros’ horn be examined—the species of its owner is quite imma-
terial—it will be seen to be polished and smooth at the tip, but rough and

THE AFRICAN RHINOCEROS. 213

split into numerous filaments at the base. These filaments, which have a
very close resemblance to those which terminate the plates of whalebone, can
be stripped upwards for some length, and if the substance of the horn be cut
across, it will be seen to be composed of a vast number of hairy filaments
lying side by side. :

The skin of the Rhinoceros is of very great thickness and strength, bidding
defiance to ordinary bullets, and forcing the hunter to provide himself with
balls which have been hardened with tin or solder. The extreme stréngth of
the skin is well known both to the Asiatic and African natives, who manufac-
ture it into shields, and set a high value on these weapons of defence.

In every species of Rhinoceros the sight appears to be rather imperfect,
the animal being unable to see objects which are exactly in its front. The
scent and hearing, however, are very acute, and seem to warn the animal of
the approach of danger.

The Asiatic species of Rhinoceros are remarkable for the heavy folds into
which the skin is gathered, and which hang massively over the shoulders,
throat, flanks, and hind-quarters. Upon the abdomen the skin is compara-
tively soft, and can be pierced by a spear which would be harmlessly
repelled from the thick folds of hide upon the upper portions of the body.
In the INDIAN RHINOCEROS this weight of hide is especially conspicuous,
the skin forming great flaps that can be easily lifted up by the hand. In a
tamed state the Rhinoceros is pleased to be caressed on the softer skin under
the thick hide, and in the wild state it suffers sadly from the parasitic insects
that creep beneath the flaps, and lead the poor animal a miserable life, until
they are stifled in the muddy compost with which the Rhinoceros loves to
envelop its body. The horn of the Indian species is large in width, but in-
considerable in height, being often scarcely higher than its diameter. Yet
with his short heavy weapon the animal can do terrible execution, and is
said, upon the authority of Captain Williamson, to repel the attack of an
adult male Elephant.

The height of this animal when fully grown is rather more than five feet,
but the average height seems scarcely to exceed four feet. In colour it is a
deep brown black, tinged with a purple h ue, which is most perceptible when
the animal has recently left its bath. The colour of the young animal is

.much paler than that of the mother, and partakes of a pinky hue.

Or African Rhinoceroses four species are clearly ascertained, and it is very
probable that others may yet be in existence. Two of the known species are
black, and the other two white; the animals differing from each other not
only in colour, but in form, dimensions, habits, and disposition. The com-
monest of the African species is the BORELE, RHINASTER, or LITTLE BLACK
RHINOCEROS, of Southern Africa; an animal which may be easily distin-
guished from its relations by the shape of the horns and the upper lip. In the
Borele the foremost horn is of considerable length, and bent rather backward,
while the second horn is short, conical, and much resembles the weapon of
the Indian animal. The head is rather rounded, and the pointed upper lip
overlaps the lower, and is capable of considerable extension.

The skin of this animal does not fall in heavy folds, like that of the Asiatic
species, but is nevertheless extremely thick and hard, and will resist an
ordinary leaden bullet, unless it be fired from a small distance. The skin is
employed largely in the manufacture of whips, or jamboks.

The food of the Black Rhinoceros, whether the Borele or the Keitloa, is
composed of roots, which the animal ploughs out of the ground with its horn,
and of the young branches and shoots of the wait-a-bit thorn. It is rather
remarkable that the black species is poisoned by one of the Euphorbiacez,
which is eaten with impunity: by the two white animals.

214 THE KEITLOA, OR SLOAN’S RHINOCEROS.

When wounded, the Black Rhinoceros is a truly fearful opponent, and it is
generally considered very unsafe to fire at the animal unless the hunter be
mounted on a good horse or provided with an accessible place of refuge. An
old experienced hunter said that he would rather face fifty lions than one
wounded Borele ; but Mr. Oswell, the well-known African sportsman, always
preferred to shoot the Rhinoceros on foot. The best place to aim is just behind
the shoulder, as if the lungs are wounded the animal very soon dies. There is
but little blood externally, as the thick loose skin covers the bullet-hole, and
prevents any outward effusion. When mortally wounded the Rhinoceros
generally drops on its knees. RS

THE KEITLOA can readily be recognized by the horns, which are of consider-
able length, and nearly equal to each other in measurement. This is always
a morose and ill-tempered animal, and is even more to be dreaded than the
borele, on account of its greater size, strength, and length of horn. The
upper lip of the Keitloa overlaps the lower even more than that of the borele ;
the neck is longer in proportion, and the head is not so thickly covered with
wrinkles. At its birth the horns of this animal are only indicated by a
prominence on the nose, and at the age of two years the horn is hardly more
than an inch in length. At six years of age it is nine or ten inches long,
and does not reach its full measurement until the lapse of considerable time,

i

i
Ry

‘(

i

KEITLOA, OR SLOAN’S RHINOCEROS.—(Rhinoceros Keitloa.)

THE common WHITE RHINOCEROS (Rhinoceros Simus) is considerably
larger than the two preceding animals, and, together with the kobaoba, or
long-horned white Rhinoceros, is remarkable for its square muzzle and elon-
gated head. The foremost horn of this animal is of very considerable length,
attaining a measurement of more than three feet when fully grown. The
second horn is short and conical, like that of the borele,

THE HYRAX. 215

ONE of the most curious little animals in existence is the HYRAX, interest-
ing not so much from its imposing external appearance, as for its importance
in filling up a link in the chain of creation.

About as large as a tolerably-sized rabbit, covered with thick soft fur, in-
habiting holes in the banks, possessing incisor-like teeth, and, in fine, being
a very rabbit in habits, manners, and appearance, it was long classed among ©
the rodents, and placed among the rabbits and hares, It has, however, been
discovered in later years that this little rabbit-like animal is no rodent at all,
but is one of the pachydermata, and that it forms a natural transition from
the rhinoceros to the hippopotamus. Ona close examination of the teeth,
they are seen to be wonderfully like those of the hippopotamus, their edges
being bevelled off in a similar manner, and therefore bearing some resem-
blance to the chisel-edged incisors of the rodents. ‘There are several species
of Hyrax, one of which inhabits Northern Africa and Syria, while the other
two are found in Abyssinia and South Africa.

The South African Hyrax is terrned by the colonists KLIP Das, or RocK
RasBit, and is found in considerable plenty among the mountainous districts
of its native land, being especially common on the sides of the Table Moun-
tain. It is largely eaten by the natives, who succeed in killing it in spite of
its extreme wariness and activity. Among the crevices and fissures in the
rock the Hyrax takes up its abode, and may often be seen sitting in the warm

HYRAX, OR KLIP DAS.—(Ayrax Capensis.)

rays of the sun, or feeding with apparent carelessness on the aromatic
herbage of the mountain side. It is, however, perfectly secure, in spite of its
apparent negligence, for a sentinel is always on guard, ready by a peculiar
shrill cry to warn his companions of the approach of danger. Sometimes
the Hyrax is seen at a considerable height, but is often observed near the
sea-shore, seated on rocks which are barely above high-water mark.

Besides mankind, the Hyrax has many foes, such as the birds of prey and
carnivorous quadrupeds, and is destroyed in considerable numbers. The
fore-feet of this animal are apparently furnished with claws like those of the

216 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

rabbit, but on a closer inspection the supposed claws are seen to be veritable
hoofs, black in colour, and very similar to those of the rhinoceros in form
‘The Hyrax is an agile little creature, and can climb a rugged tree-trunk with
great ease. It is rather hot in its temper, and if irritated becomes highly
excited, and moves its teeth and feet with remarkable activity and force.
i THE SYRIAN HyYRAxX is the animal which is mentioned under the name of
coney” in the Old Testament, and is found inhabiting the clefts and caverns
of rocks. In its habits and general appearance it is very similar to the Cape
Hyrax, and needs no further description.
THE last on the list of the pachydermatous animals is the well-known
HIPPOPOTAMUS, or RIVER HORSE.

HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR ZEEKOE.~—(Hippopotamus amphibius.)

This enormous quadruped is a native of various parts of Africa, and is
always found either in water or in its near vicinity. In absolute height it is
not very remarkable, as its legs are extremely short, but the actual bulk of its
body is very great indeed. The average height of a full-grown Hippopotamus
is about five feet. Its naked skin is dark brown, curiously marked with in-
numerable lines like those on “crackle” china or old oil-paintings, and is
also dappled with a number of sooty black spots, which cannot be seen except
on a close inspection. A vast number of pores penetrate the skin, and exude
a thick, oily liquid, which effectually serves to protect the animal from the
injurious effects of the water in which it is so constantly immersed. Some
years ago, when the male Hippopotamus in the Zoological Gardens was young
and gentle, I patted his back, and entirely spoiled a pair of new kid gloves.
The mouth is enormous, and its size is greatly increased by the odd manner
in which the jaw is set in the head.

Within the mouth is an array of white gleaming tusks, which have a

DASYPIDA, 217

terrific appearance, but they are solely intended for cutting grass and other
vegetable substances, and are seldom employed as weapons of offence, except
when the animal is wounded or otherwise irritated. The incisor teeth of the
lower jaw lie almost horizontally, with their points directed forwards, and are
said to be employed as crow-bars in tearing up the various aquatic plants on
which the animal feeds. The canines are very large and curved, and are worn
obliquely, in a manner very similar to the rodent type of teeth. Their shape
is a bold curve, forming nearly the half of a circle, and their surface is deeply
channeled and ridged on the outer line of the curve, and smoother on the face.

Possessed of an enormous appetite, having a stomach that is capable of
containing five or six bushels of nutriment, and furnished with such powerful
instruments, the Hippopotamus is a terrible nuisance to the owners of culti-
vated lands that happen to be near the river in which the animal has taken
up his abode.

The Hippopotamus is, as the import of its name, River Horse, implies,
most aquatic in its habits. It generally prefers fresh water, Lut is not at all
averse to the sea, and will sometimes prefer salt water to fresh. It is an
admirable swimmer and diver, and is able to remain below the surface for a
very considerable length of time. - In common with the elephant, it possesses
the power of sinking at will, which is the more extraordinary when the huge
size of the animal is taken into consideration. Perhaps it may be enabled
to contract itself by an exertion of the muscles whenever it desires to sink,
and to return to its former dimensions when it wishes to return to the surface.
It mostly affects the stillest reaches of the river, as it is less exposed to the
current, and not so liable to be swept down the stream while asleep. The
young Hippopotamus is not able to bear submersion so long as its parent,
and is therefore carefully brought to the surface at short intervals for the
purpose of breathing. During the first few months of the little aninal’s life,
it takes its stand on its mother’s neck, and is borne by her above or through
the water as experience may dictate or necessity require.

The Hippopotamus is a gregarious animal, collecting in herds of twenty
or thirty in number, and making the air resound with their resonant snorts.
The snort of this creature is a most extraordinary sound, and one that is well
calculated to disturb the nerves of sensitive persons, especially if heard un-
expectedly. The animals at the Zoological Gardens make the very roof ring
with the strange unearthly sounds which they emit. In their native state it
is very difficult to ascertain even approximately the number of a herd, as the
animals are continually diving and rising, and never appear simultaneously
above the surface of the water.

DASYPID.

THIS small but important family includes the Manis, the Armadillo, the
Ant-eater, and the Platypus, or Duck-bill.

THE PHATAGIN is one of the numerous species that compose the strange
genus of MANIS. All these animals are covered with a series of horny plates,
sharp-pointed and keen-edged, that lie with their points directed towards the
tail, and overlap each other like the tiles upon the roof of a house.

The fore-claws of the Phatagin are very large, and are employed for the
purpose of tearing down the nests of the termite, or white ant, as it is more
popularly called, so as to enable it to feed upon the inmates, as they run
about in confusion at the destruction of their premises. Ants, termites, and
various insects are the favourite food of the Phatagin, which sweeps them up
by means of its long and extensile tongue, caring nothing for their formidable

218 THE PHATAGIN.—THE BAFFERKEIT.

jaws, which are powerful enough to drive a human being almost distracted
with pain. The claws are not only employed in destroying the nest of the
termite, but in digging burrows for its own residence, a task for which they
are well adapted by reason of their great size and strength, and the vigour
of the limbs to which they are attached.

The Phatagin is a native of Western Africa, and is of considerable dimen-
sions, reaching five feet in average length, of which the tail occupies three
feet. From the great
length of the tail, it is
sometimes called the
LONG-TAILED MANIS,

THE BAJJERKEIT, or
SHORT-TAILED MANIS,
is a native of various

parts of India, and is
also found in Ceylon.
Of this species Sir Emer-
son Tennent gives the
following short account :
“Of the Edentates, the
only example in Ceylon

: is the scaly ant-eater,
PHATAGIN. — (Manis tetradactyla.) called by the Singalese,
Caballaya, but usually
known by its Malay name of Pengolin, a word indicative of its faculty of
‘rolling itself up’ into a compact ball, by bending its head towards its stomach,
arching its back into a circle, and securing all by a powerful hold of its mail-
covered tail. When at liberty, they burrow in the dry ground to a depth of
seven or eight feet, where they reside in pairs, and produce annually two or
three young.

“Of two specimens which I kept alive at different times, one from the
vicinity of Kandy, about two feet in length, was a gentle and affectionate
creature, which, after wandering
over the house in search of ants,
would attract attention to its
wants by climbing up my knee,
laying hold of my leg by its pre-
hensile tail. The other, more
than double that length, was
caught in the jungle near Chilaw,
and brought to me in Colombo.
I had always understood that
the Pengolin was unable to climb
trees, but the one last mentioned
frequently ascended a tree in
my garden in search of ants,
and this is effected by means of
its hooked feet, aided by an oblique grasp of the tail. The ants it seized by
extending its round and glutinous tongue along their tracks. Generally
_Speaking, they were quiet during the day, and grew restless as evening and
night approached.” :

The ARMADILLOS are inhabitants of Central and Southern America, and
are tolerably common throughout the whole of the land in which they live.
The general structure of the armour is similar in all the species, and consists
of three large plates of horny covering ; one being placed on the head, another

wAIc
SN’
Wain
Ww NY

BAJJERKEIT.—(Mants pentadactyla.)

THE ARMADILLO.—ANT-EATERS. 219

on the shoulders, and the third on the hind-quarters. These plates are con-
nected by a series of bony rings, variable in number, overlapping each other,
and permitting the animal to move treely.

THE common ARMADILLO, or PoYOU, is about twenty inches in total length,
the tail occupying some six or seven inches. It is very common in Par gtay,
but is not easily captured, owing
to its remarkable agility, per-
severance, and wariness. En-
cumbered as it appears to be
with its load of plate-armour, it
runs with such speed that it can
hardly be overtaken by a quick-
footed man, and if it should con-
trive to reach its burrow, it can
never be got out except by dint

of hard work. ZN

The food of the Armadillo is y : AY = SS;
nearly as varied as that of the Ge ae, GL ES I
swine, for there are few eatable A Zao
substances, whether vegetable ARMADILLO. —(Dasypus sexcinctus.)

or animal, which the Armadillo
will not devour, provided they are not too hard for its little teeth. Various
roots, potatoes, and maize are among its articles of vegetable diet, and it
also will eat eggs, worms, insects, and small reptiles of every description.
Whenever wild cattle
are slain, the Arma-
dillo is sure to make
its appearance in a
short time, for the pur-
pose of devouring the
offal which the hunter
leaves on the ground.
It is not at all parti-
cular in taste, and de-
vours the half-putrid
remains with great
eagerness, becoming
quite fat on the revolt-
ing diet.

As the Armadillo is
a nocturnal animal, its
eyes are more fitted
for the dark than for
the bright glare of sun-
light, which dazzles the
creature and sadly be-
age ore pact TAMANOIR, OR ANT BEAR.—(Myrmecophaga jubata.)
surface of the ground, and its retreat intercepted before it can regain its
hole, the Armadillo rolls itself up as best it can, and, tucking its head under
the chest, draws in its legs and awaits the result. Even when taken in hand
it is not without a last resource, for it kicks so violently with its powerful
legs that it can inflict severe lacerations with the sharp claws.

THE ANT-EATERS, as their name imports, feed very largely on ants, as
well as on termites and various other insects, their long flexible tongue acting

220 THE MIDDLE ANT-EATER.

as a hand for the purpose of conveying food into the mouth. The tongue of
the Ant-eater, when protruded to its fullest extent, bears some resemblance
to a great earth-worm, and as it is employed in its food-collecting task, it
coils and twists about as if it possessed a separate vitality of its own.

THE TAMANOIR, or GREAT ANT-EATER, or ANT BEAR, is entirely destitute
of teeth, possesses a wonderfully elongated and_ narrow head, and is thickly
covered with long coarse hair, which on the tail forms a heavy plume. The
colour of this animal is brown, washed with grey on the head and face, and
interspersed with pure white hairs on the head, body, and tail. The throat
is black, and a long triangular black mark arises from the throat, and passes
obliquely over the shoulders. There are four toes on the fore-feet, and five
on the hinder. In total length it measures between six and seven feet, the
tail being about two feet six inches long.

The claws of the fore-feet are extremely long and curved, and are totally
unfitted for locomotion. When the animal is not employing these instru-
ments in destroying, it folds the long claws upon a thick rough pad which is
placed in the palm, and seems to render the exertion of walking less difficult.
As, however, the Ant-bear is forced to walk upon the outer edge of its fore-
feet, its progress is a
peculiarly awkward one,
and cannot be kept up
for any long time. The
creature seems to pos-
‘sess considerable grasping
power in the toes of the
fore-limbs, being able to
pick up a small object in
its paws. Though not a
fighter, it can defend itself
right well by means of
these powerful instru-
ments, and can not only
strike with considerable
violence, but when attack-
ed by a dog or similar
enemy, it clasps him in

THE MIDDLE ANT-EATER, such a terrific grip, that
the half-suffocated animal

is only too glad to be able to escape. : ;

The Ant Bear is said to make no burrow, but to content itself with the
shade of its own plumy tail whenever it retires to rest. While sleeping, the
creature looks very like a rough bundle of hay thrown loosely on the ground,
for the hair of the main and tail is so long and so harsh that it can hardly be
recognized at the first glance for the veritable coat of a living animal. The
eye of this creature has a peculiar and indescribably cunning expression.
The Tamanoir is a native of Guinea, Brazil, and Paraguay. ;

THE MIDDLE ANT-EATER, or Tamandua, is not so large as the preceding
animal, from which it is readily distinguished by the tail, which is long and
tapering, and almost devoid of hair except at the base. The tail indeed 1s
used as an organ of prehension, to assist it in climbing trees, a feat which it
sometimes performs, although not so often as the Little Ant-eater. .

This animal produces a strong scent of musk, which is generally excited
when it is enraged. The scent is not pleasant, like that of the musk deer,
but very disagreeable, and can be perceived at a considerable distance. ;

The LITTLE ANT-EATER is a truly curious animal, The head of this

THE LITTLE ANT-EATER. 221

creature is comparatively ‘short ; its body is covered with fine silken fur, and
~ its entire length does not exceed twenty or twenty-one inches. The tail is
well furred, excepting three inches of the under surface at the extremity,
which is employed as the prehensile portion of that member, and is capable
of sustaining the weight of the body as it swings froma branch. On looking

LITTLE ANT-EATER.—(Cyclothurus didactylus.)

at the skeleton, a most curious structure presents itself. On a side view, the
cavity of the chest is completely hidden by the ribs, which are greatly
flattened, and overlap each other so that on a hasty glance the ribs appear to
be formed of one solid piece of bone. There are only two claws on the fore-
feet, and four on the hinder limbs.

222 THE DUCK-BILL.

The Little Ant-eater is a native of tropical America, and is always to be
found on trees, where it generally takes up its residence, and where it finds
its sustenance. It possesses many squirrel-like customs, using its fore-claws
with great dexterity, and hooking the smaller insects out of the bark crevices
in which they have taken unavailing refuge. While thus employed it sits
upon its hind limbs, supporting itself with its prehensile tail. The claws are
compressed, curved, and very sharp, and the little animal can use these
instruments with some force as offensive weapons, and can strike smart blows
with them. It is a bold little creature, attacking the nests of wasps, putting
its little paw into the combs, and dragging the grubs from their cells.

Like its larger relations, it is nocturnal in its habits, and sleeps during the
day with its tail safely twisted round the branch on which it sits. The generic
name, Cyclothurus, signifies “twisted tail,’ and is very appropriate to the
animal.

THERE are few animals which have attracted such universal attention, both
from scientific men and the reading world in general, as the MULLINGONG,
DUCK-BILL, or PLATYPUS, of Australia. This little creature, the largest
being but twenty-two inches in length, has excited more interest than animals

DUCK-BILL, OR MULLINGONG. —(Platypus Anatinus.)

of athousand times its dimensions, on account of its extraordinary shape and
singular habits. It is most appropriately called the Duck-bill, on account of
the curious development of the intermaxillary bones, which are very much
flattened and elongated, and their ends turned inwards in a kind of angular
hook. The lower jaw is also lengthened and flattened, although not to such
an extent as the upper, and the bones are covered with a naked skin.

Tn the stuffed and dried specimens the “beak” appears as if it were com-
pose.| of the black leather taken from an old shoe, but in the living animal it

THE DUCK-BILL. 223

presents a very different aspect, being soft, rounded, and of a pinky hue at
its tip, mottled with a number of little spots. Dr. Bennett, to whom the
zoological world is so much indebted for his researches into the habits of this
curious animal, kindly showed me some excellent drawings, which, gave a
very different idea of the animal from that which is obtained by the examin-
ation of stuffed skins. The beak is well supplied with nerves, and appears to
be a sensitive organ of touch, by means of which the animal is enabled to feel
as well as to smell the insects and other creatures on which it feeds. :
The Mullingong is an essentially aquatic and burrowing animal, and is
formed expressly for its residence in the water or under the earth. The
fur is thick and soft, and is readily dried while the animal enjoys good
health, although it becomes wet and draggled when the creature is
weakly. The opening of the ears is small and can be closed at will, and
the feet are furnished with large and complete webs, extending beyond the
claws in the fore limbs, and to their base in the hind legs. The fore-feet
are employed for digging as well as for swimming, and are therefore armed’

PORCUPINE ANT-EATER, OR ECHIDNA.—(Echidnua Hystrix.)

with powerful claws rather more than half an inch in length, and rounded as
their extremities. With such force can these natural tools be used, that the
Duck-bill has been seen to make a burrow two feet in length through hard
gravelly soil in the space of ten minutes. While digging, the animal employs
its beak as well as its feet, and the webbed membrane contracts between the
joints so as not to be seen. The hind-feet of the male are furnished with a
spur, about an inch in length, curved, perforated, and connected with a gland
situated near the ankle. It was once supposed that this spur conveyed a
poisonous liquid into the wound which it made, but this opinion has been
disproved by Dr. Bennett, who frequently permitted, and even forced, the
animal to wound him with its spurs, and experienced no ill consequences
beyond the actual wound. The animal has the power of folding back
the spur so as to conceal it entirely, and is then sometimes mistaken for
a female.

The colour of the adult animal is a soft dark brown, interspersed with a
number of glistening points which are produced by the long and shining hairs
which protrude through the inner fur.

224 THE ECHIDNA.

The food of the Mullingong consists of worms, water insects, and little
molluscs, which it gathers in its cheek-pouches as long as it is engaged in its
search for food, and then eats quietly when it rests from its labours. The
teeth, ifteeth they may be called, of this animal are very peculiar, consisting
of four horny channeled plates, two in each jaw, which serve to crush the
fragile shells and coverings of the animals on which it feeds. It seems
seldom to feed during the day, or in the depth of night, preferring for that
purpose the first dusk of evening or the dawn of morning. During the rest
of the day it is generally asleep. While sleeping, it curls itself into a round
ball, the tail shutting down over the head and serving to protect it.

The young Mullingongs are curious little creatures, with soft, short,
flexible beaks, naked skins, and almost unrecognizable as the children of
their long-nosed parents. When they attain to the honour of their first coat,

sLoTH.—(Cholefus didactylus.)

they are most playful little things, knocking each other about like kittens,
and rolling on the ground in the exuberance of their mirth. * Their little
twinkling eyes are not well adapted for daylight, nor from their position can
they see spots directly in their front, so that a pair of these little creatures
that were kept by Dr. Bennett used to bump themselves against the chairs,
tables, or any other object that might be in their way. They bear a further
similitude to the cat in their scrupulous cleanliness and the continual washing
and pecking of their fur.

THE ECHIDN4 is found in several parts of Australia, where it is popularly
called the hedgehog, on account of the hedgehog-like spines with which the
body is so thickly covered, and its custom of rolling itself up when alarmed.
A number of coarse hairs are intermingled with the spines, and the head is
devoid of these weapons. The head is strangely lengthened, in a manner

“

THE SLOTH. 225

somewhat similar to that of the Ant-eater, and there are no tceth of any kind
in the jaws.

The food of the Echidna consists of ants and other insects, which it gathers
into its mouth by means of the long extensile tongue. It is a burrowing
animal, and is therefore furnished with limbs and claws of proportionate
strength. Indeed, Lieutenant Breton, who kept one of these animals for
some time, considers it as the strongest quadruped in existence in pro-
portion to its size. On moder-
ately soft ground it can hardl
be captured, for it gathers all
its legs under its body, and em-
ploys its digging claws with such
extraordinary vigour that it sinks
into the ground as if by magic.
The Echidna is tolerably widely
spread over the sandy wastes
of Australia, but has not been
seen in the more northern por-
tions of that country.

IN the last group of the mam-
malia we find a very remark-
able structure, adapted to serve
a particular end, and misunder-
stood by zoologists. The com-
mon SLOTH, sometimes called
the TWO-TOED SLOTH, is a na-
tive of the West Indies, where it
is not very often seen, although it
is not a very uncommon animal.

The peculiarity to be noticed
in all the Sloths, of which there
are several species, is, that they
pass the whole of their lives
suspended, with their backs
downwards, from the branches
of trecs. The Sloth never gets
upon a bough, but simply hooks
his curved talons over it, and
hangs in perfect security. In
order to enable the animal to
suspend itself without danger of
falling, the limbs are enormously
strong, the fore-legs are remark-
able for their length, and the
toes of all four feet are furnished
with strong curved claws. Upon
the ground the Sloth is eilely pon DOT Tee ee radius
out of its element, as its limbs react

are wholly unadapted for supporting the weight of the body, and its long
tlaws cannot be employed as adjuncts to the feet. The only manner in
which a Sloth can advance, when he is unfortunately placed in such a
position, is by hitching his claws into any depression that may afford him a
hold, and so dragging himself slowly and painfully forward. On the trees
however, he is quite a different creature, full of life and animation, and
traversing the branches at a speed which is anything but slothful. The

Q

Hii
nH

226 THE THREE-TOED SLOTH

Sloth travels best in windy weather, because the branches of trees are blown
against each other, and permit the animal to pass from one tree to another
without descending to the ground.

The food of the Sloth consists of leaves, buds, and young shoots. It
appears to stand in no need of water, being satisfied with the moisture which
clings to the herbage on which it feeds. In gathering the leaves and drawing
the branches within reach, the Sloth makes great use of its fore-paws, which,
however helpless upon the ground, can be managed with great dexterity. It
is very tenacious of life, and is protected from any injury which it might
receive from falls by the peculiar structure of its skull. In length it is
about two feet. :

THE AI, or THREE-TOED SLOTH, is an inhabitant of South America, and is
more common than the preceding animal, from which it can easily be distin.
guished by the third toe on its feet. The colour of this animal is rather
variable, but is generally of a brownish grey, slightly variegated by differ-
ently tinted hairs, and the head and face being darker than the body and
limbs. The hair has a curious hay-like aspect, being coarse, flat, and harsh
towards the extremity, although it is very fine towards the root. Owing
to the colour and structure of the hair, the Ai can hardly be distinguished
from the bough under which it hangs, and owes much of its safety to
this happy resemblance ; for its flesh is very good, and, in consequence, the.
poor creature is dreadfully persecuted by the natives, as well as by the white
hunters. The cry of this creature is low and plaintive, and is thought to
resemble the sound 4z. The head is short and round, the eyes deeply
sunk in the head, and nose large and very moist.

The young of the Ai, as well as those of the other Sloths, cling to their
mother as soon as they are born, and are carried about by her until they are
able to transfer their weight from their parent to the branches. Several
other species of Sloths are known to exist, but all are similar in appearance
ana habits.

BIRDS.

THE most conspicuous external characteristic by which the Birps are

distinguished from
all other inhabit-
ants of earth is the
feathery robe which
invests their bodies,
and which serves
the double purpose
of clothing and pro-
gression.

The fuller and
more technical de-
scription of the
Birds runs as fol-
lows : They are ver-
tebrate animals, but
do not suckle their
young. The young
are not produced in
an actively animat-
ed state, but in-
closed in the egg,
from which they do
not emerge until
they have been
warmed into inde-
pendent life by the
effects of constant
warmth. Generally,
the eggs are hatched
by means of the na-
tural warmth which
proceeds from the
mother bird; but
in some instances,
such as that of the
Tallegalla of Aus-
tralia, the eggs are
placed in a vast
heap of dead leaves
and grass, and de-
veloped by means
of the heat which
is exhaled from
decaying vegetable
substances.

LAMMERGEYER.—(Gyfaetos barbatus.)

BIRDS OF PREY.—VULTURES.

By common consent VULTURES take the first rank among Birds, and in
the catalogue of the British Museum the LAMMERGEYER, or BEARDED
VULTURE, stands first upon the list.

230 THE CONDOR.

This magnificent bird is a native of Southern Europe and Western Asia,
and often attains a very great size, the expanse of its wings being sometimes
as much as ten feet, and its length nearly four feet.

The name of Bearded Vulture has been given to the Lammergeyer on
account of the tufts of long and stiff bristle-like hairs which take rise at the
nostrils and beneath the
bill, and form a very
prominent characteristic
of the species.

The colour of the
Lammergeyer is a grey-
brown, curiously dashed
with white upon the up-
per surface, in conse-
quence of a white streak
which runs along the
centre of each feather,
The under surface of the
body, together with the
neck, are nearly white,
tinged with a wash of
reddish brown, which
is variable in depth in
different individuals. In
the earlier stages of its
existence, the Lammer-
geyer is of amuchdarker
hue, and the white dashes
upon the back are not
so purely white nor so
clearly defined. The
head and neck are dark
brown, and the brown
hue of the back is of
so deep a tint that the
young bird has been
classed as a separate
species, under the title
of Vultur niger,or Black
Vulture.

ALTHOUGH not ex-
ceeding the lammergeyer
in dimensions, the CON-
DOR has been long cele-
brated as a giant among
birds, the expanse of its
wings being set down at

CONDOR. —(Sarcorhamphus Gryphus.) eighteen or twenty feet,

and its length exagge-

rated inthe same proportion. In reality, the expanse of a large Condor’s

wings will very seldom reach eleven feet, and the average extent is from
eight to nine feet. : ; :

The general colour of the Condor is a greyish black, variable in depth and
glossiness in different individuals. The upper wing-coverts are marked
with white, which take a greyer tint in the female, and the exterior edges of

THE KING VULTURE. 232

the secondaries are also white. The adult male bird may easily be dis-
tinguished by the amount of white upon the feathers, so that the wings are
marked with a large white patch. Around the neck is set a beautifully white
downy collar of soft feathers, which does not entirely inclose the neck, but
leaves a small naked band in front. This featherless band is, however, so
small, that it is not perceptible except by a close examination.

The crest of the male Condor is of considerable size, occupying the
pop et the head and extending over a fourth of the basal portion of the

eak,

The Condor is an inhabitant of the mountain chain of the Andes, and is
celebrated not only for its strength and dimensions, but for its love of
elevated localities. When enjoying the unrestricted advantages of its
native home, it is seldom found lower than the line of perpetual snow, and
only seems to seek lower and more temperate regions when driven by hunger
to make a raid on the flocks or the wild quadrupeds of its native country.
Although preferring carrion to the flesh of recently-killed animals, the
Condor is a terrible pest to the cattle-keeper, for it will frequently make an
attack upon a cow or a bull, and by dint of constant worrying, force the poor
beast to succumb to its winged pursuers. Two of these birds will attack
a vicugna, a deer, or even the formidable puma, and as they direct their
assaults chiefly upon the eyes, they soon succeed in blinding their prey,
who rapidly falls under the terrible blows which are delivered by the beaks
of its assailants.

The Condor deposits its eggs, for it makes no nest whatever, upon a bare
shelf of some lofty rock. The eggs are two in number, greyish white in
colour, and are laid about November or Decemder. When the young Con-
dor is hatched it is nearly naked, but is furnished with a scanty covering
of down, which in a short time becomes very plentiful, enveloping the body
in a complete vestment of soft black plumage. The deep black grey of the
adult bird is not attained until a lapse of three years, the colour of the
plumage being a yellowish brown.

THE KING VULTURE has gained its regal title from a supposition which is
prevalent among the natives of the country which it inhabits, that it wields
royal sway over the aura, or zopilote Vultures, and that the latter birds will
not venture to touch a dead carcass until the King Vulture has taken his
share. There is some truth for this supposition, for the King Vulture will
not permit any other bird to begin its meal until its own hunger is satisfied.
The same habit may be seen in many other creatures, the rore powerful
lording it over the weaker, and leaving them only the remains of the feast
instead of permitting them to partake of it on equal terms. But if the King
Vulture should not happen to be present when the dead animal has reached
a state of decomposition which renders it palatable to vulturine tastes, the
subject Vultures would pay but little regard to the privileges of their absent
monarch, and would leave him but aslight prospect of getting a meal on the
remains of the feast.

Waterton, who often mentions this species in his interesting works, gives
several curious instances of the sway which the King Vulture exercises over
the inferior birds. ‘ When I had done with the carcass of the large snake, it
was conveyed into the forest, as I expected that it would attract the king of
the Vultures, as soon as time should have rendered it sufficiently savoury. In
a few days it sent forth the odour which a carcass should send forth, and
about twenty of the common Vultures came and perched on the neighbouring
trees. The king of tiie Vultures came too, and IJ observed that none of the
common ones seemed inclined to begin breakfast until his majesty had
finished. When he had consumed as much snake as nature informed him

232 KING VULTURE.

would do him good, he retired to the top of a high mora-tree, and then all
the common Vultures fell to and made a hearty meal.”

The King Vulture is a native of tropical America, and is most common
near the equator, though it is found as far as the thirtieth degree of south .

VB noes
IILLLALE
KING VULTURE.—(Sarcorhamphus Papa.)

latitude, and the thirty-second of north latitude. Peru, Brazil, Guiana,
Paraguay and Mexico are the chosen residences of this fine species. It is a
forest-loving bird, caring nothing for the lofty home of the condor, but taking
up its residence upon the low and heavily-wooded regions in close proximity
to swampy and marshy places, where it is most likely to find abundance of

KING VULTURE, 233

dead and putrefying animal substances. Its nest, or rather the spot on
which it deposits its eggs, is within the hollow of some decaying tree. The
eggs are two in number. .
In its adult state the King Vulture is a most gorgeously decorated bird,
though its general aspect and the whole expression of its demeanour are

FULVOUS, OR GRIFFIN VULTURE.—( (Gifs /ulvus.)

rather repulsive than otherwise. The greater part of the feathers upon the
back are of a beautiful satiny white, tinged more or less deeply with fawn,
and the abdomen is of a pure white. On account of its colour, the bird is
termed the White Crow by the Spaniards of Paraguay. The long pinions of

234 FULVOUS, OR GRIFFIN VULTURE.

the wing and tail are deep black, and the base of the neck is surrounded
with a thick ruff or collar of downy grey feathers.

The most brilliant tints are, however, those of the naked skin of the head
and neck. “ The throat and back of the neck,” says Waterton, “are of a
fine lemon colour; both sides of the neck, from the ears downwards, of a
rich scarlet ; behind the corrugated part there is a white spot. The crown
of the head is scarlet, betwixt the lower mandible and the eye, and close by
the ear, there is a part which has a fine silvery-blue appearance. Just above
the white spot a portion of the skin is blue, and the rest scarlet ; the skin
which juts out behind the neck, and appe? s like an oblong carbuncle, is blue
in part, and part orange. The bill is orange and black, the caruncles on the
forehead orange, and the cere orange, the orbits scarlet, and the irides
white.”

These gorgeous tints belong only to the adult bird of four years old, and
in the previous years of its life the colours are very obscure. In the first
year, for example, the general colour is deep blue-grey, the abdomen white,
and the crest hardly distinguishable either for its colour or its size. In the
second year of its age the plumage of the bird is nearly black, diversified
with white.spots, and the naked portions of the head and neck are violet-
black interspersed with a few dashes of yellow. The third year gives the
bird a very near approach to the beautiful satin fawn of the adult plumage,
the back being nearly of the same hue as that of the four-year-old bird, but
marked with many of the blue-black feathers of the second year. When full
grown, the King Vulture is about the size of an ordinary goose.

THE FULVOUS or GRIFFIN VULTURE is one of the most familiar of these
useful birds, being spread widely over nearly the whole of the Old World,
and found in very many portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

It is one of the large Vultures, measuring four feet in length, and its ex-
panse of wing being exceedingly wide. Like many of its relations, it is a
high-roving brd, loving to rise out of the ken of ordinary eyes, and from
that vast elevation to view the panorama which lies beneath its gaze ; not,
however, tor the purpose of admiring the beauty of the prospect but for the
more sensual object of seeking for food. Whenever it has discovered a dead
or dying animal, the Vulture takes its stand on some adjoining tree or rock,
and there patiently awaits the time when decomposition shall render the skin
sufficiently soft to permit the entrance of the eager beak. As soon as its
olfactory organs tell of that desired change, the Vulture descends upon its
prey, and will not retire until it is so gorged with food that it can hardly stir.
If it be suddenly attacked while in this condition, it can easily be overtaken
and killed ; but if a pause of a few minutes only be allowed, the bird ejects
by a spasmodic effort the load of food which it has taken into its interior, and
is then ready for flight.

A controversy has long raged concerning the manner in which the Vulture
obtains knowledge of the presence of food. Some naturalists assert that the
wonderful powers of food-finding which are possessed by the Vulture are
owing wholly to the eyes, while others as warmly attribute to the nose this
currious capability. Others again, desirous of steering a middle course,
believe that the eyes and the nost.ils give equal aid in this never-ending
duty of finding food, and many experiments have been made. with a view to
extracting the real truth of the matter. The following account has been
kindly transmitted to me by Colonel Drayson, R.A., who has already con-
tributed much original information to the present work :— ~

“ Having shot an ourebi early in the morning, and when about three miles
from home, I was not desirous of carrying the animal behind my saddle
during the day’s shooting, and I therefore sought for some method of cen-

TURKEY BUZZARD. 235

cealment by which to preserve the dead quarry from jackals and Vultures.
An ant-bear’s hole offered a very convenient hiding-place, into which the
buck was pushed, and the carcass was covered over with some grass cut for
the purpose. As usual in South Africa there were some Vultures wheeling
round at an enormous
height above the horizon ;
these I believed would
soon come down and
push aside the grass and
tear off the most assail-
able parts of the buck.
There was, however, no,
better means of protec-
tion, so I left the animal
and rode away. When
at about a quarter of a
mile from the antbear’s
hole, I thought that it
might be interesting to
watch how the Vultures
would approach andcom-
mence operations, so I
‘off-saddled,” and kept
watch.

“ After about half an
hour, I saw a Vulture
coming down from the
sky, followed by two or
three others. They came
down to the spot where
the buck had been killed,
and flew past this. They
then returned and again
overshot the mark. After
circling several times
within a radius of four
hundred yards, they flew
away. Other Vultures
then came and performed
similar manceuvres, but
not one appeared to
know where the buck
was concealed. I then
rode off to a greater dis-
tance, but the same re- d
sults occurred. _ ARABIAN VULTURE.—(Vultur Monachus.)

In the evening I re-
turned for my buck, which
however was totaily useless in consequence of the intense heat of the sun,
but which had not been touched by the Vultures.”

ONE of the best known of the Vultures is the TURKEY BuzZzARD, more
rightly termed the CARRION VULTURE. Its name of Turkey Buzzard
is earned fiom the strange resemblance which a Carrion Vulture bears to a
turkey as it walks slowly and with a dignified air, stretching its long bare
neck, and exhibiting the fleshly appendages which bear some likeness to the

236 THE ARABIAN VULTURE.

wattles of the turkey. This bird is chiefly found in North America, but is
also an inhabitant of Jamaica, where it is popularly known as the John Crow.

The nest of the Turkey Buzzard is a very inartistical affair, consisting
merely of some suitable hollow tree or decayed log, in which there may be a
depression of sufficient depth to contain the eggs. In this simple cradle the
female deposits from two to four eggs, which are of a dull cream-white,
blotched with irregular chocolate splashes, which seem to congregate
towards the largest end. The young birds are covered with a plentiful
supply of white down.

The adult Turkey Buzzard
is rather a large bird, mea-
suring two feet six inches in
length, and six feet ten
inches across the expanded.
wings. The weight is about
five pounds. The general
colour of the plumage is
black, mingled with brown,
the secondaries being slight-
ly tipped with white, and a
few of the coverts edged with
the same tint. On the neck,
the back, the shoulders, and
the scapularies, the black
hue is shot with bronze,
green, and purple. Beneath
the thick plumage is a light
coating of soft white down,
which apparently serves to
preserve the creature at a
proper temperature. The
bare skin of the neck is not
as wrinkled as in several
Vultures, and the feathers
make a complete ring round
the neck. There is but little
difference in the plumage of
the two sexes, but the bill
of the male is pure white.

TURKEY BUZZARD.—(Catharista Aura.) WE now arriveat the true

Vultures, the best known of

which is the common ARABIAN VULTURE, a bird which is spread over a very

large portion of the globe, being found in various parts of Europe, Asia and
Africa,

It is a large bird, measuring nearly four feet in length, and the expansion
of its wings being proportionately wide. The general colour of this species
is a chocolate brown, the naked portions of the neck and head are of a
bluish hue, and it is specially notable for a tuft of long soft feathers which
spring from the insertion of the wings. In spite of its large size and great
muscular powers, the Arabian Vulture is not a dangerous neighbour even to
the farmer, for unless it is pressed by severe hunger, it seems rather to have
a dread of living animals, and contents itself with feeding on any carrion
which may come in its way. Sometimes, however, after a protracted fast, its
fears are overruled by its hunger, and the bird makes a raid upon the sheep-
folds or the goat-flocks, in the hope cf carrying off a tender lamb or kid.

THE ALPINE, OR EGYPTIAN VULTURE. 237

The usual haunts of this species are situated on the mountain tops, and
the bird does not descend into the valleys except when pressed by hunger.

The specific title of Afonachus, or Monk, has been given to this species on
account of the hood-like ruff around its neck, which is thought to bear a
fanciful resemblance to the hood of a monk.

A Hath N
\ RH Yi

ALPINE, OR EGYPTIAN VULTURE.—(WVeophron percnopterus.)

The ALPINE, or EGYPTIAN VULTURE, is, as its name imports, an inhabit-
ant of Egypt and Southern Europe. It is also found in many parts of
Asia, and as it-has once been captured on our shores, has been placed
among the list of British birds,

238 EAGLES.

The general colour of the adult bird is nearly white, with the exception of
the quill feathers of the wing, which are dark brown. The face, bill, and
legs are bright yellow, so that the aspect of the bird is sufficiently curious,
The sexes are clothed alike when adult. On account of the colour of its
plumage, the Egyptian Vulture, is popularly termed the WHITE CROW by
the Dutch colonists, and AKBOBAS, or White Father, by the Turks. It is
also familiarly known by the name of PHARAOH’S CHICKEN, because it is
so frequently represented in the hieroglyphical inscriptions of Egypt. When
young the colour of its plumage is a chocolate brown, the neck and shoulders
are covered with grey-tipped feathers, and the beak and feet are a very dull
ochry yellow. The white plumage of the adult state is not attained until the
vird Fis completed its third year.

As is the case with the Vultures in general, the Egyptian Vulture is
protected from injury by the strictest laws, a heavy penalty being laid
upon any one who should wilfully destroy one of these useful birds Secure
under its human protection, the bird walks fearlessly about the streets of its
native land, perches upon the houses, and, in common with the pariah dogs,
soon clears away any refuse substances that are thrown into the open streets
in those evil-smelling and undrained localities. This bird will eat almost
anything which is not too hard for its beak, and renders great service to the
husbandman by devouring myriads of lizards, rats, and mice, which would
render all cultivation useless were not their numbers kept within limits by
the exertion of this useful Vulture. It has been also seen to feed on the
nara, a rough water-bearing melon, in common with cats, leopards, mice,
ostriches, and many other creatures. ‘The eggs of: the ostrich are said to
be a favourite food with the Egyptian Vulture, who is unable to break their
strong shells with his beak, but attains his object by carrying a great pebble
in the air, and letting it drop upon the eggs.

The wings of this species are extremely long in proportion to the size of
the bird, and their lofty soaring flight is peculiarly graceful. It is but a small
bird in comparison with many of those which have already been mentioned,
being not much larger than the common rook of Europe. The nest of the
Egyptian Vulture is made upon the shelf or in the cleft of a lofty rock, and
the grey-white eggs are three or four in number. It is a curious fact, that
during the season of reproduction the male bird slightly changes his aspect,
the yellow bill becoming orange, and retaining that tint until the breeding
season is over. Like many rapacious animals and birds, the Egyptian
Vulture does not disdain to feed on insects, and has been observed in the
act of following a ploughman along his furrows, picking up the worms and
grubs after the fashion of the common rook,

EAGLES.

NEXT in order to the Vultures are placed the splendid birds which are so
familiar to us under the general title of Eagles, and which form the first
group of the great family Falconide, which includes the Eagies, Falcons,
and Hawks.

The first and one of the finest of these grand birds is the well-known
GOLDEN EacLe. This magnificent bird is spread over a large portion of
the world, being found in the British Islands, and in various parts of Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America. The colour of this bird is a rich blackish brown
on the greater part of the body, the head and neck being covered with
feathers of a rich golden red, which have earned for the bird its popular
name. The legs and sides of the thighs are grey-brown, and the tail is a

THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 239

deep grey, diversified with several regular dark-brown bars. In its immature
state the plumage of the Golden Eagle is differently tinged, the whole of the
feathers being reddish brown, the legs and sides of the thighs nearly white,
and the tail white for the first three quarters of its length. So different an

GOLDEN EAGLE,—(Aquila chrysaetos.)

aspect does the immature bird present, that it has been often reckoned as
a separate species, and named accordingly. It is a truly magnificent bird
in point of size, for an adult female measures about three feet six inches in
length, and the expanse of her wings is nine feet. The male is less by

nearly six inches.

240 THE OSPREY.

In England the Golden Eagle has long been extinct ; but it is still found
in some plenty in the highlands of Scotland and Ireland, where it is observed
to frequent certain favourite haunts, and to breed regularly in the same spot
for a long series of years. The nest is always made upon some elevated
spot, generally upon a ledge of rock, and is most inartistically constructed of
sticks, which are thrown apparently at random, and rudely arranged for the
purpose of containing the eggs and young. A neighbouring ledge of rock is
generally reserved for a larder where the parent Eagles store up the food
which they bring from the plains below.

In hunting for their prey, the Eagle and his mate mutually assist each
other. It may here be mentioned that the Eagles are all monogamous,
keeping themselves to a single mate, and living together in perfect harmony
through their lives. As the rabbits and hares are generally under cover
during the day, the Eagle is forced to drive them from their place of con-
cealment, and manages the matter in a very clever and sportsmanlike
manner. One of the Eagles conceals itself near the cover which is to be
beaten, and its companion then dashes among the bushes, screaming and
making such a disturbance that the terrified inmates rush out in hopes of
escape, and are immediately pounced upon by the watchful confederate.

The prey is immediately taken to the nest, and distributed to the young,
if there should be any eaglets in the lofty cradle.

Owing to the expanse of the wings and the great power of the muscles,
the flight of this bird is peculiarly bold, striking, and graceful. It sweeps
through the air in a succession of spiral curves, rising with every spire, and
making no perceptible motion with its wings, until it has attained an altitude
at which it is hardly visible. From that post of vantage the Eagle marks
the ground below, and swoops down with lightning rapidity upon bird or
beast that may happen to take its fancy. It is not, however, so active at
rising from the ground as might be imagined, and can be disabled by a
comparatively slight injury on the wing. One of these birds, that was
detected by a young shepherd boy in the act of devouring some -dead sheep,
was disabled by a pebble hurled at him from a sling and- was at last
ignominiously stoned to death.

The Eagle is supposed to be a very long-lived bird, and is thought to
compass a century of existence when it is living wild and unrestrained in its
native land. Even in captivity it has been known to attain a good old age,
one of these birds which lived at Vienna being rather more than a hundred
years old when it died.

ONE of the most interesting of the predaceous birds which belong to Great
Britain is the celebrated OSPREY, or FISHING Hawk. This fine bird was
formerly very common in England, but is now but rarely seen within the
confines of the British Isles, although isolated species are now and then
seen.

As the bird is a fish-eater, it is generally observed on the sea-coast or on
the banks of some large river, but has occasionally been observed in some
comparatively waterless situation, where it has probably been driven by
stress of weather. In some parts of Scotland the Osprey still holds its own,
and breeds year after year on the same spot, generally choosing the summit
of an old ruined building or the top of a large tree for that purpose. The
nest is a very large one, composed almost wholly of sticks, and contains two
or three whitish eggs, largely blotched with reddish brown, the dark patches
being collected towards the large end of the egg. As is the case with the
Eagles, the Osprey is monogamous ; but on the death of either of the pair,
the survivor soon finds another mate, and is straightway consoled by a new
alliance, From all accounts it is an affectionate and domestic bird, paying

THE OSPREY. 241

the greatest attention to its mate and home, and displaying a constancy
which is not to be surpassed by that of the turtle-dove, so celebrated for
matrimonial felicity.

iit

inna
ve
l

eal
SN i
Ny MAP

OSPREY. —(Pandion haliactus.)

The flight of the Osprey is peculiarly easy and elegant, as might be
expected from a bird the length of whose body is only twenty-two inches
and the expanse of wing nearly five feet and a half. Living almost wholly
on fish, the Osprey sails in wide undulating circles, hovering over the water
and intently watching for its prey. No sooner does a fish come into view
than the Osprey shoots through the air like a meteor, descends upon the

R

242 THE OSPREY.

luckless fish with such force that it drives a shower of spray in every
direction, and soon emerging, flies away to its nest, bearing its prey in iis
grasp. In order to enable it to seize and retain so slippery a creature as a
fish, the claws of the Osprey are long, curved, and very sharp, the soles of

BALD, OR WHITE-HFEADED EAGLE.—(Hfaliaetus Leucocephalus.)

the feet are rough, and the outer toe is capable of great versatility. When
the bird has settled upon its nest, or upon any spot where it intends to
eat its prey, it does not relinquish its hold, but, as if fearful that the fish
should escape, continues its grasp, and daintily picks away the flesh from
between its toes.

THE OSPREY. 243

Harmless though the Osprey be—except to the fish—it is a much per-
secuted bird, being not only annoyed by rooks and crows, but robbed by
the more powerful white-headed Eagle. Mr. Thompson records an instance
where an Osprey, which had been fishing in Loch Ruthven, was greatly

BUZZARD. —(Buteo vulgaris.)

harassed by an impertinent Royston crow, which attacked the noble bird as

soon as it had caught a fish, and, as if knowing that it was incapable of

retaliation, actually struck it while on the wing. The Osprey kept quietly

on its way, but was so wearied by the repeated attacks of the crow, that
R 2

.

244 THE OSPREY.

when pursued and pursuer had vanished out of sight, the poor Osprey had
nct been able to commence his repast.

The general colour of the Osprey is dark brown, but it is pleasingly
variegated with various shades of black, grey, and white. Thé crown of

KITE.—(Milous regalis.)

the head and the nape of the neck are covered with long grey-white feathers,
streaked with dark brown. The under surface of the body is white, with
the exception of a light-brown band which extends across the chest. The
primasies are brown tipped with black, and the tail is barred above with a

THE BALD OR WHITE-HEADED EAGLE, 215

light and a deep brown, and below with brown and white. The legs, toes,
and cere are blue, the eyes golden yellow, and the beak and claws black.

THE noble bird which is represented on page 242 is celebrated as being
the type which has been chosen by the Americans as the emblem of
their nation,

The name of BALD or WHITE-HEADED EAGLE has been applied to this
bird on account of the snowy white colour of the head and neck, a peculi-
arity which renders it a most conspicuous bird when at large in its native
land. The remainder of the body is a deep chocolate brown, inclining to
black along the back. The tail and upper tail-coverts are of the same white
hue as the head and neck. In its earlier stages of existence the creature is
of more sombre tints not obtaining the beautifully white head and tail until
it is four years of age.

The nest of the Bald Eagle is generally made upon some lofty tree, and in
the course of years becomes of very great size, as the bird is in the habit of
laying her eggs year after year in the same nest, and making additions of
fresh building materials at every fresh breeding season. She commences
this task at a very early period of the year, depositing her eggs in January,
and hatching her young by the middle of February.

It is always a very affectionate bird, tends its young as long as they are
helpless and unfledged, and will not forsake them even if the tree on which
they rest he enveloped in flames.

The Bald Eagle often takes advantage of the fishing talents of the Osprey
by robbing the lesser bird of its prey. The Eagle is. in truth, no very great
fisher, but is very fond of fish, and finds that the easiest mode of obtaining
the desired dainty is to rob those who are better qualified than himself for
the sport.

The Bald Eagle is very accommodating in his appetite, and will eat
almost anything that has ever possessed animal life. He is by no means
averse to carrion, and has been seen seated regally upon a dead horse,
keeping at a distance a horde of vultures which were collected round the
carcase, and not permitting them to approach until he had gorged himself
to the full. Another individual was seen by Wilson in a similar state of
things. He had taken possession of a heap of dead squirrels that had been
accidentally drowned, and prevented any other bird, or beast of prey, from
approaching his treasure. He is especially fond of lambs, and is more than
suspected of aiding the death of many a‘sickly sheep by the dexterous use
of his beak and claws. ;

The Bald Eagle is found throughout the whole of North America, and
may be seen haunting the greater part of the sea-coasts, as well as the
mouths of the large rivers. : ;

The common BuzzaRD is one of our handsomest Falconide, and is one
which, although banished from ihe greater part of England, is still found
plentifully in many parts of Scotland and Ireland. . ;

The plumage of this bird is looser and more downy than is seen in the
generality of the hawk tribe, and bears a certain resemblance to that of the
owl. This peculiarity is explained by the habits of the bird, which will
presently be narrated. The average length of a Buzzard is from twenty to
twenty-two inches, and the tinting of its plumage is extremely variable, even
in adult birds. The usual colouring is as follows. The back and whole of
the upper surface is a rich brown, becoming lighter on the head and neck,
and diversified with longitudinal streaks of the darker hue. The tail is also
dark brown, but is varied with stripes of a lighter colour, and the primary
feathers of the wings are nearly black. The under portions of the body are
grey-white, m-~ked on the neck, chest, and abdomen with spots and streaks

246 THE BUZZARD.

of brown. The claws are black, the bill is a deep blue-black, and the legs,
tucs, and ears are yellow.

The nest of the Buzzard is made either i1 some suitable tree or upon the
rocks, according to the locality, and is generally composed of grass and

RSS

SWALLOW-TAILED KITE.—(Zlanoides furcatus.)

heather stems, intermingled with long, soft roots, and lined with wool,
heather, leaves, and other substances.

The flight of the Buzzard is rather variable. At times the bird seems
mspired with the very soul of laziness, and contents itself. with pouncing

THE RITE. 247

leisurely upon its prey, and returning to the branch on which it has been
perched. Sometimes, however, and especially in the breeding season, it
rises high in the air, and displays a power of wing and an easy grace of
flight which would hardly be anticipated from its formerly sluggish move-
ments. This fine bird may still be seen in the New Forest, where I have
often watched its airy circling flight.

THE KITE may be known, even on the wing, from all other British birds
of prey, by its beautifully easy flight and the long forked tail. Indeed, while
flying, the Kite bears no small resemblance to a very large swallow, excepting
that the flight is more gliding, and the wings are seldom flapped.

It was in former days one of the commonest of the British birds,
swarming in every forest, building its nest near every village, and being
the greatest pest of the farmer and poultry-keeper, on account of its voracity,
craft, and swiftness. Even the Metropolis was filled with these birds, which
acted the same part that is played by vultures in more eastern lands, and
were accustomed to haunt the streets for the purpose of eating the offal
which was so liberally flung out of doors in the good old times, and which,
but for the providential instincts of the Kites, would have been, permitted to
decompose in the open streets.

In the present day, however, the Kite is comparatively seldom seen in
England, and when observed, is of sufficient rarity to be mentioned in the
floating records of natural history.

The flight’ of this bird is peculiarly easy and graceful, as the wings are
seldom. flapped, and the Kite sails through the air as by the mere power of
volition. From the gliding movements of the Kite when on the wing it has
derived the name of Gled, from the old Saxon word glda. When in
pursuit of prey, the Kite sails in circles, at a considerable height from the
ground, watching with its penetrating gaze the ground beneath, and sweep-
ing with unerring aim upon any bird, quadruped, or reptile that may take
its fancy.

The food of the Kite is rather general in its nature, consisting of various
quadrupeds, young rabbits, hares, rats, mice, and moles, of which latter
animals no less than twenty-two were discovered in the nest of a single
Kite, showing how rapid and noiseless must be its movements when it can
secure so wary and keen-eared an animal as a mole. It does not chase the
swift-winged birds through the air, but pounces on many a partridge as it
sits on the ground, and is remarkably ford of taking young and unfledged
birds from their nests; reptiles of different kinds, such as snakes, frogs,
lizards, and newts, also form part of its food, and it will not disdain to pick
up a bee or a grasshopper when it can find no larger prey. The Kite is
also a good fisher, waging nearly as successful war against the finny
inhabitants of the rivers or ponds as the osprey itself; sweeping suddenly
down upon the fish as they rise to the surface in search of food, or in their
accustomed gambollings, and bearing them away to the shore, where it
settles down and eats them in peace.

The nest of the Kite is chiefly built with sticks as a foundation, upon
which is placed a layer of moss, wool, hair, and other soft and warm articles.
The locality which is chosen for the nest is generally in some thick wood,
and the bird prefers a strong, forked branch for the resting-place. The eggs
are generally two in number, and sometimes three, of a greyish or light-
brownish white colour, speckled with reddish chestnut blotches, which, as is
the case with so many hawk’s eggs, are gathered towards the larger end.

The ordinary length of the common Kite is about twenty inches, but the
sexes are rather variable in that respect, the females being always larger
than the males. The colouring of the bird is very elegant, although

248 THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE.

composed: of few tints, and is remarkable more on account of the delicate
gradations and contrasts of hue than for any peculiar brilliancy of the
feathers. The general aspect of the Kite is reddish brown, which on a close
inspection is resolved into the following tints. The back and upper portions
are dark brown, relieved by a reddish tinge upon the edges of the feathers ;
the primaries are black, and the upper tail-coverts chestnut. There is a
little white upon the edges of the tertiaries, and the head and back of the
neck are covered with greyish white feathers, the centre of each feather
being streaked with brown. The forked tail is reddish brown, barred on
the under surface with dark brown stripes, the centre feathers being the
darkest. The chin and throat are coloured like the head, and the abdomen
and under portions are reddish brown. The under tail-coverts are white,
with a slight reddish tinge, and the under surface of the rectrices are also
white, but washed with grey.

THE beautiful bird which is so well known under the appropriate title of
the SWALLOW-TAILED KITE is an inhabitant of various parts of America,
though it has occasionally been noticed on the British shores.

This bird bears so strong an external reseinblance to the swallow, that it
might easily be taken for a common swallow or swift, as it flies circling in
the air in search of the insect prey on which it usually feeds. Even the
flight is very much of the same character in both birds, and the mode of
feeding very similar. The usual food of the Swallow-tailed Kite consists of
the larger insects, which it either catches on the wing or snatches from the
leaves as it shoots past the bushes. Reptiles, such as small snakes, lizards,
and frugs, also form part of the food of this elegant bird. While it is
engaged in the pursuit of such prey, or in catching the large insects upon
the branches, it may be approached and shot without much difficulty, as it
is so intent upon its prey that it fails to notice its human foe.

The nest of the Swallow-tailed Kite is generally found on the very
summit of some lofty rock or pine, and is almost invariably in the near vicinity
of water. It is compyssed of small sticks externally, and is lined with
grasses, moss, and feathers. The eggs are rather more numerous than is
generally the case with the Hawks, being from four to six in number. Their
colour is white with a greenish tinge, and they are marked with some dark
brown blotches which are gathered towards the larger end. There is only
one brood in the year, and when the young birds are first hatched, they are
covered with a uniformly buff-coloured downy coat. The colour of the adult
bird is variable, consisting mostly of white and black, but, on account of
the bold manner in which their hues are contrasted, is remarkably pleasing
in its effect. The back, the upper part of the wings, with the exception
of the inner webs of the tertiaries, upper tail-coverts and rectrices, are a
deep purple-black, the head, neck, and all other parts of the plumage being

ure white. The legs and toes are blue with a green tinge, the cere is blue,
and the beak blue-black, The claws are orange-brown. The length of this
bird averages twenty inches.

THE true FALCONS are known by their strong, thick, and curved beak, the
upper mandible having a projecting tooth near the curve, which fits into a
corresponding socket in the under mandible. The talons are strongly
curved, sharp-pointed, and are either flat or grooved in their under sides.
The Falcons all obtain their prey by striking it while on the wing ; and
with such terrible force is the attack made, that a Peregrine Falcon has been
known to strike the head completely from the shoulders of its quarry, while
the mere force of its stroke, without the use of its claws, is sufficient to kill
a pizeon or a partridge, and send it dead to the ground.

In striking their prey the Falcons make no use of the beak, reserving

THE ¥ER-FALCON. 249

that weapon for the purpose of completing the slaughter when they and the
wounded quarry are struggling on the ground.

Among the true Falcons the JER-FALCON is the most conspicuous on
account of the superior dimensions of its body and the striking power
of its wing.

This splendid bird is a native of Northern Europe, being mostly found in
Iceland and Norway, and it also inhabits parts of both Americas. Some
naturalists believe that the Norwe-
gian and Icelandic birds ought to
be reckoned as different species, but
others think that any differences be-
tween them are occasioned by age
and sex. It is said that of the two
birds the Iceland variety is the more
powerful, of bolder flight, and greater
age, and therefore better adapted for
the purpose of falconry. Sometimes
it is seen in the northern parts of
the British Islands, having evidently
flown over the five hundred miles or
so of sea that divides Scotland frem
Iceland ; this journey, however, is no
difficult task for the Jer-falcon, who
is quite capable of paying a morning
visit to these islands and returning to
its home on the same day. In 1859
one of these birds was shot in North-
umberland, and others have been ob-
served in the more southern counties.
Towards the south, however, it has ;
seldom if ever been observed. JER-FALCON.—(Falco Gyrfalco.)

The colour of the adult Jer-falcon
is nearly white, being purely white on the under surface and flecked with
narrow transverse bars of greyish brown upon the upper parts. The sharp
claws are black, the beak of a bluish tint, and the cere, tarsus, and toes
yellow. When young, however, the bird presents a very different aspect,
and would hardly be recognized as belonging to the same species. In its
earlier stages of life it is almost wholly of a greyish brown tint, the fea-
thers being slightly marked with a little white upon their edges. As the
bird increases in age the white edges become wider and by degrees the
entire feather is of a snowy whiteness. The name Jer-falcon is supposed to
be a corruption of “ Geier-falcon,” or Vulture Falcon.

Less powerful, but more graceful than the Jer-falcon, the PEREGRINE
FALCON has ever held the first place among the hawks that are trained
for the chase.

When thoroughly tamed, the Peregrine Falcon displays a very con-
siderable amount of attachment to its owner, and even while flying at
perfect liberty will single him out from a large company, fly voluntarily
towards him, and perch lovingly on his hand or shoulder.

It will chase and kill many of the coast birds, such as the dunlin, the gull,
and the plover. The curlew is a very favourite prey, and, being a strong-
winged bird, affords great sport. It is rather remarkable that the dunlin,
together with birds of similar habits, fly instinctively to the sea, lake, or
river, when attacked by the Peregrine Falcon, as if knowing that the winged
hunter is very unwilling to swoop upon any object that is flying upon the

250 THE PEREGRINE FALCON.

surface of the water. The Falcon has been seen to drive a dunlin re-
peatedly into the sea before it could intercept the poor bird between the °
dry land and its watery refuge. It will also strike at the grey crows, or at
herons, but unless specially trained to the pursuit, will not trouble itself
further about them.

PEREGRINE FALCON. (Falco peregrinus.)

The full speed of the Peregrine Falcon has been computed at a hundred
and fifty miles per hour, and a single chase will often occupy a space of
eight or ten miles. Its power of wing is not only useful in enabling it to

swage successful pursuit of swift-winged birds, but in giving it sufficient
buoyancy to carry off the prey which it has secured. So strong is the

THE PEREGRINE FALCON. 255

Peregrine’s wing, that it has often been observed to bear in its talons a bird
larger than itself, and to carry it to the nest without difficulty. Even =
guillemot has been struck and carried off by the Peregrine. ;

The eggs of this bird are generally two or three in number, although a
fourth is sometimes known to be laid in the same nest. The colour of the
egg is a very pale reddish brown, usually mottled with a darker tint.

In its adult state, the Peregrine Falcon is very elegantly coloured. The
top of the head, the back of the neck, the primaries, and a stripe beneath
the eye, are of a deep black-brown; the upper parts of the body are ashy
brown, the latter tint becoming fainter in each successive moult, and being
always marked with a series of dark bars upon its back, tail, and wing-
coverts: the breast is white, deepening into a chestnut hue, and being
barred transversely with reddish brown upon the breast, and marked on
the front of the throat with longitudinal dashes of very dark brown. The
remainder of th: under plumage is greyish white, profusely barred with dark
brown. When young the plumage is altogether of a more ruddy hue, and
the birds are termed in the language of falconry, Red Tercels, or Red
Falcons, according to their sex.

THE small but exquisitely shaped Hoppy is found spread over the greater
part of the old world, specimens having been taken in’ Northern Africa, and in
many portions of Asia, as well as in Europe, which seems to be its chief
residence. It was formerly very common in England, but is year by year
less seldom seen in our island, as is the case with all its predaceous relations.
From all accounts, it seems to be rather a local bird, being partially influ-
enced by the nature of the ground and the-quantity of food which it is able
to procure. ;

This bird appears to favour inland and well-wooded lands rather than the
sea-shore or the barren rocks; thus presenting a strong contrast to the
Peregrine Falcon. We may find an obvious reason for this preference in
the fact that a considerable proportion of its food is composed of the larger
insects, especially of the fat-bodied beetles, which it seizes on the wing.
Chafers of various kinds are a favourite prey with the Hobby, and in several
cases the stomachs of Hobbies that had been shot were found to contain
nothing but the shelly portions of the larger dung-chafer (geotrupes sterco-
varius). As therefore the common cock-chafer is a leaf eating msect and
frequents forest lands for the purpose of attaining its food, the Hobby will
constantly be found in the same locality for the object of feeding on the cock-
chafer, And as the dung-chafer swarms wherever cattle are most abun-
dantly nourished, the Hobby is attracted to the same spot for the sake of the
plentiful supply of food which it can obtain. ; ;

ALTHOUGH of the smallest of the British Falconidz, being only from ten
to thirteen inches in length, accoiding to the sex of the individual, th«
MERLIN is one of the most dashing and brilliant of all the hawks whic.
frequent our island. a

This beautiful little bird is almost invaluable to the young falconer, as it is
so docile in disposition and so remarkably intelligent in character, that it
repays his instructions much sooner than any of the more showy but less
teachabie falcons. Every movement of this admirable little hawk is full of
life and vivacity ; its head turns sharply from side to side as it sits on its
master’s hand ; its eyes almost flame with fiery eagerness, and it ever and
anon gives vent to its impatience bya volley of ear-piercing shrieks.

Before the young bird is able to tear to pieces its winged prey, it should
always be accustomed to have its food placed upon the stuffed skin of a
partridge, and when it has attained sufficient strength, the breast of a real
partridge should be cut open, and a small portion of its ordinary tood

252 THE MERLIN.

placed within the aperture, so as to encourage the bird to tear away the
flesh in order to satiate its hunger. The next step is to substitute an entire
partridge for the ordinary diet, and by degrees to teach it to pounce upon
the dead bird as it is flung to a daily increasing distance, It is a good

MERLIN. —(A/ypotriorchis @salon.)

pigeon-hunter, and if the owner choose to train it for smaller game, it is
unrivalled as a chaser of thrushes, larks, and similar birds, owing to the
pertinacity with which it carries on the pursuit, and the resolutely agile
manner with which it will thread the mazes of branch and leaf in chase of a
bird which seeks for refuge in the covert,

THE MERLIN. 253

The Merlin frequently breeds in England, and makes its nest on the
ground, generally choosing for that purpose some spot where large stones
are tolerably plentiful, and may serve as a protection to the nest, as well as
for a perch on which the Merlin, like the harrier, loves to sit and survey the
prospect. From this habit of perching on pieces of stone it has derived the
name of STONE FALCON, a title which has been applied to this bird in
Germany and France as well as in England. Sometimes, but not often, the
nest is made on some rocky shelf on a precipice. ‘The eggs are four or five
in number, of a light reddish brown hue, covered with mottlings and splash-
ings of a deeper tint.

The colour of the Merlin is very pleasing, but not zery easy to describe,
as it is not So conspicuous as in many of the hawks, and moreover is rather
different in the two sexes.

The top of the head is a slaty grey, marked with dark streaks running
along the line of the head; the beak and upper portions of the body are of
a similar slaty grey, but without the dark lines. The shafts of each feather
are, however, of a dark brown, and give a very rich and peculiar colouring
to those portions of the plumage. The pinions are black, the upper surface
of the tail is nearly grey, with the exception of three faint dark bands, the
last being the broadest, and the tip white. The chin and throat are white,
and the under parts of the body are reddish fawn, thickly marked with
patches of a darker colour and streaks of deep brown. The cere, legs, and
toes are yellow, the claws black, and the beak a slaty grey, deepening to-
wards the point, and slightly marked with longitudinal dark lines. Round
the neck runs a band of pale reddish brown, which also extends to the
cheeks, and there forms a patch on each side.

This description belongs to the male bird, the colouring of the female
being of a rather different nature. The beautiful blue-grey which tints the
upper parts of the male bird is in the female of a dark reddish brown,
marked with slender longitudinal streaks covered by the black-brown shafts
of each feather. The secondaries and the wing-coverts are of the same hue
as the back. The tail is brown, varied with five narrow streaks of dark
brown, and the under surface of the body is a very pale brown, marked with
longitudinal dashes of a darker hue. The young of both sexes are nearly
alike for the first year, after which time the males assume their peculiar
colouring, and the females retain the same tints.

THE common KESTREL is one of the most familiar of the British hawks,
being seen in almost every part of the country where a mouse, a lizard, or a
beetle may be found.

It may be easily distinguished while on the wing from any other hawk, by
the peculiar manner in which it remains poised in air in a single spot, its
head invariably pointing towards the wind, its tail spread, and its wings
widely extended, almost as if it were a toy kite raised in the air by artificial
means, and preserved in the same spot by the trammels of a string. While
hanging thus strangely suspended in the air, its head is bent downwards, and
its keen eyes glance restlessly in every direction, watching every blade of
grass beneath its ken, and shooting down with unerring certainty of aim
upon any unhappy field-mouse that may be foolish enough to poke his red
face out of his hole while the Kestrel is on the watch.

The number of field-mice consumed by this hawk is very great, for it is
hardly possible to open the stomach of a Kestrel without finding the remains
of one or more of these destructive little animals. On account of its mouse-
eating propensities, the Kestrel is a most useful bird to the farmer, who in
his ignorance confounds all hawks together, and now shoots the Kestrel
which catches mice because kites used formerly to steal chickens,

254 THE KESTREL.

In the use of its claws the Kestrel is remarkably quick and ready, and
being also a swift-winged bird, it is in the habit of chasing cock-chaffers and
other large beetles on the wing, and catching them neatly with its claws as
it shoots past their course. Without pausing in its flight, the bird transfers

KESTREL,—(Zinnunculus Alaudarius.)

the insect from the foot to the mouth, and eats it without taking the trouble
to alight. With such eagerness does it pursue this kind of prey, which we
may suppose to be taken as a dessert after a more substantial meal upon
Mouse-flesh, that it continues its chase far into the evening, and may be seen

THE KESTREL. 255

in hot pursuit of the high-flying beetles long after dusk. Caterpillars and
other larvze are also eaten by the Kestrel, which does not disdain to alight
on the ground and draw the earthworms out of their holes.

Mice, however, are always its favourite diet, and as the multiplication of
these little pests is much increased by the abundant food which they find in
cultivated grounds and stacks and barns, the Kestrel has learnt to attach
itself to human residences, instead of becoming self-banished, as is the case
with almost every other hawk. There is hardly a village where the Kestrel
may not be seen hovering with outspread wings, and surveying the fields
below.

With the aid of a good telescope, every movement of the bird may be dis-
covered as it hangs in the air, and the sight is a very interesting one. Its
wings keep up a continual shivering, its widely-spread tail is occasionally
moved so as to suit the slight changes of the breeze, the spirited little head
is in perpetual motion, and the dark brown eyes gleam with animation as
they keep their restless watch. It seems from various observations that each
Kestrel has its regular beat or hunting-grounds, and may be observed
punctually repairing to the same spot at the same hour, much after the
manner of the golden eagle.

The Kestrel is known by various names in different parts of the country.

Its most common name is Windhover, in allusion to its peculiar mode of
flight. For the same reason it is termed Stannel, Stand-gall, or Stand-gale,
and has also obtained the title of Vanner Hawk.

The nest of the Kestrel is generally placed upon the topmost bough of
some lofty tree, although it is sometimes found upon a ledge of some preci-
pitous cliff, should the bird have taken up its residence in a mountainous
country. Many of these birds have built their nests upon the rocky heights
of Dovedale in Derbyshire, and may be seen hovering in mid-air near the
spot where their young are nourished. The nest itself is a very simple con-
struction of sticks and moss; and the bird is so averse to trouble that it
often takes possession of the deserted nest of the carrion crow. I have
several times been greatly surprised in my nest-hunting expeditions, by find-
ing the ruddy eggs of the Kestrel lying in the nest which I thought only to
be that of the crow. This bird also deposits its eggs in the crannies of old
ruined buildings and lofty towers, but I have never as yet been fortunate
enough to find them in such a situation.

The colour of the male Kestrel is briefly as follows. The head, cheeks,
and back of the neck are ashen grey, marked with narrow Tongitudinal
streaks of deeper grey. The back and upper portions of the body, together
with the tertiaries and wing-coverts, are bright ruddy fawn, dotted with little
triangular black spots, caused by the extreme tips of the feathers being
black. The larger quill feathers of the wing are black-grey, marked with a
paler hue; the under portions of the body are pale reddish fawn, marked
with dark streaks on the chest and spotted on the abdomen ; the thighs and
under tail-coverts are of the sane hue as the abdomen, but without the spots.
The upper surface of the tail is of the same hue as the head, marked with a
single broad band of black near its extremity and tipped with white, while
its under surface is grey-white, marked with a number of narrow irregular
bars of a darker hue, in addition to the black band and white tip, which are
the same as on the upper surface. The legs, toes, cere, and orbits of the
eyes are yellow, the claws are black, and the beak is slaty blue, deepening
towards the point.

The females and young males are differently marked, and are altogether of
a darker and more ruddy hue. The head and neck are ruddy fawn, marked
with many transverse darker stripes, and the back, upper portions, and tajl

256 THE GOSHAWEK,

are red-brown covered with numerous irregular blue-black bars. The males
do not assume their appropriate plumage until they have completed their first
year. The length of the male bird is about thirteen inches, and that of the

female fifteen inches.

GOSHAWK. —(Astur palumbarius.)

We now come to a large and important genus of Hawks, which is repre-
sented in England by the GOSHAWK.

This handsome bird is even larger than the jer-falcon, the length of an
adult male being eighteen inches, and that of his mate rather more than two
feet. It is not, however, so powerful or so swift-winged a bird as the jer-
falcon, and its mode of taking prey is entirely different,

THE GOSHAWRE. 257

When trained, the Goshawk is best employed at-hares, rabbits, and other
furred game, and in this particular sport is unrivalled. Its mode of hunting
is singularly like that of the chetah, which has already been mentioned on
page 50. Like that animal, it is not nearly so swift as its prey, and therefore
is obliged to steal upon them, and seize its victim by a sudden and unex-
pected pounce. When it has once grasped its prey it is rarely found to
eae hold, even after the most violent struggles or the most furious
attack.

This species is found spread over nearly the whole of Europe and Asia,
and has also been seen in Northern Africa. The nest of this bird is
generally placed on the topmost boughs of some lofty tree, and the eggs are
of a uniform spotless blue-white. Their number is from three to four, and
the young are hatvhed about May or the beginning of June.

In colour, the adult birds of both sexes are very similar to each other,
the tinting ot the plumage being briefly as follows. The top of the head
and the entire upper portions of the body and wings are grey-brown, and
the under portions of the body, together with a band over the cheeks and
the back of the neck, are nearly white, diversified with numerous irregular
spots, splashes, and partial bars of black. The cheeks and ear-coverts are
dark greyish brown, the upper surface of the tail is the same hue as the
back, and barred with dark brown ; the under tail-coverts are white. The
cere, legs, and toes are yellow, the claws black, and the beak blue-black.
In the female the grey-brown of the back is a more ruddy hue, and in
the young the plumage is curiously diversified with reddish white, buff,
and grey.

THE well-known SPARROW HAWK is almost as familiar to us as the
kestrel, the two birds being, indeed, often confounded with each other by
those who ought to know better. This fine and active little bird is an
inhabitant of many portions of the world, being very common in nearly all
parts of Europe, equally so in Egypt and Northern Africa, and being very
frequently found in India and other Asiatic countries.

The courage of the Sparrow Hawk is of the most reckless character, for
the bird will fly unhesitatingly at almost any other inhabitant of air, no
matter what its size may be.

In consequence of the headlong courage possessed by this handsome
little hawk, it is very valuable to the falconer if properly trained, for it will
dash at any quarry which may be pointed out to it. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the Sparrow Hawk is one of the most difficult and refractory,of pupils,
being shy to a singular degree, slow at receiving a lesson and quick at
forgetting it. Besides, its temper is of 2 very crabbed and uncertain nature,
and it is so quarrelsome, that if several of these birds should be fastened to
the same perch, or placed in the same cage, they will certainly fight each
other, and, in all probability, the conqueror will eat his vanquished foe.
Such an event has actually occurred; the victrix—for it was a female—
killing and devouring her intended spouse.

One of these birds afforded an excellent example of the shyness above
mentioned. Although he was most kindly treated and liberally fed, he used
to scream in the most ear-piercing manner when approached, even by the
person who generally carried his food. The only companion whose presence
he would tolerate was a little Skye terrier, named Rosy, and the two
strangely matched comrades used to execute the most singular gambols
together, the dog generally taking the initiative and persecuting the Hawk,
until she forced him to fly.

The nest of the Sparrow Hawk is placed in some elevated spot, and
contains three or four eggs, rather variable in their marking, but always

8

258 THE SPARROW HAWK.

possessing a certain unmistakable character. The ground tint of the egg is
a greyish white, slightly tinged with blue, and a number of bold blotches of
a very dark brown are placed upon the surface, sometimes scattered rather
irregularly, but generally forming a broad ring round the larger end. The
bird seldom troubles itself to build a new nest, but takes possession of the
deserted tenement of a crow or rook.

SPARROW HAWK.—(Accipiter Nisus.)

THE very remarkable SECRETARY BIRD derives its name from the curious
feathery plumes which project from each side of its head, and bear a
fanciful resemblance to pens carried behind the ear by human secretaries.

It isan inhabitant of Southern Africa, and is most valuable in destroy:

THE SECRETARY BIRD. 259

ing the serpent race, on which creatures it most exclusively feeds. Undaunted
by the deadly teeth of the cobra, the Secretary Bird comes boldly to the
attack, and in spite of all the efforts of the infuriated and desperate reptice,
is sure to come off victorious. Many other creatures fall victims to the
ravenous appetite of the Secretary, and in the stomach of one of these birds
which was found by Le Vaillant, were discovered eleven rather large lizards,
eleven stall tortoises, a great number of insects nearly entire, and three
snakes as thick as a man’s arm,

The nest of the Secretary is built on the summit of a lofty tree, and
contains two or three large white eggs.

The ordinary length of the adult Secretary Bird is about three feet, and
its colour is almost wholly a slaty grey. The peculiar feathers which form
the crest are black, as are the primaries and the feathers of the thigh. There
is a lighter patch towards the abdomen. The tail is black with the exception
of the two central rectrices,
which are grey, with a white
tip and a broad black bar
towards their extremities.

We now arrive at the
HARRIERS, probably so
called because they “harry ”
and persecute the game.
Several species of this genus
are found in England, the
most common of which is
the HEN HaRRIER.

The Harrier may be read-
ily distinguished from the
other hawks by the manner
in which the feathers radiate
around the eyes, forming a
kind of funnel-shaped de-
pression, somewhat similar
to but not so perfect as that
of the owl. The flight of
the Harrier is very low,
seldom being more than a
few yards above the groun(,
and as the bird flies along THE SECRETARY BIRD.—(Serpentarius Secretarius.)
it beats every bush and pries
into every little covert in search of prey. There are few of the smaller
animals that do not fall victims to the Hen Harrier, which is always
ready to pick up a field-mouse, a lizaril, a small snake, a newt, or a
bird, and will even pounce upon so large a bird as a partridge or a pheasant.
Sometimes it sits on a stone or small hillock, and from that post keeps up
a vigilant watch on the surrounding country, swooping off as soon as it
observes indications of any creature on which it may feed.

The flight of the Hen Harrier, although it is not remarkable for its power,
is yet very swift, easy, and gliding, and, as the bird quarters the ground after
its prey, is remarkably graceful. The Harriers prefer to live on moors and
similiar localities, where they can pursue their rather peculiar mode of
hunting, and where they may find a secluded spot for a secure home. Like
the kestrel, the Hen Harrier appears to have regular hunting-grounds, and
is very punctual in its visits. The nest of this bird is generally placed under
the shadow of some convenient furze-bush, and is composed of a few sticks

$2

260 THE HEN HARRIER.

thrown loosely together, in which are deposited four or five very pale. blue
eggs. The young are hatched about the middle of June.

The two sexes differ very greatly in colour, and until comparatively recent
times were recorded as distinct species. The general colour of the adult

_se oo

HEN HARRIER.—(Circus cyaneus.)

male is ashen grey from the beak and upper parts, the only exception being
the primaries, which are black. The throat and chin are nearly of the same
hue as the beak, but the chest and abdomen are white, with a slight blue
tinge, which is lost upon the plumage of the thigh. On the under surface
of the tail are several indistinct dark bars, and the hair-like feathers

THE SNCWY OWT. 261

between the eye and the base of the beak are hlack. The legs, toes, and cere
are yellow, the claws black, and the beak nearly black, with a bluish
tinge. The length of the male bird is about eighteen inches.

The female is a much darker bird, the back and upper portions being of a
deep dusky brown, and the primaries being but a little darker than the
plumage of the back. The feathers of the under parts are lighter brown,
with pale margins, so as to present a kind of mottled buff and chestnut
aspect ; the upper surface of the tail is marked with partial dark bands, and
its under surface is very distinctly bound with broad bands of black and
greyish white. The funnel-shaped depression round the eyes, technically
called the concha, or shell, is brown towards the base of the feathers, but
merges into a white eyebrow above, reaching to the cere. Her length is
about two inches more than that of the male, and her spread of wing is about
three feet six inches.

OWLS.

THERE are few groups of birds which are so decidedly marked as the OWLs,
and so easy of recognition. The round, puffy head, the little hooked beak
just appearing from the downy plumage with which it is surrounded, the
large, soft, blinking eyes, and the curious disk of feathers which radiate froin
the eye, and form a funnel-shaped depression, are such characteristic distinc-
tions, that an Owl, even of
the least owl-like aspect,
can at once be detected and
referred to its proper place
in the animal kingdom.

These birds are, almost
without an exception, noc-
turnal in their habits, and
are fitted for their peculiar
life by’ a most wonderfully
adapted form and structure.
The eyes are made so as to
take in every ray of light,
and are so sensitive to its in-
fluence that they are unable
to endure the glare of day-
light, being formed expressly
for the dim light of evening or
earliest dawn. An ordinary
Owl of almost any species,
when brought into the full
light of day, becomes quite
bewildered with the unwont-
ed glare, and sits blinking
uncomfortably, in a pitiable
manner. i THE SNOWY OWL.—(Wyctea nivea.)

The SNowy OWL is one
of the handsomest of this group, not so much on account of its dimen-
sions, which are not very considerable, but by reason of the beautiful white
mantle with which it is clothed, and the large orange eyeballs.

This bird is properly a native of the north of Europe and America, but
has also a few domains in the more northern parts of England, being
constantly seen, though rather a scarce bird, in the Shetland and Orkney

262 THE BURROWING OWL.

fstands, where it builds and rears its young. Like the Hawk Owl, it isaday-
ea bird, and is a terrible foe to the smaller mammalia and to various
irds.

In proportion to its size the Snowy Owl is a mighty hunter, having been
detected in chasing the American hare, and carrying of wounded grouse
before the sportsman can secure his prey. According to Yarrell, the
Swedish name of Harfang, which has been given to this bird, is derived
from its habit of feeding on hares. It is also a good fisherman, posting
itself on some convenient spot overhanging the water, and securing its finny
prey with a lightning-like grasp of the claw. Sometimes it will sail over the
surface of the stream, and snatch the fish as they rise for food, but its general
mode of angling is that which has just been mentioned. It is also a great
eater of lemmings ; and in the destruction of these quadrupedal pests does
infinite service to the agriculturist and the population in general.

COQUIMBO, OR BURROWING OWL.—(A¢hene cunicularia.)

The colour of an old snowy Owl is pure white without any markings what-
ever ; but in the earlier years of its life its plumage is covered with numerous
dark brown spots and bars caused by a dark tip to each feather. Upon the
breast and abdomen these markings form short abrupt curves, but on the
back and upper surface they are nearly straight. The beak and claws are
black. The length of the male Snowy Owl is about twenty-two inches, and
that of the female twenty-six or twenty-seven.

The quaint, long-legged little Owl which is represented in the accompany-
ing illustration is a native of many parts of America, where it inhabits the
same locality with the prairie dog. The description of that curious marmot
and its peculiar burrow may be found on pages 157, 158.

The grairie dogs and Burrowing Owls live together very harmoniously ;

THE VIRGINIAN EARED OWL. 263

and this strange society is said also to be augmented by a third member,
namely, the rattlesnake. It is now, however, ascertained with tolerable
accuracy that the rattlesnake is nothing but a very unwelcome intruder upon
the marmot, and, as has been shown by the Hon. G. F. Berkeley’s experi-
ments, is liable to be attacked and destroyed by the legal owner of the
burrow. If all had their rights, it would seem that the Owl is nearly as
much an intruder as the snake, and that it only takes possession of the
burrow excavated by the prairie
dog in order to save itself the
trouble of making a subterranean
abode for itself. Indeed, there
are some parts of the country
where the Owl is perforce obliged
to be its own workman, and, in
default of convenient “dog” bur-
rows, is fain to employ its claws
and bill in excavating a home for
itself.

The tunnel which is made by
the Owl is not nearly so deep or
so neatly constructed as that which
is dug by the marmot, being only
eighteen inches or two feet in
depth, and very rough in the inte-
rior, At the bottom of this bur-
row is placed a tolerably seized
heap of dried grass, moss, leaves,
and other soft substances, upon
which are deposited its white-
shelled eggs.

The Coquimbo Owl is by no

-Means a nocturnal bird, facing
the giare of the mid-day sun with-
out inconvenience, and standing
at all times in the day or evening
on the little heaps of earth which ~
are thrown up at the entrance of
the burrow. It is a lively little
bird, moving about among the
burrows with considerable viva- 2
city, rising on the wing if sud-
-denly disturbed, and making a
short undulating aérial journey
before it again settles upon the
ground. When it has alighted NaS Pe SSS,
from one of these little flights it & RG27Z Ea
turns round and earnestly regards 2
the pursuer. Sometimes it will
dive into one of the burrows, heed-
less of prior occupants, and thus it is that marmot, owl, and snake come
to be found in the same burrow.

The colour of the Burrowing Owl is a rather rich brown upon the upper
parts of the body, diversified with a number of small grey-white spots, and
altogether darker upon the upper surface of the wings. The under parts are
greyish white. The length of the bird is not quite eleven inches, The cry

oS

VIRGINIAN EARED-OWL.—(Ludbo Virginianus.)

264 THE BROWN OWL.

of this curious bird is unlike that of any other Owl, and bears a very great
resemblance to the short, sharp bark of the prairie dog.

We now arrive at a large group of Owls which are remarkable for
two tufts of feathers which rise from the head, and occupy nearly the
same relative position as the ears of quadrupeds. These “ears,” as
they are called, have, however nothing to do with the organs of
hearing, but are simply tufts of feathers, which can be raised or depressed
at the will of the bird, and give a most singular expression to the
countenance.

THE VIRGINIAN-EARED OWL is found spread over the greater portion of
North America, and in former days did great damage among the poultry of
the agriculturists, being a bold as well as a voracious hird. Now, however,
the ever-ready rifle of the farmer has thinned its numbers greatly, and has
inspired the survivors with
such awe that they mostly
i) keep clear of cultivated lands,
my, and confine themselves to

seeking after their legitimate,j
prey. eo aj
It is a terrible destroyer of
Z game, snatching up grouse,
partridges, hares, ducks,
sparrows, squirrels, and many
other furred and feathered
2 creatures, and not unfre-
quently striving after larger
quarry. The wild turkey is
a favourite article of diet
with this Owl; but on ac-
count of the extreme wari-
ness of the turkey nature,
the depredator finds an un-
seen approach to be no easy
matter. The usual mode in
‘ which the Owl catches the
turkey is, to find out a spot
where its intended prey is

quietly sleeping at night, and

aE ‘ / then to swoop down sud-
BROWN OWL.—(Surnium Aluco.) denly upon the slumbering
bird before it awakes. Some-
times, however, the Owl is baffled in a very curious manner. When the
turkey happens to be roused by the rush of the winged foe, it’ instinc-
tively ducks its head and spreads its tail flatly over its back. The Owl,
impinging upon the slippery plane of stiff tail-feathers, finds no hold for its
claws, and glides off the back of its intended victim, which immediately dives
into the brushwood before the Owl can recover from the surprise of its unex-
pected failure.

The flight of this bird is remarkably powerful, easy, and graceful, as may
be gathered from the enormous expanse of wing in comparison with the
weight and dimensions of the body. Its voice is of a hollow and weird-like
character, and when heard by night from some spot on which the Owl has
silently settled, is apt to cause many a manly cheek to pale. As Wilson well
observes, the loud and sudden cry of “ Waugh O! Waugh O!” is sufficient
to alarm a whole garrison of soldiers, Probably on accoynt of the peculiar

THE SCOPS EARED-OWL, 265

sounds which are uttered by this bird, the Cree Indians know it by the name
of Ottewuck-oho t

The Virginian Horned Owl takes up its residence in the deep swampy
forests, where it remains hidden during the day, and comes out at night and
morning, heralding its approach with its loud unearthly cries, as of an un-
quiet wandering spirit. Sometimes, according to Wilson, “he has other
nocturnal solos, one of which very strikingly resembles the half-suppressed
screams of a person suffocating or throttled.”

THE common BROWN OWL, or TAWNY OWL, as it is often named, is, with
the exception of the Barn Owl, one of the best known of the British Owls.

Although rather a small bird, being only about fifteen inches in total length
it is possessed of a powerful pounce and an audacious spirit, and, when
roused to anger or urged by despair, is a remarkably unchancy antagonist.

The food of this Owl is of a very varied nature, consisting of all the
smaller mammalia, many reptiles, some birds, fishes when it can get them,
and insects. It seems to be a good fisherman, and catches its finny prey by
waiting on the stones that project a little
above the water, and adroitly snatching
the fish from the stream by a rapid move-
ment of the foot. Sometimes it flies at
much higher game, especially when it
has a young family to maintain, and will
then attack birds and quadrupeds of very
great size when compared with its own
dimensions Ina single nest.of this bird
have been found according to a writer in
the /7e/d, three young Owls, five leverets,
four young rabbits, three thrushes, and
one trout weighing nearly half a pound.

The voice of the Brown Owl is a loud
monotonous hoot, that may be often heard
in the evening in localities where the bird ne
has made its home. ee aon S. Bs ge

The nest is usually placed in the hol- ~~ WANS x eal
low of a tree, and poneins several white TY Ml
eggs. Thecolour of the Brown or Tawny scops (Gr. Zxéy, an Owl), the Scops
Owl is an ashen grey upon the upper Lared-Oul.
parts of the body, variegated with choco-
late and wood-brown. Several whitish grey bars are seen upon the pri-
maries, and there are several rows of whitish spots upon the wings and
scapularies. The facial disc is nearly white, edged with brown, and the
under surface of the body is of the same hue, covered with longitudinal
mottlings of variously tinted brown. The claws are nearly white at their
base, darkening towards their extremities, and the beak is nearly of the
same colour. The eyes are of a very dark black-blue.

This species is found in many parts of Europe, and is said to be one of
the indigenous birds of Japan.

We now come to an example of the British Owls, a bird that has attracted
great notice on account of its singular aspect.

The Scops EARED-OWL has been once or twice found in Yorkshire, but
usually resides in the southern parts of the Continent. It is remarkable for
the regularity with which it utters its monotonous cry, as if a person were
constantly repeating the letter Q at regular intervals of two seconds. It does
not seem to prey upon mice and other animals, like most of its relations, but
feeds on large insects, such as beetles and grasshoppers. The size of this

266 THE BARN OWL.

owl is very small, as it only measures seven inches in length; the third
primary feather is the longest. It lays from two to four white eggs in a
simple nest made in a hollow tree or in a cleft in the rock

THE best known of the British Owls is the WHIIE, BARN, or SCREECH
OWL, by either of which appellations the bird is familiarly known over the
whole of England.

This delicately-coloured and soft-plumed bird is always found near human
habitations, and is generally in the vicinity of farmyards, where it loves to
dwell, not for the sake of devouring the young poultry, but of eating the
various mice which make such havoc in the ricks, helds, and barns, The
“feathered cat,” as this bird has happily been termed, is a terrible foe to
mice, especially to the common field-mouse, great numbers of which are
killed daily by a single pair of Owls when they are bringing up their young
family. In the evening dusk, when the mice begin to stir abroad in search
of a mole, the Owl starts in search of the mice, and ‘with noiseless flight
quarters the ground ina sportsmanlike and systematic manner, watching with

WilLlE, OR BARN OWL,—(Strix flammea.)

its great round eyes every movement of a grass-blade, and catching with its
sensitive ears every sound that issues from behind. Never a field-mouse can
come within ken of the bird’s eye, or make the least rustling among the
leaves within hearing of the Owl’s ear, that is not detected and captured.
The claws are the instruments by which the Owl seizes its victim, and it does
not employ the beak until it desires to devour the prey.

This bird is easily tamed when taken young, and is a very amusing pet.
If properly treated, and fed with appropriate diet, it will live for a consider-
able time without requiring very close attendance. Even if it be set at
liberty, and its wings permitted to reach their full growth, it will voluntarily
remain with its owner, whom it recognizes with evident pleasure, evincing its
dislike of strangers by a sharp hiss and an impatient snap of the bill.

The nest of this species is placed either in a hollow tree or in a crevice of
some old building, where it deposits its white, rough-surfaced eggs upon a
soft layer of dried “castings.” These nests have a most ill-conditioned and
penetrating odour, which taints the hand which is introduced, and cannot be
removed without considerable care and several lavations, The young are

THE GOAT-SUCKER. 267

curious little puffs of white down, and the Barn Owl is so prolific, that it has
been known to be sitting on one brood of eggs while it is feeding the young
of a previous hatching.

As may be supposed from its popular title of White Owl, this species is
very light in its colouring. The general colour of this bird is buff of different
tints, with grey, white, and black variegations. The head and neck are light
buff, speckled slightly with black and white spots, and the back and wings
are of a deeper buff, spotted with grey, black, and white. The tail is also
buff, with several broad bars of grey. The facial disc is nearly white, be-
coming rusty brown towards the eye, and a deeper brown round the edge.

The under surface of the male bird is beautifully white, the claws are
brown, the beak nearly white, and the eyes blue-black. The sexes are very
similar in their colouring, but the females and young males may be distin-
guished by the under surface of the body, which is fawn instead of white.

GOAT-SUCKERS.

WITH the owls closes the history of these birds whick are called predaceous,
although to a considerable extent nearly all birds are somewhat predaceous,
even if they prey upon smaller victims than do the vultures, eagles, falcons,
or owls. Next to the predaceous birds come the Passeres, distinguished by
their cereless and pointed beak, their legs feathered as far as the heel, their
tarsus covered in front with shield-like scales, and their sligthly-curved and
sharply-pointed claws. This oider is a very large one, and embraces a vast
variety of birds.

First among the Passerine birds are placed the Fissirostres, or cleft-beaked
birds, so called from the enormous gape of the mouth, a structure which is
intended to aid them in the capture of the agile prey on which they feed.

The GOAT-SUCKERS, as they are familiarly termed, from a stupid notion
that was formerly in great vogue among farmers, and is not even yet quite
extinct, that these birds were in the habit of sucking the wild goats, cows,
and sheep, are placed first among the Fissirostres on account of the wonder-
fully perfect manner in which their structure is adapted to the chasing and
securing of the swift-winged insects on which they feed. The colour of all
these birds is sombre; black, brown, and grey being the prevailing tints.
The gape of the mouth is so large that when the bird-opens its beak to its

_ fullest extent, it seems to have been severely wounded across the mouth, and
the plumage is lax and soft like that of the owl.

There are many well-known proverbs relating to the power of calumny,
and the readiness with which an evil rcport is received and retained, notwith-
standing that it has been repeatedly proved to be false and libellous. - The
common GOAT-SUCKER is a good instance of the truth of this remark, for it
was called Azgothéles, or Goat-sucker, by Aristotle in the days of old, and
has been religiously supposed to have sucked goats ever afterwards. The
Latin word caprimulgus bears the same signification. It was even supposed
that after the bird had succeeded in sucking some unfortunate goat, the fount
of nature was immediately dried up, and the poor beast also lost its sight.
Starting from this report, all kinds of strange rumours flew about the world,
and the poor Goat-sucker, or NIGHTJAR, as it ought more rightly to be
called, has been invariably hated as a bird of ill omen to man and beast.

As usual, mankind reviles its best benefactors, for there are very few crea-
tures which do such service to mankind as the Nightjar. Arriving in this
country in the month of May or June, it reaches our shores just in time to

268 THE GOAT-SUCKER.

catch the cockchafers, as they fly about during the night in search of their
food, and does not leave us until it has done its best to eat every chafer that
comes across its path.

The Nightjar also feeds on moths of various kinds, and catches them by
sweeping quickly and silently among the branches of the trees near which
the moth tribes most love to congregate. While engaged in their sport, they
will occasionally settle on a bank, a wall, a post, or other convenient perch,
crouch downward until they bring their head almost on a level with their
feet, and utter the peculiar churning note which has earned for them the
name of Churn-Owls, Jar-Owls, and Spinners. Their cry has been rather
well compared to that sound which is produced by the larger beetles of the
night, but of course much louder, and with the addition of the characteristic
“ Chur-r-r !—chur-r-r!” Sometimes, although but seldom, the Nightjar
utters its cry while on the wing.
When it settles, it always seats
itself along a branch, and almost
invariably with its head pointing
towards the trunk of the tree.

Thereis also astrange squeak-
ing sound which is emitted by
the Nightjar while playing round
the trees at night, and which is
supposed to be a cry of play-
fulness or a call to its mate.

Unlike the Falconide, the
Goat-sucker catches its prey, not
with its claws, but with its mouth,
and is aided in retaining them
in that very wide receptacle, by
K the glutinous secretion with
which it is lined, and the “ vi-
brisse” or hair-like feathers
which surround its margin. On
an examination of the foot of
this bird, the claw of the middle
P toe is seen to be serrated like

EUROPEAN GOATSUCKER.—(Cagrimulgus the teeth of a comb, a structure
Europaus.) which has never yet been satis-
: . factorily explained, notwith-
standing the various theories which have been put forward concerning
its use. The hind toe of each foot is very mobile, and can be brought
round to the remaining toes, so that all the claws take their hold in the
same direction. Apparently, this structure is intended to enable the bird
to run along the branches of trees, in its nocturnal chase after beetles and
other insects.

The Nightjar makes no nest, but choosing some sheltered hollow under
the shade of a grass tuft, a bunch of fern, bramble, or other defence, there
lays two eggs on the bare ground. The colour of the egg is greyish white,
plentifully mottled with pale buff and grey. The young are very similar to
those of the cuckoo, The plumage of the nightjar is very rich in its colour-
ing, the tints of buff, grey, black, white, brown, and chestnut being arranged
in pleasing but most intricate patterns, and easier to be understood from a
pencil illustration than a description of the pen.

THE SWIFT. 269

SWALLOWS.

THE close-set plumage of the SwaLtow tribe, their long sickle-like wings,
their stiff, firm tail, forked in most of the species, and their slight legs and
toes, are characteristics which mark them out as birds which spend the
greater part of their existence in the air, and exercise their wings far more
than their feet.

They all feed upon insects, and capture their prey in the air, ascending at
one time to such a height that they are hardly perceptible to the naked eye,
and look merely like tiny dots moving upon the sky ; while at other seasons
they skim the earth and play for hours together over the surface of the water,
in chase of the gnats that emerge in myriads from the streams. The gape
of the mouth is therefore exceedingly great in these birds, reaching as far as
a point below the eyes. The bill itself is very short, flattened, pointed,
slightly curved downwards, and broad at the base.

SwIFT.—(Cypselus apus.)

The group which is scientifically termed the Hirundinidz is a very large
one, and is divided into two lesser groups, the members of one being classed
together under the title of Swifts, while the others are known by the name of
Swallows. With the former birds we have first to deal.

The SWIFTS are readily distinguished from the Swallows by the very great
comparative length of the two first primary feathers of the wing, which are
either equal to each other, or have the second feather longer than the first.
The secondaries are remarkably small, being nearly concealed under the
coverts. There are ten primaries in the wing, and the same number of quill
feathers in the tail. ;

The true SWIFTS, of which England affords two examples, one very fami-
liarly known, and the other a very rare and almost unnoticed species, are
remarkable for the feathered tarsus, the long wings, and the peculiar form of
the feet. In this member, all the toes are directed forward, a structure which
is admirably adapted to the purpose which it fulfils. The Swifts build their
nests, or rather lay their eggs, for the nest is hardly worthy of the name, in
holes under the eaves of houses, or in similar localities, and would find them-

270 THE SWIFT.

selves greatly inconvenienced when seeking admission into their domiciles,
but for the shape of the feet, which enables them to cling to the slightest
projection, and to clamber up a perpendicular surface with perfect ease and
safety.

DEvorD of all pretensions to the brilliantly-tinted plumage which decorates
so many of its relations, and clad only in sober black and grey, the common
SwIFT is, nevertheless, one of the most pleasing and interesting of the
British birds ; resting its claims to favourable notice upon its graceful form
and its unrivalled powers of wing. ;

There are very few birds which are so essentially inhabitants of the air as our
common Swift, which cuts the atmosphere with its sabre-like wings with such
marvellous ease and rapidity that at times its form is hardly discernible as it
shoots along, and it leaves the impression of a dark black streak upon the
eyes of the observer. The plumage of this bird is constructed especially
with a view to securing great speed, as may be seen by an inspection of the
closely-set and firmly-webbed feathers with which the entire body and limbs
are clad. The muscles which move the wings are enormously developed,
and in consequencé the breast-bone is furnished with a remarkably strong
and deer “ keel.”

The fight of the Swift is quite peculiar to the bird, and cannot be mistaken
even fo: that of the swallow by any one who has a practical acquaintance with
the habits of the two species. The Swift does not flap its wings so often as
the swallow, and has a curious mode of shooting through the air as if hurled
from some invisible bow, and guiding itself in its headlong course by means
of its wings and tail.

This indefatigable bird is an early riser, and very late in returning to rest,
later indeed than any of the diurnal birds. Though engaged in flight during
the live-long day, the Swift appears to be proof against fatigue, and will,
during the long summer days, remain upon the wing until after nine in the
evening. As the days become shorter, the Swift is found to retire earlier,
but during its st.y in this country it is almost invariably later than other
birds, sometimes being on the wing together with the owl. Indeed, the air
seems to the Swift even a more familiar element than the earth, and the bird
is able to pass the whole of its life, and to perform all the bodily functions
except those of sleep, while upborne on the untiring pinions with which it is
furnished. The Swift that has a nest to take care of is forced to descend at
intervals for the purpose of supplying its family with food, but except when
urged by such considerations, it is able to remain in the air for many succes-
sive hours without needing to rest.

The Swifts may generally be found near buildings, rocks, and cliffs, for in
such localities they build their nest, and from their home they seldon
wander to any great distance, as long as they remain in the country.

In general, the Swift loves to build its nest in a hole under a roof,
whether slated, tiled, or thatched, preferring, however, the warm, thick straw-
thatch to the tile or slate. Sometimes it makes a hole in the thatch, through
which it gaitis access to the nest, but in most instances it makes use of some
already existing crevice for that purpose. In all cases the nest is placed
above the entrance, and generally may be found about eighteen inches or two
feet from the orifice. Even by the touch, the eggs of the Swift may be dis-
cerned from those of any other bird, as their length is singularly dispropor-
tionate to their width.

The sound which these birds utter is of the most piercing description, and
can be heard at a very great distance, thus betraying them when they are
hawking after the high-flying insects at such an altitude that their forms are
hardly perceptible to the unassisted eye.

THE ESCULENT SWALLOW. a7t

The nest is. a very firmly made but yet rude and inartificial structure.
The materials of which it is made are generally straw, hay, and feathers,
pieces of rag, or any soft and warm substance which the bird may find in its
rambles, and, when woven into a kind of nest, are firmly cemented together
with a kind of glutinous substance secreted by certain glands. In Norway
and Sweden the Swift builds in hollow trees. The eggs are from two to five
in number, not often, however, exceeding three, and in colour they are pure
white. In this country the Swift pays but a very short visit, as the bird
evidently requires a very high temperature, and is forced to depart as soon as
the weather becomes chilly. Generally the Swifts leave England by the end of
August, but there
are often instances
wkere a_ solitary
bird has delayed its
voyages for some
good reason.

AMONG the many
“travellers’ tales”
which called forth
such repudiation
and ridicule from
the sceptical readers
of the earlier voy-
agers, the accounts
of the Chinese cui-
sine were held to be
amongst the most
extravagant.

That civilized be-
ings should conde-
scend to eat dogs
and rats specially
fattened for the
table was an idea
from which their
own better sense revolted, that the same nation should reckon sharks’ fins
and sea-slugs among their delicacies was clearly an invention of the writer ;
but that the Chinese should make soup out of birds’ nests was an absurdity
so self-evident that it destroyed all possibility of faith in the writers’ pre-
vious assertions.

The birds that make these remarkable nests belong to several species, four
of which have been acknowledged. There are the ESCULENT SWALLow,
the Linchi (Collocahia fuciphaga), the White-backed Swallow (Collocalia
troglodytes), and the Grey-backed Swallow (Collocalia Francica).

These nests could hardily be recognised as specimens of bird architecture
by any one who had not previously seen them, as they look much more like a
set of sponges, corals, or fungi, than nests of birds. They are most irregular
in shape, are adherent to each other, and are so rudely made that the hollow
in which the eggs and young are intended to live is barely perceptible. They
are always placed against the face of a perpendicular rock, generally upon
the side of one of the tremendous caverns in Java and other places where
these strange birds love to dwell. The men who procure the nests are
lowered by ropes from above, and their occupation is always considered as

erilous in the extreme.

The nests are of very different value, those which have been used in rear-

ESCULENT SWALLOW, —( Ceseveutin nidiped.}

272 THE SWALLOW,

ing a brood of young being comparatively low in price, while those which
are quite new and nearly white are held in such esteem that they are worth
their weight in silver. ;

In the British Museum may be seen a very fine specimen of the nest of
the Esculent Swallow, comprehending a mass of the nests still adhering to
the rock. It is rather remarkable that the birds have a habit of building
these curious nests in horizontal layers.

The Esculent Swallow is a small bird, and its colour is brown on the
upper parts of the body, and white beneath. The extremity of the tail is
‘greyish white. The British Museum possesses specimens of all the Swal-
lows which are known to make these curious edible nests.

THE elegantly-shaped and beautifully-coloured SWALLOW may be readily
distinguished from any of its British relations by the very great elongation
of the feathers which edge its tale, and which form nearly two-thirds of the
bird’s entire length,

SWALLOW.—(Hirundo rustica.)

It is the most familiar of all the Hirundinide of England, and from its
great familiarity with man, and the trustfulness with which it fixes its domi-
cile under the shelter of human habitations, is generally held as an almost
sacred bird, in common with the robin and the wren.

The Swallow wages a never-ceasing war against many species of insects.
au seems to be as capricious in its feeding as are the roach and other river

sh.

The nest of the Swallow is always placed in some locality where it is
effectually sheltered from wind and rain. Generally it is constructed under
the eaves of houses, but as it is frequently built within disused chimneys, it
has given to the species the popular title of Chimney Swallow. The bird is
probably attracted to the chimney by the warmth of some neighbour fire.

_The nest is composed externally of mud or clay, which is brought by the
bird in small lumps and stuck in irregular rows so as to build up the sides of
its little edifice. There is an attempt at smoothing the surface of the nest
but each Jump of clay is easily distinguishable upon the spot where it has
been stuck, While engaged at the commencement of its labours. the
Swallow clings perpendicularly to the wall of the house or chimney, clinging

3 THE FAIRY MARTIN. 273

with its sharp little claws to any small projection, and sticking itself by the
pressure of its tail against the wall. The interior of the nest is lined with
grass and other soft substances.

There are sometimes two broods in the year, and when the second brood
has been hatched at a very late period of the year, the young are frequently
deserted and left to starve by their parents, who are unabie to resist the
innate impulse that urges them to seek a warmer climate. When fully
fledged, and before they are forced to migrate, the young birds generally
roost for the night in osiers and other water-loving trees.

Except in confinement, the Swallow knows not the existence of frost, nor
the extreme of heat, passing from Europe to Africa as soon as the cold
weather begins to draw in, and migrating again to the cooler climes as soon
as the temperature of its second home becomes inconvenient to its sensitive

FAIRY MARTIN.—(Aivundo Ariel.)

existence. The time of its arrival in England is various, and depends
almost entirely on the state of the weather. Solitary individuals are now and
then seen in very early months, but, as a general fact, the Swallow does not
arrive until the second week in April ; the time of its departure is generally
about the middle of September, although some few lingerers remain in the
country for more than a month after the departure of their fellows.

Guided by some wondrous instinct, the Swallow always finds its way back
to the nest which it had made, or in which it had been reared, as has
frequently been proved by affixing certain marks to individual birds, and
watching for their return. Sometimes it happens that the house on which
they had built has been taken down during their absence, and in that case
the distress of the poor birds is quite pitiable. They fly to and fro over the

T

274 THE SAND MARTIN.

spot in vain search after their lost homes, and fill the air with the mournful
cries that tell of their sorrows.

The Swallow is widely spread over various parts of the world, being fami-
liarly known throughout the whole of Europe, not excepting Norway,
Sweden, and the northern portions of the Continent. It is also seen in
Western Alrica, and Mr. Yarrell mentions an instance where it was observed
in the Island of St. Thomas, which is situated upon the equator. The
martin and the swift were seen at the same place.

The colour of the Swallow is very beautiful. Upon the forehead the
feathers are of a light chestnut, which gives place to deep glossy steel-
blue upon the upper portions of the body and wings. The primaries and
secondaries are black, as are the tail feathers, with the exception of a few
white patches. ‘he throat is chestnut, and a very dark-blue band crosses
the upper part of the chest. The under parts are white, and the beak, legs,
and toes black. The female is distinguished by the smaller chestnut on the

SS

=

ow

=

SAND MARTIN.—(Cotile riparia.)

forehead, the smaller tint of the feathers, and the narrowness of the dark
band across the chest. ;

MaNy examples of white Swallows are on record, and specimens may be
seen in almost every collection of British birds.

Among the most ingenious of bird architects, the FAIRY MARTIN holds a
very high place in virtue of the singular nest which it constructs.

The nest of the Fairy Martin has a very close resemblance to a common
oil-flask, and reminds the observer of the flask-shaped nests which are con-
structed by the Pensile Oriole and similar birds, although made of harder
materials. The Fairy Martin builds its curious house of mud and clay,
which it kneads thoroughly in its beak before bringing it to the spot where
it will be required. Six or seven birds work amicably at each nest, one
remaining in the interior enacting the part of chief architect, while others act
as hodsmen, and bring material as fast as it is required. Except upon wet
days, this bird only works in the evening and early morning, as the heat of

THE HOUSE MARTIN. 275

midday seems to dry the mud so rapidly that it cannot be rightly kneaded
together. ‘The mouths, or “spouts,” of these nests vary from eight to ten
inches in length, and point indifferently in all directions. The diameter of
the widest portion of the nest is very variable, and ranges between four and
seven inches. ;

The exterior of the nests is as rough as that of the common swallow of
England, but the interior is comparatively smooth, and is lined with feathers
and fine grass. The eggs are generally four or five in number, and the bird
rears two broods in the course of the year.

THE pretty little SAND MARTIN is, in spite of its sober plumage and
diminutive form, a very interesting bird, and one which adds much to the
liveliness of any spot where it may take up its abode.

In size it is less than any other British Hirundinide, being less than five
inches in total length. The colour of this bird is very simple, the general
tint of the entire upper surface of the head and body being a soft brown,

NI

AW
Ne
: i ni (ie

HOUSE MARTIN.—(Chelidon urbica.)

relieved from too great uniformity by the sooty black quill feathers of the
wings and tail. The under surface is pure white, with the exception of a.
band of brown across the upper part of the chest. The young bird possesses
a lighter plumage than the adult, owing to the yellowish white tips of the
back, tertiaries, and upper coverts. The beak is dark brown, and the eyes
hazel.

Although its little beak and slender claws would seem at first sight to be
utterly inadequate for the performance of miner’s work, the Sand Martin is
in its way as good a tunnel driver as the mole or the rat, and can manage to
dig a burrow of considerable depth. The soil which it most loves is light
sandstone, because the labour which is expended in the tunnelling is very
little more than that which would be required for softer soils, and the sides
of its burrow are sufficiently firm to escape the likelihood of breaking down.

The depth of the burrow is extremely variable, some tunnels being only
eighteen inches or two feet deep, while others run to a depth of nearly five
feet. During some five years’ experience and constant watching of these

T2

276 THE HOUSE MARTIN.

birds in Derbyshire, I generally found that the hand could reach to the end
of the burrows, and remove the eggs, provideu that the birds had not been
forced to change the direction of the tunnel by the intervention of a stone
or a piece of rock too hard for their bills to penetrate.

As is generally the case with burrowing birds, the Sand Martin takes very
little trouble about the construction of its nest, but contents itself with laying
down a small handful of various soft substances, such as moss, hay, and
feathers. The eggs are very small and fragile, and are not easily removed
from the burrow without being fractured. Their colour is, when freshly laid,
a delicate semi-transparent pink, which darkens to a dull opaque grey when
incubation has proceeded to some extent, and changes to a beautiful white
when the contents are removed from the shell. Their number is from four
to six.

The food of this bird is composed of insects, and, in spite of the small
dimensions of the little creature, it will pursue, capture, and eat insects of
considerable dimensions and strength of wing, such as wasps and dragon-
flies. Gnats and similar insects, however, form the staple of its diet.

This bird generally makes its appearance in England about the beginning
of April, and has even been noticed before the end of March, so that its
arrival is earlier than that of the swallow or martin. It departs about the
heginning of September, and, like other British Hirundinidz, makes its way
to Africa, where it remains until the succeeding year.

RESEMBLING the common swallow in habits and general appearance, the
House MaRTIN may easily be distinguished from that bird by the large
white patch upon the upper tail-coveits, a peculiarity which is even more
notable when the bird is engaged in flight than when it is seated on the
ground or clinging to its nest. In the dusk of evening the Martins may
often be seen flying about at so late an hour that their bodies are almost in-
visible in the dim and fading twilight, and their presence is only indicated by
the white patches upon their backs, which reflect every fading ray, and tear
a singular resemblance to white moths or butterflies darting through the air.

This beautiful little bird is found in all parts of England, and is equaliy
familiar with the swallow and sand martin. It places its clay-built nest
principally under the shelter afforded by human habitations, and becomes so
trustful and fearless that it will often fix its nest close to a window, and will
rear its young without being dismayed at the near presence of human beings.

The nest of this species is extremely variable in shape and size, no two
being precisely similar in both respects. Generally the edifice is cup-shaped,
with the rim closely pressed against the eaves of some friendy house, and
having a small semicircular aperture cut out of the edge in order to permit
the ingress and egress of the birds. Sometimes, however, the nest is sup-
ported on a kind of solid pedestal, composed of mud, and often containing
nearly as much material as would have made an ordinary nest. These
pedestals are generally constructed in spots where the Martin finds that her
nest does not find adequate support from the wall.

There are generally several broods in the course of the year, two being the
usual number, three or even four being sometimes noticed. In such cases,
however, the young birds seldom reach maturity, for they are hatched at
such a late period of the year that the parents are unable to withstand the
instinct which leads them to migrate, and in obeying the promptings of this
principle, leave their unfortunate family to perish miserably of hunger. The
parents do not seem to grieve over their dead children, and when they return
to the nest in the succeeding season, they unconcernedly pull the dry and

shrivelled bodies out of the nest, and rearrange it in readiness for the next
brood,

THE GARRULOUS ROLLER. 277

The general colouring of this bird is composed of rich blue-black and
white, arranged in bold masses, so as to present a fine contrast of two very
opposite tints. The head and upper portions of the body are of a very deep
glossy blue, with the exception of the quill-feathers of the wings and tail,
which are sooty black, and the upper tail-coverts, which are snowy white.
The chin, breast, and abdomen are of the same pure white as the upper tail-
coverts, except in the young birds, which are greyish white beneath. The
female bird is rather grey on the under portions of the body. A number of
tiny white feathers are spread over the legs and toes, and the beak is black
und the eyes brown. The total length of the Martin is rather more than five
imches,

ROLLERS.

THE ROLLERS evidently form one of the connecting links between the
swallows and the bee-eaters, as may be seen by the shape of their feet, which
have the two hinder toes partially joined together, while those of the bee-
eaters are wholly connected, or, as it were, soldered together. The Rollers,
as is evident from their long pointed wings, stiff tail, and comparatively
feeble legs and feet, are to a great extent feeders on the wing, although they
do not depend wholly on their powers of flight for subsistence, but take
many insects, worms, and grubs, from the ground.

GARRULOUS ROLLER.—(Coracias garrula.)

Although tolerably common on several parts of the Continent, GARRU-
LOUS ROLLER is at the present time a very rare visitant to this country,
There seems, however, to be reason to believe that in former days, when
England was Jess cultivated and more covered with pathless woods, the
Roller was frequently seen in the ancient forests, and that it probably built
jts nest in the hollows of trees, as it does in the German forests at the
present day.

278 THE GREEN TODY.

Africa is the Jegitimate home of the Roller, which passes from that land in
the early spring, and makes its way to Europe, vwé Malta and the Mediter-
ranean islands, which afford it resting-places during its long journey.

Accordingly, in those islands the Rollers are found in great plenty, and as
they are considered a great delicacy when fat ind in good condition, they
are killed in considerable numbers, and exposed for sale like pigeons, whose
flesh they are said greatly to resemble. Even in its flight it possesses some-
thing of the pigeon character,
having often been observed
while flying at a considerable
elevation to “tumble” after
the manner of the well-known
tumbler pigeons. It is rather
curious that throughout Asia
Minor the Rollers and mag-
pies were always found in
close proximity to each other.

The food of the Roller is al-
most wholly ofan insect nature,
but is diversified with a few
berries and other vegetable
productions. It has even been
known to become carnivorous
in its habits, for, according to
Temminck, it sometimes feeds
on the smaller mammalia.

Worms, slugs, millipedes,
. and similar creatures also fall
= victims to its voracity.

In the colouring of its
plumage it is truly a gorgeous
bird. The general tint of the

: head, neck, breast, and abdo-
GREEN TODY.—(TZodus viridis.) men is that peculiar green
blue termed “ verditer” by
artists, changing into pale green in certain lights, and deepening into rich
azure upon the shoulders. The back is a warm chestnut-brown, changing to
purple upon the upper tail-coverts. The tail is of the same verditer hue as
the head and neck, with the exception of the exterior feathers, which are
furnished with black tips. The quill feathers of the wings are of a dark
blue-black, becoming lighter at their edges, and the legs are covered with
chestnut-brown feathers like those of the back. These gorgeous hues are
not attained until the bird has passed through the moult of its second year.
Both male and female are nearly equally decorated, the latter being slightly
less brilliant than her mate. It is not a very large bird, scarcely exceeding a
foot in total length. '

THE curious little birds which are termed TODIEs bear a considerable
resemblance to the kingfishers, from which they may be easily distinguished
by the flattened bill. :

The Todies are natives of tropical America, and are very conspicuous
among the brilliant-plumaged and strangely-shaped birds of that part of the
world,

The GREEN TODY is a very small bird, being hardly larger than the
common wren of England, but yet very conspicuous on account of the brilliant
hues with which its plumage is decorated. The whole of the upper surface

THE RESPLENDENT TROGON. 279

is a light green, the flanks are rose-coloured, deepening into scarlet upon the
throat and fading into a pale yellow upon the abdomen and under the tail-
coverts,

TROGONS.

FOR our systematic knowledge of the magnificent tribe of the TROGONS
we are now almost wholly indebted to Mr. Gould, who by the most persever-
ing labour and the most careful investigations has reduced to order this most
perplexing group of birds, and brought into one volume a mass of informa-
tion that is rarely found in similar compass. There are few groups of birds
which are more attractive to
the eye than the Trogons,
with all their glowing hues
of carmine, orange, green,
and gold; and few there

_ are which presented greater
difficulties to the ornitho-
logist until their various cha-
racteristics were thoroughly
sifted and compared together.
The two sexes are so different
from each other, both in
the colour and shape of the
feathers, that they would
hardly be recognizable as be-
longing to a single species,
and even the young bird is
very differently coloured from
his older relatives.

These beautiful birds are
found in the Old and the
New Worlds, those which
inhabit the latter locality
being easily distinguishable
by their deeply-barred tails.
Those of the Old World are RESPLENDENT TROGON.—(Calurus resplendens.)
generally found in Ceylon,

Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, while only a single species, the Narina Trogon,
is as yet known to inhabit Africa.

The Trogons are mostly silent birds, the only cry used being that of the
male during the season of pairing. It is not a very agreeable sound, being
of a sombre and-melancholy cast, and thought to resemble the word “ courou-
courou.”

Several of the Trogons are distinguished from their relatives by the

- length and downy looseness of many of the feathers, more especially the
lance-shaped feathers of the shoulders and the elongated upper tail-coverts.
On account of this structure of the plumage, they are gathered into a
separate genus under the appropriate title of Calurus, or Beautiful-tailed
Trogons.

The RESPLENDENT TROGON is a native of Central America, and was in
former days one of the most honoured by the ancient Mexican monarchs,
who assumed the sole right of wearing the long plumes, and permitted none
but the members of the royal family to decorate themselves with the flowing
feathers of this beautiful bird,

280 THE LAUGHING JACKASS.

This species is fond of inhabiting the densest forests of Southern Mexico,
and generally haunts the topmost branches of the loftiest trees, where it
clings to the boughs like a parrot, and traverses their ramifications with
much address.

The colour of the adult male bird is generally of a rich golden green on
the upper parts of the body, including the graceful rounded crest, the head,
neck, throat, chest, and long lancet-shaped plumes of the shoulders. The
breast and under-parts are brilliant scarlet, the central feathers of the tail
are black, and the exterior white, with black bars. The wonderful plumes
which hang over the tail are generally about three feet in length, and in
particularly fine specimens have been known to exceed that measurement by
four inches, so that the entire length of the bird may be reckoned at four feet.
The bill is light yellow.

As is often the case with birds, where the male is remarkable for the beauty
of his plumage, the female is altogether an ordinary and comparatively insig-
nificant bird.

KINGFISHERS,

THE KINGFISHERS form a tolerably well-marked group of birds all of
which are remarkable for their long bills and the comparative shortness of
their bodies, which give them a peculiar bearing that is not to be mistaken.

The bills of these birds are all long and sharp, and in most cases are
straight. Their front toes are always joined together more or less, and the
number of the toes is very variable in form: and arrangement ; some species
possessing them in pairs, like-those of the parrots; others having them
arranged three in front and one behind, as is usually the case with birds ;
while a few species have only three toes altogether, two in front and one
behind. The wings are rounded. As may be gathered from their popular
name, they mostly feed upon fish, which they capture by pouncing upon the
finny prey.

Our first example of the Kingfisher is the LAUGHING JACKASS, or GIANT
KINGFISHER, its former title being derived from the strange character of its
cry.

This bird is an inhabitant of Australia, being found chiefly in the south-
eastern district of that country, and in New South Wales. In Van Diemen’s
Land Mr. Gould believes that it does not exist. In no place is it found in
any great numbers ; for although it is sufficiently common, it is but thinly
dispersed over the country. It is rather a large bird, being eighteen inches
in total length, and is powerful in proportion, being able to wage successful
war against creatures of considerable size.

Although one of the true Kingfishers, it so far departs from the habits of
the family as to be comparatively careless about catching fish, and often
resides in the vast arid plains where it can find no stream sufficiently large to
harbour fish in their waters. Crabs of various kinds are a favourite food
with this bird, which also eats insects, small mammalia, and reptiles. Mr.
Gould mentions an instance where he shot one of these birds for the sake of
possessing a rare and valuable species of rat which it was carrying off in its
bill. It is also known to eat snakes, catching them with great dexterity by
the tail, and crushing their heads with its powerful beak. Sometimes it is
known to pounce upon fish, but it usually adheres to the above-mentioned diet.

The cry of this bird is a singular, dissonant, abrupt laugh, even more
startling than that of the hyena, and raising strange panics in the heart
of the novice who first hears it while bivouacking in the “bush.” Being
of a mightily inquisitive nature, the Laughing Jackass seems to find great

THE KINGFISHER. Page 282.
The Popular Natural History

THE LAUGHING JACKASS, 281

attraction in the glare of a fire, and in the evening is apt to glide silently
through the branches towards the blaze, and, perching upon a neighbouring
bough, to pour forth its loud yelling cry. The “old hands” are in no wise
disconcerted at the sudden disturbance, but shoot the intruder on the spot,

y— S
MS...

LAUGHING JAcKASS.—(Dacelo gigas.)

and in a very few minutes convert him into a savoury broil over the fire
which he had come to inspect.

At the rising and the setting of the sun the Laughing Jackass becomes
very lively, and is the first to welcome the approach of dawn, and to chant
its strange exulting pecans at the return of darkness, From this peculiarity

282 THE COMMON KINGFISHER.

it has been called the Settler’s clock. In allusion to the cry of this bird,
which has been compared by Sturt to the yelling chorus of unquiet demons,
the natives call it by the name Gogobera.

The home of the Laughing Jackass is usually made in the hole of a gum-
tree (Eucalyptus), where it makes no sort of nest, but simply lays its eggs
upon the soft decaying wood. The eggs are pearly white, and the bird keeps
a vigilant watch over the burrow which holds its treasures, fiercely combat-
ing any creature that may approach the entrance, and aiming the most
desperate blows with its long pointed and powerful beak.

It is a really handsome bird, and, although not possessing such an array
of brilliant plumage as fall: to the lot of many Kingfishers, is yet very richly
coloured. The bird is decorated with a dark brown crest, and the general
tint of the back and upper surface is olive brown. The wings are brown-
black, a few of the feathers being slightly tipped with verditer and the breast
and under portions are white, washed with pale brown, which forms a series
of faint bars across the breast. The tail is rather long, and rounded at the
extremity, and is of a rich chestnut colour,
banded with -deep black and tipped with
white.

THE common KINGFISHER is by far the
most gorgeously decorated of all our in-
digenous birds, and can bear comparison
< with many of the gaily decorated inhabit-
@ ants of tropical climates.

- _ Itis asufficiently common bird, although

\ distributed very thinly over the whole
Gi country ; and considering the great number

KW of eggs which it lays, and the large pro-
= portion of young which it rears, 1s probably
more plentiful than is generally supposed
to be the case. The straight, glancing
flight of the Kingfisher, as it shoots along
the river-bank, its azure back gleaming in
the sunlight with meteoric splendour, is a
sight familiar to all those who have been
accustomed to wander by the sides of
rivers, whether for the purpose of angling
or merely to study the beauties of nature. So swift is the flight of this
bird, and with such wonderful rapidity does it move its short wings, that its
shape is hardly perceptible as it passes through the air, and it leaves upon
the eye of the observer the impression of a blue streak of light.

The food of this bird consists chiefly, though not exclusively, of fish, which
it takes, kills, and eats in the following manner :—

Seated upon a convenient bough or rail that overhangs a stream where the
smaller fish love to pass, the Kingfisher waits very patiently until he sees an
unsuspecting minnow or stickleback pass below his perch, and then, with a
rapid movement, drops into the water like a stone and secures his prey.
Should it be a small fish, he swallows it at once; but if it should be’ of
rather large dimensions, he carries it to a stone or stump, beats it two or three
times against the hard substance, and then swallows it without any trouble.

With the fish it generally feeds its young, being able to disgorge at will-the
semi-digested food which it has swallowed, after the manner of most birds of
prey. Fish, however, do not constitute its sole nourishment, as it is known
to eat various insects, such as dragon-flies and water-beetles, and will often
in cold weather pay a visit to the sea-shore for the purpose of feeding upon

KINGFISHER.—(Alcedo [psida.)

THE COMMON KINGFISHER. 283

ie crabs, shrimps, and sandhoppers that are found upon the edge of
the tide.

The nest of the Kingfisher is always made in some convenient bank, at
the extremity of a hole which has previously been occupied and deserted by
the water-rat or other mining quadrupeds, and been enlarged and
adapted for use by. the Kingfisher. Now and then the nest of this bird has
been found built in the deserted hole of a rabbit warren. It is always found
that the tunnel slopes gently upward, and that the bird has shaped the
extremity into a globular form in order to contain the parent bird, the nest,
and eggs. Sometimes the nest is placed in the natural crevices formed by
the roots of trees growing on the water’s edge. In many cases it is easily
detected, for the birds are very careless about the concealment of their nest
even before the eggs are hatched; and after the young have made their
appearance in the world, they are so clamorous for food and so insatiable in
their appetite, that their noisy voices can be heard for some distance, and
indicate with great precision the direction of their home.

Some writers say that the interior of the burrow is kept so scrupulously
clean that it is free from all evil scents. My own experience, however,
contradicts this assertion, for after introducing the hand into a Kingfisher’s
nest, I have always found it imbued with so offensive an odour that I was
fain to wash it repeatedly in the nearest stream. As the Kingfisher is so
piscatorial in its habits it would naturally be imagined that the nest would
be placed in close connection with the stream from which the parent birds
obtained their daily food. Ihave, however, several times seen a Kingfisher’s
nest, and obtained the eggs, in spots that were not within half a mile of a
fish-inhabited stream. The bird is greatly attached to the burrow in which
it has once made its nest, and will make use of the same spot year after year,
even though the nest be plundered and the eggs stolen.

The eggs are from six to eight in number, rather globular in form, and of
an exquisitely delicate pink in colour while fresh, changing to a pearly
white when the contents are removed. As soon as the young are able to
exert themselves, they perch on a neighbouring twig or other convenient
resting-place, and squall incessantly for food. In a very short time they
assume their yearling plumage, which is very nearly the same as that of the
adult bird, and soon learn to fish on their own account.

The nest of the Kingfisher has long been known to consist of the bones,
scales, and other indigestible portions of the food, which are ejected from the
mouth by “castings,” like those of the hawk or owl; but until Mr. Gould
recently procured a perfect Kingfisher’s nest, its shape and the manner of
construction were entirely unknown. His account of its discovery, and the
ingenious manner in which it was procured, is so interesting that it must be
given in his own words.

“ Ornithologists are divided in opinion as to whether the fish-bones found
in the cavity in which the Kingfisher deposits its eggs are to be considered
in the light of a nest, or as merely the castings from the bird during the period
of incubation. Some are disposed to consider these bones as entirely the
castings and feeces of the young brood of the year before they quit the nest,
and that the same hole being frequented for a succession of years, a great
mass is at length formed; while others believe that they are deposited by
the parents as a platform for the eggs, constituting, in fact, a nest; in which
latter view I fully concur, and the following are my reason for so doing :—

“On the 18th of the past month of April, during one of my fishing excur-
sions on the Thames, I saw a hole in a precipitous bank, which I felt sure
was a nesting-place of the Kingfisher, and on passing a Spare top of my fly-
rod to the extremity of the hole, a distance of nearly three feet, I] brought

284 THE BEE-EATER.

out some freshly-cast bones of fish, convincing me that I was right in my
surmise. On a subsequent day, the 9th of May, I again visited the spot
with a spade, and after moving nearly two feet square of the turf, dug down
to the nest without disturbing the entrance hule or the passage which led 10
it. Here I found four eggs placed on the usual layers of fish-bones ; all of
these I removed with care, and then filled up the hole, beating the earth
down as hard as the bank itself, and replacing the sod on the top in order
that barge-horses passing to and fro might not put a foot in the hole, A
fortnight afterwards the bird was seen to leave the hole again, and my sus-
picion was awakened that she had taken to her old breeding-quarters a
second time.

“The first opportunity I had of again visiting this place, which was exactly
twenty-one days from the date of my former exploration and taking the eggs,
I again passed the top of my fly-rod up the hole, and found not only that the
hole was of the former length, but that the female was within. I then toak
a large mass of cotton-wool from my collecting-box, and stuffed it to the
extremity of the hole, in order to preserve the eggs and nest from damage
during my again laying it open from above. On removing the sod and
digging down as before, I came upon the cotton-wool, and beneath it a well-
formed nest of fish-bones, the size of a small saucer, the walls of which were
fully half an inch thick, together with eight beautiful eggs and the old female
herself. This nest and eggs I removed with the greatest care. and I now
have the pleasure of exhibiting it to the Society, before its transmission to
the British Museum, the proper resting-place of so interesting a bird’s nest.
This mass of bones then, weighing 700 grains, had heen cast up and
deposited by the bird, or the bird and its mate, besides the unusual number
of eight eggs, in the short space of twenty-one days.

“To gain anything like an approximate idea of the number of fish that
had been taken to form this mass, the skeleton of a minnow, their usual
food, must be carefully made and weighed, and this I may probably do upon
some future occasion. I think we may now conclude, from what I have
adduced, that the bird purposely deposits these bones as a nest; and
nothing can be better adapted, as a platform, to defend the eggs from the
damp earth.”

The voice of the Kingfisher is a peculiarly shrill and piping cry, that can
be heard at some distance, and is not easily mistaken for any other sound.

The colour of this bird is very gorgeous, and rather complicated in its
arrangement. The top of the head and back of the neck are dark green,
flecked with many spots of verditer blue upon the tips of the feathers. The
upper part of the back is also dark green, and the lower part is light violet
or blue, gleaming vividly under a strong light, and being very conspicuous
as the bird is on the wing. The tail is deep indigo, and the quill feathers of
the wing are dark blackish green, lightened by a brighter hue of green on
the outer webs, and set off by the verditer blue spots of the tertiaries. A
white patch or streak passes from the eye to the back of the neck, and a
dark green streak is drawn immediately under the white patch. The throat
and chin are yellowish white, and the whole of the under surface is chestnut.
The eyes are crimson, and the bill is black, with the exception of the orange-
tinted base of the lower mandible. The total length of the bird is about
seven inches.

BEE-EATERS.

THE BEE-EATERS may at once te distinguished by the shape of the bill,
which is curved, and by the formation of the wings, which are long and

THE COMMON BEE.EATER. 285

pointed, and give to their owners a wonderful command of the air, while
engaged in chasing their winged prey.

~ The common BEE-EATER of Europe is very frequently found in many
parts of the Continent, and has been several times taken in England.
It is, however, a scarce bird in Great Britain, and is of sufficient rarity
to excite some curiosity whenever it is found within the confines of
our shores.

The food of the Bee-eater consists wholly of insects, hive-bees and others
of the hymenopterous order being the favourite article of diet. In chasing
these insects, which are for the most part very active of flight, the Bee-eater
displays very great command of wing, and while urging its pursuit, can twist
and turn in the air with as much ease and skill as is exhibited by the swallow
or the roller.

To the apiarian, who resides in the same country with the Bee-eater, the
bird is a terrible foe, as it has an insatiable appetite for the honey-making
insects, and haunts every spot where it is likely to meet them. The hives
are constantly visited by the Bee-eaters, who are ingenious enough to resort
to the turpentine pines for the sake of catching the bees that come to carry
away the exudations for the purpose of converting them into “ propolis,” or
that substance with which they har-
den the edges of their cells, caulk the
crevices of the hives, and perform
many other useful tasks. It does not,
however, confine itself to the hymen-
opterous insects, but is fond of bee-
tles, cicadze, grasshoppers, and similar
creatures.

The nest of the Bee-eater is not
unlike that of the kingfisher, being
placed at the extremity of a burrow
made in some convenient bank. The
burrow is excavated by the bird itself,
and it often happens that the Bee-
eaters are as gregarious in their nest-
ing as in their flight, honeycombing
the clay banks in a manner very simi- BEE-EATER. —(Merops apiaster).
lar to that of the sand martin. The
burrows do not run to any great depth, seldom exceeding six or eight inches
in length. The nest is composed of moss, and contains about five or six
beautifully white and pearly eggs.

The colours of the adult male bird are extremely varied and very beautiful,
The top of the head is rich chestnut brown, extending to the neck, back, and
wing-coverts. Over the rump the chestnut changes to light reddish yellow.
The primaries and secondaries of the wing are bright blue-green, tipped with
black, and their shafts painted with the same colour, and the tertiaries are
green throughout their entire length. The upper tail-coverts are of the
same hue as the wings, and the tail is likewise green, tinted with a darker
hue, graphically called by Mr. Yarrell “duck-green.” The chin and throat
are a reddish yellow, and round the throat runs a band of deep blue-black.
The under part of the body is green with a blue tinge, and the under
surface of the wings and tail is greyish brown. The ear-coverts are black
and the eye is light scarlet, which contrasts beautifully with the chestnut
black, and yellow of the head and neck.

The female may be distinguished from the male by the paler hue of the
reddish yellow on the throat, and the reddish tinge that runs throughout the

286 THE HOOPOE.

green of the body and wings. In size the Bee-eater is nearly equal to
the English starling.

SLENDER-BILLED BIRDS.
UPUPID, OR HOUPOES.

THE large group of birds which are termed TENUIROSTRAL, or Slender-
billed, always possess a long and slender beak, sometimes curved, as in the
creepers, hoopoes, and many humming birds ; and sometimes straight, as in
the nuthatch and other humming birds. The feet are furnished with
lengthened toes, and the outer toe is generally connected at the base with
the middle toe. .

The first family of the Tenuirostres is called after the hoopoe, and termed
Upupide. In all these birds the bill is curved throughout its entire length,
long, slender, and sharply pointed. The wings are rounded, showing that
the birds are not intended for aerial
feats, and the tail is rather long. The
legs are short, and the claws strong
and decidedly curved.

The common HOOPOE enjoys a very
wide range of country, being found in
Northern Africa, where its principal
home is generally stationed, in several
/ parts of Asia, and nearly the whole of
/ Europe. Onaccount of its very strik-
ing and remarkable form it has at-
tracted much notice, and has been the
“sy subject of innumerable legends and
‘ strange tales, nearly all of which relate
to its feathery crest.

The Turks call the Hoopoe 7Z77-
Chaous, or Courier-Bird, because its
feathery crown bears some resem-
blance to the plume of feathers which
the chaous, or courier, wears as a
token of his office. The Swedes are
rather fearful of the Hoopoe, and

HOOPOE. —(Upupa epops). dread its presence, which is rare in

their country, as a presage of war, con-

sidering the plume as analogous to a helmet. Even in our own country the

uneducated rustics think it an unlucky bird, most probably on account of

some old legend which, although forgotten has not entirely lost its power
of exciting prejudice.

The food of the Hoopoe is almost entirely of an insect nature, although
the bird will frequently vary its diet with tadpoles and other small creatures.
Beetles and their larvze, caterpillars and grubs of all kinds, are a favourite
food with the Hoopoe, which displays much ingenuity in digging them out
of the decayed wood in which they are often found. The jet-ant (Formica
fuliginosa), which greatly haunts the centre of decaying trees, is also eaten
by this bird.

The nest is made in hollow trees, and consists of dried grass-stems,
feathers, and other soft substances. The eggs are of a light grey colour, and
in number vary from four to seven, They are laid in May, and the young

SUN-BIRDS. 287

take their appearance in June. It is worthy of notice that the beak of the
young Hoopoe is short and quite straight, not attaining its long curved form
until the bird has attained its full growth. The nest of the Hoopoe has a
very pungent and disgusting odour.

The general colours of the Hoopoe are white, buff, and black, distributed
in the following manner :—The plumes of the crest, which is composed of a
double row of feathers, are of a reddish buff, each feather being tipped with
black. The remainder of the head, neck, and breast is purplish buff, and
the upper part of the beak purple-grey. Three semicircular black bands are
drawn across the back, and the quill feathers of the wings are marked with
broad bands of black and white. The tail is also black, with the exception
of a sharply-defined white semicircular band that runs across the centre.

The under portions of the body are pale yellowish buff, and the under tail-
coverts are white. In their colours the two sexes are rather different from
each other, the male being of a more ruddy hue than his mate, and having
a cag crest. The total length of the adult Hoopoe is not quite thirteen
inches.

SUN-BIRDS.,

THE beautiful and glittering SUN-BIRDS evidently represent in the Old
World the humming birds of the New. In their dimensions, colour, general
form, and habits, they are very similar to their brilliant representatives in
the western hemisphere, although not quite so gorgeous in plumage, nor so
powerful and enduring of wing. They are termed Sun-birds because the
hues with which their feathers are so lavishly embellished gleam out with
peculiar brilliancy in the sunlight.

These exquisite little birds feed on the juice of flowers and the minute
insects that are found in their interior, but are not in the habit of feeding
while on the wing, hovering over a flower and sweeping upits nectar with the
tongue, as is the case among the humming-birds.

The COLLARED SUN-BIRD is an inhabitant of many parts of Africa,
stretching from the northern portions of that continent as far as the western
coasts. It is extremely plentiful in the larger forests of the Cape and the
interior, but there is very little information concerning its habits, saving that
they resemble those of its relations. The nidification of this species differs
according to the locality, for it places its nest in the interior of hollow trees
wherein it resides in the forests, and is content with the shelter of a thick
bough when there are no decaying trees within reach.

The male Collared Sun-bird is a most beautiful little creature, bedecked
with glowing tints of wonderful intensity. The general colour of the upper
parts of the body and breast is a rich golden green, the upper surface of the
wings and tail being blackish brown with green reflections. Across the
breast are drawn several coloured bands, which have earned for the bird its
popular and expressive name, as all names should be. A narrow band of
bright steel-blue runs across the upper part of the breast, being rather wide
in the centre and narrowing rapidly towards the sides of the neck. Below
this blue band runs a broad belt of rich carmine, and immediately below the
carmine is a third narrow band of bright golden yellow. From the sides of
the breast proceed several small feathery plumes of the same golden hue. The
remainder of the abdomen is greyish brown, and the upper tail-coverts are
violet-purple.

The female is rather less in dimensions than her mate, and is very sober
in her attire, wearing a suit of uniform olive-brown, darker upon the wings

288 THE FAVANESE SUN-BIRD.

and tail, and very pale behind. The total length of this species is rather

more than four and a half inches. sat :
The JAVANESE SUN-BIRD is a native of the country from which it derives

itsname. It is a very pretty little creature, although its colours are not so

YA You

Win

COLLARED SUN-BIRD.—(Nectarinia chalybeia,)
JAVANESE SUN-BIRD.—(ecturinia Favanica.)

resplendent as in several of the species. The upper parts of the body are
shining steely-purple, and the under surface is olive-yellow. The throat is
chestnut, and a bright violet streak runs from the angle of the mouth to the

breast.

THE AUSTRALIAN DICAUM. 289

The beautiful little Dic4uUM, although very common throughout the whole
of Australia, and a remarkably interesting little bird, was, when Mr. Gould
wrote his animated description, so little known among the colonists that
there was no popular name for the
bright little creature.

This tiny bird is fond of inha-
biting the extreme summits of the
tallest trees, and habitually dwells
at so great an elevation that its
minute form is hardly perceptible,
and not even the bright scarlet
hue of the throat and breast can ¢
betray its position to the unaccus-
tomed eye of a passenger below.

The flight of the Diczeum is very
quick and darting, and it makes
more use of its wings and less of
its feet than any of the insect-
hunting birds. The nest is re-
markably pretty, being woven as
it were out of white cotton cloth,
and suspended from a branch as
if the twigs had been pushed
through its substance. The pecu-
liar purse-like shape of the nest
is shown in the illustration. The
material of which it is woven is
the soft cottony down which is
found in the seed-vessels of many
piants. The eggs are four or five |
in number, and their colour is a
dull greyish white, profusely co- =
vered with minute speckles of
brown.

The head, back, and upper parts
of the adult male are deep black,
with a beatiful steely blue gloss,
the sides are brownish grey, and
the throat, breast, and under tail-
coverts are a bright glaring scar-
let. The abdomen is snowy white, oo — “ES (A
with the exception of a tolerably Bran. MELE be \- = AN
large black patch on its centre. AUSTRALIAN DICEUM.—(Diceum hirundi
The female is more sombre in her naceum.)
apparel, the head and back being
of a dull sooty black, and the steel-blue reflection only appearing on the
upper surface of the wings and tail. The throat and centre of the abdomen
are buff, the sides are pale greyish brown, and the under tail-coverts scarlet,
of a less brilliant hue than in the male. In its dimensions the Diczeum is
hardly so large as our common wren.

HONEY-EATERS.

THE true Honey-eaters form a very numerous group of birds, all of which
are graceful in their forms and pleasing in the colour of their plumage, while
U

290 THE POE BIRD,

in some instances the hues with which they are decorated are so bright as to
afford ground for classing them among the really beautiful birds. ‘Ihey all
feed-on similar substances, which, as indicated by their name, consis:
chiefly of honey and the sweet juices of flowers, although they also vary thei:
diet by insects and other small living beings.

ce

/

Pol BIRD.—(Lvusthemadera Zeelandia.)

Among this group of birds the Po& BIRD, or TUE, or PARSON BIRD, is
one of the most conspicuous, being nearly as remarkable for its peculiar
colouring as the rifle bird itself, although the hues of its feathers are not
quite so resplendently brilliant as in that crcature.

HUMMING-BIRDS. 201

The Poé Bird is a native of New Zealand, where it is far from uncommon,
and is captured by the natives for the purpose of sale. Many individuals are
brought over to Sydney, where, according to Dr. Bennett, they are kept in
cages, and are very amusing in their habits, being easily domesticated and
becoming very familiar with those who belong to the household. Indepen-
dently of its handsome and rather peculiar colour, which makes it very
effective in a room, it possesses several other qualifications which render it a
very desirable inhabitant of an aviary. Its native notes are very fine, the
bird being considered a remarkably fine songster, and it also possesses the
power of mimicking in a degree surpassing that of the common magpie or
raven, and hardly yielding even to the famous mocking-bird himself. It
learns to speak with great accuracy and fluency, and readily imitates any
sound that may reach its ear, being especially successful in its reproduction
of the song of other birds.

While at liberty in its native land it is remarkable for its quick, restless
activity, as it flits rapidly about the branches, pecking here and there at a
stray insect, diving into the recesses of a newly-opened flower, and con-
tinually uttering its shrill sharp whistle. Although one of the large group of
Meliphagidz, or Honey-eaters, the Poé Bird feeds less upon honey than
upon insects, which it discovers with great sharpness of vision and catches
in a particularly adroit manner. It will also feed upon worms, and some-
times varies its diet by fruits.

In New Zealand it is often killed for the sake of its flesh, which is said to
be very delicate and well flavoured.

The general colour of the Poé Bird is a very deep metallic green, becom-
ing black in certain lights, and having a decided bronze reflection in others.
The back is deep brown, also with a bronze reflection, and upon the
shoulders there is a patch of pure white. On the back of the neck the
feathers are long and lancet shaped, each feather having a very narrow
white streak along its centre. From each side of the neck depends a tuft of
snowy curling downy feathers, spreading in fan-like fashion from their bases
This creature is called the Parson Bird because these white tufts are thought
to bear some resemblance to the absurd parallelograms of white lawn that
are denominated “ bands.”

HUMMING-BIRDS, OR TROCHILIDA.

“ Bright Humming-bird of gem-like plumeletage,
By western Indians ‘ Living Sun-beam’ named.”—BAaILey, Mystic.

THE wonderful little HUMMING-BIRDS are only found in America and the
adjacent islands, where they take the place of the sun-birds of the Old
World. It is rather remarkable that, as yet, no Humming-birds have been
discovered in Australia.

These little winged gems are most capricious in their choice of locality,
some being spread over a vast range of country, while others are confined.
within the limits of a narrow belt of earth hardly more than a few hundred
yards in width, and some refuse to roam beyond the narrow precincts of a
single mountain. Some of these birds are furnished with comparatively short
and feeble wings, and, in consequence, are obliged to remain in the same
land throughout the year, while others are strong of flight, and migrate over
numerous tracts of country. They gather most thickly in Mexico and about
the equator, the number of species diminishing rapidly as they recede from
the equatorial line.

The name of Humming-birds is given to them on account of the humming

U2

202 HUMMING-BIRDS.

or buzzing sound which they produce with their wings, especially while they
are hovering in their cur ous fasniun over a tempting Llussom, and feed-
ing on its contents while suspended in the air.

The legs of these birds are remarkably weak and delicate, and the wings
are proportionately strong, a combination which shows that the creatures are
intended to pass more of their time in the air than on foot. Even when
feeding they very seldom trouble themselves to perch, but suspend them-
selves in the air before the flower on which they desire to operate, and with
their long slender tongues are able to feed at ease without alighting. In the
skeleton, especially in the shape of the breast-bone and wings, as well as in
the comparative small size of the feet, the Humming-birds bear some
analogy to the swifts, and, like those birds, never lay more than two eggs.

The flight of these birds is inconceivably rapid, so rapid indeed that the
eye cannot follow it when the bird puts forth its full speed ; and with such
wonderful rapidity do
the little sharp - cut
wings beat the air, that
their form is quite lost,
B and while the bird is
; hovering near a single
j/ spot, the wings look
like two filmy grey fans
attached to the sides,
While darting from one
flower to another the
bird can hardly be seen
at all, and it seems to
#] come suddenly into ex-
istence at some spot,’
and as suddenly to van-
ish from sight. Some
Humming -birds are
fond of towering to a
great height in the air,
and descending from
thence to their nests or
to feed, while others
keep near the ground,

De
HUMMING-BIRDS.

and are seldom seen at an elevation of many yards.

The food of the Humming-bird is much the same as that of the honey-
suckers, except. perhaps, that they consume more honey and fewer flies.
Still, they are extremely fond of small insects, and if kept away from this
kind of diet soon pine away, in spite of unlimited supplies of syrup and
other sweet food.

In order to enable the Humming-bird to extract the various substances on
which it feeds from the interior of the flowers, the beak is always long and
delicate, and in shape is extremely variable, probably on account of the
particular flowers on which the bird feeds. In some instances the bill is
nearly straight, in others it takes a sharp sickle-like downward curve, while
in some it possesses a double curve. The general form of the beak is
however a very gently downward curve, and in all instances it is pointed at its
extremity. At the base the upper mandible is wider than tre tower, which
is received into its hollow. Their nostrils are placed at the base of the
beak, and defended by a little scale-like shield.

The plumage is very closely set on the body, and is possessed of a metallic

HUMMING-BIRDS, 293

brilliancy in every species, the males being always more gorgeously
decorated than their mates.

The tongue is a very curious structure, being extremely long, filamentous,
and double nearly to its base. At the throat it is taken up by that curious
forked bony structure called the hyoid bone, the forks of which are
enormously elongated, and, passing under the throat and round the head,
are terminated upon the forehead. By means of this structure the
Humming-bird is enabled to project the tongue to a great distance from
the bill, and to probe the inmost recesses of the largest flowers. The com-
mon woodpecker has a
very similar description
of tongue and employs it
in a similar manner,

In their habits the Hum-
ming-birds are mostly di-
urnal, although many spe-
cies are only seen at dawn
and just after sunset.
Many, indeed, live in such
dense recesses of their tro-
pical woods, that the beams
of the sun never fairly
penetrate into their gloomy
depths, and the Humining-
bird dwells in a permanent
twilight beneath the foli-
age. Itis worthy of notice
that the name Trochilide
is not a very apt one, as
the Trochilus was evi-
dently a bird which had
nothing in common with
the Humming-bird, and
was most probably the zic-
zac of Egypt.

The upper figure in the
illustration on page 292
represents the Cora
HUMMING-BIRD, a native
of Peru. The head and
back are gold-green, the
wings are purple, and the
throat is violet or crimson | SLENDER SHEAR-TAIL HUMMING-BIRD.--(7hau«
according to the direction mastura encuura.)
of the light.

In the centre is the DOUBLF-CREST, a Brazilian species. It derives its.
name from the crest-like reathers that start from either side of the head.
The top of the head is azure, and the throat fiery crimson. The sides ot
the face and the chin are velvet black. a

The BAR-TAIL occupies the right of the illustration. It is a native ‘ot
Bolivia, and derives its name from the black tips of the crimson tail feathers.
The body is green.

On the left is GOULD’s HUMMING-BIRD, a lovely little creature, remark-
able for the beautiful neck-tufts, with their pure white feathers tipped with
green, It 1s found in the Amazon district.

294 COPPER-BELLIEY PUFF-LEG HUMMING-BIRD.

The SLENDER SHEAR-TAIL is an inhabitant of Central America, and
appears to be rather a local bird. It is supposed not to be found south of
the Isthmus of Panama, nor to extend more than eighteen degrees north-
ward. As its wings are rather short, and not remarkable for strength, it is
conjectured to be a non-migratory bird. The country where it is seen in the
greatest plenty is Guatemala.

The sexes of this creature are very different in their form and colour of
their plumage, and could hardly be recognized as belonging to the same
species. In the adult male bird the upper parts of the body are a deep
shining green, becoming brown on the head, and changing into bronze on
the back and wing-coverts. The wings are purple-brown. The long and
deep forked tail is black, with the exception of a little brown upon the inner
web of the two uttermost feathers. The chin is black glossed with green, the
throat is deep metallic pur-
ple, and upon the upper ;art:
of the chest is placed a large
crescent-shaped mark of buff.
The abdomen is bronze, with
a grey spot in its centre ; and
there is a buff spot on each
flank, The under tail-coverts
are of a greenish hue.

The female does not pos-
\ sess the long tail, and her
colours are golden-green
= above and reddish buff be-
low. The tail is very curi-
} ously marked. The central
feathers are entirely gold-
Sy green; the exterior feathers
are rusty red at their base,
black for a considerable por-
tion of their length, and
tipped with white.

Several of the Humming-
birds are remarkable for a
tuft of pure white downy fea-
thers which envelop each
leg, and which has obtained

COPPER-BELLIED PUFF-LEG HUMMING-BIRD, for them the popular title of

(Eriocnemis cupreiventris.) Puff-legs, because the white

tufts bear some resemblance

to a powder-puff. The COPPER-BELLIED PUFF-LEG is an inhabitant of
Santa Fé de Bogéta, and is a very common bird in that locality. It may
easily be found, as it is a remarkably local bird, being confined to a narrow
strip or belt of land, wiich possesses the requisite characteristics of tempera-
ture and vegetation. .

It is avery beautiful little bird, and both the sexes are nearly similar in their
colour and general appearance, except that in the female the puffs of white
down are not so large nor so conspicuous as in her mate. In the adult male,
the top of the head, the sides of the neck, and the back are green, washed
with a decided tint of bronze, except upon the upper tail-coverts, where the
green is very pure and of a metallic brilliancy. As is generally the case with
Humming-birds, the fine and sharply-cut wings are brown washed with
purple, The tail is black, with a purple gloss in a side light. The throat 1s

WHITE-BOOTED RACKET-TAIL. 295

of a beautiful shining metallic green, and the general colour of the breast
and under portions of the body is green glossed with gold, with the excep-
tion of the abdomen, where the green takes a coppery hue, from which the
bird has received its popular name. The “ puffs” are of a snowy whiteness,

and. look like refined swan’s-down.

WHITE-BOOTED RACKET-TAIL.—(Spathura Underwoodii—male and female.)

The female is very similar in colour, except that the hues of the throat are
not possessed of so metallic a brilliancy, and, as has already been stated, the

leg-tufts are comparatively small.
We have in the Racket-tailed Humming-birds one of those singular forms

which are so often found among these strange litue birds.

296 THE SPANGLED COQUETTE.

The WHITE-BOOTED RACKET-TAIL inhabits the Columbian Andes, and is
very common near Santa Fé de Bogéta. It is a hill-loving bird, being
generally found at an elevation of five or ten thousand feet above the level
of the sea. It is thought to be confined within the third and tenth degrees
of north latitude. This bird is remarkably swift of wing, its darting flight
reminding the spectator of the passage of an arrow through the air. At one
time it will hover close to the ground, hanging over some favourite flower
and extracting the sweet contents of the blossoms ; and at the next moment
it will shoot to the very summit of some lofty tree, as if impelled from a
bow, and leave but the impression of an emerald-green line of light upon the
observer's eye. While hovering over the flowers the long racket-shaped
feathers of the tail are in constant motion, waving gently in the air, crossing
each other, opening and closing in the most graceful nianner. But when the
bird darts off with its peculiar arrowy flight, the tail-feathers lie straight
behind it.

The male of this species is bronze-green upon the greater part of the body,
the green takin a richer and redder hue vpon the upper tail-coverts. The
throat and breast are bril-
liant emerald green. The
wings are purple-brown,
and the tail is brown, with
che exception of the rack-
ets, which are black “shot”
with green. The feet are
yellow, and upon the legs
are placed two beautiful
, white puffs. The whole
% length of the bird is rather
more than three inches.
The female bird does not
; possess the racket-shaped

S s i d : tail-feathers, and is of a

~ =| bronze- green upon the

“ESS e ae upper surface. The tail is

SPANGLED COQUETIE. —(Lophornis Regine.) brown, with the exception

of the two middle feathers,

which are bronze-green like the body. The two exterior feathers are tipped

with white, and the others with bronze-green. ‘The under surface is white,

diversified with bronze-green spots on the breast and flanks. The puis
are smalier than in the male

THE accompanying illustration represents another remarkable little bird
possessed of a most beautiful and graceful crest. The SPANGLED COQUETTE
is an excellent example of the very remarkable genus to which it belongs
All the Coquettes possess a well-defined crest upon the head and a series of
projecting feathers from the neck, some being especially notable for the one
ornament, and others for the other.

The crown of the head and the crest are light ruddy chestnut, each
feather having a ball-like spot of dark bronze-green at the tip. The throat
and face are shining metallic green, below which is a small tuft of pointed
white feathers that have a very curious effect as they protude from beneath
the gorget. The upper parts are bronze-green as far as the lower part of the
back, where a band crosses from side to side, and the rest of the plumage is
dark ruddy chestnut as far as the tail. The tail is also chestnut-brown,
with a slight wash of metallic green. The female has no crest nor green
gorget.

RUBY AND TOPAZ HUMMING-BIED. 297

The RuBy AND Topaz HUMMING-BIRD derives its name from the colour-
ing of its head and throat, the former being of a deep ruby tint, and the
latter of a resplendent topaz. Sometimes it is called the Ruby-headed
Humming-bird, and it is also known under the name of the Aurora. It is
very common in Bahia, the Guianas, Trinidad, and the Caraccas, and, as it
is in great request for the dealers, is killed by thousands annually. There is
no species so common in orna-
mental cases of Humming-birds
asthe Ruby and Topaz. It makes
a very beautiful nest, round, cup-
like, and delicately woven of cot-
ton and various fibres,and covered
externally with little leaves and
bits of lichen.

The plumage of this species is
extremely variable, but may be
described briefly as follows. ‘The
forehead, the crown, and the nape
of the neck are metallic ruby-red ;
and the chin, throat, and chest
are effulgent topaz. The upper
parts of the body are velvety
bronze-brown, and the wings are
purple-brown. The tail is rich
chestnut-red, tipped with black,
and the abdomen is a dark olive-
brown. The female has none of
the ruby patches on the head, but
retains a little of the topaz on the |
throat.

THE RUBY-THROATED HumM-
MING-BIRD inhabits North Amer-
ica, and derives its name from the
brilliant ruby hue of the feathers
that adorn its throat. It is one
of the commonest as well as the
most beautiful of this lovely
group.

The beautiful little VERVAIN
HUMMING-BIRD is one of the
minutest examples of feathered
life that are at present known to
zoologists. In total length this
bird does not measure thiee
inches ; while, as -the tail occu- s a .
pies nearly an inch and the head RUBY AND TOPAZ HUMMING-BIRD.—(Chry-
half an inch, the actual length of solam pis moschitus. )
the body will be seen to be not
quite an inch and a half. It is a native of Jamaica, and has been admir-
ably described by Mr. Gosse, while treating of the birds which inhabit
that island.

The name of Vervain Humming-bird has been given to this tiny creature,
because it is in the habit of feeding on the blossoms of the West Indian
Vervain, but it is also known under a variety of other titles, and has been
described by many scientific writers under different names, ;

298 THE VERVAIN HUMMING-BIRD.

The general colour of this beautiful little bird is a brilliant metallic gréen,
the wings being, as usual, purple-brown, and the tail deep black. The throat
and chin are white, sprinkled profusely with little black spots, and the breast
is pure white. The abdomen is also white, but diversified with a slight green
tip to each feather, and the flanks are bright metallic green, nearly as resplen-

, dent as upon the back. The under
tail-coverts are white, with a few
very pale green spots. The colours
of the female are rather more dull
than those of her mate, the green
being tinged with yellow, and the
under parts without the green spots.
The first half of the tail is yellowish
green, and all the feathers of the
tail, with the exception of the two
ZANT central feathers, are furnished with
ll) Hy white tips.
| The nest of the Vervain Humming-
i Ips ' bird is very small, in accordance with

the dimensions of the architect, is

All if round and cup-like in shape, and

RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. beautifully constructed of cotton

(Colubris.) fibres and other soft and warm sub-

stances. As is the case with the

nests of almost all the species of Trochilidz, the rim is so made as to curve

slightly inwards, and is, in all probability, constructed for the purpose of

preventing the eggs from rolling out of the nest when the “ procreant cradle”
is rocked by the tempestuous winds of the tropics.

VERVAIN HUMMING-BIRD.---(A/eddisuga minima.)

We now arrive at the CERTHID or CREEPERS, the best known of which
is our English CREEPER.

This little bird is one of the prettiest and most interesting of the feathered
tribes that are found in this country. It is a very small bird, hardly so large
as a sparrow, and beautifully slender in shape. The bill is rather long,

COMMON TREE CREEPER. 299

pointec, and curved, and the tail-feathers are stiff and pointed at their extre-
mities. The food of the Creeper consists chiefly of insects, although the
bird will sometimes vary its diet by seeds and other vegetable substances.
‘the insects on which it feeds live principally under the bark of various
rough-skinned trees, and when it is engaged in running after its food, it runs
spirally up the trunk with wonderful ease and celerity, probing every crevice
with ready adroitness, its whole frame instinct with sparkling eagerness, and
its little black eyes glancing with the exuberance of its delight. While
running on the side of the tree which is nearest to the spectator, it presents
a very curious appearance, as its dark-brown back and quick tripping move-
ments give it a great resemblance to a mouse, and ever and anon, as it comes
again into sight from the opposite side of the trunk, its beautifully white
breast gleams suddenly in contrast with the sombre-coloured bark. Its eyes
are wonderfully keen, as it
will discern insects of so mi-
nute a form that the human
eye can hardly perceive them,
and it seems to possess some
instinctive mode of detect-
ing the presence of its insect
prey beneath moss or lichens,
and will perseveringly bore
through the substance in
which they are hidden, never
failing to secure them at
last.

The Creeper is a very timid
bird, and if it is alarmed at
the sight of a human being,
it will either fly off to a dis-
tant tree, or will quietly slip
round the trunk of the tree
on which it is running, and
keep itself carefully out of
sight. It soon, however, gains
confidence, and, provided that
the spectator remains per-
fectly quiet, the little head
and white breast may soon
be seen peering anxiously
round the trunk, and ina few
minutes the bird will resume
its progress upon the tree, and run cheerily up the bark, accompanying itself
with its faint trilling song. It seldom attempts a long flight, seeming to con-
tent itself with flitting froin tree to tree.

The nest of the Creeper is usually made in the hollow of some decaying
tree, and is made of grasses, leaves, and vegetable fibres, and lined with
feathers. The eggs are very small, about seven or eight in number, and of
an ashen grey colour, sprinkled with little grey-brown spots. Sometimes it
builds in the hole of an old wall, and has been known to make its nest ina
disused spout.

Tue Nuthatches are represented in England by the common NUTHATCH
of our woods. They are all remarkable for their peculiarly stout and sturdy
build, their strong, pointed, cylindrical beaks, and their very short tails.

The Nuthatch, although by no means a rare bird, is seldom seen except by

COMMON TREE CREEPER.—(Certhia familiaris.)

300 NUTHATCH.

those who are acquainted with its haunts, on account of its shy and retiring
habits. As it feeds mostly on nuts, it is seldom seen except in woods or
their immediate vicinity, although it will sometimes become rather bold, and
frequent gardens and orchards where nuts are grown. The bird also feeds
upon insects, which it procures from under the bark after the manner of the
creepers, and it is not unlikely that many of the nuts which are eaten by the
Nuthatch have been inhabited by the grub of the nut weevil. It will also
feed upon the seeds of different plants, especially preferring those which it
pecks off the fir-cones.

In order to extract the kernel of the nut, the bird fixes the fruit securely in
some convenient crevice, and, by dint of repeated hammerings with its beak,
breaks a large ragged hole in the shell, through which the kernel is readily
extracted. The blows are not merely given by the stroke of the beak, but
the bird grasps firmly with its strong claws, and, swinging its whole body
upon its feet, delivers its stroke with the full weight and sway of the body.

NUTHATCH.—(Sitta Europea.)

The nest of the Nuthatch is placed in the hollow of a decaying tree, and
the bird always ehooses some hole to which there is but a small entrance,
Should the orifice be too large to please its taste, it ingeniously builds up
the hole with clay and mud, probably to prevent the intrusion of any other
bird. If any foe should venture toc near the nest, the mother bird becomes
exceedingly valiant, and dashing boldly at her enemy, bites and pecks so
vigorously with her powerful beak, hissing and scolding the while, that she
mostly succeeds in driving away the assailant. The nest is a very inartificial
structure, made chiefly of dried leaves laid loosely upon the decaying wood,
and rudely scraped into the form of a nest.

In its colour the Nuthatch is rather a pretty bird, of pleasing though not
of brilliantly tinted plumage. The general colour of the upper parts is a
‘delicate bluish grey, the throat is white, and the abdomen and under parts
are reddish brown, warming into rich chestnut on the flanks. From the
angle of the mouth a narrow black band passes towards the back of the

THE LYRE BIRD. 30i

neck, enveloping the eve in its course and terminating suddenly before it
reaches the shoulders. The tail is black on the base and grey towards the
tip, except the two outer tail-feathers, which have each a black spot near the
extremity. The shafts are also black.

LYRE BIRD. —(Menura superba.)

WE now arrive at the family of the WRENS, in which group we find two
birds so dissimilar in outward appearance as apparently to belong to
different orders, the one being the common WREN of England, and the other
the celebrated Lyre-bird of Australia.

This bird, which also goes under the name of NATIVE PHEASANT among
the colonists, and is generally called BULLEN-BULLEN by the natives, on

302 THE LYRE BIRD.

account of its peculiar cry, would, if it had been known to the ancients,
have been consecrated to Apollo, its lyre-shaped tail and flexible voice giving
it a double claim to such honours. The extraordinary tail of this bird is
often upwards of two feet in length, and consists of sixteen feathers, formed
and arranged in a very curious and graceful manner. The two outer feathers
are broadly webbed, and, as may be seen in the illustration, are curved ina
manner that gives to the widely-spread tail the appearance of an ancient
lyre. When the tail is merely held erect and not spread, the two lyre-shaped
feathers cross each other, and produce an entirely different outline. The two
central tail-feathers are narrowly webbed, and all the others are modified
with long slender shafts, bearded by alternate feathery filaments, and well
representing the strings of the lyre.

The tail is seen in its greatest beauty between the months of June and
September, after which time it is shed, to make its first reappearance in the
ensuing February or March. The habits of this bird are very curious, and
are so well and graphically related by Mr. Gould, that they must be given in
his own words :—

“The great stronghold of the Lyre-bird is the colony of New South
Wales, and, from what I could learn, its range does not extend so far to the
eastward as Moreton Bay, neither have I been able to trace it to the west-
ward of Port Phillip on the southern coast; but further research. can only
determine these points. It inhabits equally the bushes on the coast and
those that clothe the sides of the mountains in the interior. On the coast
it is especially abundant at the Western Port, and Illawarra; in the interior
the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range, and, according to Mr. G. Bennett,
the mountains of the Tumat country are among the places of which it is
the denizen.

“Of all the birds I have ever met with, the Menura is far the most shy
and difficult to procure. While among the mountains I have been sur-
rounded by these birds, pouring forth their loud and liquid calls for days
together, without being able to get a sight of them, and it was only by the
most determined perseverance and extreme caution that I was enabled to
effect this desirable object, which was rendered more difficult by their often
frequenting the almost inaccessible and precipitous sides of gullies and
ravines, covered with tangled masses of creepers and umbrageous trees ; the
cracking of a stick, the rolling down of a small stone, or any other noise,
however slight, is sufficient to alarm it; and none but those who have
traversed these rugged, hot, and suffocating bushes, can fully understand the.
anxious labour attendant on the pursuit of the Menura.

“ At Illawarra it is sometimes successfully pursued by dogs trained to rush
suddenly upon it, when it immediatey leaps upon the branch of a tree,
and, its attention being attracted by the dog below barking, it is easily
approached and shot. Another successful mode of procuring specimens is
by wearing the tail of a full-plumaged male in the hat, keeping it constantly
in motion, and concealing the person among the bushes, when, the attention
of the bird being arrested by the apparent intrusion of another of its own
sex, it will be attracted within the range of the gun. If the bird be hidden
from view by surrounding objects, any unusual sound, such as a shrill
whistle, will generally induce him to show himself for an instant, by causing
him to leap with a gay and sprightly air upon some neighbouring branch to
ascertain the cause of the disturbance; advantage must be taken of this
cu euetanie immediately, or the next moment it may be half-way down the
gully. :

“The Menura seldom, if ever, attempts to escape by flight, but easily
eludes pursuit by its extraordinary powers of running. None are so efficient

THE WREN. 303

in obtaining specimens as the naked black, whose noiseless and gliding steps
enable him to steal upon it unheard or unperceived, and with a gun in his
hand he rarely allows it to escape, and in many instances he will even kill it
with his own weapons.

“The food of the Menura appears to consist principally of insects, par-
ticularly of centipedes and coleoptera. I also found the remains of shelled
snails in the gizzard, which is very strong and muscular.”

The nest of the Lyre-bird is a large, loosely-built, domed structure, com-
posed of small sticks, roots, and leaves, and of an oven-like shape, the
entrance being in front. The lining is warm and soft, being composed of
downy feathers.

The egg of this singular bird is quite as curious as its general form, and
presents the curious anomaly of an egg as large as that of a common fowl,
possessing all the character-
istics of the insessorial egg.
The general colour of the
egg is a deep chocolate tint,
marked with purple more or
less deep in different speci-
mens, and its surface is co-
vered with a number of stains
and blotches of a darker hue,
which are gathered towards
the larger end, as is usual in
spotted eggs.

WE are all familiar with
the WREN.

The long and harsh name
of Troglodytes, which has
been given to this bird, sig-
nifies a diver into caves, and
has been attributed to the
Wren on account of its shy
and retiring habits, and its
custom of hiding its nest in
some hollow or crevice where
it may escape observation.
The Wren is seldom to be
seen in the open country, and
does not venture upon any WREN.—( Troglodytes vulgaris.)
lengthened flight, but con-
fines itself to the hedge-rows and brushwood, where it may often be observed
hopping and skipping like a tiny feathered mouse among the branches.
lt especially haunts the hedges which are flanked by ditches, as it can
easily hide itself in such localities, and can also obtain a plentiful supply
of food. By remaining perfectly quiet, the observer can readily watch its
movements, and it is really an interesting sight to see the little creature
flitting about the brushwood, flirting its saucily expressive tail, and uttering its
quick and cheering note.

The voice of the Wren is very sweet and melodious, and of a more
powerful character than would be imagined from the dimensions of the bird.
The Wren is a merry little creature, and chants its gay song on the slightest
encouragement of weather. Even in winter there needs but the gleam of a
few stray sunbeams to set the Wren a-singing, and the cold Christmas season
is often cheered with its happy notes.

304 THE TAILOR-BIRD.

The nest of the Wren is rather an ambitious structure, being a completely
domed edifice, and built in a singularly ingenious manner. If, however, tue
bird can find a suitable spot, such as the hole of a decaying tree, the gnarled
and knotted branches of old ivy, or the overhanging eaves of 4 deserted
building, where a natural.dome is formed, it is sure to seize upon the oppor-
tunity and to make a dome of very slight workmanship. The dome, how-
ever, always exists in some form.

The materials of which the nest is composed are always leaves, moss,
grass, and lichens, and it is almost always so neatly built that it can hardiy
be seen by one who was not previously aware of its position. The opening
of the nest is always at the side, so that the eggs are securely shielded from
the effects of weather.

As to the locality and position in which the nest is placed, no definite
rule is observed, for the Wren is more capricious than the generality of birds
in fixing upon a house for her young. Wrens’ nests have been found in
branches, hedges, hayricks, waterspouts, hollow trees, barns and outhouses.
Sometimes the Wren becomes absolutely eccentric in its choice, and builds
its nest in spots which no one would conjecture that a bird would select. A
Wren has been known to make its nest in the body of a dead hawk which
had been killed and nailed to the side of a barn. Another Wren chose to
make her house in the throat of a dead calf, which had been hung upon a
tree, and another of these curious little birds was seen to build in the interior
of a pump, gaining access to her eggs and young through the spout.

The eggs of the Wren are very small, and are generally from six to eight
in number.

During the winter, the Wren generally shelters itself from the weather in
the same nest which it had inhabited during the breeding season, and in
very cold seasons it is not an uncommon event to find six or seven Wrens
all huddled into a heap for the sake of warmth, and presenting to the eye or
hand of the spectator nothing but a shapeless mass of soft brown feathers.
It is probable that these little gatherings may be composed of members of
the same family.

The colour of the Wren is a rich reddish brown, paling considerably on
the under surface of the body, and darkening into dusky brown upon the
quill feathers of the wings and tail. The outer webs of the former are
sprinkled with reddish brown spots, and the short tail-feathers are barred
with the same hue. The bill is slender, and rather long in proportion to the
general dimensions of the bird. The total length of the Wren is rather
more than fourinches. White and pied varieties are not uncommon.

WE now arrive at the very large family of the WARBLERS.

The first example of the Warblers is the celebrated TAILOR-BIRD of India
and the Indian Archipelago.

The Tailor-bird is a sober little creature, not more conspicuous than a
common sparrow, and is chiefly remarkable for its curious nest, which is
made in a singular and most ingenious manner. Taking two leaves at the
extremity of a slender twig, the bird literally sews them together at their
edges, its bill taking the place of the needle, and vegetable fibres constituting
the thread. A quantity of soft cottony down is then pushed between the
leaves, and a convenient hollow scraped out in which the eggs may lie and
the young birds may rest at their ease. Sometimes, if the leaf be large
enough, its two edges are drawn together, but in general a pair of leaves are
needed. A few feathers are sometimes mixed with the down.

This curious nest is evidently hung at the very extremity of the twigs, in
order to keep it out of the way of the monkeys, snakes, and other enemies
which might otherwise attack and devour mother and young together.

THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. 305

THE tiny GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN, as it is popularly called, is very
common throughout England, and may be seen hopping and flitting merrily
among the branches in copses, orchards, and plantations. Although from its
diminutive size it has gained the title of Wren, it has no claim to that
designation, and is more rightly termed the Kinglet, or Regulus.

PS 7 Li
TAILOR-BIRD.—( Ortholomus longicaudus.)

The Golden-crested Wren is notable for the crest of golden-coloured
feathers which is placed upon the crown of its head, which it can raise or
depress at pleasure, and which gives so pert and changeful an expression to
the little creature. But for this golden crest, which is not at all conspicuous
when the feathers are lowered, the bird might easily be mistaken for a tree-

x

306 THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.

creeper as it rutis up and down the branches, searching into the crevices of
the bark for the little insects on which it feeds. ‘Lhe first specimen tbat I
ever saw was traversing the branches of a fine “ Blenheum Orange” apple-
tree in an adjoining garden, and by my inexperienced eyes was at first taken
for a very young creeper. Like the creeper, it can even run up a perpen-
dicular wall, peering into every
little crevice, and stocking up the
moss and lichens for the purpose
of obtaining the insects and their
eggs that are lying concealed. It
will also eat the chrysalides that
are found so abundantly upon the
walls.

AJl the movements of the Golden-
crested Wren are full of spring
and fiery activity, and the manner
in which it will launch itself from
., one tree to another, and then, with-
) out a pause, commence traversing
the branches, is a sight well worth
seeing. Perhaps it is seen to best
advantage among the fir-trees,
f where it finds great scope for its
GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.—( Regulus active habits. Up one branch it

cristatus.) scuds, down another, then whisks

itself through the air to a fresh tree,

and then flings itself back again to its former perch. Along the twigs it runs

with astonishing rapidity, sometimes clinging with its head downward,

sometimes running round and round them spirally, always twisting its pert

little head in every direction, and probing each hole and crevice with its

sharp, slender little bill. The rough-

est-barked trees are its favourite

resort, because in such localities it
finds its best supply of insect food.

The nest of this beautiful little bird
is exquisitely woven of various soft
substances, and is generally suspended
to a trunk where it is well sheltered
from the weather. I have often found
their nests, and in every instance
have noticed that they are shaded
by leaves, the projecting portion of a
banch, or some such protection. In
onecase the nest, which was suspended
to a fir-branch, was almost invisible

; beneath a heavy bunch of large cones
BLACKCAP WARBLER.—(Sylvia atricapilia.) that drooped over it, and forced the
bird to gain admission by creeping
along the branch to which the nest was suspended. The edifice is usually
supported by three branches, one above and one at either side. The nest
is usually lined with feathers, and contains a considerable number of eggs,
generally from six to ten. These eggs are hardly bigger than peas, and,
as may be supposed, their shells are so delicately thin, that to extract the
iaterior without damaging them is a very difficult matter.

The entire length of this bird is about three inches and a half, and its

THE NIGHTINGALE. 307

general colour is brownish above, marked with olive-green, and flanked with
white on the wing-coverts. The under surface is yellowish grey, the beak is
black, and the eye hazel-brown. The forehead is marked with greyish
white ; the crest is brilliant yellow tipped with orange, and on each side of
the crest runs a black line. The female is not so brilliant in her colouring,
and the crest is wholly of a pale yellow. ;

The FIRE-CRESTED WREN is very similar to the preceding species, but
may be distinguished from it by the ruddy hue of the forehead, the fiery
orange of the crest, and the decidedly yellow hue of the sides of the neck.
It is an inhabitant of England, but it is a much rarer bird than the Golden-

‘ crest. Owing to the great resemblance between the two species, they have
often been mistaken for each other, and it is only within a comparatively
recent period that their diversity was established.

WITH the exception of the nightingale, the BLACKCAP WARBLER is the
sweetest and richest of all the British song-birds, and in many points the
voice of the Blackcap is even superior to that of the far-famed Philomel.

The Blackcap derives its name from the tuft of dark feathers which crown
the head, and which in the males are coal black, but in the females are deep
reddish brown. It is rather late
in arriving, seldom being seen
or heard until the end of April,
and it remains with us until the
middle of September. As seve-
ral specimens of this pretty bird
have been noticed in England in
the months of December and
January, it is probable that some
individuals may not migrate atall,
but remainin this country through-
out the entire winter. Should
it do so, it might easily escape
notice, as it would not be likely
to sing much during the cold
months, and owing to its retiring NIGHTINGALE, —(Luscinia Philomela.)
habits it is at all times more
likely to be heard than seen.

The food of the Blackcap consists chiefly of insects, but it also pays
attention to the ripe fruit in the autumn, being especially fond of rasp-
berries. Perhaps it may choose this fruit on account of the little white
maggots that are so often found in the centre of the over-ripe raspberry.

The nest of the Blackcap is generally placed only a foot or so above the
ground, within the shelter of a dense bush or tuft of rank herbage, and is
composed of vegetable fibres and hairs rather loosely put together. The
eggs are four or five in number, and are of a pale reddish brown, dappled
with a deeper hue of brown. The general colour of the Blackcap is grey,
with. a wash of dark green upon the upper surface and ashen grey upon the
lower surface. The total length of the bird is not quite six inches, its extent
of wings nearly nine inches, and its weight not quite half an ounce.

THE well-known and far-famed NIGHTINGALE is, happily for us, an in-
habitant of England, visiting us about the middle of April and remaining
until the breeding season is over.

It seems to be rather a local bird, some parts of England appearing to be
quite unsuited to its habits. The northern counties are seldom visited by
this bird, and in Ireland and Scotland it is almost unknown.

The food of the Nightingale consists principally of various insects, and it

xX 2

308 THE NIGHTINGALE.

1s so powerfully attracted by the common mealworm, that one of these crea-
tures employed as a bait is sure to attract the bird to its destruction. It
appears to make great havoc among the caterpillars, which come out to feed
at night, and are to be seen so abundantly on damp warm evenings. In the
autumn it is somewhat of a fruit-eater, and has been seen in the act of eating
“ blackheart” cherries, plucking them from the tree and carrying them to its
young.

As is well known. the song of the Nightingale is mostly uttered after sun-
set, but the bird may be heard in full song throughout the day. Towards
the end of June, wien the young birds are hatched, the song changes into a
kind of rough croaking sound, which is uttered by way of warning, and
accompanied with a sharp snapping sound of the beak. The time when the
Nightingales sing loudest and most constantly is during the week or two
after their arrival, for they are then engaged in attracting their mates, and
sing in fierce rivalry of each other, hoping to fascinate their brides by the

RSs

Wa SS

WHEATEAR. —(Saxicola enanthe.)

splendour of their voices. When once the bird has procured a partner, he
becomes deeply attached to her, and if he should be captured, soon pines
away and dies, full of sorrowful remembrances. The bird-dealers are there-
fore anxious to catch the Nightingale before the first week has elapsed, as
they can then, by dint of care and attention, preserve the bird in full song to
a very late period. Mr. Yarrel mentions an instance where a caged Night-
ingale sang upon a hundred and fourteen successive days.

The nest of the Nightingale is always placed upon or very near the
ground, and is generally carefully hidden beneath heavy foliage. One such
nest that I discovered in Wiltshire was placed among the knotted and
gnarled roots of an old ivy-covered thorn-stump that still maintained its
place within a yard of a footpath. The nest is made of grass and leaves,
and is of exceedingly slight construction, so slight, indeed, that to remove it
without damage is a very difficult process, and requires the careful use of the
hands. The eggs are generally four and sometimes five in number, and are

THE WHEATEAR. 309

of a peculiar smooth olive-brown, which distinguishes them at once from the
egg of any other British bird of the same size.

The colour of the Nightingale is a rich hair-brown upon the upper part of
the body, and greyish white below, the throat being of a lighter hue than the
breast and abdomen. The entire length of the bird rather exceeds six
inches.

A SMALL but very interesting group of birds now claim our attention.
These are the Erythacinz, or Redbreast kind, including the Redbreast, the
Wheatear, and other birds.

The WHEATEAR, or FALLOW CHAT, is a well-known visitant of the British
Isles, and on account of the delicate flavour of its flesh when fat, is sadly
persecuted throughout the whole time of its sojourn.

Being in great favour for the table, where it is popularly known as the
English ortolan, and consequently fetching a good price'in the market, it is
caught in great numbers, and sold to the game-dealers of London. The trap
by which it is captured is a remarkably simple affair. consisting merely of an
oblong piece of turf cut from the soil, and arranged crosswise over the
cavity from which it was taken. A horsehair noose is supported under the
turf by means of a stick, and the trap is complete, needing no bait or super-
vision. It is the nature of the Wheat-
ear to run under shelter at the least
alarm ; a passing cloud sufficing to
drive it under a stone or into a hole
in a bank. Seeing, therefore, the
sheltering turf, the Wheatear runs
beneath it, and is caught in the noose,
These simple traps are much used by ,
the shepherds, who can inake and
attend to four or five hundred in a day,
and have been known to catch upwards
of a thousand Wheatears within twenty-
four hours.

As a general rule, the nest of the.
Wheatear is hidden in the most per-
fect manner, the bird ordinarily choos-
ing to place its domicile within the REDSTART.—(Ruticilla phanicura.)
recesses of large stone-heaps, in deep
rocky crannies, and in similar loca-
lities ; so that, even if it should be discovered, the work of obtaining it is
very severe. In some pats of the cliff-bound sea-coast, the Wheatear’s nest
is so deeply buried in the rocky crevices, that the only mode of obtaining
the eggs is to hook out the nest by means of a bent wire at the end of a
long stick.

The upper part of the body is light silver-grey, and the quill feathers of
the wings, together with their coverts, are deep black. The middle tail-
feathers and the tips of the various rectrices, are of the same hue, and a
black streak passes from the edge of the beak to the ear, enveloping the eye,
and spreading widely upon the ear-coverts. The breast is buff, with a
decided orange tinge, and the abdomen is beautifully white. The female is
not quite so handsome; the wings, tail, and ear-coverts being dark brown,
and the lighter portions of the body tinged with brown. The total length of
the bird is about six inches and a half.

THE specific title of raenzcura, which is given to the REDSTART, signifies
“ruddy-tail,” and is attributed to the bird in consequence of the light ruddy
chestnut feathers of the tail and upper tail-coverts.

310 THE REDSTART.

It is a handsomely-coloured and elegantly-shaped bird, and is a great
ornament to our fields and hedge-rows. The name of Redstart is a very
appropriate one, and has been given to the bird in allusion to the peculiar
character of its flight. While walking quietly along the hedge-rows, the
observer may often see a bird flash suddenly out of the leafage, flirt its tail in
the air, displaying strongly a bright gleam of ruddy hue, and after a sharp
dash of a few yards, turn into the hedge again with as much suddenness as
it had displayed in its exit. These manceuvres it will repeat frequently,
always keeping well in front, and at last it will quietly slip through the
hedge, double back on the opposite side, and return to the spot whence it
had started.

No one need fancy, from seeing the bird in the hedge, that its nest is in
close proximity, for the Redstart seldom builds in such localities, only haunt-
ing them for the sake of obtaining food for its young. The nest is almost
invariably built in the hole of an old wall, in a crevice of rock, a heap of

REDBREAST.—(Zrythacus rubecula,)

large stones, in a hollow tree, or in very thick ivy. The eggs are generally
five in number, although they vary from four to seven, and are of a beautiful
blue, with a slight tinge of green. They are not unlike those of the common
hedge-sparrow, but are shorter and of a different contour. ;
The Redstart has a very sweet song, which, although not very powerful, is
soft and melodious, bearing some resemblance to that of the nightingale.
The food of the Redstart is mostly of an insect nature, and is obtained in
various ways. Sometimes the bird dashes from its perch upon a passing
insect, after the manner of the flycatcher ; sometimes it chases beetles and
other creeping insects upon the leaves and branches of the hedges ; some-
times it hunts for worms, grubs, and snails from the ground; and it often
picks maggots out of fungi, decaying wood, mosses, and lichens. Soft ripe
fruit is also eaten by the Redstart, which, however, ought to be allowed its
free range of the garden in recompense for the great service which it has
pertormedin the eailier portion of the year, by devouring the myriad insects

THE REDBREAST. 311

that feed upon the blossoms of fruit-trees. The softer berries form part of
the Redstart’s diet, but the bird does not seem to care about the hard seeds.

THERE are few birds which are more familiar to us than the REDBREAST,
or ROBIN, a bird which is interwoven among our earliest recollections,
through the medium of “The Children in the Wood” and the mournful
ballad of “The Death and Burial of Cock Robin.”

Although the Redbreast remains in England throughout the winter, it is
very susceptible to cold, and one of the first birds to seek for shelter, its
appearance among the outhouses being always an indication of coming
inclemency. In cold weather, the Redbreast seldom perches upori twigs and
branches, but crouches in holes or sits upon the ground. The bird seems
strongly attached to man and his home, and will follow the ploughman over
the fields, picking up the worms which he turns up with the ploughshare, or
enter his house and partake of his evening meal.

The nest of this bird is generally placed near the ground in a thick leafy
bush, or in a bank, and is composed of dry leaves, moss, grass, hair, and
feathers. I have seen the nest very well concealed among the thick ivy that
had wreathed round a tree-trunk, and placed about eight feet from the
ground. The bird seldom flies directly to its nest, or leaves it directly, but
alights at a little distance, and creeps through the leaves or branches until it
enters its home.

The eggs of the Redbreast are generally five in number, as is the case with
most of the song-birds, and their colour is greyish white, covered with
variously-sized spots of pale rusty red. The song of this bird is very sweet
and pleasing ; and it is a pretty sight to observe two or more Redbreasts
perched on different trees, and answering each other with their musical cries.
‘Whenever the Redbreast perches on the top of a tree or other elevated spot,
and begins to sing merrily, it is an unfailing indication that the weather of
the coming day promises to be fair. The bird sings throughout the greater
part of the year, beginning early in spring, and continuing it very late into
the autumn. Even in the winter months, a bright sunny day is apt to excite
the Robin to perch upon a twig and pour forth a sweet though broken
melody.

The colour of the male Robin is bright olive-brown on the back, orange-
red on the throat, chin, breast, forehead, and round the eye. A stripe of
blue-grey runs round the red, and the abdomen and lower part of the breast
are white. The bill and eyes are black. The female is coloured after the
same manner, but the tints are not so vivid as in her mate. The total length
of the bird is nearly six inches, and its weight about half an ounce.

OF the pretty though sober-plumaged Accentors, we have one or two
British examples, that which is best known being the HEDGE ACCENTOR, or
HEDGE SPARROW, as it is often, though wrongly, called, as it by no means
belongs to the same group of birds.

The Hedge Accentor is very common through the whole of England, and
may be heard in the gardens, copses, and hedge-rows, chanting its pleasing
and plaintive melody without displaying much fear of its auditors.

It is especially adapted for living among hedges, as it possesses a singular
facility in threading its way through the twigs, stems, and branches. It
seems equally at home in dried brushwood, and may often be seen traversing
the interior of a woodpile with perfect ease. The nest is one of the earliest
to be built, and is frequently completed and the eggs laid before the genial
warmth of spring has induced the green leaves to burst their inclosures.

The nest is generally placed at a very low elevation, seldom more than
two or three feet from the ground, and it is rather large in proportion to the
size of the bird, The materials of which the structure is made are various

312 THE HEDGE SPARROW.

mosses, wool, and hair, and the eggs are usually five in number, of a bright
bluish green colour. Sometimes, but very rarely, six eggs are found in a
single nest.

The song ot the Hedge Accentor is sweet, but not varied nor powerful,
and has a peculiar plaintive air about it. The bird is a persevering songster,
continuing to sing turoughout a large portion of the year, and only ceasing
during the time of the ordinary moult.
Like many other warbling birds, it
possesses considerable powers of imi-
tation, and can mock with some suc-
cess the greater number of British
song-birds.

The colour of the Hedge Accentor
is bluish grey, covered with small
brown streaks upon the head and the
back and sides of the neck. The back
and wings are brown, streaked with a
deeper tint of the same hue, and the
quill feathers of the wings and tail
are of a rather darker brown, and not
quite so glossy. The chin, the throat,
and upper part of the breast are grey,
HEDGE SPARROW, OR ACCENTOR. and the lower part of the breast and

(Accentor modulurius.) the abdomen are white with a wash

of pale buff. The legs and toes are

brown, with a decided orange tinge, and the beak is dark brown. The
total length of the bird is nearly six inches. ;

THE group of birds which are distinguished by the name of Parinz or
TITMICE, are easily
recognizable, having
all a kind of famliy
resemblance which
guards the observer
from mistaking them
for any other bird.

The first example
of these birds is the
GREAT TITMOUSE,
an inhabitant of
- England and many

parts of Europe. —

It does not mi-
grate, finding a suf-
ficiency of winter
food in its native
land. During the
summer it generally
haunts the forests,
gardens, or shrub-

: beries, and may be
GREAT TITMOUSE —(furus major.) seen hopping and
running about the
branches of the trees in a most adroit manner, searching for insects, and
occasionally knocking them out of their hiding-places by sharp blows of
the bill, The beak of the Great Titmouse is, although so small, a very

TITMICE. 313

formidable one, for the creature has often been knewn to set upon the
smaller birds and to kill them by repeated blows on the head, afterwards
pulling the skull to pieces and picking out the brains. During the winter
the Great Titmouse draws near to human habitations, and by foraging
among the barns and outhouses, seldom fails in discovering an ample
supply of food.

The nest is always made in some convenient hollow, generally that of
a tree, but often in the holes of old walls, and in the cavities that are
formed by thick gnarled roots in the sides of a bank. Hollow trees, how-
ever, are the favourite nesting-places of this bird, which is able to shape
the hollow to its liking, by chiselling away the decaying wood with its
sharp strong beak. The materials of which the nest is made vary accord-
ing to the locality, There are generally from eight to twelve eggs in each

BLUE TITMOUSE —(Farus ceruleus.)

nest, and their colour is whitish grey, covered with mottlings of a rusty red,
which are thickly gathered towards the larger end.

The colouring of this species is very bold, and is briefly as follows: The
top of the head and throat, as far as the middle of the neck, together with
arather broad streak down the centre of the chest and abdomen, are rich
purple-black, relieved by a spt of pure white on the nape of the neck, and
a large flask-shaped patch under each eye. The back and shoulders are
ashy green, the greater wing-coverts are blue-black, each feather being tipped
with white, so as to form a bar across the wings. The quill feathers are dark
green-grey, the primaries being edged with greyish white. The tail-feathers
are the same green-grey, except that the extreme feathers are white on their
outer ends. The under parts are light sulphurous yellow, and the under tail-
coverts are white. The total length of the bird is not quite six inches.

THE little BLUE TITMOUSE is one of the most familiar birds of England,
as it is widely spread throughout the land, and is of so bold a nature that it
exhibits itself fearlessly to any observer. In many of its habits it resembles
the last-mentioned species, but it nevertheless possesses a very markcd
character, and has peculiarities which are all its own. As it trips glancingly

314 TITMICE.

over the branches, it hardly looks like a bird, for its quick limbs and strong
claws carry it over the twigs with such rapidity that it resembles a biue
mouse rather than one of the feathered tribe. Being almost exclusively an
insect-eating bird, and a most voracious little creature, it renders invaluable
service to the agriculturist and the gardener by discovering and destroying
the insects which crowd upon the trees and plants in the early days of
spring, and which, if not removed, would effectually injure a very large pro-
portion of the fruit and produce. in

The nest of this species may be found in the most extraordinary localities,
such as hollow trees, holes in old walls, the interior of disused spouts, sides
of gravel-pits, the hat of a scarecrow, the inside of a porcelain jar, or the
cylinder of a pump. One bird had actually chosen a bee-hive as its
residence, and had succeeded in building its nest and rearing its young while
surrounded by the bees going to and returning from their work. Another
Titmouse contrived to get into a weathercock on the summit of a spire,
and there made its nest in security. The eggs are small and rather
numerous, heing generally about eight or ten, but sometimes exceeding the
latter number.

THE LONG-TAILED TIT-
MOUSE is familiarly known
throughout England, and is
designated under different
titles, according to the locality
in which it resides, some of its
popular names being derived
from its shape, and others
from its crest. In some parts
of the country it is called
“Long Tom,” while _ others
it goes by the name of “ Zottle-
crested Tit,” or “ Poke-Pud-
ding,” the latter word being a
provincial rendering of the
useful culinary apparatus
termed a pudding-Vag.

This pretty little bird is a

LONG-TAIL'D TITMOUSE.—(Parus caudatus.) notable frequenter of | trees,

hedgerows, and orchards, and
is remarkable for its sociable habits, being generally seen in little troops of
six or eight in number. It appears that the young birds always remain with
their parents throughout the whole of the first year, so that when the brood
happens to be a large one, as many as sixteen Long-tailed Titmice may be
seen hopping and skipping about together.

As far as is known, the Long-tailed Titmouse feeds exclusively on insects,
and on account of its microscopical eyes is able to see and to catch the very
minutest. The service which is rendered to agriculture by even a single nest
of these birds is almost invaluable, for at all seasons of the year they con-
tinue to obtain their food, catching the perfect insect in the summer, and
feeding on the eggs, hidden larvee, and chrysalides in the winter.

The nest of this species is undoubtedly the most wonderful example of
bird architecture that is to be found in the British Islands, and is not
exceeded in beauty by the home of any bird whatever. Jn form it somewhat
resembles an egg, and it is built of moss, hair, a very little wool, the cocoon
webs of spiders, and the silken hammocks of certain caterpillars, all woven
into each other in the most admirable manner, The exterior of the nest is

THE PIED WAGTAIL, 315

spangled with silvery lichens, which generally correspond in colour with the
bark of the tree on which it is placed, and serve to render it as little con-
spicuous as possible. The interior of the nest is wonderfully soft and warm,
being literally crammed with downy feathers to such an extent that the eggs
are deeply buried in the feathery bed, and cannot be counted until the whole
lining of the nest is removed. The nest is generally placed rather near the
ground, and is so well concealed that it is not easily seen except by expe-
rienced eyes. .

The number of eggs which this little bird lays is really surprising. Very
seldom does it content itself with eight, and double that number has been
frequently counted in a single nest. In consequence, the young birds are
packed like so many herrings in a barrel, and the ingenuity which must be
exerted by the parent birds in giving each little one its food in proper
rotation must be very great indeed.

The colouring of this species is as follows. The upper part of the head,
the cheeks, the throat, and the whole of the under surface are greyish white,
warming into a rosy hue upon the sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts. A
broad stripe of deep black passes over the eye and ear-coverts, and joins
a. large triangular patch of the same jetty hue, which extends from the
shoulders as far as the upper tail-coverts. The shoulders, the scapularies,
and the lower part of the back are washed with a decided tinge of a ruddy
hue. The wings are mostly black, with the exception of the tertiary quill
feathers, which are edged with white. The long central feathers of the tail
are black, and the remainder are black on the inner webs and white on the
outer. They are regularly graduated in length, each pair being about half
an inch shorter than the preceding pair. Both sexes are similar in their
colouring. The total length of the bird is about five inches and a half.

WAGTAILS.

WE now arrive at a smail group of birds which is sufficiently familiar to
every observer of nature through the different representatives which inhabit
this country. The WAGTAILS, so called from their well-known habit of
jerking their tails while running on the ground or on settling immediately
after a flight, are found in both hemispheres, and are all well known by the
habit from which they derive their popular title. N ‘ess than nine species
of this group occur in Britain, some of which are nearly as well known as the
common sparrow, while others are less familiar to the casual observer.

The PIED WAGTAIL is the most common of all the British examples of
this genus, and may be seen at the proper season of the year near almost
every pond or brook, or even in the open road, tripping daintily over the
ground, pecking away at the insects and wagging its tail with hearty

ood-will,

Z Mr. Yarrell mentions that this bird is an accomplished fisher, and excels
in snapping up the smaller minnows and fry as they come to the surface of
the water. It also haunts the fields where sheep, horses, or horned cattle are
kept, and hovers confidingly close to their hoofs, pecking away briskly at the
little insects which are disturbed by their tread. It also delights in newly
mown lawns, and runs over the smooth surface with great agility, peering
between every grass-blade in search of the insects which may be lying con-
cealed in their green shelter. The flight of the Pied Wagtail is short and
jerking, the bird rising and falling in a very peculiar manner with every
stroke of the wings.

The Pied Wagtail remains in England throughout the vear, but generally

316 FIPITS.

retires to the southern counties during the winter, as it would othewise be
unable ta obtain its food. .

The nest of the Wagtail is generally placed at no great distance from water,
and is always built in some retired situation. Holes in walls, the hollows
of aged trees, or niches in old gravel-pits are favourite localities with this bird.
Heaps of large stones are also in great favour with the Wagtail, and I have
generally found that wheres er a pile of rough stones has remained for some time
in the vicinity of water, a Wagtail’s nest is almost invariably somewhere with-
init. I have also found the nest in heaps of dry brushwood piled up for the
purpose of being cut into faggots. In every case the nest is placed at a con-
siderable depth. The eggs are generally four or five in number, and their
colour is grey-white, speckled with a great number of very small brown spots,

The colouring of the Pied Wagtail is almost entirely b ack and white, very
boldly disposed and distributed as follows. The top of the head, the nape
of the neck, part of the shoulders, the chin, neck, and throat, are jetty black,
contrasting boldly with the pure snowy white of the sides of the face and the
white patch on the sides of the neck. The upper tail-coverts and the coverts
of the wings are also black. The quill feathers of the wings are black, edged
on the outer web with a lighter
hue. The two exterior feathers
of the tail are pure white, edged
on the inner web with white, and
the remainder jetty black. The
under parts of the body are grey-
ish white, taking a blue tint upon
the flanks. The entire length of
the bird is between seven and
eightinches. This is the summer
plumage of the male bird. In
the winter the chin and throat
exchange their jetty hue for a
pure white, leaving only a collar

PIED WAGTAIL.—(Motacilla Yarrellit.) lice aepehion emann epee rd
in the general colouring of her
plumage, but is about half an inch shorter.

The PIPITS, or TITLARKS as they are sometimes called, form a well-
marked group, which possesses the long hind toe of the hawk, together with
very similar plumage, and also bears the long tail which is found in the
Wagtaiis Several species of Pipit inhabit England.

The best-known is the common MEaAbDow PIPIT, or MEADOW TITLING, a
bird which may be seen throughout the year upon moors, waste lands, and
marshy ground, changing its locality according to the season of year. It 1s
a pretty though rather sombre little bird, and is quick and active in its more-
ments, often jerking its long tail in a fashion that reminds the observer of
the Wagtail’s habits. It moves with considerable celerity, tripping over the
rough and rocky ground which it frequents, and picking up insects with the
stroke of its unerring beak. Its food, however, is of a mixed description, as
in the crops of several individuals were found seeds, insect and water-shells,
some of the latter being entire.

The nest of this species is placed on the ground, and generally hidden in
a large grass-tuft.

THE very large family of the THRUSHES now engages our attention.
Many of these birds are renowned for their song, and some of them are
remarkable for their imitative power.,

/
(

I

THE DIPPER, OR WATER OUSEL. 317

THE Ant Thrushes find an English representative in the well-known
DIPPER, or WATER OUSEL, of our river banks.

Possessing neither brilliant plumage nor graceful shape, it is yet one of the
most interesting of British birds when watched in its favourite haunts. It
always frequents rapid streams and channels, and being a very shy and
retiring bird, invariably prefers those spots where the banks overhang the
water, and are clothed with thick brushwood. Should the bed of the
stream be broken up with rocks or large stones, and ‘he fall be sufficiently
sharp to wear away an occasional pool, the Dipper is ai the better pleased
with its home, and in such a locality may generally be found by a patient
observer.

All the movements of this little bird are quick, jerking, and wren-like, a
similitude which is enhanced by its habit of continually flirting its apology
for a tail. Caring nothing for the frosts of winter, so long as the water

PLY,
PPro £2

SE, matte =<
MEADOW PIPIT.—(Axnthus pratensis.)

remains free from ice, the Dipper may be seen throughout the winter months
flitting from stone to stone with the most animated gestures, occasionally
stopping to pick up some morsel of food, and ever and anon taking to the
water, where it sometimes dives entirely out of sight, and at others merely
walks into the shallows and there flaps about with great rapidity.

The food of the Dipper seems to be exclusively of an animal character,
and, in the various specimens which have been examined, consists of insects
in their different stages, small crustaceze, and the spawn and fry of various
fishes. Its fish-eating propensities have been questioned by some writers.
but the matter has been entirely set at rest by the discovery of fish-bones
and half-digested fish in the stomachs of Dippers that had been shot.
Generally, however, the food consists of water-beetles, particularly of the
genus known by the name of Hydrophilus, a flat, oval-shaped insect, with
hard wing-cases and oar-like hind-legs. The bird has also been known to
pick up the caddis worms, taking them on shore, pulling and knocking to
pieces the tough case in which the fat white grub is enveloped, and swallow-
ing the contents,

318 THE MOCKING 8&/RD.

The song of the Dipper is a lively and cheerful performance, and is
uttered most frequently in the bright frosty mornings. Sometimes it will
stand upon a stone when singing, and accompany its song with the oddest
imaginable gestures, hopping and skipping about, twisting its head in all
directions and acting as if it
were performing for the amuse-
ment of the spectator.

The nest is not unlike that of
the wren, being chiefly composed
of mosses built into a dome-like
shape with a single aperture in
the side. It is generally placed
near the water, and always under
some sort of cover, usually a hole
| in the bank.

The nest is not, however, al-
ways so close to the water, for
I found one near Swindon, in

DIPPER.—(Hydrobates cinclus.) the side of an old disused pit, at

some little distance from the

great Swindon reservoir. It was discovered more by accident than by

intention, the touch having given the first intimation of its presence. The

moss always remains in a green state, as it is placed in a damp locality, so

that it can with great difficulty be distinguished from the vegetation’ of the
spot whereon it is situated.

The eggs are pure white, and rather long in proportion to their breadth.
Their full number is five, and the young remain with their parents for a

: considerable period, forming
little companies of five or
six of these curious birds.

The general colour of this
bird is brown on the upper
surface of the body; the
throat and upper parts of
the chest are white, and the
abdomen is rusty red. The
young birds possess a rather
variegated plumage of black,
brown, ash colour, and white.
Si} The total length of the adult
bird is about seven inches.

THE MOCKING BIRD of
America is universally al-
lowed to be the most won-
derful of all songsters, as it

MOCKING BIRD.—(Mimus polyglottus.) not only possesses a very

fine and melodious voice,

but is also endowed with the capacity for imitating the notes of any other.

bird, and, indeed, of immediately reproducing with* the most astonishing
exactness any sound which it may hear. ; . ;

All persons who come within the sound of the Mocking Bird’s voice are
fascinated with the thrilling strains that are poured without effort from the
melodious throat, and every professed ornithologist who has heard this
wonderful bird has exhausted the powers of his language in endeavouring
to describe the varied and entrancing melody of the Mocking Bird. Within

THE MISSEL VHRUSH, 319

the Lompass of one single throat the whole feathered race seems to be com-
prised, for the Mocking Bird can with equal ease imitate, or rather reproduce,
the sweet and gentle twittering of the blue-bird, the rich full song of the
thrush, or the harsh ear-piercing scream of the eagle.

Let it but approach the habitation of man, and it straightway adds a new
series of sounds to its already vast store, laying up in its most retentive
memory the various noises that are produced by man and his surroundings,
and introducing among its other imitations the barking of dogs, the harsh
“setting” of saws, the whirring buzz of the millstone, the everlasting clack
of the hoppers, the dull heavy blow of the mallet, and the cracking of
splitting timbers, the fragments of songs whistled by the labourers, the
creaking of ungreased wheels, the neighing of horses, the plaintive “ baa”
of the sheep, and the deep lowing of the oxen, together with aJl the innumer-
able and accidental sounds which are necessarily produced through human
means. Unfortunately, the bird is rather apt to spoil his own wonderful song
by a sudden introduction of one of these inharmonious sounds, so that the
listener, whose ear is being delighted with a succession of the softest and
richest toned vocalists, will
suddenly be electrified with
the loud shriek of the angry
hawk or the grating whirr of
the grindstone.

The nest of this bird is
usually placed in some thick
bush, and is in general very
carefully concealed. Some-
times, however, when the
bird builds in localities
where it knows that it will
be protected from human in-
terference, it is quite indif-
ferent about the concealment
of its home, and trusts to its
own prowess for the defence
of its mate and young. The
nest is always placed at a
short distance from the
ground, being seldom seen
at an elevation of more than eight feet.

The materials of which the nest is composed are generally dried weeds
and very slender twigs as a foundation ; straw, hay, wool, dried leaves, and
moss, as the main wall ; and fine vegetable fibres as the lining. The eggs
are four or five in number, and there are often two broods in the course of
tb year. The colour of the eggs is greenish blue, spotted with amber-

rown.

THE first example of the true Thrushes is the MIssEL THRUSH, one of
the largest and handsomest of the species.

It is one of our resident birds, and on account of its great size, its com-
bative nature, its brightly-feathered breast, its rich voice and gregarious
habits, is one of the best known of the British birds. About the beginning
of April the Missel Thrush sets about its nest, and in general builds a large
weighty edifice, that can be seen through the leafless bushes from a great
distance.

The materials of which the nest is composed are the most heterogeneous
that can be imagined. Every substance that can be woven into a nest is

MISSEL THRUSH.—(T7urdus viscivorus.)

4,20 THE BLACKBIRD.

pressed into the service. Moss, hay, straw, dead leaves, and grasses are
among the ruling substances that are employed for the purpose, and the bird
often adds manufactured products, such as scraps of rag, paper, or shavings.
I once found one of these nests that was ingeniously placed in the crown of
an old hat which had evidently been flung into the tree by some traveller.
At first, it hardly looked like a nest, but there were a few bits of grass lying
over the brim that had a very suspicious aspect, and on climbing the tree,
~ the old hat was proved to have been made the basis of a warm nest, with
the proper complement of eggs.

Towards the end of the summer the Missel Thrushes assemble in flocks of
considerable size, and in the autumn often do great harm to gardens and
plantations, by devouring the fruit. They are particularly fond of rasp-
berries and cherries, and have been known entirely to ruin the crop of these
fruits. They are also fond of the berries of the mountain ash and the
arbutus, and are so partial to the viscid berries of the mistletoe plant that
they have been called by its name. Insects of various kinds, caterpillars,
and spiders also form part of the Missel Thrush’s diet, and a partly-digested
lizard has been found in the interior of one of these birds.

The song of the Missel Thrush is rich, loud, clear, and ringing, and is
often uttered during the stormiest period of the year, the bird seeming to
prefer the roughest and most inclement weather for the exercise of its voice.

ANOTHER large example of the British Thrushes is found in the FIELDFARE,

This bird is one of the migratory species, making only a winter visit to
this country, and often meeting a very inhospitable reception from the gun
of the winter sports-boy. Very seldom is it seen in this country till
November, and is often absent until the cold month of December, when it
makes its appearance in great flocks, searching eagerly for food over the
fields. When the snow lies heavily upon the fields, this bird betakes itself
to the hedge-rows and outskirts of woods and copses, and there feeds on the
various berries that have survived the autumn. During this inclement
season the Fieldfare may be approached and shot without much difficulty.
Their shyness, however, depends greatly on the amount of persecution which
they have sustained.

In its colour the Fieldfare bears a decided resemblance to the generality of
tne Thrushes. The upper parts of the body as far as the shoulders are ashen
grey, dotted with dark-prown spots upon the head ; the back and wings are
rich brown, and the tail is dark blackish brown. The chin and throat are a
peculiar golden hue, not unlike amber, and covered with numerous black
streaks ; the breast is reddish brown, also spotted with black, and the abdo-
men and under parts are white, spotted on the flanks and under tail-coverts
with brown of various shades. The Fieldfare is not quite so large a bird as
the Missel Thrush, being about ten inches in total length.

AMONG the best-known and best-loved of our British songsters, the
BLACKBIRD is one of the most conspicuous.

This well-known bird derives its popular name from the uniformly black
hue of its plumage, which is only relieved by the bright orange-coloured bill
of the male bird. The song of this creature is remarkable for its full mellow-
ness of note, and is ever a welcome sound to the lover of nature and her
vocal and visual harmonies.

The Blackbird feeds usually on insects, but it also possesses a great love
of fruit, and in the autumn ravages the gardens and orchards in a most de-
structive manner, picking out all the best and ripest fruit, and wisely leaving
the still immatured produce to ripen on the branches.

The nest of this bird is made very early in the spring, and is always care-
fully placed in the centre of some thick bush, a spreading holly-tree being a

THE THRUSH. 328

very favourite locality. It is a large, rough, but carefully-constructed habita-
tion, being made externally of grass-stems and roots, plastered on the interior
with a rather thick lining of coarse mud, which, when thoroughly dried,
forms a kind of rude earthenware cup. A lining of fine grass is placed
within the earthen cup, and upon this lining the five eggs are laid These
eggs are of a light greyish blue ground colour, splashed, spotted and
freckled over their entire surface with brown of various shades and intensity.
The colouring of these eggs is extremely variable, even those of a single nest
being very different in their appearance. :

The Blackbird is very courageous in defence of its nest, and will attack
almost any animal that threatens the security of its home. On one occasion
a prowling cat was forced to retreat ignominiously from the united assaults
of two Blackbirds near whose domicile she had ventured.

THE well-known SONG THRUSH, or THROSTLE as it is sometimes called,
bears a deservedly high rank among our British birds of song.

It is plentifully found in most parts
of England, and favours us with its
vocal efforts throughout a consider-
able portion of the year. The song of
the Thrush is peculiarly rich, mellow,
and sustained, and is remarkable for
the full purity of its intonation and
the variety of its notes. The Thrush
begins to'sing as soon as incubation
commences, and continues its song
from the beginning of the spring until
the middle of autumn. In many
cases the bird sings to a very late
period of the year, and has been heard
in the months of November and
December.

The food of the Thrush is mostly
of an animal character, and consists
largely of worms, snails, slugs, and
similar creatures. In eating snails it
is very dexterous, taking them in its
bill, battering them against a stone
until the shells are entirely crushed,
and then swallowing the inclosed
mollusc. When a Thrush has found
a stone that suits his purpose peculiarly well, he brings all his snails to the
spot, and leaves quite a large heap of empty snail shells under the stone.
One of the best examples that I have ever seen was a large squared boulder-
stone, forming part of a rustic stile in Wiltshire. There was a large pile of
shells immediately under the stone, and the ground was strewed for some
distance with the crushed fragments that had evidently been trodden upon
and carried away by the feet of passengers. :

The Thrush does not, however, confine itself wholly to this kind of diet,
but in the autumn months feeds largely on berries and different fruits, being
very fond of cherries, and often working great havoc in an orchard or fruit.
garden. But in spite of its occasional inroads upon the gardens, it deserves
the gratitude of the agriculturist on account of its service in destroying the
snails and other garden pests, and may well be allowed to take its autumnal
toll of a few of the fruits of which it has been such an efficient preserver.

The nest of the Thrush is rather large, and shaped like a basin. The

Y

BLACKBIRD.—( 7urdus merula.)

322 THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.

shell of the nest is composed of roots and mosses, inside which is worked a
rather thin but wonderfully compact layer of cow-dung and decayed wood,
so strongly kneaded that when dry it will hold water almost as well as an
earthenware vessel. There are usually five eggs, of a beautiful blue spotted
with black, The spots are small, round, and well marked, and are extremely
variable in size and number ;
they are always gathered
towards the larger end of
the egg.

THE GOLDEN ORIOLE is
an extremely rare visitant of
this country, having been
but seldom observed within
our coasts, but is far from
uncommon in many parts of
the Continent, especially the
more southern portions of
Europe, such as the shores
of the Mediterranean and
Southern Italy.

It derives its name from
the bright golden yellow
with which the feathers of
. the adult male bird are large-
SONG THRUSH.—(Turdus musicus.) ly tinged; but as the full

glory of its plumage is not
displayed until the bird has entered its third year, it is possible that many
specimens may have visited this country and again departed without having
attracted particular atten-
tion.

It is rather gregarious in
its habits, generally associat-
ing in little flocks, and fre-
quenting lofty trees and or-
chards, where it can obtain
abundance of food.

The nest of this bird-is
a very elegantly-formed and
well-constructed edifice, of a
shallow cup-like shape, and
usually placed in a horizon-
tal fork of a convenient
branch. The materials of
which it is made are mostly
delicate grass-stems, inter-
woven with wool so firmly
3 that the whole structure is

GOLDEN ORIOLE.—(Oriolus galbula.) strong and warm. The eggs

are generally four or five in

number, and their colour is purplish white, sparingly marked with blotches

of a deep red and ashen grey. It is believed that there is but one brood

in the year, so that the species does not multiply very rapidly. Sometimes

the bird is said to build a deep and purse-like nest, which is suspended
from a forked branch instead of being placed upon it.

THE interesting family of FLYCATCHERS is composed of a large number of

FLYCATCHERS. 323

species, extremely variable in size, form, and colour. The average dimen-
sions of these birds are about equal to those of a large sparrow, and many
are smaller than that bird, although two or three species nearly equal the
thrush in size.

PIED FLYCATCHER. —(Muscicapa atricapilla.)
SPOTTED FLYCATCHER.—(Muscicapa grisola.)

The SPOTTED FLYCATCHER has received several local names in allusion
to its habits, the titles WALL BIRD and BEAM BIRD being those by which
itis most frequently designated. It is one of the migrating birds, arriving
in this country at a rather late season, being seldom seen before the middle
or even towards the end of May.

324, FLYCATCHERS.

This, bird is fond of haunting parks, gardens, meadows, and shrubberies,
always choosing those spots where flies are most common, and attacning
itself to the same perch for many days in succession. When the Flycatcher
inhabits any place where it has been accustomed to live undisturbed, it is a
remarkably trustful bird, and perinits the near approach of man, even avail-
ing itself of his assistance.

The Spotted Flycatcher builds a very neatly made nest, and is in the habit
of fixing its home in the most curious and unsuspected localities. The hinge
of a door has on more than one occasion been selected for the purpose,
and in one instance the nest retained its position although the door was
repeatedly opened and closed, until a more severe shock than ordinary
shook the eggs out of the nest and broke them. It is fond of selecting
some human habitation for the locality in which it builds its nest, and its
titles of Beam Bird and Wall Bird have been given to it because it is in the
habit of making its home on beams or in the holes of walls. The branches
of a pear, apricot, vine, or honeysuckle are favourite resorts of the Spotted
Flycatcher, when the tree has been trained against a wall.

‘rhe nest is generally round and cup-shaped, and is made of fine grasses,
moss, roots, hair, and feathers, the harder materials forming the walls of the
nest, and the softer being employed as lining.

The eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher are four or five in number, and their
colour is a very pale bluish white, spotted with ruddy speckles. As the nest
is made at so late a period of the year, being but just begun when some
birds have hatched their first brood, there is not often more than a singl:
family in the course of the season. Sometimes, however, it has been know,
to hatch and rear a second brood in safety.

The general coleur of the Spotted Flycatcher is a delicate brown on the
upper parts of the body, the quill feathers of the wings and tail being, as is
usually the case, of a blacker hue than the feathers of the back. There are
a few dark spots on the top of the head, and the tertial feathers of the wings
are edged with light brown. The breast is white, with a patch of very light
dull brown across its upper portion, and both the chin and breast are marked
with dark brown longitudinal streaks,

THE other species of British Flycatchers is much more rare than the bird
just described, and may easily be distinguished from it by the peculiarity of
plumage, from which it derives its popular title. The PIED FLYCATCHER
has been observed in most parts of England, but seems to be of very rare
occurrence, except in the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, where
it is found in the vicinity of the lakes.

The colouring of this birdis as follows: In the adult male, the top of the
head, back of the neck, back, and wings, are dark blackish brown, with the
exception of a white patch upon the forehead, and a broad stripe of white
on the tertiary and greater wing-coverts. The tail is black, except some bold
white marks on some of the outer feathers, and the whole of the under
surface is pure white. The female is of a delicate brown on the upper parts
of the body, and those portions which in the male are pure white are in the
female of a dull whitish grey. In dimensions the bird is not equal to the
Spotted Flycatcher, barely exceeding five inches in total length.

A SMALL but interesting group of birds has been designated by the name of
Ampeline, or Chatterers, in allusion to the loquacity for which some of the
species are remarkable. They all have a wide mouth, opening nearly as far
as the eyes, but without the bristly appendages which so often accompany a
large extent of gape.

One well-known species, the WAXEN CHATTERER, is a tolerably frequent
visitor of England, though it cannot be reckoned among the common British

THE WAXEN CHATTERER. 325

birds. It is also known by the name of the BOHEMIAN CHATTERER, the
latter name being singularly inappropriate, as the bird is quite as rare in
Bohemia as in Engand.

It is a very gregarious bird, assembling in very large flocks, and congre-
gating so closely together that great numbers have been killed at a single
discharge of a gun.

The long, flat, scarlet appendages to the wings are usually confined to the
secondaries and tertiaries, at whose extremities they dangle as if they had
been formed separately, and fastened to the feathers as an after thought.
Indeed they so precisely resemble red sealing-wax, that anyone on seeing
the bird for the first time would probably suppose that a trick had been
played upon him by some one who desired to tax his credulity to a very great
extent.

BOHEMIAN WAXWING, OR WAXEN CHATTERER.—(Ampelis garrula.)

To this country it only comes in the winter months, although there has
been an example of its appearance as early as August.

In its plumage the Bohemian Waxwing is a very pretty and striking bird,
being as notable for the silken softness of its feathers as for its pleasingly
blended colours and the remarkable appendage from which it derives its
popular name. The colouring of the bird is very varied, but may briefly be
described as follows. The top of the head and crest are a light soft brown,
warming into ruddy chestnut on the forehead. A well-defined band of black
passes over the upper base of the beak, and runs round the back of the head,
developing the eyes on each side, and there is a patch of the same jetty hue
on the chin. The general colour of the bird is grey-brown, the primary and
secondary feathers of the wings and tail are black, tipped with yellow, the
primary wing-coverts are tipped with white, and the tertiaries are purplish

326 THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.

brown, also tipped with white. The under surface of the bird is sober grey.
and the under tail-coverts are rich ruddy brown. The length of the Waxen
Chatterer is about eight inches.

WE now atrive at the family of Lanida, or SHRIKES, or BUTCHER BIRDS,
whose character is given in the names by which they are distinguished The
scientific term “ Lanide” is of Latin origin, and is derived from a word
which signifies lacerating or tearing, in allusion to the habits of the bird,
‘These birds are found in all parts of the globe, and in all countries are cele-
brated for their sanguinary and savage character. They are quite as
rapacious as any of the hawk tribe, and in proportion to their size are much
more destructive and bloodthirsty. They feed upon small and disabled
mammaiia, and birds of various kinds, especially preferring them while young
and still unfledged, and upon several kinds of reptiles, and also find great
part of their subsistence among the members of the insect world. ;

In order to fit them for these rapacious pursuits, the bill is strong, rather
elongated, sharp-edged, curved at the tip, and armed on each side with a
well-marked tooth. The wings are powerful, the plumage closely set, and the
claws strong, curved, and sharp. The Shrikes are separated for convenience
of reference into two groups or sub-families, namely, the true Shrikes, or
Laninz, ane the Bush Shrikes, or Thamnophiline.

The RED-BACKED SHRIKE is
asummer visitant to this country,
and is tolerably common. Its
winter quarters seem to be situ-
ated in Africa, and it reaches us
at the end of April, or the begin-
ning of May, passing through
Italy on its passage.

During the time of its residence
it may often be seen flitting about
the tops of hedges and small
trees, evidently in search of its
prey, and even ata considerable
distance may be recognized by
its habit of wagging its tail up
and down whenever it settles, in
a manner very similar to that of
the wag-tails, Usually it is seen in pairs ; but when the eggs are laid, the
male bird is generally engaged in procuring food while the mother bird
stays at home and attends to her domestic affairs.

The food of the Red-Backed Shrike chiefly consists of the larger insects,
such as grasshoppers, beetles, and chafers, and it is in the habit of impaling
them on the thorns near its nest, probably to save the mother bird the trouble
of going to look for her « wn meals. a

The nest of this Shrike is situated in hedges or bushes, generally from
five to ten feet from the ground, the average elevation being about seven feet.
It is large, rather clumsy, and very easily seen through the foliage, being
made of thick grass-stems, moss, and roots on the exterior, and lined with
very fine grasses and hair, In some places the nests are quite common, and
I have found’three in a hedge surrounding a single field of no very great
extent. The eggs are generally five in number, and are rather variable in
colouring, their ground colour being always white, tinged in some cases with
blue, in others with green, and in a few specimens with rusty red. The spots
with which they are marked are quite as variable, sometimes being numerous,
dark, and gathered into a ring at the large end of the egg, and sometimes

RED-BACKED SHRIKE.—(Zuneoctonus collurio.)

TH CROW TRIBE. 327

being only grey and light brown scattered irregularly, In all cases, however,
they are gathered upon the large end of the egg.

In the adult male, the head, neck, and upper parts of the shoulders are
pearly grey, with a black stripe across the base of the beak and running
through the eye. The back and wing-coverts are ruddy chestnut, fading into
reddish grey upon the upper tail-coverts. The quill feathers of the wings
are black, edged with red upon their outer webs, and the quill feathers cf
the tail are white at the basal half, and the remainder of each feather is
black tipped with a very narrow line of white. The chin and under tail-
coverts are white, and the rest of the under surface is pale rusty red. The
strongly notched and hooked beak is deep shining black. The female bird
may at once be known bythe absence of the black streak across the eye,
which in her case is replaced by a light-coloured stripe over the eye. The
head and all the upper parts of the body are reddish brown, and the red
edges of the wing-feathers are narrower than in the male. The under side
of the body is wholly greyish white, covered with very numerous transverse
lines of a darker hue.

WE now arrive at a very large and important group, called from the shape
of their beaks the CONIROSTRES, or Cone-billed Birds. In these birds the
bill varies in length and development, in some being exceedingly short, while
in others it is much elongated ; in some being straight and simple, while in
others it is curiously curved and furnished with singular appendages ; in some
being toothless, while in others there is a small but perceptible tooth near
the tip. In all, however, the bill is more or less conical in form, being very
thick and rounded at the base, and diminishing to a point at the extremity.
There are no less than eight recognized families of this large group, contain-
ing some of the most important and most remarkable members of the
feathered race.

THE first family is that which is well known under the title of Corvide,
or CROWS, containing the crows, rooks, magpies, starlings, and other familiar
birds, together with the equally celebrated bower birds but less known paradise
birds, troopials, and orioles. The beak of all these birds is long, powerful, and
somewhat compressed—z.e., flattened at the sides—curved more or less on the
ridge of the upper mandible, and with a notch at the extremity.

THE best known of the Garruline, or talkative birds, is our common English
JAY, one of the handsomest of our resident birds,

The ordinary note of the Jay is a rather soft cry, but the bird is a most
adroit imitator of various sounds, particularly those of a harsh character. It
has one especially harsh scream, which is its note of alarm, and serves to set
on the alert not only its own kind but every other bird that happens to be within
hearing. The sportsman is often baffled in his endeavours to get a shot at
his game by the mingled curiosity and timidity of the Jay, which cannot
“hear a strange rustling or see an unaccustomed object without sneaking
silently up to inspect it, and is so terribly frightened at the sight of 2 man
a dog, and a gun, that it dashes off in alarm, uttering its loud “ squawk,”
which indicates to every bird and beast that danger is abroad.

The Jay, like all the crow tribe, will eat animal or vegetable substances
with equal zest, and will plunder the hcards of small quadrupeds or swallow the
owner with perfect impartiality. Young birds are a favourite food of the Jay,
which is wonderfully clever at discovering nests and devouring the fledgelings.
Occasionally it even feeds upon birds, and as been seen to catch a full
grown thrush. Eggs also are great dainties with this bird, particularly those
of pheasants and partridges, so thatit is ranked among the “ vermin” by
all gamekeepers or owners of preserves. So fond is it of eggs, that it can
almost invariably be enticed into a trap by means of an egg or two placed as

328 THE FAY.

bait, and it is a curious fact that the Jay does not seem to be aware of the
right season for eggs, and suspects no guile even when it finds a nest full of
fine eggs in the depth of winter.

It also eats caterpillars, moths, beetles, and various similar insects
preferring the soft, fat, and full-bodied species to those of a more siei der
shape. Fruits and berries form a considerable portion of the autumnal toud
of this bird, and it occasionally makes great havoc in the cherry orchaids,
slipping in quietly at the early dawn, accompanied by its mate and young
family, and stripping the branches of the bark and finest fruit. The kitchen
garden also suffers severely from the attacks of the Jay, which has a great
liking for young peas and beans. It also eats chestnuts, nuts, and acorns,
being so fond of the last-mentioned fruit as to have received the title of
glandarius, meaning ‘“‘a lover of acorns.” Sometimes it becomes more re-
fined in its taste, and eats the flower of several cruciferous plants, which,
according to Mudie, it plucks slowly and carefully, petal by petal.

The nest of the Jay is a flattish kind of edifice, constructed of sticks, grass,
and roots, the sticks acting as the foundations, and a rude superstructure of
the softer substances being
placed upon them, It is
always situated at a con-
siderable elevation from the
ground. There are gene-
rally four or five eggs, and
the bird mostly brings up
two broods in the year.

In size, the Jay equals a
rather large pigeon; and
the colouring of its plum-
age is very attractive. The
general tint of the upper part
of the body is light reddish
brown, with a perceptible
purple tinge, varying in in-
tensity in different specimens.
The primary wing-coverts
are bright azure, banded

Jay.—(Garrulus glandarius.) with jetty black, and form

a most conspicuous orna-

ment on the sides‘as the bird sits with closed wings. The head is decorated

with a crest, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure, and the feathers of
which it is composed are whitish grey, spotted with black.

THE true CROWS are known by their beaks, which have no tooth in the
upper mandible, and by their wings, which are toleratly long and ample.
There are very many species spread over the world, and they are well repre-
sented in our own country.

THE first of these birds on our list is the celebrated RAVEN, our finest
representative of the family.

This truly handsome bird is spread over almost all portions of the habit-
able globe, finding a livelihood wherever there are wide expanses of un-
cultivated ground, and only being driven from its home by the advance of
cultivation and consequent inhabitance of the soil by human beings. It isa
solitary bird, living in the wildest district that it can find, and especially
preferring those that are intersected with hills. In such localities the Raven
reigns supreme, hardly the eagle himself daring to contest the supremacy
with so powerful, crafty, and strong-beaked a bird.

THE RAVEN. 329

The food of the Raven is almost entirely of an animal nature, and there
are few living things which the Raven will not eat whenever it finds an oppor
tunity of so doing. Worms, grubs, caterpillars, and insects of all kinds are
swallowed by hundreds, but the diet in which the Raven most delights is
dead carrion. In conse-
quence of this taste, the
Raven may be found rather
plentiful on the Scottish
sheep-feeding grounds,where
the flocks are of such im
mense size that the bird is
sure to find a sufficiency of
food among the daily dead ;
for its wings are large and
powerful, and its daily range
of flight is so great, that
many thousands of sheep
pass daily under its ken,
and it is tolerably sure in the
course of the day to find at
least one dead sheep or lamb.
Sometimes the Raven ac-
celerates matters, for if it
should find an unfortunate
sheep lying in a ditch, a mis-
fortune to which these ani-
mals are especially prone, it
is sure to cause the speedy
death of the poor creature
by repeated attacks upon its RAVEN, —(Corvus Corax.)
eyes. Weakly or ailing sheep
are also favourite subjects with the Raven, who soon puts an end to their
sufferings by the strokes of his long and powerful beak. Even the larger
cattle are not free from the assaults of this voracious bird, which performs
in every case the office of a vulture.

The cunning of the Raven is proverbial, and anecdotes of its extraordinary
intellectual powers abound in various works.

The Raven is an excellent linguist, acquiring the art of conversation with
wonderful rapidity, and retaining with a singularly powerful memory many
sounds which it has once learned. Whole sentences are acquired by this
strange bird, and repeated with great accuracy of intonation, the voice being
a good imitation of human speech, but always sounding as if spoken from
behind a thick woollen wrapper.

The Raven is celebrated for its longevity, many instances being known
where it has attained the age of seventy or eighty years, without losing one
jot of its activity, or the fading of one spark from its eyes. What may be the
duration of a Raven’s life in its wild state is quite unknown.

The colour of the Raven is a uniform blue-black, with green reflections in
certain lights. The female is always larger than her mate.

THE common CARRION Crow, so plentiful in this country, much resembles
in habits and appearance the bird which has just been described, and may
almost be reckoned as a miniature raven. In many of its customs the
Crow is very raven-like, especially in its love for carrion, and its propensity
f attacking the eyes of any dead or dying animal. Like the raven, it has
been known to attack game of various kinds, although its inferior size forces

330 THE ROOK.

it to call to its assistance the aid of one or more of its fellows, before it can
successfully cope with the larger creatures. Rabbits and hares are frequently
the prey of this bird, which pounces on them as they steal abroad to feed,
and while they are young is able to kill and carry them off without difficulty.
The Crow also eats reptiles of various sorts, frogs and lizards being common
dainties, and is a confirmed plunderer of other birds’ nests, even carrying
away the eggs of game and poultry by the simple device of driving’ the
beak through them anu flying away with them when thus impaled. Even the
large egg of the
duck has thus been
stolen by the Crow.
Sometimes it goes
to feed on the sea-
shore, and there
finds plenty of food
among the crabs,
shrimps, and shells
that are found
near low - water
mark, and _ ingeni-
ously cracks the
cRow.—(Corvus Corone.) harder shelled crea-
: tures by flying with

them to a great height and letting them fall upon a convenient rock.

The nest of the Crow is invariably placed in some tree remote from the
habitations of other birds, and is a structure of considerable dimensions, and
very conspicuous at a distance. It is always fixed on one of the topmost
branches, so that to obtain the eggs safely requires a steady head, a practised
foot, and a ready hand.

The materials of which the Crow’s nest is made are very various, but
always consist of a founuation of sticks, upon which the softer substances
are laid. The interior of the
nest is made of grasses,
fibrous roots, the hair of
cows and horses, which the
Crow mostly obtains from
trees and posts where the
cattle are in. the habit of
rubbing themselves, mosses,
and wool.

The colour of the Crow
is a uniform blue-black, like
that of the raven, but varie-
ties are known in which the
feathers have been pied or
even cream-white.

THE most familiar of all
the British Corvide is the

common Rook, a bird which
ROOK. —(Corvus frugilegus.) has attached itself to the
habitations of mankind, and

in course of time has partially domesticated itself in his dominions.

The habits of the Rook are very interesting, and easily watched. Its
extreme caution is very remarkable, when combined with its attachment to
human homes, A colony of a thousand birds may form a rookery in a park,

THE FACKDAW. 331

placing themselves under the protection of its owner ; and yet, if they see a
™man with a gun, or even with a suspicious-looking stick, they fly off their
nests with astounding clamour, and will not return until the cause of their
alarm is dissipated. During the “rook-shooting” time, all the strong-winged
birds leave their nests at the first report of the gun, and, rising to an
enormous elevation, sail about like so many black midges over their deserted
homes, and pour out their complaints in loud and doleful cries, which are
plainly audible even from the great height at which they are soaring.

The nest of the Rook is large, and rather clumsily built ; consisting chiefly
of sticks, upon which are laid sundry softer materials as a resting-place for the
eggs. The Rook is a very gregarious bird, building in numbers on the boughs
of contiguous trees, and having a kind of social compact that often rises into
the dignity of law. For example, the elder Rooks will not permit the younger
members of the community to build their nests upon an isolated tree at a
distance from the general assemblage ; and, if they attempt to iniringe this
regulation, always attack the offending nest in a body, and tear it to pieces.

The number of birds which are’ to be found in such rookeries is
enormously great, several thousands having been counted in a single
assemblage. In such cases they do great damage to the upper branches of
the trees, and in some in-
stances have been known to
kill the tree, by the con-
tinual destruction of the
growing boughs,

- The colour of the Rook is
a glossy deep blue-black, the
blue being more conspicious
on the wing-coverts and the
sides of the head and neck.
The length of an adult Rook
is about eighteen or nineteen
inches.

THE smallest of the British
Corvidee is the well-known
JACKDAW, a bird of infinite
wit and humour, and one
that has an extraordinary
attachment for man and his
habitations.

The Jackdaw may easily be
distinguished from either the rook or the crow by the grey patch upon the
crown of the head and back of the neck, which is very conspicuous, and can
be seen at a considerable distance. The voice, too, is entirely different from
the caw of the rook or the hoarse cry of the crow ; and as the bird is very
loquacious, it soon announces itself by the tone of its voice. It generally
takes up its home near houses, and is fond of nesting in old buildings, espe-
cially preferring the steeples and towers of churches and similar edifices,
where its nest and young are safe from the depredations of stoats, weasels,
and other destroyers.

The grey patch on the head and neck is not seen until the bird attains
maturity, the feathers being of the same black hue as on the remainder of
the body until the first moult, when the juvenile plumage is shed and the
adult garments assumed.

The nest of the Jackdaw is a very rude structure of sticks, lined, or
rather covered with hay, wool, feathers, and all kinds of miscellaneous sub-

JACKDAW.—(Corvus monedula.)

332 THE HOODED CROW.

stances of a warm kind for the eggs and young. It is placed in various
localities, generally in buildings or rocks, but has often been found in hollow
trees and even in the holes of rabbit warrens, the last-mentioned locality
being a very remarkable one, as the young birds must be in constant danger
of marauding stoats and weasels. In one instance a quantity of broken

iass was employed in the foundation of the nest. The Jackdaw is not
choice in the selection of feathered neighbours, for I have found in the same
tower the nests of pigeons, jackdaws, and starlings, in amicable proximity
to each other. The eggs are smaller and much paler than those of the rook
or crow, but have a similar general aspect. Their number is about five.

THE RoysTON Crow, or HOODED CROW, or GREY CROW, is a very
conspicuous bird, on account of the curiously pied plumage with which it is
invested,

This bird is not very common in England, but is plentifully found both in
Ireland, Scotland, and the Scottish isles, having been seen in large flocks of
several hundreds in number on the east coast of Jura. Generally it is not
very gregarious, the male
and female only being found
in company; but it some-
times chooses to associate
in little flocks of fifteen or
sixteen in number. It seems
to prefer the sea-coast to
any inland locality, as it
there finds a great variety of
food, and is not much ex-
posed to danger. I haveoften
seen these birds in the Bay
of Dublin, perched upon the
rocks at low water, and
searching for food among
the dank seaweed and
in the rock puddles that
are left by the retreating
ROYSTON, OR HOODED CROW.— (Corvus cornix) tide. They seemed always

extremely bold, and would
permit a very close approach without exhibiting any alarm. The banks of
the Medway between Rochester and Sheerness are much frequented by the
Hooded Crow.

The Hooded Crow never breeds in society, but always builds its nest at
some distance from the homes of any other of the same species, so that,
although a forest or a range of cliffs may be inhabited by these birds, the
nests are scattered very sparingly over the whole extent. ‘The structure of
the nest is somewhat similar to that of the crows and rooks, being a mass
of sticks and heather stalks as a foundation, upon which is placed a layer of
wool, hair, and other soft substances. Sometir.es the bird builds a better
and more compact nest with the bark of trees ; and in all cases this species
breeds very early in the season. ;

The Hooded Crow is boldly and conspicuously pied with grey and black,
distributed as follows :—The head, back of the neck, and throat, together
with the wings and tail, are a glossy bluish black, while the remainder of the
body is a peculiar grey, with a slight blackish wash.

WHO does not know the MAGPIE, the pert, the gay, the mischievous ?
What denizen of the country is not familiar with his many exploits in the
way of barefaced and audacious theft, his dipping flight, and his ingenuity in

THE MAPGIE. 333

baffling the devices of the fowler and the gunner ? What inhabitant of the
town has not seen him cooped in his wicker dwelling, dull and begrimed
with the daily smoke, but yet pert as ever, talkative, and a wonderful admirer
of his dingy plumage and ragged tail ?

The food of the Magpie is as multifarious as that of the crow or raven,
and consists of various animal and vegetable substances. It is a determined
robber of other birds’ nests, dragging the unfledged young out of their homes,
or driving its bill through their eggs, and thus carrying them away.

The nest of the Magpie is a rather complicated edifice, domed, with an en-
trance at the side, and mostly formed at the juncture of three branches, so
as to afford an effectual protection against any foe who endeavours to force
admittance into so strong a fortress. Generally the nest is placed at the very
summit of some lofty tree, the bird usually preferring those trees which run for
many feet without a branch. The tops of tall pines are favourite localities
for the Magpie’s nest, as the
trunk of these trees is bare
of branches except at the
summit, and the dark-green
foliage of the spreading bran-
ches is so thick that it affords
an effectual shelter to the
large and conspicuous edifice
whichrests upon the boughs.

When tame, it is a most

amusing bird, teaching itself *
all kinds of odd tricks, and
learning to talk with an ac-
curacy and volubility little
inferior to that of the parrot.
It is, however, a most incor-
rigibly mischievous bird, and
unless subjected to the most
careful supervision is capable ;
of doing a very great amount MAGPIE. —(Pica caudata.)
of damage in a wonderfully
short space of time. I have witnessed a multitude of these exploits, but as
I have already related many of them in “My Feathered Friends,” the
reader is referred to the pages of that little work for a tolerably long series
of new and original Magpie anecdotes.
' The plumage of this bird is remarkably handsome both in colour and
form. The head, neck, back, and upper tail-coverts are deep black, with a
light green gloss in certain lights ; and the same colour is found on the
chin, the throat, the upper part of the breast, and the base, tips, and
outer edges of the primary quill feathers. The secondaries are also
black, but with a blue gloss, which becomes peculiarly rich on the tertials and
wing-coverts. The inner web of the primaries is white for a considerable
portion of its length, presenting a bold and conspicuous appearance when
the bird spreads its wings. The central feathers of the tail are nearly eleven
inches in length, and they decrease gradually in size ; those on the exterior
being hardly five inches long. Their colour is a wonderfully rich mixture
of the deepest blue, purple, and green, the green being towards the base, and
the blue and purple towards the extremity. The under surface of the tail-
feathers is dull black. The lower parts of the breast, abdomen, and flanks
are snowy white.

OF the next little group of Corvidz, named the Pyrrhocoracine, or Scarlet

334 BIRDS OF PARADISE,

Crows, in allusion to the red bill and legs of some of the species, England
possesses a good example in the common CHouGH. In ali these birds the beak
is long and slender, slightly curved downwards, and with a smail notch at
the extremity. , ;

The Chough is ,essentially a coast bird, loving rocks and stones, and
having a great dislike to grass or hedges of every kind. When in search of
food it will venture for some little distance inland, and has been observed in
the act of following the ploughman after the manner of the rook, busily en-
gaged in picking up the grubs that are unearthed. Sometimes it will feed
upon berries and grain, but evidently prefers animal food, pecking its prey
out of the crevices among the rocks with great rapidity and certainty of aim,
its long and curved beak aiding it in drawing the concealed insects out of
their hiding-places. ; cur

As is the case with nearly all coast birds, the Chough builds its nest at no
great distance from the sea, generally choosing some convenient crevice in a
cliff, or an old ruin near the sea-shore. The nest is always placed at a con-
siderable elevation from the ground, and is made of sticks lined with wool,
hair, and other soft sub-
stances. The eggs are usally
five in number, and in
colour they are yellower
than those of the crow or
rook but are spotted with
similar tints. The general
colour of the Chough is
black, with a rich blue gloss,
contrasting well with the ver-
milion-red of the beak, legs,
andtoes. Theclawsare black,
and the eyes are curiously
coloured with red and blue
© in conceuvtric circles. The
total length of the adult
male Chough is about seven-
teen inches, and the female
is about three inches shorter.

CHOUGH. —(Coracia gracula.)

THE supremely glorious
members of the feathered
tribe which have by common consent been termed BIRDS OF PARADISE are
not very numierous in species, but are so different in form and colour, according
to the sex and age, that they have been ‘considered far more numerous tkan
is really the case. The plumage of these birds is wonderfully rich and varied,
and not even the humming-birds themselves present such an inexhaustible
treasury of form and colour as is found among the comparatively few species
of the Birds of Paradise. In all, the feathers glow with resplendent radi-
ance; in nearly all there is some strange and altogether unique arrangement
of the plumage ; and in many the feathers are modified into plumes, rib-
bons, and streamers, that produce the most surprising and lovely effects.

THE EMERALD BIRD OF PARADISE is the species which is most generally
known, and is the one of which were related many absurd tales. The specific
term, afoda, signifies “footless,” and was given to the bird by Linnzeus in
allusion to those fables which were then current, but which he did not believe.

This most lovely bird 1s a native of New Guinea, where it is far from
uncommon, and 1s annually killed in great numbers for the sake of its

THE EMERALD BIRD OF PARADISE. 335

plumage, which always commands a high price in the market. It is a very
retiring bird, concealing itself during the day in the thick foliage of the teak-
tree, and only coming from the green shelter at the rising and setting
of the sun, for the purpose of obtaining food. Almost the only successful
method of shooting the Emerald Paradise Bird is to visit a teak or fig-tree
before dawn, take up a position under the branches, and there wait patiently
until one of the birds comes to settle upon the branches, or leaves the spot
which has sheltered it during the night. This bird is rather tenacious of life,
and unless killed instantly is sure to make its escape amid the dense brush-
wood that grows luxuriantly beneath the trees, and if the sportsman ventured
to chase a wounded bird amid the bushes, he would, in all probability, lose
his way and perish of hunger. Those sportsmen, therefore, who desire to
shoot this bird, always provide themselves with guns that will carry their
charge to a great distance, and employ very large shot for the purpose, as
the bird always perches on the summits of the loftiest trees of the neigh-
bourhood, and would not be
much damaged by the shot
ordinarily used in shooting.

This species is very sus-
picious, so that the sports-
man must maintain a pro-
found silence, or not a bird
will show itself or utter its
loud full cry, by which the
hunter’s attention is directed
to his victim.

THE large and important
family of the STARLINGS
now claims our attention. 4
These birds are seldom of 4
great size, the common Star-
ling of England being about
an average example of their
dimensions. The bill of the
Starling tribe is straight until
near its extremity, when it
suddenly curves downward,
and is generally armed with
a slight notch. The first
sub-family of these birds is
that which is: known by the EMERALD BIRD OF PARADISE. —(FParadiseapoda.)
name of Glossy Starlings,
so called on account of the silken sheen of their plumage.

The best representative of this little group is the celebrated SATIN BOWER
BirpD of Australia. This beautiful and remarkable bird is found in many
parts of New South Wales, and although it is by no means uncommon, is so
cautious in the concealment of its home, that even the hawk-eyed natives
seem never to have discovered its nest.

The chief peculiarity for which this bird is famous is a kind of bower or
arbour, which it constructs from twigs ina manner almost unique among
the feathered tribes. The form of this bower may be seen in the illustration,
and the mode of construction, together with the use to which the bird puts
the building, may be learned from Mr. Gould’s account :—

“On visiting the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range, I discovered
several of these bowers or playing-places ; they are usually placed under the

336 THE SATIN BOWER BIRD.

shelter of the branches of some overhanging tree in the most retired part of
the forest; they differ considerably in size, some being larger, while others
are much smaller. The base consists of an exterior and rather convex plat-
form of sticks, firmly interwoven, on the centre of which the bower itself is
built. This, like the platform on which it is placed and with which it is
interwoven, is formed of sticks and twigs, but of a more slender and flexible
description, the tips of the twigs being so arranged as to curve inwards and
nearly meet at the top ; in the interior of the bower, the materials are so placed
that the forks of the twigs are always presented outwards, by which arrange-
ment not the slightest obstruction is offered to the passage of the birds.

“ For what purpose these curious bowers are made is not yet, perhaps, fully
understood; they are certainly not used as a nest, but as a place of resort
for many individuals of both sexes, who when there assembled run through
and round the bower in a sportive and playful manner, and that so frequently
that it is seldom entirely deserted.

“The interest of this curious bower is much enhanced by the manner in
which it is decorated, at and near the entrance, with the most gaily coloured
articles that can be collected, such
as the blue tail-feathers of the Rose
Hill and Lory Parrots, bleached
bones, the shells of snails, &c. Some
of the feathers are stuck in among
the twigs, while others, with the
bones and shells, are strewed about
near the ertrance. The propensity
of these birds to fly off with any
. attractive object is so well known

that the blacks always search the
runs for any missing article.”

So persevering are these birds in
carrying off anything that may strike
their fancy, that they have been
known to steal a stone tomahawk,
some blue cotton rags, and an old
tobacco-pipe. Two of these bowers
are now in the nest-room of the
British Museum, and at the Zoolo-
gical Gardens the Bower Bird may
be seen hard at work at its surface,

SATIN BOWER BIRD.—(Péilonorhynchus fastening the twigs or adorning the

holosericeus.) entrances, and ever and anon running

through the edifice with a curious

loud full cry that always attracts the attention of a passer-by. The Satin

Bower Bird bears confinement well, and although it will not breed in
captivity, it is very industrious in building bowers for recreation.

The food of this bird seems to consist chiefly of fruit and berries, as the
stomachs of several specimens were found to contain nothing but vegetable
remains. Those which are caged in Australia are fed upon rice, fruit,
moistened bread, and a very little meat at intervals, a diet on which they
thrive well. The plumage of the adult male is a very glossy satin-like
purple, so deep as to appear black in a faint light, but the young males and
the females are almost entirely of an olive-green. ele

WE now come to the true Starlings. In these birds the bill is _almost
straight, tapering and elongated, shghtly flattened at the top, and with a
hardly perceptible notch,

THE STARLING. 339

The common STARLING is one of the handsomest of our British birds,
the bright mottlings of its plumage, the vivacity of its movements, and the
elegance of its form, rendering it a truly beautiful bird.

ar)
Wit
i

COMMON STARLING.—(Sturnus vulgaris.)

It is very common in all parts of the British Isles, as well as in many
other countries, and assembles in vast flocks of many thousands in number,
enormous accessions being made to their ranks after the breeding season.
These vast assemblies are seen to best advantage in the fenny districts, where
they couch for the night amid the osiers and aquatic plants, and often crush
whole acres to the ground by their united weight. In their flight the Starlings
are most wonderful birds, each flock, no matter how large its dimensions,

4

338 FINCHES.

seeming to be under the command of one single hird, and to obey his orders
witi an instantaneous action which appears little short ofa miracle. A whole
cloud of Starlings may often be seen flying along at a considerable elevation
from the ground, darkening the sky as they pass overhead, when of a sudden
the flock becomes momentarily indistinguishable, every bird having simul-
taneously turned itself on its side so as to present only the edge of its wings
to the eye. The whole body will then separate into several divisions, each
division wheeling with the most wonderful accuracy, and after again uniting
their forces they will execute some singular manceuvre, and then resume their
onward progress to the feeding-ground or resting-place.

The nest of the Starling is a very loose kind of affair, composed of straw,
roots, and grasses, thrust carelessly together, and hardly deserving the name
ofanest. In many cases the bird is so heedless that it allows bits of straw or
grass to hang from the hole in which the nest is placed, just as if it had inten-
tionally furnished the bird-nesting boy with a clue to the position of the nest.
Although this bird makes its home in some retired spot, such as the cleft of
a rock, a niche in some old ruin, a ledge in a church-tower, or a hole in a
decaying tree, there are few nests more easy to discover ; for not only does
the bird leave indications of its home in the manner already described, but
is so very loquacious that it cannot resist the temptation of squalling loudly
at intervals, especially when returning to its domicile laden with food for its
young, and so betrays the position of its home. The eggs are generally five
in number, and of the faintest imaginable blue.

The food of the Starling is very varied, but consists chiefly of insects. These
birds have a habit of following cows, sheep, and horses, fluttering about them
as they move for the purpose of preying upon the insects which are put to
flight by their feet. The Starlings also perch upon the backs of the cattle,
and rid them of the parasitic insects that infest them. From the sheep the
Starling often takes toll, pulling out a beakful of wool now and then, and
carrying it away to its nest. It is a voracious bird, the stomach of one of
these birds having been found to contain more than twenty shells, some
of no small size, and all nearly perfect; a great number of insects, and
some grain. Another Starling had eaten fifteen molluscs of different kinds,
a number of perfect beetles, and many grubs.

The colour of this bird is very beautiful, and is briefly as follows: The
general tint is an extremely dark purplish green, having an almost metallic
glitter in astrong light. The feathers of the shoulders are tipped with buff, and
the wing-coverts, together with the quill feathers of the tail and wings, are
edged with pale reddish brown. The beak is a fine yellow. The feathers of
the upper part of the breast are elongated and pointed. This is the plumage
of the adult male, and is not brought to #s perfection until three years have
elapsed. The first year’s bird, before its autumnal moult, is almost wholly of
a brownish grey, and after its moult is partly brown and partly purple and
green. In the second year the plumage is more decided in its tints, but is
variegated with a great number of light-coloured spots on the under and
upper surfaces, and the beak does not attain its beautiful yellow tinge.

WE now arrive at the large and important families of the FINCHES. In all
these birds the bill is conical, short, and stout, sharp at the extremity and
without any notch in the upper mandible.

The first group of the Finches is composed of a number of species which,
although for the most part not conspicuous either for size, beauty of form, or
brilliancy of colour, are yet among the most remarkable of the feathered tribe,
on account of their architectural powers. Dissimilar in shape, form, and
material, there is yet a nameless something in the construction of their edifices
which at once points them out as the workmanship of the Weaver Birds. Some

WEAVER BIRDS. 339

of them are huge, heavy, and massive, clustered together in vast multitudes,
and bearing down the branches with their weight. Others are light, delicate
and airy, woven so thinly as to permit the breeze to pass through their
net-like interior, and dangling daintily from the extremity of some slender
twig. Others, again, are so firmly built of flattened reeds and glass blades,

SOCIABLE WEAVER bikb.—\Liucce us soctus.)

that they can be detached from their branches and subjected to very rough
handling without losing their shape, while others are so curiously formed of
stiff grass-stalks that their interior is studded with sharp points like the skin
of a hedgehog.
The true Weaver Birds all inhabit the hotter portions of the Old World, the
z2

340 THE GROSBEAKS, OR HAWFINCHES.

greater number of them being found in Africa, and the remainder in various
parts of India.

The SOCIABLE WEAVER BIRD is found in several parts of Africa, and has
always attracted the attention of travellers from the very remarkable edifice
which it constructs. The large social nests of this bird are so conspicuous
as to be notable objects at many miles’ distance, and it is found ,that they
generally build in the branches of the giraffe thorn or “ kameeldorn,” one of
the acacia tribe.

The Sociable Weaver Bird, which is by some writers termed the “ Sociable
Grosbeak,” in choosing a place for its residence, is careful to select a tree
which grows ina retired and sheltered situation, secluded as far as may be
from the fierce wind-storms which are so common in hot countries. When a
pair of these birds have determined to make a new habitation, they proceed
after the following fashion :—They gather a vast amount of dry grasses,
the favourite being a long, tough, and wiry species, called ‘“ Booschmanees-
grass,” and by hanging the long stems over the branches and ingeniously
interweaving them, they make a kind of roof, or thatch, which is destined
to shelter the habitations of the community,

In the under sides of this thatch they fasten a number of separate nests,
each being inhabited by a single pair of birds, and only divided by its walls
from the neighbouring habitation. All these nests are placed with their mouths
downwards, so that when an entire edifice is completed, it reminds the
observer very strongly of 2 common wasp’s nest. This curious resemblance
is often further strengthened by the manner in which these birds will build
one row of nests immediately above or below another, so that the nest-
sivups are arranged in layers precisely similar to those of the wasp or hornet.
The number of habitations thus placed under a single roof is often very
great. Le Vaillant mentions that in one nest which he examined there
were three hundred and twenty inhabited cells, each of which was in the
possession of a distinct pair of birds, and would at the close of the breeding
season have quadrupled their numbers.

The number of eggs in each nest is usually from three to five, and their
colour is bluish white, dotted towards the larger end with small brown spots.
The food of this bird seems to consist mostly of insects, as, when the nests
aie pulled to pieces, wings, legs, and other hard portions of various insects
are often found in the interior of the cells. It is said that the Sociable
Weaver Birds have but one enemy to fear in the persons of the small par-
rots, who also delight in assembling together in society, and will sometimes
make forcible entries into the. Weaver Bird’s nest and disperse the rightful
inhabitants.

The colour of the Sociable Weaver Bird is brown, taking a pale buff tint
on the under surface of the body, and mottled on the back with the same
hue. It is quite a small bird, measuring only five inches in length.

There are several allied species, which are remarkable for the structure of
their nests. There is the MaAHALI WEAVER BIRD, whose nest is shaped like
a Florence flask ; the TAHA, the RUFOUS-NECKED WFAVER, and others, all
of which suspend their nests to the ends of branches that overhang water,
thus ensuring safety against almost any enemy.

THE GROSBEAKS or H. W INCHES now claim our attention. They are all
remarkable for their very large, broad, and thick beaks, a peculiarity of
construction which is intended to serve them in their seed-crushing habits.

England possesses a good example of this group in the well-known Haw-
FINCH, or GROSBEAK. .

This bird was once thought to be exceedingly scarce, but is now known to
be anything but unconymon, although it is rarely seen, owing to its very shy

THE CHAFFINCH. 341

and retiring habits, which lead it to eschew the vicinity of man and to bury
itself in the recesses of forests. So extremely wary is the Hawfinch, that to
approach within gunshot is a very difficult matter, and can seldom be accom-
plished without the assistance of a decoy-bird, or by imitating the call-note,
which bears some resemblance to that of a robin, It feeds chiefly on the
various wild berries, not rejecting even the hard stones of plums and the
laurel berries. In the spring, it is apt to make inroads in the early dawn
upon the cultivated grounds, and has an especial liking for peas, among
which it often works dire havoc.

The nest of the Hawfinch is not remarkable either for elegance or pecu-
liarity of form. It is very simply built of slender twigs, bits of dried creepers,
grey lichens, roots, and hairs, and is so carelessly put together that it can
hardly be moved entire. The eggs are from four to six in number, and their
colour is very pale olive-green, streaked with grey and syotted with black
dots. The birds pair in the middle of
April, begin to build their nests about
the end of that month, and the young
are hatched about the third week in
May.

THE true FINCHES are known by
their rather short and conical beak,
their long and pointed wings, and the
absence of nostrils in the beak. Eng-
land possesses many examples of
these birds.

The CHAFFINCH is one of our com-
monest field birds, being spread over
the whole of England in very great
numbers.

The specific title of C@ALEBS which
is given to the Chaffinch, signifies
“a bachelor,” and refers to the annual
separation of the sexes, which takes HAWFINCH OR GROSBEAK.—(Cocco-
place in the autumn, the females thraustes vulgaris.)
departing to some other region, and
the males congregating in vast multitudes, consoling themselves as they best
can by the pleasures of society for the absence of the gentler portion of
the community.

The note of this bird is a merry kind of whistle, and the call-note is very
musical and ringing, somewhat resembling the word “ pinck,” which has
therefore been often applied to the bird as its provincial name.

The nest of the Chaffinch is one of the prettiest and neatest among the
British nests. It is deeply cup-shaned, and the materials of which it is com-
posed are moss, wool, hair, and lic.iens, the latter substances being always
stuck profusely over the surface, so as to give it a resemblance to the bough
on which it has been built. The nest is almost invariably made in the up-
right fork of a branch, just at its junction with the main stem or bough from
which it sprang, and is so beautifully worked into harmony with the bark of
the particular tree on which it is placed, that it escapes the eye of any but a
practised observer. Great pains are taken by the female in making her nest,
and the structure occupies her about three weeks. The eggs are from four .o
five in number, and their colour is a pale brownish buff, decorated with
several largish spots and streaks of very dark brown.

The colour of this pretty bird is as follows. At the base of the beak the
feathers are jetty black, and the same hue, but with a slight dash of brown,

342 THE GOLD FINCH. -

is found on the wings and the greater wing-coverts. The top of the head
and back of the neck are slaty grey, the back is chestnut, and the sides of
the head, the chin, throat, and breast are bright ruddy chestnut, fading into a
colder tint upon the abdomen, The larger wing-coverts are tipped with
white, the lesser coverts are entirely of the same hue, and the tertials are
edged with yellowish white. The tail has the two central feathers greyish
black, the next three pairs black, and
the remaining feathers variegated with
black and white. The total length of
the bird is six inches, The female
is coloured something like the male,
but not so brilliantly.

OF all the British Finches, none if
so truly handsome as the GOLDFINCH,
a bird whose bright yellow-orange
hues suffer but little even when it is
placed in close proximity to the more
gaudy Finches of tropical climates.
Like the chaffinch, it is spread over
» the whole of England, and may be

) seen in great numbers feeding on the

: white thistledown. There are few
CHAFFINCH.—(/ringilla celebs.) prettier sights than to watch a cloud
of Goldfinches fluttering along a
hedge, chasing the thistledown as it is whirled away by the breeze, and
uttering all the while their sweet merry notes.

The birds are not very shy, and by lying quietly in the hedge the observer
may watch them as they come flying along, ever and anon perching upon
the thistle tops, dragging out a beakful of down, and biting off the seeds with
infinite satisfaction. Sometimes a Goldfinch will make a dart at a thistle or
burdock, and without perching snatch several of the seeds from their bed,
and then alighting on the stem, will run up it as nimbly as a squirrel, and
peck away at the seeds, quite careless as to the attitude it may be forced to
adopt. These beautiful little birds are most useful to the farmer, for they
not only devour multitudes of
insects during the spring months,
but in the autumn they turn
their attention to the thistle, bur-
dock, groundsel, plantain, and
other weeds, and work more
effectual destruction than the
farmer could hope to attain with
all his labourers. Several Gold-
finches may often be seen at one
time on the stem and top of a
single thistle, and two or three
are frequently busily engaged on

; the same plant of groundsel.
GOLDFINCH.—(Fringilla carduelis.) The nest of the Goldfinch is
very neat and prettily made,
sometimes built in a hedge or thick bush, but mostly placed towards the
extremity of a thickly foliaged tree-branch, such being a favourite for this
purpose. Inthis position the nest is so ingeniously concealed from the gaze
of every one beneath, by the disposition of the branches and leaves and by
the manner in which the exterior of the nest is made to harmonize in tint

THE GREENFINCH. 343

with the bark, that it can scarcely be discerned even when the observer has
climbed the tree and is looking down upon the nest. The bird, too, seldom
flies directly in or out of the nest, but alights at a little distance from her
tree, and then slips quietly through the leaves until she reaches her eggs or
oung.

: The materials of which the exterior of the nest is made differ according tc
the tree in which itis placed. In general, fine grasses, wool, hairs, and very
slender twigs are employed in constructing the walls, and the interior is
softly lined with feathers, down, and hairs. The eggs are generally four or
five in number, and delicately marked with small dots and streaks of light
purplish brown upon a white ground, having a tinge of blue, something like
“sky-blue” milk. : . :

THE GREENFINCH is one of our commonest birds, being resident in this
country throughout the year, and not even requiring a partial migration.
It is mostly found in hedges, bushes, and copses; and as it is a bold and
familiar bird, is in the habit of frequenting the habitations of men, and even
building its nest within close proximity to houses or gardens, When young
the bird is fed almost wholly upon cater-
pillars and various insects, and not
until it has attained its full growth
does it try upon the hard seeds the
large bill which has obtained for it the
title of Green Grosbeak.

The nest of this bird is generally
built rather later than is usual with
the Finches, and is seldom completed
until May has fairly set in. Its sub-
stance is not unike that of the chaf-
finch, being composed of roots, wool,
moss, and feathers. It isnot, however,
so neatly made, nor so finely woven
together, as the nest of that bird. The
eggs are from three to five in num- ote .
ber, and the colour is bluish white, | GREENFINCH.—(Fringilla chloris.)
covered at the larger end with spots of brown and grey.

Few birds are better known than the Common LinNET, although the
change of plumage to which it is subject in the different seasons of the year
has caused the same bird, while in its winter plumage, tr be considered as
distinct from the same individual in its summer dress, xcept during the
breeding season, the Linnets associate in flocks, flying from spot to spot, and
feeding upon the seeds of various plants, evidently preferring those of the
thistle, dandelion, and various cruciferous plants.

The nest of this bird is strangely variable in the positions which it occupies,
sometimes being placed at a considerable height upon a tree, and at other times
built in some bush quite close to the ground, the latter being the usual
locality chosen by the bird. The full number of the eggs is five, and the
colour is mostly blue, spotted with dark brown, and a rather faint and
undecided purple. ;

The summer plumage of the male bird is as follows: On the top of the
head the feathers are greyish brown at their base, but are tipped with bright
vermilion, a tint which contrasts well with the ashen grey-brown of the face
and back of the neck. The upper parts of the body are warm chestnut, and
the wing is black, excepting the narrower exterior webs, which are white.
‘The chin and throat are grey, the breast bright red slightly dappled with
brown, and the under, portions of the body are grey-brown, taking a yellowish

344 THE CANARY BIkD.

tint on the flanks, The tail is rather forked, and the feathers are black,
edged with white.

THE pretty little CANARY BIRD, so prized as a domestic pet, derives its
name from the locality whence it was originally brought.

Rather more than three hundred years ago, a ship was partly laden with
little green birds captured in the Canary Islands, and having been wrecked
near Elba, the birds made their es-
cape, flew to the island and thee
settled themselves. Numbers of them
were caught by the inhabitants, and
on account of their sprightly vivacity
and the brilliancy of their voice, they
soon became great favourites, and
rapidly spread over Europe.

The original colour of the Canary is
not the bright yellow with which its
© feathers are generally tinted, but a
kind of dappled olive-green, black,
- and yellow, either colour predomi-
nating according to circumstances.

I have kept Canaries for many
years, and could fill pages with anec-
dotes and histories of them and their
habits, but as I have already written
rather a long biography of my Canaries
in “My Feathered Friends,” together with instructions for the management
and rearing of these pretty birds, there is no need to repeat the account in
the present pages.

THE SISKIN is hardly to be considered more than an occasianal visitor
in England, but in Scotland it sometimes breeds, as may be seen from the
following extract :--

“The Siskin is a common bird in all the high parts of Aberdeenshire,
which abound in fir-woods. They build generally near the extremities of the
branches of tall fir-trees, or near the
summit of the tree. Sometimes the
nest is found in plantations of young
fir-wood.” In one instance I met with
a nest not three feet from the ground.
I visited it every day until four or five
eggs were deposited. During incu-
bation the female showed no fear at
my aporoach. On bringing my hand
close to the nest, she showed some.
inclination to pugnacity, and tried to
frighten me away with her open bill,
following my hand round and round
when I attempted to touch her. At
last she would only look anxiously
round to my finger without making any
attack on me. The nest was formed
of small twigs of birch or heath outside and neatly lined with hair.” Its
eggs are a bluish-white spotted with purplish red. :

THE noisy, familiar, impatient SPARROW, is one of those creatures thai
has attached itself to man, and follows him wherever he goes. .

Nothing seems to daunt this bold little bird, which is equally at home in

CANARY. —(Cardueli. canaria.)

SISKIN.—(Fringillus spinus.)

THE SPARROW. 345

the fresh air of the country farm, in the midst of a crowded city, or among
the strange sights and sounds of a large railway station; treating with equal
indifference the slow-paced waggon-horses, as they deliberately drag their
load over the country roads, the noisy cabs and omnibuses as they rattle
over the city pavements, and the snorting, puffing engines, as they dash
through the stations with a velocity that makes the earth tremble beneath
their terrible rush.

Although its ordinary food consists of insects and grain, both of which
articles it can only obtain in the open country, it accommodates itself to a
town life with perfect ease, and picks up a
plentiful subsistence upon the various re-
fuse that is thrown daily out of town houses,
and which, before it is handed over to the
dustman, is made by the Sparrow to yield
many a meal.

When in the country the Sparrow feeds
almost wholly on insects and grain, the
former being procured in the spring and
early summer, and the latter in autumn
and winter. As these birds assemble in
Jarge flocks and are always very plentiful,
they devour great quantities of grain, and
are consequently much persecuted by the
farmer, and th: ir numbers thinned by guns,
traps, nets, and all kinds of devices. Yet
their services in insect-killing are so great as
to render them most useful birds to the agri- ;
culturist. A single pair of these birds have sparrow.—(Passer domesticus.)
been watched during a whole day, and
were seen to convey to their young no less than forty grubs per hour,
making an average exceeding three thousand in the course of the week.
In every case where the Sparrows have been extirpated, there has been a pro-
portional decrease in the crops from the ravages of insects. At Maine, for
example, the total destruction of the Sparrows was ordered by Govern-
ment, and the consequence was that in tl,e succeeding year even the trees
were killed by caterpillars, and a similar oc currence took place near Auxerre.

The nest of the »parrow is a very inartincial structure, composed of hay,
straw, leaves, and various similar substances, ,and always filled with a pro-
digious lining of feathers. For,
although the Sparrow is as hardy
a bird as can be seen, and appears
to care little for snow or frost, it
likes a warm bed to which it
may retire after the toils of the
day, and always stuffs its resting- /
p'ace full of feathers, which it
gts from all kinds of sources,
Even their roosting-places are
often crammed with feathers.

Generally the nest is built in &
soime convenient crevice, such as
an old wall, especially if it be
covered with ivy; but the bird YELLOW HAMMER.—(Zmeriza citrinella.)
is by no means particular in the
choice of a locality, and will build in many other situations. There are

346 THE VELLOW HAMMER.

generally five eggs, though they sometimes reach the number of six, and
their colour is greyish white, profusely covered with spots and dashes of
grey-brown. They are, however, extremely variable, and even in the same
nest it is not uncommon to find some eggs that are almost black with the
mottlings, while others have hardly a spot about them. The Sparrow is a very
prolific bird, bringing up several broods in the course of a season, and has
been known to rear no less than fourteen young in a single breeding season.

THE BUNTINGS are known by their sharp conical bills, with the edges of
the upper mandible rounded and slightly turned inwards, and the knob on the
palate. They are common in
most parts of the world, are gre-
garious during the winter months,
and in some cases become so fat
upon the autumn grain that they
are considered great dainties.

OnE of the most familiar of all
these birds is the YELLOW BUNT-
ING, or YELLOW HAMMER, as it
is often called.

This lively bird frequents our
fields and hedge-rows, and is re-
markable for a curious mixture of
wariness and curiosity, the latter
feeling impelling it to observe a
traveller with great attention, and
the former to keep out of reach
of any missile. So, in walking
along a country lane, the pas-
senger is often preceded by one
or more of these birds, which
always keeps about seventy or
eighty yards in advance, and flut-
ters in and out of the hedges or
trees with a’peculiar and unmis-
takable flirt of the wings and
tail

The song—if it may so be called
—of the bird has a peculiar in-
tonation, which is almost arti-
culate, and is variously rendered
in different parts of England.
For example, among the southern
counties it is well represented
by the words, “ A little bit of bread
and no che-ee-ee-ee-se!” In
Scotland it assumes a sense quite
in accordance with the character
of its auditors, and is supposed

ORTOLAN.—(Ziméeriza hortulana.) to say, “ De’il, de’il, de’il take ye-
ee-ee-ee.”

The nest of the Yellow Bunting is generally placed upon or very close to
the earth, and the best place to seek for the structure is the bottom of a
hedge where the grass has been allowed to grow freely, and the ground has
been well drained by the ditch. In rustic parlance, a “rough gripe” is the
place wherein to look for the Yellow Hammer’s nest. It is a neatly built

THE SKYLARK. 347

editice, composed chiefly of grasses, and lined with hair. The eggs are five
in number, and their colour is white, with a dash of very pale purple, and
dotted and scribbled all over with dark purple-brown. Both dots and lines
are most variable, and it also frequently happens that an egg appears with
hardly a mark upon it, while others in the same nest are entirely covered
with the quaint-looking decorations.

The general colour of this bird is bright yellow, variegated with patches of
dark brown, and having a richly-mottled brownish yellow on the back, with a
decided warm ruddy tinge. The primary feathers of the wing are black, edged
with yellow, and the remainder of the feathers throughout, with all the wing-
coverts, are deep brown-black, edged with ruddy brown. The chin, throat,
and all the under parts of the body are bright pure yellow, sobering into
rusty brown on the flanks. The female is similarly marked, but is not so
brilliant in her hues. The total length of the bird is about seven inches.

THE ORTOLAN, or GARDEN BUNTING, is widely celebrated for the delicacy
of its flesh, or rather for that of its fat; the fat of the Ortolan being some-
what analogous to the green fat of the turtle in the opinion of gourmands.

The Ortolan has occasionally been shot in England, but it is most fre-
quently found on the Continent, where its advent is expected with great
anxiety, and vast numbers are
annually captured for the table.
These birds are not killed at once,
as they would not be in proper
condition, but they are placed in
a dark room, so as to prevent
them from moving about, and are
fed largely with oats and millet,
until they become mere lumps
of fat, weighing nearly three
ounces, and are then killed and
sent to table.

The colouring of this bird is
as follows: The head is grey,
with a green tinge, and the back SKYLARK. —(A/auda arvensis.)
is ruddy brown, beautifully mot-
tled with black. The wings are black, with brown edges to the feathers ;
the chin, throat, and upper portions of the breast are greenish yellow; and
the abdomen is warm buff. The total length of the Ortolan is rather more
than six inches.

THE LARKS may be readily recognized by the very great length of the
claw of the hind toe, the short and conical. bill, and the great length of the
tertiary quill feathers of the wing, which are often as long as the primaries.

The first example of these birds is the well-known SKYLARK, so deservedly
famous for its song and its aspiring character.

This most interesting bird is happily a native of our land, and has cheered
many a sad heart by its blithe jubilant notes as it wings skyward on strong
pinions, or flutters between cloud and earth, pouring out its very soul in its
rich wild melody. Early in the spring the Lark begins its song, and con-
tinues its musical efforts for nearly eight months, so that on almost every
warm day of the year on which a country walk is pacticable, the Skylark’s
happy notes may be heard ringing throughout the air, long after the bird
which utters them has dwindled to a mere speck, hardly distinguishable from
a midge floating in the sunbeams.

The nest of the Skylark is always placed on the ground, and generally in
sone little depression, such as the imprint of a horse’s hoof, the side of a

348 THE BULLFINCH,

mole-hill, or the old furrow of a plough. It is very well concealed, the top
of the nest being only just on a level with the surface of the ground, and
sometimes below it. I have known several instances where the young Larks
would suffer themselves to be fed by hand as they sat in their nests, but the
parent birds always seemed distressed at the intrusion into their premises.
The materials of which it is made are dry grasses, bents, leaves, and hair,
the hair being generally used in the lining. It will be seen that the sober
colouring of those substances renders the nest so uniform in tint with the
surrounding soil, that to discover it is no easy matter. The eggs are four or
five in number, and their colour is grey-yellow, washed with light brown,
and speckled with brown of a darker hue. They are laid in May, and are
hatched in about a fortnight.

Towards the end of autumn and throughout the winter the Lark becomes
very gregarious, “ packing” in flocks of thousands in number, and becoming
very fat when snow should cover the ground, in which case they speedily
lose their condition. These flocks are often augmented by the arrival of
numerous little flocks from the Continent that come flying over the sea about
the end of autumn, so that the bird catchers generally reap a rich harvest in
a sharp winter.

THE next group is that of the Pyrrhuline, of which our BULLFINCH is a
familiar example.

It cares little for open country, preferring cultivated grounds, woods, and
copses, and is very fond of orchards and
fruit-gardens, finding there its greatest
supply of food. This bird seems to feed
almost wholly on buds during their season,
and is consequently shot without mercy by
the owners of fruit-gardens. The Bull-
finch has a curious propensity for selecting
those buds which would produce fruit, se
that the leafage of the tree is not at all
diminished. Although the general verdict
of the garden-keeping public goes against
the Bulfinch, there are, nevertheless, some
owners of gardens who are willing to say
a kind word for Bully, and who assert that
its mischievous propensities have been
much overated.

It is true that the bird will oftentimes
set hard to work upon a fruit-tree, and

BULLFINCH.—(Pyrrhiua rubicilla.) ‘uthlessly strip off every single flower-bud,
fe thereby destroying to all appearance the
prospects of the crop for that season. Yet there are cases when a goose-
berry-bush has thus been completely disbudded, and yet borne a heavy crop
of fruit. The reason of this curious phenomenon may probably be, that some
of the buds were attacked by insects, and that the kind of pruning process
achieved by the Bullfinch was beneficial rather than hurtful to the plant.

The Bullfinch affords a curious instance of the change wrought by
domestication. In its natural state its notes are by no means remarkable,
but its memory is so good, and its powers of imitation so singular, that it
can be taught to pipe tunes with a sweet and flute-like intonation, having
some of that peculiar “ woody ” quality that is observable in the flute. -

Those who desire to find the nest of the Bullfinch must search in the
thickets and most retired parts of woods or copses, and they may perhaps
find the nest hidden very carefully away in some leafy branch at no great

THE CROSSBILEL. 549

height from the ground. A thick bush is a very favourite spot for the nest ;
but I have more than once found them in hazel branches so slender that
the mere weight of the nest has bent them aside. The eggs are very prettily
marked with deep violet and purple-brown streaks and mottlings upon a
greenish white ground, and are easily recognizable by the more or less
perfect ring which they form round the larger end of the egg. The eggs are
generally five in number. ; ;

THE CROSSBILLS, of which three species are known to inhabit England,
are most remarkable birds, and have long been celebrated on account of the
singular form of beak from which they derive their name.

In all these birds, the two mandibles completely cross one another, so that
at first sight the structure appears to be a malformation, and to prohibit the
bird from picking up seeds or feeding itself in any way. But when the
Crossbill is seen feeding, it speedily proves itself to be favoured with all the
ordinary faculties of birds, and tq be as capable of obtaining its food as any
of the straight-beaked birds. ; re

The food of the Crossbill consists almost, if not wholly, of seeds, which it
obtains in a very curious manner. It is very fond of apple-pips, and settling
on the tree where ripe apples are to be found, attacks the fruit with its beak,
and in a very few moments cuts a hole fairly into the “core,” from which it
picks out the seeds daintily and eats them,
rejecting the ripe pulpy fruit in which they
had been enveloped. As the Crossbill is
rather a voracious bird, the havoc which it
will make in an orchard may be imgined.

This bird is also very fond of the seeds
of cone-bearing trees, and haunts the pine-
forests in great numbers. While engaged
~ in eating, it breaks the cones from branch-

es, and, holding them firmly in its feet
after the fashion of the parrots, inserts its
beak below the scales, wrenches them
away, and with its tongue scoops out the
seed.

The Crossbill is not common in this
country, although when it does make its
appearance it generally comes over in flocks.
Usually it consorts in little assemblies
consisting of the parents and their young, cRossBILL. (Lvacu curvirostis.)
but it has often been known to associate
in considerable numbers. It is a very shy bird, and has a peculiar knack of
concealing itself at a moment’s notice, pressing itself closely upon the
branches at the least alarm, and remaining without a movement or a sound
to indicate its position until the danger has departed.

In Sweden and Norway the Crossbill is a very common bird; and the
North of Europe seems to be their proper breeding-place.

The nests are always placed in rather close proximity, so that if one nest
is found, others are sure to be at no great distance. The nest is made of
little fir-twigs, mosses, and wool, and is of rather a loose texture. It is
always found upon the part of the branch that is nearest the stem. The fir

‘is the tree that is almost always if not invariably employed by this bird as
its nesting-place. The eggs are generally three, but sometimes four in
number, and are something like those of the greenfinch, but rather larger.

35° LHE HORNBILLS,

SCANSORES, OR CLIMBING BIRDS.

A LARGE group of birds is arranged by naturalists under the title ot
SCANSORES, or CLIMBING BIRDS, and may be recognized by the structure of
their feet. Two toes are directed forward, and the other two backward, so
that the bird is able to take a very powerful hold of the substance on which
it is sitting, and enables some species, as the woodpeckers, to run nimbly up
tree-trunks and to hold themselves tightly on the bark while they hammer
away with their beaks; and other species, of which the parrots are familiar
examples, to clasp the bough as with a hand.

There are many strange and wonderful forms among the feathered tribes ;
but there are, perhaps, none which more astonish the beholder who sees
them for the first time, than
the group of birds known by
the name of HORNBILLS.

They are all distinguished
by a very large beak, to
which is added a singular
helmet-like appendage, equal-
ling the beak itself in some
species, while in others it is
so small as to attract but
little notice. On account of
the enormous size of the beak
and the helmet, which in some
<a species recede to the crown
"of the head, the bird appears
to be overweighted by the
\* mass of horny substance
(\) which it has to carry; but
on a closer investigation, the
whole structure is found to
be singularly light, and yet
very strong.

On cutting asunder the
beak and helmet of a Horn-
bill, we shall find that the
outer shell of horny sub-
stance is very thin indeed,
scarcely thicker than the paper on which this description is printed, and
that the whole interior is composed of numerous honey-combed cells, with
very thin walls and very wide spaces, the walls of the cells being so arranged
as to give very great strength when the bill is used for biting, and with a
very slight expenditure of material.

Perhaps the greatest development of beak and helmet is found in the
RHINOCEROS HORNBILL.

As is the case with all the Hornbills, the beak varies greatly in proportion
to the age of the individual, the helmet being almost imperceptible when it
is first hatched, and the bill not very striking in its dimensions. But as the
bird gains in strength, so does the beak gain in size, and when it is adult the
helmet and beak attain their full proportions.

When at liberty in its native forests, the Hornbill is lively and active,
leaping from bough to bough with great lightness, and appearing not to be
in the least incommoded by its large beak. It ascends the tree by a succes-

~

THE TOUCAN., 35!

sion of easy jumps, each of which brings it to a higher branch, and when it
has attained the very summit of the tree, it stops and pours forth a succession
of loud roaring sounds, which can be heard at a considerable distance.

The food of the Hornbill seems to consist both of animal and vegetable
matters, and Lesson remarks that those species which inhabit Africa live on
carrion, while those that are found in Asia feed on fruits, and that their flesh
acquires thereby an agreeable and peculiar flavour. While on the ground,
the movements of the Hornbill are rather peculiar, for instead of walking
soberly along, as might be expected from a bird of its size, it hops along by a
succession of jumps. It is but seldom seen on the ground, preferring
Ha ion of trees, which its powerful feet are well calculated to clasp
irmly.

THE very curious birds that go by the name of TOUCANS are not one whit
less remarkable than hornbills, their beak being often as extravagantly large,
and their colours by far
superior. They are inhabit-
ants of America, the greater
number of species being
found in the tropical regions
of that country.

Of these birds there are
many species, of which no
less than five were living in
the Zoological Gardens in a
single year. Mr. Gould, in
his magnificent work, the
“Monograph of the Rham-
phastide,” figures fifty-one
species, and ranks them
under six genera.

The most extraordinary
part of these birds is the
enormous beak, which in
some species, such as the
Toco Toucan, is of gigantic
dimensions, seeming big
enough to give its owner a
perpetual headache ; while
in others, such as the Tou-
canets, it is not so large as
to attract much _ attention.
As in the case of the hornbills, their beak is very thin and is strengthened
by a vast number of honeycomb-cells, so that it is very light and does not
incommode the bird in the least. The beak partakes of the brilliant colour-
ing which decorates the plumage, but its beautiful hues are sadly evanescent,
often disappearing or changing so thoroughly as to give no intimation of
their former beauty.

The voice of the Toucan is hoarse and rather disagreeable, and is in many
cases rather articulate. In one species the cry resembles the word “ Tucano,”
which has given origin to the peculiar name by which the whole group is
designated. They have a habit of sitting on the branches in flocks, having
a sentinel to guard them, and are fond of lifting up their beaks, clattering
them together, and shouting hoarsely, from which custom the natives term
them Preacher-birds. Sometimes the whole party, including the sentinel, set
up a simultaneous yell, which is so deafeningly loud that it can be heard at

COMMON TOUCAN.—(Rhamphastos Ariel.)

352 THE RINGED PARRAKEET.

the distance of a mile. They are very loquacious birds, and are often
discovered through their perpetual chattering. : ;

When settling itself to sleep, the Toucan packs itself up in a very
systematic manner, supporting its huge beak by resting it on its back, and
tucking it completely among the feathers, while it doubles its tail across its
back, just as if it moved on a spring hinge. So completely is the bill hidden
among the feathers, that hardly a trace of it is visible in spite of its great
size and bright colour, and the bird when sleeping looks like a great ball of

loose feathers.
PARROTS.

THE general form of the PARROTS is too well known to need description.
All birds belonging to this large and splendid group can be recognized by
the shape of their beaks, which are large, and
have the upper mandible extensively curved
and hanging far over the lower ; in some species
the upper mandible is of extraordinary length.
The tongue is short, thick, and fleshy, and the
structure of this member aids the bird in no
slight degree in its singular powers of articu-
lation. The wings and tail are generally long,
and in some species, such as the Macaws, the
tail is of very great length, while in most of the
Parrakeets it is longer than the body.

THE genus Paleornis, of which the RINGED
PARRAKEET is an excellent example, is a very
extensive one, and has representatives in almost
every hot portion of the world, even including
“ Australia.

The Ringed Parrakeet is found both in Africa
and Asia, the only difference perceptible be-
tween the individuals brought from the two
continents being that the Asiatic species is
rather larger than its African relative. It has

RINGFD PARRAKEET. long been the favourite of man as a caged bird,
(Paleornis torquatus.) and is one of the species to which such frequent
reference is made by the ancient writers, the

other species being the Alexandrine Ringed Parrakeet (Paleornis Alexandrt).

This species of Parrakeet is not very good at talking, though it can learn
to repeat a few words, and is very apt at communicating its own ideas by a
language of gesture and information especially its own. It is, however, very
docile, and will soon learn any lesson that may be imposed, even that most
difficult task to a Parrot—remaining silent while anyone is speaking.

The general colour of this species is grass-green, variegated in the adult
male as follows:—The feathers of the forehead are light green, which take a
bluish tinge as they approach the crown and nape of the neck, where they are
of a lovely purple blue. Just below the purple runs a narrow band of rose
colour, and immediately below the rosy line is a streak of black, which is
narrow towards the back of the neck but soon becomes broader, and envelops
the cheek and chin. It does not go quite round the neck, as there is an
interval of nearly half an inch on the back of the neck. The quill feathers of
both wings and tail are darkish green ; the wings are black beneath, and the
tail yellowish.

ONE of the very prettiest and most interesting of the Parrot tribe is the
GRASS or ZEBRA PARRAKEET, deriving its names from its habits and the
markings of its plumage.

THE GRASS PARRAKEET. 353

It is a native of Australia, and may be found in almost all the centra;
portions of that land, whence it has been imported in such great numbers as
an inhabitant of our aviaries, that when Dr. Bennett was last in England he
found that he could purchase the birds at a cheaper rate in England than in
New South Wales. This graceful little creature derives its name of Grass
Parrakeet from its fondness for the grass lands, where it may be seen in great

cs — I) y \
=A SSSss
hel A=
WARBLING GRASS PARRAKEET.— (Melopsittacus undulatus.)

numbers, running amid the thick grass blades, clinging to their stems, or
feeding on their seeds. It is always an inland bird, being very seldom seen
between the mountain ranges and the coasts.

The voice of this bird is quite unlike the rough screeching sounds in which
Parrots seem to delight, and is a gentle, soft, warbling kind of song, which
seems to be contained within the body, and is not poured out with that

AA

384 MACAWS,

decision which is usually found in birds that can sing, however small their
efforts may be. This song, if it may be so called, belongs only to the male
bird, who seems to have an idea that his voice must be very agreeable to his
mate, for in light warm weather he will warble nearly all day long, and often
pushes his beak almost into the ear of his mate, so as to give her the
full benefit of his song.

The food of this Parrakeet consists almost chiefly of seeds, those of
the grass plant being their constant ‘food in their native country. In
England they take well to canary-seed, and it is somewhat remarkable that
they do not pick up food with their feet, but always with their beaks. Itisa
great mistake to confine these lively little birds in a small cage, as their wild
habits are peculiarly lively and active, and require much space. The
difference between a Grass Parrakeet when in a little cage and after it
has been removed into a
large house, where it has
plenty of space to move
about, is really wonderful.

In its native land it is a
migratory bird, assembling
after the breeding season in
enormous flocks as a prepa-
ration for their intended jour-
ney. The general number of
the eggs is three or four, and
they are merely laid in the
holes of the gum-tree without
requiring a nest.

THE MAcaws are mostly
inhabitants of Southern Ame-
vica, in which country so
‘\ many magnificent birds find
their home.

They are all very splendid
birds, and are remarkable for
their great size, their very
long tails, and the splendid
hues of their plumage. The

BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW.—(A7a Ararauna.) beak is also very large and

powerful, and in some spe-
cies the ring round the eyes and part of the face is devoid of covering. As
their habits are all very similar, only one example has been figured. This is
the great BLUE AND YELLOW Macaw, a bird which is mostly found in
Demerara. It is a wood-loving bird, particularly haunting those places
where the ground is wet and swampy, and where grows a certain palm on
the fruit of which it chiefly feeds. :

The wings of this species are strong, and the long tail is so firmly set that
considerable powers of flight are manifested. The Macaws often fly at a
very great elevation, in large flocks, and are fond of executing sundry aerial
evolutions before they alight. With one or two exceptions they care little
for the ground, and are generally seen on the summit of the highest trees. _

THE true Parrots constitute a group which are easily recognized by their
short squared tails, the absence of any crest upon the head, and the toothed
edges of the upper mandible.

The GREY PARROT has long been celebrated for its wonderful powers of
imitation and its excellent memory.

THE GREY PARROT. 355

It is a native of Western Africa, and is one of the commonest inhabitants

of our aviaries, being brought over in great numbers by sailors, and always

finding a ready sale as soon as the vessel arrives in port.
Its power of imitating all kinds of sounds is really astonishing. I have

heard a Parrot imitate, or rather reproduce, in rapid succession the most

Sy
é es

he

wir

i"

1 gg it gt

(t ‘ ttl if

oe sp ‘i ger ee
eres

ey

GREY PARROT. —(Psztlacus erythacus.)

dissimilar of sounds, without the least effort and with the most astonishing
truthfulness. He could whistle lazily like a street idler, cry prawns and
shrimps as well as any costermonger, creak like an ungreased “sheave” in
the pulley that is set in the blocks through which ropes run for sundry nautical
purposes, or keep up a quiet and gentle monologue about his own accom-

plishments with a simplicity of attitude that was most absurd.
AA2

356 THE GREEN PARROT.

Even in the imitation of louder noises he was equally expert, and could
sound the danger-whistle or blow off steam with astunishing accuracy.
Until I came to understand the bird, I used to wonder why some invisible
person was always turning an imperceptible capstan in my close vicinity,
for the Parrot had also learned to imitate the grinding of the capstan bars
and the metallic clink of the catch as it falls rapidly upon the cogs.

—= =

GREEN PARROT.—(Chrysotis festivus.)

As for the ordinary accomplishments of Parrots, he possessed them in
perfection, but in my mind his most perfect performance was the imitation of
a dog having his foot run over by a cart-wheel. First there came the sudden
half-frightened bark, as the beast found itself in unexpected danger, and
then the loud shriek of pain, followed by the series of howls that is popularly

COCKATOOS. 357

termed “pen and ink.” Lastly the howls grew fainter, as the dog was
supposed to be limping away, and you really seemed to hear him turn the
corner and retreat into the distance. The memory of the bird must have
been most tenacious, and its powers of observation far beyond the common
order ; for he could not have been witness to such a canine accident more
than once.

The food of this Parrot consists chiefly of seeds of various kinds, and
in captivity may’be varied to some extent. Hemp-seed, grain, canary-
seed, and the cones of fir-trees are favourite articles of diet with this bird,
Of the cones it is especially fond, nibbling them to pieces when they are
young and tender ; but, when they are old and ripe, breaking away the hard
scales and scooping out the seeds with its very useful tongue. Hawthorn
berries are very good for the Parrot, as are several vegetables. These, how-
ever, should be given with great caution, as several, such as parsley and
chick-weed, are exceedingly hurtful to the bird.

When proper precautions are taken, the Parrot is one of our hardiest
cage-birds, and will live to a great age even in captivity. Some of these
birds have been known to attain an age of sixty or seventy years, and one
which was seen by Le Vaillant had attained the patriarchal age of ninety-
three. At sixty its memory began to fail; and at sixty-five the moult
became very irregular, and the tail changed to yellow. At ninety it wasa
very decrepit creature, almost blind and quite silent, having forgotten its
former abundant stock of words.

The general colour of this bird is a very pure ashen grey, except the tail,
which 1s deep scarlet.

Two species of GREEN PARROT are tolerably common, the one being the
Festive Green Parrot, and the other the Amazon Green Parrot.

The AMAZON GREEN PaRROT is the
species most commonly seen in England.
It is a native of Southern America, and
especially frequents the banks of the
Amazon. It isnot, however, so retiring in -
its habits as most Parrots, and will often
leave the woods for the sake of preying
upon the orange plantations, among which
it works great havoc. Its nest is made in
the decayed trunks of trees.

As a general fact, it is not so apt at
learning and repeating phrases as the Grey
Parrot, but I have known more than one
instance where its powers of speech could
hardly be exceeded, and very seldom
rivalled. One of these birds, which used
to live in a little garden into which my
window looked, was, on our first entrance
into the house, the cause of much per-
plexity to ourselves and the servants. The sy_pHur-CRESTED COCKATOO.
nurserymaid’s name was Sarah, and the (( acatua galerita.)
unfortunate girl was continually running up
and down stairs, fancying herself called by one of the children in distress.
The voice of the Parrot was just that of a child, and it would call Sarah
im every imaginable tone, varying from a mere enunciation of the name as if
in conversation, to angry remonstrance, petulant peevishness, or sudden
terror. :

‘THE COCKATOOS are very familiar birds, as several species are commcn

338 COCKATOOS.

inhabitants of our aviaries, where they create much amusement by their
grotesque movements, their exceeding love of approbation, and their repeated
mention of their own name. Wherever two or three of these birds are found
in the same apartment, however silent they may be when left alone, the
presence of a visitor excites them to immediate conversation, and the air

LEADBEATER’S COCKATOO.—(Cacatua Leadbeateri.)

resounds with “ Cockatoo !” “ Pretty Cocky !” in all directions, diversified
with an occasional yell, if the utterer be not immediately noticed, —

They are confined to the Eastern Archipelago and Australia, in which
latter country a-considerable number of large and splendid species are found.
The nesting-place of the Cockatoos is always in the holes of decaying trees,
and by means of their very powerful beaks they tear away the wood until

COCKATOOS. 359

they have enlarged the hollow to their liking. Their food consists almost
wholly of fruits and seeds, and they are often very great pests to the
agriculturist, settling in large flocks upon the fields of maize and corn, and
devouring the ripened ears or disinterring the newly-sown seeds with hearty
good-will. The wrath of the farmer is naturally aroused by these frequent
raids, and the Cockatoos perish annually in great numbers from the constant
persecution to which they are subjected, their nests being destroyed, and
themselves shot and trapped.

To those, however, who own no land and are anxious about no crops, a
flock of Cockatoos is a most beautiful and welcome sight, as they flit among
the heavy-leaved trees of the Australian forest, their pinky-white plumage
relieved against the dark masses of umbrageous shade, as they appear and
vanish among the branches like the bright visions of a dream.

THE remarkably handsome bird which is represented on the opposite page
is a native of Australia. Itis called by several names, such as the TRICOLOR
CRESTED COCKATOO, and the PINK COCKATOO, by which latter name it is
known to the colonists. The title of LEADBEATER’S COCKATOO was given to
the bird in honour of the well-known naturalist, who possessed the first speci-
men brought to England.

It is not so noisy as the common species, and may possibly prove a
favourite inhabitant of our aviaries, its soft blush-white plumage and
splendid crest well meriting the attention of bird-fanciers. The crest is
remarkable for its great development, and for the manner in which the bird
can raise it like a fan over its head, or depress it upon the back of its neck
at will. In either case it has a very fine effect, and especially so when it is
elevated, and the bird is excited with anger or pleasure.

The general colour of this bird is white, with a slight pinkish flush.
Round the base of the beak runs a very narrow crimson line, and the feathers
of the crest are long and pointed, each feather being crimson at the base, then
broadly barred with golden yellow, then with crimson. and the remainder is
white. The neck, breast, flanks, and under-tail coverts are deeply stained
with crimson, and the under surface of the wing is deep crimson-red. The
beak is pale greyish white, the eyes brown, and the feet and legs dark grey,
each scale being edged with a lighter tint. In size it is rather superior to the
common white Cockatoo.

THE species of Cockatoo which is most common in England is the
SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO, a representation of which will be found on
page 357,

This bird is an inhabitant of different parts of Australia, and is especially
common in Van Diemen’s Land, where it may be found in flocks of a
thousand in number. Owing to the ease with which it is obtained, it is
frequently brought to England and is held in much estimation as a pet.

The colour of this species is white, with the exception of the crest, which is
of a bright sulphur-yellow, and the under surface of the wings and the basal
portions of the inner webs of the tail-feathers, which are of the same colour,
but much paler in hue. The total length of this species is about eighteen inches.

WE now take our leave of the Parrots, and come to a very interesting
family of scansorial birds, known popularly as WOODPECKERS ; and scien-
jifically as Picidze.

As is well known, the name of Woodpecker is given to these birds from their
habit of pecking among the decaying wood of trees in order to feed upon the
insects that are found within. They also chip away the wond for the purpose
of making the holes or tunnels wherein their eggs are deposited. In order to
enable them to perform these duties, the structure of the Woodpecker is very
curiously modified. The feet are extremely powerful, and the claws are

360 WOODPECKERS.

strong and sharply hooked, so that the bird can retain a firm hold of the tree
to which it is clinging while it works away at the bark or wood with its bill.
The tail, too, is furnished with very stiff and pointed feathers, which are
pressed against the bark, and form a kind of support on which the bird can
rest a large proportion of its weight. The breast-bone is not so prominent

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.—(P.cus major.)

as in the generality of flying birds, in order to enable the Woodpecker to press
its breast closely to the tree; and the beak is long, strong, and sharp.
These modifications aid the bird in cutting away the wood, but there is yet
a provision needful to render the Woodpecker capable of seizing the little
jusects on which it feeds, :nd which lurk in small holes and crannies into

WOODPECKERS. 361

which the beak of the Woodpecker could not penetrate. This structure is
shown when a Woodpecker’s head is carefully dissected. The tongue-bones or
“hyoid” bones are greatly lengthened, and pass over the top of the head, being
fastened in the skull just above the right nostril. These long tendinous-looking
bones are accompanied by a narrow strip of muscle by which they are moveu.

The tongue is furnished at the tip with a long horny appendage covered
with barbs and sharply pointed at the extremity, so that the bird is enabled
to project this instrument to a considerable distance from the bill, transfix an
insect, and draw it into the mouth. Those insects that are too small to be
thus treated are captured by means of a glutinous liquid poured upon the
tongue from certain glands within the mouth, and which cause the little
insects to adhere to the weapon suddenly projected among them. Some
authors deny the transfixion.

THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER is one of the five British species, and
is also known by the names of Frenchpie and Woodpie.

It is found in many parts of England, and, like the other Woodpeckers,
must be sought in the forests-and woods rather than in orchards and gardens.
Like other shy birds, however, it soon finds out where it may take up its
abode unmolested, and will occasionally make its nest in some cultivated
ground, where it has the instinctive assurance of safety, rather than entrust
itself to the uncertain security of the forest.

Although the Woodpeckers were formerly much persecuted, under the
idea that they killed the trees by pecking holes in them, they are most useful
birds, cutting away the decaying wood, as a surgeon removes a gangrened
spot, and eating the hosts of insects which encamp in dead or dying wood,
and would soon bring the whole tree to the ground. They do not confine
themselves to trees, but seek their food wherever they can find it, searching
old posts and rails, and especially delighting in those trees that are much
infested with the green-fly, or aphis, as the wood-ants swarm in such trees
for the purpose of obtaining the “ khoney-dew,” as it distils from the aphides,
and then the Woodpeckers eat the ants. Those destructive creatures generally
called wood-lice, and known to boys as “monkey-peas,” are a favourite article
of diet with the Woodpeckers, to whom our best thanks are therefore due.

But the Woodpeckers, although living mostly on insects, do not confine
themselves wholly to that diet, but are very fond of fruits, always choosing
the ripest.

As is the case with all its congeners, the Great Spotted Woodpecker lays
its eggs in the hollow of a tree.

The locality chosen for this purpose is carefully selected, and is a tunnel
excavated, or at all events altered, by the bird for the special purpose of nidi-
fication. Before commencing the operation, the Woodpeckers always find
out whether the tree is sound or rotten, and they can ascertain the latter fact
even through several layers of sound wood. When they have fixed upon a site
for their domicile, they set determinately to work, and speedily cut out a cir-
cular tunnel just large enough to admit their bodies, but no larger. Sometimes
this tunnel is tolerably straight, but it generally turns off in another direction.

At the bottom of the hole the female bird collects the little chips of decay. d
wood that have been cut off during the boring process, and deposits her eggs
upon them without any attempt at nest-making. Some excellent examples
of these nests are in the British Museum. The eggs are generally five in
number, but six have been taken from the nest of this species.

Generally the nests of birds are kept scrupulously clean, but that of the
Woodpecker is a sad exception to the rule, the amount of filth and potency
of stench being quite beyond human endurance. The colour of the eggs is
white, and their surface glossy, and they are remarkable, when fresh, for

362 THE GREEN WOODPECKER.

some very faint and very narrow lines, which run longitudinally down the
shell towards the small end.

The general colour of this species is black and white, curiously disposed,
with the exception of the back of the head, which is light scarlet, and
contrasts strongly with the sober hues of the body. Taking the black to be

GREEN WOODPECKER.—(Gecinus viridis.)

the ground colour, the white isthus arranged. The forehead and ear-coverts,
a patch on each side of the neck, the scapularies, and part of the wing-
coverts, several little squared spots on the wings, and large patches on the
tail, are pure white. The throat and the whole of the under surface are also
white, but with a greyish cast, and the under tail-coverts are red. The total
length of the adult male is rather more than nine inches, The female has no

THE WRYNECK. 363

red on the head and the young birds of the first year are remarkable for
having the back of the head black and the top of the head red, often mixed
with a few little black feathers. cee

THE commonest of the British Woodpeckers is that which is generally
known by the name of the GREEN WOODPECKER. It has, however, many
popular titles, such as Rain-bird, Wood-spite, Hew-hole, and Wood-wall.
This bird is our representative of the Gecinze, or Green Woodpeckers.

Although the Green Woodpecker is a haunter of woods and forests, it will
sometimes leave those favoured localities and visit the neighbourhood of
man. The grounds between the Isis and Merton College, Oxford, are rather
favourite resorts of this pretty bird. .

The name of Rain-bird has been given to this species because it becomes
very vociferous at the approach of
wet weather, and is, as Mr. Yarrell
well observes, “a living barometer
to good observers.” Most birds,
however, will answer the same purpose
to those who know how and where to
look for them. The other titles are
equally appropriate, Wood-spite be-
ing clearly a corruption of the German 4
term sfecht. Hew-hole speaks for
itself ; and Wood-wall is an ancient
name for the bird, occurring in the
old English poets.

The other British species are the
Great Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus
Martius), the Northern Three-toed
Woodpecker (Prcotdes tridactylus),
and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
(Picus minor).

THE curious bird known under the popular and appropriate name of the
WRYNECK is by some considered to be closely allied to the woodpeckers.

The Wryneck is a summer visitant to this country, appearing just before
the cuckoo, and therefore known in some parts of England as the cuckoo’s
footman. There isa Welsh namie for this bird, signifying “ Cuckoo’s knave,”
—Gwas-y-gog.

The tongue of this bird is long, slender, and capable of being projected to
the distance of an inch or so from the extremity of the beak, and its con-
struction is almost exactly the same as that of the woodpecker. As might
be supposed, it is employed for the same purpose, being used in capturing
little insects, of which ants form its favourite diet. So, fond, indeed, is the
Wryneck of these insects, that in some parts of England it is popularly
known by the name of Emmet-hunter. In pursuit of ants it trips nimbly
about the trunks and branches of trees, picking them off neatly with its
tongue as they run their untiring course. It also frequents ant-hills, espe-
cially when the insects are bringing out their pupa to lie in the sun, and
swallows ants and pupz at a great pace. When the ants remain within their
fortress, the Wryneck pecks briskly at the hillock until it breaks its way
through the fragile walls of the nest, and as the warlike insects come rushing
out to attack the intruder of their home and to repair damages, it makes
an excellent meal of them in spite of their anger and their stings.

When ants are scarce and scantily spread over the ground, the Wryneck
runs after them in a very agile fashion; but when it comes upon a well-
stocked spot, it stands motionless, with the exception of the head, which is

WRYNECK.—( VYunx torguilla.)

364 CUCKOOS.

darted rapidly in every direction, the neck and central line of the back
twisting in a manner that reminds the observer of a snake. When captured
or wounded, it will lie on its back, ruffle up its feathers, erect its neck, and
hiss so like an angry serpent that it is in some places known by the name of
the snake-bird.

The nest of the Wryneck is hardly deserving of that name, being merely
composed of chips of decaying wood. The eggs are laid in the hollow of a
tree, not wholly excavated by the bird, as is the case with the woodpeckers, its
beak not being sufficiently strong for such a task, but adapted to the purpose
from some already existing hole.

The number of eggs laid by the Wryneck is rather great, as many as ten
having often been found in a single nest. In one instance no less than
twenty-two eggs were taken at four intervals. Their colour is beautiful
white with a pinky tinge, not unlike those of the kingfisher; and as this
pink colour is produced by the yolk showing itself through the delicate shell,

» it is, of course, lost when
the egg is emptied of its
contents. The plumage
of this little bird, al-
though devoid of bril-
liant hues, and decked
only with brown, black,
and grey, is really hand-
some, from the manner
in which those appa-
rently sombre tints are
disposed.

THE CUCKOOS consti-
tute a large family, con-
taining several smaller
groups and many spe-
cies. Two representa-
tives of the groups will
be found in the following
pages. All these birds
have a_ rather long,
slender, and somewhat
curved beak, which in
some species takes a curve so decided, that it gives quite a predaceous air -
to its owner. Examples of the Cuckoo tribe are to be found in almost every
portion of the globe, and are most plentiful about the tropics.

THERE are few birds which are more widely known by good and evil
report than the common CUCKOO.

It is well known that the female Cuckoo does not make any nest, but
places her egg in the nest of some small bird, and leaves it to the care of its
unwitting foster-parents. Various birds are burdened with this charge, such
as the hedge-warbler, the pied-wagtail, the meadow-pipit, the red-backed
shrike, the blackbird, and various finches. Generally, however, the three
first are those preferred. Considering the size of the mother-bird, the egg
of the Cuckoo is remarkably small, being about the same size as that of the
skylark, although the latter bird has barely one-fourth the dimensions of the
former. The little birds, therefore, which are always careless about the
colour or form of an egg, provided that it be nearly the size of their own
productions, do not detect the imposition, and hatch the interloner ‘o ether
with their own young,

Cuckoo.—(Cuculus Canorus.)

PIGEONS. 365

The general colour of the Cuckoo’s egg is mottled reddish grey, but the
tint is very variable in different individuals, as I can testify from personal
experience. It has also been noted that the colour of the egg varies with
the species in whose nest it is to be placed, so that the egg which is intended
to be hatched by the hedge-warbler is not precisely of the same colour as
that which is destined for the nest of the pipit.

The mode by which the Cuckoo contrives to deposit her eggs in the nest
of sundry birds was extremely dubious, until a key was found to the problem
by a chance discovery made by Le Vaillant. He had shot a female Cuckoo,
and on opening its mouth in order to stuff it with tow, he found an egg
lodged very snugly within the throat.

The peculiar note of the Cuckoo is so well known as to need no particular
description, but the public is not quite so familiar with the fact that the note
changes according to the time of year. When the bird first begins to sing,
the notes are full and clear; but towards the end of the season they become
hesitating, hoarse, and broken, like the breaking voice of a young lad. This
peculiarity was noticed long ago by observant persons, and many are the
country rhymes which bear allusion to the voice and the sojourn of the
Cuckoo. For example:—

“In April He alters his tune.
Come he will. In July
In May He prepares to fly.
He sings all day. In August
In June Go he must.”

In general appearance the Cuckoo bears some resemblance to a bird of
prey, but it has little of the predaceous nature. It is rather curious that
small birds have a tendency to treat the Cuckoo much as they treat the
hawks and owls, following it wherever it flies in the open country, and
attending it through the air.

The colour of the plumage is bluish grey above, with the exception of the
wings and tail, which are black, and barred with white on the exterior
feathers. The chin, neck, and breast are ashen grey, and the abdomen and
under wing-coverts are white, barred with slaty grey.

COLUMB&; OR DOVES AND PIGEONS.

THE large order of COLUMB&, or the Pigeon tribe, comes now under our
notice. It contains many beautiful and interesting birds; but as its members
are so extremely numerous, only a few typical examples can be mentioned.

All the Pigeons may be distinguished from the poultry, and the gallinaceous
birds in general, by the form of the bill, which is arched towards the tip, and
has a convex swelling at the base, caused by a gristly kind of plate which covers
the nasal cavities, and which in some species is very curiously developed.

AMONG the most extraordinary of birds, the PASSENGER PIGFON may take
very high rank, not on account of its size or beauty, but on account of the
extraordinary multitudes in which it sometimes migrates from one place to
another. The scenes which take place during these migrations are so
strange, so wonderful, and so entirely unlike any events on this side of the
Atlantic, that they could not be believed but for the trustworthy testimony by
which they are corroborated.

Wilson, who was fortunate enough to witness some of these migrations,
has written a most vivid account of them. After professing his belief that
the chief object of the migration is the search after food, and that the birds
having devoured all the nutriment in one part of the country take wing in
order to feed on the beech-mast of another region, he proceeds to describe a
breeding-place seen by himself in Kentucky, which was several miles in

366 THE STOCK-DOVE.

breadth, was said to be nearly forty miles in length, and in which every tree
was absolutely loaded with nests. All the smaller branches were destroyed
by the birds, many of the
large limbs were broken off
and thrown on the ground,
while no few of the grand
forest-trees themselves were
killed as surely as if the axe
had been employed for their
destruction. The Pigeons
had arrived about the roth of
April, and left it by the end
of May.

THE STOCK-DOVE derives
its name from its habit of
building its nest in the stocks
; or stumps of trees. It is
one of our British Pigeons,
and is tolerably common in
many parts of England.

It is seldom found far
northward, and even when
it does visit such localities
itis only as a summer resi-
dent, making its nest in

; ; B warmer districts. As has

PASSENGER PIGEON.—(Ectopistes migratorius.) aiready been mentioned, (he
nest of this species is made in the stocks or stumps of trees, the birds find-
ing out some convenient hollow, and placing their eggs within. Other locali-
ties are, however, selected for
the purpose of incubation,
among which a deserted
rabbit burrow is among the
most common. The nest is
hardly worthy of the name,
being a mere collection of
dry fibrous roots, laid about
three or four feet within the
entrance, just thick enough
.o keep the eggs from the
ground, but not sufficiently
woven to constitute a true
nest.

The head, neck, and back
and wing-coverts are bluish
grey, the primary quill fea-
thers of the wing taking a
deeper hue, the secondaries
being pearl-grey deepening
at the tips, and the tertials
being blue-grey with two or
three spots. The chin is
blue-grey, the sides of the
neck slaty-grey glossed wiza
green, and the breast purplish red, The specific name of @zas, or “wince

STOCK-DOVE. —( Columba enas.)

lh

THE RING-DOVE. 367

coloured,” is given to the bird on account of the peculiar hue of the throat
The whole of the under surface is grey, and the tail-feathers are coloured
with grey of several tones, the outside feathers having the basal portion ot
the outer web white. The beak is deep orange, the eyes scarlet, and the
legs and toes red. The total length is about fourteen inches, the female
being a little smaller.

THE bird which now comes before our notice is familiar to all residents in
the country under the titles of RING-DOVE, WOOD PIGEON, WooD GUEST,
and CUSHAT.

This pretty dove is one of the commonest of our British birds, breeding in
almost every little copse or tuft of trees, and inhabiting the forest grounds in
great abundance. Towards and during the breeding season, its soft compla-
cent cooing is heard in every direction, and with a very slight search its nest
may be found. It is a strange nest, and hardly deserving that name, being
nothing more than a mere platform of sticks resting upon the fork of a
bough, and placed so loosely across each other that when the maternal bird
is away the light may sometimes be seen through the interstices of the nest,
and the outline of the eggs made out. Generally the Ring-dove chooses a rathe-
lofty branch for its nesting-
place, but it occasionally
builds at a very low elevation.

The eggs are never more
than two in number, and per-
fectly white, looking some-
thing like hen’s eggs on a
small scale, save that the ends
are more equally rounded.

The food of this Dove con-
sists of grain and seeds of
various kinds, together with the
green blades of newly sprung
corn and the leaves of turnips,
clover, and other vegetables.
Quiet and harmless as it may
look, the Ring-dove is a won-
derful gormandizer, and can
consume great quantities of
food. The crop is capacious to
suit the appetite, and can con-
tain a singular amount of solid
food, as indeed seems to be the
case with most of the Pigeon
tribe, so that when the birds as-
semble together in the avtumn. the flocks will do great damage to the farmer.

The Ring-dove may be easily known by the peculiarity from which it
derives its name, the feathers upon the side of the neck being tipped with
white so as to form portions of rings set obliquely on the neck. ;

THE many varieties of size, form, and colour which may be seen in the
accompanying illustration afford an excellent example of the wonderful
variations of which animals are susceptible under certain circumstances.
Different as are the DOMESTIC PIGEONS, which are most ably figured on the
-next page by a practical pigeon-fancier as well as an accomplished artist,
they all are modifications of the common BLUE ROCK PIGEON, and, if
permitted to mix freely with each other, display an inveterate tendency to
return to the original form, with its simple plumage of black bars across the

RING DOVE —(Columba palumbus.)

368 THE TURTLE-DOVE,

wing, just as the finest breeds of lop-eared rabbits will now and then produce
upright-eared young.

The Rock-dove derives its popular name from its habit of frequenting
rocks rather than trees, an idiosyncrasy which is so inherent in its progeny,
that even the domestic Pigeons, which have not seen anything except their
wooden cotes for a long series of generations, will, if they escape, take to
rocks or buildings, and never trouble themselves about trees, though they
should be at hand.

This species seems to have a very considerable geographical range, for it
is common over most parts of Europe, Northern Africa, the coasts of the
Mediterranean, and has even been found in Japan.

From this stock, the varieties that have been reared by careful managc-
ment are almost innumerable, and are so different in appearance that if they
were seen for the first
time, almost any
systematic naturalist
would set them down
as belonging not only
to different species,
but to different genera.
Such, for example, as
the pouter, the jacobin,
the trumpeter, and the
fantail, the last-men-
tioned bird having a
greater number of fea-
thers in its tail than
Y any of the others.

THE world-famed
TURTLE-DOVE is, al-
though a regular visi-
tor of this country,
better known by fame
and tradition than
by actual observation.

GROUP OF PIGEONS. This bird has, from

classic time until the

present day, been conventionally accepted as the type of matrimonial per-

fection, loving but its mate and caring for no other until death steps in to part

the wedded couple. Yet it is by no means the only instance of such con-

jugal affection among the feathered tribes, for there are hundreds of birds

which can lay claim to the same excellent qualities, the tierce eagle and
the ill-omened raven being among their number.

The Turtle-dove seems to divide its attention pretty equally between Africa
and England, pausing for some little time in Southern Italy as a kind of
half-way house. It arrives here about the beginning of May, or perhaps a
little earlier in case the weather be warm, and after resting for a little while,
sets about making its very simple nest and laying its white eggs. The nest
of this bird is built lower than is generally the case with the wood-pigeon,
and is usually placed on a forked branch of some convenient tree, about ten
feet or so from the ground. The eggs are laid rather late in the season, so
that there is seldom more than a single brood of two young in the course of
the year.

The Turtle-dove may be readily known by the four rows of black feathers,
tipped with white, which are found on the sides of the neck.

THE DODO. 369

THE position held by the celebrated Dopo among birds was long doubtful,
and was only settled in comparatively late years by careful examination of
ay relics which are our sole and scanty records of this very remarkable

ird.

So plentiful were the Dodos at one time, and so easily were they killed,
that the sailors were in the habit
of slaying the birds merely for
the sake of the stones in their
stomachs, these being found very
efficacious in sharpening their
clasp-knives. The nest of the
Dodo was a mere heap of fallen
leaves gathered together on the
ground, and the bird laid but one
large egg. The weight of one /
full-grown Dodo was said to be
between forty and fifty pounds.
The colour of the plumage was
a greyish brown in the adult TURTLE DOVE. —(Yurtur auritus.)
males, not unlike that of the
ostrich, while the plumage of the females was of a paler hue.

LEAVING the pigeons, we now come to the large and important order of
birds termed scientifically the Gallinze, and, more popularly, the Poultry.
Sometimes they are termed Rasores, or Scrapers, from their habit of scraping
up the ground in search of food. To this order belong our domestic poultry,
the grouse, partridges, and quails, the turkeys, pheasants, and many other
useful and interesting birds.

Our first example of these birds is the CRESTED CURASSOW, the repre-
sentative of the genus
Crax, in which are to
be found a number of
truly splendid birds.
All the Curassows are
natives of tropical Ame-
rica, and are found al-
most wholly in the
forests.

The Crested Curas-
sow inhabits the thickly
wooded districts of Gui-
ana, Mexico, and Brazil,
and is very plentifully
found in those coun-
tries. It is a really
handsome bird, nearly
as large as the turkey,
and more imposing in
form and colour. It is
gregarious in its habits,
and assembles together
in large troops, mostly
perched on the branches
of trees. It is suscepti-
ble of domestication, and, to all appearances, may be acclimatized to this
country as well as the turkey or the pheasant.

-Mldy,,

DoDo.—(Didus ineptus.)

BB

370 . THE CRESTED CURASSOW.

In their native country the Curassows build among the trees, making a
large and rather clumsy-.ooking nest of sticks, grass stems, leaves, and grass
blades. There are generally six or seven eggs, not unlike those of the fowl,
but larger and thicker shelled.

The colour of the Crested Curassow is very dark violet, with a purplish
green gloss above and on the breast, and the abdomen is the purest snowy
white, contrasting beautifully with the dark velvety plumage of the upper
parts. The bright golden yellow of the crest adds in no small degree to the
beauty of the bird

CRESTED CURASSOW.—(Crax Alector.)

SEVERAL very singular birds are found in Australia and New Guinea, called
by the name of Megapodine, or Great-footed birds, on account of
the very large size of their feet ; a provision of nature which is necessary
for their very: peculiar mode of laying their eggs and hatching their

oung.

: The first of these birds is the AUSTRALIAN JUNGLE FOWL, which is found
in several parts of Australia, but especially about Port Essington. In that
country great numbers of high and large mounds of earth exist, which were

j THE BRUSH TURKEY. 371

formerly thought to be the tombs of departed natives, and, indeed, have been
more than once figured as such. The natives, however, disclairned the
sepulchral character, saying that they were the artificial ovens in which the
eggs of the Jungle Fowl were laid, and which, by the heat that is always
disengaged from decaying vegetable substances, preserved sufficient warmth
to hatch the eggs.

The size of these tumuli is sometimes quite marvellous ; in one instance,
where measurements were taken, it was fifteen feet in perpendicular height,
and sixty feet in circumference at its base. The whole of this enormous
mound was made by the industrious Jungle Fowl, by gathering up the earth,
fallen leaves, and grasses with its feet, and throwing them backwards while
it stands on the other leg. If the hand be inserted into the heap, the interior
will always be found to be quite hot. In almost every case the mound is
placed under the shelter of densely-leaved trees, so as to prevent the sun
from shining upon any part of it,

The bird seems to deposit her eggs by digging holes from the top of the
mound, laying the egg at the bottom, and then making its way out again,
throwing back the earth that it had scooped away. The direction, however,
of the holes is by no means uniform, some running towards the centre and
others radiating towards the sides, They do not seem to be dug quite per-
pendicularly ; so that
although the holes in
which the eggs are
found may be some six
or seven feet in depth,
the eggs themselves
may be only two or
three feet from the
surface,

The colouring of
this bird is simple, but
the tints are soft and
pleasing. The head is
rich ruddy brown, the
back of the neck black-
ish grey, and the back
and wings brownish
cinnamon, deepening
ag aie an AUSTRALIAN JUNGLE FOWL.—(Megapodius tumulus.)
whole under surface
is blackish grey. The legs are orange, and the bill rusty brown.

THE BRUSH TURKEY is principally found in the thick brushwood of
New South Wales. Mr. Gould, who first brought it before the public,
gives this curious account of their nests :— “The mode in which the
materials composing these mounds are accumulated is equally singu-
lar, the bird never using its bill, but always grasping a quantity in its
foot, throwing it backwards to one common centre, and thus clearing
the surface of the ground for a considerable distance so completely that
scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. The heap being accumulated,
and time allowed for a sufficient heat to be engendered, the eggs are de-
posited, not side by side as is ordinarily the case, but planted at the dis-
tance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried at nearly an
arm’s depth, perfectly upright, with the large end upwards. ‘Thew are
covered up as they are laid, and allowed to.remain until hatched. £ am

BB2

372 THE PEACOCK.
credibly informed, both by natives and settlers living near their haunts, that
it is not an unusual event to obtain nearly a bushel of eggs at one time
from a single: heap; and as they are delicious eating they are eagerly
sought after.” ives

Ri hen the Brush Turkey is disturbed, it either runs through the tangled
underwood with singular rapidity, or springs upon a low branch of some tree,
and reaches the summit by a succession of leaps from branch to branch.

This latter peculiarity renders it an easy prey to the sportsman, :
THE large family of

the PEACOCKS, or Pa-
vonidz, now claims
our attention.

The PEACOCK may
safely be termed one of
the most magnificent of
the feathered tribe, and
may even lay a well-
founded claim to the
chief rank among birds
in splendour of plum-
age and effulgence of
colouring. Weare so
familiar with the Pea-
cock that we think little
of its real splendour ;
but if one of these birds
had been brought to
Europe for the first
time, it would create a

pee i SS p
Cty mS greater sensation than
Jian f
ie even the hippopotamus
BRUSH TURKEY. —(Zalegallus Lathami.) or the gorilla.

The Peacock is an
Asiatic bird, the ordinary species being found chiefly in India, and the
Javanese Peacock in the country from which it derives its name. In some
parts of India the Peacock is extremely common, flocking together in bands
of thirty or forty in number, covering the trees with their sp!endid plumage,
and filling the air with their horridly dissonant voices. Captain Williamson,
in his “ Oriental Field Sports,” mentions that he has seen at least twelve
or fifteen hundred peacocks within sight of the spot where he stood.

They abound chiefly in close-wooded forests, particularly where there is an
extent of long grass for them to range in. They are very thirsty birds, and
will only remain where they can have access to water. Rhur plantations are
their favourite shelter, being close above so as to keep off the solar rays, and
open at the bottom sufficiently to admit a free passage for the air. If there
be trees near such spots, the Peacocks’ may be seen mounting into them
every evening towards dark to roost ; and in which they generally continue
till the sun rises, when they descend to feed, and pass the mid-day in the
heavy coverts.

Though Pea-fowls invariably roost in trees, yet they make their nest on the
ground, and ordinarily on a bank raised above the common level, where in
some sufficient bush they collect leaves, small sticks, &c., and sit very close.
I have on several occasions seen them in their nests, but as 1 refrained from
disturbing them, they did not offer to move, though they could not fail to
know that they were discovered. They usually sit on about a dozen or fifteen

THE PEACOCK. 373

eggs. They are generally hatched about the beginning of November ; and
from January to the end of March, when the corn is standing, are remarkably
juicy and tender. When the dry season cumes on, they feed on the seeds
of weeds and insects, and their flesh becomes dry and muscular.

The train of the male Peacock, although popularly called its tail, is in
reality composed of the upper tail-coverts, which are enormously lengthened,
and finished at their extremities with broad rounded webs, or with spear-
shaped ends. ‘he shafts of these feathers are almost bare of web for some
fourteen or fifteen
inches of their length,
and then throw out
a number of long loose
vanes of a light cop-
pery green. These are
very brittle, and apt to
snap off at different
lengths. In the central
feathers the extremity
is modified into a wide
flattened —_ battledore-
shaped form, each bar-
bule being coloured
with refulgent emerald
green, deep violet pur-
ple, greenish bronze,
gold and blue, in such
a manner as to form
a distinct “eye,” the
centre being violet vu
two shades, surrounded
with emerald, and the
other tints being ar-
ranged concentrically
around it. In the fea-
thers that edge thetrain
there is no “ eye,” the
feathers coming to a
point at the extremity,
and having rather wide
but loose emerald-
green barbules on its PEACOCK.—(#avo cristatus.)
outer web and a few
scattered coppery barbules in the place. of the inner web. The tail-feathers
are only seven or eight inches in length, are of a greyish brown colour, and
can be seen when the train is erected, that being their appointed task.

THE PHEASANTS come next in order, and the grandest and most imposing
of this group, although there are many others that surpass its brilliant
colouring, is the ARGUS PHEASANT so called in remembrance of the ill-fated
Argus of mythology, whose hundred eyes never slept simultaneously until
charmed by the magic lyre of Mercury. .

This magnificent bird is remarkable for the very great length of its tail-
feathers and the extraordinary development of the secondary feathers of the
wings. While walking on the ground, or sitting on a bough, the singular
length of the feathers is not very striking, but when the bird
spreads its wings, as shown in the figure, they come aut in all their

374 THE ARGUS PHEASANT.

beauty. As might be supposed from the general arrangement of the
plumage, the bird is by no means a good flyer, and when it takes to the
air only flies for a short distance. In running its wings are said to be
efficient aids.

Although the Argus is hardly larger than an ordinary fowl the plumage is
so greatly developed that its total length measures more than five feet. The
head and back of the neck are covered with short brown feathers, and the
neck and upper part of the breast
are warm chestnut-brown, covered
with spots of yellow and black, and
similar tints are formed on ‘the
back. The tail is deep chestnut,
covered with white spots, each spot
being surrounded with a black ring.

The Argus Pheasant inhabits
Sumatra and neighbouring local-
ities.

THE well known PHEASANT
affords a triumphant instance of
the success with which a bird of a
strange country may be acclimatized
to this island with some little assist-
ance from its owners.

Originally the Pheasant was an
- inhabitant of Asia Minor, and has
been by degrees introduced into
many European countries, where its
beauty of form and plumage and
the delicacy of its flesh made ita
welcome visitor.

The food of this bird is extremely
varied. When young it is generally
fed on ants’ eggs, maggots, grits,
and similar food, but when it is
fully grown it is possessed of an
accommodating appetite, and will
eat many kinds of seeds, roots, and
leaves. The tubers of the common

ARGUS PHEASANT.—(Argus giganteus.) buttercup form a considerable item

in its diet, and the bird will also eat
beans, peas, acorns, and berries of various kinds.

The Pheasant is a ground-loving bird, running with great speed, and always
preferring to trust to its legs rather than its wings. It is a crafty creature,
and when alarmed, instead of rising on the wing, it slips quietly out of sight
behind a bush or through a hedge, and then runs away with astonishing
rapidity, always remaining under cover until it reaches some spot where it
deems itself to be safe.

The nest of the Pheasant is a very rude attempt at building, being merely
a heap of leaves and grasses collected together upon the ground, and with a
very slight depression, caused apparently quite as much by the weight of the
eggs as by the art of the bird. The eggs are numerous, generally about
eleven or twelve, and their colour is a uniform olive-biown. ‘Their surface is
very smooth.

THE BANKIVA JUNGLE FOWL is now supposed to be the original stock of
the domesticated poultry,

DOMESTIC POULTRY. 375

It is a native of Java, and the male very closely resembles the gamecock
of England. It is a splendid creature, with its light scarlet comb and
wattles, its drooping
hackles, its long arched
tail, and its flashing
eye. The comb and
wattles are of bright-
est scarlet, the long
hackles of the neck and
lower part of the back
are fine orange-red, the
upper part of the back
is deep blue-black, and
the shoulders are ruddy
chestnut. The second-
aries and greater coverts
are deep steely blue,
and the quill feathers
of the wing are black-
ish brown edged with
rusty yellow. The long,
arched and drooping
tailis blue-black glossed
with green, and the
breast and under parts PHEASANT. —(Phasianus Colchicus.)
black, so that in general
aspect it is very like the black-breasted red gamecock.

The domesticated bird is of all the feathered tribe the most directl y useful
to man, and is the subject of so many valuable treatises that the reader is
referred to them for the
best mode of breeding,
rearing, and general
management of poultry.
On the accompanying
illustration are shown
some of the most useful
or remarkable of the
varieties of this bird. :

THE now well-known '
TURKEY is another
example of the success
with which foreign birds
can be acclimatized in
this country,

The Turkey is spread
over many parts of
America, such as the
wooded parts of Ark-
ansas, Louisiana, Ala-
bama, Indiana, &c., but
does not seem to ex- =
tend beyond the Rocky DOMESTIC FOWL.—(Gallus Bankiva.)
Mountains. It begins
to mate about the middle of February, and the males then utter those
ludicrous gobbling sounds which have caused the bird to be called Gobbler,
er Bubbly-Jock by the whites, and Qo-coo-coo by the Cherokees,

376 THE TURKEY.

The female makes her nest in some secluded spot, and is very guarded in
her approaches, seldom employing the same path twice in succession: and, if
discovered, using various wiles by which to draw the intruder from the spot.
As soon as the young are hatched she takes them under her charge, and the
wholefamily go wander-
ing about to great dis-
tances, at first returning
to the nest for the night,
but afterwards crouch-
ing in any suitable spot.
Marshy places are
avoided by the Turkey,
as wet is fatal to the
young birds until they
have attained their se-
cond suit of clothes
and wear feathers in-
. stead of down. When
théy are about a fort-
night old they are able
to get up into trees,
and roost in the
branches, safe from
most of the numerous
enemies which beset
their path through life.
: The Turkey is a very
TURKEY. —(A@eleagris gallopavo.) migratory bird, pass-

ing over great distances
and retaining the habit in its tamed state, giving no small amount of trouble
to the poultry owner.

THE prettily spotted GUINEA FOWL, or PINTADO, sometimes called
GALLINI, is, although now domesticated in England, a native of Africa, and
has much of the habits and propensities of the turkey.

Both in the wild and the captive state the Guinea Fowl is wary and
suspicious, and particularly careful not to betray the position of its nest, thus
often giving great trouble to the farmer. Sometimes when the breeding season
approaches, the female Pintado will hide herself and nest so effectually
that the only indication of her proceedings is her subsequent appearance
with a brood of young round her. The number of eggs is rather large, being
seldom below ten, and often double that number. Their colour is yellowish
red, covered with very little dark spots, and their size is less than that of the
common fowl. Their shells are extremely hard and thick, and when boiled
for the table require some little exertion to open properly.

Everyone knows the curious, almost articulate cry of the Guinea Fowl, its
“ Come-back ! come-back,” being continually uttered wherever the bird is
kept, and often affording a clue to its presence.

The forehead of the Guinea Fowl is surmounted with a horny casque, and
the naked skin round the eyes falls in wattles below the throat. In the male
the wattles are purplish red, and in the female they are red without any
mixture of blue, and are of smaller size. The legs are without spurs. The
pretty spotted plumage of this bird is too well known to need description.

OF the many members of the Perdicine group, we shall only take one
example, the well known English PARTRIDGE.

This bird, so dear to British sportsmen, is found spread over the greater

THE PARTRIDGE. 377

part of Europe, always being found most plentifully near cultivated ground.
It feeds upon various substances, such as grain and seeds in the autumn, and
green Jeaves and insects in the spring and early summer.

Small slugs are a favourite diet with the Partridge, which has aspecial faculty
for discovering them in the recesses where they hide themselves during the
day, and can even hunt successfully after the eggs of these destructive crea-
tures. Caterpillars are also eaten by this bird, and the terrible black grub of
the turnip is consumed in great numbers. Even the white cabbage butter-
fly, whose numerous offspring are so hurtful in the kitchen garden, falls a
victim to the quick-eyed Partridge, which leaps into the air and seizes it in
its beak as it comes fluttering unsuspectingly over the bird’s head.

The Partridge begins to lay about the end of April, gathering together a
bundle of dry grasses into some shallow depression in the ground, and de-
positing therein a clutch of eggs, generally from twelve to twenty in number.

GUINEA FOWL —(Mumida meleagris.) PARTRIDGE.—~(FPerdix cinereus.)

Sometimes a still greater number have been found, but in these cases it is
tolerably evident from many observations that several birds have laid in the
same nest.

When the young are hatched they are strong on their legs at once, running
about with ease, and mostly leaving the nest on the same day. The mother
takes her little new-born brood to their feeding-places, generally ant-hills or
caterpillar-ha: nted spots, and aids them in their search after food by scratch-
ing away the soil with her feet.

The nests of the wood ant, which are mostly found in fir plantations or hilly
ground, being very full of inhabitants, very easily torn to ;ieces, and the ants”
and their larvze and pup being very large, are favourite feeding-places of
the Partridge, which in such localities is said to acquire a better flavour than
among the lower pasture lands.

The young brood, technically called a “ covey,” associate together, and
have a very strong local tendency, adhering with great pertinacity to the
same field or patch of land. When together they are mostly rather wild, and
dart off at the least alarm witb their well-known whirring flight. just topping a
hedge or wall and settling on the other side till again put up ; but when the
members of the covey are separated they seem to dread the air, and crouch
closely to the ground, so that it is the object of the sportsman to scatter the
covey and to pick them up singly.

378 THE QUAIL.

The plumage of the Partridge is brown of several shades above, mingled
with grey. The breast is grey, with a horsehoe-like patch of rich chestnut
on its lower portion, and the sides and flanks are barred with chestnut. The
total length of the male bird is rather more than a foot ; the female is smaller
than her mate, and the chestnut bars on the flanks are broader than those of
the male. :

THE odd, short-legged, round-bodied, quick-footed QuaIL is closely allied
to the partridge in formand many of its habits. Of these birds there are
many species; but as all are
much alike, there is no need of
many examples.

The common Quail is found
spread over the greater part of
Europe and portions of Asia and
Africa, coming to our island in
the summer, though not in very
great numbers. In England the
bird is not sufficiently plentiful
to be of any commercial value ;
but in Italy and some of the
warmer lands which the Quails
traverse during their periodical
migrations, the inhabitants look
forward to the arrival of the Quail with the greatest anxiety. In those
countries they are shot, snered, and netted by thousands ; and it is chiefly
from the foreign markets that our game-shops are supplied with these birds.
When fat, the flesh of the Quail is very delicious ; and the most approved
way of cooking the bird is to envelop it in a very thin slice of bacon, ue it up
in a large vine-leaf, and then roast it.

QUAIL. —(Coturnix communis.)

In their migrations
the Quails fly by night,
a peculiarity which has
been noted in the Scrip-
tural record of the Exo-
dus, where it is men-
tioned, that “at even
the Quails came up and
covered the camp.”

It is rather curious
that the males precede
the femiles by several
days, and are conse-
' quently more persecuted
by the professional fowl-
ers. ;

The male bird does
not pair like the par-
tridge, but takes to him-
self a plurality of wives,
and, as 1s generally the
case with such poly-

CAPERCAILLIE.—( 7etrao urogallus.) gamists, has to fight

; many desperate battles
with others of its own sex. Although il provided with weapons of offence,
the Quail is as fiery and courageous a bird as the gamecock ; and in Eastern

THE BLACK GROUSE. 379

countries is largely kept and trained for the purpose of fighting prize-battles,
on the result of which the owners stake large sums. The note of the male
1s a kind of shrill whistle, which is only heard during the breeding season.

The nest of the Quail is of no better construction than that of the par-
tridge, being merely a few bits of hay and dried herbage gathered into some
little depression in the bare ground, and generally entrusted to the protec-
tion of corn-stalks, clover, or a tuft of rank grass. The number of eggs is
generally about fourteen or fifteen, and their colour is buffy white, marked
with patches or speckles of brown.

ALTHOUGH once a common inhabitant of the highland districts of Great
Britain, the CAPERCAILLIE has now been almost wholly extinct for some
years, a straggling speciinen being occasionally seen in Scotland, and shot
“for the benefit of science.” ‘This bird is also known by the following
names :—Cock of the Woods, Mountain Cock, Auerhahn, and Capercailzie.

It is now most frequently found in the northern parts of Europe, Norway
and Sweden being very favourite homes. From those countries it is largely
imported into England by the game-dealers.

The Capercaillie is celebrated not o:ly for its great size and the excellence
of its flesh, but for its singular habit just previous to and during the breeding
season.

During this season it holds its “play” or love song, called in Norway the
“jek” He struts about with drooping wings, spread tail, and ruffled feathers,
and utters a peculiar cry. This is a call to the hens, and always attracts
them. While the bird is thus engaged, heis so intent upon his “ play,” that
however wary he may be at other times, he can easily be approached and shot.

The nest of the Capercaillie is made upon the ground, and contains eight
or ten eggs; when hatched the young are fed upon insects, more especially
ants and their pupz. The adult birds
feed mostly on vegetable substances, such
as juniper, cranberry, and bilberries, and
the leaves and buds of several trees.

The colour of the adult male bird is
chestnut-brown, covered with a number of
black lines irregularly dispersed; the
breast is black with a gloss of green, and
the abdomen is simply black, as are the
lengthened feathers of the throat and tail.
The female is easily known by the bars
of red and black which traverse the head
and neck, and the reddish yellow barred
with black of the under surface. In size
the Capercaillieis nearly equal to a turkey.

THE well-known BLACK GROUSE, or
BLACK COCK, is a native of the more
southern countries of Europe, and still
survives in many portions of the British BLack GRouUSsE.—( Zetrao tetrix.)
Isles, especially those localities where the
pine-woods and heaths afford it shelter, and it is not dislodged by the
presence of human habitations.

Like the two preceding species, the male bird resorts at the beginning of
the breeding season to some open spot where he utters his love-calls, and
displays his new clothes to the greatest advantage, for the purpose of
attracting to his harem as many wives as possible. The note of the Black
Cock when thus engaged is loud and resonant, and can be heard at a con-
siderable distance, This crowing sound 1s accumpanied by a harsh, grating,

380 ; THE OSTRICH.

stridulous kind of cry, which has been likened to the noise produced by
whetting a scythe.

In the autumn the young males separate themselves from the other sex,
and form a number of little bachelor establishments of their own, living
together in harmony until the next breeding season, when they all begin to
fall in love. The apple of discord is then thrown among them by the charms
of the hitherto repudiated sex, and their rivalries lead them into determined
and continual battles, which do not cease until the end of the season restores
them to peace and sobriety. te : ,

The general colour of the adult male. bird is black glossed with blue and
purple, except a white band across each wing. The under tail-coverts are white.

CURSORES.

WITH the OSTRICH commences a most important group of birds, contain-
ing the largest and most powerful members of the feathered tribe, and termed
Cursores, or Running Birds, on account of their great speed of foot and
total impotence of wing. All the
birds belonging to this order have
their legs developed to an extraor-
dinary degree, the bones being long,
stout, and nearly as solid as those
of a horse, and almost devoid of the
air-cells which give such lightness
to the bones of most birds. The
wings are almost wanting exter-
nally, their bones, although retaining
the same number and form as in
ordinary birds, being very small,
as if suddenly checked in their
growth,

This magnificent creature, the
largest of all existing birds, inha-
bits the hot sandy deserts of Africa,
for which mode of life it is wonder-
\ fully fitted. In height it measures
4 from six to eight feet, the males
being larger than their mates, and
of a blacker tint. The food of the
Ostrich consists mostly of wild
melons, which are so_beneficently
scattered over the sandv wastes.

The Ostrich is a gregarious bird,
associating in flocks, and being fre-
quently found mixed up with the
vast herds of quaggas, zebras,
giraffes, and antelopes, which in-
: habit the same desert plains. It is

OSTRICH.—(Struthio Camelus.) also polygamous, each male bird

having from two to seven wives.

The nest of the Ostrich is a mere shallow hole scooped in the sand, in

which are placed a large number of eggs, all set upright, and with a number
of supplementary eggs laid round the margin.

The eggs are hatched mostly by the heat of the sun ; but, contrary to the
popular belief, the parent birds are very watchful over their nests, and aid in
liatching the eggs by sitting upon them during the might, Both parents give

THE EMEU. 281

their assistance in this task. The eggs which are laid around the margin of
the nest are not sat upon, and consequently are not hatched, so that when
the eggs within the nest are quite hard, and the young bird is nearly developed,
those around are quite fit for food. Their object is supposed to be to give
nourishment to the young birds before they are strong enough to follow their
parents and forage for themselves. These eggs are put to various useful
purposes. Not only are they eaten, but the shell is carefully preserved and
chipped into spoons and ladles, or the entire shell employed as a water
vessel, the aperture at the top being stuffed with grass.

The feathers are too well known to need description. Onan average, each
feather is worth about a shilling.

The flesh of the Ostrich is tolerably good, and is said to resemble that of
the zebra. It is, however, only the young Ostrich that furnishes a good enter-
tainment, for the flesh of the old bird is rank and tough. The fat is highly
valued, and when melted is of a bright orange colour. It is mostly eaten
with millet flour, and is also stirred into the egg while roasting, so as
to make a rude but well-flavoured omelet.

The voice of the Ostrich is a deep, hollow, rumbling sound, so like the roar
of the lion that even practised ears have been deceived by it, and taken
the harmless Ostrich for a
prowling lion. In its wild
state the Ostrich is thought
to live from twenty to thirty
years.

In the male bird, the
lower part of the neck and
the body are deep glossy
black, with a few white fea-
thers, which are barely visi-
ble except when the plumage
is ruffled. The plumes of (if
the wings and tail are white. y
The female is ashen brown, (V4
sprinkled with white, and Wy
her tail and wing plumes
are white, like those of the
male, The weight of a fine
adult male seems to be be-
tween two and three hun-
dred pounds.

THE EMEv inhabits the
plains and open forest
country of Central Australia,
where it was in former days
very common, but now
seems to be decreasing so
rapidly in numbers that Dr. Bennett. who has had much personal ex-
perience of this fine bird, fears that it will, ere many years, be numbered with
the Dodo, the Great Auk, the Nestor, and other extinct species. :

The food of the Emeu consists of grass and various fruits. Its voice
is a curious, hollow, booming, or drumming kind of note, produced by
the peculiar construction of the windpipe. The legs of this bird are shorter
and stouter in proportion than those of the ostrich, and the wings are very
short, and so small that when they lie closely against the body they can
aardly be distinguished from the general plumage.

EMEU.— (Dy ius Nove FHollandia.)

382 THE CASSOWARY.

The nest of the Emeu is made by scooping a shallow hole in the ground
in some scrubby spot, and in this depression a variable number of eggs are
laid. Dr. Bennett remarks that “ there is always an odd number, some nests
having been discovered with nine, others with eleven, and others, again, with
thirteen.” The colour of the eggs is, while fresh, a rich green, of varying
quality, but after the shells are emptied and exposed to the light, the beautiful
green hue fades into an unwholesome greenish brown. The parent birds sit
upon their eggs, as has been related of the ostrich. The Emeu is not poly-
gamous, one male being apportioned to a single female. :

AMERICA is not without representatives of this fine group of birds, three
distinct species being in the gardens of the Zoological Society. .

THE RHEA is a native of South America, and is especially plentiful along
the River Plata. It is generally seen in pairs, though it sometimes associates
together in flocks of twenty or thirty in number. Like all the members of
this group, it is a swift-footed and wary bird, but possesses so little presence
of mind that it becomes confused when threatened with danger, runs aim-
lessly in one direction and then in another, thus giving time for the hunter to

; come up and shoot it, or
bring it to the ground with
his “bolas” —a_ terrible
weapon, consisting of a cord
with a heavy ball at each
end, which is flung at the
bird, and winds its coils
round its neck and legs, so
as to entangle it and bring
it to the ground.

The food of the Rhea con-
sists mainly of grasses, roots,
and other vegetable sub-
stances, but it will occa-
sionally eat animal food,
being known to come down
to the mud-banks of the
river for the purpose of
eating, the little fish that
have been stranded in the
shallows.

THE well-known Cagso-
WARY is found in the Ma-
laccas.

CASSOWARY. —(Casuarius.) This fine bird is notable

for the glossy black hair-

like plumage, the helmet-like protuberance upon the head, and the light

azure, purple, and scarlet of the upper part of the neck. The “helmet” is

a truly remarkable apparatus, being composed of a honeycombed cellular

bony substance, made on a principle that much resembles the structure of
the elephant’s skull, mentioned in an earlier portion of this work.

The plumage of the body is very hair-like, being composed of long and
almost naked shafts, two springing from the same tube, and one always
being longer than the other. At the roots of the shafts there is a small tuft
of delicate down, sufficiently thick to supply a warm and soft inner garment,
but yet so small as to be hidden by the long hair-like plumage. Even the
tail is furnished with the same curious covering, and the wings are clothed
after a similar manner, with the exception of five black, stiff, strong, pointed

THE APTERYX. 383

quills, very like the large quills of the porcupine, and being of different
lengths, the largest not exceeding one foot, and zenerally being much battered
about the point. When stripped of its feathers, the whole wing only extends
some three inches in length, and is evidently a merve indication of the limb.

The food of this bird in a wild state consists of herbage and various fruits,
and in captivity it is fed on bran, apples, carrots, and similar substances, and
is said to drink nearly half a gallon of water per diem.

PERHAPS the very strangest and most weird-like of all living birds is the
APTERYX, or Krwi-Kiwl.

This singular bird is a native of New Zealand, where it was once very
common, but, like the dinornis, is in a very fair way of becoming extinct, a
fate from which it has probably been hitherto preserved by its nocturnal
and retiring habits.

In this bird there is scarcely the slightest trace of wings, a peculiarity
which has gained for it the title of Apteryx, or “wingless.” The plumage
is composed of rather curiously-shaped flat feathers, each being wide and
furnished with a soft, shining, silken down, for the basal third of its length,
and then narrowing rapidly towards the extremity, which is a single shaft
with hair-like webs at each side. The
quill portion of the feathers is re-
markably small and short, being even
overlapped by the down when the
feather is removed from the bird.

The skin is very tough, and yet

flexible, and the Chiefs set great value
upon it for the manufacture of their
state mantles, permitting no inferior /,
person to wear them, and being ex- |
tremely unwilling to part with them
even for a valuable consideration.
The bird lives mostly among the fern ;
and as it always remains concealed
during the day in deep recesses of
rocks, ground or tree roots, and is re-
markably fleet of foot, diving among
the heavy fern-leaves with singular
adroitness, it is not very easy of cap-
ture. It feeds upon insects of various
kinds, more especially on worms,
which it is said to attract to the sur-
face by jumping and striking on the APTERYX.—(Apteryx Australis.)
ground with its powerful feet. The ; ;
Natives always hunt the Kiwi-kiwi at night, taking ‘with them torches
and spears. The speed of this bird is very considerable, and when running
it sets its head rather back, raises its neck, and plies its legs with a vigour
little inferior to that of the ostrich.

The fine specimen in the Zoological Gardens has already proved a very
valuable bird, as she has laid several eggs, thereby setting at rest some dis-
puted questions on the subject, and well illustrates the natural habits of the
species.

Epon her box is placed, under a glass shade, the shell of one of her eggs.
These eggs are indeed wonderful, for the bird weighs a little more than four
pounds, and each egg weighs between fourteen and fifteen ounces, its length
being four inches and three-quarters, and its width rather more than two
imches, thus being very nearly one-fourth of the weight of the parent bird.

Be

384 GREAT BUSTARD,

The long curved beak of the Apteryx has the nostrils very narrow, very
sinall, and set on at each side of the tip, so that the bird is enabled te pry
out the worms, and other nocturnal creatures on which it feeds, without
trusting only to the eyes. The general colcur of the Apteryx is chestnut-
brown, each feather being tipped with a darker hue, and the underparts are
lighter than the upper. The height is about two feet.

Several species of the Apteryx are known.

ALTHOUGH the progress of civilization has conferred many benefits on this
country, it has deprived it of many of its aboriginal inhabitants, whether
furred or feathered, the GREAT BUSTARD being in the latter category.

This splendid bird, although in former days quite a usual tenant of plains
and commons, and having been an
ordinary object of chase on New-
market Heath, is now so rare, that
an occasional specimen only makes
its appearance at very distant inter-
vals.

The Great Bustard is not fond of
flying, its wings having but a slow
and deliberate movement; but on
foot it is very swift, and tests the
speed of dog and horse before it can
be captured.

The nest—-if a hole in the ground
may be called a nest—of this bird
is generally made among corn, rye,
&c., although it is sometimes situ-
ated in rather unexpected localities.
‘The eggs are two or three in num-
ber, and of an olive-brown colour,
splashed with light brown in which
a green tinge is perceptible. The
food of the bird is almost wholly

GREAT BUSTARD.—(O %s farda.) of a vegetable nature, though it

it is said to feed occasionally upon

mice, lizards, and other small vertebrates. The flesh of the Bustard is very

excellent, but the extreme rarity of these birds prevents it from being often

seen upon English tables. When caught young, the Bustard can be readily
tamed, and soon becomes quite familiar with those who treat it kindly.

The head and upper part of the neck are greyish white, and upon the side
of the neck there is a small patch of slaty blue bare skin, almost concealed
by the curious feather tuft which hangs over it. The upper part of the body
is pale chestnut barred with black, and the tail is of similar tints with a
white tip, and a very broad black band next to the white extremity. The
wing-coverts, together with the tertials, are white, and the primaries black.
The under surface of the body is white. The total length of an adult male
is about forty-five inches.

THE Wading Birds are well furnished with legs and feet formed for
walking, and in many species the legs are greatly elongated, so as to enable
them to walk in the water while they pick their food out of the waves.

In the British Museum the Plovers head the list of Waders.

THE well-known LAPWING, or PEEWIT, is celebrated for many reasons.
Its wheeling flapping flight is so peculiar as to attract the notice of everyone
who has visited the localities in which it resides, and its strange, almost
articulate, cry is equally familiar. When it fears danger, it rises from its

THE GOLDEN-BREASTED TRUMPETER. 385

nest, or rather from the eggs, into the air, and continually wheels around the
intruder, its black and white plumage flashing out as it inclines itself in tts
flight, and its mournful cry almost fatiguing the ear with its piercing
frequency. “ Wee-whit! wee-e-whit !” fills the air, as the birds endeavour
to draw away attention from their home ; and the look and cry are so weird-
like that the observer ceases to wonder at the superstitious dread in which
these birds were formerly held. The French call the Lapwing “ Dzx-huzt,”
from its cry.

It is the male bird which thus soars above and around the intruder, the
female sitting closely on her eggs until disturbed, when she runs away,
tumbling and flapping about as if she had broken her wing, in hopes that the
foe may give chase and so miss
her eggs. It is certainly very
tempting, for she imitates the
movements of a wounded bird
with marvellous fidelity.

The eggs of the Lapwing are
laid in a little depression in the
earth, in which a few grass stalks
are loosely pressed. The full
number of eggs is four, very
large at one end and very sharply
pointed at the other, and the
bird always arranges them with
their small end inwards, so that .
they present a somewhat cross- LAPWING. —(Vanetlus cristatus.)
like shape as they lie in the nest.

Their colour is olive, blotched and spotted irregularly with dark blackish
brown, and they harmonize so well with the ground on which they are laid
that they can hardly be discerned from the surrounding earth at a few yards’
distance. Under the title of “ Plover’s eggs” they are in great request for
the table, and are sought by persons who make a trade of them, and who
attain a wonderful expertness at the business.

The food of the Lapwing consists almost wholly of grubs, slugs, worms,
and insects. It is easily tamed, and is often kept in gardens for the purpose
of ridding them of these destructive creatures. In the garden next our
own a Lapwing was kept, and lived for some years, tripping featly over the
grass and thoroughly at home.

THE GOLDEN-BREASTED TRUMPETER is a handsome bird, remarkable for
the short velvety feathers of the head and neck, and their beautiful golden
green lustre on the breast. The body of this bird is hardly larger than that
of a fowl, but its legs and neck are so long as to give it the aspect of being
much larger than it really is. Like most birds of similar structure, it trusts
more to its legs than its wings, and is able to run with great speed and
activity. It is generally found in the forests.

The name of Trumpeter is derived from the strange hollow cry which it
utters without seeming to open the beak. This cry is evidently produced by
means of the curiously-formed windpipe, which is furnished with two mem-
branous expansions, and, during the utterance of the cry, puffs out the neck
very forcibly, just as the rhea does when grunting. The nest of the Trumpeter
is said to be a hole scratched in the ground at the foot ofa tree, and to contain
about ten or tweve light green eggs. The head and neck are velvety black,
and on the breast the feathers become large, and more scale-like, and their
edges beautifully bedecked with rich shining green, with a purplish gloss in
some lights and a lustrous golden hue in others. The back is grey, the

cc

386 3 THE CRANE. .
feathers being long and silken, and hanging over the wings. The wings,
under surface, and tail are black, and the feathers of the tail are soft and
short.

ALTHOUGH in former days tolerably common in England, the CRANE has
now, with the bustard, almost disappeared from this land, a single specimen
being seen at very long and increasing intervals. In some parts of England
and Ireland the popular name of the heron is the Crane, so that the occasional
reports which sometimes find admission into local newspapers respecting the
Crane have often reference, not to that bird, but to the heron.

THE GOLDEN-BREASTED TRUMPETER. —(Psophia crepuans.)

The Crane makes its nest mostly on marshy ground, placing it among
osiers, reeds, or the heavy vegetation which generally flourishes in such
localities. Sometimes, however, it prefers more elevated situations, and will
make its nest on the summit of an old deserted ruin. The eggs are two in
number, and their colour is light olive, covered with dashes of a deeper hue
and brown. The well-known plumes of the Crane are the elongated tertials,
with their long drooping loose webs, which, when on the wings of the bird,
reach beyond the primaries.

THE HERON. 387

The forehead, top of the head, and neck are rather dark slaty ash, and a
patch of greyish white extends from behind the eyes, partially down the neck
on each side. The general surface of the body is soft ashen grey, and the
primaries are black, The long plumy tertials form two crest-like ornaments,
which can be raised or depressed at will. The eyes are red, and the beak is
yellow with a green tinge. The total length of the adult crane is about four
feet, but it is rather variable in point of size, and the males are rather larger
than the females.

The DEMOISELLE, or NUMIDIAN CRANE is common in many parts of
Africa, and has been seen in some portions of Asia, and occasionally in
Eastern Europe.

It is a very pretty bird, the soft texture of the flowing plumage, and the
delicate greys of the feathers, harmonizing with each other in a very agreeable
manner, The general tint of
the plumage is blue-grey,
taking a more leaden tone
on the head and neck, and
offering a beautiful contrast
to the snowy white ear-tufts,
issuing from velvety black,
which decorate the head.
There is also a tuft of long
flowing plumes of a deep
black-grey hanging from the
breast. Its secondaries are
much elongated, and hang
over the primaries and tail-
feathers. In height the De-
moiselle Crane is about three
feet six inches.

THE well-known HERON
was once one of our com-
monest English birds, but on
account of the draining of
Swamps and their conver-
sion into fertilized and ha-
bitable ground, is now sel-
dom to be seen except in CRANE.—(Grus cinerea.)
certain localities which still
retain the conditions that render them so acceptable to this bird. There
aré some places where Herons are yet plentiful, especially those localities
where the owner of the land has established or protected the nests, or where
a wide expanse of wild uncultivated ground affords them a retreat. Only
a few days ago I came suddenly on three of these beautiful birds fishing
quietly in the Avon, and permitting my approach within a few yards before
they spread their wide wings for fl ght.

The food of the Heron consists mostly of fish and reptiles, but it will eat
small mammalia, such as mice, or even water-rats. In the stomach of one of
these birds were found seven small trout, a mouse, and athrush. Eels also are
a favourite food of the Heron, but on account of their lithe bodies and active
wrigglings are not so easy to despatch as ordinary fish, and are accordingly
taken on shore and banged against the ground until disabled.

Like many other birds, the Heron is able to disgorge the food which it has
swallowed, and resorts to this measure when it is chased by birds of prey
while going-home after a day’s fishing.

cc2

388 THE BITTERN.

While engaged in its search for food, the Heron stands on the water's edge
mostly with its feet or foot immersed, and there remains still, as if carved out
of wood, with its neck retracted, and its head resting between the shoulders.
In this attitude its sober plumage and total stillness render it very incon-
spicuous, and as it mostly prefers to stand under the shadow of a tree, bush,
or bank, it cannot be seen except by a practised eye, in spite of its large size.

The long beak of the Heron is very sharp and dagger-like, and can be
used with terrible force as an offensive weapon. The bird instinctively aims
its blow at the eye of its adversary, and if incautiously handled is sure to
deliver a stroke quick as lightning at the captor’seye. The beak of a species
of Heron set upon a stick is used by some savage tribes as a spear.

DEMOISELLE CRANE.—(Scops Virgo.) HERON.—(.4 rea stra.)

The nest of the Heron is almost invariabiy built upon some elevated spot,
mostly the top of a large tree, but sometimes on rocks near the coast. It is
a large and rather clumsy-looking edifice, made of sticks and lined with
wool, The eggs are from four to five in number, and their colour is pale green.

THE BITTERN is now seldom seen in this country, partly because it is a
rare bird and becoming scarcer almost yearly. and partly hecause its habits
are nocturnal, and it sits all day in the thickest reeds or other aquatic vege-
tation. The marshy grounds of Essex seem to be the spots most favoured
by this bird at the present day, although specimens are annually killed in
various parts of the country.

In habits and food, the Bittern resembles the heron. except that it feeds by
night instead of by day. Like that bird, it uses its long sharp beak as a
weapon of offence, and chooses the eye of its adversary as the point at
which to aim. The feet and legs are also powerful weapons, and when dis-
abled from flight, the Bittern will fling itself on its back and fight des-
perately with foot and bill.

The nest of the Bittern is placed on the ground near water, and concealed
among the rank vegetation that is found in such localities. It is made of
sticks and reeds, and generally contains about four or five pale brown eggs, The

THE SPOONBILL. 38a

voice of the Bittern varies with the season of the year. Usually itis a sharp

harsh cry uttered on rising,
but in the breeding season
the bird utters a loud boom-
ing cry that can be heard at
a great distance.

The general colour of this
fine bird is rich brownish
buff covered with irregular
streaks and mottlings of
black, dark brown, grey and
chestnut. The top of the
head is black with a gloss of
bronze, the cheeks are buff,
and the chin white tinged
with buff. Down the front
of the neck the feathers are
marked with bold _lon-
gitudinal dashes of black-
ish and reddish brown, and
the feathers of the breast
are dark brown broadly
edged with buff. The under
surface of the body is buff
streaked with brown, the
beak is greenish yellow, and
the feet and legs are green.

BITTERN.—(Botaurus stellaris.)

In total length the Bittern measures about thirty inches.
THE well-known SPOONBILL affords an instance of the endless variety

of forms assumed by the beak.

It has a very wide range of country,
being spread over the greater part of
Europe and Asia, and inhabiting a por-
tion of Africa. This species is one of
the Waders, frequenting the waters, and
obtaining a subsistence from the hsh,
reptiles, and smaller aquatic inhabitants,
which it captures in the broad spoon-
like extremity of its beak. It is also
fond of frequenting the sea-shore,
where it finds a bountiful supply of
food along the edge of the waves and
in the little pools that are left by the

retiring waters, where shrimps, crabs, |

sand-hoppers, and similar animals are

crowded closely together as the water |

sinks through the sand. The bird also
eats some vegetable substances, such
as the roots of aquatic herbage, and
when in confinement will feed upon
almost any kind of animal or vege-
table matter, providing it be soft and
moist. The beak of an adult Spoon-
bill is about eight inches in length, very
much flattened. and is channelled and

THE WHITE SPOONBILL,
( "latalea leucorodia.)

grooved at the base. In some countries the beak is taken from the bird,

390 THE STORK.

scraped very thin, and polished, and is then used as a spoon, and is thought
a valuable article, being sometimes set in silver.

The breeding-places of the Spoonbill are usually open trees, the banks of
rivers, or in little islands and tufts of aquatic herbage. In the latter cases
the nest is rather large, and is made of reeds piled loosely together, and set
on a foundation of water-weeds heaped sufficiently high to keep the eggs
from the wet. There is no lining to the nest. The eggs are generally four in
number, and their colour is greyish white, spotted with rather pale rusty brown.

THE STORK is another of the birds which, in the olden days, were tolerably
frequent visitors to the British Islands, but which now seldom make their
appearance in such inhospitable re-
gions, where food is scarce and guns
are many.

It is sufficiently common in many
parts of Europe, whither it migrates
yearly from its winter quarters in Af-
rica, makes its nest, and rears its
young.

The Stork attaches itself to man
and his habitations, building its
huge nest on the top of his house, and
walking about in his streets as fami-
liarly as if it had built them. It espe-
cially parades about the fish-markets,
\\ where it finds no lack of subsistence
| in the offal; and in Holland, where
it is very common, it does good ser-
= vice by destroying the frogs and other
reptiles which would be likely to be-
come a public nuisance unless kept
down by the powerful aid of this bird.

The Stork is fond of making its

STORK.—(Ciconia alba.) nest upon some elevated spot, such as

the top of a house, a chimney, or a

church spire ; and, in the ruined cities of the East, alrrost every solitary pillar

has its Stork’s nest upon the summit. The nest is little more than a hetero-

geneous bundle of sticks, reeds, and similar substances heaped together and

with a slight depression for tle eggs. These are usually three or four in
number, and their colour is white with a tinge of buff.

The colour of the adult Stork is pure white, with the exception of the quill
feathers of the wings, the scapularies, and greater wing-coverts, which are
black. The skin round the eye is black, the eyes are brown, and the beak,
legs, and toes red. The length of the full-grown bird is about three feet
six inches, and when erect, its head is about four feet from the ground.

THERE are several remarkable members of this group, one of which is the
well-known ADJUTANT, or ARGALA, of India, the former name being derived
from its habit of frequenting the parade-grounds.

This fine bird is notable for the enormous size of the beak, which is
capable of seizing and swallowing objects of considerable size, a full-grown
cat, a fowl, or a leg of mutton being ingulfed without any apparent difficulty.
The Adjutant is a most useful bird in the countries which it inhabits, and is
protected with the utmost care, as it thoroughly cleans the streets and public
places of the various offal which is flung carelessly in the way, and would be
left to putrefy but for the constant services of the Adjutant and creatures of
similar habits.

THE ADJUTANT. 301

_ It is easily tamed, and soon attaches itself to a kind owner ; sometimes
indeed becoming absolutely trouble-ome in its familiarity. Myr. Smeathman
mentions an instance where ene ef these birds was domesticated, and was

ADJUTANT.-—(Leptopiilos Argala.,

accustomed to stand behind its master’s chair at dinner-time and take its
share of the meal. It was, however, an incorrigible thief, and was alwavs
looking for some opportunity of stealing the provisions, so that the servants

392 THE SACRED IBIS.

were forced to keep watch with sticks over the table. In spite of their
vigilance it was often too quick for them; and once it snatched a boiled
fowl off the dish and swallowed it on the spot.

The exquisitely fine and flowing plumes, termed “ Marabou feathers,” are
obtained from the Adjutant and a kindred species, the Marabou of Africa
(Leptoptilos Marabou).

‘The general colour of the Adjutant is delicate ashen grey above, and white
beneath. The great head and proportionately large neck are almost bare of
covering, having only a scanty supply of down instead of feathers. From
the lower part of the neck hangs a kind of dewlap, which can be inflated at
the will of the bird, but generally hangs loose and flabby.

THE SACRED IBIS is one of a rather curious group of birds. With one
exception they are not possessed of brilliant colouring, the feathers being
mostly white and deep purplish black. ‘Ihe Scarlet Ibis, however, is a most
magnificent, though not very large bird, its plumage being of a glowing
scarlet, relieved by a few patches of black.

SACRED IBIS.—(/d7s religiosa.) CURLEW.—(Mumenius arquata.)

The Sacred Ibis is so called because it figures largely in an evidently
sacred character on the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. It is a migratory
bird, arriving in Egypt as soon as the waters of the Nile begin to rise, and
remaining in that land until the waters have subsided, and cherefore deprived
it of its daily supplies of food. The bird probably owes its sacred character
to the fact that its appearance denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual
phenomenon on which depends the prosperity of the whole country.

By the natives of Egypt it is called the Abou H innes, z.¢, Father John, or
Abou Menzel, ze, Father Sickle-bill, the former nawe being in use in
Upper and the other in Lower Egypt.

The colour af the adult bird is mostly pure silvery white, the feathers being
glossv and closely set, with the exception of some of the secondaries, which
are elongated and hang gracefully over the wings and tail. These, together
with the tips of the primaries, are deep glossy black, and the head and neck
are also back, but being devoid of feathers have a slight brownish tinge,
Jike unat of an iil-blacked boot, or an old crumpled black kid glove. While

THE AVOCET. 393

young, the head and neck are clothed with a blackish down, but when the
bird reaches maturity, even this slender covering is shed, and the whole skin
is left bare. The body is little larger than that of a common fowl.

ANOTHER species, the GLOSSY IBIS, is also an inhabitant of Northern
Africa, but is sometimes ‘ound in this country, where the fishermen know it
by the name of Black Curlew, It is probably the Black Ibis mentioned by
Herodotus.

THE CURLEW, or WHAUP, 1s mostly found upon the sea-shore and open
moorlands, and partly on account of its wild, shy habits, and partly because
its flesh is very delicate and well flavoured, is greatly pursued by sportsmen.
These birds are mostly annoying to a gunner who does not understand their
ways, having a fashion of keeping just out of gun range, rising from the
ground with a wila mournful cry which has the effect of alarming every other
bird within hearing, and flying off to a distance, where they alight only to
play the same trick again. Moreover, they are strong on the wing and well
feathered, so that they require a sharp blow to bring them down, and
necessitate the use of large shot.

The breeding-grounds of the Curlew are inland, the locality varying
according to the character of the district, wild heath and high hilly grounds
being chosen in some places, while marshy and boggy soils are favoured in
others. The nest of this bird is very slight, being only a small heap of dry
leaves or grasses scraped together under the shelter of a tuft of heather or a
bunch of rank grass, There are usually four eggs, placed, as is customary
with sich birds, with their small ends together, and being much larger at
one end than at the other.
Their colour is brownish
green, with some blotches
and splashes of dark brown
and a darker green.

THE AVOCET is one of the
most remarkableamong Eng-
lish birds, and is easily re-
cognizable by its long, curi-
ously-curved beak, and its
boldly pied plumage.

It is not a common bird
in England, and is now but
seldom seen, though in for-
mer days it used to be
tolerably plentiful on the
sea-coasts and in marshy a
lands. The long and oddly aa
curved beak is very slender
and pointed, and from its
peculiar shape has earned
for its owner the name of Cobbler's-Awl Bird. The food of the Avocet con-
sists almost wholly of worms, insects, and little crustaceans ; and while the
bird is engaged in the search after these creatures it paddles over the
oozy mud with its webbed feet, and traverses the soft surface with much
ease and some celerity.

The nest of the Avocet is placed on the ground in some convenient
hollow, and the eggs are yellowish brown with tack marks.

LIKE many other birds which depend for their existence upon marshy and
uncultivated grounds, the RUFF is gradually being turned out of England,
and may in time be nothing more than a rare and occasional yisitor,

AVOCET. —(Recurvirostra avoceita.)

394 THE COMMON SNIPE,

It is one of the migratory species, arriving in this country in April and
leaving by the end of September. Formerly it was so common in the fenny
districts that six dozen have been taken by one bird catcher in a single day.

The Ruff is a most pugnacious bird, rivalling if not exceeding the game-
cock in irritability of temper and reckless courage. The attitude of fighting
is not unlike that of the cock, but as they have no spurs, they cannot inflict
severe wounds, and after a fierce contest neither party will be much the
worse. Prolonged and obstinate combats are waged among the Ruffs for the
possession of the females, popularly called Reeves, and as the birds make a
great noise about their affairs, and in their eager combat trample down the
grass on the little hills where they love to resort, the fowler knows well
where to lay his nets.

The Ruff is chiefly remarkable for the peculiarity from which it derives its
name, the projecting ruff of long, closely set feathers, which surrounds the
neck, and can be raised or lowered at pleasure. This ruff only belongs to the

Sort

RUFF.—(Philomachus pugnax.) SNIPE.—(Mumenius scolopacinus.)

adult males, and is assumed by them during the short breeding season, being
in greatest perfection about the beginning of June, and falling off by degrees
from July to August and September.

THE COMMON SN'PE is too well known to need much description. Its
habits, however, are interesting, and deserve some notice.

This bird may be seen all over England wherever damp and swampy
places are found. When first flushed it shoots off in a straight line for a few
yards, and then begins to twist and turn in astrangely zigzag fashion, and at
last darts away, thereby puzzling juvenile sportsmen greatly, and often
escaping before its enemy has got his aim.

The male bird has a curious habit of rising to a great height in the air,
circling repeatedly over the same ground, and uttering continually a peculiar
cry like the words “ Chic! chic! chic-a, chic-a, chic-a,” constantly repeated.
Every now and then the bird makes a downward stoop, and then emits a
very singular sound, something between the bleating of a goat and the
buzzing of a slack harp-string. How this sound is produced has long been
a controversy, but I am convinced that it is produced by the wings—at all
events that it is not from the mouth.

During a recent stay in the New Forest, I set myself to the elucidation of
this problem, and in company with two friends wert towards sunset toan
exoclent cover near a large marsh, in which Snipes were almost as plentiful as

THE WOODCOCK. 395

sparrows. From this post we could watch the Snipes to great advantage,
and the birds would come circling over our heads, piping and drumming
vigorously. On several occasions, when a Snipe was passing over us at so
low an elevation that his long drooping beak was distinctly visible, he
stooped over our heads and uttered his “chic-a! chic-a!” simultaneously
with the “drumming,” both sounds being distinctly heard at the same time.
The first time that we clearly heard the double sound was on June 27, but
we repeatedly heard it on subsequent occasions. The Snipe ~emains a
long time upon the wing while thus engaged, contrary to its usual habit,
which is to fly for a short distance and then to pitch again.

The nest of the Snipe is a simple heap of leaves pl-ced under the shelter
of a tuft of furze, heath, or grass, and the eggs are four in number, of an olive-
white, spotted and dashed with brown of different tones towards and upen
the large end. The mother bird has been known to carry away her young
when threatened by danger.

THE WOODCOCK is neatly as well known, though not so plentiful as the
snipe, to which bird it bears a considerable resemblance in form, plumage,
and many habits.

Generaliy it is only a winter visitor, arriving about October, and leaving
England in March or April. Sometimes, however, it will breed within the
British Isles, and there remain throughout
the summer. During their migration the
Woodcocks fly ata great altitude, and de-
scend almost perpendicularly upon the spot
where they intend torest. They fly in com-
panies of varying numbers, and prefer
hazy and calm weather for their journey.

The food of the Woodcock consists
mostly of worms, which it obtains with
extraordinary skill, thrusting its beak as
far as the nostrils into the soft moist earth,
and hitting upon the hidden worms with
unerring skill. A tame Woodcock has
been seen to probe large turfs with its bill,
and to draw out a worm at every thrust
of the long slender beak. It is thought
that the sense of smell enables the bird to
discover the worms beneath the surface. é .
It moves about chiefly on misty days, and woopdcock.—(Scolopax rusticola.)
is said by experienced woodcock shooters f 6
to prefer the northern side of a hill to the southern.

It is a very silent bird, seldom uttering its cry except when first starting
for its feeding-places, and hardly even crying when flushed. The flight of
the Woodcock is wonderfully swift, although the wings do not appear to
move very fast ; and the bird has a custom of jerking and dodging about so
quickly when it sees the sportsman, that it often escapes his shot. One bird,
mentioned by Mr. Thompson, used to baffle an experienced sportsman by
always feeding near an archway, and slipping through it before the gun could
be brought to bear.

The nest of the Woodcock is made of leaves—those of the fern being
favourites—closely laid together, but without any particular skill in arrange-
ment, and without lining. The full number of eggs is four, and their colour
is buffy white with rusty brown blotches.

THE JACANAS are found in Asia. Africa, and America. Their light bodies
and widely extended claws enable them to walk on the leaves of aquatic plants

396 THE CHINESE YACANA.—THE CORNRAKE.
with equal ease and safety. As their weight is just sufficient to sink the
leaf a little below the surface, they have quite the appearance of walking on
the water itself. Tlie Common Jacana inhabits the hotter parts of South
America, and is abundant in Brazil and Guiana. It possesses large and
sharp spurs on the wing. It is nota
very large bird, barely exceeding a
pigeon in bulk.

WE now come to the large family of
the RAILS, a curious group of birds,
formed for rapid movement, either on
the ground or through the water, but
not particularly adapted tor long flights.
M-nvy species inhabit England.’

THE well-known CORNCRAKE, or
LANDRAIL, is common in almost every
part of the British Islands, its rough
grating call being heard wherever the
.\ hay-grass is long enough to hide the
\\, utterer. ;
| The bird runs with wonderful speed
through the tall grass, and its cry may
be heard now close at hand, now in the
distance, nowright, and now left,without
any other indication of the bird’s where-
abouts; for so deftly does it thread the
grass-stems thatscarcely a shaken blade

eae : indicates its presence, and it is-so wary

(Bjrraplananus Siacn did thatit keepsitself well hiddenamong the

thickherbage. Thecry of the Corncrake

may be exactly imitated by drawing a quill or a piece of stick smartly o er

the large teeth of a comb, or by rubbing together two jagged strips of bone.

In either case the bird may be decoyed within sight by this simple
procedure.

The nest of the Corncrake is placed on the ground, and is made of dry
grass arranged in a suitable depression. It generally contains from eight
to twelve eggs, of a buffy white covered with rusty brown spots. The shell
is rather thick, and the size of the
egg large in proportion to the dimen-
sions of the bird.

The upper parts of the body are
elegantly mottled with dark blackish
brown, ashen, and warm chestnut ;
the first tint occupying the centre of
each feather, the second the edges,
and the third the tips. The wing-
coverts arerusty red. The throat and
abdomen are white, and the breast
is greenish ash, warming into reddish
rust striped with white on the sides.
In total length the Cornrake is not
quite ten inches.

OUR most familiar example of the

ORNCAKE.—( Ortyyometra crex. Gallinules is the WATER HEN, some-

: Loree times called the Moor HFN.

This bird may be seen in plenty in every river in England, and mostly on

THE COOT. 3947

every pond or sheet of water where the reedy or rushy banks offer it a refuge.
When startled it often dives on the instant, and. emerging under floating
weeds or rubbish, just pokes its bill above the surface, so that the nostrils are
uncovered by the water, and remains submerged until the danger is past,
ee itself in the proper position by the grasp of its strong toes upon the
weeds.

The nesting of this bird is very peculiar. The Water Hen builds a large
editice of sedges, sticks, and leaves, either on the bank close to the water’s
edge, upon little reedy islands, or on low banks overhanging the water, and
generally very conspicuous. The mother bird has a habit of scraping leaves
and rushes over her eggs when she leaves the nest—not, as some persons
fancy, to keep the eggs warm, but to hide them from the prying eyes of
crows and magpies, jays, and other egg-devouring birds.

WATER HEN.—(Gallinula chloropus.)

The young are able to swim almost as soon as hatched, and for some time
remain close to their parents. I once, to my great regret, shot by mistake
several young Moor Hens, still in their first suit of black puffy down, and
paddling about among the water-lilies and other aquatic herbage where I
could not see them. Pike are rather apt to carry off the little creatures, by
coming quickly under the weeds and jerking them under water before they
take the alarm.

THE CoMMON COOT, or BALD COOT, as it is sometimes called, is anothe.
of our familiar British water-birds, being seen chiefly in lakes, large ponds,
and the quiet banks of wide rivers.

The habits of the Coot much resemble those of the water hen, and it feeds
after a similar fashion upon molluscs, insects, and similar creatures, which
it finds either in the water or upon land.

The nest of the Coot is a huge edifice of reeds and rank-water herbage,
sometimes placed at the edge of the water, and sometimes on little islan.|s
at some distance from shore. I have often had to ‘ade for thirty or forty
yards to these nests, which have been founded upon the tops of little hillocks
almost covered with water. The whole nest is strongly though rudely made ;
and if the water should suddenly rise and set the nest floating, the Coot is
very little troubled at the change, but sits quietly on her eggs waiting for

308 THE FLAMINGO.

the nest to be stranded. The eggs are generally about eight or ten in num-
ber, and their colour is olive-white sprinkled profusely with brown. The
shell is rather thick in proportion to the size of the egg, so that Coots’s eggs can
be carried away in a handkerchief without much danger of being broken.

THE well-known FLAMINGO brings us to the large and important order of
Anseres, or the Goose tribe.

The common Flamingo is plentiful in many parts of the Old World, and
may be seen in great numbers on the sea-shore, or the banks of large and
pestilential marshes, the evil atmosphere of which has no effect on these birds,
though to many animals it is most injurious, and to man certain death,
When feeding, the Flamingo bends its neck, and, placing the upper mandible
of the curiously bent beak on the ground or under the water, separates the
nutritive portions with a kind of spattering sound, like that of a duck when
feeding. The tongue of the Flamingo is very thick, and of a soft oily con-
sistence, covered with curved spines pointing backwards, and not muscular.

coo'r.—( Fulica atra.)

A flock of these birds feeding along the sea-shore has a curious appear-
ance, bending their long necks in regular succession as the waves dash upon.
the shore, and raising them as the ripple passes away along the strand. At
each wing is always placed a sentinel bird, which makes no attempt to feed
but remains with neck erect and head turning constantly about to detect the,
least indication of danger. When a flock of Flamingos is passing overhead,
they have a wonderfully fine effect, their plumage changing from pure white
to flashing rose as they wave their broad wings.

When at rest and lying on the ground, with the legs doubled under the
body, the Flamingo is still graceful, bending its neck into snaky coils, and
preening every part of its plumage with an ease almost incredible. Its long
and apparently clumsy legs are equally under commzud, for the bird can
scratch its cheeks with its toes as easily as a sparrow or a canary.

When flying, the Flamingo still associates itself with its comrades, and
the flock form themselves into regular shapes, each band evidently acting
under the command ofa leader. The eggs are white, their number is two
or taree, and the young birds are all able to run at an early age. Like many

THE BERNICLE GOOSE. 399

other long-legged birds, the Flamingo has a habit of standing on one leg,
the other being drawn up and hid-
den among the plumage.

The curious beak of this bird is
orange-yellow at the base, and
black at the extremity ; and the
cere is flesh-coloured. When in
full plumage the colour is brilliant
scarlet, with the exception of the
quill feathers, which are jetty black.
A full-grown bird will measure from
five to six feet in height.

THE BERNICLE GOOSE is found
on our shores, and seems to prefer
the western to the eastern coasts.

The name of Bernicle Goose
is given to this bird because the
olden voyagers thought that it was
produced from the conmon bar-
nacle shell, and this notion had
taken so strong a hold of their
minds that they published several
engravings representing the bird
in various stages of its transfor-
mation.

The Bernicle Goose generally
assembles in large flocks and
haunts large salt-marshes near the
coast, and feeds on grasses and
various alge. It is a very wary
bird, and not easily approached.

The eggs of this species are large MW eZ.
and white. The flesh is considered FLAMINGO.—(Phenicopterus ruver.)

good. The bill of the Bernicle

Goose is black, with a reddish streak on each side. The cheeks and throat
are white, a black streak runs from the beak to the eye, the upper parts are
bold and marked with black and white,
and the lower parts are white. It is
rather a small bird, the total length
barely exceeding two feet.

THE beaut-ful SwANS now come
before our notice. There are nine or
ten species of these fine birds, which
are well represented in the British
Isles, four species being acknowledged ||
as English birds.

Our most familiar species is the
TAME or MUTE Swav, so called from
its silent habits. This elegant and
graceful bird has long been partially
domesticated throughout England, and
enjoys legal protection to a great ex-
tent ; heavy penalties being proclaimed
against anyone who kills a Swan with-
out a legal right. ,

BERNICLE GOosE.—(Bernicla leucopsis.)

400 THE MUTE SWWAN.—THE WHISTLING SWAN.

The food of the Swan consists mostly of vegetable substances, and the
bird can be readily fattenea on kariey, like ordinary o.luy. The young
birds, called cygnets,
ought not to be killed
after November, as
they then lose their
fat, and the flesh be-
comes dark and tough,

The nest of the
Swan is a very large
mass of reeds, rushes,
and grasses set upon
the bank, close to the
water, in some shel-
tered spot. Generally
the bird prefers the
shore of a little island
as a resting-place for
is nest. Like other
waeter-birds, the Swan
will raise the nest by
adding fresh material
before the rising of the
water near which it is

THE MUTE SWAN.—(Ci onus olcr.) placed. There are

generally six or seven

eggs, large, and of a dull greenish white. The young are of a light bluish
grey colour, and do not assume the beautiful white plumage until maturity.

The mother is very
watchful over her nest
and young, and in
company with her
mate assaults any in-
truder upon the pre.
mises. During the
first period of their
life the young Swans
mount on their mo-
tler’s back, and are
thus carried from one
place to another. If
in the water, the Swan
is able to sink herself
so low that the young
can scramble upon her
back out of the water;
and if on land, she
helps them up by
means of one leg.

The Hooper, ELK

THE WHISTLING SWAN.—(Cygnus ferus.) SWAN, or WHISTLING

SWAN, may at once

be distinguished from the preceding species by the Shape and colour of the

beak, which is slender, without the black tubercle, and is black at the lip
and yellow at the base, the latter colour stretching as far as the eye.

SWANS.—DUCKS. 4ot

The nest of the Hooper is like that of the Mute Swan, and the eggs are
pale brownish white. ‘The length of the Hooper is about the same as that
of the mute species, z.z., five feet.

HOWEVER emblematical of ornithological fiction a BLACK SWAN might
have been in ancient times, it is now almost as familiar to English eyes as
any of the white species.

This fine bird comes from Australia, where it was first discovered in 1698.
It is a striking and handsome bird, the blood-red bill and the white primaries
contrasting beautifully
with the deep black of
the plumage. It is not
so elegant in its move-
ments as the white Swan,
and holds its neek stiffly,
without the easy serpen-
tine grace to which we
are so well accustomed in
our British Swans.

THERE are very many
species of DUCKs, of
which we can take but a
few examples.

The well-known WID-
GEON is very plentiful in
this country, arriving
about the end of Sep-
tember or the beginning
of October, and assem-

- bling in large flocks.
BLACK SWAN.—(Cyenus atratus.) These’ birds, although
wary on some occasions,
are little afraid of the proximity of man and his habitations, feeding boldly
by day, instead of postponing their feeding-time to the night, as is often the
case with water-fowl. The food of the Widgeon mostly consists of grass,
which it eats after the fashion of the common goose. ‘The nest of the

‘a

(w1pGEOoN.—Marera Pene'ap ) (M4LLARD.—Anas boschas.)

Widgeon is made of decayed reeds and rushes, and is lined with the soft
down torn from the parent’s body. The eggs are rather small, and of a
creamy white colour. The number of eggs s from five to eight. The flesh
of this bird is very delicate, and it is largely sold in our markets.
THE common MALLARD, or WILD DUCK, now comes before our notice.
DD

402 TEAL.

This is by no means one of the least handsome of its tribe ; the rich glossy
green of the head and neck, the snowy white collar, and the velvet black of
the odd little curly feathers of the tail, giving it a bold and stuking
appearance, which, but for its familiarity, would receive greater-admiration
than it at present obtains. It is the stock from which descended our well-known
domestic Duck, to which we are so much indebted for its flesh and its eggs.

In its wild state the Mallard arrives in this country about October,
assembling in large flocks, and is immediately persecuted in every way that
the ingenuity of man can devise.

The nest of the Mallard is made of grass, lined and mixed with down, and
is almost always placed on the ground near water, and sheltered by reeds,
osiers, or other aquatic plants. Sometimes, however, the nest is placed in a
more inland spot, and it now and then happens that a Duck of more than
usual eccentricity builds her nest in a tree at some elevation from the ground,
so that, when her young are hatched, she is driven to exert all her ingenuity
in conveying them safely from their lofty cradle to the ground or the water.
Such a nest has been observed in an oak-tree twenty-five feet from the
ground, and at Heath Wood, near Chesterfield, one of these birds usurped

TEAL.—(Querquedula Crecca.)

possession of a deserted crow’s nest in an oak-tree. Many similar instances
are on record.

The eggs of the Mallard are numerous, but variable, according to the indi-
vidual which lays them, some being far more prolific than others. The eggs
are rather large, and of a greenish white colour.

THE pretty little TEAL is the smallest and one of the most valuable of the
British Ducks, its flesh being peculiarly delicate and its numbers plentiful,

IN the southern parts of England the EIDER DUCK is only a winter visi-
tant, but remains throughout the year in the more northern portions of our
island, and in the north of Scotland,

This bird is widely celebrated on account of the exquisitely soft and bright
down which the parent plucks from its breast and lays over the eggs during
the process of incubation. Taking these nests is with some a regular
business, not devoid of risk, on account of the precipitous localities in which

.

DIVERS. 403

the Eider Duck often breeds. The nest is made of fine sea-weeds, and after
the mother bird has laid her compliment of eggs, she covers them with the
soft down, adding to the heap daily until she completely hides them from
view.

The plan usually adopted is to remove both eggs and down, when the
female lays another set of eggs and covers them with fresh down. These
are again taken, and then the male is obliged to give his help by taking down
from his own breast and supplying the place of that which was stolen. The
down of the male bird is pale-coloured, and as soon as it is seen in the nest,
the eggs and down are left untouched in order to keep up the breed.

= : SS
EIDER DUCK. —(Somaterla mollissima.)

WE now come to the family of Colymbidz, or Divers.

The GREAT NORTHERN DIVER is common on the northern coasts of the
British Islands, where it may be seen pursuing its arrowy course through and
over the water, occasionally dashing through the air on strong pinions, but
very seldom taking to the shore, where it is quite at a disadvantage.

The eggs of the Northern Divers are generally two in number, and of a
dark olive-brown, spotted sparingly with brown of another tone They
are laid upon the bare ground, or on a rude nest of flattened herbage near
water, and the mother bird does not sit, but lies flat on the eggs. If dis-
turbed, she scrambles into the water and dives away, cautiously keeping her-
self out of gunshot, and waiting until the danger is past. Should she be
driven to fight, her long beak is a dangerous weapon, and is darted at the foe
with great force and rapidity.

The head of the adult Northern Diver is black, glossed with green and
purple, and the cheeks and back of the neck are black without the green
gloss. The back is black, variegated with short white streaks, lengthening

DD2

404 CREBES.

towards the breast, and the neck and upper part of the breast are white, spot-
tcd with black, and cinctured with two collars of deep black. The breast and
abdomen are white. The total Iengta of the bird is not quite three feet.
The immature bird is greyish black above, each feather being edged with a
lighter hue, and the under parts of the body are dull white. In some
places this bird is called the Loon.

THE sub-family of the Grebes is represented in England by several well-
known species. All these birds may be readily distinguished by the peculiar
form of the foot, in which each toe is furnished with a flattened wel, the
whole foot looking something like a horse-chestnut leaf with three lobes.

GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.—(Co/ym ‘us g/acialis.)

The best known of the English Grebes is the common DABCHICK, or
LITTLE GREBE, the smallest and the commonest of British species. It is
a pretty little bird, quick and alert in its movements. When alarmed, it
dives so instantaneously that the eye can hardly follow its movements, and if
at the moment of its emergence it perceives itself still in danger, it again
dives, not having been on the surface for a single second of time. Like
many other aquatic birds, it can sink itself in the water slowly, and o‘ten
does so when uneasy, rising again if relieved from its anxiety, or disappearing
as if jerked under the surface from below. I have often seen them in a little
pond only a few yards across, thus diving and popping up again with almost
ludicrous rapidity.

This bird can fly moderately well, and can rise from the water without
difficulty, when it will circle about the spot whence it rose, and keep some five
or six feet above the surface, uttering the while its curious rattling crv.

The nest of this bird is made of water-weeds. and is placed among the rank
aquatic herbage. It is scarcely raised above the surface, and is mostly wet.

The eggs are five or six in number, and their normal colour is white, though
they soon become stained with the decaying vegetable matter on which they
rest, and before hatching are of a muddy brown hue,

THE GREAT AUK. 405

The food of the Dabchick consists of insects, molluscs, little fish, and the
smaller crustaceans.

The CRESTED GREBE is found in some of the fens of the Midland counties
of England, and also inhabits parts of Scotland. ‘This bird, together with the
other Grebes, builds its nest of a mass of roots and reeds, among sedges,
The female, like the water-hen, covers up her eggs when she leaves her nest,
which, unlike the nests of most of the aquatic birds, floats upon the
surface of the water. F

THE sub-family of the Alcinze, or Auks, has several British representatives,
among which the GREAT AUK is the rarest.

This bird, formeriy to be found in several parts of Northern Europe, in
Labrador, and very rarely in the British Islands, has not been observed for
many years, and is as completely extinct asthe Dodo. Almost the last living
specimens known were seen in the Orkneys, and were quite familiar to the
inhabitants under the name of the King and Queen of the Auks.

DABCHICK-—( Podicips minor.)

According to Mr. Lloyd, this bird formerly frequented certain parts of Ice-
land, acertain locality called the Auk-Skar being celebrated for the number
of Auks which nested upon it. The Skar, however, is so difficult of approach
on account of the heavy surf which beats upon it, that few persons have the
daring to land. In 1813 a number of Auks were taken from the Skar, and,
horrible to relate, they were all eaten except one.

The eggs are veriable in size, and colour, and markings, some being of a
silvery white, and others of a yellowish white ground ; and the spots and
streaks are greatly different in colour and form, some being yellowish

‘brown and purple, others purple and black, and others intense blue and
green,

406 THE PUFFIN.

The upper surface of this bird is black, except a patch of pure white round
and in front of the eye and the ends of the seconduries, which are white.
The whole of the under surface is white, and in winter the chin and throat
are also white. The total length of the bird is thirty-two inches.

THE odd little PUFFIN, so common on our coasts, is remarkable for the sin-
gular shape, enormous size,
and light colours of its beak,
which really looks as if it
had been originally made for
some much larger bird. Ow-
ing to the dimensions and
shape of the beak it is often
called the SEA PaRRoT, or
the COULTERNEB.

The Puffin can fly rapidly
and walk tolerably, but it
dives and swims supremely
well, chasing fish in the
water, and often bringing
out a whole row of sprats at
a time ranged along the side
of its bill, all the heads being
within the mouth and all the
tails dangling outside. It
breeds upon the rocks and
in the rabbit-warrens near
the sea, finding the ready-
made burrows of the rab-
bit very convenient for

GREAT AUK.—(Alca impennis.) the reception of its eggs,
and fighting with the
owner for possession of the burrow. Where rabbits do not exist,
the Puffin digs its own burrow, and
works hard at its labour. The egg is
generally placed several feet with-
in the holes, and the parents
defend it vigorously. Even the raven
makes little of an attack, for the
Puffin grips his foe as he best
can, and tries to tumble into the
sea, where the raven is soon drown-
ed, and the little champion re-
turns home in triumph. The egg
is white, but soon becomes
stained by the earth. The food
of this bird consists of fish, crus-
taceans, and insects.

The top of the head, the back,
and a ring round the neck are
black, and the cheeks and under
surfaces are white. The beak is
curiously striped with orange upon
bluish grey, and the legs and
toes are orange. The length of : .
this bird is about one foot, CRESTED GREBE.—(Hodiceps cristatus.)

PENGUINS. 407

THE PENGUINS form a very remarkable sub-family, all its members having
their wings modified into paddles useless for flight, but capable of being em-
ployed as fore-legs in terrestrial progression when the bird is in a hurry, and
There are iiany species of Pen-

probably as oars or paddles in the water.
guins, but as they are very similar in
general habits, we must be content with
a single example..

The Capgé PENGUIN is very common
at the Cape of Good Hope and the Falk-
land Islands. From the extraordinary
sound it produces while on shore, it is
called the Jackass Penguin. Darwin gives
the following interesting account of this
bird:—“ Indiving, its little plumeless wings
are used as fins, but on the land, as front
legs. When crawling (it may be said
on four legs) through the tussocks, or on
the side of a grassy cliff, it moved so
very quickly that it might readily have
been mistaken for aquadruped. When at
sea and fishing, it comes to. the sur-
face for the purpose of breathing, with
such a spring, and dives again so instan-
taneously, that I defy anyone at first

nk

yf)
uy tli
PUFFIN. —(fratercula arctica.)

sight to be sure that it is not a fish leaping for sport.”

These birds feed their young in a very singular manner. The parent bird
gets on a hillock, and apparently delivers a very impassioned speech for a
few minutes, at the end of which, it lowers its head and opensits beak. The
young one, who has been a patient auditor, thrusts its head into the open

beak of the mother, and seems to
suck its subsistence from the thrvat
of the parent bird. Another speech
is immediately made, and the same
process repeated, until the young is
satisfied.

This Penguin is very courageous,
but utterly destitute of the better
part of courage —discretion; for
it will boldly charge at a man just
as Don Quixote charged the wind-
mills, and with the same success, as
a few blows from a stick is sufficient
to lay a dozen birds prostrate.

THE common GUILLEMOT is an
example of the next sub-family.

This bird is found plentifully on
our coasts throughout the year, and
may be seen swimming and diving
with a skill little inferior to that of

the divers. It can, however, use its (cape pencuIN.—Spheniscus demersus.)

legs and wings tolerably well, and is

said to convey its young from the rocks on which it is hatched, by taking
it on the back and flying down to the water.

The Guillemot lays one egg, singularly variable in colour. 1 possess
several eyys, all unlike, and Mr. Champley has five hundred, no two of whicn

408 PETRELS,

are similar, the ground colouring being of every shade, from pure white to
intense red, and from pale stone-colour to light and dark green.

THE curious family of the PETRELS now comes before us. A well-known
British example is the STORMY PETREL, known to sailors as MOTHER
CAREY’S CHICKEN, and hated by them after a most illogical manner
because it foretells an approaching storm.

This bird has long been celebrated for the manner in which it passes over
the waves, pattering with its webbed feet and flapping its wings so as to
keep itself just above the surface.
It thus traverses the ocean with
wonderful ease, the billows roll-
ing beneath its feet and pass-
ing away under the bird with-
out in the least disturbing it. It
is mostly on the move in windy
weather, because the marine
creatures are flung to the surface
by the chopping waves and can
be easily picked up as the bird
pursues its course. It feeds on
the little fish, crustaceans, and
molluscs, which are found in
abundance on the surface of the
sea, especially on the floating
masses of algze, and will for days
keep pace with a ship for the
sake of picking up the refuse
food thrown overboard. Indeed
to throw the garbage of fish
into the sea is a tolerably certain
method of attracting these birds,
who are sharp-sighted, and sel-
dom fail to perceive anything
eatable. The name of Petrel is
given to the bird on account of
its powers of walking on the
water, as is related of St. Peter.

This Petrel breeds on our
northern coasts, laying a white
egg in some convenient recess,
a rabbit burrow being often em-
ployed for the purpose.

THE well-known WANDERING
ALBATROSS is the largest of all
the species.

This fine bird is possessed of
wondrous powers of wing, sail-
ing along for days together with-
out requiring rest, and hardly
ever flapping its wings, merely
swaying itself easily from side to side with extended pinions. It is
found in the Southern Seas, and 1s very familiar to all those who have
voyaged through that portion of the ocean. Like the petrel, it follows the
ships for the sake of obtaining food. and so voracious is the bird that 1 has
been observed to dash at a piece of blubber weighing between three and four
pounds, and ,ulp it down entire, :

GUILLEMOT.—(Uria Troile.)

GULLS. 409

The Albatross makes its home on the lofty precipices of Tristan d’Acunha,
the Crozettes, the Marion Islands, and other similar localities.

The FULMAR PETREL is rather a large bird, being about nineteen inches
long, and stoutly built. It is very plentiful at St. Kilda, and is used for
various purposes, furnishing down and oil, besides being itself eaten. Like
several other Petrels, the Fulmar is able, when alarmed, to eject from the
mouth the oil with which
they are so liberally sup-
plied. The egg—for there
is never more than one—of
the Fulmar Petrel is laid
upon a narrow ledge of
cliff, and always at a con-
siderable distance from the
summit and the bottom of
the rock.

THE large family of the
GULLS is here represented
by two species, both of which
are among our British birds.

The GREAT BLACK-
BACKED GULL is a very
fine bird, not very plentiful
on our coasts, but spread
over the greater part of the .
British shores. WANDERING ALBATROSS.—(Diomedea exulans.)

This bird prefers low-lying
and marshy lands, and is found on the flat shores of Kent and Essex at
the mouth of the Thames, where it is popularly known under the name of
the Cob. It is very plentiful on the shores of Sweden and Norway, and on
some of the islands of Shetland and Orkney it breeds in abundance, the eggs
being highly valued on account of their rich flavour and their large size.

It is a fierce bird, and when wounded will fight vigorously for its liberty.
The nest of this species is of grass, and generally contains three eggs of
greenish dun flecked with grey
and brown. In the summer
plumage the head and neck of
the Great Black-backed Gull
are white ; the upper surface of
the body is dark leaden grey,
with some white upon the quill
feathers of the wings; the
whole of the under surface is
pure white, and the legs and feet
are pinkish. The length of this
bird is about thirty inches.

THE common TERN, or SEA
SWALLOW, is very plentiful on : e
ourcoasts,andmaybeseenflving = sytmar PETREL.—(Procellaria glacialis.)
along on rapid wing, its long
forked tail giving it so decidedly
a swallow-like air, that its popular name of Sea Swallow is well applied.

The Tern breeds on low-lying lands, and makes a very rude nest,
being indeed nothing more than a shallow depression in the earth, into
which are scraped a few sticks, stones, and dry grasses, The Tern reaches

410 THE PELICANS.

this country about May and departsin September. An adult bird in summer
plumage has the tip of the head and nape of the neck jet-black, the upper
part of the body ashen grey, the under surface white, and the legs, feet, and
bill coral-red, the bill deepening into black at the tip. Tle length of the
Tern rather exceeds fourteen
inches; much of it is due to
the long forked feathers of the
tail.

WE now arrive at the last
family of birds, the PELICANS,
a group which includes many
species, all remarkable for some
peculiarity, and many of them
really fine and handsome birds.

As its name implies, the TRo-
PIC BIRD is seldom to be seen
outside the tropics unless driven
by storms. It is wonderfully

TERN. —(Sverna hivunu.) powerful on the wing, being
able to soar for a considerable
period, and passing whole days in the air without needing to settle.

As a general fact they do not fly to very great distances from land, three
hundred miles being about the usual limit ; but Dr. Bennett observed them on
one occasion when the nearest land was about one thousand miles distant. The
long tail-shafts of the Tropic
Bird are much valued in
many lands, the natives
wearing them as ornaments,
or weaving them into various
implements,

The Tropic Bird breeds in
the Mauritius. The total
= length of this bird is about
two feet six inches, of
= which the tail-feathers oc-
cupy about fifteen inches.

THE GANNFET, SOLAN
GOOSE, or SPECTACLED
‘ GOOSE, is a_ well-known
resident on our coasts, its
chief home being the Bass
Rock in the Frith of Forth,
on which it congregates in
vast numbers.

The Gannet is a large
bird, nearly three feet long; and being powerful on the wing, and possessed
of a large appetite, it makes great havoc among the fish which it devours.
Herrings, pilchards, sprats, and similar fish are the favourite food of
the Gannet, and as soon as the shoals of herrings approach the coast the
Gannets assemble in flocks and indicate to the fishermen the presence and
position of the fish.

The nest of the Gannet is a heap of grass, seaweed, and similar sub-
stances, on which is laid one very pale blue egg, which, however, does not
long retain its purity. The young are clothed with white puffy down. which
after a while changes to nearly black feathers, the white plumage not being

sy

TROPIC BIRD.—(Phacton athercus.)

THE CORMORANT. Atl

assumed until the bird has reached full age. The head and neck of the full-
grown bird are buff, the primaries black, and the rest of the plumage white.
The yearling bird is almost wholly black covered with streaks and triangular
marks of greyish white.
The total length of this
bird is about thirty-four
inches.

THE common CORMORANT
is well known for its voracious
habits, its capacities of di-
gestion having long become
proverbial.

This bird is common on all
our rocky coasts, where it
may be seen sitting on some
projecting ledge, or diving *
and swimming with great
agility, and ever and anon
returning to its resting-place
on the rock. It is an admi-
rable swimmer and a good
diver, and chases fish with GANNET OR SOLAN GOOSE.—(Sula Bassanea.)
equal perseverance and suc-
cess, both qualities being needful to satisfy the wants of its ever-craving
maw.

The Cormorant can easily be tamed, and in China, where everything
living or dead is utilized, the bird is employed for the purpose of catching
fish. The Cormorants are regularly
trained to the task, and go out with
their master in a boat, where they sit
quietly on the edge until they receive
his orders. They then dash into the
water, seize the fish in their beaks, and
bring them to their owner. Should
one of these birds pounce upon a fish
too large for it to carry alone, one of
its companions will come to its assist-
ance, and the two together will take the
fish and bring it to the boat. Some-
times a Cormorant takes an idle fit,
and swims playfully about instead of
attending to its business, when it is
recalled to a sense of duty by its
master, who strikes the water with his
oar and shouts at the bird, who ac-
cepts the rebuke at once and dives
after its prey. When the task iscom-
pleted, the birds are allowed their
share of fish. A detailed and interest-
ing account of these birds may be CORMORANT.—(Graculus Carbo.)
found in Mr. Fortune’s work on China.

The nest of the Cormorant is made of a large mass of sticks, seaweed, and
grass, an the eggs are from four to six in number, rather small in proportion
to the dimensions of the parent bird, and of a curious chalky texture ex-
ternally, varied with a pale greenish blue,

412 THE FRIGATE BIRD.

ANOTHER well-known British species of this genus is the CRESTED Cor-
MORANT, GREEN CORMORANT, or SHAG, a bird which can at once be
distinguished from the preceding species by the green colour of the plumage
and the difference in size, the length of an adult male being only twenty-
seven inches. In habits this species resembles the common Cormorant.

WE now arrive at the well-known PELICAN, which is universally accepted
as the type of the family. This bird is found spread over many portions of
Africa and Asia, and is also found in some parts of Southern Europe.

= The pouch of the Pelican is enor-
im mously large, capable of containing
two gallons of water, and is employed
by the bird as a basket wherein to
carry the fish which it has caught.
The Pelican is a good fisherman,
hovering above the water watching
for a shoal of fish near the surface.
Down sweeps the bird, scoops up a
number of fish in its capacious pouch,
» and then generally goes off home-
; ward.

The nest of the Pelican is placed
on the ground in some retired spot,
js usually an island in the sea, or the
borders of some inland lake or a
river. It is made of grasses, and con-
tains two or three white eggs. The
female sits on the eggs, and her
mate goes off to fish for her; and
when the young are hatched they are
fed b: the parents, who turn the fish
PELICAN.—(elecanus onocrotalus.) out of their pouches into the mouths
of the young.

The colour of the Pelican is white, with a delicate roseate tinge like
that of a blush rose. On the breast the feathers are elongated and of a
golden yellow. The quill feathers are black, and the bill is yellow tipped
with rd. The length of the
bird is almost six feet, and the
expanse of wing about twelve
feet.

THE last bird on our list is the
well-known FRIGATE BIkD, SEA
Hawk, or MAN-OF-WAR BIRD,
an inhabitant of the tropical seas.
It derives its name of Man-of-
war Bird from its habit of watch-
NG ing the gannets when they fish,
Aa : and then swooping upon them
‘a Vid and robbing them of their prey.

=

hy
ni)

} The long black feathers of the
FRIGATE BIRD.—(Avagen Aquila). tail are in great request among
the Society Islanders, being
woven as ornaments into the head-dresses of the chiefs, The nest of the
Frigate Bird is sometimes built upon trees and bushes where the low shores
afford no cliffs, but its usual locality for breeding is on the summit of some
rocky cliff, On the rock there is no nest, but when the bird breeds among

THE FRIGATE BIRD. 413

trees, it makes a rude scaffolding of sticks like the nest of the wood pigeon.
There is only one egg, of a peculiar chalky whiteness, and while sitting, the
bird is very bold and will not stir even if pushed with a stick, snapping and
biting at the obnoxious implement. The voice of this bird is rough and
harsh, and is likened to the sound produced by turning a winch.

The colour of the adult Frigate Bird is shining black glossed with green,
the female being dull black above, and white streaked with cinnamon upon
the head, breast, and under parts. The pouch on the throat is scarlet, and
when distended has a very curious effect against the dark black of the throat
and neck. Including the long tail, the male measures three feet in length,
but the body is extremely small. The expanse of the wings is about eight
feet.

REPTILES.

REPTILES.

THE remarkable beings which are classed together under the general title
of REPTILES, or creeping animals, are spread over those portions of the globe
where the climate is tolerably warm, and are found in the greatest profusion
under the hotter latitudes.

Some reptiles inhabit the dry and burning deserts, but the generality of
these creatures are semi-aquatic in their habits, are fitted by their structure
for progression on land or in water, and are able to pass a considerable time
below the surface without requiring to breathe. This capacity is mostly the
result of the manner in which the circulation and aération of their blood is
effected.

In all Mammalia and Birds, the heart is divided into a double set of com-
partments, each having a direct communication with the other. In the Rep-
tiles, however, this structure is considerably modified, so that the blood 1s
never so perfectly aérated as in the higher animals. The blood is conse-
quently much colder than in the creatures where the oxygen obtains a freer
access to its particles.

In consequence of this organization the whole character of the Reptiles is
widely different from that of the higher animals. Dull sluggishness seems
to be the general character of a Reptile, for though there are some species
which whisk about with lightning speed, and others, especially the larger
lizards, can be lashed into a state of terrific frenzy by love, rage, or hunger,
their ordinary movements are inert, their gestures express no feeling, and
their eyes, though bright, are stony, cold, and passionless.

The young of Reptiles are produced from eggs, mostly being hatched after
they have been laid, but in some cases the young escape from the eggs before
they make their appearance in the world. Asa general fact, however, the eggs
of Reptiles are placed in some convenient spot where they are hatched by
the heat of the sun.

TORTOISES.

THE very curious reptiles which are known by the general name of Tor-
TOISES are remarkable for affording the first example of a skeleton brought
to the exterior of the body, a formation which is frequent enough in the
lower orders, the crustaceans and insects being familiar examples thereof.
In these reptiles the bones of the chest are developed into a curious kind of
box, more or less perfect, which contains within itself all the muscles and
the viscera, and in most cases can receive into its cavity the head, neck, and
limbs ; in one genus so effectually, that when the animal has withdrawn its
limbs and head, it is contained in a tightly-closed case without any apparent
opening.

In the true Tortoises the feet are club-shaped and the claws blunt, and the
neck can be wholly withdrawn within the shell.

Perhaps the best known species of these creatures is the COMMON LANL
TORTOISE, so frequently exposed for sale in our markets, and so favourite an
inhabitant of gardens. :

This appears to be the only species that inhabits Europe, and even in that
continent it is by no means widely spread, being confined to those countries
which border the Mediterranean.

EE

418 TERRAPINS.

It is one of the vegetable feeders, eating various plants, and being very
fond of lettuce leaves, which it crops in a very curious manner, biting them
off sharply when fresh and crisp, but dragging them asunder when stringy,
by putting the fore-feet upon them, and pulling with the jaws. This Tortoise
will drink milk, and does so by opening its mouth, scooping up the milk in
its lower jaw as if with a spoon, and then raising its head to let the liquid run
down its throat.

One of these animals, which I kept for some time, displayed a remarkable
capacity for climbing, and was very fond of mounting upon various articles
of furniture, stools being its favourite resort. It revelled in warmth, and could
not be kept away from the hearthrug, especially delighting to climb upona
footstool that generally lay beside the fender.

This Tortoise had a curious kind of voice, not unlike the mewing of a little
kitten. The Common Tortoise is known to live to a great age.

COMMON LAND TORTOISE.—(TZestudo Greca.)

Another specimen, a very large one, has been in my possession for several
years. At the end of antumn it burrows under a heap of leaf-mould, and
waits there until the warm days of spring. It feeds mostly on grass, and eats
its way in a line, leaving a groove of cut grass to mark its track. With the
exception of strawberry eating, it does no harm in the garden. It has a most
inexplicable objection to rain, of which not one drop can penetrate its shell ;
and whenever a shower comes, it makes its way to an earth-bank, forces itself
partly into the loose soil, and remains there with retracted head and limbs
until the rain has ceased.

WE now come to a group of Tortoises called TERRAPINS.

These creatures are inhabitants of the water, and are mostly found in rivers.
They are carnivorous in their diet, and take their food while in the water.
They may be known by their flattened heads, covered with skin, sometimes

if
THE HAWKSBILL TURTLE. 419

hard, but often of a soft consistency, and their broad feet with the toes
webbed as far the claws.

The CHICKEN TORTOISE is found in North America.

It is very common in ponds, lakes, or marshy grounds, and though very
plentiful, and by no means quick in its movements, is not easily caught, owing
to its extreme wariness. :

The Chicken Tortoise swims well, but not rapidly, andas it passes along
with its head and neck elevated above the surface, it looks so like the dark
water-snake of the same country, that at a little distance it might readily be
mistaken for that reptile.

I have kept several of these reptiles, and found no difficulty in preserving
them in health. They lived in a tank in which were several large stones that
projected above the surface of the water. On the top of these stones the
Chicken Tortoises loved to sit, and so exactly did their bodies harmonize
with the stones, that it was not easy to decide at a hasty glance whether the
stones were bare or covered with the little Tortoises. At first, the least
mov.ment or sound would send them tumbling into the water, but after a
while they became used to captivity, and would even teed out of the hand

CHICKEN TORTOISE.—(Zmys vreticularia.)

Their diet consisted of meat, either raw or cooked. They used to seize it in
their mouths, and then, placing a foot on its side, push away the meat, so as
to cut a piece completely out with their sharp edged jaws. They will even
seize fish and serve them in like manner, and indeed it is not safe to place
them in tanks wherein are any other living creatures.

It is rather a small species, seldom exceeding ten inches in length. Its
flesh is remarkably excellent, very tender and delicately flavoured, something
like that of a young chicken, so that this Tortoise is in great request as an
article of food, and is largely sold in the markets, though not so plentifully
as the common salt-water terrapin. Its colour is dark brown above. and the
flates are scribbled with yellow lines, and wrinkled longitudinally. The
neck is long in proportion to the size of the animal, so long indeed that the
head and neck together are almost as long as the shell. The lower jaw is
hooked in front.

THE well-known CARET, or HAWKSBILL TURTLE, so called from the forma-
tion of the mouth, is a native of the warm American and Indian seas, and is
common in many of the islands of those oceans.

, The Hawksbill Turtle is the animal which furnishes the valuable “ tortoise-
EE2

420 CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS.

shell” of commerce, and is therefore a creature of great importance. The
scales of the back are thirteen in number, and as they overlap each other
for about one-third of their length, they are larger than in any other species
where the edges only meet. In this species, too, the scales are thicker
stronger, and more beautifully clouded than in any other Turtle.

The uses to which this costly and beautiful substance are put are in-
numerable. The most familiar form in which the tortoiseshell is presented
to us is the comb, but it is
also employed for knife
handles, boxes, and many
other articles of ornament
or use. ;

THE best known of all
the Turtles is the celebrated
GREEN TURTLE, so called
from the green colour of its
fat.

This useful animal is
found in the seas and on
the shores of both conti-
* nents, and is most plentiful
about the Island of Ascen-
sion and the Antilles, where
it is subject to incessant
persecution for the sake of

GREEN TURTLE.—(Chelonia viridis.) its flesh. The shell of this

reptile is of very little use,

and of small value, but the flesh is remarkably ‘ich and well-flavoured, and
the green fat has long enjoyed a world-wide and fully deserved reputation.

The eggs of the Turtle are thought as great delicacies as its flesh. It is
while the female Turtle is visiting the shore for the purpose of depositing her
eggs that she is usually captured, as these sea-loving reptiles care little for
the shore except for this purpose.

CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS.

ACCORDING to the arrangement of the national collection in the British
Museum, the link next to the tortoise tribe is formed of an important group
of reptiles, containing the largest of the reptilian order, larger indeed than
most present inhabitants of the earth.

These great reptiles are divided, or rather fall natutally, into two families,
namely, the Crocodiles and the Alligators. All the members of these
families can be easily distinguished by the shape of their jaws and teeth, the
lower canine teeth of the Crocodiles fitting into a zofch in the edge of the
upper jaw, and those of the Alligators fitting into a gé¢ in the upper jaw.
This peculiarity causes an obvious difference in the outline of the head, the
muzzle of the Crocodiles being narrowed behind the nostrils. while that of
the Alligators forms an unbroken line to the extremity. A glance therefore
at the head will suffice to settle the family to which any species belongs. In
the Crocodiles, moreover, the hind-legs are fringed behind with a series of
compressed scales.

THE most peculiar of these reptiles is the long-celebrated CROCODILE of
Northern Africa,

CROCODILES. 42t

This terrible creature is found chiefly in the Nile, where it absolutely
swarms, and though a most destructive and greatly dreaied animal, is
without doubt as valu-
able in the water as
the hyzena and vulture
upon the land. Living
exclusively on animal
food, and rather prefer-
ring tainted or even
putrefying to fresh
meat, it is of great ser-
vice in devouring the
dead animals that
would otherwise pollute
the waters and_ sur-
rounding atmosphere.

Human beings have
a great dread of this
voracious reptile. Many
instances are known
where men have been
surprised near the
water’s edge, or cap-
tured when they have
fallen into the river. EGYPTIAN CROCODILE.—(Crocodilus vulgaris.)
There is, it is said,
only one way of escape from the jaws of the Crocodile, and that is to turn
boldly upon the scaly foe, and press the thumbs into his eyes, so as to force
him to relax his hold or relinquish the pursuit.

The eggs of the ‘
Crocodile are about as
large as those of the
goose, and many in
number, so that these
terrible reptiles would
overrun the country
were they not persecut-
ed in the earliest stages
by many creatures, who
discover and eat the
eggs almost as soon as
they are laid. It is
curious that the Croco-
dile is attended by a
bird which warns it of
danger, just as the rli-
noceros has its wing-
ed attendant, and the
shark its pilot fish. The
Crocodile bird is popu-
larly called the Ziczac,
from its peculiar cry. ALLIGATOR. —(Alligator Mississipensis.)

WE now come to the ALLIGATORS, the second family of those huge

reptiles, which may be known, as has already been mentioned, by the lowey
canine teeth fitting into pits in the upper jaw.

422 ALLIGATORS.

The Common ALLIGATOR inhabits Northern America, and is plentifully
found in the Mississippi, the lakes and rivers of Louisiana and Carolina,
and similar localities. It is a fierce and dangerous reptile, in many of its
habits bearing a close resemblance to the crocodiles and the other members
of the family.

Unlike the crocodile, however, it avoids the salt water, and is but seldom
seen even near the mouths of rivers, where the tide gives a brackish taste to
their waters, It is mostly a fish-eater, haunting those portions of the rivers
where its prey most abounds, and catching them by diving under a passing
shoal, snapping up one or two victims as it passes throush them, tossing
them in the air for the purpose of ejecting the water which has necessarily
filled its mouth, catching them adroitly as they fall, and then swallowing
them.

The eggs of the Alligator are small and numerous. The parent deposits
them in the sand of the river side, scratching a hole with her paws, and placing

he RLM eee
=r ZY

SCALY LIZARD.—(Zoo/oca vivipara.)

the eggs in a regular layer therein. She then scrapes some sand, dry
leaves, grass, and mud over them, smoothes it, and deposits a second laycr
upon them. These eggs are then covered in a similar manner, and another
layer deposited until the mother reptile has laid from fifty to sixty eggs.
Although they are hatched by the heat of the sun and the decaying vege-
table matter, the mother does not desert her young, but leads them to the
water and takes care of them until their limbs are sufficiently strong and
their scales sufficiently firm to permit them to roam the waters without
assistance.

During the winter months the Alligator buries itself in the mud, but a very
little warmth is sufficient to make it quit its retreat and come into the open
air again. While lively, especially at night, it is a most noisy animal, bellow-
ing in so loud a tone and in so singular a cadence that even the nightly
concert of jaguars and monkeys is hardly heard when the Alligators are
roaring.

It caraeelties attains to a great size, and is then formidable to man. Mr.
Waterton mentions a case where one of these creatures was seen to rush out

LIZARDS. 423

of the water, seize a man, and carry him away in spite of his cries and
struggles. The beast plunged into the river with his prey, and neither
Alligator nor man was afterwards seen.

Tue true LIZARDS have four limbs, generally visible, but in a few instances
hidden under the skin. Their body is long and rounded, and the tail is
tapering and mostly covered with scales set in regular circles or “‘ whorls.”

ENGLAND possesses at least two examples of the true Lizards, one of
which, the SCALY LIZARD, is extremely common. This pretty little reptile
is extremely plentiful upon heaths, banks, and commons, where it may be
seen darting about in its own quick, lively manner, flitting among the grass
stalks with a series of sharp, twisting springs, snapping up the unsuspecting
flies as they rest on the grass-blades, and ever and anon slipping under
shelter of a gorse bush, or heather tuft, only to emerge, in another moment,
brisk and lively as ever.

This is one of the reptiles that produces living young, the eggs being
hatched just before the young Lizards are born. With reptiles, the general
plan is to place the eggs in some spot where they are exposed to the heat of
the sunbeams; but this Lizard, together with the viper, is in the habit of
lying on a sunny bank before her young ones are born, apparently for the
purpose of gaining sufficient heat to hatch the eggs. This process is aided
by the thinness of the membrane covering the eggs.

UNTIL comparatively recent years, the SAND L1ZARD was confounded with
the Scaly Lizard, which has just been described.

SAND LIZARD.— (Lacerta agiles.)

Though quick and lively in its movements, it is not so dashingly active as the
scaly lizard, having a touch of deliberation as it runs from one spot to another,
while the scaly lizard seems almost to be acted upon by hidden springs.

Unlike the scaly lizird, this species lays its eggs in a convenient spot, and
then leaves them to be hatched by the warm sunbeams. Sandy banks with
a southern aspect are the favoured resorts of this reptile, which scoops out
certain shallow pits in the sand, deposits her eggs, covers them up. and then
leaves them to their fate. Mr. Bell, who has paid great attention to this

424 SKINKS.

subject, has remarked that the eggs are probably laid for a considerable
period before the young are hatched from them.

A SECOND tribe of Lizards now comes before our notice. These are the
GEISSOSAURI, a title derived from two Greek words, the former signifying
“the eaves of a house,” and the latter.‘-a lizard.” As in this tribe there are
many families, and more than eighty genera, it will be impossible to give more
than a very slight account of these reptiles, or even to mention more than a
small number selected as types of the large or small groups which they
represent. 4

THE large and important family of the SKINKS contains between forty and
fifty genera, nearly each of which possesses one or more species, concerning
which there is something worthy of notice.

This family finds a far: iliar representative in the common BLINDWoRM, or
SLOW-WoRM, of England, which, frora its snake-like form and extreme
fragility, might well deserve the title of the English Glass Snake. In this
repule there is no external trace of limbs, the body being uniformly smooth

BLINDWORM.—(Anguis fragilis.)

as that of a serpent, and even more so than in some of the snakes, where the
presence of the hinder pair of limbs is indicated by a couple of little hook-
like appendages. Under the skin, however, the traces of limbs may be dis-
covered, but the bones of the shoulders, the breast, and the pelvis are very
small and quite rudimentary.

Th’s elegant little reptile is very common throughout England, and is
spread over the greater part of Europe and portions of Asia, not, however,
being found in the extreme north of Europe. In this country it is plentiful
along hedge-rows, heaths, forest lands, and similar situations, where it can
find immediate shelter from its few enemies, and be abundantly supplied
with food. It may often be seen crawling leisurely over a beaten footpath,
and I have once captured it while crossing a wide turnpike road near Oxford.

Why the name of the Blindworm should have been given to this creature I
cannot even conjecture, for it has a pair of conspicuous though not very large
eyes, which shine as brightly as those of any animal, and are capable of good
service. Indeed, all animals which prey upon insects and similar mv ng
things must of necessity possess well-developed eyes, unless they are gifted

{e*
THE BLINDWORM. 425

with the means of attracting their prey within reach, as is the case with some
well-known fishes, or chase it by the senses of hearing and touch, as is done
by the mole. Moreover, the chief food of the Blindworm consists of slugs,
which glide so noiselessly that the creature needs the use of its eyes to detect
the soft mollusc as it slides over the ground on it slimy course. Speed is not
needful for such a chase, and the Blindworm accordingly is slow and delibe-
rate in all its movements, except when very young, when it twists and wriggles
about in a singular fashion as often as it is touched.

The great fragility of the Blindworm is well known. By a rather curious
structure of the muscles and bones of the spine, the reptile is able to stiffen
itself to such a degree, that on a slight pressure or trifling blow, or even by the
voluntary contraction of the body, the tail is snapped away from the body,
and, on account of its proportionate length, looks just as if the creature had
been broken in half. The object of this curious property seems to be to
ensure the safety of the animal. The severed tail retains, or rather acquires,
an extraordinary amount of irritability, and for several minutes after its
amputation leaps and twists about with such violence that the attention of
the foe is drawn to its singular vagaries, and the Blindworm itself creeps
quietly away to some place of shelter.

When the tail of the Blindworm is thus snapped off, the scales of the body
project all round the fractured portion, forming a kind of hollow into which
the broken end of the tail can be slipped.

According to popular notions, the Blindworm is a terribly poisonous
creature, and by many persons is thought to be even more venomous than
the viper, whereas it is perfectly harmless, having neither the will nor the
ability to bite, its temper being as quiet as its movements, and its teeth as
innocuous as its jaws are weak. .I fancy that the origin of this opinion may
be found in the habit of constantly thrusting out its broad, black, flat tongue
with its slightly forked tip ; for the popular mind considers the tongue to be
the sting, imagining it to be both the source of the venom and the weapon
by which it is injected into the body, and so logically classes all creatures
with forked tongues under the common denomination of poisonous animals.

It is said that chis reptile will bite when handled, but that its minute teeth
and feeble jaws can make no impression upon the skin ; and also that when
it has thus fastened on the hand of its captor, it will not release its hold
unless its jaws be forced open. For my own part, and I have handled very
many of these reptiles, I never knew them atrempt to bite, or even to assume
a threatening attitude. They will suddenly curl themselves up tightly, and
snap off their tails, but to use their jaws in self-defence is an idea that seldom
appears to occur to them.

The specimen whose portrait is given in the illustration was in my posses-
sion for a considerable time, and was fed on the white garden slug.

In its wild state the Blindworm feeds mostly on slugs, but will also eat
worms and various insects. Some persons assert that it devours mice and
reptiles ; but that it should do so is a physical impossibility, owing to the very
small dimensions of the mouth and the structure of the jaw, the bones of
which are firmly knitted together, and cannot be separated while the prey is
being swallowed, as is the case with the snakes.

In captivity it seems to reject almost any food except slugs, but these
molluscs it will eat quite freely. :

The Blindworm generally retires to its winter quarters towards the end
of August, or even sooner, should the weather be chilly. The localities which
it chooses for this purpose are generally dry and warm spots, where the
dried leaves and dead twigs of decayed branches have congregated into
heaps, so as to afford it a safe refuge. Sometimes it bores its way into

426 THE GECKO.

masses of rotten wood ; and on heathery soils, where the ground slopes con-
siderably, it selects a spot where it will be well sheltered from the winter's
rains and snows, and burrows deeply into the dry loose soil.

Like the snakes, the Blindworm casts its skin at regular intervals, seeming
to effect its object in various modes, sometimes pulling it off in pieces, but
usually stripping it away, like the snakes, by turning it inside out, just as an
eel is skinned.

A NEW group now comes before our notice, the members of which are
distinguished by the formation of their tongues, which, instead of being flat
and comparatively slender, as in the preceding Lizards, are thick, convex, and
have a slight nick at the end. On account of this structure, the species of
this sub order are termed PACHYGLOSS&, or Thick-tongued Lizards.

These reptiles are divided into sundry groups, the first of which is termed
the NycTisaurRa, or Nocturnal Lizards. These creatures have eyes formed
for seeing in the dusk ; cir-
cular eyelids, which, how-
ever, cannot meet over the
eyeball, and in almost every
case the pupil is a long nar-
} row slit like that of the cat.
The body is always flattened.
The limbs are four in num-
ber, tolerably powerful, and
are used in progression,

OF these Lizards, the first
family is the GECKOTIDA,
or GECKOS, a very curious
group of reptiles, common
in many hot countries, and
looked upon with dread or
adoration by the natives,

: sometimes with both, where
GECKO. —(Gecho verus.) the genius of the nation
leads them to reverence the
object of their fears, and to form no other conception of supreme power than
the capability of doing harm. . de . ;

The CoMMON GECKO, or RINGED GECKO, is an Asiatic species, being as
common in India as the preceding species in North Africa. It may be
easily known from allied Fan-foot by the large tubercles upon the back.

This reptile has much the same habits as the fan-foot, and possesses
equally the ability to run over a perpendicular wall. During the day-time it
conceals itself in some chink or dark crevice, but in the evening it leaves its
retreat, moving rapidly and with such perfectly silent tread, that the ignorant
natives may well be excused for classing it among supernatural beings, The
Gecko occasionally utters a curious cry, which has been compared to that
peculiar clucking sound employed by riders to stimulate their horses, and in
some species the cry is very distinct and said to resemble the word “ Geck-o,
the last syllable being given smartly and sharply. On account of this cry,
the Geckos are variously called Spitters, Postilions, and Claquers.

During the cold months of the year the Geckos retire to winter quarters,
and are thought to retain their condition during this foodless season by
means of two fatty masses at the base of the abdomen, which are supposed
to nourish them as the camel is nourished by the hump. The male is smaller
than the female, and the eggs are very spherical, and covered with a brittle
chalky shell, The colour of the Gecko is reddish grey with white spots.

LIZARDS. 487

The scales of the back are flat and smooth, and there is also a series of
rather large tubercular projections arranged in twelve distinct rows,

WE now arrive at an important tribe of Lizards, called by the name of
STROBILOSAURA, a title derived from two Greek words, one signifying a
“fir-cone” and the other “a lizard,” and given to these creatures because
the scales that cover their tails are set in regular whorls, and bear some
resemblance to the projecting scales of the fir-cone. In all these reptiles the
tongue is thick, short, and very slightly nicked at the tip, The eyes have
circular pupils, and are formed for day use.

The first family of these Lizards consists of those creatures which are
grouped together under the general title of IGUANA. Our illustration
depicts the COMMON IGUANA.

This conspicuous, and, in spite of its rather repulsive shape, really hand-
some Lizard, is a native of Brazil, Cayenne, the Bahamas, and neighbouring
localities, and was at one : :
time very common in Ja-
maica, from which, however,
it seems to be in process of
gradual extirpation.

In common with those
members of the family which
have their body rather com-
pressed and covered with
squared scales, the Iguana
is a percher on trees, living
almost wholly among the
branches, to which it clings
with its powerful feet, and
on which it finds the greater
part of its food. It is al-
most always to be found
on the trees that are in the a
vicinity of water, and espe- IGUANA.—(lguana tuberculata.)
cially favours those that
grow upon the banks of a river where the branches overhang the stream.

Though not one of the aquatic Lizards, the Iguana is quite at home in the
water, and if alarmed will often plunge into the stream, and either dive or
swim rapidly away. While swimming, it lays its fore-legs against the sides,
so as to afford the smallest possible resistance to the water, stretches out the
hinder legs, and, by a rapid serpentine movement of its long and flexible tail,
passes swiftly through the waves, It has considerable power of enduring
immersion, as indeed is the case with nearly all reptiles, and has been known
to remain under water for an entire hour, and at the end of that time to
emerge in perfect vigour.

From the aspect of this long-tailed, dewlapped, scaly, spiny Lizard, most
persons would rather recoil than feel attracted, and the idea of eating the
flesh of so repulsive a creature would not be likely to occur to them. Yet,
in truth, the flesh of the Iguana is justly reckoned among one of the delicacies
of the country where it resides, being tender, and of a peculiarly delicate
flavour, not unlike the breast of a spring chicken. There are various modes
of cooking the Iguana, roasting and boiling being the most common. Making
it intu a fricassee, however, is the mode which has met with the largest
general approval, and a dish of Iguana cutlets, when properly dressed, takes
a very high place among the delicacies of a well-spread table.

The eggs, too, of which the female Iguana lays from four to six dozen, are

Co

428 THE FLYING DRAGON.

very well flavoured and in high repute. It is rather curious that they contain
very little albumen, the yellow filling almost the entire shell. As is the case
with the eggs of the turtle, they never harden by boiling, and only assume a
little tnicker consistence. Some persons of peculiar constitutions cannot eat
either the flesh or the eggs of the Iguana, and it is said that this diet is very
injurious in some diseases. The egys are hid by the female Iguana in sandy
soil, near rivers, lakes, or the sea-coast, and after covering them with sand,
she leaves them to be hatched by the heat of the sun,

THE family which comes next in order is that in which are included the
AGAMAS, a group of Lizards which have been appropriately termed the
Iguanas of the Old World. In the members of this family the teeth are set
upon the edge of the jaws, and not upon their inner side, as in the true
Iguanas of the New World. Between thirty and forty genera are contained
in this family, and some of the species are interesting as well as peculiar
beings.

1 erhaps the most curious of all this family, if not, indeed, the most curious
of all the reptiles, is the little Lizard which is well known under the title of
the FLYING DRaGoN.

This singular reptile is a native of Java, Borneo, the Philippines, and
neighbouring islands, and is tolerably common. The most conspicuous
characteristic of this reptile is the singularly developed membranous lobes
on either side, which are strength-
ened by certain slender processes
from the first six false ribs, and
serve to support the animal du-
ring its bold leaps from branch
to branch. Many of the pre-
viously mentioned Lizards are
admirable leapers, but they are
all outdone by the Dragon, which
is able, by means of the mem-
branous parachute with which it
is furnished, to’ sweep through
distances of thirty paces, the so-
called flight being almost iden-
tical with that of the flying squir-
rels and flying fish.

When the Dragon is at rest,
or even when traversing the branches of trees, the parachute lies in folds
along the sides, but when it prepares to leap from one bough to another, it
spreads its winged sides, launches boldly into the air, and sails easily, with
a slight fluttering of the wings, towards the point on which it had fixed,
looking almost like a stray leaf blown by the breeze. As if in order to
make itself still more buoyant, it inflates the three membranous sacs that
depend from its throat, suffering them to collapse again when it has settled
upon the branch. It is a perfectly harmless creature, and can be handled
with impunity. The food of the Flying Dragon consists of insects. :

THE last tribe of the Lizards contains but one genus and very few species.
From their habit of constantly living on trees, these creatures are called
DENDROSAURA, or TREE L1ZaRDS. In these, the scales of the whole body
are small and granular, and arranged in circular bands. The tongue is very
curious, being cylindrical and greatly extensile, reminding the observer of a
common earthworm, and swollen at the tip. The eyes are as peculiar as the
tongue, being very large, globular, and projecting, and the ball is closely
covered with a circular lid, through which a little round hole is pierced,

FLYING DRAGON.—(Draco volans.)

THE CHAMELEON. 429

much like the wooden snow-spectacles of the Esquimaux. The body is
rather compressed, the ears are concealed under the skin, and the toes are
separated into two opposable groups, so that the creature can hold very
firmly upon the boughs. The tail is very long and prehensile, and is almost
invariably seen coiled round the bough on which the reptile is standing.

THE most familiar example of the Dendrosaura is the common CHA-
MELEON, a reptile which is found both in Africa and Asia.

This singular reptile has long been famous for its power of changing
colour ; a property, however, which has been greatly exaggerated, as will be
presently seen. Nearly all the Lizards are constitutionally torpid, though
some of them are gifted with great rapidity of movement during certain
seasons of the year. The Chameleon, however, carries this sluggishness to
an extreme, its only change being from total immobility to the slightest
imaginable degree of activity.

When it moves along the branch upon which it is clinging, the reptile first
raises one foot very slowly indeed, and will sometimes remain foot in air for a
considerable time, as if it had gone to sleep in the interim. It then puts the
foot as slowly forward, and takes a good grasp of the branch. Having
satisfied itself that it is firmly secured, it leisurely unwinds its tail, which has
been tightly twisted round the branch, shifts it a little forward, coils it round
again, and then rests for a while. With the same elaborate precaution, each
foot is successively lifted and advanced, so that the forward movements seem
but little faster than the hour-hand of a watch.

If placed on level ground, it is perforce obliged to walk, but it does so very
awkwardly, though it gets over the ground faster than would be imagined
from its movements on a tree.

The food of the Chameleon consists of insects, mostly flies, but, like many
other reptiles, the Chameleon is able to live for some months without taking
food at all. This capacity for fasting, together with the singular manner in
which the reptile takes its prey, gave rise to the absurd fable that the
Chameleon lived only upon air. [o judge by external appearance, there
never was an animal less fitted than the Chameleon for capturing the winged
and active flies ; but when we come to examine its structure, we find that it
is even better fitted for this purpose than many of the more active insect-
eating Lizards.

The tongue is the instrument by which the fly is captured, being first
deliberately aimed, like a billiard-player aiming a stroke with his cué, and
then darted out with singular velocity. This member is very muscular, and
is furnished at the tip with a kind of viscid secretion which causes the fly to
adhere to it. Its mouth is well furnished with teeth, which are set firmly
into its jaw, and enable it to bruise the insects after getting them into its
mouth by means of the tongue.

The eyes have a most singular appearance, and are worked quite independ-
ently of each other, one rolling backwards, while the other is directed for-
wards or upwards. There is not the least spark of expression in the eye of
the Chameleon, which looks about as intellectual as a green-pea with a dot
of ink upon it.

A few words on the change of colour will not be out of place.

I kept a Chameleon for a long time, and carefully watched its changes of
colour. Its primary hue was grey-black, but other colours were constantly
passing over its body. Sometimes it would be striped like a zebra with light
yellow, or covered with circular yellow spots. Sometimes it was all chestnut
and black like a leopard, and sometimes it was brilliant green. Sometimes it
would be grey, covered with black spots ; and once, when it was sitting on a
branch, it took the hue of the autumnal leaves so exactly that it could

430 SNAKES.

scarcely be distinguished from them. A detailed account of this specimen is
given in my “ Glimpses into Petland,” published by Messrs. Bell and Daldy.
The young of the Chameleon are produced from eggs, which are very
spherical, white in colour, and

(Ye, covered with a chalky and very
VY fp (> porous shell. They are placed on
=] fase the ground under leaves, and

.. there left to hatch by the heat of

\" the sun and the warmth produced
by the decomposition of the leaves.
The two sexes can be distinguished
from each other by the shape of the
tail, which in the male is thick and

iS swollen at the base.

‘

THE large and important order
at which we now arrive consists of
reptiles which are popularly known
as SNAKES, or more scientifically
as Ophidia, and to which all the true Serpents are to be referred.

The movements of the Serpent tribe are performed without the aid of
limbs, and are, as a general rule, achieved by means of the ribs and the
large curved scales that cover the lower surface. Each of these scales over-
laps its successor, leaving a bold horny ridge whenever it is partially erected
by the action of the muscles. The reader will easily see that a reptile so
constructed can move with some rapidity by successively thrusting each scale
a little forward, hitching the projecting edge on any rough substance, and
drawing itself forward until it can repeat the process with the next scale.
The movements are consequently very quiet and gliding, and the creature is
able to pursue its way under circumstances of consideratle difficulty.

The tongue of the Snake is long, black, and deeply forked at its extremity,
and when at rest is drawn into a sheath in the lower jaw. In these days
it is perhaps hardly necessary to state that the tongue is perfectly harmless,
even in a poisonous serpent, and that the popular idea of the “sting” is
entirely erronzous. The Snakes all seem to employ the tongue largely as
a feeler, and may be seen to touch gently with the forked extremities the
objects over which they are about to crawl, or which they desire to examine.
The external organs of hearing are absent. -

' The vertebral column is most wonderfully formed, and is constructed with
a special view to the peculiar movements of the serpent tribe. Each
vertebra is rather elongated, and is furnished at one end with a ball and at the
other with a corresponding socket, into which the ball of the succeeding
vetebra exactly fits, thus enabling the creature to writhe and twine in all
directions without danger of dislocating its spine. This ball and-socket
principle extends even to the ribs, which are jointed to certain rounded
projections of the vertebrae in a manner almost identical with the articu-
lation of the vertebrze upon each other, and, as they are moved by very
powerful muscles, perform most important functions in the economy of the
creature to which they belong.

The bones of the jaws are very loosely constructed, their different portions
being separable, and giving way while the creature exerts its wonderful powers
of swallowing. The great python Snakes are well known to swallow animals
of great proportionate size, and anyone may witnzss the singular process by
taking a common field snake, keeping it without food for a month or so, and
then giving it a large frog. As it seizes its prey, the idea of getting so stout

CHAMELEON.—(Chameleo vulgaris.)

SNAKES. 431

an animal down that slender neck and through those little jaws appears too
absurd to be entertained for a moment, and even the leg which it has
grasped appears to be several times too large to pass through the throat.
But by slow degrees the frog disappears, the mouth of the snake gradually
widening until the bones separate from each other to some distance, and are
only held by the ligaments, and the whoie jaw becoming dislocated, until the
head and neck of the Snake look as if the skin had been stripped from the
reptile, spread thin and flat, and drawn like a glove over the frog.

The Serpents, in common with other reptiles, have their bodies covered
by a delicate epidermis, popularly called the skin, which lies over the scales,
and is renewed at tolerably regular intervals. Towards the time of changing
its skin, the Snake becomes dull and sluggish, the eyes look white and blind,
owing to the thickening of the epidermis that covers them, and the bright
colours become dim and ill-defined. Presently, however, the skin splits upon
the back, mostly near the head, and the Snake contrives to wriggle itself
out of the whole integument, usually turning it inside out in the process.
This shed skin is transparent, having the shape of each scale impressed
upon it, being fine and delicate as goldbeater’s skin, and being applicable to
many of the same uses, such as shielding a small wound from the external air.

THE first sub-order of Snakes consists of those serpents which are classed
under the name of VIPERINA.

All these reptiles are devoid of teeth in the upper jaw, except two long
poison-bearing fangs, set one at each side and near the muzzle. The lower
jaw is well furnished with teeth, and both jaws are feeble. The scales of the
abdomen are bold, broad, and arranged like overlapping bands. The head
is large in proportion to the neck, and very wide behind, so that the head
of these Snakes has been well compared to an ace of spades. The hinder
limbs are not seen.

In the first family of the Viperine Snakes, called the Crotalide, the face is
marked with a large pit or depression on each side, between the eye and the
nostril, The celebrated and dreaded RATTLESNAKE belongs to this family.

This dreaded reptile is a native of North America, and is remarkable for
the singular termination to the tail, from which it derives its popular name.

At the extremity of the tail are a number of curious loose horny structures,
formed of the same substance as the scales, and varying greatly in number
according to the size of the individual. It is now generally considered that
the number of joints on the “ rattle” is an indication of the reptile’s age, a fresh
joint being gained each year immediately after it changes its skin and before
it goes into winter quarters. ; ‘

The joints of this remarkable apparatus are arranged in a very curious
manner, each being of a somewhat pyramidal shape, but rounded at the
edges, and being slipped within its predecessor as far as a protuberant ring
which runs round the edge. In fact, a very good idea of the structure of
the rattle may be formed by slipping a number of thimbles loosely into
each other. The last joint is smaller than the rest, and rounded. As was
lately mentioned, the number of these joints is variable, but the average
number is from five or six to fourteen or fifteen. There are occasional
specimens found that possess more than twenty joints in the rattle, but such
examples are very rare.

When in repose, the Rattlesnake usually lies coiled in some suitable
spot, with its head lying flat, and the tip of its tail elevated in the middle of
the coil. Should it be irritated by a passenger, or feel annoyed or alarmed,
it instantly communicates a quivering movement to the tail, which causes the
joints of the rattle to shake against each other, with a peculiar skirring ruffle
very much like the sound of the escaping steam of a railway engine.

e

432 THE RATTLESNAKE.

Fortunately for the human inhabitants of the same land, the Rattlesnake
is slow and torpid in its movements, and seldom attempts to bite unless it is
provoked, even suffering itself to be handled without avenging itself. Mr,
‘Waterton tells me, in connection with these reptiles : “ I never feared the bite
of a snake, relying entirely on my own movements. ‘Thus, in the presence
of several professional gentlemen, I once transferred twenty-seven Rattle-
snakes from one apartment to another with my hand alone. They hissed
and rattled when I meddled with them, but they did not offer to bite me.”
When about to inflict the fatal blow, the reptile seems to swell with anger,
its throat dilating, and its whole body rising and sinking as if inflated by
bellows. The tail is agitated with increasing vehemence, the rattle sounds
its threatening war-note, with sharper ruffle, the head becomes flattened as

RATTLESNAKE.—( Uropsophus durissus.)

itis drawn back ready for the stroke, and the whole creature seems a very in-
carnation of deadly rage. Yet, even in such moments, if the intruder with-
draw, the reptile will gradually lay aside its angry aspect, the coils settle
down in their place, the flashing eyes lose their lustre, the rattle become
Stationary, and the serpent sink back into its previous state of lethargy.

The general colour of the Rattlesnake is pale brown. A dark streak runs
along the temples from the back of the eye, and expands at the corner of the
mouth into a large spot. A series of irregular dark brown bands are drawn
across the back, a number of round spots of the same hue are scattered along
the sides, upon the nape of the neck, and back of the head.

WE now come to the second great family of poisonous serpents, namely, the
VIPERS, or Viperide. All the members of this family may be distinguished by

THE PUFF ADDER. 433°

the absence of the pit between the eyes and the nostrils. There are no teeth
-in the upper jaw, except the two poison-fangs.

The terrible PurF ADDER belongs to this family.

This reptile is a native of Southern Africa, and is one of the commonest,
as well as one of the most deadly, of poisonous snakes. It is slow and
apparently torpid in all its movements, except when it is going to strike, and
the colonists say that it is able to leap backwards so as to bite a person who
is standing by its tail.

- There is in nature no more fearful object than a full-grown Puff Adder.

It grovels on the sand, winding its body so as to bury itself almost wholly in
the tawny soil, and just leaving its flat, cruel-looking head, lying on the ground
and free from sand. The steady, malignant, stony glare of those eyes is
absolutely freezing as the creature lies motionless, confident in its deadly

PUFF ADDER.—(Clotho arietans.)

powers, and when roused by the approach of a passenger, merely exhibiting
its annoyance by raising its head an inch or two, and uttering a sharp angry
hiss. .Even horses have been bitten by this reptile, and died within a few
hours after the injury was inflicted. The peculiar attitude which is exhibited

-in the illustration is taken from life, one of the Puff Adders in the collection
of the Zoological Society having been purposely irritated, so as to force
it to raise itself from the sand, and assume the attitude of offence.

The Bushmen are in the habit of procuring from the teeth of this serpent
the poison with which they arm their tiny but most fearful arrows. In the
capture of the Puff Adder they display very great courage and address.
Taking advantage of the reptile’s sluggish habits, they plant their bare feet
upon its neck before it has quite made-up its reptilian mind to action, and,
holding it firmly down, cut off its head and extract the poision at their

FF

434- THE CERASTES,

leisure. In order to make it adhesive to the arrow-point, it is mixed with
tue glutinous juice of tne amaryllis.

The colour of the Puff Adder is brown, chequered with dark brown and
white, and with a reddish band between the eyes. The under parts are paler
than the upper.

THE true CERASTES, or HORNED VIPER, is a native of Northern Africa,
and divides with the cobra of the same country the questionable honour of
being the “ worm of Nile” to whose venomous tooth Cleopatra's death was
due. .

The bite of this most ungainly-looking serpent is extremely dangerous,
though perhaps not quite so deadly as that of the cobra, and the creature
is tuerefore not quite so much dreaded as might be imagined. The Cerastes
has a must curious appearance, owing to a rather large horn-like scale
which projects over each eye, and which, according to the natives, is
possessed of wonderful virtues.

The Cerastes has, according to Bruce, an awkward habit of crawling until
it is alongside of the creature whom it is about to attack, and then making
a side-long leap at its victim. He relates an instance where he saw a
Cerastes perform a certainly curious feat :—I saw one of them at Cairo
crawl up the side of a box
in which there were many,
and there lie still as if hid-
ing himself, till one of the
people who brought them to
us came near him, and
though in a very disadvan-
tageous position, sticking, as
it were, perpendicularly to
the side of the box, he
’ leaped near the distance of
three feet, and fastened be-
tween the man’s fore-finger
and thumb, so as to bring
the blood.”

The Cerastes usually lives
in the driest and hottest
parts of Northern Africa,
CERASTES, OR HORNED VIPER,—(Cerastes and lies half buried in the

, Hasselquistii.) sand until its prey ‘should

; ; come within reach. Like

many serpents, it can endure a very prolonged frost without appearing to
suffer any inconvenience ; those kept by Bruce lived for two years in a
glass jar without partaking of ‘food, and seemed perfectly brisk and lively,:
casting their skins as usual, and not even becoming torpid during the winter.

The colour cf the Cerastes is pale brownish white, covered irregularly with
brown spots. Its length is about two feet. -

THE common VIPER, or ADDER, is very well known in many parts of
England, but in some localities is very plentiful, while in others it is never
seen from one year’s end to another.

Many persons mistake the common grass snake for the Viper, and dread
it accordingly. They may, however, always distinguish the poisonous reptile
from the innocuous, by the chain of dark spots that runs along the spine,
and forms an unfailing guide to its identification. Fortunately for our-
selves, it is the only poisonous reptile inhabiting England, the variously
coloured specimens being nothing more than varieties of the same species,

THE VIPER. 438

Like most reptiles, whether poisonous or not, the Viper is a very timid
creature, always preferring to glide away from a foe rather than to attack,
and only biting when driven to do so under yreat provocation.

The head of the Viper affords a very good example of the venomous
apparatus of the poisonous serpents, and is well worthy of dissection,
which is better accomplished under water than in air. The poison-fangs
lie on the sides of the upper jaw, folded back and almost undistinguishable
until lifted with a needle. They are singularly fine and delicate, hardly
larger than a lady’s needle, and are covered almost to their tips with a
muscular envelope through which the points just peep. The poison-
secreting glands and the reservoir in which the venom is stored are found
at the back and sides of the head, and give to the venomous serpents that
peculiar width of head which is so unfailing a characteristic. The colour of
the poison is a very pale yellow, and its consistence is very like that of salad
oil, which, indeed, it much resembles, both in look and taste. There is but
little in each individual, and it is possible that the superior power of the

VIPER, OR ADDER.—(P:lias' Berus.)

large venomous snakes of other lands, especially those under the tropics,
may be due as much to its quantity as its absolute intensity. In a full-grown
rattlesnake, for example, there are six or eight drops of this poison, whereas
the Viper has hardly a twentieth part of that amount.

On examining carefully the poison-fangs of a Viper, the structure by
which the venom is injected into the wound will be easily understood. On
removing the lower jaw, the two fangs are seen in the upper jaw, folded
down in a kind of groove between the teeth of the palate and the skin of
the head, so as to allow any food to slide over them without being pierced
by their points. The end of the teeth reach about halfway from the nose to
the angle of the jaw, just behind the corner of the eye.

Only the tips of the fangs are seen, and they glisten bright, smooth, and
translucent, as if they were curved needles made from isiuglass, and almost
as fine asa bee’s sting. On raising them with a needle or the point of the
forceps, a large mass of muscular tissue comes into view, enveloping the
tooth for the greater part of its length, and being, in fact, the means by
which the fang is elevated or depressed. When the creature draws back its

FF2

436 THE BOA CONSTRICTOR.

head and opens its mouth to strike, the depressing muscles are relaxed, the
© posite series are contracted, and the two deadly fangs spring up with their
points ready for action. It is needful while dissecting the head to be
exceedingly careful, as the fangs are so sharp that they penetrate the skin
with a very slight touch, and their poisonous distilment does not lose its
potency even after the lapse of time.

There are generally several of the fangs in each jaw, lying one below the
other in regular succession. From the specimen which has just been
described, I removed four teeth on each side, varying in length from half to
one-eighth the dimensions of the poison-fangs.

The ordinary food of the Viper is much the same as that of the common
snake, and consists of mice, birds, frogs, and similar creatures. It is,
however, less partial to frogs than the common snake, and seems to prefer
the smaller mammalia to any other prey.

WE now arrive at a very important family of serpents, including the
largest species found in the order. These snakes are known by the popular
title of Boas, and
scientifically as Boide,
and are all remarkable,
not only for their great
size and curious mode
of taking their prey,
but for the partial de-
velopment of their
hinder limbs, which
are externally visible
as a pair of horny
spurs, set one on each
side of the base of the
tail, and moderately
. well developed under
the skin, consisting of
several bones jointed
together.

THE Boa CON-
STRICTOR is a native
of Southern and Tro-
pical pe and is
z one of those serpents
BOA CONSTRICTOR.—(Boa Constrictor.) that were ions

held sacred and wor-
shipped with divine honours. It attains a very large size, often exceeding twenty
feet in length, ar.d being said to reach thirty feet insome cases. It is worthy
of mention, that before swallowing their prey the Boas do not cover it with
saliva, as has been asserted. Indeed, the very narrow and slender forked
tongue of the serpent is about the worst possible implement for such a pur-
pose. A very large amount of this substance is certainly secreted by the
reptile while in the act of swallowing, and is of great use in lubricating the
prey so as to aid it in its passage down the throat and into the body, but it
is only poured upon the victim during the act of swallowing, and is not
prepared and applied beforehand.

The dilating powers of the Boa are wonderful. The skin stretches to a
degree which seems absolutely impossible, and the comparison between the
diameter of the prey and that of the mouth through which it has to pass, and
the throat down which it has to glide, is alinost ludicrous in its apparent

THE COLUBRINA. 437

impracticability, and, unless proved by frequent experience, would seem more
like the prelude to a juggler’s trick than an event of every-day occurrence.
To such an extent is the body dilatable that the shape of the animal
swallowed can often be traced through the skin, and the very fur is visible
through the translucent eyes, as the dead victim passes through the jaws and
down the throat. ; ; é

AN equally celebrated snake, the ANACONDO, is a native of Tropical America,
where it is known under several names, La Culebra de Agua, or “ water ser-
pent,” and El Traga Venado, or “ deer swallower,” being the most familiar.

Sir R. Ker Porter has some curious remarks on the Anaconda :—“ This
serpent is not venomous, nor known to injure men (at least not in this part
of the New World) ; however, the natives stand in great fear of it, never
bathing in waters where it is known to exist. Its common haunt, or rather
domicile, is invariably near lakes, swamps, and rivers ; likewise close to wet
ravines produced by inundations of the periodical rains; hence, from its
aquatic habits, its first appellation (ze, Water Serpent), Fish, and those
animals which repair there to drink, are the objects of its prey. The crea-
ture lurks watchfully under cover of the water, and while the unsuspecting
animal is drinking, suddenly makes a dart at the nose, and, with a grip of its
back-reclining double range of teeth, never fails to secure the terrified beast
beyond the power of escape.”

Compression is the only method employed by the Anacondo for killing its
prey, and the pestilent breath which has been attributed to this reptile is
wholly fabulous. Indeed, it is doutbtful whether any snake whatever
possesses a fetid breath, and Mr. Waterton, who has handled snakes, borh
poisonous and inoffensive, as much as most living persons, utterly denies the
existence of any perceptible odour in the snake’s breath. It is very possible
that the pestilent and most horrible odour which can be emitted by many
snakes, when they are irritated, may have been mistaken for the scent of the
breath. This evil odour, however, is produced from a substance secreted in
the glands near the tail, and has no connection with the breath.

WE now come to another section of the serpents, termed the COLUBRINA,
the members of which are known by the broad band-like plates of the abdo-
men, the shielded head, the conical tail, and the teeth of both jaws. Some
of them are harmless and unfurnished with fangs, whereas some are ex-
tremely venomous and are furnished with poison-fangs in the upper jaw.
These, however, do not fold down like those of the viper and rattlesnake, but
remain perfectly erect.

OUR common GRASS SNAKE, or RINGED SNAKE, is a good example of
these reptiles.

It is extremely plentiful throughout England, being found in almost every
wood, copse, or hedgerow, where it may be seen during the warm months of
the year sunning itself on the banks, or gently gliding along in search of
prey, always, however, betraying itself to the initiated ear by a peculiar
rustling among the herbage. Sometimes it may be detected while in the act
of creeping up a perpendicular trunk or stem, a feat which it accomplishes,
not by a spiral movement, as is generally represented by artists, but by
pressing itself .irmly against the object, so as to render its body flatter and
wider, and crawling up by the movement of the large banded scales of the
belly, the body being straight and rigid as a stick, and ascending in a
manner that seems almost inexplicable.

The Ringed Snake is perfectly harmless, having no venomous fangs, and
all its teeth being of so small a size that, even if the creature were to snap
at the hand, the skin would not be injured.

The food of the Ringed Snake consists mostly of insects and reptiles,

438 THE RINGED OR GRASS SNAKE.

frogs being the favourite prey. I have known snakes to eat the common
newt, and in such cases the victim was invariably swallowed head first,
- whereas the frog is eaten in just the opposite direction. Usually the frog,
when pursued by the serpent, seems to lose all its energy, and instead of
jumping away, as it would do if chased by a human being, crawls slowly like
a toad, dragging itself painfully along as if paralysed. The snake, on
coming up with its prey, stretches out its neck and quietly grasps one hind
foot of the frog, which thenceforward delivers itself up to its destreyer an
unresisting victim.

The whole process of swallowing a frog is very curious, as the creature is
greatly wider than the mouth of the snake, and in many cases, when the
frog is very large and the snake rather small, the neck of the serpent is
hardly as wide as a sinyle hind-leg of the frog, while the body is so utterly

disproportioned that its reception
seems wholly impossible. Moreover,
the snake generally swallows one leg
first, the other leg kicking freely in the
air. However, the serpent contrives
to catch either the knee or the foot
in its mouth during these convulsive
struggles, and by slow degrees swal-
lows both legs. The limbs seems to
act as a kind of wedge, making the
body follow easily, and in half an
hour or so the frog has disappeared
from sight, but its exact position in
the body of the snake is accurately
defined by the swollen abdomen.
Should the frog be small, it is snap-
ped up by the side and swallowed
without more ado. .

The Ringed Snake is fond of water,
and is a good swimmer, sometimes
diving with great ease and remaining
below the surface for a considerable

RINGED SNAKE, OR GRASS SNAKE.— length of time, and sometimes swim-

(Tropidonotus natrix.) ming boldly for a distance that seems

very great fora terrestrial creature to

undertake. This reptile will even take to the sea, and has been noticed swim-
ming between Wales and Anglesea.

During winter the snake retires to some sheltered spot, where it remains
until the warm days of spring call it again to action. The localities which
it chooses for its winter quarters are always in some well-sheltered spot,
generally under the gnarled roots of ancient trees, under heaps of dry brush-
wood, or deep crevices. In these places the snakes will congregate in great
numbers, more than a hundred having been taken from one hollow. A few
years ago I saw a hole from which a great number of Ringed Snakes had
been taken ; it was situated in a bank at some depth. Th: colour of the
Ringed Snake is greyish green above and blue-black below, often mottled
with deep black. Behind the head is a collar of golden yellow, often broken
in the middle so as to look like two patches of yellow. Behind the yellow
collar is another of black. sometimes broken in the middle also, Along the
back run tworows of small dark spots, and a row of large oblong spots is
arranged down each side. Both the colour and the shape of the spots are
very variable,

TREE SNAKES. 439

ONE group of snakes is composed of the TREE SERPENTS, or Dendro-
phide, so called from the habit of residing among the branches of trees.

Our first example of this family is the well-known BOOMSLANGE of South-
ern Africa. In-pronouncing this word, which is of Dutch or German origin,
and signifies Tree Snake, the reader must remember that it is a word of

BOOMSLANGE. —(Bucephalus Capensis.)

three syllables. The Boomslange is a native of Southern Africa, and is
among the most variable of serpents in colouring, being green, olive, or brown,
of such different colours, that it has often been separated into several
distinct species.

Dr. A. Smith has given the following valuable description of the Boom-
slange and its habits;—

440 THE COBRA.

“ The natives of South Africa regard the Boomslange as poisonous, but in
their opinion we cannot concur, as we have not been able to discover the exist -
ence of any gland manifestly organized for the secretion of poison. The
fangs are inclosed in a soft pulpy sheath, the inner surface of which is
commonly coated with a thin glairy secretion. This secretion possibly may
have something acrid and irritating in its quality, which may, when it enters
a wound, occasion pain and swelling, but nothing of great importance.

“The Boomslange is generally found on trees, to which it resorts for the
purpose of catching birds, upon which it delights to feed. The presence of
a specimen in a tree is generally soon discovered by the birds of the neigh-
bourhood, who collect around it and fly to and fro, uttering the most piercing
cries, until sorne one, more terror-struck than the rest, actually scans its lips,
and almost without resistance becomes a meal for its enemy. During such
a proceeding the snake is generally observed with its head raised about ten
or twelve inches above the branch round which its body and tail are
entwined, with its mouth open and its neck inflated, as if anxiously endea-
vouring to increase the terror which it would almost appear it was aware
would sooner or later bring within its grasp some one of the feathered group.

“ Whatever may be said in ridicule of fascination, it is nevertheless true
that birds, and even quadrupeds also, are, under certain circumstances,
unable to retire from the presence of certain of their enemies ; and, what is
even more extraordinary, unable to resist the propensity to advance from a
situation of actual safety into one of the most imminent danger. This I have
often seen exemplified in the case of birds and snakes ; and I have heard of
instances equally curious, in which antelopes and other quadrupeds have been
so bewildered by the sudden appearance of crocodiles, and by the grimaces
and contortions they practised, as to be unable to fly or even move from the
spot towards which they were approaching to seize them.”

WE now come to one of the most deadly of the serpent tribe, the well-
known CoBRA DI CAPELLO, or HOODED Copra, of India.

This celebrated serpent has long been famous, not only for the deadly power
of its venom, but for the singular performances in which it takes part. The
Cobra inhabits many parts of Asia, and in almost every place where it is
found certain daring men take upon themselves the profession of serpent
charmers, and handle these fearful reptiles with impunity, cause them to
move in time to certain musical sounds, and assert that they bear a life charmed
against the bite of their reptilian playmates. One of these men will take a
Cobra in his bare hands, toss it about with perfect nonchalance, allow it to twine
about his naked breast, tie it round his neck, and treat it with as little cere-
mony as if it were an earthworm He will then take the same serpent—or
apparently the same—make it bite a fowl, which soon dies from the poison,
and will then renew his performances.

Some persons say that the whole affair is but an exhibition of that jugglery
in which the Indians are such wondrous adepts ; that the serpents with
which the man plays are harmless having been deprived of their fangs, and
that a really venomous specimen is adroitly substituted for the purpose of
killing the fowl. It is moreover said, and truly, that a snake, thought to
have been rendered innocuous by the deprivation of its fangs, has bitten one
of its masters and killed him, thus proving the imposture. ,

Still, neither of these explanations will entirely disprove the mastery of
man over a venomous serpent. In the first instance, it is surely as perilous
an action to substitute a venomous serpent as to play with it. Where was
it hidden, why did it not bite the man instead of the fowl, and how did the
juggler prevent it from using its teeth while he was conveying it away?
And, in the second instance, the detection of an impostor is by no means a

SNAKE-CHARMERS. 441

proof that all who pretend to the same powers are likewise impostors. The
following narrative of Mr. H. E. Reyne, quoted by Sir J. E. Tennent in his
“ Natural History of Ceylon,” seems to be a sufficient proof that the man
did possess sufficient power to induce a truly poisonous serpent to leave its
hole and to perform certain antics at his command:—“ A snake-charmer

COBRA DI CAPELLO.—(Waja tripudi ins.)

came to my bungalow in 1854, requesting me to allow him to show me his
snakes dancing. As IJ had frequently seen them, I told him I would give him
a rupee if he would accompany me to the jungle and catch a Cobra that I
knew frequented the place.

“He was willing, and as I was anxious to test the truth of the charm, I
counted his tame snakes, and put a watch over them until I returned with

442 THE BATRACHIANS.

him. Before going, I examined the man, and satisfied myself he had no
snake about his person. When we arrived at the spot, he played upon a
small pipe, and after persevering for some time, out came a large Cobra from
an ant-hill which I knew it occupied. On seeing the man it tried to escape,
but he caught it by the tail and kept swinging it round until we reached the
bungalow. He then made it dance, but before long it bit him above the
knee. He immediately bandaged the leg above the bite, and applied a
snake-stone to the wound to extract the poison. He was in great pain
for a few minutes, but after that it gradually went away, the stone falling off
just before he was relieved.

“When he recovered, he held upa cloth, at which the snake flew, and
caught its fangs in it. While in that position, the man passed his hand up
its back, and, having seized it by the throat, he extracted the fangs in my
presence and gave them to me. He then squeezed out the poison on to a
leaf. It was a clear oily substance, and, whén rubbed on the hand, produced
a fine lather. I carefully watched the whole operation, which was also
witnessed by my clerk and two or three other persons.”

One notable peculiarity in the Cobra is the expansion of the neck, popu-
larly called the hood. This phenomenon is attributable not only to the skin
and muscles, but to the skeleton. About twenty pairs of the ribs of the
neck and fore-part of the back are flat instead of curved, and increase
gradually from the head to the eleventh or twelfth pair, from which they
decrease until they are merged into the ordinary curved ribs of the body.

When ihe snake is excited, it brings these ribs forward so as to spread
the skin, and then displays the oval hood to the best advantage. In this
species the back of the hood is ornamented with two large eye-like spots,
united by a curved black stripe, so formed that the whole mark bears a sin-
gular resemblance to a pair of spectacles.

It is rather curious that many persons fancy that the Cobra loses a joint
of its tail every time that it sheds its poison, this belief being exactly oppo-
site to the popular notion that the rattlesnake gains a new joint to its rattle
for every being which it has killed.

THE BATRACHIANS are separated from the true reptiles on account of
their peculiar development, which gives them a strong likeness to the fishes,
and affords a good ground for considering these animals to form a distinct
order. On their extrusion from the egg they bear no resemblance to their
parents, but are in a kind of intermediate existence, closely analogous to the
caterpillar or larval state of insects, and called by the same name. Like the
fish, they exist wholly in the water, and breathe through gills instead of
lungs, obtaining the needful oxygen from the water which washes the delicate
gill-membranes. At this early period they have no external limbs, moving
by the rapid vibration of the flat and fan-like tail with which they are sup-
plied. While in this state they are popularly called tadpoles, those of the
frog sometimes bearing the provincial name of pollywogs. The skin of the
Batrachians is not scaly, and in most instances is smooth and soft. Further
peculiarities will be mentioned in connection with the different species.

These creatures fall naturally into two sub-orders, the Leaping or Tail-less
Batrachians, and the Crawling Batrachians. The Leaping Batrachians,
comprising the Frogs and Toads, are familiar in almost all lands, and in
England are well known on account of their British representatives,

The most familiar of all the Batrachians, is the COMMON FROG of Europe.

The general form and appearance of this creature are too well known to
need much description. It is found plentifully in all parts of England, wan-
dering to considerable distances from water, and sometimes getting into
pits, cellars, and similar localities, where it lives for years Without ever seeing

THE COMMON FROG. 443

water. The food of the adult Frog is wholly of an animal character, and
consists of slugs, possibly worms, and insects of nearly every kind, the wire-
worm being a favourite article of diet. A little colony of Frogs is most
useful in a garden, as they will do more to keep down the various insect
vermin that injure the garden than can be achieved by the constant labour
of a human being.

The chief interest of the
Frog lies in the curious
changes which it under-
goes before it attains its
perfect condition. Every-
one is familiar with the
huge masses of transpa-
rent jelly-like substance,
profusely and regularly
dotted with black spots,
which lie in the shallows
of a river or the ordinary
ditches that intersect the
fields. Each of these
little black spots is the
egg of a Frog, and is
surrounded with a glo-
-bular gelatinous envelope
about a quarter of an
inch in diameter.

In process of time,
certain various changes
take place in the egg, and
at the proper period the
form-of the young Frog
begins to become appa- COMMON FROG.—(Rana temporaria.)
rent. In this state it is
a black grub-like creature, with a large head anda flattened tail. By degrees
it gains strength, and at last fairly breaks its way through the egg and is
launched upon a world of dangers, under the
various names of tadpole, pollywog, toe-biter, or

a : c
horsenail... . i. j ;
_ As it is intended for the present to lead an
aquatic life, its breathing apparatus is formed on
the same principle as the gills of a fish, but is
visible ‘externally, and when fully developed con-
sists of a double tuft of finger-like appendages
on each sidé of the head. The tadpole, with the
fully-developed branchia, is shown at Fig. a on

the accompanying illustration. No sooner, how-
ever, have these organs attained their size than
they begin again to diminish, the shape of the d
body and head being at the same time much altered,
as is seen in Fig. 6. Ina short time they entirely
disappear, being drawn into the cavity of the
chest and guarded externally by a kind of gill-cover. TADEOLES:

Other changes are taking place meanwhile. Just behind the head two little
projections appear through the skin, which soon develop into legs, which,
however, are not at all employed for progression, as the tadpole wriggles its way

444 THE EDIBLE FROG.

through the water with that quick undulation of the flat tail which is so
familiar to us all. The creature then bears the appearance represented in
Fig. c. Presently another pair of legs make their appearance in front, the
tail is gradually absorbed into the body—not falling off, according to the
popular belief—the branchiz vanish,.and the lungs are developed. Fig. @
represents a young Frog just before the tail is fully absorbed.

The internal changes are as marvellous as the external. When first
hatched, the young tadpole is to all intents and purposes a fish, has fish-
like bones, fish-like gills, and a heart composed of only two chambers, one
auricle and one ventricle. But, in proportion to its age, these organs receive
corresponding modifications, a third chamber for the heart being formed
by the expansion of one of the large arteries, the vessels of the branchiz

TOAD.—(Bu/fo vulgaris.)

becoming gradually suppressed and their place supplied by beautifully cellular
lungs, formed by a development of certain membranous sacs that appear to
be analogous to the air-bladders of the fishes.

THE celebrated EDIBLE FROG, or GREEN FROG of Europe (Rana
esculenta), also belongs to this large genus. This handsome species is com-
mon in all the warmer parts of the Continent, but in the vicinity of large
cities is seldom seen, except in the ponds where it is preserved, and whence
issues a horrid nocturnal concert in the breeding-time. The proprietors of
these frogzeries supply the market regularly, and draw out the Frogs with
large wooden rakes as they are wanted. In Paris these creatures are sold at
a rather high price for the table, and as only the hind-legs are eaten, a dish
of Frogs is rather an expensive article of diet.

WE now arrive at another section of Batrachians, including those creatures
which ?re known under the title of Toads, and of which the COMMON ToaD
of Europe is so familiar an example. The members of this section may be
known by the absence of teeth in the jaws and the well-developed ears.

The general aspect and habits of this creature are too well known to require

,

THE COMMON TOAD. 445

more than a cursory notice. Few creatures, perhaps, have been more reviled
and maligned than the Toad, and none with less reason. In the olden days,
the Toad was held to be the very compendium of poison, and to have so
deadly an effect upon human beings, that two persons were related to have died
from eating a leaf of a sage-bush under which a Toad had burrowed.

In France this poor creature’ is shamefully persecuted, the idea of its
venomous and spiteful nature being widely disseminated and deeply rooted.
The popular notion is that the Toad is poisonous throughout its life, but that
after the age of fifty years it acquires venomous fangs like those of the
serpents.

In point of fact, the Toad is a most useful animal, devouring all kinds of
insect vermin, and making its rounds by night when the slugs, caterpillars,

NATTERJACK.—(Bufo calamita.)

earwigs, and other creatures are abroad on their destructive mission. Many
of the market gardeners are so well aware of the extreme value of the Toad’s
services, that they purchase Toads at a certain sum per dozen, and turn them
out in their grounds,

Last year, my children had several large Toads which were quite tame.
‘They used to carry the Toads in their hands round the garden, and then hold
them up to flowers on which insects had settled. The Toads were quite
accustomed to this mode of feeding, and always caught the insects.

Entomologists sometimes make a curious use of the Toad. Going into
the fields soon after daybreak, they catch all the Toads they can find, kill
them, and turn the contents of their stomachs into water. On examining the
mass of insects that are found in the stomach, and which are floated apart in
the water, there are almost always some specimens of valuable insects, gene-
rally beetles, which, from their nocturnal habits, small dimensions, and
sober colouring, cannot readily be detected by human eyes.

The Toad will also eat worms, and in swallowing them it finds its fore-
feet of great use. The worm is seized by the middle, and writhes itself fran-
tically into such contortions that the Toad would not be able to swallow it but

446 TREE-FROGS.

by the aid of its fore-feet, which it uses as if they were hands. Sitting
quietly down with the worm in its mouth, the Toad pushes it further between
the jaws. first with one paw and then with another, until it succeeds by
alternate gulps and pushes in forcing the worm fairly down its throat. °

This animal is extremely tenacious of life, and is said to possess the
power of retaining life for an unlimited period if shut up in a completely air-
tight cell. Many accounts are in existence of Toads which have been
discovered in blocks of stone when split open, and the inference has been
urawn. that they were enclosed in the stone while it was still in the liquid
state, some hundreds of thousands of years ago, according to the particular
geological period, and had remained without food or air until the stroke of
the pick brought them once more to the light of day.

Tne development of the Toad is much like that of the Frog, except that
the eggs are not laid in masses, but in long strings, containing a double
series of eggs placed alternately. These chains are about three or four feet in
length, and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. They are deposited rather

later than those of the

\ Frog, and the reptiles,
Swe which are smaller and
sagt blacker than the Frog
larve, do not assume
their perfect form until
August or September.

ANOTHER species of
Toad, the NATTERJACK,
is found in many parts
of England. It may be
known from the common
species by the short hind-
legs, the more prominent
eyes, the less webbed
feet, the yellow line
along the middle of the
back, andthe black bands
on the legs. It is not so
~ aquatic as the common

. Toad, haunting dry

_ places, and seldom ap-

proaching water except

Z during the breeding sea-

son. Its ordinary length
is about three inches.

" This is really a pretty

GREEN TREE-FROG.—(/y/a arborea.) creature, its colour being

green, diversified with a

line of bright yellow along the back. I kept several of these Toads for a

long time, feeding them with various insects. No matter how large or active

the insect might be which was put into the box, sooner or later the Natter-

jacks were sure to catch it.

WE now come to the TREE-FROGS, or TREE-TOADS, so called from their
habits of climbing trees and attaching themselves to the branches or leaves
by means of certain discs on the toes, like those of the geckos.

The best known species is the common GREEN TREE-FROG of Europe,
now so familiar from its frequent introduction into fern cases and terrestrial
Vivaria.

THE POUCHED FROG. 447

This pretty creature is mostly found upon trees, clinging either to their
branches or leaves, and being generally in the habit of attaching itself to the
under side of the leaves, which it resembles so strongly in colour, that it is
almost invisible even when its situation is pointed out. When kept in a
fern-case, it 1s fond of ascending the perpendicular glass sides, and there
sticking firmly and motionless, its legs drawn closely to the body, and its
abdomen flattened against the glass.

The food of the Tree-Frog consists almost entirely of insects, worms, and
similar creatures, which are captured as they pass near the leaf whereto their
green foe is adhering. It is seldom seen on the ground except during the breed-
ing season, when it seeks the water, and there deposits its eggs much in the
same manner as the common Frog. The tadpole is hatched rather late in
the season, and does not attain its perfect form until two full wonths have
elapsed. Like the Toad, the Tree-Frog swallows its skin after the change.
The common Tree-Frog is wonderfully tenacious of life, suffering the severest
wounds without seeming to be much distressed, and having even been frozen
quite stiff in a mass of ice without perishing.

The colour of this species is green above, sometimes spotted with olive,
and a greyish yellow streak runs through each eye towards the sides, where
it becomes gradually fainter, and is at last lost in the green colour of the skin.
in some specimens there is a greyish spot on the loins. Below, it is of a

POUCHED FROG.—(Wovotrema marsupiuum.)

paler hue, and a black streak runs along the side, dividing the vivid green of
the back from the white hue of the abdomen.

IN the POUCHED FROG we find a most singular example of structure, the
female being furnished with a pouch on her back, in which the eggs are
placed when hatched, and carried about for a considerable period.

This pouch is clearly analogous to the living cradle of the marsupial
animals, It is not merely developed when wanted, but is permanent, and

448 THE RHINOPHRYNE.

lined with skin like that of the back. The pouch does not attain its full
development until the creature is of mature age, and the male does not
possess it at all. When filled with eggs, the pouch is much dilated, and
extends over the whole back nearly as far as the back of the head. The
opening is not easily seen without careful examination, being very narrow,
and hidden in folds of the skin.

THE RHINOPHRYNE is remarkable as being the only known example
among the Frogs where the tongue has its free end pointing forward, instead
of being directed towards the throat.

This curious species inhabits Mexico, and can easily be recognized by the
peculiar form of its head, which is rounded, merged into the body, and has
the muzzle abruptly truncated, so as to form a.small circular disc in front.
The gape is extremely small, and the head would, if separated, be hardly
recognizable as having belonged to a Frog. The legs are very short and
thick, and the-feet are half-webbed. Each hind-foot is furnished with a flat,

RHINOPHRYNE.—(Rhinophrynus dorsalis.)

oval, horny spur formed by the development of one of the bones. There are
no teeth in the jaws, and the ear is imperfect. The colour of the Rhino-
phryne is slate-grey, with yellow spots on the sides and a row of similar
spots along the back. Sometimes these latter spots unite so as to form a
jagged line down the back.

WE now arrive at the Crawling Batrachians, technically called Amphibia
Gradientia. All these creatures have a much-elongated body, a tail which
is never thrown off as in the frogs and toads, and. limbs nearly equal in
development, but never very powerful. Like the preceding sub-order, the
young are hatched from eggs, pass through the preliminary or tadpole state,
and, except in very few instances, the gills are lost when the animal attains
its perfect form. Both jaws are furnished with teeth, and the palate is
toothed in some species. The skin is without scales, and either smooth or
covered with wart-like excrescences. There is no true breast-bone, but some
species have ribs.

THE celebrated SALAMANDER, the subject of so many strange fables, is a
species found in many parts of the continent of Europe.

This creature was formerly thought to be able to withstand the action of

THE SALAMANDER. 449

fire, and to quench even the most glowing furnace with its icy body. It
is singular how such ideas should have been so long promulgated, for
although Aristotle repeated the tale on hearsay, Pliny tried the experiment
by putting a Salamander into the fire, and remarks, with evident surprise,
that it was burned to a powder. A piece of cloth dipped in the blood of a
Salamander was said to be unhurt by fire, and certain persons had in their

SALAMANDER. —(Salamandra macitlosa. )

possession a fireproof fabric, made, as they stated, of Salamander’s wool,
but which proved to be asbestos.

The Salavuander is a terrestrial species, only frequenting the water for the
purpose of depositing its
young, which leave the egg
before they enter into inde-
pendent existence. It is a \ >
slow and timid animal, gene- Ay) if
rally hiding itself in some 4
eee crevice during wal AN
the day, and seldom ven- { >
turing out except at night or
in rainy weather. It feeds
on slugs, insects, and simi-
lar creatures. During the
cold months it retires into
winter quarters, generally
the hollow of some decay-
ing tree, or beneath mossy
stones, and does not reap-
pear until the spring. ae

The ground colour of this COMMON NEWT.— (7riton cristatus.)
species is black, and the
spots are light yellow. Along the sides are scattered numerous small
tubercles.

THE common NEWT, ASKER, EFFET, EFT, or EVAT, as it is indifferently-
termed, is well known throughout England. At least two species of Newt

GG

450 _ THE NEWT.

inhabit England, and some authors consider that the number of. species is
still greater. We shall, however, according to the system employed in this
work, follow the arrangement of the British Museum, which accepts only
two species, the others being merely noted ‘as varieties.

The CRESTED NEwT derives its popular name from the membranous crest
which appears on the back and upper edge of the tail during the breeding
season, and which adds so much to the beauty of the adult male

This creature is found plentifully in ponds and ditches during the warm
months of the year, and may be captured without difficulty. It is tolerably
hardy in confinement, being easily reared even from a very tender age, so
that its habits can be carefully noted.

At Oxford we had some of these animals in a large slate tank through
which water was constantly running, and which was paved with pebbles,
and furnished with vailisneria and other aquatic plants, for the purpose of
imitating as nearly as possible the natural condition of the water from which
the creatures had been taken. Here they lived for some time, and here the
eggs were hatched and the young developed.

It was a very curious sight to watch the clever manner in which the female
Newts secured their eggs ;
for which purpose they used
chiefly to employ the vallis-
neria, its long slender blades
being exactly the leaves
best suited for that purpose.
They deposited an egg on
one of the leaves, and then,
by dexterous management of
the feet, twisted the leaf
= round the egg, so as to con-
= = hie it, and contrived to

SE oS asten it so firmly that the

————— twist always retained its

form. The apparent shape

SMOOTH NEWT.—(Lophinus punctatus.) of the egg is oval and semi-

Jin transparent, but on looking

more closely it is seen to be nearly spherical, of a very pale yellow-brown,
and enclosed within an oval envelope of gelatinous substance.

When the young Newt is hatched it much resembles the common tadpole,
but is of a lighter colour, and its gills are more developed. It rapidly increases
in size until it attains a length of nearly two inches, the fore-legs being then
tolerably strong, and the hinder pair very small and weak.

_ Towards the breeding season the male changes sensibly in appearance ;
his colours are brighter, and his movements more brisk. The beautiful
waving crest now begins to show itself, and grows with great rapidity, until
it assumes an appearance not unlike that of a very thin cock’s-comb, extending
from the head to the insertion of the hinder limbs, and being deeply toothed
at the edge. The tail is also furnished with a crest, but with smooth edges.
When the animal leaves the water, this crest is hardly visible, because it is
so delicate that it folds upon the body and is confounded with the skin ; but
when supported by the water, it waves with every movement of its owner,
and has a most graceful aspect.

After the breeding season, the crest diminishes as rapidly as it arose, and in
a short time is almost wholly absorbed. Some remnants of it, however, always
remain, so that the male may be known even in winter by the line of irregular
excrescencesalong the back, The use of thiscrest is not known, but it evidently

THE PROTEUS, 455

bears a close analogy to the gorgeous nuptial plumage of many birds, which
at other times are dressed in quite sober garments.

The Newt feeds upon small worms, insects, and similar creatures, and
may be’ captured by the simple process of tying a worm on a thread by the
middle, so as to allow both ends to hang down, and then angling as if for fish.
The Newt is a ravenous creature, and when it catches a worm, closes its
mouth so firmly that it may be neatly landed before it loosens its hold. Some
writers recommend a hook, but I can assert, from much practical experience,
that the hook is quite needless, and that the Newt may be captured by the
simple worm and thread, not even a rod being required.

It is curious to see the Newt eat a worm. It seizes it by the middle with
a sudden snap, as it the jaws were moved by springs, and remains quiet for a
few seconds, when it makes another snap, which causes the worm to pass
farther into its mouth. Six or seven such bites are usually required before
the worm finally disappears.

The skin or epidermis of the Newt is very delicate, and is frequently changed,
coming off in the water in flakes. I found that my dwn specimens always
changed their skin as often as I changed the water, and it was very curious to
see them swimming about with the flakes of transparent membrane clinging to
their sides. The skin
of the paws is drawn
off just like a glove,
every finger being per-
fect, and even the little
wrinkles in the palms
being marked. These
gloves look very pretty
as they float in the
water, but if removed
they collapse into a =
shapeless lump. PROTEUS. — (Proteus anguinus.)

The food of the Newt
consists of worms, insects, and even the young of aquatic reptiles. I have
seen a large male Crested Newt make a savage dart at a younger individual
of the same species, but it did not succeed in eating the intended victim.

THE next order of Crawling Batrachians is called by the name of
MEANTIA, and contains a very few but very remarkable species. In all these
creatures the body is long and smooth, without scales, and the gills are very
conspicuous, retaining their position throughout the life of the animal.
There are always two or four limbs furnished with toes, but these members
are very weak, and indeed rudimentary, and both the palate and the lower
jaw are toothed.

The first example of this order is the celebrated PROTEUS, discovered by
the Baron de Zois, in the extraordinary locality in which it dwells.

At Adelsberg, in the Duchy of Carniola, is a most wonderful cavern, called
the Grotto of the Maddalena, extending many hundred feet below the
surface of the earth, and consequently buried in the profoundest darkness.
In this cavern exists a little lake, roofed with stalactites, surrounded with
masses of rock, and floored with a bed of soft mud, upon which the Proteus
may be seen crawling uneasily, as if endeavouring to avoid the unwelcome
light by which its presence is known. These creatures are not always to be
found in the lake, though after heavy rains they are tolerably abundant, and
the road by which they gain admission is at present a mystery.

The theory of Sir H. Davy is, “that their natural residence is a deep subter-
raneous lake, from which in great floods they are sometimes forced through

GGe2

452 THE PROTEUS.

the crevices of the rocks into the places where they are found ; and it does
not appear to me impossible, when the peculiar nature of the country is con-
sidered, that the same great cavity may furnish the individuals which have
been found at Adelsberg and at Sittich.”

Whatever may be the solution of the problem, the discovery of this animal
is extremely valuable, not only as an aid to thescience of comparative anatomv,
but as affording another instance of the strange and wondrous forms of
animal life which still survive in hidden and unsuspected nooks of the earth.

Many of these animals have been brought in a living state to this country,
and have survived for a considerable time when their owners have taken
pains to accommodare their condition as nearly as possible tu that of their
native waters. I have had many opportunities of seeing some tine specimens,
brought by Dr. Lionel Beale from the cave at Adelsberg. They could hardly
be said to have any habits, and their only custom seemed to be the systematic
avoidance of light.

The gills of the Proteus are very apparent; and of a reddish colour, on
account of the blood that circulates through them. I have often witnessed
this phenomenon by means of the ingenious arrangement invented by Dr.
Beale, by which the creature was held firmly in its place while a stream of
water was kept constantly flowing through the tube in which it was confined.
The blood-discs of this animal are of extraordinary size; so large, indeed,
that they can be distinguished with a common pocket magnifier, even while
passing through the vessels. Some of the blood-corpuscles of the specimen
described above are now in my possession, and, together with those of the
lepidosiren, form a singular contrast to the blood-corpuscles of man, the
former exceeding the latter in dimensions as an ostrich egg exceeds that of a
pigeon. -

The colour of the Proteus is pale faded flesh tint, with a wash of grey.
The eyes are quite useless, and are hidden beneath the skin, those organs
being needless in the dark recesses where the Proteus lives. Its length is
about a foot.

FISHES.

FISHES.

IN the FISHES, the last class of vertebrated animals, the chief and mosi
obvious distinction lies in their adaptation to a sub-aqueous existence, and
their unfitness for life upon dry land. Carte

‘There are many vertebrate animals which pass the whole of their lives in
the water, and would die if transferred to the land, such as the whales and
the whole of the cetacean tribe, an account of which may be found in page
127. But these creatures are generally incapable of passing their life beneath
the waters, as their lungs are tormed like those of the mammalia, and they
are forced to breathe atmospheric air at the surface of the waves. And
though they would die if left upon land, their death would occur from
inability to move about in search of focd, and in almost every case a
submersion of two continuous hours would drown the longest breathed whale
that swims the seas. . .

The Fishes, on the contrary, are expressly formed for aquatic existence ;
and the beautiful respiratory organs, which we know by the popular term of
“gills,” are so constructed that they can supply sufficient oxygen for the
aération of the blood.

The reason that Fishes die when removed from the water is not because
the air is poisonous to them, as some seem to fancy, but because the delicate
gill-membranes become dry and collapse against each other, so that the cir-
culation of the blood is stopped, and the oxygen of the atmosphere can no
longer act upon it. It necessarily follows, that those Fishes whose gills can
longest retain moisture will live longest on dry land, and that those whose
gills dry most rapidly will die the soonest. The herring, for example, where
the delicate membranes are not sufficiently guarded from the effects of heat
and evaporation, dies almost immediately it is taken out of the water ;
whereas the carp, a fish whose gill-covers can retain much moisture, will
survive for an astonishingly long time upon dry land; and the anabas, or
climbing perch, is actually able to travel from one pool to another, ascending
the banks, and even traversing hot and dusty roads.

~The power by which the Fishes propel themselves through the water is
almost entirely obtained by the lateral movement of the tail. The fins are
scarcely employed at all in progression, but are usually used as balancers, and
occasionally to check an onward movement.

Before proceeding further, I may mention that all the fins of a Fish are
distinguished by appropriate names. As they are extremely important in
determining the species and even the genus of the individual, and as these
members will be repeatedly mentioned in the following pages, I will briefly
describe them.

Beginning at the head and following the line of the back, we come upon a
fin, called from its position the “dorsal” fin. In very many species there are
two such fins, called, from their relative positions, the first and the second
dorsal fins. The extremity of the body is furnished with another fin,
popularly called the tail, but inore correctly the “caudal” fin. The fins which
are set on that part of the body which corresponds to the shoulders are
termed the “ pectoral” fins ; that which is found on the under surface and in
front of the vent is called the “abdominal” fin, and that which is also on the
lower surface, and between the vent and tail, is known by the name of the
“anal” fin. All these fins vary extremely in shape, size, and even in position.
. The gill-cover, or operculum as it is technically called, is separated into
four portions, and is so extensively used in determining the genus and species,

456 THE STURGEON.

that a brief description must be given. The front portion, which starts
immediately below the eye, is called the “ prazoperculum,” and immediately
behind it comes the “ operculum.” Below the latter is another piece, termed
from its position the “sub-operculum, ” and the lowest piece, which touches
all the three above it, is called the “inter-operculum.” Below the chin and
reaching to the sub-operculum, are the slender bones, termed the “ branchi-
ostegous rays,” which differ in shape and number according to the kind of
Fish.

The scales with which most of the Fish are covered are very beautiful in
structure, and are formed by successive laminz, increasing therefore in size
according to the age of the Fish. They are attached to the skin by one
edge, and they overlap each other in such a manner as to allow the creature
to pass through the water with the least possible resistance. The precise
mode of overlapping varies materially in different genera. Along each side
of the Fish runs a series of pores, through which passes a mucous secretion
formed in some glands beneath. Iu order to permit this secretion to reach
the outer surface of the body, each scale upon the row which comes upon the
pores is pierced with a little tubular aperture, which is very perceptible on the
exterior, and constitutes the “lateral line.” The shape and position of this
line are also used in determining the precise position held by any species.
In comparing the scales taken from different Fishes, it is always better to
take those from the lateral line.

The heart of the Fish is very simple, consisting of two chambers only, one
auricle and one ventricle. The blood is in consequence cold.

The hearing of Fishes appears in most cases to be dull, and some persons
have asserted that they are totally destitute of this faculty. It is now, how-
ever, known that many species have been proved capable of hearing sounds,
and that carp and other fish can be taught to come for their food at the
sound of a bell or whistle. The internal structure of the ear is moderately
developed, and there are some curious little bones found within the cavity,
technically called the otoliths.

THE fishes comprised in the first order are called by the rather harshly
sounding title of Chondropterygii, a term derived from two Greek words, the
former signifying “ cartilage” and the latter “a fin,’ and given to these crea-
tures because their bones contain a very large amount of cartilaginous sub-
stance, and are consequently soft and flexible. The bones of the head are
rather harder than those of the body and fins.

The first family, of which the common STURGEON is a good and familiar
example, is at once known by the cartilaginous or bony shields with which
the head and body are at intervals covered.

In this remarkable fish the mouth is placed well under the head, and in
fact seems to be set almost in the throat, the long snout appearing to be
entirely a superfluous ornament. The mouth projects downwards like a
short and wide tube, much wider than long, and on looking into this tube no
teeth are to be seen. Between the mouth and the extremity of the snout 1s
a row of fleshy finger-like appendages, four in number, and apparently
organs of touch.

One or two species of Sturgeon are important in commerce, as two
valuable articles, namely, isinglass and caviare, are made from them. The
former substance is too well known to need a description, and the mode of
preparing it for use is briefly as follows. The air-bladder is removed from
the fish, washed carefully in fresh water, and then hung up in the air for a
day or two, so as to stiffen. The outer coat or membrane is then peeled off,
and the remainder is cut up into strips of gre iter or lesser length, technically
galled stuples, the long staples being the most valuable. This substance

DOG-FISHES. 457

affords so large a quantity of gelatinous matter, that one part of isinglass
gis in a hundred parts of boiling water will form a stiff jelly when
cold.

Caviare is made from the roe of this fish, and as nearly three millions of
eggs have been taken from a single fish, the amount of caviare that one
Sturgeon can afford is rather large.

The body of the Sturgeon is elongated, and slightly five-sided from the
head to the tail. Along
the body run five rows
of flattened bony plates,
each plate being mark-
ed with slight grooves
in a radiating fashion,
and having a pointed
and partly conical spine
on each plate, the
points being directed
towards the tail. The
plates along the sum-
mit of the back are the
largest.

THE fishes belonging to the next group have their gills fixed by their
outer edge to the divisions in the gill-openings at the side of the neck. This
group includes the Sharks and the Rays, many representatives of which
creatures are found on the British coasts.

The first family of this large and important group is known by the name
of Scyllidee, and its members can be recognized by several distinguishing
characteristics. They have spout-holes on the head, and the gill-openings
are five in number on each side. Sometimes there only seein to be four
openings, but on closer examination the fourth and fifth are found set closely
together, the opening of the fifth appearing within that of the fourth. The
teeth are sharp and pointed, and the tail is long, notched on the outer side,
and is not furnished with a fin,

One of the commonest British species is the LITTLE DOG-FIsH, called by
several other names, as is usual with a familiar species that is found in many
localities. Among such
names are SMALL SPOTTED
Doc-FISH, LESSER SPOT-
TED SHARK, MorGay, and
Rosin Huss.

This fish is plentiful on
our coasts, especially in the
southern extremity of Eng-
land, and is often thought a
great nuisance by fishermen,
whose bait it takes instead
of the more valuable fish
for which the hook was set.
It generally remains near the bottom of the water, and is a voracious creature,
feeding upon crustaceans and small fish. It often follows the shoals of
migrating fish, and on account of that custom is called the Dog-fish,
Generally its flesh is neglected, but when properly dressed it is by no means
unpalatable, and is said to be sometimes trimmed and dressed in fraudulent
imitation of more valuable fish.

The skin of this and other similar species is rough and tile-iike, and 19

STURGEON.—(Acipenser attilus.)

LITTLE DOG FISH. —(Scydlium caniculum.)

458 THE HAMMER-HEADED SHARK.

employed for many purposes. The handles of swords, where a firm hold is
required, are sometimes bound with this substance ; and joiners use it in
polishing the surface of fine woods so as to bring out the grain. It is also
employed instead of sand-paper upon match-boxes.

The egg of this species is very curious in form and structure, and is often
found on the sea-shore, flung up by the waves,
especially after a storm. These objects are
familiar to all observant wanderers by the sea-
shore, under the name of mermaid’s purses,
sailors purses, or sea purses. Their form is
oblong, with curved sides, and at each angle there
is a long tendril-like appendage, having a strong
curl, and in form not unlike the tendrils of the
vine. The use of these appendages is to enable
the egg to cling to the growing seaweed at the
bottom of the ocean, and to prevent it from being
washed away by the tide.

For the escape of the young shark, when strong
enough to make its own way in the wider world
of waters, an outlet is provided in the opened end
of the envelope, which opens when pushed from
within, and permits the little creature to make
its way out, though it effectually bars the entrance
against any external foe.

The head of the Little Dog-fish is rather flat
upon the top, there is a little spiracle or blow-hole
behind each eye, and the shape of the mouth is
somewhat like a horse-shoe. The general colour
of the body is pale reddish on the upper parts,
covered with many little spots of dark reddish
brown; below it is yellowish white. The length of
this species is about eighteen inches. The colour
is beautiful slate-blue above, and white below.

THE remarkable fish depicted in the illustration
affords a striking instance of the wild and won-
drous modifications of form assumed by certain
creatures, without any ascertained purpose being
gained thereby. We know by analogous reasoning
that some wise purpose is served by this astonish-
ing variation in form; but as far as is yet
known there is nothing in the habits of this spe-
cies that accounts for the necessity of this strange
shape.

The shape of the body is not unlike that a we

enerality of sharks, but it is upon the head that

Egg of Dog-fsh, ie aieiben is at once paced As may be seen

from the figure the head is expanded laterally in a

most singular manner, bearing, indeed, no small resemblance to the head of

a hammer. The eyes are placed at either end of the projecting extremities,

and the mouth is set quite below, its corners just coinciding with a line
drawn through the two projecting lobes of the head.

This species attains to a considerable size, seven or eight feet being a
common measurement, and specimens of eleven or twelve feet having been
known. Its flesh is said to be almost uneatable, being hard, coarse, and ill
flavoured, The HAMMER-HEADED SHARK produces living young, and from the

i,

THE WHITE SHARK. 459

interior of a very fine specimen captured near Tenby in 1839, and measuring
more than ten feet in length, were taken no less than thirty-nine young, all
perfectly formed, and averaging nineteen inches in length. The general
colour of this species is greyish brown above, and greyish white below.

THE dreaded WHITE SHARK, the finny pirate of the ocean, is happily
almost a stranger to our shores, though a stray specimen may now and
then visit the British Islands, there to find but scant hospitality.

This is one of the large species thatrange the ocean,andin some seas they are
so numerous that they
are the terror of sailors
and natives. One indi- -
vidual, whose jaws are
still preserved, was said
tohave measured thirty-
seven feet in length;
and when we take into
consideration the many
instances where the leg
of a man has been bit- =
ten off through flesh HAMMER-HEADED SHARK.—(Sphyrnias zygena.)
and bone as easily as if
it had been a carrot, and even the body of a boy or woman severed ata
single bite, this great length will not seem to be exaggerated.

Many portions of this fish are used in commerce. The sailors are fond of

cleaning and preparing the skull, which, when brought to England, is sure of
a ready sale, either for a public museum, or to private individuals who are
struck with its strange form and terrible armature. The spine, too, is
frequently taken from this fish, and when dried it passes into the hands of
walking-stick makers, who polish it neatly, fit it with a gold handle, and sell
it at a very high price. One of these sticks will sometimes fetch six or seven
pounds. There is also :
a large amount of oil
in the shark, which is
thought rather valuable,
so that in Ceylon and
other places a regular
trade in this commodity
is carried on,

The fins are very rich
in gelatine, and in :
Pande ayn re WHITE SHARK, OR LAMIA.—(Carcharodon Rondeletii.)
manufacture of that gelatinous soup in which the soul of a Chinese
epicure delights, and of which the turtle soup of our metropolis is
thought by Chinese judges to be a faint penumbra or distant imitation. The
flesh is eaten by the natives of many Pacific islands ; and in some places the
liver is looked upon as a royal luxury, being hung on boards in the sun until
all the contained oil has drained away, and then carefully wrapped up in
leaves and reserved as a delicacy.

The colour of the White Shark is ashen brown above, and white below.

WE now arrive at the Rays. The first family of these fishes is evidentlv
intermediate between the sharks and the skates, and is in many respects
avery interesting and remarkable group of fishes. The common Saw-FisH
so well known from the singular development of the snout, is a good example
of this family.

460 THE SAW-FISH.

It has a very wide range of locality, being found in almost all the warmer
seas, and even in the cold regions near the pole.

The snout of this fish is greatly prolonged, and flattened like a sword-
blade. On either edge it bears a row of tooth-like projections, firmly
imbedd+d in the bone, few, short, and wide apart at the base of the beak,
but becoming larger and set closer together towards the point. The form of
the sockets into which
the teeth are received,
and their rather en-
larged termination, are
conspicuously indicated
on the surface of the
saw-blade. The tip of
the saw is covered with
hard granular scales,
The number of teeth is
not the same in every
SAW-FISH.—(Pristis antiquorum.) individual ; in a speci-

men in my possession

there are twenty-eight on each side of the saw.

It is said that, like the sword-fish, this creature will attack the whale,
thrusting its armed beak into the soft blubber-covered body of the huge
cetacean, and avoiding, by its superior agility, the strokes of the tortured
animal’s tail, any blow of which, if it succeeded in its aim, would crush the
assailant to death. The Saw-fish does certainly use this weapon for the
destruction of fish. Colonel Drayson has informed me that when lying
becalmed off the Cape, he has more than once seen a Saw-fish come charging
among a shoal of fishes, striking right and left with the serrated edges of
the saw, and killing or disabling numbers of the fish by this process.

In all the Saw-fishes the skin is covered with minute rounded or hexagonal
scales, arranged like the stones of a mosaic. The temporal orifices are very
large, and are set some
distance behind the eyes.
The mouth is on the
under surface of the
head, and is furnished
with a crushing appara-
tus, made exactly on the
principle of the stone-
crushing machines of
‘\) the present day.

y _ IN the true Rays, or

Raide, the fore-part of
the body is flattened
and formed into a disc-
like shape, by the con-
junction of the breast-
fins with the snout.

Our first example of
the Rays is the TorR-

EYED TORPEDO.—( Zorpedo oculata.) PEDO, a fish long cele-

brated for its power of

emitting at will electrical shocks of considerable intensity. In conse-

quence of this property, it is sometimes called the CRAMP-FISH, CRAMP
Ray, ELECTRIC Ray, or NUMB-FISH,

THE THORNBACK SKATE. 461

The object of this strange power seems to be twofold, namely, to defend
itself from the attacks of foes, and to benumb the swift and active fish on
which it feeds, and which its slow movements would not permit it to catch
in fair chase. . It does not always deliver the electric shock when touched,
though it is generally rather prodigal of exercising its potent though invisible
arms, but will allow itself to be touched, and even hanuled, without inflicting
a shock. But if the creature be continually annoyed, the shock is sure to
come at last, and in such cases with double violence. It has been observed,
moreover, that the fish depresses its eyes just before giving its shock.

That the stroke of the Torpedo is veritable electricity is a fact which was
once much disputed, but is now conclusively proved bya host of experiments.
Needles have been magnetized by it just as if the shock had been that of a
galvanic battery, the electrometer showed decided proofs of the nature of
the fluid that had been sent through it, and even the electric spark has been
obtained from the Torpedo-—very small, it is true, but still recognizably
apparent. It is rather curious, that in the course of the experiments it was
discovered that the upper surface of the Torpedo corresponded with the
copper plate of a battery, and the lower surface with the zinc plate.

The structure of the electrical organ is far too complex to be fully de-
scribed in this work, as it would require at least forty or fifty pages, and a
large number of illustrations. Any of my readers who would like to examine
it in detail will find ample information in an article on the subject by Dr.
Coldstream, in the “ Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology,” and from a
valuable series of wax models in the museum of the College of Surgeons.

This fish is found in the Mediterranean and-the In dian and Pacific Oceans,

and occasionally off the Cape, and has now and then been captured on our
coasts. Happily, the oer
Torpedo does not attain : = :
a very great size, one of
the largest specimens
being about four feet
long, and weighing sixty
or seventy pounds.

THE Rays are well
represented in England
by several large and
curious species. One of
the commonest exam-
ples is the THORNBACK
SKATE, or Ray, so called
from the lurge number
of thorny projections
which are scattered over
its back, and especially
along the spine.

The Thornback is one THORNBACK SKATE.—(Raza clavata.)
of our common Rays, ‘
and is taken plentifully on the shores of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
As is the case with many of the same genus, the flesh is considered rather
good, and is eaten both when fresh and when salted for consumption during
stormy weather. Autumn and winter are the best seasons for procuring this
fish, as the flesh is then firm and white, while during the rest of the year
it is rather liable to become flabby. Thornbacks taken in November are

thought to be the best.
This species, like the rest of the Rays, feeds on crustacea, flat-fish, and

462 THE STICKLEBACK.

molluscs ; and as many of these creatures possess very hard shells, the Rays
are furnished with a crushing-mill of teeth, which roll on each other in such
a way that even the stony shell of a crab is broken up under the pressure.

The young of this and other Skates are produced from eggs, whose form is
familiar to every visitor to the sea-shore, where they go by the popular name
of Skate-barrows. Their colour is black, their texture leathery, thin, and
tough, and their form wonderfully like a common hand-barrow, the body of the
barrow being represented by the middle of the egg, and the handles by the
four projections at the angles. The empty cases are continually thrown on the
beach, but it is seldom that the young are found enclosed, except after a
violent storm, or when obtained by means of the dredge.

This species is notable for certain thorny appendages to the skin, which are
profusely sown over the back and whole upper surface, and arnong which
stand out conspicuously a few very large tubercular spines, with broad, oval,
bony bases, and curved, sharp-pointed projections. Fifteen or sixteen of
these bony thorns are found on the back. Along the spine runs a single row
of similar spines, and at the commencement of the tail it is accompanied by
another row on either side, making that member a very formidable instrument
of offence. In point of fact, the tail is as formidable a weapon as can be met
with, and the manner in which this living quarter-staff is wielded adds in no
slight degree to its power. When angered, the Skate bends its body into a
bow-like form, so that the tail nearly touches the snout, and then, with a
sudden fling, lashes out with the tail in the direction of the offender, never
failing to inflict a most painful stroke if the blow should happen to take effect.

The colour of the Thornback Skate is brown, diversified with many spots
of brownish grey, and the under parts are pure white.

THE COMMON SKATE, sometimes called the TINKER, is so well known
that only a very short description is needed.

This fish is found on all our coasts in great plenty, and sometimes attains
to a really large size, a fine specimen having been known to weigh two
hundred pounds. The fishermen have a custom of calling the female Skate
a Maid, and the male, in consequence of the two elongated appendages at the
base of the tail, is called the Three-tailed Skate. It is a very voracious creature,
eating various kinds of fish, crustaceans, and other inhabitants of the deep.

WE now arrive at the vast order of the Spine-finned Fishes, known
scientifically as the ACANTHOPIERYGII. In all these fishes the skeleton is
entirely bony, and part of the rays of the dorsal, anal, and ventral fins are
Rod into spines, in some species very short, and in others of extraordinary
ength.

The first family is well represented in England by many pretty and
interesting species, of which the creature figured in the engraving is a
familiar example. 7

THE THREE-SPINED STICKLEBACK is one of our commonest British fishes,
and is known in different parts of England under the names of TITTLEBAT,
PRICKLE-FISH, and SHARPLIN. It is a most bold and lively little fish,
haidly knowing fear, pugnacious to an- absurd degree, and remarkably
interesting itt its habits. Even more voracious than the perch, it renders
great service to mankind by keeping within due bounds the many aquatic
and terrestrial insects which, although performing their indispensable duties
in the world, are so extremely prolific that they would render the country
uninhabitable were they allowed to increase without some check.

Should the reader be disposed to place specimens in an aquarium, he must
make up his mind that they will fight desperately at first, and until they have
satisfactorily settled the championship of the tank their intercourse will be
of the most aggressive character. Never were such creatures to fight as the

THE STICKLEBACK. 463

Sticklebacks, for they will even go out of their way to attack anything which
they think may possibly offend them, and they have no more hesitation in
charging at a human being than at one of their own species. I have known
one of these belligerent fish make repeated dashes at my walking-stick,
knocking his nose so hard against his inanimate antagonist that he inflicted
a perceptible jar upon it, and, in spite of the blows which his nose must have
suffered, returning to the combat time after time with undiminished spirit.

These combats are, however, most common about the breeding season,
when every adult Stickleback challenges every other of his own sex, and
they do little but fight from morning to evening. They areas jealous as they
are courageous, and will not allow another fish to pass within a certain
distance of their home without darting out and offering battle.

Anyone may see these spirited little combats by quietly watching the
inhabitants of a clear streamlet ona summer day. The two antagonists dart
at each other with spears in rest, snap at each other’s gills or head, and
retain their grasp with the tenacity of a bull-dog. They whirl round and
round in the water, they drop, feint, attack, and retreat, with astonishing
quickness, until one confesses itself
beaten and makes off for shelter, the
conqueror snapping at its tail and
inflicting a parting bite.

-Then is the time to see the trium-
phant little creature in all the glory of
his radiant apparel ; for with his con-
quest he assumes the victor’s crown ;
his back glows with shining zreen, his
sides and head are glorious with gold
and scarlet, and his belly is silvery
white. It isa little creature, certainly,
but even among the brilliant inha-
bitants of the southern seas a more
gorgeously-coloured fish can hardly
be found, If the conqueror Stickle-
back could only be enlarged to the
size of a full-grown perch or roach,
it would excite the greatest admiration. THREE-SPINED STICKT.EBACK.—(Gaste-
It is curious, that the vanquished rosteus aculeatus.)
antagonist loses in brillance as much
as the conqueror has gained ; he sneaks off ignominiously after his defeat,
and hides himself, dull and sombre, until the time comes when he too may
conquer in fight, and proudly wear the gold and scarlet insignia of victory.

These struggles are not only for mastery, but are in so far praiseworthy
that they are waged in defence of home and family. ;

The Stickleback is one of the very few fish who build houses for their
young, as a defence against the many foes which are ever lying in wait for
the destruction of the eggs or the newly-hatched young. These nests are
built of various vegetable substances, fastened together with a kind of slime
that exudes from the body of the male. The Fifteen-spined Stickleback, a
marine species, also makes a nest, though hardly of so careful a construc-
tion.

The Three-spined Stickleback is very fond of inhabiting the mouths of
rivers where they empty themselves into the sea, the brackish water appear-
ing to suit its constitution. It can therefore be easily acclimatized to new
conditions, and a specimen that has been taken from an inland stream can
soon be brought to inhabit the water of a marine aquarium, though such

464 THE PERCH. -

water is usually, in consequence of evaporation, more salt than that of the
sea.

WE now come to the large and important family of the PERCHES, which
comprises many of the handsomest and most valuable fishes. The
members of this family are found in all parts of the globe.

THE COMMON PERCH is well known as one of our handsomest river fish,
and, on account of its boldness and the voracious manner in which it takes
the bait, and the active strength with which it struggles against its captor, is a
great favourite with many anglers. Moreover, when captured and placed in
an aquarium, it very soon learns to distinguish the hand that feeds it, and
will come to the surface and take food from the fingers. It has a fashion of
seizing its food with a rather sharp jerk, and then snatches it away with such
violence, that when it takes the hook it will drag a stout cork-float several
inches below the surface, and by the force of its own stroke will mostly hook
itself without any exertion on the part of the angler. Bold-biting, however,
as is its reputation, there are some seasons of the year when it is almost
impossible to catch a Perch, and even the shy and gently nibbling roach is
an easier prey.

The Perch is a truly voracious fish, feeding upon all kinds of aquatic
worms, insects, and fishes, preferring the latter diet as it becomes older and
larger. ‘lhe smaller fish, such as minnows, young roach, dace, and
gudgeons, are terribly persecuted
by the Perch, and,a bait formed
of either of these fish, or a good
imitation of them, will generally
allure the finest Perches to the
hook, Although generally in-
habiting mid or deep water, it
will sometimes come to the sur-
face to snap up a casual fly that
has fallen into the water, and on
several occasions has been cap-
tured by anglers when fishing
with a fly for trout.

Practical fishermen say that

PERCH.—~(Perca fluviatilis.) the Perch is almost the only

fish which the pike does not

venture to attack, and that if a pike should make one of its rushing

onslaughts on a Perch, the intended prey boldly faces the enemy, erects

the dorsal fin with its array of formidable spines, and thus baffles the

ever-hungry aggressor. Still it is an article of faith with some anglers, that

a young Perch from which the dorsal fin has been removed is one of the

surest baits for pike. Perhaps they think that the pike is so delighted to

find a Perch unarmed, that it seizes the opportunity to feed upon a luxury
which it can seldom obtain.

The Perch is not a large fish, from two to three pounds being considered
rather a heavy weight. Individuals, however, of much greater dimensions
have been, though rarely, captured. One of the finest Perches ever taken in
England was captured in the river Avon, in Wiltshire, by a night-line baited
with a roach; its weight was eight pounds. Specimens of five or six pounds
are occasionally taken, but are thought so valuable that the captor generally
sends the account of his success to some journal.

The colour of the Perch is rich greenish-brown above, passing gradually
into golden white below. Upon the sides is a row of dark transverse bands,
generally from five to seven in number. The first dorsal fin is brown, with

CHETODONS. 465

a little black between two or three of the first and last rays; the second dorsal
and the pectoral are pale drown, and the tail and other fins are bright red.

PasSING by many large genera, which cannot be noticed for lack of space,
we come to a very odd-looking fish, called perforce, for want of a popular
title, the OREOSOMA, a name formed from two Greek words, and literally
signifying hilly-bodied. As the reader may see by reference to the engraving,
the name is very appropriate. The upper figure shows its aspect from below.

This remarkable little fish was captured in the Atlantic by Peron, and has
ever been esteemed as one of the curiosities of the animal kingdom. Upon
the body there are no true
scales, but their place is sup-
plied by a number of bony
or horny protuberances, of a
conical shape, and serving no
ascertained purpose. These
cones may be divided into two
distinct sets, the larger set
being arranged intotworanks, z
four on the back and ten on
theabdomen, and among them
are placed the smaller set.
The body of this fish is very
deep in proportion to its
length, and the operculum
has two ridges, terminating
in flattened angles. There
are two dorsal fins, the first
armed with five spines.

WE now arrive at a large
family, containing a series of
fishes reniarkable for their
extraordinary shape, their
bold and eccentric colour-
ing, and their curious habits.
In Dr. Giinther’s elaborate
arrangement of the Acantho-
pterygiian fishes, this family is
called by the name of Squa-
mipennes, or scaly-finned fishes, because “the vertical fins are more or less
densely covered with small scales;” the spinous portions sometimes not scaly.
They are nearly all carnivorous fishes, and for the most part are exclusively
inhabitants of the tropical seas or rivers. Their bodies are very much
compressed and extremely deep in proportion to their length, and the mouth
is usually small and placed in front of the snout.

The first group of this family, or sub-family as it might be called, is termed
Cheetodontina, from the large typical genus of the group. Their mouths are
small, and furnished with several rows of very tiny, slender, and bristle-like
teeth, a peculiarity of structure that has gained for them their scientific name
Cheetodontina, a term composed of two Greek words, the former signifying
“hair,” and the latter “a tooth.” The colours of the species belonging to
this group are brilliant in tint, and are generally arranged in bold stripes or
spots. Black and yellow are the prevailing hues, but blue and green are found
in some species.

The figure given on page 466 represents a most remarkable species, called,
from the form of its mouth, the BEAKED CHATODON.

OREOSOMA.—(Oreosoma Atlanticum.)

HH

456 THE BEAKED CHAETODON.

The curiously elongated muzzle is employed by this fish in a rather
unexpected manner, being used as a gun or bow, a drop of water taking the
place of the arrow or bullet. Perhaps the closest analogy is with the ceie-
brated, “sumpitan,” or blow-gun, of the Macoushi Indians, a tube through wh'ch
an arrow is driven by the force of the breath. The Beaked Chztodon feeds
largely on flies and other insects, but is not forced to depend, as is the case
with nearly every other fish, on the accidental fall of its prey into the water.
If it sees a fly or other insect resting on a twig or grass-blade that ovei-
hangs the water, the Cheetodon approaches very quietly, the greater part of its
body submerged, and its nose just showing itself above the surface, the point
directed towards the victim. Suddenly, it shoots a drop of water at the fly,

BFEAKED CHATODON.—(Chelmo rostratus.)

with such accuracy of aim that the unsuspecting insect is knocked off its
perch, and is snapped up by the fish as soon as it touches the surface of the
water.

This habit it continues even in captivity, and is in consequence in great
estimation as a household pet by the Japanese. They keep the fish in a
large bowl of water, and amuse themselves by holding towards it a fly upon
the end of a slender rod, and seeing the finny archer strike its prey into the
water. Another fish, called the “ Archer,” inhabiting the East Indian and
Polynesian seas, possesses the same faculty, but is not so remarkable for
its eccentric form and the bold beauty of its tints.

The Beaked Chztodon inhabits the Indian and Polynesian seas, and has
been taken off the west coast of Australia, where it is usually found in or near
the mouths of rivers. Over the head and body of this species are drawn fre
brownish cross-bands edged with darker brown and white, and in the middle

GURNARDS. 467

i the soft dorsal fin there is a rather large circular black spot edged with
white.

THE large and important family of the Triglide, or GURNARDS, is repre-
sented by several British fishes, This family contains a great number of
species, many of which are most remarkable, not only for their beautiful
colours, which alone are sufficient to attract attention, but also for the
strange and weird shape and large development of the fins. They are carni-
vorous fish, mostly inhabiting the seas, a very few species being able to
exist in fresh water. They are not swift or strong swimmers, and therefore
remain for the most partin deen water. Some, however, are able by means
of their largely-developed pectoral fins to raise themselves into the air, and
for a brief space to sustain themselves in the thinner element. The mouth
is mostly large, and in some cases the gape is so wide and the head and
jaws so strangely shaped, that the general aspect is most repulsive.

WE now come to a very familiar anc not very prepossessing fish ; the well-

BULL-HEAD. —(Cottus gobio.)

known BULL-HEAD, or MILLER’S THUMB, sometimes called by the name of
Tommy LOGGE.

This large-headed and odd-looking fish is very common in our brooks and
streams, where it is generally found under loose stones, and affords great
sport to the juvenile fisherman. In my younger days, the chase of the Bull-
head was rather an exciting one, and was carried out without hook or line, or
indeed any aid but the hands. This fish has a habit of hiding itself under
loose stones, and on account of its flat, though wide head is enabled to push
itself into crevices which are apparently much too small to contain it.

The name of Miller’s Thumb is derived from the peculiarly wide and
flattened head, which is thought to bear some resemblance to the object
whence its name is taken. A miller judges of the quality of the meal by
rubbing it with his thumb over his fingers as it is shot from the spout, and by
the continual use of this ustom the thumb becomes gradually widened and
flattened at its extremity. The name of Bull-head also alludes to the same
width and flatness of the slzull.

The Bull-head is a voracious little fish. feeding on various water insects,
worms, larvze, and the young fry of other fish. It is a representative of a
rather large genus, comprising about twenty-six or twenty-seven known

HH 2

468 THE MACKEREL.

species, which are spread over all the northern and temperate parts of the
world. In Russia the Bull-head is believed by the general public to possess
the same quality as is attributed to the kingfisher by our own rustic popula-
tion, and to indicate the direction of the wind by always keeping its head
turned to windward when it is dried and suspended horizontally by a thread.

The mouth of this little fish is very wide, and contains numerous minute
teeth. There is one spine on the preoperculum, and the operculum ends in
a flattened point. The general colour ot the smooth skin is very dark brown
on the back, white on the abdomen, and greyish white on the flanks, The
rays of the fins are spotted with durk blackish brown and white, rather
variable in different individuals, and the fins are marked with dark brown dots.
The eyes are yellow, and the pupil very dark blue. It is but a small fish,
averaging four, and seldom exceeding five, inches in length.

WE now come to the typical genus of this family, which is represented by
several well-known British species.

THE RED GURNARD, or CUCKOO GURNARD, as it is sometimes called,

: from the sound it utteis
when taken out of the water,
is very common on tle
English coast. It is rather
a small fish, rarely exceeding
fourteen inches in length.
The colours of its body
when living are very beauti-
ful, the upper part being
bright red, and the under
parts silvery white.

There are nine species of
Gurnard known to frequent
the coasts of England, some,
as the SAPPHIRINE and the
MA1LED GURNARDS, being
most extraordinary in form.

THE FLYINGGURNARDIs

GURNARD.—( Zrigla cuculus.) common in the Indian seas.

Its pectoral fins are so much

enlarged, that when it springs out of the water, when pursued by the dolphin

or bonito, the wide quivering fins are able to sustain it in the air for a.
limited period.

This fish has often been confounded by voyagers with the true fiving fish
(Exocetus), which belongs to an entirely different order.

THE important, though not very large family of the Scomberidz, contains
many species that are almost invaluable as food, and others that are beautiful
in form and interesting in habits.

Our first example of these fishes is the MACKEREL, so well known for the
exceeding beauty of its colours and the peculiar flavour of its flesh. This is
one of the species that are forced by the irresistible impulse of instinct to
migrate in vast shoals at certain times of the year, directing their course
towards the shores, and as a general rule frequenting the same or neighbouring
localities from year to year.

. This fish is taken both by nets and lines, the nets being of two kinds, one
called the drift-net, and the other the seine. The drift-net is, as its name
implies, allowed to be drifted out by the tide, and is suspended along a cord
called the drift-rope. The whole length of one of these nets when shot is
sometimes a mile and a half, these enormous dimensions being attained

THE TUNNY. , 469

by attaching a number of nets together at the ends. Each of these nets
is one hundred and twenty feet long and twenty feet deep, and along the
upper edge are fastened a series of cork floats. When the net is to be shot,
a large buoy is attached to the end of the drift-rope, the buoy is thrown over-
board, and the sails set. As the boat dashes away from the spot, the nets,
which have already been attached to the drift-rope, are thrown successively
overboard, until all the nets are paid out and hang in the water like a net
wall. The strain of the buoy at one end of the drift rope and the boat at the
other keeps the rope straight and the net upright. P

As the Mackerel come swimming along, they are arrested by the net, which
they cannot see, on account of the thin twine of which it is made, and the
large meshes, which are about two-and-a-half inches in diameter. The head
slips through the meshes, but the middle of the body is too large and cannot
pass. When the fish attempts to recede, the open gill-covers become hitched
in the meshes, and so retain it in that uncomfortable position until the net is
hauled in.. ;

This is a delicate and difficult operation, especially when the take of fish is
heavy. Mr. Yarrell mentions that in June 1808 the nets were so heavily
loaded that the fishermen could not haul them in, or even keep them afloat, so
that they were forced to cut the drift-ropes and let the nets sink and he lost.
The nets on this occasioa were worth nearly sixty pounds, not including
the value of the fish.

In the seine-net, the fish are taken by surrounding the shoal with the net,
which is made with very small meshes, -
and either gently hauled to the sur-
face, so that the enclosed fish can be
dipped out, or even drawn ashore and
then emptied.

Fishing for Mackerel with a line is
also a profitable mode of taking these
fish, although they cannot be caught ¢
in such multitudes as with the net.
The Mackerel is a very voracious
fish, and will bite at almost any
glittering substance drawn quickly MACKEREL. —(Scomber scomber.)
through the water, a strip of scarlet ° :
cloth being a very favourite bait. A tapering strip of flesh cut from the side
of a-Mackerel is found to be the most successful of any bait, and the method
of angling is simply to pass the hook through the thicker end of the strip
—technically called a “lask”—and to throw it overboard a boat in full
sail, so that it is towed along without trouble. ‘The hook is kept below the
surface of the water by means of a leaden plummet fixed to the line a. short
distance above the hook, and the Mackerel on seizing the flying bait is im-
mediately caught. Ona favourable day, when the sky is not too bright and
the wind is tolerably brisk, two or three men can take the fish as fast as they
can bait and throw overboard.

The colour of the Mackerel is rich green upon the back, variegated with
deep blue and traversed with cross bands of black, straight in the males, but
undulating in the females. The abdomen and sides are silvery white, with
golden reflections. These colours are most brilliant during the life of the
fish, and as they fade soon after it has left the water, their brilliancy affords
a good test of its freshness.

THE celebrated TuNNy belongs to this family, and is closely allied to the
Mackerel.

This magnificent and most important fish does not visit our coasts in

470 THE SUCKING FISH.

sufficient numbers to be of any commercial importance; but on the shores of
the Mediterranean, where it is found in very great abundance, it forms one
of the chief sources of wealth of the sea-side population.

In May and June, the Tunnies move in vast shoals along the shores,
seeking for suitable spots wherein to depasit their spawn. As soon as they
are seen on the move, notice is given by a sentinel who is constantly watching
from some lofty eminence, and the whole population is at once astir, preparing
nets for the capture,
and salt and tubs for
the curing of the ex-
pected fish. There are
two modes of catching
the Tunny, one by the
seine-net and the other
by the ‘ madrague.”
The mode of using the
SS = seine is identical with

sill ae that which has already

TUNNY.—(Zhynnus Thynnus.) been described when

treating of the Mac-

kerel, but the madrague is much more complicated in its structure and

management. The principle of the madrague is precisely the same as of
the “corral” by which elephants are entrapped in Ceylon.

A vast enclosure of united nets, nearly a mile in length, and divided into
several chambers, is so arranged that as the Tunnies pass along the coast
they are intercepted by a barrier, and, on endeavouring to retreat, are forced
to enter one of the chambers. When a number of Tunnies have fairly
entered the net, they are driven from one chamber to another, until they are
forced into the last and smallest, called significantly the chamber of death.
This chamber is furnished with a floor of net, to which are attached a series
of ropes, so that by hauling in the ropes the floor of the net is drawn up and
the fish brought to the surface. The large and powerful fish struggle-fiercely
for liberty, but are speedily stunned by blows from long poles, and lifted into
the boats. The flesh of the Tunny is eaten both fresh and salted. It is
most extensively used, being pickled in various ways, boiled down into excellent
soup, and is also made into pies, which are thought to be very excellent, and
possess the valuable property of remaining good for nearly two months. The
different parts of the fish are called by appropriate names, and are said to
resemble beef, veal, and pork. The food of the Tunny consists mostly of
smaller fish, such as her-
rings and pilchards, and the
cuttlefish also forms some
portion of its diet.

In general shape the
Tunny is not very unlike
the mackerel, but in size it
is vastly superior, generally
averaging four feet inlength,
and sometimes attaining
the dimensions of six or
seven feet. The colour of the upper part of the body is very dark blue, and
the abdomen is white decorated with spots of a silvery lustre. The sides of
the head are white.

EVERYONE has heard of the SUCKING FISH, and there are few who are
not acquainted with the wild and fabulous tales narrated of its powers,

SUCKING FISH.—(Zchenets remora.)

THE SUCKING FISH. 47

This little fish was reported to adhere to the bottom of ships, and to
arrest their progress as suddenly and firmly as if they had struck upon
a rock, The winds might blow, the sails might fill, and the masts
creak, but the unseen fish below could hold the vessel by its single force,
and confine her to the same spot as if at anchor. It is wonderful how fully
this fable was received, and how many years were needed to root the belief
out of prejudiced minds. Both scientific names refer to this so-called
property, echenezs signifying “ship-holder,” and vewzora meaning “ delay.”

That the Sucking Fish is able to adhere strongly to smooth surfaces is a
well-known fact, the process being accomplished by means of the curious
shield or disc upon the upper surface of the head and shoulders, the general
shape of which can be understood by reference to the engraving. This disc
is composed of a number of flat bony laminz:, arranged parallc. .o each other
in a manner resembling the common wooden window-blind, and capable of
being raised or depressed at will. It is found by anatomical investigation
that these laminze are formed by modifications of the spinous dorsal fin, the
number of laminz corre- :
sponding to that of the
spines. They are moved by
a series of muscles set ob-
liquely, and when the fish
presses the soft edge of the
disc against any smooth ob-
ject and then clepresses the
jaminze, a vacuum is formed,
causing the fish to adhere
tightly to the spot upon
which the disc is placed.

When the creature has
once fixed itself it cannot
be detached witheut much
difficulty, and the only me-
thod of removing it, without
tearing the body or disc, is
to slide it forwards in a di- JOHN DORY.—(Zeus faber.)
rection corresponding with
the set of thelamine. In the opposite direction it cannot be moved, and the
fish, therefore, when adhering to a moving body, takes care to fix itself in such
a manner that it cannot be washed off by the water through which it is drawn.
Even after death, or when the disc is separated from the body. this curious
organ can be applied to any smooth object, and will hold with tolerable firm-
ness. In order to accommodate the disc, the upper part of the skull is
flattened and rather widened.

It is rather a voracious fish, and takes the hook eagerly if baited with a
piece of raw flesh. When hooked, however, it is by no means secured, for as
soon as it feels the prick of the sharp point and the pull of the line, it darts
to the side of the vessel, dives deeply, and affixes itself so strongly to the
bottom that the hook may be torn out of the mouth before the fish will relax
its hold. It is therefore necessary to draw the Sucking Fish smartly out of
the water as soon as it is fairly hooked, ard in this manner great numbers
can be caught. The flesh is thought to be very good, and is said to resemble
that of the eel, but without its richness. The colour of this species is dusky
brown, darker on the back than on the abdomen. The fins are darker than
the body, and are of a dense leathery consistence. The length of this fish
seldom exceeds eight inches,

472 THE SWORD-FISH.

THE well-known JOHN Dory, so dear to epicures, is found in the British
seas, and is frequently seen in the fishmongers’ shops, where its peculiar
shape seldom fails of attracting attention even from those who are not likely
to purchase it, or even to have seen it on the table.

‘lhe name of John Dory is thought to be a corruption of the French name
jaune dorée, a title given to the fish on account of the gilded yellow which
decorates its body. It was called Zeus by the ancients, because they con-
sidered it to be the king of eatable fish ; and the name of Faber, or “ black-
smith,” has probably been earned by the smoky tints which cloud its back.
The dark and ccaspicuous spots on the side are thought in many places to
be imprinted upon the fish as a memorial of the honour conferred upon its
ancestor in times past, when St. Peter took the tribute money from the
mouth of the Dory, and left the print of his finger and thumb as a per-
petual remembrance of the event. Some persons, however, contend that the
marks are due, not to St. Peter, but St. Christopher; and the Greeks, who hold
to the latter tradition, call the fish Christophoron.

The flesh of the Dory 1s remarkably excellent and, as it is rather improved by
the lapse of twenty-four hours after the-fish has been taken from the sea, it is
peculiarly valuable to
those who live far in-
land and cannot hope
for the more delicate
fishes, which must bc
eaten almost as soon
as caught. Although
st a common fish, it
always commands a
high price, and as,
when cooked, the head
occupies so large a

SWORD-FISH.—(X phias gladiu:.) space, it never attords
an economical dish.

The shape of the Dory is very peculiar. The body is very deep, and
greatly compressed. The head is oddly shaped, and the mouth can be
protruded to a surprising extent. The spines cf the first dorsal fin are much
prolonged and behind each ray is given off a very long waving filament, three
times as long as the ray in front of it. Along the base of the dorsal and anal
fins are arranged two rows of spiny scales, their points being directed back-
ward, and one row being set at each side of the fin.

THE well-known SWORD-FISH derives its popular name trom the curious
development of the snout, which projects forward, and is greatly prolonged
in‘o a shape somewhat resembling a sword-blade. The sword is formed by
the extension of certain bones belonging to the upper part of the head. This
fine fish is found in the Mediterranean Sea, and also in the Atlantic Ocean,
and in the former locality is often very plentiful. The Sicilian fishermen
are accustomed to pursue the Sword-fish in boats, and mostly employ the
harpoon in its capture. The weapon is not very heavy, and by a strong and
practised hand can be hurled to some distance. The flesh of the Sword-fish
is always eatable and nourishing, and in all specimens is white and well
flavoured.

The use of the “sword ” is not clearly ascertained. In all probability, the
fish employs this curious weapon in gaining its subsistence, but the precise
mode of so doing is not known. It is an ascertained fact that the Sword-fish
will sometimes attack whales, and stab them deeply with its sharp beak ;
3nd it is also known that this fish has several times driven its beak so deeply

Fi

atl
aN}

1
i
An)

SWORD-FISH. Page 472.
The Popular Natural History

THE GOBIES. 173

into a ship that the weapon has been broken off by the shock. In such
cases, the blow is so severe, that the sailors have fancied that their vessel
has struck upon a rock. Several museums possess examples of pierced
planks and beams, but it is possible that the fish may have struck them by
accident, and not in a deliberate charge. The Sword-fish generally go in
airs, :

‘< The food of this creature is rather varied, consisting of cuttle-fish, especially
the squid, and of small fishes, neither of which animals would in any way fall
victims to the sword. It certainly has been said that the weapon is used for
transfixing the flat fish as they lie on the bed of the sea, but this assertion
does not appear to be worthy of credit.

The young and adult specimens are very different from each other. In the
young, the body is covered with projecting tubercles, which gradually
disappear as it increases in size, and when it has attained the length of three
feet they are seldom to be seen. Those on the abdomen remain longer than
the others. The dorsal fin extends in the young specimens from the back of the
head to the root of the tail, but the membranes and spines of its centre are
so extremely delicate that thev are soon rubbed away, and the adult specimen
then appears to have two dorsal fins.

The colour of the Sword-fish is bluish black above, and silvery white below.
The whole body is rough, and the lateral line is almost invisible. The usual
length of the Sword-fish is from ten to twelve feet, but specimens have been
seen which much exceed those dimensions. A few examples of the Sword-
fish have been captured in British waters ; one, that measured seven feet in
length, was taken off Margate.

WE now arrive at the large family of the GoBIES, which include many
curious fish, and of which the British coasts present many representatives,

THE BLACK GOBY, sometimes known as the ROCK-FISH, is a moderately
common example of the enormous genus to which it belongs, and which
contains more than a hundred and fifty authenticated species. The members
of this genus may easily be recognized by the peculiar form of the ventral
fins, which are united together so as to form a hollow disc, by which they can
attach themselves to rocks or stones at pleasure. In fact, this disc, although
differing in shape, acts on exactly the same principle as that of the sucking
fish.

The Black Goby prefers the rocky to the sandy coasts, and may be found

in the pools left by the retreating tide. Some naturalists deny that the disc is
_used for adhesion, but I have caught and kept many Gobies, and have fre-
quently seen them sticking to the sides of the vessel in which they were
confined. The adhesion was achieved with astonishing rapidity, and the
little fish contrived to hold itself with great tenacity. The surface of the
Black Goby is very slippery, owing to the abundant mucous secretion which
is poured from the appropriate glands ; but after it has been in spirits for
some time, the edges of the scales begin to project through the mucus, and
are exceedingly rough to the touch.

In some places along the sea-coast the Gobies are known by the popular
appellation of Bull-routs, and are rather feared on account of the sharp bite
which their strong jaws and pointed teeth can inflict upon the bare hard.

ANOTHER small family now comes before us, called the Batrachide, or
Frog-fishes, from the frogish aspect of the body, and especially of the head.

THE FISHING FROG, ANGLER-FISH, or WIDE GAB, is not unfrequent on the
British coasts, and has long been famous for the habit from which it has derived
its popular name. .

The first dorsal fin is almost wholly wanting, its place being occupied
jucrely by three spines, moyeable by means of certain muscles, The manner

474 THE WALKING FISH.

in which these spines are connected with the body is truly marvellous. The
first, which is furnished at its tip with a loose shining slip of membrane, is
developed at its base into a ring, through which passes a staple of bone that
proceeds from the head. The reader may obtain a very perfect idea of this
beautiful piece of mechanism by taking a common iron skewer, slipping a
staple through its ring, and driving the staple into a board. It will then be
seen that the skewer is capable of free motion in every direction. The
second spine is arranged atter a somewhat similar fashion, but is only
capable of being moved backwards and forwards. The use of these spines
is no less remarkable than their form. ;

The Fishing Frog is not a rapid swimmer, and would have but little
success if it were to chase the swift and active fishes on whichit feeds. It
therefore buries itself in the muddy sand, and continually waves the long
filaments with their glitter-
ing tips. The neighbour-
ing fish, following the in-
stincts of their inquisitive
nature, come to examine
the curious object, and are
suddenly snapped up in the
wide jaws of their hidden
foe. Many fishes can be
attracted by any glittering
object moved gently in the
water, and it is well known
by anglers how deadly a
bait is formed of a spoon-
shaped piece of polished
metal, furnished with hooks
and quickly drawn through
the water.

It is impossible to mistake this fish for any other inhabitant of the ocean,
its huge head—wide, flattened, and toad-like— its enormous and gaping
mouth, with the rows of sharply-pointed teeth, its eyes set on the top of the
_ head, and the three long spines, being signs which cannot be misunderstood.
The general colour of this fish is brown above and white below; the ventral
and pectoral fins are nearly white, and that of the tail almost black. The
throat, just within the jays. is composed of loose skin, which forms a kind of
bag. The average length of the adult Fishing Frog is about a yard.

The family in which this fish is placed may be distinguished by the
peculiar structure of the pectoral fins, which are mounted on a sort of arm
produced by an elongation of the carpal bones. From this peculiarity, the
family is termed Pediculati, or foot-bearing fishes, as the prolonged fins
enable them to walk along wet ground almost like quadrupeds.

THE very odd-looking creature, called the WALKING FISH, which is shown
in the illustration on page 475, is one of the strange and weird forms that
sometimes occur in nature, and which are so entirely opposed to all precon-
ceived ideas, that they appear rather to be the composition of human
ingenuity than beings actually existing. The traveller who first discovered
this remarkable fish would certainly have been disbelieved if he had
contented himself with making a drawing of it, and had not satisfied the
rigid scrutiny of scientific men by bringing home a preserved specimen.

In the fishes of this genus, the carpal bones, z.e. those bones which
represent the wrist in man, are very greatly lenythened, more so than in the
preceding genus, and at their extremity aie placed the pectoral fins, which

FISHING FRoG.—(Lophius piscatorius.)

THE BLENNIES. 47s

are short, stiff ,and powerful, the pointed rays resembling clows rather than
fins. In all the tishes of this yenus, the body is much compressed and
decidedly elevated ; but in the present species, these peculiarities are carried
to an almost exaggerated extent. The first dorsal spine, with its membra-
nous appendages, is placed as usual just above the snout, and the second
ray 1s set immediately behind it. The third, however, is placed at a very
great distance from the second, and forms part of the soft dorsal fin.

Dr. Giinther remarks upon the fishes of this genus, that they are so
extremely variable in form, colour, and the greater or less development ot
the dorsal spines, that hardly two specimens are found sufficiently alike u

WALKING FISH.—(Axntennarius hispidus.)

enable the systematic naturalist to decide upon their precise situation in the
zoological scale. Moreover, their geographical range is exceedingly wide,
some species ranging over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ; and the learned
ichthyologist above mentioned is of opinion that many specimens which he
has at present been compelled to admit into the list of separate species
will be ultimately found to be mere casual varieties.

The colour of this species is yellow, diversified with many spots and
streaks of brown, some of the streaks radiating from the eye, and others
extending over the dorsal fin. It is a native of the Indian seas.

THE important family of the BLENNIES comes next in order. They are
all carnivorous fishes, many being extremely voracious, and are spread over
the shores of every sea on the globe. They mostly reside on or near the
bottom.

THE SEA WOLF, SEA CAT, or SWINE-FISH, is one of the fiercest and most
formidable of the finny tribes that are found on our coast, and has well
earned the popular names by which it is known,

476 THE SEA WOLF.

The Sea Wolf possesses a terrible armature of teeth, not only in the jaws,
but arranged in a double band on the: palate, and by means of these
powerful weapons it can crush with ease the hard shelled molluscs and
crustaceans on which it feeds. As may be imagined, the aspc.i of the Sea
Wolf is far from prepossessing, its fierce head with the armed jaws, strong
and cruel as those of the tiger or hyzena, and the smooth, slime-covered skin,
giving it a most repulsive aspect.

The Sea Wolf is sometimes taken with the hook, but is mostly found
entangled in the nets together with other fish, and in either case it struggles
violently as soon as it perceives the loss of its liberty. It will tear the nets
to pieces with its teeth, and when hauled out of the water it still flounces
about with such vigour, and bites at every object with such ferocity, that the
boatmen usually stun it by a blow on the head before lifting 1t into the
vessel, a very heavy stroke being required for the purpose.

The general colour of the Sea Wolf is brownish grey, with a series of
brown vertical stripes and spots over the upper parts; the under parts are
white. On our shores it attains a length of six or seven feet, but in the
northern seas, where it thrives best, it greatly exceeds those dimensions.
There is an American variety where the vertical streaks are modified into
round spots of blackish brown. :

THE typical genus of this family is represented by several British specimens,
of which the EYED BLENNY is one of the most conspicuous. This pretty
fish is not very common, but has been taken on the southern coasts of
England. From the elevated dorsal fin, and the bold dark brown spot that
decorates it, this Blenny has sometimes been called the Butterfly Fish. In
the Meliterranean it is tolerably common, and lives mostly among the
seaweed, where it finds abundance of the smaller crustacea and molluscs.

THE extraordinary fish, called, from its habits, the CLIMBING PERCH, is a
native of Asia, and is remarkable for its apparent disregard of certain
natural laws.

This singular creature has long been celebrated for its powers of
voluntarily leaving the failing streams, ascending the banks, and proceeding
over dry land towards some spot where its unerring instinct warns it that
water is yet to be found.

Several species, of which the ANABAS SCANDENS has been chosen as the
best example, possess this singular property of walking over dry land, so that
the old proverb of a fish out of water is in these cases quite inapplicable.
Several instances of this remarkable propensity have been collected by Sir J.
Emerson Tennent, and have been inserted in his valuable work on the
Natural History of Ceylon. The following account is written by Mr. Morris,
the Government agent in Trincomalee :—

“TI was lately on duty inspecting the bund of a large tank at Nade-cadua,
which being out of repair, the remaining water was confined in a small
hollow in the otherwise dry bed. Whilst there, heavy rains came on, and as
we stood on the high ground we observed a pelican on the margin of the
shallow pool gorging himself : our people went towards him, and raised a
cry of ‘Fish! fish!’ We hurried down, and found numbers of fish
struggling upward through the grass, in the rills formed by the trickling of
the rain. There was scarcely water to cover them, but nevertheless they
made rapid progress up the bank, on which our followers collected about
two baskets of them at a distance of about forty yards from the tank. They
were forcing their way up the knoll, and had they not been interrupted first
by the pelican and afterwards by ourselves, they would in a few minutes have
giined the highest point, and descended on the other side into a pool which
formed another portion of the tank.

}

THE CLIMBING PERCH. 477

“. . . Asthe tanks dry up, the fish congregate in the little pools, till at last
you find them in thousands in the moistest parts of the beds, rolling in the
blue mud, which is at that t me about the consistence of thick gruel.

‘As the moisture further evaporates, the surface fish are left uncovered,
and they crawl away in search of fresh pools. In one place I saw hundreds
diverging in every direction from the tank they had just abandoned, to a
distance of fifty or sixty yards, and still travelling onwards. In going this
distance, however, they must have used muscular exertion enough to have
taken them half a mile on level ground, for at these places all the cattle and
wild animals of the neighbourhood had latterly come to drink, so that the
surface was everywhere indented with footmarks in addition to the cracks in
the surrounding baked mud, into which the fish tumbled in their progress.

CLIMBING PERCH.—(Axabas scandens.)

1a those holes which were deep, and the sides perpendicular, they remained
to die, and were carried off by kites and crows.

“My impression is, that this migration must take place at night or before
sunrise, for it was only early in the morning that I have seen them
progressing, and I found that those I brought away with me in the chatties
appeared quiet by day, but a large proportion managed to get out of the
chatties by night—some escaped altogether, others were trodden on and killed.

“One peculiarity is the large sizeof the vertebral column, quite dis-
proportioned to the bulk of the fish. I particularly noticed that all in the
act of migrating had their gills expanded.”

It is known of the Climbing Perch that the fishermen of the Ganges, who
subsist largely on these fishes, are accustomed to put them into an earthen
pan or chatty as soon as caught ; and although no water is supplied to them,
they exist very well without it, and live this strange life for five or six days.

ays THE SOLE.

On opening the head of this fish, the curious structure which enables it
to perform such marvellous feats is clearly seen. Just within the sides of the
head, the pharyngeal bones, z.c. the bones that support the orifice be:ween the
mouth and gullet, are much enlarged, and modified into a series of labyrin-
thine cells and duplications, so that they retain a large amount of water in the
interstices, and prevent the gill membranes from becoming dry. Some
writers say that this fish is capable of climbing up the rough stems of palm-
trees, in search of tne water that lodges between the bases of the dead
leaves and the stem, or perhaps in search of food. Inthe Tamoule language
it is called Panezrz, or tree-climber.

THE FLaT FISHES, as they are popularly called, or the Pleuronectide, as
they are named scientifically, are among the most remarkable of the finny
tribe. The latter name is of Greek origin, and signifies “ side-swimmer,” in
allusion to the mode of progression usually adopted by these fishes.

The popular but erroneous idea of these creatures is, that their bodies are
flattened so that the abdomen rests on the ground and the back remains
uppermost ; but a brief examination suffices to show that the form of these
fishes is really compressed, so that when a turbot or a sole is placed on the
ground, it lies upon one side or the other. Though varying in colour, it is
found that the upper side is always of a dark tint, the under side being quite
if not wholly white. This arrangement is most useful in guarding them
against the attacks of enemies, their flat dark upper surface bearing so great
a resemblance to the sand on which they love to creep, that they can scarcely
be distinguished, even when the eye is directed towards them.

While at their ease, they slide themselves over the bed of the sea in a kind
of creeping fashion and
have an odd custom of
lying with the head raised
in a manner that irresistibly
reminds the observer of the
cobra. If alarmed, they
start at once into the verti-
cal position usually assumed
by fishes, and dash off with
astonishing speed. As they
swim, the flat fishes un-
dulate through the water in
a most graceful manner, and
it is very interesting to watch

SOLE.—(Soka vulgaris.) one of the common flat

fishes, such as the plaice or

the sole, swim with serpentine ease and elegance, and then suffer itself to
sink slowly to the bottom, where it sits, with raised head and watchful eyes.

It is evident that if the eyes of the flat fishes were placed in the manner
customary among the finny race, one eye would be rendered useless as long
as the fish was lying upon its side. This difficulty is therefore met by a most
extraordinary modification of the bones of the head, by which means both
the eyes are brought to that side which remains uppermost, and are thereby
enabled to command a wide view around. There have been one or two
instances where the eyes have been placed one on each side, but these may
be considered as simple variations from the ordinary rule.

THE COMMON SOLE is one of the most familiar of our British flat fishes,
and is found on all our coasts, those of the southern shores being the most
plentiful, and attaining the largest dimensions.

The Sole can be takcn by the line, but the fishermen always use the trawl-

THE TURBOT. 479

net, a kind of huge dredge, with a mouth that often exceeds thirty feet in
width. As these nets are drawn along the bed of the sea, the great beam
which edges the mouth scrapes the mud and sand, and alarms the fishes to
such an extent that they dash wildly about, and mostly dart into the net,
whence they never escape. Vast numbers of Soles are taken by this method
of fishing, and as the trawls bring to the surface enormous quantities of
crustaceans, molluscs, zoophytes, and other marine inhabitants, the energetic
naturalist cannot employ his time better than in taking a sail in one of these
boats, and enduring a few hours’ inconvenience for the sake of the rich
harvest which he is sure to reap. Some of the rarest and most valuable
British animals have been taken in the trawl-nets. The finest Sole that I
ever saw I took in a trawl-net in one of the creeks of the Medway. As to
length and breadth, it was not very remarkable, but it was almost half as
thick again as any Sole that I have seen.

The Sole is in condition throughout the greater part of the year, the only
time when it is not worth eating being from the end of February to the last
week in March, when the fishes are full of roe, and the flesh is rather soft
and watery. It is a hardy fish, and can soon be acclimatized to live in fresh
water ; and it is said that under such circumstances the fish can be readily
fattened, and become nearly twice as thick as when bred in the sea. Some-
times the Soles venture into the mouths of rivers, passing about four or tive
miles into the fresh water, and depositing their multitudinous eggs in such
localities.

The colour of the Sole is almost always brown on the right side and white
on the left, but examples of reversed Soles are not uncommon, where the left
side is brown and the other is white. The scales are small, and give a
rough, rasp-like sensation to the hand. The dimensions of this fish are very
variable, an average specimen weighing about a pound or eighteen ounces.
Much larger examples, how-
ever, occur occasionally, and
Mr. Yarrell mentions one
instance where a Soe
measured twenty-six inches
in length, eleven and a half
in width, and weighed nine
pounds.

THE well-known TURBOT,
so widely and so worthily
celebrated for the frm deli-
cacy of its flesh, inhabits
many of the European
coasts, and is found in
tolerable abundance off our
own shores. Like all flat
fishes, it mostly haunts the Ss
sandy bed of the sea, but TURBOT. —( Pleuronectes maximus.)
will sometimes swim boldly
to the surface of the water. It is a restless and wandering fish, traversing
considerable distances as it feeds, and generally moving in small companies.

The Turbot is known in Scotland by the title of BANNOCK FLEUK, or
SPAWN FLruk, the former name being given to it on account of its flat
shape, which resembles a bannock or oatcake, and the latter because it is
thought to be at the best while in roe. After spawning, ze. about August, its
a its peculiar firmness, but in a very short time the fish regains its
condition.

YY

480 THe COD.

The colour of the Turbot is brown of different shades on one side, usuallv
the left, and the whole of that side is spottea with little round bony tubercle..
which may be found in the skin after boiling. The size of this fish is
extremely variable. The average weight is six or seven pounds, but Turbots
are often taken ot far greater dimensions. The largest specimen of which
an authentic notice is preserved was taken near Fiymouth in the year 1730,
and weighed seventy pounds. .

THE PLAICE is well known by the bright red spots which are scattered
over its dark side. I have caught numbers of Plaice, some measuring six or
seven inches in length, by merely wading into the muddy sand, holding them
down with the feet, and picking them out with the hands, Their terrified
wriggle.is easily felt by the bare feet, as the fishes find:themselves pressed
into the sand. whither they had fled for refuge, and: by.a- little dexterous
management they may be captured by inserting the fingers under the foot,
seizing them firmly across the body.

The colour of the Plaice is light brown, variegated with a number of bright
red spots upon the body and the dorsal.and anal fins. When young, the
Plaice has often a dark spot in the centre of each red mark.

THE FLOUNDER, MAYOCK FLEUK, or BUT, is quite as common as the
plaice, and 1s found ia salt, brackish, or fresh water, sometimes living in the
sea, sorhetimes inhabiting the mouths of rivers, and sometimes passing up
the stream for many miles.

In former days the Flounder has been known to ascend the Thames as
high as Hampton
Court, and has there
been observed actively
chasing the minnows
and driving them into
shallow water:: I have
often» taken small
Flounders in the
Thames just above
Erith.

THE well known
COD-FISH is a native
of many seas, and in
some localities is found
in countless legions.

This most useful fish
is captured in vast
numbers at certain sea-
sons of the year, and is
always taken with the
hook’ and ‘line. The
lines are of two de-

coD.—(Gades morrhua.) scriptions, namely, the

long lines to which a

great number of short lines are attached, and the simple hand-lines which

are held by the fishermen. The long lines sometimes run to an extraordinary

length, and shorter lines, technically called snoods; are affixed to the long line
at definite distances.

To the end of each snood is attached a baited hook, and as the sharp teeth
of the fish might sever a single line, the portion of the snood which is near
the hook is composed of a number of separate threads fastened loosely
together, so as to permit the teeth to pass between the strands. At each end

EELS. 481

of the long line is fastened a float or buoy, and when the hooks have been
baited with sand launce, limpets, whelks, and similar substances, the line is
ready for action.

The boat, in which the line is ready coiled, makes for the fishing place,
lowers a grapnel or small anchor, to which is attached the buoy at one end
of the line, and the vessel then sails off, paying out the line as it proceeds,
and always “shooting” the line across the tide, so as to prevent the hooks
from being washed against each other or twisted round the line, which is
usually shot in the interval between the ebb and flow of the tide, and hauled
in at the end of about six hours.

As soon as the long line has been fairly shot, and both ends firmly affixed
to the grapnels, the fishermen improve the next six hours by angling with
short lines, one of which is held in each hand. They thus capture not only
Cod-fish, but haddock, whiting, hake, pollack, and various kinds of flat fishes.
On favourable occasions the quantity of fish captured by a single boat is very
great, one man having taken more than four hundred Cod alone in ten hours.

The Cod is sometimes sent away in a fresh state, but is often split and
salted on the spot; packed in flats on board, and afterwards washed and
dried on the rocks. In this state it is called Klip-fish or Rock fish. The
liver produces a most valuable oil, which is now in great favour for the
purpose of affording strength to persons afflicted with delicate lungs or who
show symptoms of decline. The best oil is that which drains naturally from
the livers as they are thrown into a vessel which is placed in a pan filled
with boiling water. The oil is then carefully strained through flannel, and is
ready for sale.

The roe of the Cod is useful for bait, the sardine in particular being verv
partial to that substance. Much of the roe is stupidly wasted by the fishe:-
man, who carelessly flings into the sea a commodity of which he can sell
any amount, and for which he can obtain ten or eleven shillings percwt. In
Norway the dried heads of the Cod are used as fodder for cows, and,
strange to say, the graminivorous quadrupeds are very fond of this aliment.

Like several other marine fish, the Cod can be kept in a pond, provided the
water be salt; and if the pond should communicate with the sea, these fishes
can be readily fattened for the table. Several such ponds are in existence,
and it is the custom to transfer to them the liveliest specimens that have been
caught during the day’s fishery, the dead or dying being either sold or cut
up as food for their imprisoned relatives. These fishes are extremely vora-
cious and will eat not only the flesh of their kinsmen, but that of whelks and
other molluscs, which are abundantly thrown to them. It is found that
under this treatment the Cod is firmer, thicker, and heavier in proportion to
its length than if it had been suffered to roam at large in the sea.

In the large and important group of fishes to which our attention is now
drawn, and popularly known as EELS, the ventral fins are wholly wanting,
the body is long, snake-like, smooth and slimy on the exterior, and in many
cases covered with very little scales hidden in the thick soft skin.

THE two EELS represented in the engravings are examples of some very
common and useful British fish.

THE SHARP-NOSED EEL derives its name from the shape of its head, and
by that structure may be distinguished from the second species. In their
habits the Eels are so similar that the present species will be taken as an
example of the whole genus.

Of the general habits of the Eel, the Hon. Grantley F. Berkeley has
given the following short and interesting account. During hot, stil
sunny weather, day and night, in the month of June, the Eels are
chiefly on the top of the water. Wherever masses of weeds lie, and

IJ

482 THE SHARP-NOSED EEL,

what is called the cow-weed grows tke longest, there Ecls do congregate,
to bask in the sun by day, to enjoy by night the warmth left in the
weeds by the sun, and there, while thus luxuriating, to snap at and catch
the myriads of gnats, moths, flies, and other insects that seek the weeds tor
food or rest, and by damping their wings become an easy prey to their
ambushed assailants. In waiting for the otter, or watching the river, I have
often sat in my boat embayed in weeds, and seen and heard the Eels thus
occupied; and near and within these weeds, in the particular weather alluded
to, the wire-traps, nets, and snig-pots take best. The haunts of Eels are
quite as variable as the weather. In warm, still weather, seek them on the
rapids and near weeds either waving on the surface of the water or in floating
masses of detached weeds that the eddies of the stream have wound and
kept in one place. In blowing, cooler, or rainy weather, then look for them
in the still, deep ditches. If a flush of water comes, and a little shallow
stream running from or into the main river becomes fuller than usual, then
let all the capturing gear be set to take them on, to them, this delicious
change of ground, for against this stream they will work as long as it is
freshened. In one night, in a little stream of this sort, 1 took thirty pounds
weight of Eels.

Like several fishes which have already been mentioned, Eels are very
tenacious of life, and are able to live for a long time when taken out of water,
owing to a simple but beautiful modification of structure, which retains a
sufficient amount of moisture to keep the gills in a damp state and able to
perform their natural functions. These fishes have been seen crawling over
considerable distances, evi-
dently either in search of
water, their own dwelling-
place being nearly dried, or
in quest of some running
: stream in whose waters they
NAN might descend to the sea

i] ran afterthemanner of theirrace.

| NE WN Towards the latter end of

Wi summer the [els migrate

fal towards the sea, and it is

= found that these fishes can
SHARP-NOSED FEL.—(Anguilla acutirostris.) live either in fresh or salt
water with equal ease, the
mouths of rivers being favoured localities. It sometimes happens that
even in our seaport towns and marine watering-places, the commen river Eel
is caught by those who are angling in the sea for marine fish. This quality
is peculiarly valuable in the Eel, as it enables the Dutch fishermen, who
annually supply our markets with vast numbers of these fish, to bring them
across the sea in vessels that are fitted with “wells” pierced for the trans-
mission of the sea-water through which the vessel is sailing.

The tenacity of life possessed by this fish is really remarkable ; and it is
worthy of notice that the best mode of killing Eels is to grasp them by the neck
and slap their tails smartly against a stone or post. The muscular irritability
of the body is wonderfully enduring, and after the creature has been cut up
into lengths each separate piece moves abuvut as if alive, while at the touch of
a pin’s point it will curve itself as if it felt the injury. When all such
irritability has ceased, the portions will flounce about vigorously if placed in
boiling water ; and even after they have remained quiet under its influence, the
addition of salt will make them jump about as vigorously as ever. Of course
there can be no real sensation, the spinal cord having been severed,

THE ELECTRIC EEL, 483

The reproduction of the Fel has long been a subject of discussion, some
een thinking that the young are produced ina living state, and others

olding that they are hatched from eggs. This question has, however, been
set at rest by that universal revealer, the achromatic microscope, which has
shown that the masses of oily-looking substance generally called fat are really
the aggregated clusters of eggs, and that these objects, minute though they
may be, not so large as the dot over the letter z, are quite perfect, and under
the microscope are seen to be genuine eggs.

THE well-known CONGER EEL is a marine species, very common in our

‘ seas, and being most usually
» found on the rocky portion
of the coast.

This useful fish has, of
late years, come into more
general use than formerly,
and its good qualities are
more appreciated. The
flesh, though not very palat-
able if dressed unskilfully, is
now held in some estimation, and for the manufacture of soup is thought to
be almost unrivalled. The fishermen can now always obtain a ready sale for
the Congers ; and those which are not purchased for the table are mostly
bought up and made into isinglass. one,

The colour of the Conger is pale brown above and greyish white below.
It often attains to a very great size, measuring ten feet in length and
weighing more than 100 lbs.

The ELLecrric EEL is even more remarkable for its capability of
delivering powerlul electric shocks than the torpedo, but as it is never found
in the British seas it is not so well known as that fish.

THE Electric Eel is a native of Southern America, and inhabits the rivers
of that warm and verdant country, The o:gans which enable it to produce
such wonderful effects are double, and lie along the body, the one upon the
other.

In the native country of these fishes they are captured by an ingenious

cipiieiai but somewhat cruel process.
if i 2 A number of wild horses are
lV

CONGER. —-(Conger vulgaris.)

driven to the spot and urged
into the water. The alarm-
ed Gymnoti, finding their
domains thus invaded, call
forth all the terrors of their
invisible artillery to repel
the intruders, and discharge
their pent-up lightnings
with fearful rapidity and

ALD d force. Gliding under the
ELECTRIC EEL.—(Gymnotus electricus.) bellies of the frightened

horses, they press them-

s Ives against their bodies, as if to economize all the electrical fluid, and by

shock after shock generally succeed in drowning several of the poor quad-
rupeds.

aes however, are but of slight value in that country, hardly, indeed, so

. much valued as pigeons in England, and as fast as they emerge from the

water in frantic terror, are driven back among their dread eremies. Presently

the shocks become less powerful, for the Gymnotus soon exhausts it s.ure of
: 112

. 484 THE ANCHOVY.

electricity, and when the fishes are thoroughly fatigued they are captured
with impunity by the native hunters. A most interesting account. of this
process is given by Humboldt, but is too long to be inserted in these pages.

Several of these wonderful fish have been brought to England in a living
state ; and many of my readers may remember the fine Gymnotus that lived
in the Polytechnic Institution. Numbers of experimenters were accustomed

. daily to test its powers ; and the fatal, or at all events the numbing, power
of the stroke was evident when the creature was supplied with the fish on
which it fed. Though blind, it was accustomed to turn its head towards
the spot designated by the splashing of the attendant’s finger, and as soon as
a fish was allowed to fall into the water the Gymnotus would curve itselt
slightly, seemed to stiffen its muscles, and the victim turned over on its
back, struck as if dead by the violence of the shock.

When full grown, the Electric Eel will attain a length of five or six feet,
and is then a truly formidable creature. The body is rounded, and the scales
small and barely visible. According to Marcgrave, the native name for this
fish is Carapo.

WE now come to that most valuable family of fishes, the HERRING tribe
called technically Clupeidz, from the Latin word c/ufea, “a herring.”

THE well-known ANCHOVY is properly a native of the Mediterranean Sea,
though it often occurs on our coasts, and has once or twice been captured in
our rivers. Indeed, one practical writer on British fishes thinks that the
capture of the Anchovy off our shores is a task that would be highly remu-

nerative if properly undertaken, and
that, with proper pains, the British
markets might be fully supplied with
Anchovies from our own seas.

This little fish has long been
famous for the powerful and unique
flavour of its flesh, and is in conse-
quence captured in vast quantities for
the purpose of ‘being made into
anchovy sauce, anchovy paste, and
z other articles of diet in which the heart
* ancHovy.—(Engraults encrasicholus.) of an epicure delights. Unfortunately,

however, the little fish is so valuable,
that in the preparations made from its flesh the dishonest dealers too
often adulterate their goods largely, and palm off sprats and other com-
paratively worthless fish for the real Anchovy. As the head is always
removed before the process of potting 1s commenced, the deception is
not easily detected—the long head with its projecting upper jaw and
deeply-cleft gape affording so clear an evidence of the identity of the fish,
that no one would venture to pass off one fish for the other if the heads were
permitted to remain in their natural places. The flavour of the veritable
Anchovy is rudely imitated by various admixtures, and its full rich colour is
simulated by boleanmoniac and other abominations.

The very long generic title of this fish was given to it in ancient times,
and is still retained, as being at once appropriate and sanctioned by the
verdict of antiquity. Its literal signification is “ gall-tinctured,” and the
name has been given to it on account of the peculiar bitter taste of the
head, in which part the ancients supposed the zall to be placed. The colour
of the Anchovy is bluish green on the back and upper part of the head, and
the remainder of the body silvery white; the fins have a tinge of green,
and ave beautifully transparent. The scales are large, and fall off almost at
acouch, The length of the Anchovy varies from five to seven inches,

THE PILCHARD. 485

THE HERRING is undoubtedly the most valuable of our British fishes, and
-the one which could least be spared. - It is at once the luxury of the rich and
the nourishment of the poor, capable of preservation throughout a long
period, easily packed, quickly and simply dressed, and equally good, whether
eaten fresh or-salted, smoked or potted.

During the greater part of the year the Herring lives in deep water, where
its habits are entirely unknown. About July or August the Herring is urged,
by the irresistible force of instinct, to approach the shores for the purpose
ot depositing its spawn in the shallow waters, where the warm rays of the
sun may pour their vivifying
infliience upon the tiny eggs
that will hereafter produce
-.creatures of so dispropor-

tionate a size, and where
the ever-moving tides may
fill the water with free oxy-
gen as the waves dash on
the shores and fall back in
whitened spray, thus giving
to the water that sparkling
freshness so needful for the
development of the future
fish.

The Herrings, when they once begin to move, arise in vast shoals, and
direct their course towards some part of the shore. In their choice of
locality they are most capricious fish, sometimes frequenting one spot for
many successive years, then deserting it for a length of time, and again
returning to it without any apparent reason for either course of proceeding.
They are essentially gregarious while on the move; and each shoal is so
closely compacted, and its limits so well defined, that while one net will be
filled almost to bursting with Herrings, another net, only a yard or two
distant, will be left as empty as when it was shot.

The Herring is one of the fish that cannot endure absence from water,
dying almost immediately after it is taken out of the sea, and thus giving
‘rise to the familiar saying “as dead as a herring.”

The food of the Herring is extremely varied, even in the comparatively
shallow waters, and its subsistence during the time it is submerged in the
deep is necessarily unknown. In the stomach of the Herring have been
found crustacea of various kinds, molluscs, the spawn, and fry of other fish,
and even the young of its ;
own kind. It can be taken
with a hook, and has been
known to seize a limpet
that was used as a bait.
The colour of the Herring
is blue above with greenish
reflections, and the rest of
the body is silvery white.
After the fish has been dead
for some hours, the cheeks
and gill-covers become red, ;
as if from injected blood. PILCHARD. —(Clupea pilchardus.)

THE value of the HERRING family to man is almost incalculable. The
PILCHARD and the herring are very similar in appearance, but may be
‘easily known by the position of the dorsal fin, which in the Pilchard ts so

486 THE FLYING-FISH.

exactly in the centre of the body, that if the fish is ‘held by it, the body
exactly balances; while in the herring the dorsal fin is placed rather back-
wards, so that when suspended, the fish hangs with its head downwards.

Unlike the herring, which visits every part of our coast, the Pilchard is
only found on the’shores of Devonshire and Cornwall. Here, however, the
enormous shoals that annually make their appearance fully compensate for
the limited space occupied by them. Occasionally a few shoals are seen on
the southern coast of Ireland. The coasts of France and Spain are tolerably
frequent resorts of this fish. ;

The fish are usually taken in an enormous building of. nets, called “sean
nets.” The nets used in the sea fishery are two, a large net called the “ stop
sean,” about a quarter of a mile in length, and a hundred feet in depth ; and
a smaller net, called the “tuck sean,” about a furlong in length, and a hun-
dred and twenty feet in depth, the average value of the two nets being 500/,

When the fishermen see a shoal of pilchards approaching, they immediately
set out in two fishing boats, one of which carries the tuck sean and the other
the stop sean. Guided by signs from the master-seamen, they silently
surround the shoal with the nets, the larger of which is used to enclose a
large number of fish, and the smaller to pass within the other net, to bring
the mass of fish into a small compass, and finally to prevent them from
escaping until the fishermen have leisure to remove them to the boats.

When landed, the Pilchards are taken to the storehouses, salted, and after
reinaining in heaps for five or six days, are pressed into casks by powerful
levers. During the pressure,
which lasts about a foit-
night, fresh layers of fish
being added as the form:r
are pressed close, an abund-
ance of excellent oil escapes
from holes made in the cask
for the purpose. The entire
refuse of the fish, consisting
of the superabundant sult,
the scales and other rejected
portions, is sold to the far-
mers as a valuable manure.
The refuse of each pilchard
is calculated to manure one
square foot of land.

THE far-famed FLYING
FISH exists in many of the

FLYING-FISH.—(Zxocetus volitans.) warmer seas, and derives its
popular name from _ its
wonderful powers of sustaining itself in the air.

The passage of this fish through the atmosphere can Jay no just claim to —
the title of flizht, for the creature does not flap the wing-like pectoral fins
on which it 1s upborne, and is not believed even to possess the power of
changing it3 course.

In allusion to the habits of this remarkable fish, Mr. F. D. Bennett, in his
“ Narrative of a Whaling Voyage,” has the following valuable remarks :—

“ The principal external agents employed in this mode of locomotion are
the large lobe of the tail fin and the broad transparent pectoral fins, which,
on.this occasion, serve at least as a parachute, and which, being situated
close o the back, place the centre of suspension higher than the centre «¢
gravity. It is also curious to notice how well the specific gravity of the fisk

THE PIKE. 487

can be regulated, in correspondence with the element through which it may
move, The swim-bladder, when perfectly distended, occupies nearly the
entire cavity of the abdomen, and contains a large quantity of air; and in
addition to this, there is a membrane in the mouth which can be inflated
through the gills ; these two reservoirs of air affording good substitutes for
the air-cells so freely distributed within the bones of birds, and having the
additional advantage of being voluntary in their function.

“The pectoral tins, though so large when expanded, can be folded into an
exceedingly slender, neat, and compact form ; but whether they are employed
in swimming in the closed or expanded state, I have been unable to deter-
mine.”

The ancients were well acquainted with the Flying-fish, and in their narra-
tives even improved upon its powers, as was customary with the voyagers of
those days, and asserted that, as soon as night came on, this fish left the
ocean, flew ashore, and slept until morning safe from the attacks of its marine
enemies. The generic name of exocerus, literally “a sleeper-out,’ refers to
this supposed habit. About thirty species of Flying-fish are known, mostly
belonging to the Mediterranean Sea, but others occur in the North Sea and
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

THE fierce and voracious PiKE has well earned its titles of Fresh-water
Shark and River Pirate,
for though perhaps not one
whit more destructive to
animal life than the roach,
gudgeon, and other harm-.
less fish, the prey which it
devours are of larger size,
and its means of destruc-
tion are so conspicuous and
powerful, that its name has
long been a byword for
pitiless rapacity.

The Pike is found in
almost every English river,
and, although supposed to
have been artificially intro-
duced into our country, has
multiplied as rapidly as
any indigenous fish. The Pike is the master of the waters in which it
resides, destroying without mercy every other fish that happens to come near
its residence, none seeming able to escape except the perch, whose array of
sharp spines daunts even the voracious Pike from attempting its capture. As
if to show that the Pike really desires to eat the perch, and is only withheld
from so doing by a wholesome dread of its weapons, there is no better bait
. for a Pike than a young perch from which the dorsal fin has been removed.
It will even feed upon its own kind, and a young Pike, or Jack as it is then
called, of three or four inches in length, has little chance of life if it should
come across one of its larger kindred.

After hatching, the growth of the young Jack is extremely rapid, and,
according to Bloch, it will attain a length of ten inches in the first year of
its life. If well fed, the growth of this fish continues at a tolerably uniform
rate of about four pounds per year, and this increase will be maintained for
six or seven successive years.

_ The voracity of the Pike is too well known to need much comment. A
tiny Jack of five inches in length has been known to capture and try to eat

488 THE SALMON.

a gudgeon of its own size, and to swim about quite unconcernedly with the
tail of its victim protruding from its mouth. Had it been suffered to live,
it would probably have finished the gudgeon in course of time, as the head
was found to have been partially digested. Three water-rats have been
found in the stomach of one Pike, accompanied by the remains of a bird
too far decomposed to be recognizable, but supposed to be the remnants of
a duck. So universal is the appetite of this fish, that it has even been
known to seize the paste bait which had been used for other and less
voracious inhabitants of the waters.

When the Pike attains a tolerable size, it takes possession of some
particular spot in the bank, usually a kind of hole or cave which is sheltered
by overhanging soil or roots, and affords a lair where it can lurk in
readiness to pounce upon its passing prey.

The Pike seems to have no limit to its size, for it is a very long-lived fish,
and seems always to increase in dimensions provided it be well supplied
with food. A fish of ten or twelve pounds’ weight is considered to be a fine
specimen, though there have been examples where the Pike has attained
more than five times the latter weight. These huge fishes of siaty or
seventy pounds are, however, of little value for the table.

The colour of the Pike is olive-brown on the back, taking a lighter hue on
the sides, and being variegated with green and yellow. The abdomen is
silvery white. :

THE SALMON is undoubtedly the king of British river-fish ; not so much
for its dimensions, which are exceeded by one or two giant members of the

———— finny tribe, but for the
silvery sheen of its
glittering scales, its
wonderful dash and
activity, affording mag-
nificent sport to the
angler, the interesting
nature of its life from
the egg to full maturity,
and last, but not least,
for the exquisite flavour
and nutritive character
of its flesh.

In former days, be-

SALMON.—(Salmo Salar.) fore civilization had
substituted man and
his dwellings for the

broad meadows and their furred and feathered inmates, the Salmon
was found in many an English river. Now, however, there are but few
streams where this splendid fish can be seen, for in the greater number of
British rivers the water has been so defiled by human agency, that the
fastidious Salmon will not suffer itself to be poisoned by such hateful mixture
of evil odours and polluted waters ; and in the few streams where the water
is still sufficiently pure for the Salmon to venture into them, the array of
nets, weirs, and all kinds of Salmon traps is so tremendous, that not one
tithe of the normal number are now found in them.

The Salmon is a migratory fish, annually leaving the sea, its proper
residence, and proceeding for many miles up rivers for the purpose of
depositing its spawn. This duty having been accomplished, it returns to the
sea in the spring. The perseverance of this fish in working its way up the
stream is perfectly wonderful, No stream is rapid enough to daunt it, nor

THE TROUT. 489

is it even checked by falls. These it surmounts by springing out of the
water, fairly passing over the fall. Heights of fourteen or fifteen feet are
constantly leaped by this powerful fish, and when it has arrived at the
higher and shallower parts of the river, it scoops furrows in the gravelly
bottom, and there deposits its spawn. The young, called “ fry,” are hatched
about March, and immediately commence their retreat to the sea. By the
end of May the young Salmon, now called “smolts,” have almost entirely
deserted the rivers, and in June not oné is to be found in fresh water. Small
Salmon, weighing less than two pounds, are termed “ salmon peel,” all above
that weight are called“ grilse.”

The havoc wrought among Salmon by foes of every description is so
enormous, that notwithstanding the great fecundity of the fish, it is a matter
of surprise that so many escape destruction; for although the fish are
preserved from their human foes by many stringent regulations, yet other
foes, such as otters, who devour the large fish, and other fish ‘who devour the
spawn, have but little respect for laws and regulations.

While in the rivers, multitudes of Salmon are annually caught, usually by
stake nets, which are capable of confining an immense number of fish at one
time. Salmon-spearing is a favourite amusement. This animated and
exciting sport is usually carried on by torch-light. The torches, when held
close to the surface of the water, illumine the depths of the river, and render
every fish within its influence perfectly visible: The watchful spearman,
guided by slight indications bearing no meaning to an unpractised eye, darts
his unerring spear, and brings up in triumph the glittering captive, writhing
in vain among the barbed points. In the northern rivers this destructive
pursuit is carried on to a
great extent, more than a
hundred salmon being
frequently taken in aneven-
ing. Anglers also find con-
siderable sport in using
the fly for this beautiful
and active fish, whose
strength makes it no mean
antagonist.

NEXT to the salmon,
the bright-scaled, carmine-
speckled, active TROUT
is perhaps the greatest
favourite of anglers, and
fully deserves the eulogies
of all lovers of the rod; TROUT.—(Salmo fario.)
its peculiarly delicate flesh,
its fastidious voracity, and the mixture of strength, agility, and spirited
courage with which it endeavours to free itself from the hook, forming a
combination of excellences rarely met with in any individual fish.

The Trout is found in rapid and clear-running streams, but cares not for
the open and shallow parts of the river, preferring the shelter of some stone
or hole in the bank, whence it may watch for prey. Like the pike, it haunts
some especial hiding-place, and in a similar manner is sure to take posses-
sion of a favourable haunt that has been rendered vacant by the demise of its
predecessor or its promotion to superior quarters. Various baits are used in
fishing for trout, such as the worm, the minnow, and the fly, both natural and
artificial, the latter being certainly the neatest and most artistic method.
The arcana of angling are not within the province of this work ; and fo.

490 THE GOLD FISH.

information on that subject, the reader is referred to the many valuablé
works which have been written by accomplished masters of the art. :

THOUGH not so brightly spotted as the trout, nor so desperately active
when hooked, and very inferior in flesh, the CARP is yet in much favour with
anglers, on account of its extreme cunning, which has earned for the fish the
name of Fox of the waters.
As the number of British fish
is so great, and our space so
small, it will be needful to com-
press the descriptions as much
as possible, and to omit every-
thing that does not bear directly
on the subject.

The Carp is found both in
rivers and lakes, and in some
places, among which the royal
palaces of France may be
mentioned, will often grow to
an enormous size and become

CARP.—(Cyprinus carpio.) absurdly tame, crowding to the

__ bank on the least encourage-

ment, and poking their great snouts out of the water in anxious expectation

of the desired food. It is most curious to watch these great creatures

swimming lazily along, and to see how completely they have lost the inherent

dread of man by the exercise of their reasoning powers, which tell them that

the once feared biped on the bank will do them no harm, but, in all pro-
bability, will be the means of indulging their appetite with favourite food.

The Carp is one of the fish that retains its life for a lengthened period even
when removed from the water, and if carefully packed in wet moss so as to
allow a free circulation of air, will survive even for weeks Anglers never
seem sure of the Carp—taking plenty on one day and none at all for a week
afterwards, the fish having
been aroused to a sense of
their danger, and declining
to meddle with anything
that looks as if it might
hide a hook. Even the
net, that is so effectual with
most fish, is often useless
against the ready wiles of
the Carp, which will some-
times bury itself in the
mud as the ground line
approaches so as to allow
the net to pass over it;
or, if the ground be too
hard for such a manceuvre,
will shoot boldly from the
bottom of the water, leap

BARBEL.—( Cyprinus barbus.) over the upper edge of the
GOLD-FISH.—( Cyprinus auratus.) net and so escape into the
water beyond.

THE beautiful GOLD-FISH (Cyprinus auratus), so familiar as a pet and so
elegant as it moves round the glass globe in which it is usually kept, is
another member of this large and important genus, It seems to have been

THE BREAM. aot

brought to this country from China, and has almost acclimatized itself to
the cold seasons of England. Its habits and splendid clothing are too well-
known to need description.

ANOTHER well-known member of the same genus is the BARBEL, a fine
but not brilliant fish which is common in many of the English rivers,

This fish may easily be known, from the four fleshy appendages, called
beards or barbules, which hang from the head, two being placed on the nose
and the other two at each angle of the mouth. It is one of the mud-loving
fish, grubbing with its nose in the soft banks for the pturjose of unearthing
the aqu«tic larvee of various insects which make their home in such
places, and being, in all probability, aided by its barbules in its search
after food.

The Barbel is sometimes so sluggish in its movements, and so deeply
occupied in rooting about the bank, that an accomplished swimmer will
occasionally dive to the bed of the river, feel for the Barbel along the banks,
and bring them to the surface in his bare hand. From this habit of
grubbing in the mud, the Barbel has earned the name of Fresh-water Pig.

The colour of the Barbel is brown above with a green wash, and yellowish
green on thesides. All the scales have a metallic lustre, and the cheeks and
gill-covers have also a polished look as if covered with very thin bronze.
The abdomen is white. The Barbel is somewhat long in proportion to its
weight, which is extremely variable, seldom, however, exceeding eleven or
twelve pounds.

THE TENCH is hardly so common as the other two species, preferring the
slowest and muddiest rivers, and thriving well in ponds and lakes, or even in
clay-pits. No water, indeed, seems to be too thick, muddy, or even fetid, for
the Tench to inhabit, and it is rather curious that in such cases, even where
the fishermen could scarcely endure the stench of the mud adhering to their
nets, the fish were larger sized, and of remarkably sweet flavour.

In the winter months the Tench is said to bury itself in the mud, and
there to remain, in a semi-torpid
condition, until the succeeding
spring calls it again to life and
action. The colour of the Tench is
greenish olive, darker above than
below, and with a fine golden wash.

THE ease with which the GUD-, <
GEON is taken has passed into a 41}
proverb. This pretty little fish is +
usually found in shallow parts of ,
rivers, where the bottom is gravelly.
If the gravel is stirred up, the
Gudgeons immediatelv flock to the
place, and a worm suspended amid
the turbid water is eagerly snapped
at bythem. The fishermen usually
take them in nets, and keep them GUDGEON. —(G bio fluviatilis.)
alive in well-boats. They are largely BREAM.—(Aéramus brama.)
purchased as baits for trolling.

The flesh of the Gudgeon is particularly delicate, and although its length
rarely exceeds seven inches, yet from the ease with which numbers can be
obtained, it forms a dish by no means to bedespised. The BREaM is mostly
found in large lakes or in slowly running rivers, the lakes of Cumberland
being favourite resorts of this fish, Although the flesh of the Bream is not
held in any great estimation, being poorly flavoured and very full of bones,

.T

492 THE SUN-FISH.

so that, in spite of the great depth of its body, there is scarcely sufficient
flesh to repay the trouble of cooking, still, the fish was formerly in much
repute as a delicacy ; so that either the fish seems to have deteriorated, or
the present generation to have become more fastidious. Spring and autumn
furnish the best Bream, and the flesh can be dried something like that of the
cod-fish.

The colour of the Bream is yellowish white, except the cheeks and gill-
covers, which have a silvery lustre without any tinge of yellow. Sometimes
the Bream attains a considerable size, reaching a weight of twelve or fourteen

ounds,
3 THE last of the three is the ROACH, a fish especially dear to scientific
anglers on account of its capricious habits and the delicate skill required to
form a successful roach-fisher.

An angler accomplished in this art will catch Roach where no one without
special experience would have a chance of a bite, and will succeed in his
beloved sport through almost every season of the year, the winter months
being the favourites. So capricious are these fish and so sensitive to the least
change of weather that a single hour will suffice to put them off their feed,
and the angler may be suddenly checked in the midst of his sport by an
adverse breeze or change in the temperature,

The Roach is a gregarious fish, swimming in shoals and keeping tolerably

; close to each other. It is not
ws

Ry i
Xe a large species, all over a pound
— wall 6S

Ww

South Wea being considered as fine speci-
SS mens, and any that weigh more
than two pounds are thought
rare. It is a pretty fish, the
upper parts of the head and
body being greyish green glossed
with blue, the abdomen silvery
white, and the sides passing
gradually into white from the
darker colours of the back.
The pectoral, ventral, and anal
fins are bright red, the former

ROACH. —(Leuciscus rutilus ) having a tinge of yellow; and

DACE. —(Leuciscus vulgaris.) the dorsal and tail fins are

brownish red.

CLOSELY allied to the roach is the DacE (Leuciscus vulgaris), a common
and small species that inhabits most of our streams. The well-known CHUB
(Leuciscus cephalus) also belongs to this genus, as does the BLEAK (Leuciscus
alburnus), in many countries called the TAILOR BLAy by the ignorant, from the
idea that whenever any other fish, especially the pike, wounds its skin, it imme-
diately seeks the aid of the Bleak, which, by rubbing its body against the
wound, causes the torn skin to close. The beautifully white crystalline
deposit beneath the scales was much used in the manufacture of artificial
pearls, hollow glass beads being washed in the interior with a thin layer of
this substance, and then filled with white wax. The scales of the whitebait
were also used for the same purpose. The MINNOW (Leuciscus phoxinus)
is another member of this large genus, and is too well known to need
description.

A VERY curious order of fishes now comes before our notice. These
creatures are called Pectognathi, or “fixed jaws,” because their jaws are fused
together and cannot be opened and shut.

Our example of this curious order is the well-known SUN-FISH, which

THE SEA HORSE. 493

looks just as if the head and shoulders of some very large fish had been
abruptly cut off, and a fin supplied to the severed extremity.

Several specimens of this odd-looking fish have becn captured in British
waters, and in almost every case the creature was swimming, or rather
floating, in so lazy a fashion, that it permitted itself to be taken without
attempting to escape. In the seas where this fish is generally found, the
harpoon is usually employed for its capture, not so much on account of its
strength, though a large
specimen will sometimes
struggle with amazing force
and fury, but on account of
its great weight, which
renders its conveyance into
a boat a-matter of some
little difficulty; and the
leverage obtained by the
harpoon quite necessary.

The flesh of the Sun-fish
is white and well-flavoured,
and is in much request
among sailors, who always
luxuriate in fresh meat after
the monotony of salted
provisions. In flavour and
aspect it somewhat resem-
bles that of the Skate. Its
liver is rather large, and
yields a very considerable
amount of oil, which is
prized by the sailors as an
infallible remedy against 3 2
sprains, bruises, and rheu- SUN-FISH.—( Orthragoriscus mola.)
matic affections.

One of the most curious peculiarities of this fish is the structure of the eye,
which is bedded in a mass of very soft and flexible folds belonging to the
outer membranous coat, while it rests behind on a sac filled with a gelatinous
fluid. When the creature is alarmed, it draws the eye back against the sac
of fluid, which is thus forced into the folds of skin, and distends them so
largely as nearly to conceal the entire organ behind them.

While swimming quietly along, and suffered to be undisturbed, it generally
remains so near the surface that its elevated dorsal fin projects above the
water. Only in warm, calm weather is it seen in this attitude, and during a
stormy season it remains near the bed of the sea, and contents itself with
feeding on the seaweeds which grow so luxuriantly at the bottom of the
shallower ocean waters.

The colour of the Sun-fish is greyish brown, darker upon the back than
on the sides of the abdomen, and the skin is hard and rough. It often
attains a very great size, one that was harpooned on the equator measuring
six feet in length. Several species of Sun-fish are known.

THE family of the Syngnathidze is represented by several British species.

The SEA HoRSE is common in many European seas, and is sometimes
captured on the British coasts. In all these fishes there is only one dorsal
fin, set far back, and capable of being moved ina marvellous fashion, that
reminds the observer of a screw propeller, and evidently answers a similar
purpose. The tail of the Sea Horse, stiff as it appears to be in dried

494 THE LAMPREY.

specimens, is, during the life of the creature, almost as flexible as an elephant’s
proboscis, and is employed as a prehensile organ, whereby its owner
may be attached to any fixed object. The specimen represented in the
engraving is shown in the attitude which the creatures are fond of assuming.
The head of the Sea Horse is wonderfully like that of the quadruped from
which it takes its name, and the resemblance is increased by two apparentears
that project partly from the sides of
the neck. These organs are, how-
ever, fins, and when the fish is in an
_ active mood, are moved with con-

siderable rapidity. It is rather a
remarkable fact that the Sea Horse, .
like the chameleon, possesses the
power of moving either eye at will,
quite independently of the other, and
therefore must be gifted with some
N curious modification in ee of

; ; scx SY which enables it to direct its
SIA HORS UsatL Panam fe REMI) he to different objects without con-
fusing its vision,

The colour of this interesting little fish is ight ashen brown, relieved with
slight dashes of blue on different parts of the body, and in certain lights
gleaming with beautiful iridescent hues that play over its body with a change-
ful lustre. About twenty species of Sea Horses are known, several of which
have been exhibited alive in the aquarium atthe Crystal Palace. The Cyclo-
stomi, or Circular-mouthed fishes, are represented by several British examples.

THE well-known LAMPREY and its kin are remarkable for the wonderful
resemblance which their mouths bear to that of a leech.

They are all long-bodied snake-like fish, and possess a singular apparatus
of adhesion, which acts on
the same principle as the
di:c of the sucking fish, or
tle ventral fins of the goby,
= though it is set on a different
part of the body. Several
fishes are popularly known
by the name of Lamprey,
but the only one to which
the title ought properly to
be given is that shown in
the engraving.

The Lamprey is a sea-go-
ing fish, passing most of its
time in the ocean, but ascending the rivers for the purpose of spawning.

‘Lhe flesh of the Lamprey is peculiarly exceilent, though practically unknown
to the great bulk of our population, and the juvenile student in history is
always familiar with the fatal predilection of British royalty for this fish.
‘Though it spends so much of its time in the sea, it is seldom captured except
during its visit to the rivers, and even in that case is only in good condition
during part of its sojourn. Practically, therefore, the Lamprey is less perse-
cuted than most of the finny tribe who are unfortunate enough to possess well-
flavoured flesh, and whose excellences are publicly known.

When the Lamprey deposits its spawn, it is obliged to form a hollow in
the bed of the river, in which it can leave the eggs intolerable safety and
performs this operation with great speed and no small skill. The fish is not

LAMPREY.—(Petromyson marinus.)

THE LAMPERN. 495

gifted with any great power of fin, and cannot make much head against a
sharp current, needing to rest at intervals, and for that purpose fastening on
to some large stone over which the stream has no control.

But when it sets to work upon its nursery, it takes advantage of the
current to help it in its labours, and, by the mingled force of the stream and its
own muscular action, soon contrives to carry away the pebbles that would
interfere with the well-being of its future young.

The process is simple enough. When the Lamprey has fixed on the con-
venient spot to which it is urged by its unfailing instinct, it surveys the
locality for a short time, and then sets vigorously to work. Fastening itself
to one of the obnoxious pebbles, and disposing its body so as to gain the
sirongest hold upon the rushing stream, it “ backs water” with wonderful
energy, and fish and stone are soon seen tumbling together down the current.

In this way, the Lamprey will remove stones of such a magnitude that
a fish of three times its dimensions would appear unable even to stir them. As
soon as the stone has been moved a yard or two away, the Lamprey wriggles
its way back again, and takes possession of another stone. By a repetition
of this process the hollow is soun made, and the industrious fish is able to
deposit its eggs therein.

The colour of the Lamprey is olive-brown, spotted and mottled with dark
brown and deep greenish olive. Its ordinary length is from sixteen to twenty
inches.

THE LAMPERN is plentiful in many of the English rivers, and, it
the generality of residents
near the water were only
aware of its excellence for
the table, would soon be
thinned in numbers. The
prejudice that exists against
the eel and the lamprey is
absolutely mild when com-
pared with the horror with
which the Lampern is con- :
templated in many parts of ee
England. Not only do the
ignorant people refuse to
eat it, but they believe it to
be actually poisonous, and would sooner handle an angry viper than a poor
harmless Lampern. It is fortunate for the fish that its evil reputation is so
widely and firmly established, for, under shelter of its name, it passes scath-
less through many a stream, from which it would be nearly extirpated if its
right character and good qualities were better known.

Granted the bad reputation, the creature certainly behaves in a manner
well calculated to strengthen any unfavourable reports; for, as soon as grasped,
it writhes about in a viperine, not to say venomous fashion, and is sure to
fix its sucker of a mouth on the imprisoning hand. Fev uninitiated captors
can endure to any further extent, and when they feel the cold lips pressed to
the skin, and the quick suck by which the fish attaches itself, they generally
utter a scream of terror, and fling the Lampern away as far as their arm can
jerk it. Yet the creature has no idea of using its mouth as a weapon of
offence, and when it fixes itself to the hand, is only seeking for a point of
support as a fulcrum for its struggles.

Certainly, it has teeth, and under proper circumstances can use them in

‘the task for which teeth were made, but it seems either to be unable or
unwilling to employ them as weapons, I have caught thousands of these

LAMPERN.—(Lamfetra fluviatilis.)

496 THE HAG-FISH.

fish with the bare fingers, and had six or seven fixed on my hand at the same
time ; but they never did the least harm, and though | am atflic'ed with a pecu-
liarly delicate skin, they did not even leave the least mars of their presence.

Like the sea lamprey, it scoops hollows in the pebbly bed of some stream
for the purpose of depositing its eggs, and removes the stones in like manner.
Sometimes a pair of Lamperns settle upon one spot, and, by dint of tugging
and hauling, make a cradle for their special benefit. But it often happens
that a great number of these fish, fifty or sixty, for example, will settle them-
selves in the same locality, and make a hollow as large as the rim of an
ordinary pail.

The flesh of the Lampern is remarkably excellent, and in many places,
remote from its habitation, is in great repute, and is indeed admired by
many who have not the least idea of the fish they are eating. A large part of
the “eel” pies so famous in the metropolis is composed of Lampern flesh,
and in the opinion of competent judges the substitute is better than the
reality. It can be dressed in a variety of ways, stewing and potting being
the favourites. Yet, as a general rule, the poorer portion of the community
refuse to eat the fish, and suffer the pangs of cruel hunger rather than avail
themselves of the rich banquet at their very doors.

THE MYXINE, or GLUTINOUS HaG-FISH, is so remarkably worm-like in its
form and general appearance, that it was classed with the annelids by several
authors, and was only placed in its proper position among the fishes after
careful dissection.

The Myxine is seldom taken when at large in the sea, but is captured while
engaged in devouring the bodies of other fish, to which it is a fearful enemy
in spite of its innocuous appearance. It has a custom of getting inside the
cod and similar fishes, and entirely consuming the interior, leaving only the
skin and the skel: ton
remaining. The fisher-
men have good reason
to detest the Myxine,
for it takes advantave
of the helpless state in
which the cod-fish hangs
: i on the hook, makes its

HAG-FISH, OR MYXINE.—(AZyxine glutinosa.) way into the interior,

and if the fish should

happen to be caught at the beginning of the tide, will leave but little flesh

on the bones. The cod thus hollowed are technically called “ robbed” fish.
Six Myxines have been found within the body of a single haddock.

The name of Glutinous Hag-fish is derived from the enormous amount of
mucous secretion which the Myxine has the power of pouring, from a double
fies apertures, set along the whole of the under surface, from the head to

he tail,

Around the lips of the Myxine are eight delicate barbules, which are
evidently intended as organs of touch ; the mouth is furnished with a single
hooked tooth upon the palate, serving apparently as an organ of prehension,
and the tongue is supplied with a double row of smaller, but powerful teeth
on each side, acting on the principle of a rasp. The Myxine can scarcely be
said to possess any bones, the only indication of a skeleton being the verte-
bral column, which is nothing more than a cartilaginous tube, through which
‘. probe can be passed in either direction.

_ the colour of the Hag-fish is dark brown above, taking a paler tint on the
sides, and greyish yellow below. Its length is generally about a foot or
fifteen inches.

THE LANCELET. 497

THE last of the fishes is a creature so unfishlike that its real position in
tue scale of nature was lung undecided, and the strange little being has been
banded about between the vertebrate and invertebrate classes. Between
these two great armies the LANCELET evidently occupies the neutral ground,
its structure partaking with such apparent equality of the characteristics of
each class, that it could not be finally referred to its proper rank until it had
been submitted to the most careful dissections. In fact, it holds just such a
position between the vertebrates as does the lepidosiren between the reptiles
and the fishes.

It has no definite brain, at all events it is scarcely better defined than in

many of the insect tribe, and only marked bya r ther increased and blunted
end of the spinal cord. _ It has no true heart, the place of that organ being
taken by pulsating vessels, and the blood being quite pale. It has no bones,
the muscles being merely attached to soft cartilage, and even the spinal cord
is not protected by a bony or even horny covering. The body is very trans-
parent, and is covered by a soft delicate skin without any scales. There are
no eyes, and no apparent ears, and the mouth is a mere longitudinal fissure
under that part of the body which we are compelled, for want of a better
term, to call the head, and its orifice is crossed by numerous cirrhi,
averaging from twelve to fifteen on each side. Altogether, it really seems to
bea less perfect and less developed animal than many of the higher molluscs.

The general aspect of the Lancelet is not unlike that of another fish called
the leptucephalus, the delicate transparent body and the diagonal arrange-
ment of the muscles causing a considerable resemblance between the two.
But the leptocephalus is at once distinguished by its head, which, although
very small in proportion to the body, is yet perfect, possessing well-developed
eyes, gill-covers, jaws, and teeth ; whereas the Lancelet has no particular
head, and neither eyes, gill-covers, jaws, nor teeth.

INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS.

INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS.
MOLLUSCS,

WE now come to the second great division into which all animated beings
have been distinguished. All the creatures which we have hitherto examined,
however different in form they may be, the ape and the eel being good
examples of this external dissimilarity, yet agree in one point, namely, that
they possess a spinal cord, protected by vertebra, and are therefore termed
Vertebrated animals.

But with the fishes ends the division of vertebrates, and we now enter upon
another vast division in which there is no true brain and no vertebra. These
creatures are classed together under the name of Invertebrate animals; a
somewhat insufficient title, as it is based upon a negative and not ona positive
principle. Whatever may be its defects, it has been too long received, and
is too generally accepted, to be disturbed by a new phraseology, and though
it be founded on the absence and not the presence of certain structures, it is
concise and intelligible.

THE first order of Invertebrate animals is called MOLLUSCA, a name
given to these creatures on account of the soft envelope which surrounds
their bodies.

THE highest of the molluscs are those beinys which are classed together
under the title of CEPHALOPODA. This term is derived from two Greek
words, the former signifying “a head,” and the latter “a foot,” and is applied
to these creatures because the feet, or arms as they might also be called, are
arranged in a circular manner round the mouth.

They are all animals of prey, and are furnished with a tremendous
apparatus for seizure and destruction. Their long arms are furnished with
round hollow discs, set in rows, each disc being a powerful sucker, and, when
applied to any object, retaining its hold with wonderful tenacity. The mode
by which the needful vacuum is made is simple in the extreme. The centre
of the disc is filled with a soft, fleshy protuberance, which can be withdrawn
at the pleasure of the owner. When therefore the edges of the disc are
aprlied to an object, and the piston-like centre withdrawn, a partial vacuum
is formed, and the disc adheres like a cupping-glass or a boy’s leather sucker.

These discs are all under the command of the owner, which can seize any
object with an instantaneous grasp, and relax its hold with equal celerity.
The arms are as movable and as useful to the cuttle-fish as the
proboscis to the elephant, for besides answering the purposes which have
been mentioned, they are also used as legs, and enable the creature to crawl
on the ground, the shell being then uppermost.

Our first example is the celebrated ARGONAUT, or PAPER NAUTILUS,
the latter title being given on account of the extreme thinness and fragility
of the shell, which crumbles under a heedless grasp like the shell of an egg,
and the former in allusion to the pretty fable which was formerly narrated of
its sailing powers. It is rather remarkable, by the way, that the shell of the
Argonaut is, during the life of its owner, elastic and yielding, almost as if it
were made of thin horn.

Two of the arms of the Argonaut are greatly dilated at their extremities ;
and it was formerly asserted, and generally believed, that the creature was
accustomed to employ these arms as sails, raising them high above the shell,
and allowing itself to be driven over the surface by the breeze, while it
directed its course by the remaining arms, which were suffered to hang over

502 THF PAPER NAUTILUS.

the edge of the shell into the water and acted like so many oars. In conse-
quence of this belief, the creature was named the Argonaut, in allusion to the
old classical fable of the ship Avgo and her golden treight. ;
Certainly, the 47go herself could not have carried a more splendid cargo
than is borne by the shell of the Argonaut when its inhabitant is living and
in its full enjoyment of life and health. The animal, or ‘poulp” as it is
technically called, is indeed a most lovely creature, despite of its unattractive
form. “It appeared,” writes Mr. Rang, when describing one of these
creatures which had been captured alive, “ little more than a shapeless mass,
but it was a mass of silver, with a cloud of spots of the most beautiful rose-
colour, and a fine dotting of the same, which heightened its beauty. A long
semicircular band of ultramarine blue, which melted away insensibly, was very
decidedly marked at one of its extremities, that is of the keel. A large mem’

ARGONAUT OR PAPER NAUTILUS.—(Argonauta Argo.)

brane covered all, and this membrane was the expanded velation of the arms,
which so peculiarly characterises the poulp of the Argonaut.

“The animal was so entirely shut up in its abode, that the head and base
of the arms only were a little raised above the edges of the opening of the
shell. On each side of the head a small space was left free, allowing the eyes
of the mollusc some scope of vision around, and their sharp and fixed gaze
appeared to announce that the animal was watching attentively all that passed
around it. The slender arms were folded back from their base, and inserted
very deeply round the body of the poulp, in such a manner as to fill in part
the empty spaces which the head must naturally leave in the much larger
Opening of the shell.”

M, Raag then procecds to show the real use of the expanced arms, whict

THE WEBBED SEPIA. 503

is to cover the shell on its exterior, and, as has since been definitely proved, to
build up its delicate texture and to repair damages, the substance ot the shell
being secreted by these arms, and by their broad expansions mouldedinto shape,

‘The modes of progression empioyed by the Argonaut are to the full as
wondrous as its fabled havits of sailing. Its progression by crawling has
already been casually mentioned. While thus engaged, the creature turns
itself so as to rest on its head, withdraws its body as tar as possible into its
shell, and, using its arms like legs, creeps slowly but securely along the
ground, sometimes affixing its discs to stones or projecting points of rocks
for the purpose of hauling itself along.

When, however, it wishes to attain greater speed, and to pass through the
wide waters, it makes use of a totally different principle.

As has already been mentioned, the respiration is achieved by the passage
of water over the double gills or branchiz ; the water, after it has completed
its purpose, being ejected through a moderately long tube, technically called
the sipnon. The orifice of the siphon is directed towards the head of the
animal, and it is by means of this simple apparatus that the act of progression
is effected. When the creature desires to dart rapidly through the water, it

WEBBED SEPIA.—(Cirrhoteuthis Multert.)
COMMON SEPIA.—(Sepia officinalis.)

gathers its six arms in a straight line, so as to afford the slightest possible
resistance to the water through which it passes, keeps its velated arms
stretched tightly over the shell, and then by violently ejecting water from
the siphon, drives itself, by the reaction, in the opposite direction.

As the various cephalopods are so numerous as to preclude all possibility of
figuring and describing each species, we must therefore content ourselves
with a typical form of each family and a general account of its members.

The lower figure in the illustration represents the common SEPIA of our

504 THE LITTLE SQUID.

own seas. It is chiefly remarkable for the chalky internal skeleton, commonly
called Cuttle-bone, and much used for the manufacture of tooth-powder.
This year, 18,5, 1 found eight of these bones on the sands at Margate, and
all within a space of a few yards square, The one is seen lying on the
right of the animal. ; : :

The upper figure is that of the WEBBED SEPIA, an inhabitant of Green-
land, and very rare. Its colour is violet. ;

THE species belonging to the fainily of the Octopodide, or Eight-armed
Cuttles, possess no external shell likc that of the nautilus, its place
being taken by two short styles or “pens” in the substance of the mantle.
There are eight arms, unequal in length, and furnished with double or single
rows of the suckers which have already been described.

They are solitary beings, voracious to a degiee, and so active that they
find little difficulty in capturing their prey or in escaping from the attacks
of their enemies. Even when pursued into the narrow precincts of a rock-
pool, the creature isnot easily caught. When threatened, or if apprehensive
of danger, the Polypus, as the animal was formerly called, darts with arrowy
swiftness from one side of the pool to the other. :

THE common OCroPuS is now familiar to all those who have visited the

LITTLE SQUID, OR SEPIOLA.—(Sefiola Atlantica.) OCTOPUS.—(Octopus vulgaris.)

great aquaria at Brighton and the Crystal Palace, where its extraordinary
movements and great power of the arms are well shown.

THE family of the Teuthide, popularly known as Calamaries, or Squids,
are distinguished by their elongated bodies, their short and broad fins. and
the horny shell or pen which is found in their interior. All the squids are very
active, and some species called, FLYING SQUIDS by sailors, and Ommastrephes
by systematic naturalists, are: able to dash out of the sea and dart to con-
siderable distances. ~

Oor present example of this family is the LITTLE SQuiD, or SEPIOLA, of
which genus six species are known, inhabiting mosi parts of the world, and
living on our own shores.

The celebrated “ink” of these creatures, from which the valuable colour
called “sepia” was formerly obtained, deserves a brief notice.

This substance is liquid, and is secreted in a sac popularly termed, from
its office, the “ink-bag.” The sac is filled with a spongy kind of matter, in
which the ink lies, and from which it can be forcibly expelled at the will of
the animal, - The ink-bag is not always in the same position, but some

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS. 505

species have it in the liver, others near the siphon, and others among the ~
viscera, There is a communication between the ink-bag and the siphon,
so that when the ink is ejected it is forcibly thrown out together with the
water. Thus the very effort for escape serves the double purpose of urgin g
the creature away from danger and discolouring the watcr in which it swims,

The animal can eject the ink with such force that it has been known to
dedecorate a naval officer's white duck trousers with its liquid missile, the
aggrieved individual always asserting that it took a deliberate aim for that
purpose,

Generally, the animal throws out its ink on the least alarm, a circumstance
of some importance in geology. It was discovered by Dr. Buckland that in
many specimens of fossil cephalopods, called scientifically Geoteuthis, z¢.,
Earth Squid, the ink-bag remained in the animal untouched by its long sojourn
within the earth, and even retained its quality of rapid mixture with water.
A drawing was actually made by Sir F. Chantrey, with a portion of “ sepia”
taken from a fossil species, and the substance proved to be of such excellent
quality, that an artist to whom the sketch was shown was desirous of learning
the name of the colourman who prepared the tint.

The curious skeleton of the Sepia, popularly called “ Cuttle-bone,” is com-
posed of many tiers of tiny chalk pillars, which can only be seen by the aid
of the microscope.

ANOTHER order of cephalopods is called by the name of Tetrabranchiata
or Four-gilled animals, because the organs of respiration are composed
of four branchia. These creatures possess a very strong external shell,
which is divided into a series of gradually-increasing compartments con-
nected together by a central tube called the siphuncle. As the animal grows,
it continues to enlarge its home, so that its age can be inferred from the
number of chambers comprising its shell.

In former days these creatures were very abundant, but in our day the
only known living representative is the CHAMBERED or PEARLY NAUTILUS,

While the animal still lives, the short tubes that pass through the walls of
the chambers are connected by membranous pipes, and even in a specimen
that has been long dead, these connecting links hold their places, provided
that the shell has not been subjected to severe shocks. In one of these
shells now before me, which I have very cautiously opened, the whole series
of membranous tubes can be seen in their places, black and shrivelled
externally, but perfect tubes nevertheless.

The colour of the shell is very beautiful. The ground is white, over which
are drawn, as with single dashes of a painter’s brush, sundry bold streaks of
reddish chestnut, mostly coalescing above, and reaching nearly to the centre
of the spiral. This porcelain-like material is, however, only an outer coat
laid on the real pearly substance of the shell, which is seen on looking into
the hollow or into any of the chambers. The Chinese avail themselves of
this double coating, and, with the untiring perseverance of their laborious
nature, take the greatest trouble to spoil the finest shells by covering them
with their grotesquely unperspective carvings of figures and landscapes, cut
so as to relieve the deep colour of the raised figures by the white pearly
backgrotind: Unlike the shell of the argonaut, which is almost as fragile
as if made.of sugar, that of the Nautilus is firm and s'rong, and will bear a
considerable amount of rough handling before betraying any signs of injury.

THE order which now comes before our notice is composed of animals
which ‘crawl upon a broad muscular organ, termed, from its use, the foot.
It is an enormously large order, containing all the snails, whether terrestrial,
aquatic, or marine, the whelks, limpets, and similar animals not so familiarly
known. Many species are much used as food, while others are of great

506 THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.

service in the arts, furnishing employment to many hundreds of workmen.
As the shell of these creatures consists of one piece or valve only, they are
sometimes termed Univalves, in contradistinction to the oysters, mussels,
scallops, and similar shells, which are termed Bivalves in allusion to their
double shell. :

There is a structure belonging to these animals which must be described
before proceeding further, inasmuch as 1s shape and comparative dimenr
sions often afford valuable indications by which a species, or even a genus
may be distinguished. This structure is called “onercnlum,” and its use,

CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.—(ivaucteus £vMpsttas.)

when fully developed, is to close the aperture of the shell when the animal
has withdrawn itself into the recesses of its home.

The operculum can be well seen in the water-snails, where it attains its
full size, and exactly fits the opening which it is intended to protect. The
material of which the operculum is essentially composed is a horny substance,
but in some species the horn is strengthened by layers of the same nacreous
matter which lines the shell, and becomes so thick and heavy, that when
found separate from its owner it is often mistaken for some species of shell.
The operculum is very variable both in its form and comparativesdimensions,
and even in its presence or absence. Sometimes it is circular, like a flat

WHELKS., 597

plate, and composed of concentric circles, while in some species it assumes
a resuiarly spiral form like a flattened watch-spriny. “

THE shells that are included in the family of the Muricidz may readily be
distinguished by the straight beak or canal in front, and the absence of any
such canal behind. All the animals belonging to this family are not only
carnivorous, but rapacious, preying on other molluscs, and destroying them
with the terrible armature called the tooth-ribbon, which, when examined with
the microscope, proves to be a set of adamantine teeth, sharp-edged and
pointed as those of the shark, and cutting their way through the hard shells
of their victims as the well-known cordon saw passes through thick blocks
of hard wood.

About one hundred and eighty species are known to belong to the typical
genus, and there is hardly a
portion of the world where
a Murex of some kind may
not be found.

The illustration represents
the shell which is popularly
known under the name of
THORNY WooDcock, the
latter title being given to it,
in common with several of
its congeners, on account of
its long beak, which is
thought to bear some resem- THORNY WOODCOCK.—(Murex tenuispinis.)
blance to that of the wood-
cock, and the former in allusion to the vast number of lengthened spines or
thorns which are arranged regularly over its surface. It has also received
the equally a propriate and more poetical name of VENUS'S COMB.

This shell is found in the Indian Ocean, and varies greatly in dimensions,
four or five inches being about the average length. It is evident that as
nothing is ever made in vain, or to be wasted, the wonderful array of external
spines must play some important part in nature, if not in the economy of
the particular species. But what that part may be, and what may be the
object of these beautiful structures, is a problem which seems almost
insoluble, at all events with our present means of discovery.

The colour of the shell is very pale brown, each ridge being slightly tuber-
culated and edged with white. The spines are uniform drab or very pale
brown, with an almost horny translucence, ;

WE now arrive at another and rather larger family, of which the common
WHELK is a familiar example.

This is one of the most carnivorous of our
molluscs, and among the creatures of its own
class is as destructive as the lion among the
herds of antelopes. Its long tongue, armed
with row upon row of curved and sharp-edged
teeth, harder than the notches of a file, and
keen as the edge of a lancet, is a most irre-
sistible instrument when rightly applied, drill- :
ing a circular hole through the thickest shells WHELK.—(Buccinum
as easily as a carpenter’s centre-bit works its «nidarin.)
way through a deal board.

The front of the tongue often has its teeth sadly broken, or even wanting
altogether, but their place. is soon supplied by others, which make their
way gradually forward, and are brought successively into use as wanted.

508 WHELKS.

As a general rule, there are about a hundred rows of teeth in the Whelk’s
tongue ; each row contains three teeth, and each tooth is deeply cleft
on notches, which practically gives the creature so many additional
teeth.

Vast quantities of Whelks are taken annually for the markets, and are
consumed almost wholly by the poorer classes, who consider them in the
light of a delicacy. They are, however, decidedly tough and stringy in
texture, and, like the periwinkle, which is also largely eaten, are not
eer digestible. The mode of taking these molluscs is very simple.

arge wicker baskets are baited with the refuse portions of fish and
lowered to the bottom of the sea by ropes. The ever-hungry Whelks
instinctively discover the feast, crowd into the basket by thousands, and are

IMPERIAL HARP-SHELL.—(Harga imperialts.)

taken by merely raising the laden basket to the surface and emptying it into
atub. Sometimes the Whelk is captured by the dredge, but the haited
basket is the quickest and surest method. Besides its use as an arti le of
human consumption, it is sometimes employed by the fishermen as bait for
their hooks.

The reader will doubtless have observed on the sea-shore considerable
masses of little yellowish capsules, mostly empty, and so light as to be
drifted on the surface of the sea like so many masses of corks. These are
the empty egg-cases of the Whelk. At the proper season of the year, when
the unhatched egg-clusters are flung on the shores by the gales, the little
Whelks can be di-covered within the capsules, several shells being found in
each case. Later in the season, the egg-capsules will be seen to be split
open at one end, so as to allow the young to escape.

THE MAGILUS. 509

When hatched, the young escape into the sea through a round hole in
the capsule.

The sweeping curves, broad swelling lip, and regular ridges of the next
genus of shells have earned for them the popular title by which they aie
known.

About nine or ten species belong to this pretty genus, some of which are
rare and costly. The IMPZRIAL HARP-SHELL, which is represented in
the engraving on page 508, is still a valuable shell ; but in former days, when
the facilities of commerce were far less than at present, it could only be
purchased at a most extravagant rate.

The Harp-shells are only found in the hottest seas, and are taken mostly
on the shores of the Mauritius, Ceylon, and the Philippine Islands. They
frequent the softer and more muddy parts of the coast, and prefer deep to
shallow water. None of the harp-shells possess the operculum.

The colour of the Imperial-harp is pale chrstnut and white, with a dash
of yellow, arranged in tolerably regular and slightly spiral bands.

ONE of the strangest, though not the most beautiful, of shells is the
MAGILUS, a native of the Red Sea and the Mauritius.

On reference to the illustration, the reader will see two figures, one repre-

Mid
H(t
‘i
a

MAGILUS.—(Magilus antiquus.)

senting a group of madrepores, in which a small and delicate shell is lying,
and the other a long, crumpled, and partly spiral tube, with a shell at one end
and an opening at the other. Strange as the assertion may seem, these two
figures represent the same animal in two stages of its development.

For the purpose, apparen'ly, of carrying out some mysterious object, the
Magilus resides wholly in the masses of madrepore, and in its early vouth is
a thin delicate shell without anything remarkable about it. As it advances
in age, it enlarges in size, as is the case with most creatures ; but its growth is
cenfined to one direction, and instead of enlarging in diameter, it merely
increases in length. The cause of the continual addition made to its length is
probably to be found in the growth of the madrepore in which it is sheltered,
and which would soon inclose the Magilus within it stony walls, did not the

510 CONE SHELLS.

mollusc provide against such a fate by lengthening its shell and taking up
its residence in the mouth.

The most curious point, however, in the ecoriomy of the Magilus is, that
as fast as it adds a new shell in front, it fills up the cavity behind with a solid
concretion of shelly matter, very hard, and of an almost crystalline structure,
so as to leave about the same amount of space as in the original shell. The
animal is always to be found in the very front of the shelly tubé, and closes
the aperture with a strong operculum that effectually shields it against all foes,

WE now pass to the CONE-SHELLS, or Conidz, a family so called on
account of their form. All the Cones have a similar external outline: the
aperture is long and narrow, the head of the living animal is more or less
lengthened, the foot is splay and abruptly cut off in front, the tentacles are
rather widely separate, and the eyes are placed upon these organs.

The right-hand figure represents the TEXTILE CUNE-SHELL, brought from
the Mauritius. This handsome species is about four or five inches in length
and its markings are curiously disposed, so that it is impossible to say which

ADMIRAL CONE.—(Conus ammiralis.) TEXTILE CONE.—(Conus textilis.)

is the ground colour. The dark, narrow, angular lines are dark brown,
accompanied by white, and variegated by dashes of yellowumber. The bold
triangular spots are pure white, and the inside of the shell is of the same colour.

The empty shell lying on the ground, at the left of the illustration, is the
ADMIRAL CONE, and is placed so as to exhibit the peculiarities of the long
and narrow aperture. This species, in common with the other members of
the genus, haunts the fissures and holes in rocks, and the warmer pools in
coral reefs. They all take a moderate range of depth, varying from one to
forty fathoms.

WE now come to the family of the Cowries, or Cypraide, two representa-
tives of which family aregiven on page 511.

All the Cowries are lovers of the shallow waters near shore, and are
carnivorous in their habits, feeding mostly unon the numerous zoophytes
that inhabit the same coasts. These shells change their forms in a truly
remarkable manner. When young, the shell is very like that of a volute
having a prominent spire and a rather wide-spreading lip ; but in process of

COIWRIES, 511

time the lobes of the mantle expand over it on either side, and by degrees
deposit so thick a layer of smooth, shining substance, that the spire is
entirely hidden. The pale streak which generally exists along the back of
the Cowries indicates the line where the edges of the mantle nearly meet.

This little Cowry is so well known as to need no description.

The celebrated MONEY CowrRY (Cyfr@a moneta) belongs to this genus.
These little white shells are well known as being the medium
of barter in many parts of Western Africa; and vast
multitudes are gathered from their home in the Pacific and
Eastern seas, and imported intu this country for the purpose
of immediate exportation to the African coast. Sixty
tons’ weight of Money Cowries have been freighted at a single
British port in one year. MONE COWR Ye

The grooved or wrinkled edges of the lip are well known (Aric a mone a)
to everyone who has handled a Cowry, and these ridges
assume a remarkable development in the DEEP-TOOTHED Cowry. a figure
of which is here given, the empty shell being laid so as to exhibit the opening
and the lips. The colour of this shell is extremely variable, but is mostly a
mottled wood-brown, sometimes diversified with bands, and dark inside. It
is not a very large species.

WE now arrive at a vast army of shells called the SEA SNAILS, and
distinguished by having the edges of the aperture without notches, the
shell spiral or limpet-shaped, and the operculum either horny or covered with
hard, smooth, shelly matter.

One of the most curious of these shells is the SPINED NERITINA. The
operculum is shelly, with a flexible border, and has some small teeth on its
strait edge. All the Neritinze are globular in their general shape, darkly

DEEP-TOUTHED COWRY.—(Cyr@a caurica.) SPINED NERITINA.—(WVeritina spinosa),

spotted or banded with black and purple, and covered with a polished bone-
like epidermis. The colour of the Spined Neritina is deep green black on
the exterior and blackish white within. The sheli is thick and solid at the
aperture, but becomes thinner towards the interior.

IN the tamily of the Turritellidze, the shell is either tubular or spiral ; the
aperture is not waved, notched, or formed into canals ; the foot is very small,
the muzzle is short, and the eyes sunk rather deeply into the base of the
tentacles.

THE lower figure in the accompanying engraving represents thé empty shell
of the STAIR-CASE or PRECIOUS WENTLETRAP, in former days cne of the
scercest and most costly of the specimens of which a conchologist’s cabinet

gt2 WENTLETRAP SHELLS.

could boast. There was hardly any sum which a wealthy connoisseur or
virtuoso, as the fashion was then to call those who were fond of natura:
history, would not give for an especially large and perfect example of this
really pretty shell. Now, however, its glory has departed, for a tolerably good
specimen may be procured for a few shillings, and a Wentletrap which would
afew years ago have been sold for fifty pounds can now be purchased for
fifteen shillings.

Putting aside, however, the question of rarity or cost, this shell is a very
interesting one, both for its beauty and the mode of its construction. It is
purely white, and partly transparent, the elevated ridges being of a more
snowy white than the body of the shell, on account of their superior thick-
ness, which does not permit the light to pass through them as in the case of
the thinner body. The whorls of this shell are separate from each other
and, apparently bound together only by the projecting ridges, so that the
general appearance is as if a long conical tube had been loosely coiled, and
each whorl kept in its place by a succession of shelly elevations. This
beautiful shell is found in the Indian and Chinese seas.

COMMON WENTLETRAP.—(Scalaria communis.)
STAIRCASE WENTLEIRAP.—(Scalaria prettosa.)

the COMMON or FALSE WENTLETRAP, a species tolerably common upon
our coasts.

In this shell, the whorls are united together and furnished with a number of
circular elevations, which, however, are not nearly so bold as those of the
preceding species, but thick in proportion to their height, set obliquely on
the shell, and smooth.

WE now arrive at another famiy, termed the Litorinide, or Shore
Molluscs, because the greater number of them frequent the coasts, and feed
upon the various algz. The shell is always spiral and never pearly, by
which latter characteristic it may be distinguished from certain shells
belonging to another family, hut somewhat similar in external appearance.
The aperture is rounded. The animal has its eye set at the outer base of

FHEASANT SHELLS. 513,
the tentacles, and the foot is remarkable for a longitudinal groove along the
sole,:so that in the act of walking each side advances initsturn. The tungue
is rather long, and is armed with a formidable series of shai p teeth that serve
admirably for the purpose of scraping away the vegetable matter on which the
animal feeds. The operculum is horny, and rather spiral. The common
PERIWINKLE (Litor-na Litorea) is the most familiar example of this family, and
is too well known to need any detailed description.
The Periwinkle is found upon our rocks in great pro-
fusion, occupying the zone between high and low water
and always being found near the edge of the tide.

In former days, the PHEASANT-SHELLS were
articles of great price and rarity, somt specimens
almost rivalling the precious wentletrap in the enor-
mous sums asked and obtained for tiem. Now,
however, that their habitations have been dis-
covered and more frequent voyages are made,
they have become comparatively plentiful, although,
from the fragility of their structure, a perfect speci- ass
men is not at all common, and will still bring PERIWINKLE. —(Liforina
a good price in the conchological market. seta)

The Pheasant shells are now found in great numbers on the sandy beaches
of several shores, being especiaily pientifm on the coast of Port. Western
in Bass’s Straits. The high tide sweeps them towards the shore, where
they. are left by the receding waters, and seek for shelter beneath the masses
of sea-weed that are always flung on the beach by thetide. On lifting these
sheltering weeds, the Pheasant-shells may be found crowded together under

COMMON ToP.—(Zrochus zi2vphinus.)
AUSTRALIAN PHEASANT SHELL.—(Phasianell: Australis.)

their wet fronds. They can move with some speed, the duplicate nature
of the foot aiding them greatly in progression.

The little pointed shell on the left side of the illustration is the well-known
Top of our own shores.

This little shell, which is here represented of the natural size, is one of the
LL

5I4 LIMPETS AND MAILSHELLS,

most plentiful species of the British coasts, and may be found by hundreds
either crawling among the sea weeds at low water, or flung upon the sands by
the tide. The shell of this creature is beautifully pearly, and when the outer
coating is removed the iridescent nacre below has a very lovely appearance.
Jewellers and lapidaries employ these shells largely in their art, polishing
them carefully and then stringing them together so
as to form bracelets and necklaces, or affixing them
as ornaments to various head-dresses.

THE well-known univalves, so familiar under the

am name of LIMPETS, are divided ino several families,

LIMPET..—(/aéel/a 0M account of certain variations in the structure of

vulgares.) the shell. The first family is termed Fissurellida,

on account of the fissure which appears either at
the apex or in the front edge of the shell.

Allthe Limpets are strongly adhesive to rocks,
as is well known by everyone who has tried to remove
one of these molluscs from the stony surface to
which they clung. The means by which the animal
is able to attach itself with such firmness is ana-
logous to the mode in which the suckers of the

oo cuttle-fish adhere to the objects which they seize,
iinpET the formation of a vacuum, and the consequent

(Showing underside.) Pressure of the atmoshere, being the means em-

ployed. The foot of the Limpet is rounded, broad,
thick, and powerful ; and when the animal wishes to cling tightly to any
substance, it presses the foot firmly upon the surface, and retracts its centre,
while its edges remain atfixed to the rock. A partial vacuum is therefore
formed, and the creature becomes as firmly attached to the rock as a boy’s
leathern sucker to the stone on which he has pressed it.

WE now cuime to the curious family of molluscs called appropriately
Chitonide, or Mailshells, because their
shells are jointed together like the pieces
of plate armour. When separated from
each other, the plates bear a strong resem-
blance to the joint of a steel gauntlet, aud
overlap each other in a similar fashion,
a thick and-strong mantle taking the
place of the leather. There are eight of
es these plates, and all of them have a some-
MARETET cHITON.—( Chiton what saddle-like shape. A similar arrange-

ment may be observed in the lower ab-
dominal plates of n-any beetles. Each of
these plates is fixed to the mantle by certain rounded processes from their
front edge, and when the plates are examined separately the processes will
be plainly seen, white and pearly, as the interior of the shell.

The Chitons are able to roll themselves up in a partial kind of manner,
and present a curious resemblance to the well-known armadillo, or pill
woodlouse.

The illustration represents the MARBI! ED CHITON, arather prettily-coloured
shell, its exterior being rusty red mixed with brown and yellow, and edged
with brown.

PASSING from the sea to the land, we come to those Gasteropods which
breathe atmospheric air, and are furnished with respiratory organs suited to
the element in which they live.

The first family is that of the SNAILS, or Helicida, containing a vast

murmoreus.)

SLUGS. 515

number of species. Most of the Snails have a shell large enough to permit
the animal to withdraw itself wholly into the protecting domicile.

The genus Helix, which is universally accepted as the type of this family,
is of enormous extent, both in numbers and in range of locality, containing
more than tourteen hundred species, and spread nearly over the whole
earth,

Our present example is the common SNAIL, which is even now largely con-
sumed in many parts of the world, and is regularly fed and fattened for that

urpose.
ee thought a delicacy by those who are sufficiently strong-minded to eat
it; and it is quite common to see, even in Paris, the poorer orders dressing
their dinner of Snails on an iron plate, heated over burning charcoal.

An allied species, the Edible Snail, (4/ed¢% pomatia) was introduced into
England by tue Romans, and still exists in many places.

Towards the end of autumn, the Snail ceases to feed, withdraws itself to
some sheltered spot, mostly under grass, moss, or dried leaves, and then
.sets about making its winter habitation. This process is very curious, and
is thus described by Mr Bell :—

“ A large quantity of very viscid mucus is secreted on the under surface of the
foot, to which a layer of earth or dead leaves adheres ; this is turned on one
side, and, a fresh secretion being
thrown out, the layer of earth mixed
with mucus 1s left. ‘he animal then
takes another layer of earth on the
bottom of the foot, turns it also to the
part where he intends to form the
wall of his habitation and leaves it 3&8
in the same manner, repeating the “-
process until the cavity is sufficiently \<
large, and thus making the sides
smooth, even, and compact. In form-
ing the dome or arch of the chamber,
a similar method is used; the foot
collecting on its under surface a quantity of earth, and the animal, turning
it upwards, leaves it by throwing out fresh mucus ; and this is repeated until
a perfect roof is formed.

“As I have very often watched this curious process, I am certain of the
facts. On removing very carefully the portion of the roof soon after
its completion, I was enabled to see the formation of the operculum.
In about an hour, or even less, the whole surface of the collar of the
mantle instantaneously pours out the calcareous secretion in considerable
quantity.

“This is at first a fluid or thick cream, but very soon acquires exactly the
consistence of birdlime, being excessively adhesive and tenacious ; and in
about an hour after it is poured out it is perfectly solid.”

WE. now arrive at the great family of Limacide, or SLUGS, a race of
beings which many a gardener doubtless wishes extinct.

In these creatures the foot and body are indistinguishable from each other ;
the head is retractile ; and the whole creature can be gathered into a short
rounded mass, looking so like a pebble that it would escape a casual glance.
At the first view, the Slugs appear to be destitute of shell, but on a closer
examination the shell is found upon the fore part of the body, and either
entirely or partly buried beneath the integuments. d

The GREAT GREY SLUG is the largest of the British species, and when
furnished with abundant food on which it can fatten itself during the night,

LL2

COMMON SNAIL.—(Helix aspersa.)

516 NUDIBRANCHS,

and a secure hiding-place, whither it can retreat during the day, often attains
an enormous size.

THe Water Snails are represented by the common POND-SNAIL, or
Limn@a, shown in the act of climbing up the stem of a water-plant. In
all the members of this family the shell is thin, and sufficiently capacious to
contain the entire animal when it desires to_withdraw itself into its home.
The aperture is simply rounded, without notches or ridges, and the lip is
sharp.

It may be found plentifully in nearly all streams where the water is not
polluted, and the current not very swift. I have genecally found that the
back eddies of ‘‘lashers” are favourite haunts of various Water Snails.

DORIS.—(Doris Fohnstoni,)

WATER SNAIL, —(Limnea stagnalis.) EOLIS.—(Zolis coronata.)

WE now arrive at a very remarkable series of molluscs which have been
separated by systematic naturalists into a distinct section, appropriately
called Nudibranchide, or Naked-gilled Molluscs, because their gills are
always external and placed on the back or sides of the animals.

The slug-like animal which is represented crawling on the frond of a
laminaria, is the common Doris of our own shores. All the members of his
family to which this creature belongs may be known by the plume-like gills
set in a circle on the middle of the back, like the feathery coronet with

PTEKOPODA. 517

which the Blackfoot Indian adorns the head of his horse, and the two
tentacles placed more towards the front. In the skin are imbedded a vast
number of little spicules.

The beautiful EOLIs is common on our own coasts, and may be seen
moving over the plants and stones with tolerable activity and always keeping
the tentacles and papillze in motion, sometimes contracting and sometimes
extending them, while the movement of the water causes them to wave in a
very graceful manner. These papilla possess the property of discharging
a milky kind of fluid when the animal is irritated. The fluid, however, is
quite harmless, at all events to the human skin. As in the previous case, the
papille are liable to fall off at a touch.

A SMALL, but important, group of molluscs now comes before us. These
are the Pteropoda, or Wing-footed Molluscs, so called from the fin-like lobes
that project from the sides, and are evidently analogous to the similar organs
in some of the sea-suails. These appendages are used almost like wings,
the creature flapping its way vigorously through the water, just as a butterfly

HYALEA.—(Hya/ra tridentata.) CLEODORA.—(Cleodora pyramidata.)
(Empty shell below.)

urges its devious course through the air. They are found in the hotter seas,
swimming boldly in vast multitudes amid the wide waters, and one species
(Clioborealis) has long been celebrated as furnishing the huge Greenland
whale with the greater part of its subsistence. ‘
. The curious figure on the left hand of the illustration is the HYALEA,
remarkable not only for the two wide fins which are found in all the family
to which it belongs, but for the long appendages which pass through certain
apertures in the shell, and trail behind as the creaturé proceeds on its course.
It will be also seen that the wings are united by a nearly semicircular lobe.
The empty shell is placed below in order to show its structure. .
Just on the right of the Hyalea is a smaller creature, with an odd-looking
three-pointed shell, hanging as it were from the wings. This is the
CLEODORA, a very beautiful and interesting animal, of which Mr. F. D.

518 THE SCALLOP.

Bennett writes as follows :—“On that part of the body which is lodged in
the apex of the shell, there is a small, globular, pellucid body, resembling a
vesicle, and which at night emits a luminous gleam, sufficiently vivid to be
visible even when it is opposed to the strong light of a lamp. It is the only
example of a luminous shell-fish I have ever met with ; nor would the
luminosity of this species be of any avail, did not the shell possess a
structure so vitreous and transparent. Examples were chiefly captured at
night or in the evening.

THE next great group of molluscs is that which is known by the technical
term of Conchifera. In them each valve corresponds with the right or left side.

In the first family, of which the common OYSTER is a very familiar
instance, the two valves are unequal in size, and the animal inhabits the sea.
The Oyster is too weil known to need description ; but it may be mentioned,
that practical naturalists have for some years been carefully studying its
habits, for the purpose of breeding the valuable molluscs artificially, and so
of securing a constant supply throughout the four months of the year during
which the creature is out of condition. In this country the system is being
gradually carried out, but in France it is developed to a very large extent,
and with great success.

THE next family are termed wing-shells, or Avicularidze because the
apices, or “ umbones” as they are called, are flattened and spread on. either

OYSTER. —(Ostrea edulis.) SCALLOP. —(Pecten jacobeus.)

side something like the wing of a bird. The interior of the valves is pearly
and the exterior layer is composed of a kind of mosaic work of five or six
sided particles. This structure is easily to be seen by means of a
moderately powerful simple lens, merely by holding upa scallop or other shell
before the window, so as to allow the light to piss through it.

THE common SCALLOP is found along our southern coasts, and in the seas
of Europe. This shell was formerly used as the badye of a Pilgrim to the
Holy Land.

‘* ____ His pilgrim’s staff he bore,
And fix’d the Scallop in his hat before.”

It is a singular fact, that in the stomach of a common Scallop is found an
earthy deposit, which, when boiled in nitric acid in order to dissolve the
animal and other portions, exhibits under a powerful microscope animalcules

MUSSELS. 519

precisely similar to those which, in a fossil state, form the earth on which
the town of Richmond in America is built, THR well-known PEARL
OvSTER is one of the most valuable of the shell-bearing molluscs, furnishing
the greater part of the pearls that are set by jewellers and worn by ladies.

The pearls are secreted by the animal in precisely the same manner as the
nacre of the shell, and are, indeed, the same substance, formed into a
globular shape, and disposed in concentric layers so as to give that peculiar
translucency which is quite indescribable, but is known among jewellers by
the name of “ water.”

The Pearl Oyster does not produce its costly harvest under six or seven
years of age, and it is therefore a matter of importance that the bed should
be so managed that the young Oysters may be suffered to remain in peace
until they have attained an age which renders them capable of repaying the
expense of procuring them, and that no part of the bed should be harried where
the Oysters are too small to produce pearls.

The Oysters are now obtained by means of men who are trained to the
business, and who can remain under water for a considerable time without
being drowned. Each diver takes with him a net-bag for the purpose of

PEARL OYSTER.—( Méleagrina Margarilifera.) MUSSEL. —(Mytilus Edulis.)

holding the Oysters, puts his foot into a stirrup, to which hangs a stone
weighing about thirty pounds, and after taking a long breath is swiftly carried
to the bottom. He then flings himself on his face, fills his bag as fast as
he can, and when his breath begins to fail, shakes his rope as a signal, and
is drawn up together with the bag.

WF. now come to the large, useful, and even beautiful family of the
MUSSELS.

THE EDIBLE MUSSEL, so common in the fishmonger’s shop and the coster-
monger’s barrow, is found in vast profusion on our coasts, where it may be
seen moored to rocks, stones, and fibres, alternately covered with water or
left dry according to the flowing and ebbing of the tide. At some periods
of the year the Mussel is extremely injurious as an article of food,though the
_effects seem to depend greatly on the constitution of the partaker. Attempts
have been successfully made to propagate the breed of Mussels; and the

520 RAZOR-SHELLS.

vast plantations, as they may be called, of these creatures have increased to
such an extent, that they threaten to obliterate several useful bays for all
maritime purposes. :
Soe _ THE family of the COCKLES, or Cardiadz, so called
YOM from their heart-like shape, is well represented by
uw the common COCKLE (Carazum edule) of our British
shores. Generally, the Cockle is a marine animal ;
but it sometimes prefers brackish water to the salt
waves of the ocean.

This mollusc frequents sandy be a8 donate

p about low-water mark, burying itself in the sand by
Te means of the powerful foot, which enables it to leap
to a surprising height.

WE now come to the well-known Solenidz or RAZOR-SHELLS, so called on
account of their shape. ;

These curious molluscs always live buried in the sand in an upright
position, leaving only an opening shaped like a key-hole, which corresponds
with the two siphon tubes.

COMMON RAZOR-SHELL.—(Solen vagina.)

These creatures are generally found at a depth of one or two feet, and
when they make their burrows, as they are often in the habit of doing among
the rocks, not even the hooked iron can draw them from their retreat.

Pippock.—(Pholas dactylus.)

WE next come to the Pholas. the best example of which is the common
species popularly called PIDDOCK, and found in profusion along the sea-
coast.

The common Piddock may be found in vast numbers in every sea-covered
chaik rock, into which it has the gift of penetrating so as to protect itself
from almost every foe.

Mr. Woodward remarks, very justly, that the “ condition of the Pholades is
always related to the nature of the material in which they are found burrow-
ing ; in soft-sea beds they attain the largest size and greatest perfection, whilst
in hard and especially gritty rock they are dwarted in size, and all prominent
points and ridges appear worn by friction. No notice is taken of the hypo-
thesis which ascribes the perforation of rocks, &c., to ciliary action, because

POLYZOA. 525

in fact there is no current between the shell, or siphon, and the wall of the
tube.” As soon as the animal has completely buried itself it ceases to bur-
row, and only projects the ends of the siphon from the aperture of the tunnel.

ALLIED to the preceding molluscs is the SHIPWORM, so called from its
depredations on the bottoms of ships and all submerged wooden structures ;
it is found in most seas, and on our own coasts works fearful damage by

SHIv-WOKM. —( Zeredo nuvaiis.)

eating into piles, planks, or even loose wood that lies tossing about in
the ocean.

When removed from the tube the Shipworm is seen to be a long greyish
white animal, about one foot in length and half an inch in thickness. At one
end there is a rounded head, and at the other a forked tail. The curious
three-lobed valves are seen on the right hand as they appear before being
separated from the animal. The burrow which the creature forms is either
wholly or partially lined with shell, and it is worthy of notice that the Ship-

worm and its mode of burrowing was the object that gave Sir I, Brunel the
idea of the Thames Tunnel.

POLYZOA.

THE very remarkable beings which now come before our notice are appro-
priately termed PoLyzoa, from two Greek words, signifying “many animals,”

~ D
Me

A. Catenicella lorica. B. Catenicella hastata. C. Catenicella cornuta.
D. Calpidium ornatum. _E. Salcornaria sarciminnides. F. Cellularia Peachit.
G. Menipea Fuguensis, (Mouth of a cell.)

becase a large number of individuals are massed together in groups of
various forms and textures.

522 POLYZOA.

taken from Bass’s Straits, at a depth of
forty-five fathoms. As a general rule,
however, the Polyzoa prefer the shal-
lower waters, and are most commonly
found a little below low-water mark.

Fig. C is another species belonging
to the same genus, and is remarkable
for the long pointed spines that project
from the margin, like a pair of cow’s
horns. In allusion to this peculiarity it
is called Catentcella cornuta.

At Fig. D is shown another curious
polyzoon, termed Calpidium ornatum,
also found in Bass’s Straits, at the same
depth as the preceding species. A magnified figure is given in order to
show the singular method of its construction.

An example of the typical genus of this family is given at Fig. E, where
the Sadicornaria farciminoides is represented of the natural size.

WE now arrive at another family, the Cellularidze, where the general shape
resembles that of the preceding family, but the cells, instead of being arranged
round an imaginary axis, and so forming cylindrical branches, are arranged
on the same plane. Fig. F is a magnified example of this family, the
Cellularia Peachi so called in honour of the eminent naturalist, Mr. Peach.

At Fig. G is shown the mouth of a single cell, belonging to the genus
Menipea, found in Terra del Fuego, and termed from its habitat, Wenipea
Fuguensts. The object of giving this example is to show the curious “ oper-
culum” which closes or rather guards the mouth of the cell, and in this
genus is in the form of a simple spike. This species is found at low-water.

EVERYONE who has walked along the seashore must have observed the
pretty leaf-like Sea Mats strewn on the beach, and admired the wonderful
regularity of their structure, perceptible to the naked eye; but when
magnified, even by a pocket lens, their beauty increases in proportion to the
power employed, and the marvellous arrangement of the cells and the orderly
system in which they are placed are almost beyond belief. Beautiful, how-
ever, as they are in this state, they are but the dead and lifeless habitations
of the creatures who built the wondrous cells, and the only method of

: we i
SAMA
Hi

.

i

Hy Ls

i)

A. Flustra foliacea (Sea Mat.)
B. Flustra Jolacea (magni fied.)

THE HORNWRACK. 523

showing the Sea Mat in its full glory is to take a living specimen from
the stone or she-l to which it is affixed, and watch it under the microscope
while the creatures are still in full activity. In the illustration, Fig. A, is
shown a portion of the common Sea Mat, sometimes called the Hornwrack,
of its natural size; and Fig. B represents a few cells of the same species
rather highly magnified.

On the upper-right hand cell may be seen the funnel-shaped group of
tentacles belonging to one of the animals, and in the centre is a curiously
shaped cell, which is analogous to the birds’ heads which we have so lately
examined, the place of the lower jaw being supplied by a kind of lid.

INSECTS.

THE INSECTS, to which we must devote a few pages, afford the first
examples of the Articulata, z.2., the jointed animals without vertebre. Their
bodies are composed of a series of rings, and they are separated into at least
two and mostly three portions ; the head being distinct from the body. They
pass through a series of changes before attaining the perfect form ; and when
they have reached adult age they always possess six jointed legs, neither
more nor less, and two antenne, popularly called horns or feelers.

In most instances their preliminary forms, technically called the larva and
pupa, are extremely unlike the perfect Insect ; but there are some in which,
at all events externally, they retain the same shape throughout their entire
life. The whole of the growth takes place in the preliminary stages, so that
the perfect insect never grows, and the popular idea that a little insect is
necessarily a young one is quite incorrect.

Insects breathe in a very curious manner. They have no lungs nor gills,
but their whole body is permeated with a network of tubes, through which,
the air is conveyed, and by means of which the blood is brought into contact
with the vivifying influence of the atmosphere. These breathing tubes,
technically called trachee, ramify to every portion of the creature, and
penetrate to the extremities of the limhs, the antennz, and even thé wings,
when those organs exist. Their external orifices are called spiracles, and are
set along the sides.

They have very little internal skeleton, the hard materials which protect
the soft vital organs being placed on the exterior, and forming a beautiful coat
of mail, so constructed as to defend the tender portions within, and yet to
permit perfectly free motion on the part of the owner.

There are many other interesting points in the structure of the Insects,
such as the eyes, the wings, the trachez, &c., which will be described in the
course of the following pages.

The first order is called the Coleoptera, a word of Greek origin, signifying
sheathed winged animals, and includes all those insects which are more
popularly known under the title of Beetles. In these insects the front pair
of wings are modified into stout horny or leathery cases, under which the
second pair of wings are folded when not in use. The hinder pair of wings
are transparent and membranous in their structure, and when not employed
are arranged under the upper pair, technically called the elytra, by folds in
two directions, one being longitudinal and the other transverse. The mouth
is furnished with jaws, often of considerable power, which move horizontally.

PASSING over the details of classification, we come to the first family of
Insects, scientifically called the Cicindelida, and popularly known by the
name of TIGER BEETLES, or Sparklers, both names being very appropriate ;
the former on account of their exceeding voracity, their ferocious habits, and
the wonderful activity of their movements ; and the latter in allusion to the
brilliancy of their colours as they flash along in the sunshine. These Beetles
are represented by several British species, among which the common TIGER
BEETLE (Cicindela campestris) is the most common, and perhaps the most
beautiful. Well does this little creature deserve its popular name ; for what
the dragon-fly is to the air, what the shark is to the sea, the Tiger Beetle is
to the earth; running with such rapidity that the eye can hardly follow its
course ; armed with jaws like two reapers’ sickles crossing each other at the
points ; furnished with eyes that project from the sides of the head and per-

TIGER BEETLES. 525

mit the creature to see in every direction without turning itself; and, lastly,
gifted with agile wings that enable it to rise in the air as readily as a flyora
wasp. Moreover, it is covered with a suit of mail, gold embossed, gem
studded, and burnished with more than steely brightness, light yet strong,

TIGER BEETLE, EIGHT-SPOT TIGER BEETLE.—(Cicind la octoxotata.)

and though freely yielding to every movement, yet so marvellously jointed as
‘o leave no vulnerable points even when in full action, and. in fine, sucha
suit of armour as no monarch ever possessed and no artist ever conceived.

Even in its larval state the Tiger Beetle is a terror to other insects, snapping
them up as they pass by its burrows and dragging them into the dark recesses
of the earth to be devoured. Several American species inhabit trees, and
are quite as destructive among the branches as their congeners upon the
earth, The typical species which is represented in the illustration is the
EIGHT-SPOT TIGER BEETLE of India.

The British Tiger Beetle is remarkable for exuding a powerful scent, much
resembling the odour produced by a crushed verbena leaf.

A VERY large and important famiry of Beetles, the Carabidz, now comes
before us, which is represented in England by very
many species, the common GROUND BEETLES being
familiar examples.

Of the typical genus of this family we take the
Violet Ground Beetle (Carabus violaceus) as an ex-
ample.

This fine Beetle is plentiful in this country, and
may be found in gardens, gravel-pits, and similar
localities. It is said to be especially common in the
midland counties.

The elytra are rather convex, and narrowed at the
shoulder, and are finely granulated, z ¢., covered with
minute rounded projections, They are black; but
the margins are e.lged with a band of coppery or
golden violet, sometimes warming into purple. The
body is black beneath. The disc of the thorax is
black, and the margins are violet; and the head
is black. The length of the beetle is about an inch.

The members of this genus are almost wholly VIOLET GROUND BEETLE.
inhabirants of temperate climates ; and it has been fest aie wiaacess)
stated that scarcely any species are to be found within thirty degrees from
the equator on either side,

526 WATER BEETLES.

WE now come to the large group of WATER BEETLES, which are divided
into several families. ; ;

In order to enable them to perform the various movements which are
necessary for their aquatic existence, their hind legs are developed into oars
with flattened blades and stiff hairy fringes, and the mode of respiration is
slightly altered in order to accommodate itself to the surrounding conditions,
It has been already mentioned that in all insects the respiration is conducted
through a series of apertures set along the sides, and technically called
spiracles. In the Water Beetles, the spiracles are set rather high, so as to be
covered by the hollowed elytra, and to be capable of breathing the air under
those organs. When, therefore, the beetle dives it is in no ways. distressed
for want of air, as it carries a tolerable-supply beneath the ‘elytra. When,
however, that supply is exhausted, the beetle rises to the suriace, just pushes
the ends of the elytra out of the water, takes in a fresh supply of air, and
again seeks its subaquatic haunts. : ; : oe

The male of the Great Water Beetle, in comimon with other species, is

(Llybius ater.) WALER BEETLES, (Dyticus dimidiatus.)

specially notable for the singular development of the fore-legs, the tarsi of
which are developed in a most extraordinary apparatus caused by the dilata-
tion of the three first joints. which are flattened so as to form a nearly circular
disc, covered on its under surface with a multitude of wonderfully-constructed
suckers, one being very large, another about half its size, and the others very
small, and set on pear-shaped footstalks.

The larger specimen in the engraving is the Dydicus dimidiatus, and the
smaller is the //ydius ater, both British species.

PASSING by several large and interesting families, we come to the curious
creatures which will at once be recognised by reference to the illustration.
These beetles are popularly known by the name of ROVE BEETLES, or
COCKTAILS, the latter name being given to them on account of their habit of
curling up the abdomen when they are alarmed or irritated. The common
BLACK COCKTAIL has, when it assumes this attitude, standing its ground
defiantly with open jaws and elevated tail, so diabolical an aspect that the

ROVE BEETLES. $27

rustics generally call it the Devil’s Coach-horse. It has, moreover, the power
of throwing out a most disgusting odour, which is penetrating and persistent
to a degree, refusing to be driven off even with many washings.

These beetles are termed Staphylinide, or Brachelytra, the latter term
signifying short elytra, and being a very apposite name, as the elytra are short,
square, and not more than one-fourth the length of the abdomen. If we
watch one of these beetles settling after its flight, we shall see the object of
its flexible tail. The wings are so large, and the elytra so small, that the
process of folding the delicate membranes could not be completed without
some external aid. When the insect alights, it suddenly furls its wings into
loose folds, and then, by means of its tail, it pushes the wings under the
elytra, which are then shut down. This process, although rather elaborate,
is effected in a very rapid manner.

(Ocypus olens.) ROVE BEETLES. (Creophilus maxillosus.)

The two species which are represented in the illustration are common in
England. The lower figure represents the Creophilus maxillosus, which is
plentiful in and about drains or dead animal matter, and may be known by
the grey hairy look of the elytra. :

_ The upper figure represents the Devil’s Coach horse, shown of the natural
size.

NEXT to the Staphylinidz are placed some insects that have become quite
famous for their curious and valuable habits. These are the Necrophaga,
popularly and appropriately termed Burying Beetles.

It is owing to the exertions of these little scavengers that the carcases of
birds, small mammals, and reptiles are seldom seen to cumber the ground,
being buried at a depth of several inches, where they serve to increase the
fertility of the earth instead of tainting the purity of the atmosphere. These
beetles may easily be captured by laying a dead mouse, mole, bird, frog, or
even a piece of meat on the ground, and marking the spot so as to be able
to find the place where it had been laid. It will hardly have remained there
for a couple of hours before some Burying Beetle will find it out, and straight-
way set to work at its interment. The plan adopted is by burrowing under-

S523 BURYVING BEETLES.

neath the corpse and scratching away the earth so as to form a hollow, into
which the body sinks. When the beetles have worked for some time they
are quite hidden, and the dead animal seems to subside into the ground as
if by magic.

The strength and perseverence of these beetles are so great that a very
short time suffices to bury the creature completely below the ground, and
the earth being scraped over it, the process is complete. The object of
burying dead animals is to gain a proper spot wherein to deposit their eggs,

ss =
BURYING BEETLES.
(Fister cadaverinus.) (Mecrophorus vestigator.) (Stlpha opaca.)

as the larvee when hatched feed wholly on decaying animal substance.

WE now come to the Lamellicorn Beetles, so called from the beautiful
plates, or lamella, which decorate the antennz. This family includes a vast
number of species, many of which, as, for example, the Common Cockchafer,
are extremely hurtful to vegetation both in
the larval and adult form. In this family
are found the most gigantic specimens of
the Coleoptera, some of which look more
like crabs than beetles, so huge are they
and so bizarre are their shapes. In all
these creatures the lamellz are larger and
more beautiful in the female than in the
male insect.

The COMMON COCKCHAFER is _ too
familiar to need any description of its
personal appearance, but the history of
its life is not so widely known as its
aspect. The mother beetle commences operations by depositing the eggs
in the ground, where in good time the young are hatched. The grubs are
unsightly-looking objects, having the end of the body so curved that the
creatures cannot craw] in the ordinary fashion, but are obliged to lie on their
sides. They are furnished with two terribly trenchant jaws like curved shears,
and immediately set to work at their destructive labours.

COCKCHAFER.—(// lolontha
vulcaris )

THE STAG BEETLE. 529

They feed mostly upon the roots of grasses and other plants, 2nd when in
great numbers have been known to ruin an entire harvest. ‘To ‘arf they are
especially destructive, shearing away the roots with their scissor-like jaws
and killing the vegetation effectually. For three years the future insect
continues in its larval state ; and after a brief sojourn in the pupa: vouaiucu.
changes its skin for the last time, and emerges from the ground a perfect
Cockchafer. Even in its perfect state it is a terribly destructive insect
working sad havoc among the foliage of trees. ‘

The STaG BEETLE is the largest of our British Coleoptera, and when it
has attained its full dimensions is an extremely powerful and rather formidable
ins€ct, its enormous mandibles being able to inflict a very painful bite, not

STAG BEETLE.—(Lucanus cervus.)

only on account of the powerful muscles by which they are moved, but in
consequence of the antler-like projections with which their tips are armed
These horn-like jaws only belong to the male, those of the female being
simply sharp and curved mandibles, in no way conspicuous.

The larve of the Stag Beetle reside in trees, into which they burrow with
marvellous facility, and as after they have emerged from their holes they
appear to cling to the familiar neighbourhood, they may be found upon or
near the trees in which they have been bred.

From the formidable shape of the mandibles it might be supposed that
the Stag Beetle was one of the predaceous species. ‘This, however, is not
the case, the food of this fine insect consisting mostly, if not wholly, of the
juices of vegetables, which it wounds with the jaws so as to cause the sap to
flow. It is true that specimens have been detected in the act of assaulting
other insects, but thev never seem to have been observed in the act of feeding
upon their victim. Whether the food be of animal or vegetable nature, it is
always liquid, andis lapped, or swept up, by a kind of brush which forms
part of the mouth, and looks like a double pencil of shining orange-coloured
hairs.

PASSING by one or two families of more or less importance, we arrive at
the Buprestide, a family of beetles remarkable for the extraordinary gor-
geousness of their tints, almost every imaginable hue being found upon these
brilliant insects.

They are found in many portions of the globe, but, as is generally the case
with insects, their colours take the greatest intensity within the tropics. They

MM

530 LUMINOUS BEETLES.

fly well, and seem to exult in the hottest sunshine, where the bright beams
cause their burnished raiment to flash forth its most dazzling hues. They
are, however, slow of foot, and, when alarmed, have a habit of falling to the
ground with folded limos, as if they were dead. _ :

The species that is given in the illustration is one of the finest of this
splendid family. The sides of the thorax are covered with little round pits,
; something like the de-
pressions on the head
of a thimble, and are of
a fiery copper hue. The
head and middle of the
thorax are light burn-
ished blue, like that of
a we.l-ten:pered watch-
spring, and the elytra
are warm cream-colour-
ed, diversified with a
patch of deep purple-
blue at each side, and
another at the tip. The
CURYSOLHROA is a na-
tive of India.

THEcelebrated GLOW-
WoRM belongs to the
typical genus of its fa-
mily.

Contrary to the usual
rule among insects,
where the male absorbs
the whole of the beauty,
and tLe female is com-
paratively dull and som-
bre in colour and form,
the female carries off the
palm for beauty, at all
events after dusk, the
male regaining the na-
tural ascendency by the light of day. Either through books, or by actual
observation, almost everyone is familiar with the Glow-worm,and would recog-
nize its pale green blue light on a summer’s evening. Many, however, if they
came across the insect by day, would fail to detect the brilliant star of the
night in the dull, brown, grub-like insect crawling slowly among the leaves,
and still fewer would be able to distinguish the male, so unlike are the
two sexes.

It has often been said that the female alone is luminous. This, however,
is an error, as I have caught numbers of these beetles of both sexes, and
always found thatthe males were gifted with the power of producing the peculiar
phosphorescent light, though in a much smaller degree than their mates, the
light looking like two small pins’ heads of phosphorus upon the end of the
tail.

Seen by day, the male is a much handsomer looking insect than the female,
being soft brown in colour, long-bodied, and wide-winged, altogether beetle-
like ; while the female is more like a grub than a perfect insect, has no wings
at all, and only the slightest indications of elytra,

The larva of the Glow-worm feeds upon molluscs, especially upon the

CHRYSOCHROA.—(Chrysochroa Bugnetti.)
GLOW-WORM.—(Lampyris noctiluca.)

CANTHARID. 531

smaller snails, which it is able to devour even when retracted within the walls
-of the shell.

THE two insects represented in the accompanying illustration are found in
England, and are here given as examples of the family Cantharidze, of which
the BLISTER FLY, sometimes called SPANISH FLY, is the typical species.

OIL BEETLE.—~(Meloe violaceus.)
BLISTER, OR SPANISH FLY.—(Cantharis vastcatoria.)

The Blister Fly is by no means a common species in England, though it
has occasionally appeared in considerable numbers. In such cases, how-
ever, it is extremely local, and does not appear to be disseminated through
the country. Spain is famous for the multitudes of Blister Flies which are
found within its limits, and the whole of South-western Europe is prolific
in this remarkable beetle.

The Spanish Fly is a handsome insect, nearly an inch in length, and of a
rich silken green, with a gold gloss in certain lights.

The second figure represents an insect belonging to the same family, and
very common in England. It popularly goes by the appropriate name of
OIL BEETLE, because, when handled, it has the property of pouring a
yellowish oily fluid trom the joints of its legs.

As may be seen by reference to the illustration, the abdomen is extremely
large in proportion to the rest of the body, and the short diverging elytra
descend but a very little way below the thorax. The oily matter that is
poured from the joints is considered in some countries to be a specific for
rheumatism, and is expressed from the insect for medicinal purpuses.
The Oil Beetle is represented of the natural size, and its colour is dull
‘indigo blue.

WE now arrive at a vast group of beetles, embracing several thousand
species, which are popularly classed under the name of WEEVILS, and may
all be known by the peculiar shape and very elongated snouts. Many of
these creatures have their elytra covered with minute but most brilliant scales,
arranged in rows, and presenting, when placed under the microscope, a spec-

MM 2

532 THE MUSK BEETLE.

tacle almost unapproached in splendour. They are mostly slow in their
movements, not quick of foot, and many being wholly wingless.

The most brilliant of the Weevils are to be found in the typical family
Curculionidz, to which belong the well-known Diamond Beetles, in such
request as objects for the microscope. : :

The maggots that are so frequently found in nuts, and which leave so
black and bitter a deposit behind them that the person who has unfortunately
tasted a maggot-eaten nut is forcibly reminded of the D.ad Sea apple, with
its inviting exterior and bitter dusty contents, also belong to the Weevils, and
are the larve of the NUT WEEVIL (Balaninus nucum). All the members of
the genus are remarkable for the extraordinary length of the snout, at the
extremity of which are placed the small but powerful jaws.

WE now come to the Longicorn Beetles, so cailed on account of the extra-
ordinary length of the antennz: in many of the species. These insects are

NUT WEEVIL.
(Magnified.)

BLOODY-NOSE
BEETLE.

well represented in England by many species, the best known being the
common Musk BEETLE.

The beautiful beetles of which the common Musk Beetle is an excellent
example, vary considerably in size ; some being several inches in length, while
some are hardly one-quarter of an inch long. The extreme length of their
antennz is the most conspicuous property, and by that peculiarity they are
at once recognized.

A small moth, Adela de Geerella, possesses the same peculiarity. The
length of the moth is about a quarter of an inch, and the length of the
antennze more than an inch anda half. The antennz wave about with
every breath of air, as if the insect had become entangled in a spider's web,
and escaped with some of the loose threads floating about it.

The Musk Beetle is a large insect, common in most parts of England. It
is extremely common at Oxford. and is found in old willow-trees, with which
Oxford is surrounded. Its peculiar scent, something resembling that of roses,
often betrays its presence, when its green colour would have kept it concealed.
When touched, it emits a curious sound, not unlike that of the bat, but more
resembling the faint scratching of a perpendicularly-held slate pencil. Its
pee bores deep holes in the trees, which are often quite honeycombed by
them.

As in the preceding family, the Longicorn Beetles pass their larval state in
wood, sometimes boring to a considerable depth, and sometimes restricting

LARWIGS. 533

themselves to the space between the bark and the wood. The grubs practi-
cally possess no limbs, the minute scaly legs being entirely useless for locomo-
tion, and the movements of the grub being performed by alternate contraction
and extension of its ringed body. 1n order to aid in locomotion the segments
are furnished with projecting tubercles, which are pressed against the sides
of the burrow.

PassING by several families, we come to the Chrysomelide, which are
round-bodied, and in most cases very brilliantly coloured with shining green,
purple, blue, and gold, of a peculiar but indescribable lustre. They are slow
walkers, but grasp the leaves with a wonderlully firm hold: The British
species of Chrysomela are very numerous. One of the genera belonging to this
family contains the largest British specimen of these beetles, commonly
known by the name of the BLOODY-NOSE BEETLE (Z7zmarcha tenebricosa),
on account of the bright red fluid which it ejects from its mouth and the
joinis of its legs when it is alarmed. This fluid is held by many persons to
be a specific in case of toothache. It is applied by means of permitting the
insect to emit the fluid on the finger and then rubbing it on the gum, and
the effects are said to endure for several days, The larva of this beetle is a
fat-bodied, shining, dark green grub, which may be found clinging to grass,
moss, or hedgerows in the early summer. It is so like the perfect insect
that its identity cannot be doubted.

THE family of the Coccinellidz, or LADYBIRDS, is allied to the Chry-
somelidz, and is well known on account of the pretty little spotted insects
with which we have been familiar from our childhood. Though the Lapy-
BIRD is too well known to need description, it may be mentioned that it is
an extremely useful insect, feeding while in the larval state on the aphides
that swarm on so many of our favourite plants and shrubs. The mother
Ladybird always takes care to deposit the eggs in spots where the aphides
most swarm, and so secure an abundant supply of food for the future off-
spring.

EARWIGS.

TAKING leave of the beetles, we now proceed to a fresh order, distin-
guished by several simple characteristics, among
which may be mentioned the soft and leathery
elytra or forewings, the wide and membranous
hind-wings, and the forceps with which the tail is
armed. The insects belonging to this order are
popularly known by the name of EaRwics, and
are represented in this country by several species
of different dimensions.

The membranous wings of the Earwig are truly
beautiful. They are thin and delicate to a de- =
gree, very large and rounded, and during the
day-time packed in the most admirable manner
under the little square elytra. The process of 3
packing is very beautiful, being greatly assisted PH bee,
by the forceps on the tail, which are directed by GIANT EARWIG.
the creature with wonderful precision, and used
as deftly as if they were fingers directed by eyes. The Earwigs seldom
fly except by night, and it is not very easy to see them pack up their
wings. Some of the smaller species, however, are day-flyers, and in spite of
their tiny dimensions may be watched without much difficulty. There are
about sevén or eight British species, some of them being of very small size,

534 THE COCKROACH.

The largest British species is that which is given here. It is of very rare
occurrence, and seldom seen, as it only inhabits the seashore, and never
shows itself until dusk. I have a fine specimen that was caught on the
sands near Folkestone, in the month of July.

ORTHOPTERA.

A LARGE and important order succeeds the Earwigs, containing some of
the finest, and at the same time the most grotesquely formed members of
the insect tribe. In this order we include the grasshoppers, locusts, crickets,
cockroaches, and leaf and stick insects ; and its members are known by the
thick parchment-like upper wings, with their stout veinings and their over-
lapping tips.

THE first family of Orthopteree is the Blattidee, a group of insects familiar
under the title of Cockroaches.

In these insects the body is flattened, the antennz are long and thread-
like, and the perfect wings are only to be found in the adult male. The
Common COCKROACH, so plentiful in our kitchens, and so well known under

Male. Female.
COCKROACH.—(Blatta orientalis.)

the erroneous name of black beetle—its colour being dirty red, and its rank
not that of a beeile—is supposed to have been brought originally from India.

The egys of the Cockroach are not laid separately, but inclosed in a hard
membranous case, exactly resembling an apple puff, and containing about
sixteen eggs. Plenty of these cases may be found under planks or behind
the skirting boards where these insects love to conceal themselves. Along
one of the edges of the capsule there is a slit which corresponds with the
opening of the puff, and which is strengthened like that part of the pastry
by a tnickened margin. The edges of the slit are toothed, and it is said that
each tooth corresponds with an egg. When the young are hatched, they
pour out a fluid which has the effect of dissolving the cement which holds
the edges together, the newly-hatched Cockroaches push themselves through
the aperture. which opens like a valve, and closes again after their exit, so
that the em>ty capsule appears to be perfectly entire.

A GOOD example of the Cricket is found in the FIELD CRICKET, a noisy
creature, inhabiting the sides of hedges and old walls, and making country
‘lanes vocal with its curious cry, if such a word can be applied to a sound
produc d by friction. The Field Cricket lives in burrows, made at the foot
of hedges or walls, and sits at their mouth to sing, It is, howeyer a very

THE MOLE CRICKET. 535

timid creature, and on hearing, or perchance feeling, an approaching foot-
step, it immediately retreats to the deepest recesses of the burrow, where it
waits until it imagines the danger to have gone by.

Despite of its timidity, howcver, it seeins to be combative in no slight
degree, and if a blade of grass or straw be pushed into its hole, it will seize
the intruding subsiance so firmly that
it can be drawn out of the burrow
before it will loosen its hold. ‘lhe
males are especially warlike, and if
two specimens be confined in the same
box, they will fight until one is killed.
The vanquished foe is then eaten by
the victor. In White’s “ Natural His-
tory of -Selborne” there is a careful
and interesting description of the Field FIELD CRICKET.—(Gryllus campestris.)
Cricket and its habits.

OnE of the oddest-looking of the British insects is the MOLE CRICKET,
so called on account of its burrowing habits and altogether Mole-like
aspect. This insect is represented of the natural size, and, as may be seen,
attains considerable dimensions.

Like those of the mole, the fore limbs of the Mole Cricket are of enormous
comparative size, and turned outwards at just the same angle from the body.
All the legs are strong, but the middle and hinder pair appear quite weak
and insignificant when compared with the gigantic developments of the front
pair. This insect is rather local, but is found in many parts of England,

MOLE CRICKET. —(G7ydlutalpa vulya ts.)

where it is known by sundry popular titles, Croaker being the name most in
vogue near Oxford, where it is found in toleranle plenty.

‘Lhe colour of the Mole Cricket is brown of different tints, darker upon the
thorax than on the wing-coverts, botn of which organs are covered with a
very fine and short down.

As might be surmised from the extraordinary muscular power of the fore-
legs, the Mole Cricket can burrow with great rapidity. The excavation is of
a rather complicated form, consisting of a moderstely large chamber with
neatly smoothed walls, and m-ny winding passages communicating with this
central apartment. In tle chamber are placed from one to four hundred

ye
536 LOCUSTS.

eggs of a dusky yellow colour ; and the roof of the apartment is so near the
suriace of the ground that the warmth of the sunbeams penetrates through
the shallow layer of earth. and causes the eggs to be hatched.

The tood of the Mole Cricket is mostly ot a vegetable nature, but it has
been known to feed upon raw meat, upon other insects, and even to exhibit
a strong cannibalistic pro-
pensity when shut up in
company and deprived of
the norm 1 food.

The MIGRATORY LocusT
is a well-known instance of
avery large family of nsects
represented 1n our own land
by many examples. All the
Locusis and Grasshoppers
are vegetable feeders; and
in many cases their voracity
is So insatiable, their jaws so
powerful, and their numbers
so countkss, that they de-
stroy every vestige of vege-
tation wherever they may
pass, and devastae the
country as if a fire had swept
over it.

Such is the case with the Migratory Locust, so called from its habit of
congregating in vast armies, which fly like winged clouds over the earth, and
wherever they alight, strip every living plant of its verdure. So assiduously
do they ply their busy jaws, that the peculiar sound produced by the champ-
ing of the leaves, twigs, and grass-blades cin be heard at a consideratle
distance. When they take to flight, the rushing of their wings is like the
roaring of the sea; and as their armies pass through the air, the sky is
darkened as if by black thunder. clouds. ;

The warm sunbeams appear to be absolutely necessary for the flight of the
Locust, for no sooner does the sun set-than the Locusts alight and furl their
wings. Woe to the ill-fated spot where they settle, for they consume every-

thing that their jaws can
sever, and are not content
with eating the green _her-
bage, but devour even linen,
blankets, or tobacco. At the
approach of the aérial hosts
everyone is in fear except
the Bushman, who welcomes
the Locust with all his heart ;
for he has no crops to lose,
no clothing to be destroyed,
and only sees in the swarm-
LEAF INSECT.—(Phyllium scythe.) ing insects his greatest
luxury, namely, an abund-

ant supply of food without any trouble in obtaining it. In the path of the
Locust he kindles large fires, and the insects, being stifled with the
smoke. and having their wings scorched by the flames. fall in thousands,
and are gathered into heaps, roasted, and eaten. Those that remain, after
the Bushman has eaten his fill are then cround between two stones into a

MIGRATORY LOCUST.—(Locusta migratoria.)

NEUROPTERA. 537

kind of meal, which is dried in the sun, and can be kept for a long time
without becoming putrid. This substance does not seem very palatable to
Europeans, but its distastefulness is probably owing to the careless way in
which the insects are scorched over the fire, as Dr. Livingstone speaks highly
of the Locust as an article of food, thinking it superior to shrimps. Honey
is always eaten together with the Locusts, whenever that sweet condiment
can be obtained, as it serves to render the insects more digestible. Our
common English grasshoppers belong to the true Locusts.

1N the accompany ing illustration is represented a LEAF INSECT, one of the
singular species which have such a wonderful resemblance to fallen leaves.
‘The peculiar leaf-like elytra may be seen on reference to the engraving as
also the singular manner in which the limbs are furnished with wiue flattened
appendages, in order to carry out the leafy aspect. Only the females possess
the wide, veined wing-covers, those of. the male being comparatively short.
The wings, however are entirely absent in the female, whilc in the opposite
sex they are very wide and reach to the extremity of the body.

THYSANOPTERA.

THE next order, according to Mr. Westwood’s arrangement, that called
the Thysanoptera, or Fringe-winged Insects, on account of the manner in
which the wings are edged with long and delicate cilia. They are all ltle
insects, seldom exceeding the tenth or twelltth of an inch in length, but,
although small, are capable of doing considerable damage. They are mostly
to be found on plants and flowers, especially those blossoms where the petals
are wide and deep and afford a good shelter. The convolvulus is always a
great favourite wich them. Greenhouses are sadly liable to their inroads,
and owing to their numbers they are very injurious to melons, cucumbers,
and similar plants, covering their leaves with a profusion of decayed patches
that look as if some powerful acid had been sprinkled over them, Only one
family of these isects is acknowleded by entomologists.

NEUROPTERA.

WE now come to an order of insects containing some of the most beautiful
and a few of the most interesting members of the class. They are known by
the possession of four equal-sized membranous wings divived into a great
number of little cells technicaily called arcolets. The mouth is furnished
with transversely movable jaws, and the females do. not. possess a.sting or
valved ovipositor. In this order are comprised the ant-lions, the dragon-
flies, the termites, the lace-wings, and the. May-flies.. |. - :

THE first family in Mr. Westwood’s arrangement is that of the Termites,
popularly known by the name of WHITE ANTS, because they live in vast
colonies, and in many of their abits display a resemblance to the insect
from which they take their name. All the Termites are miners. and many of
them erect edifices of vast dimens’ons when compared with the size of their
architect. For example, the buildings erected by the Common White Ant
(Termes bellicosus) will often reach the astonishing heig*t of sixteen or seven-
teen feet, which in proportion to the size of the insect would be equivalent
to an edifice a mile in height if built by man. The dwelling is made of clay,
worked in some marvellous manner by the jaws of the insect-architects ; and
is of such astonishing hardness, that, although hollow and pierced by
numerous galleries and chambers, they will sustain the weight of cattle,
which are in the habit of a-cending these wonderful monuments of insect
labour for the purpose of keeping a watch on the surrounding country.

538 ‘TERMITEL».

To give a complete history of the Termites would be a task demanding so
much time and space, that it cannot be attempted in these pages; and we
must therefore content ourselves with a slight sketch of their general
history, premising that many parts of their economy, and especially those
which relate to their development, are still buried in mystery.

The most recent investigations give the following results :—

Each Termite colony is foinded by a frur:ful pair, called the king and
queen, who are placed in a chamber devoted to their sole use, and from
which they never stir when once inclosed. These insects produce a vast
quantity of eggs, from which are hatched the remaining me:nbers of the
colony, consisting of neuters of botn ssxes, the females being termed
workers and the males scidiers, the 1atter being distinguished by their enor-
mous heads and powe-ful jaws; of larve of two forms, some of which will
be fully developed, ana others pass all their lives in the worker or soldier

WHITE ANT.—(Zermes bellicosus.) Soldier—Worker—Female.

condition ; of pupz of two forms; and, lastly, of male and female perfect
insects, which are destined to found fresh colonies. The neuters of either
sex are without wings.

In founding a colony, the order is as follows. The parent pair are taken
possession of by the workers, who inclose them in a chamber which is
intended as the nucleus of the infant establishment. The walls of this
chamber are pierced by holes which will suffer the workers 10 pass, but are
far too small to afford exit for the king or queen. Shortly after they have
been fairly installed, a wondrous change takes place in the female. Though
her head, thorax, and legs retain their normal dimensions, her abdomen
begins to swell in the most preposterous manner, until it is as long as a
man’s finger and about twice its thickness, thus precluding its owner from
advancing a single step.

The queen, thus developed and for ever fixed in her home, is truly the
mother of her subjects, producing nearly eighty thoysand eggs in each

DRAGON-FLIES. 539

twenty-four hours. The eggsare carried off by the workers as soon as laid,
and conveyed to suitable places in the nest, where they are guarded until
they are hatched, and are then fed and watched until they have passed
through their preliminary stages of existence,

The great bulk of a Termite establishment is composed of workers, who
outnumber the soldiers in the proportion of a hundred to one. By the
mysterious instinct which is implanted in these insects, the soldiers and
workers confine themselves to their respective occupation, the former doing
nothing but fight and the latter nothing but labour.

There are many species of Termite, and all are fearfully destructive, being,
indeed, the greatest pest of the country wherein they reside. Nothing,
unless cased in metal, can resist their jaws; and they have been known to
destroy the whole woodwork of a house in a single season. They always
work in darkness, and at all expenditure of labour keep themselves under
cover, so that their destructive labours are often completed before the least
irtimation has been given. For example, the Termites will bore through the
boards of a floor, drive their tunnels up the legs of the tables or chairs,
consume everything but a mere shell no thicker than paper, and yet leave
everything apparently in a perfect condition . Many a person has only
learned the real state of his furniture by finding a chair crumble into dust as
he sat upon it, or a whole staircase fall to pieces as soon as a foot was set
uponit. In some cases the Termite lines its galleries with clay, which soon
becomes as hard as stone, and thereby produces very remarkable archi-
tectural changes. Tor example, it has been found that a row of wooden
columns in front of a house have been converted into stone pillars by these
insects.

PASSING by several families of the Neuroptera, we come to the
Libellulidze, or DRAGON-FLIES. These insects are very familiar to us by
means of the numerous Dragon-flies which haunt our river sides, and which
are known to the rustics by the very inappropriate name of Horse-stingers,
they possessing no sting and never meddling with horses. The name of
DRAGON-ELY, on the contrary, is perfectly appropriate, as these insects are
indeed the dragons of the air, far more voracious and active than even the
fabled dragons of antiquity.

Even in their preliminary stages the Dragon-flies preserve their predatory
habits, and for that purpose are armed in a most remarkable manner.
During the larval and pupal states the Dragon-fly is an inhabitant of the
water, and may be found in most of our streams, usually haunting the muddy
banks, and propelling itself along by an apparatus as efficacious as it is
simple, and exactly analogous to the mode by which the nautilus forces itself
through the water. The respiration is carried on by means of the oxygen
which is extracted from the water; and the needful supply. of liquid is
allowed to pass into and out of the body through a large aperture at the
end of the tail.

Such are its means of locomotion ; those of attack are not less remarkable
or less efficacious.

The lower lip, instead of being a simple cover to the mouth, is developed
into a strange-jointed organ, which can be shot out to the distance of nearly
an inch; or, when at rest, can be folded flat over the face, much as a
carpenter’s rule can be stut up so as to fit into his pocket, and can be rapidly
protruded or withdrawn very like the instrument called a “ lazy-tongs.” Like
that instrument, it is furnished at its extremity with a pair of forceps, and is
able to grasp at passing objects with the swiftness and certainty of a serpent’s
stroke.

The creature remains for some ten or eleven months in the preliminary

540 THE ANT-LION.

stages of existence, and when the insect is about to make its final change,
the undeveloped wings become visible on the back. When its time has
come, the pupa leaves the water and crawls up the stem of some aquatic
plant until it has reached a suitable
elevation ; it clings firmly with its
claws, and remains apparently
quiet. On approaching it, how-
ever, a violent internal agitation is
perceptible, and presently the skin
of the back splits along the middle,
and the Dragon-fly protrudes its
head and part of the thorax. By
degrees it withdraws itself from
the empty skin, and sits for a
few hours drying itself, and shak-
ing out the innumerable folds into
which the wide gauzy wings have
been gathered. After a series of
deep respirations of the unwonted
air, and much waving of the
, wings, the glittering membranes

a = gain strength and elasticity, and

r ; the enfranchised insect launches
BEMOISEL ER: —(Cacpieys splendeits.) forth into the air in search of prey

and a mate.

There are very many species of Dragon-flies, all very similar in their
habits, being fiercely predaceous, strong of wing, and gifted with glittering
colours. Unfortunately, the rich azure, deep green, soft carnation, or fiery
scarlet of these insects fade with their life, and in a fev hours after death
the most brilliant Dragon-fly will have faded to a blackish brown. .The only
mode of preserving the colours is to remove all the interior of the body and
to introduce paint of the proper colours. This, however, is but an empirical
and unsatisfactory sort of proceeding, and, nc matter how skilfully it may
be achieved, will never be worth the time bestowed upon it. In many species
the sexes are of different colours, as, for example, in the beautiful
DEMOISELLE DRAGON-FLIES, where
the male is deep purple, with dark
spots on the wings, and the female
rich green, with the wings uncoloured.

THE far-famed ANT-LION is one of
the insects that are more celebrated
in their preliminary than in the perfect
stage of existence. As may beseen by
reference to the illustration, their per-
fect form is very light and elegant, and
closely resembling that of the dragon-
files, save tnat tne wings are lighter,
softer. and broader. In their larval
condition, however, they are by no
means attractive-looking creatures, somewhat resembling flattened maggots
with rather long legs and very large jaws, the legs being apparently useless
as organs of progression, all movements being made by means of the
abdomen. Slow of movement as is this creature, and yet predaceous, feeding
wholly on living insects, the mode of obtaining its food seems to be rather
a problem. The solution, however, is simple enough, the creature digging a
pitfall, and lying ensconced therein while the expected prey approaches.

ANT-LION. —(M/yrmelog tran:yatus.)

THE CADDIS-FLY. 541

In order to enable the Ant-Lion to extract the juices of the insects on
which it feeds, the inner curve on each mandible is deeply grooved, and
another portion of the jaws, technically called the maxilla, plays within the
groove, The larva, half-sunk in its pit-fall, is shown in the left-hand lower
corner of the illustration.

The May-FLy has long been cclehrated for its short space of life, a single
day sometimes witnessing its entrance into the perfect state and its final
departure from the world. The popular idea concerning these insects is,
that the whole of their life is restricted to a single day. ‘This, however, is an
error, as they have already passed at least two years in their preliminary
stages of existence. In the larval and pupal states they are inhabitants of
the water, and are fond of hiding themselves under stones, or burrowing into
the muddy banks. Under the latter circumstances they make a very curious
tunnel, something like a double-barrelled gun.

The May-fly is peculiarly notable for a stage of development which seems
to be quite unique among insects. When it has passed through its larval
and pupal state, it leaves the water, creeps out of its pupa case, and takes to
its wings. After a period, varying from one to twenty hours, it flies to some
object, such as the trunk of a tree or the stems of water-plants, and casts off
‘a thin membranous pellicle, which has enveloped the body and wir g. the dry
pellicle remaining in the same spot, and looking at first like a dead insect.

Ck aw
Nan J ae
MAY-FLY.—( Ephemera vulgata.) CADDIS-FLY.—(PAryganea grandis.)

After this cperation the wings become brighter, and the three filaments of
the tail increase to twice their Jenyth. Some authors call the state between
leaving the water and casting the pellicle the “ pseudimago” state.

Some of the-e insects are well known to fishermen under the names of
Green and Grey Drake, the former being the pseudimago, and the latter the
perfect form of the insect, which is represented in the illustration, Some-
tim s these insects occur in countless myriads, looking like a heavy fall of
snow as they are blown by the breeze, and having on some occasions been
so plentiful that they have been gathered into heaps and carted off to the
fields for manure.

THE order called Trichoptera, or Hairy-winged insects, is represented by
the common CaDDIs FLY.

Tuis fly is well known to every angler both in its larval and in its
perfect state. The larva is a soft white worm, of which fishes are exceedingly
fond, and it therefore requires some means of defence. It accordingly
actually makes for itself a movable house of sand, small stones, straws,

542 SAW-FLIES,

bits of shells, or even small living shells, in which it lives in perfect
security, and crawls about in search of food, dragging its house after it.
When it is about to become a pupa, it spins a strong silk grating over the
entrance of its case, so that the water necessary for its respiration can pass
through, but at the same time all enemies are kept out. When the time for
its change has arrived, the pupa bite. through the grating, rises to the surface,
and crawls out of the reach of the water,
which would soon be fatal to it. The skin
then splits down the back, and the perfect in-
sect emerges.

The order is called ‘Trichoptera, because
the wings, instead of being covered with
scales as are those of butterflies, are clothed
with hairs.—There are many species of Caddis-
flies.

WE now come to the vast order of insects
technically called the HYMENOPTERA. In
these insects the wings are four in number,
transparent, membranous, the veins compara-
tively few, and the hinder pair smaller than
the others. Their mouth is furnished with
powerful horny jaws, and with a tongue guard-
ed by the modified maxilla. The females are
armed with a many-valved sting or ovipositor.
In this enormous order are included all the
bees, wasps, and their kin, the great family of
saw-flies, the ichneumons, the gall-flies, and
the ants. We will proceed at once to the

Rhyssa persuasoria. family of the Tenthredinidz, or SAW-FLIES.
. In this and the next family, the females
are furnished with a peculiar ovipositor, composed of several pieces.

The true Saw-flies are known by the curious piece of animal mechanism
from which they derive their name. The females of this family are supplied

Cimbex femorata, Urocerus gigas,

with a pair of horny saws, placed side by side on the lower extremity of the
abdomen.

These saws are of various forms, according to the particular species to

THE GIANT ICHNEUMON. 543
which they belong, and may be seen even in the dried specimens, the top ot
their sheath slightly projecting, and their shapes plainly visible after the
removal of a portion of the abdomen. When taken from the insect and
placed under the microscope, they present a very pretty appearance, owing to
the gently-curved ribs with which their sides are strengthened and decorated.
The saws act alternately, one being pushed forward as the other is being
retracted. Their object is to form a groove in some plant, in which the eggs
of the mother insect can be deposited, and wherein they shall find a supply
of nourishment in order to enable them to complete their development ;
for it is a most remarkable fact, that after the egg is deposited in the groove
it rapidly increases in size, obtaining twice its former dimensions.

In the genus Cimbex, of which an example is given in the illustration, the
larvee possess twenty-two feet, and have the power of discharging a translu-
cent greenish fluid from certain pores placed on the sides of body just above
the spiracles. ‘his feat they can repeat six or seven times in succession.

mW

iG

i
|

y
< 77 Fall

Crabro cribrarius. Philanthus triangulum.

When they have eaten their way to the next stage of existence, they spin a
cocoon of a brownish colour and of a stringy, tough consistency, and either
suspend it to the branches of the tree on which they have been feeding, or
hide it under fallen leaves. In this cocoon they remain for a comparatively
short time, and then emerge as perfect insects.

The fine insect on the same illustration, which is known by the name of the
GIANT ICHNEUMON, is an example of the next family, in which the ovipositor
is converted into a g'mlet instead of a double saw. With this powerful in-
strument the female is enabled to drill holes into living timber for the pur-
pose of depositing the eggs. When they are hatched, the young grubs
immediately begin to gnaw their way through the wood, boring it in every
direction, and making burrows of no mean size. Those of the present
species prefer fir and pine, and I have had specimens of the wood sent to me
which have been riddled by the grubs until they looked as if they had
harboured a colony of the ship-worm.

644 WASPS,

THE next group of the Terebrantia is called Entomophaga, or Insect-
eaters, because the greater number of them are parasitic upon other insects,
just as the saw-flies are parasitic upon vegetables. In these insects the
ovipositor is furnished with two delicate spicula, and the last segments of the
abdomen are not formed into a telescope-like tube.

The first family is that of the Cynipida, or Gall Insects, the creatures by
whose means are produced the well-known galls upon various trees, the so-
called oak-apple being perhaps the best known, and the ink-gall (also found
on the oak) the most valuable. These Galls are formed by the deposition of
an egg in the leaf, branch, stem, twig, or even root ot the plant, and its
consequent growth.

The true Ichneumons, of which a specimen is given in the illustration,
form a vast group of insects, the British Ichneumonicz alone numbering many
more than a thousand described and acknowledged specics. In them the
oviposiror is straight, and is employed in inserting the eggs into the bodies of
other inse :ts, mostly in their larval state. In some cases, this slender and
apparently feeble instrument is able to pierce through solid wood, and is
insinuated by a movement exactly like that which 1s employed by a carpenter
when using a brad-awl. When not engaged in this work, the ovipositor is
protected by two slender sheaths that inclose it on either side.

Were it not for the Ichneumons, our fields and gardens would be hope-
lessly ravaged by caterpillars and grubs of all kinds, for practical entomo-
logists always find that when they attempt to rear insects from the egg or
the larval state, they must count upon losing a very large percentage by the
Ichneumons.

IN the next great division of Hymenopterous insects, the ovipositor of
the female is changed into a sharply-pointed weapon, popularly calkd a
sting,.and connected with a gland in which is secreted a poison closely
analogous to that which envenoms a serpent’s tooth.

First come those curious arid interesting insects known popularly by the
names of SAND Wasps and Woop Wasps. These creatures are in the
habit of making burrows into the ground or in posts, and placing therein their
eggs, together with the bodies of other insects which are destined to serve as
food for the future progeny. Spiders are sometimes captured and immured
for this purpose. In many instances the captured insects are stung to death
before they are placed in the burrow, but it is often found that they only
receive a wound sufficient to paralyse them, so that they lead « semi-torpid
life until they are killed and eaten by the young grub. Two of these Sand
Wasps are tulerably common in England. One of them (rahvo cribarius),
the woodborer, drilling its burrow into posts, palings, and similar sub-
stances. It feeds its young with the larve of one of the leaf-rolling
caterpillars that ives in the oak, and is scient'fically known by the name of
Tortrix chlorana. It also employs for this purpose several two-winged
insects. One species of these burrowing wasps prefers the well known
cuckoo-spit insect for this purpose (Aphrophora spumaria), pulling it out ot
its frothy bed by mens of its Jong legs.

Another of these insects, called PAzlanthus triangulum, is in the habit of
provisioning its burrow with the hive-bee, which it contrives to master in spite
of the formidable weapon possessed by its victim, and then murders or
paralyses by means of its sting. M. Latreille mentioned that he saw from
fifty to sixty of these insects busily engaged in burrowing into a sandbank
not more than forty yards long ; and as each female lays five or six eggs, and
deposits a bee with each egg, the havoc made among the hives is by no
means inconsiderable.

THE true Ants, as is well known, associate in great numbers, and, as is

WASPS. 545

peculiarly the case with the bees, the great bulk of their numbers is com-
posed of workers, or neuters, which are destined to perform the constant
labours needful to regulate so large a community. The perfect insects of
either sex take no part in the daily tasks, their sole object being to ke p up
the numb.rs of the establishment. In the Ants, moreover, the neuters are
without wings, and even the perfect insects only retain these organs for a
brief period of their existence.

Everyone has heard of the objects called “ants’ eggs,” which are so
stronzly recommended as food for the nightingale and other birds ; and many
persons, though they have seen them, have believed them really to be the
objects which their popular name would infer. In truth, however, they are
simply t € cocouns, in which the insects are passing their pupal state before
emerging in their winged condition. It has been already mentioned that
only tne perfect males and females possess wings.

As soon as they gain sufficient strength, they tly upward into the air, where
they seek their mates, and soon descend to earth. ‘The males, having nov

XQ we SS.

aS = yd Chaka
She MAW

Lumenes arcuatus.

nothing to do, speedily die, as they ought, but the females begin to make
provision for their future households. Their first proceeding is a rather
startling one, being the rejection of the wings which had so lately borne them
through the air. This object is achieved by pressing the ends of the wings
against the ground, and then forcing them suddenly downwards. The wing
then snaps off at the joint, and the creature, thus reduced to the wingless
state of a worker, is seized upon and conveyed to a suitable spot, where she
begins to supply a vast quantity of eggs. These are carefully conveyed
awav and nu'tured until they burst forth into the three states of male, female,
and neuter. the precise method by which the development is arrested so as to
produce the neuter condition not being very accurately known.

The illustration represents an Australian example of the SOLITARY Wasps,
many of which are found in England. The curious nest of this insect is
shown immediately above. suspended to a branch. The creature makes a
separate nest tor each egg, the material being clay well worked, and the
shape as represented in the engraving. The nest is stocked with larvee of
moths or butterflies.

NN

46 BEES.

THE true Wasps, or Vespidz, are gregarious in their habits, building nests
in which a large but uncertain number of young are reared. The common
Wasp makes its nest within the ground, sometimes taking advantage of the
deserted hole of a rat or mouse, and sometimes working for itself. The
substance of which the nest is made is a paper-like materal, obtained by
nibbling woody fibres from decayed trees or bark, and kneading it to a paste
between the jaws. The general shape of the nest is globular, and the walls
are of considerable thickness, in order to guard the
cells from falling earth, a circular aperture being left,
through which the inhabitants can enter or leave
their home.

The cells are hexagonal, and laid tier above tier,
each story being supported by little pillars, made oi
“a. the same substance as the cells, and all the open
ends heing downwards, instead of laid horizontally,
as is the case with the bees. It will thus Le seen
that, on account of this arrangement, the nuyse-
wasps are enabled to get at the grubs as they lie,
or ratner hang, in their cells, with their heads
downwards.

The grubs are fat, white, black-headed creatures, very well known to
fishermen, who find them excellent bait after they have been baked so as to
render them sufficiently hard to remain cn the hook. When they are about
to enter the pupal state, they close the meuths of their cells with a silken
cover, through which the black eyes are plainly visible, and there wait until
they emerge in the perfect
state. The grubs are fed
with other insects, fruit, su-
gar, meac, or honey, tne
mingled mass being dis-
gorged from the stomachs
of the nurses and thus given
to their charge,

There are separate cells
for males, femzles, and neu-
ters, the two former classes
only being produced towards
the end of autumn, so as to
keep up a supply for the
succeeding year.

_ THERE are, pe. naps, few

insects so important to man-

> kind as those which procure

THE HIVE BEE.—(Afis muliifica.) the sweet substance so well

known by the name of honey.

Nearly all the honey-making Hymenoptera are furnished with stings, and in

many species the poison is fearfully intense. Some of these insects, such

as the HIVE BEE, make waxen cells of mathematical accuracy, the larve
being placed in separate cells, and fed by the neuters.

This useful little creature is so well known that a lengthened description of it
would be useless. A merely general sketch will be quite sufficient.

The cells of the Bee are, as is well known, made of wax. This wax is
secreted in the frm of scales under six little flaps situated on the under side
of the insect. It is then pulled out by the Bee, and moulded with other
scales until a tenacious piece of wax is formed. The yellow substance on

THE WasP.—{( Vespa
vulgaris.)

THE HUMBLE BEE. 547

the legs of the Bees is the pollen of flowers. This is kneaded up by the
bees, and is called bee-bread.

The cells are six-sided, a form which gives the greatest space and strength
with the lest amount of material, but the methoc employed by the Bees to
give the cells that shape is not known. The cells in which the Drone or
male Bees are hatched, are much larger than those of the ordinary or worker
Bee. The edges of the cells are strengthened with a substance called
propol s, which is a gummy material procured from the buds of various
trees. This propolis is also used to stop up crevices and to mix with wax
when the comb has to be strengthened.

The royal cells are much larger than any others, and are of an oval shape.
When a worker larva is placed in a royal cell, and fed in a royal manner,
it imbihes the principles of royalty, and becomes a queen accordingly. This
practice is adopted if the Queen Bee should die, and there be no other quee
to take her place.

‘The Queen Bee is lady paramount in her own hive, and suffers no other
queen to divide rule with her. Should a strange queen gain admittance, there
is a battle at once, which ceases not until one has been destroyed.

At the swarming time, the old queen is sadly put out by the encroachments
of various young queens, who each wish for the throne, and at last is so
agitated that she rushes out of the hive, attended by a large body of
subjects, and thus the first swarm is formed. In seven or eight days, the
queen next in age also departs, taking with her another supply of subjects.
When all the swarms have left tue original hive, the remaining queens fight
until one gains the throne.

The old method of destroying Bees for the sake of the honey was not only
cruel but wasteful, as by burninz sume dry “ puff-ball ” the Bees are stupefied,
and shortly return to consciousness. The em- 5
ployment of a “cap” on the hive is an excellent
plan, as the Bees ceposit honey alone in these
caps, without any acmixture of grubs or bee-bread.
Extra hives at the side, with a communication from
the original hive, are also useful.

The Queen Bee lays about eighteen thousand
eggs. Of these about eight hundred are males or
drones, and four or five queens, the remainder
being workers. :

In some cases, such as the common HUMBLE
BEE, the cells are egg-shaped, each cell being either
occupied by a larva or filled with honey ; while in oe cane a
some species the eggs are placed parasitically in UN QUSSLET ESTES:
the nests of other Bees, so that the larvze feed either upon the stores of
food gathered for the in\oluntary host, or upon the body of the deluded
insect itself.

In gathering honey, the Bees lick the sweet juices from flowers, swallow
them, and store them for the time in a membranous sac, popularly called the
honey-bag. When this sac is filled, the Bee returns to the hive, and _dis-
charges the honey into cells, closing its mouth with wix when it is filled.
The structure of the bee-cell, its marvellous adaptation to the several pur-
poses for which it is intended, its mathematical accuracy of construction,
whereby the best amount of material is found to afford the greatest amount
of space and strength, are subjects too complicated to be here described, but
may be found in many works which have been written upon the Hive Bee.

For want of space, we are compelled to pass by many interesting Hymen-
optera, such as the Leaf-cutter Bees, the Woodborers, and the Mason Bees,

NNZ

548 LEPIDOPTERA.

each of which creatures would demand more space than can be given to the
whole of the insects,

LEPIDOPTERA.

WE now come to an order in which are included the most beautiful of all.
insects, namely, the Butterflies and Moths. On account of the feather-like
scales with which their wings are covered, and to which the exquisite colour-
ing is due, they are technically called Lepidoptera, or scale-winged insects.

‘The wings are four in number, and it is occasionally found that the two pairs
are connected together hy a strong bristle in one and a hook-like appendage
in the other, so that the two wings of each side practically become one mem-

SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.—(Pufilio machaon.)

ber, ina manner similar to the formation of many hymenopterous insects.
Those species which take any nourishment subsist entirely upon liquid fcod,
whichis drawn intothe system by suction. and not by means of a brush, as is the
case with the liquid-feeding beetles and bees. The wings are strengthened
by nervures, which are of great usc in determining the position of the insects.

The scales with which the membranous wings are at once protected and
adorned are of vari us shapes, sometimes broad, flat, and overlapping each
other like the tiles of a house-roof.

The series of changes undergone by the Lepidoptera are, perhaps, better
known than those of any other order, on account of the large dimensions and
conspicuous habits of the insects.

Having given this general glance at the order, we will now proceed to our
examples.

In the system which is adopted in this work, the Lepidoptera are divided

BUTTERFLIES. 549

into two sections, the Butterflies and Moths, technically call Rhopalocera and
Heterocera, which may generally be distinguished from each other by the
form of the antennz, those of the Butterflies having knobs at their tips,
whilst those'of the Moths are pointed. The first family is that of the Papi-
lionidiz, in which are included the largest and most magnificent speci-
mens of this order.

The beautiful insect represented on p. 548 is not very uncommon in some
paris of England, especially in the fenny parts of Cambridgeshire.

It flies with exceeding rapidity, nearly ina straight line, and is very diffi-
cult to capture.

The colour of the wings is black, variegated most beautifully with yellow
markings, and near the extremity of each hinder wing is a circular red spot,
surmounted by a crescent of blue, and the whole surrounded by a black ring.

PEACOCK BUTTERFLY.— (Vanessa Jo.)

WE now come to another family, called the Pieridae, which may be known at
once by the manner in which the inner edges of the hinder wings are folded.
so as to form a kind of gutter in which the abdomen rests. In all these in-
sects the colours are comparatively sober, the upper surface being generally
white and black, and the under surface sparingly coloured with red and
yellow. To this family belong our common white butterflies, together with
the well-known Brimstone Lutterfly (the harbinger of spring), all the Marbled
Butterflies, the Orange-tip, and the now scarce Veined-white.

THE large and important family of the Nymphalide contains a vast num-
ber of species, most of which are notable for their brilliant colouring, and man
of which are well-known natives of England. ‘ :

To this family belongs the brightly coloured genus Vanessa, of which the
common PEACOCK BUTTERFLY is a familiar British example. ” This insect
which is one of the finest of our British butterflies, is very common in our own

550 MOTHS.

country, and may be seen very plentifully in fields, roads, or woods, when the
beauty of its colouring never fails to attract admiration.

The caterpillar of the Peacock Butterfly feeds upon the stinging-nettle, in
common with others of the same genus, and therefore the insect is worthy
of our protection. Its general shape and appearance may be gathered from
a reference to the illustration ; its common colour is black, st.dded with tiny
white points. The chrysalis is one of those which hang suspended during
the time of their nonage, and is frequently found to be infested with the
ichneumon-fly.

The beautiful SCARLET ADMIRAL, so well known by the broad scarlet
stripes that are drawn over the wings ; the LARGE and SMALL TORTUISE-
SHELL BUTTERFLIES; the COMMA BUTTERFLY, so called from a comina-
shaped white mark under the wings, and the rare and beautiful CAMBERWELL
BEAULY, are all British members of this genus.

DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH.—(Acherontia Atrofos.)

_ THE second great division of the Lepidoptera is that of the MOTHS, dis-
tinguishable by means of the pointed tips of their antennze, which are often
furnished with a row of projections on either side, like the teeth of a comb ;
and in the males are sometimes supplied with branching appendages.

The first family of the Moths is the Sphingidze, a group which contains a
great number of swift-winged insects, popularly and appropriately calicd
Hawk-moths, from the strength and speed of their flight. In many instances
the proboscis is of great length, sometimes equalling the length of the entire
body, and in such instances it is found that the insect is able to f ed while
on the wing, balancing itself before a flower, hovering on tremulous wing,
and extracting the sweets by suction.

One of the commonest snecies of this genus is the LIME HAWK-MOTH
Smerinthus Tilie), so called because the larva feeds on the,leaves of the

MOTHS. 55!

lime-tree, It is a green caterpillar, thick bodied, covered with little protu-
berances, aud upon each side are some whitish streaks edged with red or
yellow. Just at the end of the tail there is a short knobby protuberance,
and the torepart of the body is rather narrow. When the larva has com-
pleted its time of feeding, it descends to the ground, and buries itself about
eight inches deep in the earth, whence the chrysaiis may be extracted by the
help of atrowel. Besides the lime, the elm and birch are favoured residences
of this insect.

THE splendid insect appropriately named the DEATH’S-HEAD MOTH is
tolerably common in our island, though, from its natural habits, and the in-
stinct of concealment with which the caterpillar is endowed, it is not so
frequently seen as many rarer insects. Owing to the remarkably faithful
delineation of a skull and bones upon the back of the thorax, the insect is
often an object of great terror to the illiterate, and has more than once
thrown a whole province into consternation, the popular idea being that it
was some infra-natural being that was sent upon the earth as a messenger of
pestilence and woe, if not indeed the shape assumed by some witch residing
in the neighbourhood.

The caterpillar of this moth is enormously large, sometimes measuring
five inches in length, and being very stoutly maue. It feeds on various
plants, the jessamine and potato being its favourites, and may be best found
by traversing potato-grounds in the night, and directing the light of a
bull’s-eye lantern among the leaves. It can be readily kept and bred,
but requires some careful tending; and it must be remembered that it will
only eat the particular food to which it has been accustomed, and if bred
among the potato will refuse
the jessamine leaf, and wice
versé. When the caterpillar is
about to change into its chrysa-
lis state it.should be placed ina
vessel containing seven or eight
inches of earth, which should be
kept moderately damp by means
of a moist sponge or wet piece
of moss laid on the top. If this
precaution be not taken,: the
_ Shell of the chrysalis is apt to

become so hard that the moth
is unable to break its way out,
and perishes in the shell. I .
have several specimens where HUMMING-BIRD MOTH.-- (Macroglossa
the moth has thus perished. : stellatarum. )

One of the most curious
points in the historv of the Death’s-head Moth is its power of producing a
sound. a faculty which is truly remarkable among the Lepidoptera. The
noise is something like the grating, squeaking cry of the field-cricket, but not
nearly so loud.

ALTHOUGH not gifted with the brilliant hues which decorate so many of the
Hawk-moths. the HUMMING-BIRD MOTH is a more interesting creature than
many an insect which can boast of treble its dimensions and dazzling richness
of colour. This insect may be readily known by its very long proboscis, the
tufts at the end of the abdomen, and the peculiar flight, which so exactly
resembles that of the humming-bird, that persons accustomed to those
feacnered gems have often been deceived into the idea that England
actually possesses a true humming-bird. Owing to its arrowy flight and the

552 CLEARWING MOTHS.

piercing vision with which such flight is always accompanied, the capture of
the moth is a matter of no small difficulty, and when it settles, the quiet
sober hues of its plumage render it so similar in colour to the objects on
which it rests, that the eye can hardly distinguish its outline; and, being gifted
with an instinctive appreciation of the objects best suited for its concealment,
it is sure to alight on some surface which presents hues akin to those of its
body and wings. :

IN the curious Moths of which the HyLas is a good example, the wings
are as transparent as those of the bee tribe, and, indeed, the hymenopterous
idea seems to run through the whole of these creatures so thoroughly, that
the shape of their bodies, the mode of flight, even the manner in which they
move the abdomen, are so bee and wasp like, that an inexperienced observer
would certainly mistake them for some species of the Hymenoptera. Others
there are which bear an equal resemblance to the gnats, and are of corre-
szondingly small dimensions. These insects fly in a manner somewhat

CLEARWING MOTHS.

resembling the movements of the Humming-bird Moth, and dart about
with considerable speed, though they are not so craftily wary as that insect,
and can be captured with comparative ease. . :

In the 4geriidz, the wings are as transparently clear as in the Sesiade,
and the general aspect is equally like that of a moth. The species which is
shown in the illustration is very common in England, and is fond of haunting
currant-bushes, where it may be captured without much difficulty, being
rather dull and sluggish in taking to flight, though when once on the wing it
is quick and agile in its movements. On account of its resemblance to the
large gnats it is popularly called the GNAT CLEARWING (42geria tipult-
vormis.) The caterpillar of this insect feeds upon the pith of the currant-trees.

The large insect in the same illustration represents the LUNAR HORNET
CLEARWING (Trochilium bembeciforme,) an insect which is of tolerably, but
not very frequent occurrence. Its popular name is given to it in allusion to
its singular resemblance to a hornet, the similitude being so close as to
deceive a casual glance, especially when the insect is on the wing. _

The larva of the present species feeds upon the willow, boring into the
young wood and sometimes damaging it to a serious extent, All these

THE GOAT MOTH. 553

insects inhabtt, wnffe in the larval state, the interior of branches or roots,
and make a kina of cocoon from the nibbled fragments of the wood. Just
before undergoing the transformation, the larva turns round so as to get its
head towards the entrance of the burrow, and after it has changed into the
pupal form, 1s able, by means of certain projections on the segments, to push
itself along until the upper half of the body protrudes through the orifice,
and permits the perfect moth to make its escape into the open air.

The wings of this insect are transparent, with orange-red nervures and
dusky fringes. The head and thorax are shining brown black, with a yellow
collar, and the abdomen is ringed with orange and dark brown.

THE well-known GoaT MOTH is, next to the Death’s-head Moth, one of the
largest of the British Lepidoptera, its body being thick, stout, and massive,
and its wings wide and spreading.

GOAT MOTH AND LARVA.—(Cossus ligniperda.)

The larva itself is but little smaller than that of the Death’s-head Moth,
and is by no means an attractive-looking creature. Its body is smooth and
shining, mostly of dull mahogany-red tinged with ochreous yellow, and
having a large oval patch of chestnut on the back of each segment. It is
gifted with a curiously wedge-shaped head, and its muscular power is enormous,
as may be proved by actual experiment during the life of the creature, or
inferred from the marvellous arrangement of muscles which are made visible
upon dissection.

It exudes a liquid of powerful and fetid odour, thought by some to resem-

le the unpleasant effluvium exhaled by the he-goat. Its influence extends
to a considerable distance, and a practised entomologist will often detect the
presence of a Goat-moth caterpillar simply by the aid of the nostrils.

The caterpillar passes three years in the larval stage of existence, and
when the time approaches for its change, it ceases to burrow, and scoops out

554 WOOD LEOPARD MOTH.

a convenient cell in the tree, lining it with a fabric of mixed wood-scrapings
and silken threads. Before it emerges from this retreat, it pushes itself through
its burrow like a sweep ascending achimney, protrudes about half of the boay,
and then issues from the chrysaiis shell, which it leaves within the burrow.

The Woop LEOPARD MOTH, is a very prettily marked insect, though
without the least brilliancy of colour. The caterpillar of this insect feeds
upon the interior of many trees, seeming to prefer the wood of the apple,
pear, and other fruit-trees. It is a naked, fleshy-looking larva, of alight yeliow
colour, and having a double row of black spots upon each segment. Like
the Goit-moth, it prepares a cocoon-like cell when it is akout to take the
pupal form, but the lining is of stronger materials, cemented fiimly together
with a glutinous substance secreted by the,insect. Tle mcth is-seldom seen
until July, and is tolerably plentiful in some places, appearing to Le decidedly
local and rather intermittent in its visits.

THE family of the Bombycide includes several insects of inestimable
value to mankind, the various siik-
producing moths being included in
its ranks. The con mon silk-woim
is too familiar to need any notice,
but as it is not generally known
that upwards of forty silk producing
moths exist in different parts of the
world, a short history will be given
of some of thern, together with a
figure and a brief description of one
of the finest species. All these in-
sects secrete the silk in two large
intestine-like vessels in the interior,
which contain a gelatinous kind of
WSS substance, and become enormously

LESS large just before the caterpillar is

WOOD LEOPARD MOTH.—(Zeuzera esculi) about to charge intoa pupa. ‘Both

the silk organs. unite in a common

tube at the mouth, technically called the spinneret, and through this tube

the semi-liquid is ejected. As soon as it comes into contact, with air it
hardens into that soft, shining fibre with which we are so familiar.

If a single fibie of silk be examined through a good microscope, it will be
seen to consist of two smaller fibres laid parallel to each other, like the barrels
of a double gun, this structure being due to the double secreting vessels.
The goodness of silk chiefly consists in the manner in which these semi-fibres
are placed together.

The caterpillar employs the silk for the purpose of constructing a cocoon
in which it can lie until it has assumed the perfect form ; and proceeds with
wonderful regularity and despatch in its work, its head passing from side to
side, always carrying with it a thread, and the cocoon being gradually formed
into the oval shape which it finally assumes. The few outermost layers are
always rough and of poor quality ; these are stripped off, and the end of the
thread being found, it is fastened to a wheel, and spun off into. a hank of soft
yellow fibre. The colouring matter is very variable, sometimes being hardly
visible, and at others giving the silk a bright orange tint. It fades much on
exposure to light.

THE family of the Arctiidae, so called because some of the hair-covered
Jarvee have a bear-like look, is represented in England by many examples,
some being really handsome insects, and others remarkable for some pecu-
liarity in themselves or the larvee. ;

SILK WORMS—MOTHS—COCOONS. Page 554.
The Popular Natural History

TIGER MOTH. 555

THE TIGER-MOTH.—This common but beautiful moth is found in the
beginning of autumn. It runs on the ground with such swiftness as to be often
mistaken for a mouse. I have more than once seen a kitten chasing a tiger-
moth among the flowers in a garden, evidently deceived by its resembla ice
to a mouse. The larva is popularly called “ the woolly bear.” It is rat er
large, and is surrounded with tufts of long elastic hairs of a reddish bro .n
colour, which serve as a defence against many enemies. When disturbed. it
rolls itself round, just as a hedgehog does, and if on a branch, suffers itself to
fall to the ground, when the long hairy covering defends it trom being injure
by the fall, When the caterpillar is about to change to a pupa, it spins a
kind of hammock, and lies there until it comes forth as a moth.

The colour and markings of this moth vary considerably. The usual tints
are, the thorax brown, the body red, striped with black. The two anterior
wings are cream colour, marked with bold patches of a deep brown: the
posterior wings are bright red, spotted with bluish black.

Perhaps the most curious example of this family is a species which de-
rives its popular name from its habits.

The HOUSE-BUILDER MOTH (Ocketicus Sandersiz) is common in many
parts of the West Indies, and is in some places so plentiful as to do consider-
able damage to the fruit-trees. As soon as the larva is hatched from the

TIGER MOTH.—(Arctia caja.)

egg, it sets to work in building its habitation : and even before it begins to
feed, this industrious insect begins to work. The house is made of bits of
wood and leaves, bound tozether with silken threads secreted in the interior.
When the creature is small, and the house is of no great weight, it is carried
nearly upright ; but when it attains size and consequent weight, it lies flat, and
is dragged along in that attitude. The entrance of this curious habitation
is so made that the sides can be drawn together, and whenever the creature
feels alarmed, it pulls the cords and so secures itself from foes.

THE next family derives the name of Geometridz from the mode of walking
adopted by thelarva. These creatures have no legs on the middle of the body,
and are in consequence unable to crawl in the usual manner. Their mode of
progression is popularly and appropriately termed “looping,” and the caterpil-
lars are called “loopers.” When one of these larve desires to advance, it grasps
the object firmly with its fore feet, and draws the hind feet close to them,
forming the body into an arched shape, not unlike the attitude of a cat which
meets a strange dog. The hinder feet then take a firm hold, the body is
projected forward, until the fore feet can repeat the process. The whole
action of the larva reminds the observer of the leech when crawling.

The power of grasp and general strength of muscle enjoyed by these
larvee are really surprising. Many of them can seize a branch with their

556 THE SWALLOW-TAILED MOTH.

hind feet, stretch out the body nearly horizontally, and remain in that
position for hours. Some slight idea of the :auscular force required to
perform this action may be imagined by grasping an upright pole with the
hands, and trying to hold the body out horizontally. Several of these cater-
pillars are of dull brown hues, and being furnished with sundry projections
in different parts of their bodies, they resembie dried sticks so closely that
they can hardly be distinguished from the branches to wnich they cling.

The SWALLOW-TAILED MOTH is a well-known British species, very
common in woods, and being mostly found among the underwood, whence
it may be dislodged by beating the branches. The caterpillar teeds on
many shrubs, but prefers th. willow the lime and elder trees, the elder being

SWALLOW-TAILED MOTH.—(Oxvapteryx sambucaria.)

its chief favourite. Two specimens of the caterpillar are given for the '
purpose of showing its attitudes while at rest and while walking after the
looper” manner. The cocoon is also shown, made of withered leaves, and
hanging from an ivy twig
_ The colour of the larva is reddish brown, with some dark longitudinal
lines, and before it changes into the pupal state it makes a slivht silken
cocoon among leaves. The colour of the wings is delicate sulphur yellow,
fading to shining white at the base of the wings, and diversified with narrow
streaks of brown. :
THE family of the Hyponomeutide contains many beautiful species, none
of which are of great size, but which, when magnified and a strong light
\wrown upon them, seem to be amongst the loveliest of the moth tribes.

WHITE PLUME MOTH. 557

Our last example of the Lepidoptera is the beautiful WHITE-PLUME MoTH,
an insect which never fails to attract attention, on account of the singular
elegance anu beauty of its form.

This insect belongs to a small family which is remarkable for the fact that,
except in one genus, the wings, instead of being broad membranous struc-
tures, are cleit into narrow rays, feathered in a most soft and delicate
manner. The White-plume Moth is to be seen in the evenings, flying in a

WHITE PLUME.—(LPterophorus pentadactylus.)

curious uncertain manner, and Jooking not unlike a snow-flake blown
casually by the wind. It seems never to fly to any great distance, settling
quite openly on leaves or plants, without taking the precaution of clinging to
the under side, as.is the custom with so many of the smaller moths. When
it rests, it folds the wings so that they only look like a single broad ray.
The legs of this moth are very long and slender. The colour of this insect
is pure white.

HOMOPTERA.

In the next order are comprised some very grotesque insects, some of
which have been thought to belong to other orders, and a few not being
known to be insects at all until comparatively late years. They have rounded
bodies, not more than three joints in the tarsi. and their wings are four in
number, wholly membranous, the fore pair being larger than the hinder,
but not overlapping in repose. The mouth forms a kind of tube, sometimes
longer than the body, and often sufficiently hard and stiff to pierce the
skin.

In this curious order are placed the Aphides, those little green insects that
swarm upon roses and other plants, and are termed “ blights” by gardeners,

558 CICADA.

who employ that term in a strangely wide sense; the Cicade, with their
beautiful niembranous wings, their large heads, and their loud voices; the
tribe of Hoppers, of which the Cuckoo-spit Insect, known in its perfect state
under the name of Frog-hopper, and the beautiful Scarlet Hopper, are
familiar British examples ; the wonderful Lantern-flies, also leapers, which
are found only in hot climates; the Wax Insects of China; and lastly, the
Scale Insects, or Coccidz, trom which the “lac” so important in commerce
is obtained.

The Cicadee have three joints to their feet, these members affording useful
characteristics in settling the precise position of the various species. They are
very large insects, sometimes measuring more than six inches between the

Peciloptera circulata. Cicada flosfolia.

tips of the expanded wings. Their mouth or beak is three-jointed, and verv
long, being tucked under the body when not required. The females are
furnished with a curious apparatus, by which they are enabled to cut grooves
in the branches of trees for the purpose of depositing their eggs therein.

The male Cicada has the power of producing a shrill and ear-piercing
sound, so loud in many species that it can be heard at a considerable distance,
and becomes a positive annovance, like the same tune played for several
hours without intermission. The organ by which the sound is produced is
internal, but its position may be seen externally by looking at the under side
of the body, just behind the last pair of legs, where a pair of horny plates
may be seen. These plates are the protecting covers of the sound-producing
apparatus, which consists of two drum-like membranes and a set of powerful
muscles. The colour of the perfect insect is mostly of a yellowish cast,
and the wings are firm, shining, and membranous, somewhat resembling
those of the dragon-fly in texture, but having larger cells or spaces between
the nervures,

HETEROPTERA. 559

One species of Cicada is a native of England (Cicada Anglica), and is to
be found in the New Forest.

THE Cercopide, or Hoppers, are well known in this country, mostly from
the habits of the larva, and the saltatorial powers of the perfect insect. The
CUCKOO-SPIT, or FROG-HOPPER, is very plentiful in this country. The
larva fixes itself upon various plants, and sucks their juices through its long
beak, which it plunges into the soft substance. When the accumulation of
froth is very great, which usually happens in the heat of the day, a drop of
clear water begins to form at the lowest part, into which the froth drains
itself, and is presently relieved by the falling of the drop. The scientific
. name of this insect is Aphrophora spumaria. The species which is repre-
sented in the engraving belongs to the same genus as the beautiful SCARLET
HOPPER of England, so frequently found on ferns in the outskirts of woods.

Passing by the Psyllidz, another family of this order, we come to the
APHIDES, a family comprising a great number of species. The whole history
of these insects is remarkable in the extreme, presenting many points which
seem most incredible, which destroy several old-established opinions, and in
all probability will serve, when fully investigated, in establishing a new basis
on which to found a more perfect system. The Aphides are wonderfully
prolific, crowding upon plants until they completely hide them from view,
and all employed in sucking the juice by means of the peculiar beak. They
haunt every part of the plant, the leaves and their stalks, the branches, and
even the roots being infested by these persevering destroyers, which often do
great damage, and even force the leaves and branches to twist themselves
into extraordinary contortions. Some species raise certain excrescences
which serve as habitations for the insects.

In many species there is a pair of tubercles towards the extremity of the
insect, which exude a sweetish liquid in a manner analogous to the frothing
of the Cuckoo-spit. This liquid falls upon the leaves of trees, and is then
known by the name of honey-dew. Bees are very fond of this substance,
and, wherever it is present in any quantities, may be seen licking up the
sweet secretion. Ants are equally fond of honey-dew, but they go to the
fountain-head at once, and lap it as it flows from the tubercles. Whole
regiments of ants may be seen ascending trees in search of the Aphides ;
and it is very amusing to see how they will search every atom of a tree on
which the Aphides live, so as not to allow a single insect to escape them.

The COCHINEAL INSECT (Coccus cactZ) belongs to the same order. This
species is a native of Mexico, and lives upon a kind of cactus, called from its
insect guest the Cactus cochinelliferus.

The Lac INSECT (Coccus dacca) resides in Indiaand the hotter parts of Asia.

HETEROPTERA,

THESE insects are readily known by several conspicuous characteristics.
The wings are four in number, and the front pair are very peculiar in their
structure, the basal portion being horny, like the elytra of beetles, and the
remaining portion membranous, like the hinder wings of the same insect.
In some species, however, the wings are wanting, as in the common Bed-bug
(Cimex lectularius). The body is always much flattened, the mouth is beak-
like, and in the pupal stage the creature is active and resembles the perfect
insect, except in its want of wings.

THE family of the Nepide is represented in England by the common
WATER SCORPION, a very flat and leaf-like insect, which is found abundantly
in slow-running streams, ditches, and ponds. It derives its popular name
from its scorpion-like aspect, the two slender filaments appended to the abdo-

560 APHANIPTERA.

men representing the sting-tipped tail, and the raptorial fore-legs resembling
the claws. It is with these legs that the Water Scorpion catches its prey,
which, when once grasped in that hooked extremity, is never able to make its
escape. The beak is short, but very strong and sharp, and is not bent under
the thorax as is the case with that of the water boatman.

The next section of the Heteroptera includes insects which are mostly
terrestrial, though some are fond of haunting the surface of water. The
Hydrometride are well-known examples of the latter insects, and are popu-
larly known by the name of Water-fleas. The common Gerris skims over the
surface with wonderful rapidity, wheeling and turning as easily as a skat r
performing his manceuvres on the smooth ice. But the Hydrometra, a very
slender creature, hardly thicker than a needle, and bearing a great resem-
blance to the well-known Walking-stick Insect, glides slowly over the surface,
mostly keeping among the aquatic plants at the margin, and passing silently
as a shadow over the water.

The family of the Cimicide is represented by the too common BED-BUG, a
creature which is supposed to have been imported into England from
America. This odoriferous, flat-bodied, rust-coloured insect has derived its
very appropriate name from the old English word dugge, signifying a nocturnal
spectre, and used in that sense by the old writers. These creatures are
enabled, by means of their flat bodies, to creep into the smallest crevices;
and when they have once taken possession uf a room, can be with difficulty
extirpated.

The Reduviidz comprise a great number of terrestrial insects, mostly exotic,
but a few being natives of our country. Some of them are very large, and
one species, the WHEEL-BUG (Ardlus serratus), is said to possess electric
powers. Its popular name is derived from the curious shape of the prothorax,
which is elevated and notched, so as to resemble a portion of a cog-wheel.
One species, Reduvius personatus, inhabits houses, and is said to feed upon
the bed-bug. The larva and pupa of this insect are difficult to discover, on
account of their habit of enveloping themselves in a coating of dust. The
HAMMATOCERUS belongs to this family. The insect is remarkable for the
curious structure of the second joint of the antennee, which consists of
numerous small articulations. The generic title is derived from two Greek
words, signifying “ link-horned,” and is given to the insect in allusion to this
peculiarity.

APHANIPTERA.

WE now come to another order, deriving its name from the invariable -
absence of wings, the name being derived from two Greek words, the former
signifying “invisitle,” and the latter
“a wing.” Thre are not many spe-
cies belonging to this order, and they
are all known by the popular name of
Fleas.

The strength and agility of the
curious but annoying little insect the
FLEA is perfectly wonderful. Many
of my readers have doubtless seen the
exhibition of the Industrious Fleas,
who drew litt'e carriages, and carried
comparatively heavy weights with the
greatest ease. The apparatus with
which it extracts the blood of its victims is very curious, and forms a beautiful
object under a microscope of low power. Its leap is tremendous in propor-

THE FLES. - (4 ul x irritans.)

GREAT CRANE-FLY—GAD AND BOT FLIES. 561

tion to its size. This property it enjoys in common with many other insects,
among which the Common Grasshopper, the Frog-hopper, and the Halticas,

or Turnip-flies, are conspicuous. In all these insects the hinder pair of legs
are very long and powertul.

DIPTERA.

WE now pass to the DIPTERA; or Two-winged Insects, which may be
known not only by the single pair of wings, but by the little appendages at
their base, called halteres, or balancers, and which are the only vestiges of
the hinder pair of wings. Moreover, the wings are not capable of being
folded. This order is of vast extent, and includes a whole host of species.

THE Tipulide are very familiarto us through the well-known insects called
DappDy LONG-LEGS, or CRANE-FLIES, one of which is here represented. In
their perfect state these insects are perfectly harmless, although ignorant
people are afraid to touch them. But in thei: larval condition they are_fear-
ful pests, living just below the surface of the ground, and feeding on the roots
of grasses. Whole acres of grass have been destroyed by these larve ; and

GREAT CRANE-FLY.—( Zipula gigantea.)

some years ago Blackheath Park was so infested with them, that in the

beginning of autumn the ground was covered thickly with the empty pupa
cases of the escaped insect.

GAD AND BOT FLIES,

The left-hand figure in the illustration represents the common BREEZE-
FLY, a well-known British example of the Tabanide. It is also known
by the popular names of GaD-FLyY and CLEG, As in the gnats, the

oO

562 CRUSTACEA,

females are the only bloodsuckers, but they exert their sanguinary ability
with terrible force.

On the right hand of the engraving may be seen a large and bold-looking
fly. This belongs to the family of the CEstrida, and is popularly known by
the name of BoT-FLy. All these insects are parasitic in or upon animals,
The larva of this Bot-fly resides in the interior of horses, and is conveyed
there in a very curious manner. The parent fly deposits her eggs upon the
hairs near the shoulders of the horse, where the animal is sure to lick them,
in order to rid itself of the unpleasant feeling caused by agglutinated hairs.
The eggs are thus conveyed to the stomach, to the
coats of which organ the larve cling, and there
remain until they have attained their full growth.
They then loosen their hold, and are carried, to-
gether with the food, through the interior of the
animal, fall to the ground, and immediately begin to
burrow. They remain underground until they have
undergone their metamorphoses, and then emerge in
the shape of the perfect insect.

The HUMBLE BEE-FLY.—This very curious insect

HUMBLE BEE-FLY. is found in the early days of spring, and may be

(Bombylius medius.) seen hovering over the primroses and other spring

flowers. It feeds in the same manner as the Hum-
ming-bird Moth, and much resembles that insect in many of its habits.

CRUSTACEA

HAVING now completed our brief survey of the Insects, we proceed to the
CRUSTACEA, a very large class, in which are included the lobsters, crabs,
shrimps, water-fleas, and a host of other familiar beings. Even the Cirrhi-
peds, popularly known under the name of Barnacles, are members of this
Jarge class, and a number of curious animals, which have until lately been
classed with the spiders, are now ascertained to belong to the Crustacea.

These beings can be easily separated from the insects on account of their
general structure, the head and throat being fused into one mass, called tech-
nically the cephalothorax ; the number of limbs exceeding the sixlegs of the
insects ; and the mode of breathing, which is by gills, and not by air-tubes,

The name of Crustacea is sufficiently appropriate, and is given to these
creatures on account of the hard shelly crust with which their bodies and
limbs are covered.

The first section of these creatures are called the Podophthalmata, or
Stalk-eyed Crustaceans, because their eyes are set upon footstalks. The first
order is that of the Ten-legged Crustaceans, so called on account of the five
pairs of legs that are set in each side. These are exclusive of the compli-
cated apparatus of the mouth, and the jaw-feet which guard its entrance.
The CRABS are placed first in the list of Crustaceans, and are technically
called Brachyura, or Short-tailed Crustaceans, because their tails are of com-
paratively small size, and are tucked under the large shielded body. In the
preliminary stages, however, the Crabs have tails as proportionately long as
those of a lobster or a cray-fish.

As the shelly armour of the Crustaceans is, in most cases, so hard, strong,
and unyielding, the mode of growth might be considered a problem not very
easy of solution: for with the Crustaceans the growth continues during
nearly the whole of life, or at all events for several years after they have
passed through the various changes to which they are subjected in their im-
perfect stages of existence, Their increase of size and weight is marvel-

THE THORNBACK CRAB. 563

lously rapid, and how it can be accomplished, without subjecting the Crus-
taceans to the lot of the starveling mouse, who crawled into a jar of corn, but

could not crawl out again after
feasting on its contents, seems
to partake of the charater of an
animated puzzle.

The answer to the problem is
simply that the creature sheds
its armour annually, expands
rapidly while yet covered only
by a soft skin, and is soon pro-
tected by a freshly-deposited
coat of shelly substance. Even
this answer contains a second
problem little less difficult than
that which it solves. How can
a Crustacean, say a crab or a
lobster, shed its skin? It is
true that the cast shells are
found, showing that the creature
has escaped from its old and
contracted tenement by a slit in
some part of the body, such as
the top of the carapace, and has
left its shell in so perfect a

COMMON THORNBACK CRAB.—(MJaza
Squinado.)

state that it might easily be mistaken for the living animal.
But how did it manage about the claws? We all know what large mus-

THORNBACK SPIDER-CRAB.

cular masses they are, how very small is the aperture in which the joint
works, and how stiff and firm is the broad tendinous plate which is found in
their interior. Examination shows that there is no opening on the claws

902

564 THE EDIBLE CRAB,

through which the creature might have drawn the imprisoned limb, and it is
also evident that the only method by which these members can be ex-
tricated is by pulling them fairly through the joints. Asa preliminary step,
the hard, firm, muscular fibres which fili the ciaw and give it the well-
known pinching power, become sott, flaccid, and watery, and can thus be
drawn through the comparatively small openings through which the tendons
pass from one joint to another. The sharp and knife-like edges of the plates
cut deeply through the muscle, which, however, is little injured, on account
of its soft consistency, and heals with great rapidity as suon as the animal
recovers its strengh and is gifted with a new shell. In the common edible
crab, the flesh is quite unfit for consumption during this pro ess, as anyone
can attest who has attempted to dress and eata “waiery” crab. Yet, in
some of the exotic crustaveans, these conditions are exactly reversed, and
the crabs are never so fit for the table as while they are soft and shell-less,
after the old suit of armour has been thrown off, and before the new
integument has received its hardening.

WE now come to the SPiDER-CRABS, scientifically termed Maiadee.

A very common and a very useful British species is seen in the illus-
tration, sitting on the rock. The common THORNBACK SPIDER-CRAB, or
SQUINADO, is plenuful upon our coasts, and, as may be seen by reference
to the figure,is not a very prepossessing creature in external appearance,
its body being one mass of sharp and not very short spines, and its whole
frame possessing a weird-like and uncomely aspect. ~

Ugly though it may be in an artistic point ot view, it is one of the most
useful inhabitants of the sea, acting as a scavenger for the removal of the
decaying animal matter that is ‘ever found in the seas. More especially along

tthe shore, where the refuse of: mankind, such as unsaleable fish and crus-
taceans, are continually being cast into the waves, the Squinado.is found to
perform the necessary office of removing all such substances. It is a vora-
cious creature, and being gifted with an acute sense of smell, is sure to
discover without delay any substance on which it can feed, and to make its
way thereto without delay.

The Squinado, together with other crabs, sets to work boldly : with one
claw he holds tightly to the
banquet, and with the other
tears off morsels and deftly
feeds himself therewith, put-
ting them into his comical
jaws with the regularity of
clockwork, and with a ra-
pidity that reminds the ob-
server of a Chinese flinging
rice into his -mouth with
his chopsticks. The strength
and sharpness of the claws
are such that the toughest

‘muscle cannot long with-
stand their power, and the
flesh is torn from the bones
as perfectly as if scraped

VY SZ away by a knife, '

It is a curious fact that the
ee ENB Cancer poet) back of this crab is generally
a resting-place for sundry zoophytes, which often grow in such protusion as
to hide the animal completely. A specimen half covered with zoophytes is

SWIMMING CRABS. , 565

shown in one illustration, while in the other the Spider-crab is shown de-
nuded of these appendages. od,

THE large family of the Canceridze now comes before us, and is familiarly
known through the medium of the common EDIBLE CRAB.

This is a very common species, being plentiful around our rocky coasts,
and generally remaining in the zone just under low-water mark. The fisher-
men catch it in various ways ; but the most usual method, and that by which
the greatest number of these crustaceans are captured, is by means of certain
baskets, called crab-pots, cruives, or creels, according to the locality. These
baskets are round, and in shape something like a flattened apple, and have
an aperture at the top through which the crab gains access to the interior.
When once within the basket it cannot escape, because the opening is

GREEN CRAB,—(Carcinus menas.)

guarded by an inverted cone of osiers, like the entrance to a common wire
mouse-trap, so that the elastic sticks yield to the expected prey while passing
downwards, but effectually prevent all upward movement.

Supplied with a number of these creels, a corresponding amount of rope,
floats, stones, and bait, the fisherman rows towards the best grounds, which
are always where the bed of the sea is rocky, and the depth from three to
twenty fathoms. The bait, consisting of haddock, skate, and ‘other fish, is
placed in the basket, together with a few stones which serve to sink it, a line
is attached, and the creel lowered out of the boat. A buoy is attached to
the line and marked with the owner’s name, so as to avoid mistakes as to the
proprietorship of the creel. The fisherman then rows to a little distance,
and sinks another baited creel. taking the precaution to place them so far
asunder that the lines cannot be entangled in each other,

Boys often employ their idle afternoons in crab-hunting, always going
among the rocks at low-water, and looking out for those rock masses that

566 THE FIGHTING CRAB.

are covered with heavy seaweeds, They are armed with a kind of lance,
consisting of an iron hook fastened to a long stick, and with this they poke
about in the crevices under the rocks, and twist out the crabs that have con-

NIEPZK CRAB.—(Lolydius Ai nsiowi.)

cealed themselves, These crabs, however, seldom attain any great size, the
larzer specimens remaining in the deeper water. ‘he boys call them
“ pungers,” to distinguish them from the green crab.

02 a
RIN ORIGTIG, SES TS

FIGHTING CRAB.—(Gelasimu: bcllator.)

The shell of this crab is seldom found entirely clean, being generally
encrusted with acoin-barnacles and various marine creatures, Sometimes,
when the crab is a very old and large one. has ceased growing for several
years, and consequently has needed no change of shell, it becomes absolutely
loaded with all sorts of extraneous growths, and in manv cases js alinost’
invisible under its load. There is a very curious specimen in the large

THE HERMIT CRAB. 567

collection at the British Museum, where a number of oysters had affixed
themselves to the shell, and consequeatiy had been borne about with the crab
in all its peregrinations. : ?

WE now arrive at the family of the Portunide, or Swimming Crabs, which
may be recognized by the construction of the last pair of i-et, which are
flattened sideways, and have the last joint dilated into a thin obiique plate,
which answers as an ovr or a fin, and enables the creature tu propel itself
through the water. ‘The first ex unple of this family is the GREEN or SHORE
CRAB, so familar to eversone who has passed even an hour on the coast
between the time of high ani low water, Although one of the commonest of
our native crustaceans, it is at the same time one of the most interesting,
and, owing to its diurnal habits, its fearless nature, and its love for the shallow
waters, it is very easily observed. { have spent many a pleasant hour in watch-
ing the habits of this little creature, and could hardly have imagined the
activity, the piercing sight, and the cleverness with which this crab is endowed.

The NIPPER CraB is a really wonderful swimmer, being able, acco: ding
to Mr. Couch’s account, to as-end to the surface of the sea, and to pursue its
prey through the waters. So well does this creature swim, and so voracious
is its appetite, that it captures and eats even the swiftest sea-nsh, having
been known to pounce upon the mackerel and the pollack. Its method of
proceeding seems to be to dart upon its prey, grasp it firmly w th its sharply
pointed and powerful claws, and :etain its hold until the unfortunate victim
is quite fatizued anid falls an easy prey. ; ;

WE now arrive at another fainily. called the Ocypodide, or Swift footed
Crabs, from ther extraordinary speed, which equals or even exceeds that of
a man,

The figure in the engraving represents the FIGHTING CRAR, a creature
whose name is well deserved. As the reader may observe, one of its claws
is enormously lirge in proportion to the
body, being indeed nearly equal in dimen-
sions to the whole caripace, while the
other claw is quite small and feeble. It
is remarkab'e that sometimes the right
and sometimes the left claw is thus de-
veloped. This animal is a most deter-
mined fighter, and has the art of disposing
its limbs like the arms of a boxer, so as to
be equally ready for attack or defence
The hgure shows the crab in its posture
of defence. ;

The Fighting Crab lives on the sea- Wa
shore or on the border of salt marshes, H/\ 3;
and burrows deeply in the earth, the (WZ
holes being tolerably cylindrical and —
rather oblique in direction. In some HERMIT CRAB.—(/agurses
plices these holes are so close together Be uhardus.)
that the earth is quite honeyc -:mbed with them, and the place looks like a
rabbit warren. Each burrow is tenanted by a pair of crabs, the male always
remaining in the post of danger at the mouth of the tunnel, and keeping
guard with his gre it claw at the entrance.

While running, it his a habit of holding the larze claw aloft, and moving it
as if beckoning to some one ; a habit which has cause | one of the species to
be named the Calling Crab This act:on has in it something very ludicrous,
and those who have watched the proceedings of a crab warren say that
there are few scenes more ridiculous than that which is presented by the

568 LOBSTERS.

crustaceans when they are alarmed and go scuttling over the ground to their
homes, holding up their claws and beckoning in all directions.

WE now come to a singular group of crabs, which are remarkable for
their soft and shell-less tails and the mode employed to protect them. From
their solitary habits they are called HERMIT-CRABS, and from their extreme
combativeness they have earned the title of SOLDIER-CRABS.

The best known of these crustacea is the common HERMIT-CRAB of
England (Pagurus Bernhardus), which is to be found plentifully on our
shores. Like all its race, the Hermit-crab inhabits the shell of some
mollusc, in which it can bury its unprotected tail, and into which it can retreat
when threatened.with danger. The Hermit-crab usurps the deserted home
of various molluscs, according to its size, so that, when young and small, it is
found in the shells of the tops, periwinkles, and other small molluscs ;
and when it reaches full age, it takes possession of the whelk-shell and
entirely fills its cavity.

To see a Hermit-crab fitting itself with a new shell is a very ludicrous sight.
The creature takes the shell among its feet, twirls it about with wonderful ra-
pidity, balances it as if to try its weight, probes it with the long antenne, and
perhaps throws it away. Sometimes, however, when the preliminary inves-
tigations have proved satisfactory, it twists the shell round until the tail falls
into the opening, and then parades up and down for a little while. Perhaps
it may be satisfied, and after twirling the shell about several times, whisks
into it with such speed that the eye can scarcely follow its movements,
Indeed it seems rather to be shot into the shell from some engine of pro-
pulsion than to move voluntarily into the new habitation. When the
number of empty shells is great, the Hermit is very fastidious, and will
spend many hours in settling into a new house.

In all these creatures the larger claw is very much developed; so that
when the Crab has withdrawn into the shell, the claw lies over the entrance
and closes it like a living
door, which has the further
advantage of being used as
an offensive weapon. The
footstalks on which the eyes
are set are moderately long,
stout, and jointed, and en-
able their possessor to see
in all directions.

WE next take the second
great division of the Crus-
taceze, namely those which
have long and _ power-
ful tails. The LoBsTERS
and SHRIMPS are examples
of these creatures. In swim-
ming rapidly through the
water, the tail is the organ
of propulsion which is em-
ployed, and a glance at its form will soon explain its use.

WE now come to the family of the Astacida, which includes two well-
known -and very similar creatures, the fresh-water cray-fish, and the salt-
water Lobster. The general shape and appearance of the LOBSTER is too
well known to need any description. The vast numbers of Lobsters which
are annually brought to the London markets are largely supplied from
Norway, although there are many parts of oyr own coasts where these

LOBSTER.—( Astacus gammarus.)

SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS. 569

creatures can be taken plentifully. The Lobster is not much of a rover,
seldom straying far from the spot on which it was hatched.

The Lobsters are caught in creels or pots, like the crabs, but with greater
ease and economy, as they are very fond of meat, be it fresh or tainted, and
even if it should be putrefying will be attracted to it.

Like many other crustaceans, the Lobster is a most combative animal,
quarrelling on the slightest pretext, and fighting most furiously. In these
combats it mostly kes a claw or a leg, being obliged to discard entirely
a wounded member. A fresh leg or claw sprouts from the scar, and it is
to this circumstance that the frequently unequal size of lobster-claws is owing.
Lobsters indeed part with these valuable members with strange indifference,
and will sometimes shake them off on hearing a sudden noise.

If the fishermen find that they have wounded a Lobster, they have
recourse to a very strange but perfectly efficacious remedy. Supposing one
of the claws to be wounded, the creature would soon bleed to death unless

SAND-HOPPER..—( 7u.litrus. THE SHRIMP.—(Crangon vulgaris.)
saltator.) THE PRAWN.-—(Palemon serratus.)

some means were taken whereby the flow of blood may be stopped. The
method adapted by the fishermen consists in twisting off the entire claw. A
membrane immediately forms over the wound, and the bleeding is stopped.
The new limb that is to supply the place of that which was lost always
sprouts from the centre of the scar. :
THE next family includes the true SHRIMPS, and contains but one gerus.
The SHRIMP, which is so familiar on our tables, and which, until the marine
aquaria became so common, was equally unknown in its living state, inhabits
our shores, where it is produced in countless myriads. In every little pool
that is left by the retiring tide the Shrimps may be seen in profusion, betray-
ing their preseuce by their quick darting movements as they dash about in
the water, and ever and anon settle upon some spot, flinging up a cloud of
sand as they scuffle below its surface, their backs being just level with the
surrounding sand. In consequence of this manceuvre, the fishermen call
them “Sand-raisers.” The small prawns are often confounded with the
Shrimps and popularly called by the same title. They can, however, be
easily distinguished from each other, the beak of the prawn being long,
and deeply saw-edged, while that of the Shrimp is quite short and smooth.
OUR attention is now drawn toa very large group of crustaceans, called

570 4HE WOOLLOUSE.

the Sessile-eyed Crustacea, because their eyes, instead of being pla-ed on
footstalks, are seated directlyupon the shell. The bo ‘v is divided w.th tolerable
distinctness into three parts, for which the ordinary tides of head, thorax. and
abdomen are retained as being more ccn-enient and intelligible than the
ingenious and more correct, though rather repulsive, titles that have lately
been affixed to these divisions of the body.

They have no carapace, like the stalk-ey2d crustaceans, nor do they breathe
with gills, butby means of a curious adaptation of so. e of their limos. None
of the Sessile-eyed Crustacea attain any large size, an inch and a half being
nearly their utmost limit ia point of length. Most of these animals reside
along the sea-shores, where they are of very great use in clearing away the
mass of dead animal and vegetable matter which is constantly found in the sea.

In the illustration we have an example of the frst family, calles by the name
of Orchestidz, or Jumpers, bec suse they possess the power of leaping upon
dry ground. The ngure represents the most familiar of these little crusta-
ceans. ‘This is the littl SaND-HOPPER, or SANJ'-SKIPPER, which is seen in
such myriads along all our sandy shores, leaping about vigorously just
before the advancing or behind the retiring tide, and looking 1.ke a low mist
edging the sea, so coun'less are their numbers. Paley has a well-known
passage respecting this phenomenon, too familiar for quotation.

The leap of the Sand-hopper is produced by bending the body and then
flinginz it open with a sudden jerk—in fact, the exact converse of the mode
of progression adopted by the lobster ancl shrimp. The Sand-hopper feeds
on almost everything that is soft and capable of decay, and seenis to care] ttle
whether the food be of an animal or vegetable nature. Decaying seaweed
is a favourite article of food, and wherever a b inc. of blackened and rotting
seaweed lies on the sand, there may be found the Sand-hoppers congregated
beneath it, and literally boiling out when the seaweed is plucked up.

: The teeth of this creature are
strong and sharp, as indeed is
nedful for the tasks imposed
upon them. The Sand-hopper
will eat anything ; and on oneoc-
casion, when a Jady had allowed
a swarm of these little crusta-
ceans to sett e on her handker-
chief, it was bitten to rags when
she took it up. It is very fond
of worms, will eat any kind of
carrion, and sometimes, when
pressed: by hunger, has no
scruple in eating its own kind.

THE two lower figures in the
illustration represe.t the com-
mon WOODLUUSE, the iatter
figure being given in order to
show the equal development of
the legs. This creature is very
plentiful in all damp places, and
ARMADILLO WooDLOUSE. —(Armadil/o vulgaris. especially exults in getting un-

WOODLOUSE. —(Porectliv scab.) der logs of wood or decaying
timter. In cellars and outnouses

they are common, and are generally to be found in daik and damp localities,
Fowls are very fend of them, and there is no surer way of extirpating these
sharp-toothed creatures than by allowing some fowls to scrape and peck

THE BARNACLES. 37k

about in the places where they have taken up their residence. Under the
bark of dead and decaying trees is a very favourite residince with the
Woodlouse, anu in ‘such lo alities their dead skeletons may often be found,
bleached to a porcelain-like whiteness. The colour of the Wuoulouse is a
darkish leaden hue, sometimes spotted with white.

‘The well-known PILL WsODLOuUSE, or PILL ARMADILLO, are seen at the
upper part of the illus'rat-on, one representing the creatue as it appears
while walking, and the other showing it when rolled up into a globular shape.
In this attitude it bears a strong analogy to the common hedgehog, and a
still stronger to the manis, as in the latter case the creature is defended by
horny scales that protect it just as the external skeleton protects the
armadillo. While roiled up, ‘his creature has been often mistaken for a bead
ora berry from some tree, and in one instance a girl, new to the country,
actually threided a number of these unfortunate crustaceans before
she cliscovered that they were not beads.

WE now come to the last inembers of the Crustacea, creatures which were for
a long time placed among the molluscs, and whose true position has only been
discovered in comparatively liter vears. Popularly they are cailed Barnacles,
but are known to naturalists unuer the general term Cirrhipedes, on account

Lepas anatifera.

ee ue cirrhi, or bristles, with which their strangely transformed feet are
ringed.

When edult, all the Cirrhipcdes are affixed to some substance, be'ng either
set directly upon it, as the common acorn barnacle. so plentiful on our
coasts ; placed upon a footstalk of variable Jength, as in the ordinary goose-.
mussel ; or even sunk into the supporting substance. as is the case with the
whale barnacles. When young. the Cirrhipedes are free and able to swim
about, and are of a shape so 'otallv different to that which they afterwards
assume, that they would not be recognized except by a practised eye.

Along the under surface are set six pairs of limbs not furnished with claws,
but being developed at their extremities into two long filaments, joined and
covered with hairs, By means of these modified limbs the cirrhipedes obtain

572 ARKACHNIDA, .-

their food, The common acorn barnacle of. our coasts affords a famiiiar and
beautiful example of the mode. by which this structure is made subservient to
procuring a supply of food. The closed valves at the upper part of the sheil
are seen to open slightly, a kind of fairy-like hand is thrust out, the fingers
expanded, a grasp made at the water, and the closed member then withdrawn
into the shell.

This hand-like object is in fact the aggregated mass of legs with their fila-
ments. As the limbs are thrust forward, they spread so as to form a kind of
casting net ; and as they return to the shell, they bring with them all the
minute organisms which were swimming in the water. This movement con-
tinues without cessation, as long as the barnacles are covered with water,
and appears to be as mechanically performed as the action of breathing is
performed by the higher animals.

In the illustration is seen a group of the common GOOSE MUSSEL, or DUCK
BARNACLE, so called on account of the absurd idea that was once so widely
entertained, that this species of barnacle was the preliminary state of the
barnacle-goose, the cirrhi representing the plumage, and the valves doing
duty for the wings.

This barnacle is tolerably universal in its tastes. It clings to anything,
whether still or moving, and is the pest of ships on account of the pertinacity
with which it adheres to their planks. Its growth is marvellously rapid, and
in a very short time a vessel will have the whole of the submerged surface
coated so thickly with these cirrhipedes that her rate of speed is sadly
diminished by the friction of their loose bodies against the water.

A good example of these creatures is afforded by the
well-known ACORN BARNACLE, so plentiful on our coasts.
They have no necks like those of the Goose Barnacle,
but are sessile on the rocks. Spots over which the
tide only runs for a few hours are thickly studded with
these Barnacies, and it is interesting to see how quickly
they open their valves and fling out their arms as soon
as the water covers them at each returning tide. When
the sea withdraws, they close their shells firmly, and
.retain within their interior a sufficiency of water wherewith to carry on the
business. of respiration until the next tide brings a fresh supply. Total
submersion seems to be hurtful to them.

ACORN BARNACLE.
(Balanus b,lanoides.)

ARACHNIDA.

ANOTHER class of animated beings now comes before us, which, under the
general term of Arachnida, comprises the Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites.

These beings breathe atmospheric air, have no antennz, and have four
pairs of legs attached to the fore parts of the body.

In some of the higher Arachnida there is a bold division into thorax and
abdomen, and the former portion of the body is clearly divided into separate
segments. By the earlier naturalists the Arachnida were placed among the
insects, but may readily be distinguished by several peculiarities. In the
first place, they have more than six legs, which alone would be sufficient to
separate them from insects. They have no separate head; the head and
thorax being fused, as it were, into one mass, called the cephalothorax.
In many of the lower species there is not even a division between the thorax
and abdomen ; and the body, thorax, and abdomen are merged into one uni-
form mass, without even a mark to show their several boundaries. They
undergo no metamorphosis, like that of the insects, for, although the young
Spiders change their skins several times, there is no change of form.

CRAB SPIDER: - 573

Beginning with the true Spiders, we find that their palpi (2. the jointed
antennz-like organs that project from the cephalothorax) are more or less
thread-like, and in the males are swollen at the extremity into a remarkable
structure, as indicative of the sex as is the beard of man, the curled tail-
feathers of the drake, and the gorgeous train of the peacock. In the differ-
ent genera, these palpi are differently formed, and afford valuable indications
for systematic zoologists. ;

In these strange creatures, the mandibles are furnisbed with a curved claw
perforated at the extremity, sometimes like the pvison-fang of a venomous
snake, and used for a similar purpose. A gland furnishes a secretion which is
forced through these organs, and is injected into any object that may be
wounded by the sharp claw. The fluid which is secreted for the service of
the fangs is nearly colourless, and is found to possess most of the propertics
that exist in the venom of the rattlesnake or viper.

They all spin those remarkable nets which we popularly call “ webs,” and
which differ wonderfully in the various species. These webs are, in very
many instances, employed as traps wherein may be caught the prey on which
the Spider feeds, but in other cases are only used as houses wherein the

CRAB-SPIDER, OR MATOUTOU.—(A@yzale cancerides.)

creature can reside. Some of the uses to which these wonderful productions
are put, as well as some details of their structure, will presently be mentioned.

WE now pass to some typical species of these curious animals.

The Spiders belonging to the family of Mygalidz may at once be known by
the shape of their mandibles and the terrible claws which proceed from them.
In the greater number of Spiders the claws are set horizontally, but in the
Mygalidz they are bent downwards, and strike the prey much as a lion
clutches at his victim with his curved talons.

THE GREAT CRAB SPIDER belongs to the typical genus of this family, and
is one of the formidable Arachnida that prey upon young birds and othcr
small vertebrates, instead of limiting themselves to the insects, and similar
beings, which constitute the food of the generality of the Spider race.

$74 TRAP-DOOR SPIDER

The talons of the spiders are scientifically called by the appropriate name
of falces, the word being Latin, and signifying “a reaping-hook.” By this
name they will be called in the course of the following piges. ‘The falces of
the great Crab Spiders are of enor nous size, and when removed from the
creature and set in gol !, they are used as tooth-picks, being thought to possess
some occult virtue which drives away the toothache.

In the ac-ompanying illustration is an example of the curious TRAP-
DOOR SPID-R of Jamaica, erroneously called the Tarantula.

This spider digs a burrow in the earth and lines it wich a silken web, but
instead of merely protecting the entrance by a portion of the slken tube, it
proves itself a more complete architect by making a trap-door with a hinge
that permits it to be opened and closed with admirable accuracy. The door
is beautifully circular, and is made of alternate layers of earth and web, and
hinged to the lining of the tube by a bint of the same siiken secretion. It
exactly fits the entrance of the burrow, and, when closed, so precisely cor-
responds with the surrounding earth that it can hardly be distingu:shed, even
when its position is pointed vut. It is a strange sight to see the earth open,
a little lid raised, some hairy l2gs protrude, aud gradually the whole form of
the spider show itse.f.

THE curious and interesting WATER SPIDER is now far better known than
was formeriy the case, as the numerous aquaria that have | cen established
over the kingdom have tended to familiarize us with this-as well as with many
other inhabitants of the water.

This creature leads a strange life. Though a really terrestrial being, and

: needing to respire atmo-
spheric air, it passes nearly
the whole of its life in the
water, and, for the greater
part of its time is subm rged
below the surface. To a
lesser degree, s veril other
spiders lead a somewhat
similar life, sustaining exist-
ence by means of the air
; f which is entangled in the
He. iff 7 : === hairs which c'othe the body.
l= UZ : : Their subinerged existence
is, however, only accidental,
while in the Water Spider it
forms the constant habit of
its life.

The body of the Water
Spider is profusely covered
with hairs. which ser-e to
entangle a large comnarntive
amount of atmaspheric air,
== but it has other means which
Za es are not possessed bv the

BE gp GY pie oo d poe

Sh) ocs t has the nower of diving

TRAP-DOOR SPIDER—(Cteniz1 nidulans.) below the surface. and carrv.

; : — mo ing with it a verv large bubble

of air that is held in its place by the hind-legs : and in snite of this obstacle
to its progress, it can pass through the water with tojerable speed

The strangest part in the economy of this creature is, that it is actually

THE WATER SPIDER. 575

hatched under water, and lies submerged for a considerable time before it
ever sees the land. Atsome little d. pth the mother spider spius a kind of
egz or dome-shaped cell, with the opening downwarus. Having made this
chamber, she ascends to the surface, and there charges her whole body witk
air, arranging her hind-legs in such a
manner that the bubble held between
them cannot escape. She then dives
into the w.ter, proceeds to her nest,” ‘
and vischarges the bubble into it. A
quantity of water is thus displaced,
and the upper part of the ceil is
fillel with air. She then returns for
a second supply, and so proceeds until
the nest is full of air. i

In this curious domicile the spider
lives, and is thus able to deposit and
to hatch her eg:s under the water
without even wetting them. The
reader will have no.iced the exact
analogy between this sub-aquatic
reside.ice and the diving-bell, now ;
so generally employed. As to th2
spider itself, it is never wet; and
tho:gh it may be seen swimming
rapidly about in the water, yet the
moment it emerges from the surface
its hairy body will be found as dry
as that of any land spider. The
reason for this phenomenon is, that
the minute bubbles of air which
always cling to the furred body repel
the water and prevent it from mois-
tening the skin.

Tne eggs of this spider are inclosed
in a kind of cup-shaped cocoon, not
unlike the cover ofa circular vegetable
dish. This cocoon may be seen in
the illustration in the upper part of
the cel. [t usually contains about a
hundred little spherical eggs, which
are not glued tozether.

The Water Spider is a truly active
creature, and its rapid movements
can be watched by means of placing
one of these Arachnida in a vessel
nearly filled with water. If possible,
some water plant, such as the =
vallisneria or anacharis, should be WaTER sPIDER.—(Argyronetra aguatica\
also placed in the vessel. Here
the spider will soon construct its web, and exhibit its curious habits. It
must be well supplied with flies and other insects thrown into the water.
It will pounce on them, carry them to its house, and there eat them.

The simbs and cephalothorax of this species are brown. with a slight tinge
of red; and the abdomen is brown, but washed with green. It is densely
covered with hairs. Onthe middle of the upper surface of the abdomen

576 THE GARDEN SPIDER.

are found round spots arranged in a square. The male is rather larger
than the female, and his legs are larger in proportion. He may, however,
be distinguished by the large mandibles and longer palpi.

WE now arrive at the Epeiride, a family containing some of the
strangest members of the spider race. The best known of this family is the
common GARDEN SPIDER, sometimes called the CRoss SPIDER, from the
marks upon its abdomen. _ This is thought to be the best typical example of
all the Arachnidz. It is found in great numbers in our gardens, stretching
its beautiful webs perpendicularly from branch to branch, and remaining in
the centre with its head downwards, waiting for its prey. This attitude is
tolerably universal among spiders ; and it is rather curious that the Arach-

GARDEN SPIDER.—(Zfeira diadema.)

nidz should reverse the usual order of thi i iti
Serene eit arts things, and assume an inverted position
The web of this spider is composed of two different kinds of threads, the
radiating and supporting threads being strong and of simple texture. But
the fine spiral thread which divides the web into a series of steps, decreasing
in breadth towards the centre, is studded with a vast amount of little glo-
bules, which give to the web its peculiar adhesiveness. These globules are
too small to be perceptible to the unassisted eye, but by the aid of a micro-
scope they may be examined without difficulty. In an ordinary web, such as
is usually seen in gardens, there will be about eighty-seven thousand of these
alten ae Ry we bape be completed in less than three-quarters of an
our. e globules are loosely strung u i
rubbed off, the thread is no leniger a a Be ane Se ncaa ere
OF all the Spider race the SCORPIONS are most dreaded, and justly
so. These strange beings are at once recognized by their large claws and

ROCK SCORPION. 577

the armed tail. This member is composed of six joints, the last being
modified into an arched point, very sharp, and communicating with two poison
glands in the base of the joint. With this weapon the Scorpion wounds its
foes, striking smartly at them, and by the same movement driving some of
the poison into the wound. The effect of the poison varies much, according
to the constitution of the person who is stung, and the size and health of
the Scorpion. Should the creature be a large one, the sting is productive

ROCK SCORPION. —(Buthus afer.)

of serious consequences, and in some cases has been known to destroy
life. Generally, however, there is little danger to life, though the pain
is most severe and the health rnuch injured for the time, the whole limb
throbbing with shooting pangs, and the stomach oppressed with over-
powering nausea. The poison seems to be of an acrid nature, and the
pain can be relieved by the application of alkaline remedies, such as liquid
ammonia, tobacco ashes, &c. Melted fat is also thought to do good
service, and the nausea is relieved by small doses of ipecacuanha. Some
of the poison can mostly be brought to the surface by means of pressing a
tube, such as a tolerably large key or the barrel of a small pistol, upon the
spot, and the duration, if not the severity of the pain, is thereby mitigated.

In all these creatures the tail is composed of the last six joints of the
abdomen, and the powerful limbs, with the lobster-like claws at the tips,
are the modified palpi. The eyes of the Scorpions differ in number,
some species having twelve, others eight, and others only six: these last
constitute the genus Scorpio. On the lower surface of the Scorpions are
seen two remarkable appendages, called the combs, the number of teeth
differing in the various species. In the Rock Scorpion the teeth are
thirteen in number, while in the red scorpion there are never less than twenty-
eight. The Rock Scorpion is a large creature, measuring about six inches in
length when fully grown,

Pe

578 CENTEPEDES.

MYRIAPODA.

In accordance with the best systems of the present day, the MyRIAPODA:
are considered as a separate class.

The Myriapoda are without even the rudiments of wings, and possess
a great number of feet, not less than twelve pairs; and in some species
there are more than forty pairs uf legs. In allusion to their numerous feet
the Myrapoda are popuiaily called Hundred-legs, and their scientific title
is even bolder, sign tying ten thousand feet. ‘To tnis class belong the well-
known centipedes, so plentiful in our gardens, and the equally well-known
nulepedes, 1ouna under decaying wood and in similar localiues. In England
none of the Myriapods attain to great dimensions, but in hot countries, and
especially under the tropics, they become so lar,e as to be positively formid-
able as well as repulsive.

WE now arrive at the true Scolopendre, which, together with the allied
genera, are popularly known by the name of CENTIPEDES. The genus
Scolopendra is a very large one, containing about sixty species, most of
them inhabitants of the tropics, and many attaining a large size. The
great Scolopendre: are not only
unpleasant and repulsive to the
sivht, but are really formidable
creatures. being armed with fangs
scarcely less terrible than the sting
of the scorpion. These weapons
are placcd just below the mcuth,
and are formed fiom the sccond
pair of feet, which are modified
into a pair of strong claws, set
horizontally in a mainer resem-
bling the falces of ordinary spiders,
and terminated by a strong and
sharp hook on each side. ‘hese
hooks are perforated, and are

: ai traversed by a little channel lead-
ot ees ing from a poison gland, like that
ws of the scorpion, so that the

venomous secretion is forced into
the wound by the very action of
Aitivonomalus loneicorn’s. - biting.

: The figure represents acentipede
which is found in England, and in some localities is very common. It is
represented cf its natural size, and, as may be seen, is in no way conspicuous
for its dimensions, lt is, however. remarkable on another acccunt. It-las
the power of giving out a tolerally strong phosphorescent light, which is
only visible after dark, but is then very conspicuous, and has often caused
the centivede to be mistaken for a ylow-worm. It is not unfrequently
found within peaches, apricots, plums, and simular fruits, when they are very
ripe, and lies comfortab y coiled up in the little sp:ce between the stone
and the fruit, where the sweetest juices lie. The colour of this centipede
is yellow; its head is decp rust colour ; its antennae are very hairy, and four
times as long as the nead segment. There are from fifty-one to fifty-five
pairs of legs. Its length varies from two inches and a half to three inches,

NWSE

THE EARTH-WORM, 579

ANNULATA,

A NEw class of animals now comes before us. These creatures are
technically called ANNULaTA, or sometimes ANNELIDA, on account of the
rings, or annuli, of which their bodies are composed. ‘Lhey may be dis-
tinguished from the Julidz by the absence of true feet, although in very many
species the place of feet is supplied by bundles of bristles, set along the sides.
The resp ration is carried on either by means of external gills, internal sacs,
or even through the skin itself. In most of the Annulata the body is long
and cylindrical, but in some it is fattened and oval. The number of rings is
very variable, even in the same species.

The group of worms which come first on our list is remarkable for the
architectural powers of its raembers. In order to protect their soft-sk'nned
body and delicate gills, they build for themselves a residence into which they
exactly fii This residence is in the form of a tube, and in some cass, as in
the Serpule, is of a very hard sheily substance, and in some. as the Terebella
is soft and covered with grains of sand and
fragn ents of shells.

The beautiful SERPULA is now very familiar ,
to us, through the medium of marine aquaria,
its white shell, exquisite fan-like branchize, and
brilliant opercu um, having lived and died in
many an inland town where a li ing inhabitant
of the ocean had never before been seen. The
Serpula is able to travel up and down its tube
by the bundles of bristles which project from
the rings along the sides, and to retract itself
with marvellous rapidity. It has no eves, and
yet is sensible of light. For example, if a
Serpula be fully protruded, with its gill-fans Serpula contortuplicala,
extended to their utmost, and blazing in all its
scarlet and white splendour, a hand moved between it and the window will
cause it to disappear into its tube with a movement so rapid that the eye
cannot follow it. The gills, whose exquisitely graceful form and delicate
colouring have always attracted admiration, are affixed 10 the ncck, as, if they
were sct at tle opposite extremity of the body or along the sides, they would
not obtain sufficient air from the small amount of water that could be con-
tained in the tube. The beautiful scarl.t stopper ought also to be mentiored,
Each sct of gills is furnished with a tentacle-lik appendage, ore of which is
small and thread like, and the other expanded at its extremity into a conical
operculum or stopper, ma ked with a number of ridges, which form a beauti ul
series of teeth around its circumference. The footstalk on which this stopper
is mounted is a litt!e longer than the gills, so that when the animal retreats
into its tube the gills collapse and vanish, and the entrance of the tube is
exactly closed by the conical stopper.

THE fami'y of which the common EARTH-WORM is avery familiar example
is distinguished by the ringed body without any g lls or feet, but with bristles
arranged upon the rings for the purpose of progression.

In the well-known Earth-worm, the bristles are short and very stiff, and are
eight in number on each ri¢g, two pairs being placed on each side; so that,
in fact, there are eight longitud nal rows of bristles on the body, four on the
sides and four below, which enable the creature to take a firm hold of the
ground as it proceeds. Except that the worm makes use of bristles, and the
snake of the enges of its scales, the mode of progress is much the same in
both cases. The whole body of the creature is very elastic, and capable of

PP2

580 ‘ RADIATA.

being extended or contracted: to a: wonderful degree. When it wishes to
advance, it pushes forward its body, permits the bristles to hitch against the
ground, and then, by contracting the rings together, brings itseif forward, and
is ready for another step. As in each full-grown Earth-worm there are at
least one hundred and twenty rings, and each ring contains eight bristles, it
may be imagined that the hold upon the ground is very strong.

The COMMON LEECH is almost as familiar as the earth-worm, and is one
of a genus which furnishes the blood sucking creatures which are so largely

COMMON LEECH.—(//tudo medicinalss.)

used in surgery. It belongs to a large group of Annelida which have no
projecting bristles to help them onward, and are therefore forced to proceed
in a different manner. All these Leeches are wonderfully adapted for the
purpose to which they are applied, their mouths being supplied with sharp
teeth to cut the vessels, and with a sucker-like disc, so that the blood can be
drawn from its natural channels ; while their digestive organs are little more
than a series of sacs in which an enormous quantity of blood can be received
and retained.

RADIATA.
ECHINODERMATA.

WE now arrive at a vast and comprehensive division of living beings,
which have no joints whatever, and no limbs, and are calied RADIATA,
because all their parts radiate from a common centre. The structure is very
evident in some of these beings, but in others the formation is so exceedingly
obscure that it is only by anatomical investigation that their real position is
discovered.

The highest forms in this division have been gathered together in the class
Echinodermata. This word signifies “ urchin-skinned,” and is given to the
animals comprising it because their skins are more or less furnished with
spines resembling those of the hedgehog. In these animals the radiate form
is very plainly shown, some of them assuming a perfectly star-like shape, of
which the common star-fishes of our coasts are familiar examples, In some

SEA-URCHIN. -581

of the Radiates, such as the sea-urchin, the whole body is. encrusted with a
chalky coat, while in others it is as soft and easily torn as if it were composed
of mere structureless gelatine. ;

The mode of walking, or rather creeping, which is practised by these
beings, is very interesting, and may be easily seen by watching the proceed-
ings of a common star-fish when placed in a vessel of sea-water. At first it
will be quite still, and lie as if dead, but by degrees the tips of the arms will
be seen to curve slightly, and then the creature slides forward without any
perceptible means of locomotion. If, however, it be suddenly taken from the
water and reversed, the mystery is at once solved, and the walking apparatus
is seen to consist of a vast number of tiny tentacles, each with a little round
transparent head, and all moving slowly but continually from side to side,
sometimes being thrust out to a considerable distance, and sometimes being
withdrawn almost wholly within the shell. These are the “ambulacre,” or
walking apparatus, and are among the most extraordinary means of progres-
sion in the animal kingdom. Each of these innumerable organs acts as a
sucker, its soft head being applied to any hard substance, and adhering
thereto with tolerable firmness, until the pressure is relaxed and the sucker
released. The suckers continually move forward, seize upon the ground,
draw the body gently along, and then search for a new hold. As there are
nearly two thousand suckers continually at work, some being protruded,
others relaxed, and others still feeling for a holding-place, the progress of the
creature is very.regular and gliding, and hardly seems to be produced by
voluntary motion.

We will now proceed to some examples of these curious beings.

WE first take a beautiful family of this order, called Echinida, because
they are covered with spines like the quills of the hedgehog. Popularly they
are known by the name of SEA-URCHINS, or SEA-EGGS.

In all these curious beings the upper parts are protected by a kind of shell,
always more or less dome-shaped, but extremely variable in form. The shell
is one of the most marvellous structures in the animal kingdom, and the
mechanical difficulties which are overcome in its
formation are of no ordinary kind. In the case
of the common SEA-EGG, which is shown on the
following illustration, the shell is nearly globular.
Now, this shell increases in size with the age of \\
the animal; and how a hollow spherical shell WN
can increase regularly in size, not materially 3
altering its shape, is a problem of extreme
difficulty. It is, however, solved in the following
manner. The shell is composed of a vast number
of separate pieces, whose junction is evident when
the interior of the shell is examined, but is almost :
entirely hidden by the projections upon the outer SEAPURSHIN. techni:
surface. These pieces are of a hexagonal or pen- phere)
tagonal shape, with a slight curve, and having mostly two opposite sides
much longer than the others. As the animal grows, fresh deposits of
chalky matter are made upon the edges of each plate, so that the plate
increases regularly in size, still keeping its shape, and in consequence
the dimensions of the whole shell increase, while the globular shape is
preserved. If a fresh and perfect specimen be examined, the surface is
seen to be covered with short sharp spines set so thickly that the substance
of the shell can hardly be seen through them, The structure of these
spines is very remarkable, and under the microscope they present some
most interesting details, Moreover, each spine is movable at the will of the

582 STAR-FISHES.

owner, and works upon a true ball-and-socket joint, the ball being a round
giobular projection on the surface of the shell, and the socket sunk into the
base of the spine.

‘he Common Sea-urchin is edible, and in some places is extensively con-
sumed, fully caining its ttle of Sea-egg, by being boiled and eaten in the
same manner a> the eggs of noultry.

LEAVING the Echim, we pass to the next large group of Echinodermata,
called scientitivally Asteriad.c, and popularly known as STAR-FIsHES. These
creatuies exhibt in the strongest manner the radiate form of budy, the
various organs boluly radiating tion: a common centre.

Many or these creatures ure exceedingly common upon our own coasts, so
plentiful, indeed, as to be intensely hated by the nshermen. Of these, the
common FIVE-FINGER, or CkUSS-FISH, 1S p:rhaps found in the greatest
numbers. Ali Star-fishes are very wouderfui beings, and well repay a close
and lengthened examination of their hab.ts, thew developmen:, and their
anatomy. ‘There are suffivient materials in a single Star fish to fill a whole
bok as large as the present volu.ne, and it is therefore necessary that our
descriptions shal! be but biief and compressed, To begin with the ordinary
habits of this creature. Everyone who las wandereu by the sea-side has
seen specimens of the common Five-fingers thrown on the beach, and
perhaps may have passed it by as something too commonplace to deserve
notice. If it be taken up, it dangles helplessly from the hand, and appears
to be one of the must innocucus beings on the face of the earth. Yet, this
very creature has in all probability killed and devoured great numbers of the
edib’e molluscs. ad has either entirely or partially excited the anger of many
an industrious fisherman.

To begin with the former delinquency. It is found that the Star-fish is a
terrible foe to molluscs, and although its
body is so soft, and it is destitute of anv
jaws or levers, such as are employed by
other moliusc-eating i: habitants of the
sea, it can devour even the tightly shut
bivalves, however firmly they may close
their valves.

The second delinquency of the Star-fish
is achieved as follows. By some wonder-
ful power the Star-fish is enabled to de-
tect rrey at some distance, even tlough
no organs of sight, hearing, or scent can
be absolutely defined. When, therefore,
the fishermen lower their baits intu the
sea, the Star-fishes aud crabs often seize
the hook. and so give the fisherman all
the trouble of pulling up his line for
nothing, baiting the hook afresh, and los-

CROSS-FISH.—(Craster rubens.) ing his time. The fishermen always kill
the Star-fish in reprisal for its attack on
their bait, and formerly were accustomed to tear it across and fling the pieves
into the sea. This, however, is a very foolish plan of proceeding, for the
Star-fish is wonderfully tenacious of life, and can bear the loss of one or all
of its rays without seeming much inconvenienced. The two halves of the
Asterias would simply heal the wound, pnt forth fresh rays, and, after a
time, be transmuted into two perfect Star-fishes.

The movements of the Star-fish are extremely graceful, the creature gliding

onward with a beautifully smooth and regular motion, It always manages

PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR: 583

to accommodate itself to the surface over which it is passing, never bridging
over even a slight depression, but exactly following all the equalities of the
ground. It can also pass through a very narrow opening, and does so by
pushing one ray in front, and then folding the others back so that they may
afford no obstacle to the passige. It also has an odd habit of pressing the
points of its rays upon the bottom of tue sea, and raising itself in the middle
so as to resemble a five-legzed stool,

ACALEPHA.

WE now arrive at a large and important class of animals. These beings
are scientifically termed ACALEPHA, or Netues, a word which my be freely
rendered as Sea-nettles. The term is appropriate to many of the species
which compose this large class, for a very great number of the Acalepha are
possessed of certain poisoned weapons which pierce the skin and irritate the
nerves as if they were veritable stinging-netties floating about in the sea,
Popularly, they are known by the familar term Jelly-hshes, because their
structure is so gelatinous, mostly clear and transpurent, but sometimes sumi-
opaque or colo ired with most beautiful unts.

On the nght han t of the ilustration on the following page may be seen a
remarkbl : creat ire, calle | by the popular name of the SALLEE MAN, some-
times corrupted, in nautical fashion, into SALLYMAN. In this curious animal
the body is m2nbrai01s, oval, and very flat, and mav be at once recognized
by the cartilagino.s crest which rises obtiquely from its upper surface.

The Velella is very widely distri ute!, and is found in every sea except
those that are subject to the cold influences of the poles. It seldom ap-
proaches land, but miy be met in vast numbers, sometimes being crowded
together in large masses an! of varios sizes.

The upp2r fig ire represents the celebrated PoRTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR,
This bz2a:tiful bit most formidable acaleph is found in all the tropical seas,
and never fails to attract the attention of those who see it ‘or the first time.
The general shape of this remarkable being is a bubble-like envelope filled
with air, upon which is a membranous crest, and which has a number of
lon« tentac es han:inz from one end. These tentacles can be protruded or
with lrawn at will, an sometim2s reach a considerable length. They are of
different shap»s som2 eing short and only measuring a few inches in length,
while the seven or eight centr | tentacles will exten} to a+ istance of several
feet. ‘hes: lo1g tentacl s are formidably armed with stinging tentacles, too
minute to be seen with the nake ! eve, but possessing venomous powers even
more noxious than those of the common nettle. “It is in these appendages
alone,” writes Mr. D. Bennett, “that the stinging property of the Physalis
resides. Every other pirt of the moll:sc may he touched with impunity,
but the s‘izhtest contact of the hand with the crble produces a sensation as
painful and nrotrictel as the stinging of nettles: while, like the effect of
that vezetale poison, the skin of the injured part often presents a white
e'evation or wheal.”

The colours of the Phvsalis are always beautiful, and slightly variable,
hoth in tint and intensity. The delicate pink crest can he elevated or
depressed at will, and is beautifully trinsparent. grooved vertica ly through-
out its lenoth. The ceneril hie of its bodv is blue, t king a very dee tint
at the pointed end, an! fading into softer hues towards the tentaces, A
gener il iridescence, h -wever, plays over the boty, which seems in certain
lights to b2 for ve! of texaz, sapphire. or aquamarine. The stort fringes
are bzauti ul'v colonre!, the inner row being ceep purple, and the outer row
glowing crimson, as if formed of living carbuncle,

584 VENUS’ GIRDLE.

If the reader will now refer to the illustration he will see a long, flat,
riband-like creature edged with a delicate fringe of cilia. This curious being
is called VENUS’ GIRDLE, and from its beauty fully deserves the name.
This lovely creature is found in the Mediterranean, where it attains to the
extraordinary length of five feet, the breadth being only two inches. Rightly,

PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WaAR.—(Physalis prlagicus.)
VENUS’ GIRDLE.—(Cestum Veneris.} SALLEE MAN.—(Vedella vulgaris.)

the words breadth and length ought to be transposed, as the development is
wholly lateral, The mouth of the Venus’ Girdle may be seen in the centre
of the body, occupying a very small space in proportion to the large dimen-
sions of the ‘creature to which it belongs. :
WE now come to a vety large order of acalephs, including all those beings

THE SEA ANEMONES. 588

which are so familiar under the title of JELLY-FISHES, SLOBBERS, and similar
euphonious names, They are all united under the name of Discophora, or
uisc-bearers, because they are furnished with a large umbrella-tike disc, by
means of which they are enabled to proceed through the water. :

In the accompanying illustration an example may be seen of the typical genus.
of this family, which is a native of our own seas. This is a sufficiently common
species, and may be found plentifully on our shores, together with its kindred.
There are few more beautiful sights than to stand on a pier-head or lie in a
boat, and watch the Medusz passing in shoals thrcugh the clear water,
pulsating as if the whole being were but a translucent heart, trailing behind

JELLY-FISH.—(Afrdusa Aequorea.)

them their delicate fringes of waving cilia, and rolling gently over as if in
excess of happiness. At night, many of the Medusz put on new beauties,
glowing with phosphorescent light like marine fire-flies, and giving to the
ocean an almost unearthly beauty that irresistibly recalls to the mind the
“sea of glass mingled with fire.”

ZOOPHYTES.

QUITTING the Acalephz, we come to the vast class of ZOOPHYTES, or
animal plants, so called because, though really belonging to the animal
kingdom, many of them bear a singularly close resemblance to vegetable
forms. Their substance is always gelatinous and fleshy, and round the
entrance to the stomach are set certain tentacles, used in catching prey and
conveying it to the stomach. These tentacles are armed with myriads of .
offensive weapons contained in little capsules, and capable of being discharged
with great force. Organs of sight, smell, taste, and hearing seem to be
totally absent, though it is possible that an extended sense of touch may
compensate the creature for these deficiencies.

THE highest form of true Zoophyte is, undoubtedly, that which is so
familiar under the name of SEA-ANEMONE—a name singularly inappropriate,
inasmuch as the resemblance to an anemone is very far-fetched ; while that
to the chrysanthemum, daisy, or dandelion is very close.

. The widely-spread Anemone, with the circlet of pearl-like beads at the
base of its tentacles, is the well-known
BEADLET, the most common of all this order
on the British coasts. It is a singularly
hardy species, living mostly on the rocks
that. lie between high and low water mark.
It is perhaps more variable in colour than
any of the British Actinia, the body taking
all imaginable hues, passing from bright Actinia mesembryanthemum.
scarlet to leaf-green, graduating from scarlet

to crimson, from crimson tc orange, from orange to yellow, and from yellow
to green. The spherical beads around its mouth are more persistent in

586 CORALS,

colour than any other parts of the animal, being almost invariably a rich
b.ue, just like a set of turquoises placed arounu the disc. These, however,
are occasiunally subject to cuange, aud lose all colour, looking like pearls
rather than turquoises. :

LEAVING the sca-anemones, we now proceed to the next tribe, the Caro-
phyliiacex, in which there are many tentacles, in two or more series, and
the cells many-raved, Many of these beings deposit a corallum; but out
of our British species, more than one-third are without tuis chalky support.

The ENDIVE CURAL is so calied from the resemblance which its corallum
bears to the crumpled leaves of that vegetable, “1 he animal has no tentacles,
andthe cells are smail, conical, and ratuer oblique. |! he corallum is fixed,
sharply edsed, and expanded from the base to the tip All the living
members of this pretty genus are to be found in the East and West Indian
seas.

The three figures which occupy the left hand of the illustration represent

DEVONSHIRE CuP-coRAT,.—(Carophallia Smithii.)
(With side buds.) TuRT CORAL.—(Lofhothdia prolifera.)
DEVONSHIRE CUP-CORAL.—(and skeleton.) © ENDIVE-CORAL.—(Luphyliia pavonia.)-

one of our few native Corals, shown under three aspects. The large, rounded
figure in the lower corner exhibits the DEVONSHIRE CUP CORAL as it
appears when the tentacles are fully expanded; that to the right shows the
dead stony corallum of the same species, and the upper figure is given for
the purpose of exhib.ting the curious manner in which it multiplies itself
by throwing off buds from its sides. It is not a very large, but it is a very
pretty species, the colour of the corallum being generally pure translucent
white, sometimes tinged with a delicate rosy hue, while that of the living
animal is pearly white, variegated with rich chestnut and the palest imagin-
able fawn.

HYDROIDA. 587

IN the family Oculinidze, the corallum is branched and tree-like, and is here
represented by our only known British form, the TUFI CORAL, It is very
rare, and but seldom taken in our seas. As may be seen from the illustration,
the corallum resembles a massive, thickly-branched tree, The maividual
corals are apout half an inch in height, and the same in diameter.

WE now arrive at the Hydroida, which are known by the internal cavity
being simple and the creature increasing by buds thrown out from the sides.

IN the Sertulariadze the buds are inclosed in vesicles, and do not break
away when adult. They are in cup-like cells, which lave no fvuotsta:ks,

The reproduction of these beings is very curious, for it is known that they

Seritlaria filicula. Serlutas ta vOse@.
Sertularia filicula (magnified. )

can be propagated by cuttings just like plants, as well as by cell vesicles, and
that in the latter case the first stage of the young closely res:mbles that of
the young Medusa already mentioned. They also reproduce by offshoots ;
and it is very likely that their capabilities in this respect are not limited
even to these three methods.
Any of the common Sertularize affords a good example of this family ; and
_ as they are easily pr cured, they are verv valuable a:ds to those who wish to
study the structure of these beautiful beings. Even the empty polypidon is
not without its clegance, and is often mad- up into those flattened bouquets
of so called sea-weeds, which are sold in such quantities at sea-side bathing
towns. But when the whole being is full of life and health. its mult tndinous
cells filed with the delicate polypes, each furnished with more than twenty
tentacles all moving in the water, its beauty defies description. These little
polypes are wonderfully active and suspicious. At the least alarm, they
retreat into their cells as if withdrawn by springs, and when they again push
out their tentacles, it is in a very wary and careful manner,

588 WHEEL ANIMALCULES.

ROTIFERA.

ALTHOUGH the Rotifera, or Wheel Animalcules, are generally placed
among the Infusoria, on account of their minute dimensions and aquatic
habits, it is evident, from many peculiarities of their formation, that they
deserve a much higher place, and in all probability constitute a class by
themselves.

They are called Wheel Animalcules on account of a curious structure
which is found upon many of their members, and which looks very like a pair
of revolving wheels set upon the head. These so-called wheels are two disc-
like lobes, the edges of which are fringed with cilia, which when in movement

Rotifer c'trinus.

give to the creature an appearance as if it wore wheels on its head, like those
of the fairy knight of ballad poetry. These wheels can be drawn into the
body at will, or protruded to some little extent, and their object is evidently
to procure food by causing currents of water to flow across the mouth. All,
however, do not possess these appendages, but have a row of cilia, mostly
broken into lobes, extending all round the upper portion of the body.

These remarkable beings are mostly found in water that has become
stagnant but is partially purified by the presence of the Infusorians, which
always swarm in such localities.

The typical genus of this class is known by the naine of ROTIFER, an
example of which is seen in the illustration. In all the members of this
genus the body is rather elongated, and furnished at the hinder end with a
kind of telescopic tail, by means of which they can attach themselves at will
to any object, and release themselves whenever they please. Sometimes they
move their bodies gently about, while still grasping by the extremity of the
tail; sometimes they are nearly motionless, while they frequently rock them-
selves backwards and forwards so violently that they seem almost to be
testing the strength of their hold.

These creatures can both swim and crawl, the former act of locomotion
being achieved by the movement of the cilia, and the latter by creeping along
after the fashion of the leech, the head and tail taking alternate hold of the
object on which they are crawling. The masticating apparatus is always
conspicuous, whether the animal has the wheel protruded or withdrawn. It
is situated behind the bases of the wheel-lobes, and looks, when the animal
is at rest, something like a circular buckler with a cross composed of doubie
lines drawn over its surface.

RHIZOPODA.

_ THE whole arrangement of the beings which we are now about to examine
is still very obscure, and the best zoologists of the present time have

SPONGES: 58)

declared that any system which has been hitherto adopted can only be
considered as provisional.

These minute though beautiful beings exist in numbers that are only
rivalled by the sands of the sea for multitude ;
and the vast hosts of these creatures can be barely
estimated even when we know that many large { 1
cities are built wholly of the dead skeletons of Kyi
these microscopic beings, and that in a single
ounce of sand from the Caribbean Sea nearly
four millions of those shells have been discovered.

The first sub-class of these beings is the
Foraminifera, so called on account of the tiny
openings, or foramina, with which the pretty
shells are pierced. Sometimes, however, this Polystomella Lessoniana.
shell is wanting, and its place is supplied by a
cover composed of matted sand-grains,

PORIFERA,

WE now arrive at a large class of beings, which are by common consent
allowed to form the very lowest link in the animal chain. The name
PorIFERA is given to them because the whole of their surface is pierced with
holes of various dimensions, the greater number being extremely minute,

o

Grantia compressa,

while others are of considerable dimensions. The . well-known Turkey
SPONGE, so useiul for the toilet, will afford a good example of the porous
structure.

The true living being which constitutes the Sponge is of a soft and almost
gelatinous texture, to the unaided eye ; and with the aid of the microscope is
found to consist of an aggregation of separate bodies like those of the
Ameebz, some of which are furnished with long cilia. By the constant
action of the cilia a current of water is kept up, causing the liquid to enter
by innumerable pores with which the surface is pierced, and to be expelled
through the larger orifices. A Sponge in full action is a wonderful sight ; the

§go SPONGES.

cilia driving the water in ceaseless torrents, whirling along all kinds of solid
particles, arresting those which are useful for digestion, and rejecting those
with which it cannot assimilate.

The extraordinary object which is called by the appropriate name of
NEPIUNES CUP is One of the most maguificent, as weli as one of the most
notavle, of the Sponge uibe. It hardly looks like a Sponge; and when a

= ‘ = =
NEPTUNE'S cUP.—( Thalassema Neptuni.)

specimen is shown to persons who have no knowledge of the subject, they
can hardly ever be maue to believe that the exhibitor is not endeavouring to
play a practical joke upon them,

The Neptune’s Cup is of enormous dimensions, often measuring four feet
in height, and having a corresponding width. Its exterior is rough, gnarled,
and knotted like the bark of some old tree ; and if a portion were removed
from the side, it might almost be mistaken for a piece of cork-tree bark.
Many persons have imayined that the strangely-shaped object was made of
the skin of an elephant’s leg, and I have even heard a teacher telling her
pupils that it was an old Roman wine-jar.

This is one of the exotic Sponges, being found only in the hotter seas,

Acalepha, 583.
Acanthopterygii, 462.
Accentor, 311.
Hedge, 310.
Accentoring, 311.
Acorn Barnacie, 572.
Actinia Mesemetryanthemum,
585.
Actinize, 5%5.
Add r, Puff, 433.
A tjutant, 339.
Admir.l, carlet, 550.
fEgeriidz, 552.
Aszamas, 423.
Azout, 143.
At or !hree-Toed Sloth, 225.
Albatros, Wanderiug. 408.
Acinz 405.
Allig itor, 422.
Allizatorila, 422.
Alpaca, 195.
Am:rican Monkeys, rg.
Am veli tz, 324.
Am elinz, 324.
Anabas 5 andens, 476.
* Anaconda, 437-
An hovy, 485.
An-mone, Sea, 535.
Auimalcules, Wheel, 588.
Annelida. 573.
Annulata, 578
Ant, White, 537.
Ant-Eater, Great, 220.
—- Middl, 220.
—-— — Little. 2ar.
— Porcupine, 223.
Antelopes, 163. i
Aut-taon, 549
White, ger, 422.
Ants’ Kegs, 345
Ape. Bara y, (4
Aphnipte a, 56.
Abvhiles.537, 559
Aptery<, 333.
Arachn da, 572.
Ar tic Fox 72,
Ar t idx, 554.
Argonaut, 501.
Argus, 373-
Pheasant, 374
Ariei, Pe:aurus, 110.
Armuidi 0, 219
Arthronomaius

Longicornis,

578.
Ar.iculats, 524.
A palacida, 159.
Ass, 199, 200.
Asse, 74.

Auk, Great, 405.
A icularida, 518
Avocet, 393.
Aye-Aye, 33

INDEX.

Baboons, 16,
Babyrous.a, 209.
Bactrian Camel, 193.
Bauger, 86

- Australian, 116,
B djerkeit, 218,

Balana, 128.

Balenwe, 128.

Ban sicout, Long-nosed, 116.
Barbel, 491.

Barnacle, Acorn, 572.
Duck, 571.
Barnac es, +70.

Bat, | ong-eared, 37.
— Vampire, 36.
Batrachians, 442.

Bay Bamboo Rat, 16t.
Bear, 89.

— Ausrrilian, 112.
— Back go.

— Brown, 89.

— Grizzly

Maayan Sun, gr.
— Polar, ot.

-- Syrian, go.
Bea‘er, rqt.

Bee, Honey, 546.

— hater, 284, 285.
— Humbe. 547.
Beetle, Wu. ying, 527.

lo dy-nose, 532.
—— Enght- pot, 525.
-—— Ground, 525.
—. Fe ea 528,
—-— Musk, 532.
— Oil, 5,1.

Ro e, 527.
—-— Stag, 52).
——— Tiger, 524.
—— Vi let Ground, 525.
Wat r, 526.
Berni | Guosr, 399.
Bird of Paradise, Emerald, 334.
Birds, 229,

Bison, 166,

Kittern, 388.

B valves, 506.

Blackb ra 320.
Biac<cap Warbler, 306, 307.
Black Cock. 379

—- Macaque, 15
—- Yarke, 24.
Blattidz, 534.

Bieak. 492.

Biennies, 475.

Klen y, Eyed, 276.
Blindworm. 424.

Blister, or Span sh Fly, 532.
Bloodnound, 63.
Bloody-nose beetle, 533.
Boa constrictor, 436,
Boar, 208.

Pohmian Waxwing, 325.

B dz, 436.

Bombycidz, 554.

Bo omslange, 439.

Bose 1 Vark, 209.

Bot Fly. 56:.

Bower-bird, >atin, 335

Brache ytra 527.

Brach ura. 562.

Bream, 4gr.

Breast-plate, ©22,

Brveze Fiv, 561.

Buffalo, 164.

Cape, 165.

Bug, Bed, 540.

— Whee, 560.

Bulldog, 66.

Bullfin-h, 348.

Bull-head, 467.

Buprest da, 529.

Burying-bectie, 527.

Bush Hog, 209

Bustard, Great, 384.

Bute er Bids, See Lanide.

Buuerfly, Camberwell Beauty,
550.

—- Comna, 550.

~—— Peacock, 549.

—— Swallow-ta ed, 548

———- Tortoiseshell, 550.

Buzzard, 245.

Caama. Sce Asse.
Cacajao, 24

Cachatot, 129.
Cacomixle, 55.

Caddis fly 54r.
Calumaries, o- Squids, 504.
Ca'pidium ornatum, 522.
Camel, 1y2.

Bactrian. 193.
Camelopai dais, 183.
Campaznol 139.
Campanulariz, 587.
Canad: Linx, 4y.
Canary, 344.

Cancering, 564. .
Curis, 58—69.
Capercaiilie, 379.
Capra, 177,

Capucin, 23.

Capybara, 146.

Car -bida, 525.

Carabus, 525.

Card adz, 5 0

Carophyl iacea. 585, Saw
Carp, 420.

Cashmir Goat, 179,
Cassowary 382.

Cat, 48.

—— Civet, 53.

592

Cat Wild, 48.
( atenicella hastata, 522.
--——-——— cornuta, 522.
Lellularia Peachii, 522.
Centepedes, 578.
Cephalopoda, soz.
Cerastes, 434.
Cercopidz, 559.
Certhida, 298.
Cetacea, 127.
Chacma, 16.
Chetodon, Beaked, 465.
Chzetodontina, 46s.
Chaffinch, 341
Chambered Nautilus, 505
Chamel2on, 429.
Chameleonide, 429.
Chamois, 173.
Chati, 46.
Chatterer, Waxen, 225
Cheiroptera, 35.
Chetah, 50.
Chicken, Mother Cary’s, 408.
Chimpansee, 4.
Chinchilla, 149.
Chiton, Marbled, 514.
Chitonide, 514.
Cheeropus, 117.
Chondropterygii, 456.
( hough, 334
Chrysochroa, 530.
Chrvysomelidz, 530.
Chub, 492.
Cicade, 558.
Cicada Anglica, 559.
—— Flosfolia, 558.
Cicindela, 524.
Cicindelide:, 524.
Cimbe Femorata, 542.
Cimicidz, 560.
Cirrhipedes, 571.
Civet Cat, 53.
Cleodora, 517.
Cleg, 561. ©
Clureidz, 484.
Coaita, Spider Monkey,
Coast Rat, 160.
Coati Mor di, 94.
Cobra di Capello, 440.
Coccide. 558.
Coccinellidz, 533.
Cochineal Insect, 559.
Cockatoo, Sulphur-crested, 357.
——-—— Leadbeater’s, 358,
389.
eae ta
Cockles, 520.
Cockroach, 534.
Cocktails. See Rove Beetles.
Cod, 480
Coleoptera, 524.
Colobus, 11.
Colubrinz, 437.
Colugo, 35.
Columba, 365.
Columbze, 365.
Columbide, 365.
Columbine, 365.
Colymbidz, 403.
Colymbinz, 403,
Colymbus, 403.
Conchifrra, 518.
Condor, 230. \
Cone-shells, 510.
Cone, Admiral, 510.
——— Textile, 510.
Conger Eel, 483.

INDEX.

Conide, 510.

Conirostres, 327-

Coot, 397.

Coquette, Spangled, 295.
Coral, Devonshire Cup, 586.
—— Endive, 586.

—— Tuft, 586.

Cormorant, 411.

— Crested, 412.
Corncrake, 396.

Corvide, 327.

Corvin, 327.

Cowry, Money, 511.
Deep-toothed, 511.
Crab, Calling, 567.

—— Edible, 564.

— Fighting, 567.

—— Green, 564.

—- Hermit, or Soldier, 567.
— Nipper, 56s.

~— Thornback-Spider, 563.
— Swimming, 565.
—— Thornback, 563.
Crab-spider, or Matoutou, 573-
Crabro Cribrarius, 543.
Cramp-fish, 450

Crane, 386.

emoiselle, 387.
Crane Fly, Grear, 560.
Crested Currassow, 369.
Cricket, Field, 534-
—— House, 534.
Mole, 535-
Crocodile, 421.
Crocodilidz, 420.
Crocodilus, 420.
Cross-bill, 349.
Cross-fish, 582. :
Crotalidz, 431. {
Crow, 329. t
Hooded, 332.
Crustacea, 562.
Cryptoprocta, 57.
Cuckoo, 344.
Cuckoo-spit, 559.
Curculionidae, 532
Curlew, 393. 4
Cursores, 380.

Cushat, 367.

“ Cuttle-bone,” sos.
Cynipida, 544.
Cyprzidz, sto.

Dabchirk, 404.

Dace, ae

Daddy Long-legs, 56x.
Dasypide, 217.

Dasyure, 118.

Death’s Head Moth, 550.

Deer, Axis, 189.

——— Fallow, 188,

Kanchil,
Musk, ror.

Musk, 199.

—— Red, 185, 188.

—— Rein, 187.

Demoiselle Dragon Fly, 540.

Dendrophide, 439.

Dendrosaura, 428.

Dermaptera, 414.

Devil’s Coach-horse, 527.

Diczum, Australian, 289.

Dipper, 317.

Divtera, 561.

Discophora, 584.

Diver, Great Northern, 403

or Pigmy

Dodo, 369.

Dog, Bull, 66

— King Charles's, 61.

— Maltese, 61.

—— Mexican Lap, 63.

—— Newfoundland, §9.

— Pomeranian, 60,

—— Prairie, 157.

— Shepherd's, 6s.

Dog-fish, Spotted, 457.

Dog-headed Monkeys.
Baboons.

Dolphin, 133.

Doris, 516.

Dormouse, 151.

Dory, John, 472.

Douroucoulhi, 25.

Dove, Ring. 367.

Stock, 366.

— — Turtle, 368.

Dragon, Flying, 428.

Dragon-fly, 530.

——-- Demoiselle, 540.

Duck Barnacle, 571.

Duck-bill, 222.

—- E'der, 402.

—- Wild. gor.

Dziggetai, 199.

See

Eagle, Golden, 238.

Bald, or Whiteheaded,
242, 245.

Earth-worm, 579.

Earwig, Giant, 533.

Echidna, 223.

Echinidz, 581.

Echinodermata, 580.

Edible Crab, 564.

Eel, Conger, 483.

=— Electric, 483.

-— Sharp-nosed, 482.

Eggs, Sea, 581.

Eider Duck, 4o2.

Eland, 175.

Elephant, African, 205.

———- Asiatic, 203.

Elephant, Sea, 126.

Elk, 185

Emerald Bird of Paradise, 334.

Emeu, 381.

Fndive Coral, 586.

Entellus, 10.

Entomophaga, 544.

Eolis, 516.

Erd Shrew. See Shrew Mouse.

Ermine, 81.

Eumenes Arcuatus, 545.

Falco, 248.

Falcon, Jer, 249.
—— Peregrine, 249.
Stone, 551.
Falconide, 238.
Falconine, 248,
Felidz, 39.

Fennec, 73.

Ferret, 78.

Fieldfare, 320.
Finches, 338.

Fishes, 457.

Flat, 478.
—— Flying, 486.
Star, 58r.
Fishing-frog, 473.
Fishing Hawk ~ See Osprey
Fissurellida, 514.

Flamingo. 398.
Flea, 560.

—— Water, 560.
Flounder, 480.

Fly, Blister, or

531
—— Bot, 561.
—— Breeze, 561.
-— Sedeis, 541.
—— Dragon, 539.
— Great Crane, 560,
— one Bee, 561.
— May
Fipeatceee Pied, 323.
—_—_— Spotted; 323.
Flying Dragon, 428.
Fish, 486.
— Fox, 39.
—— Squids, 504.
——— Squirrel, 153-
Foraminifera, 589.
Fowl, domestic, 375-
Fox, 71.
—— Arctic, 72.
Foxhound, 64
Frigate, Pelican, 412.
Frog, 442.
—- Green, 444.
—- Pouched, 347.
- Tree, 464.
Brog hopper, 559
Gadfly, 56x.
Galline, 369.
Gallinula, 396.
Gallinuline, 396.
Gannet, 410.
Gasteropoda, 514.
Gazelle, 169.
Gecko, 426.
Geissosaura, 424.
Gemsbok, 171.
Genett, Blotched, 54
Geometride, 555-
Gerboa, 150.
Gibbon, Agile, 8.
Gibbons, 7.
Giraffe, 182.
Glow-worm, 530.
Gnoo, 173.
Goat, 177.
— Cashmir, 179.
on 267.
Goby,
Gulden ‘Oriole, 322.
Goldfinch, 342.
Gold-fish, 490.
Goose, Bernicle, 399.
ussel, 577.
— Solan, 410.
Gorilla, 2.
Goshawk, 256.
Grantia Compressa, 589.
Grebe, Crested, 405.
Little, 404.
Greenfinch, 342.
Greyhound, 159.
Grivet, 12.
Grosbeak, 341.
Grouse, Black, 379.
Guanaco, 194.
Gudgeon, 4gz.
Guillemot, 407.
Guinea-fowl, 276.
Guinea-pig, 147.
Gull, Black-b-~cked, 409.
Gurnard, Flying, 468.

ed, 467.

———

Spanish,

INDEX.

Hackee, or Ground Squirrel,

156.

Hag fish, Glutinous, 496.

Hamster, 136.

Hammatocerus, 560.

Harp Sheil, I rf

arp Shell, Imperial, 508, so

Hawfinch, 341 E ats

Hedgehog, 104.

Hedge Sparrow, 311.

Helicida, 515.

Helix, 515.

Hen Harrier, 259.

Hermit Crab, 567.

Heron, 387.

Herring, 485.

Heterocera, 549.

Heteroptera, 559.

Hippopotamus, 216.

Hobby, 251.

Hog, Bush, 209.

— Domestic, 208.

Homo, 1

Homoptera, 557.

Honey-Eaters, 289.

Hoopne, 286.

Hopper, Scarlet, 559.

Hoppers, 558, 559-

Hornbill, Rhinoceros, 350.

Hornwrack, 523.

Horse, 196.

_ es lig

Hound, Blood: ‘63.

—— Fox, 64.

—-— Grey, 59.

Howler, Ursine, 22.

Humble Bee-fly, 56r.

Humming-bird, Bar-tailed,’ 292.
- Copper-bellied Puff

leg, 294.

——— Cora, 292.

——— Double-crested, 292.

Gould’s, 292.

Ruby-throated, 298.

Ruby and Topaz,

207 8
———— Slender Shear-tail,

293 ‘
——_——— Spangled Coquette,

296.
— —— Vervain, 297.
White-booted Rac-
ket-tail, 295.
Hunting Cat. See Chetah.
Hyalea, 517.
Hyena, 53.
Hydroida, 587.
Hydrometra, 560.
Hydrometridz, 560.
Hylas Moth, 552.
Hymenoptera, 543.
Hyponomeutida, 556.
Hyrax, African, 215
—— Syrian, 216.

Ibex, 177.

Ibis, Sacred, 392.

Ichneumon, 55.

——— Giant, 543.
dndian, 5

Ichneumon-fly, 543.

Ichneumonidae, 544.

Iguana, 427.

Imperial Harp Shell, 508, 509

Indri, See Avahi.

593

Insecta, 524.
Insectivora, 96.
Invertebrata, sor.

Jacana, 305.

Jackal, 68.

Jackass, Laughing, 280.

Jackdaw, 331.

Jaguar, 44.

Jay, 327

Jelly Fishes, 583.

Jer-Falcon, pe

John Dory,

Jungle Foul “Australian, 371

———— Bankiva, 374, 375-

Kahau, ro.

Kanchil, or Pigmy Musk Deer,
1gI.

Kangaroo, 113.

Rat, 115.

Kestrel, 253.

Kingfisher, 280, 282,

reo 95.

Kite, 2

—_ Swallow: tailed, 246, 248.

Klip Das, 215.

Koala, 112

Koodoo, 174.

Kookaam. See Gemsbok.

Koulan. See Dziggetai.

Kuda-Ayer. See Tapir,
Malayan. .

Kukang, 30.

Lammergeyer, 229.
Lampern, 495.
Lamprey, 494-
Lac Insect, 559.
Ladybirds, 533.
Lancelet, 497.
Landrail, 396.
La: ida, 326.
eee 326.

apwing, ee
Lark, Sky, 34
Laughing ao 280.

eaf Insect, 536.
Leadbeater’s Cockatoo, 358
Leech, 579, 580.
Lemming, 140.
Lemur, Flying, 35.
Ruffled, 29.
Lemurs, 28.
Leopard, 42.
—— Hunting, 42.
Lepidoptera, 548.
Libellulide, ‘539.
Limacide, 515.
Limnea, 516.
Limpets, 514.
Linnet, 342.
Lion, 39.
—— Ant, 540.
Litorinidze, 512.
Little Chain, 522.
Lizard, Sand, 423.
—— Scaly, 423, 424.
—— Tree, 428.
Llama, 195.
Lobster, 568.
Locust, Migratory, 536.
Long-nosed Bandicoot, 116.
Loris, Slender, 29.
Slow-paced, 30.
Lynx, 49.

Qe

594

Lynx, Canada. 49,
Lyre Bird, 30%

Macaques, 13.

M caque, Wack, ts.
Macaw, Bine and Yellow, 354.
Mackerel 468
Macropidz, 108.
Magilu , 509.

Magot, 14.

Magpie, 332-

Maia‘te, 563.

Maliar !, got.

Maltese Dog, 61.
Mamuonalia, 2.

DN an, 1.

Mandril, 17.

Manis, 217.

Mapach. Sve Racoon.
Marikina, 26,

Marim nua, 20.
Marmoset, 27.
Marmot. 159.
Marsupiali , 108.
Maren, P ne, 75.
Martin, Fairy, 274.
House, 275, 276.
Sand, 274, 275.
Mastiff 67.

May-fly. 541.

Meadow Fippit, 317.

‘Meintia. 451.

Medusa, 585.

Menura See Lyre Bird.

Men‘pea Fuguensi-, 522-

Merlin 251

Mexican Lapdog 63.

Miller's T'.umb, 457.

Mink, 78.

Minnow 492.

Mocking Bird, 318.

Mole, 96.

——- Rat, 150.

Mollusca. sor.

Molluscs, Snore, 512.

Mongus, 56.

Monkey. Avahi 32.

—— Ave-Are. 33.

—— Bla k Macique, 16

—-— Black Yarke 24.

——— Chacma. 17.
— Capurin, 23.

Coatta 20.

—— Colugo 33.

—— Douroucouli, 25.

—- — Enellus, 10.

— — Green, t2.

——— Grivet, 13.
Kukang. 30.
M -got, 14.

Mar kina. 26.

- Marimonda, 21.
Mandril, 18.
Papion, 19.
Prohoscis, 10.
Ruffied J.emur, 29.
Slender Loris, 29.
Spider, 20.

Tarsier, 32.
—— Ursine Colobus, 12.
———- Ursine Howler, 22.
—-—-— Wanderoo, rs.
Moose, or Elk. 185.

Moor Hen See Water Hen.
Moschiue Deer, rr.

INDEX

Moth, Clear-wing. 552.
“Death’s-nead, 550,
—+ Goat, 553

Hou e-builder. 585.

——- Humming-bird, 552. ;
——- Hylis, 552.

—-- Lime Hawk, ssv.

—- Lunar Hornet Clear.

wing, 552.

—- Swallow-tailed, 556.

—- Tiger, 554.

_- Wig eau 557-

_- ony opard,

Mou e. 135. e ae

—— Fiying 1g.

—— Hoervest 136.

—— Sh rt-tuiled Field, 139.

Yeilow- outed Pcuched,
110.

Mullingon zg: 222.

Murex, 507.

Muricide, 507.

Musk Ox, 158.

— Rit. See Sondeli.

Musquash, +r Musk Rat, 143.

Mussel, Edible, 519.

Mustela. 75.

Mvriapoda, 577.

Myrmecobius, 119.

Myxiue, 4y6.

Naroiial 33%: .
‘a terjack, 445, 3
Nautilu-, the Bhambered: 505.
— Paper. sor.
Necrophaga, 527.
Nemnook. See rolar Bear.
Nepid@ 559.
Nep une's Cap, 590.
Neriting. srr.
Neritina. Spined, srz.
Newfcundland Dog, sg.
—— Crested, 450.
—-- Smooth, 450.
Newroptera 537.

ewt, 449
Nightingale, 307.
Nudibranchida. 516.
Nuthatch, 299.
Nut Weevil. 532.
Nvetiswura, 425.
Nylghau_ 76.
Nymphalide, 549.

Ocelot, 46.
Octopodiz. 404.
Octopus, 504.
Oculinidz, 586,
Ocypodida, 567.
(Estri ze, 562.

Oil Beetle,531.
Om:nastrephes, 504.
Ondatra. See Musquash,
Ophidia, 430.
Opossum, 12t.
—_-—- Menar’s 12a,
——-- Mouse, 1
Orang-Outan. 5.
(vchestida, 569,
Oreosoma, «65.
Orio'e, Golden, 322,
COrthoptera, 534¢
Oryx, 191

Osprey, 240.

Ostrich, 380,

Otter, &7.

Ousstiti, Seo Marmoset

Ounce, 43.

Qusel, Water, 317.

Owl, Barn. 266

—- Brown, or lawny,265.,

—— Coquimbo, or burrowing,
62

262.
—- Scops-eared, 265.
Snowy, 207.
— Vi-ginian-eared, 263, 264.
Ox, 162.
—— Grunting, 167.
— Musk. 168,
Oyster, 518.
Pearl, 519.

Pachydermata, 201.

Pacnyglosse, 426.

Paco. ‘ee Alpaca.

Palzornis, 352.

Pa, er Nautilus, sot.

Papilioui'z, 549.

Papion, 19.

Paradise Emerald Bird of, 334.

Paring. 312.

Parrakeet, Ringed. 352.

— Zebra, or Warbling

Grass, 352.

Parrot, Grey, 354-

Green, 356, 357-

Pavonidz, 372

Peacock 372.

— Butterfly, 549.

Peceary, 211.

Pedi: ulati, 474.

Peewit, 384.

Pete -anig®. 410.

Felec nine. 410.

Pelecanus. 412.

Pelican. White. 412

Penguin. Cape, 407.

Pen-tail, tca.

Perch. 464.

—— Climbing, 476.

Perdi: ing, 376

Perdix 377.

Periwinkle, 513.

Pernis. 175.

Petaurus. Ariel, tro.

Petrel, Fu'mer, 409.

Sturniy, 408.

Phalangi tines, 108,

Phatagin, 217.

Phasianidz, 374.

Phasianna, _. 4:

Phasianus 374.

Pheasant, 374.

— Argus 373.

Pheasant-s ells, 513.

—---— She!l, Australian. 513.

Phi'anthus lriangulum, 5 43-

Phocide, 123.

Pholades. 520.

Pholas. 520.

Physalis. See Portuguese Man-
of War, 584.

Picida. 359.

Picine 359.

Pieridae. 549.

Piddock, 520.

Pigeon, Blue Rock. 367.

— — Domeriic, 367.

——— Passenger. 366,

——— Wood, 367.

Pike, 487. .

Pilchard, 485.

laice, 480,

leuron ctidas. 478
Plumularia. 537.
Pudophthalinaca, 562
Poe Bird, 2u0.
Posciloptera Circulata, 553.
Poinier. 64.
Pole: at. 7

Polystumella Lessoniana, 559.

Pu. lyzoa. 52t.
Pomeranian Fox Dog, Co.
Poodle. 62.

Porcupine, 144.
———-— Canadian, 145.
P rifera. 589.

Porpoise. 142.
Portuguese Man-of-War, 583.
Potamobuus, 401.

Pouto. See Kiskaj ou.

~ ou. See Ar uasillo.
Prairie Dog, 157

Prawn, 569.

Probesc s Monkey, 10.
Proteus, 451.

Psyliide 559.

Pieropoda 517.

P ff Adue-. 433.

Fuffin, 404.

Puma. 45

Pyrrhuline, 343.

Quadrumana, 2.
Quagga. 202.
Quail. 37¢- 2
Quata See Coaita.

Rabbit, 148.

Rock, 212.
Racoon, g2.

Radiata, 580

Rat, 135.

—- Bay Bamvoo, 151.
— | oast. 160.

— Kanga 0, 115.

—- Mole. rea.

— Musk, 142.

— W ter, 137.

Ratel, Huney. 83.
Rartle-snake, 431.

Raven. 328.

kazor-sheil. common, §20.
Re.breast. 311.
Redstart, 359.
Reduviidz, «60.
Reduvius Personatus, 560.
Reindeer, 187.

Re) tina. 417.

Rhea. 382.

Rhmoceros Hornbill 350.
Rhinoceros, Iudian, 2t2:
Little Black. 273.
—-— — Twe-horned. 214.
——— White, 214.
Rh vophryne. 448.
Rhizopoda 588.
Rhopalocera, 549.

Rhyssa Persnasoria, 542.
Ring-dove, 367.

Roach. 492.

Rock-fish, 473.
Rock ~corpion, 577+
Rodents, 134.
Roebuck. 190.
—— — Garrulous, 277.
Rollers, 277.

Rook, 331.

»

INDEX.

Rotitera 588. 7
Roussettc. See Flying Fox
Rov:-.ee le, 527.

Kuff, ae

Ruffle] Lemur, 29.

Sable, 76.

Salainander. 448.

Salic rnavia Farciminoides, 522.

Sallee Man 583.

Salmon 488.

Sandhopper, 569.

San Mole. 160.

Sand Wasps. 544.

Satin Bower Bird, 5.
Saw-fish. 459

Saw Flies. 542.

Scallop, 5:8.

Scansores. 350.

Sc riet Admiral. 550.
Scuriet-h -pper. 55.
Scolopendra, 578.
Scomberidz, 463.

Scorpion, Rock 577.
Water, 559.

Sea Mat, sez.

— H ose, 493.

— N:-tu s, 583.

—— Snails, six.

— Wolf, 475.

—— Hog See Porpoise.
—— Anemone, 585.

—- Unic rn See Narwhal.
—— Urchins, 581.

Seal, 124.

—— hiephant, 126.

Secr tary Bird 258.

Sepia, Webb d, soz.

— —! ommon, 503.
Sepiola, 504.

Scivula ontortuplicata, 579,
Sertulariadz: 587.
Serpents, Iree 439.
Sessile-cye Crusticea, 569.
Shark, White. 459

H mmeti headed, 458.
Sheep, 180

Spanish or Merino, 181.
Shetland Pony, 198.
Ship-worm, 521.

Shore Molluscs, 512.

Shrew ratte OF

Shrew Mouse Elephant, 102.
Wate | 101.

——-— Uarec ic2.

Shrike, F ~ -backed, 327.
Shrimp, &°

S mpai, 9

Siskin, 344.

Skate, Common, .7.

— _ Thornback, 461.
Skivks, 424.

Skunk, 84.

Shyl rk, 3

Slender Loris, 29.

Slob ers. See J: y Fishes, 584.
Sl} th, 225.

Slowworm, 424.

Stug, G eat Grey. 516.
Sua. (om sos, 515.
—-— Edible, 515.

——— Warr or Pond, 516.
Snails, Sea, 511.

Snake, Rarre, 421.
Ring ot. 437.

Snipe 394

Solan Goose, 410.

Sole, 478.

595
Soldier Crab. 567.

Sure ide, 520.
Soitary Wasps, 545.
Sondeli, 98.
Spangicd Coquette, 296.
tpame, Water, 461.
S parr w, 344.
awk, 257.
—-— hedge, 3rt.
Sph.: Dee 550.
$pm ad Nertwa, 511.
Sp der, Crab, £73.
Spider Cras, 562.
—— Trap-do xr, 573-
—— Watir 574.
—— Garuen, or Cross, 575.
Sponges. 5%9, 590

Wh te, 389.

Spoor vil
Sp ingh k, 170.
Squinado, 564.

Squirrel, 152 154.

— — Flying, 53.

——— Ground. 156.

——— Jelerang, or Javan,
153-

Stag Bee I, 529.

S:aphy inde, 527.

Star Fishes, 581.

St rling, 337.

Starlings 335+

S-einbok, 177.

Stickh back 462.

Stuart, 81.

Steck: ove, 366.

Stork, 3yo.

Strohilo aura, 427.

Sturgeon, 456

Suckiny-fi by. 470,

Sun: Bears, gz.

— hire, Cullared,

— Birds, 287.

—— J. vinese, 288.

—— Fish, 492.

Swallow, Common, 272.

Esculent, 2716

—— dea, 4

Tailea Buitestly, 548.

Swan, 399.

peek 4or.

— Instung, 400,

Swift, 269. ;

Swine, 208.

Fish, 478.

Sword-fish, 472.

Tabanide, s6r.

Tadpule~, 443-

‘Tatiur-hira, 304,

Vajacu, 211.

Talpide, 96.

TValpina,'96.

Tamanoir, or Ant Bear, 219
220.

Tapir, 207.

Amrrican, 207.

Maylayan, 207.

Tapiius 207,

Tarsicr. 32.

‘Teal, 402.

T.leau, 84."

Tcithredinide, 542.

Tench. qgr.

Teuthiow, 504.

Termes. ¢39

Ter, Common. 409,

Terrapins, 418

_—

596

Termes Bellicosus, 539.
Terebrantia, 544.
Terrier, English, 61.
— Scorch, 68.
Tetrabranchiata, 505.
Thrush, Missel, 319.
—— Song. 321
Thysanoptera, 537.

Tiger Moth, 554.

—— Beetle, 524.

——~-— Eight-spot, 525.

Tipulidz, 56r.

Titmice, 312.

Titmouse, Blue, 313.

reat, 313

- Long tailed, 314.

Toad, 444.

Tody, Green. 278.

Top, Common, 513.

‘lorpedo, 460.

Tortoise, 417.

—— Chicken, 419.

Tota. See Grivet.

Totaninz. 297.

Toucan, Toco, 351.

Trap-door Spider, 573.

Tree Serpents, 439.

Trichoptera, 542.

Triglide, 467.

Trochilidz, 291.

Trochilus, 291.

Trogon, Resplendent, 279.

Trogonide, 279.

Tropic Bird, 410.

Trout, 489.

Trumpeter, Golden - Breasted,
385.

Tunny, 469.

jeurbes. 479.
‘urkey, 375-

falda Brash

9 37%:

—— Buzzard. See Vulture
Carrion.

Turritellidz. 511.

Turtle, Hawksbill, 419.

Green. 420.

Turtle-dove, 368.

Univalves, so6.
Upupa, 286.

INDEX.

Upupide, 286.

Urchin, Sea, 586.

Urchin. See Hedgehog.

Urocerus Gigas, 542.

Ursine Baboon. See Chacma.

Colobus, rz.

—— Howler, 22.

Urson. See Porcupine, Cana-
dian.

Vampire Bat, 36.
Venus’s Comb, 507.
——- Girdle, 583.
Vertebrata, 1.
Vervet, 13.
Vespidz, 546.
Vicugna, 194.
Viper, 434

——— Horned. 434.
Viperina, 431.
Viperide. 432.
Vulpes. 71.

Vulture, Alpine or Egyptian,

237-

Vulture, Arabian, 235, 236.
Bearded, 229.
—— Carrion, 235.

—— Fulvous, or

Griffin,

ig, 231+
Vulpine, Phalangist, IIo.

Wagtail, Pied, 315.
Walking Fish, 474.
Walrus. or Morse, 124.
Wancero. | a
arbler, Blackcap, 306, 307.
Warblers, 304. ere
Wasp, 546.
Wasps, Solitary, 545.
- Sand, 544.
- Wood, 544.
Water Hen, 396.
Vole, or Rat, 137.
Spaniel, 61.
Spiders, 574.
Ousel, 317.
Weevel, 531.
Weasels, 80.
Weaver Bird, Social, 339, 34>.
Wentletrap, Staircase, or Pre-
cious, 511.

Wentletrap, Common or False,
512.

Whale, 127.

Spermaceti, r2g.

Whaup. See Curlew.

Wheel Animalcules, 588.

Wheatear, 309.

Whelk, 507.

White-headed Saki. See Black
Yarke. ~

Widgeon, gor.

Wild Cat, 48.

Wish-ton-wish.
Dog.

Wolf, 70.

Wolverene, 84.

Wombat 116.

Worn, Ship, 522.

Wood Wasps, 544.

Woodcock, 395.

—— Thorny, 507.

Woodlouse, 570.

———— Armadillo, 570.

See Prairie

oodpecker, Green, 362, 363.
ae reat Black, 363.
— Northern Three-

toed, 363.
Seven-spotted, 363.
Great Spotted, 3€0

361.
Wood Pigeon, 367.
Wren, 303.
Wrens, 301.
Fire-crested, 307.
Golden: crested, 305.
Wryneck, 363.

Yamma. See Llama.
Yak, 167.
Yellow-footed Pouched Mouse,

11g.
Yeliowhammer, 345, 346.

Zebra, 201.
Parrakeet, 352.
Zebu, 163.

Zerda. See Fennec.
Zoophytes, 585.

— Bell, 587.