Util IH-ij
i
im
I
imm
THE
Pillar ia^l Jli|«$«g#ititi
OF
ANIMATED NATURE.
VOLUME I.
MAMMALIA. B I E D S.
LONDON:
CHARLES COX, 12, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND.
PRICE SKTEEN SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE, BOUND IN CLOTH.
LONDON : rUINTED BV Wll LIAM CLOWM AHD SONS, STAMFORD STBEET
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
MAMMALIA.
F«ONTISPIECB.-
-Thk Royai. TiGKB ,— a coloured facsimile from an original drawing by T. Landsbeb.
Dereriplioni. P»ge«-
FelidsB (cat-tribe) . . ^~ }^
Marsupialia . . . • ^^— -■^
Quadrumana ... 20 —
Orangs 26-30
Gibbons 3*^— ^^
Monkeys . . . • 33 39
American monkeys . 39 — 46
Lemurs 46— 51
Quadrumana fossil . . 51
Rodentia .... 54 •
Squirrels .... 54— 55
Dormice .... 55— 58
.Jerboas 58— 59
Mice ...... 59-66
Beaver 66 —
Musquash .... 66
Burrowing rats . . . 67 — 70
Utia IP ~
Coypu *^
Porcupines .... 70 •
Chinchillas .... 71— 74
Pacas 74
Agoutis 74— 78
Leporidae (Hares) . . 78 —
Pachydermata ... 79
Elephant .... 79— 86
Mastodon .... 87 —
Hippopotamus . . . 87 — 90
Rhinoceros .... 90 — 91
Daman or Hyrax . . 91— 94
Tapirs 94
Hogs 95-101
Hc^es 102-110
Illustrations,
Nos.
1-
60-
59
110
111— 129
130— 137
138— 109
170— 192
193— 218
219— 231
232— 236
237— 251
252— 268
269— 270
271— -
272— 284
285— 286
287— 288
289— 294
295— 302 I
303— 300
307— 315
316— 3-20
321— 3C7
368— 370
371— 374
375— 390
391— 395
396— 403
404— 442
443— 481
Pages.
1
110 —
482
111 —
483
111—114
491
115 —
—
Descriptions.
Adapis ....
Dinotherium
Toxodon
Ruminantia .
Camels 115-120
Llamas 121-123
Giraffe 123-126
Musk deer .... 127 —
Cervidse 129 —
Deer 130-138
Antelopes .... 139-147
Goats 147-150
Sheep 150—155
Oxen 155-170
Buffaloes
I Edentata
Sloths . . • •
', Mylodon . . •
1; Scelidotherium . .
ij Megatherium . .
!( Armadilloes . .
|! Anteaters . . .
'■'' Manis ....
!l Ursidae, or Bears .
\\ Racoon ....
Panda 191
Coati
Kinkajou . . •
CanidiB . . . •
Dogs
Wolf
170—174
175 —
175—176
177—178
178 —
178—179
179—182
182—183
183—184
185—190
190 —
191 —
191 —
194 —
193—202
203—206
Jackal 206 —
lllastrations.
Nos.
490
510
511— 546
547— 550
557— 560
. 567— 577
578— 619
020— 659
060— 071
672— 685
686— 740
741— 767
768— 773
774- 778
779— 783
784— 789
790— 804
806— 812
813- 822
823— 850
851- 852
853— a54
856— —
857— 859
860— 900
901— 915
916— 919
Descriptions.
Fox
Cape Hunting Dog
Hyaenas . . . .
Civets . . . .
Cryptoprocta
Ichneumons
Weasels . . . .
Ratel
Badgers
Otters
Seals
Bats
Insectivora . . . .
Shrews
Moles
Hedgehog . . . .
Tenrecs
Gymnure . . . .
Banxring . . . ■
Pachydermata, aquatic
Dugong ....
Manatee ....
Zeuglodon .
Cetacea (Whales) .
Dolphins
Cachalots
Whales, proper . .
Quadrumana, additions
Uisidse, additions to
Vivenidae, additions to
Rodentia, additions to
Cats, tails of . .
Pages.
206-207
207—208
209—21 1
211—212
211 —
213—214
215—218
218 —
219 —
219—222
222—226
227—230
231 —
231—234
234—235
235 —
235 —
235—238
238 —
238 —
238 • —
238 —
238 —
239 —
239—242
242—243
243—246
to 246 —
246 —
247 -
247 —
247 —
lUustrations.
Nos.
920— 926
927 —
928— 938
939— 940
947 —
948— 958
959— 967
968— 970
971- 974
975— 983
984—1014
1015—1036
1037—1050
1051-1060
1061—1063
1064—1066
1067 —
1068—1072
1073—1080
1081 —
1082 —
1083 —
1084—1085
1086—1092
1093—1099
1100—1112
1113 —
1114-1115
1110—1133
1134—1135
1136
BIRDS.
Birds (Aves) . . . 249—254
Raptores 2i}5
Falconidae .... 255 —
Eagles 256-200
Falcons 260-270
Hawks 270-271
Kites 271-273
Buzzards .... 274-275
Vultures 275-280
Owls 281-284
Caprimulgidae (Nightjars^ 985—290
or Goatsuckers) . I ~
Hinindinidae (Swallow) 290—295
Todidffi (Todies) . . 295 —
Halcyonidae (Kingfishers) 295—298
Meropidae (Bee-eaters) 299 —
Tro?onidae (Trogons) . 299—302
Muscicapidae (Fly-l _ 3Q3
catchers) . /
Laniadae (Shrikes) . . 303—306
Coracinida; (Fruit-crows) 300 —
Ampelidae (Chatterers) 306—310
1137—1198
1199-
1233-
1250-
12.^7-
1261-
1265-
1287-
-1232
-1249
-1256
-1260
-1264
-1286
-1305
1306—1327
1328—1342
1343—1345
1340—1359
1300—1365
1366—1371
1372—1375
1376—1385
1386—1389
1390—1396
Pipridae (Cotingas and| ^jq _
Manakins) . . . i
Paridae (Tits) . . • 310—314
Sylviadoe (Warblers) . 314—322
Merulidac (Thrushes) . 322—327
Menuridae (Lyre-bird) . 327—330
Fringillidffi (Finches) . 330-339
Sturnidae (Starlings) . 339—342
Buphagidae (Pique-) 3^2 —
Boeufs) . . / •
Coividae (Crows) . . 342-346
Paradiseidae (Birds of| _ 346—360
Paradise) . . / '
Phytotomidae (Plant- \ grjQ
cutters) . . / '
Coliadae (Colies) . . 350 —
Musophagidae (Plantain | ^^q
eateis)' .... J
Buceridse (Ilornbills) . 350—351
Upupidae (Hoopoes) . 351—352
Scansores .... 354 —
Ramphastidaj (Toucans) 354—358
Cuculidae (Cuckoos) . 358-362
1397—1402
1403-
1414-
1456-
1479-
1482-
1523
1413
1455
1478
1481
1522
■1529
1530
1531-
1553-
1563
1564
1565-
1571-
1575-
1579-
1594-
1552
-1562
-1570
-1574
-1578 '
-1.^93
-1602
Psittacidae (Parrots) .
Certhiada; (Creepers) .
Picida; (Woodpeckers)
Tiochilidae (Humming-'l
birds) . . . . /
Cinnyridae (Sun-birds) .
Nectariniadae (Honey- 1
suckers) . . . /
Meliphagidae
eaters) .
Promeropidae
ropes) .
Wood-swallows . . .
Wren
Goldcrest . . . •
Wood-wren . . . •
Gyratores . . . •
Columbidse (Pigeons) .
Rasores
Phasionidae (Fowls andl
Pheasants) . . . i
Tetraonidoe (Grouse)
362—366
360—370
370—375
375-379
379 —
379 —
(Honey-)
(Prome-">
379 —
379—382
382 —
382 —
382—383
383 —
383 —
383—390
390 —
390—398
338—400
1003—1025
1026—1034
1035—1059
1000-1676
1077-1079
1680 —
1681—1682
1683—1684
1085—1088
1689—1090
1691 —
1692 —
1693—1717
1718— 1754
1755—1764
No. 1.
PICTORIAL MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
Wb enter nithiii tlie doon of our Pictorial Museum,
and our eye i* at once arrested by a <roup of fierce
yet beautit\il animals, amon< which standi) one pro-
minent in stem grandeur and majestic bearing, —
we cannot miiitake him.— the hon, king of beasts.
The group which encircles tliis noble beast,
and of whicli he is the most prominent example, is
termed the Feline. (Felidw.) It includes the tiger,
the leo|>aitl, the Ivnx, the cat, and many others.
Kki.id.k. — In (his family group, which scarcely
admits of any generic subdivisions, are compre-
hended the roost sanguinary, the most formidable,
and the most typical of the order Camirora. Tliat
b to say, in these animals the organs of destruction
exhibit the highest degree of development. Among
quadrupeds they are what the eagles and falcons
are amun:; birds.
Essentially carnivorous, still, unlike the dog which
relishes carrion, they reject putrescent flesh, and
consequently are more expressly endowed and litted
for the work of wholesale slausrhtcr. Their instincts
and powers are, in fact, in ndmimblc accordance.
Their frame is vigorous, but agile, — ^thcir limbs are
short, the joints well-knit, but supple, and every
motion is easy, free, and graceful. They leap and
bound with astonishing velocity. Their footfall is
silent, the feet being provided with elastic pads,
namely, a large basal ball or cushion, and one under
each toe (see fig. 5). The claws are of enormous
siie, hooked, and sharp, and when not in use com-
pletely retracted withm a sheath, so as not to be
visible. These, indeed, and the teeth, are the in-
struments of their destructive enerery.
The dentition of the Kclidae is very characteristic.
The incisors are very small, six above and six below.
The canitu-s are of enormous size and strength ; the
false molars are sharp and compressed ; above there
are two on each side, — ^the first small, the second
lonij and conical. This is followed by the laniary
molar (csimassiere), which is bicuspid with an inner
blunt tubercle ; behind the laniary is a very minute
tuberculous molar, but this is wanting in the lower
jaw, and the laniary is bicuspid.
Dental formula.— (See figures 10, 11, 12.)
Incisors _, canines
1—1 , 4—4
, molars
The shortness of the muzzle and the boldness of
the occipital ridge give an appearance to the skulls
of the Felida; as if they were drawn out backwards ;
the forehead has no sudden rise, but is continued
from the nasal bones to the occiput, in a gradual
arch. The union of the interparietal and occipital
ridges forms a beetling promontory (to which is at-
tached the ligamentum nuchac), overhanging the
occipital bone, which has a perpendicular, and even
inwardly inclined, direction ; so that the back of the
skull appears abruptly tnincate. The orbits are
large, of a somewhat oval form, and obliquely situ-
ated. The outer ring is incomplete, excepting, as
far as we ourselves have examined, in one species,
the Felis jilaniceps of Sumatra, in v»'hich, as in the
ichneumons, it is a fair circular ring ; indeed, the
skull of this species (of which we have only seen a
single specimen) we considered as approaching_in
its contour to that of some of the viverrae. The
tympanic bulla, enclosing the internal organs of
heanne, is largely developed. In ihe Felis plani-
cept it is of peculiar magnitude.
The bold ridges, and the strenirth and form of the
zygomatic arches, indicate the immense volume and
stress of the muscles destined to act upon the lower
jaw. The articulatine condyles are not raised above
the straight horizontal line carried along the sides of
the lower jaw ; they are cylindrical, .ind firmly
locked in the transversely elongated glenoid ca-
vities, the margins of which are so elevated before
and behind as to render any but a simple hinge-l'.ke
motion impossible. This scissor-like action of the
lower jaw is in accordance with the trenchant cha-
racter of the molar teeth, the mutual action of which
on each other resembles that of the blades of a pair
of shears. (See figures 2, 3, 4.")
The skulls of the FeliiUp exhibit a general same-
ness of contour; the principal difference being that
of size, according to the species. The ocelot has,
perhaps, the most rounded skull, while that of the
Feli» planicejtt is flattened between the orbits and
narrow. Those of the lion and tiger are very simi-
lar, and not easy to be discriminated from each
other. Tliere is greater straightness in the longi-
tudinal outline of the upper suri'ace in that of the
lion ; greater flatness of the space between the
orhits; and the infra-orbitai foramina aro lanrer and
often double. Tlie following character, first noticed
by Professor Owen, appears to be an unfailing cri-
terion. In the tiger, the nasal processes of the
maxillary bones nevei extend upwards as far as the
union of'^the nasal bones with the frontal, failing by
the third of nti inch ; while in the lion, the nasal
processes ot the maxillary bones always attain the
line of union between the nasal and frontal bones,
and sometimes even pa:ss beyond it.
In the limbs of the FelidiP we behold the finest
display of muscular development which can be con-
ceived. The dissected arm 'of a lion or tiger is a
subject v\'orthy the study of an artist. Hence to
da.sh down their prey is an easy task. It has been
said that the Bengal tiger has been known to frac-
ture the skull of a man with one stj^ke of its heavy
paw. We may ea-sily conceive the force of the
muscles destined to act on the claws or talons to
which we have already .alluded. There are five toes
on the anterior, and four on the posterior extremi-
ties ; and these are armed with the formidable
weapons in question. By a beautiful structural
conformation of the bones, ligaments, and muscular
parts, they are always preserved without effort from
coming in contact with the ground, and are retracted
within a sheath, so as to be kept sharp and ready
for service.
This involuntary retraction, counteracted only by
the action of muscles, is effected by two elastic
ligaments so contrived as to roll back the ultimate
phalanx which the claw encases, and bring it down
by the outer side of the penultimate phalanx, which
is flattened off to remove every obstruction. From
this position the talon can be thrown forward in a
moment, the action of the double elastic spring
being counteracted by that of the flexor muscles.
In the act of striking with great violence, the flexor
muscles strongly contract, brace up the tendon, and
throw out the talon, which, when the act is over,
returns to its sheath. An analogous arrangement
exists in the claws of the sloth. Its hooks, as they
may be termed, are governed by an elastic liga-
ment, but its tendency, contrary to what we see in
the cat tribe, is to press them towards the palm, in
order to enable the animal to cling without fatigue
to the branches from which it suspends itself. In
figure 7, which is a toe from the left foot of a young
lion represented in a state of extension, a points to
the two elastic ligaments ; b the tendon of the ex-
tensor muscle ; c a slip of inelastic tendon ; d the
tendon of the flexor muscle, which passes over the
upper extremity of the last phalanx at e, as over a
pulley, and thus assists the powerful action of that
muscle.
In figure 6, a toe from the hind foot, the two
elastic ligaments (a) converge to be inserted into
the upper angle of the last phalanx, and draw it
backwards upon, instead of by the side of, the
penultimate phalanx, c is a slip of the lateral in-
elastic tendon, and d the tendon of the flexor pro-
fundus, which is strongly strapped down by an
annular ligament e.
Figures 8 and 9 are also illustrative of the me-
chanism described.
Figure 9 a and b, the extremities of the two bones
of the fore-arm ; c c the carpal or wrist bones ; d d
the metacarpal bones ; e e the firet row of phalangal
bones ; // the second row of phalangal bones ; g g
the last row encased with the claws.
Figure 8, a, second phalanx of a toe ; b the last
phalangal bone ; c, an elastic ligament.
The general skeleton of the FelidsE, as exemplified
by that of the lion (figure 1), will claim a moment's
notice.
The back and loins are long ; the vertebrse of the
neck are remarkably large and solid, the first or
atlas havinsf its lateral processes flat and expanded :
the spinous processes of the dorsal vertebrae are
long, with the exception of the last two or throe ;
the transvei-se processes of the lumbar vertebra; are
large ; the spinous processes are broad but rather
short, and inclined gently forwards, but become, as
they advance to those of the dorsal veriebiw, more
upright, while, on the other hand, those of the dor-
sal in descending lose their obliquity ; the chest is
deep; the scapula is broad, with a high strong
spine ; the clavicle is small, and merely imbedded
in the muscles of the shoulder; the humerus is
short and stout ; it is remarkable for a hiffh lidce or
crest, which rises above the outer condvie of its
lower articulation. Above the inner condyle there
is an orifice for the pa.ssage of the artery, which
does not nm round the bone, but, as it were, pierces
it in a direct course onwards. This orifice is found
not only in all the Felidae, but in some of the Ameri-
can monkeys, m the seals, the badgers, the coatis,
the racoons, the mustelse, the civets, the ichneu-
mons, and othei-s, but not in the dog, the hyaena, or
the bear.
With respect to the perfection of the senses in
the Felidie. a few words may be neces,sary.
Siglil. — The sense of sight is very acute, and
adapted not only for diurnal, but also for nocturnal
vision. The eyes are placed obliquely, and t;lare
in the dark, owing to the hrilliancy of the tapctum
lucidum, a concave mirror at the bottom of the eye.
This glare is visible even during the day, espe-
cially when the animals are eni-aged, for the pupil
dilates under excitement. In the smaller cats the
pupil is vertically linear when contracted, but in
the larger, as the lion, tiger, leopaixl, cheetah, ja-
guar, &c., it is circular.
Hniritig. — The sense of hearing is exquisite, and
the auditory apparatus is accordingly developed.
We h^ve already noticed the magnitude of the
tympanic bulla.
Smell. — ^This sense is also in great perfection,
and the olfactory apparatus is complicated, and
abundantly supplied with nerves. Ttie Felidae are,
however, less distinguished for the sense of smel!
than the canine race.
Taste. — The sense of taste is not veiy refined.
The tongue is rough. The roughness of the tongue
of the common cat is familiar to every one, as well
as the action of lions and tigers in licking the bones
of their prey in order to scrape off the adherent par-
ticles of flesh. This is effected by numerous homy
Eapillae, differently arranged in difl'erent species,
ut always with the points directed backwards.
Figure 15 shows these papillae on the lion's tongue ;
and figure 14, a magnified view of them on a small
portion.
Feeling. — The long bristles called whiskers on
each side of a cat's mouth are familiar to all : these
are important organs of touch. They are attached
to a bed of close glands under the skin, and each is
connected with a nerve. Hence they communicate
to the animal an impression from the slightest touch.
If we imagine a lion or tiger stealing through
a jungle during the darkness of night, we shall be
able to account for the use of these whiskers. They
indicate to him, through the nicest feeling, any ob-
stacle which may present itself in his progress ;
they prevent him from rustling the leaves or boughs,
and alarming his prey ; and they thus, in conjunc-
tion with the soft springy pads of his feet, which
render his steps noiseless, enable him to steal upon
his unsuspecting victim, and make his fatal bound.
16—26. THE LION.
Aiwv (I^on) of the Greeks (Aeaiva (Leana) lioness) ;
Leo of the Latins {Lea and Letena, lionessl ; Leone
of the Italians {Leonessa, lioness) ; Leo7i, Spanish ;
Lion, French (Lionne, lioness; Linceaii, cub);
Loire, German (Lowinn, lioness) ; Felis Leo, Linn.
Male, as a general mie, ornamented with a mane,
of which the femalais destitute.
The stern dignity of the lion, his enormous
strength, his glowing eyes, his deep roar, and his
destractive powers, all combine to render this terror
of the desert one of the most attractive objects of a
menagerie. The lion is now limited to Africa and
certain parts of Asia ; but formerly it was more ex-
tensively spread, the eastern line of Europe being
within its boundaries. Herodotus informs us that
the camels which carried the baggage of the army
of Xerxes were attacked by them in the district of
the Paeonians and Crestonaei, on their march from
Acanthus to Therme (afterwards Thessaloniiv, now
Saloniki) : he adds also that these animals were
numerous in the mountains between the rivers
Nestus, in Thrace, and the Achelous, which flows
through Acarnania. Aristotle gives the same local-
ity as the abode of lions, and the same fact is re-
peated by Pliny, who says, ' Longe viridibus prmstan-
tiores iis quos Africa aut Lybia gignunt,' — 'They far
exceed in strength those produced in Africa or
Lybia.' Pausanias, alluding: to the disastei-s which
befel the baargage-camels of Xerxes, states that the
lions often descended to the plain at the foot of
Olympus, between Macedonia and Thessaly.
Lions were common in Syria, as we gather from
numerous passages in the sacred reconls. Oppian
states that Armenia and Parthia produced a formida-
ble breed. At present the lion is confined to the inte-
Lions.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
rior wilds ol' Africa, to some of the districts of Arabia
and Persia, to the country bordering the Euphrates,
and to some parts of India. We hesitate not to say
that thronsrhout tlie whole of this range the lions
are speciiieally identical, although different breeds
may be distinguished. Of the African lions the
Barbary breed is characterised by having a deep
yellowish-brown fur, and the mane of the male is
much developed (Fig. 17).
The Senegal lion has the fur of a more yellow
tint, the mane is less full, and nearly wanting upon
the breast and insides of the fore-legs.
The Cape lion presents two varieties, one yel-
lowish, the other brown, the mane of the latter
often deepening almost to black. Tlie dai'k lion is
said to be the most ferocious (Fig. 22).
Of the Asiatic breeds the Bengal lion has the
mane inairniticently developed, the colour of the
fur of a dark yellowish-brown (Fig. 18). It attains
to a very large size. The Persian or Arabian lion
is said to be characterised by the pale Isabella
colour of the fur (Fig. 19).
Within the last few years a maneless, or nearly
maneless, breed has been discovered in Giizerat.
Pliny alludes to a maneless lion which he regarded
as a hybrid occurring in Africa.
It is to Captain Smee that we owe our knowledge
of the maneless lion. On his return- from Guzerat
to England he brought several skins of such lions
which he himself had shot : some of these he pre-
sented to the Zoological Society of London, and
communicated an interesting paper to the ' Zoologi-
cal Transactions' on the subject. The maneless
lion of Guzerat differs from its Bengal, Persian, and
African relatives, not only in the absence of a full
mane, but also in being rather lower on the limbs,
and in having a somewhat shorter tail, furnished at
its tip with a larger brush. The colour is pale ful-
vous. A male killed by Captain Smee measured,
mcluding the tail, eight feet nine and a half inches ;
his weight, exclusive of the internal viscera, was
thirty-five stone (fourteen pounds to the stone) ; his
height three feet six inches ; and the impression of
his paw on the sand measured six and a half inches
across (Fig. 20).
It is along the banks of the Sorabermuttee, near
Ahmedabad, according to Captain Smee, that this
variety of the lion is found : it occurs also on the
Rhun, near Rhunpor, and near Puttun in Guzerat.
'During the hot months they inhabit the low brushy
wooded plains that skirt the Bhardar and Soniber-
muttee rivere from Ahmedabad to the borders of
Cutch, being driven out of the large adjoining tracts
of high jungle called Bheers, by the practice annu-
ally resorted to by the natives, of setting tire to the
grass in order to clear it and ensure a succession of
young shoots for the cattle upon the firet fall of the
rains.' So numerous are they that Captain Smee
killed in one district eleven in the couree of a month.
They make terrible havoc among the cattle, and
when attacked exhibit great boldness. The native
name for this lion is Ontiah Bang, or camel-tiger,
an appellation from the resemblance in colour to
the camel.
The habits and manners of the lion have been
detailed by various travellers, and no one can doubt
its strength, its daring, and ferocity. Near the pre-
cincts of colonization in southern Africa and else-
where, where firearms are in use, it has learned
by experience their fatal effects, and gained a con-
sciousness that its powers avail but little against
such weapons of destruction.
The king of the forest is a term misapplied to this
noble beast ; I'orests are not his haunts, but burning
desert plains and wide karroos covered only with
shnibby vegetation, or interspersed with tracts of
low brushwood. In India it frequents the jungles
and the luxuriant borders of rivei-s, among which it
makes its lair.
During the day the lion usually slumbers in his
retreat : as nisht sets in he rouses from his lair and
begins \\n prowl. The nocturnal tempests of rain
and lightning, which in southern Africa are of
common occuiTence, are to him seasons of joy : his
voice mingles with the roar of the thunder, and
adds to the confusion and terror of the timid beasts
upon which he preys, and upon which he now ad-
vances with less caution and a bolder step. In
general, however, he waits in ambush or creeps
insidiou.sly towards his victim, which with a bound
and a roar he dashes to the earth.
Of the strength of the lion we have most extra-
ordinary examples on record. To carry off a man —
and this has but too often happened — is a feat of
no difficulty to this powerful biute. Indeed when
we find that a Cape lion seized a heifer in his
mouth, and, though the l-egs dragged upon the
ground, carried her off with apparently the same
ease as a cat docs a rat. leaping a broad dyke with
her without the least difficulty— that another, and
a young one too, conveyed a horse about a mile
from the spot where he had killed it — that a third,
which had carried off a two-year-old heifer, was fol-
lowed on the track for five hours by horsemen, who
observed that throughout the whole distance the
cai'case of the heifer had only once or twice touched
the ground, — we may conceive that a man would
be an insignificant burden. Such a powerful ani-
mal, however, we must not expect to see in the
confined dens of a menagerie : there their limbs
become cramped, their muscular system unde-
veloped, their bones often distorted, and their daring
and feiocity subdued. Such a shadow of a lion the
figure 26 exhibits, taken from an individual three
years old, which had been pent up in a wretched
cage.
The Indian lion displays the same courage as its
African relative. Instead of retreating on the
hunters' approach, he stands his ground or rushes to
meet them open mouthed on the plain. Lions are
thus easily shot ; but if they be missed or only
slightly wounded, they prove very formidable. They
will spring on the heads of the largest elephants,
and have, it is asserted, often pulled them to the
earth, ridere and all.
In the defence of her cubs the lioness is resolute
in the extreme, and is doubly savage during the
time they remain under her care. Her mate parti-
cipates in her feelings. The lioness goes with young
five months, and generally produces from two to
four young at a birth. They are born blind. For
several months their fur is obscurely striped or
brindled, the markings reminding us of those of the
tiger : these stripes branch off from a blackish line
running down the middle of the back. Their voice
is a cat-like mew. Gradually the uniform colour is
assumed, and at about the end of twelve months
the mane begins to appear : this increases, and the
voice deepens info a roar.
The lion attains to maturity about the fifth year :
its term of lii'e is of considerable extent. Pompey,
which died in the tower in 1760, had been there for
seventy yeare, and one from the Gambia died there
at the age of sixty-three. Figure 16 is a fine repre-
sentation of a time-worn lion stretched out in the
act of expiring. Imagination pictures such a one
in the solitary desert : age has overtaken him, his
eye is dim, his tbrce abated, he fails in his once
fatal spring ; gaunt, and lean, and feeble, he drags
his weary limbs to the old haunt, — the haunt from
which he once went forth in the pride of his
strength, when his voice scattered terror through
the desert, — there at length to die. Better had he
fallen by the hunter's javelin when ' his limbs were
strong and his courage high ' than thus drain to the
dregs a miserable existence.
It has long been a popular belief that the lion
lashes himself with his tail to stimulate himself info
a rage ; and though such a use for it is out of the
question, a sort of claw or prickle has been detected
at the termination of that organ. Mr. Benneft
detected it in the tip of the tail of a young Bavbaiy
lion. Blumenbach had previously ascertained the
fact of its existence in a specimen examined by
himself in 1829. M. Deshayes announced the ex-
istence of this prickle in a lion and lioness which
died in Paris menagerie. Mr. Woods detected it
only once out of numerous lions which he purposely
examined ; he also found a similar prickle on the
tip of the tail of an Asiatic leopard.
This prickle is in fact only occasionally present ;
it is not connected' with the caudal vertebrae, but,
as Mr. Wood states, appears to be inserted into the
skin like the bulb of a bristle ; but M. Deshayes
asserts that it is of a conical shape, and adheres
to the skin by its base; as does also Blumenbach.
(See fig. 13.) We are much inclined to think it
nothing more than an indurated and partially de-
tached cuticle ; certainly it falls off with the
slightest touch.
Hybrids between the lion and tigress (fig. 27)
have occurred in our country. One litter was pro-
duced in 1827 in Afkin's menagerie, and another
litter subsequently from similar parents was pro-
duced at Windsor. In both ca.ses the hybrids died
before arriving at maturity. Their colour was
brighter than that of true lion-cuhs and the bands
more defined and darker.
Excepting in the vast wilds of Central Africa, un-
trodden by the foot of the white man, the lion, even
in the regions to which it is at present restricted, is
much more rare than formerly. The ancient Ro-
mans procured incredible multitudes for the arena :
Scylla brought a hundred mules at once into the
combat : Pompey gave six himdred, of which more
thanhalf were males ; CiPsar four hundred ; norwasit
until the time of the later emperors that any diffi-
culty in procuring them began to be experienced. '
There are few travellers in Africa who have not
been under the necessity of encountering this formid-
able beast. And many are the exciting narratives
which have been related, of the incidents of the
chase — of escape from almost ceitain death— of
triumph over the foe.
The bushmen of Southern Africa, according to
Dr. Philip, are in the habit of insidiously attacking
the slumbering lion with their poisoned arrows.
They have remarked that he generally kills and
devours his prey in the morning at sunrise or in the
evening at sunset ; and that he sleeps during the
heat of the day so profoundly as with difficulty to
be awakened ; and that when roused he seems to
lose all presence of mind. Marking the spot where
a lion is supposed to have taken up his quarters for
sleep, they cautiously advance, and silently lodge a
poisoned arrow in his breast. The lion, thus struck,
springs from his lair, and hounds off; but the work
is done, and the bushmen follow his tract, knowing
that in a few hours, or less, he will expire.
28.— THE TIGER.
Tiypic {Tigris) of the Greeks ; Tigris of the Latins.
Tigre Royal, Buffon's Nat. Hist.; Felis Tigris,
Linn.
The Royal Tiger, as it is often called to distin-
guish it from the smaller tiger-cats, is far more
limited in its range than the lion. It is exclusively
Asiatic. Hindostan may be considered as its head-
quarters, but it is common in the largei- islands, as
Sumatra, where it is a fearful scourge. It is said to
occur in the south of China, and also in the deserts
which separate China from Siberia, and !us far as the
banks of the Oby. It is found in Tonquin and
Siara. The ancients regarded India and Hyrcania
as nurseries of the tiger. Hyrcania was a province
of the ancient Persian empire at the south-eastern
corner of the Caspian Sea ; but its boundaries are
not very determinate. Whether the tiger still in-
habits this district is not very clear, there is no rea-
son however to doubt the concurrent testimonies o(
the ancient writers.
The tiger is equal in size to the lion, but of a
more elongated ibrm, and pre-eminently graceful.
The head also is shorter and more rounded. Occa-
sionally individuals occur exceeding anv lion we
have contemplated in menageries ; but the average
height is from three feet six inches to four feet.
The general tint of the fur is of a fine yellow or red-
dish-yellow, ornamented by a series of transverse
black bands or stripes, which occupy the sides of
the head, neck, and body, and are continued on the
tail in the form of lings : the under parts of the
body and inner parts of the limbs are almost white.
Individuals are sometimes exhibited of a very p,ale
colour, with the stripes very obscure, and Du Halde
says that the Chinese tiger (Lou-chu or jC(rH-/!M)varies
in colour, some being white, striped with black and
grey.
1 he ancients make frequent mention of the tiger,
with which it cannot be doubted that Aristotle was
well acquainted, though he talks of a breed in India
between this animal and the dog, meaning perhaps
the cheetah, which is used for the chase. Pliny
describes the 'tremendous velocity ' of thetigel', and
the devoted attachment of the tigress to her young.
()])pian speaks of swift tigei's, the offspring of the
zephyr; and of its swiftness Mr. Bell the traveller,
and Pere Gerbillon, were witnesses in China, the
chase of this animal being a favourite diversion with
the great Cam-Hi, the Chinese monarch. It ap-
pears that Augustus was the first who exhibited a
tiger at Rome, which was tame and kept in a cage.
Claudius afterwards exhibited four, and Cuvier sug-
gests that it was in commemoration of this rare
spectacle that the mosaic, discovered some yeare
since at Rome, was made, representing four royal
tigers in the act of devouring their prey. As how-
ever India and its products became better known to
the Romans, the tiger became more familiar to
them, but was never exhibited in great numbers.
Ten were in the possession of Gordian III.
Active, po.werful, and ferocious, the tiger is more
to be dreaded than the lion, because it is niore in-
sidious in its attack, and also prowls abroad by day
as well as by night. In some districts of India and
in Sumatra its ravages are frightful. We are in-
formed by Col. Sykes that in the province of Khan-
desli alone one thousand and thirty-two tigers were
killed from the year 1825 to 1829 inclusive, aecorf-
ing to the official returns. In Sumatra the infatu-
ated natives seldom attempt their destruction, having
a notion that they are animated by the souls of fheii
ancestois. Tiger-hunting is one of the favourite
field-sports of the East, and as the chase is not un-
attended with danger it is productive of jiroportion-
ate excitement. Though hoi'seraen as well as
persons on foot attend on these occasions, it is more
for the sake of ' being in at the death ' than of tak-
ing a decided part, for the horse will seldom stand
stea.dily when near this dreaded beast. It is to the
armed riders on elephants that the dangerous work
of rousing up the tiger from the jungle-covert is
left, and of firing at him as he bounds along. The
tiger's firet object is to escape under the covert of
the long grass or jungle ; but, when wounded or
hard pressed, he will turn with great fury, and by
springing on the elephant's head or shoulder endea-
vour to reach his antagonists. The agitation of the
B 2
Fig. ».
Fig. 18.
18 Lioa uitli Liouias, from Eastern A»ia.
19. — Persian Lion.
IT.— Africin Lion. (Barbuy.)
i3.— Liou'ii and Wliclps.
26.— Crippled Lion.
■^^
tt.— C>pe I.ionfc
SI.— liion Selling a Mm.
20.— Manelejs I.iO!i of Guierat.
%
6
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
i'TiGKu AND Leopards.
elepluinta, which oflen lose all obedivnre to control
at luch a niument, tOEether with the rapidity of the
attack, render this a critical juncture, and fatal acci-
dents have oHen embittered the conclii»ion of the
contest. Iniitance:! are on record in which men
have been ci»rried oJi" by timers while triivellinic in
company with othera. The fate of Sir Hector
Monro's son, who was carried off out of the midst of
a party refre*hiii!; themselves on the edu;e of a
junirle, IX'ci'iiiber, 171*2, in .Sawgar Island, is known
to all. Similar instances aie related.
Ti(ters are de>troyed by various devices — pitfalls,
tram, the spenr, anil ^m. The plan of the box-trap
and lookiiie-i;la.-.s for takinj^ ti<:ers, leopards. Sec., a
device tu be found in ancient sculpture, occordint;
to Montfaticon, is said to be practised by the Chinese
at the present day. Fig. 32 refers to' this kind of
trap.
Those who have represented the tieer as untame-
able have no i;round for the assertion. It is as
capable of beinsr tamed, and of attachment to its
keeper, as any other animal of its kind. Yet with
the liirer, the lion, and others of the race, caution
should be usetl. Their natural disiiosilion is ever
ready to break out, and the mildest will, how-
ever tame they be, often show • the wild tiick of their
ancestors.'
Neither the tiger nor the lion are capable of
climblim; trees, as are most of the lighter of the
feline race : their prey is therefore exclusively con-
fined to antelopes, deer, oxen, horses, and the like ;
while monkeys, and even birtls, are anions; the prey
of the leopard, the panther, and the smallerFehdae.
29 — 33. Thk Leopard, Panther, and Ounck.
The leopard (FelU LenjMrdas). the panther (/!?//>
Pardiu^, and the ounce of Buffon ih'-lix O'nriu),
have been by many naturalists confounded together,
and even with the jiu^iarof the Amerifan continent.
With respect to the leopard and pa:ilhei- there are
great difficulties in coming to a determination
whether they are distinct species or not. In both
we observe rosettes, or spots arranged in rose-form,
on a fine yellow ground ; but in the size and minor
arrangement of these rosettes there is the greatest
variation. Major H. Smith defines the leopard as
differing from the panther in being of a paler yel-
lowish colour, of i-ather smaller si^e, and with the
dots rose-fonned, consisting of several dots partiallv
united into a circular figure in some in.sfances, ani
into a quadrangular, triangular, or other less deter-
minate form, in others; having also isolated black
spots, especially about the outside of the limbs.
In the panther the open spots have the central
space darker than the general colour of the sides.
The subject is still open for investigation.
Both these beautilul creatures are widely spread
in the Old World, being natives of Africa, India,
and the Indian Islands, as Ceylon, Sumatra, &c. &c.
In Java a black variety { Felts melas) is not uncom-
mon, and such are occasionally seen in our mena-
geries: they are deeper than the general tint, and
show in certain lights only (fig. 30). A black cub,
it is said, occasionally occurs in the same nest with
others of the ordinary colours.
Nothing can exceed the grace and activity of
these animals : they bound with astonishing ease,
climb trees, and swim, and the flexibility of the
body enables them to creep along the ground with
the cautious silence of a snake on their unsuspect-
ing prey. In India the leopard is called by the
natives the Tree Tiger, from its generally taking
refuge when pui-sued in a tree, and also from being
often seen among the branches: so quick and
active is the animal in this situation, that it is not
easy to take a fair aim at him.
Antelopes, deer, small quadrupeds, and monkeys,
are its prey. It seldom attai^ks a man voluntarily,
but if provoked becomes a formidable assailant.
The leopard is taken in pitfalls and trap. In
some old writers there are accounts of the leopard
being taken in a trap by means of a mirror, which,
when the animal jump* against it, brings the door
down upon him. Tliis story may have received
some sanction from the di.sposition of the domestic
cat, when young, to survey her figure in a looking-
glass.
The leopard and panther are easily tamed, and
become gentle and affectionate, purring when
pleased, and rubbing their sides against the bars of
their cage, or against their keeper like a cat.
When at play they bound around then- enclosurewith
the agility of a squirrel, and so <)uick that the eye
can scarcely follow their movements. From such
an exhibition we may easily form some idea of their
agile movements in a state of nature.
In Ix)udonV " Magazine of Natural History ' is an
account, by Mrs. Bowdich, of a tame leoi)ard which
•he had in lier possession. She won the affections
of the creature by presenting him with lavender-
water on a tray-card. The animal revelle<l in the
delicious essence almost to extacy. We know the
fondness of the common cat for mint, valerian, and
other aromatic herbs, on which they delight to roll.
The leopard stands about two feet in iieight : its
figure is slim and graceful, but vigorous, and its
proportions admirable.
The ounce {Oiicf, Buffon), PelU Unria. Whatever
may be the specific distinction between the leopaiti
and )>anther, no one can hesitate as to the oimce,
figured by Buffon, and alter him by Bewick (' Quad-
rupeds').* Till recently, however, it was con-
founded with one or both of the above animals, but is
most decidedly a difl'erent species. Our figure f31)
is taken from a specimen in the British Museum,
which in 1837 .Mr. Gray brought before the notice
of a scientific meeting of the Zoological Society of
Ix>ndon. It formed part of a collection made by the
late (Jolonel Cobb in India. The fur is full and
long, indicating most probably a mountain residence
rather than the sultry plains. The general colour is
grey or whitish-grey, tinged with yellow, lighter on
the breast and under parts. The head is marked on
the top with black spot.s, a large one being behind
the ears. The body and sides of the limbs are
variegated with irregular wavy marks, forming
rounded or rather oval figures, but not definitely
nor so orderly arranged as in the leopard. The
fail, which is very long, is almost bushy, especially
at its termination, the hair being very full. An
individual of this species was seen by Colonel H.
Smith in the Tower, before the menagerie contained
within its precincts was dispereed. It was said to
have been brought from the Gulf of Pei-sia.
34. — The Kimau-Dahan
(Fell's macrocelis, Temm.). This beautiful species
is a native of Sumatra, where it was discovered by
the late Sir Stamford Raffles, who brought a young
specimen alive to England, where it died soon after
its arrival. A larger and older individual was lost
in the Fame. Respecting these individuals. Sir S.
Raffles remarks that they were, while in confine-
ment, remarkable for good-temper and playfulness ;
no domestic kitten could be more so : they courted
the notice of persons, throwing themselves on their
backs, and delighting to be fondled.
With a small dog that was on board, the rimau-
dahan used to play and gambol, at the same time
acting with great gentleness. He never seemed to
look on men or children as iiiey, but as companions,
and the natives assert that when wild they live
principally on poultry, birds, and the smaller kinds
of deer. They are not found in numbei-s, .and may
be considered as rather rare even in Sumatra : they
are found in the interior of Bencoolen, on the banks
of the Bencoolen river, and frequent the vicinity of
villages, not being dreaded, except for their pro-
l)ensity to destroy poultry. The natives assert that
they sleep and often lie in wait for their prey in
tress, and from this circumstance they derive the
name of dahan, which signifies the fork formed by
the branch of a tree, across which they are said to
rest and occasionally stretch themselves. The
rimau-dahan is, when adult, larger than the leopard,
and is remarkable for the thickness and strength of
its limbs and paws, but the contour of its body is
very giacet'ul. The head is small, and the physi-
ognomy less expressive of ferocity than that of the
tiger or leopard. The tail is extremely long and
thickly covered with fine full fur, as indeed is the
body also. The general ground-colour is brownish-
grey, on which are dispersed streaks and marbled
markings of black of an irregular form, and more or
less angular. Two longitudinal bands pass along
the spine ; a band stretches from each ear down the
side of the neck, and two obliquely traveree each
side of the face. The large marbled markings have
an abrupt edge behind, and the black has the ap-
pearance of velvet.
An allied but much smaller species from the
Indian Islands will be found descnbed in the ' Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society of London ' for
1836, p. 107, under the title of Felis Marmorafa.
3i). — The Nepaul Tiger-Cat
{Felis NepQilensis). This is a slender species,
measuring about one foot ten inches in the length
of the head and body, that of the tail being ten and
a half inches. Its distinguishing characters are its
lengthened contour and the slendern£s.s and pro-
l)ortional length of the fail. The ground is tawny-
grey, pa-ssing into white on the throat and under
paris; longitudinal marks of a deep black run down
the back, and broad irregular dashes of the same
colour ornament the sides, flanks, and outer .surface
of the limbs ; the under parts are marked with
oval spots, the thighs externally with rounded
spots; the tail above, excepting at the extremity,
spotted; the cheeks streaked with two black lines,
and a transverse lunar mark p.asses round the
angle of the mouth, while a narrow bjind is con-
tinued at^ross the throat. An individual of this
species was formeily living in the gardens of the
Tlie TOnrlii.linii |«rt of llcwic'.'i ,«fciil« refer to tlio cliecbili,
whicli he elsew here notices, liiit nut \>y ju nime.
Zoological Society, London. It was extremely
savage and wild : it generally sat up like a domestic
cat, and never paced its den as do most of the feline
animals. It is staled to have come originally from
Nepaul, whence it was sent to Clalcutfa, and thence
brought to England.
36.— Thk Skrval
(FHis Scrval). The serval is a native of Southern
Africa, and is not uncommon in menageries • speci
mens are living in the gardens of the Zoological
Society of London. It is freauently very tame and
playful, gambolling like a kitten, and enduring
captivity without sullenness or a display of ferocity.
The disposition of the feline race greatly dejiends
on the treatment they experience, so that, while
some are .savage and distrustful, othei-s of the same
species are familiar. Some species, however, are
more easily reclaimed than others, and of these we
ma\' count the serval.
The serval stands about eighteen inches in height
at the shouldei-s : the length of the head and body
is thirty-four inches, that of the tail ten inches.
The up];er pai-ts are of a clear yellowish white
with black spots: the lower parts are white,
spotted more distantly with black. Symmetrical
lines adorn the lie-adand neck directed towards the
shouldei-s. The back of the eai-s is black at the
base, then barred transvei-sely with white, and
tipped with yellow : on the inside of the foreiimbs
are two black biirs. Tail ringed with black.
The general form is slender, and the limbs are
thin : the head is long, compressed, and viverrine
in its character : the ears are large and broad, and
their bjises neai'jy meet each other on the top of the
head, givinsf a singular expression to the phy-
siognomy. In .some specimens the m.arkings are
more decided than in othei-s. Our measurements
are taken from one of five specimens in the Museum
at Paris.
37, 38.— The Cheetah
{Felis jubata). This elegant, animal, the cheetah,
or hunting leopard, is spread extensively through-
out Africa and India. Mr. Bennett observes that
"Chardin, Bernier, Tavernier. and others of the
older travellers, had related that in several ]iarts of
Asia it was customary to make use of a large spotted
cat in the pursuit of game, and that this animal was
called youze in Peivia, and cheetah in India ; but
the statements of these writei's were so imperfect,
and the descriptions given by them so incomplete,
that it was next to impossible to recognise the par-
ticular species intended. We now, however, know
with ceitainty that the animal thus employed is the
Felis jiibiila of naturalists, which inhabits the greater
part both of Asia and Africa. It is common in
India and Sumatra, as well as in Persia, and is well
known both in Senegal and at the Cape of Good
Hope ; but the ingenuity of the savage natives of
the latter countries lias not, so far as we know, been-
exerted in rendering its services available in the
chase in the manner so successfully practised by the
more refined and civilised inhabitants of Persia and
Hindostan."
The cheetah differs in one or two points from the
more typical of its race. The Felida; in general
possess a broad rounded paw, .armed with sharp-
hooked .and completely retractile claws, which are
protmded at pleasure; but in the cheetah the foot
is long and narrow, and more like that of a dog,
while the claws, from the laxity of the spring-liga-
ments, are very p.artially retracted, and are coi;s(;-
quently worn and blunted at the points. As large
in the body as the leopard, the cheetah is superior
to that animal in height, and diffei-s from it also in
general figure. In the first place, the limbs, un-
adapted for climbing, are long, slender, and taper-
ing ; and the body, which is deficient in breadth,
reminds one in some degi-ee of that of the grey-
hound. In consequence of these dift'erences, Wag-
ler separated it into a distinct genus, under the title
of Cynailuras, in allusion to its intermediate station
between the canine and feline races. The .\frican
cheetah has been by some regarded as a distinct
species from that of India, under the supposition
that the thin mane which covers the back of the
neck wiis characteristic only of the African animal.
Under this impression, the term jubata traanedj
was lestricted to the African, and the term venatica
(hunting) given to the Indian, cheetah. This is,
however, altogether erroneous. In India the wild
animal h.as a lough coat in which the mane is
m.arked ; but domesticated animals from the same
part of the country are destitute of a mane, and
nave a smooth coat. The general colour of the
cheetah is fawn-yellow, covered with round black
spots ; a distinct black stripe passes from the inner
angle of the eye to the angle of the mouth. The
tip of the no^e is black. The profile of the fore-
head and face is convex ; the eye is peculiarly large,
fine, and expressive; the pupils are circular; the
tail is long, and curled up at its extremity, which is
Wild Cats.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
white : the fur is not sleek, but rather crisp. The
skin of the cheetah is an article of some importance
m trade at Senegal, but is neglected at the Cape of
Good Hope : this animal called luipard by the Dutch
colonists is indeed rare in that district, but the skin
is occasionally seen worn by Kaffir chiefs, by way of
distinction. In Africa the rude natives never dream
of empioyinsr the cheetah as a means of procuring
I'ood, — they know not its value in the chase. In
Persia and India it has, however, been employed
from an early period. In the ' FieJd-Sports of
India,' the mode of coursing with the cheetah is
thus described. " They (the cheetahs) are led out
in chains, with blinds over their eyes, and sometimes
carried out in carts, and when antelopes, or deer,
are seen on a plain, should any of them be separated
from the rest, the cheetah's head is brought to face
It, the blinds are removed, and the chain is taken
off. He immediately crouches (see'figiue 38), and
creeps along with his belly almost touching tlie
ground, until he gets within a short distance of the
deer, who, although seeing him approach, appears
so fascinated that he seldom attempts to run awaj'.
The cheetah then makes a few surprising springs,
and seizes the deer by the neck. If many deer are
near each other, they often escape by flight, their
number, perhaps, giving them confidence."
We may add to this that the cheetah takes ad-
vantage of every means of making its attack, and
that, when unsuccessful in its ettbrt, it returns sul-
lenly to its keeper, who replaces the hood, and re-
ser\'e3 him for another opportunity. When, how-
ever, he has grappled with the quarry and fixed
himself upon its throat, drinking the life-blood
warm, his nature breaks out in all its violence, so
that it requires some management to separate him
from his victim. Partly awed by the keeper's voice,
partly enticed by pieces of meat, and a ladleful of
the blood, he is induced to relinquish the prize, and
submit to be again hooded. In all this we are re-
minded of the art of falconry.
In captivity the cheetah is familiar, gentle, and
playful ; and becomes greatly attached to those who
feed or notice it. The general disposition of these
beautiful creatures is, indeed, frank and confiding;
and consequently there is little trouble in rendering
them perfectly domestic. Their voice of pleasure
is a fiiir ; of uneasiness or hunger, a, short reiterated
"'*"'■ 39 & 49.— The Wild Cat
(F(?/(> Coins). This cat is the C/iat Sauvuge of the
French, Goto Monies of the Spaniards, fVilde Katze
and Bawnritter of the Germans, Vitd Kat of the
Danes, Calhgned of the ancient Britons, and Catus
Sijlveslris of Klein. This species, which yet exists
in the mountainous and wooded districts of the
British islands, is spread through a great part of
Europe and Asia. It is common in the forest tracts
of Germany, Rus.sia, Hungary, the north of Asia,
and Xepaul. It is larger, and has fuller fur, in the
colder latitudes.
In Britain it was formerly very abundant, and was
one of the beasts of cha.se, as we learn from king
Richard II.'s charter to the abbot of Peterborough,
giving him permission to hunt the hare, fox, and
will! cat. The fur in those days does not seem to
have been of much value, for it is oixlained in
bishop Corboyl's canons, a.d. 1127, that no abbess
or nun should use more costly apparel than such as
is made of iamb's or cat's skins. The wild cat is
still found in the hilly parts of the north. of England,
and more plentifully in Scotland and some parts of
Ireland.
Its general form is robust ; the tail is bushy, and
fuller at the termination. The general colour is grey,
undulated with transverse blackish stripes ; a black
streak runs down the back ; the tail is annulated ; the
soles of the feet to the heel are black ; two black
stripes pass from the eyes over and behind the eajs.
The fur is deep. Length of head and boely one foot
ten inches ; of the tail eleven inches. T'emminck
^ives the total average length as three feet. Hares,
leverets, rabbits, and birds are its prey. It is bold and
savage, and defends its young with great obstinacy.
Formerly naturalists regarded this cat as the origin of
the domestic cat, but of late years this opinion has
been questioned. In the first place, a cat in a do-
mestic condition was one of the animals reverenced
by the ancient Egyptians, and mummies of it are
found in the pits of Thebes. Now this cat was not
the common wild cat, but a distinct species. In
the second place, the domestic cat is not noticed as
being one of the domestic animals of the ancient
Britons by any of the Latin writere, nor, indeed, do
we hear of it in our island till the tenth century,
when we find its value fixed at a high rate, and laws
enacted to regulate its presei-vation. The Welsh
statutes of Hovvel Dha (who died a.d. 948) are, in
fact, proofs of its importance ; and such laws. would
hardly have been laid down had not the animal
been regarded in the light of a new and important
acquisition. If it were indeed the offspring of the
wild cat. which then abounded in the forests of our
island, the opportunities of procuring young broods
would have been so abundant, that all regulations
respecting it would have been superfluous ; and
still less would the then considerable sums of a
penny as the price of a kitten before it could see,
two-pence until it caught a mouse, and after that
Ibur-pence, have been established. There are, be-
sides, other regulations, all tending to prove the
high value afiixed to the domestic cat at that pe-
riod. In the third place, the wild cat is much
larger than our domesticated cat, and this is con-
trary to the general rule, domesticated animals being
larger than their wild relatives. It may be observed
that the tail of the wild cat is rather short, full, and
cylindrical ; while in the domestic cat it is long and
taper. Besides, the wild cat stands higher on the
limbs, and is of a more lynx-like figure." Dr. Flem-
ing considers it probable that the domestic kind is
Oiiginally from Asia, but Ruppel and Temminc);
consider it as decidedly the descendant of the tame
Egyptian cat (Felis maniculata), found now wild in
Upper Egypt and Nubia. It is ea.sy to perceive
how from Egypt the domestic cat would pass into
Greece and Italy, and so into the western jjrovinces
of the Roman Empire. It is most probable, then,
that Temminek and Ri'ippel are correct ; but still,
has not the domestic cat in Europe subsequently in-
termingled with the wild cat, and produced a
mixed, though fertile, breed ? We are inclined to
think so. Cats of the domestic kind often assume
wild habits, and live in warrens, preserves, and
woods : we must distinguish between these and the
true wild cat.
40. — The Egyptian' Cat
(Felis Maniculata). This cat was discovered in
Nubia by Riippel, west of the Nile, near Arabukol,
in a rocky district overrun with brushwood. It is
of the size of a moderate domestic, cat, and is pro-
bably of the same stock as that of the domestic cat
which the Egyptians honoured. Ruppel considers
it a descendant of that breed, but it may be, and
probably is, from the wild original race, and is in-
digenous in Nubia. It agrees exactly with the pre-
served mummies of cats which the Egyptians em-
balmed. The following is a detailed description
of this species : —
The woolly or ground hair is in general of a dirty
ochreous, darker on the back and posterior parts,
and becoming gradually lighter on the anterior and
lateral parts ; longer hair of a swarthy dirty white,
so that the appearance of the animal is greyish-
yellow. Skin of the edges of the lips and of the
nose bare and black. Beaiil and bristles of the eye-
bro\ys shining white, biown at the roofs ; edges of
eyelids black ; iris glaring yello.v. From the inner
corner near the eye tiiere'is a daik-brown streak
running in the direction of the nose, and there is a
white streak as far up as the arch of the eyebrows :
between these two streaks is another greyish one
extending on the forehead by the side of the ears
and under the eyes. Outside of the ears grey, in-
side white and without tufts of hair. Eight slender
black undulating lines arise on the forehead, run
along the occiput, and are lo.st in the upper part of
the neck. Cheeks, throat, and anterior part of the
neck shining white. Two ochreous-yellow lines
spring, the one from the outer corner of the eye, the
other from the middle of the cheek, and meet both
together under the ear, and two rings of the same
colour encircle the white neck ; below the rings
there are spots of ochreous-yellow. Chest and belly
dirty white, with similar spots or semicircular lines.
A dark streak along the back becomes lighter as it
rises over the shoulders, and darker on the cross.
This streak is gradually lost on the upper part of
the tail, the lower sniface of which is white-yellow.
The tail is almost of an equal thickness, rather slen-
der, and with two dark rings at its point. The ex-
tremities, which have less hair in proportion on the
outer side, are of the general colour, with besides
five or six blackish semicircular bands on the fore-
legs, and six distinct dark cross streaks on the hind-
legs. The inner sides are lighter in colour, with
two black spots or streaks on the upper parts of the
fore-legs, and the hind extremities show the cross
streaks winding around the thighs towards the in-
side. Foot, soles, hind parts of ankles, and wrists
shining black. Length two feet five inches, the t.ail
being about nine ; height at the shoulder about
nine inches and a half. The description was taken
from an aged female.
41. — The Jaguar
{Felis Op.pa). The jaguar is the leopard or panther
of the American forests, and in power and daring
almost approaches to the liger of the Indian jungles.
We have already stated that specimens of this savage
beast have been confounded wilh the leopard
(42, 43) ; but the jaguar, besides differing in otlier
points, always displays a bold s'reaJi or two of black,
extending acro.ss the chest Irom shoulder to shoul-
der, which is a distinctive chaiaeter. Tlie rosettes
on the body are very large, open, and somewhat
angu.ar, with a central spot or two of black in each •
a central chain of black dashes extends al.)ncr the
spine. The jaguar, though varying in size, generally
exceeds the leopard ; and its form is more robu»«
and less agile and graceful. The limbs are short
but immensely thick and muscular ; the head larger,
and of a squarer contour, and the tail of less com-
parative length. Of all the American Felidae, the
jaguar is the mo.st formidable. It prefei-s the marshy
and wooded districts of the warmer latitudes, and
haunts the vast forests along the larger rivei-s. It
swims and climbs with equal ease, and preys oii the
arger domestic quadrupeds, on peccaries, capy-
baras, and monkeys, as well as on fish and tortoises
.Sonnini saw the scratches left by the claws of the
jaguar on the smooth bark of a tree some fortv feet
high, without branches; he traced the marks of se-
veral slips made by the climber, but the animal had
at last readied the top. Humboldt heard the ja-
suars^ yell from the tops of the trees, followed by
the sharp, shrill, long whistle of the terrified mon-
keys, as they seemed to flee. It takes birds on
their nests, and fish in the shallows ; and, in some
districts, the havoc it makes among horses, cattle
and sheep is terrible. So great are the numbers of
these beasts in the Spanish colonies, that, according
to Humboldt, four thousand were annually killed •
and two thousand skins were exported eveiy year
IVom Buenos Ayres only. The emjity shells of
turtles were pointed out to Humboldt as having
been cleared of their contents by the jaguar, which
watches them as they come to the sandy""beaches tc
lay their eggs, pounces upon them, and turnsthem on
their backs : he then insinuates his paw between the
shells, and scoops out the contents as clean as with
a knife. As he turns many more than he can de-
vour at a meal, the Indians often profit bv his dex-
terous cunning. The eggs of the turtle' are often
dug up by him out of the sand, and devoured ; and
voung turtles, on their road to the water, or in shal-
lows, are also destroyed.
It is not often that the jaguar voluntarily attacks
man. When hard pressed, however, he makes a
resolute defence. The Indians often despatch him
with their poisoned arrows, and sometimes boldly
attack him with lances. On the plains the lasso is
used with great effect.
There is a black variety of the jaguar, le jaguar
noir of the French, and probably the juguarete of
Marcgrave. This seems to have been the animal
noticed by Lieut. Maw, R.N. (' Journal of a Passage
irom the Pacific to the Atlantic: 1829), at Para, as
a black on^a. It had been procured up the rivers,
and was a formidable beast, with limbs as thick as'
(Lieut. iAIawsavs thicker than) those of a Benjjal
tiger.
44, 4,5, 46.— The Puma
{Felis concolor, Linn.) This large feline animal is
often called the American lion, chiefly, as it would
appear, from its uniformity of colour, which, com-
bined with its ferocity, led the early travellers to
give it that appellation. Thus John de Laet (1633)
says that lions are found in Peru, though they be
few and not so ferocious as they are in Africa, and
that I hey are called in the native tongue puma.
In ' The Perfect Description of Virginia,' (a tract,
1619,) "Lyons, beares, leopards, and elkes" are
enumerated. Hernandez describes it (1651) as the
puma seu Ico Americaniis, and contends, rightly
enough, that it is not a true lion. By Piso" the
animal is noticed as the cuguacuura. Marcgrave
terms it the cnguacurana of the Brazilians ; D'Azara,
the gouazouara of Paraguay. Hence the French
name, often used by British writers, couguar. Char-
levoix descrilies it under the erroneous names of
carcajou and quincajou. The Anglo-Americans
term it " panther," and under this name Lawson.
Catesby, and others describe it.
In its general contour, the puma is elegantly
formed ; but the limbs are very thick, while the
head is comparatively small, particularly in the fe-
male. The general colour is silvery-l'awn above,
fading into white beneath and on the inside of the
limbs ; the ears on the outside, particularly at their
base, the sides of the muzzle and the end of the tail,
which is destitute of a tuft, black. Length from
nose to root of tail, about four feet ; of the tail, up-
wards of two feet. The young are marked with
three chains of blackish-brown streaks along the
back, and the sides, shoulders, and neck have
clouded spots of the same colour. As the animal
advances in age, these mai-kings fade, and ultimately
disappear.
The puma is extensively spread throughout North
and South America ; but it is not only more scaice
than ibrnu'i'ly, but its range is more ccnitracted;
and, as civilization advances, will be still further re
duccd. This beautiful animal is savage and fero--
cious, but eiisily tamed, and soon becomes very fa-
miliar. The late Mr. Edmund Kean had one in hi?
possession, which was perfectly domesticated ; and
J^ ^v^-^
ts.— So\al Tt^n.
2". — Leopajd.
30.— Blnck I'^nther.
■ ..■ \-K
SU— Oim:e.
U.— Leopird Citchins.
38.— Cheetah.
33.— Leopinl. (SenegU.)
^K^^^si^-
34.— Rlima nahut.
S«.— S«nl.
^ ^^s:r — «^
3".— Cheetah.
ss.-wnd Cat.
40^£gyptlan Cat
'1.— Jaguar.
UM^^rk
"^^"tP^^-^^? ,.:b>?^^-C"-^>
45.— Pnraa.
44^— Pama,
46,— Puma,
No.
2.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
10
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Wild-cats.
we have seen other* very gentle, though playfiU and
animated. Law»on, who, in hi« ' History of Caro-
lina,' well di'scribe* the puma, i« therefore in error
when he states that " when taken young it is never
to be rec-iaimed from its wild nature." This writer
sayi, '•TTie panlhrr (puma) climbs trees with the
jtreatest agility imaginable, is very strong-limbed,
ca'cliiug a piece of meat from any animal he strikes
.«t ; his tail is exceeding long ; his eyes look very
fierce imd lively, are large, and of a grayish colour;
his prey is swines-flesh, deer, or anything he can
lake. He halloos like a man in the woods when
killed, which is by making liim take to a tree, as the
■ie«*t cur will presently do; then the huntsmen
ihoot him ; if Uicy do not kill him outright he is a
dangerous enemy when wounded, especially to the
dogs that approach him. This beast is the greatest
enemy to tne planter of any vermin in Carolina.
His flesh looks as well as any shamble's meat what-
soever : a great many people eat him as choice food,
but I never tasted ot a panther, so cannot commend
the meat by my own experience. His skin is a
warm covering "for the Indians in winter, though
not esteemed among the choice furs. This skin
dressed makes fine women's shoes or men's gloves."
The puma is indeed a very destructive animal :
not only the peccan- and the cnpybara fall a prey
to his destructive habits, but sheep, hogs, and cattle
are among his victims ; of the former he has been
known to kill fifty in a single night. It is not often
that the puma attacks man, though when wounded
he becomes a dangerous foe. Sir F. Head, in his
'Journey across the Pampas,' gives the following
interesting narrative, in proof of the fear of man
which this animal, in common with others, enter-
tains. Tlie person who related it to Sir Francis
was himself tne actor in the scene.
" He was trying to shoot some wild ducks, and, in
order to approach them unperccived, he put the
comer of his poncho (which is a sort of long narrow
blanket) over his head, and, crawling along the
ground upon his hands and knees, the poncho not
only covered his body, but trailed along the ground
behind him. As he was thus creeping by a large
bush of reeds, he heard a loud sudden noise, between
a bark and a roar : he felt something heavy strike
his feet, and, instantly jumping up, he saw, to his
astonishment, a large lion actually standing on his
poncho ; and, perhaps, the animal was equally asto-
nished to find himself in the immediate presence of
so athletic a man. The man told me he was un-
willing to fire, as his gun was loaded with very
small shot ; and he therefore remained motionless,
the lion standing on his poncho for many seconds :
at last the creature turned his head, and, walking
very slowly away about ten yards, he stopped and
turned again : the man still maintained His ground,
upon which the lion tacitly acknowledged his
supremacy, and walked oif." (Fig. 45.)
Audubon in his ' Ornithological Biography,' gives
a spirited account of the chase of the puma, or
cougar as he terms it, which was hunted by dogs,
and men armed with rifles : it was driven by their
united exertions from tree to tree, and perished,
fighting with the dogs, having received several
bSis, one of which produced a mortal wound. On
the Pampas the puma is hunted with dogs, and,
while it is engaged in the conflict sun'ounded by
them, the dexterous Gaucho strikes him senseless
with his bolas, or throws his lasso over him, and,
galloping off, drags him along the ground till almost
lifeless, when the dogs rush upon him and tear him
to pieces. ^y^ ^ 50.— The Ocelot
(Felit pardalis). This elegantly-marked species
of tiger-cat is a native of Mexico, Paraguay, and
probably of Peru. It measures nearly three feet in
the length of the head and body, the tail is about a
foot long, and the medium height is about eighteen
inches. The ground-colour of the fur is grey,
slightly tinged with fawn ; upon this are disposed
longitudinal bands, of which the margins are per-
fectly black, the central parts being of a deeper
fawn than the general ground. These ribands of
black, enclosing a deep fawn, become deep black
lines and spots on the neck and head and on the
outer aspect of the limbs. From the top of the head
towards the shoulders there pass several diverging
black bands, and on the top of the back the line is
quite continuous. The tail is spotted upon a gi'ound
like that of the body. The term ocelot is a corrup-
tion of the Mexican names Tlacoozelotl, or Tlalo-
celotl, as given by Hernandez, who terms it Catus
pardiu Mexicanus.
The ocelot is often exhibited in menageries, and
IS generally good-tempered and playful : we have
seen several which might be said to be perfectly
domesticated. Bewick states that " nothing can
•often the natural ferocity of its disposition, nor
calm the restlessness of its motions. One of these
animals, shown at Newcastle in 1788, although
extremely old, exhibited great marks of ferocity.
It was kept closely confined, and would not admit
of being caressed by its keeper." Harsh usage and
close confinement have otten spoiled the temper of
animals, and the fault is always laid to their dis-
position, and not to mismanagement. Mr. Bennett
informs us that a specimen which was kept in tlie
Tower menagerie was extremely familiar, and had
much of the character and manners of the common
cat. Its food consisted principally of rabbits and
birds ; the latter it pluclted with great dexterity,
and always commenced its meal with the head, of
which it seemed particularly fond ; hut it did not
eat with the ravenous avicfity which characterizes
nearly all the animals of this tribe.
Of the manners of the ocelot in a state of nature
little is known. It inhabits the deep forests and
preys upon small quadrupeds and birds ; climbing
the trees in quest of the latter, and lying in wait for
them concealed among the foliage. It is said to
take monkeys by a very subtle mode of proceeding.
When it perceives a troop of these active creatures,
it immediately stretches itself out, as if dead, on the
limb of some tree ; urged by curiosity they hasten
to examine the supposed " mortal remains " of
their enemy, — the foremost pays dearly for his
curiosity. 51.-TheChxti
{Felis mill's). The chati is regarded by Des-
marest as the chibi-guazu of Azara. It is a native
of Paraguay and other parts of South America, and
is much smaller than the ocelot. Azara describes
it as averaging three feet six inches in total length.
The following is Fred. Cuvier's description of a
female living in the menagerie of Paris: — " About
a third larger than the domestic cat : length, ex-
clusive of tail, rather more than two feet ; tail,
eleven inches ; height to middle of back, about
one foot two inches. Ground-colour of fur on the
upper parts, pale yellowish ; on the lower pure
w-hite ; at the roots, dull grey, and very thick and
close. Body covered with irregular dark patches :
those upon the back entirely black and disposed
longitudinally in four rows; those upon the sides
surrounded with black, with the centres of a
clear fawn, arranged in nearly five rows. Spots
upon the lower part of the body, where the
ground-colour of the fur is white, full, and arranged
in two lines composed of six or seven patches on
each side. Limbs covered with nearly round spots
of smaller dimensions : on the fore-legs, near the
body, two transverse bands. On the throat a sort
of half collar, and on the under-jaw two crescent-
shaped spots. Behind each eye two bands about
two inches long, terminating opposite the ear.
Forehead bordered by two lines, between which are
numerous spots, and, at their origin, a blackish
mark from which the whiskers spring. Outside of
the ear, black, with a white spot upon the small
lobe. Base of the tail spotted with small blotches,
which towards the end run into half-rings, which
are broadest on the upper surface. Pupil round."
(F. Cuv.)
This animal was extremely gentle and familiar,
so much so indeed that, if persons to whom it was
attached passed its cage or did not approach it, it
would express its discontent or solicit their attention
by a short cry ; and when caressed it manifested
great delight.
According to Azara, the chibi-guazu is so com-
mon, that his friend Noseda captured eighteen indi-
viduals in two years within two leagues of his
pueblo. Yet it would appear that few are acquainted
with the animal, neither the huntsman nor his dogs
being able to penetrate its haunts. By day it re-
mains concealed in the most impenetrable and
secluded places, only coming abroad after dark,
especially when the night is stormy. The chibi-
guazu then daringly enters courtyards and destroys
the poultry or carries them away. When the night
is moonlit they do not venture near inhabited spots,
and are besides so wary, that it is hopeless to lie in
wait for them with a gun. Men and dogs are most
cautiously avoided. Each pair is supposed to have
their own exclusive range of territory, for a male
and female, and no more, are always caught in the
same place. Tliose which Noseda caught soon
became reconciled to captivity, and had much of
the habits of a cat : nearly the whole of the day
they passed in sleep rolled up in ball-like form ;
twilight and night were passed in pacing to and fro
close to the sides of their den. They never quar-
relled unless they were much irritated, and then
they struck at each other with their fore-paws ;
when they crossed or interrupted each other's move-
ments in traversing the den, they spit and gesticu-
lated like a common cat. They were fed upon
various kinds of flesh, rats, fowls, ducks, young dogs,
&c. Cats' flesh gave them the mange, under which
they soon sank : snakes, vipers, and toads, occa-
sioned violent and continued vomiting, vmder which
they wasted away and died. Dogs equalling them-
selves in size they would not attack : fowls were their
favourite food ; these they caught by the head and
neck and instantly killed, stripping their feathers
before beginning to cat them. In the night thei'i
eyes shone like those of a domestic cat, which m
their manners, in their mode of licking the fur and
cleaning themselves, they entirely resembled. AzarH
concludes by stating that a young one which No^eda
caught became so thoroughly domesticated, that it
slept on the skirts of his clerical gown and went
about loose. .\(^ animal could be more tractable ;
but the neighbours, among whose poultry it made
havoc, killed it.
52.— The Pampas Cat
{Feli» Pajeros). Tliis species is also called Jungle-
cat, and by the Spanish colonists Gato Pajero.
The fur of this animal is very long, some of the
hairs of the back being upwards of three inches,
and those of the hinder part of the back foiu- and a
half or nearly five inches long. General colour
pale yellow-grey. Numerous irregular yellow or
sometimes brown stripes run obliquely from the back
along the sides of the body. On each side of the face
two stripes of a yellowish or cinnamon colour com-
mence near the eye and extend backwards and down-
wards over the cheeks, on the hinder part of which
they join and form a single line, which encircles the
lower part of the throat. Tip of the muzzle and
chin white ; a spot in front of the eye, and a line
beneath the eye, of the same colour ; belly, inner
side and hinder part of fore-legs, white also. An
irregular black line running across the lower part of
the chest, and extending over the base of the fore-
legs externally : above this line two other transverse
dark markings more or less defined on the chest.
On the fore-legs three broad black bands, two of
which encircle the leg : on the posterior legs about
five black bands externally, and some irregular dark
spots internally. Feet yellowish, and under side of
tarsus of a slightly deeper hue. On the belly nume-
rous large irregular black spots. Ears moderate,
with long white hairs internally ; externally of the
same colour as the head, except at the apex, where
the hairs are black, and form a slight tuft. Tail
short, somewhat bushy, and devoid of dark rings or
spots ; the hairs are in fact coloured as those on the
back. On the upper part of the body each hair is
brown at the base, then yellow, and at the apex
black. On the hinder part of the back the hairs are
almost black at the base, and on the sides of the
body each hair is grey at the base ; there is then a
considerable space of yellowish-white colour : to-
wards the apex they are white, and at the apex
black. The greater number of the haiis of the
moustaches white. Length, from nose to root of
tail, twenty-six inches ; of tail, fur included, eleven
inches. Height of body at shoulders, thiiteen inches.
Size about equal to that of the common wild-cat of
Europe ; but the Pampas cat is stouter, its head
smaller, and its tail shorter. (Waterhouse.)
This cat was known to Azara, but till recently
European naturalists were but little acquainted
with it. Fischer, in his ' Synopsis Mammalium,*
put it among those species that are not well deter-
mined. Azara says that the natives call this animal
^ato pajero, because it lives on the plains, conceal-
ing itself in jungles without entering the woods or
thickets. Whether this species exists in Paraguay,
Azara states, was a point he could not determine,
but that it might perhaps have been formerly seen
there before the country became well peopled. He
caught four in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, be-
tween 35° and 36° S. lat., and three others on the
Rio Negro. They are found, he adds, on both sides
of La Plata. Its food consists principally of apereas,
or wild guinea-pigs.
According to Mr. Darwin (Zoology of the Beagle),
this cat inhabits Santa Cruz, Patagonia, and Bahia
Blanca.
" This animal," observes Mr. Darwin, " takes its
name from paja, the Spanish word for ' straw,'
from its habits of frequenting reeds. It is common
over the whole of the great plains which compose
the eastern side of the southern part of America.
From the accounts I received I have reason to be-
lieve that it is found near the strait of Magellan,
which would give it a range of nearly 1400 miles in
a north and south line," for Azara states that it is to
be found as high north as 30° S. lat. One of Mr.
Darwin's specimens was obtained at 50° S. at Santa
Cnxi : it was met with in a valley where a few
thickets were growing. When disturbed it did not
run away, but drew itself up and hissed. The other
spec men which Mr. Darwin brought to England
was killed at Bahia Blanca.
LYNXES.
The name of lynxes is applied by zoologists to a
subdivision of the Felidae, well marked externally,
and regarded by some as entitled to a distinct ge-
neric rank. About eight species are described, but
there is still considerable confusion among those
which are natives of America. The available cha-
racters which the lynxes present consist in the
pencils which tuft the ears, in the shortness of the
Lynxes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
II
tail, and the proportionate elevation of the body at
the haunches.
The lynx is one of those animals respecting which
many absurd fables have been popularly current, but
which are now in no danger of being revived. Pliny
(lib. vii., 25) classes the lynx among the monstrous
productions of .(iithiopia, in the existence of which
ne seems to have implicitly believed. The lynx is
often alluded to by the ancient poets, but from
many expressions we easily perceive that they had
no very precise ideas about the animal ; the lynx
of poetry was sometimes a leopard or panther.
Virgil calls the lynxes of Bacchus varite, and in
another place alludes to the skin of the spotted lynx
(maculosce lyncis).
The representations of lynxes on antique gems
and sculptures are as unsatisfactory and vague as
the allusions in classic poetry. Still however the
lynx described by Aristotle, vKlian, and Oppian was,
it must be confessed, not one of these doubtful
creatures, but a definite species, and, as we think,
the caracal.
53, 58, 59.— The Caracal
(Felts Caracal). This animal derives its modern
name from the Turkish, cara, black, and kulask, ear.
Its Persian name has the same meaning, sujah-gush
or sia-gusch (si'a, black, ^««cA, ear). It is widely dis-
tributed, being found in Persia, India, Barbary,
Nubia, Egypt, and the whole of Africa to Caifraria,
Turkey, and Arabia. The general colour of the
body IS of a pale reddish-brown, with a vinous
tinge ; the lower parts are paler. Two spots of pure
white are near each eye, one on the inner side of
and above the eye, the other beneath its outer angle.
The edges of the upper lip, the chin, and lower lip
are white, as are the insides of the limbs. The
whiskers rise from a series of black lines. The ears
are long and tapering, and are surmounted by a
pencil of long black hairs ; their colour externally
IS black. The tail reaches only to the heel or hock-
joint. Temminck gives the measurements as fol-
lows : — length two feet ten inches, of which the tail
measures ten. Average height about fourteen inches.
We have ourselves seen much larger individuals. The
eyes of the caracal have a marked nocturnal cha-
racter, and are large, bright, and scowling in their
expression. The limbs are extremely muscular,
and its whole contour denotes great activity. The
caracal feeds on small quadrupeds and birds, the
latter of which it pursues even to the tops of the
trees. It is said to follow the lion and other large
beasts of prey for the purpose of feeding on what
they leave. The caracal leaps upon its viclim and
holds it with remarkable tenacity, as was noticed by
./Elian. Oppian also alludes to its mode of springing
upon hares, deer, &c. According to Temminck,
these animals are in the habit of hunting in packs,
like wild dogs, and of running down their prey ;
most probably they creep towards it like the cheetah,
and spring suddenly upon it. Pennant, quoting
Thevenot, states that they are often brought up
tame, and used in the chase of lesser quadrupeds
and the larger sort of birds, as cranes, pelicans,
peacocks, &c., and that when they seize their prey
they hold it fast with their mouth and lie motion-
less on it. He also adds, on the authority of Hyde,
that the Arabians, who call it Anak-el-ard, affirm
that it hunts like the panther, jumps up at cranes
as they fly, and covers its steps when hunting.
In captivity the caracal is ver)' irritable, often
displaying great ferocity. Of its fierceness and
strengh Dr. Charleton gives evidence, for he relates
that he saw one fall on a hound, which it killed and
tore to pieces in a moment, although the dog de-
fended itself to the utmost. It would appear, from
our repeated personal observations, that lew animals
of the feline race are more impatient of confinement.
Excepting in the instance of very young examples,
we never knew one that would suffer the approach
of strangers without exhibiting tokens of savage
anger. Apparently annoyed by the light, they re-
tire to a corner of their den, and there crouch in
sullen and suspicious mood, repelling every attempt
towards familiarity by a snarl. When thus irritated
the ears are drawn down close to the head, the eyes
glare with an expression of malignant fury, and the
teeth are displayed, while, at the same time, they
utter a deep hissing not unlike that of a cat, and
very ditferent from the growl of the lion or tiger.
In a state of nature they avoid the face of man, and,
though of comparatively small size, are dangerous
enemies when hard-pressed or wounded.
54. — ^The Booted Lynx
{Petit calisata). This is a small species with the
tail much longer in proportion than in the caracal.
The total length is about three feet, of which the
tail measures thirteen inches. The ears are large,
red within, and tipped with a pencil of brown hairs ;
the sole and postenor part of the foot, or leg as it is
usually called, are of a deep black. The upper
parts of the body are of a deep bluish grey, in some
specimens fulvous, clouded with grey and sprinkled
with black hairs; the lower parts, throat, and
breast are reddish ; the thighs are marked with in-
distinct bands of rather bright brown, and two
bands cross the cheeks. The tail is black at the
tip with three or four incomplete rings above it, se-
parated from each other by whitish intervals. The
female has generally the tints more yellow ; the
young have well-defined dark bands on their sides.
This species inhabits the south of India, and Africa
from Egypt and Barbary to the Cape of Good Hope.
Birds and small quadrupeds are its prey. It makes
havoc among the flocks of wild guinea-fowls in
Africa, nor does it refuse the remains of large quad-
rupeds on which the lion or panther have feasted.
Cuvier applied the term Lynx des Marais to this
species as well as to the chaus, but at the same
time with a remark that some consider the two
animals to be distinct.
55. — The Chaus
{Fells Chaus, Giildenst.). The Chaus, according to
Colonel Sykes, is called mota rahn manjur, or larger
wild cat, by the Marhattas. This species has been
cleared up by Riippell from the confusion in which
it had become involved. He describes it as well
covered with fur, the under-coat of which is woolly
and soft, but the long hairs are not thickly set. The
colour of the woolly hair is a dirty palish ochre
yellow, darker on the back, lighter beneath ; the
long hairs are of the same tint at the base, have a
dark-brown middle ring, and are tipped with greyish-
yellow, whitish, or saffron, so that the appearance
produced is a mixed colouring of greyish-yellow
and dirty-white. Many of the hairs on the sides
are tipped with black, and, where these are nume-
rous, dusky lines or dashes are produced. The
saffron-tipped hairs prevail on the back, and form
a yellow stripe from the shoulders to the tail ;
the nose is black ; above and below the eye is
a large white spot ; a black streak runs from the
inner corner of the eye to the nose. The edges of
the lips are black, and encircled by a white ring.
Cheeks and whiskers white, a few black bristles
being interspersed among the latter : back of the
ears grey-brown, with black pencils. Externally
the limbs are barred with four or five transverse black
bands. The tail is one-fourth as long as the body,
and annulated towards the termination, which is
black and abrupt.
The chaus inhabits the north of Africa along the
course of the Nile, and perhaps more remote dis-
tricts. It is found in the morasses and bushy low-
lands that border the Caspian Sea, and along the
banks of its tributary rivers. It is said to be com-
mon in Persia ; it is also an inhabitant of the
Deccan. Everywhere it appears to give preference
to marshes and boggy wastes, where brushwood
afi"ords it shelter. It lives upon birds, small quad-
rupeds, and even fishes : it seldom climbs trees, and
is not easily tamed.
56. — The European Lynx
{Felis Lynx, Temminck, not Linn, and Nilsson ;
F. virgata, Nilsson). This is the ordinary lynx of
Europe, extending from Scandinavia to Naples and
the Pyrenees. Specimens were lately living in the
menagerie of the Zoological Society of London from
Norway. Giildenstadt states it to exist on the Cau-
csisus, where it is a great pest. Besides this lynx,
Europe possesses the following : —
The Arctic Lynx (Felis borealis, Temminck, not
Thunberg ; F. Lynx, Linn, and Nilsson). It inhabits
the north of Scandinavia, and probably Siberia and
the forest of Ural.
The Great Lynx {Felis cervaria, Linn. ; F. borealis,
Thunberg, not Temminck; Siberian Lynx of fur-
riers ; Kat-lo of Swedes). It inhabits Norway, Asia-
tic Russia, and also the Caucasus, according to
M. Menestries, who says the Persians call it Vaar-
chach. (See Nilsson.)
The Pardine Lynx {Felis pardina, Temminck).
This is the Portuguese Lynx of furriers. It is a
well-marked species, inhabiting the mountain re-
gions of Spain, Portugal, and other southern dis-
tricts. Fine examples are living in the menagerie
of the Zoological Society of London, and specimens
are preserved in the Paris Museum which were
killed in Portugal, not far from Lisbon, in 1808 :
it is a beautiful animal. Colonel Sykes obtained
skins in Andalusia, where it is called gato clavo.
It inhabits the Sierra Morena.
The European or Red Lynx represented in the
figure is of a dull reddish-grey, or rufous tint, with
dark nisty-brown spots of an oblong form on the
sides, and rounder and smaller spots on the limbs ;
the under parts are whitish mottled with black.
In winter the fur is much longer than in summer,
and also fuller; and assumes a hoary tinge, the long
hairs becoming tipped with greyish-white ; the
ears are pencilled ; the tail is short, and tipped with
black. The length of the head and body is nearly
three feet ; of the tail, six or seven inches. The
European lynx feeds upon small quadrupeds and
birds, and climbs trees easily. Hares, squiirels,
rabbits, and also sheep, fall victims to it. When
attacked by a dog it lies down on its back and de-
fends itself with its claws. Those we have seen in
captivity were very playful. Its fur is valuable in
commerce ; the colder the climate and season of
the year, the finer and fuller it is.
"The limits of the lynx," observes Cuvier, "in
the ancient continent aie not perfectly ascertained.
We know, indeed, that it is common in the forests
of the north of Europe and Asia. MM. Blumen-
bach, Bechstein, and Tiedemann cite instances of
their having been killed even lately in Germany,
but they are becoming more ancl more scarce.
M. Schintz says that it is not uncommon in the
mountains of Switzeriand. M. Delabre cites an
instance of one killed in Auvergne in 1788."
57. — The Canada Lynx
{Felis Canadensis, Geoff.). There is some question
about this species, which we believe to be entirely
identical with the F. borealis of Temminck ; and
consequently that the title Canadensis is a mere
synonym. The range of this boreal lynx is not
limited, therefore, to the old world only, but is also
extended to the northern parts of America. It is
found north of the great lakes, and eastward of the
Rocky Mountains : it is rare on the sea-coast, does
not frequent the barren grounds, but is not uncom-
mon in the wooded districts of the interior. It is
found on the Mackenzie River as far north as 66°.
Specimens in the museum of the Zoological Society
of London were procured by Douglas in California.
Dr. Richardson states that the eariy French writew
on Canada, who ascribed to this species the habit of
dropping from the trees on the backs of deer and
destroying them by tearing their throats and drink-
ing their blood, gave it the name of Loup Cervier.
The French Canadians now term it indifferently
Le Chat or Le Peeshoo. With respect to its attack-
ing deer in the way said, the statement is errone-
ous ; and if really practised by any ferocious animal,
is most probably so by the puma. The same habit
has been attributed to the wolverene or glutton, from
a mistake of Charlevoix in applying to this lynx the
name of Carcajou, which is proper to the wolverene
only. The following is Dr. Richardson's description :—
" The head is round, the nose obtuse, and the face
has much of the form of that of the domestic cat,
but the facial line is more convex between the eyes.
The ears are erect, triangular, and tipped by an up-
right slender tuft of coarse black hairs : they are
placed about their own breadth apart, and on their
porterior surface they have a dark mark beneath
the tip, which is continued near both margins down-
wards towards their bases. On the body and ex-
tremities the fur is hoary, most of the hairs being
tipped with white ; on the crown of the head, and
for a broad space down the middle -of the back,
there is a considerable mixture of blackish-brown,
and on the sides and legs of pale wood-brown. In
some specimens these colours produce an indistinct
mottling, but in general there are no defined mark-
ings. A rufous tinge is also occasionally present
about the nape of the neck, and on the posterior
parts of the thigh. The tail is coloured like the
back, except the tip, which is black. The fur is
close and fine on the back, longer and paler on the
belly. When blown aside it shows on the mid-
dle of the back a dark liver-brown colour from the
roots to near the tip, but on the sides it is for the
greatest part of its length of a pale yellowish-brown,
being merely a little darker near the roots. The
legs are thick, the toes very thick and funy, and
are armed with very sharp awl-shaped white claws,
shorter than the fur. There are four toes on each
foot, those on the hind-foot being rather the largest,
but both feet have much spread. Length three
feet, one inch," &c.
This Boreal or Canadian lynx is by no means
courageous : it never ventures to attack large quad-
rupeds, but preys chiefly on the American hare, for
the capture of which it is well provided. "Its
large paws, slender loins, and long but thick hind-
legs, with large buttocks scarcely relieved by a short
thick tail, give it an awkward, clumsy appearance.
It makes a poor fight when it is surprised by a hunter
in a tree ; for though it spits like a cat, and sets its
hair up, it is easily destroyed by a blow on the back
with a slender stick ; and it never attacks a man.
Its gait is by bounds straightforward, with the back
a little arched, and lighting on all the feet at once.
It swims well, and will cross the arm of a lake two
miles wide, but is not swift on land. It breeds
once a year, and has two young at a time." Its
flesh is eaten by the natives, and is white and ten-
der, but destitute of flavour, and closely resembles
that of the American hare. The skin of this species
is an important article in commerce. The annual
importation by the Hudson's Bay Company is stated
to be from seven to nine thousand.
Besides this lynx there are others in America.
C 2
^^'< /■■■<-'.,
48.-Ocelot.
Do mesttc Ca: .
SO.-Ocelot.
12
•l ' l\
'-*
■ r^'^^x^^^
"^y^^kfim^
%
\\\^
X
65.- Chans.
63.— Caracal.
59.— Carjcals.
^^'^ y-
'ti^5?i^K^^^-s
S7.-C«iuuIaI.3Ti.\.
66.- European Lynx.
13
14
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
fOPOSSUMSw
MARSUPIALIA.
Most zooloi^ists of the present day, and amon;: them
the first comparative anatoraint*,' concur in reeard-
ing the marsupial animals (Marsupiaha or Marsii-
piata*) as a distinct ^roup, or sub-class of the
Mammalia. They differ essentially from all others
in their orRaniiaiion, yet comprehend genera fed
by every variety of nutriment. Some are insecti-
vorous or carnivorous, others herbivorous, and others
•gain frujtivorous ; some are diurnal, others noc-
turnal in the habits. Accordingly we find a cor-
responding modification of the teeth and digestive
organs, as well as of those of progression and pre-
hension. Hence may we trace in them analosics
to the groups of the ordinary mammiferous auadru-
neds, viz., to the Camivora,the Insectivora, tiie Uo-
aents, and the Edentata, as was well observed by
Cuvier, whose oi)inions have been abundantly con-
firmed. It is on physiological grounds that the
distinctness of the ^Iarsupials rests, that is, on their
stracture and economy connected with the repro-
duction of their species, on the abbreviated term of
gestation, and on the immature condition of the young
at their birth, which are generally received into the
marsupium or pouch, in which nidus the unde-
veloped being attaches itself to the teats, receives
nutriment, and grows, till at length it is capable of
acting for itself. In some instances the marsupium
is nothing more than a fold of skin, and some-
times it is wanting ; but two bones, situated on
the anterior part of the pelvis, and termed the mar-
supial hones, are never absent. These grounds of
distinction have been extended by the researches of
anatomists, and among them in particular Professor
Owen, who has pointed out several never-failing
accordances in the structure of other organs, as the
heart and the brain, and also has cleared up many
points respecting which doubts had previously ex-
isted. Into the series of facts and deductions so
luminously treated by that philosophic investigator
of nature the plan of this work forbids us to enter :
we refer our readers, however, to the ' Phil. Trans.,'
?artii.. 1834; the ' Proceed. Zool. Soc. Lond.,' 1831,
833, 1838, and 1839; 'Phil. Trans.,' part i., 1837;
' Annals of Nat. Hist.,' Nov., 1839 ; ' Proceed. Geol.
Soc. Lond.,' vol. iii., 1838-9, &c.
The Marsupial animals are all restricted to two
portions of the globe, namely, America and Aus-
tralia, including certain islands of the Indian Ar-
chipelago. The American species were the first
known to European naturalists, and, indeed, the
only ones with which Linnaeus was acquainted.
Captain Cook introduced the kangaroo of Australia
to science, and subsequent researches in that re-
gion, the newest continent, have made us now
familiar with its Fauna and Flora. Upwards of
seventy species of Marsupials are known as Aus-
tralian, besides about eighteen species belonging to
other groups of quadrupeds, as the dingo dog, cer-
tain seals, a few bats, and Rodents. The marsupial
sub-class contains the following families, viz. :
1. Didelphidse. 2. Dasyuridie. 3. Myrmecobiidae.
4. Peramelidae. 5. Macropidae. 6. Phalangistidae.
7. Phascolomyidae. 8. Monotremata. Of each of
these family sections we shall give examples.
OPOSSUMS.
60, 61. — The Virginian Opossum
\DidelphU Virginiana). The genus Didelphis, of
which the Virginian opossum is an example, is
restricted to America. It contains about twenty
species, some of which are very small.
The teeth are as follows : — upper incisors ten, of
which the two middle are longer than the rest, and
■omewhat separated from them ; lower incisors
eight ; canines as usual ; molars on each side above,
seven, the three first false, triangular, compressed ;
molars below, seven, the three first false ; the true
molars both above and below crowned with sharp
tubercles. Of all terrestria mammalia, the Myrme-
cobius excepted, the teetli are in these animals
the most numerous, amounting to fifty : Incisors _>
8
canines , molars — : = 50. (See figure 62.)
1—1 7—7
The limbs are short, the feet plantigrade, the toes
five on each foot, armed with sharp strong curved
claws, excepting the inner toe or thumb on the
hinder feet, which b opposable, and destitute of a
nail. The soles are covered with a naked skin en-
dowed with great sensibility. The tail is scaly and
naked, except at its base, and constitutes an organ
of prehension, not, however, to the same extent in
every species. The head is long and pointed, the
profile straight. The eyes are small, dark, promi-
nent, and undefended by eyelids, but furnished
with a nictitating membrane. The ears are large,
thin, naked, and rounded. The tongue is rough
with homy papillae. The snout is long ; the muzzle
* Manmpimm, i purse or pouch.
pointed, naked, and moist ; the nostrils are lateral :
the mouth extremely wide ; and the expression of
the physiognomy peculiar and unpleasant. In one
division of this genus the females have a pouch for
their young; in another division the poucn is rudi-
mentary, con.sisting of a slight fold of skin.
In tlie figure (03) of the skeleton of the Virginian
opossum, the marsupial bones {a i are seen.
Tlie Virginian opossum, and its immediate rela-
tives, are slow in their movements, and nocturnal
in their habits; they reside habitually on the
branches and in the hollows of trees, remaining
tornid during the day. At night they prowl about,
and feed upon insects, eggs, birds, reptiles, and
small mammalia, adding also fruits and roots to
their diet. Their sense of smell is in high perfec-
tion. Like our pole-cat, as respects voracity, though
not activity, they often invade the precincts of the
farm-house, destroy poultry and other domestic birds,
and retreat on the first appearance of dawn, leaving
their slaughtered victims behind. Their odour is
disgusting, especially when alarmed or irritated.
The Virginian opossum is common in pany parts
of North America, from Mexico to the southern
provinces of the United States. It is one of the
largest and most robust of the genus, and equals a
cat in size, being about twenty-two inches in the
length of the head and body measured over the
curve of the back ; the tail is fifteen inches long.
The under fur is deep and woolly, traversed by
long straight whitish hairs, often tipped with brown.
The ears are large and black, margined at the tip
with white. The scaled portion of the tail of a
whitish tint. The general colour of the fur is dirty-
white, with a slight yellow hue ; the legs are dusky-
brown, a tint of which surrounds the eyes. Hairs
of moustaches long and white, with a few of a black
colour intermixed.
There is nothing pleasing either in the appear-
ance or habits of the Virginian opossum : in cap-
tivity it is slothful in the extreme, and becomes
inorainately fat, eating both animal and vegetable
diet. Whatever may be its cunning in a state of
liberty, it evinces but little intelligence when caged
in our climate, but appeais to lie a compound of
indolence and apathy, not unmixed with timidity.
In its native woods it suffers from the attacks of
birds and beasts of prey, and is also hunted by man
for the sake of tlie flesh and fat. " As soon as the
opossum discovers the approach of his enemies, he
lies perfectly close to the branch, or places himself
snugly in the angle where two limbs separate from
each other. The dogs, however, soon announce the
fact of his presence by their baying, and the hunter,
ascending the tree, shakes the branch upon which
the animal is seated with great violence, so as to
alarm and cause him to relax his hold." In this
way, driven from branch to branch, he is obliged
at last to drop to the ground, where, unless the dogs
are vigilant, the animal escapes ; for, as is asserted,
it steals slowly and quietly to a little distance, and
fathering up itself into a small compass, assumes
the stillness and attitude of death. This artifice,
under the obscurity of night, and amidst dense rank
herbage, or tangled underwood, often proves suc-
cessful. In the ' Perfect Description of Virginia,'
1649, it is noticed as a beast " that hath a bagge
under her belly, into which she takes her young
ones, if at any time aifrighted, and carries them
away." Lawson states that the 'Possum is found
nowhere but in America. She is the wonder of all
the land animals, being the size of a badger, and
near that colour. The female doubtless breeds her
young at her teats, for I have seen them stick fast
thereto, when they have been no bigger than a
small raspberry, and seemingly inanimate. She
has a paunch or false belly, wherein she carries her
young, after they are from those teats, till they can
shift for themselves. Their food is roots, poultry, or
wild fruits. They have no hair on their tails, but a
sort of a scale, or hard crust, as the beavers have.
If a cat has nine lives, this creature surely has nine-
teen ; for if you break every bone in their skin, and
mash their sKull, leaving them for dead, you may
come an hour after, and they will be gone quite
away, or perhaps you may meet them creeping
away. They are a very stupid creature, utterly
neglecting their safety. They are most like rats of
anything. I have, for necessity in the wilderness,
eaten of them. Their flesh is very white, and well
tasted ; but their ugly tails put me out of conceit
with that fare. They climb trees as the racoons do.
Their fur is not esteemed nor used, save that the
Indians spin it into girdles and garters." The pre-
hensile power of the tail serves the animal in
more ways than one, for it is stated that the little
ones when advanced in growth leap upon their
mother's back if they are frightened, and, twisting
their tails round hers, escape, with her assistance,
the threatened danger.
This animal climbs with great facility, and will
hang suspended from the branches by its tail, and
by swinging its body contrive to fling itself to the
wljoining boughs. It is often observed hangins'
motionless for a considerable time with its he^
downwards.
The opossum produces several young, sometimes
as many as axteen at a birth. She makes a thick
nest of dry grass, in some obscure retreat, in which
to conceal herself. When first born the young are
in a most rudimentary state, minute, blind, naked,
and shapeless. Yet even in this state they are al-
ways found adhering to the teats of the mother,
shrouded in her pouch. There they remain until
they have attained the size of a mouse, which is
not until the fiftieth day, at which period their eyes
are opened, and their bodies are covered with hair.
They now venture occasionally from their hiding-
place, returning to it on the least appearance of
danger ; nor is it until they have attained to a con-
siderable size that they finally quit their anxious
parent. The period of gestation is said to be twenty-
six days.
64. — Merian's Opossum
{Didelphis dorsieera). Among the opossums, ii»
which a fold of the skin of the abdomen forms only
a rudimentary pouch, must be enumerated Merian »
opossum. Though the other opossums with com-
plete marsupial pouches occasionally carry their
young on the back, with their tails twined round
that of the parent, still it is in these pouchless spe-
cies that this curious habit most usually prevails ;
hence the term dorsigera, which, though applied to
the present animal, might with equal propriety
be given to other species, as Didelphis brachyura,
cinerea, tricolor, and murina.
Merian's opossum is a native of Surinam, and in
its habits it agrees with the rest of the genus. The
tail is slender, and longer than the head and body
taken together ; at the base it is clothed with fur
resembling that of the body generally ; the naked
portion is of a pale brown tint. The fur of this
animal is short and lies close ; on the upper parts of
the body it is greyish brown, the roofs of the hairs ,
being paler. 'The under parts of the body are yel-
lowish white ; a deep brown spot encircles the eyes ;
the forehead, top of the head, cheeks, outer side of
the limbs and feet, are yellowish white. Length
from nose to root of tail about six inches ; length of
tail seven inches. A beautiful specimen of this
active little opossum, with its young clinging to it,
is preserved in the British Museum.
6.0. — ^Thk Yapock Opossum
(Cheironectes palmatus). This interesting animal,
the yapock, is a native of Brazil, tenanting the
smaller streams and rivers, and it appears to extend
from the confines of that empire to the shores of
the Gulf of Honduras. Buffon's specimen was
procured in Cayenne. He terms it " Petite Loutre
de la Guyene." It is also called " Demerara otter."
The yapock measures from ten to fourteen inches
long in the head and body, the tail being rather
more. The limbs are short, and the contour of the
body elongated. The ears are moderate, the nose
pointed ; the fur of the body close, short, somewhat
crisped and glossy ; the tail, excepting at the base,
is scaly, the scales being spirally arranged and in
terspersed with fine, short, bristly hairs. The fore-
feet are divided into five long and slender toes,
armed with small weak claws, the innermost or
thumb excepted, which has a flat nail. It is not
opposable, though placed rather behind the general
line of the other toes. On the outside of the wrist
there is an elongated tubercle (the pisiform bone
developed) resembling a sixth finger, the use of
which is not apparent. The hind feet, which are
broad, are each divided into five toes, tied together
by ample webs ; the claws are small ; the inner toe
has a flat nail. This curious animal is furnished
with cheek-pouches of great size, which extend far
back along the sides of the mouth, and this circum-
stance, as Mr. Ogilby remarks, " hitherto unob-
served by zoologists, throws considerable light upon
the habits of this rare animal, which thus appears,
like the omithorhynchus, to feed upon fresh-water
Crustacea, the larvae of insects, the spawn of fishes,
&c., which it probably stows away in its capacious
cheek-pouches." Small fishes are doubtless among
its prey.
The yapock, unlike the opossums, is incapable of
climbing : it is an aquatic animal, like the otter,
and lives in holes along the banks of the rivers which
it frequents, and in which it seeks its food. It is
said to take its young early to the water. Two spe-
cimens in the possession of the celebrated naturalist
M. Natterer, were caught near water not far distant
from Rio Janeiro, and a third was captured alive
near Para, in a basket similar to those used in this
country for catching eels. It had made its way
through the funnel-shaped entrance, under water,
and could not return.
The dentition of the yapock difl'ers in some points
from that of the opossums : the incisor and canine
teeth are the same in both, but the molars are only
five on each side, two false and three true, both in
Opossums. I
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
15
the upper and under jaw. The ground colour of
the upper surface is dusky black ; a white semilunar
mark passes from ear to ear across the forehead;
on each side are four large transverse marks of de-
licate grey, one on the scapula, and three on the
sides of the body, forming bands interrupted or
rendered incomplete by a middle dorsal line. The
under surface is white , the tail is black, its tip (the
extent varying from half an inch to three or four
inches) being white.
6G.— The Brush-tailed Phascog.\le
{Phasco^ale penicillata). This animal, the " Tapoa
tafa " of White, is a native of Australia. It is found
throughout the colony of New South Wales, and is
common on Liverpool Plains ; Mr. Gould saw it also
at Adelaide, in South Australia, where it frequently
enters the houses. It is arboreal in its habits, and
feeds on small birds, insects, &c. ; but little is known
respecting its general economy.
The brush-tailed phascogale belongs to the family
of Dasyuridae. In size it exceeds the common brown
rat of our country ; its tail is very bushy, and is
probably used to assist in climbing. The fur of the
body is long, full, soft, and loose ; the general colour
above is grey ; the under parts are white.
67. — ^The Ursine Opossum
{Basyunis ursinus). In their dental system the
animals of this genus (Dasyurus) approach the Ame-
rican opossums ; they differ, however, in having
only eight incisors in the upper jaw, and six in the
lower. The canines are large ; the false molars are
two on each side, above and below ; the true molars
four. Dental formula: Incisors ^, canines,
1— r
molars ^^ = 42. (See figure 68.) All the animals
6 — 6
of this genus are Australian.
The ursine dasyurus, or opossum, is a native of
Van Diemen's I^nd, and is called by the colonists
the native devil, by which name it was known up-
wards of thirty years back. Instead of being slender
and active, as are the Dasyuri generally, this animal
is thickset in its proportions and heavy m its move-
ments. Its shape is not unlike that of a badger,
but the head is thick, the muzzle short and stout,
the eyes small, the mouth wide. The limbs are
short, robust, and clumsy ; the toes, five on the fore
feet, four on the hind, are armed with large claws
well adapted for burrowing. The heel is produced,
and the sole is naked and callous, indicating a plan-
tigrade step and heavy pace.
Like the bear, which it resembles in its actions
and gait, the ursine opossum sits up on its haunches,
and frequently uses its paws in conveying food to
the mouth. Its voice is a hollow barking growl.
The female produces four or five young at a birth :
as in all the Marsupials, they are rudimentary,
small, naked, and blind, and in this stage ot their
existence are found firmly adhering to the teats of
the mother.
The ursine opossum measures twenty-one inches
in length, exclusive of the tail, which is seven inches.
The fur of the body is rather long, harsh, and black ;
a white gorget is conspicuous on the chest, and a
white transverse mark often crosses the haunches.
This animal is stupid and voracious in the extreme.
Its habits are nocturnal, and it frequents the shore
of the sea, feeding upon moUusca, carrion, &c. The
flocks of the colonists in Van Diemen's Land, and
domestic poultry, suifer from its ravages. Dunng
the day it conceals itself in burrows or holes in the
ground.
Mr. Harris, who first described this species under
the name of Didelphis ursina, says, "These animals
were very common on our first settling at Hobart
Town, and were particularly destructive to poultry,
&e. They however furnished the convicts with a
fresh meal, and the taste was said to be not unlike
veal. As the settlement increased, and the ground
became cleared, they were driven from their haunts
near the town, to the deeper recesses of the forests
yet unexplored. They are however easily procured
by setting a trap in the most unfrequented parts of
the woods, baited with raw flesh, all kinds of which
they eat indiscriminately and voraciously. They
also, it is probable, prey on dead fish, blubber &c.,
as their tracks are frequently found on the sands of
the sea-shore. In a state of confinement, they
appear to be untamebly savage, biting severe y,
and uttering at the same time a low yelling growl.'
We have had frequent opportunities of observing
the ursine opossum in captivity. Its heavy head
and wide mouth give it a peculiar expression of
ferocity unmingled with the slightest intelligence.
When roused from its lethargy, it instantly displays
its formidable teeth, ready to bite in a moment. It
neither acknowledges its keepers nor those who
habitually feed it : it keeps in the darkest part of
the den, and the nictitating membrane of the eye
i» in perpetual motion, and indication that light is
distressing. It feeds indiscriminately on bread and
milk, and flesh. From the strength of its jaws, and
the severity of its bite, the ursine opossum is more
than a match for an ordinary dog, and, as Mr.
Gunn states, is the most destructive animal to sheep
in the colony. It is fierce, and defends itself ob-
stinately.
69. — The Dog-head Thylacinus
(Thylacinus Cynocephalus). This animal, called
zebra opossum, and zebra wolf, tiger, hysena, &c., is
a native of Van Diemen's Land, where fortunately
it is much rarer than the ursine opossum, other-
wise it would prove a greater pest, from its size and
strength. In stature it nearly equals a wolf ; the
head much resembles that of a dog, but the mouth
is wider ; the tail is thick at the base, becoming
more slender to the point : it is covered with short
close hairs of a brown colour. The general fur is
short and smooth, of a dusky yellowish brown barred
or zebraed on the lower part of the back and rump
with about sixteen black transverse stripes, broadest
on the back and gradually tapering downwards, two
of which extend a considerable way down the thighs.
The ground-colour of the back has a tint of dusky
grey. The eyes are large, full, and black. Length
of head and body of adult male, nearly four feet ; of
the tail two feet ; average height of back one foot
ten or eleven inches. In the specimens we have
examined, the tail appeared compressed, as was
observed by Mr. Harris, its original describer. Mr.
Gunn, however, in the ' Magazine of Natural History,"
contradicts this part of Mr. Harris's statement.
.8.1-1
Dental formula: — mcisors, g; canines, j— r ; mo-
7-7
lars, ,j--^ = 46.
The toes are 5 on the fore-feet, 4 on the hind-
feet ; the claws are blunt as in the dog : a narrow
naked line runs up the back of the wrist from the
ball, and also up the metatarsus of the hind limbs,
to half the distance between the ball or pad and
the heel.
In its habits the dog-headed thylacinus is noc-
turnal, remaining concealed during the day in the
caverns and fissures of the rocks, in the deep and
almost impenetrable glens among the highest moun-
tains of Van Diemen's Land. Like the ursine opossum
it is distressed by the light, and brings the nictitat-
ing membrane of the eyes into perpetual use.
During the night it prowls, hyaena-like, in quest of
prey. The bush kangaroo and other animals it
destroys, and even manages to eat the spine-covered
echidna (or porcupine anteater), which is so pro-
tected by its panoply of spears as to seem almost
invulnerable. An individual was caught by Mr.
HaiTis in a trap baited with kangaroo flesh ; it lived
but a few hours, having received some internal
hurt in securing it, and appeared to be stupid, in-
active, and ferocious, uttering from time to time a
short guttural cry : like the owl, it was constantly
drawing and undrawing the nictitating membrane
of the eye. In its stomach was found the partly-
digested remains of a porcupine anteater. IVlr.
Gunn (see ' Annals of Natural History ' for 1838,
vol. I., p. 101) informs us that the thylacinus is
common in the more remote parts of the colony,
and is often caught at Woolnorth and Hampshire
Hills. It usually attacks sheep in the night, but is
also seen during the daytime, upon which occasions,
perhaps from its imperfect vision by day, its pace is
very slow. We are not aware that this animal has
ever been brought alive to Europe.
70, 71. — ^The Long-nosed Bandicoot
(Purameles nasuta). The Bandicoots appear to take
in Australia the place of the shrews, tenrecs, and
other Insectivora in the old world. Closely allied
in the structure of their organs of locomotion to the
kangaroos, yet in their system of dentition they
exhibit a remarkable difterence. In this latter
point they in some respects approach the opossums
(Didelphis), and the characters of the teeth indicate
an insectivorous appetite. Above the incisors are
10 in number, of these the outermost on each side is
conical and apart from the rest. The canines are
curved and stand isolated ; the molars on each side
are 7, of which the 3 first are false, compressed,
and sharp. The four true molars are crowned with
sharp tubercles. Below the incisors are 6 in close
array, and projecting obliquely. The canines and
molars are as in the upper jaw.
10 1-1
Dental formulo : — incisors,
canines,
1—1
7—7
molars, ,^—==48, (See fig. 72).
The general contour and form of the bandicoots
is rabbit like, but the muzzle is elongated, narrow,
and pointed, the nose advancing considerably be-
yond the jaw. The fore-feet are divided into five
toes, of these the innermost is rudimentary, and the
outermost a mere cubercle, having a minute nail.
The three middle toes are large, and armed with
strong claws. The hinder limbs, though not de-
veloped to the same proportionate extent as in the
kangaroos, exceed the fore-limbs. The metatarsur
is elongated and naked beneath ; the toes are fous
in number, viz., on the inner side, two toes joined
in common integument, as in the kangaroos, each
furnished with its distinct claw ; a large and robust
middle toe, with a straight strong pointed claw ;
and a small outer toe also armed with a straight
claw.
Though the system of dentition in the bandicoots
is insectivorous, they do not refuse vegetable ali-
ment; they live in buiTOws, for the digging o£
which their fore-paws are well adapted. In their
movements these animals resemble a rabbit ; they
do not, like the kangaroo, bound from the hind
limbs alone, but arching the back, proceed with a
saltigrade gait, that is half way between running
and jumping ; or rather by a succession of short
leaps from the hind to the fore feet, but not with
much speed, nor maintained for a great length of
time. The kangaroos make considerable use of the
tail, but in the bandicoots it is by no means-so
important an organ, though it assists them in
sitting upright, an attitude usually assumed when
eating, the fore-paws being brought into use as
holders, like those of the squirrel. With these paws
they scratch up the earth in search of roots and
insects, and it is said that the potato crops of the
colonists in some districts suffer from their incur-
sions. They are readily tamed, and in a few days
become reconciled and familiar. Five species are
now known : of these one is a native of New Guinea.
The long-nosed bandicoot is found in New South
Wales. It measures about 16 inches in the length
of the head and body, and 5 in that of the tail.
The ears are erect, pointed, and covered with short
hair ; the eyes are very small ; the nose remarkably
long, pointed and naked at the extremity. The
tail is slender, and though better covered with hair,
bears some resemblance to that of a large rat.
The hair is of two kinds, an upper and under coat ;
the hairs forming the upper or external coat are
coarse and harsh. In colour it resembles the
rat, excepting that it is of a more sandy shade on
the upper parts of the body, and of a more clear
silvery white beneath. The under-coat, concealed
by this outer garment, consists of soft ash-coloured
wool or fur, well calculated to protect the animal
from cold and variations of temperature ; for it
appears to be an inhabitant of the mountain districts
of Australia, principally, if not exclusively.
The form and characters of its teeth would lead
us to suppose that it fed almost entirely upon
insects and similar creatures ; and M. Geoflfroy even
imagines that it may use its long snout for the pur-
pose of rooting up the earth like a pig in search of
worms and grubs. The colonists however assert
that these bandicoots are chiefly if not purely
herbivorous, and that the principal part of their
food consists of roots, which they dig up with their
sharp and powerful claws. In the neighbourhood
of human habitations they frequently enter into the
granaries, and do as much mischief to the corn as
the rats and mice of our own country. The Austra-
lians have however one advantage over the Euro-
pean farmers in this respect : the bandicoot is more
easily excluded than the rat, for it cannot, like that
destructive species of vermin, eat its way through the
planks and timbers, and still less through the brick
walls of the buUdings. It is probably from this
habit of committing petty depredations upon the
farm-yards and grananes, as well as from the gene-
ral similarity of their external appearance, that the
colonists of New South Wales sometimes confound
the bandicoots with various species of murine ani-
mals originally found in the country under the
common denomination of native rats and mice. Nor
is it at all improbable, notwithstanding the assertion
of the colonists to the contrary, that M. Geoffrey's
conjecture as to the insectivorous habits of this ani-
mal may be at least partly if not entirely true. The
common rat. with teeth much less adapted for
living upon flesh than those of the bandicoots, is
well known to have decidedly carnivorous propen-
sities ; and, as M. Geoff'ry very correctly observes,
it is seldom that analogous forms of dentition fail to
indicate analogous appetites.
The insectivorous hedgehog eats the root of the
plantain, boring with its snout under the plant so
as to get fairiy at it, leaving the leaves untouched.
73. — Thb Ch.eropus
{Chceropus ecaudaius, Ogilby). This animal,'which
is closely allied to the bandicoots, was first described
by Mr. Ogilby (March, 1838) from a drawing made
by Sir Thomas Mitchell. The animal was found by
that officer on the banks of the river Murray
during his expedition into the interior of New South
Wales. The following is from his journal :—
"June 16, 1836. The most remarkable incident
of this day's journey was the discovery of an animal
of which I had seen only a head in a fossil state in
ei'— VlrgliiliD Opotsnm.
64.— Ueriu't Opossum.
69.— Dog-hesd Thylacbnu.
16
65. — Yapock Opowum.
79*. — 1. Diiuected Head of mammftry fr«tua of a Kangaroo, 'i. Teat of
the mother ; the mark shows how br it is taken in by the yoang.
74.— Banded Myrmecobiils.
7(;.— Ureat KaDgaroos.
No. f3.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
17
rs
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
rOPOSSOMS
the limestone c«ve« of Wellineton Valley, where,
from iU very nineular form, I nupposed it to beloiuf
to loaie extinct specie*. The chief peciiliaritv then
obterved was the broad head and ver>- lone slender
•noiit, which resembled the narrow neck of a wide
bottle ; but in the living animal the absence of a
tail was still more remarkable. The feet, and espe-
cially the fore-le?8, were also sin^larly formed, the
latter reteroblini? those of a pie ; and the marsupial
openinjc was downwards, and not upwartls, as in the
kanearoo and o'hers of that class of animals. Tliis
nuadruped was discovered by the natives on the
pound, but on beinft chased it soueht refuge m a
hollow tree, from which they took it alive, all of
them declarinsr that they had never before seen an
animal of the kind. This was where the party had
commenced the journey up the left bank of the
Murray, immediately after crossing that river."
The' specimen was presented to the museum at
Sydney.
'The drawin)? of the fore-foot very closely resem-
bles that of the pig : two toes are represented short
and of equal length, with hoof-like claws ; but there
is a swelling at the base of the first phalanges,
which renders it probable that there may be two
nidimentarv ones also present. The form and cha-
racters of the hind-feet are perfectly similar to those
of Perameles, as are also the teeth, as far as Mr.
Ogilby could judge from the drawing, except that
the canines appeared much smaller. The ears are
long, elliptical, and nearly naked ; the head broad ;
the muzzle long and pointed ; the body is described
as being about the size of that of a small rabbit,
and the fur much of the same colour and quality as
tn that animal. (See Proceed. Zool. !<oc. Lond..
Mareh, 1838.) Most probably, in its habits and
manners, the animal resembles the bandicoots, but
wc must wait for definite information before we
can speak positively.
74. The Banded Myrmecobius
{Mijrmecnbitiis fasciatus). This elegant little crea-
hire is the example of a new genus recently de-
scribed by Mr. Waterhouse. It is thus chai-acter-
U!e<l : — Fore-feet with live toes, hind-feet with four
toes, all free ; head elongated, snout produced ;
ears moderate, subacute ; body slender ; tail rather
long.
...8.1-1
Dental formula : — incisors, - ; canines, r— y ;
4-4 , 4-4 _
false molars, ^—z ; true molars, j— j = 52. The
teeth are minute and insectivorous in their charac-
ter ; and the branch of the lower jaw fsee fig. 75) is
twisted in such a manner, that the outer surfaces of
the true molar» come in contact with the mastica-
ting surface of those of the upper jaw. The toes
are armed with strong curved claws.
The banded Myrmecobius is about the size of a
squirrel. The fore part of the body is reddish, gra-
dually blended into the black, which is the prevail-
ing colour of the posterior half, and which is
adorned with nine white bands. Fur of two kinds.
Under hair scanty and whitish grey ; upper hair
rather coarse, short, and adpressed on the anterior
parts ; long on the pgsterior and under parts ; hairs
on the anterior part of the back generally black at
the base and fulvous at the apex ; those on the
head very short, brownish above, being composed
of a mixture of black, fulvous, and a few white
haiis: a few black haire spring from the sides of
the muzzle and under each eye ; hair of the tail
long and rather bushy ; most of the hairs on the
under part fulvous at t)ie base and white at the tip;
those on the under bide of the tail generally black
at the base and white at the apex. Length from
nose to root of tail, ten inches ; length of tail to the
end of the hair, seven inches.
It is a native of the district bordering the Swan
River.
"This beautiful and interesting little animal,"
observes Mr. Waterhouse, " was tii-st discovered by
Lieut. Dale whilst on afi exploring party in the in-
terior of the country at the Swan Kiver settlement,
and was discovered about 90 miles to the south-east
of that river. Two of these animals, says Lieut.
Dale, were seen within a few miles of each other ;
they were first obsei-ved on the ground, and on being
pursued, both directed their fiight to some hollow
trees which were near. We succeeded in capturing
one of them ; the other was unfortunately burnt to
death in our endeavour to dislodge it by lumigating
the hollow tree in which it had taken refuge. The
country in which they were found abounded in
decayed trees and ant-hills. A second specimen
has since been brought to England and placed in
my hands for examination. I was informed this
<vas brought from Van Diemen's T^nd; but Mr.
Alexander Gordon, who had sent the specimen to
England to be stutTed, has since assureil me that 1
was misinformed, he having himself procured the
•nimal at Swan River."
76. 77. — The Great Kangaroo
(Maeroput major, and M. Giganteut, Shaw). The
general aspect of the kangaroos is very pecu-
liar : the anterior parts of the body are light and
flexible, and the fore limbs are small. In contrast
with these characters is the vast development of the
hinder quarters, the haunch, hind limbs, and tail ;
ports of the frame in which the muscular power of
the animals is concentrated.
The hinder limbs are voluminous and long : the
metatarsus is produced, and furnished beneath with
a naked callous pad, running from the toes to the
heel. The ordinary attitude of the kangaroos is
upright, with a forward inclination, the weight rest-
ing on the nmd limbs, the long sole (or metatarsus)
of which is applied to the ground, and also on the
tail, which with the limbs forms a tripod for the sup-
port of the body. The chest is contracted, the body
tapering from the haunches to the neck, tlie con-
tour being pyramidal. The head is well proportioned
and delicately turned. The fore-paws have 5 toes
armed with strong sharp claws ; the hind feet are
divided into four toes ; of which the two innermost
are very small, and compacted together so as to
appear as one ; but the slender bones of each and
the claws are distinct. The third or middle toe is
large and powerful, well padded beneath, and armed
with a strong hoof-like nail. The outer toe is less
than the middle, but larger than the two inner toes
together; its nail is in proportion. The eyes are
full ; the ears rather large ; the upper lip is cleft.
There are perfect clavicles, and the arm enjoys
considerable freedom of motion.
The skeleton of the Great Kangaroo (fig. 78) well
displays the difference in the development of the
limbs, and the solidify of the osseous structure of
the tail, which is clothed with voluminous muscles.
The dentition in the genus Macropus is as fol-
lows : — The incisore of the upper jaw are 6 in num-
ber ; the lateral one on each side being the largest
and furrowed. Between the incisors and the molars
there exists a large unfilled space. The molars ...e
five on each side, but the first is a false molar, and
often wanting, being pushed out by the advance of
those behind as the posterior ones rise from their
sockets. In the under jaw the incisors are 2, long,
powerful, and pointed ; thev advance horizontally
forwards, and have a sharp oblique external edge op-
posed to the edge of the upper incisoi-s.
The molars as in the upper jaw, and also
rough, with two transverse sharp prominences, which
wear gradually down, showing a fold of enamel en-
circling an osseous centre. Fred. Cuvier divided
from the genus Macropus those kangaroos which had
shorter ears, and a nearly naked tail, though, as in
fig. 79, their dentition is the same. He placed them
in a genus which he termed Halmaturus.
. . 6 0-0
Dental formula : — incisors 5- ; canines, jT— r ; mo-
5-5
lars, _ — J = 28.
5 — 5
The ordinary mode of progression in these ani-
mals, as well as their flight from enemies, is by a
series of bounds, often of prodigious extent. They
spring from their hind limbs alone, neither the tail
nor the fore limbs being in requisition. In feeding
they assume a crouching hare-like position, resting
on the fore-paws as well as on the hinder extremi-
ties while tf\ey browze on the herbage. In this at-
titude they hop gently along, the tail being pressed
to the ground. On the least alarm, however, they
rise on their hind limbs and bound to a distance
with gieat rapidity. Sometimes, when excited, the
old male of the Great Kangaroo stands on tiptoe
and on his tail, and is then of prodigious height. In
fighting he balances himself for a moment on the
tail, and strikes fonvard with both the hind legs,
using his fore paws at the same time. The blows
given by the hind feet are terribly effective.
The diet of the kangaroo is exclusively herbace-
ous ; the stotnach is very large and sacculated, and
balls of hair, similar to those so often occurring in the
stomach of cows and oxen, have in a few instances
been ibund in it. These balls, as was observed by
Mr. Owen, are entirely composed of the hairs of the
animal matted together, and agglutinated by the
mucus of the stomach. With the complexity of the
stomach of the kangaroos is associated the act of ru-
mination. The kangaroo ruminates while in its
erect attitude ; bnt this act by no means takes
place with the same frequency and regularity as in
the true ruminants, viz., the ox or deer.
The Great Kangaroo (the Boomer, Forester, and
Old Man Kangaroo of the colonists ; Bundaary of
the aborigines) is extensively spread in New Hol-
land, in the intermediate country between New
South Wales and South Australia, and also in Van
Diemen's Land. It was first discovered by the cele-
brated navigator Captain Cook in 1770, while sta-
tioned on the coast of New South Wales.
The Great Kangaroo is not strictly speaking gre-
garious ; more than six or eight are seldom seen to-
gether; most frequently it is met with singly or in
pairs. The kind of country which it prefers con^ists
of low grassy hills and plains skirted bv thin open
forests of brushwood, to which Mr. Gfould says it
resorts for shelter from the oppressive heat of the
mid-day sun. That it would bear, if naturalized, the
severities of our winter, is beyond a doubt, since in
Van Diemen's Land, among other places, it resorts
to the bleak, wet, and frequently snow-capped sum
mit of Mount Wellington.
The male greatly exceeds the female in size
measuring 7 feet 10 inches from the nose to the
extremity of the tail, the length of the latter being
little more then 3 feet. Instances have occurred ol
the weight being 220 pounds. The general colour
is uniform greyish brown, grizzled on the aim
and under suri'ace. A whitish mark runs above
the upper lip, and is faintly traceable along the
sides of the face. The hands, feet, and tip of the
tail are black.
Tlie kangaroo readily takes to the water, and
swims well. It often resorts to this mode of es-
caping from enemies, among which is the dingo, or
Australian dog. Man, however, is the most unre-
lenting foe of this inoftensive animal. The native
employs several modes of obtaining it. Sometimes
he steals upon it, under the covert of the trees and
bushes, till within range of his unerring spear.
Sometimes numbers of men unite in a large party,
and, forming a circle, gradually close in upon the
animals with shouts and yells, by which the animals
are so terrified and confused, that they easily be-
come victims to the bommerengs, clubs, and spears
which are directed from all sides against them.
The colonist employs the gun, and a breed of dogs
between the greyhound and bulldog, fierce, power-
ful, and very fleet, for the course. Many of these
dogs, says Mr. Gould, are kept at the stock-stations
of the interior for the sole purpose of running the
kangaroo and the emu. The latter is killed solely
for the supply of oil which it yields, and the former
for mere sport, or for food for the dogs. " Al-
though," he adds, " I have killed the largest males
with a single dog, it is not advisable to attempt
this, as they possess great power, and frequently
rip up the dogs, and sometimes cut them to the
heart with a single stroke of the hind leg. Tliree
or four dogs are generally laid on, one of su-
perior fleetness to pull the kangaroo, while the
others rash in upon and kill it. It sometimes adopts
a singular mode of defending itself by clasping its
short but powerful arms around its antagonist, leap-
ing away with it to the nearest water-hole, and there
keeping it beneath the surface until drowned. With
dogs the old males will do this whenever they have
an opportunity, and it is also said they will attempt
the same with man."
In Van Diemen's Land the Great Kangaroo is re-
gularly hunted with foxhounds, as the deer or fox
in England. The sport is said to be excellent. Mr.
Gregson says, in a letter to Mr. Gould, " I recollect
one day in particular when a very fine boomer
jumped up in the very middle of the hounds, in the
open. He at first took a few high jumps with his
head up, and then, without a moment's hesitation
he stooped forward, and shot away from the hounds
apparently without elibrt, and gave us the longest
run I ever saw alter a kangaroo. He ran fourteen
miles by the map, from point to point, and if he had
had fair play, 1 have little doubt that he would
have beat us. But he had taken along a tongue
of land that ran into the sea, so that on being
hard pressed, he was forced to try to swim across
the arm of the sea, which cannot have been less
than two miles broad. In spite of a fresh breeze,
and a head-sea against him, he got fully half-way
over ; but he could not make head against the
waves any farther, and was obliged to turn back,
when, being quite exhausted, he was soon killed.
The distance he ran, taking the different bends of
the line, was not less than eighteen miles." He
wa.s fai- before the hounds, and quite fresh when he
took to the water. His hind quarters weighed nearly
seventy pounds. " We did not measure the distance
of the hop of this kangaroo, but on another occasion,
in which the boomer had taken along the beach,
and left his prints in the sand, the length of each
jump was found to be fifteen feet, and as regular as
if they had been stepped by a sergeant. When a
boomer is pressed, he is very apt to take to the water,
and then it requires several good dogs to kill him ;
for he stands waiting for them, and a.s they swim
up to the attack, he takes hold of them with his
fore feet, and holds them under water. The buck is
very bold, and will generally make a stout resist-
ance; for, if he cannot get to the water, he will
place his back against a tree, so that he cannot be
attacked from behind, and then the best dog will
find him a formidable antagonist. The doe. on the
contrary, is a very timid creature ; and I have even
seen one die of fear."
The period of gestation in the kangaroo is thirty
nine days. The appearances presented by the
Ol'OSSUMS.I
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
10
young; one twelve hours after birth, and adhering to
the teat of the mother, within the pouch, are thus
described by Mr. Owen : — " It resembled an earth-
worm in the colour and semi-transparency of its in-
tegument, adhered firmly to the pomt of the nipple,
breathed strongly but slowly, and moved its fore-
legs when disturbed. Its body was bent upon the
abdomen, its short tail tucked in between the hind
legs, which were one-third shorter than the fore-
legs, but with the three divisions of the toes now
distinct. The whole length from the nose to the
end of the tail when stretched out did not exceed
one inch and two lines."'
Outline of tlie kan2ari>o almttt twelve hours after birth, showin;;
its natural size autl external development at this period, n, tJie upper
nipple uf the left side, to which it was uttaclied ; 6, the lower nipple
f>f the same side.
Though enabled by means of its lips to grasp
the nipple with considerable firmness, the unaided
efforts of the young one could not draw nutri-
ment thence, and consequently the mammary gland
IS acted upon by a peculiar muscle, which, com-
pressing it, forces out the milk into the mouth of
the young. Mr. Owen remarks, that it can scarcely
be supposed that the efforts of suction should always
be coincident with the successive jets of milk, and
that there might arise danger from the flow of milk
into the little creatures larynx. To remedy this
there is a special contrivance, first described by
Geoffroy, but which was not unnoticed by Hunter,
as evidenced by preparations of the larynx and
throat of two young kangaroos in the museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons. (Fig. 79.*)
" Thus aided and protected by modifications of
structure," continues Professor Owen, " both in the
system of the mother and in its own, designed with
especial reference to each others peculiar condition,
and aflording, therefore, the most irrefragable evi-
dence of creative foresight, the feeble offspring con-
tinues to increase from sustenance exclusively de-
rived from the mother for a period of about eight
months. The young kangaroo may then be seen
Vequently to protrude its head from the mouth of the
pouch, and to crop the grass at the same time that
the mother is browsing. Having thus acquired ad-
ditional strength, it quits the pouch, and hops at
first with a feeble and vacillating gait, but continues
to return to the pouch for occasional shelter and
supplies of food till it has attained the weight of ten
pounds. After this it will occasionally insert its
head for the purpose of sucking, notwithstanding
another foetus may have been deposited in the pouch,
for the latter, as we have seen, attaches itself to a
different nipple from the one which had been pre-
viously in use."
80. — The Kanoaroo R.at, or Potoroo
{Hypsiprymnm murinus. Pander and D'AIton).
The Bettong of the natives of New South Wales.
It is principally in their dentition, and in the
elongated narrow form of the head, that the little
animals of the genus Hypsipiymnus differ from the
kangaroos. There are canines in the upper jaw.
The dental formula is as follows (see figure 81) :
incisors, - : canines, .ZL. ; molars, ^I? = 30
2 0—0 5—5
Figure 82 represents the skull, the elongated con-
tour of which is very conspicuous.
The Potoroo (the Macropus minor of Shaw, H.
Betosus of Ogilby ; H. Peronii, Quoy and Gairaard) ;
is about the size of a rabbit, raea.suring fifteen inches
from the nose to the root of the fail, the latter being
ten inches and a half in length. The general colour
of the fur is brown ; on the back blackish, pencilled
with brownish-white. Lips, chin, throat, and under
parts of the body dirty-white ; fore-feet brown ;
ears rounded, and well covered with hair; tail
scaled, and sparingly clothed with short decumbent
hairs, which (excei)ting at the base and extreme
pointj are of a black colour on the upper part and
•ides of the tail. The hairs on the under side are
brown ; and at the tip there are a few dirty-white
hairs.
The Potoroo is common in New South V/ales.
It is timid and inofiensive, feeding on vegetables,
and proceeding in the manner of the kangaroo.
Of its habits little is known. It frequents the pre-
cincts of scrubs and patches of brushwood, and
scratches up the ground in quest of roots. These
animals are found to be very destructive to the
potato crops, and are very readily caught by baiting
traps with this vegetable.
Several other species have been described.
83.— The Sooty Tapoa
{Phalangista fuliginosa). This animal presents us
with the example of a group termed Phalangers
(genus Phalangista) ; but they are often, but erro-
neously, called opossums in the writings of travellers
and persons not conversant with natural history.
The Phalangers of Australia have six incisors
above, of which the two middle are the largest ;
and in the lower jaw are two long obliquely pro-
jecting incisors, which are met by the corresponding
incisors of each side. There is a small canine on
each side in the upper jaw only. The molars on each
side, above and below, are five, of which the first
is a false molar. These are the constant teeth, but
besides there are in some species little additional
molars, sometimes canine-like molars, in front of
the contiguous and constant series. The number
of these additional teeth varies in the same indivi-
dual on different sides of the jaw. Dental formula :
6 • 1—1 , 5—5 ,,.
incisors, -; canines, ; molars, : addi-
2 0—0 5— T)
tionaJ inconstant molars, , or 1 !", or — ,
2—2 3—3 1—1
3 3
or - — . (See figure 84.) The head is somewhat
elongated, the forehead slightly arched ; the mouth
moderate. The feet have five toes; those of the
fore-feet are armed with strong hooked claws ;
those of the hind-feet consist of four true toes, and
a large thumb destitute of a nail, and very distinct
from the rest, of which the two innermost are
shorter than the two outermost, and are united
together to the base of the claws. The tail is long
and prehensile, well furred, excepting at the ex-
treme point and part of the apical portion beneath,
which is bare to a greater or less extent. We may
here observe that the Phalangers form three sec-
tions or subgenera. The firs', {Phalangista) is
exclusively Australian, and has the tail naked be-
neath only at the tip. The second section compre-
hends a group (Cuscus) distinguished by having the
tail throughout the greater part of its extent be-
neath naked, scaly, and highly prehensile. The
eai-s are short and close. These animals inhabit
the Celebes and Moluccas, where they are called
Couscous, or Coescoes. The third group (Pseudo-
nheirus, Ogilby) has the tail less densely clothed
than in Plialangista proper : the apical portion is
naked beneath ; the fore-feet, with the two united
inner toes, slightly opposed to the others.
Besides these, are the Flying Phalangers, consti-
tuting a distinct genus, Petaurus. The true Pha-
langei-s, of which we figure the Sooty Tapoa and the
Vulpine Phalanger (Ph. vulpina), are animals of
arboreal habits, residing almost constantly among
the branches. Their food consists principally of
fruits, buds, leaves, &c., but insects, eggs, &c. are
also eaten. Night is their season of activity ; during
the day they conceal themselves in the hollows of
trees, or lie close on the branches, hidden by the
foliage. The number of young which the females
produce at a birth appears to be two, at least if
the account of Mr. Bennett (see ' Wanderings in
New South Wales") is to be taken as a criterion.
He states that on one occasion he was present when
a number of flying squirrels (viz., flying phalangers),
opossums (phalangers), bandicoots, snakes, &c.,
were caught by the natives during what he terms
a hunting expedition, and that one of the opossums
among the game was a female, and had two large-
sized young ones in her pouch.
Though the Phalangei-s are at ease among the
branches, the motions of these animals, generally
speaking, are not distinguished by that nimbleness
and rapidity which we so much admire in the
squirrel. On the contrary, their motions are slow
and cautious, and they use their prehensile tail as
an additional security. When in danger of dis-
covery, they are said to suspend themselves by
the tail, hanging, head downwards, motionless as if
dead ; and this is more remarkably the case with
the Couscous of the Moluccas. It is, indeed, re-
ported, that if a man fix his eyes on one thus coun-
terfeiting death, it will continue to hang till, no longer
able to sustain the weight, the muscles of the tail
relax with extreme fatigue, and the animal falls to
the ground. Few animals have more soft and deli-
cately woolly fur than the Phalangers ; their
skins are consequently highly prized by the abori-
gines, as well as their flesh, which is eaten with
avidity, and doubtless is not inferior to that of the
kangaroo.
Like many of the Marsupials, the Phalangers have
an unpleasant smell, owing to a fluid secreted in
certain glands ; but this does not affect the delicacy
and flavour of the flesh.
In captivity the Phalangers are not very attractive :
during the day they slumber concealed among the
hay or other bedding of their cage, shrouding them
selves from observation, and are impatient of inter-
ruption ; they do not, however, attempt to bite, and
appear as stupid as they are sluggish : their form,
however, is graceful, and their fur sets them ott' to
much advantage. When feeding they sit up like
the squirrel, holding the article of which they are
partaking between the fore-paws. During the night
they traverse their cage, take their food, and en-
joy the active hours of their existence. We know
of no instance in which they have bred in Europe ;
but as the kangaroo produces young in our climate,
it is not improbable that under favourable circum-
stances these animals also might multiply in our
extensive menageries, especially as they appear tc
bear our climate very well, care being taken against
their exposure to the severities of the weather.
The following description of the Sooty Tapoa was
taken from a living specimen : — " The shajje and
Yiro^ovWons, oi Phalangista fuliginona axe those of
the Phal. vulpina : the ears are also of similar
shape and size, hairy on the outsides, but naked
within. The colour is a uniform sooty-brown over
all parts of the head and body, not even excepting
the belly and the inner surface of the thighs. The
hair has a frizzled appearance, but it is not so close
nor so fine as in Phal. vulpina. The tail is long
black, and rather bushy ; the nuked slip wnAnvnuaXh,
as well as the nose ancl soles of the feet, which are
also naked, is of a bright flesh colour. The mous-
taches are large, stiff", and black." The individual
was said to have been brought from Sydney. In
the museum of the Zoological Society are seven or
eight distinct species of this genus.
85. — The Vulpine Phai.anoer
{Phalangista vulpina). Of all the species the
Vulpine Phalanger is probably the most carnivorous.
The female is destitute of a true pouch, and the
teats are two in number. The Vulpine Phalanger is
about the size of a cat ; in captivity it disjilays but
little to interest ordinary observers, the day being
passed in sleep ; nor, when roused up by the ap-
proach of night, is it remarkable for activity or
alertness. Its fur is soft, fine, and woolly ; the pre-
dominating tint is greyish brown, passing into a
yellowish-grey on the shouldei's ; the tail is covered
with long black fur, excepting along a line on the
under side at the tip, which is naked. It is a native
of New South Wales, and also of Van Diemen's
Land, where it is common. The tint of colouring
is subject to considerable variation as respects
intensity, intermediate shades being observable
between the ordinary grey specimens and the Sooty
Tapoa, which is regarded as a distinct species. The
native name of the Vulpine Phalanger, according to
White, is JVha tapoa roo.
86. — The Spotted Couscous
(Cuscus maculatus. Cuscus Amboinensis, Lac^-p. ;
Phalangista maculata, Geoffr.). This species is a
native of the Islands of Amboina and New Guinea,
where it is called Couscous or Coiiscoes. M. Lesson
found it at Waigiou, where it is called Scham-scham.
It is arboreal, and its flesh is in request, being
esteemed as delicate food by the natives. In
colouring this animal is subject to much variation ;
generally the ground-tint is whitish, ornamented
with isolated brown spots ; these sometimes blend or
run into each other. The fur is thick and woolly.
87. — The Squirrel Petaurus
(Petaurus sciureus). This creature belongs to a
group of beautiful animals, bearing the same rela-
tionship to the phalangers that the flying squinels
do to the ordinary squirrels. They constitute the
genus Petaurus, subdivided into three minor sections,
according to certain modiflcations of dentition. In
the section termed Belideus to which the Squiirel
Petaurus belongs the dental formula stands thus
(see fig. 88) :
6.1-1
Dental formula : — Incisors, - ; camnes, — - ;
3 _3 4 4
false molars, ^—. ; true molars, t^ = ^
In the figure of the teeth, from F. Cuvier, the
number of lower molar teeth (false and tme) only
amounts to five on each side ; in other points also
he is erroneous.
The Petauri, or Flying Phalangers, are characterized
by a broad expansion of skin on either side of the
body between the anterior and posterior limbs ; the
tail is free, long, and destitute of prehensile power ;
it forms a balancer to the body in the flying leaps
which these animals take, and perhaps assists them
in modifying the direction of their career. Tliese
animals are nocturnal in their habits, and feed upon
fruit, leaves, and insects. During the day they con-
ceal themselves in hollow trees, and are said gene-
rally to associate in small flocks. Their aerial
evolutions, when the shades of evening have rouseu
them to activity, are described as b^ing peculiarly
07«— Sqoiml Fetanmi.
;:^ri
?s>
^^
\
'^^'^^^^Ciacszs^
84.— Teeth of Sooty Tapn.
SS.^TmUi oI (Hjtiiricl ]V*t<tinu>
20
!^«,a^£_^ l«g)g()^^
81.— Teeth of Kinguuu l!*t.
8t -SkuU of Kuguoo Ra^
80 — Kangaroo Bi*.
B^l^j? yL( *1_V,.. VtlVi y
"fe^
1
}
-y
79.— Teeth of Great Kaniraroo
1
JX o?--/^
/
(4._OrnItliorhynchu».
»1.— Teeth of Wombat*
21
22
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Opossums.
grweful, and their leaps apparently desperate. The
S<iuirrel Pelannis is one of the most beautiful of the
genus. It is a native of New South Wales, and is
called by the colonists the Sugar Sqmrrel and
Norfolk ItUitut flying Squirrel. We have seen
two of these animals in captivity : during the day
they remained in a state of torpidity, rolled up in a
bed of wool and soft hav. At ni§:hl they became
animated, and traversed their cajje with gna.i rapi-
dity, leaping from one part to another, and gambol-
ling in the exuberance of a sportive disposition.
At the same time they were timid and by no means
remarkable for intelligeiue. While leaping, the
lateral membranes are exjuinded so as to form a
parachute. The following; anecdote serves to prove
both the daring extent of the leaps taken by these
animals, and the power they certainly posses.s of
turning or altering their course : — " On board a
Teasel sailing off the coast of New Holland was a
Squirrel Petaunis, which was permitted to roam
about the ship. On one occasion it reached the
mast-head, and as the sailor who was dispatched to
bring it down approached, it made a spring from
aloft to avoid him. At this moment the ship gave
a heavy lureh, which, if the original direction of
(he little creature's course had been continued, must
have plunged it into the sea. All who witnessed the
scene were in pain for its safety ; but it suddenly
appeared to check itself, and so to modify its career,
that it alighted safely on the deck."
The Squirrel Petaums is about 8 inches long in
the head and body, and as much in the tail. The fur
IS peculiarly delicate and solt ; the general colour
above is fine grey, somewhat darker on the head,
and white beneath. A black line passes from the
point of the nose along the back towai-ds the full
rutred tail ; and the lateral folds of skin are bounded
in front, and on the sides by a similar band, which
confounds itself gradually with the grey of the
body : the outer margins of these expansions are
fringed with white. The thumbs of the hind feet
are strong, distinctly opposable to the sole, and des-
titute of a claw. The eyes are full and large.
89. — The Koala,
Phascolarcioi cinereus (Lipurus cinereus, Goldf. ;
Phase. fuscus, Desmar. ; Phoic. Flindertii, Less.;
The Ashy Koala).
The Koala, or Ashy Koala, is the only species of
the genus which has been discovered.
This extraordinary animal is thick and stoutly
made, with robust limbs and powerful claws : there
is no tail. The head is large, the muzzle blunt, and
the naked space in which the nostrils are situated is
continued along the nasal bones, till it nearly attains
the level of the eyes. The ears are large, standing
out from the sides of the head, and tufted w ith long
full fur: the eyes are small. The fore feet have
each five toes, armed with large sharp claws : these
toes are divided into two sets ; the first two forming
a pair by themselves, and antagonizing with the
other three. The hind feet have also five toes, viz.,
a large and powerful thumb destitute of a nail, and
well padded beneath, and four strongly clawed toes,
of which the two firet, as in the phalangere, are
united together as far as the last joint. It may be
here remarked that in some of the phalangers (as
Cook's phalanger, &c.) there is a decided tendency
In the iiret two lingers of the fore paws to remain
distinct and separate from the rest. The dentition
approaches closely to that of the phalangers.
6 1-1
Dental formula: — incisors, -^; canines,
false molars.
1-1
1-1'
0-0'
, 4-4
true molars, z — -. = 30.
4—4
The Koala is a native of New South W^ales, but
does not appear to be very abundant ; at least it
is seldom seen in collections of natural objects from
that country. In its habits it is nocturnal and arbo-
real ; it climbs with great facility, and in passing
along the branches suspends itself like a sloth by
its claws, which in adults are very powerful. The
female carries heryounjj one, when able to leave the
pouch, clinging to her back, and long continues her
care of it. The Koala however does not live exclu-
sively on the trees: it visits the ground, and there
burrows, and that with facility. In the cold season
it is said to make a nest in its underground retreat,
and retiring to it there to lie dormant. Its food is
entirely vegetable, and consists, in part at least, of
the young leaves of the gum-trees {Eucalyptus).
It laps like a dog when drinking, and uses its fore
paws in laying hold of the branches while it feeds.
Its voice IS a soft barking sound. On the ground
Its gait resembles that of a bear. Length of head
and body, about 26 inches. The fur is compact,
wjolly, and of an ashy grey, patched with white
over the crupper : the inside of the thighs is rusty-
The colonists term this animal native bear or
luonkey. By the Yas natives it is called goiibtin.
90. — The Wombat
{Phatcolomyt H'ombal, Peron and Lesueur ; Didel-
phit ursina, Shaw.)
The Wombat is the only known ipecies of the
genus to which it belongs. It is found in New
South Wales, South Australia, and Van Diemen's
Land, as well as in some of the islands in Bass's
Straits.
In its general figure this animal is heavy and
clumsy : the limbs are short ; the muzzle blunt ; the
eyes very small ; the ears short and pointed ; the
nostrils widely separated ; the tail a mere tubercle.
The feet are broad ; the lore feet have five toes with
strong nails for burrowing. The hind feet have also
five toes, but the inner is merely a little nailless
tubercle. The teeth are formed lor grinding roots
and other vegetable matters. (Fig. 91.)
Dental formula : — incisors, — ; canines, - — -^ ; mo-
5 — 5
lars, g— ^ - 24. All the teeth are deeply implanted,
and hollow at the base.
The fur is moderately long and very coarse, indeed
almost bristly ; the general tint is gnzzled-brown, or
grey mottled with dusky black ; the feet are black ;
the under parts of the body dirty white. The tip of
the muzzle is naked. Length of head and body,
upwards of three feet. The first account is in
Lieut.-Col. Collins's work (' Account of the English
Colony in New South Wales,' 1802), where there is
an excellent description, an error as regards the den-
tition of the animal excepted. The details were
furnished by Mr. Bass, and drawn up from a speci-
men obtained at Preservation Island, and sent to the
Newcastle museum.
As might be conjectured from its clumsy form and
heavy squat proportions, the Wombat is slow and in-
dolent. It lives in burrows, which it excavates to a
considerable depth, and in which it quietly reposes
during the day, being nocturnal in its habits. Its
food is exclusively vegetable. Its temper is placid ;
but its intelligence is at a low ratio. When pro-
voked it uttei-s a hissing sound. Its flesh is said to
be excellent.
In captivity the Wombat is perfectly contented ;
it passes the day in sleep, covered over by straw or
other materials ; it feeds during the night, and in
the morning resumes its tranquil slumber. Mr. G.
Bennett, in his ' Wanderings,' notices one of these
animals which was kept at Been, in the Tumat
country, in a state of domestication. " It would re-
main in its habitation till dark ; it would then come
out and seek for the milk-vessels, and should none
be uncovered it would contrive to get of}" the covere,
and bathe itself in the milk, drinking at the same
time. It would also enter the little vegetable gar-
den attached to the station, in search of lettuces, for
which it evinced much partiality. If none could be
found, it would gnaw the cabbage-stalks without
touching the foliage. Although these animals were
numerous in the more distant parts of the colony,
they are diflicult to procure, from the great depth to
which they burrow." According to Mr. Bass,
though its disposition is gentle, yet it bites and is
furious if provoked, and then utters a low cry be-
tween a hissing and a whizzing sound. Mr. Bass
chased one of these animals, and lifted it off the
ground, carrying it for upwards of a mile, without
its exhibiting any discomposure, though it was
often shifted from arm to arm. When however he
proceeded to secure the animal by tying its legs,
while he left it in order to cut a specimen of a new
wood, it became initated, whizzed, kicked, and
scratched with all its might, and snapped off a piece
of Mr. Bass's jacket with its powerful incisors. The
creature, whose temper was now ruffled, continued
during all the rest of the way to the boat to kick
and struggle, and only ceased from exhaustion. Ac-
cording to the natives, the Wombat among the
mountains westward of Port Jackson never comes
out of its burrow to feed till night, but in the islands
it is seen to feed during all parts of the day. The
stomachs of such as Mr. Bass examined were dis-
tended with coarse wiry grass, but these specimens
were living on the islands ; and as such grass is not
found in the hilly districts of the mainland, he con-
cludes that the animal lives upon the sorts of vege-
table that circumstances present to it._ He observed
this animal on some occasions among the dry ricks
of seaweed thrown up upon the shores, but could
never discover what it was in search of. Its pace
is a sort of hobble, something like the awkward gait
of a bear. There is little doubt but that the Wombat
might easily be naturalized in our island and other
paits of Europe.
92. The Echidna, or Porcupine Anteater
{Echidna Histrir. Myrmecophagaaculeata, Shaw ;
the Hedgehog of the colonists at Sydney). Tiie
Echidna constitutes the only known example of the
genus which it represents. It is characterised by
the utter want of teeth. The body is stout ; the
liml)8 are extremely short and thick ; the fore-paws
are compact, and the toes undivided to the claws ;
these are five in number, lar^e, flat, and blunt ; the
inner claw is the smallest. The hind-feet are
directed obliquely backwards, and are furnished
with five claws, of which the first is short, and rises
like a thumb at the junction of the foot to the limb.
The hind limbs of the male are furnished with a
sharp stout spur, situated internally on the tarsus.
The head is small, the muzzle elongated into a pro-
jecting narrow, beak-like snout, cleft transversely
by a very small mouth at the apex. Tlie nostrils
are above the mouth, minute and oval. The eyes
are small and placed low on the sides of the head ;
the iris is blue. There are no external ears. The
upper surt'ace of the body and also of the short stout
tail is covered by a compact mass of thick sharp
spines more or less intermingled with coarse haii-s.
Under ordinary circumstances these spines are
directed backwards, converging obliquely to a cen-
tral line down the back ; but they are capable of
being elevated, and when attacked the animal rolls
itself up like Ihe hedgehog, presenting at all points
an array of levelled spears.
The limbs and under surface we covered with
brown hairs.
As might be inferred from the strength of its
limbs and size of its claws, the Echidna is a burrow-
ing animal. Its food consists of ants and their
young, which it takes by means of a wormlike
tongue capable of being proliudcd to a great dis-
tance. It appears to be nocturnal in its habits.
Mr. G. Bennett states that the native names of the
Echidna are ' Nickobejan' and ' Jannocumbine.' It
is found in New South Wales, the islands of Bass's
Straits, and in Van Diemen's Land. According to
the writer last quoted, it inhabits the mountain
ranges of Australia, and produces its young in
December. It burrows with great celerity, and
will even work its way under a pretty strong pave-
ment or base of a wall, removing the stones with its
claws. " During these exertions its body is stretched
ir lengthened to an uncommon degree, and appears
very diff'erent from the short plump aspect which
it bears in its undisturbed state."
The Echidna is eaten by the natives, and is said
to taste much like young sucking-pig.
In the ' Proceed. Zool. Soc. Lond.' for 1834, p.
23, will be found the substance of a note from
Lieutenant Breton, respecting an Echidna which
lived with him for some time in New Holland, and
survived part of the voyage to England. The ani
mal was captured by him on the Blue Mountains,
and is now very uncommon in the colony of New
South Wales. He regards it as being, for its size,
the strongest quadruped in existence. It burrows
readily, but he knows not to what depth. Previ-
ous to embarkation it was i'ed on ant-eggs and milk,
and when on board its diet was egg chopped small,
with liver and meat. Its mode of eating was very
curious, the tongue being used at some times like
that of the chameleon, and at others in the manner
in which a mower uses his scythe, the tongue being
laterally curled, and the food, as it were, swept into
the mouth : there seemed to be an adhesive sub-
stance on the tongue by means of which the food
was secured. This individual died suddenly, but
Lieutenant Breton agrees with MM. Quoy and Gai-
mard in the opinion that with a little care and
attention the animal might be brought alive to
Europe.
The skull of the Echidna (see fig. 93) is remark-
able for the convexity of the cranial portion and the
extreme prolongation and tenuity of the maxillaiy
bones. The orbit is bounded by an oval rim, the
lower portion of which consists of the zygomatic
arch. The lower jaw is extremely slender. The
structure of the sternal apparatus is the same as in
the Ornithorhynchus (see fig. 102).
94, 95, 9G, 97. The Ornithorhynchus, or Water-
Mole OF THE Colonists
{Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus, Blumenb. ; Platypun
atiutinus, Shaw ; Mallangong and Tambrtet of the
natives of the borders of the Yas river, Munum-
bidgee, &c.). The genus Ornithorhynchus is per-
haps the most singular of any contained in the class
Mammalia, and certainly one of the most interesting,
especially to the physiologist. It contains those
remarkable creatines (perhaps more than one spe-
cies) furnished with a duck-like beak and webbed
feet, which would seem, even from their external
organization, to partake in some degree of the
nature of a bird — creatures, the first discovery of
which excited the most lively astonishment.
On looking at the Ornithorhynchus we are imme-
diately stnick with the configuration of the head.
Instead of a muzzle gradually continued as we see
in other Mammalia generally, it abruptly assume:,
the appearance of the bill of a duck, being broad.
flat, rounded, and covered with a leathery mem-
brane. The outer surface of the upper mandible is
V>POSSUMS.j
luSeum of animated nature.
23
peyish black ; the palate flesh-coloured ; the under
mandible paler externally. The edges of both are
soft, and tlie lower, which is the shortest and nar-
rowest of the two, has its edge adapted to a depres-
sion under the margin of the upper mandible, which
is also channelled with obliquely transverse furrows,
those however are merely in the leatheiy skin.
There are no horny laminae as in the bill of the
duck. True teeth are wanting ; but on each side in
either mandible there are two horny appendages
without roots ; one on each side is large and tuber-
culous, situated on the base of the mandibles, at the
posterior part of the mouth ; the other forms a long
narrow ridge on the anterior part of the mandible
alonij the edge (see fig. 98). Capacious cheek-
pouches are carried under the skin of the face, from
the inside of the mouth, serving as receptacles for
food. At the base of the beak, separating between it
and the head, there projects a broad loose leathery
flap from each mandible, the use of whiph is probably
to defend the eyes and fur of the head from the
mud in which the animal grubs, duck-like, in quest
of insects. The tongue is short and thick, and
covered with long papillse. The nostrils are two
small orifices situated near the apex of Ihe upper
mandible. The eyes are small, but Inilliant, and
placed rather high in the head. The ears open ex-
ternally by a simple orifice near the external angle
of the eyes, and are capable of being expanded or
closed at pleasure.
The fore feet are largely webbed and divided into
five toes, terminating in strong blunt burrowing
claws. The web which unites the toes is tough and
leathery : it extends considerably beyond the claws,
and would appear at first sight to act as an impedi-
ment to the animal while excavating its long bur-
row. We do not find, however, that this is the
case : it can be folded back at pleasure. The hind
feet are smaller and less powerful than the anterior
pair: they are divided mto five toes armed with
sharp claws and webbed, but the membrane is
not carried out beyond the roots of the claws. The
hind feet are directed backwards as in those of the
seal (see skeleton, fig. 99), and their action is
backwards and outwards. The tarsus of the male
is armed with a large sharp moveable spur turned
backwards and inwards. It is not used as a weapon
of defence, nor are accidental wounds and scratches
made bv it while struggling in a person's hands
attended with ill effects. Formerly this spur was
regarded as poisonous. In the female a rudimen-
tarv spur may be distinguished (see fig. 100).
The body is elongated, low, and depressed ; the
fur is close and fine, and consists of two sorts, an
under-layer of soft, short, waterproof wadding, and
an outer vest of long fine glossy hair, thickly set,
and in many instances assuming a crisped appear-
ance. The tail is strong, broad, flattened, and of
moderate length : it is covered above with longer
and coarser hairs than those of the body, but its
under surface is only scantily furnished. General
colour deep brown ; head and under parts paler ;
a whitish spot in front of each eye ; average length
of head and body, including tail, twenty to twenty-
three inches; beak, about two inches and a half;
tail, four or five inches.
Eissentially aquatic, as is s"<ficiently declared by
its outward structure, the J.iutnorhynchus passes
the active part of its exigence almost exclusively
in the water. The favourite places of resort of
this animal are tranquil parts of rivers with high
steep banks, and abounding in waterweeds, among
which, and in the oozy mud, are the insects, &c. on
which it feeds.
Their burrows fsee fig. 101) are excavated in
the steep banks overhanging the tranquil sheets of
water in which they seek their food. These bur-
rows are continued in a serpentine form, rising as
they proceed, the termination often being at the
distance of fifty feet from the mouth. The entrance
is generally larger than the rest of the passage, but
the termination is again enlarged, so as to be com-
modious for the parents and their offspring. The
female produces from two to four at a birth, and in'
the month of November ^a summer month in Aus-
tralia!. The young at an eariy period (immediately
after birth, and for some time al^erwaicls) are naked
and very small, and their general a.spect is very
unlike that of the fully developed animal. They
are curled round, the head and tail being doubled
on the abdomen ; the skin of the body is thrown
into transverse folds ; the eyes are merely indicated
by the convergence of a few wrinkles on the skin,
which pa.s.ses over these organs, proving that their
development does not take place till a considerable
time after birth, and, together with the helpless
rudimentary condition of the young animal, demon-
rtrating that it is neces.saiily confined for a long
period to the nest in which it is brought foith,
and consequently that it does not and cannot follow,
as has been conjectured, like a duckling just hatched,
lt» parents to the water. The beak is small, soft,
And covered with thin skin '• The margins of the
upper mandibl - are rounded, smooth, tnicK, and
fleshy ; the whole of the under mandible is flexible,
and bends down upon the neck when ttie mouth is
attempted to be opened. The tongue, which in the
adult is lodged far back in the mouth, advances in
the young animal close to the end of the lower
mandible ; all the increase of the jaws beyond the
tip of the tongue, which in the adult gives rise to a
form of the mouth so ill calculated for suction or
application to a flattened surface, is peculiar to
that period, and consecjuently forms no argument
against the fitness of the animal to receive the
mammary secretion at an earlier stage of existence."
(Prof. Owen.)
That the Ornithorhynchus suckles its young, and
possesses a milk-secreting apparatus, are facts
which, though once denied, are now incontestably
proved.
If the hairs be removed from the abdomen of a
female Ornithorhynchus, an areola or oval spot may
be distinguished, consisting of a group of ducts,
very minute, yet with orifices larger than those in
which the hairs are implanted. The areola varies
in extent, and the ducts lead to a large gland be-
neath the skin, and a thin muscular expansion.
This mammary gland is composed of a number of
lobes, amounting from one hundred and twenty to
two hundred, and these are the cells in which the
milk is secreted, and which oozes from the ducts,
and is received by the soft mouth of the young,
which is capable of being closely applied to the
areola.
Specimens of two young Ornithorynchi of different
sizes were minutely examined by Professor Owen.
The smallest of these rather exceeded two inches in
length ; the largest was double that size, and was
one of the two young ones taken with a mother
from a nest, on the banks of the Fish river, by Lieu-
tenant the Honourable Lauderdale Maule, and kept
alive for about a fortnight by that gentleman. The
stomach of this larger specimen was fovind to be full
of coagulated milk. On carefully inspecting the
whole contents with a lens, no portion of worms or
bread could be detected, which, Mr. Owen observes,
solves the doubt entertained by Lieutenant Maule,
as to whefher the mother nourished this young one
with the food which was given to her for her sup-
port, or with the secretion afterwards discovered to
escape from the mammary pores ; for the mother
having been killed by accident on the fourteenth
day after her captivity, it was observed, on skinning
her while yet warm, that milk oozed through the
fur on the stomach. That it was really milk on the
stomach of the young animal. Professor Owen de-
monstrated, and the matter may be considered as
fairly set at rest. Another point which seems to be
now established is that the Ornithorynchus is ovovi-
viparous, or, in other words, produces eggs, which,
as in the case of the viper, and the viviparous lizard
(Zootoca vivipara, Bell), are hatched just before ex-
clusion, the young being born rudimentary and
naked.
Referring to our illustrations, tig. lO.S exhibits
a portion of the integument from the abdomen of
the Ornithorhynchus, with the haire removed, to
show the mammary areola. (Owen, ' Phil. Trans.)
Fig. 104, a magnified view of the mammaiy
areola, showing the orifices of the ducts of the
glandular lobules. Fig. 105 shows the mammaiy
lobular gland of the Ornithorhynchus, reduced be-
low the natural size. (Owen, "'Phil. Trans.') Fig.
106, view of the larger of the specimens of young
Ornithorhynchi alluded to. a, the nostrils; c, the
eyes ; d, the eai-s ; e, the vent ; /, the orifice and
rudimentary spur of the hind foot ; g, membrane at
the base of the mandibles. (Owen, ' Zool. Trans.')
Fig. 107, smaller specimen of young ornithorhyn-
chus, and front view of head, a, nostrils ; b, promi-
nence on upper mandibles ; e, vent ; /, orifice and
rudimentary spur on hind foot ; c, the eyes ; rf, the
ears ; g, the membrane at the base of the man-
dibles ; h. the tongue. (Owen, ' Zool. Trans.')
The ratio in which the development of the young
Ornithorhynchus proceeds is not ascertained.
The Ornithorhynchus has never been brought
alive to Europe. From the account of Mr. Ben-
nett, who procured and kept several in Australia,
it appears to be a lively interesting creature. Its
voice, which it uttere when alarmed or disturbed,
resembles the growl of a puppy, but in a softer
key. It dresses its fur. and seems to delight in
keeping it smooth and clean. (Fig. 96.) The
mandibles are endowed with great sensibility.
Speaking of a family of these creatures which he
obtained, and which lived a considerable time
in captivity, Mr. Bennett says "The young
sleep in various postures; sometimes in an ex-
tended position, and often rolled up, like a hedge-
hog, in the form of a ball. (Fig. 97.) They
formed an interesting group, lying in various atti-
tudes in the box in which I had placed them, and
seeming happy and content. Thus, for instance,
one "lies cuHed up like a dog, keeping its barU warm
with the flattened tail, which is brought over it.
while the other lies stretched on its back, the head
resting, by way of a pillow, on the body of the old
one, which lies on its side, with the back resting
against the box ; the delicate beak, and smooth
clean fin- of the young, contrasting with the rougher
and dirtier appearance of the older one : all fast
asleep." The gambols of the young Ornithorhynchi
are thus detailed : " One evening both the animals
came out about dusk, and went as usual, and ate
food from the saucer, and then commenced playing
with one another like two puppies, attacking with
their mandibles, and raising their fore-paws against
each other. In the straggle one would get thrust
down, and at the moment when the spectator would
expect it to rise again and renew the combat, it
would commence scratching itself, its antagonist
looking on, and waiting for the sport to be renewed.
When running they are exceedingly animated:
their little eves glisten, and the orificesof their ears
contract and dilate with rapidity : if taken into the
hands at this time for examination, they struggle
violently to escape; and their loose integuments
make it difficult to retain them. Their eyes being
placed so high on the head, they do not see objects
well in a sti aight line, and consequently run against
everything in the room during their perambula-
tions, spreading confusion among all the light and
readily-overturnable articles. I have occasionally
seen them elevate the head, as if to regard objects
above or around them. Sometimes I have been
able to enter into play with them by scratching and
tickling them with niy finger: they seemed to en-
joy it exceedingly, opening their mandibles, and
biting playfully at the finger, and moving about like
puppies indulged with similar treatment. As well
as comVjing their fur to clean it when wet, I have
also seen them peck at it with their beak (if the
term may be allowed) as a duck would clean its fear
thers. When I placed them in a pan of deep water,
they weie eager to get out after being there for
only a short time ; but when the water was shallow,
with a turf of grass in one corner, they enjoyed it
exceedingly. They would sport together, attacking
one another with their mandibles, and roll over in
the v.ater in the midst of their gambols, and would
afterwards retire, when tired, to the turf, where they
would lie combing themselves. They appeared to
be in a great measure nocturnal, preferring the twi-
light to the bright glare of day."
In fig. 108, the skull of the Ornithorhynchus is
represented in diff'erent aspects : a, as seen from
above ; b, as seen from below ; c, as seen from be-
hind. The upper figure is that of the under jaw.
The skull is remarkable for the flattened and elon-
gated form of the bones of the facial portion ; the
intermaxillary bones, which are, as it were, let into
projecting maxiliaries, diverge, leaving a vast open-
ing (the foramen incisivura). The cranial cavity is
considerable ; the orl)its are small; the zygomatic
arch slender and compressed. The suborbitar
foramen appears on the edge of the upper mandible,
its situation being marked by a projection of the
bone. The lower-jaw is slender and depressed ;
there are no coronoid processes ; the outer sides of
the ascending rami (though very narrow) have, as
in most, if, indeed, not all the Marsupials, a pit-like
cavity for the lodgment of the masseter muscle.
The extent of the temporal muscle is trifling. The
skull of the Ornithorhynchus can be confounded
with that of no other animal.
With respect to the stenial apparatus to which
we alluded in our account of the Echiana, it appears
to be tbrmed more after the model of that of the
Saurian reptiles, than after that of Mammalia. (See
fig. 102.)
Fossil Marsupials. — Besides the fossil opossum
of the Montmartre gypsum {Didelphys Cuvieri), and
the fossil Dasyurus, Hypsiprymnus, Halmaturus.
Phascolomys, and Kangaroo, from the Australian
bone-caves and breccia, two fossil forms discovered
in the Stonesfield oolite, as evidenced by portions of
the lower jaw, have recently attracted much atten-
tion and no little discussion. Some anatomists, with
M. de Blainville, contend against the Mammal origin
of these relics, or at least of one of the forms ; but
those who have examined the fossils and read the
arguments on either side, will, we think, agree with
Baion Cuvier and Professor Owen, and a-ssign them
to animals of the Marsupial section, which at some
epoch tenanted our quarter of the globe. The jaws
of these extinct Mursupialir, named respectively
Thylacotherium Provostii, Owen (fig. 109), and
Phascolotherium Bucklandii, Owen (fig. 110), are
represented of the natuial size, and also magnified,
in order to show clearly the characters and arifl,nge-
ment of the teeth. Those who wish to enter into
the full details respecting these fossil relics will
do well 10 consult the 'Geological Proceedings,'
1838-9; Cuviers ' Ossemens Foss.," vol. v. : 'Ann.
des Sciences,' 182.T ; and the papers of Mr. Broderip
and Dr. Fitton in the 'Zool. .lournal," 1828.
109. -Jaw of Thylacotheiium.
107.— Soullet ipecimen of young Omithorhynchut
103.— Portion of integomtnt Irom the Alidomen of Omithorhynchui.
Front View of Muidibles of the above
IM.— Mammary Gland nf Omithorhynchoa, reduced below the
natural aiz^.
110.— Jaw of Ph^urolotherinin
24
122.— Orang-Outan.
in^-Sknll of Orang-Outan.
'/6
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
'API
QUADRUMANA.
APES, MONK FAS. LEMURS.
At the head of the Qimdnimanoug order U a jrroup
consisting of the Chimpanzee, the Orane, and the
Gibl)ons, constitutin); three genera; and it is among
the members of these genera that the nearest ana-
tomical approach to the human subject exists ; we
luiy the nearest, for, after all, important and multi-
lu'dinous are the points of difference. Figures 1 1 1,
112, and 113, represent the skeleton of man, of the
chimpanzee, and of the orang. A glance at them
will snow the degree of their mutual resemblance,
and the distance that intervenes between the
osseous structure of the two latter and that of the
human form. We shall not attempt to enter into
minutige; but some of the more important dis-
tinctions may be briefly touched upon. In both
the chimpanzee and the orang we see the arms far
longer than in man : in the former the hands, the
skeleton being erect, reach the knee ; in the latter
they nearly reach the ankle-joint. The propor-
tionate shoi-tnessoi the lower limbs in these animals
is very striking. In the chimpanzee, which is more
fitted for the ground than the orang, the feet, or
rather hind-paws, are broader and shorter in com-
parison, and the thigh bone is secured in the socket
oy means of a straight ligament (the ligamentum
teres ', which is wanting in the orang ; and besides
the orang, in a few quadrupeds only. The differ-
ence in the form of the chest is evident: in the
oranir, as in man, the ribs are twelve on each side ;
but m the chimpanzee they are thirteen, the num-
ber, consequently, of the dorsal vertebrte. In the
orang the backward position of the occipital con-
dyles (on which the skull rests on the spinal
cbluran\ and the weight of the face, which is thus
thrown forward, require a commensurate develoi)-
inent of the spinous processes of the cervical (neck)
vertebrae ; ailded to which, the general anterior in-
clination of the vertebrse themselves renders the
length and robustness of these processes the more
imperative. In the chimpanzee the spinous pro-
cesses, though necessarily developed, are so in a less
degree than in the orang, the anterior inclination
of the cervical vertebrse being less decided, and
the weight of the face less oppressive. In both
animals (and, indeed, in all the ape tribe) the cer-
vical region is shorter than in man, and therefore
better fitted for sustaining the weight of tlie head,
which preponderates anteriorly. In the front view
of the orang, the neck cannot be seen. The length
of the forehead, and the proportionate shortness of
the thumb, are marked characters. The difference
in the form of the pelvis between these animals and
man is obvious. The narrowness of the 06 sacrum,
and the deficiency in expansion of the iliac bones,
are not to be overlooked. With the expansion of
the pelvis is connected the development of the
lower limbs in man, to whom alone, of all animals,
the erect attitude is easy and natural. The magni-
tude and position of the skull, the stnicture of the
spinal column, the osseous and muscular development
of the pelvis and lower limbs, necessitate such an atti-
tude. One advantage gained by this arrangement is
the perfect freedom of the superior extremities, the
lower limbs being the sole organs of progression.
In the oiang and chimpanzee all four extremities
are organs of locomotion : the chimpanzee, it is true,
can proceed on the ground, supported, or rather
balanced, on the lower extremities, calling the supe-
rior only occasionally into use, except in as far as
they are needed to maintain the equilibrium of the
bo<ly ; but man walks with a free step, with his
arm's at liberty, and with a precision very remote
from tlie vacillating hobble of the tottering chim-
panzee.
Figures 114, 115, 116, and 117 are respectively
repi esentations, first, of a well-developed human
skull ; secondly, of the skull of a human idiot ; thirdly,
of the chimpanzee (female') ; fourthly, of the orang.
The contrast between the first and the two last is
vei-y striking ; but that even of the idiot possesses
those characters which at once proclaim it as be-
longing to the human species. Professor Owen has
well observed, that though " in the human subject
the cranium varies in its relative proportions to the
lace in different tribes, according to the degree of
civilization and cerebral development which they
attain, and that though in '.lie more debased
/lithiopian varieties and Papuans the skull makes
some approximation to tlie QuaiHimanous propoi-
tions, still in these cases, as well as when the cra-
nium is distorted by artificial means or by con-
genital malformation, it is always accompanied by
a form of the jaws, and by the disposition and pro-
portions of the teeth, which afford unfailing and im-
passable generic distinctions between man and the
ape. To place this proposition in the most unex-
ceptionable light, I have selected the cranium of a
human idiot {\\o\ in whom nature may be said to
have performed tor us the experiment of arrestinir
the development of the biain, almost exactly at the
size which it attains in the chimpanzee, and when*
the intellectual faculties were scarcely more de-
veloped ; yet no anatomist would hesitate in at
once referring this cranium to the human species.
A detailed comparison with the cranium of the i
chimpanzee or orang shows that all those characters |
are retained in the idiot's skull which constitute |
the differential features of the human stnicture." |
We refer those who wish to investigate the anatomy |
of the orang and chimpanzee to Professor Owen s
papers in the 'Trans. Zool. Soc.' and the 'Proceed-
ings of the Zool. Soc'
With regartl to the external characters of the
chimpanzee, the orang, and the gibbons, it may be
remarked that they agree in the total absence of a
tail, and cheek-pouches, and in the extraordinary
length of the anterior extremities compared with
the posterior. In some few points the orangs and
gibbons agree with each other the nearest, namely,
in the presence of extensive laryngal sacculi, in the
extreme length of the anterior extremities, and in
the narrowness of the hands and feet, but not in
general anatomical stnicture, aspect, or clothing.
A small round head, a compressed face, a narrow
under jaw, deep woolly fur, and ischiatic callosities,
distinguish the gibbons, both from the orang and
the chimpanzee. On the other hand, the orang and
chimpanzee are less immediately related than
Cuvier seems to have considered them. In most
respects the chimpanzee approaches more nearly
the type of the human structure, and particularly in
the presence of a pendulous uvula at the bacl» of
the palate, which is wanting in the orang, and in
the structure of the laiynx, in which the laryngal
sacs are not developed, as in the orang, but are pro-
duced into a cavity of the os hyoides. Still, how-
ever, the chimpanzee and the orang are more closely
related to each other than the gibbons are to the
latter. They are, moreover, the representatives of
each other in their respective portions of the globe ;
the one tenanting the secluded depths of the forests
in Western Africa, the other the recesses of the
still denser forests of Borneo and Sumatra.
118, 119, 120, 121. The Chimpanzee
(Pan go and Engeco, Battel, in Purchases ' Pilgrims ;'
Barijs, Bans, and Quojas Morrou of Barbot, Dapper,
&c. ; Smitten, Bosman; Pot'gn, Buffon; Pongn,
or Great Black Orang, Shaw ; Jocko, Audebert ;
Chimpanzee, Scotin's print, 1738; Troglodytes,
Homo nocturnus, Linnaeus; Troglodytes ntger,
Desmarest). The characters of the genus Troglo-
dytes may be thus summed up : — muzzle long, and
truncated anteriorly; supraorbital ridges promi-
nent ; forehead depressed ; no cranial ridges ; facial
angle .35°; external ears large and standing out;
tail wanting ; arms reaching below the knee-joint ;
feet wide, the thumb extending to the second joint
of the adjoining toe, and always furnished with a
nail. Canines large, overpassing each other, their
points being lodged respectively in intei-vals of the
opposite teeth; intermaxillary bones anchylosed to
the maxillaries during the first dentition ; ribs,
thirteen paii-s; no cheek-pouches; laryngal sac-
culi, small.
The Chimpanzee is a native of Western Africa,
to the extent of ten or twelve degrees north and
as much south of the torrid zone, including Guinea,
Benin, Congo, Angola, &c. In some districts it
appears to be common, and Bowdich ('Mission
from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee :' Loud.,
1819) informs us that at Gaboon, where it is
by no means rare, it was known to the natives
under the name of Inchego and Ingeno. From
the negroes he also learned that the adults gene-
rally attain to the height of five feet, the breadth
of the shoulders being very great, and their
strength enormous. A female adult skeleton which
we measured stood only three feet ten inches ; but
the males most probably are larger. The hand of
an adult, preserved in spirits of wine, measured nine
inches and a half in length, and three inches and
four lines in breadth, across the palm. The chim-
panzee, the orang, and even the mandrill, have been
strangely confounded together in the works of our
older travellei-s, and even naturalists have regarded
the two former as identical. Tulpius adopted the
term Quojas Morion, used by Barbot ('Descr. of
Guinea"), and Dapper ('Descr. of Africa") also calls
the chimpanzee the Satyre of Angola, but he con-
founded the orang of the Indian Islands with the
chimpanzee, and fiirured as the latter an orang which
was biOMght from Borneo, and presented to Fre-
deric Henry, Prince of Orange, 1777.
Buffon, who adopted the terms Pongo and Jocko
(l"iom pongo, inchego, engoco, or cnjocko), in his
great work (175(i', eives an imperfect sketch of a
living young chimpanzee which he saw at Paris in
the year 1740. and which was taken in Gaboon.
At that time Buffon was not awareof any distinction
between the African and the Indian animals. In
the supplement (vol. vii.) the two are, however, dis-
tinguished. Tc the Ai'iiciii chinipaniee the name
•-.f Pongo ii appropriated, and to the Indian orang
that of Jocko. Shaw describes " the Pongo, or irreat
black orang-otan,"" as a native of Afri>^a, and tne
" reddish-brown or chestnut oran-otan, called the
Jocko," as a native of Borneo and the other Indian
islands. With regard to the Smitten. Bairis, Bocgo,
&c., and which have been applied by the early tra-
vellers apparently to the chimpanzee, there is every
reason to believe that they really refer to the man-
drill.
Mr. Ogilby was the first to point out that the •
chimpanzee is, as it would seem, alluded to in a
work of great antiquity — the ' Periplus Hannonis."*
It appears that a Carthaginian navigator named
Hanno (a.c. "KK), or about that period", sent on an
expedition of discovery, coasted Western Africa,
and sailed from Gades to the island of Cerne in
twelve days; and thence, following the coast, he ar-
rived, in seventeen days, at a promontory called the
West Horn. Thence, skirting a burning shore, he
arrived in three days at the South Horn, and found
an island inhabited by what were regarded as wild
men, called by the interpreters Gorilloi, who were
covered with long black hair, and who fled for re-
fuire to the mountains, and defended themselves
with stones. With some difficulty three females
were captured, the males having escaped ; but so
desperately did they fight, biting and tearing, that
it was found necessary to kill them. Their pre-
served skins were canied by Hanno to Carthage,
and hung up in one of the temples as consecrated
trophies of his expedition. From this time till the
sixteenth century of our era we hear nothing of the
chimpanzee ; for the western coast of Africa was,
as it may be said, re-discovered only in the fifteenth
century.
One of the most trustworthy of our earlier tra-
vellers, Andrew Battel, a sailor, who was taken pri-
soner in 1589, and lived many years in Congo i Pnr-
chas's 'Pilgrims'), describes two animals, the Pongc
and the Engeco, the former as high and stouter than
a man, the latter being much less. The Pongo,
which is doubtless the chimpanzee, he describes a*
having sunken eyes, long hair on the sides of the
head, a naked face, ears, and hands, and the body
slisrhtly covered. The limbs differed from those of
man, being destitute of calves, but the animal
walked upright. In its disposition it is stated to be
grave and melancholy, and even when young far
from frolicksome ; at the same time it is swift and
agile, and is sometimes known to carry away young
negroes. He further states that these animals con-
structed arboure in which they slept. Their diet
consisted of fniits, nuts, &c. ; and their muscular
strength is such that ten men .vere unable to over-
come one. Upon the death of one of their com-
munity, the survivoi-s cover the body with leaves
and branches of trees.
Bosman, Froger, De la Brosse, and others describe
the chimpanzee as living in troops, which resist the
attacks of wild beasts, and even drive the elephant
from their haunts. They possess matchless strength
and courage, and it is very dangerous for single in-
dividuals to pass near their places of abode. Bos-
man states that on one occasion a number of them
attacked, ovei-powered, and were proceeding to poke
out the eyes of two slaves, when a party of negroes
arrived to their rescue. That they surprise and
carry away the negresses into the woods, and there
detain them sometimes for years, is asserted by all,
and an instance came under the personal notice oi
De la Brosse. Captain Paine was assured that simi-
lar instances happen in Gaboon. De la Brosse says
they build huts, and ami themselves with clubs,
and that they walk either upon two feet or four, as
occasion may require.
Lieutenant Matthews, R.N., who resided at Sierra
Leone during the years 178.5-6-7, and whose letters
describing this part of Africa appeared in 1788, in-
forms us that the " chimpanzees,"" or "japanzees,"'are
social animals ; and that " they generally take up
their abode near some deserted town or village
where the papau-tree grows in abundance, of the
fruit of which they are veiy fond. They build huta
nearly in the form in which the natives build their
houses, which thev cover with leaves; but these are
only for the females and young to lie in ; the males
always lie on the outside. If one of them is shot,
the rest immediately pursue the destroyer of their
friend, and the only means to escape their vengeance
is to part with vour gun, which they directly
seize upon with afl the rage imaginable, tear it to
pieces, and irive over the pui'suit." The terrestrial
habits of the chimpanzee are confirmed by other
observers.
Lieutenant Henry K. Sayers, who in 18.39 brought
a young Chimpanzee to England, whicli he hatl
procured in the Bullom country, the mother having
* Tlie (iriijinal, nf wliich only a fir»'ek trnni.Ution is ext.int, wai
nrilt^m in I'unic hy llumio.and i. a narrative uf a vny i^e he madt,
hy uriler oftlie CartliKi.'iniau S'nate. nloni; Oie Afiican coiiiit. foi tlw
estabUtitimoni of enliMiies Many celetirat<-d mtn of tlw name of
Hanno have Itveil at iliirerent time«: hnt who the Hanno in f|iieiitioc,
was- an<l what was llie exaet Uau- ul'liin vo\aue. are not a»n-naiDi.ii
A.PE9.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
2r
been shot, states that " trees are ascended by the
chimpanzees (as he is led to conclude) only for
food and observation." From the natives he learned
that " they do not reach their full growth till be-
•ween nine and ten years of age, vtfhich, if true,
nrings them extremely near the human species, as
the boy or girl of West Africa, at thirteen or four-
teen years old, is quite as much a man or woman
as those of nineteen or twenty in our more northern
clime. Their height, when full grown, is said to be
between four or tive feet; indeed I was credibly
informed that a male chimpanzee, which had been
shot in the neighbourhood and brought into Free
Town, measured four feet five inches in length, and
was so heavy as to form a very fair load for two
men, who canned him on a pole between them.
The natives say that in their wild state their strength
is enonnous, and that they have seen them snap
boughs otf the trees with the greatest apparent
ease, which the united strength of two men could
scarcely bend. The chimpanzee is, without doubt,
to be found in all the countries from the banlcs of
the Gambia in the north to the kingdom of Congo
in the south, as the natives of all the intermediate
parts seem to be perfectly acquainted with them.
From my own experience I can state that the low
shores of the Bullora country, situated on the
northern shores of the river Sierra Leone, are in-
fested by them in numbers quite equal to the com-
monest "species of monkey. I consider these ani-
mals to be gregarious, for when visiting the rice
farms of the chief Dalla Mohammadoo, on the Bul-
lom shore, their cries plainly indicated the vicinity
of a troop, as the noise heard could not have been
produced by less than eight or ten of them. The
natives also affirmed that they always travel in
strong bodies, armed with sticks, which they use
with much dexterity. They are exceedingly watch-
ful, and the first one who discovers the approach of
a stranger utters a protracted cry, much resembling
that of a human being in the greatest distress. The
first time I heard it I was much startled ; the ani-
mal was apparently not more than thirty paces dis-
tant, but had it been bvA five I could not have seen
it from the tangled nature of the jungle, and I cer-
tainly conceived that such sounds could only have
proceeded from a human being who hoped to gain
assistance by his cries from some terrible and instant
death. The native who was with me laid his hand
upon my shoulder, and pointing suspiciously to the
bush, said, ' Massa, Baboo live there,' and in a few
minutes the wood appeared alive with them, their
ones resembling the barking of dogs. My guide
informed me that the cry first heard was to intorm
the troop of my approach, and that they would all
immediately leave the trees or any exalted situation
that might expose them to view, and seek the bush;
he also showed evident fear, and entreated me not
to proceed any farther in that direction. The
plantations of bananas, papaws, and plantains,
which the natives usually intermix with their rice,
constituting the favourite food of the chimpanzees,
accounts for their being so frequent in the neigh-
bourhood of rice-fields; The difficulty of procunng
live specimens of this genus arises pnncipally, I
should say, from the superstitions of the natives
concerning them, who believe they possess the
power of ' witching.'
" There are authors who have, I believe, affirmed
that some of the natives on the western coast term
these animals in their language ' Pongos ;' but I
beg leave to differ with them as to ' Pongos ' being
a native term. The Portuguese formeriy monopo-
lized the trade of the coast, and had large posses-
sions there, as well as in the East Indies, most of
the capes, rivers, &c. bearing the names they gave
them to this day. Now ' Pongos ' 1 look upon to
be a Portuguese East Indian term for a tailless
monkey, and in consequence of their discovering a
river in Africa the banks of which were inhabited
by va.st numbers of this species, they called it ' Rio
Pongos,' a name which it bears still. This I con-
ceive to be the origin of the term, whilst on the
coast I observed that all the natives in the neigh-
bourhood of Sierra Leone, when speaking of this
animal, invariably called him ' Baboo,' a corniption,
I should suppose; of our term Baboon." (' Proceed.
Zool. Soc.,' ISjg.) , , .
Within the last few years several young chim-
panzees have been brought to this country, but
none have long survived. Their human-like appear-
ance, their intelligence and confiding manners,
together with their activity, have attracted great
interest and given rise to many narrations. Figs.
121 and 124 were taken from an individual which
lived in the menagerie of the Zoological Society
from September, la3.5, to September, 1836. Its
docility and gentleness were remarkable ; but it is
v»ell known that the gentleness which characterises
the young of all the ape tribe gives place, as matu-
rity advances, to " unteachable obstinacy and un-
Umeable ferocity ;" and from what we know of the
Chimpanzee in its wiM state, we have reason to
conclude that the young, however docile they are,
would become savage and distrustful as they grew
up, even in captivity, and thus form no exception
to the role. 'The following description was taken
from the young individual alluded to : —
General figure short and stout; chest broad;
shoulders square; abdomen protuberant; forehead
retreating behind the supraorbital ridge, the cra-
nium otherwise well developed ; nose flat ; nostrils
divided by a very thin septum; lips extremely
mobile, and traversed by vertical wrinkles; ears
large, naked, and prominent ; eyes lively, deep-set,
and chestnut coloured ; neck short : arms slender,
but muscular, and reaching, when the animal
stands erect as possible, just below the knee : all
the four hands well developed, with opposable
thumbs ; the nails human-like ; the hair moderately
coarse and straight, longest and fullest on the head,
down the back, and on the arms, thin on the chest
and abdomen ; on the fore-arm it is reverted to the
elbow; backs of hands naked to the wrist; muzzle
sprinkled with short white hairs ; skin of the face
dusky black; ears and palms tinged with a pur-
plish hue ; hair glossy black : total height, two feet.
The lower limbs are less decidedly organized for
arboreal habits than in the orang ; but their tournure
is obliquely inwards, the knees being bowed out,
but the soles of the feet are capable of being applied
fairly to the ground. It rons about with a hobbling
gait, but very quickly, generally assisting itself by
resting the knuckles of the two first fingers of the
hand on the ground, to do which it stoops its shoul-
ders forwards: it can, however, and does walk fre-
quently upright. Its pace is a sort of waddle, and
not performed as in man, by a series of steps in
which the ankle-joint is brought into play at each
successive step, the heel being elevated' and the
body resting on the toes ; on the contrary, the foot
is raised at once and set down at once, in a
thoroughly plantigrade manner, as in stamping,
which indeed is an action it often exhibits, first
with one foot, then with the other. It grasps with
its feet, which are broad and strong, with astonish-
ing firmness, and has been seen, while resting on a
perch, to throw itself completely backwards, and,
without using its hairls. raise itself again into its
previous position, a leal requiring both great power
and agility.
In the mutilated skin of an adult we found grey i
hail's mixed with the black, especially on the lower
part of the back, the haunches, and thighs, these
parts having a grizzled appearance.
122, 123, 124, 12.5, 126.— The ORANG-ouTA>f
(Pithecus Satyrus, Geoffr.). So different are the
characters, dependent upon age, which the Orang-
outan assumes at different periods of its growth, and
so much in many respects do the males diifer from
the females, that no little confusion has arisen ; and
the young, which is the Simla Satyrus of Linnaeus,
has only recently been proved to be identical with
the Asiatic Pongo (this word is now restricted to
the orang) ; the latter, as Cuvier suspected, and
indeed asserted, and as Professor Owen has proved,
being the adult. (See Trans. Zool. Soc, voj. i.,
' Osteology of Chimpanzee and Orang.')
The difference which the skull assumes in figure,
and the relative proportions of the cranial and
facial parts, during the transition from youth to
maturity, is indeed extraordinary ; and so great is
the amount of variation ultimately, that the errors
of naturalists who had no opportunities of examin-
ing a series of crania, of different ages, up to matu-
rity, may well be pardoned. Fig. 1 17 is the skull
of an aclult orang, remarkable for the development
of the facial portion, the breadth and strength of the
lower jaw, the deep cranial ridges, or crests, the
contraction of the forehead, and the flattening of the
occiput ; the strength of the teeth, and the enor-
mous size of the canines. Totally different is the
general form and appearance of the skull of the
young.
In Borneo there are two species of orang ; one of
large size, and dreaded by the natives {Pithecus
Wormbii, or Pongo Wormbii), the other of small
size, recently characterized by Professor Owen from
a skull. This species (Pithecus Morio) has been
subsequently verified. It is timid and gentle.
It would appear that a distinct species, of large
size, distinct from the great Bornean orang, exists
in Sumatra. Some naturalists, it is true, are dis-
posed to regard the Bornean and Sumatran large
orangs as identical, and it must be allowed that
some difficulty exists which remains to be cleared
up. Professor Owen has pointed out certain diffe-
rences in the contour of their respective shells,
which seem to justify those who contend for a dis-
tinction of species. In the adult male Bornean
orang (fig. 125) there are huge callosities, or pro-
tuberances of callous flesh on the cheek-bones,
giving a strange aspect to the countenance, and
which are presumed to be absent in the Sumatran
orang {Pithecus Abellii^. They are certainly not
depicted in Dr. Abel's figure of the head Of the
adult Sumatran orang (fig. 127) ; still, as figures are
often faulty, and the adult male Sumatran animal
remains to be examined, the point is undecided.
With respect to difference of colour, little stress can
be laid upon it : the Sumatran species is said ic
be of a much lighter colour than the Bornean ; bin
all the Bornean orangs we have examined (and
those not a few) have been of a chestnut colour, oi
■bright sandy rufous passing into a chestnut on the
back, and scarcely, if at all, darker than the Suma-
tran adult female in the collection of the Zoological
Society.
The Sumatran animal is said to exceed the Bor-
nean in stature. According to Dr. Abel the male
orang killed at llamboon on the north-west coast
of Sumatra exceeded seven feet in stature — a singu-
lar exaggeration, as is now allowed. .In the span of
the arms and hands, this animal, he states, measured
8 feet 2 inches ; and in the length of the foot, 14
inches. Now in the specimen of a Sumatran female
in the collection of the Zoological Society, which
could not have stood higher than 3 feet 6 inches,
the span of the arms and hands is 7 feet 2 inches,
and the length of the foot 10 inches and a half.
That the Sumatran orang does not exceed the Bor-
nean may therefore be safely concluded. The
largest Bornean male orang, an adult, with large
facial callosities, which we ever examined measured
4 feet 6 inches from head to heel ; but Temminck, in
his monograph of the genus, says, "Our travellei-s in-
form us by letters from Bangarmasing, in the island
of Borneo, that they have lecently procured oiangs
of 5 feet 3 inches in height, Fjench measure " (5
feet 9 inches English;. In both the Bornean and
Sumatran specimens the ungueal or nail-bearing
phalanx of the hind thumb is sometimes absent,
sometimes present, in both sexes; sometimes it is
present on one foot, and wanting on the other.
Description of a nearly adult male orang from
Borneo, in the Paris Museum : — The head is large,
the forehead naked, retiring and flat ; large fleshy
callosities in the form of somewhat crescentic ridges
occupy the malar bones, extending from the tem-
ples and giving a singular and even hideous expies-
sion to the physiognomy. The eyes are small and
set closely together; the nose is depressed; the
septum of the nostrils thin, and carried outto blend
with the skins of the upper lip; the nostrils are
oblique ; the lips are thick and fleshy, and the
upper one is furnished with scanty moustaches ; the
chin is furnished with a long and peaked beard.
The hair is very long and thick on the back, shoul-
ders, arms, and legs ; very scanty on the chest, ab-
domen, and inside of the thighs; the hair of the
fore-arms is reverted to the elbows ; the hair of the
head is directed forwards from a common centre of
radiation on the back of the neck, or rather between
the shoulders. The contour of the body is heavy,
thick, and ill-shapen; the arms with the hands
reach to the heel ; the thumbs of the hind feet are
nailless ; the general colour is deep chestnut. Total
height, 3 feet 8 inches. Breadth of face across the
callosities, 9 inches.
The organization of the orang (we refer to both
Bornean and Sumatran animals) fits him almost ex-
clusively lor arboreal habits : on the ground his
progression is more awkward than that of the Chim-
panzee ; for the abbreviation of the posterior limbs,
their inward tournure, their pliancy, owing to tlie
absence of the ligamentum teres of the hip-joint,
and the mode of treading, not upon the sole, but the
outer edge of the foot, tend all to his disadvantage.
Among the trees, however, the case is reversed. In
the mighty forests of his native climates he is free
and unembarrassed, though by no means rajiid in
his movements : there, the vast reach of his sinewy
arms enables him to seize branches at an apparently
hopeless distance ; and by the powerful grasp of his
hands or feet he swings himself along. In ascend-
ing a tall tree, the inward tournure of the legs and
ankle-joints, and the freedom of the hip-joint, facili-
tate the application of the grasping foot, as is well
depicted in figure 124, a sketch taken from a
living subject. The length and narrowness of the
hands and feet render them hook-like in character:
while the short thumbs, set as far back toward the
wrist as possible, act as a fulcrum against the pres-
sure of the fingers while grasping the branch to
which the animal is clinging.
The difference between the human foot and that
of the orang (fig. 128) is very marked ; the arrange-
ment of the bones, muscles, and muscular tendons
being modified in each for a different purpose.
Yet theie have been men of learning who have
contended that in the coui-se of time, by use, the
foot of the orang might assume the form and pro
portions of the human, and the human that of the
orang. Such opinions are beneath criticism.
The physiognomy of the orang is grave, melan-
choly, and even apathetic, but in adults not unac-
companied by an expression of ferocity ; the huge
fleshy callosities on tlie sides of the luce adding an
E2 '
ISO,— C3iiinpanzee.
123.— Oraug-Outan*.
IDT.— Hmd ot Adult Sonutnn Onng.
128.— Fool of Man and of Orang-OnUn.
IS4.~FeiQale Oraiv-Outan.
^^-:z~
ISU— Chimpanzee.
28
126.— Oran;,'-Outan.
125.— Adult Male Bornean Oran^-Outan.
:2«.— Orang-Outan of the Zoological Society.
131.— Agile Gibbon.
29
30
air of bnitish irt>ssness. The head lean* forward
on the chest, the neck is short ; and loose folded
skin hansrs round the throat, except when the larvn-
lifaJ sacs are inflated, this loose skin is then swollen
out. like a naked ohinini; tumour, extendine up
alonf; the sides of the face under the small nnirular
ear*, fillim; up the interspace between the chin and
chest, and encroachini: upon the latter: the lips are
wrinkled, and jxwsess extraonlinary mobility ; the
animal can protrude them in the form of a snout or
proboscis, contracting the mouth to a cirtuilar ori-
nce, or, on the contrarj-, draw them back, and turn
them in various directions. The breadth of the
chest and shoulders conveys an idea of preat
ttreneth ; the abdomen is protuberant ; the hair,
which falls on the back and slioulders in lone: ma:»es,
forms a coverinir to the animal crouching in repose,
necessary as a protection by day ai^inst the bum-
inif rays of the sun, by niijht against the heavy
dews, and diirinc the rainy seasons as a shelter from
the falling showers. The palms of the hands have
lines and papillee. as on those of the human subject.
All the nnKed parts of the hotly, with the exception
of the orbits and lips, which are of sallow, coppery
tint, are silvery-grey or plumbeous. The thicKne.ss
of the incisor teeth, which in adults are worn
down to a flattened suiface, as are also the molar
t^eth, shows that they are put to rough work, and,
as Professor Owen remarks, it is probable that their
common use is to tear and scrape away the toueh
fibrous outer coverinsr of the cocoa-nut, and perhaps
to gnaw through the denser shell. The husre
canines are doubtless defensive weapons, which,
in connection with the muscular strength of these
animals, enable them to offer a more than suc-
cessful resistance against the leopard, and render
them formidable opponents even to the tiger. Of
the habits of the Orang in a state of nature our
knowledge is limited. It tenants the secluded
recesses of the forests in the hilly and central
districts of Borneo and Sumatra ; livinir, a.s it would
appear, a secluded life, and not being, like the Chim-
panzee, gregarious ; nor does it, like that animal,
miild huts, but, in accordance with its arboreal pre-
dilections, it constructs a rude scat or platform of
interwoven boughs and twigs among the branches
of the tallest trees, on which it takes up its abode.
Here the adult male will sit, as is said, for hours
together listless and apathetic. His movements
are slow and indolent : when attacked, he swings
himself from branch to branch, clearing vast inter-
vals with ease, but not with the rapidity which has
been imagined, and which is displayed by some of
the Gibbons. If at last driven to extremity, he
defends himself with determined resolution, and his
prodigious bodily powers and prowess render it dan-
gerous to venture on a close assault. The females are
devoted to their young. A few years since, Captain
Hall repaired to Sumatra purposely to obtain one of
these animals, but at his outset he experienced a
serious obstacle in the difficulty of procuring guides
to conduct him to their usual haunts : this proceeded
from the fears of the natives, who not only believe
that the orangs possess a natural dominion over the
great forests, but that they are animated by the
souls of their own ancestors. Succeeding at length
in this preliminary part of the undertaking, the
Captain soon met with one of the objects of his
search, a female, which he describes as having been
five feet in height. When first discovered she was
sitting on a branch of one of the highest trees, with
a young one in her arms. Upon being wounded
she uttered a piercing cry ; and immediately lifting
up her little one as high as her long arms could
reach, let it go among the topmost branches.
While the paHy approached to fire again she made
no attempt to escape, but kept a steady watch,
glancing her eye occasionally towards her offspring,
and at last seemed to wave her hand, to hasten its
departure, which it safely effected.
The following summary is the result of our re-
peated observations upon young living specimens : —
The progression of the orang on the ground is slow
and vacillating, and is rather dependent on the
arms, which from their length act as crutches, sup-
porting the body between them, than upon the
lower liml)s, which are ill calculated for such
service. Wlien left entirely to itself on the floor,
the young orang, if incited to walk, supports its
weight on its arms, applying the bent knuckles to
the ground, which, from the length of the arms, is
an easy action. The lower limbs are at the same
time bowed outward, and the outer side of the fjoot
is placed upon the floor. In this attitude it waddles
along, the arms being the main support ; when in-
deed it wi.shes to hasten its progress, it fairly swings
the body foi-ward between the arms, as if impatient
of the hobbling gait to which the structure of the
lower limbs restricts it. The lower limbs, however,
are not incapable of supporting the body alone, and
it can waddle along very fairly, especially if it can
lay hold of anything by which to steady itself in its
progress Id climbing it is at its ease, and confi-
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Apks.
dent, but deliberate. It will suspend itself with its
head downwards, sometimes by the hand and foot
of the same side, the disengaged hand being
stretched to seize objects within its reach ; some-
times by the hook-like hands, or the feet alone,
vai-ying its grotesriue attitudes in the most singular
manner, and in all displaying the freedom of the
hip-joint. Its arboreal progress is not by bounding
like a monkey, but by swinging from branch to
branch, grasping them by its hands in succession.
Habitually dull and inanimate, it has still its times
of sportiveness, and will engage in play with those
to whom it has attached itself, following them to
court their notice, or pursuing them in mimic
combat. It has little curiosity, and is fond of sitting
covered iiji by blankets or other articles of defence
against the cold, and will wrap itself up with con-
siderable dexterity. To those who attend it it
becomes very affectionate, and readily obeys their
voice, recognising its name, and the words and
tones of command. Cotifinement is annoying to it
in the extreme, and disappointment irritating.
From these causes paroxysms of passion are often
exhibited, in which it will dash itself about, uttering
a whining ciy, and manifest eveiT token of anger.
We have seen a young orang make the most stre-
nuous efforts to escape from his inclosure, striving
to force the door or the frame-work ; and then,
screaming with disappointment, swing from branch
to branch, and again repeat its endeavours, excited
to the extreme, and all because its keeper had left
it for a short time. Nothing but his return and
attentions would pacify it.
Dr. Abel states that his young orang displayed
great alarm at the sight of some live turtles, and
also of a tortoise ; looking at them with horror from
a distant place, to which he had retreated for secu-
rity, and projecting his long lips in the form of a
hog's snout, while at the same time he uttered a
sound between the croaking of a frog and the giunt-
ingofapig. The young chimpanzee which lived
in the year 1836 in the menagerie of the Zoological
Society recoiled with horror from a large snake in-
troduced into the room by way of experiment, and
also regarded tortoises with aversion ; and a young
orang in the same managerie, before which a tor-
toise was placed, stood aghast in an attitude of
amazement ludicrously theatrical, gazing uiion the
crawling animal with fixed attention and evident
abhorrence. On the other hand we have seen a
young orang play with a full-grown cat, drag it
about, put the animal on its own head, and cany it
from branch to branch, regardless of its scratching
and straggles to get free. Fred. Cuvier notices the
same fact, which we have ourselves verified. The
young orang may he taught to use a spoon, a cup,
or glass with tolerable propriety, and will carefully
put them down on the table, or hand them to some
pei-son accustomed to receive them. To this point
F. Cuvier also allude.s, as well as to the care it
takes in adjusting its bed, and covering itself warmly
with blankets and other materials when retiring to
rest.
The young chimpanzee, in comparison with the
orang, IS far more lively, animated, and liolicksome ;
and displays much more curiosity, being alive to
everything which takes place about it, and examin-
ing every object within its reach with an air so con-
siderate, as to create a smile in the face of the
gravest spectator. In alertness it exceeds the
orang, and is to the full as gentle and affectionate,
and more intelligent. The expression of intelli-
gence is indeed well denoted by the vivacity of its
eyes, which, though small and deeply set, are quick
and piercing.
Figure 129 is a portrait of the young orang-outan
in the menagerie of the Zoological Society in the
■warm dress which it habitually wore ; but in which
it was completely disguised.
THE GIBBONS
(Genus Hy I abates). The gibbons differ from the
thickset orang in the slendemess of tlitjr form ; the
chest is indeed broad and the shouldei-s muscular,
but the waist and hips are contracted ; there are
small ischiatic tuberosities hidden by the fur, on
which the animals often rest, the commencement,
so to speak, of a structural peculiaiity carried out
to its maximum in the lower groups. The hands
and feet are admirably formed for clinging with te-
nacity to the branches. The arms are of excessive
length, reaching in the erect attitude to the ankle-
joint ; the hands are remarkably long and slender,
the naked palm is linear, expanding at the base of
the fingers, which are covered down the backs with
fur ; the thumb of the fore-hands, though very shoit,
resembles the fingers in form and direction, and is
scarcely or not at all opposable to them ; it seems
to rise from the wrist, owing to the almost complete
separation of the metacarpal bone from that of the
first finger ; and the ball formed by its adductor
muscles is trifling. The feet arc long and slender.
and their thumb is greatly developed, so as to form
an antagonist to the other toes conjointly. In some
species the first and second finger of the foot are
more or less united together : this union in the Sia-
mang is carried to the last joint. Tlie lower limbs
are short, and bowed in, and the ankle-joint has that
inward toiimure so advantageous to an arboreal ani-
mal ; but the hip-joint is secured by the ligamen-
tum teres. In one species, the Slamang, there is a
large laryngal sacculus. The skull is well formed,
though the forehead retreats. The rami of the
lower jaw are narrow. Tlie incisor teeth are mode-
rate, the canines slender ; the molam moderate.
with the crown broaa, and bluntly
130.) Incisors,
Dental formula
1-1
nines,
5-
tuberculate.
4
4
ca-
= 32. The gibbons
j_j, molars, j._j.
are clothed with deep thick fur, softer in some
species than others : on the fore-arms it is in most
species reverted to the elbows; in one or two it
is erect. The prevailing colours of these animals
are from black to brown, brown-grey, and straw-
yellow.
The gibbons are distributed through Java, Borneo,
Sumatra, Malacca, and Siam, where they tenant the
forest branches, among which they display the most
astonishing activity. They sweep from branch to
branch with arrow-like velocity: their mode is to
suspend themselves by their long arms, and by an
energetic muscular movement to launch themselves
onwards, aiming at a distant branch, which they
seize with admirable precision. Most live in troo|)S
or families ; some species frequenting the mountain-
ranges covered by forests of fig-trees, others keeping
to the forests of the plains.
The head of the gibbon is small and of an oval
figure, and the face is depressed ; the expression of
the countenance being grave, gentle, and rather
melancholy. All utter loud cries, whence, in imi-
tation of the sound, has arisen the name of Wou-
wou, which appears to be common to two or three
species; Fred. Cuvier has applied it to the Agile
Gibbon, but Camper had previously appropriated it
to the Silvery Gibbon, said by Dr. S. Miillor to be
called Oa-oa by the natives of Java, a word differ-
ing little in the sound from wou-wou, or woo-woo.
None of the gibbons attain to the stature of the
orang, about three feet being the height of the
largest species standing erect, an attitude which
they are capable of assuming on the ground or any
level surface, along which they waddle, at a quick
pace, in the manner of the chimpanzee, using the
arms as balancers, or occasionally touching the
ground with the fingers.
131, 132, 133.— The Agilk Gibhon ;
also known under the native titles Ungka-puti and
tJngka-etam {Hylobates agilis, F. Cuv. ; Hylubatei
Lur : H. Rafflesii).
This interesting gibbon is a native of Sumatra,
'and owing to certain variations in colour, to which
it is subject, has been formed into two distinct
species, an error now corrected. M. Miiller, in
reference to this gibbon, states that it is curious to
observe its numerous variations. "Two individuals
are never precisely the same ; and we were therefore
disposed to conclude, during the early part of nur
stay in Sumatra, that there were really different
species of what, as it proved, is but one Hylobates:
for it was only after the examination of individuals
of different coloui-s, and after we had killed many of
both sexes and various ages, that we came to 1lie
conclusion that the oengko-itam, or black oengKo,
fcnd the oengko- poetih, or white oengko, of the
Malayans, were the same species."
The general colour of this species varies from
black to brownish-yellow, and yellowish white ; a
white or pale stripe traverses the brow; and the
sides of the face and throat are often grey or flaxen :
in black or dark individuals the lumbar region and
crupper are usually of a pale rusty-brown or yellow-
ish; the pale individuals have the throat, chest, and
abdomen of a darker brown. The pale-colourec
females often produce black young, and the black
as often young of a palecolour. (See fig. 132.^ We
have seen straw-white young. The fur is solt and
woolly: the two first fingers of the feet are united
together at the base.
The Agile Gibbon usually lives in pairs, and is
timid and gentle : its activity and the velocity of its
movements are wondertul ; it escapes pursuit almost
like a bird on the wing. On the sligntest alarm it
ascends rapidly to the top of a tree ; it there seizes
a flexible branch, swings itself two or three times
to gain the requisite impetus, and then launches
itself forward, repeatedly clearing, without effoit
and without fatigue, as Mr. Duvaucel witnessed,
spaces of forty feet.
Some few years since a female of this species was
exhibited in London. The activity of this animal
in the large compartment .a which it exercised
Apes.1
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURK
3J
ttse.f, and the velocity and precision with which it
launched itself from branch to branch, excited the
admiration of all who beheld it. Distances of twelve
and eighteen feet were thus cleared, the gibbon
keeping up a succession of launches, without inter-
mission and for a great leni^h of time, and all the
while exhibiting an air of nonchalance, as if .the
feat was of the most easy pert'ormance. In her
flight, for so indeed it might be termed, the gibbon
seemed but to touch the branches with her hands
in her progress, the impetus being acquired during
that momentary hold ; and il could not be doubted
that if the animal had been in the enjoyment of
liberty in her own native forest, distances far ex-
ceeding eighteen feet would have formed no inter-
ruption to her progress. It was curious to witness
how she could stop in her most rapid flight when
the momentum was at the highest, and it might
naturally have been supposed that a gradual cessa-
tion would have been required. iSuddenly as
thought, however, she arrested her progress; the
bi-anch aimed at being seized by one hand, a rapid
and enersefic movement raised the body up; the
branch was then grasped by the hind hands, and
there she sat, quietly gazing at the astonished spec-
latoi's of her extraordinary gymnastics. With the
same abruptness did she throw herself into action.
AJrairable was the precision with which she calcu-
lated her distances and regulated the impulse
necessary to clear intervals varying from four, five,
or six, to eighteen feet : such indeed was her quick-
ness of eye, that when apples or other fiuits were
thrown at her, or so as to pass near her in her flight,
she would catch them without apparent effort, and
at the same time without discontmuing her career.
While exerting her feats of agility the gibbon
ever and anon uttered her loud call-notes, consisting
of the syllables oo-ah, oo-ah, in a graduated succes-
sion of' half-tones, ascending in the scale till an
exact octave was attained, when a rapid series of
descending notes, producing a shake, during the
execution of which the lips vibrated and the whole
frame quivered, concluded the strain. The quality
of these notes was not unmusical, but their loudness
was deafening as heard in the apartment, and when
uttered by these animals in their native forests must
resound far through their stilly depths. It is piin-
cipally in the morning that the gibbon exerts the
whooping cry, which is doubtless its call to its mate
or comjjanions, and it was at that time that we
heard it. It should be observed that at first the
syllables were slowly and distinctly repeated, and
on the same note, e. As the tones rose in the
chromatic scale, the time quickened, till, gaining
the octave, the descent by half-tones was inexpres-
sibly rapid: this ended, two barks followed, each
composed of the high and low e, sounded nearly
together. At the conclusion the animal was always
violently agitated, as if wrought up to a high pitch
of excitement, and shook with all her strength the
branch to which she was clinging, or the netting,
the cords of which she grasped with her hands.
The following notes will give a coiTCct idea of the
musical call of this gibbon : —
Allegretto.
zii^-nX^A-i-
A—i-
-^^±^^it^^^J:
:^^^5SS&:
!^ U U U U
((^^ a, (( (( (( a (c (( ((
a a (c
-i^
.:5^-fe.
-e-
1:33*
-i^
rri
^1
This interesting animal was timid and gentle;
she greatly preferred the presence of females to
that of men, and approached them and received
their attentions with pleasure : there is reason to
believe that ill-treatment had made her sus-
picious of the sex from which she had experienced
mjuiy. She was intelligent and observant, and her
quick eyes seemed to be ever on the watch, scruti-
nizing every person and observing all that passed
around her. When a person had once gained her
confidence, she would descend to meet him as olten
ai invited, and allow her hands to be taken hold of,
and her solt fur stroked without any hesitation : to
females, though strange to her, she gave her confi-
dence, without any previous attempts at concilia-
tion. Tlie mu.scular power of the arms, shoulders,
und chest was very great, and the muscles were
finely developed ; the chest was broad and the
shoulders high ; the reach of the extended arms
was about six feet, and the animal when erect
stood about three feet from the heel to the top of
the head. The form and proportions of this gibbon
could not fail to strike the most casual observer, as
adapting it not only for an arboreal existence, but
for that kind of arboreal progression, those flying
launcties from branch to branch, which have been
described.
134, 135.— The Siamano
{Hylobates syndactylas'). Tlie Siamang is the
largest of the Gibbons, being upwards of three feet
in height, and at the same time robust and muscular.
The fur is woolly and black ; the first and second
fingers of the feet are united to each other, and
there is a huge laryngal pouch on the throat covered
with black naked skin, which, when the sac is dis-
tended with air, is smooth and glossy. The use of
tliis apparatus is not very apparent ; most probably
the sac has some influence on the voice ; for Mr.
G. Bennett ('Wanderings,' &c.') observes that when
the siamang in his possession was irritated he in-
flated the pouch, uttering a hollow barking noise,
the lips being at the same time pursed out and the
air driven into the sac, while the lower jaw was a
little protruded. It is this noise which M. Duvau-
cel describes, as we suspect, when he states that the
siamang reuses occasionally from its lethargy to
utter a disagreeable cry approaching in sound to
that of a turkeycock, and which he takes upon him-
self to say expresses no sentiment and declares no
wants. Mr. Bennett noticed that the sac was in-
flated, not only during anger, but also when the
animal was pleased. It is exclusively in Sumatra
that the siamang is found : it is abundant in the
forests, especially in the neighbourhood of Bencoo-
len, which resound with the loud and discordant
cries of the troops sheltered among the lofty
branches. Duvaucel says that this species is slow,
inanimate, and destitute of activity among the
trees, and on the ground it is so overcome by fear
as to be incapable of resistance ; that in captivity it
exhibits no pleasing traits, being at once stupid,
sluggish, and awkward, unsusceptible either of feel-
ings of grateful confidence or of revenge, and re-
garding nothing with interest. On the contrary.
Sir T. S. Raffles, who kept several of these animals,
describes the siamang as bold and powerful, but
easily domesticated, gentle, confident, and social,
and unhappy if not in company with those to whom
it is attached. Nay, M. Duvaucel contradicts
himself: first he says all its senses are dull and im-
perfect, and then gives an account of its extreme
vigilance and acuteness of hearing, and of the
affection of the mothers for tlieir young. If a young
one be wounded, the mother, who carries it or fol-
lows it closely, remains with it, utters the most
lamentable cries, and rushes upon the enemy with
open mouth ; but being unfitted for combat, knows
neither how to deal nor shun a blow. It is, he
adds, " a curious and interesting spectacle, which a
little precaution has sometimes enabled me to wit-
ness, to see the females carry their young ones to
the water, and there wash their faces, in spite of
their childish outcries, bestowing a degree of time
and care on their cleanliness, which, in many cases,
the children of our own species might envy." The
Malays informed him that the young are carried
respectively by those of their own sex; and also
that the siamang frequently falls a prey to the
tiger, under the influence of that sort of fascination
which intense terror produces, and which the snake
is said to exercise over birds and squirrels.
Mr. G. Bennett's account (' Wanderings,' &c.) of
the siamang which he kept for some time gives us
a very favourable impression of it disposition and
intelligence. The adroitness and lapidity of its
movements, the variety of attitudes into which it
threw itself, when climbing about the rigging of the
vessel in which it was brought from Singapore, and
the vigour and prehensile power of its limbs, indi-
cated its adaptation to the branches of the forest.
Its disposition was gentle, but animated and lively,
and it delighted in playing frolics. With a little
Papuan child on board this siamang became very
intimate ; they might often be seen sitting near the
capstan, the animal with his long arm round her
neck lovingly eating biscuit together. In his gam-
bols with the child he would roll on deck with her,
as if in mock combat, pushing with his feet (in
which action he possessed great muscular power),
his long arms entwined round her, and pretending
to bite. With the monkeys on board he also seemed
desirous of establishing amicable companionship,
evidently wishing to join them in their gambols ; but
as they avoided his company, probably from fear, he
revenged their unsociableness by teasing them, and
pulling their tails at every opportunity. He recog-
nised his name, and would come to those he knew
when called, and soon became a general favourite,
for his hvelinesE was not accompanied by the love
of mischief. Yet his temper was irritable, and on
being disappointed, or confined, he would throw him-
self into fits of rage, screaming, rolling about, and
dashing everything aside within his reach: ne
would then rise, walk about in a hurried manner,
and repeat the scene as before. With the cessation
of his fit of anger, he did not abandon his purpose,
and often gained his point by stiiitaf^em, when he
found that violence was of no avail.
When vessels were passed at sea, it was very
amusing to see him take his position on the peak
haulyards, and there gaze on tlie departing ship till
she was out of sight. After this he would descend,
and resume his sports. One instance of his in-
telligenae is peculiarly interesting. Among various
articles in Mr. Bennett's cabin, a piece 01 soap
greatly attracted his attention, and for the removal
of this soap he had been once or twice scolded.
One morning Mr. Bennett was writing, the siamang
being present, in the cabin ; when casting his eyes
towards the animal he observed him taking the
s^ap. " I watched him," says the narrator, " with-
out his perceiving that I did so ; he occasionally
cast a furtive glance towards the place where I
sat. I pretended to write ; he, seeing me busilv
engaged, took up the soap and moved away with it
in his paw. When he had walked half the length
of the cabin, I spoke quietly, without frightening
him. The instant he found I saw him, he walked
back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the
same place whence he had taken it: thus betraying,
both by his fiist and last actions, a consciousness of
having done wrong. "
This animal died when nearing our shores, to the
regret of all the crew.
13G. — The White-handed Gibbon.
(Hylnbatet Lar). T) this species we refer both the
Grand Gibbon and the Petit Gibbon of Button. It
is the Simla longimana of Erxleben, and the Simla
albimana of Vigors and Horsfield, the Pithecu«
Lar of Geoifroy, and the Pithecus variegatus of
Geotfroy, Kuhl, and Desmarest. The fir is soil and
woolly ; the colour varies from dirty-brownish, or
from yellowish-white, to deep umbre brown or
blackish brown, the crupper being paler ; the face
is encircled by a band of white ; the hands and feet
are white ; the first and second finger are some-
times united at the base.
The White-handed Gibbon is a native of Malacca
and Siam ; but of its peculiar habits nothing is
ascertained. It is one of those species which has
hitherto been in a state of confusion ; but from
which opportunities of examining numbers of speci-
mens have enabled us, as we trust, to disentangle it.
137.-
-The Silvery Gibbon, or Wouwou of
Campkr
{Hylobates leuciscus). This gibbon is a native of
Java, where it was met with by M. Miiller, who
states that it is called there Oa-op, from its cry,
whence also the name Wou-wou, which has been
given to other species. The fur is fine, long, close,
and woolly ; the general colour is ashy-grey, some-
times slightly tinged with brown, and paler on the
lower part of the back ; the sides of the face are
white; the soles and palms are black. According
to Miiller, the tint of grey vanes in intensity, and
sometimes has a brownish, sometimes a yellowish
tone, the face being encircled with white or light
grey. In aged anipials the chest becomes of a
blackish colour.
It is to the celebrated anatomist Camper that we
owe the recognition of the Silvery Gibbon or Wouwou
as a distinct species. The specimen which he dis-
sected was brought from one of the Moluccas : in
these islands it is reported to frequent the dense
jungles of tall canes, amongst which it displays
astonishing activity. Two or three living indivi-
duals appear at different times to have existed in
I England. Of these one belonged to Lord Clive,
and is described by Pennant. It was good-tempered,
lively, and frolicksome. In 1828, a young male
lived for a short time in the menagerie of the Zool.
Soc. Lond.
MONKEYS
(Genus Semnopithecus). The genus Semnopithecus
was established by Fred. Cuvier, and anatomy has
confirmed the propriety of this genus, originally es-
tablished upon external charactei-s.
The Generic Characters are as follow :— muzzle
depressed ; head round ; superciliary ridge pro-
minent, and with a row of long stiff haiis pro-
jecting forwards and upwards ; molars crowned with
obtuse tubercles, the last molar of the lower jaw
with a fillh tubercle seated posteriorly: cheek-
pouches wanting; laiyngal sac large; ischial ic cal-
losities moderate; body slender; limbs long and
thin ; the thumb of the hand small, short, almost
rudimentary; stomach large and highly sacculated ;
intestines long ; tail long and slender ; fur solt, flow-
ing, and often glossy.
130.— Teeth of Gibbon.
139.— Skull and Caninetootli of Monkev.
>.— Femide Agile Olbbon and Yoin,-
1S3.— Male Agile Gibbon.
I3S. — Siamang
134. — Siamang.
138 — Teeth of Monkey
:ii
] JO,— Temminck's Colobiu.
UH.— Entelloi.
142.— Face of Adult Kahau.
143. — Face of youni; Kahan.
•'/ ' ■-?
144.— Nose of Adult Kahau, seen from Ipeneath.
Uj.— Skull (if Kalian.
I4T.— BUd(.entt«d Monkey.
149.— \Thite-tliighed Colobna.
No. 5.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
33
34
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Monkeys.
Dental formula (figure 138) : inci»or«, - ; canines
: molars, ; — -, • The incisors are small ; the
1—1 •»— 5
canines large, broad, and compressed ; the molars
are bluntly tubeiculate ; and as they wear down, the
surface shows the enamel very distinct and deeply
indented. I'he skull, as exemplitied by that of
S. Maurns (figure 139), may be characterised as
round, the orbits large and squared, with an ab-
ruptly prominent superciliary ridge, and with boldly
projecting margins ; the interorbital space is broad, |
and the lace depressed ; the lower jaw, however, is
very deep, and the space for the masseter muscle
considerable; the chin recedes obliquely. The ;
hands of the Semnopitheci are remarkable lor their
elongation and narrowness, and for the almost rudi-
mentary condition of the thumb, which cannot be
brought into action as an antagonist to the fingers ;
the feet also are narrow and elongated, but the
thumb is stout and well developed.
There are no cheek-pouches, as in the ordinary
monkeys, but a large laryngal sac extends over the
whole of the throat, communicating with the laiynx
(windpipe) by means of a large aperture. The
stomach is sacculated in an extraordmary manner,
the sacculi being in all probability preparatory re-
ceptacles for the vegetable aliment, which under-
goes digestion in an elongated pyloric portion.
Cuvier calls the Semnopitheci slow monkeys ;
but it is only in a certain sense that they merit the
title. The length and slenderness of the limbs and
body detract, if not from their agility, at least in
some degree from the abruptness of their move-
ments, which have a more sweeping character than
those of the Cercopitheci. Nevertheless, they leap
and bound among the branches of their native
forests with great ease, and to vast distances, their
long tail acting as a director or balancer in their
motions. Less lively, less petulant, and, perhaps
less inquisitive than the Cercopitheci, they appear
at times as if oppressed with melancholy, and in
captivity, at least, sit in listless apathy. While
young they are very gentle ; but when adult they
become sullen, morose, and vindictive ; and their
long canines render them truly formidable. In their
native regions they associate in troops. In some
parts of India certain species, as the Entellus, are
regarded as sacred, and tolerated notwithstanding
their depredations. Many species attain to con-
siderable dimensions.
The Semnopitheci are all natives of India and its
islands, and the Malay Peninsula.
140, 141. — Thk Kahau, or Proboscis Monkey
(Semnopithecus larvatus). This species is the
Guenon u longue nez of Buffon, the Nasalis larvatus
of Geoffroy, and the Nasalis rfefifirvus (young) of
Vigors and Horsfield. This nftVpWtey is remarkable
for the uncouth development of the nose, forming a
sort of proboscis capable of dilatation, with the
nasal apertures underneath, tha., bent-down apex,
and divided from each ofherf'jSfea thin cartilage ;
along the upper surface of thfs;^gular organ runs
a longitudinal depression, indicating the division be-
tween the two canals. The ears, which are small,
and the face, together with the palms, are of a
leaden colour, with a slight tinge of yellow ; the
neck is short ; the throat swollen from the enormous
laryngal sac. On the sides of the neck and shoul-
ders the hair is long, compared with that of the rest
of the body. The top of the head, the occiput, and
the scapular portion of the back, are of a rich chest-
nut-brown ; the sides of the face and a stripe over
the shoulders are yellow; the general colour of
the body is fine sandy-red. The crupper, the tail,
the fore-arms, and legs are cinereous ; the under
parts are yellow ; the tail is somewhat tufted at
the tip. A full beard in the male advances forward,
and curls up under the chin, almost to the long
nose. In the young, regarded by some naturalists
as a distinct species, the nose is somewhat recurved,
and shorter than in the adult. That this distinction
is not specific, as we ourselves formerly believed,
we have fully satisfied ourselves by the examina-
tion of specimens in Paris. Figure 142 represents
the face of the adult kahau ; 143, that of the young;
144, the nose of the adult as seen from beneath ;
145 is the skull of the kahau : it has all the charac-
ters of a true Semnopithecus.
The male kahau is remarkable for size and
strength, and, from the magnitude of the canines,
must be a formidable animal. The female, how-
ever, is considerably smaller, a circumstance noticed
by Wurmb, who says these monkeys " associate in
large troops ; their cry, which is deep-toned, resem-
bles the word kahau. They assemble morning and
evening, at the rising and setting of the sun, along
the borders of rivers, and are to be seen on the
branches of lofty trees, where they oifer an agree-
able spectacle, darting with great rapidity from one
tree lo another at the distance of fifteen or twenty
feet. I have not observed that they hold their
nose while leaping, as the natives affirm, but I have
seen that they then stretch out their paws in a re-
markable manner. They are of dificrent sizes;
some, indeed, are seen which are not above a foot
in height, but which yet have young."
The kahau, as far as is known with certainty, is a
native only of Borneo : perhaps it is to be found also
in Sumatra. M. Geoffroy states it to inhabit the
Malay Peninsula, but we are not aware that it has
ever "been seen there. The adult male measures
two feet in the length of the head and body, and
two feet four inches in that of the tail. It has never
been brought alive to Europe.
146. — The Entkllcs, or Hoondman
(Semnopithecus EtUellus). The Entellus is a native
of India and the adjacent islands. The general
colour is straw-yellow, mo^e or less inclined to ashy
grey ; superciliary hairs black ; hands and feet
washed with black ; face black. Length of head
and body of adult male, two feet two inches ; of tail,
three feet one inch. The adults are paler than the
young.
The Entellus, or Hoonuman, is held sacred in some
parts of India, but not by the people of Mahratta,
where it is called Makur ; it occurs in large troops
in the woods of the Western Ghauts. In Lower
Bengal, where it makes its appearance towards the
latter end of winter (for it would seem that it
migrates from the upper to the lower provinces, and
vice versa in this part of India), the pious Brahmins
venerate it, supply it with food, and zealously en-
deavour to prevent its molestation by Europeans.
According to Dr. Fryar and others these monkeys,
in Malabar, toward Ceyion, and at the Straits of
Balagat, are deified. At Dhuboy (see Forbes's
' Oriental Memoirs') they are, if not worshipped,
protected, from motives of humanity to the brute
creation and a general belief in metempsychosis.
According to the latter author there are as many
monkeys as human inhabitants in Dhuboy, and the
roofs and upper parts of the houses seem en-
tirely appropriated to their accommodation. To
strangers they are unbearably annoying.
In Dhuboy, if a man wish to revenge himself on
his neighbour for any insult or injury, he takes the
opportunity, just before the periodical rains (about
the middle of June) set in, and when the tiles have
been adjusted to meet that season, of repairing to
his neighbour's roof and scattering over it a quan-
tity of rice or other grain. This is soon discovered
by the monkeys, who not only devour it, but pull up
all the tiles in search of what has fallen through the
crevices. At this critical juncture the rain com-
mences ; no one can be found to re-set the tiles ;
the house is deluged, the furniture ruined, and the
depositaries of grain, generally formed of unbaked
earth, soaked through by the tailing torrent.
The celebrated banian-tree on the banks of the
Nerbuddah is tenanted by hosts of monkeys and
myriads of snakes. The antics and gambols of the
former are very amusing; if they ever suffer from
the snakes, they repay the poor reptiles with interest.
When they see one asleep, twined round a branch,
they seize it by the neck, and descending run to the
nearest stone, and on it commence to grind dovv-n
the reptile's head, frequently looking at it and
grinning at their progress. When convinced that
its fangs are destroyed, they toss it, writhing with
pain, to their young, and seem to rejoice in its
destruction.
Once a friend of Mr. Forbes, on a shooting ex-
cursion, killed a female monkey under this tree,
and carried it to his tent, which was soon surrounded
by forty or fifty of the tribe, who made a great noise,
and with menacing gestures advanced towards it.
On presenting his lowling-piece, they hesitated and
appeared irresolute. But one, which from his age
and station in the van appeared to be at the head
of the troop, stood his ground chattering and me-
nacing in a furious manner, nor could any efforts less
cruel than firing drive him off. He at length
approached the tent door, and by every token of
grief and supplication seemed to beg the body of
the deceasecf, which was then given to him ; with
every token of sorrow he took it up in his arms,
embraced it with conjugal affection, and carried it
off to his expecting comrades. The artless be-
haviour of this poor animal wrought so powerfully
on the sportsmen, that they resolved never to level
a gun again at one of the monkey race.
147. — The Black-crested Monkey
(Semnopithecus melalophos; Ctmepai/e, or Simpai,
of F. Cuvier, not Raffles). This slender and
beautiful species is a native of Sumatra. The head
is small ; the fur is long, soft, falling, and glossy ;
the top of the head is ornamented with a long com-
pressed crest. The general tint is a fine bright
golden rust colour, pure and rich on the limbs, but
slightly washed with a dusky tint on the back ; the
abdomen and inside of the limbs are paler than the
other parts. The crest is washed with a dusky
tinge, passing into black at the tip. A black or
blackish line beginning over the eyes passes across
the temples, and turning up over each ear merges
into the colour of the crest. The skin of the face is
dusky-bluish; the palms, soles, and nails are black.
Length of head and body, 1 foot 8 inches ; of tail, 2
feet 8 inches.
This species has not, as far as we know, been
brought alive to Europe. Itissaid to be extremely
active, and to tenant the remote parts of the forest ;
but cf its e.\clusive habits nothing is known.
148.— The Bldesg
(Semnopithecus Maurus). The Budeng is a na-
tive of Java; the general colour is black ; the fur
is long and silky; the hairs, diverging from the
crown of the head, conceal the eai-s. The young
after birth are of a pale reddish-yellow ; first a grey
discoloration appears on the hands ; then this begins
gradually to spread, extending to the shoulders and
sides ; as it spreads it becomes darker, and at last
passes into black. The budeng, according to Dr.
Horsfield, is grave, sullen, and morose : it is abun-
dant in the extensive forests of Java, where it asso-
ciates in large troops, often of more than 50 indi-
viduals. On the approach of man they set up loud
screams, and so violent and incessant are their mo-
tions, that decayed branches are often detached and
precipitated on the spectators. The natives chase
them for the sake of their fur, which is jet black, silky,
and employed in riding equipages and military de-
corations. They are seldom kept alive, from the
sullenness of their temper, which renders them any-
thing but agreeable. While young they feed on
the tender leaves of plants and trees ; but when adult,
on wild fruits of every description.
Genus Colobus.— The monkeys of this genus are
restricted exclusively to Africa : in all respects they
resemble the Semnopitheci, but the thumb, which in
the latter is small, is in these wanting or reduced to
a mere nailless tubercle. What the Semnopitheci
are in India, the Colobi are in Africa. Tilflately
only two species were known ; but the list now con-
tains ten accredited species, to which others will no
doubt be added as we extend our researches in
Western Africa, along the borders of the Gambia,
and the island of Fernando Po.
149. — The White-thigbed Colobcs
(CbfoJws leucomei-us, Ogilby). This beautiful mon-
key is a native of the banks of the Gambia. The
fur is long, fine, silky, and shining ; the general
colour is black ; a white frontal band spreads from
the forehead over the whiskers on the sides of the
face, and passing down occupies the throat, so that
the face is surrounded with white, which is narrow-
est on the forehead. The hairs covering the thighs
externally are white, more or less mixed with black,
and gradually merging into the general hue. The
tail is long and of a snowy white.
The White-thighed Colobus has never been ob-
served by European travellers in its native forests •
the skins, mostly imperfect and wanting the head,
are brought down by the negroes from the interior
for the purposes of barter. Nothing respecting its
habits has been ascertained.
150. — Temminxk's Colobcs
(Cohbus Temminckii, Kuhl, ' Beitr.,' 1820). The
top of the head is black, as is also the occiput,
which latter is slightly sprinkled with rufous ; the
back and the outside of the humerus and of the
thighs are of a sooty black, with a tinge of slate-
blue. The sides of the face, the chest, the sides
of the humerus, and the whole of the fore-arms
are of a rufous colour, which becomes deeper and
brighter on the hands ; the anterior part of the
thighs, the knees, and the legs are also rufous, the
feet being of a deeper hue ; the throat, together
with a line along the chest and abdomen, are of a
sandy-yellow ; the middle of the chest and of the
abdomen is abruptly of a dirty yellowish-white
varying to white; the tail at the base is black'
with rufous hairs intermixed ; it then assumes a chest-
nut red or rufous colour, becoming again darker
at the extremity; an obscure dusky line runs alonn-
the whole of its upper surface. The naked skin o^f
the face is brown with a tinge of red purple; the
palms and soles are of a purplish black. It was on
a very pale-coloured and aged female of this species
in the museum of the Zoological'Societv, London ("6
Cat., ' Mamm.,' 1838), brought from the river Gam-
bia, that Mr. Ogilby founded his Colobus fulitrinosus
afterwards termed by him C. rufo-fuliginus." '
The original of Kuhl's description was formerly
in Bullock's museum, but is at present in that of
Leyden. With respect to the native country of this
species, it is now ascertained to be Gambia. Length
of head and body, 2 feet 2 inches; of tail, 2 feet
6 inches. Nothing relative to the habits and man-
ners of this species, as it exists in its native forests,
has been collected.
Monkeys.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
35
151. FULL-MANED COLOBUS
(^Colobus polycomos). Full-bottomed Monkey, Pen-
nant.; Guenon a Camail, Bufton. The Full-maned
Colobus is a native of the forests of Sierra Leone ; it
is called by the natives ' the king of the monkeys,' on
account of the beauty of its colours, and the camail,
which represents a sort of diadem. Its fur is in high
estimation, and applied to different ornamental pur-
poses. The head and upper part of the body are
covered with long hairs falling over the head and
shoulders, forming a sort of mane-like hood and
pelerine, vfhence the name given to it by Buffon.
Pennant's title is in allusion to the full-bottomed
perriwig worn in his day. These long hairs are
mingled yellow and black ; the face is brown ; the
body covered with short jet-black hair; the tail is
snowy-white and tufted.
152. — The Gueeeza
(Colobus Guereza). General colour black; sides of
the body and top of the loins ornamented with long
pendent white hairs, forming a fringe-like mantle;
face encircled by white ; tail ending in a white tuft.
Native country, South and West Abyssinia.
The Guereza, which is the Abyssinian name of this
species, lives, according to RUppell, iri small fami-
lies, tenanting the lofty trees in the neighbourhood
of running waters. It is active and lively, and at
the same time gentle and inoffensive. Its food
consists of wild fruits, grain, and insects. It is only
found in the provinces of Godjam,Kulla, and Damot,
more especially in the latter, where it is hunted by
the natives, who consider it a mark of distinction to
possess a buckler covered with its skin, the part
used being that covered with the long flowing white
hairs. Ludolph (in the 'Hist, ^thiop.,' lib. i.) has
made express allusion to this animal, but he figures
a different species under its name.
Genus Cercopithecus. In this genus are compre-
hended the ordinary long-tailed monkeys or Gue-
nons of Africa. The muzzle is moderately pro-
minent ; the facial angle 45° to 50° ; the head is
round ; the superciliary ridge moderate ; the molar
teeth are crowned with acute tubercles; the last
molar of the lower jaw with only 4 tubercles : there
are ample cheek-pouches ; the laryngal sac is vari-
able ; ischiatic callosities moderate ; general con-
tour light, but vigorous ; limbs muscular ; stomach
simple ; tail long ; the hairs composing the fur
annulated.
The Cercopitheci are all restricted to the African
continent, but one speciesonly, the Vervet (C. pygery-
thrus ; and one species of Baboon, the Chacma), in-
habits Africa south of the tropic of Capricorn ; and
one species, the White-throated Monkey, C. albo-
gularis. is a native of Madagascar. These animals
are arboreal in their habits ; they tenant the wild
forests that skirt the rivers, and associate in troops,
being gregarious in their habits. Their actions are
full of energy ; their disposition is restless, petulant,
and inquisitive. During infancy they are gentle,
but as age advances they become irascible and mali-
cious. Their displeasure is expressed by grinning
and chattering ; and though they seldom venture to
make a decided attack, yet collected in troops in
their native woods, they endeavour to harass and
annoy intruders within their territorial domains, and
are not to be repelled without difficulty. Their diet
is almost exclusively frugivorous ; and they often
commit great havoc in the fields of grain adjacent
to the wooded districts ; and that, not only by what
they devour on the spot, but also by what they
carry away in their cheek-pouches, which extend
below the angle of the lower jaw, and which, when
an opportunity occurs, they cram with food to be
eaten at leisure. In these Guenons the thumb of the
fore-hands is more developed than in the Semnopi-
theci, and the hands themselves are shorter, and
have better pretensions to the title than the long
slender graspers of their Asiatic relatives. The
4
Dental formula is as follows: — Incisors-- , canines
Of these the canines (see
figure 153) are very large, compressed, with a sharp
cutting edge posteriorly.
154. — The Mona
(Cercopithecus Mono). La Mone of Buffon; the
Varied Ape of Pennant. The hairs annulated with
grey, yellow, and black, or with red and black, pro-
ducing the various tints of the fur. Head of yel-
lowish-olive colour ; a black frontal stripe above the
eyebrows is surmounted by another of a whitish tint,
more conspicuous in some individuals than in others ;
back chestnut-brown ; haunches and limbs exter-
nally dusky black ; tail black, with a white spot on
each side of its origin on the crupper; under parts and
inside of limbs white; whiskers very full, of a yel-
lowish-tint, slightly washed with black; skin of orbits
and cheeks bluish-purple ; lips flesh-coloured ; ears
and head of a livid flesh-colour ; length of head and
1—1
1-1
molars ■- — , = 32.
5 — O
body 1 foot 8^ inches; tail 1 foot 11 inches- The
Mona is a native of Western Africa (Guinea), but of
its manners in a state of nature little is known. It
bears our climate better than most of its congeners :
we have observed many adults in captivity, and
always found them savage and irritable.
The term Mone, or Mona, is of Arabic origin, and
is the Moorish name for all long-tailed monkeys in-
discriminately. From Northern Africa the terra
passed into Spain, Portugal, and Provence; nor
has it stopped here : it is evidently the root of our
word Monkey, which has exactly the same meaning,
but which has been supposed to be a corruption of
the word monikin, or manikin. To say no more, it
seems going out of the way to seek in our own
language for the name of a foreign animal, with
which our Saxon forefathers, and indeed ourselves,
till at a comparative late era, were unacquainted,
and which, when imported, was so with the name
also, by which it was known to the people from
whom it was originally obtained.
155, 156.— The Green Monkey
(Cercopithecus Sabmis). The St. Jago monkey of
Edwards ; Le Callitiiche of Buffon ; Cere, viridis
of Hermann. The general colour of the upper parts
is olive-green, the hairs being annulated with black
and yellow ; on the outer side of the limbs a greyish
tint prevails ; the hands and feet are grey ; the
under surface of the body and inside of the limbs
are white with a faint tinge of yellow. The hairs on
the side of the face are full and long, and directed
up towards the ears, spreading in the manner of a
frill ; their colour, with that of the hairs of the
throat, is bright but delicate yellow. The tail is
olive-green above, passing into yellow at the tip ;
the face, ears, and palms are black.
The Green Monkey is a native of Senegal and the
Cape de Verd Islands. It is most probable that this
is the species to which Adanson refers, under the
name of Singe verte, as being abundant in the woods
of Podor along the Niger; and of which he
killed twenty-three in less than an hour, and in the
space of twenty fathoms, without one of them hav-
ing uttered a single cry, although they collected
several times, knitting their brows, gnashing their
teeth, and making demonstrations of an intended
attack. (' Voy. au Senegal,' by M. Adanson, 1757.)
In captivity the green monkey is alert, active, and
intelligent, but spiteful and malicious. F. Cuvier,
however, describes an adult which was good-tem-
pered, gentle, and familiar, and expressed pleasure
on being caressed : such exceptions are rare.
157. — ^The Diana Monket
(Cercopithecus Diana). Le Rohway ou Palatine of
Buffon ; the Palatine and Spotted Monkey of Pen-
nant and Shaw. The top of the head, the back of
the neck, the shoulders, sides, and middle of the
body are of a deep grizzled ashy grey ; the hairs
being annulated with white and black, and white at
the lips. This grey tint darkens into black on the
hands ; the tail is grey, becoming black at the ex-
tremity ; a crescent-shaped line of long white hairs
(surmounting a band of dusky black), and resem-
bling Dian's silver bow, has suggested the animal's
name. The sides of the face are covered with
long bushy white hairs, which merge on the chin
into a long, thin, flat, and pointed beard. The
front of the neck and the anterior part of the hume-
rus are white; the latter with an abrupt line of de-
markation.
On the middle of the back commences a mark of
deep chestnut, which gradually widens as it de-
scends to the root of the tail, forming an elongated
triangle with the base on the crupper. A line of
white beginning at the root of the tail runs ob-
liquely along the outer side of each thigh to the
knee; the lower part of the abdomen and the
inner side of the thighs are abruptly of an orange-
yellow, orange-red, or bright rust colour. The face
IS long and triangular, and, together with the ears,
intensely black. Length of head and body about
2 feet ; of tail about 2 feet 4 inches. This richly-
coloured monkey is a native of Guinea, Congo, and
Fernando Po. It is very rarely brought alive to
Europe ; nor indeed are its skins common in collec-
tions. We have observed only one specimen in the
Paris Museum, from the Gold Coast. Three speci-
mens are in the collection of the Zoological Society,
London. Of these, one died some years since in the
menagerie of the Society: the other two were
brought from Fernando Po. Of the habits of the
Diana in its own forests we know nothing. While
young in captivity it is gentle, active, familiar, and
very playful : its frontal crest, and " beard of formal
cut," give a singular aspect to its physiognomy.
The latter has been observed to be solicitous in
keeping neat and clean, holding it back when about
to drink, lest it should dip into the fluid. Consider-
ing the range of country through which thisspecies
is spread, the scarcity of this monkey in the mena-
geries and collections of Europe is rather surprising.
158. — The Lesser White->osed Mokkky
(Cercopitliecus Petaurista). Blanc-nez of Alia*
mand ; Ascagne of F. Cuvier and Audebert.
There are two distinct species of White-nosed .
monkey, both natives of the forests of Guinea ; of
these one is the Hocheur of Audebert, the Winking
monkey of Pennant, the Cercopithecus nictitans of
Geoffrey. The general colour of the Hocheur is
black, freckled with white ; the limbs are black ;
the whiskers, of the general colour, are ample ; the
chin is beardless ; the nose, which is broad and ele-
vated, is white from between the eyes to the nos-
trils.
The Lrsser White-nosed Monkey, or Blanc-nez (see
Fig. 158), has only the lower half of the nose white,
but this colour extends to the adjacent part of the
upper lip ; the face is covered with short black
hairs, those on the cheek-bone having a fulvous
tinge ; the whiskers and beard are white, as also the
throat, chest, and abdomen. A streak of black
hair runs from the face below the ear, and loses
itself on the top of the shoulder ; and between this
black line and the hairs of the head a conspicuous
streak of white runs below the ears. The general
colour of the back and head is reddish olive-brown ;
the hairs being ranged with fulvous and black. A
band across the forehead above the eyes, and a band
traversing the top of the head from ear to ear, are
black ; a grey tint prevails on the limbs, deepening
to dusky black on the hands and feet. Tail dusky
grey above, white beneath. Length of head and
body, about 1 foot 4 or 5 inches ; of the tail, 1 foot
9 or 10 inches.
This species is common in Guinea, and is fre-
quently brought to Europe, but does not well en-
dure our uncongenial climate. It is gentle, grace-
ful, and intelligent, but not without a mixture of
the caprice and petulance of its race. The light-
ness and agility of its actions, its playfulness, and
beauty, certainly render it very attractive ; but it
dislikes to be taken hold of or interfered with : so
that though as docile as most monkeys, it becomes,
familiar only to a certain extent. A Blanc-nez in
the possession of Allamand, though usually good-
tempered and sportive, became angry if interrupted
while feeding, and also when mockery was made of
it. We have observed a sensitiveness to ridicule
or mockery in other species, and a strong desire to
resent the insult, which is evidently felt.
159. — The Collared White-eyelid Monkey
(yEthiops torquatus). Cercocebus ^thiops, Geoff. ;
Cercopithecus .^thiops, Kuhl. In Martin's 'Natu-
ral History of Quadrupeds,' p. 508, a subgenus
termed ^Ethiops is there proposed for two, if not
three closely-allied species (the White-eyelid
Monkeys), which differ on tangible grounds from the
Cercopitheci, namely, in the presence of a fifth tu-
bercle on the last molar of the lower jaw ;• the mag-
nitude of the upper middle incisors ; and the hairs
being destitute of annulations. For these monkeys,
with other Guenons by no means closely allied to
them, Geoffroy proposed his genus Cercocebus — a
genus, the indeterminate characters of which, from
the incongruity of the species thus brought together,
was perceived by Desmarest, who, unwilling to sink
it, endeavoured to reform it by the removal of some
species and the addition of others : so that the
genus as instituted by the one naturalist, and that
remodelled by the other, were two different assem-
blages; and the characters of both equally vague
and indefinite. It therefore seems best to sink the
genus altogether, and place the White-eyelid Mon-
keys in a separate subgenus, to which the title
Jithiops has been already applied.
The Collared White-eyelid Monkey (the Manga-
bey a Collier of Buffon and F. Cuvier), like the
Sooty White-eyelid Monkey, is a native of Western
Africa. The general colour is fuliginous or sooty-
black, passing into black on the limbs and hancis.
The top of the head is chestnut-coloured ; the whis-
kers, throat, and collar round the neck are white.
The upper eyelids are conspicuously dead-white.
The native habits of this monkey are not known :
in captivity it is gentle, active, and familiar, and
testifies by a sort of jabber and grin its recognition
of those for whom it has a partiality. We have ob-
served many individuals, and have found them to
be among the most diverting of their race. They
would play a number of amusing tricks in order, to
attract the attention of bystanders, and gain a share
of the nuts and biscuits they saw dealt out to their
companions ; and they testified their gratitude by
a quick vibratory movement of the lips, producing
a jabbering noise. When offended, their ill-temper
was transient, and they soon became reconciled to
the object of their anger. In their gambols with
other monkeys they were invariably good-natured.
Genus Macacus. The distinctions between the
genus Macacus and Cercopithecus, though in some
points definite, are in others rather variations in
• See * Proceedings of Zoological Society, London,* 1838, p. 1 17.
F2
".— I)i»nn Monkeyi.
1.'" .— t.rctu Monk«f>
86
Ifil.— Toque.
15H.— The Leswr White-nosed Monkey.
19.— Bhander.
160.— Teeth of Maoacus.
159.— The Collared White-Eyelid Monkey.
164, — Wanderoo.
165.— ChKina,
163.— Wanderoo.
38
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Monkeys.
degree than anrthin^ potitive. In the Macaques,
or Macaci, the body is stouter, the head larger in
proportion, the limbs more muscular, and the tail
shorter than in the Guenons. The muzzle is heavy ;
the forehead is flattened behind a bold superciliary
ridge; the callosities are lar^e, and mostly sur-
rounded by a naked space of skin. There are ample
cheek-pouches, and Cuvier states that a laryngal
sac ia always present. The last molar of the lower
jaw has a iifth tubercle, and the molai-s are broad
(see Fig. 160). The tail is variable : in some it is of
considerable length, and in these the general form
approaches to that of the Guenons. In others again
it M short and slender ; and in others it is reduced to
a mere tubercle. The ears are angular. The Ma-
caci are all natives of Asia. Like the Guenons,
which they seem to represent, the long-tailed species
tenant the forest in troops, and are remarkable for
activity and impudence. Emboldened by tolerance,
they become in many places very audacious, pil-
laging the garden and fields of grain, and their
rapacity is seconded by address and cunning.
161. — The Toquk, or Radiated Macaqu*
(Macacus radiatus). This species is the Bonnet
Chinois of Buffon ; the Simla binica of Gmelim ; the
Toque of F. Cuvier.
The forehead is abruptly depressed behind the
superciliary ridge, which is very bold ; the skin of
the forehead is transversely wrinkled, and covered
with short hairs, diverging laterally on each side
from the middle longitudinal line. These hairs are
continued round the temples, following the projec-
tion of the superciliary ridge, and occupying the
space before the ears. A circular cap of rather long
hair radiating from the centre is seated flat on the
crown. The muzzle is prominent, and the physiog-
nomy malicious ; the form is robust ; the tail long.
The general colour is greenish olive-grey, the hairs
being annulated with dusky-black and pale yellow ;
the under surface is ashy-white ; the ears are large
and flesh-coloured, with straggling long grey hairs.
The limbs are of a paler tint than the back. The
sides of the face and throat are thinly clad with
greyish hairs ; the naked skin of the face is of a
tanned flesh-colour.
The Toque is one of the commonest of the Ma-
caques in our menageries, and appears to be widely
distributed throughout India. It is found in Mala-
bar. It inhabits the Western Ghauts, where it is
called Waanur by the Mahrattas: it is abundant in
Madras, and even in the southern regions of Nepal.
In the Mahratta country portions of the mighty
forest are, as Mr. Elliot states, left untouched by the
axe or knife, forming an impervious shade for the
growth of the black pepper, cai°damom, and mari-
palm (Caryota urens). These parts, called kans,
are the favourite resort of wild animals: here the
Entellus abounds, and its loud and piercing cries
may be frequently heard sounding through the dense
foliage : the radiated Macaque, also, which is com-
mon over the whole country, may be seen in troops,
tenanting the wildest jungles. It is not, however,
confined to these woodland recesses : it lives, as if
at home, in the most populous towns, where it
carries off fruit and grain with the greatest coolness
and address, and commits incessant petty depreda-
tions. The examples of this species which we have
seen in captivity, have been all remarkable for intel-
ligence and activity, and equally so for petulance
when young, and irascibility — even ferocity — when
adult. We have seen them display every mark of
rage against persons who did not appear to give any
definite offence. Numbers of these animals are
kept in the Hindoo temples, where they are exceed-
ingly jealous of intruders of any other species, which
they drive forth from their asylum with the utmost
hostility, a circumstance witnessed by M. de Mai-
8onpr£ in the enclosures of the pagodas of Cherinan.
162. — The Bbuhdeb, or Rhesus
(Macacus Rhesus). This is the Patas a queue courte
of Buffon ; the Maimon, or Rhesus, of F. Cuvier.
The general colour of the fur is olive-green, with
a wash of brown on the back ; the crupper and
thighs externally orange-red ; the face orange-
red ; the callosities and naked skin around intense
red. The tail short. The skin of the throat and
abdomen is loose, and usually hangs in folds.
The Bhunder is a native of India, and is very abun-
dant on the banks of the Ganges, being greatly
reverenced by the Hindoos. It swarms not only in
the woods, but in towns and villages, tenanting the
tops of the houses. It would appear from the account
of Mr. Johnson, in his ' Indian Field Sports,' that in
some places ample provision is made for the support
of these animals. At Bindrabun, a town near the
holy city of Muttra, more than a hundred gardens
are cultivated, sind all kinds of fruit grown, at the
expense of pious and wealthy natives, for their
sipply. Not content with remaining outside the
houses, they boldly invade the rooms and steal
everything that tempts them, such as bread, sugar,
fruit, &c., ransacking every place in their search.
To injure one is not only to bring down the ven-
geance of the whole host, but, vvhat is more, of
the besotted natives, as was experienced by two
younp officers who imprudently fired while on a
sporting excursion at one of these monkeys. They
were mounted on an elephant, and no sooner
was the profane assault committed than the in-
habitants of Bindrabun rose incensed to the
highest degree: they pelted the gentlemen and the
elephant with bricks and stones, and drove them
into the river : the two officers and the driver were
drowned ; but the elephant landed about six miles
lower down the river, and was saved. In the dis-
trict of Cooch Bahar a large tract of country is con-
sidered by the natives as in part the property of
these monkeys ; and therefore, when they cut the
grain, they leave a tenth part piled in heaps for
these creatures, which come' down from the hills and
carry off' their allotted tithes.
In captivity the Rhesus, or Bhunder, displays
cunning and sagacity ; but is at the same time ob-
stinate, savage, and irascible.
163, 164.— The Wanderoo
(Macacus Silemis). Ouanderou and Lowando, Buf-
fon ; Lion-tailed Baboon, Pennant and Shaw.
The general colour of this species is black ; the
tail is of moderate length and tufted at the tip ; the
face is encircled by a mane of long hairs of a
whitish or light ash colour, sometimes pure white ;
the face is black ; the callosities flesh-coloured.
This large and powerful Macaque is a native of
Malabar and Ceylon. Knox, in his historical rela-
tion of Ceylon, evidently describes this animal.
They are, he says, " as large as our English spaniel
dogs, of a darkish grey colour, with black faces, and
great white beards from ear to ear, which make
them show just like old men. They do but little
mischief, keeping in the woods, eating only leaves
and buds of trees ; but when they are caught they
will eat anything. This sort they call in their lan-
guage Wanderows."
In captivity, judging from the specimens we
have seen, the Wanderoo is surly and unsocial, and
disposed to tyrannise over the other inmates of its
compartment. Of its manners in a state of nature
we have no detailed account.
Genus Cynocephalus. In the massive Baboons
composing this genus we find the characters of the
Macaques exaggerated, so to speak, to their ultima-
tum, and consequently impressing us with an idea
of degradation m the scale ; we recognise an ap-
proach in form and aspect to the Carnivora, and on
reflection appreciate the distance to which we have
receded from the Chimpanzee.
Of large stature and prodigious force, the Baboons,
though never voluntarily assuming an erect atti-
tude, are to a great degree terrestrial, inhabiting
rocky and mountain districts, rather than forests
and woodlands. The head is heavy, not from cra-
nial development, but from that of the face, which
is prolonged and thick, resembling that of a mastiff,
the muzzle being truncated, and the nostrils at its
extremity.
The maxillary bones are more or less swollen,
and the superciliary ridge beetles over the scowling
eyes, giving an expression of brutal and revolting
ferocity.
The neck and shoulders are voluminous ; the
chest is deep, and the great power and equal pro-
portions of the limbs are favourable for quadrupedal
movements. They climb trees with facility, but
prefer craggy rocks and precipices, among which
they dwell in security. In temper they are morose
and daring, and their physical powers render them
formidable. It is only during youth that they are
tractable. They congregate in troops, and are bold
and skilful in their predatory excursions.
To bulbous roots, berries, and grain, the Baboons
add eggs, scorpions, and insects, as their diet ; nor is
it quite clear that they are not carnivorous as well
as herbivorous. In domestication they relish cooked
meat, and even devour raw flesh with avidity. They
do not arrive at maturity till the seventh or eighth
year of their age.
All the Baboons are African : one indeed, the
Hamadryas, is found in the mountain districts of
Arabia, as well as in those of Abyssinia, and was
well known to the Egyptians.
165, 166, 167.— The Chacma
(Cynocephalus porcarius). The Singe Noir of Le
Vaillant ; the Choak-Kama of Kolbe ; Papio Coma-
tus, Geoffroy. About the shoulders and neck the
hairs are long and mane-like ; the general colour is
grizzled dusky black, with a tinge of olive-green ;
the face is black, with a hue of violet ; the upper
eyelids are white ; the tail descends to the hock-
joint, and is carried arched yet drooping down, as
in Figs. 166 and 167. The male attains the size
of a large mastiff, and is very formidable. Length
of adult nearly 3 feet, exclusive of the tail, which
measures about 27 inches.
The terra Chacma is a corruption of the Hottentot
name T'chacamma for this species, which inhabits
the rocky mountains throughout the colony of the
Cape of Good Hope, where, in the remoter districts,
it is very abundant, and well known to the farmers
from the depredations it commits in their cultivated
enclosures. In its mountain fastnesses it is safe
from pursuit, and troops may be frequently seen on
the overhanging rocks gazing at the traveller as he
traverses the mountain passes.
An old male Chacma is more than a match for
two large dogs ; and the boors of the interior will
rather venture their hounds upon a lion or panther
than one of these animals. Yet to no animal do the
dogs show a more inveterate hostility. Burchell
states that on one occasion a small company of
them, being chased by his dogs, suddenly turned
upon their canine foes and defended themselves
most effectually. They killed one dog on the spot
by biting it through the great blood-vessels of the
neck, and disabled another by laying bare its ribs.
Even the leopard, hyaena, or wild-dog is sometimes
mastered by a troop, though the former, surprising
individuals, destroys numbers.
The devotion of the females to their young is very
great, and in their defence they are ready to brave
every danger.
The food of the Chacma consists in a great mea-
sure of bulbous roots, particularly of the Babiana ;
and it is customary for the troops to descend from
the precipices into the secluded valleys of rich allu-
vial soil where these plants luxuriate. When sud-
denly surprised, the cry of alarm is raised, and the
troop ascend the rocky cliffs, often several hundred
feet in perpendicular height, with surprising agility,
the young clinging to their mothers, and the old
males bringing up the rear. Besides bulbs and
grain, they are fond of eggs, and greedily devour
scorpions, which they seize, nipping off the sting
with so rapid an action as to prevent the hands
from being wounded. In captivity, while young,
the Chacma is good-tempered and frolicsome, but
as age advances it becomes savage and dangerous.
168. — The M.^-ndbiu-
{Cynocephalus Mormon). Le Choras, Buffon ; Man-
tegar, Bradley ; Great Baboon, Pennant ; Variegated
Baboon, Lev. Mus. ; Ribbed-nosed Baboon, Pen-
nant ; Simla Mormon and Maimon, Linn.
Adult male. General colour olive-brown, pass-
ing into whitish in the under parts ; a golden-yellow
beard hangs from the chin ; the hair of the forehead
and temples converges to a peak ; skin round the
callosities red. The nostrils have a broad rim around
them, at the extremity of the muzzle ; the tail is
short, and nearly hid by the fur. The cheek-bones
are enormously swollen, rising like two ridges, and
the skin is obliquely marked with deep furrows ;
its colour is a fine blue, with a tinge of scarlet in
the furrows ; a streak of brilliant vermillion, com-
mencing on the beetling superciliary ridge, runs
down the nose, and is diffused over the muzzle.
Ears, palms, and soles violet black. In the female
the cheeks are less swollen, and the scarlet is pale
or wanting. In the young the cheeks are little if at
all swollen, the furrows barely discernible, and the
colour black. It is not until the fourth or fifth
year, when the second dentition is fully complete,
that the characters of maturity are assumed ; and to
this point there is a gradual progress, the bones of
the face developing, the colour of the skin chang-
ing, the muzzle becoming broader and thicken and
the furrows more marked.
This massive, powerful, and ferocious baboon is
of huge size, and very dangerous. It is a native of
Guinea and other parts of western Africa, where it
is greatly dreaded by the natives, who assert that it
frequently attempts to cany oft' women into the
deep forests where it resides, and occasionally suc-
ceeds. However this may be, certain it is that in
captivity the appearance of a female will excite in
the mandrill unequivocal manifestations of brute
passion, and any attention to her the most furious
jealousy.
In its native forests the mandrill associates in
large troops, which are more than a match for the
fiercest beasts of prey, and often make incursions
into villages and cultivated fields, which they plun-
der with impunity. In their movements on the
ground they are quadrupedal ; but their activity is
very great, and they leap and climb with the "ut-
most facility. Their voice is deep and guttural,
consisting of hoarse, abrupt tones, indicative of fury
or malice. That the species is abundant in western
Africa is proved by the numbers of young indivi-
duals brought from time to time to Europe ; these
however very rarely attain to maturity, the period of
dentition, which is accompanied by such marked
changes, being peculiarly critical. In captivity this
baboon is ferocious and malevolent ; one in the pos-
session of Mr. Wombwell killed a monkey, a beagle,
Monkeys.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
39
and a Java sparrow, which by accident came within
his reach. A splendid specimen died some years
ago in Mr. Cross's menagerie. He was accustomed
to smoke, and to drink porter, which latter he quafFed
■with an amusing air of gravity, holding the mug
with great address while seated in his arm-chair.
His temper was violent in the extreme, and the
slightest oiFence roused him to fury : his appearance
was then terrible, and well calculated to alarm the
boldest ; nor could any man, without weapons, have
had any chance in a contest.
169. — Tub Drill
(CynocepliacBlus leucophus). The Drill is a native
of Guinea. The head is large ; the muzzle thick,
with elevated maxillary protuberances, which, how-
ever, are not furrowed. The general contour is
robust. The tail is very short, and' carried erect.
The general colour is greenish olive above, ashy
white beneath ; the beard is short and orange-
coloured ; the face and ears are glossy black ; the
palms copper-coloured. The female is smaller, with
a shorter muzzle and paler tint of colouring. The
young males resemble the female till their second
dentition is complete. It would appear that the
Wood Baboon, the Cinereous Baboon, and the Yel-
lovf Baboon of Pennant, are the young of the Drill
at different stages of growth.
The Drill approaches the Mandrill in size ; and
though gentle when young, becomes when adult as
sullen and ferocious as that animal . Adults are, how-
ever, rare in menageries, the acquisition of the per-
manent teeth being critical : but young specimens
are far from uncommon. These have often been
confounded with the young of the Mandrill ; indeed,
it is to Frederic Cuvier that we owe the recogni-
tion of the Drill as a distinct species, for the con-
fused descriptions of Pennant aftbrd us nothing tan-
gible. In its wild state the Drill resembles the
Mandrill as regards habits and manners ; and tra-
vellers seem to have confounded the two species to-
gether, and even mixed up their history with that of
the Chimpanzee.
AMERICAN MONKEYS
(CebidcB). The American monkeys diflfer from the
monkeys of the Old World in the following par-
ticulars. The thumb of the fore-hands is never op-
posable to the fingers.
The dentition, excepting in the Marmozets, is as
4 1 I
follows : — Incisors, - ; canines, -— ~ ; bicuspid mo-
Jara, ^-— ; true molars, -— - =z 36, instead of 32.
Callosities always wanting. Cheek-pouches always
wanting. Nostrils lateral, with elevated margins,
and separated from each other by a wide septum.
Tail often prehensile, never wanting or rudimen-
tary.
The American monkeys, or Cebidae, are exclu-
sively confined to the warmer regions of the New
World ; so that, although the species are numerous,
their extent of territory is far more limited than
that occupied by the Old World monkeys. Their
northward range is bounded (in the tenth or eleventh
degree of latitude) by the Caribbean Sea ; for they
occur neither in the Caribbean group of islands, nor
m Hayti, Cuba, or the Bahamas. Though found in
the region south of the territory of Panama, they do
not advance to Yutacan or Mexico. South of the
line their range extends to the twenty-fourth or
twenty-fifth degree of latitude, including Brazil,
Peru east of the great chain of the Andes, and Para-
guay. All are arboreal, frequenting the dense
forests, which, as Humboldt observes, are so thick
and uninterrupted on the plains of South America
between the Orinoko and the Amazon, that, were it
not for intervening rivers, the monkeys, almost the
only inhabitants of these regions, might pass along
the tops of the trees for several hundred miles to-
gether without touching the earth.
In South America monkeys are ordinarily killed
as game by the natives for the sake of their flesh ;
but the appearance of these animals is so revolting
to Europeans, that it is only from necessity, and
after custom has familiarised the sight, that they
can force themselves to partake of such fare. The
manner in which these animals are roasted also
contributes to render their appearance disgusting.
" A little grating or lattice of very hard wood is
formed and raised a foot from the ground. The
monkey is skinned and bent into a sitting posture,
the head generally resting on the arfns, which are
meagre and long; but sometimes these are crossed
behind the back. When it is tied on the grating, a
very clear fire is kindled below; the monkey, en-
veloped in smoke and flame, is broiled and blackened
at the same time. Roasted monkeys, particularly
those that have a round head, display a hideous re-
semblance to a child; the Europeans, therefore,
who are obliged to feed on them, prefer separating
the head and hands, and serve only the rest of the
animal at their tables. The flesh of monkeys is f-o
dry and lean, that M. Bonpland has preserved in his
collection at Paris an arm and hand which had been
broiled over the fire at Esmeralda, and no smell
arises from them after a number of years."— Hum-
boldt.
Genus Ateles. This genus, which includes the
spider-monkeys, is characterised thus :— Head round ;
face moderately developed ; limbs long and slender.
Tail longer than the body, thick at the base, strongly
prehensile, and naked for a considerable space be-
neath at its extremity. Fore-hands either destitute
of an externally apparent thumb, or with the thumb
a mere tubercle. Nostrils separated by a wide sep-
tum and obliquely oval. Ears moderate, naked,
with reflected margins. Dentition as described.
Fur long, crisp, or rather harsh, sometimes silky ;
prevailing colour black.
In the slenderness of the limbs, and in the staid,
quiet, and almost melancholy expression of the face,
the Spider Monkeys remind us of the Gibbons ; both
are timid and gentle, with an air of listlessness. lost
only under excitement.
From the length of the limbs and the remarkable
flexibility of the joints, the motions of the Spider
Monkeys on all fours on the ground seem to be
crawling and indeterminate. They tread on the
inner edge of the fore-paws, and to a great degree
on the outer edge of the hind-paws, and endeavour
to assist themselves by attaching the tail to every
object as they proceed. They often, however, as-
sume the erect attitude, and walk thus better than
any other of the long-tailed monkeys. When pro-
ceeding in this manner the tail is raised up as high
as the shoulders, and then bent downwards at its
extremity, evidently acting as a balancer while the
animal moves steadily along. The proper place of
these monkeys is among the branches of the forest ;
there their movements are rapid, easy, and uncon-
strained ; their progression is by a series of swing-
ing evolutions, in the performance of which the
limbs and tail take an equal share. The latter
organ, the strength and prehensile powers of which
are very great, enables them to assume the most
varied attitudes. In ascending or descending trees,
or in traversing the branches, it is in continual re-
quisition ; they coil it round branch after branch in
their passage, turning it in various directions, and
applying it with wonderful precision. They often
suspend themselves exclusively by it, and swinging
until a sufficient impetus is gained, launch them-
selves to a distant branch, or, stretching out their
arms, catch it as they vibrate towards it. The ad-
vantages of this additional instrument of prehension
are palpable ; its sense of touch is finger-like ; and
it is capable of seizing small objects with great ad-
dress. They are said to introduce the extremity
of the tail as a feeler into the fissures and hollows
of trees, for the purpose of hooking out eggs or
other substanees.
170.— The Chambck
(Ateles suhpentadactijlus). Fur long, flowing, glossy,
and jet black. The fore-hands have a minute nail-
less tubercle in place of a thumb. The face and
ears are naked, and of a red flesh colour, with a tint
of dusky brown. Length of head and body about
twenty inches : of the tail twenty-five inches. Na-
tive country, Peru.
171. — The Mahimosda
{Ateles Belzebuth, Desm.). Fur smooth and glossy ;
general colour brownish black, deeper on the hands
and feet, but fading on the loins and sides of the
haunches to a glossy greyish brown. The long
hairs at the angle of the jaw, those of the throat,
under parts and inside of the limbs, dirty straw
colour or yellowish white. A space along the under
surface of the tail at its base rusty yellow. Skin of
the face blackish brown, becoming of a tanned flesh
colour about the lips and nose and around the eyes.
Native country, the borders of the Orinoko, Cassi-
quiare, &c.
172.— The Coaita
(Ateles Panisciis). The Quatto of V'osmaer. Ge-
neral colour black, the fur being long, coarse, and
glossy ; more scanty on the under parts of the body
than on the upper. Face and ears of a flesh co-
lour, with a tanned or coppery tinge. Neither in
this nor the Marimonda is there any thumb on the
fore-hands. Native country, Surinam and Guiana.
In their general habits and manners these three
fpecies of Spider Monkeys agree so closely that the
details of one are applicable to the rest. In cap-
tivity the Chameck is grave and gentle, but displays
extraordinary agility ; its intelligence approaches
that of the Gibbons. We have seen individuals re-
peatedly walk upright with great steadiness, — cross
their compartment to the window, and there gaze
for a considerable time with an air amusingly like
that of a human being, as if contemplating the state
of the weather, the progress of vegetation, or the
actions of persons passing by. At the same time
the Chameck (and the same observation applies to
the others) is not disposed to court the notice of the
spectators around it, or invite the attention of stran-
gers. Towards those by whom it is regulariy fed
it displays confidence and partiality. In its gam-
bols with others of the genus it exhibits great ad-
dress in avoiding or returning their sportive assaults,
and executes with surpassing ease the most fan-
tastic manoeuvres.
The Marimonda is termed Arir by the Indians of
the Kio Guiania, and is a favourite article of food
with the natives of the borders of the Cassiquiare,
the higher Orinoko, and other rivers, and its broiled
limbs are commonly to be seen in their huts. It is
listless and indolent in its habits, and is fond of
basking in warm rays of the sun. .Humboldt states
that he has frequently seen these animals, when ex-
posed to the heat of a tropical sun, throw their
heads backwards, turn their eyes upwards, bend
their arms over their backs, and remain motionless
in this extraordinary position for hours together.
They traverse the branches leisurely, and unite in
companies, forming the most grotesque groups, their
attitudes announcing complete sloth.
In captivity the Marimonda is gentle, and exhibits
nothing of the petulance of the guenons or the vio-
lence of the macaques. Its anger, when excited, is
very transient, and announced by pursing up the
lips and uttering a guttural cry, resembling the ou-6.
Humboldt notices the facility with which this ani-
mal can introduce its tail into the narrowest crevices,
select any object it pleases, and hook it out.
173.— Ths Mibiki
(^Eriodes tuberifer, Isid., Geoff.). Ateles hypoxan-
thus. Prince deWied-Neuwied, but not of Desmarest.
The Miriki and one or two more species have been
recently separated from the genus Ateles and formed
into a distinct group. There are indeed several
differences between these animals and the ordinary
Spider Monkeys, which, if taken together, justify the
adoption of the genus Eriodes. The nostrils are ■
rounded, the interval between them is narrow, and
their aspect is downwards, not lateral. The molar
teeth, instead of being small, are large and quadran-
gular, and the crown of the first two molars of the
upper jaw is boldly and irregularly tuberculate : the
incisors are small. The dentition in fact approaches
close to that of the Howlers (Mycetes), and it is
worthy of remark that, in F. Cuviers work on the
teeth of quadrupeds, his figure of the teeth of the
Howling Monkeys is in reality copied, as M. Isidore
asserts, upon his own knowledge, from the teeth of a
species of Eriodes. (See Fig. 174.) Besides these
there are other characters of minor importance.
The fur of the Miriki is soft and woolly, of a yel-
lowish-grey, the base of the tail and the circum-
jacent hairs being tinged with rufous. The fore-
hands are furnished with a minute rudimentary
thumb, in the form of a nailless tubercle ; the face
is flesh-coloured, sprinkled with greyish hairs. Na-
tive country, Brazil. The Miriki in its general habits
agrees with the Spider Monkeys. It lives associated
in troops in the vast forests, and displays great
agility. Fruits form its principal diet. The Prince
of Weid-Neuwied states that the Miriki seldom ap-
proaches the abodes of man, keeping to the depths
of the woods; Spi-v also states that it lives in troops
which make the air resound with their loud cries
incessantly uttered during the day. At the sight of
the hunter they ascend with extraordinary rapidity
the topmost branches of the trees, and passing from
one to another are soon lost in the recesses of the
forest. The Brazilians call this monkey Miriki and
Mouriki; the Botacudas term it Koupo.
Genus Mycetes. The Howlers, or Howling Mon-
keys, as the animals of this genus are termed, con-
stitute a natural and well-marked group distinguish-
able from the Spider Monkeys by their greater
robustness, by the more proportionate contour of
the limbs, by the development of the bone of the
tongue (OS hyoides), which is greatly enlarged and
hollow, by the expansion of the lower jaw, especially
at its angle, the prominence of the muzzle, and by
the possession of a thumb (not opposable) on the
fore-hands. The form of the head is pyramidal ; the
fur of the forehead is directed upwards, that of the
rest of the head forwards ; on the external surface
of the fore-arms it is directed from the wrist to the
elbow; the under parts of the body are almost
naked ; on the back and shoulders the fur is full,
long, soft, and glossy. The tail is strongly prehen-
sile, and naked at its extremity beneath. The hollow
drum formed by the os hyoides communicates with
the interior of the cartilaginous expansion of the
larynx (Fig. ITJ), in which arc several membranous
valvular pouches. This apparatus gives to the voice
extraordinary volume and intonation. The howl-
irio-s uttered by the troops of these monkeys are as-
toundinsr, and usually heard in the morning, at
sunset, and during the darkness of night. Shrouded
amidst the gloomy foliage of the woods, Ihey raise
171.— Marimonda.
ITO.— Chameck.
40
179.— Tenow-bmttecl Sijon.
m^-Cuxjto.
No.
6.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
41
4S
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Monkeys.
their horrid chonu, " making; nif;ht hideout," aod
startling the traveller who Tor the firet time hears
it. It is not, however, only durini; the night or at
daybreak and ereninK that the Howlers exert their
voices; they are affected by electric chani^es in the
dondltion of the atmotphere, and when, durint; the
<*yi 'he gloomy sky Toretells the approach of a
thunderstorm, their dissonant yelU resound through
the gloomy woodlands. The range of the Howlers
ii from Guiana to Paraguay. According to Spix
and Humboldt, they subsist' principally upon fruits
and leaves. The females pro<luoe one at a birth,
and the mother carries her young clinging to her
back until old enough to act for itself. In their
disposition the Howlers are melancholy and morose ;
their movements are tardy and inert ; on the ground
they never attempt to walk on the hinder limbs
alone. When pursued oralarmed, they retire slowly
and take refuge in the highest branches of the trees,
to which, if shot with a bullet or arrow, they orten
remain suspended by the tail when life is extinct.
As they are of large size and fatter than other mon-
keys, they are in great request with the Indians as
food ; but are seldom or never kept in confinement,
having nothing pleasing in their mannent, voice, or
appearance.
176, 177.— The Abaocato, or Ursine Howleb
(Mtfcetes urtinui). Araguato de Caracas of Hum-
boldt. The extent of tne face destitute of hair is
more circumscribed than in most of the genus, and is
of a bluish black colour with long scattered black
bristles on the lips and chin. The chest and abdo-
men are well clothed with hair. The fur is long,
resembling that of a young bear. The general
colour is golden rufous, paler round the sides of the
face, but deeper on the beard. In the figure of this
species given in Humboldt's work, the hair of the
liead is represented as all directed backwards from
the forehead to the back of the neck : we hesitate
not to say, by a mistake of the artist. Native coun-
try, Brazil, Venezuela, &c.
It was after landing atCumana, in the province of
New Andalusia, that Humboldt and Bonpland first
met the Araguato, while on an excursion to the
mountains of Cocollar and the cavern of Guacharo.
The convent of Caripr is there situated in a valley,
the plain of which is elevated more than 400 toises
above the level of the ocean ; and though the centi-
grade thermometer olten descends during the night
to I " degrees, the surrounding forests abound with
Howlers, whose mournful cries uttered when the
sky is overcast, or threatens rain or lightning, are
heard at the distance of half a league. The Araguato
was also met with in the valleys of Aragua to the
west of Caracas, in the Llanos of the Apur6 and
of the Lower Orinoco, and in the Carib missions of
the Province of New Barcelona, where stagnant
waters were overshadowed by the Sagoutier of
America, a species of palm with scale-covered fruit
and ilabelliform leaves, among which it dwells in
troops. South of the cataracts of the Orinoco it
becomes very rare. Of all the gregarious monkeys
the Araguato was observed in the greatest abund-
ance ; on the borders of the Apure Humboldt often
counted 40 in one tree, and in some parts of the
country he affirms that more than 2000 existed in a
square mile. They travel in the forests in long files,
consisting of 20 or 30 individuals or more, and pro-
ceed with deliberation. An old male usually leads
the troop, the rest follow his movements, and when
he swings from one branch to another, the whole file
■one by one perform in " order due " the same action
«n the same spot. In other species also this habit
has been observed. According to Waterton, the
Araguato is very partial to the seeds of the vanilla,
a creeper which ascends the trees to the height of
forty or fiOy feet.
Genus cfebus. The Sapajous, as the animals of
this genus are termed, are prehensile-tailed, but the
tail is everywhere clothed with fur, so that, though
capable of grasping, and naturally curled round at
its extremity when not in use, as in the Spider
Monkeys and Howlers, it is not, as in these latter
animals, an organ of tact, nor so powerful a grasper.
The monkeys of this genus are all diurnal in their
habits, and for the most part of small size. The French
call them Sapajous, Sajous, Sais, and Capucins : they
are also called Weepers (Singes pleureurs), from the
Slaintive piping noise which many of them utter,
[umboldt states that the Creoles of South America
call them "Matchi," confounding underthisdenomi-
nation very distinct species. In temper and disposi-
tion the Cebi are lively and docile ; they show great
attachment to some persons, and a capricious aver-
sion to others. They are intelligent, mischievous.
And inquisitive. Their activity and address are sur-
prising ; in their native forests they live in troops,
feeding on fniits, grain, insects, and eggs. So
amusinf^ are they in their gambols, that even the
apathetic natives will stop their canoes and watch
their frolics with interest. They are, from their live-
lineas and docility, great favourites, and often kept
domesticated, but their amusing habits do not pro-
tect them from the poisoned arrows of the Indians.
The head is round, tlie muzzle short, and the
limbs well proportioned. The dentation as usual :
the incisors of the upper-jaw are larger than those
of the lower ; the canines are often strong and large ;
the molars are rather small. The ears are rounded.
The species are very numerous, and involved In
much confusion.
178.— Thb Horned Sajou
(Ctim* FatueUut, Linn.). Sajou comu, F. CUvier
(not of Buifun). The general colour of the fur is
brown, deepening to an almost black tint on the
top of the head, on the middle of the black, and on
the legs, hands, feet, and tail. A bandeau of hair
rises on the forehead, the extremities of which are
elevated in the form of egrets, or pencil-like tufts :
these tufts are less conspicuous in the female. The
sides of the face are garnished with white hairs.
All the naked parts, and the skin under the fur, are
violet-coloured. Native country, Brazil : it is found
in the Provinces of Rio Janeiro. It is not until
maturity that the horns or frontal tufts are acquired.
In captivity the Horned Sajou is lively and amusing,
active and good tempered. Its habits in a state of
nature are not detailed.
1 79. — TuE Yellow-breasted Sajou
(CW»« zanthostemos. Prince Maxim., Kuhl, Des-
mar.). Sai ii grosse tete, Cebus Monachus, F. Cuv. ;
C. Zanthocephalus, Spix. This is one of the species
which has been in confusion, but from which we
trust it is extricated. The head is large, the fore-
head broad and covered with very short hair ; the
limbs are robust, the tail thick : in size this species
is superior to the Homed Sajou. The forehead and
anterior part of the head, and the hairs of the cheeks,
which are full on the malar bones, arc yellowish
white ; a dusky line, commencing before the ears,
encircles the face ; the chest, the shoulders, and the
anterior part of the humerus, are orange-yellow ;
the fore-arms, the legs, the anterior portion of the
back, and the tail, are black ; the sides of the body
and the haunches are reddish-brown ; the abdomen,
rich rufous chestnut. The depth of the tints vary
with age ; the fore-arms and legs are often freckled
with rufous and the tail grizzled with yellowish-
white, especially at its base and underneath.
This species inhabits the woods of Rio Janeiro
and St. Paul. We have seen a fine specimen from
Bahia Brazil. It is a young male which F. Cuvier
figures as the Sai h grosse tete. He adds also the
scientific appellation Monachus, which having been
already given to a very distinct monkey (Cebus
monachus, Fischer ; Pithecia monachus, Geoifroy),
cannot be retained without confusion. According
to Spix the Yellow-breasted Sajou associates in large
troops, which often visit the fields of maze, where
they commit great depredations. In captivity it is
gentle, mild, and confiding, and though timid, fond
of being noticed by those to whom it is famili-
arized.
180. — The Brown Sajou
(Cebus ApcUa). Sajou brun, Buffon. Head
round ; colouring variable both as to intensity and
markings. The following details are taken from
specimens we have rigorously examined : — Hair of
the temples short, scanty, and directed upwards.
On the top of the liead the hair is moderately long,
and forms a cap with an anterior slightly elevated
marginal ridge advancing from the centre of the
forehead along the sides of the head, so as to pro-
duce a somewhat triangular figure; face covered
with short dusky hair, that about the lips white ;
ears large and nearly naked. From the black
cap on the top of the head a blackish line ex-
tends down before the cars and spreads over the
beard-like hairs of the throat. The outer surface of
the humerus is greyish, but a black line from be-
hind the ears sweeps over the shoulder and runs
along the anterior margin of the humerus to the
fo;e-arm, which is black, grizzled with brownish
grey. The general colour is brownish-black, pass-
ing into black on the middle of the dorsal line, on
the haunches, tail, thighs, and legs : the fur is
glossy. Another specimen has the sides of the body
and outside of the thighs of a glossy pale chestnut
brown, and the temples yellowish grey washed in
the middle with black. The Cebus Apella is the
Capucin Monkey of Pennant and Shaw, but not the
Simla Capucina of Linneeus, which is the Sai of
Butfon, the Weeper Monkey of Pennant and Shaw.
The Brown Sajou is a native of Guiana, and is
■ plentifully brought over by vessels trading to the
coast, so that it is common in our menageries, Its
liveliness and activity are remarkable, and it bears
our climate well. There are several instances of its
having produced young in France, and each time a
single offspring, to which both parents were strongly
attached; In disposition the Brown Sajou is goud-
tempered, but capricious. It is very intelligent
and amusing. A male which was living a few years
since in the Gardens of the Zoological Society would
employ a stone for the purpose of breaking nuts too
hard to be crushed by the teeth, or if no stone were
at hand he would strike them forcibly against any
hard surface, so as to split the shell : we have seen
other sajous do the same. This species is continually
in the habit of making grimaces; it grins, wrinkling
up the face in a very singular manner ; its ordinary
cry is jilaintive, but when in anger the voice is
shrill and elevated. In chmbing, the tail is in con-
slant requisition as a grasper. Though fruits and
other vegetable productions constitute the diet of
this species in its native forests, they are not ex-
clusively so ; insects are highly relished, and there
is reason to believe that eggs and young birds are
also acceptable. A linnet, which by way of ex-
periment was introduced into a cage where two of
these monkeys were confined, was instantly caught
by the strongest of them, and killed and eaten with
scarcely even the ceremony of stripping off the
feathers.
Genus Pithecia. The Monkeys of this genus are
termed Saki by the French. The tail is not in the
slightest degree prehensile : it is shorter than the
body, and generally bushy. The head is round, the
muzzle moderately prominent. In the lower jaw
the incisors project almost as in the Lemur, being
compressed, narrowing atthe points, and are closely
compacted together ; the upper incisors are nearly
vertical and square, differing greatly in appearance
from those of the lower jaw. The canines are large,
strong, and three-sided. The molars bluntly tuber-
culate.
The Sakis, or Fox-tailed monkeys, live either in
pairs, or small troops of ten or twelve, and are
usually seen on the outskirts of forests bordering
rivers. They are to a certain degree nocturnal in
their habits : some indeed have been considered
decidedly so, but it would appear that, like the
Howlers, they are the most animated just before
sunrise and after sunset, at which times they utter
their loud cries in concert. All are active and
vigilant, and not easy to be surprised or captured.
181.— The Cacajao
(Pithecia meUuiocephala). This monkey is also
called in America Caruiri. The body is rather
robust, but elongated ; the head is ovate, oblong,
and depressed on the crown ; the ears have a back-
ward situation ; the tail is short, and ends abruptly.
The face is black, as are also the ears ; the head is
covered with full long black hairs, directed from
the occiput forwards to the forehead, where they
become parted in the centre. The hairs of the back
are long, and of a brownish-yellow : this colour
passes on the thighs and tail into a brighter or fer-
ruginous tint. The fore-arms and legs are black or
blackish. The chin is beardless, and the nose short,
broad, and flat. Native country, the borders of the
Cassiquiare and Rio Negro ; and in Brazil, those of
the rivers Solimoens and 19a.
The present Saki is described by Humboldt, and
is doubtless identical with one also described and
figured by Spix, which he terms Ouakary, and
which he found in the forests between the rivers
Solimoens and 19a (Brazil). He states that these
monkeys congregate in troops frequenting the
margins of large streams ; and that during their
journeys from one part of the forest to another they
fill the air with their piercing and disagreeable
cries. Humboldt informs us that the Cacajo, or
Cacaho, as it is called by the Marativitan Indians
of the Rio Negro, is not common in the territories
which he investigated, for he only saw one individual,
which he bought, in an Indian cabin at San Francisco
Solano ; and from which, after death, he took an
accurate drawing. It was young, but he was assured
by the Indians of Esmeralda, that though it attains
to a considerable size, its tail is not sensibly aug-
mented in length. According to the information
obtained by Humboldt, the Cacajao inhabits the
forests which border the Cassiquiare and Rio Negro,
associating in troops : when kept in confinement it
is voracious and listless, but gentle and timid, even
shrinking from the society of other small monkeys.
Baron Humboldt's specimen trembled violently at
the sight of a crocodile or serpent. When irritated
it opens its mouth in a strange manner, and its
countenance becomes distorted by a convulsive sort
of laugh.
From the length and slenderness of its fingers, it
grasps anything awkwardly, and when about to
seize an object bends its back and extends its two
arms, atthe same time assuming a singular attitude.
It eats all sorts of fruits— the most acid, as well as
the sweetest. It is termed Caruiri by the Cabres of
the mission of San Fernando, near the junction of
the Orinoco, the .\tabapo, and the Guaviare ; Mono
feo (hideous monkey), and Chucuto, or Mono rabon
(short-tailed monkey), by the Spanish Missionaries
of the Cassiquiare.
Monkeys.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
43
182, 183. — The Conxio, or Jacketed Monkey
{Pithecia Sagulata, Traill, in ' Mem. Wern. Soc.,'
iii.). The confu.sion in which this species has been
involved is very remarkable. The lollowing are its
synonyms: — Cebus Sagulatus, Fisch.; Cebus Sata-
nas, HofFmans ; Pithecia Satanas, Kuhl and Geoffr. ;
Simla Chiropotes, Humboldt ; Pithecia Chiropotes,
Geoffr., Kuhl, Desm. ; Brachyurus Israelita, Spix.
Head, limbs, and tail black, — the general tint of
the back and top of the shoulders is grizzled rusty-
brown or brownish-grey, differing in depth in differ-
ent individuals. The hairs of the body are pale at
the roots, sometimes indeed nearly white. The under
parts are scantily clad. The hair of the head radiates
from a point on the occiput, and on the sides of the
forehead forms two conspicuous elevated tufts, with
a depression between them. These tufts fold over
and conceal the ears, which are black and naked.
The face is black and furnished at its sides with
full bushy whiskers which meet under the chin,
forming an enormous glossy-black beard, directed
obliquely forwards, and which gives a peculiar
aspect to the physiognomy. The teeth are large, —
the canines formidable. The head is large and
rounded, and the nostrils very widely separated from
each other. On the outer side of the fore-arms the
hairs are reverted. Native country, Guiana and the
borders of Rio Negro, &c. Of the four distinct
specific appellations (viz. Sagulata, Satanas, Chiro-
potes, and israelita), which we regard as belonging
all to one animal, that of Sagulata claims the pre-
ference, being the name under which the species
was first described by Traill. Baron Humboldt, who
erroneously regards the Satanas of Hoffmansegg
(which he calls Couxio de Grand Para) and his
Chiropotes (which he terms Capucinde I'Drenoque)
as distinct, thus describes the latter (a description
applicable fo each variety, under whatever name it
may stand in the works of naturalists): — The Capucin
de rOrenoque (Couxio, P. Sagulata) is robust, agile,
wild, and very difficult to tame. When irritated,
it raises itself up, grinds its teeth, rubs the extre-
mity of its beard, and leaps around the object of its
revenge. In these accessions of fury, Humboldt
says that he has seen it drive its teeth into thick
boards of the Cedrela Odorata. It drinks but rarely,
and takes the water in the hollow of its hand, which
it carries carefully to the mouth, so as avoid wet-
ting its beard. If aware that it is observed, it does
not perform this singular action. Sir Rt. Ker
Porter (see ' Proc. Zool. Soc' London, 1834, p. 41),
in a description of the P. Sagulata, distinctly states
that the animal drinks frequently, bending down and
putting its mouth to the water, apparently heedless
of wetting its beard, and indifferent to the observa-
tion of lookers-on. He never saw it take the water
in the hollow of the hand, as described by Hum-
boldt. Yet that it was observed by the latter we
cannot doubt ; in our menageries, however, it drinks
in the ordinary way of other monkeys. According
to Humboldt, the Capucin de lOrenoque does not
associate in troops ; a male and female in company
wander by themselves through the forests, where
their cry may be heard. In the vast wilds of the
Upper Orinoco, south and east of the cataracts, this
monkey is common, and the Aturian Indians, as well
as those of Esmeralda, eat many of these animals at
certain seasons of the year. In other parts of Guiana
it seems to be much more rare.
The individuals which we have seen in captivity
have all displayed a morose and savage temper :
on the slightest provocation they would menace
the offender with their teeth, wrinkling up the skin
of their face and displaying their immense canines,
their eyes at the same time gleaming with fury!
Towards other monkeys they were reserved, and dis-
liked to be intruded upon.
184.— The Yabke, or White-headed Saki
(Pithecia leucocephala). The male and female of
this species differ go much that it is not surprising
that they should have been described as distinct
species. The synonyms are as follows :— Male—
P. leucocephala, Geoffr., Desm. ; Saki, Buffon ;
\ arqut'. Butt'., ' Siipp.' ; Yarke, F. Cuv. ; P. ochroce-
phala, Kuhl. Female— P. rufiventer, Geoffr., Desm
Kuhl, Sec. ; P. rufibarbata, Kuhl. ; P. capillamen'
toga, Spix : S. Pithecia, Linn. ; Singe de nuit. Buff. :
Fox-tailed Monkey, Pennant.
3/a/e.— The whole of the anterior part of the head
covered with short close hairs of a white or rusty-
white tint varying in depth; occiput jet-black,
whence a narrow line is continued over the head to
the nose ; fur of the body and tail very long, rather
harsh ; and of a brown colour, more or less inclined
to black ; under part of chin and throat naked and
of an orange tint; abdomen also nearly naked ; tail
bushy ; on the shoulders the long flowing hair has
a tendency to divide.
Fejnafc.— The hairs of the head, excepting on the
interior part of the forehead, instead of being short,
close, and gtiff, are long, like those cf the body, and
radiate forwards and laterally. Between the eyes
is a patch of short pale hairs. The fur of the body
is long, of a dark or blackish brown tint, freckled
paler, the hairs being annulated once or twice at
the top with pale rusty-brown. In the male there
is no annulation of the hairs. The scanty hairs of
under parts are pale rusty-red. The long radiating
hair of the head is of the same colour as that of the
rest in the upper parts. In Fig. 184, which is that
of the female, it is represented too pale. Till re-
cently, the female of the present Saki has been re-
garded by naturalists as a distinct species. The de-
termination of its identity with the Yarke is due to
M. Schomburgk, whose opportunities of observing
this monkey in its native regions of Guiana have
been very abundant, and who a few years since
transmitted specimens of both sexes to the Zoologi-
cal Society, London, More recently he brought
other specimens to England. His testimony on the
point is clear and decisive.
Buffon, who figures a young male, which he
terms Saki, describes the hair of the head as radiat-
ing, and of a whitish tint ; whence we may suppose
that till approaching maturity the males resemble
the females in their " chevelure mal rangce," as he
calls it, excepting as regards its colour.
The Yarke appears to live in small troops, which
tenant the bushes rather than the trees of the forest,
living, according to M. de la Borde, upon the fruit
of the guava, and also upon bees, demolishing their
combs : they also eat all kinds of grain. The fe-
male produces only a single offspring at a birth,
which she carries on her back.
Genus Callithrix.— Head short and rounded:
muzzle short; ears large; general form slender;
tail equalling or exceeding the length of the body ;
not prehensile; nails, excepting on hind thumbs,
long and narrow. Fur soft and delicate ; canines
moderate ; lower incisors vertical and contiguous to
the canines. Ears large, and more or less tri-
angular.
The animals of this genus are light, active, and
graceful, but so extremely delicate, that they do
not endure removal from their own country without
the greatest care. With the exception of the Sai-
miri we have seen no living example. These little
monkeys are termed Sagoins by the French : in
their native regions they inhabit the depths of the
forests, and are diurnal in their habits ; most are
gregarious; fruits, insects, eggs, and birds constitute
their food, and though habitually gentle and timid,
they become animated even to ferocity at the sight
of living prey. Tlieordinary voice of these monkeys
is a short reiterated note, which when they are hurt
or alarmed is changed to a shrill cry.
185. — The Saimihi, or Squireel Mokkey
(Callithrix sciureus, Desm.). Titi de I'Orenoque,
Humboldt. General colour, greyish-olive ; the lace
white, the lips and chin black ; the limbs tinged with
fine rufous or gold colour ; the tail black at its tip ;
eare large and white ; palms flesh-coloured ; eyes
large and hazel, with a pink circle round the iris ;
under parts of body greyish-white. Length of head
and body I24 inches ; of tail 17 inches. Native
country, Brazil, Cayenne, Guiana.
This slender and elegant little monkey is widely
spread : it is one of the earliest of the American
species with which naturalists became acquainted ;
and is most probably the Sapajou de Cayenne of
Froger. (See ' Relat. du Voy. de Gennes,' 1CQ8.)
Its intelligence, its beauty, and sportiveness, render
it a favourite in its own country, where it is domes-
ticated in preference to most others of its race. It
is frequently imported into Europe, but our climate
is very uncongenial. Though the tail of the Sai-
miri has no truly prehensile power, it is used as a
sort of boa, for protection against cold ; and when
numbers crowd, huddled together, as they are often
seen to do in the woods, they bring it between the
hind legs, and twine it over the shoulders and round
the neck, interlocking their arms and legs for the
sake of warmth. This use of the tail we have ob-
served in specimens in captivity.
Highly sensitive and susceptible, the Sa'imiri dis-
plays its feelings by the expression of its counte-
nance ; in which pleasure, surprise, and fear, as they
are experienced, are strongly depicted.
Insects, and especially spiders, are eagerly sought
for and devoured by this monkey : and, as Hum-
boldt states, it gives no little trouble to entomologi-
cal travellers, who may be tempted to keep it do-
mesticated. If it can obtain access to their store-
boxes, it will devour every specimen, taking each
from the pin without injury to its own fingers.
In their dense and humid forests troops of these
monkeys may be seen traversing the branches in
single file, the females carrying their young on
their backs. The foremost leads and regulates the
movements of the rest, and as he leaps from branch
to branch with admirable grace and precision, all
follow in succession. They ascend the " nebees,"
or natural ropes of creeping plants which intertwine
among the trees, with great rapidity. Towards sun-
set they ascend to the very tops of the palm-trees
and there sleep in security. Accustomed to dense
and humid forests, under a sky often covered with
clouds, the Saimiri endures with difficulty the dry
and burning atmosphere of the coasts of Guiana or
the adjacent districts ; and it becomes melancholy
and dejected in proportion as it quits the region of
the forests and enters the Llanos. In captivity in
our climate, though depressed by its influence,
the Saimiri is very engaging. It has a habit of gazin?
intently on the faces of those who notice it, a pecu-
liarity alluded to by Humboldt, who says that it will
attentively watch the motion of a person's lips in
speaking, and that if it can climb on his shoulder, it
will touch his teeth or tongue with its fingers
The usual voice of this species is a low and
quickly repeated whistle : but when "hurt or incom-
moded by wet, rain, or other cause of annoyance.
It utters a plaintive cry.
Genus Nocthora.— Head large ; muzzle short ; eye*
large and nocturnal ; nostrils separated by a mode-
rate septum. Ears moderate, with an acute folded
apex, the free portion being circumscribed. Nails
long, narrow, and channelled ; fingere of fore-hands
(Fig. 186) not extensible to the full. Tail lone
non-prehensile. °'
Humboldt proposed the term Aotus for this
genus, which, by right of priority, should be retained •
It IS rejected, however, because its meaning (earless)
involves an error. '
This genus has been regarded by many naturalists
as a transition form between the American monkeys
and the Lemurs. It is true that, as far as general
aspect and nocturnal habits are concerned, the re-
semblance between the Douroucouli and Lemurs
IS apparent ; still, however, the relationship (setting
aside that common to all the Quadrumana) is oni
of analogy, not afhnity ; for the Douroucouli in its
dentition is more remote from the Lemurs than is
the genus Pithecia, and in this point it agrees with
Callithrix.
187. — The Dobkoucocli
(Nocthora trivirgata, F. Cuv.). Pithecia miriquo-
uina, Geoffr. ; Callithrix infulatus, Lichtenst.: Nyc-
tipithecus felinus, and vociferens, Spix.— Head
round ; muzzle short ; eyes large, with' circular
pupils. General colour greyish-brown above, pale
rulbus below ; a whitish triangular mark over each
eye, bounded by an intervening mark of black as-
cending from the root of the nose, and another run-
ning from the angle of the mouth, passing the outer
angle of the eye. Tail black at the apex. General
form slender; palms flesh-coloured; face dusky;
nails black. Length of head and body ISinches ; of
the tail 18 inches. Native country, Guiana, Brazil.
According to Humboldt, the Douroucouli inhabits
the dense forests of the Cassiquiare and Esmeralda,
at the foot of Mount Duida, and the environs of the
cataracts of Maypures, between the 2nd and 5th
degrees of N. lat., 300 leagues from the coast of
French Guiana. According to Spix it is found near
Para, and in the forests ofTabatinga.on the confines
of Brazil and Peru.
The Douroucouli is nocturnal in its habits, and
sleeps during the day. It is greatly incommoded
by light, and seeks the holes of trees or similar
places for concealment. When roused it is dull
and oppressed, and can scarcely open its large white
eyelids. Its attitude during repose is crouching.
On the approach of dusk, all the lethargy of the
Douroucouli leaves it, and it becomes restless and
impetuous, and roams about in quest of insects and
small birds. In addition to these, various fruits, seeds,
and vegetables constitute its food; but the quantity
of solid aliment it consumes is comparatively little : it
drinks even less, and but seldom. It glides cat-like
through apertures so narrow as to appear incapable
of admitting it, and its actions resemble those of
vivirine animals. Its beautiful glossy fur is in great
request, the natives make tobacco-pouches and
other articles of it, which they sell. A male and
female are often taken together in the same hole
asleep ; for the Douroucouli lives not in troops, but
in pairs, and is strictly monogamous. The nocturnal
cry of this animal is extremely loud and sonorous,
and resembles that of the Jaguar : besides this, it
utters a mewing noise like that of a cat, and also
a deep, harsh, gntteral note, represented by the
syllables r/uer, quer. When irritated, its throat
becomes distended ; and in the posture then assumed,
and in the puffed state of the fur, it resembles a cat
attacked by a dog.
In 18.33 a young male lived for a short time in
the menagerie of the Zool. Soc, London. Its aspect
and movements were very lemurine ; its large eyes,
which it opened when the dusk of evening came
on, were brilliant, and gave an animated expression
to its countenance not exhibited during the day,
when it rested crouching on its perch, lethargic and
motionless. It lived chiefly upon bread sopped in
milk, refusing meat, either dressed or raw.
183.— Couliu.
lU.-Saimiri.
IH.— ["raUe and Feat of Doiuoncooll.
i^^. — lurKe.
190. — Manno»t.
1B7.— DoanHKonli.
IM. — Teeth ofHannozet.
A4
193.— Skull of the Monkey.
!!)7.— White-fronted Ixmnr.
192 — Marikina.
]91. — Marmozets.
j^ri.^HufTed I.«mur.
194.— Skull of Lemur.
198.— Wliite-fronted Lemur,
45
46
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[M0NKEY8,
Genus Hapale, Illiper (Jacchus and Midas, Geoff. ;
Sa^inus, in part, of Lac£p<^e). The Marmozets, or
OuisUlis, as the monkeys of this ^enus are termed,
are distinguished from the rest of the American
groups by some pccuUarities in their dentition.
^ 4 1—1
Dental formula : — incisors, t ; camnes, j^j ;
3—3 2—2 _.
false molars, 53^ ; true molars, ,,-3^ ■=32. (Fig.
188.) Of tlie incisors of the upper jaw the two
middle are the largest ; those of the lower jaw equal
the lower canines in length : the tubercles of the
molars are acute. The muzzle is short ; the nose is
salient, with nostriU widely separate; the limbs arc
short ; the fingers slender, and all, excepting the
hind thumbs, which are remarkably short, are fur-
nished with sharp, long, compressed, hooked claws,
like those of a squirrel. The fur is full and soft ;
the tail longer than the head and body, and gene-
rally bushy. General contour, stature, and actions,
squirrel-like. The Mar.mozets, or Uuistitis (so called
from their sharp whistling cry), are diurnal in their
habits ; they are irritable in their temper, but timid,
and by no means remarkable for intelligence. The
most prominent feature in their disposition seems
to be extreme caution, an instinctive quality ne-
cessary to their preservation ; for though nimble
and quick, they are subject to the assaults of the
smaller beasts of prey, and of hawks and snakes.
Still they are not cowardly, and will defend them-
selves with great spirit against the attacks of an
enemy far stronger than themselves. Linnajus, in
his account of the Common Marmozet, states that
it displays great hatred towards cats, and attacks
them with ferocity, an observation founded most
probably on a single example which came under his
immediate notice.
None of the American monkeys are more sen-
sitive of cold than the Marmozets, and nature has
well provided for their comfort ; not only is the fur
deep, soft, and warm, but the long, full tail is twisted,
as m the Saimiri, round the body, which, during
their noctural repose in some hollow tree, is gathered
up into as small a space as possible, and in this
crouching attitude they resemble a ball of fur with
a, little face projecting from it.
These animals are easily rendered tame ; and
their elegant figure — their soft silky fur coloured
withblendingtints — theirnirableness and diminutive
size, have contributed to render them favourites in
their native climate as well as in other parts of the
world. From observations made upon the Marmo-
zets in captivity, it appears that they are more
prolific than other monkeys, producing two or even
three young ones at a birth. In their native regions,
viz., the deep forests of Para, Guiana, and Brazil,
they associate in small families, and feed upon
various fruits and insects, devouring the latter with
great eagerness.
189, 190, 191. — The Common Makmoet
(Hapale Jacchus). Ouistiti, BufTon ; Sanglin, Ed-
wards ; Jacchus vulgaris, Geoffr. ; Simia Jacchus,
Linn. Fur long and soft, variegated black, white,
and rusty yellow, the black and white forming
alternate undulations. Ears surrounded by a large
plume of erect hairs, white, sometimes tipped with
dusky black, and sometimes perhaps largely washed
with black, if not quite black. Head and throat
dusky black : a white frontal mark above the root
of the nose. Tail annulated, dusky black and white.
Native country, Brazil, Guiana.
Little has been recorded respecting the natural
habits of this beautiful animal, beyond the facts of
it congregating in small families, of being active
and shy, and of its subsisting upon insects and eggs,
together with fruits, such as bananas and mangoes,
of which it is very fond.
It is frequently brought to Europe, and has not
only lived several years, but produced young in the
menageries of France and England. Distrustful,
especially towards those whom it is not accustomed
to see, it retires from observation, and on being
touched utters its peculiar whistling cry, or becomes
angry and resists the unwelcome attempt to court
its confidence. When undisturbed it displays much
liveliness, and exerts its activity, leaping from perch
to perch, with squirrel-like address, and in all its
actions justifying the expression of "nimble mar-
mozet," used by Shakspere.
Extremely sensitive to cold, no little of the Mar-
mozet's time is passed in protecting itself against
the changes of temperature to which our atmosphere
is subject. All the wool, cotton, or other soft
materials with which it is furnished, it will carry to
some convenient comer of its cage, or to an inner
dormitory, and there completely bury itself in the
downy mass, from which it will peep out on a per-
son's approach, but from which, unless induced by
the offer of tempting food, it can seldom be induced
to emerge altogether. When two or three are con-
fined in the same cage, they huddle themselves
together, and lie nestled in their bed.
The Marmozet eats bread, fruits, and finely-
minced meat : it feeds in a crouching attitude, and
usually holds everything between its two fore-paws,
the long hooked nails assisting it. Edwards, in his
' Gleanings,' speaking of one of these animals which
came under his own observation, informs us that
it fed upon various articles of diet, as biscuits,
fruits, pulse, insects, and snails; and that, being
one day at liberty, it darted upon a small gold-fish
which was in a bowl, killed it, and greedily de-
voured it. After this occurrence, some small eels
were offered to it, which at first frightened it by
twisting round its neck, but it soon overcame and
eat them.
In the first number of the ' Magazine of Natural
History' (1822), an interesting account is given, by
Mr. Neill, of the manners of one of these monkeys,
which he purchased at Bahia, the capital of the
province of St. Salvador, Brazil. At first, as he
states, it displayed great wildness and even fierce-
ness, screeching most vehemently when any one
offered to approach it, and it was a long lime before
it was so reconciled even to those who fed it as to
allow the slightest liberty in the way of touching or
patting its body ; it was impossible to do this by
surprise, or by the most stealthy and cautious ap-
proach, as the creature was not still for a moment,
out was continually.tuining its head from side to
side, eyeing every pei-son with the most suspicious
and angry look ; and its sense of hearing was so
exceedingly acute, that the slightest noise, or even
a whisper, was sure to rouse it. Its diet consisted
of I'ruits, such as bananas, mangoes, and Indian
corn, but when during the voyage these failed, it
eagerly fell upon the cockroaches, of which it
effectually cleared the vessel. It would frequently
eat a score of the larger kind, which are two inches
and a half long, and a great number of the smaller
ones, three or four times in the course of the day.
It was quite amusing to see the Marmozet at its
meal. When it got hold of one of the large cock-
roaches, it held the insect in its fore-paws, and then
invariably nipped the head off first : it then pulled
out the viscera and cast them aside, and devoured
the rest of the body, rejecting the dry elytra (wing-
cases) and wings, and also the legs of the insect,
which are covered with short, stiff bristles. The
small cockroaches it ate without such fastidious
nicety. In addition to these insects, milk, sugar,
raisins, and crumbs of bread were given to it. From
London it was conveyed to Edinburgh, where it was
living, when Mr. Neill wrote his account, in perfect
health : there, contrary to the statement of Linnaeus,
who says that it is an enemy to cats, it made ac-
quaintance with one, with which it fed and slept,
and lived on the best terms imaginable. Though
it became gradually tamer, it nevef lost its original
wildness and distrust.
The first account of the Marmozet having bred
in Europe is given by Edwards (' Gleanings '), who
received it from a lady living at Lisbon, a pair of
these animals, during her residence there, having
produced young. They were at first ugly, and
almost destitute of fur, and clung to the breasts of
the mother; but as they grew larger, they mounted
her shoulders and back : when tired with carrying
them, she would detach them from her by rubbing
them against a wall or anything in her way : the
male would then take charge of them, till she was
inclined to resume her duties.
In the year 1819, three young ones, a male and
two females, were produced in the Menagerie of
Paris. Their colour was of a uniform deep grey ;
the tail was almost destitute of hair; and they were
born with their eyes open. M. F. Cuvier, in de-
scribing their domestic economy, confirms the
account given by Edwards; but conlinement, in
this instance, so far destroyed the admirable instinct,
common even to the most savage animals, that one
of the little ones was killed by its piother before it
had an opportunity of asserlinsr the strongest claim
to her affection ; and the other two, which she
eagerly cherished the moment they commenced
deriving their nutriment from the natural fountain
of lif^, were deserted by both parents when the
supply from that source, probably from improper
nourishment, prematurely ceased. During the short
time they existed, the task of nursing them almost
wholly devolved upon the male parent, which, at
first, most assiduously cherished them, placing them,
when they claimed his protection, either under him
or upon his back, and thus carrying them about.
The female avoided, as much as possible, the trou-
blesome charge, receiving them unwillingly from
her partner ; and the moment she ha{> supplied
them with nourishment, again forcing them upon
his attention, at the same time uttering a peculiar
cry, as if asking him to ease her of a burthen with
which she was intolerably fatigued.
In 1832 a pair bred in the Gardens of the Zoolo-
gical Society, at the Regent's Park, London, and
produced twins, which, liowevcr, died. Other ex-
amples are also upon record.
192. — ^The Marikina, or Silky Tauarin
{Hapale rosalia). Midas rosalia, Geoffr. The
Marikina is one of the species of the present group,
which M. Geoffrey has separated, upon not very
tangible grounds, into a genus termed Midas. Fur
long, silky, and of a glossy golden yellow ; hairs of
the head long and falling, parted down the middle
of the crown by a line of short rust-brown hairs ;
ears concealed by the long hair of the head ; tail
almost tutted at the ajjex. Native country, Guiana,
Brazil.
This species is subject to considerable variation '
in the richness of its colouring: we have seen spe-
cimens of a straw-yellow, with a silvery lustre.
Two or three opportunities have been afforded us
of observing this beautiful species in captivity.
Judging from these individuals, this animal is more
confiding and less irritable than the common mar-
mozet, which, however, it resembles in its actions.
When alarmed or angry, it utters a shrill cry, and
slightly raises the long hairs around the sides of its
face, displaying its teeth, as if threatening to bite.
Contrary to Buffon's opinion, who considers it to be
more hardy than most of its congeners, it appears
to be full as susceptible of the changes of our
climate, and indeed dies immediately if exposed to
damp or wet.
In this opinion Fred. Cuvier fully coincides.
These animals, he observes, are natives of Brazil,
and from the delicacy of their constitution they
cannot be kept alive in France without the greatest
care to preserve them from the influence of atmo-
spheric changes, and especially from the cold and
humidity of the winter season : under the depressing
effects of wet and chilly weather, they lose all their
sprightliness, droop, and die. Speaking of the indi-
vidual figured in his splendid work, and which was
brought, in 1818, from Brazil to Paris, where it lived
for a .short time in the Menagerie of the Jardin de
Plantes, he slates that it was very active and lively,
and, like a bird, preferred the topmost perches of
the cage. On the least alarm it always concealed
itself; and though it appeared gratified with the
notice and caresses of those whom it knew, and
came to them when called, it never returned any
expressions or signs of attachment as other monkeys
do when noticed by persons to whom they are
attached. It disliked strangers and retired from
them, regarding them with looks of defiance, and
menacing with its feeble teeth. Fear or anger it
expressed by a short, sharp, whistling cry, but some-
times, as if from ennui, it raised its voice into a
louder or more prolonged note. In these details
the individuals described by Fred. Cuvier resembled
the specimens which have lived in the vivarium of
the Zool. Soc. Lond. The interest which attached
to thera resulted only from the lustre of their silky
fur and from the elegance of their actions, for it was
evident that their intelligence was very circum-
scribed. That prying curiosity, always amusing,
sometimes troublesome, which monkeys in general
exhibit, appeared to form no part of their character,
and the confidence they manifested towards those
accustomed to feed them was unmixed with tokens
of attachment or gratitude. Still it is difficult to
form a correct idea of the character of animals from
individuals in confinement ; and it cannot be
doubted that in its native forests, of which it is one
of the ornaments, the Marikina, like the squirrel of
our woods, displays habits and manners calculated
to excite the interest of the observer. Of these,
however, nothing is definitely known. According
to Prince Maximilian, ihe Alarikina is more rarely
found in Brazil than in Guiana.
LEMURS
(Lemurida:). The Lemurs (Les Makis of the French)
differ from the monkeys of both worlds in dental
characters, but in quadrumanous structure they
approach those of the old, having opposable thumbs
on the fore-hands as well as on the hinder pair.
The contour of their body is very peculiar: the
general form is slender and elongated, the head is
pointed and somewhat fox-like ; the nostrils have a
sinuous opening, terminating a sharp, naked, and
somewhat prominent muzzle ; the eyes are large
and of a nocturnal chaiacter ; the limbs are long,
especially the hinder pair, which in some species
greatly exceed the anterior; the fore-hands have a
true thumb, but in some species the index-finger is
abbreviated ; the thumb of the hinder-hands is
large, and greatly expanded at the tip; the index-
finger of these hinder pair (and in the Tarsicr, the
next also) is armed witli a long, subulate, slightly
curved claw; the other nails are flat; the fur is
full and woolly ; the tail varies, it is never prehen-
sile, and is sometimes wanting: habits pre-eminently
arboreal. If we compare the skull of the monkey
(193) with that of the ordinary Lemurs (194), we
shall observe many distinctions. The volume of
the Lemur's skull, taken in relationship to that of
the face, is greatly diminished ; no trace of a lore-
head remains, but the frontal bone falls so com-
Lemurs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
47
pletely back behind the developed and projecting
facial portion or muzzle, as to present an almost
level surface along the nasal bones to the top of the
head. The occipital condyles have the same poste-
rior situation as in the dog, so that the head is sus-
pended from, rather than even partially balanced
on, the vertebral column. The orbits are not com-
pletely walled within, but open into the temporal
fossae, and have an obliquely lateral aspect; the
nasal bones run the whole length to the tip of the
snout, or nearly so ; the lower jaw is long and nar-
row, and consists of two rami perfectly separate at
the chin. Here indeed we first meet with the
symphysis of the lower jaw unobliterated, even in
the most advanced period of life. In man and the
monkeys this suture is not apparent, even in the
youngest subjects ; but in the lower mammalia, ex-
cepting in the Pachydermata, as a general rule, it
is always present. The teeth are as follows : —
Four small incisors above in pairs, with an inter-
mediate space between them for the reception of
the points of the lower incisors and lower canine
teeth. The lower incisors (in the true Lemurs) are
four in number, but they are accompanied by the
lower canines, which, except that they are stronger
and larger, resemble the incisors in form and direc-
tion. They are long, pointed, compressed, in close
contact with each other, and directly obliquely for-
wards. The canines of the upper jaw are com-
pressed, pointed, and sharp on their posterior edge.
The molars are crowned with sharp angular tu-
bercles.
Dental formula of the genus Lemur (Fig. 194*) : —
Incisors, - ; canines, = — =• ; molars, ^^- The first
false molar below is stout, and resembles a canine,
whence has arisen the idea that it is so really, and
that the lower incisors were 6 instead of 4.
Genus Lemur. Head long, muzzle pointed, eyes
moderate and oblique ; ears short and hairy ; tail
long and bushy; mamma; two, pectoral. All are
natives of Madagascar ; arboreal, nocturnal. Their
movements are light, sweeping, elegant, and pre-
cise. Their usual voice is a low inward grunt, but
they often break forth into an abrupt hoarse roar,
producing a startling effect. The term Lemur
(from the Latin Lemures, Ghosts) was iirst adopted
by LinniBus in allusion to the nocturnal habits and
stilly sweeping movements of these singular ani-
mals.
195. 196. — The Ruffed Lemue
{Lemur Macaco). Le Vari, Buffon. This is one of
the largest and most beautiful of the genus, exceed-
ing a cat in size. Its fur is of admirable texture,
being full, fine, and silky ; the tail is long and bushy.
The general ground is pure white, on which large
black patches are tastefully arranged ; the tale is
black ; a full ruff of longer hairs than those of the
body surrounds the face ; whence its English appel-
lation.
Of the native habits of this and the other Lemurs
in the deep forests of Madagascar little is known :
they avoid the presence of man, and though harm-
less, will defend themselves with great resolution,
inflicting severe wounds with their sharp canines.
They associate together in troops, and after sunset
their hoarse loud roar may be heard in dissonant
chorus, resounding among the recesses of the wood-
land wilderness. The roar of the Ruffed Lemur is
Eeculiarly deep and sonorous. During the day the
emurs sleep m their retreats. Fruits, insects, rep-
tiles, small birds, and eggs constitute their food.
When taken young, these animals soon become
familiar, and are fond of being noticed and ca-
ressed, exhibiting considerable attachment to those
who attend them : but we have known them bite
severely persons who have irritated them.
In captivity, with due care, they bear our climate
well, though they are impatient of cold, as might be
inferred from their soft thick fur. They are fond of
sitting perched on the fender before a fire, and in
this situation they will spread their hands, half close
their eyes, and testify unequivocal satisfaction.
During the day they sleep in a ball-like figure on
their perch ; and if two be in a cage together they
sit close to one another with their tails wrapped
boa-like round each other's body, so as to make one
round ball, from which, on being disturbed, two
heads suddenly make their appearance. Though
less intelligent than monkeys in general, they are
more gentle and confiding : they will put their
heads to the bars of their cage, to have them
8c«atched and rubbed, and by their actions invite
notice. They have little of the prying, misctiievous,
petulant disposition of monkeys, so that with due
precautions they may be trusted in a room at liberty.
When presented with food, they usually take it in
their hands ; but we have seen them feed upon soft
bread without holding it. They lap fluid like a
dog. They bound and leap with the most astonish-
ing agility, gracefulness, and address ; and when in
motion the tail is elevated in a sigmoid form, and
not trailed after them. Strong light greatly incom-
modes them ; their eyes gleam at night ; and the
pupil is transverse, dilating with the advance of
evenins; dimness.
197, 198. — The White -feonted Lemub
(Lemur albifrons). Fur ruddy or bronzed-grey
above : male with the forehead and sides of the
face white ; female with the same part of a deep
grey. The female and the Lemur Anjuanensis
(Malii d'Angouan) are distinct, contrary to the
opinion of Lesson.
The White-fronted Lemur is gentle, affectionate,
and lively : it leaps with great agility, and after a
spring of many yards, pitches so lightly on its fin-
gers as hardly to attract the notice of the ear. Its
manners are the same as those of its race in general.
199. — The Flockt Lemub.
Maki a Bourre of Sonnerat ; Lemur Langier, Li-
chanotus Laniger, Indris Laniger. This species,
which was first described and figured by Sonnerat,
as the Maki b, Bourre, has been, we know not why,
regarded as a species of Indris (Lichanotus, llliger),
and placed in that genus. Cuvier doubted its al-
liance to that group ; and for ourselves we hesitate
not in referring it to the genus Chirogaleus, Geoffr.,
founded for the reception of certain Lemurs described
and figured by Commerson, but till lately unknown
to European naturalists.
The fingers of both fore and hind hands are fur-
nished with long pointed claws, the thumbs only
having flat nails.
The Flocky Lemur is about a foot in the length
of the head and body, the tail being nine inches
long. The colour is pale ferruginous above, white
beneath ; the fur is extremely soft and curled, deep-
est about the loins. Face black ; eyes large and
greenish-grey.
In the museum at Paris we examined a species of
Chirogaleus closely allied to (perhaps identical
with) the Flocky Lemur : it was labelled Chiroga-
leus Milii. Head broad and flat ; ears moderate
and hairy. Fur soft, full, curly, and glossy, of a fine
fawn-brown, paler between the eyes, which are
large and surrounded by a brown disk. The hairs
are all lead-coloured at the base : chin, throat, under
surface, and inside of limbs white. Tail fawn-
brown. Teeth as in the genus Lemur. Nails
minute, flat, but sharp-pointed ; those of the thumbs
as usual. Length of head and body about 14 inches ;
of the tail 12. Of two specimens one was presented
to the museum by M. Goudot ; the other, alive, by
M. le Baron Milius. Native country, Madagascar.
200. — The Shoet-tailed Ixdkis
(Lichanotus brevicaudatus). L'Indri, Sonnerat ?
Indris brevicaudatus, Geoffr. The genus Lichano-
tus (or Indris) differs in some details of dentition
from the genus Lemur, to which in most points it
is closely allied. The following description of the
Indris was taken from a fine specimen in the Paris
Museum. The anterior part of the face nearly
naked ; the forehead, temples, throat, and chest
white ; the ears, the occiput, shoulders, arms, and
hands black. The lower part of the back brown,
which colour divides on the haunch into two lines,
which run down the buttocks and spread on the
thighs, leaving the crupper, tail, and posterior part
of the thighs white ; the root of the tail is tinged
with yellow. Anterior part of thighs and feet deep-
ening into black ; heels white, with an anklet of
greyish-white; breast brown. Flanks and lower
Fart of belly white ; and also the inside of the arms,
ur beautifully soft and woolly. Thumbs very
large and powerful ; foretoe small and united to the
next, almost to the last joint : it is armed with a long
sharp nail. The nails of the thumbs and fingers,
and also of the toes, the first excepted, are small,
flat, subkeeled, and pointed. Length from muzzle to
root of tail two feet ; of the tail three inches ; of the
hind feet seven inches and a half.
The Indris is a native of Madagascar, where it is
said to be frequently trained by the natives for the
cha.se. Its voice resembles the wailing cry of a
child. The word Indris is said to signify in the
Madagascar language a " man of the woods."
201. — The Diabem Lemue
{Propithecus Diadana, Benn.). Mr. Bennett pro-
posed the genus Propithecus lor this Lemur, which
IS a native of Madagascar, and which appears to us,
notwithstanding the length of the tail, to belong in
reality to the genus Lichanotus. It is in fact a
long-tailed Indris. Of its habits nothing is known.
Description : — Face nearly naked, with short
blackish hairs about the lips, and equally short yel-
lowish-white hairs in front of the eyes. Above the
eyes, the long, silky, waved, and thickly-set hairs
which cover the body commence by a band of yel-
lowish white crossing the front and passing beneath
the eai-s to the throat. This is succeeded by black,
extending over the back of the head and neck, but
becoming freely intermingled with white on the
shoulders and sides, the white gradually increasing
backwards, so as to render the loins only slightly
grizzled with black. At the root of the tail fulvous,
that colour gradually disappearing until the ex-
treme half of the tail is white with a tinge of yel-
low. Outer side of the anterior limbs, at the upper
part, of the slaty-grey of the sides, below which it is
pale fulvous. Hands black, except tufts of long
fulvous hair at the extremities of the thumb and
fingers, extending beyond and covering the nails.
Outer sides of the hinder limbs, after receiving a
tinge of fulvous from the colour surrounding the
root of the tail, of a paler fulvous than the anterior
limbs : this becomes much deeper on the hands,
which are fulvous, except on the fingers, where there
IS a very considerable intermixture of black, the ter-
minal tufts, equally long with those.of the anterior
bands, being, as in them, fulvous. The under sur-
face white throughout, except the hinder part of the
throat, where it is of the same colour with the sides
of the body.
Hairs generally long, silky, waved, erect, and
glossy ; shorter and more dense on the crupper,
where they offer a sort of woolly resistance. Gene-
ral character of those on the tail, that of the body
hair, but shorter.
Thumb of anterior hands slender, placed far back,
and extremely free ; thumb of hinder hands very
strong.
Length of body and head, measured in a straight
line, one foot nine inches ; of the tail, one foot five
inches. Anterior limbs, exclusive of hands, seven
and a half inches in length from the body ; posterior
limbs, fifteen inches and a half.
Muzzle shorter than in the Lemurs generally ; the
distance from the anterior angle of the orbit to the
tip of the nose (one inch and a quarter) being equal
to that between the eyes. Fars rounded, concealed
in the fur : length one inch ; breadth one inch and a
half.
In a young specimen which we examined at Paris
the yellow tint on the limbs was very bright and
golden.
Genus Stenops (Loris and Nycficebus, Geoffr.).
In the genus Stenops the dentition is the same as
in the Lemur, but the tubercles on the crowns of the
molars are more acute. The animals of this group
are termed Loris, or Slow Lemurs. They are cha-
racterised by the head being round, the muzzle
short and acutely pointed ; the eyes large, full,
bright, and approximating to each other : the ears
short, round, open, and almost buried in the fur;
the tail completely rudimentary, and the limbs
slender. Two species are known, both natives of
India and its islands, especially Ceylon, Java, Su-
matra, Ssc.
These animals have been long celebrated for the
slowness and caution of their movements, to which
may be added a remarkable tenacity of grasp, in
conjunction with the power in the limbs of exerting
a long continuance of muscular contraction. In
the arteries both of the anterior and posterior extre-
mities there is a peculiarity first detected by Sir
A. Carlisle, and met with in the limbs of the Sloth
and a few other instances. No sooner has the main
artery, a single tube, reached the commencement
of the limbs, but it assumes another character : in-
stead of continuing its course as a simple tube,
giving off branches as it proceeds, the usual mode,
it becomes suddenly subdivided into a congeries of
small tubes intertwined together, and communicat-
ing with each other freely, thus forming an elon-
gated plexus, which may act as a sort of reservoir,
and carry onwards a large volume of blood. The
relation of this plexus to the bulk of the limb it
supplies with blood is greater in point of volume
than that of the simple artery in ordinary animals.
202. — The Slow-paced Lobis
(Stenope tardigradus). Fur soft, and full ; colour
brownish-grey, a deep chestnut stripe passing down
the middle of the back ; this stripe, continued on to
the head, gives off a branch which encloses each
ear, and another which encircles. each eye, and ex-
tends to the angles of the mouth ; figure short ,
hind limbs longer than the fore limbs. Eyes large,
nocturnal, with transverse pupils ; muzzle short and
pointed. Length 12 or 13 inches.
203, 204.— The Sle.vdee Lobis
(Stenops gracilis). Muzzle produced, slender
acute ; figure slight ; limbs very lon^, thin, and
meagre. General colour rufous-grey ; the under
parts whitish ; space round the eyes dusky ; fur
soft ; a whitish or white frontal spot points to the
interval between the eyes. Length of head and
body nine inches.
These two singular animals arc eminently noc-
turnal and arboreal : they sleep during the day on
their perch, in a crouching attitude, with the body
drawn together, and the head doubled down upon
the chest. At night they prowl among the forest
IM.-Flocky Ltmni.
200.— Short-Uileil Indris.
194*.— Teeth of Lamur.
196.— Ruffod Lemur.'
103.— aendeT Loris.
. %\
203. — Slow-paced Loris.
201.— Disdem Lemur.
48.
S04.— SleniitT Lorif.
207.— Skull of Moholi.
2)3.— Colli go.
N,s. li..'
2011 Moholi.
2c8.^Bd^eof SkiiU of Molioli and I,o-.ver Jaw, natunl size.
20i,— Teeth of TanJew.
-'09. — Banca Tiirsier.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
49
50
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Lemurs*
bought in search of TouJ ; their larj^e glaring eyes
now glow with peculiar lustre ; not an insect, not a
bird escapes their scrutiny : they mark their victim ;
stilly, and imperceptibly a.* the minutc-tinger tra-
verses the dial-plate, do they advance upon their
prey ; and not less surely does the minute-finger
attain a giving mark than they their prey : when it
is once within range of their grasp, tliey seize it by
a rapid instantaneous action. Besides birds, insects,
and eggs, fruits also form part of their diet.
Of all the Lemurida; which we have seen alive,
none appear to be so susceptible of cold or so in-
commoded by daylight, nor are any so apparently
dull and inanimate from morning till evening. They
appear as if in a state of continual torpor ; yet if ex-
posed to the influence of warmth, they will rouse
up, not only on the approach of twilight, but even
during the hours of day, if shielded from the glare
of the sun. When fairly awake, and comfortably
warm, they delight to clean and lick their full soil
fur, and will allow themselves to be caressed by
those accustomed to feed them.
Mr. Baird, in an interesting paper in the ' Maga-
2ine of Nat. Hist.' vol. i., 1829, remarks that all the
known Mammalia close their eyelids in a direction
upwards and downwards, and, in general, the upper
eyelid is the one possessing the greatest degree of
motion. He found, however, that in his slow-paced
Lemur the eyelids were brought together in a dia-
gonal direction, or outwards and inwards, which
gave the animal at the moment of shutting its eyes
a most peculiar look. It was the under or outer
eyelid that had the greatest degree of motion, the
upper or inner one being almost tixed ; and he con-
cludes that the orbicularis oculi must be very
powerful. After the death of the animal, and when
Mr. Baird had left this country on a second voyage
to India, the eye was dissected by Dr. Knox, who
found that the peculiar movement of the eyelids
above described did not depend on any peculiar
structure, but merely on the greater degree of
strength of the orbicularis muscle.
Mr. Baiid also observed another peculiarity in the
species. " Beneath the tongue proper," says he,
" if I may so call it, which is somewhat like that of
the cat, though not rough, is another tongue, white-
coloured, narrow, and very sharp-pointed, which he
projects along with the other one when he eats or
drinks, though he has the power of retaining it
within his mouth at pleasure." Mr. Baird, however,
had not been able to see any particular purpose to
which he applied it ; but he saw him use this double
tongue when eating flies, of which he was exceed-
inglj- fond, snapping them up most eagerly when
presented to him, and catching them himself when
they were reposing in the evening upon the walls of
the room.
Pennant, Vosmaer, Sir W. Jones, Mr. Baird, M.
d'Obsonville, and others have published detailed
observations made upon Loris in captivity, and their
accounts coincide with the facts which have come
under our own notice.
Vosmaer's specimen (S. tardigradus) ate fruits,
such as pears and cherries, with relish ; and also dry
bread and biscuit ; but if dipped in water, would
touch neither. When offered water, it smelt it, but
drank not. Eggs were favourite diet. " II aimait
k la fureur les oeufs," are the words of Vosmaer, who,
concluding from its appetite for eggs that it would
eat birds, gave it a live sparrow, which it instantly
killed with a bite, and ate the whole very greedily.
He gave it a live cockchafer, to fry whether it
would eat insects : it took the offering in its paw,
.and devoured it completely. Vosmaer afterwards
gave it a chaffinch (pin9on), which it ate with much
relish, and afterwards slept for the remainder of the
day. He often saw it still awake at two hours past
midnight ; but from half-past six in the morning its
sleep was so sound, that its cage might be cleaned
without disturbance to its repose. If forcibly
awakened during the day in order to teaze it, it was
vexed, and bit the stick ; but with a very slow mo-
tion, repeating the cry Ai, ai, ai, drawing out the ai
each time into a plaintive, languid, and trembling
note, in the same manner as is reported of the
Apierican sloths. When it was thus Harassed for a
long time, and thoroughly nsused, it crawled two or
three times round its cagej and then slept again.
Mr. Baird informs us that he obtained his specimen
at PuloPenang (Prince of Wales Island) ; and at
the time he wrote, it had been nearly ten months in
his possession. Its food consisted of fruit and small
animals, such as birds and mice. The plantain was
the fruit of which it was most fond, and was the
only food Mr. Baird saw it eat when he first got
it into his possession. The necks of fresh-killed
fowls formed the major part of its sustenance during
the voyage. It was particularly fond of small
birds: these, when put into the cage, it killed
speedily, and, stripping off the feathers, soon de-
voured them, eating the bones as well as the flesh.
Veal was preferred to all other butcher's meat, and
It was fond of eggs: meat boiled, or otherwise
cooked, it would not touch. Sugar appeared to be
l^rateful to its palate, and it ate gum-arabic. The
juiceof oranges wax also greatly relished, and, unlike
Vosmaer's specimen, it readily led upon bread sopped
in water and sprinkled with sugar ; and lapped
water eagerly like a cat.
Genus Tarsius. The Tarsiers, of which two
species are known, are distinguished by the rounded
figure of the head, and the extreme shortness of the
muzzle ; by the enormous size of the eyes ; and the
extraordinary length and slenderness of the hinder
limbs, of which the tarsus is thrice as long as the
metatarsus. The fingers both of the anterior and
posterior limbs are elongated and slender ; the hind
thumb is well developed, with a small triangular
nail, and the first and second fingers are furnished
with small, pointed, narrow claws. The ears are
large, naked, and capable of being folded. Tail
long, covered with short hair. The first de-
scription of theTarsier (T. Spectrum) is due toDau-
benton, who gave it this title, in allusion to the
length of the tarsi. Gmelin, misled by its ap-
parently anomalous structure, placed it in bis genus
Didelphis (the receptacle alike of opossums and
kangaroos), under the name of D. roacrotarsus.
Pennant, misled by the tarsi, termed it the Woolly
Gerboa. M. F. Cuvier considers its dentition to
approximate to that of some of the bats.
4
Dental formula (Fig. 205) : — Incisors,- ; canines,
1—1 , 6— G
; molars, = 4.
1—1 ' '6-6
In their habits the Tarsiers are arboreal and de-
cidedly nocturnal, preying on birds, eggs, insects,
&c. : one species is a native of the Moluccas, the
other of the island of Banca.
206. — ^Thk Moroli (Galago Moholi).
We select as an example of the genus Galago
(Otolicnus, III)., the Moholi of Southern Africa. The
Galagos, though they approach the Lemurs in the
dental characters, differ from those animals in many
well-marked and important points. The ears are
large, membranous, naked, and, as in the long-eared
bats, capable of being folded down over the ex-
ternal orifice. The posterior limbs are greatly de-
veloped, and especially at the tareal portion. The
eyes are large and full ; the head is round ; the
muzzle pointed; the tail long; the fingers both of
the foie and hind hands, long and slender, with the
usual sharp claw on the first finger of the hinder
pair. The fur is full, soft, and woolly. The skull
(Figs. 207, 208) is more globular, and with larger
orbits than we find in the Lemurs : it is more ele-
vated above, and broader.
The Galagos are nocturnal animals : during the
day they sleep on the branches, their cars being
folded down : on the approach of night they are all
animation, and, with ears expanded and glistening
eyes, they begin their prowl for food. They watch
the insects flitting among the leaves : they listen to
the buzzing of their wings amidst the foliage, and
dart upon the incautious flufterer with great activity.
In addition to insects, they feed on fruits and gum ;
and one species is abundant in certain gum-forests
in the great desert of Sahara.
The Moholi was found by Dr. Smith, close to the
Limpopo river, in about 25° S. lat. He observed
these animals springing from branch to branch, and
from tree to tree, with extraordinary facility. In
their manner they considerably resembled the mon-
keys, particularly in grimaces and gesticulations.
According to the natives, the species is entirely
nocturnal, and rarely to be seen during the day,
which the animal spends in the nest which it has
formed in the forks of branches or in cavities of de-
cayed trees ; and in these nests, constructed of soft
grass, the females bring forth and rear their young
(generally two at a birth). Dr. Smith states that
the food of the Moholi consists principally of pulpy
fruits, though there is reason to believe it also con-
sumes insects, as remains of the latter were dis-
covered in the stomachs of several individuals which
he Examined.
Dr. Smith, for the reasons stated in his work, con-
siders this animal different from Galago Sene-
galensis. He gives an elaborate anatomical de-
scription and good figures of the more important and
interesting parts of this animal.
The general colour is grey, with wavy or brin-
dled markings of a darker tint, and the limbs are
washed with yellow ; under-parfs white ; tail red-
brown; ears flesh-coloured. Length from nose to
tip of tail, sixteen inches.
209.— TuK Banca Tarsiee
(Tarsius Bancanus, Horsf.). This species was
obtained by Dr. Horsfield in Banca, near Jeboos
one of the mining-districts, where it inhabits the
extensive forests.
The fur is deep, soft, thick, and woolly, envelop-
ing the head, body, limbs, and root of tail, where it
tern^inates abruptly. The general colour is brown
inclining to grey, especially on the inside of the
limbs and the under parts ; a rufous wash appears
on the head and outer surface of the limbs. The
tail, which equals the head and body in length, is
nearly naked, except at its base : towards the ex-
tremity it is covered with a soft down, which forms,
near the tip, a very obscure tuft. The backs of the
hands are covered with a very soft down : the palms
are naked, and provided with several prominent
cushions, calculated to assist in climbing and
perching with safety on the branches. Of its
habits no details have been collected.
Genus Chiromys. This genus was established by
Cuvier for the reception of that extraordinary
animal the Aye-Aye, respecting the affinities of
which so many conflicting opinions have been ad-
vanced.
210, 211.— TuE Atk-Ayk
{Chiromys Madagascariensis) is a native of Mada-
gascar, where it appears to be extremely rare, and
chiefly, if not exclusively, restricted to the western
part: most probably it tenants remote solitudes,
seldom visited by the natives, and never by Euro-
peans. Only one specimen exists in Europe, viz.
that brought home by Sonnerat, its discoverer, who
fir.*t figured and described the animal in his
; Voyage aux Indes ' (Paris 1781). It is deposited
in the Museum of Paris.
Sonnerat regarded the Aye-Aye (so called, like one
of the sloths, from its cry) as allied to the Lemurs
the Monkeys, and the Squirrels; and subsequent
writers have taken opposite views, according as
they have been biassed by one part of its organiza-
tion or another, or according to their ideas of the
respective value of characters, deduced from one set
of organs or another. Pennant, Gmelin, Cuvier,
Fleming,and Swainson, place it among the Rodents ;
Linna;us and Schreber regard it as a Lemur.
M. de Blainville, in his pamphlet 'Sur quelques
Anomalies de systeme Denfairc,' &c., observes, that
notwithstanding the rodent-like character of its
teeth, the rest of its organization, its manners, and
habits prove it to be a true Lemur, having abso-
lutely no relation.ship with the Rodents, no affinity
to them, in spite of all that many naturalists have
imagined ; and, atler a careful examination of the
specimen and skull, we coincide in this opinion.
The teeth consist only of incisors and molars (see
skull, Fig. 212): the incisors are two in each jaw, '
strong and powerful : those below are compressed la-
terally, but are deep from back to front ; their roots
are carried backwards each in an alveolus, or socket,
extending almost the whole length of the ramus ol
the jaw ; they are acutely pointed, their apex re-
sembling a ploughshare. These teeth strongly re-
mind one of the huge curved canines in the lower
jaw of the Hippopotamus. The upper incisors are
not so obliquely pointed, and are also smaller than
the lower. Between the incisors and the molars an
unoccupied space intervenes. The molars are 4 on
each side above, 3 below, small, and of simple
structure. The head is moderate and rounded, and
the muzzle is rather short and pointed. The eyes
are very large and nocturnal. The osseous ring of the
orbits IS complete (Fig. 212). The ears are large ;
and obscure furrows on their internal aspect seem
to denote that, as in many bats, they are capable of
being folded down : they are, in fact, bat-like, black,
naked and smooth.
The fore paws have each five fingers ; that
which represents the thumb is short, and arises
beyond the base of the rest ; these are long and
slender : the middle finger is very thin, but it is ex-
ceeded in length by the third or ring finger ; the
thumb IS not opposable, and, like the other fingers,
is furnished with a strong, sharp, hooked claw. The
arms are short in proportion to the posterior limbs ;
the latter being long, aud terminating in prehensile'
feet. The thumb is well developed and protected
by a flat nail : the toes are of moderate length and
stoutness, but the first is the shortest, and, as in the
Lemurs, is armed with a straight pointed c:law ; the
rest have large hooked claws. The tail is long and
bushy, with coarse black or brownish-black hairs :
the general colour is ferruginous-brown, passing
into grey on the sides of the head, the throat, and
belly ; the feet are neariy black Beneath the
brown outer-coat there is on the back and limbs a
fine thick undcr-coat of soft yellow wool, which ap-
pears more or less through the outer. In the female
the teats are two and ventral. Length of head and
body 1 foot 6 inches ; the tail being nearly the
same.
According to Sonnerat, who kept two of these
animals, a male and female, in captivity, it would
appear that the habits of the Aye-Aye are nocturnal
By day they see with difficulty, and the eyes, which
are of an ochre colour, resemble those of an owl
Timid and inoffensive, they pass the day in sleep,
and when roused up their motions are slow, like
those of the Loris : they have also the same fond-
Lemurs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
51
ness for warmth ; their thick fur indeed sufficiently
proves their impatience of cold. During the day
the Aye-Aye conceals itself in its secluded retreat,
some hole or excavation, whence it issues forth on
the approach of darkness in quest of food ; its diet
consists of buds and IVuits, together with insects
and their larvae ; for the latter it searches the cre-
vices and bark of trees, drawing them forth by
means of its long finger, and so conveying them to
its mouth. Sonnerat kept his specimens alive for
two months, feeding them upon boiled rice, in tak-
ing up which they used then- long slender fingers,
much in the same manner as the Chinese do their
chop-sticks. Sonnera* remarks that, during the
whole of the time these animals lived, he never ob-
served them set up their long bushy tail, like a
squirrel, but that, on the contrary, it was always
kept trailing at length.
Considering the length of time that has inter-
vened since the discovery of the Aye-Aye by Son-
nerat, and visited as the island of Madagascar has
been by Europeans, it is somewhat strange that no
additional specimens should have been obtained,
and that not a single notice of a living individual
haviuf been seen or captured should have appeared.
Genus Galeopithecus. This genus contams those
strange animals the Colugos, called Flying Lemurs,
Flying Cats, Flying Foxes, &c., by voyagers. The
first notice of the Colugo is by Bontius, who terms
it " Vespertilio admirabilis." It was afterwards
figured by Seba, under the name of Felis volans
Ternatanus : Linnaeus subsequently placed it among
the Lemurs under the title of Lemur volans. Cu-
vier places it at the end of the Bats. The query
then at once arises, to what group is the Colugo to
be referred ? M. Geoffroy, wlio denies its relation-
ship to the Bats, observes that it is still less a
Lemur, and that its head is altogether that of a true
" Carnassier." Notwithstanding this authority, in
our views its affinities, intermediate as they may be
between the Lemurs and other groups, place it
within the pale of the Lemurine family.
213. — The Colugo
is an animal of the size of a cat, furnished with an
extensive parachute consisting of a lateral mem-
brane, not only between the anterior and posterior
limbs, but also between the posterior limbs, so as to
include the tail, which is of considerable length :
the fingers of the fore paws are also included in this)
extensive membranous expansion. The whole of
the upper surface of the body and lateral membranes
is covered with woolly fur, but the under surface is
nearly naked. The parachute is capable of being
folded up ; but when on the stretch for action it
forms a wide expanse, not indeed endowing its pos-
sessor with true powers of flight, but enabling it to
take long sweeping leaps from tree to tree with tho
utmost facility.
The general aspect of the head is Lemurine : the
muzzle is produced; the nostrils are lateral, naked,
and sinuous ; the eyes moderate ; the ears short and
pointed. The anterior limbs are long : the hands
are divided into five fingers ; the first, or thumb,
separated from the rest though not antagonizing
with them, is short ; the remaining four are nearl v
equal ; all are armed, not with flat nails, but with
large deep, hooked, sharp-edged, and retractile
claws. The hinder limbs slightly exceed the fore
limbs in length, and the feet are similar in character
to the fore hands.
Fred. Cuvier gives the Dental formulaas follows: —
4 . 0—0 , 6—6
Incisors, - ; canines, ;, — -; ; molars, ^ — ^ = 34.
O U — U D — D
(Fig. 214.) Mr. Waterhouse, whose excellent paper
on the skull of the Colugo is in the 'Zoological
Transactions,' vol. ii., gives the dentition thus: —
, . 2—2 0—0 , , , 2—2
Incisors,—^—; canines, ;j — j-j false molars,
1— X'
2—2'
4 4
true molars, ;- —34.
4 1
The upper incisors are placed. laterally in pairs,
with a wide interval between each pair, occupying
the anterior part of the jaw : the first is small, com-
pressed and jagged, or pectinated ; the second is
simiUr, but somewhat larger. The two false molars
above rise up with sharp points ; the molars are
crowned with acute insectivorous tubercles. Tho
lower incisors are deeply and finely pectinate. (Figs.
216, 218, Nos. 4 and u.) The canines are serrated.
Some naturalists have considered the species of
Colugo to be three ; while Fischer and others
recognise only one, varying in colour according to
age or sex. It has, however, been demonstrated by
Mr. Waterhouse, from a rigorous investigation of a
series of skulls, that there are two distinct species,
and at one of the scientific meetings of the Zoolo-
gical Society of London (Oct. 1838) he pointed out
the ^llstingul»hing characteristics.
He remarked, that in systematic works three
species of the genus Galeopithecus are described,
founded upon differences of size and colour : as
regards the latter character, he had never seen two
specimens which precisely agreed ; and with re-
spect to size, the dimensions given of two out of
the three species are, he observed, evidently taken
from extremely young animals. Mr. Waterhouse
then proceedecl to distinguish the two species on the
table, and proposed for them the specific names of
Temminckii and Philippinensis.
The first and larger species measured about two
feet in total length, and its skull was two inches
eleven lines and a half in length. The anterior
incisor of the upper jaw is broad, and divided by
two notches into three distinct lobes; the next in-
cisor on each side has its anterior and posterior
margins notched ; and the first molar (or the tooth
which occupies the situation of the canine) has its
posterior edge distinctly notched. This tooth is
separated by a narrow space, anteriorly and pos-
teriorly, from the second incisor in front and the
second molar behind ; the temporal ridges converge
towards the occiput, near which, however, he ob-
served, they are separated usually by a space of
about four lines. This is probably the Galeopi-
thecus volans of authora; but the identity cannot
be said to be certain.
The second species, G. Philippinensis, was de-
scribed by Mr. Waterhouse as being usually about
twenty inches in length, and its skull as measuring
two inches seven lines in length. He observed, that
this species may be distinguished from C. Tem-
minckii by the proportionately larger ears, and the
greater length of the hands. The skull, too, he de»
scribed as narrower in proportion to its length, the
muzzle as broader and more obtuse, and the orbit
as smaller. The temporal ridges, he remarked,
generally meet near the occiput, or are separated by
a very narrow space. The anterior incisor of the
upper jaw is narrow, and has but one notch ; the
next incisor on each size is considerably larger,
longer, and stronger than in G. Temminckii, and dif-
fers moreover in having its edges even : the same
remark applied to the first false molar. In this
species the incisors and molars form a continuous
series, each tooth being in contact with that which
precedes and that which is behind it. But Mr.
\Vaterhouse concluded by observing that the most
important difference perhaps which exists between
the two species in question consists in the much
larger size of the molar teeth in the smaller skull,
the five posterior molars occupying a space of ten
lines in length, whereas in G. Temminckii, a much
larger animal, the same teeth only occupy nine
lines. Several minor points of distinction existed
besides those here mentioned. (,' Zoological Pro-
ceedings,' 1838 ; and sec further, 'Zoological Trans-
actions,' vol. ii. p. 335.)
If the reader will turn to Figs. 215, 216, 217, 218,
he will be enabled to compare the form of the ikuil,
and the variations in the characters of the teeth
presented by these two species respectively. Fig.
215 represents the skull of the Galeopithecus Tem-
minckii ; a, as seen from above ; b, as seen from
below. Fig. 216 represents the lower jaw and teeth
of the same species (G. Temminckii) : 1, the under
side of the lower jaw ; 2, side view of the same ;
3, the three foremost teeth on either side of the
upper jaw ; 4, 5, outer and inner incisors of the
lower jaw. Fig. 217 represents the skull of G.
Philippinensis: a, the upper side; i, the under
side. Fig. 218 represents the lower jaw and teeth
of the same species (G. Philippinensis): 1, under
side of the lower jaw ; 2, side view of the same ;
3, the three foremost teeth of the upper jaw ; 4, 5,
outer and inner incisors of the lower jaw. If these
skulls and teeth be compared, so many and import-
ant distinctions will be perceived, that all doubt as
to the correctness of the views entertained by Mr.
Waterhouse will be dissipated.
These strange and perplexing animals are natives
of the Moluccas, Philippines, and various islands of
the Indian Archipelago. In their habits they are
arboreal and nocturnal, and feed, as it is supposed,
upon fruits, insects, eggs, and birds. During the
day they remain in the, depths of the forests, sus-
pended like a bat from the branches, with the head
downwards, and clinging by the hinder claws,
immersed in tranquil sleep. At night they rouse
up, are active in traversing the trees in every direc-
tion and sweeping from one to another with great
address, in search of food. Thoueh of a disagree-
able odour, their fleth is eaten by the natives. The
females are said to produce two young at a birth,
which adhere to the teats of their parent. Camelli,
in a MS. on the subject in the British Museum,
asserts the female to have a double abdominal
pouch, in which the young are carried, but in'_tj&is'
statement he is certainly erroneous. _, •
FOSSIL QUADRUMANA.
It is only very recently that the fossil relics of
quadrumanous animals have been discovered ; pre-
viously to this discovery, the Quadrumana were
regarded as having no fossil prototypes. In 1836
M. Lartet announced his discovery of the fossil
bones of a large monkey, consisting of a lower jaw
with its dentition complete, a molar tooth with four
tubercles, a bone of one of the fingers, a portion of
the thigh bone, together with the bones of the
instep, &c. They were'found at Sanson, two leagues
south of Auch (in the department of Gere), in a
tertiary formation extending from the south of
Auch to the foot of the Pyrenees, and apparently
the result of a long succession of water alluvia.
From the characters of the dentition, there can be
no doubt that the animal belonged to one of the old-
world sections of the Simiae, namely, the Gibbons
(Hylobates), if indeed it be not the representative
of a genus no longer extant. M. Lartet has named
this fossil species Pithecus antiquus. With these
relics oceured those also of the Mastodon, Rhino-
ceros, Deinotherium, Palseotherium, &c. Within
the last few years the fossil relics o( three species
of ape or monkey have been discovered in the
Sewalik hills, a portion of sub-Himalayan range
imbedded in a tertiary stratum. Two of these
species are due to the researches of Captains Fal-
coner and Cautley, and one to the labours of Lieu-
tenants Baker and Duvaud. Of these fossil Simiadae,
one, as the fragments indicate, exceeded in size
any living species of the present day : the second
was also a large animal, superior to the Entellus mon-
key in size ; the third appears to have been about
equal to the Entellus, and was probably an Orang.
In the basin of the Rio des Velhas in South Ame-
rica, Dr. Lund, a Swedish naturalist, has discovered
the fossil remains of extinct Quadrumana ; and it is
interesting to know that they belong to a form
clo.sely related to that of the existing American
monkeys termed Sapajous ; but the animals must have
far exceeded any living species. The larger, indeed,
must have been upwards of four feet in height.
Dr. Lund terms it Protopithecus Brasiliensis ; the
other, and smaller, he terms Callithrix primaevus.
We have then evidences of the existence of Quad-
rumana at a remote epoch, in continental Europe,
Asia, and America ; but what is more unexpected,
we have proofs that, at some era, they existed in
our island (if then an island), when, as we may
imagine, its surface was very different from what it
now appears.
The first example, a portion of the lower jaw,
containing the last molar teeth, was found with the
teeth of sharks (in 1837) in a deep layer of whitish
sand, beneath a stratum of blue clay on the banks
of the river Deben, at Kingston, near Woodbridge,
in Suffolk. This bed of clay is in many places
overlaid by crag, and may probably be assigned
to the age of the London clay. In the stratum of
sand the fossil teeth and portions of the lower jaw
of an opossum were also discovered. (See ' Mag.
Nat. Hist.' 1839, pp. 448,450.) The extinct monkey,
as proved by the characters of the molar tootli,
belonged to the genus Macacus, oral least to a genus
very closely related to it. The tooth, it may be ob-
served, is somewhat narrower than in any recent
species of Macacus, but the posterior fifth tubercle
presents, as in most of that group, two cusps, instead
of being simple, as in the genus Seranopithecus.
In the 'Annals of Natural History,' Nov. 1839,
Professor Owen describes a second tooth found in
the same locality, which he identifies as the second
molar of a Macaque ; and from being well worn, it
is evident that the individual to which it belonged
was aged at the time of its death. It differs from
the corresponding tooth of a recent Macaque, in
having a slight ridge along the base of the anterior
part of the crown, and the same character occurs also
in the molar previously alluded to, and which was
rigorously examined by the same philosophic anato-
mist. M. d'Orbigny's remark respecting the beds
above the chalk in the neighbourhood of Meudon
seems applicable in the present case, viz : — "that
in the lower part of the plastic clay, new features
are discovered to obtain, demonstrating in an espe-
cial manner, that various genera of Mammals were
living at the epoch when that layer was formed."
That the Simiee should have existed in our lati-
tudes at the time of the deposition of the London
clay is not surprising, when we consider the tro-
pical character of the fossil fruits so abundant in
that deposit : we say London clay (as the geologists
designate it), because the blue stratum, beneath
which the fossil teeth were found, belongs un-
doubtedly to that formation. Mr. Wood, in refer-
ence to one of these relics, obfierves, ' As this fossil
certainly belongs to some quadrumanous animal,
there is no formation to which it could be so appro-
priately assigned as that of the London clay ; the
tropical character of the Fauna as well as the
Flora of that period being such as to justify an
assumption of a warmer climate quite suitable to
the existence of our macacus." Besides the teeth
of animals of the monkey tribe, a fragment of the
jaw of an opossum, in which one of the false molars
is retained, has been discovered in the same
deposit.
H2
211.~AvcAve.
214.— Tc«th of CoUisfo.
5.
H^Wi
318,— Lowe; Ja-.v anJ Teeth of Golcrpithcnu Phnippinaiuj
nt^lmm Jiw and Teeth of Odeopithecua Temminekii.
52
S19.— SkuUofGaleopithccui Temmlnclvli.
217.— Skull of G.ilepltliecus rhilippincnsia.
6 ^<=5 S
219.— Skull, Teeth, and Paws of Aplodontia.
2£0.— Nciihcin Grev and lliaek Squirrel,
823.— Commcn Gmand Squirrel.
SS2.— Rocky M"ar.tain Flyin; !=qiiirrel.
223.— Tcetli of TamiM.
221 — Mala!;ar Squirrel.
C24.— Te«th of Sciunu.
53
54
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Squirrels.
ORDER RODENTIA.
The difficulty of instituting a natural arrangement
(ttiat is, an arrangement exhibiting the mullirorm
hnks and affinities uf different groups), is conress-
edly a work of difficulty ; but peculiarly so as it
respetis the component parts of the present order.
In itself, indeed, this order is definite, and based
upon characters which form a clear line of separation
between it and every other ; but when we come to
investigate the species it embraces, we soon feel
ourselves perplexed among a multitude of forms,
and begin to hesitate at every step. Hence it is
that no two naturalistu have arranged the Kodentia
in the same manner; nay, Cuvier himself, in the last
edition of his ' Rdgne Animal,' set aside the prin-
ciples by which in his earlier edition he was guided,
and followed out other views.
Among those naturalists who have lately devoted
their attention to the Rodentia, Mr. Waterhouse
takes a foremost place ; and his arrangement,
founded on the truest philosophical principles,
is ti decided step in the advancement of this
department of Zoology. It would be out of
place, in a work like the present, to follow this
naturalist through his train of researches, but we
may give an outline of their results. Mr. Water-
house considers that the Rodents resolve themselves
into three great primary sections: first, the Murine
section; secondly, the Hystricine section; and
thirdly, the Leporine section.
Each of these sections embraces several families,
each of the latter comprehending several genera.
The principal genera contained in the Murine sec-
tion are Sciurus, Arctorays, Spermophilus, Tamias,
Myoxus, Dipus, Mus, Arvicola, Geomys, and Castor.
The principal genera contained in the Hystricine
section are Bathurgus, Orycfenis, Poephagorays,
Octodon, Abrocoma, Myopotamus, Capromys, Echi-
mys, Aulacodus, Histrix, Dasyprocta, Chinchilla,
Cavia, and Hydrochaerus. The Leporine section
contains the genera Lcpus and Lagomys.
Respecting a few genera, as Ctenodactylus,
Helamys, Otomys (Smitn, not F. Cuvier), Akodon,
and Heteromys, Mr. Waterhouse has not been able
to satisfy himself as to their precise systematic
classification ; and with respect to the genus Aplo-
dontia (Fig. 218, skull and teeth), though he places
it in the St^uirrel family (Sciuridae), yet it differs, as
he admits, in the absence of a post-orbital process
to the skull, and the molar teeth being rootless.
We may here remark that the genus Aplodontia
contains a Rodent, called by Lewis and Clark the
Sewellel(A. leporina),andwluch inhabits the neigh-
bourhood of the Columbia river (N. America),
where it lives in burrows, and associates in small
companies. The head is large, the nose is thick and
obtuse, covered with a dense coat of short fur; eye
very small ; ear resembling the human in form.
Body short, thick, and rabbil-like. Legs very short,
and covered down to the wrists and heels with fur
similar to that on the body : a little above the wrist
joint, on the inner side, is a small tuft of stiff white
hairs. Fur like that of a rabbit out of season, amber
and chestnut-brown above ; greyish or clove-brown
beneath ; lips whitish ; a rather large spot of pure
white on the throat ; some white hairs dispersed
through the fur. Tail slender, cylindrical, hardly
half an inch long. The figure (219) represents the
skull, teeth and paws: 1, anterior half of skull
with lower jaw, profile ; 2, anterior half of skull
seen from below ; 3, the same seen from above ;
4, lower jaw with right condyle broken, seen from
above ; 5, upper molar tooth ; 6, 7, fore-foot, upper
surface ; 8, sole of hind-foot.
The Rodentia, as the name implies, have the
teeth constructed for gnawing, paring, or scramng
down the substances on which they feed. The
teeth are only of two kinds, incisors and molars.
There are no canines ; and between the incisors,
which project from the very apex of the jaws, and
the molars, which are situated far back, there inter-
venes an unfilled space of considerable extent. The
incisors are universally two in number in each jaw
(if we except the hares and rabbits, in which two
minute incisors rise at the back of the large perma-
nent ones) : these are strong, compressed, and some-
what curved, with sharp chisel-shaped edges. It is
only their anterior surface that is covered with a
thick layer of enamel, and this layer forms the cut-
ting edge, as does the layer of steel on softer metal
composing a common chisel. Their insertion into
their sockets is very deep, but the inserted part is
not a true root : these incisors spring from a pulpy
germ in their base, from which they are perpetually
growing, and this growth bears a due proportion to
the rapidity with which their cutting edges wear
away by use. So imperative is this law, that where
one incisor is lost by accident, its opposite, having
no countercheck, keeps increasing, till it acquires
an enormous development, to the annoyance, and
often the destruction, of the sufferer. With regard
to the molars it may be observed that they differ in
number in different species: they are, however,
generally characterised by a flat surface ; traversed
transversely by ridges of enamel, their structure
being composed of perpendicular folds of this sub-
stance, compacted together by intervening osscus
matter; but further than this, wc find in different
species a structural distinction of physiological im-
portance : in some, as the Arvicoliclae, they resemble
the incisors, having no true solid roots, but are per-
petually growing as their surface wears away; in
others, on the contrary (as the squirrels), at a certain
period they gain truly formed roots, and alter this
cease all further growth. In the Rodentia the upper
lip, which is cleft longitudinally, is in many species
an organ of prehension ; or at least is of great im-
portance in gradually transmitting the food into the
mouth, as may be seen when we offer the rabbit a
leaf, or a stalk of clover, or dandelion. The pharynx,
or back of the mouth, is contracted, and in some
species funnel-shaped, and capable of being closed
by a circular muscle, in order that the food may pass
gradual ly , as it becomes duly ground to pulp between
the molars. The structural organisation of the
Rodents, as evidenced by the characteisof the skull,
the bird-like condition of the brain, and by other
points, is at a low par, and the ratio of their intelli-
gence is in a parallel degree. We may tame them,
but we cannot educate them. They are all timid
and feeble, and trust for self-protection to flight or
concealment The prey of ferocious beasts and
birds and reptiles, their fertility, by a wise provision,
counterbalances their annual diminution. Spread
over the earth, from the equator to the coldest lati-
tudes, they tenant rocks and mountains, plains and
woods, feeding on grain and vegetables, and often
devastating the cultivated domains of man. To a
vegetable diet some few, as the rat, add animal food
also. Most are nocturnal or crepuscular in their
habits ; many dwell in burrows, some conceal them-
selves amidst herbage, some amongst the foliage of
trees, and some build for themselves habitations
which have excited the interest and admiration of
man.
In noticing the numerical abundance of the Ro-
dentia, throughout the different quarters of the
globe, it should be observed that in Australia six
or eight species are all that we are acquainted with
belonging to that region ; Europe, North America,
and South America are nearly equal as to the
number of species they contain. India and Africa
are also nearly equal, but they contain fewer species
than either of the other provinces. The squirrels,
rats, porcupines, and hares are the only groups
found in all the provinces ; all the rest of the
groups are respectively confined to their own par-
ticular geographical province. The naturalist will
find some important observations on the Rodentia
by Mr. Waterhouse, in the ' Zool. Proceeds.,' for
1839 ; in the ' Zool. of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle ;'
and in the ' Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' New Series, 1839,
p. 90.
The squirrels (Fam. Sciuridae). These elegant
animals are distributed throughout every quarter of
the world, Australia excepted. The general cha-
racters of the true squirrels (Sciurus), as exhibited
by our well-known British species, are familiar to
all : its fine full eyes, its light contour, its activity,
its deep soft fur, and long bushy fail, have contri-
buted to render it a general favourite. They are
furnished with proper clavicles, or collar-bones, and
possess the use of the fore-arm and paws in a high
degree of perfection ; the toes are four, with the
rudiment of a thumb, on the anterior feet ; five on the
hind feet ; the claws are sharp and hooked. Mo-
5 5
lars, xZd- ^*™ often tufted with a pencil of long
hairs. In feeding, these animals sit up on the
haunches, and hold their food (nuts, &c.) not
between the fingers of their joined fore-paws, but
between the rudimentary thumbs, while they work
at it with their teeth.
220. — The Northern Grey and Black Sqciheel
(Scitirtis leucotis). It is to Dr. Bachman, D.D., Pre-
sident of the Lit. and Phil. Soc, Charlestown, S.
Carolina, that we are indebted for clearing up the
mass of confusion in which the squirrels of America
have been involved.
It appears from this author that several black
squirrels exist, totally distinct from each other, and
that of these some are mere varieties. Of the
genuine species he notices the large Louisiana black
squirrel (S. .\udubonii-), the black squirrel (Sciurus
niger, Linn., not Catesby), and the dusky squirrel
(S. nigrescens). There is a black variety of the
fox squirrel (Sc. capistratus), and a black variety
of the northern grey squirrel, the species figured.
The grey squirrels are numerous, and perplexing to
the naturalist. The Northern grey squirrel has been,
for instance, confounded with the Carolina grey
squirrel, from which it is distinct. The Northern
grey and black squirrel is a very common species,
and exceedingly active and sprightly. It is spread
through the Northern and Middle States : it is abun-
dant in New York and in the mountainous parts of
Pennsylvania, and extends as far north as Hudi^on's
Bay : southwards, it occurs in Virginia, and perhaps
still farther south.
Like all the true squirrels, this species is arboreal
in its habits, quick and alert :— it rises with the sun,
and continues industriously engaged in search of
food during four or five hours in the morning, ranning
over logs, ascending trees and playfully coursing
from limb to limb. During the warm weather of
spring it prepares its cradle or nest on the branch
of a tree, constructing it of dried sticks which it
breaks off, or, if these are not at hand, of green
twigs as thick as a finger, which it gnaws from the
boughs. These it lays in the fork of a tree or of
some large branch so as to make a framework : it
then lines this framework with leaves : and over
these again spreads a layer of moss. In the pre-
paration of this nest, a pair is usually engaged for
an hour in the morning, during several successive
days, and the noise they make in cutting the
branches and dragging the leaves may be heard at
some distance. In winter they reside entirely in
holes of trees, where their young in most instances
are brought forth. The young are from four to six
in number ; and in a few weeks are suflicieritly ad-
vanced to leave their nest. It is generally believed
that this squirrel lays up a great hoard of food as a
winter supply, but Dr. Bachman doubts the fact,
though he admits that other northern species do.
Further he states that the species which inhabit the
southern portion of the United States, where the
ground is seldom covered with snow, derive in
winter a precarious subsistence from seeds, insects,
and worms, which are scratched up among the
leaves. We may here observe that, singular enough,
no one has noticed the fact, excepting Mr. C.
Coward (' Mag. Nat. Hist.,' New Series, June, 1839,
p. 311), of our common British squirrel being car-
nivorous as well as frugivorous ; such is, however,
the case ; it attacks young birds and greedily devours
them, nor is evon the wood-pigeon safe from its
assaults. The Northern grey squirrel feeds on nuts
and v.arioiis seeds, but it seems to prefer the shell-
bark (Carya alba) and the several species of hickory
to any other food. Green com and young wheat
suffer greatly from its depredations, and hence a
war of wholesale destruction is everywhere waged
against it. In Pennsylvania an old law existed
offering threepence a head for every squirrel de-
stroyed, and in 1749 the enormous sum of 8000A
was paid out of the treasury for the destruction of
these depredators. The extensive migrations which
arc undertaken by this species, either from a scarcity
of food or from some other inexplicable cause, have
often excited not only wonder, but apprehension.
They generally take place in autumn, but by no
means with regularity. It would appear that in the
far north-west multitudes congregate in different dis-
tricts, forming scattered troops, which all bend their
way instinctively in an eastern direction, collecting
into larger bodies as they proceed; neither moun-
tains nor rivers stop their progress: onward they
come, a devouring army, laying waste the corn and
wheat fields of the farmer; and as their numbers
are thinned by the gun, others fill up the ranks:
few, perhaps none, ever return westwardly ; those
that escape the carnage take up their abode in the
forests of their newly-explored country. The grey
squirrel has many enemies; the fox, the lynx, the
weasel, hawks, and owls are all eager to seize it :
when attacked by the red-tailed hawk, its most for-
midable foe, it is amusing to see the skill and dex-
terity exercised by both, in the attack, and in the
defence ; often, indeed, the squirrel, by dodging and
twisting round the branches and large limbs of the
tree, foils and weare out his antagonist ; when, how-
ever, a pair of hawks combine, the squirrel has no
chance.
221. — The Malabar Squirrel
(Sciurus maximus). Of the Indian squirrels, one of
the finest is the Malabar squirrel, measuring four-
teen or fifteen inches in the length of the head and
body, and somewhat more in that of its full bushy
tail. This species is found in Malabar, and also in
Ceylon. Like the rest of its tribe, it is eminently
arboreal, tenanting the summits of palm-trees, anil
feeding to a great extent upon the cocoa-nut, to
the milk of which it is said to be very partial. We
have seen several specimens in captivity. They
soon become tame and familiar, but aie not to be
trusted too far : their bite is very severe. General
colour above, rich chocolate, deepening about the
shoulders into black ; under parts abruptly pale
reddish yellow ; ears tufted with a long full brush.
222. — The Rocky-Mountain Flying Squirrkl
(^Pteromys Alpinus, or Pt. Sabinus, var. ,8, Richard-
son). The flying squirrels (Petromys, Geofr. : Sci-
uropterus, F. Cuv.) agree in the general characters
of their dentition with the rest of the family (see Fig.
Squirrels.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
55
223 (or the teeth of Tamias, and Fig. 224 for the
teeth of Sciuius). The incisors are laterally com-
5—5 , 4—1
pressed : the molars, -; — j, rarely - — i' ^rfi equal
in size or nearly so, excepting the anterior molar of
the upper jaw, where they are 5 — 5, which is smaller
than the rest. The series of molars on eacli side are
widely separate and parallel. It is in the possession
of a lateral fold of skin, forming, when extended, a
parachute, enabling them to take long sweeping
leaps, that the flying squirrels are distinguishable
from the ordinary group. These expansions are
fully clothed with soft fur; and they usually project
in a pointed form from each wrist, being there sup-
ported by a long slender osseous stylet. In some
species, as the one figured, this is either reduced to
a mere tubercle or wanting.
The flying squirrels are conspicuous for the ra-
pidity of their evolutions : they ascend.the trees with
such velocity that the eye can scarcely fallow them ;
and they skim from one tree to another, or precipi-
tate themselves to the ground, with singular agility.
In their habits they are nocturnal.
These elegant animals are respectively natives of
the northern regions of Europe, the north of Asia,
the north of America, and the glowing islands of
the Indian Archipelago. The present species is
one of the American flying squirrels, and was dis-
covered by Dr. Drummond, on the Rocky Moun-
tains, where it lives in dense pine-forests, seldom
venturing from its retreat except in the night. Dr.
Richardson received specimens from the Elk river,
and also from the south branch of the Mackenzie.
Whether it is a mere variety of the Pt. Sabrinus or
a distinct species is not clear.
Its general colour is yellowish-brown above. The
tail is flat, longer than the body, and blackish-grey.
Total length fourteen inches three lines, of which
the tail, including the fur, measures six inches three
lines.
225. — The Commos GKOusD-SQcntEEL
{Tamias striatus). Unhke the true squirrels, the
ground-squirrels are chiefly terrestrial in their ha-
bits, and are furnished with cheek-pouches, in
which they carry food to their retreats, forming
magazines for winter. They live in burrows, but
do not appear to become torpid. Their fur is shorter
and closer, and the tail less bushy than in their ar-
boreal relatives. These animals are chiefly spread
through the northern and temperate regions of
Europe, Asia, and America. The palm-squirrel of
India, and the IJarbary squirrel, though associated
by some authors with the ground-squirrels, occupy
an intermediate situation between the latter and the
true arboreal species.
The common ground-squirrel is a native of the
north-eastern part of Europe and the north of Asia.
It is the Ecureuil Suisse of the French, so called
because its .striped back has some resemblance to a
Swiss doublet. According to Pallas, these striped
squirrels dig their burrows in woody places, in small
hummocks of earth, or near the roots of trees ; but
never, like the common squirrels, make their nests
in the trunk or branches, although when scared from
their holes they climb with facility, and make their
way from branch to branch with great speed. A
winding passage leads to their nest, and they gene-
rally form two or three lateral chambers to store
their food in. The striped squirrel in its manners,
and from having cheek-pouches, is allied to the
hamster and Citillus (type of the genus Spermophi-
lus), and is likewise connected with the latter by
its convex nose, proper for an animal accustomed
to dig. In its whole habit it difi"ers from the squir-
rels which live in trees, and forms, with other striped
squirrels, a division of the genus. It has a longer
head than the common squirrel ; rounded ears, not
tufted ; a roundish, hairy tail, which it less frequently
turns up ; a slender body, and shorter limbs. The
fur likewise is very short and less fine. Yet in its
diurnal habits, and in not becoming torpid in win-
ter, it comes near the squirrels : it is difiRcult to
tame.
226. — Paebt's Spebmophile
(^permophiliis Parryi). The genus Spermophilus is
intermediate between the Ground-Squirrels and the
Marmots. Besides possessing cheek-pouches, the
Spermophiles are distinguished by the closeness of
the ears, the slender form of the body, which is
squirrel-like, and the narrowness of the paws.
Two species are natives of eastern Europe, viz.
the Souslik of the Volga, and the Zizel or Susel of
Hungary, Poland, &c., which are, perhaps, mere
varieties. Many species are American, one of which.
Parry's Spermophilc, is the species figured.
Colour of the body above, a mixture of white
thickly spotted on a grey or black ground ; face
chestnut ; under parts rust-brown ; tail with a nar-
row white margin, and black at the extremity.
This, according to Dr. Richardson, who first named
the species, is the Ground-Squirrel of Heme ; the
Quebec Mannot of Forster ; the Seek-Seek of the
Esquimaux ; the Thoe-thiay (Rock Badger) of the
Chepewyans ; and the Arctomys Alpina of Parry's
' Second Voyage.'
Dr. Richardson states that it inhabits the barren
grounds skirting the sea-coast from Churchill in
Hudson's Bay round by Melville Peninsula, and the
whole northern extremity of the continent to
Behring's Straits, where specimens precisely similar
were procured by Captain Beechey. It is abundant
in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise, near the
southern verge of the Barren Grounds, in lat. 65°,
and is also plentiful on Cape Parry, one of the most
northern parts of the continent. It is found generally
in stony districts, but seems to delight chiefly in
sandy hillocks amongst rocks, where burrows, in-
habited by different individuals, may be often ob-
served crowded together. One of the society is
generally observed sitting erect on the summit of a
hillock whilst the others are feeding in the neigh-
bourhood. Upon the approach of danger, he gives
the alarm, and they instantly hurry to their holes,
remaining however chattering at the (.-ntrance until
- the advance of the enemy obliges them to retire to
the bottom. When their retreat is cut oft', they be-
come much terrified, and, seeking shelter in the
fir.st crevice, they not unfrequently succeed only in
hiding the head and fore-part of the body, whilst
the projecting tail is, as is usual with them under
the influence of terror, spread out flat on the rock.
Their cry, in this sea-son of distress, strongly resem-
bles the loud alarm of the Hudson's Bay Squirrel,
and is not very unlike the sound of a watchman's
rattle. The Esquimaux name is an attempt to
express this sound. Heme states that they are
easily tamed, and very cleanly and playful when
domesticated. They never come abroad during the
winter. Their food appears to be entirely vegeta-
ble ; their pouches being generally filled, according
to the season, with tender shoots of herbaceous
plants, berries of the alpine arbutus, and of other
trailing shrubs, or the seeds of grasses and legumi-
nous plants. They produce about seven young at a
time.
The true Marmots (Arctomys) are thicker, more
robust, and less elegant in figure than the Sper-
mophiles ; the head is broad and flat, and the muzzle
obtuse ; the limbs are short, and there are no cheek-
pouches.
227, 228, 229.— The Alpine Maemot
(^Arctomys Marmotd). This well-known species is
common in the high mountain districts of Europe,
where it takes up its abode just below the line of
perpetual snow, excavating a deep burrow, to which
it has recourse on every appearance of an enemy.
In this, which it lines with dried grass, moss, &c.,
it hybemates during the severity of the season.
The burrows of the marmot are always constructed
in dry situations, and mostly on declivities exposed
to the south or south-east. They are of considerable
extent, and are worked out and tenanted by families
consisting of from five to fifteen individuals. They
begin by a passage which runs for about six feet,
and is just capable of admitting the animal's body.
From the farther end of this gallery two others
bifurcate, one of which, according to Desmarest,
leads to a sort of chamber in the form of an oven,
from three to seven feet in diameter ; the other ends
abruptly, and serves as a storehouse for dried grasses,
&c. According to some, these passages are not
always to be met with, and MM. Geoffroy and F.
Cuvier assert that the cell is at the end of the first
gallery. During the summer months, groups of
these animals may be seen feeding and sporting on
the mountain-side. They never wander to any great
distance from their burrows, and have aln-ays one
ot more of their number posted as sentinels, which
by a piercing cry give warning of danger. About
the middle of September they betake themselves to
their winter dormitories, and close the entrance with
earth and the dried grass which they have accumu-
lated : here they sink into a profound repose, from
which they do not awaken till the return of April.
Though timid and inoffensive, these animals defend
themselves resolutely when driven to an extremity,
and their powerful incisors inflict severe wounds.
They lift their food to their mouths while sitting
squirrel-like, and will walk on their hind-feet. On
retiring for the winter, they are at first very fat, and
numbers are taken at this season, partly for the sake
of their skins, and partly for their flesh, which is
eaten by the mountaineers. The young are easily
tamed, and are often carried about by the Savoyards
for the purpose of exhibition. The marmot pro-
duces from three to five at a birth.
This species is of about the size of a rabbit. Its
general colour is yellowish-grey, passing into hoary
about the cheeks, and blackish-grey on the top of
the head ; the tip of the tail is black.
230.— The Bobac.
{Arctomys JBobac). This species inhabits the regions
of Poland through which flow the Dneiper and its
tributary streams, whence it ranges through a great
part of Northern Asia. It gives preference to hills
of moderate elevation, where it chooses a dry lo-
cality in which to construct its burrows. These are
carried to a great depth, and are tenanted by fami-
lies consisting of twenty or even forty individuals.
It accumulates in its retreat a quantity of dried
herbage for use, before the severity of the season
commences, and for early spring consumption, as
well as for the sake of warmth. General colour
of the fur greyish-yellow mingled with brown, which
latter forms transverse undulations on the upper
part-s. Under parts rust-brown. Length of head
and body sixteen or seventeen inches ; of the tail
six inches.
231. — The Quebec Mabmot.
(Arctomys Empetra). This species is one of the
American marmots, and is a native 'of Canada and
the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay. It is the Que-
bec Marmot of Pennant and Godman ; the Common
Marmot of Langsdorft'; the Thick-wood Badger of
the Hudson's Bay residents ; the SifBeur of the
French Canadians, who apply the same name to the
other species of marmot and to the badger ; Tarbagan
of the Russian residents on Kodiak(?) ; Weenusk of
the Crees ; Kath-hillae-Kooay of the Chepewyans;
Mus Empetra of Pallas ; and Arctomys Empetra of
Sabine and others.
Dr. Richardson, who gives the above synonyms,
states that the Quebec marmot inhabits the woody
districts from Canada to lat. 61°, and perhaps still
farther north. He says that it appears to be a
solitary animal, inhabits burrows in the earth, but
ascends bushes and trees, probably in search of buds
and other vegetable productions on which it feeds.
Mr. Drummond killed two, one on some low bushes,
and the other on the branch of a tree. According
to Mr. Graham it burrows perpendicularly, selecting
dry spots, at some distance from the coast, and feed-
ing on the coarse grass which gathers on the river
sides. The Indians capture it by pouring water into
its holes. Its flesh is considered delicate when the
animal is fat, but its fur is valueless.
DORMICE
(Myoxidce). The dormice seem to connect the
squirrels, on the one hand, to the murine groups on
the other. They are arboreal in their habits, and
clothed with fine soft fur. The toes are four on
each fore-foot, with the vestige of a fifth ; the hind-
feet have five toes. The dentition (Fig. 232) is as
2 4 4
follows :— Incisors,-; molars, ——J. Incisors laterally
compressed ; molars unequal in size, rooted ; the
series on each side of each jaw widely separated and
parallel.
233, 234. — The ComMon Doemouse
{Myoxus avellanarius). This elegant little creature
is the Muscadin, Croque Noix, and Rat d'or of the
French ; Moscadino of the Italians ; Liron of the
Spanish ; Rothe Wald-maus, Hasel-maus, and Ha-
sel-schliifer of the Germans ; Skogsmus of the
Swedes ; Kassel-muus of the Danes ; and Pathew of
the ancient British. It has been supposed by some
that it was this species which the Romans fattened
in their Gliraria for the table ; but that animal was
most probably the Loir (M. Glis), which is common
in the woods of Italy, and which approaches a squir-
rel in size.
Though common in the southern and midland
counties of England, the dormouse is not so abundant
in France as the Lerot (M. Nitela, Fig. 235), yet its
distribution is very extensive. It ranges from the
south of Europe as far north as Sweden. The fa-
vourite resorts of this little animal are dense thickets,
low woods and coppices of hazel, bushy dells, and
tangled hedgerows. It creeps about the branches
with a quickbut gliding sort of movement, and with
singular facility. It leaps nimbly, and makes its
way so quickly through intertangled brushwood,
that it cannot be easily captured. The dormouse
appears to be in some degree gregarious, or at least
to colonize favourite spots, and ten or a dozen of
their nests have been seen at no great distance apart
in the shrubs of a thicket. These nests are made
of leaves, grass, &c. : they are of a rounded form,
about six inches in diameter, with the aperture at
the top. It is in these that the young are brought
forth and reared. The number of the young is about
four: they are born blind; in a few days, however,
their eyes are opened ; and in a short period they
are capable of providing for themselves. Corn, haws,
hazel-nuts, and fallen acorns, constitute the food of
the dormouse. It eats sitting up like a squirrel,
holding the food between its paws ; and often it
harigs suspended by its hinder feet, in which posi-
tion it feeds as easily as in its ordinary attitude.
Mr. Bell states that the name Avellanarius is not
well chosen, and that he never saw any dormouse
that could knaw through the shell of that nut when
fully ripe. We ourselves, however, have frequently
2'.'9. — A'.pine Mwmjl.
SS8.— Alpine Marmot.
2? T.— Alpine Maimots
230.— Dotae.
223.— Common Dormouse.
56
!••> l"t
224. — Common Dormouse,
23j. — Lerct, or Garden Dormouse.
'J^a.—Ot^e tinipltiiire.
2S9.— Egyptian Jerboas.
ass.— Sknll and Teeth of AUetaga.
240. — Egyptian Jerboa. '
232.— Teeth of Donuoiiae.
237.— Sknll and Teeth of Eipnshirtipes.
No. 8.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
57
58
MUSEUM 01" ANIMATED NATURE.
[Jerboas.
■een the dormouse open with it« teeth the hard shell
cf a nut, and clear it out with ereat address. The
dormouse hybernates, and hoards up a store of pro-
visions in holes, and the crevices about the roots of
trees. &c., to which to have recourse in the winter ;
for its torpidity is not without interruption. A mid-
day gleam of sunshine rouses it up in its snug retreat ;
and invites it forth, when it takes a little food ; on
tine diminution of the temperature it betakes itself to
its dormitory, and rolling up itself into a ball, sinks
into a profound slumber. In this condition it may
be handled, or rolled about a table, if not exposed
to the influence of warmth, without being roused
from its trance. It is not until the spring has fairly
set in that the dormouse regains its full activity,
and it is at this period that its magazine is of the
greatest ser%ice : for without a store thus provi-
dently accumulated, it would, for some time at least,
be straitened for food.
The head of this species is proportionately large ;
the eyes are large, black, and prominent : the eare
are broad ; and fur soft ; the tail long, fringed with
hair on each side, and somewhat tufted at the end ;
the body plump ; the limbs short. General colour
cinnamon red, passing into pale yellow below. The
young are of a mouse grey. Length of the head
and body two inches eight lines; of the tail, two
inches six lines.
435. — The Garden Doemouse, or Lerot
(Myozus iChda). The Greater Dormouse of Shaw.
This species is a native of the whole of the tempe-
rate portions of continental Europe, and indeed it is
found as high north as Poland and Pmssia. In
France it is very common, gardens and orchards
being its favourite abode : it makes sad havoc among
wall-fruits, attacking peaches, apricots, pears, &c.,
with great avidity. Its winter store, however, con-
sists of nuts, peas, beans, and the like, which are
collected in great abundance, and stowed away in
some convenient recess, where eight or ten indi-
viduals assemble to pass away the colder season
in sleep. The summer nest of the Lerot, in which
it rears its young, is built in the holes of walls or
the chinks of aged trees. The young are four or
five in number. The colour of this pretty but an-
noying creature is reddish grey ; beneath, white ;
a black patch surrounds the eye, and spreads be-
hind the ear. The tail is covered with short black
hair, except at the end, which is tufted with white.
Length of head and body four inches and a half;
of the tail, four inches.
236. — ^Thb Cape Graphil-re
(Grapldarus Capensis). The genus graphiurus is
scarcely to be separated from Myoxus : it is repre-
sented by the Cape Graphiure, a native of South
Africa. This species is about the size of the lerot,
which it much resembles in the style of its colour-
ing, the general tint above being of a deep brown-
ish grey ; the muzzle and sides of the face reddish
white ; under parts greyish white, with a tinge of
red ; tail brown, the tip, which is not tufted, reddish
white; a band of blackish brown extends from the
«yes to the base of the ears.
THE JERBOAS
(Dipui). The Jerboas constitute a group of the
great murine section of Rodents, and termed by
Mr. Waterhouse Dipodidae, of which, he observes,
the genera Dipus, Alactaga, and Meriones are ex-
amples.
All the animals of this tribe are remarkable for
the shortness of the fore limbs, the development of
the hinder limbs, and the length and slenderness
of the metatarsus; they resemble in these points
the kangaroos. They bound along on their hind
iimbs with great rapidity, and appear almost to
skim, like birds, the flat plains or sandy wastes
where they take up their abode. In an elaborate
memoir by M. F. Cuvier on the Jerboas and Ger-
billes, he divides these animals into different ge-
nera. The jerboas (Dipus) have only three toes
on the hinder feet, and these, as in birds, are ar-
ticulated to a single elongated metatarsal bone,
commonly known as the canon-bone. In the Alac-
tagas there are five toes; of these the three central
are aiticulated to a single metatarsal bone, while
the other two have each their own slender meta-
tarsal bone.
In Meriones and Gerbillus the toes are five, each
■with their own distinct metatarsal bone. The in-
cisors of the Alactagas are simple, whilst those in
the upper jaw of the jerboas are divided longi-
tudinally by a furrow. The molars of the latter
genus are complicated in form, and but little re-
semble those of the former. They are four in num-
ber in the upper jaw, and three in the lower; but
the firat in the upper is a small rudimentary tooth,
which probably disappears in aged individuals.
After a detailed account of the structure of the
grinding teeth, M. Cuvier observes that the general
structure of the head of the Alactagas and jerboas
is evidently the same, and is characterized by the
large size of the cranium, the shortness of the
muzzle, and, above all. by the magnitude of the
suborbital foramina. The cranium of the jerboa
is distinguished by its great breadth posteriorly,
resulting from the enormous development of the
tympanic bone, which extends beyond the occipital
posteriorly and laterally, as far as the zygomatic arch,
by I
the
where all the osseous parts of the ear are of mode-
rate dimensions. Another differential character
between the two genera is presented by the max-
illary arch, which circumscribes externally the sub-
orbital foramina, and which in the Alactagas may
be said to be linear, presenting a very limited sur-
face for the attachment of muscles. He then notes
a difference in the relative development of the
jaws, the lower being comparatively much shorter
m the Alactagas than in .the jerboas. Having de-
scribed a new specis of Alactaga, a native of Bar-
bary, under the name of Alactaga arundinis, M. F.
Cuvier proceeds to consider the charactei^ and
affinities of the genera Gerbillus and Meriones, and
enters into a critical examination of all the species
referred to those genera, and comes to the conclu-
sion that they have a closer affinity with the true
Murida; than with the jerboas and Alactagas.
Fig. 237 represents the skull and teeth of Dipus
hirtipes : a, skull, profile ; b, the same seen from
above ; c, the same seen from below ; d, e, the
teeth.
Fig. 23S represents the skull and teeth of Alac-
taga; fl, ami A, the cranium, one-third larger than
the natural size ; c, and d, the teeth, five times en-
larged.
239, 240, 241, 242.— The Egyptian jERnoA.
{Dipus j^gyptius). In the true jerboas the head is
large, and not unlike that of a rabbit in form; the
eara are long and somewhat pointed ; the eyes are
full and prominent ; the tail is very long, cylindri-
cal, and covered with short hair except at the ex-
tremity, which is tufted. The fur of the body issoft
and delicate ; the whiskers are long, the fore feet
are very small, and have four toes and the rudi-
ment of a thumb, furnished, however, with a nail.
In the hind feet of these animals we behold palpa-
ble evidences of their express adaptation to the
deserts where they habitually reside. Not only is
the metatarsal portion of the foot extremely elon-
gated, but the toes are clad on the under surface
with long bristly hairs, which while they add to
their span, and give firmness and security to their
tread on a loose and yielding surface, defend the
foot from the heat of a glowing waste beneath a
fervid sun.
The Egyptian Jerboa is found in Egypt, Barbary,
Nubia, and the warmer parts of Syria and Arabia.
It lives in troops, which colonize the most arid parts
of the desert, where, on hillocks of sand or the
crumbled heaps of ruins, they work out long burrows
in which to dwell. In these burrows they make
their nests and rear their young. So powerful are
their teeth, that they not only gnaw in a short time
through the hardest wood, but, as Sonniiii affirms,
through thin layers of stone beneath the sand.
According to some, these animals are nocturnal in
their habits, stealing forth to feed and sport when
evening begins to close. They are, however, not
altogether nocturnal, for Sonnini observed them in
broad day playing around the mouths of their sub-
terranean habitations, and he particularly noticed
that those which he kept delighted to bask in the
sun, and were always lively in that situation. The
jerboas are very timid creatures, and hasten to their
burrows for security on the least noise : if inter-
cepted, they trust to their speed, and seem to fly
across the plain ; so great indeed is the rapidity with
which they bound along, that a greyhound has some
difficulty in the chase." In making each leap they
spring from the hind feet, the impulse being given
by the powerful muscles of the thighs, while the tail
serves as a balance and rudder. In the act of spring-
ing the fore paws are pressed close to the chest ;
they descend, however, upon them, but such is the
quickness of the leap, and the celerity with which
they recover their due posture, and spring again,
that the eye is completely deceived, for it appears
as if they never used the fore paws at all, but alike
sprang from and alighted on their long slender hind
legs alone. When undisturbed, their common atti-
tude is that of sitting up on fte haunches ; and the
fore paws are used in the same manner as in the
squirrels and marmots. The food of the jerboa
consists principally of bulbous roots, which the
animals digup with their fore paws; they also devour
grain and other vegetable matters. It would appear
that the jerboa hybernates, but the duration of its
torpor cannot be very protracted.
The flesh of these animals, though unsavoury, is
eaten by the Arabs and Egyptians, who contrive to
capture them by stopping up all the openings of
their subterranean retreat except one, which is
netted.
Few animals, if we may judge from our own ob-
servations, bear continement so inij)atiently as the
jerboas: they sedulously exclude them.selves from
observation, and when they come forth from their
retreat in the evening, they are restless and distrust-
ful in the extreme.
In size this species is equal to a large rat ; the
general colour is pale tawny yellow, passing into a
lighter tint beneath ; the terminal tuft of tiie tail is
black, merging at the tip into wliile; a white or
whitish strip appears on each of the buttocks below
the base of the tail.
243, 244. — The Dark-banded Jerboa.
Of this jerboa, which is figured by Shaw under
the name of " the jerboa," we have never seen an
example. It is neither noticed nor figured by I.ich-
tenstein, who has published the best monograph of
these animals that has yet appeared. For oui-selves
we have no doubt but that the original figure was
taken from a specimen of the Egyptian Jerboa, in
which the abrupt border to the white mark was
darker than usual ; for in some instances the back is
washed with a dusky tint, which h.is a tendency to
assume wavy transverse bands, one of which, on the
haunch, as it is said, is occasionally distinct.
With regard to the Alactagas, to which we have
alluded, the typical species, the Siberian .Vlactaga
(Dipus Jaculus, Gmel. ; the Alactaga, Buff. ; the
Siberian Jerboa, Peimant), is dl^tributed from
Arabia, through Persia, Tartary, and Turkey, and
as far north as the Volga and Irtish. It inhabits the
plains and flat districts, where it makes extensive
burrows; in general habits it resembles thecoramuii
jerboa of Kgypt, but is of larger size.
Its Ibod is stated to consist not only of vegetable
but also of animal substances, as small biids and
insects ; and, as we learn from Pallas, it spares not
even its own species. The subterranean habitations
of these animals are extremely capacious, and -
formed about half a yard below the sorlace of the
ground. The passage leading to them is of great
length, and pursues a circuitous com-se, having at
intervals additional shafts or openings upwards,
affording extra facilities for escape in the event of
danger. During the winter they hybernate ; retiring
to their subterranean chambers, they shut up the
openings, and sink into a complete state of lethargy.
It is affirmed by Gmelin that when their burrows
are opened at this season a quantity of grain, dried
shoots, and herbs are found within them; on the
contrary, Pallas atfirms that they collect no stores
of provision for the winter. It is possible that both
these naturalists, who had anipel opportunities of
investigating the habits of the Alactaga in a state
of nature, may be correct, and that in the more
northern districts of its range it may accumulate a
store of provision, for use in the spring, when it
first rouses from its torpidity. The Alactaga is more
numerous and fertile in the warmer than in the
colder latitudes; but it is nowhere to be seen in
such numbei-s as the Egyptian Jerboa. From its
large size and the superior flavour of its flesh, it is
more sought after, as food, than that animal, and is
chased, and also taken by stratagem, by the Arabs
and Tartars. Such is its swiftness that it appears to
skim the plain without touching the ground ; even
a mounted horseman on a fleet steed can scarcely
overtake it. The fur of the Alactaga is extremely
sort and fine ; on the upper parts it is of a pale
fawn yellow, clouded with greyish brown on the
lower part of the back ; a white crescentic line ex-
tends on each side of the crupper, below the root of
the tail. The under parts of the body and inside of
the limbs are white ; the tail is brown, except the
tuft at the extremity, which is black tipped, with
white.
245. — The Labrador Jumping Mouse
{Meriones Labradoricus'). This species appears to
be the Labrador rat of Pennant; the Gerbillus
Hudsonius of Rafinesque ; Mus Labradoiius of
Sabine ; Gerbillus Labradorius of Harlan ; the La-
brador Jumping Mouse of Godnian ; and Katse (the
Leaper) of the Chepewyan Indians.
The genus Meriones in dental formula differs in
some points from Dipus. The upper incisors, of a
deep orange-colour, are marked with a longitudinal
furrow ; the molars are four on each side above,
and three below ; the first above is very small ; the
surfaces of the rest in both jaws are marked with
irregular winding lines of enamel (see Fig. 24C).
The muzzle is narrow and elongated; the ears
rounded, the hind limbs considerably developed;
the tail long, ringed with scales, and thinly covered
with short hair.
The Labrador Jumping Mouse, which was first
described by Pennant in his 'Arctic Zoology,' is
very common in the fur countries of North America,
as far north as the Great Slave Lake, and perhaps
farther; but of its habits we liave no precise details.
Jerboas.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
69-
Its general colour is brownish yelloiv, merging into
white beneath. The lengtli of the head and body
is about five indies, that of the tail five and a half.
Dr. Richardson remarks, respecting the jumping:
mice, of which there are, it would appear, several
species, that those inhabiting different districts in
Ameiica require to be compared with each other,
before the true number of species, and their geo-
graphical distribution, can be ascertained.
247. — The Cape Le-vpisq Hase
(Pedetes Capensis, 111. : Helnmys Capensis, V. Cuvier).
Grande Gerl)oise, Buffon ; Spring Haas of the Dutch
Colonists; Cape Jerboa, Pennant.
This curious animal, the only known example of
the genus Pedetes. occupies an undeterminale situa-
tion'among the Rodents; but is most probably the
most nearly related to the true Jerboas, which it
resembles in external appearance, 'i'he molars are
four on each side, in each jaw, of simjlle structure,
•with two lamiuie ; the incisors are large, strong,
and broad (see Fisr. 248). The anterior limbs are
short, but very strong, furnished with five toes
armed wilh powerful claws. The hind limbs are ;
developed and muscular, four-toed, the toes armed
with long-pointed and somewhat hoof-like claws.
Tail long. Tlie leaping hare equals our common
hare in size : the fur is soft, and of a dark. fawn or
brownish yellow, passing into white beneath ; the
tail is hairy, and tufted at the extremity with a
pencil of black. The head is large, the ears are
long and pointed; and the eyes full and dark.
Native country. South Africa.
Tne leaping hare is a burrowing animal, making
its holes in the soft sandy ground, which it digs up
with its fore paws, spurting it backwards with its
hind feet, as is done by the rabbit. In these bur-
rows it sojourns during the day, secure from the
attacks of the various carnivorous animals which
infest the precincts of its retreat. Night is the
season of activity: it steals forth on Itie close of
daylight to feed ; and in some districts where it
abounds, the depredations which it commits in the
fields of grain are very serious. It proceeds in the
same manner as does the jerboa, by a series of
bounds : and when the animal is pursued, each
bound it makes clears a space of twenty or thirty
feet. It eats sitting nearly upright, and using its
fore feet in the manner of a squirrel, to bring the
food to the mouth. It also sleeps in the same atti-
tude, excepting that the head is bent down between
the hind limbs, while the fore paws cover the eyes
and ears.
The leaping hare gives preference to the sides of
steep and craggy mountains, and in some places
they colonize a considerable extent of ground,
making it a complete warren. Mr. Burchell, on his
second journey to Asbestos Mountain, observed
their burrows in abundance. Whether this animal
lays up a store of winter provision, or wliether it
hybernates during a part of the year, does not ap-
pear to be ascertained: but it is very certain that,
in the localities it frequents, it is not only subject
to a low temperature during the cold season, but
that it will also experience a scarcity of its usual
food.
The voice of the leaping hare is a kind of inarti-
culate grunt.
The Catties esteem these creatures for food, and
expel them from their burrows by pouring water
into the entrances, when they issue fortli and are
easily taken.
249. — BcETOs's Gerbille
(^Gerhilltis Burtoni). The Gerbilles belong to the
family Murida; (and not to that of the true jerboas).
The contour of the skull and the characters of the
teeth are confessedly murine (see Fig. 250: a, the
skull, profile ; b, the same seen from above ; c, the
game seen from below , d, e, teeth of the same).
Though the gerbilles have the posterior limbs
developed, their development is by no means to the
same extent as in the jerboas ; and there is a far
more equal proportion between them and the
anterior pair ; hence these animals run as well as
leap. They are active, elegantlittle creatures, living
in burrows which they excavate to a considerable
depth, and are nocturnal in their habits. F. Cuvier
enumerates eight species, respectively natives of
Etrypt, and other parts of Africa, and India. The
species figured (Fig. 249) has been recently described
by F. Cuvier (see 'Trans. Zool. Soc' vol ii.) Of its
peculiar habits we know nothing definite, but they
in all probability aeree with those of the Indian
Gerbille, so well described by General Hardwicke
in the eighth volume of the ' Linn. Trans.' The
Indian Gerbille is common in Hindostan, and seems
lobe gregarious, great numbers associating together.
"These animals are very abundant about cultivated
lands, and are particularly destructive to wheat and
barley crops, of which they lay up considerable
hoards in spacious burrows near the scenes of their
plunder. They cut the culms of the ripening corn
just below the ears, and convey them thus entire to
one common subterraneous repository, which when
filled they carefully close, and do nut open for use
till supplies abroad become distant and scarce.
Grain of all kinds is their favourite food, but in
default of this they have recourse to the roots of
grass and other vegetables. About the close of
day they issue from their burrows, and traverse
the plains in all directions to a considerable dis-
tance ; they run very fast, but oftener leap, making
bounds of four or five yards at a time, canyina the
tail extended in a horizontal direction. When
eating, they sit on their hind legs like a squirrel,
holding the lood between their fore feet. They
never appear by day, neither do they commit depre-
dations withindoors. I have observed their manners
by night, in moonlight nights, taking my station on
a plain, and remaining for some time with as little
motion as possible. I was soon surrounded by
hundreds at the distance of a few yards, but on
rising from my seat the whole disappeared in an
instant, nor did they venture forth again for ten
minutes after, and then with much caution and cir-
cumspection.
" A low tribe of Hindoos called Kunjers, whose
occupation is hunting, go in quest of these animals
at proper seasons to plunder their hoards of grain ;
and often within the space of twenty yards find as
much corn in the ear as cculd be crammed into a
common bushel. They inhabit dry situations, and
are often found at the distance of some miles out of
the reach of water to drink. In confinement this
animal soon becomes reconciled to its situation, and
docile; sleeps much in the day, but when awake
feeds freely at night. The Hindoos above mentioned
esteem them good and nutritious food."
The Indian Gerbille is of the size of a common
rat ; its eyes are full and black ; the ears are
large, rounded, and almost naked. The general fur
is bright bay, variegated on the back, with pencil-like
strokes of dark brown ; the under parts are white ;
the tail is cylindrical, thickly covered with short
hair except at the tip, which is somewhat tufted, and
of a dark brown.
251. — Mitchell's Gerboa.
This animal, a native of Australia, and described by
Mr. Ogilby under the name of Dipus Mitchellii
(' Linn. Trans,' vol. xviii.), belongs, as we have every
reason to believe, to the genus Ilapalotis (Lich-
tenst., ' Saug.,' pt. vi. 1829). It seems to take the
place, on the open plains of Australia, of the jerboas
and gerbilles of the deserts and plains of Africa and
Asia ; or of the jumping mice of North America.
This singular species was found on the reedy plains
near the junction of the Murray and Murrumbidgee,
on the northern boundaries of Australia Felix.
The cut is taken from the figure in Sir T. Mitchell's
account of ' Three Expeditions into the Interior of
Eastern Australia.' Sir T. Mitchell states that the
fore and hind legs of this animal resemble in pro-
portion those of a kangaroo ; and ii. used the latter
by leaping on its hind-quarters in the same manner.
It was not much larger than a common field-mouse,
but the tail was longer in proportion than even that
of a kangaroo, and terminated in a hairy brush
about two inches long. We may here remark that
the genus Hapalotis is the same as Conilurus, Ogilby
('Linn. Trans.,' xviii. pt. i., p. 124, 1838), and must
be retained, according to the law of priority.
252, 253. — The Common Mouse
(Mus Musculus). The genus Mus, which includes
the true rats and mice, is typical of the extensive
family Muridse. The characters of this genus may
be thus summed up : incisors of the usual number ;
those of the lower jaw compressed and pointed ;
molars on each side, both above and below, three,
with true roots, and a transversely tuberculated sur-
I'ace, the ridges varying in number in each tooth;
the anterior molar is Uie largest, the posterior the
smallest. (See Fig. 254.) The muzzle is elongated
and sharp ; the ears are oblong or rounded, and al-
most naked. The toes of the anterior feet are four,
with the minute rudiment of a thumb ; those of the
hind feet are five. The limbs are short ; the tail
is long, cylindrical, tapering, and annulated with
scales &f epidermis, from, between which emerge
short hairs, forming a scanty covering. The fur is
soft, but traversed by long outer hairs of a stiffer
quality than those composing the under-coaf. All
these animals are of small size, yet many are among
the greatest pests to man. Althoush vegetable
aliment, as grain, peas, &c., forms their principal
food, still, to a certain extent, they are carnivorous.
We know the partiality of the mouse to cheese,
butter, lard, tallow, &c., and of the brown rat to
raw flesh. The stronger and larger species often
prey upon the smaller, and in times of scarcity they
will attack and devour each other. All are noc-
turnal, and most, if not all, subterranean in their
habits, and also gregarious. Some frequent the
fields and woods, some the gardens, and some the
abodes of man, undermining floors and walls, and
breeding within the precincts of his habitation.
They are spread througn every quarter of the globe ;
and the common mouse and the brown rat have
been introduced by the indirect agency of ajan,
even into the remotest and most desolate islands.
(See ' Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle —
Mammalia,' No ii. of pt. ii.. p. 31, et seq.) With
respect to the brown rat (Mus decumanus), some-
times erroneously called the Norway rat, it appeai-s
to have been originally transported from I'eisia or
India into Europe; its place was previously occu-
pied by the black lat (.Mus rattus), a smaller and
more timid animal, and in some districts now quite
extirpated by its more powerful rival. The brown
rat was not known in England before 1730, nor in
France before 1750. According to Pallas, it did
not ajipear in Russia and Siberia tilt 1766 ; and Dr.
Harlan states that it did not make its appeaiance
in North America till 1775. When Dr. Richardson
wrote his ' Fauna Horeali-Americana,' it was com-
mon in Lower Canada, but had not advanced much
beyond Kingston in Upper Canada. He did not
observe it in the fur countries, and believes, if it
I exis^ts there, that it is only at the mouth of the Colum-
1 bia river or at the factories on the shores of Hud-
son's Bay. Mr. Darwin found it at Buenos Ayres,
Valparaiso, East Falkland Island, and Keeling
Island. With respect to the black rat, even that
is in all probability of foreign origin. It was not
known in Western Europe belbre the middle of the
sixteenth century, and Gesner was the first who
described and figured it.
In the island of Ascension, in the Atlantic Ocean,
Mr. Darwin found two varieties, as he and .Mr.
Waterhouse consider, of the black rat (Mus rattus).
These two animals differ in the colour of the fur,
one being of a grizzled brownish colour, the other
black, with more soft or glossy fur. " The specimen
which has a black and glossy fur frequents the short
coarse grass near the summit of the island, where
the common mouse likewise occurs. It is often
seen running about by day, and was ibund in num-
bers when the island was first colonized by the
English a few years since. The other and browner
coloured variety lives in the outhouses near the
sea-beach, and feeds chiefly on the offal of the tur-
tles slaughtered for the daily food of the inliabitaiits.
If the settlement were destroyed, I feel no doubt
that this latter variety would be compelled to
migrate from the coast. Did it originally descend
from the summit? and in the case first supposed
would it retreat there ? and if so, would its black
colour return ? It must, however, be observed that
the two localities are separated from each other by
a space, some miles in width, of bare lava and ashes.
Does the summit of Ascension, an island so im-
mensely remote from any continent, and the summit
itself surrounded by a broad fringe of desert vol-
canic soil, possess a small quadruped peculiar to
itself? or, more probably, has this new species been
brought by some ship from some unknown quarter
of the world ? Or, I am again tempted to ask, as I
did in the case of the Galapagos rat, has the com-
mon English species been changed by its new habi-
tation into a strongly marked variety ? — D." (' Zool.
of Voyage of Beagle,' p. 36.)
This zoological problem is one of the many so-
difficult to solve. Mr. Waterhouse remarks, " It
appears as if the brown and black rats (M. decuma-
nus and M. rattus), and likewise the common mouse.,
all of which follovv man in his peregrinations, and
which to a certain degree are dependent upon man,
and may be therefore termed semi-domestic animals,
are, like really domestic animals, subject to a greater
degree of variation than those species which hold
themselves aloof from him." (Ibid.)
The common mouse is undoubtedly indigenous in
Europe : and has been known from, the earliest
times ; it is the Anglo-Saxon Mus, the German
Mans, the Danish Muys, the Latin Mus, and the
Greek Mw. In Spanish its name is Rat ; in Portu-
guese Ratinho ; in Italian it is called Sorice ; and m
French Souris: from the Latin Sorex, employed by
zoologists to designate the Shrews.
This elegant but troublesome little animal needs
no description ; all are well acquainted with it.
" Domestic in its habits," says Mr. Bell, "nourished
by almost every article of human food, and findings
effectual shelter in the secret reces.ses of the habi-
tations which human art has raised, it has accom-
panied man in all his adventures for colonization,
and identified itself with every new territorial occu-
pation of our race." The mouse is easily tamed,
and it is interesting to observe it sitting up holding
its food between its paws, or cleansing with them
the sides of its face and the back of its ears. it.s
black eyes glistening with animation. An Albino
variety (white, with red eyes) is not uncommon
(Fig 253), and often kept in cages for the sake of its
beauty. It breeds freely in captivity, perpetuating
a white race, which, born and bred in captivity, are
J -I
Ml.-Ejjpt in Jcrioi.
fit2.~EgypUaii Jerbo*.
U« — TacUiof Oqw Lnpiag Hue
-^ ^ , A^tV Yy^ __'-••: "*-'
241.— Dalk-bandcil Jerboa.
«47. -C<pe LwpinK Hare.
SM. — Labrador Jiunpiog'Moue.
246. -ToiUiof UbraJorJamping-Moiae.
60
851.— Mitchell'j Jerboa.
250.— Skull nnd Teeth of liurtor.s GetlMlle.
2 19.— Burton's Gerbill?.
25^— (.ommon Mouse.
2j7.— Long-tailed Field Mouse.
S53. — Common Mouse,
3M.— Dinrin'i MouM.
8&9.— Barbaiy Mouse*
SM —Teeth of Commou Mouse.
61
62
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Mice,
gentle and familiar, and when allowed to run about
a room never attempt to escape.
The uomraon mouse produces young to the num-
ber of 5 or G, several times darine the course of the
year. In about a fortnight they leave the mother,
and obtain their livinc^ independently.
To this species Mr. Wateihouse (see ' Zool. of
Beagle') refers six specimens in Mr. Darwin's collec-
tion: "Two were found living in the short grass
near the summit of the island of Ascension, where
the climate is temperate. Two othere were pro-
cured on a small stony and arid island, near Porto
Praya, the capital of St. Jago, in the Cape de
Verde Islands, where ihe climate is very hot and
dry. Excepting during the rainy season these little
animals can never taste fresh water, nor does the
island aflord any succulent plant. A specimen was
also procured on a grassy clitf on East Falkland
island, at the distance of a mile from any habitation.
It is sincrular that so delicate an animal should be
able to subsist under the cold and extremely humid
climate of the P'alkland Islands and on its unpro-
ductive soil. — D." It must be observed that all these
specimens are rather less than full-grown indivi-
duals of the same species procured in England: in
other respects they do not differ.
The sixth specimen is from Maldonado, where it
is common in the houses of the town, and is ^inlilar
in habits to its European relative. Tlie Maldonado
mouse is considerably less than British specimens of
the common mouse, and is of a richer and brighter
colour; the head is smaller, the muzzle shorter in
proportion, whilst the tarsi are even longer than in
a large specimen of Mus musculus. These points
of dissimilarity induced Mr. Waterhouse to regard
it ns a distinct species, and to apply to it the name
of * bievirosliis.' But upon subsequent re-examina-
tion, he was induced to change his opinion. The
teeth indicate that it is not an adult specimen.
Mr. Darwin ('Journal and Remarks') observes
that mice and other small Rodents subsist in con-
siderable numbere in very desert places, as long as
there is the least vegetation. In Patagonia, even
on the borders of the Salinas, where a drop of fresh
water can never be found, they swarm. Next to
lizards, he adds, mice appear to be able to support
existence on the smallest and driest portion of the
earth, even on the islets in the midst of great oceans.
He belie*es it will be found that several islands,
which possess no other warm-blooded quadruped,
have small Rodents peculiar to themselves. Sir
Woodbine Parish (' Buenos Avres,' &c.) states, that
after the great drought of 1830, 1831, and 1832,
there was a prodigious increase of all kinds of ver-
min, especially field-mice, myriads of which overran
the country, and entirely destroyed the maize-harvest
of 1833.
255. — Tbe Babdabt MonsE
(Mus Barbarus). In size this beautiful species is
intermediate between the common mouse and rat.
It is found in Barbary, where the natives term it
Phar Azeph, the Palmetto mouse. Some time ago
three individuals were living in the Vivarium of the
Zool. Soc. Lond. ; and were described and figured
by Mr. Bennett, who may be said to have really in-
troduced this species to science : for, since the time
of Linnasus, who first described the animal in the
addenda to the twelfth edition (the last published by
himself) of his ' Systema Naturae,' no naturalist ap-
pears to have seen it. So completely, indeed, had
It escaped the researches of later zoologists, that M.
Desmarest ventured to suggest a doubt of its exist-
ence.
" The ground-colour of the Barbary mouse is dark
brown, maiked on each side with five or six yellow-
ish stripes, about half as broad as the intervening
spaces, extending along the whole length of the
body, and becoming confused towards the under
parts, which are nearly white. On the fore feet
only three of the toes are at first visible, and this
circumstance, mentioned in the specific character
given by Linnaeus, has led many subsequent natu-
ralisls to doubt whether the Barbary mouse really
belongs to the genus with which it was associated.
Linnaeus himself had, however, stated in his de-
scription of the species, that rudiments of a thumb,
and also of a fifth toe, were observable on a closer
inspection ; and this statement has been fully con-
firmed by an examination of the specimens in the
Zool. Gardens." (' Gardens and Menagerie de-
lineated,' p. 31.)
Of the native habits and manners of the Barbary
mouse we have no definite information. Those in
confinement, to which we have alluded, resembled
the rat in actions and disposition. Their carnivo-
rous propensities indeed were amply evinced on Ihe
death of one of their number, by the two survivors
having commenced devouring the body.
It may be observed that the specimens examined
by Linneeus were very young, for he describes them
as being smaller than the common mouse.
A beiutiful striped mouse, termed the Cape striped
mouse (Mus pumilio), is peculiar to the dristrcts of
the Cape of Good Hope. It was first described by
Sparrman, who gives a figure of it in his 'Travels in
Africa,' taken from a young individual. The gene-
ral colour is brownish grey, with four black stripes
along the back ; the upper surface of the head is
black. Another species, the Indian striped mouse
(Mus striatus), of which a few years since little was
known, may also be noticed. Specimens of this
animal have been kept alive in the Vivarium of the
Zool. Soc. The general colour is grey with a tinge
of reddish or yellow, and the back is marked with a
dozen longitudinal rows of small white spots distinct
from each other, forming so many interrupted stripes;
the under parts are whitish.
256. — Darwi.n's Mouse
(Mtii Dancinii). Among the numerous small Ro-
dents belonging to the family MuridiB collected by
Mr. Darwin (see 'Zool. .of 'H.M.S. Beagle '), is a
small group, the species of which, Mr. Wateihouse
observes, though very closely allied to the genus
Mus, offer some slight modification not only in their
external form, but also in the structure of the teeth.
" They have the fur soft and silky ; the head large ;
and the fore-legs very small and delicate ; the tarsus
moderately long, and bare beneath. In the num-
ber and proportion of their toes they agree with the
true rats; the tail is moderately long, and more
thickly clothed with hair than in the typical rats.
The ears are large and clothed with hair. Like the
true rats, they have twelve rooted molars ; the folds
of enamel however, penetrate more deeply into the
body of each tooth, and enter in such a way that
the crowns of the teeth are divided into transverse
and somewhat lozenge-shaped lobes of a triangular
form. In ihe front molar of the upper jaw the
enamel enters the body of the tooth twice, both in
the outer and inner sides ; and in the second and
posterior molars, both of the upper and under jaws,
the enamel penetiates but once externally and inter-
nally in each. In the front molar of the lower jaw
the enamel enlers the body of the tooth three times
internally and twice externally " (' Proc. Zool. Soc.,'
1837, p. 27). These Murine animals Mr. Water-
house regards as constituting a sub-genus for which
he proposes the name of Phyllotis. Darwin's mouse,
Mus (Phyllotis) Darwinii, was found in dry and
stony places at Coquimbo in Chile. The fur above
consists of cinnamon-coloured and blackish hairs
intermixed ; the space before the eyes is of a greyish
tint; the sides of the face and body are of a i-alo
cinnamon colour; the under parts and limbs white ;
the ears are large : the tail as long as the head and
body ; brownish above, white beneath. Length of
head and body six inches.
Besides the sub-genus Phyllotis, Mr. Waterhonse
characterizes the following as siib-eoneric sections
of the genus Mus, all peculiar to South America,
and of which specimens were collected by C. Darwin,
Esq., at various localities, viz.,Coquimbo, Valparaiso,
Port Desire, Maldonado, Bahia Blanca, &c. : Scap-
teromys, Oxymycterus, Abiothrix, Calomys, Rei-
throdon, and Acracoma. (' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1837.)
The two latter, indeed, he considers as valid
genera.
In North America there are two interesting '
genera of the Muridse, which may here be noticed, I
namely, Neotoma and Sigmodon, both established
by Say and Old in the ' Journal of the Acad. Nat.
Soc.,' Philadelphia. To the firet genus belongs the
Florida rat (Neotoma Floridana), larger than the
ordinary rat, with soft velvety fur of a lead colour,
with yellowish and black hairs intermixed. The
specimen described by Say and Ord was discovered
in a log granary situated in a ruined and deserted
plantation in East Florida. "When first aroused it
ran a short distance, then returned, and stood close
by us, allowing us to touch it with a gun before it
again retreated. It was mild, or without that sus-
picious and cunning air so remarkable in the
common brown rat. We have reason to think that
the species is not uncommon in Florida, as several
individuals were seen by Mr. Say, in an old mansion,
but he was unprovided with the means of capturing
them." Specimens are preserved in the Museum of
the Zool. Soc. A second species was discovered by
Mr. Drumraond in the Rocky Mountains, and is
described by Dr. Richardson under the title of N.
Drummondii. This animal " makes its nest in the
crevices of high rocks, and seldom appears in the
daytime. Its food most probably consists of herb-
age of various kinds, and of small branches of
pine-trees, because there is generally a considerable
store of those substances laid up in the vicinity of
its residence. It is very destructive. In the course
of a single night the fur traders who have encamped
in a place frequented by these animals have sus-
tained much loss by their packs of furs beinsr gnawed,
the blankets cut in pieces, and many small articles
carried entirely away. Mr. Drumniond placed a
stout pair of Enzlish shoes on the shelf of a rock,
and ai he thought in perfect security, but on his
return after an absence of a few days he found them
gnawed into fragments as fine as saw-dust. This
species is nine inches in the length of the head and
body, its tail being seven and a half inches. It*
general colour is yellowish brown above, and white
beneath: the fur is full and soft, and the tail i»
bushy and densely hairy, instead of being round,
tapering, .ind thinly covered with hair, as in the
Florida rat. (Specimen in Museum of Zool. Soc.)
With respect to the genus Sigmodon. the dentition
of which is characterized by the flexures w hich the
folds of enamel on the molar teeth present, one
species only is described, viz., the Rough-haired
Sigmodon (S. hispidum). This animal is very
numerous in the deserted plantations lying on the
river St. John in East Florida, particiilarlv in the
gardens. Its burrows are seen in every direction.
Emigrants to that section of the country will find
the species a creat pest to rural economy. General
colour, pale dirty ochre mixed with black; under
surface, ashy grey. Length of head and body, six
inches ; of the fail, four inches. (Specimen in Mu-
seum of Zool. Soc.) Closely allied 1o the genua
Neotoma isa species termed the white-footed mouse
(Mus leucopus), found in California, and on the
borders of the Columbia river. The habits of thi»
elegant little creature are well described by Dr.
Richardson, who observed it as far north as the
Great Bear Lake. " The gait and actions of thi»
little animal are so much like those of the Eiiclish
domestic mouse, that most of the Europeans resident
at Hudson's Bay have considered it to be the same
species, although overlooking the obvious differ-
ences of their tails and other peculiarities. This
American mouse, however, has a habit of making
hoards of grain or liltle pieces of fat, wliich I
believe is unknown of the European domestic
mouse ; and what is more singular, these hoards are
not formed in the animals' retreats, but generally in
a shoe left at the bedside, the pocket of a coat, a
nightcap, a bag hung against the wall, or some
similar place. It not unfrequently happened that
we found barley which had been brought from a
distant apartment, and introduced into a drawer,
through so small a chink, that it was impossible for
the mouse to gain access to its store. The quantity
laid up in a single night, neaily equalling the bulk
of a mouse, renders it probable that several indivi-
duals unite tlieir efforts to form it. This mouse
does considerable mischief in gardens, and in a very
few nights will almost destioya plantation of maize,,
by tracing the rows for the purpose of collecting the
seeds, and depositing them in small heaps under
the loose mould, generally by the side of a stone or
piece of wood. From the facility with which it
seenvs to transport the substances it preys upon, f
suspected that it had cheek-pouches, but none were
found on examination. The ermine is a most in-
veterate enemy to this species, and pursues it evea
into the sleeping apartments of houses." The colour
above is tine dark brown ; the under part and feet
are white. (Specimens in Museum of Zool. Soc.)
2J". — The Loxg-tailed Field-Mouse
{Mus sylvaticvs'). Eyes full, black, and bright : —
colour above reddish brown, beneath whiiisii ; eai*
more than half the length of the head; tail some-
what shorter than the head and body. Length of
head and body three inches eight lines. It is Le
Mulot ot Buftbn.
This beautiful but mischievous liltle animal is
spread over the whole of temperate Europe. It
frequents woods, plantations, parks, orchards, and
gardens, where it commits creat devastations. In
some places it multiplies in hosts, and instances are
on record of young plantations covering acre*
having been totally destroyed by their depredations.
They strip the bark and shoots from off the sapling
trees, and root up the newly-planted acorns ; nor
are they less injurious in wheat fields. Eacii indi-
vidual lays up in its hole or burrow a winter store
of food, consisting of grain, acorns, nuts, peas, &c. ;.
and hence it is not only from what they devour at
the time, but also from what they carry away that
they cause such injuries. In the kitchen-garden,
as we can personally testify, they are not a little
annoying, digging up peas and beans when newly
sown or when beginning to germinate. One of
their natural enemies, and one of the most efficient
asrents in their destruction, is the short-eared owl
(Otis Ulula). Latham informs us that in certain
districts which have been infested with these mice,
the "owls have collected in large troops, and at-
tacked the depredators to their utter extermina-
tion." It is not exclusively to vegetable matters-
thatthe<e mice confine their diet; young birds be-
come their prey, and when food is scarce they will
attack each other, the younger or weaker falling
victims to the more poweiful.
The field-mouse, thouch extremely timid, is easily
tamed and rendered familiar, and its manneis are
very ensrasing. It is free from ihe unpleasant
odour which renders the common mouse a nuiaance.
Rats.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
03
The field-monse breeds twice in the year, pro-
ducing from six to ten young at a time. It is easy
therefore, to calculate the rapidity of its multiplica-
tion, and to account for the sudden appearance of
swarms in spots where few had been previously ob-
served. Buffon states that by means of a single
trap two thousand three hundred were killed in
twenty-three days in a single field of about forty
acres in extent. In some parts of our own country
their numbers have been incalculable and their de-
vastations frightful.
258, 259. — The Harvest-Mouse
<iW«s Messorius). Of all our British mammalia the
harvest-mouse is the smallest. This beautiful little
species was first discovered in our island by Gilbert
White, and described in his ' Natural History of
Sel borne.' Yet it is by no means uncommon in the
corn counties, and especially in Hampshire, though
so long overlooked by British naturalists. It is
found in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Devonshire,
and Cambridgeshire, and occurs in France, Ger-
many, Russia, and Siberia. It is the Mulot nain
and Hat de moissons of F. Cuvier; the Mus mi-
iiutus of Pallas, and the Mus Pendulinus of Her-
mann.
The harvest-mouse is a lively, active, playful
little creature ; its eyes are dark : its general colour
above is delicate reddish fawn ; the under parts are
abruptly white: the ears are short and rounded;
the tail is rather shorter than the body. Length of
head and body two inches six lines.
This animal lives entirely in the fields, resort-
ing in the winter to burrows of its own construc-
tion, or to corn-ricks, into which it penetrates, and
there finds food and shelter. The asylum in which
it rears its young is an artful and beautiful nest
of a spherical figure, consisting of the split leaves
and panicles of grasses artificially interwoven to-
gether, and suspended among the stalks of standing
corn, or thistles, or other plants, to which it is
secured, and of which the leaves will shroud it from
notice.
According to Dr. Gloger, the entrance to the nest
is rather below the middle, on the side opoosite to
the stems, and is scarcely observable ; the parent
closes it when she leaves the nest, and probably
while she remains herself within. The inside is
warm, smooth, and neatly rounded. One nest ex-
amined by Dr. Gloger contained five young, another
nine.
It would appear that the harvest-mouse is insect-
ivorous as well as granivorous, and this fact was
first noticed by the Rev. W. Bingley, who obtained
a female, which after its capture produced eight
young, but being disturbed by a conveyance of
several miles, she killed them, as the rabbit is fre-
• luently known to do. "One evening," he observes,
" as I was sitting at my writing-desk, and the ani-
mal was playing about in the open part of its cage,
a large blue fly happened to buzz against the wires ;
the little creature, although at twice or thrice the
distance of her own length from it, sprang along the
wires with the greatest agility, and would certainly
have seized it had the space between the wires
been sufiiciently wide to have admitted her teeth or
paws to reach it. I was surprised at this occur-
rence, as I had been led to believe that the harvest,
mouse was merely a granivorous animal. I caught
the fly, and made it buzz in my fingers against the
wires. The mouse, though usually shy and timid,
immediately came out of her hiding-place, and run-
ning to the spot seized and devoured it. From
this time I fed her with insects whenever I could
get them, and she always preferred them to every
other kind of food that I off'ered her." The same
writer observed that the tip of the tail possessed a
prehensile power, and that the animal used it while
climbing about the wires of its cage. We have seen
the harvest-mouse in captivity tolerably tame, and
reconciled to its prison. It' often bits erect, and
feeds itself, holding grain between its paws, which
it also uses in dressing its soft fur. It drinks by
lapping the water with its tongue, and sleeps rolled
up into a ball.
260.— The Hamster
(Cricelut vulgaris). Fortunately for England, the
hamster is not indigenous within the precincts of the
island. It inhabits the whole tract of countries ex-
tending between the Rhine and the Ural mountains,
and between the German Sea and Baltic to the
north and the Danube to the south, wherever it
finds a congenial soil. It is very common in Thu-
ringia. Its proper soil is a deep alluvial mould
with a substratum of clay ; in diy, strong-soiled,
or stony districts, it is not often found. The
teeth of the hamster closely resemble those of the
rat. (Fig. 201.) The tail is short and hairy.
There are large cheek-pouches, as in some of the
monkeys, in the form of sacks, which serve for
carrying home food: they extend from the in-^ide
of the cheeks beneath the skin, along the sides of
the neck, even over the shoulders. The general
figure is thick : the limbs are short ; there are four
toes and a small thumb on the anterior feet ; five
toes on the hind feet ; the head is large, the muzzle
abruptly pointed, the ears rounded. The general
colour is as follows: head and upper parts reddish
grey, verging to yellow on the face ; under parts
black, with the exception of the throat and feet,
which are white. Three large distinct spots of
white are also disposed on each side, one on the
cheeks, one on the shoulder, and one on the ribs.
Black varieties are not unfrequent ; in these the
nose and feet are white. There are two oblong
spaces on the skin, situated one on each side of the
spine, at a short distance in front of the thighs,
which, instead of having the usual fur, are covered
witli short, brown, stiff hairs. These patches, which
are about an inch long, are not always directly per-
ceptible, being obscured by the surrounding long
fur, which must be blown aside to show them.
The adult male measures from nine to twelve inches,
exclusive of the tail, which is about three inches
Jong. The weight is sometimes more tlian a pound.
The female is smaller by one-fourth.
The hamster is nocturnal in its habits: during
the day it lies rolled up in its burrow : at night it
issues forth to ramble in quest of food ; after mid-
night it returns to its burrow and rests till about an
hour before sunrise, when it takes a second ramble
till the morning fairly dawns. Its movements are
slow and creeping: it often utters short growling
tones, but when irritated its voice is a shrill yelling
cry. In collecting food, as beans, peas, wheat, &c.,
it uses its paws to press the grain backwards to the
bottom of the pouches, in order to make room for
the entrance of more. When these are well filled,
it returns to its burrow to unload them, in which
act it again uses its paws. In summer it feeds
upon green fodder and the leaves of many plants;
hut the hamster is also carnivorous, attacking and
devouring rats, mice, birds, lizards, insects and their
larvEB, and the weaker of their own species. Even
the two sexes live in harmony only during the few
days of each breeding season. The hamster fights
obstinately, and will jump with equal fury at a
waggon-wheel or at a horse if he tread near it ; and
when two rival males meet, they engage in a despe-
rate conflict till one retreats or perishes. In these
paroxysms of fury the cheek-pouches become dis-
tended with air, the animal at the same time blow-
ing and uttering at intervals its shrill cry.
In the construction of its burrows the hamster
displays great ingenuity. They are in some re-
spects modified according to age, sex, and soil ; lor
each individual has its own exclusive burrow. Each
burrow has at least two openings; one descends
obliquely, the other perpendicularly. The former
is termed the " creeping-hole," and l his is excavated
from without, — but the perpendicular passage,
termed the " plunging-hole," is worked out from
one of the chambers, that is, from within the sub-
terranean domicile, and is often four feet deep.
The distance of these two holes from each other
varies from four to ten feet, and between the ter-
mination of these two passages are the chambers.
The creeping-hole is not in such constant use as
the other, and in an inhabited burrow it is regu-
larly found stopped with earth at the distance of
about a foot liom the mouth. The chambei's are
more or less oval, and of large size ; that nearest
the creeping-hole is the smallest, and is well lined
with a bed of soft fine straw : it has three openings,
one into the creeping-passage, one into the plung-
ing-passage, and one communicating with the store-
chambers, of which there are several, at least in the
burrows of the old male. Each chamber is filled in
the autumn with provisions, and sixty-five pounds of
corn or a hundredweight of horse-beans have been
found in the magazines of a single hamster. The
burrow of a female has from three or four to eight
plunging-holes, all terminating in her nest-chamber.
Here she produces her litter, from six to eighteen in
number. The young are born blind and naked, but
in eight or nine days their eyes are opened ; they
grow rapidly, and in about a fortnight begin to dig
small burrows, each making its own. The female
has several litters in the course of a year. About
the middle of October the hamster retires for good to
its retreat, stopping up first the creeping-holes, then
the plunging-holes; — after this the animal keeps
awake (though underground) for about two months,
living on its store and becoming very fat. When
the cold of winter has fairly set in and reached it,
it sinks into a complete state of torpor, which con-
tinues till the middle of February. About the
middle of March it begins to open its passage, and
re-visits the fields ; it now abandons its old burrow,
and begins to form a fresh one. The flesh of the
hamster is said to be very good ; the fur is also es-
teemed, and the hamster-hunter, who trades in the
skins, usually opens the burrows after the corn has
been reaped, for the sake of obtaining the grain
which the hamster has accumulated.
2C2.— The Caffre Broad-eared Hat
(Eiiryotis unisiilcnhis.) This species of rat ig a
native of South Africa, whence it was brought by
M. Delalande. It forms the type of the genus
Euryotis of Brands, to which title that of Otomys,
proposed by F. Cuvier, must give place. Dr. A.'
Smith has appropriated the term Otomys to another
group of Rodents. In its dentition (Fig. 203) this
animal closely approximates to the true rats, as
also in general form and structure : the eyes are
large ; the ears are ample and broad, and furnished
with an internal projecting membrane, which when
its edges are approximated entirely shuts the en-
trance of the auditory opening. Ihe fur is thick
and sort, and the general tone of colouring is a
clouded yellow tint, becoming yellowish white on
the under parts. Length of head and body about
I six and a half inches; of tail, nearly three inches.
Of the habits and raannere of this animal we iiavij
no definite information.
204.— The IIydromys
(Hi/dromi/s leucoyasta- and cimjsoijnatcr). Though
we refer the genus Hydromys to the Muiida;, it
differs in dentition from the other member, of that
family. There are only two molars on each side
above and below ; the first above is three times the
size of the second, and is composed of three irregular
portions, each portion being depressed in its centre,
which is surrounded by a ridge of enamel ; the
second molar is composed of two unequal parts:
the first molar below is twice the size of the second,
and both are composed of two parts. (See Fig. 265.)
The Hydromys is' an aquatic animal, and well
adapted for swimming: the head is flat; the body
otter-like, elongated, and covered with close glossy
fur: on the lore feet there are four toes and the
rudiment of a thumb ; on the hind feet there are
five toes united by webs. The tail is long and
cylindrical, covered with close stift" hairs; the ears
are short and rounded ; the upper surface is brown,
the extremity of the tail for about a third of its
length white ; the under surface varies from white
to a fine deep orange-yellow. Some writers have
regarded these varieties as distinct species; — we
have seen specimens with the colour of the under
surface in intermediate stages between white and
yellow. Length of head and body, about twelve
inches; that of the tail nearly as much. The Hy-
dromys is a native of Van'Diemen's Land, and
various small islands in D'Entrecasteanx Channel ;
but of its habits we have no detailed accounts.
The family Arvicolidse. — In this family are com-
prehended the Water-rat, the Lemming, and other
Rodents, termed Campagnols, Voles, &c., distin-
guished from the Muriclie by having rootless molars,
by having the angle of the lower jaw raised, and
by certain peculiarities in the structure of the cra-
nium.
266. — The Economist Mouse
In the genus Arvicola the
(^Arvicola aconomus).
3—3
molars are q — r, composite with flat crowns, pre-
senting angular enamelled laminae (Fig. 267). The
■ears are moderate, the muzzle obtuse, the tail
shorter than the body, and hairy. The Economist
mouse is a native of the northern sweep of Siberia
and Kamptschatka. It would appear that the same
or a closely allied species inhabits Iceland. It is
a burrowing animal, and constructs beneath the
turf narrow galleries which lead to a chamber, in
the form of an oven, communicating with another
used as a magazine, in which it stores up food for
winter consumption. This consists of bulbous roots,
and various grains and berries ; and the quantity
of provision amassed is often very considerable.
These animals breed several times in the year, pro-
ducing three or four at a birth. Like the lemming,
from some unknown cause, these mice, at irregular
periods, but always in the spring, perform extensive
migrations. Multitudes assemble together, forming
an army myriads strong. In Kamptschatka their
progress is westward ; neither rivers, nor lakes, nor
even arms of the sea stop them : thousands are
drowned or destroyed by birds and beasts of prey, —
but onwards the army marches, — pursuing their
course, until they have crossed the river Penshim,
when they bend their way towards Judoma, and
Ochot, which they usually reach about July : they
return to Kamptschatka in October, but sadly re-
duced in numbers by the accidents of flood and
field. According to Dr. Henderson, the Economist
mouse of Iceland displays great sagacity in con-
veying home and stocking its provisions ; and he
corroborates the account of MM. Olafsen and
Povelson respecting their mode of conveying them
across such streams as they may meet with in their
foraging expeditions. "The party, which consists
of from six to ten, select a fiat piece of dried cow-
dung, on which they place the berries in a heap in
the middle; then by their united force they bring
it to the water's edge, and, after launching it, em-
— >.
263.— Te«th of Calfte Dro»d-e»red Rat.
861.— Teeth of Hamster.
2i9.— Ilineit Mgu«e.
•j4.— Hvi r ni>«.
S67.*Tec'th of Economist Mouse.
IP 8.— WVet-IUl.
262 — Coffre Hroad-eareil Rat.
64
S74.~Cainda Sand-BaL
272.— Mole Kat.
270.— IJeriV'T.
269 — Ik'avers.
271.— Miuqnwh
a-;.*.- Melt-Rat.
No. 9.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
65
66
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Rats.
bark and place themaelves round the heap with
their heads joined over it, and their baclis to the
water, their tails pendent in the stream serving the
purpose of rudders." (Fig. 266.) The truth of this
fact he says was confirmed by the testimony of two
credible witnesses, the clergyman of Briamsloek,
and Madame Benedictson, of Stickesholm. He
further states that they make a drainas;e from their
burrow, leading into a deep hole, intended for the
reception of the water.
268.— Thb Watee-Rat
^Arvicola amphibia). Rat d'eau, Buff. The water-
rat is by many regarded as a variety of that de-
structive animal the common rat, which, as is well
known, often takes up its quarters in drains and
ditches, and the banks of canals, especially near
houses, farms, stables, &c., making deep burrows
in which to rear its young. From this pest the
water-rat is totally distinct. It frequents the borders
of large ponds, reservoirs, streams, and rivers, dwell-
ing in burrows of considerable extent to which
there are generally two or more outlets. The main
outlet is in most instances close to the water's edge,
«o that during floods it is not unfrequently below
the surface, but the gallery, sloping upwards as it
proceeds in the bank, terminates in a chamber
which the water does not reach. Here, in a snug
bed of dried grass and vegetable fibres, the female
rears her young. Nocturnal or crepuscular in its
habits, it is chiefly as the dusk of evening steals on
that the water-rat emerges from its retreat, but it
seldom ventures far from the margin of the pond
■or river, into which when alarmed it immediately
plunges, and swims under the cover of overhanging
roots and herbage to its burrow. Though not web-
footed, it is at home in the water, and dives with
great ease. There are few persons who have not
noticed its waymarks on the surface of stagnant
ponds, or ditches mantled over with a thick crop
of chickweed. These tracts are made during the
night, the season in which it wanders in search of
food or its fellows. The roots of aquatic plants,
especially the typha, the stems of equisetum, buds
knd bark, &c., constitute the diet of this species :
it has been affirmed that it feeds also upon insects,
small fishes, frogs. Sec, but for this assertion there
is not the slightest foundation. It would appear
that the water-rat hybernates during some portion
of the winter, and also lays up a store of food. Mr.
White says, " As a neighbour was lately ploughing
in a dry chalky field, far removed from any water.
Tie turned out a water-rat that was curiously laid up
in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass and
leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a
gallon of potatoes regularly stowed, on which it
Avas to have supported itself for the winter." It
must be acknowledged that there are some points
in the history of this species to be cleared up. In
size this animal equals the common brown rat, but
the head is thicker and more obtuse, the muzzle
being blunt and short; the ears are scarcely appa-
rent, being buried in the fur ; the eyes are small
and black ; the tail is little more than half the
length of the body, and thinly covered with short
hairs. The fur is thick and close ; its colour on the
Tipper parts is dark reddish brown, mixed with grey ;
on the under surface brownish white : a black
variety sometimes occurs. The species is spread
over most parts of Europe.
269, 270.— The Beaver
{Castor Fiber). The Beaver is not exclusively con-
fined to the northern portions of the American
continent. Herman (see ' Journey round the Earth,'
&c.) informs us that it " abounds in the Obi, and is
taken, not for the sake of its fur, but for its musk,
which bears a very high price." It is common
along the Euphrates, and a skin sent home by Col.
Chesney is in the possession of the Zool. Soc.
Lond. The beaver occurs also along some of the
larger rivers of Europe, as the Rhdne, the Danube,
the Weser, and the Nuthe, near its confluence with
the Elbe. It was formerly an inhabitant of our
own island, and Giraldus Cambrensis gives us a
short account of their manners in Wales ; but in his
time (1188) they were only found in the river Teify.
By the laws of Hoel-dda, the price of a beaver's
skin was fixed at 120 pence, a great sum in those
days. Whether the European, Asiatic, and Ame-
rican beavers are specifically identical or not, yet
remains to be determined. Certain it is that the
European beaver, as proved by the little colony in
the Nuthe, displays the same manners and building
propensities as its Transatlantic brethren ; and per
contra, the thirty scattered beavers near the settle-
ments in America are solitary animals, dwelling in
burrows like the scattered few along the RhOiie,
though it must be observed that one from the latter
river in captivity exhibited as marked a construc-
tive disposition as any American beaver under the
same restrictions. The mode of building as con-
ducted by the beaver of America is described by
Hearne with great clearness and the absence of the
ordinary exaggeration. The situation chosen is
various: where the beavers are numerous, they
tenant lakes, rivers, and creeks, esjiecially the two
latter, for the sake of the current, of wnich they
avail themselves in the transportation of the ma-
terials. They also choose such parts as have a
depth of water beyond the freezing-power to con-
geal at the bottom. In small rivers or creeks in
which the water is liable to be drained off when
the back-supplies are dried up by the frost, they
are led by instinct to make a dam quite across
the river, at a convenient distance from their houses,
thus artificially procuring a deep body of water in
which to build. The dam varies in shape : where the
current is gentle, it is carried out straight ; but where
rapid it is bowed, presenting a convexity to the
current. The materials used are drift-wood, green
willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got, and
also mud and stones ; the.se are intermixed without
order, the only aim being to carry out the work
with a regular sweep, and to make the whole of
equal strength. Old dams by frequent repairing
become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great
force of water and ice, and as the willows, poplars,
and birches take root and shoot up, they form by
degrees a sort of thick hedge-row, often of consider-
able height. Of the same materials the houses
themselves are built, and in size proportionate to
the number of their respective inhabitants, which
seldom exceeds four old and six or eight young
ones. The houses, however, are ruder in structure
than the dam ; the only aim being to have a dry
place to lie upon, and perhaps feed in. When the
houses are large, it often happens that they are di-
vided by partitions into two or three or even more
compartments, which have, in general, no commu-
nication, except by water; such may be called
double or treble houses, rather than houses divided.
Each compartment is inhabited by its own pos.
sessors, who know their own door, and have no con-
nexion with their neighbours, more than a friendly
intercourse, and joining with them in the necessary
labour of building. So far are the beavers from
driving stakes, as some have said, into the ground
when building, that they lay most of the wood
crosswise, and nearly horizontal, without any order
than that of leaving a cavity in the middle ; and
when any unnecessary branches project inward,
they cut them oft' with their chisel-like teeth, and
throw them in among the rest to prevent the mud
from falling in. Wiih this wood is mixed mud
and stones, and the whole compacted together.
The bank affords them the mud, or the bottom of
the creek, and they carry it, as well as the stones,
under their throat by the aid of their foie-pavvs ;
the wood they drag along with their teeth. They
always work in the night, and have been known
during the course of a single night to have accu-
mulated as much mud as amounted to some thou-
sands of their little handfuls. Every fall they cover
the outside of their houses with fresh mud, and as
late in the autumn as possible, even when the frost
has set in, as by this means it soon becomes frozen
as hard as stone, and prevents their most formid-
able enemy, the wolverene or glutton, from dis-
turbing them during the winter. In laying on this
coat of mud they do not use their broad flat tails,
as has been asserted, a mistake which has arisen
from their habit of giving a flap with the tail when
plunging from the outside of the house into the
water, and when they are startled, as well as at
other times. The houses when complete have a
dome-like figure, with walls several feet thick, and
emerging from four to six feet above the water.
The only entrance is deep under water, below a
projection called the " angle" by the hunters, and
beyond the reach of the frost : near this, also under
water, is laid up their winter store, a mass of
branches of willows and other trees, on the bark of
which they feed. These they stack up, sinking
each layer by means of mud and stones, and often
accumulate more than a cartload of materials. Be-
sides ihese winter-houses, in which they are shut
up during the severities of the season, they have
always a number of holes in the banks which serve
them as places of retreat when any injury is offered
to their houses, and in these they are generally taken.
The entrance to these holes is deep below the
water, which fills a great part of the vault itself.
When the hunter forces the houses of the beaver
in winter (the hunting season), the animals swim
beneath the ice to these retreats, the entrances of
which are discovered by striking the ice along
the banks with an iron ice-chisel, the sound indi-
cating to practised ears the exact spot : they cut a
hole in the house and surprise their booty. During
the summer the beavers roam about at pleasure,
and it is during this season that they fell tne wood
necessary for repairing their houses and dams, or
for building others, commencing the latter about
the end of August. Such is the strength and sharp-
ness ot their teeth that they will lop off a branch
as thick as a walking-stick at a single effort, and
as cleanly as if cut with a pruning knife. Large
steins they gnaw all round, taking care that their
fall shall be towards or into the water. They
rapidly fell a tree, the shaft of which is as thick or
thicker than a man's thigh, or from six to ten
inches in diameter ; and places of more than three
acres in front of the river and one in depth have
been seen with the timber all felled by these ani-
mals, though ftiany of the trees were as thick as a
man's body. The beaver does not attain its full
growth before three years, but it breeds before that
time. It produces from two to six at a birth. The
flesh of this animal is esteemed by the Canadian
hunters, and by the natives, as a great delicacy, and
we need not say how valuable its fur is as an article
of commerce. It is from certain gandular sues in
the beaver that the substance called castor, or cas-
toreum, used in medicine, is obtained, and which
(procured from the European variety) was well
known to the ancients.
In captivity the beaver soon becomes familiar
and sociable, and, if permitted, will even in a room
exercise itself in attempts to build, using brushes,
baskets, boots, sticks, and in short anything it can
get hold of for the purpose.
The fine fur of the beaver varies from glossy
brown to black ; the tail, or caudle paddle, used as a
rudder in diving or in ascending, i$ flat, scaled, and
oarlike. The length of the head and body of a
full-grown animal is about forty inches ; of the
caudle paddle, one foot. The feet are all five-toed ;
those of the hind-feet are united by a broad pal-
mated expansion ; the nails are strong, and Ihat of
tiie second toe of the hind-feet consists of two por-
tions. On land the gait of the beaver is awkward
and shuffling, owing in part to the outward tour-
nure of the hind-feet, which fits them for aquatic
progression, and in part to the thii;k and clumsy
configuration of the body. The genus Castor is
somewhat isolated, and may be regarded as the type
of a subfamily.
271. — The Musquash
( Ondatra Zibethica). Fiber Zibethicus, Sabine ;
Musk-rat, Godman ; Ondathraof theHurons; Mus-
quash, Watsuss, or Wachusk, and also Peesquaw -
Tupeyew ('the animal that sits on the ice in a rouix.
form ') of the Cree Indians. The dentition of ti
animal (Fig. 271*) presents a close affinity to that i
the water-rat and other species of Arvicola, as
Q g
Fig. 267. Molars, -— .
The musquash is a native of North America, ai
in its general form it resembles the common wat.
rat, size excepted. In the length of the head t.
body it measures about fourteen inches, that of '
tail being eight or nine. The fur, which is mi
like that of the beaver, is dark umber brown pi
ing into brownish yellow on the under pails: i,'
and even white varieties are sometimes seen, j
hind feet are not webbed ; the tail is comprest
laterally, broadest in the middle and covered v
a thin sleek coat of short hairs; lunger hairs i
along the acute margins.
The range of this animal is from lat. 30° as hii
north as 69°. Small grassy lakes, or swamps, or i
grassy borders of slow streams, are its lavom
haunts. Vegetable matters are its principal ton
as roots, tender shoots, the leaves of various caiic
&c. ; to which it adds fresh-water muscles (Uni.
The musquash swims and dives well, plunging in
the water on the least alarm, and diving instani
neously on perceiving the flash of a gun. Thisai.
mal builds winter habitations, but far less sol.
and durable than those of the beaver. These hab
tations are thus described by Dr. Richard.son : — " 1
the autumn, before the shallow lakes and swam]
freeze over, the musquash builds its house of mui
giving it a conical form, and asufficient base to rai>
the chamber above the water. The chosen spot i
generally amongst long grass, which is incoiporatu
with the walls of the house from the mud being di
posited amongst it, but the animal does not appcii
to make any kind of composition or mortar by ten
pering the mud and grass together. There is, how
ever, a dry bed of grass deposited in the charobti
The entrance is under water. When ice forms ovi
the surface of the swamp, the musquash makt
breathing-holes through it, and protects them frun
the frost by a covering of mud. In severe wintei?
however, these holes freeze up in spite of their ci
verings, and many of the animals die. It is to b
remarked that the small grassy lakes selected h
the musquash for its residence are never so firm,
frozen nor covered with such thick ice as deeper ai
clearer water. The Indians kill these animals I
spearing them through the walls of their house:
making their approach with great caution, for tl
musquashes take to the water when alarmed b\
sound on the ice. An experienced hunter isso wi
acquainted with the direction of the chamlier ai
the position in which its inmates lie, that he en
transfix four or five at a time. As soon as, froi.
Rats.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
G7
the motion of the spear, it is evident that the animal
is struck, the house is broken down, and it is taken
out. The principal seasons for taking the musquash
are the autumn before the snow falls, and the spring;,
after it has disappeared, but while the ice is still
entire. In the winter time the depth of snow pre-
vents the houses and breathing-holes from being
seen. One of the first operations of the hunter is
to stop all the holes with the exception of one, at
which he stations himself to spear the animals that
have escaped being struck in their houses and come
hither to breathe. In the summer the musquash
burrows in the banks of the lakes, making branched
canals many yards in extent, and forming its nest
in a chamber at the extremity, in which the young
are brought forth. When its house is attacked in
the autumn, it retreats to these passages, but in the
spring they are frozen up. The musquash may be
frequently seen on the shores of small muddy
islands, sitting in a rounded form, and not easily to
be distinguished from a piece of earth, until, on the
approach of danger, it suddenly plunges into the
water. In the act of diving, when surprised, it
gives a smart blow to the water with its tail. Its
flesh is eaten by the natives, though it has a strong
musky flavour. The fur is used for hat-making,
and between four and five hundred thousand skins
are annually imported into Great Britain. The mus-
quash breeds three times in the year, producing from
three to seven at a birth.
272, 273.— The Mole-Rat
(Aspalomi/s typhlus, Laxmann). Spalax typhlus,
Guldenst. ; Aspalax typhlus, Desm. ; Zemni, Rzac-
zinski ; Slepez, Gmelin ; Podolian Marmot, Pennant.
This strange animal (which forms the type of
a distinct family) is expressly organized as a miner.
The body is mole-shaped and covered with close
fur, the limbs are short and thick, with strong short
claws. The head is broad and flat, with a lateral
margin or ridge running from the great naked nose
to the ears, and indicated by a line of white stiff
hairs. Breadth of head across, 2| inches ; length
the same. Total length eleven inches. Tail
wanting. Teeth white : general colour pale sandy
ash-grey ; the hairs pale lead colour at the base.
The specimen from which these notes were made
(in the Paris Museum) was brought from Russia
(" le pays des Cosaques du Donn ") : a second
specimen, from Syria, was smaller ; eight and a half
inches long, with bright orange teeth, and the
lateral ridge of the head not fringed with white hairs ;
its colour also was darker.
The mole-rat is a native of Asia Minor, Syria,
Mesopotamia, and Southern Russia between the
Tanais and Volga. The Russians term it Slepez,
or the blind ; and the Cossacks, Sfochor Nomon,
which has the same meaning. It is generally sup-
posed to be the ii»-«-ixa{ (Aspalax) of Aristotle ; but
as a species of mole inhabiting Europe (Talpa caeca)
has the eyes also rudimentary, this point is doubtful.
In the mole-rat the eye is a mmute black grain
lying beneath the skin, which passes over it, and is
besides covered with the fur : it is evident that the
sense of vision is denied to this creature ; but by
way of amends its internal organs of hearing are
largely developed, and the external orifice is wide,
though the conch of the ear is almost obsolete.
The mouth is small ; the tip of the nose is largely
bare and cartilaginous, with the nostrils wide apart
and placed below. The mole-rat has much of the
manners of our common mole : it is gregarious, and
its burrows are clustered together. Rich level plains
are its favourite localities. Its burrows consist of
galleries at a little distance below the surface of the
earth, which communicate with chambers sunk to a
greater depth. From its galleries it drives lateral
passages in search of roots, particularly of the bulbous '
Chaerophyllum, on which it feeds. According to
Rzaczinski, it also devours grain, of which it amasses
a store in its burrow for winter consumption. Its
actions are sudden and quick, but irregular ; and it
moves along with equal ease both forwards and
backwards. It burrows very expeditiously. In the
morning it often quits its retreat and basks with its
mate in the sun. At the least noise it raises its
head to listen, and in a menacing attitude ; when
attacked, it snorts and gnashes its teeth, and defends
itself resolutely, inflicting severe wounds. There is
a superstition among the people of the Ukraine,
that the hand which has suffocated one of these
animals is gifted with the virtue of curing scrofulous
affections.
274, 275.— The Canada Sand-Rat
(GeomythuTsarmi). Mus bursarius, Shaw. Fischer
regards, and perhaps correctly, the genera Sac-
cophoms, Pseiidostoma, Diplostoma, and Saccomys,
as synonymous with the genus Geomys of Rafinesque,
ancl which is represented by the sand-rat, distin-
guished by large cheek-pouches, which when full
have an oblong form and nearly touch the ground,
t)ut when empty are retracted for three-fourths of
their length. Their interior is very glandular, par-
ticularly the orifice that opens into the mouth.
4 — 4
The incisors are^ — ;. Fig. 275* represents the skull
and teeth of Geomys, as given by Dr. Richardson :
1, 2, 3, skull, natural size, in different views: 4,
lower jaw; 5, palate and upper teeth; 6, upper
grinder magnified. Fig. 270 represents the teeth of
Geomys (Saccomys, F. Cuv.) enlarged.
The skull is large and depressed, the nose short,
the nasal and frontal bones are in the same plane ; the
fjalate is very narrow, and the zygomatic arch is but
ittle depressed below the upper surface of the skull.
The nostrils are somewhat lateral ; the mouth is
contracted ; the pendulous cheek-pou(;hes are thinly
clothed with short hairs, and sometimes almost naked
— they open into the mouth by the side of the molar
teeth; auditory openings large, external ear almost
obsolete ; eyes small and far apart ; body cylindrical ;
tail of moderate length, round, tapering, and more
or less hairy. Limbs short j toes five on each foot,
with strong claws.
, Dr. Richardson observes that the sand-rats bur-
row in sandy soils, and feed on acorns, nuts, roots,
and grass, which they convey to their burrows in
their cheek-pouches ; they throw up little mounds
of earth, like mole-hills, in summer, but are not seen
abroad in the winter season; speaking of the
Columbia sand-rat, he observes, that when in the
act of emptying its pouches it sits up like a mar-
mot or squirrel, and squeezes the sacks against
its breast with its fore-paws and chin. These ani-
mals commit great havoc on the potato-fields.
The Canada sand-rat is known only from Dr. Shaw's
description (in the 'Linnaean Transactions,' vol. v.,
p. 227) of a specimen in Mr. Bullock's Museum,
and which afterwards passed into the hands of M.
Temminck. There is no specimen in any of our
museums ; nor did Dr. Richardson see the animal
in his expedition. It may, however, possibly prove
to be identical with one of the species he has de-
scribed. This animal is stated to be about the size
of a common rat, and of a pale-greyish brown. A
specimen of the mole-like sand-rat (G. talpoides) is
preserved in the collection of the Zool. Soc. It is
a native of the borders of the Saskatchewan.
277. — The Camas Pouched-Rat
(^Diplostoma bulbivomrn). The animals of this
genus difi'er from those of the genus Geomys, in
having cheek-pouches which open externally at
the sides of the mouth, and are carried inwards and
downwards along the side of the lower jaw; these
pouches are not pendulous ; the mouth is a vertical
fissure nearly an inch long, entirely exposing the
incisors ; and the lateral fold of skin before the open-
ing of the pouch is covered internally and exter-
nally with fur. The body resembles that of a great
mole with a large clumsy head.
The animals of this genus were termed" Gauff'res,''
by the early French travellers : there appear to be
several species.
The Camas pouched-rat is common in N. America,
on the banks of the Columbia river, and the Mult-
nomah, where it is known under the name of Camas-
rat, because the bulbous root of the Quamash or
Camas-plant (Scilla esculenta) forms its favourite
food. It is eleven inches long, and of a chesnut-
brown colour. These animals, the Gauffres of the
French, are excessively voracious, and they are very
destructive to beets, carrots, and similar vegetables.
They live almost exclusively under ground, work-
ing their way like a mole, and are said to fill their
cheek-pouches with the earth by means of their
paws, and to empty them of their contents at the
mouth of the burrow.
278.— The Coast-Rat
(Bathiergus maritimus). The dental form of Ba-
thiergus (Orycterus, F. Cuv.) is as follows : Molars
4 4
(see Fig. 278*). In this genus are compre-
hended several species of mole-like Rodents pe-
culiar to Africa, the whole form and organization of
which fit them for an underground existence. The
most remarkable is the coast-rat, or sand-mole of
the downs. This species is a native of Southern
Africa, frequenting sandy tracts along the coast.
On the surface of the ground it proceeds slowly,
but it burrows with great rapidity, and works out
long galleries, throwing up hillocks as does the
mole. In some districts these are extremely nu-
merous, rendering it dangerous to pass over them
on horseback, and not pleasant even on foot, the
earth, where excavated, suddenly giving way. This
animal is about a foot in length, exclusive of the
tail, which is about three inches. The incisors are
of enormous size, and those above have a deep
longitudinal furrow down the front ; and a hairy
palate extends behind them. The general colour is
greyish ash.
279.— The Rabbit Ceecomts.
This animal, which in shape resembles a rat, repre-
sents the genus Cercomys, closely allied to that of
Echymys, containing the spiny raU. The molars
4 — 4
are ^— ^ rooted. The general colour of this spe-
cies is deep brown above, paler on the sides and
cheeks ; all the under parts are whitish ; the tale is
long, like that of the rat ; ears and eyes large. It
is a native of Brazil, but of its habits we have no
detailed accounts. The teeth of the genus Echy-
mys (a South American group) are figured 280.
281. — Cuming's Octodon
(Octodon Cumingii). Dendrobius Degus, Meyen.
The family Octodontidae is established for a few
allied genera peculiar to South America, of which
that termed Octodon is the type. Molars,—^.
The antorbital foramen is as large as the orbit, or
nearly so. The descending ramus of Ihe lower jaw
is deeply emarginated behind, and the posterior
angle acute. Fig. 282 represents the skull of Oc-
todon in different views ; and Fig. 283 the skull of
an allied genus, Ctenomys.
Cuming's Octodon in size and shape resembles
a water-rat. General colour brownish grey ; clouded
with dusky black ; under surface dusky grey ; base
of the tail beneath nearly white.
These animals are exceedingly abundant in the
central parts of Chile. They frequent by hundreds
the hedge-rows and thickets, where they make bur-
rows which communicate with one another. In
the neighbourhood of Valparaiso multitudes may be
seen together feeding fearlessly in the day-time.
Sometimes they ascend the lower branches of small
shrubs, but not often. They are very destructive to
fields of young corn. Onbeingdisturbed.they all run
like rabbits to their burrows. When running they
carry their tails raised up, more like squirrels than
rats ; and they also sit up like those animals. Accord-
ing to Molina lliey lay up a winter store of food, but
do not become dormant. The Octodon is the Degu
of that writer : he says that the Indians used for-
merly to eat them with much relish. Piebald and
albino varieties are not uncommon. The greatest
enemy of these active little creatures is a species of
horned owl, which feeds chiefly upon them.
284. — The Tucdtuco
(Ctenomys Magellanicus). General colour brown-
ish grey tinged with yellow and slightly varied by
a blackish tint ; under parts paler ; chin and throat
pale fawn. Length of head and body about seven
inches ; of the tail about two inches and a quarter.
Toes, as in Octodon, five on each foot.
Locality. — The east entrance of the Strait of
Magelhaens at Cape Gregory and the vicinity
(King). The wide plains north of the Rio Colo-
rado are undermined by these animals : and near
the Strait of Maeelhaens, where Patagonia blends
with Tierra del Fuego, the whole sandy country
forms a great warren for them.
Mr. Darwin ('Journal and Remarks") gives a cir-
cumstantial account of this curious animal, which
he well describes as a rodent with the habits of a
mole. "The tucutuco," says that author, " is ex-
tremely abundant in some parts of the country, but
is difficult to be procured, and still more difficult
to be seen when at liberty. It lives almost entirely
underground, and prefers a sandy soil with a gentle
inclination. The burrows are said not to be deep,
but of great length. They are seldom open ; the
earth being thrown up at the mouth into hillocks,
not quite so large as those made by the mole.
Considerable tracts of country are so completely
undermined by these animals, that horses, in passing
over, sink above their fetlocks. The tucutucos
appear, to a certain degree, to be gregarious. The
man who procured specimens for me had caught
six together, and he said this was a common occur-
rence. They are nocturnal in their habits; and
their principal food is afforded by the roots of
plants, which is the object of their extensive and
superficial burrows. Azara says they are so diffi-
cult to be obtained, that he never saw more than
one. He states that they lay up magazines of food
within their burrows. This animal is universally
known by a very peculiar noise which it makes
when beneath the ground. A person, the first time
he hears it, is much surprised : for it is not easy to
tell whence it comes, nor is it possible to guess
what kind of creature utters it. The noise consists
in a short but not rough nasal grunt, which is re-
peated about four times in quick succession ; the
first grunt is not so loud, but a little longer and
more distinct than the three following: the musical
time of the whole is constant, as often as it is
uttered. The name Tucutuco is given in imitation
of the sound. In all times of the day, where this
animal is abundant, the noise may be heard, and
sometimes directly beneath one's feet. When kept
in a room, the tucutucos move both slowly and
clumsily, which appears owing to the outward action
of their hind-legs: and they are likewise quite
incapable of jumping even the smallest vertical
K2
r^<.r''<^\
*M.— Tucutdco.
281.— Cumin"** Octodon.
68
Skull of Acanthion Javaiiicum.
2*1.— Common Porcupine.
292.— CoHunas Vmaifiat.
194.— Bntjllan PorcBpine.
[ 28»^Teeth of HyitrU.
287.— Coypu.
GJ
70
MUSEUM OF ANI>LA.TED NATURE.
[Rats.
height. When eating they rwt on their hind-legs
and hold the piece in th-ir fore-paws; they ap-
pear also to wish to drag it into some corner.
They are very stupid in making any attempt to
escape; when anp-y or frightened, they utter the
tuculuoo. or those I kept alive, ceveral, even the
first day, became quite tame, not attempting to bite
or to run away; others were a little wilder. The
man who caught them asserted that many are found
blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirit* was
in this state. When the animal was alive I placed
my finger within half an inch of its head, and
not the slightest notice was taken : it made its
way however about the room nearly as well as the
others."
285.— TiiK Utia
(Capromys Fumieri). Isodon Piloridcs, Say. Mr.
Waterhouse considers the genus Capromys as one
of those included in the Histricine section of Ro-
dents. The anterior paws have four toes and a ru-
dimentary thumb ; the hind-feet are thick, broad,
and strong, and five-toed ; the claws are strong ;
the soles of all the feet are naked, and covered with
a coarse granular black skin, divided into pads by
deep fissures. The muzzle is obtuse ; the nostrils
are open, oblique, edged externally with an elevated
rim, and separated by a medial furrow, running to
the fissure of the upper lip. The whiskers are
long ; the tail is annulated with a scaly epidermis,
with short thinly-set hairs from between each scale
(see Fig. 286 : a, muzzle ; b, portion of tail ; c,
under part of fore-foot ; d, under part of hind-foot).
The ears are moderate, erect, almost rounded.
Molara rt — A< with the crown traversed by folds of
enamel. Eyes small.
This animal is a native of Cuba, where it is known
by the name of Utia. It appears to have been de-
scribed by Bomaxe and Oviedo three hundred years
ago. Tne general colour of the utia is glossy
brown grizzled with yellowish grey ; the muzzle,
chest, and under parts greyish white ; the fur of a
coarse texture ; length about two feet two inches,
of which the tail is eight inches.
With respect to the habits of the utias in a wild
state, it is only known that they are found in the
woods, that they climb trees with great facility, and
that they live on vegetables. From observations
on those kept in a domesticated state, M. Desmarest
gives the following details : — " Their intelligence
appears to be developed to as great a degree
as that of rats and squirrels, much more so than
that of rabbits and guinea-pigs. They have, indeed,
a great share of curiosity. At night they are very
wakeful, and the form of the pupils is indicative of
nocturnal habits. The sense of hearing does not
appear to be so acute as that of rabbits or hares.
Their nostrils are incessantly in motion, especially
when they smell any new object. Their taste is
sufficiently delicate to enable them to distinguish
and reject vegetables which have been touched by
animal substances, to which they manifest the
greatest repugnance. They agree perfectly well
t}gether, and sleep close by each other. When they
are apart they call each other by a sharp cry, dif-
fering little from that of a rat. Their voice, when
they express pleasure, is a low soft kind of grunting.
They scarcely ever quarrel except for food — as when
one piece of fruit is given between both ; in that
case one seizes and runs away with it, until the
other is able to take it from him. They some-
times play for a long time together, holding them-
selves upright in the manner of kangaroos, firmly
supported upon the broad soles of their hind-feet
and the base of the tail, and striking each other
with their paws, until one of them, finding a wall |
or some other body against which to support him-
self, acquires an additional power, and gains an
advantage ; but they never bite each other. To-
vrards other animals they manifest the greatest
indifference, paying no attention even to cats.
They are fond of being caressed, and particularly
of being scratched under the chin. They do
not bite, but slightly press with the incisor teeth I
the skin of those who caress them. They do not
ordinarily drink, but occasionally suck up water
as squirrels do. Their food consist of vegetables
exclusively, such as cabbage, succory, grapes, nuts,
bread, apples, &c. They are not very difficult in
the choice of their food, but still have a particular
fondness for strong-flavoured herbs and aromatic
plants, as wormwood, rosemary, geraniums, pimper-
nel, celery, &c. Grapes pleased them much, to
obtain which they would instantly climb up a
long pole, at the top of which the fruit was placed.
They are also fond of bread steeped in aniseed
or even wine. These animals are plantigrade :
their movements aie slow, and their hinder parts
are embarrassed when they walk, as is observable
in the bear. They leap occasionally, turning
suddenly round from head to tail like the field-
mouse. When they climb, which they do with
the greatest ease, they assist themselves with
the base of their tail as a support, and the same
in descending. In certain positions, on a stick
for example, the tail serves as a balance to pre-
serve their equilibrium. They often raise them-
selves to a listening attitude, sitting erect, with the
paws hanging down, like rabbits and hares. In
eating they employ sometimes only one, sometimes
both their fore-paws ; the former is the case when
the substance they are holding is small enough to
be held between the fingers and the tubercle at the
base of the thumb."
287.— The Cotpd
(Mi/opotamtu Coypiu). Quoiya, d'Azara; CouV,
Molina ; Hydromys Coypus, Geoff. ; Mus Castorides,
Burrow.
The coypu is common in certain districts of
South America, as Chile, Buenos Ayres, and
Tucuman. The head is large ; the muzzle obtuse :
the ears small and round ; fore-feet with a rudi-
mentary thumb and four toes, all free : hind-feet
plantigrade, with five toes, of which the outermost
only is free, the rest palmatcd. Tail strong
and scaly, and sprinkled with scattered hairs.
Molars -j — -.' increasing in size from the first to
the last, with winding folds of enamel (sec Fig.
288). The eyes are small, approximating to each
other, and placed high in the head. Behind the
upper incisors there is a hairy palate or space, a
peculiarity noticed also in Bathiergus. The body
IS clothed with two sorts of hair, an under-garment
of fine close fur almost water-proof, and an upper
layer of long, shining, straight hairs of a rich brown,
which is the general colour, the muzzle being dirty
white. The limbs are short but strong; and the move-
ments of the animal on land are slow and crawling.
The coypu remained unknown to the scientific
world, while thousands of its skins, under the name
of Kacoonda, for more than forty yeai-s had been
annually imported into Europe, for the sake of the
fine under-fur, which, like that of the musquash and
beaver, is extensively used in the manufacture of hats.
This animal is gregarious and aquatic, residing in
burrows which it excavates along the banks of rivers:
and in these burrows the female produces and rears
her young, from three or four to seven in number,
to which she manifests great attachment. In the
Chonos Archipelago, according to Mr. Darwin,
" these animals, instead of inhabiting fresh water,
live exclusively in the bays or channels which ex-
tend between the innumerable small islets of that
group." "The inhabitantsofChiloe, who sometimes
visit this archipelago for the purpose of fishing,
state that these animals do not live solely on vege-
table matter, as is the case with those inhabiting
rivers, but that they sometimes eat shell-fish. The
coypu is said to be a bold animal, and to fight
fiercely with the dogs employed in chasing it.
Its flesh when cooked is white and good to eat.
An old female procured on these islands weighed
between ten and eleven pounds." An extensive
trade in the skins of these animals is carried on at
Buenos Ayres, where they are improperly called
" Nutrias," or otters. In captivity the coypu soon
becomes gentle and attached ; and is evidently
pleased with marks of attention from those with
whom it is familiar. Length of adult male, one
foot eleven inches, exclusive of the tail, which is
one foot three inches.
The Family Histricidse, or Porcupines. — ^The
porcupines, a spine-clad family, are divided into
the genera Hystrix, Erethizon, Synetheres, &c.,
and are respectively distributed over Europe and
North Asia, Africa, India and its islands, and North
and South America. All the porcupines have the
molars four in each jaw on each side ; nearly equal
in size, and furnished with distinct roots ; when
worn the surfaces present tortuous folds of enamel
(see Fig. 289, the teeth of Hystrix, and Fig. 290, the
teeth of Erethizon). The tongue is rough with
papilliE, like those of the cats ; the head is short and
blunt ; the nostrils large and open ; the ears and
eyes comparatively small ; and the general form
thick and clumsy.
Two figures of skulls (Fig. 291) represent the
skull of a species termed, by F. Cuvier, Acanthion
Javanicum (1), and that of the common porcupine
(2), by way of comparison. With respect to the
genus Acanthion founded by F. Cuvier on the cha-
racters of two skulls, one of which was brought from
Java, we are strongly inclined to consider it iden-
tical with the genus Atherura of Baron Cuvier,
though the latter, in his'R6gne Animal,' makes no al-
lusion to the genus proposed by his brother. Fischer
gives the Acanthion Javanicum of F. Cuvier as
identical with the fasciculated porcupine (.\theruia
fasciculata), and is probably correct. The fasci-
culated porcupine has been long known to science,
and is figured by Buffon as the " Porc-^pic de
Malacca;" but since his time, till within the few last
years, no specimen had reached Europe. In 1828,
M. Diard sent a skin and skeleton to France, from
India, and about the same time a living individual
was brought to England by Lieut. Vidal, and pre-
sented to the /ool. Soc. Lond. It was described
and figured by Mr. Bennett, and now forms a part
of the riches of the museum. This individual, how-
ever, was not brought'from India or its islands, but
from Fernando Po, where it is stated to be in such
abundance as to furnish a staple article of food to
the inhabitants. Whether it be truly indigenous
there, or was originally brought by the early Por-
tuguese settlers to that island from India or Java,
and has become naturalized, are points unsettled.
292, 293.— TuE Commo.n Poeccpine
{Hiitrix cristata)—V0TC-t^\c of the French: Istrice
of the Italians ; Stachelschwein, Domschwein, and
Porcopick of the Germans. This spine-covered
animal is found in Italy, throughout Africa, in
Southern Tartary, the borders of the Caspian Sea,
Persia, and India ; it was observed by Mr. Hodgson
inhabiting the central and lower regions of NepSl.
When full-grown it is upwards of two feet in length ;
but the specimens from Italy are generally smaller
than the African, and have snorter quills. It would
appear that in Italy it is not indigenous, but has
become naturalized.
The porcupine is a nocturnal animal, of quiet
and secluded habits, passing the day in its subter-
ranean retreat, for the digging of which its muscular
limbs and stout claws are well adapted. At night
it steals forth to feed ; roots, bark, fruits, and vege-
tables constitute its diet. In winter it appears to
undergo a partial hybernation. Sluggish and timid,
the porcupine is yet enabled, clothed in its array
of spears, to repel the assault of enemies : when
driven to act on the defensive, he bends his head
down, turns his back towards his assailant, erects
his spines, and receiving the rash assault, pushes
them forcibly by the action of the whole body
against the aggressor. The wounds thus inflicted
are veiy severe, and do not heal readily. The
spines of the porcupine are of two sorts : one short
being long, slender, and bending ; the other spines,
concealed beneath the former, are short, thick in
the middle, and tapering to a sharp point ; they are
ringed black and white. The length of the short
spines, which are the true effective weapons, is
from four to ten inches, and the point, which con-
sists of flint-like enamel, is somewhat comprei^ed
with two slightly raised and opposite ridges, which
when minutely examined are found to be finely
jagged. There is another sort of furniture on the
tail, namely, a number of dry, hollow, open quills,
of considerable circumference, and supported upon
long and very slender stalks, which vibrate with
every motion. When the porcupine clashes these
together they produce a rustling noise. The appa-
ratus by which the spines and these hollow rattles
are clashed and raised consists of a strong muscular
expansion underneath, and adherent to the thick
skin. From the raising and clashing of the spines,
and perhaps the accidental falling of one looser
than the rest (about to be shed natui-ally), has
arisen the belief that the animal was capable of
darting his spines, like a javelin, point foremost —
an error we need not stay to confute.
294. — The Brazilian Pobcdpine '
{Synetheres prehensUls). Cuandu of Marcgrave ;
Coendu,Buft'on; Prehensile Porcupine of Pennant.
In North America the porcupines are represented
by the Hairy or Canada Porcupine (Erethizon dor-
satum), which is in a great degree arboreal in its
habits. In Brazil we are presented with the species
termed Cuandu, more decidedly organised as a
climber, having a prehensile tail, resembling that
of the oppossum. The muzzle is broad and short ;
the head convex in front, the spines rather short ;
the tail very long, and naked for half its length.
The feet have only four toes. The length of this
species is about two feet, exclusive of the tail, which i
is about eighteen inches ; the nose is covered with I
brownish hair ; the ears are nearly naked ; the
body is covered above with spines, the longest (on
the lower part of the back) are about three inches
in length ; those on the sides and base of the limbs
are the shortest. All are sharp, and barred near
their points and roots with white ; brown in the
middle. The basal half of the tail is clad with
short spines; the breast, under parts, and lower
portion of the limbs with dark brown bristles.
The Brazilian porcupine appears very much to
resemble the Canada porcupine in its habits, living
m woods, sleeping by day, and feeding on fruits,
&c. by night. Marcgrave states that its voice is
like that of a sow. The quills are stated to have
the same penetrating and destructive quality as
those of the Canadian species. It is a sluggish m
animal, climbing trees very slowly, and holding on 1
with its prehensile tail, especially in its descent.
It grows very fat, and the flesh is said to be white
and well-tasted. Our cut is taken from a living
specimen in the garden of the Zoological Society.
i
Chinchillas.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
71
Family Chinchillidae.— To the animals of Ihis
family, ol' wliich the beautiful chinchilla is the type,
the attention of English naturalists was first called
by Mr. Bennett, whose admirable paper on the sub-
ject will be found in the iirst volume of the ' Trans.
Zool. Soc' In this paper three genera are clearly
and fully characterized, viz. : Lasotis, Benn. ; Chin-
chilla, Benn. ; and Lagostomus, Brookes. The Chin-
chiUidse are all peculiar to South America, and are
burrowing and gregarious in their habits. Their
food is exclusively vegetable. The mplar teeth are
, destitute of true roots.
295, 296, 297.— The Chischilla
{ ChlnchiUa lanigera). The characters of the genus
Chinchilla, as established by Mr. Bennett, are as
4—4
follows : — Molars,
4—4'
crossed obliquely on their
surface by three lines of enamel. Toes, on the fore-
feet, five ; on the hind-feet, four. Tail of moderate
length, and hairy; ears broad, rounded, and nearly
naked ; eyes large and full ; fur long, thick, close,
soft and woolly.
The chinchilla appears to have attracted in very
early times the notice of travellers, though the
accounts scattered in their works have been but
little regarded by naturalists. In 1824 Schmidt-
meyer, in his travels over the Andes into Chile,
notices the chinchilla as a " woolly field-mouse
which lives underground, and chieily feeds on wild
onions. Its fine fur is well known in Europe ;
that which comes from Upper Peru is rougher and
larger than the chinchilla of Chile, but not always
so beautiful in its colour. Great numbers of these
animals are caught in the neighbourhood of Co-
quimbo, and Copiapo, generally by boys with dogs,
and sold to traders, who bring them to Santiago
and Valparaiso, from whence they are exported.
The Peruvian skins are either brought to Buenos
Ayres from the eastern parts of the Andes, or sent
to Lima. The extensive use of this fur has lately
occasioned a very considerable destruction of the
animals." From this passage it would appear that
there are two or more species of chinchilla, re-
spectively Chilian aud Peruvian, and hence we
suspect is to be accounted for the difference in the
colour and quality of the chinchilla fur, which wc
have frequently observed. Our examination of
specimens in the Paiis museum also leads us to the
same conclusion.
A native of the valleys in the high mountain dis-
tricts of South America, where the cold is often
very severe, the deep woolly coat of the chinchilla
is well calculated for preserving warmth. Whether
in the winter season the animal hybernates or not
yet remains to be discovered. Of its manners, in-
deed, we know little. In captivity it is quiet, in-
offensive, and cleanly : it feeds sitting up on its
haunches like a squirrel, holding its food between
its fore-paws. Its ratio of intelligence is on the
same par with that of the rabbit or guinea-pig :
hence it displays no indications of attachment to
those who feed it, nor much animation or playful-
ness. In its alpine valleys it associates in numbers,
excavating burrows, in which it resides. The
female breeds twice a year, producing from four to
six young at a birth. Various roots, especially
those of bulbous plants, constitute the diet of the
chinchilla. The colour of the fur of this species is
clear grey above, but varying in depth, and passing
into white on the under parts : its quality is ex-
quisitely fine, and its length renders it well adapted
for spinning. Indeed, Molina informs us that '• the
ancient Peruvians, who were far more industrious
than the modern, made of this wool coverlets for
beds, and valuable stuffs." The tail is covered with
long bushy hairs, and usually kept turned up towards
the back. In length the chinchilla measures about
nine inches, exclusive of the tail, which is five inches.
The fore-limbs are comparatively short : the head
has much resemblance to that of a young, full-
haired rabbit ; the muzzle is short and blunt, and
furnished with long whiskers ; the eyes are black ;
the ears are ample. The skull is remarkable for
the size of the antorbital foramen and the amplitude
of the tympanic bulla. The general skeleton is
slightly built, and the bones are slender ; the ribs are
thirteen on each side. Fig. 298 represents the skull
and skeleton of the Chinchilla Lanigera : a, skull
seen from above ; b, the same seen from below ; c,
the lower jaw.
299. — Covieb's Laootis
(_Lagotis Cuvieri). Of the genus Lagotis two spe-
cies were described and figured by Mr. Bennett
(see the ' Trans Zool. Soc.,' vol. i.). In this genus
the toes of the anterior as well as posterior feet are
four. Tlie hind Innbs are considerably developed ;
the muzzle is somewhat elongated and narrow,
■and furnished with- long whiskers ; the eyes are
moderate, but prominent ; the ears are elongated,
rounded at the tip, and rolled inwards at the edges.
The fur is soft, long, and downy, and but loosely
attached to the skin. The tail of tolerable length,
and bushy, with long, stiff, wiry hairs. General
contour rabbit-like.
M. Desmarest was the first to suggest that a vis-
cacha observed by Feuill^e in Peru, and, as he says,
often domesticated in the houses at Lima, was a
distinct species from the viscacha of the Pampas ;
and a careful examination of the scattered notices
published by travellers respecting the viscachas of
the eastern and western sides of the Andes led Mr.
Bennett to form the same opinion, which was con-
firmed by the acquisition of a living animal regarded
as the Peruvian viscacha of the older writers. The
references to the Peruvian viscacha by various of
the early travellers in South America are by no
means limited, and in collating them, Mr. Bennett
evinced a spirit of laborious research. He refers to
Pedro de Ciepa, 1554; Acosta, 1590; Garcilago de
la Vega, 1609; Nieremberg, 1635; Feuillee, 1725;
and Antonio de Ulloa, 1772. The last writer, in
his ' Noticias Americanus,' gives a correct account
of the habits and manners of the animal in question.
Mr. Bennett's translation is as follows : — " Taking
the place of the rabbit, which is wanting in Peru,
there is another kind of animal, called viscacha,
which is not found in Quito. In form and in the
colour of the fur it is similar to the rabbit, but dif-
fers from it in having a long tail furnished with
tufted hair, which is very thin towards the root, but
thick and long as it approaches the tip. It does
not carry its tail turned over the head like the
squirrel, but stretched out, as it were, in a horizon-
tal direction : its joints are slender and scaly.
These animals conceal themselves in holes of the
rocks in which they make their retreats, not form-
ing burrows in the earth like rabbits. There they
congregate in considerable numbers, and are mostly
seen in a sitting posture, but not eating: they feed
on the herbs and shrubs that grow among the rocks,
and are very active. Their means of escape do not
consist in the velocity of their flight, but in the
promptitude with which they run to the shelter of
their holes. This they commonly do when wounded ;
for which reason the mode of killing them is by
shooting them in the head ; as, if they receive the
charge in any other part, although much injured,
they do not fail to go and die in the interior of their
burrows. They have this peculiarity, that as soon
as they die their hair falls off; and on this account
although it is softer, and somewhat longer and finer
than that of the rabbit, the skin cannot be made
use of for common purposes. The flesh is white,
but not well flavoured, being especially distasteful
at certain seasons, when it is altogether repugnant
to the palate." Molina speaks of the employment
of its wool among the ancient Peruvians, adding,
that the Chilians of the present day (his work was
originally published in 1782, and reprinted with ad-
ditions in 1810) use it in the manufacture of hats.
The general colour of the viscacha of the western
acclivities of the Peruvian Andes, or Cuvier's lagotis
(L. Cuvieri), is greyish ash, clouded here and there
with a tint of brown. The hairs of the tail are
mingled black and white. The ears equal the head
in length. The body measures sixteen inches, in-
cluding the head ; the tail, about twelve inches.
Fig. 300 represents the skeleton, with the skull of
the Lagotis Cuvieri : a, skull seen from above ; b,
the same seen from below ; c, lower jaw ; rf, crown
of the two anterior molar teeth of the lower jaw
enlarged ; e, crowns of the two posterior molar
teeth of the upper jaw, enlarged.
301. — Thk Viscacha ok Biscicha or the Pampas
(Lagostomus irycliodactylus, Brookes). The Mar.
mot Diana of Griffith. Generic characters : — the
molars consisting of two oblique lamellse, excepting
the posterior one in the upper jaw, which consists
of three ; anterior feet with only four toes, hinder
feet with only three ; tail moderate. Of this genus
(Lagostomus) we know but one species, of which
the earliest notice to be found is in Dobrizhofler's
' Historia de Abiponibus,' 1784. He informs us
that it is called by these people Nehelaterek, and
that it resembles a hare with the tail of a fox. " It
digs its burrows on the more elevated parts of the
plains with so much art, that no aperture is left by
which the rain can penetrate, and these burrows
are divided into distinct settlements, numerous
families inhabiting the same locality. On the sur-
face of the ground are several entrances into the
burrow, at which, towards sunset, the animals may
be seen seated in crowds, diligently listening lor
the sound of any person approaching. If every-
thing remains quiet, they venture forth by moon-
light to feed ; and commit sad havoc on the neigh-
bouring fields, for they devour both European wheat
and Indian corn with great avidity, despising grass
when either is to be obtained. Hence the stations
of the biscachas are seldom to be met with in the
desert plains, but indicate with certainty the prox-
imity of Spanish settlements ; and it has often been
a matter of surprise to me that I have never seen
the biscacha in the territories (though well covered
with crops of all kinds) either of the Abipones or
the Guaranis. They are in the habit of heaping up
at the entrances of their burrow dry bones, chips of
wood, and refuse articles of every sort which fall in
their way. The purpose, however, for which these
tilings are collected, is beyond conjecture. The
Spanish colonists occasionally spend an idle hour
in hunting them ; they pour buckets of water into
the subterranean retreats of the creatures, which
to avoid being drowned issue forth into the plain
where, without any means of escape, they are killed
with sticks. Their flesh, unless they are very old,
is not considered despicable even by the Spaniards."
In 1789 the Abbii Jolis wrote a work, which, how-
ever, appears not to have been completed, entitled
' An Essay on the Natural History of Grancliaco
(Saggio sulla Storia Naturale della-Provincia del
Granchaco), and in this he gives from long obsei-va-
tion, a description of the Pampas biscacha. which
differs in some particulars from that of J lobrizhoft'er.
" They resemble," he says, " our hares, but have the
body somewhat more arched. They live in society,
in burrows underground, which they form for them-
selves, excavating in all directions to the extent of
a mile in circumference, with various exits and
separate retreats, in which the old live distinct from
the young. The soil in which these are usually
made is that which is hard and barren, and destitute
of everything, but with bushes (boscaglie) at no
great distance, and pasture of tender grass, roots,
and the bark of trees. They collect around their
retreats bones, dried leaves, and whatever they find
in the neighbourhood ; if anything is missing in
their districts, it is to be found with certainty piled
up in these situations the following day. As they
are animals that avoid the light, having little power
of vision, they are not to be seen in the daytime,
unless at dawn, or towards evening after sunset.
The night, and especially when the moon shines,
is the proper time for seeking their food. Fierce
and courageous, they defend themselves with all
their might against the dogs, and sometimes even
attack the legs of the hunters."
But neither of those authors mentions the some-
what anomalous companions with which the bis-
cachas are associated; and we select, from the
travels of Proctor, Head, Miers, and Haigh, the
account of the first-named traveller, which, as Mr.
Bennett observes, gives nearly all the particulars
which are to be found in the rest. " The whole '
country from Buenos Ayres to San Luis de la
Punta, is more or less burrowed by an animal be-
tween a rabbit and a badger, called the biscacho,
which renders travelling dangerous, particularly by \
night, their holes being so large and deep that a '<
horse is almost sure to fall if he steps into one of \
them. The biscacho never ventures far from its :
retreat, and is seldom seen till the evening, when ,
it comes out to feed, and hundreds may be observed i
sporting round their holes, and making a noise very i
similar to the grunting of pigs. Their flesh is ,
much liked by the people, and they are remarkably i
fat, and on that account, when caught at any dis- 1
tance from their holes, are easily run down ; they i
will, however, defend themselves from a dog a j
considerable time. The holes of these animals are \
also inhabited by vast numbers of small owls, which I
sit, during the day, gazing at the passing travellers, j
and making a very ludicrous appearance. The ''
parts of the road most frequented by the biscacho '
are generally overrun by a species of small wild ]
melon, bitter to the taste ; whether it thrives par- j
ticularly on the manure of the animal, or whether !
the biscacho chooses its hole nearer this running !
plant, does not seem to have been ascertained."
The viscacha of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and
Paraguay is, when fully grown, as large as our
common badger. Above it is a blackish grey,
beneath white. The head is large and obtuse,
and a whitish band beginning on the nose passes
across the face beneath each eye to the root of
the ear, producing a sort of crescent-shaped mask
when the face is viewed in front. The sides of
the lips are furnished with a tuft of thickly-set
whiskers, composed of long black bristles ; and
from the angles of the mouth across the cheeks,
below the white band, extends a brush of black
bristles, stouter than those of the whiskers, but
shorter, the lowermost being sharply pointed. This
brush reaches the angle of the jaw, forming a
beard : it does not, however, end here abruptly,
but may be traced by bristly hairs intermingled
with the fur across the shoulders as far as the
middle of the back. The ears are moderate and
rounded ; the fore-legs are rather slender and short ;
the hind-legs are long, and the metatarsal portion
reminds one of the same part in the limb of the
kangaroo, though it is not so disproportionally
elongated. At the heel there is a lo::g naked
callous sole or pad, befoie which is a part covered
with hair : the toes are three in number, of which
2»5.— C.iinchllU.
*M.-Sk«lelon of CblnehUU.
SVT^-ChinoHiUb
M«.— Cbinehilk.
72
300.— Skdeton and Sknll oTCoTiet'B Lagotia.
303.*— Upper Jaw of Paca.
302 — Skeleton of Viacacha.
305.-Diaky Pact.
304.— Lower Jaw of Paca.
CESiiEl
No. 10.
305.— Tooth of Paca.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATUHE.]
Viscacha.
73
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Agodtis.
the miiliile is ihe most elongated : ail are furnished
with stioiif; hoot-like nails, and with naked pads
beiiealh. The tail is rather short, and covered with
greyish brown hairs, of which the longest form a
fringe on tlie upper surface : it is generally kept
retroverled on the back. The incisor teeth are
remarkal)ly large and strong. Fig. 302 represents
the skeleton of the Pampas viscacha; o, under
view of skull ; A, lower jaw ; c, crown of the second
molar tooth of the leftside of the lower jaw; d,
crown of the last molar tooth of the right side of
the upper jaw.
Mr. urookes's paper on the anatomy of this ani-
mal was read belore the Linn. Soc. in June, 1828,
and published in the Linn. Trans, for the year fol-
lowing.
A small family of the Histricine section, which
may be termed Dasyproctidaa, next claims our
notice. It embraces two genera, Cielogcnys and
4 — *
Dasyprocta. In these genera the molars are xzzi'
rooted, and bear much resemblance to those of the
porcupines ; they are crowned with distinct tuber-
cles, which, wearing down with use, give place to
winding lines of enamel, set in the interior bony
cement.
The genus Caelogenys includes two. or perhaps
three, distinct species of Rodents, termed Pacas
(a corruption of the word Pag of the Brazilians, or
Paig of Ihe natives of Paraguay ; and Pakiri of some
of the tribes of Guiana).
These animals, the pacas, are remarkable for a
curious structural peculiarity in the skull, which im-
parts a singular aspect to their physiognomy. We
give a sketch of the skull of the lulvous paca
(Caelogenys fulvus), in profile (Fig. 303), and as
viewed on its palatal aspect (Fig. 303*). The pe-
culiarity in question is the immense development
of the zygomatic arch, forming an expansive shield
of bone, almost concealing the lower jaw, rough
and convex externally, and deeply concave within.
This broad projecting convex plate has its concavity
lined by a continuation or reduplicatnre of the skin
of the lace, constituting a sort of pouch, with a nar-
row linear opening just below the angle of the
mouth, and having its edges, from which the pouch
leads directly upwards, almost if not quite destitute
of hair.
Notwithstanding; this narrow orifice, the sac or
pouch is so closed, that it cannot be serviceable as
the receptacle for food, for neither is the orifice
dilatable, nor the pouch, enclosed as the latter is
within walls of unyielding bone. The use of this
sac is not ascertained : perhaps a secretion of some
kind may take place from the subzygomatic fold of
skin, but this remains to be determined. Besides
the sac described, the pacas have true cheek-
pouches of considerable extent, opening from the
mouth, and extending down the sides of the neck
and below the inferior margin of the zygomatic
shield.
The lower jaw, which is almost concealed, is
shown at Fig. 304. The characters of the molar
teeth, worn by use, are well depicted. Fig. 305 re-
presents the germ of the first molar, before the
tooth is completely developed, in three views,
namely, the outer aspect, the inner aspect, and the
crown with its tubercles. The pacas are animals of
considerable size, and of a heavy clumsy figure,
having a thick muzzle, with the upper lip deeply
•cleft ; a large inelegant head ; prominent eyes,
rounded ears and stout limbs, of which the hinder
pair exceed in length the anterior— but as the
greater portion of the tarsus rests habitually on the
ground, the body sinks even lower at the haunches
than at the shoulders. The fore-feet are divided into
five toes, of which the innermost is a mere rudi-
ment, seated high, and furnished with a small claw.
The hind-feet have also five toes, but of these the
outermost on each side is small, and seated high :
the three central are large, strong, and furnished
with powerful hoof- like nails. The tail is wanting.
The body is clothed with short, stiff, wiry hairs.
306.— Thk Dusky Paca.
This species, according to C'uvier, is identical with
the fulvous paca; but we have examined the skulls,
and find them different. In the former the bones of
the skull are smooth, and the zygomatic arches less
inordinately developed. The general colour of the
dusky paca is brownish black, with four lateral
rows of white spots, which begin on the shoulders
and terminate on the buttocks. The lowest line is
almost confounded with the white of the under sur-
face. The sides of the lower jaw, the throat, and
chest are also white. Total length of head and
body, about two feet; average height fourteen inches.
These animals are natives of the whole of the
eastern portion of South America, from Surinam
to Paraguay, and formerly existed also in some of
the islands of the West Indies. ?'orests in the
vicinity of water; wooded, marshy places ; and bor-
ders of rivers, are their favourite localities : they
inhabit burrows, which they excavate, but so super-
ficially, that they are apt to give way beneath the
foot of a person' passing over them, no less to his
annoyance than that of the animal which thus sud-
denly finds itself in open daylight. These bur-
rows have, as it is asserted, three openings, which
the animal conceals with dry leaves and branches.
In order to capture the paca alive, the hunter stops
two of these apertures, and proceeds to work at the
third, till he arrives at the chamber to which the
avenues lead. Driven to an extremity, the paca
makes a desperate resistance, often intiicting very
severe wounds.
When not disturbed, the jiaca often sits up and
washes its head and whiskers with its two fore-paws,
which it licks and moistens with its saliva at each
ablution, like a cat ; and with these fore-paws, as
well as with the hind-ones, it often scratches itself
and dresses its fur. TJiough heavy and corpulent,
it can run with a good deal of activity, and often
takes lively jumps. It swims and dives with great
adroitness, and its cry resembles the grunting of a
young pig. Its food consists of fruits and tender
plants, which it seeks in the night, hardly ever
quitting its burrow in the day, the strong light of
which, as is the case with other nocturnal animals,
is oppressive to its eye : the planter often rues the
visits made by these midnight foragers to his sugar-
canes. The female is said to bring forth at the
rainy season, and to produce but a single young one,
which stays a long time with the mother. The
pacas are very cleanly creatures in all their habits,
and keep their subterranean dwelling in a state of
the utmost purity.
It appears that these animals root in the ground
with their nose — a circumstance which, taken in
conjunction with their voice, a pig-like crunt, the
bristly character of their hair, and the flavour of
their flesh, probably gave rise, as Mr. Bennett ob-
serves, to the comparisons made by the older writers
between them and the tenant of the sty. Those
which we have seen in captivity were gentle, but
certainly not intelligent ; and so far we agree with
M. F. Cuvier, who observes that when the animal
is offended, it throws itself violently at the object
which has displeased it, and then makes a kind of
grumbling, which at length breaks out into a sort
of bark. The greater part of the day it passes in
repose, delighting in a soft bed, which it forms of
straw, hay, and similar materials, collecting the ma-
terials with its mouth, and making a little heap, in
the centre of which it lies down. M. Buff'on gives
a detailed account of one of these animals, which
he kept alive in his house for some time, and which
was gentle and very familiar.
The flesh of these animals is in great estimation,
and in some districts is in ordinary consumption,
but as it is fat and rich it is apt to cloy. It is pre-
pared for cooking by being scalded like a sucking-
pig and roasted. The fur is of no value, but the
skin might be useful if converted into leather.
M. F. Cuvier thinks that it would be possible to
introduce this animal into our European rural esta-
blishments, and that once naturalised it would
form no despicable acquisition in the department of
domestic economy.
THE AGOUTIS
{Dasyprocta, Illig. ; Chlormys, F. Cuv.). These
animals differ from the pacas in the formation of
the skull and the conformation of the feet and toes.
With respect to the former, the zygomatic arch
presents nothing of that strange development so
remarkable in the pacas. The toes are distinctly
four on each of the anterior feet : of these the
outermost toe on each side is small and seated
high, while the two middle are long, and armed
with stout claws. The hind feet are divided into
three toes, furnished with claws of a hoof-like cha-
racter, and of considerable strength. The limbs are
slender, and the hinder pair considerably exceed
in length the anterior : hence the pace of these
arfimals is tolerably rapid for a short distance,
though they seldom trust to speed for .safety, but
seek shelter and security in the first hollow tree
they meet with, or under a rock. Here they allow
themselves to be captured, without offering any
resistance, only uttering a sharp plaintive note of
alarm. The head of the agoutis is large, the fore-
head convex, the nose swollen ; the ears round, short,
and nearly naked ; the eyes large and black ; the
tail is very short, generally indeed a mere tubercle.
The hair is glossy and of a wiry character, and an-
nulated in different degrees with black, yellow, or
4—4
white, and olive green. The molars are t — r, nearly
all of the same size, and when worn presenting
winding folds of enamel on the flat crowns. It
is impossible to convey by mere description an
idea of the figures which these convolutions assume,
and which vaiy in proportion to the wearing down
of the tooth : we therefore refer to Fig. 307, where
a and b represent respectively the upper and lower
jaws. No. 1 represents the teeth when much worn
difwn ; 2, the same in an intermediate stale ; and 3.
the same when the tubercles are just effaced, and
the surface smoothed down to a level.
The flesh of the agoutis is in son;e districts highly
esteemed, being white and tender.
The agoutis use the fore-paws as hands to convey
their food to the mouth, and usually sit upright on
their haunches to eat : they frequently also assume
the same position in order to look around them, or
when they are surprised by any unusual SDund or
occurrence. Their food is exclusively of a vegetal le
nature, and consists most commonly of wild yams,
potatoes, and other tuberous roots ; in the islands
of the different West India groups they are par-
ticularly destructive to the sugar-cane, of the roots
of which they are extremely fond. The planters
employ every artifice for destroying them, so that
at present they have become comparatively rare in
the sugar islands, though on the first settlement of the
Antilles and Bahamas they are said to have swarmed
in such countless multitudes as to have constituted
the principal article of food for the Indians. They
were the largest quadrupeds indigenous in these
islands upon their first discovery. The same rule of
geographical distribution holds good generally in
other cases, viz. that where groups of islands are
detached at some distance from the mainland of a
particular continent, the smaller species of animals
are usually found spread over both, whilst the
larger and more bulky are confined to the mainland
alone, and are never found to be indigenous in the
small insulated land.
Though the agoutis use the fore-paws as de-
scribed, yet they are incapable of climbing trees ;
and though the nails are strong, they do not burrow,
but conceal themselves in hollow trees, among
fallen logs and timber in the forest, and similar
places of concealment. Here they produce and
rear their young, which are born with the eyes
closed : they soon become capable of shifting 'for
themselves.
303. — ^The Commox Agouti
(^Dasyprocta Acuti). This species is very abundant
in Brazil and Guiana, and occurs also in Paraguay,
where it was observed by D'Azara, who informs us
that the Guarinis term it Cotia : in size it is about
equal to a rabbit, but it rarely if ever makes a
buiTow. It frequents densely-wooded districts in
preference to open lands, and generally takes up
its residence in the hollow trunks of decayed trees,
where it remains concealed during the day. This
retreat usually serves for several individuals, for it
appears to be gregarious, associating in small troops
consisting of eighteen or twenty individuals. Its
movements are rapid, active, and abrupt, and when
chased, it bounds along, like a hare, to gain its ac-
customed hiding-place : it is however seldom seen
except during the night, or as evening begins to
sink into twilight.
In Brazil and Guiana the agouti is exposed to
wholesale destruction for the sake of its flesh, which
is said to be intermediate in flavour between the
hare and rabbit ; but in Paraguay, according to
D'Azara, no one eats if, and M. Moreau St. Mi^ry ob-
serves that it has a strange sort of flavour, and is a
dish of little relish to the palate. The latter writer
also informs us that the agouti is common in the
island of St. Lucia, and also inhabits others of the
West India group; and that in 1788 several were
taken in St. Domingo, which had made a hollow
tree their domicile. It is said to breed several
times in a year, and to produce from three to six at a
birth. The general colour of the agouti is grizzled
reddish brown, tinged on the neck, chest, and under
surface with yellow. The haii-s of the upper and
fore parts of the body are annulated with brown, yel-
low, and black, which gives the animal a speckled
yellow and green appearance on the neck, head,
back, and sides: on the croup, however, they are of
a uniform golden yellow, much longer than on any
other part of the body, and directed backwards, con-
cealing the tail, which is a mere naked stump ; the
moustaches and feet black. The general length of
the hair on the upper and anterior parts of the body
is about an inch, that of the croup is upwards of four
inches long, and all, excepting the short coarse fur
of the legs and feet, and that on the breast and
belly, is of a stiff', harsh nature, jiartaking more of
the qualify of bristles than of .simple hair.
The golden agouti differs from the common spe-
cies principally in its brighter colouring.
309. — The Black Agouti
(Dasyprocta cristata). This species, to which the
term crested (crLstata) is ill applied (since the hairs
of the head and neck are not longer than those of
the shoulders), is smaller than the common species,
but its general proportions and form are the same :
it differs, however, in colour, for the hairs of the
back and sides, instead of being annulated with
Cavies.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
75
various tints, as in that animal, are nearly of a
unit'oim black, whilst the long hairs of the croup
are perfectly so. A specimen we regarded as the
black as;outi, in the Paris Museum, might be thus
described : — black, beautifuly freckled with pure
■white, especially about the cheeks and sides, each
hair on those parts being once ringed with white ;
length twenty inches.
310. — The Acoijchi
(^Dasyprocta Acuchi). This animal differs from the
agouti in being of a much smaller size, lighter
make, and deeper colour, and especially in having
a much longer tail, this appendage measuring two
inches : it is very slender, being not much thicker
than a crow-quill, and covered with short scattered
hairs. Its manners resemble those of the agouti,
and it also inhabits the woods of Guiana, but is not
by any means so common as that animal. M.
D'Azara was mistaken in asserting the acouchi to
be identical with the agouti ; and it is very obvious
that he never saw the former, for, if he had, the dis-
tinction could not have escaped his notice ; indeed
it does not appear to be a native of Paraguay. Spe-
cimens of the acouchi, as well as its skeleton, are
in the museum of the Zool. Soc. Two living in-
dividuals (now the museum specimens alluded to)
were described in the ' Pioceeds. Zool. Soc' 1830,
by T. Bell, Esq., who obtained them from Guiana.
" Both individuals," he observes, " are mild and
gentle in their dispositions, but somewhat timid :
they are, however, familiar with their master, and
run to him whenever he enters the room in which
they are kept, and about which they are allowed to
range during the day. Their food is entirely vege-
table ; they are especially partial to nuts and al-
monds ; they drink but very little. They are ex-
tremely cleanly, and take great pains to keep their
fur in order, in cleansing which they mutually assist
each other. They leap occasionally in play to a
considerable height, and frequently, in springing
from the ground to an elevation of two feet, descend
on the spot from which they rose. Their voice is
a short, rather sharp, plaintive pur. The indi-
viduals, male and female, show great attachment
to each other. They frequently agitate their tails
with a quick tremulous motion." Mr. Bell ob-
serves that he had never before the arrival of these
individuals seen a specimen of the acouchi, nor was
he aware of the existence of even a preserved skin
in any English collection. It is the Olive Cavy of
Pennant. The general colour is olive mixed with
yellow and black : the hairs of the croup are not
so long as in the agoutis, and black.
THE CAVIES
(Fam. Cavidie) constitute a group (embracmg the
genera Cavia, Dolichotis, Kerodon, and Hydro-
choerus) which is one of themqgt distinctly marked
in the class Rodentia, and which should not be
con|founded with that of the pacas and agoutis, the
diiierence being very great, both as respects the
conformation of the skull and the characters of the
teeth. The molars, as seen in the teeth of the
guinea-pig or aperea (Cavia cobaia). Fig. 311, and
of the kerodon. Fig. 312, may be compared with
those of the agouti, Fig. 307, and the wide distinc-
tion will be at once appreciated.
4—4
The molars arer— r, lamellose, and composite ;
the folds of enamel enclose triangular or cordiforra
interspaces. A projecting ridge always occurs on
the outer side of the ramus of the lower jaw. In
the genus Cavia the anterior feet have four toes,
the posterior three ; the nails are short and robust ;
there is no tail. As an example of this genus we
may take the common guinea-pig, or aperea, the
domestic descendant of a species still common in
a wild state in various parts of South America.
Mr. Darwin, who met with the wild aperea abun-
dantly, states it to be " exceedingly common in
the neighbourhood of the several towns which
stand on the banks of the Rio Plata. It fre-
quents different kinds of stations, such as hedge-
rows made of the agave and opuntia, or sand hil-
locks; and again marshy places covered with
aquatic plants, the latter appearing to be its fa-
vourite haunt. Where the soil is dry it makes a
burrow, but where otherwise it lives concealed
amidst the herbage. These animals generally come
out to feed in the evening, and are then tame ; but
if the day be gloomy they make their appearance
in the morning. They are said to be very inju-
rious to young trees. An old mal(> killed at Mal-
donado weighed 1 lb. 3 oz." Mr. Darwin observed
that in this animal the attachment of the fur to the
skin is very slight. Possessing but little intelli-
gence and very timid, the aperea is nevertheless
tamed without any difficulty. Azara, who kept one,
remarks that though he took no pains to make it
familiar, it manifested no fear when in his presence,
and seemed quite unconcerned. It is to this ease
with which the wild aperea becomes domesticated
that we owe the introduction of it into Europe, for,
excepting that it is a very pretty creature, there is
nothing to render it a valuable acquisition. It is
however eaten by the native tribes of Paraguay,
who sometimes capture it by hundreds when, driven
from the lowlands by sudden inundations, it retreats
for safety to the ajacent hilly grounds, where it
finds neither shelterd nor concealment.
Of the genus Kerodon we may notice the Rock
Kerodon (Kerodon moco, F. Cuv. ; Cavia rupestris,
Pr. Max). It is a native of the rocky mountain
districts in the interior of Brazil. It is less than
the aperea, and its fur is very thick and short. The
colour is grey mixed with black, and reddish brown
above, the under parts being white. A second
specis, King's Kerodon (Kerodon Kingii), was in-
troduced to science by the late Mr. Bennett. It
was lound by Captain King at Port Desire, on the
eastern coast of Patagonia. In size it is less than
the aperea, being about nine inches long. Its
colour is more uniform than that of the rocky ke-
rodon, and of a deeper tint ; a slight dash of white
I's perceptible behind each ear, and a line of the
same tint marks the edge of each branch of the
lower jaw. Mr. Darwin states that this Kerodon
" is common at intervals along the coast of Pata-
gonia, from the Rio Negro (lat 41°) to the Straits
of Magellan. It is very tame, and commonly feeds
by day. It is said to bring ibrth two young ones at
a birth. At the Rio Negro it frequents in great
numbers the bottoms of old edges. At Port De-
sire it lives beneath the ruins of the old Spanish
buildings. At the Strait of Magellan I have seen
amongst the Patagonian Indians cloaks for small
children made with the skins of this little animal.
And the Jesuit Falkner says that the people of one
of the southern tribes take their name from the
number of these animals which inhabit their country.
The Spaniards and half-civilized Indians call the
kerodon ' Conejos,' or rabbit, and thus has the mis-
take arisen that rabbits are found in the neighbour-
hood of the Straits of Magellan."
313. — The Patagonian Cavy, ok Mara
(Dolicholis Patachonica, Deam. ; Cavia Pataclionica,
Shawj. This large cavy is rare in European mu-
seums. A fine specimen, however, is preserved in
the British Museum and the Museum of the Zool.
Soc. It is a beautiful animal, standing high on the
legs, with much of the port of some of the bush
antelopes of Africa. Its height at the shoulder is
about a foot and a half. Its length is about two
feet six inches, including the tail, which is nearly
two inches long. It lives on the Pampas south of
Buenos Ayres, and especially in Patagonia. It is
noticed by Narborough, Wood, and Byron as being
very abundant in Port Desire, and also at Port St.
Julian, where, however, il does not now appear to
exist. It is only where the country has a desert
character that this species is common ; and in the
wilds of Patagonia little groups of two, three, or
four may be continually seen hopping after each
other in a straight line, over plains of gravel thinly
clothed with a few thorny dreary bushes and a
withered herbage.
According to Azara, this cavy does not range
higher north than latitude 35° : but in this state-
ment he appears to be mistaken, for Mr. Darwin
observed that near the coast of the Atlantic its
northern limit is formed by the Sierra Tapalguon,
in latitude 37° 30', where the plains rather sud-
denly become greener and more humid; and he
remarks that its limit there certainly depends on
this change, since near Mendoza, 33° 30', four de-
grees farther northward, where the country is very
sterile, this animal again occurs. Azara states that
this cavy never excavates its own burrow, but al-
ways uses that of the viscacha or biscucha; and
Mr. Darwin considers that where that animal is
present, Azara's statement is doubtless correct, but
that on the sandy plains of Bahia Blanca, where
the biscacha is not found, this cavy, as the Spa-
niards maintain, is its own workman. The same
thing, he adds, occurs with the little owls of the
Pampas (noctua cunicularia), which have been
described by travellers as standing like sentinels at
the mouths of almost every burrow ; for in Banda
Oriental, owing to the absence of the biscacha, these
birds are obliged to hollow out their own habita-
tions. Azara moreover states that, except when
pressed by danger, this cavy does not have recourse
to its burrow for safety, but crouches on the plains,
or trusts to its speed ; adding, however, that it is
soon run down. On the contrary, Mr. Darwin as-
serts that as I?ahia Blanca he repeatedly saw two
or three animals sitting on their haunches by the
mouths of their holes, which they quietly entered
as he passed by at a distance. He remarks, how-
ever, that, different from most burrowing animals,
they wander, commonly two or three together, to
miles or even leagues from their home, and he was
not able to ascertain whether or not they returned
at night. This species is diurnal in its habits,
roaming about by day. It is very shy and watch-
ful, seldom squats after the manner of a hare, an4
cannot run fast, so that indifferent dogs easily over-
take it. The female breeds in her burrow, generally
producing two young ones at a birth. The flesh
of this animal is white, but dry and insipid. The
skin with the fur on is in esteem, being used for
rugs, and is beautiful from the character of the
hair, which is full and soft, and from the tasteful
arrangement of the marking. The colour of the
back is brown, grizzled with white, verging into
vellow on the sides of the body and on the limbs,
but becoming black as it approaches the haunch:
this dark hue is there abruptly interrupted by a
white band passing transversely above the root of
the tail, and spreading on the back and sides of the
thighs. The appearance of this white mark is very
striking. The chest, inside of the limbs, and under
part of the body are also white. The ears are three
inches and a half in length, erect and pointed.
Full-grown individuals weigh between twenty and
twenty-six pounds. The young, it is said, may be
easily domesticated.
314.— The Oapybaba
(Hydrochcervs Capyhara). Cabiai, Buff. The
Capybara (the only known species of the genus
Hydrochosrus) is the largest of all the Rodentia;
and its size, its massive, heavy proportions, its
thick head, and the bristly character of its hair, give
it a degree of resemblance to some of the Pachy-
dermata. Marcgrave regards it as a sort of aquatic
hog ; Ferinius, in his ' History of Surinam,' 1775,
terms it Porcus fluviatilis, or river-hog ; while
Pennant gives it the thle of thick-nosed Tapir.
It is also the Cochon d'eau ofDesmarchais; theSus
maximus palustris of BarrC-re ; and the Sus hydro-
choerus. Pig-like as the capybara may be in its
external aspect, it is nevertheless a genuine Rodent,
as much so as the hare or agouti. Its dentition con-
sists of the usual incisors, which are of prodigious
size and strength : those in the upper jaw have a
deep longitudinal furrow on their outer surface.
The molars are four on each side, above and below ;
and consist of a series of obliquely transverse,
parallel laminse of enamel (Fig. 315j, presenting
acute lateral projections in the three first teeth :
these projections are on the outer edge of the upper
teeth and the inner edge of the lower. The spaces
enclosed by the layers of enamel are filled in with
osseous matter, and the whole is united into a sin-
gle mass by intervening cortical matter, or crusta
petrosa. The molars of the capybara are in fact
analagous to those of the elephant.
We have stated that in some Rodents the fauces,
or back of the mouth, is continued funnel-shaped,
opening into the ojsophagus through a small orifice
surrounded by a muscle of circular fibres, allowing
only the gradual transmission of food which has
been previously reduced to a thorough pulp. This
structural peculiarity was first pointed out in the
capybara by Mr. Morgan (' Linn. Trans.' vol. xvi.),
but we meet with it also in the Coypu, the Capromys,
and the Beaver. (See ' Proc. Zooi. Soc' 1832, p. 73 ;
1835, p. 175). In the capybara the head is large,
the muzzle thick and blunt, the upper lip deeply fis-
sured ; the eyes are moderately large : the ears small
and rounded. The naked patch of the size of half
a crown occupies the cheek a little below each eye.
The fore-limbs are short and muscular, the toes
being tour, furnished with strong claws ; the hind-
limbs are also thick, but longer than those before,
and the whole of the sole, which is covered with
naked rough skin, is applied to the ground. The
toes are three in number, having strong large hoof-
like nails, and being partially connected together
by intervening membranes. The tail, a mere rudi-
ment, is scarcely to be perceived. This animal ex-
ceeds three feet six inches in length, and its body,
which is more than three feet in girth, owing to its
bulk and the shortness of the limbs, almost touches
the ground. It is covered with long, coarse thinly-
set hairs of a sandy or brownish grey. A fine
specimen, recently living, is preserved in the Mu-
seum of the Zool. Soc
The capybara is a gregarious animal, frequent-
ing the rich and wooded borders of the lakes and
rivers in Brazil, Guiana, and Paraguay. Mr. Dar-
win states that it is common wherever there are
large rivers or lakes, over that part of the South
American continent which lies between the Orinoco
and the Plata, a distance of nearly 1400 miles. They
are not generally supposed to extend south of the
Plata, but he heard that there were capybaras (pro-
vincially termed Laguna Carpincho) high up the
Salado, and presumes that they have sometimes
been seen south of the former river. This animal
lives usually in small companies, which remain con-
cealed among the thickets and dense herbage of the
borders of tiie water during the day, and wander
forth at night to feed. When alarmed, the capy-
bara utters a loud cry like the vowel sounds a-p4,
and immediately makes for the water, into which it
L2
^np
a 1 1<— T«cth of Oninn-pig.
308.— Conmum Agoati.
SOT.— T«eth of AgouU.
310. — Acoachi.
313.— IVitgonial C»vy.
N
\
SIS.— Teeth of Rerodou
314,— Cap>'bara,
76
V2
\ m
-.3
~A
318.-Rabbita.
3 1 5.— T«eth of C«pybar«.
316. — Teeth of Commoa Hare.
317, — Common Hare.
■<il5?><S^
380.— Dwiirf Plka.
319.— Syrian Hare.
78
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[flAnES.
plunges, swimmiD^ with great ease and quickness,
little more than its nose appearing above the sur-
face. If hard pressed or wounded, it dives in order
to baffle its pursuers, and then endeavours to gain a
more secure place of concealment. It is eagerly
hunted for the sake of its flesh, which is accounted
good, though of a musky flavour : the hind quarters
are made into hams. Of its natural enemies the
terrible jaguar is the most formidable : this powerful
beast steals upon the capybam by surpiise, and
destroys numbers. The food of the capybara con- |
lists exclusively of grains and vegetables, as water-
melons, gourds, &c. Azara does not believe that
these animals ever frequent salt-water : 31 r. Darwin i
shot one in the bay of Monte Video, an old female,
measurmg, from the tip of the snout to the end of I
the stump-like tail, three feet eight and a half inches, I
in girth three feet two inches, and weighing UK lis.
Several also were seen by the oiHcers of the Ueagle I
on the island of Guritti, off Maldonado, where the j
water is nearly as salt as in the sea. ;
On the banks of the Apure, Humboldt saw the
capybara, which he calls Cliiguira, in troops of fifty i
or sixty. He notices the ease of the capybara in i
the water ; and states that he saw with surprise the i
animals, affrighted by the approach of a boat, dive I
and remain from eight to ten minutes under water.
On the Apure, Arauco, Sec, and in the vast savan- j
nahs of the IJanos, the animal is said to be often \
seen in droves of a hundred. They there browse I
upon a sort of grass called chiguirirero. |
The common posture of the capjbara when at I
rest is sitting >ipon the haunches, the soles of the |i
hind-feet being applied flat to the ground, like the
agouti, the viscacha, and many others of the Rodents, i
The female breeds once in a year, and brings forth |
from four to six or seven at a birth, having prepared j
a snug bed of dried herbs and grasses.
The Family Leporidae contains the hares and i
rabliits (liCpus), and the pikas (Lagomys). This i
family is well marked in its characters, comprehend-
ing only two genera, of which one, the genus Lepus,
is widely distributed, though it has the most repre-
sentatives in North America, where the number of 1
species already discovered is equal to that of all the
rest found in the other portions of the globe taken
together.
317.— The Commojt Habe
(Lepus Timidm). hiyi,; (Lagos) of the Greeks ;
Lepus of the Latins ; Lepre and Lievora of the mo-
dern Italians; Liebre and Lebratello of the Spa-
niards; Lebre and Lebrimho of the Portuguese;
Li6vre, French ; Has, Haas, and Hase of the Ger-
mans ; Haas and Haze of the Danes ; Hara of the
Swedes ; Hara of the Anglo-Saxons ; Ysgyfarnog,
Ceinach, of the Ancient British.
In the genus Lepus, behind the ordinary incisors
of the upper jaw are two more of a much smaller
size : the molars, the small posterior one excepted,
are composed of two vertical plates soldered to-
4 6—6
gather. Dental formula : — Incisors, k ; molars, j: — .
(see Fig. 316). The ears are long ; the eyes large ;
the tail short and turned upwards ; five toes before,
four behind ; feet and toes hairy beneath.
Few animals are better known than our common
hare, which is spread over the great portion of
Europe, and appears to be indigenous in cur country ;
but the ancient Britons abstained from eating its
flesh on religions grounds. This species probably
extends into Asia. Mr. M'Clelland states that it
occurs in Assam, but is of degenerate size, measur-
ing only from seventeen to nineteen inches, instead
of twenty-one. " It is not esteemed there an article
of food. The ears are more uniformly grey than in
the European variety" (' Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 1839).
We suspect the Assam hare to be a distinct species.
Timid and defenceless, and surrounded by numerous
enemies, the hare is yet well endowed with the
means of self-preservation. It is watchful and swift ;
and its brown fur assimilates in colour with the msset
herbage among which it most makes its form. All
are acquainted with the external characters of the
hare, and with its habits, of which it is useless to
give minute details.
The hare swims well, and takes fearlessly to the
water. We have known them cross a broad and
rapid stream ; and Mr. Yarrold (see ' Tendon's
Magazine,' vol. v.) gives an account of one which
in the morning at high water came down to the sea-
shore, and crossed over to an island a mile distant
from the mainland.
Wild and timid as the hare is, it is not unsuscep-
tible of domestication. The poet Cowper, as is well
known, kept tame hares ; and many other instances
might be enumerated.
The hare breeds when about a year old, and pro-
duces two or three broods in the course of the spring
and summer ; but the males and females do not
form permanent associations. The female, after
about thirty days' gestation, brings forth from three
to five young. These are born covered with fur,
I
and with the eyes open ; and in about a month they
leave their parent and shill for themselves. The
leverets, as the young are termed, are the prey of .
stoats, weasles, polecats, owls, and hawks. :
Besides the common hare, the Alpine or varying i
hare inhabits certain districts of our island, namely,
the northern parts of Scotland. This species (Lepus
variabilis^ is common in the mountain districts of
Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and in the Alps. It is ^
occasionally seen on the mountains of Cumberland.
The Alpmo hare is intermediate in size between |
the rabbit and the Engli.sh hare. In Sutherlandshire
and other parts of the Scottish highlands it tenants {
tlie summits of the mountains, hiding in the clefts
of rocks or among rocky fragments. During the
winter lichen is its staple food. At this season it j
descends to a lower and less exposed station ; and J
its fur, gradually losing the light fulvous grey of
summer, becomes of a jsnowy white, the tips of its
eai-s (which are shorter than the head) remaining
black.
The common hare of Ireland (Lepus Hibcrnicus)
is again distinct from the common hare of England.
The distinguisliing characters between the two were
first pointed out by Mr. Yarrell. (See 'Proc. Zool.
Soc' 1833, p. 88.)
Though somewhat larger than the English species,
its head is shorter and more rounded; its ears still
shorter than its head, and its limbs less lengthened.
The fur also dili'ers greatly in its quality from that
of our common hare, and is useless as an article of
trade.
318.— The Rabbit
{Lepus Cuniculus). Coney, Anglic^ ; Coneglio of
the Italians ; Conejo, Spanish ; Coclho, Portuguese ;
Koniglein and Kaninchen, German; Konin, Dutch;
Kanin, Swedish; Kanine, Danish ; and Cwningen of
the Welsh.
Size excepted, the rabbit closely resembles the
hare in all its principal characters. It, may, how-
ever, be at once disliniruished by the comparative
shortness of the head and ears, as well as of the
hinder limbs ; the absence of a black tip to the ears ;
and by the brown colour of the upper surface of the
tail. Its habits and general economy are totally
opposite to those of the hare ; and its flesh, instead
of being dark and highly flavoured, is white, and,
though delicate, somewhat insipid, especially that
of the tame breed. The flesh of the latter is indeed
preferred by some, but we agree with M. Ude in
thinking it very inferior.
It would appear that the rabbit is not an aborigi-
nal of our island, but the date of its introduction is
unknown. In the year 1309, at the installation
feast of the Abbot of St. Austin's, six hundred of
these animals were provided, at the then great cost
of 15/. ; the price of each, sixpence, being that of a
pig. It is generally believed that the rabbit was
first introduced into Spain from Africa by the
Romans, whence it gradually spread, naturalising
itself in temperate climates.
This animal is eminently gregarious ; and, as is
well known, makes extensive burrows, in which it
habitually dwells and rears its young. Sandy soils,
with a superficial layer of fine vegetable mould
clothed with thyme, fine grass, and other herbage,
which at the same time afford food and are easily
mined, are favourable spols for the increase of the
rabbit. They delight in steep sandbanks overhung
with brushwood and furze ; and we have remarked
that when the old red sandstone crops out and is
rendered friable, or Somewhat decomposed by the
action of the atmospheric elements, rabbits are very
numerous, burrowing with great facility. They
abound also in woods, especially such as clothe the
declivities of hills, whence, like the hare, they make
incursions into the adjacent corn-lands. A rabbit-
waren, that is, a wide sandy heath, or extensive
common, devoted to their increase and feeding,
when visited at the close of day or by moonlight,
affords an amusing spectacle. Hundreds may be
seeu of all sizes, gambolling and sporting, and chasing
eaCh other with astonishing rapidity. When alarmed,
they take to their burrows, disappearing as if by
magic.
The female is capable of breeding at six months
old ; and four or five litters, consistineeach of about
five young, are annually produced. We have stated
that the hare produces her young clothed, capable
01 seeing, and soon in a condition to shift for them-
selves. With the rabbit, circumstances are widely
different. The young are born blind, and naked,
and totally helpless. The female forms a separate
bill row, at the bottom of which she makes a nest of
dried grass, lining it with fur taken from her own
body. In this nest she deposits her young, carefully
covering them over every lime .she leaves them. It
is not until the tenth or twelfth day that the young
are able to see; nor do they leave the burrow till
four or five weeks old.
The wild rabbit is undoubtedly the origin of. our
various domestic breeds. Tame rabbits indeed easily
resume their natural state of freedom, and return to
their instinctive habits. Albinoes are common in a
state of domestication, and it often happens that one
or two appear in a litter when neither of the parents
are so.
319.— Thb Stwak Habe.
According to Desmarest, the common hare of Europe
exists in Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria. It is, how-
ever, very probable that the Egyptian hare (Lepiu
.(5igyptius) extends into the latter region. It differs
from the Euro '>ean species principall' in the greater
proportionate ength of its hind limbs and ears.
320.— The Dwarf Pika
(Lngomi/s piisillus). The Calling-hare of Pennant;
Semlanoi Saelshik, or Ground-Hare, of the Russians
about the Volga : Tschatschat or Ittsitskan, Barking
Mouse, of the Tartars ; Rusia of the Calmucs.
In the genus I.,agoinys the muzzle is acute ; the
ears short and somewhat rounded, and the soles of
the feet hairy ; the tail is wanting. The dental
formula approaches that of the genus Lepus ; — In-
cisors, ;j ; molars, e^. The genus Lagomys is
widely distributed, though the species described are
not numerous. About five are known, and of these
three are natives of the rocky deserts of Tartary and
Siberia ; the fourth is a native of the Himalaya
Mountains; a fifth of the Rocky Mountains in the
high northern regions of America, from latitude 52°
to 60°.
The pikas are pretty little animals, with something
of the manners of our rabbits, and dwell in burrows,
which are artfully concealed.
The dwarf pika, or calling-hare, measures little
more than six inches in total length. It has the
head longer than usual with hares, and thickly
covered with fur, even to the tip of the nose;
numerous hairs in the whiskers; ears large and
rounded; legs very short; soles furred beneath;
its whole coat very soft, long, and smooth, with a
thick, long, fine down beneath, of a brownish lead
colour : the hairs of the same colour, towards the
ends of a light grey, and tipped with black ; the lower
part of the body hoary; the sides and ends of the
fur yellowish. Weight from three and a quarter to
four and a half ounces; in winter scarcely two and
a half ounces.
The dwarf pika, or calling-hare, is found in the
south-east parts of Russia, and about the mountain
ridge spreading from the Ural chain to the south ; it
also frequents the borders of the Irtish and the west
part of the Altaic chain, but occurs nowhere in the
east beyond the Oby.
These animals delight in sunny valleys and the
declivities of hills, where food is plentiful, and es-
pecially where woods or forests afford them a refuge
in time of danger. They dig deep and intricate
burrows, the openings of which are not above two
inches in diameter, and are usually formed beneath
the concealment of a bush, in situations abounding
with thickets and underwood, and with the various
shrubs and grasses upon which they feed. They
lead for the most part a solitary life, sleep during
the day with unclosed eyelids, like the hare, and '
emerge from their retreats at night, in search of
food, which principally consists of the bark of the
young bushes, flowers, buds, and grass. They form
no winter store, but during the inclement portion of
the year, still continue to seek out, by excavating
tracks beneath the snow, their accustomed fare,
and they are frequently subjected to severe priva-
tions and even death, in consequence of a deficiency
of their favourite plants. They drink often when
they happen to be near water, but can exist with
very little. The females produce at each litter five
or six young, which are born blind, helpless, and
without fur ; but in eight days they acquire sight,
are covered with hair, and begin to enjoy the use of
their limbs.
The most obvious peculiarity of these pikas is ther
voice, from which they have acquired their trivial
name. Its tone is so like that of a quail, that
it IS often mistaken for it even by the inhabitants
of their native districts. It is heard only in the
morning and evening, except in dark and cloudy
weather, and is repeated five or six times by each
animal at regular intervals, and is loud and sonorous.
Both the male and female utter this note, but the
latter is silent for some time alter she has brought
forth her young, which takes place in the month of
May.
The pikas are exceedingly gentle. Pallas states
that they will acquire confidence and become tame
in the course of a day after captivity. They sit in
a crouching posture, like the chinchilla, and are ex-
tremely cleanly, frequently rubbing their faces with
their fore-paws after the manner of rabbits, and
scratching their fur with their hinder claws. They
run by short leaps ; and sleep stretched out at full
length.
Elephants.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
79
ORDER PACHYDERMATA.
The term Pachydermata was given to the present
order by Cuvier, and refers to the thickness of the
hide so generally conspicuous in the animals it
comprehends ; such, for example, as the elephant,
hippopotamus, rhinoceros, hog, &c.
On looking at the order Pachydermata as a whole,
we find it for the most part composed of a genera
between which there is a want of that intimate
reJationship which gives us an idea of unity or
completeness. We see chasms in the gradation of
existing forms, and are forced, as it were, by abrupt
transitions from one genus to another, mstead of
passing through an intermediate series. Yet we are
not rashly to infer the original plan and purpose of
nature to have been destitute of unity. Far trom
it : happily the researches of the geologist have
brought to light the fossil relics of many species, the
extinction of which at some remote epoch has lelt
blanks in the series— blanks, however, which we are
thus enabled to fill up. And as these researches
are continued and extended, we have reason to con-
clude that every hiatus caused by the absence of
intermediate forms will become occupied. In the
present order, indeed, the fossil relics of extinct spe-
cies are peculiarly valuable and interesting : among
them are found not only the fossil remains of ani-
mals allied to existing species, as the fossil elephant
or mammoth, fossil rhinoceroses, and others, but also
of animals which have now no living representatives,
and which constitute the types of distinct genera,
comprehending exclusively beings whose characters
are to be drawn only from their recovered relics,
they themselves having been long blotted out from
among the " things that be." Such are the Mastodon,
the Anaplotherium, the Palaeotherium, the Toxodoc,
the Dinotherium, and many more.
The order Pachydermata is divided by Cuvier
into three sections: the first (Proboscideans) in-
cludes the elephants and the extinct Mastodon ; the
second 'ordinary Pachyderms), the hippopotamus,
tapir, rhinoceros, and' hoe,— the Anaplotherium,
Palaeotherium, and many other extinct forms ; the
third (the solidungulous Pachyderms) includes the
horse and ass. To these we may add a fourth,
namely, the aquatic, represented by the Dugong,
Lamantin, &c.
We shall commence our review of the Pachyderms
with the history of the elephant ; of which gigantic
beast our pictorial museum is replete with speci-
mens.
321.— The Elephant.
Two species of elephant are at the present day in
existence, viz., the Indian elephant (Elephas Indi-
cus). Figs. 321, 322, 323, 339, 340, and the African
Elephant (Elephas Afiicanus), Figs. 324, 336.
To the distinguishing characters between these
two species we will first attend.
The Indian Elephant is characterised by the elon-
gation or pyramidal elevation of the skull (Fig. 327),
the concavity of the forehead, the moderate size of
the ears, and the parallel narrow transverse ribands
or lines of enamel with indented edges which tra-
verse the crown of the grinders. This character is
well displayed in Fig. 330, (^" which a represents
the upper molar tooth, and b the lower molar tooth
of that species. The number of toes on each foot
is really five, but of the hind-toes four only are
indicated by hoofs, the fifth being buried within
the dense skin. The tusks of the female never
acquire the size of those of the male. The male
attains to the height of 8, 9, or 10 feet at the
shoulder. This animal is a native of India, Cochin-
China, Siam, Pegu, Ava, the island of Ceylon, and
other large islands, as Borneo and Sumatra.
The African Elephant is distinguished by the
rounded figure of the skull (Fig. 328), by the mag-
nitude of the ears, which spread over the shoulders,
and by the lozenge-shape assumed by the lines of
enamel traversing the grinders. The figure of these
lines is well represented by Fig. 331, of which a
represents the surface of the upper grinder ; b, the
Jovver grinder ; c, the original state of the grinders,
when the laminae of which they consist are free, that
is, as yet uncemented together ; and d, the laminae
as they are attached in parallels one to the other
by cortical substance, in a more developed slate of
dentition, but before the crown of the tooth has j
been worn by mastication, and when it only presents
on its surface blunt tubercles. To the structure of
these teeth we shall have occasion to refer again.
The tusks in the African Elephant are often of
huge size, and almost as large in the female as ia
the male. The toes are really five, but four only
on each anterior foot, and three on each hinder foot,
are indicated externally by hoofs. In the present
day this species is confined to the remoter regions of
the African continent.
We shall now proceed to a few general remarks
on the structure and organization of the Elephant,
applicable to both species.
There is something, it must be confessed, noble
and imposing in the appearance of the elephant ;
and especially when viewed in front (see Fig. 343).
Its colossal bulk, its vast powers, and the peculiarity
of its form and proportions, render it conspicuous
among the crowd of terre-strial animals. Its
dignity, however, is the dignity of strength and
stature ; there is no grace in its contour, but every
part is heavy and massive. The huge body is sup-
ported on four pillars, for such the limbs appear, the
bones of which bear perpendicularly on each other
(see skeleton. Fig. 341 ;, while a towering head of
vast size seems to rise at once from the shoulders,
without the intervention of a neck. The vertebrae
of the neck (Fig. 341) are indeed seven, as is the
general rule in the class Mammalia; but instead of
being elongated, as in the ox, deer, or antelope, they
are compressed into a short space, — for strength and
firmness are required. How, indeed, could the pon-
derous head of this animal be supported were the
neck to be modelled upon a plan of slender elegance i"
Independent of the ivory tusks, the weight of the
^ull itself is very great : we have seen four strong
men labour in carrying one of moderate size ; but
the tusks make a considerable addition. Those of
some of the Indian elephants vary from 70 to 100
lbs. each ; but those of the African species are far
heavier. Hartenfels, in his ' Elephantographia,'
gives a table of the weight and length of the most
remarkable upon record, with his authorities ; among
oth(?rs, one is stated to have weighed 325 lbs. Cam-
per, who possessed one weighing 105 lbs., notices
one sold at Amsterdam, the weight of which was
350 lbs. Well, then, may the head appear as if des-
titute of a neck when we consider the load to be
sustained. The shortness, however, of the neck (set-
ting aside the projecting tusks, which of themselves
would form an insuperable obstacle), prevents the
elephant from applying his mouth to the ground ;
neither can he browse on the foliage of the trees
like the giraffe, for the position and formation of
the mouth forbid the attempt. (See Fig. 342, the
head of the elephant with the proboscis upraised,
showing the mouth.) But to atone for the short-
ness of the neck, and those harmonious concomi-
tants of structure which exclude this animal from
the pale of those that on the one hand graze, and on
the other browse, the elephant is provided with an
organ which more than supplies every deficiency ;
we allude to the proboscis— an instrument in every
respect of essential importance in this creature's
economy.
The proboscis of the elephant must not, however,
be regarded exactly in the light of a new organ : it
is a modification of the structure of the upper lip
and nose ; and though in the elephant this is car-
ried out to its maximum, still we find an analogous
but short proboscis in the tapir, nor are traces of it
lost in the rhinoceros, which has the upper lip capable
of being protruded, and endowed with considerable
powers of prehension. If we turn to the skull of the
elephant (Fig. 329, section of a skull ; a, the open-
ing of the nostrils), we find the nasal orifice not only
large, but appearing as if situated in the forehead,
in consequence of the situation and development
of the alveoli (sockets) in which the bases of the
huge projecting tusks are imbedded. From the
nasal orifice is continued the proboscis of the ele-
phant, in the form of an elongated cone : in its an-
terior aspect it is rounded, and the coarse skin which
covers it is furrowed by transverse wrinkles very
apparent when the animal contracts the proboscis,
but which almost disappear when it is protruded to
the full stretch. The under surface is flattened,
with a rough projecting margin on each side, pro-
ducing in some degree a similarity to the legs of a
large caterpillar. Flexible to an extreme, and pos-
sessing an amazing strength, this organ consists of
bundles of muscular fibres, disposed, some longitudi-
nally, others transversely, in various directions cross-
ing each other, and diverging from two nasal canals
separated from each other by a tendinous partition,
and lined with a mucous membrane over which
nerves are abundantly distributed. Fig. 344 shows
a section of a portion of the proboscis or trunk of
the elephant admirably illustrative of its structure :—
A. Horizontal section, in which we see the small
transverse muscles cut — some (a) across : others (b)
In their length, n. Vertical section in lensth,
which has divided the nasal canal on the left side.
The small transverse muscles, which are seen in
their length at 6, are cut across ate; — other small
muscles of the same kind are seen at their length at
d. We see in their length, at e, the antagonist of
these transverse muscles — that is, the small longi-
tudinal muscles, c. Vertical section across. The
Email transverse muscles are seen in their length.
They have various directions, not precisely radiating
from the axis to the circumference, though their
course is always across. They are all within the
bed of the small longitudinal muscles which the
section has divided across. The principal nerves
and blood vessels are also shown in this section ;
as also the two canals of the trunk.
It is to this multiform arrangement of its muscles
(and according to Cuvier their number is about forty
thousand), all of which are under the will, that the
proboscis of this animal owes its flexibility. It can
be protruded or contracted at pleasure, raised up or
turned to either side, coiled round on itself or twined
around any object. With this instrument the ele-
phant collects the herbage on which he feeds and
puts it into his mouth ; with this he strips the trees
of their branches, or grasps his enemy and dashes
him to the ground. But this admirable organ is not
only adapted for seizing or holding substances of
magnitude ; it is also capable of plucking a single
leal, or of picking up a straw from the floor. The
orifices of the canals of the extremity are encircled
by a projecting margin, produced anteriorly into a
finger-like process endowed with a high degree of
sensibility and exceedingly flexible. • It is at once
a finger for grasping and a feeler ; the division be-
tween the two nasal orifices or their elevated sides
serves as a point against which to press ; and thus it
can pick up or hold a small coin, a bit of biscuit,
or any trifling thing with the greatest ease. Figs.
345 — 351 will serve better than words to convey a
clear idea of the structure of the termination of the
trunk, and of the modes in which the animal uses
it. Figs 346 and 347 show the difference of form
in the termination of the trunk of the male and fe-
male. As the elephant feeds himself by means of
his proboscis, so he drinks by the same means also.
The young elephant takes its mother's milk in the
ordinary manner ; but in order to drink, the animal
dips the extremity of the proboscis into the water,
and sucks up the fluid, so as to fill the two canals ;
it then inserts the extremity into the mouth, and
discharges the contents. And here it may be ob-
served, that at the upper part of the canal, just
anterior to the nasal orifice of the skull, there exists
a moveable cartilage so disposed as to lead to the
conclusion that it acts as a valve in preventing
the water when sucked up from passing through the
posterior nares into the throat, which would be the
case but for some remedial contrivance. The ele-
phant can retain the water taken into his proboscis
as long as he pleases, and discharge it either gently
or with great violence : he does the latter, when
throwing it over his own body to cool himself, or
when in playfulness or anger he discharges "it against
any bystander. Through this trunk, the shrill
trumpet-like noise which the elephant often utters,
and which is an expression of satisfaction, is pro-
duced.
If we turn to the skeleton of this huge beast, its
solidity will not fail to strike us. We shall not here
enter into minute details ; we may, however, state
that the head of the thigh-bone is not bound to the
socket by the ligamentum teres : this peculiarity ex-
ists only in the orang, the sloth, the seal, the enhy-
dra, the walrus, and the ornithorhyncus, and in the
present animal. The skull of the elephant is alto-
gether extraordinary, and presents us with a vast
frontal elevation, which gives it an air of great dig-
nity, but, as we shall see, the appearance is decep-
tive. Fig 329, which represents a vertical section
of the skull, may be liere consulted. Before and
above the cranial cavity c the two tables of the skull
are separated from each other by a series of irregular
cells (the frontal sinuses carried to an extreme) b b :
whence it follows that the anterior and upper portion
of the skull is more advanced and elevated than the
development of the brain itself warrants. We read
of instances in which many balls have been lodged
in the head of the elephant without bringing him
down, and the reason is obvious : they entered the
vast region of cells, and did not touch the brain ;
and to this circumstance is to be attributed the mi-
serable failure of the attempt made some years since
to shoot an infuriated elephant then existing at
Exeter Change. A skilful elephant-hunter would
have saved the poor animal from protracted torments
and a lingering death. In the dentition of the ele-
phant we find much analogy to the order Rodentia,
and among them especially to the Capybara. The
teeth of the elephant consist only of molars, and of
incisors, or, as they are commonly called, tusks, which
occur only in the upper jaw. The molars are of a
compound structure, consisting of transverse folds of
enamel, each fold enveloping a central nodule of
bone, with an external coat of a different character,
called cortical substance, or crusta petrosa, compacts
the whole together. Thus a single grinder may be
regarded as made up of a certain number of distinct
teeth bound up into one mass. The process by
which these separate constituents of the molars are
deposited and arranged in the capsule is admirably
described by Cuvier, in his ' Ossemens Fossiles,' to
which work we refer those who wish to investigate
the subject (see vol. i. p. 31).
The molars of the elephant when perfected are not
permanent, but are shed in due succession for six oi-
eight times, perhaps oftener, and this not from the
rising up of a fresh tooth below the one it is to suc-
ceed, but by the rising up of a new one behind
3X7.— skull of ludiu Elephant.
Stl.— Aaiatic Elephant.
3S8.— Skull of Alrieui Elephant.
322. — Elephant of the Jardin des Plantes.
.^
.-^^^■•s
^^.
»^Oc
X
/i
/.
331.— Teeth of African Elephant.
80
32S.— Elephant broviing.
326.— Voung Elephants browsing.
343.— Head of Llephant.
■il J .— liud of Elephtat'a Trunk (protk )
. my
337, — Bleplunt lying down.
3J8.— ProboncU in itallierin( lonj
. herbage*
2, — Head of EHephantrwhh proboeeia upraised.
311.— Skeleton of Elephant.
34'j.~IIerbag8 whea gathered.
" 9
4*- - •#
3:l9.— Youn^ Elephant snekling.
3M.— The Indira EWphaat.
316.— Eud of Trunk of Male.
347.— End of Trunk of Female.
314.— Section of the Trunk of the Elephant.
3Sfi.— African Elephant.
338.— Elephant lineeling.
No. 11.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
81
82
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Elephants.
the old one, and which gradually becoming de-
veloped advances forwards as the old one wears
away, till its last remnant i» pushed out. The posi-
tion of the new tooth, with respect to the old one,
in progress of wearing will be seen by referring to
the section of the skull. Fig. 329 ; the character* of
the young teeth when forming and before worn
down are delineated in Fig. 331, c, d. In the
skull (Fig. 329) H shows the anterior tooth reduced
almost to nothing by detrition, and by the compres-
sion of the succeeding tooth ; i shows a full-formed
tooth in activity, already partially ground down on
it face I, but with the posterior laminee as yet un-
touched ; L, is the germ of a tooth, to succeed the
former (i) — it is enclosed in a membraneous capsule,
and lodged in a cavity at the back of the jaw.
On this subject wp might enlarge, but our limits for-
bid. The tusks of the elephant (upper incisors) are
destitute of true roots, and have no other union to
their deep sockets than that of close contact ; they
resemble a nail driven into a plank ; and by gentle
and continued pressure may have their direction al-
tered. They consist of concentric layers of ivory,
and grow by the continued deposition of these layers
added internally, for the pulp or core which deposits
the ivory tills the cavity at the base of the tusk, and
arises from the bottom of the socket ; it is of great
size, and has no organic union with the tusk it se-
cretes. We have seen several instances in which
bullets have, on cutting the tusks, been found im-
bedded in the ivory, to the astonishment of those
who know not the manner in which the tusks are
produced. In these instances the bullet has en-
tered the socket, and lodged in the bottom of the
hollow base of the tusk, and the pulp or core in that
hollow has kept covering it with layer after layer
of ivory, the tusk growing all the time, till at last,
from being in the hollow, the bullet attains the solid
centre of the full-grown tusk, being moved farther
and farther forwards by each deposit of ivory from
within. The tusks are not shed, as are the molars,
but a permanent pair succeed a deciduous pair, shed
between the first and second year of existence.
These tusks vary in size and curve : we learn from
Mr. Corse that one variety of Asiatic elephant is
characterized by straight tusks pointing downwards ;
it is termed IVlooknah : another variety has large
heavy tusks inclining more or less upwards, and is
termed Dauntelah. Independently, however, of the
shape and size of the tusks in the male, the .Asiatic
species is divided into two main or principal castes,
between which ihere are many degrees of inter-
mixture. These two castes are called respectively
Koomareah and Merghee. The Koomareah is a
deep-bodied, strong, compact elephant, with a large
trunk, and legs short in proportion to the size of the
animal. The Merghee when fully grown is gene-
rally taller than the former, but he has not so com-
pact a form, nor is he so strong or so capable of bear-
ing fatigue ; his legs are long ; he travels fast, has a
lighter body, and his trunk is both short and slender
in proportion to his height. A large trunk is always
esteemed a great beauty in an elephant, so that the
Koomareah is preferred not only for this, but for its
superior strength, by which it can undergo greater
fatigue, and carry heavier loads than the Merghee.
The external characters of the elephant, which
we have not as yet noticed, need not long detain us.
The skin is dark-coloured, rough, and nearly desti-
tute of hair ; a tuft of bristles laterally disposed
terminates the tail; the eyes are very small, but
lively and intelligent ; the tusks project on each
side of the base of the proboscis. On each temple
are situated certain glands with ducts opening on
the surface of the skin, whence exudes an unctuous
secretion : but beyond this nothing appears to be
ascertained. The udder of the female is placed on
the chest between the fore-legs, and the young ele-
phant sucks with the side of its mouth, compressing
the udder with its trunk, to increase the flow of milk
(Fig. a'W).
The young elephant at its birth is about thirty-five
inches m height, and it arrives at maturity when be-
tween eighteen and twenty-four years of age. The
average ratio of growth, as ascertained by Mr. Corse
('Phil. Trans.' vol. xviii.), is eleven inches in the
first year, eight inches in the second, six the third,
five the fourth, five inches in the fifth, three inches
and a half in the sixth, and two inches and a half
in the seventli. The males are probably longer in
attaining their full growth than the females ; but
the females produce young before they have ceased
to grow. Mr. Corse mentions one instance in which
the increase of growth during pregnancy amounted
to five inches. The period of gestation is twenty
months and eighteen days. The elephant possesses
the senses of smell and hearing in great perfection,
and musical sounds evidently produce pleasure.
Heavy and clumsy as is the form of this animal,
yet its pace is tolerably quick, especially over level
ground ; indeed, when irritated, the elephant rushes
on with great rapidity, and many are the instances
on record in which the hunter, unsuccessful in his
shot, has been pursued, overtaken, and trodden to
death. The gait of the animal is, however, peculiar,
and destitute of elasticity, and on reference to the
skeleton (Fig. 341) the reason will be immediately
perceived. In the first place the bones of the limbs
have an almost perpendicular bearing with respect
to each other ; and in the next place there is no
canon-bone (a long metacarpal and ■ metatarsal
bone) as in the fore and hind limbs of the horse,
which may thus be said to have three bones in the
leg, those of the hinder limbs in particular being all
oblique ; whereas the elephant has the Metacarpal
and metatarsal bones five in number in each foot,
shore, and restricted to the foot itself, instead of
adding to the length and elasticity of the limbs.
In the horse the thigh-bone is very short, the true
knee-joint is as high as the flanks, and the whole of
the limb from the hock-joint to the hoof, which really
constitutes the foot, consists of tarsal or instep
bones, a long metatarsal or canon-bone, and three
phalangal bones, the last cased in horn ; these are
commonly called the pastern bones and coffin-bone.
The arrangement of these bones in the limb of the
elephant is very different ; and the knee, from the
length of the thigh-bone, is lower than in the horse,
so that the animal kneels in the same way as man
(see Fig. 338).
The haunts of the elephant in his native regions
are forests along the borders of rivers, well watered
and fertile plains, where vegetation attains its ut-
most luxuriance, and green savannahs. There he
reposes in the shade of the trees, or cools himself in
the waters. Bathing, indeed, is one of the favourite
enjoyments of this beast. Even in our climate
during the summer months the bath is a luxury :
we have often seen the elephant in the gardens of
the Zool. Soc. plunge into his tank, draw the water
up into his trunk, and spout it in showers around ;
then immerse himself completely, the end of the
trunk alone appearing above the surface, and there
flounder about in the exuberance of health and
spirits. In his native country he crosses the broad-
est rivers, the body, while swimming, being sub-
merged, and nothing seen but the extremity of the
upraised proboscis. Nor is it to water only that the
elephant displays a partiality : he luxuriates in the
ooze and mud of swamps and marshes, and rolls
and wallows in the half-fluid mire. We have seen
him fill his proboscis with this mixture, and dis-
charge it over every part of his body so as to invest
himself with a layer of mud. In the hot regions of
which he is a native, he may find this a means of
protecting the skin from the scorching of the solar
rays, as well as a defence against the annoyance of
insects, for the skin, thick and coarse as it is, is
nevertheless extremely sensitive. The same par-
tiality for the mud-bath is also displayed by the
rhinoceros and the hog.
Bishop Heber has described the bathing of wild
elephants which he saw upon his approach to Decca ;
" At the distance of about half a mile from these
desolate palaces, a sound struck my ear, as if from
the water itself on which we were riding, the most
solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long,
loud, deep, and tremulous, something between the
bellowing of a bull and the blowing of a whale, or
perhaps most like those roaring buoys which are
placed at the mouths of some English harbours, in
which the winds make a noise to warn ships off
them. 'Oh!' said Abdallah, 'there are elephants
bathing. Decca much place for elephant.' I
looked immediately, and saw about twenty of those
fine animals with their heads and trunks just ap-
pearing above the water. Their bellowing it was
which I had heard, and which the water conveyed
to us with a tiner effect than if we had been on
shore." Besides the water and mud-bath for cool-
ing the skin and keeping off flies, the elephant, as
is often seen in India, will fan himself with a large
bough, and use it with ease and dexterity. The
beautiful description by Mr. Southey of this habit
is so appropriate, that we hesitate not to introduce
it:^
" Trampling: his path throug^h wood and brake.
And canes which crackling fall before his way,
Alid tassel (jrass whose silvery feathers play,
O'ertoppinc the yoiinjf trees.
On comes the elephant, to slake
HU thirst, at noon, in yon pellucid springs.
ho] from his triinli upturn d, aloft he flings
The grateful shower ; and now
Pluclting the broad-leafe*i bough
Of yonder plume, with waving motion slow.
Fanning the languid air,
lie waves it to and fro."
A herd of elephants headed by their mighty
leaders feeding in calm security in the secluded
depths of the forest, or on the banks of a river in
some secluded valley, forms one of the most imposing
pictures in nature. Such a scene is beautifully
described by Pringle ; but willingly as we would
quote it, our limits forbid. One point, however, we
may notice — the use, as observed by that traveller,
to which these animals apply their tusks as levers
in uproofinf trees. It was in the valley of the
Koonap River that the narrator came upon the
track of a herd : " Foot prints of all dimensions from
eight to fifteen inches in diameter were eveiywhere
visible, and m the swampy spots on the banks of
the river it was evident that some of them had been
luxuriously enjoying themselves by rolling their
unwieldy bulks in the ooze and mud. But it was in
the groves and jungles that they left the most
striking proofs of their recent presence and peculiar
habits. In many places paths had been trodden
through the midst of dense thorny forests otherwise
impenetrable. Among the groves of mimosa-trees,
which were thinly sprinkled over the grassy meadows
along the river margins, the traces of the elephants
were not less apparent. Immense numbers of these
trees had been torn out of the ground, and placed in
an inverted position, in order to enable the animals to
browse at theirease on the soft and juicy roots, which
form a favourite part of their food. I observed that,
in numerous instances, when the trees were of con-
siderable size, the elephant had employed one of
his tusks exactly as we should use a crow-bar —
thrusting it under the roots to loosen their hold of
the earth, before he could tear them up with his
proboscis."
This account refers to the African species, but
will also apply to the Indian. The noble elephant
in the garden of the Zool. Soc. has at different
times used his tusks in wrenching down the boards
which line his apartment, and that with such effect
as to demolish no small portion of the inner wood-
work, which is of great strength and thickness.
The African elephant equals, if it does not sur-
pass, its Indian relative in size. Major Denham saw
one killed which measured 12 feet 6 inches in
height, and mentions others which appeared to be
considerably larger. Mr. Pringle saw one which
two officers of engineers agreed in stating at 14 feet.
The Indian elephant seldom exceeds 10 feet.
From the earliest times this noble beast has been
employed by man ; and multitudes have been
drafted from their native forests, and with little
training brought to implicit obedience. It has
served him as a beast of burden, or as an auxiliary
of war, and has added by its presence to swell the
pomp of kings and conquerors. Setting aside the
rude method of taking these animals in pits, now
seldom or never practised, it is remarkable that in
every mode man avails himself of the assistance of
individuals of the same species which he has already
subdued.
It is well known that large male elephants, from
some cause not ascertained, occasionally wander
about alone ; they are of large size and great fero-
city, and wherever they pass do much mischief.
Being the finest elephants, and best adapted for
sale, great as the risk may be, the hunters eagerly
endeavour to capture them. They follow them
cautiously, by day and night, with two or four
trained females, called koomkies. If it be dark
they can hear the animal striking his food, to clean
it, against his fore-legs, and then they approach
tolerably close : if it be light they advance more
cautiously. The females gradually move towards him
apparently unconscious of his presence, gatheiing
herbage and feeding on it with great complacency,
as if they were, like him, inhabitants of the wild
forest. It is soon seen by them whether he is likely
to be entrapped by their arts; the drivers remain
concealed at a little distance, while the koomkies
press round the unfortunate goondah, or saun (lor
so these solitary males are called). If he abandon
himself to the caresses of his new companions, his
capture is almost certain. The hunters cautiously
creep under him, and during the time that his
attention is thus absorbed they fasten his fore-legs
with a strong rope. It is said that the wily females
will not only divert his attention from their mohouts,
but absolutely assist them in fastening the cords
(see Fig. 352). The hind-legs are also secured,
and, if the situation permits, lashed to a large tree.
Tlie hunters then leave him, and the faithless
females retire : he tries to follow, and discovers his
condition. If fastened to a tree (Fig. 353), he ex-
hausts himself with rage and vain efforts to break
loose ; but if not secured, still he moves with diffi-
culty in his shackles, and as long cables are left
trailing behind him, the mohouts soon seize the
opportunity of lashing them round a tree of suffi-
cient strength. Sometimes he breaks his bonds and
rushes madly to the forest, where the hunters dare
not follow him. But if adequately bound, his
struggles are useless ; and, worn out by the violence
of his anger, his exertions, and hunger, he sub-
mits at length, and is conducted under the escort of
his treacherous friends to an appointed station, and,
after a few months' discipline, becomes reconciled to
his fate.
In the 'Asiatic Trans.,' vol. iii., Mr. Corse gives
an animated description of the mode of conducting
the operation of elephant-catching on a great
scale, as practised at lipperah, where thousands of
people assemble to drive a herd of these superb
animals with the clang of drums and trumpets, and
Elephants.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
83
the din of fireworks and musketry. The outline of
the plan is as .'oUows : — The herd when discovered
is surrounded by a circle of men, divided into small
parties, at the distance of 20 or 30 yards from each
other ; these, by noises of various kinds, and by fires
lighted at different posts, drive the animals into a
body ; in the morning the circle opens, and the
herd is slowly driven forward towards a spot where
a new circle is prepared to receive it ; the people
closing up, taking their proper stations, and passing
the remainder of the day and night as before. In
this manner, day after day, it is conducted towards
a sort of concealed pound or inclosure called a
keddah, made of strong timbers, and divided into
two or. three great pens communicating with each
other by means of gates, which are shut as the
herd is forced from pen to pen. The last pen has a
narrow outlet passage with a doorway sufiicient for
the entrance of only one elephant at a- time ; and
the passage itself will not allow a large elephant to
turn round. When by dint of noise and fires the
animals have entered the first gate of the keddah,
and they find themselves ensnared, their rage is
extreme, but escape is now rmpossible ; one outlet
only offers, but it leads to the next inclosure : the
leader enters, the rest follow ; the gate is instantly
shut by people who are stationed on a small scaffold
immediately above it, and strongly barricaded ; fires
are lighted, and the same discordant din made and
continued, till the herd has passed through another
gateway into the last inclosure, the gate of which is
secured in the same manner as the former was.
The elephants, being now completely surrounded on
all sides, and' perceiving no outlet through which
they can escape, appear desperate, and in their
fury advance frequently to the ditch, in order to
break down the palisades, inflating their trunks,
screaming louder and shriller than any trumpet,
sometimes grumbling like the hollow murmur of
distant thunder ; but wherever they make an attack,
they are opposed by lighted fires, and by the noiss
and triumphant shouts of the hunters. As they
must remain some time in this inclosure, care is
always taken to have part of the ditch filled with
water, which is supplied by a small stream, either
natural, or conducted through an artificial channel
from some neighbouring reservoir. The elephants
have recourse to this water to quench their thirst
after their fatigues, by sucking the water into their
trunks, and then squirting it over every part of their
bodies. While they remain in this inclosure they
continue sulky, and seem to meditate their escape ;
but the hunters build huts around them close to the
palisades, watchmen are placed, and every precau-
tion used to prevent their breaking through.
When the herd has continued a few days in this
partition, the door of the outlet passage is opened,
and one is at last enticed in with food. Having
entered, the door is closed and securely barred :
retreat is impossible, and the captive is hemmed
completely in. His struggles in that narrow cage
are useless. He is then enveloped in a labyrinth of
cords, and exhausted with fatigue and fury, he is
led out between two powerful trained beasts, to
whom he is bound and tied, and brought by them
to a spot where he is fastened to strong trees (see
Fig. 3J4). He then becomes again excited, and
sometimes fulls a victim to his paroxysm of fury ;
but commonly the cravings of hunger induce him
to eat, and he gradually yields to the power of gen-
tle discipline.
It is not an unfrequent occurrence for a domesti-
cated elephant to escape to the wild herd, and re-
sume its former independence ; and such have been
retaken, and submitted immediately to their former
riders. Mr. Corse mentions a female which twice
escaped, and who each time she was taken obeyed
the words of command, attended to her name, came
to the side of the keddah when called, ate from the
hands of the hunters, and knelt down when ordered.
In another case, that of a male, which had escaped
about eighteen months, the animal was furious when
entrapped in the keddah : an old hunter, however,
recognised him, rode boldly up to him, and ordered
him to lie down, pulling him by the ear. The animal
seemed quite taken by surprise, and instantly obeyed.
Warren Hastings, the governor-general of India,
possessed an elephant which had been ten years
absent from the rule of man. His keeper being
dismissed, he was refractory to all others who at-
tempted to control him ; and at length escaped to
the wild herd. After the long interval we have
mentioned, his old keeper recognised him in a ked-
dah, and he instantly submitted himself to him.
Mr. Zoffany painted the portrait of this animal, and,
in the key to his published print of a tiger-hunt,
vouches for the authenticity of this account. Fig.
359 is a copy of Mr. Zoffany's print.
The elephant is not used in the present day in
India as an engine of war, but as a beast of bur-
den, in the transport of baggage, tents, and various
stores ; and there are peculiar circumstances in the
march of an Indian army which render the elephant
extremely serviceable. Where dense jungles offer
impediments which the pioneers could not obviate
without great labour and consequent delay, three
or four elephants clear the way at once ; trampling
down the long grass and bushes, and breaking
down the slender trees ; in short, levelling all before
them : again, where the artillery has to be dragged
through heavy roads of clay and mire, and deep
sloughs, their strength and sagacity are in great re-
quisition. They always apply their force in the most
efficacious manner, and assist each other with won-
derful sagacity. Capt. Williamson thus notices their
services in this particular: — " Many of our most ar-
duous military operations have been greatly indebted
for their success to the sagacity, patience, and ex-
ertion of elephants. Exclusive of their utility in
carrying baggage and stores, considerable aid is
frequently supplied by the judgment they display,
bordering very closely on reason. When cannon
require to be extricated from sloughs, the elephant,
placing his forehead to the muzzle, which when
limbered is the rear of the piece, with an energy
scarcely to be conceived, will urge it through a bog
from which hundreds of oxen or horses could not
drag it : at other times, lapping his trunk round the
cannon, he will lift while the cattle and men pull
forward. (Fig. 356.) The native princes attach an
elephant to each cannon, to aid its progress in
emergencies. For this purpose the animal is fur-
nished with a thick leather pad covering the fore-
head, to prevent its being injured. It has some-
times happened that, in narrow roads or causeways,
or on banks, the soil has given way under heavy
cannon; when an elephant, being applied to the
falling side, has not only prevented the piece from
upsetting, but even aided it forward to a state uf
security." Elephants have probably been employed
in this manner Irorn the first introduction of artil-
lery into Asia. Bernier, describing the army of
Aurungzebe, says—" Many of these cannon are so
ponderous, that twenty yoke of oxen is necessary
to draw them along ; and some, when the road is
steep or rugged, require the aid of elephants in ad-
dition to the oxen, to push the carriage-wheels with
their heads and trunks." Heavy guns are often
carried on elephants' backs, both in the native and
the Indian armies.
In dragging cannon up mountain-passes, where
the road is steep and rugged, these animals have
often performed good service, stimulated by the
praises and encouragement of their drivers, which
have great effect upon them ; besides, when they
have achieved any difficult operation, it is usual to
reward them with sweetmeats and arrack, and from
all accounts they labour expecting the customary
reward. In former times, the elephant, adorned
with gorgeous trappings, swelled the royal state of
princes and persons of distinction, but in British
India it is now rarely seen upon occasions of cere-
mony, excepting at the courts of the native princes
who still retain some degree of independent autho-
rity. In Calcutta their use is prohibited, as horses
unused to them often take fright and occasion acci-
dents. A line of elephants richly caparisoned is
however a noble spectacle. At Vizier All's wed-
ding in 1796, there was a grand procession of twelve
hundred elephants all magnificently adorned ; of
these one hundred in the centre had howdahs, or
castles, covered with silver; and in the midst ap-
peared the nabob, mounted on an uncommonly
large elephant, within a howdah covered with gold,
richly set with precious stones. Some of the ele-
phants of Aurungzebe were, according to Bernier,
most splendidly attired. Sir T. Rowe thus describes
the state elephants of Jehanghir : — " His greatest
elephants were brought before him, some of which,
being lord elephants, had their chains, bells, and
furniture of gold and silver, attended with gilt
banners and flags ; and eight or ten elephants
waiting on him, clothed in gold, silk, and silver.
Thus passed about twelve companies, most richly
furnished ; the first elephant having all the plates
on his head and breast set with rubies and emeralds,
being a beast of wonderful stature and beauty.
They all bowed down before the king."
By Europeans in India, the elephant is used for
travelling, and in hunting the tiger. The horse
cannot be brought to follow the track, or stand
firm at the sight of the ferocious beast, but the
elephant will do both ; and besides his delicate
scent, his bodily powers, which enable him to make
his way through the thickest covers, and his great
stature, which places the hunters seated in a howdah
on his back in comparative safety, are peculiar re-
commendations. (See Figs. 360, 361, 362,) After
all, however, the sport is not unattended with danger,
for the elephant fears the tiger, and the latter, when
wounded or hard pressed, bounds upon the nearest
elephant, and mostly tries to seize the creature's
trunk : this it throws up as high as possible, and if
a staunch beast, endeavours to receive the foe on its
tusks : well-trained elephants have been known to
succeed, and, instantly kneeling, transfix the tiger
and pin him to the ground (Fig. 357) ; but it often
happens that the tiger accomplishes his effort, in
which case the elephant loses all self-possession,
and sets off at full speed, roaring violently, and
throwi- g all into contusion. Sometimes indeed the
elephant will not stand the attack, but precipitately
retreats in the greatest consternation, in which case,
if the tiger springs upon the animal, the hunters are
in imminent peril. Mr. Williamson ('Oriental Field-
sports ') relates an instance in which a gentleman
w'ent out with others in pursuit of a cunning
and daring tiger, and who urged his mohout to
make his elephant to beat among the tall grass
where the scent was strongest; this being done, in
spite of the tremendous tones of the agitated animal,
the tiger found himself compelled either to resist
or submit to be trodden upon : he sprang at once
upon the elephant's quarter, fixed hi% fore-paws in
the pad on the animal's back, and his hind-claws in
the flesh of the thigh. In a paroxysm of fear, oc-
casioned by the suddenness of the attack, and pain,
the elephant dashed through the cover, the tiger
still clinging, but unable, from the motion of the
elephant, to mount higher. It was with difficulty
that the gentleman could keep his seat, and he was
prevented from firing at the grim beast, both from
his unprecedented situation, and from the danger of
wounding some of the numerous followers who were
exerting the utmost speed of their respective ele-
phants to come to his assistance. The pace of the
elephant was wavy and irregular, owing to the
animal's fear, and fortunately gave opportunity for
some of those mounted on light and speedy animals,
to overtake it, when a gentleman of the party de-
spatched it with a shot.
It is said that the elephant displays great fear
towards the rhinoceros : Major Lally staled to the
author of the ' Oriental Field-sports,' that he once
witnessed, from a distant hill, a most desperate en-
gagement between a large male elephant and a
rhinoceros, in which the elephant was worsted and
fled (Fig. 363). Baber, however, in his memoirs
observes, that on the occasion of a rhinoceros hunt,
one of the elephants fell right in with the rhino-
ceros, upon which the latter immediately ran off in
another direction. That an enraged male of each
species may meet, and fight, is not perhaps impro-
bable ; but we have no good grounds for supposing
any animosity to exist between the two species ;
certain it is that the male elephant and rhinoceros
in adjoining compartments manifest towards each
other neither fear nor dislike.
White elephants, that is, albinos, are occasionally
found, and are highly valued. At the court of Ava
royalty is incomplete without such an appendage,
and both the nobles and people would consider it
inauspicious to want a white elephant. In Siam
idso, as well as in the Birman empire, the white
elephant is venerated. Mr. Crawford (' Embassy to
the court of Ava'), who saw the celebrated white
Birman elephant (Fig. 355), as well as six belonging
to the king of Siam, states respecting the former
that his establishment is very large. White ele-
phants were not unknown to the ancients, and were
occasionally exhibited to the admiration of the po-
pulace— " Sive elephas albus vulgi converteret ora "
(Horace).
Let us now turn from the Indian to the African
species. This animal is found from Senegal and
Abyssinia to the confines of the Cape settlement,
wherever rivers, lakes, and extensive forests render
the region suitable for its residence. In the plains,
of the kingdom of Congo, where the herbage attains
a wild luxuriance, amidst innumerable lakes, and on
the borders of the Senegal, whose waters flow through
extensive forests, herds of elephants still wander,
and also in the remoter districts of Caff'raria. C'uvier
appears to have had some suspicion that the ele-
phant of Abyssinia and the eastern portions of Africa
might possibly be identical with the Indian species,
and he adduces the testimony of Ludolphe, who, in
his ' History of Abyssinia,' states that the female ele-
phants of that country are destitute of tusks : he ac-
knowledges indeed that the authority of Ludolphe
is doubtful ; nevertheless, he adds, his testimony is
confirmed by Bruce, at least in one particular case,
for, in the account of an elephant-hunt at which he
assisted, the tusks of a female were small, whilst the
male had them of great magnitude. We cannot
lay much stress on a single case of this kind, and it
is to be observed that no mention is made of the
size of the ears or shape of the head ; nor can we
say whether or not the individual was young or
adult. It is not improbable that breeds or races
may differ in Africa as they do in India.
In ancient times the elephant appears to have
ranged along the north and north-western shores.
" Elephantos fert Africa ultra Syrticas solitudines,
et in Mauritania," says Pliny, and.<?i;iian asserts that
they dwell in the forests and pasture-lands at the
foot of Mount Atlas. Though none are found in
those localities in the present day, we give full credit
to the assertion, for we know that the lion once
M 2
til.— Wild Elephant •ptarrd by nuwuof decoy Female mephaou.
U3— Wild .Elephant ieaafket luTing been bouod.
3i7.— Elephant pinaing a Tiger.
Wmw^
.=^in ^i,■'-'—-
335.— White Elppiiant'of Ava.
-.Jiy-^
3J8.— Scene exhibited it the Adelplu Thealte.
84
:(.>8. — Lifimiiiitf <
. Udd roada
3«0 — Tiger springing.
3«3.^Kieptiaat attacked by.Ubinoomt.
359 — Wjuten HaatiDgs's Kleplian «
307. — Fem»le Elepliant and her youi:g one
3fiG,— Skull of Mnmmoth.
36J.f— Mammoth founil in Silwria.
3 Ci.^Ele pliant swimming.
361.— Tiger at bay.
3^2.— Hunters tn a Howdah.
85
86
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
rELBPHAMTlL
abounded in repiong where it has long disappeared.
Moreover the Carthaginians, who used the African
elephant as an engine of war, as Poms and the In-
dian kings did the Asiatic, collected, on the threat-
ened invasion of Scipio (b.c. 205), a great number
of these animals, so quickly as to prove that they
had not to penetrate far into the interior to procure
them. The Ptolemies, it would seem, procured their
elephants in Abyssinia. Herodotus states that this
animal abounded, with bears and lions, in Libya.
Ethiopia paid a tribute to Darius, which consisted
in part of elephants' tusks. Though the Romans
were at an early epoch acquainted with ivory, the
Etruscan attributes of royalty being sceptres and
thrones of this material, still the first personal ac-
quaintance of the Romans with this animal was when
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus (b.c. 281), invaded Italy,
bringing elephants as part of the military force.
These, however, were most probably Indian; and
might indeed have been some of the numbers which
were left by Alexander at his death, about half a
century previously, and which with his kingdom
and treasures were divided between his successoi-s,
and employed in the sanguinary wars which arose
out of their individual contests for empire. At all
events, as India was open, these animals might easily
have been procured. Perdiccas led them into
Egypt against Ptolemy, and they were governed by
Ind'ian mohouts ; Ptolemy opposed them by Ethio-
pian elephants, which were not considered so eiFec-
tive as the Indian animals, perhaps from not being
80 well trained. The Romans called the elephant
the Lucanian ox, as it would seem from having first
encountered it in the territory of Lucania ; and this
name was generally adopted afterwards. In the
Punic war the Romans had to encounter the African
elephant, and Regulas captured eighteen at the bat-
tle of Adis. Afterwards at the battle of Panormis
(Palermo) upwards of 100 were taken, and the con-
sul Metullus transported them to Rome to gratify
the wonder of the people, and die in the circus for
their amusement. Hannibal employed them in
Spain, and, as is well known, in Italy, and when
those which he brought with him had all perished,
he received large reinforcements from Carthage.
After the close of the Punic war, the Romans
themselves used the African elephant in subduing
Macedonia; and thirty years afterwards, Perseus,
the last king of Macedon, whose great predecessor
had made Europe familiar with the power of the
elephant, possessed none in his own army to oppose
those brought against him by Quintus Martius
Philippus, and, after four years' ineffectual resist-
ance, Macedonia became a Roman province. At the
battle of Magnesia, Scipio brought African elephants
against Antiochus, who opposed them with elephants
from India, and thus in hostile array were brought
together the peaceful tenants of the plains and
forests of two remote regions of the earth separated
by seas and deserts. Julius Csesar employed on
various occasions the elephant in his armies, but
more perhaps as a beast of burden, and for the sake
of ostentation, or of striking terror among barbarous
people, than for actual combat. The Romans be-
came now well acquainted vrith this beast, and
availed themselves of it for the purpose of drawing
splendid chariots in triumphal processions, but sel-
dom used it as an arm of war. They, however,
forced it into the brutal, demoralizing combats of
the amphitheatre, or amused themselves with its un-
wieldy performances in theatrical pageants — such
as we have seen in our own days. (Fig. 358.) For
more than 500 years did Africa contribute elephants
to the Roman circus, and incalculable numbers
perished during that long period ; thousands were
dragged from the forests of Ethiopia to gratify by
their torments an ignorant and deoased multitude,
and thousands were slaughtered in their native
regions for the sake of their ivory, of which both
African and Indian were in the greatest request. Of
this material were fashioned the most imposing sta-
tues ; the rooms and furniture of the patricians were
inlayed with gold and ivory; and it ornamented
halls, porticoes, and temples.
With respect to the African elephant it was most
probably bred by the Romans in a state of domesti-
cation. Fig. 367 is a copy of a representation on
the walls of Pompeii of a female African elephant
suckling her young one. The picture exhibits a
perfect acquaintance with the mode in which the
little elephant receives sustenance from its mother,
a fact of which Button and the naturalists of the
last century were ignorant.
At length the power of Rome declined, the but-
chery of the circus was suspended, and in the time
of Justinian (a.d. .527) an elephant was esteemed a
rare spectacle at Rome and Constantinople. The
intercourse between Europe and Africa, on the fall
of the Roman empire, became in a great measure
suspended for centuries; a wandering population
of Arabs spread over the northern regions of Africa ;
and the elephant, no longer hunted for his ivory or
captured for the circus, wandered unmolested in his
native forests: the modes employed by the Cartha-
ginians for training the animal were forgotten ; nay,
that it had ever been reclaimed to the service of a
people whose place had been since occupied by
Roman, Vandal, and Arab conquerors, was a circum-
stance buried in oblivion, and the African elephant
was at last believed to be incapable of the discipline
which still subjects the Indian to the use of man.
In recent times the demand for ivory has again re-
vived, and ill south and western Aftica the herds
of elephants are thinned by the gun of the hunter.
Hitherto we have conhned our observations to
the two species of elephant at present existing on
our globe ; time was, however, when a species dif-
fering from either abounded on the earth, and
ranged over a great extent of country, tenanting
climates not only within the temperate latitudes,
but such as are now exposed to the severities of an
Arctic winter, where their tusks are found in great
abundance, and collected for the sake of the ivory,
which is still available.* More than this, however,
the animal, flesh and all, has been found in a state
of preservation entombed in ice. Ages had rolled
by since the day which saw it inumed in its strange
sarcophagus ; nations and tongues and empires had
risen and passed away ; the very region it inhabited
had undergone an alteration of temperature and
productions — ^yet, while the proudest monuments of
human industry were perishing, while nations were
falling or rising, had this body remained, as when
the life departed, to be displayed in later days as
a relic of times beyond the date of human records.
We allude to the mammoth found at the mouth of
the Lena in Siberia.
In 1799 a Tungusian, who went along the coast
to seek for mammoths' tusks, first perceived the
carcass on a vast block of ice, but without being
able to make out its true character. In 1801 it
became partially exposed ; in 1803 it became dis-
engaged by the melting of the ice; and in 1804
the "Tungusian, named Schumachoff, cut oif the
tusks and sold them to a merchant for the value
of fifty rubles. Two years afterwards Mr. Adams
found the mammoth still on the shore, but greatly
mutilated. The Yakutsk! had fed their dogs with
the flesh. Bears, wolves, wolverenes, and foxes
had feasted upon it ; but though all the flesh and
the proboscis were gone, the skeleton remained
with the exception of one fore-leg. The skin
was also to a certain extent perfect, and one of
the ears was well preserved with its tuft of hairs.
The skin, of a dark tint, was covered with reddish
wool and black hairs ; but much of the fur was
injured by damp, and much trodden into the earth
by the bears. "The skeleton and other portions of
value were carefully collected ; the tusks were re-
purchased, and the whole transported to St. Peters-
burg.
The skeleton is now in the museum of the Aca-
demy, and the skin still remains attached to the
head and feet. A part of the skin and some of
the hair of this animal were sent by Mr. Adams
to Sir Joseph Banks, who presented them to the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The
hair is entirely separated from the skin, except-
ing in one very small part where it still remains
attached. It consists of two sorts, common hair
and bristles, and of each there are several va-
rieties, differing in length and thickness. That li
remaining fixed on the skin is of the colour of the I
camel, an inch and a half long, very thick-set, and I
curled in locks. It is interspersed with a few I
bristles, about three inches long, of a dark reddish |
colour. Among the separate parcels of hair are !
some rather redder than the short hair just men-
tioned, about four inches long; and some bristles
nearly black, much thicker than horsehair, and
from 12 to 18 inches long. The skin when first
brought to the museum was ofi'ensive ; it is now
quite dry and hard, and where most compact half
an inch thick. Its colour is dull black. Fig. 365.
represents this fossil elephant or mammoth {Elephas
primigenius). Another and prior instance of the
discovery of an ice-preserved elephant is recorded :
in this case the carcass was found on the borders of
the Alaseia river, which flows into the Icy Ocean
beyond the Indigirska ; it had been set free by the
stream, and was in an upright position, almost per-
fect, and covered with the skin, to which there still
adhered in many places hairs and fur, as in the
Lena specimen. There are not wanting other in-
stances of parts, as the head and feet, with the flesh
on, having been found in ice : nor is it only of the
elephant that preserved remains exist ; for in 1771
the body of a rhinoceros, perfect, or nearly so, pre-
served in frozen earth or gravel, was disinterred
near the Vilhoui. The head and feet are at St.
Petersburg.
Asiatic Russia and Siberia appear to have been
the stronghold of the mammoth ; over these vast
regions indeed its fossil remains occur in incredible
* Siberian fossil-ivory forms th« prlndpal material on which the
Itunian ivory-turner worlu.
numbers. There is in fact no river from the Don to
Kamtschatka where, either along the banks or on
the beds, these relics, with those of other extinct
species, do not abound. It is not, however, only in
that extensive tract that the fossil relics of elephanU
occur. They are common in Italy, France, G«r.
many, Bohemia, and the British Isles. They are
found also in North America, mixed with those of
the mastodon ; and have been brought by Baron
Humboldt from Mexico and Peru.
Fig. 366 represents the skull of the Elephaa
primigenius. In form it approximates the most
nearly to that of the Indian elephant, but has seve-
ral distinguishing characteristics. The grindei-s for
instance have the ribands of enamel across the worn
crown thinner and less festooned at their edge, and
in a given space are more numerous, being closer
together. 'The facial line is more perpendicular,
and the top of the skull more peaked. The alveoli
of the tusks are far more extensively developed, a
circumstance which must have given a pecu-
liar character to the physiognomy of the animal,
very unlike that of the living species. The lower
jaw is shorter, and more upright at its symphysis ;
while the grinder, instead of sweeping upwards as
it proceeds, follows a nearly level fine. The tusks
are generally very large, arched and directed up-
wards and outwards with a hold and somewhat
spiral turn.
With respect to the strata in which these fossil
relics are found, it may be stated that it is only in
alluvial and superficial deposits— those filhng the
bottoms of valleys, or forming the borders of rivere,
the mud of certain caverns— the crag formation and
other tertiary fresh-water deposits, that they as a rule
occur. In these slightly consolidated strata are
also found other fossil relics, some of quadrupeds of
existing genera, and some of which there are no
living prototypes.
In some regions where the remains of the mam-
moth and rhinoceros abound, as northern Siberia, a
decided change in the climate must have taken
place since the era of the existence of the animals ;
although, as the clothing with which they were
invested proves, the climate was moderate, and often
cold ; not however as it is now— ibr, as Mr. Lyell
observes, "it would be difficult, if not impossible,
for such animals to obtain subsistence during an
Arctic winter." Yet on the other hand, " So many
skeletons could not have belonged to herds which
lived at one time in the district, even if those north-
ern countries had once been clothed with vegetation
as luxuriant as that of an Indian jungle. But if
we suppose the change to have been extremely
slow, and to have consisted not so much in a dimi-
nution of the mean annual temperature, as in an
alteration from what has been termed an • insular' to
an ' excessive' climate— from one in which the tem-
perature of winter and summer were nearly equal-
ised, to one wherein the seasons were violently
contrasted— we may, perhaps, explain the phenome-
non. Siberia and other Arctic regions, ailer having
possessed for ages a more uniform temperature, may,
after certain changes in the form of the Arctic land,
have become occasionally exposed to extremely
severe winters. When these first occurred at dis-
tant intervals, the drift snow would fill the valleys,
and herds of herbivorous quadrupeds would be sur-
prised and buried in a frozen mass, as often happens
to cattle and human beings overwhelmed in the
Alpine valleys of Switzeriand by avalanches. When
valleys have become filled with ice, as those of
Spitzbergen, the contraction of the mass causes
innumerable deep rents, such as are seen in the
Mer-de-glace on Mont Blanc. These deep crevices
usually become filled with loose snow, but some-
times a thin covering is drifted across the mouth of
the chasm, capable of sustaining a certain weight.
Such treacherous bridges are liable to give way
when heavy animals are crossing, which are then
precipitated at once inio the body of a glacier,
which slowly descends to the sea, and becomes a
floating iceberg. As bears, foxes, and deer now
abound in Spitzbergen, we may confidently assume
that the embedding of animal remains in the glaciera
of that island must be an event of almost annula
occurrence. The conversion of drift snow into per-
manent glaciers and icebergs, when it happens to
become covered over with alluvial matter, trans-
ported by torrents and floods, is by no means a rare
phenomenon in the Arctic regions. Durino- a series
of milder seasons intervening between the severe
winters, the mammoths may have recovered theii
numbers, and the rhinoceroses may have multiplied
again, so that the repetition of such catastrophes
may have been indefinite. The increasinir cold,
and greater frequency of inclement winters^ would
at last thin their numbers, and their final extirpa-
tion would be consummated by the rapid augment-
ation of other herbivorouS quadrupeds more fitted
for the new climate."*
• Lyell'i Geol., vol. i. pp. 96-99.
IIlPPOrOTAMUS.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
368. — The Mastodox.
Coexistent perhaps with the mammoth, a race of
huge anm,als, now utterly extinct, once tenanted
our slobe: their remains, which are met with in the
superficial strata, occur in some localities in sreat
abundance ; and, from the differences presented by
the teeth and other parts, several species have been
identilied lo these animals Cuvier gave the title
ol .Mastodon, in allusion to the principal character
of the molars, winch, instead of being formed, as in
the elephant, of transverse laminae, have the crown
ol simple structure, but exhibiting ranges of bold
conical elevations, divided from each other by deep
furrows (see Fig. 3G9). As the points of these eleva-
tions become worn down by use, the crown presents
a series of lozenge-shaped lines of thick enamel
(Fig. 3/0), but when these are quite obliterated the
surface becomes uniform and concave.
Of the molars thus characterised thfere were two
above and below on each side ; but before these mo-
lars It would appear that in young individuals others
had been situated, and had fallen in succession as
Cuvier satisfactorily ascertained from the examina-
tion ot various specimens. With regard to the mode
of succession in the grinders of the mastodon, it takes
place, says Cuvier, by a movement from behind
lorwards. When tne back tooth is in the act of
piercing the gum, that anterior to it is worn and
ready to fall, and they thus replace themselves one
at^er the other. It does not appear that it is
possible for more than two at a time on each side
to be in full operation, and ultimately, as in the
elephant, there is only one. That the mastodon
had tusks like the elephant is proved by the large
a veoh lor their reception. As no perfect skull
oi the mastodon is known, it is impossible to define
Its contour: it must, however, have had a general
resemblance to that of the elephant, inasmuch as
the tables of the frontal bone are separated in a
similar manner by extensive cells
rp^j'%?!?'' '" ^^°'^' ^""^ ""^ ^■'^'^'o" generally
(Fig. 368) approximates to that of the elephant
The mastodon must have possessed a proboscis, as
IS evident from a consideration of the structure of
the skull and skeleton,-and indeed it would ap-
pear that this proboscis has not in every instance
been completely decomposed. The relics of the
Mastodon giganteus, or " animal of the Ohio," are
found m >.orth America, especially in saline mo-
^'' f," K ? }^'t circumstance Barton thinks is
to be attributed the occurrence of soft parts still
capable of being made out. In 1762 (as he states)
^^1 V *r,^^«'e'o"s which were seen by the natives,
one skull still possessed what they called a " long
nose with he mouth under it. Kalm. speaking of
a huge skeleton which, in accordance with the
Ideas of his time, he believed to be that of an
elephant, and which was discovered by the savages
in the country of the Illinois, says that "the form
ofthe trunk (bee) was still apparent, though half
decomposed •• Of the several species'of this extiiK
genus the Great Mastodon, or animal of the Ohio
!f„ B !°f'*t remarkable. Its relics appear to be
confined to the American continent : tliey are dis!
tnbuted very generally, and are accumulated in
soma places in considerable abundance, but no-
w"^'?^.""«'^'' r ^ '" **>** ^''""c """ass popularly
ermed the Big-bone Lick. They are found buried
It \t A '?r ^'?^ '^' ^°"^^'' "f the morass!
at the depth of four feet and upwards, together with
nn »rr "' ^""^fl""'' ''''^'' &«■ These relics have
no appearance of haying been rolled, and, in some
places, as for example along the Grea Osage River
t'J h?H'°"f r " """"^' P°^'«°". as ifihe ani^
rJr them'""ThT '"'° '^' '""''' ''^ich had closed
over them. The ierruginous matter with which the
^nnrniTh'™'?''^""""'' '^y' ^'""". i« 'he main
prool ot their long repose in the earth.
Ihe traditions which were rife among the Red
Men concerning this gigantic animal and its de-
struction must not be passed over in silence. M
>abri, a trench officer, informed Buffon that the
Z'fnf r ^'""f '* '^1%' ^""'^ ^^^""«d i" various
parts of Canada and Louisiana as belonging to an
animal which they named the Pere aux Boeufs
1-he Shawnee Indians believed that with these
enormous animals there existed men of propor-
tionate development, and that the Great Being
destroyed both with thunderbolts. Those of Vir-
ginia state that as a troop of these terrible qiiad-
ropeds were destroying tlie deer, the bisons, and
he other animals created for the use ofthe Indians,
the Great Man slew them all with his thunder
excep the Big Bull, who, nothing daunted, pre!
sented his enormous forehead to the bolts, and shook
^IZf T fl *r [''"• ""' '^«'"? at last bounded m
L fo'lhL-dry"''' '°"^^''* *'''' 8-=^' '^l'-- -here he
Besides the Mastodon giganteus, the followin<r
d::", 'm'"'" i'"'' '^- A"?-iid-« (Europe:
X'ceDcion ChiH '"m^'^"''''^' ^- Humboldtii
(Wncepcion-Chih), M. minutus, M.t apiroides,
M Turicensis, M. Avernensis (Epplesheim, Puv-de
Dome), M. elephantoides (Irawaddi, Sewahk Moun!
tains) M latidens (Irawaddi, Sewalik Mountains)
and M longirostris, Kaup. Professor Owen h^
nameCeciet'' ''"'" ''' ^°^^'^"' "^^ »« ^^^ '-^
371, 372, 373.— The Hippopotamus.
M. Desmoulins, from an examination of the skulls
from1out"Ar "'P'""'°^'"' IVom Senegarand
rom South Africa, considers that there are two
distinct species, which he names respectively H
Senegalensis and H. Capensis. Very probably m'
De mouhns is correct, but as the habits of bothLeJ
cies are precisely the same, and as the distinctive
charac ers are founded on osteological minuti onlv
we shall not treat them as different, more splcia [y
?ro!ed. ^ " '^*" ^'"'"^'^ "'^" absolutely
aHII ,''iPP°P0tamus is a native exclusively of
Afiica, where, though much more limited than for-
meHy in the range of its habitat, it tenants the
iZ. ll"'' ^dsot-the larger rivers, and of the in!
and lakes from the Gariep to the upper Nile and
o th..p 7 '^r''^''- "'^' however, not restricted
to these for It is marine as well as fluviatile ; and
Di. Smith thinks it difficult to decide whether it
gives preference to the river or the sea for its abode
during the day. When the opportunity of choosing
PPfpH .h"" ^^' '''': ^^''^"^^ ^^ '■"""'l 'hat some J-
lected the one, and some the other
Scarcely if at all, inferior to the elephant in bulk,
t)ut much lower in stature from the shortness ofthe
Jimbs, this massive animal presents us with the " ne
hditv Tu l?'>""rf'"' '='"'"^in«^^ and heavy so-
ld ty Its body, Ike an enormous barrel sup-
ground; the head is ponderous; the muzzle is
swollen : and the great tJiick lips, studded "^th wire!
like bristles, entirely conceal the projecting incisors
o the lower jaw, and the huge curved tutks or ca!
to^ nf'ih '"n"'^ " "''f^' "^« "°**"l'* open «" the
top of the swollen muzzle; and the eyes, which are
very small are situated high on the head ; hence
when ,„ the water, the anfmal by raismg ^eielv a
Tfu?^F1'' fe*'0" ofthe head above the surface
can both look around and breathe, the body re-
S'o1Z^th'^"".'"?'''^ '^^'J^'^ are small \nd
pointed the tail is short, and furnished with a few
ZL^"f^''- 7X' ^°''' ''°"'- °" each foot! a,^
tipped with small hoofs. The hide is naked, coarse,
and of great thickness, being two inches deep o
more on the back and sides. It is made into shields,
whips, walking-sticks, &c. Between the skin and
the flesh IS a layer ot fat, which is salted and eaten
?f,.L •'^''^^i^' ^"'""^ '^"'""'^'^ of Southern
Africa ; indeed, the epicures of Cape-Town, as Dr.
Smith says, do not disdain to use their influence
fh. n,.H '°Tl'^ ^^""r' to obtain a preference in
the mat er of Se«-W, ,pecft^ ^^ ,his fat is termed
when salted and dried. The flesh also is excellent
and in much request. The general colour of the
hippopotamus IS dusky brownish-red, passing on
the „nf "".'I' '"r" ^ "Sht purple red or brown;
the under parts, he lips, and tfie eyelids are ligh
wood-brown, with a tinge of flesh-colour; the
hinder quarters and the under surface are freckled
with spots of dusky brown ; the hairs ofthe tail and
ears are black, those on the muzzle yellowish-brown.
The male far exceeds the female in size. The
hippopotamus is gregarious in its habits, sagacious
wary and cautious. It has been long driven away
from the rivers within the limits of the Cape colour
but in remoter districts, where the sound of the
musket 18 seldom heard, it abounds in every larce
river, and is comparatively fearless of man " To
convey, ' says Dr. Smith, " some idea ofthe numbers
n which they were found in several of the rivers
towards the tropic of Capricorn, it may suffice to
state that in the course of an hour and a half a
lew members of the expedition party killed seven
within gun-shot of their encampment. Several
other individuals were in the same pool, and might
a so have been killed, had it been desirable. One
ot the survivors was observed to make his escape
to an adjoining pool, and in accomplishing that he
walked with considerable rapidity along the bottom
ot the river, and with his back covered with about
a toot of water."
The hippopotami, according to Dr. Smith, feed
cniefly on grass, resorting to situations near the
banks of rivers which supply that food. " In dis-
tricts fully inhabited by man," says Dr. Smith, " they
generally pass the day in the water, and seek their
nourishment during the night; but in localities
d tteren ly circumstanced they often pass a portion
ol the day as well as the night upon dry land. In
countries in which the night-time constitutes the
only sale period for their leaving the water, thev
are generally to be seen effecting their escape from
It immediately before dark, or are to be heard doing
so soon after the day has closed, and according to
tne state ol the surrounding country ; they then
either directly commence feedinir orh^o-in, ;„,
towards localities where food ^^a'^'xTt'"" Whe?
previous to nightfall they may havi been in pools
or rivers, they are generally at once enabled to
commence leed.ng on reaching the dry landTbut
when they may have passed the day in the sea thev
reqmre commonly to proceed some distance after
leaving i , belore they find the grass which appears
congenial to their palate. It is not every deS
lion 01 grass that hippopotami seem to relish MlX
olten pass over, m search of food, luxuriant green
swards, which would strongly attract many o her
animals which feed upon |rL. Besides liavC a
pecuhar relish for the'grasfes of certain situatkfn^
they appear to have a predilection for districts sur^
porting brushwood; and, owing to the latter pecSl
ban y, they are often to be found wandering h,
bcahties on which but little grass exists, whenfhey
might have it in the neighbourhood in great aS
ance, but without the accompaniment of wood "
We learn Irom Mr. Salt, that in the district of
Abyssinia watered by the Tacazze, a tributa v to
the Nile, hippopotami are very Numerous The
Abyssinians term the animal Gomari. As Mr Salt
travelled along the line of the river, he found it
intei-rupted by frequent overfalls and shallowford^
Between these shallows are holes or pits of vS
depth, resembling the lochs and tarns in the mou^-
ain districts of Scotland and England. It is to the«
hp?i M^*^*h' •>'W°P°*'""' '''^"Sht to resort ;an^
here Mr. Salt and his companions observed the2
actions which he compares to the rolling of a gram-
pus in the sea. " ^ *"
"It appeai-9," observes the same traveller, " from
what we have witnessed, that the hippopotamu"
cannot remain more than five or six minutes at a
time under water, being obliged to come up to the
?esp!ration."°™' '" '"''""' ''"' ^^' P^^'''''^ °^
It has generally been asserted that this hu-^e
powerful, and, it should seem, inofi'ensive an mai
has no enemy in the brute creation audacious enough
to contend with it. Some travellers, however haf e
attributed this boldness to the crocodile! describfnff
combats between them, which in truth never takf
WWi; MrTu^ subsisting between the two animals.
While Mr. Salt and his party were engaged shoot-
ing at the hippopotami, they frequently observed
several crocodiles of an enormous size rise together
to the surface of the same stream, apparently re-
gardless ot and disregarded by their still more
enormous neighbours.-Captain Tuckey, in his
expedition to explore the Zaire or Congof observed
immense numbers of hippopotami and alligators in
hostilft"^ water-an association inconsistent with
Burckhardt (see his ' Travels in Nubia') informs us
that lower down the Nile, in Dongola, whereThere
are neither elephants nor rhinoceroses, the hinno-
potamus IS very common. The Arabic name for ft is
whl"! I }t " " '^'^'"^ii ''courge to the inhabitants,
who lack the means of destroying it. Occasionally
but rarely, ii is seen much farther north, even below
the cataract of the Nile at Assouan.
The hippopotamus abounds in the Niger where It
was seen by Richard and John Lander Cl'apperton
observed them in the lake Muggaby. Bornou" and
in the great lake Tchad and its tributary river^
♦wYk'^"""'' '"ofensive, it is only when attacked
that the hippopotamus becomes furious, and if hard
pressed on land, he rushes open-mouthed with the
utmost desperation on his aggressor. If the party
attacking the ammal in his watery domicile te m
a boat, their danger is extreme. Captain Owen
('Narrative of Voyages to explore the shores of
Atrica, under Captain W. F. W. Owen') had many
encounters with these animals. While examinino^
a branch of the Temby river, in Delagoa 8^1
violent shock was suddenly felt from Snderneath
the boat, and " in another moment a monstrous hip-
popotamus reared itself up from the water, and in a
most ferocious and menacing attitude rushed open-
mouthed at the boat, with one grasp of iU tremen-
dous jaws seized and tore seven planks from her
side; the creature disappeared for a few seconds
and then rose again, apparently intending to re-
peat the attack, but was fortunately deterred by the
contents of a musket discharged in its face The
boat rapidly filled, but as she was not more than an
oars length from the shore, they (the crew) suc-
seeded in reaching it before she sank. The kee)
in all probability, had touched the back ofthe animal'
which, irritating him, occasioned this furious attack •
and, had he got his upper jaw above the gunwale'
the whole broadside must have been torn out. The
force of the shock from beneath, previously to the
attack, was so violent, that her stern was almost
lifted out of the water, and Mr. Tambs, the mid-
shipman steering, was thrown overboard, but for
tunately rescued before the irritated animal couM
seize him. v^^um
Fig. 374 represents the skeleton of the hippo-
potamus, which IS a ponderous frame-work in unison
3T6.^1ndian Ithinuceroi.
381,— Indian Rhinoceroi.
368.— Javanese Rhinoceroa.
384.~SkuU of Javanew Khinoceroa.
3M.— Samattmn Rhitu>cenM.
-^^
385 — Skeleton of Rhincceros.
i'1
Stii).— Khinocerof Keitlo*.
No. 12.
379.~Khinocero« Keitlo*.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
89
90
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Rhinoceros.
with the vast weight of solid fle»h to be sustained
and the enormous strength of the muscles. The
neck, though short, is lonicer in proportion than
that of the elephant, and from the shortness of he
limbs gives the animal the power of grazing the
*Folfr*fo«wl species of hippopotamus are described
by Cuvier; of one (H. anliquus^ the rehcs are
widely distributed, and are particularly abundant in
the Val dAmo. Italy, intermixed with those of the
elephant and rhinoceros.
.375— Thk Rhinocero«.
This genus contains six living and well-established
species, as far as naturalists are at present able to
determine, and several fossil species, of which the
relics occur in the same strata as those of the fossil
The existing species are confined to the hotter
regions of the Old World, and are divided between
Africa and India, including the islands of Java and
Sumatra. It is in the land of the elephant and the
hippopotamus that the rhinoceros wanders in fear-
less confidence, as if aware of his enormous powers,
and the advantage of his weapons of defence. One
species (Rh. Indicus ; Figs. 375, 376, 378, 380, and
381) is peculiar to continental India beyond the
Ganges, Siam, and Cochin China ; one (Rh. Javanus;
Fig. 382) is a native of Java; and one with two
horns (Rh. Sumatranus : Fig. 383), of Sumatra. Three
two-homed species are indigenous in Africa, viz. : the
common two-homed or black rhinoceros (Rh. bi-
comis, Linn. ; Africanus, Cuv. : Figs. 377, 387) ; the
^hite rhinoceros (Rh. simus : Figs. 3S8,389): and the
Keitloa(Rh. Keitloa: Figs. 379 and 386), discovered
by Dr. Smith during his expedition into the interior.
We may here add that though Bruce and Salt notice
»»C lUaj licit »uu H1U.V ^...v^f^— ,
the existence of a two-horned rhinoceros in Abys_
sinia different from the common species of South
Africa,* there is some reason to believe in the
existence of a single-horned species in that region.
Bruce states that a one-homed rhinoceros is found
towards Cape Gardafui, according to the accounts
of the natives in the kingdom of Adel. Accounts
of such an animal were received by Dr. Smith from
the natives in the interior of South Africa, who re-
presented it as living far up the countiy ; moreover
Burckhardt alludes to a one-horned species in the
territory above Sennaar, and states that the inhabit-
ants there give it the name of the " mother of the
one horn." According to this traveller, its northern
boundary^, like that of the elephant, is the range of
mountains to the north of .\bou Huaze, two days'
journey from Sennaar. The hide of this animal is
manufactured into shields, which have an extensive
sale ; the material of the horn is also sold, and at
a high price, Burckhardt having seen four or five
Spanish dollars paid for a piece four inches long
and one inch thick. Was the one-horned rhinoce-
ros seen by Strabo at Alexandria this species or
the common Indian ?— and the same question ap-
plies to the one-horned rhinoceros, which, with a
hippopotamus, was given by Augustus, in the cele-
bration of his triumph over Cleopatra, to be slain in
the Circus ; which animals, Dion Cassius says, were
then first seen and killed at Rome— an assertion per-
fectly erroneous, as it respects the rhinoceros, if it
was the common Indian species, for Pliny, in his
eighth book, alluding to the games of Pompey, men-
tions the one-horned rhinoceros (Indian, it is pre-
sumed) as then exhibited (" lisdem ludis, et rhinoce-
ros unius in nare cornu, qualis saepe visus"). With
respect to the two-horned African species, it was also
exhibited in Rome ; and had learned critics known
anything of natural history, the line in Martial
(" nami^ue gravem gemino cornu sic extulitursurn")
would not have given rise to so many futile disquisi-
tions and attempted corrections. Psusanias desciibes
a two-homed rhinoceros under the name of Mi\\\o-
pian Bull. Two individuals of the same species
appeared at Rome under the emperor Domitian, on
some of whose medals was impressed their figure ;
others were exhibited under Antoninus, Helioga-
balus, and Gordian III. Martial lived in the time
of Domitian. and the rhinoceros " gemino cornu '
was doubtless seen by him.
The animals of the present genus are all remark-
able for the massiveness of their form and the clum-
. siness of their proportions ; they are, however, more
prompt and rapid than might be at first supposed,
-.nd when attacked they rush on their foes with
headlong impetuosity. The body is of great hulk,
and protuberant at the sides ; the neck is short and
deep; the shoulders are heavy, the limbs thick;
the feet are divided into three toes incased in hoofs.
The skin is thick and coarse, with aknotty or tuber-
culous surface, and destitute, or nearly so. of hairs.
• A pair of horiM bronxht by Salt from Abyarinia, and now in the
mtueam of the Royal 0>llei(e of Sorgeonj, more nearlv resemble
thoae of the KeiUoa than of the R. bicomii ; and Dr. Smith considers
a pair brought by Major Denham from North Africa to be dilTerent
a.;ain, and unliite those of any other species. Cluiw of rhinoceroa-
hom. of about three fert in lenjfth, have been brought from Dahomy,
Western Africa. It is evident tliat thrre are two OX three apeciea in
In the common Indian species it is disposed in large
folds, especially on the neck, shoulders, haunches,
and thighs. The eyes are small, placed nearer the
nose than in other quadrupeds, and high towards the
upper surface of the skull ; the ears are moderate
and erect. The head is large and ponderous : it is
elevated between the ears, whence it svfeeps
with a concave line to the nasal bones, which rise in
the form of an arch to support the horn (see skele-
ton, Fig. 385). The upper lip is soft, flexible, sen-
sitive, capable of being protruded, and used to a cer-
tain degree as an organ of prehension.
But that which gives most character to the head
of the rhinoceros is its horn, single in some species,
double in others. This organ is of an elongated,
recurvent, conical figure, arising from a broad, lim-
pet-shaped base, seated on the nasal bones, which
are of a thickness and solidity not to be found in
other races of quadrupeds, they form a vaulted
roof, elevated in a remarkable degree above the
intermaxillary bones, containing the incisoi; teeth,
and their upper arched surface is rough with nu-
merous irregularities and depressions; and here
we may pause, to reflect on the advantages gained
by their form and structure. They have not merely
to sustain the weight of the horn, no trifle in itself,
but to resist the shock occasioned by the violent
blows which the animal gives with the weapon upon
various occasions. Hence, conjoined with their
solidity, that form is given to the nasal bones
which, of all others, is best calculated for sustaining
a superincumbent weight or sudden jars ; while the
rugosities and depressions tend to the firmer adhe-
sion of the skin, to which the horn is immediately
attached. In the two-horned species the posterior
horn rests on the os frontis. The nasal horn of the
rhinoceros is a solid mass, structurally composed of
agglutinated fibres analogous to hair, and much
resembling those into which whalebone is so easily
separable.
It has been asserted by some travellers that the
horns of the African species are moveable, and that
the animal rattles them against each other : this,
however, is a mistake— they are firmly fixed. The
nostrils aie on each side of the upper lip ; the
tongue is perfectly smooth, contrary to what is
alleged by many of the older wiiters, who describe
it to' be covered with spines, and capable of lace-
rating the skin. The senses of smell and hearing
are very acute. Dentition variable : canines want-
ine In the Indian rhinoceros the formula is as
4 7— 7_
follows :— Incisors, -; Molars, y—— 36.
Africa with which naturaliats are nut acquainted.
376, 378.— The Indian Rhinoceeos
in his native regions leads a tranquil, indolent life :
like the elephant, he gives preference to the marshy
borders of lakes and rivers, or swampy woods and
jungles, delighting to roll and wallow in the oozy
soil, and plaster his skin with mud. He is also
fond of the bath, and swims with ease and vigour.
The splendid animal in the gardens of the Zoological
Society may be often seen during the hot weather
of summer enjoying the bath in the paddock ap-
propriated for his exercise, or rolling and wallowing
in the mud, or basking luxuriously, half in, half out,
of the water, like a huge hog, uttering every now
and then a low gruntof self-complacent satisfaction.
Sluggish in his habitual movements, the rhino-
ceros wanders through his native plains with a heavy
step, carrying his huge head so low that his nose
almost touches the ground, and stopping at intervals |
to crop some favourite plant, or, in playful wanton-
ness, to plough up the ground with his horn, throw-
ing the mud and stones behind him. The jungle
yields before his weight and strength, and his track
IS said to be often marked by a line of devastation.
When roused the rhinoceros is a most foi;midable
antagonist, and such is the keenness of his senses
of smell and of hearing, that, unless by vei-y cau-
tiously approaching him against the direction of the
wind, it IS almost impossible to take him by surprise.
On the appearance of danger the rhinoceros gene-
ritly retreats to his covert in the tangled and
almost impenetrable jungle, but not always, and in-
stances are on record in which, snuffing up the aii
and throwing his head violently about, he has
rushed with fury to the attack, without waiting fot
the assault. There are, in fact, seasons in which the
rhinoceros is very dangerous, and attacks every
animal with impetuosity that attracts his notice or
ventures near his haunts, even the elephant himself.
From the earliest times the horn of the Indian
rhinoceros (the observation applies to other species
also) has been regarded either as an antidote against
poison or as efficacious in detecting its presence, as
well as useful in curing disease. The Indian kings
made use of it at table, because, as was believed,
" it sweats at the approach of any kind of poison
whatever." Goblets made of it are in high estima-
tion ; these are often set with gold or silver, and
sell for large suras : when poison is poured into
them, the liquor, it is said, betrays its noxious quali-
ties by effervescing till it mns over the brim : water
drank from them, or from the cup-like hollow at the
base of the horn, is regarded as medicinal. In the
latter case the water is to be stirred in the hollow
with the point of an iron nail till it becomes dis.
coloured, when the patient must drink it.
The strong deep folds into which the coarse
skin is gathered in the cheeks, neck, shoulders,
haunches, and thighs are distinguishing characters
of the Indian rhinoceros. The general colour of
the skin is dusky black, with a slight tint of purple.
Mr. Hodgson (' Proceedings ol the Zoological
Society,' 1834) states that "the female goes from
17 to 18 months with young, and produces one at
a birth : he adds also, " It is believed that the
animal lives for 100 years : one taken mature was
kept at Katmandoo for 35 years without exhibiting
any symptoms of approaching decline. The young
continues to suck for nearly two years: it has for a
month alter birth a pink suftusion over the dark
colour proper to the mature hide." The female is
desperate in the protection of her young.
382.— TuK Javanese Rhinoceros
{Rh. Javanus). As far as is ascertained, this species
is conlined to the island of Java, where it is called
Warak. In the character of the incisor teeth, and
the horn being single, it agrees with the Indian
species; but it is a less bulky animal, and in pro-
portion, more elevated in the limbs ; the folds of the
skin are both less numerous, less deep, and also
' dift'erently arranged; the surface of the skin is
divided into small polygonal tubercles with a slight
central depression in each, from which arise a few
short bristly hairs. In its habits this species is
gregarious ; its range on the island extends from
the level of the ocean to the summits of mountains
of considerable elevation— the latter situations aie
preferred ; its retreats in these mountains are to be
discovered by deeply-excavated passages worked out
on their declivities. When met with, or otherwise
disturbed, it quietly retires, being very mild and
peaceable. Night is the principal season of its ac-
tivity, and it often commits considerable damage in
the plantations of coffee and pepper. The horns and
skin are employed for medicinal purpo<.es by the na-
tives. Dr. Horsfield f Zoological Researches in
Java ') gives a detailed account of one of these ani-
mals which was kept at Surakarta, and which was
very mild and .tractable, allowing persons even to
mount on its back. In its habit of wallowing in
the mire it reseqnbled the rest of the genus. The
Javanese Rhinoceros was known to Boutins, who
wrote on the productions of that island in 1629.
Fig. 384 represents the skull of this species, which
is more elongated in proportion and less heavily
made than that of the Indian animal.
383.— The Sumatran Rhinoceros
(Rh. Sumatranus, Raffles) was first described by Mr.
Bell, surgeon in the service of the East India Com-
pany at Bencoolen (' Philosophical Transactions,'
1793) ; but it appears to have been indicated pre-
viously by Mr. C. Miller, long resident in Sumatra
(Pennant's ' History of Quadrupeds,'3rded., vol.i.).
The head is more elongated than in the other two
species, and there are two horns on the nose : the
neck is thick and short, the limbs massive ; the skin
is rough and black, and covered with short hair ; the
folds are very inconsiderable, but are most distinct
i on the neck, shoulders, and haunches. The
' female is stated to have a heavier head than the
male. The number of incisors is four in each jaw,
but of these the lateral ones aie very small and soon
fall out ; hence Bell and others supposed the num-
ber to be only two.
The Sumatran rhinoceros is by no means bold or
savage ; one of the largest size has been seen to run
away from a single wild dog. Its native name is
Badak, whence the term Abadia, or Abath, applied
to the Indian rhinoceros by our early navigators.
Sir S. Raffles says that, besides this species, there is
another animal in the forests of Sumatra, never no-
ticed, which in size and character nearly resembles
this rhinoceros, but which is said to h;ive a single
horn and to be distinguished by a narrow while belt
encircling the body. The natives of the interior
term it Tennu, which, at Malacca, is the name of
the Tapir ; but in Sum.^tra the name of the Tapir is
Gindol and Babialu. In the interior, however, where
different tribes shut out from general communication
speak different dialects, it is probable that the term
Tennu may be the name applied by some, as at Ma-
lacca, to the tapir, and hence would the confusion
arise; for, from the description, notwithstanding
the assertion that it possesses a horn, we cannot
help regarding this Tennu of the forest of the interior
as the tapir. .... c .
Of the African species of rhinoceros we may ftrst
notice the
377, 387.— Black or Commos African Rhinoceros
(Rh. bicornin, Linn. ; Rh. Africanus, Cuv.). This
huge animal, though driven from the precincts of
Rhinoceros.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
91
the colony, is still extensively spread throughout
the southern regions of Africa. When the Dutch
first formed their settlement on the shores of Table
Bay, this rhinoceros was a regular inhabitant of the
thickets which clothed the lower slopes of the
mountain ; but it has retired, and continues to retire,
betore the advance of colonization and the gun of
the hunter. This species differs from the Indian,
not only in the possession of a double horn, but in
the absence of massive folds of skin, and in wanting
the incisor teeth. The skin is thick, coarse, sca-
t}rous, and forms a deep furrow round the short thick
neck ; the head is heavy ; the eyes are small, and
the skm round them, and on the muzzle, and before
the ears, is wrinkled ; the upper lip is slightly pro-
duced, and prehensile. The anterior horn is long,
fibrous at the base, hard, and finely polished at the
point ; the posterior horn is short and conical. Ge-
neral colour yellowish brown, with tints of purple
upon the sides of the head and muzzle ; eyes dark
brown. Length about eleven feet. A few black
hairs fringe the edge of the ears and the tip of the
tail. This animal feeds upon brushwood, and the
smaller branches of dwarf trees, " from which cir-
cumstance," says Dr. Smith, " it is invariably found
frequenting wooded districts, and in those situations
its course may be often traced by the mutilations
of the bushes. The mass of vegetable matter con-
sumed does not appear to be in proportion to the
bulk of the animal : indeed, as it feeds but slowly,
and passes much of its lime in idleness, it must be
regarded as a very moderate eater, and, considering
that it appears to be fastidious in the choice of its
food, it is fortunate for its comfort that it does not
require more nourishment." Of the senses of the
rhinoceros, those of hearing and smell are very acute,
and aid the animal more than his sight in the dis-
covery of danger, the bulk of the body screening
objects not immediately before the eyes. "As these
animals depend much upon smell for their existence
and safety, it is necessary to advance upon them
from the leeward side, it the aim be to get close
without being discovered. In pursuit they also
trust for guidance to the same sense, and may be
heard forcibly inspiring the air, when they have lost
the scent of the object they are folloning. The
ticks and other insects with which they are covered
furnish for them another source of intelligence, in-
asmuch as they attract a number of birds, which sit
quietly picking them off, when nothing strange is
in sight, but fly away when any object excites their
fear. So well does the rhinoceros understand this,
that he proceeds feeding with the greatest con-
fidence while the birds continue perched upon his
back ; but the moment they fly, the huge animal
raises his head and turns it in all directions to catch
the scent. Whether he accomplishes this or not, he
generally feels so uncertain of his position, that he
moves to some other locality." The same observa-
tions apply to the other African species. When
disturbed or attacked, the rhinoceros becomes fu-
rious, and especially when wounded : he then rushes
towards his foe, and if he can get the hunter once
within his sight, the escape of the latter, unless he
exert great presence of mind, or the well-directed
shot of a companion stop the animal in his career,
is very doubtful. The best plan is to wait till the
enraged beast approaches, and then step aside sud-
denly, where some bush or inequality of the ground
may afford a shelter, and give time to the hunter
for reloading his gun before the rhinoceros gets
sight of him again, which lortunately it does slowly
and with difficulty. Travellers in the regions fre-
quented by this animal are not safe during the night
from its attacks. It appears to be excited by the
glow of a fire, towards which it rushes with fury,
overturning every obstacle. It has, indeed, been
known to rush with such rapidity upon a military
party lodged among the bush covering the banks
of the Great Fish River, that before the men could
be aroused it had severely injured two of them,
tossed about and broken several guns, and com-
pletely scattered the burning wood. Le Vaillant,
in an animated account of a rhinoceros hunt, de-
scribes the enraged and wounded animals as plough-
ing up the ground with their horns, and throwing a
shower of pebbles and stones around them : and
Dr. Smith says that they are sometimes seen to
plough up the earth for several paces with the front
liom when not enraged, but for what object he could
not discover. The native (Bechuana) name of this
species is Borili.
379, 386.— The Keitloa
(Rh. Keitloa, Smith). In general figure this savage
•pecies resembles most nearly the common African
rhinoceros. There are, however, he observes, many
marked differences between them, of which the Ibl-
lowing are a few of the external and more palpable.
In Rhinoceros Keitloa the two horns are of equal
or nearly equal length ; in Rhinoceros Africanus
the posterior in neither sex is ever much beyond a
third of the length of the anterior horn ; the length
of the head in proportion to the depth is very dif-
ferent in the two. The neck of Rhinoceros Keitloa
is much longer than that of the other, and the posi-
tion and character of the cuticular furrows destined
to facilitate the lateral motions of the head are very
difi'erent. Besides these. Dr. Smith states that many
other diagnostic characters might be instanced ;
such as the black mark on the inside of the thigh
of the Keitloa, the distinctly produced tip of the
upper lip, and the comparatively few wrinkles on
the snout and parts around the eyes.
The first example of this animal which Dr. Smith
met with, during his expedition, was shot about
180 miles N.E. of Lattakoo, but considerably south
of the country to which the species appears directly
to belong, and from which it might be considered
as a wanderer. On the expedition penetrating to the
northward of Kurrichane, every one was found con-
vereant with the name and able to direct to situa
tions where the animal was found. Few mentioned
the Keitloa without alluding to its vindictive tem-
per and ferocity ; and those, says Dr. Smith, who
had sufficient confidence in the party, compared to
it a chief, then awfully oppressing that part of the
country, and spoke of the man and the animal as
alike to be feared. As the party advanced, the
Keitloa became more common, though it never
occurred in such numbers as the other two species.
" The interest," says Dr. Smith, " wliich the dis-
covery of this species excited, led to the making ot
minute inquiries as to the animals of this genus:
and the expedition had sufficient reason to believe,
from the replies to constant questions, that two
other undescribed species existed farther in the in-
terior, one of which was described as being some-
thing like the Keitloa, and having two horns — the
other as dift'ering in many respects, and having only
one horn. The Keitloa browses on shrubs and the
slender branches of brushwood, using the upper lip
as an organ of prehension."
388, 389. — The White or Blunt-xosed
Rhikockkos
(ifA. simtis), termed Mohoohoo by the Bechuanas,
is larger than the two former species, being upwards
of twelve feet in length, and neariy six feet in
height. It is a huge, massive animal, with the neck
longer than in the other African species, having
three deep wrinkles running from tiie nape down
the sides ; the muzzle is truncate, the mouth
shaped like that of an ox, the upper lip perfectly
square, and destitute of the mobility and power of
protrusion, which it exhibits in the other species.
Hence, instead of browsing upon shrubs, it feeds
principally upon grass, and therefore frequents open
plains where such herbage abounds, wandering very
extensively in search of pasturage. This animal
was first described by Mr. Burchell, who when at
Lattakoo found it in abundance there, and Mr.
Campbell brought the head of one to England. In
the Mohoohoo the horns are situated close to the
extremity of the nose : the first is very long, tapered
to a point, and slightly curved back ; the second is
short, conical, and obtuse. The general colour is
pale broccoli-brown; the buttocks, shoulders, and
under parts shaded with brownish purple ; tail
clothed with stiff black hair. According to Dr.
Smith, the introduction of fire-arms among the
Bechuanas has rendered this animal rare in the dis-
trict where Mr. Burchell found it numerous : higher
up the country, however, it still maintains its ground.
In disposition it differs from the other two species,
being much more gentle, and is therefore regarded
with less fear than either the Keitloa or the Borili.
The tiesh of all three species is esteemed whole-
some food by the natives, who dig pit-falls for them
in situations to which they are known to resort; and
sometimes, though rarely with success, attempt to
kill them with the assagai or spear. In style of
motion they are all alike, and so awkward that their
swiftness is to be appreciated not by directly watch-
ing the animal itself, but by fixing the eye upon
some two points between which it takes its course.
To revert to the one-horned rhinoceros, of which
Dr. Smith heard in the interior of South Africa,
and of which Bruce and Burckhardt received ac-
counts as existing in Adel and the country south
of Sennaar, it may be added that Dr. Smith adduces
the testimony of Mr. Freeman respecting an animal
by no means rare in Makooa, north of the Mosam-
bique Channel, which, overlooking the absurdities
and exaggeration of the description, he suspects to
be a one-horned rhinoceros, and probably that of
which he heard, and which may extend to the
countries mentioned by Bruce and Burckhardt.
Among the fossil relics of animals which at some
former period have tenanted this globe, and after
a quiet possession, generation succeeding generation,
of their pasture-lands, have become as it were
blotted out of the book of creation, those of the
rhinoceros are extremely abundant, little less so, if
at all, than those of the fossil elephant or mammoth,
as widely distributed, and occurring in the same
strata and the same localities. Several species
have been distinctly made out, among which the
most remarkable is that with a bony partition be-
tween the nostrils, and supporting the nasal bones:
it is termed by Cuvier Rh. tichorhinus. Fig. 390 re-
presents the skull in two views : a, profile ; b, seen
from below.
It was of this species that Palla* in 1771 disco-
vered an entire frozen carcass buried in the sand on
the banks of the Wilouji or Viloui, which joins the
Lena, in Siberia. Happily, therefore, we know the
form and true proportions of the living animal.
The skin was smooth and destitute of folds, and, like
the common African rhinoceros, the animal had two
horns. The feet had three toes, as in all extant
species, but the hoofs were lost. Like the mam-
moth of Siberia, this animal was originally covered
with hair : in many parts of the skin this hair still
remained, especially over the feet, where it was very
abundant, measuring from one to three inches in
length, of a stiff quality, and of a dusky grey. The
head was invested with a similar clothing. The
head and feet are preserved in their natural state in
the museum of St. Petersburg.
The skull of this species differs from that of the
two-horned African rhinoceros, not only in the
presence of the osseous nasal partition, but in gene-
ral form and proportions. The length and narrow-
ness of the skull are very remarkable, as is also the
space between the orbits, which is much more con-
tracted than in the common two-horned species, and
the nasal bones are far more elongated. In the
two-horned rhinoceros the disc which bears the an-
terior horn is a semi-sphere, in this an oblong ellipse,
and a disc of similar figure supports the second
horn, whence it may be safely concluded that the
horns of this fossil species were strongly compressed
at the sides. The occipital ridge is elevated and
drawn out backwards, so that from the highest point
the occipital bone slopes at a very acute angle in-
wards to the condyles.
About nine fossil species of rhinoceros are de-
scribed. Almost every bone-cavern in England,
France, and Germany has afforded them in abund-
ance ; and Dr. Buckland proves that there must
have been a long succession of years in which the
elephant, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros, with the
hya;na, inhabited our island ; and that the former,
as the bones testily, became the prey of the latter,
or were devoured after natural or accidental death.
391, 392, 393.— The Daman, or Hteax.
When we look at the rabbit-like hyrax, it does
not surprise us to find that all the older naturalists
regarded it as a Rodent, and placed it in that order.
It was reserved for Cuvier to point out its true situa-
tion. " There is no quadruped," says this great
man, " which proves more forcibly than the daman
the necessity of having recourse to anatomy, as a
test by which to determine the true relationship of
animals." This fur-covered active creature is a true
Pachydermatous animal, and, notwithstanding the
smallness of its size, it is to be regarded as " inter-
mediate between the rhinoceros and tapir." The
resemblance which the hyrax bears to the former
may be traced in its osseous system and internal
anatomy (see 'Proceeds. Zoof. Soc' 1832 and
1835). On these points it would here be out ot
place to dwell ; we have, however, figured the
skeleton (Fig. 394) and the skull (Fig. 395), which
to many will be of interest. With respect to the
latter, the singular depth of the lower jaw cannot
but strike every attentive observer ; and it may be
added that in the convexity of the posterior edge
of the ascending portion it surpasses that even of
the tapir, which, in this respect, is the nearest among
all animals to the hyrax. In other particulars the
skull approaches that of the rhinoceros; the molar
teeth, in fact, are those of the rhinoceros in minia-
ture, both as to form and number. There are, as
in the rhinoceros, no canines. The ui)per incisors,
two in number, are long, triangular, pointed, stout,
and separated from each other by a small interval.
The lower incisors are lour in number, set in close
array, flat, and directed forwards. At first their
edges are notched, but they become smooth by use.
The molars are seven on each side, above and be-
low : but the first, which is small, falls out, being
worn down as soon as the last molar on each side
has arisen ; and, in old individuals, the next is fre-
quently wanting also.
With respect to the skeleton, it may be remarked
that there are 21 ribs on each suie, a number
greater than in any other quadruped, except the
two-toed sloth, which has 23. The elephant and
tapir follow the hyrax. The fore-feet are divided
into four toes, tipped with hoof-like nails ; the hind-
feet into three, of which the innermost is furnished
with a long claw-like nail. The toes are all buried
in the skin, as far as the little hools, precisely as in
the rhinoceros.
Several species belong to the present genus : we
have figured the Cape Hyrax or Daman (Fig. 391),
N 2
-^A. .■
illV.y*
StS.— Syrian Hynx.
887. — Black Rhtnoceroa and-Yoaog.
388.— Two-homed Rhinoceros.
394.~Skeleton of Daman.
ti '' ''"^ ■
J*t '^'^gl£;J.;i>=^l
92
Ml.— Cape Hynx.
390.— Sliull of Fosail Rhinocenn.
3M.— Hymx.
397.— Indian Tapir.
93
94
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Tapirs,
and the Syrian Hyrax, or Coney of the Scripture*
(Fig. 393).
391.— Thb Capb Hybax, or Dassib of thb
CoLOmSTS
{Hyrax Copermt), is common in the rocky and
mountain disliicU of South Africa, taking up its
abode in the tissures of the rugged crags, which
aftbrd it an asylum. It abounds on the sides of
Table Mountain, but is so wary, quick, and active,
that it is not to be approached without much diffi- [
culty. It often, however, falls a prey to the eagle
and falcon, which pounce upon it while feeding in
apparent security. The Vulturine Eagle (Aquila
Vuliuiina), which makes the mountain precipices
its abwle, destroys it in great numbere. This timid
little animal is gregarious in its habits, like the
rabbit, which it somewhat exceeds in size. The fur
is soft and deep, and of a dark greyish brown, be-
coming of a paler tint beneath. There is no tail.
The following comrounicaiion, by Mr. W. R. Read
(see 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1835,
p. 13j, needs no apology for its insertion : —
"The Hyrax Uapensis is found inhabiting the
hollows and crevices of rocks, both on the summits
and sides of hills, as well as near the sea-shore, even
a little above hieh-water mark. It appeai-s to live
in families, and is remarkably shy in its wild state.
In winter it is fond of coming out of its hole, and
sunning itself on the lee side of a rock, and in sum-
mer of enjoying the breeze on the top; but in both
instances, as well as when it feeds, a sentinel is on
the look out (eenerallyan old male), which gives
notice, usually by a shrill prolonged cry, of the ap-
proach of danger, or even the least movement of any
suspicious object. It lives on the young shoots of
shrubs, the tops of flowers, herbs and grass, particu-
larly of all those which are aromatic."
393.— The Syrian Hyrax
{H. St/rinais). This species, according to Bruce,
is found in Abyssinia, where it haunts the deep
caverns and clefts in the rocks. By the natives of
Amhara it is termed Ashkoko, or Askoko. It also
tenants the mountains of Syria and Arabia ; and, as
in days of old, the rocks of Horeb and of Sinai are
still "a refuge for the Coneys." By the Aralis,
according to Dr. Shaw, it is called Daman Israel,
that is, LamI) of Israel, or rather Ganara or Gannim
Israi:!, as Bruce contends, the word Daman being
mistaken for the latter. Most authorities agree
that it is the Shaphan (translated Coney) of the
Scriptures. The Syrian Hyrax agrees in habits
with iis Cape relative. It tenants the acclivities of
the rocks, sheltering itself under projecting ledges,
in deep fissures and caves : it is gregarious, and
dozens may be often seen either sitting upon the
great stones at the mouth of the caves, to warm
themselves in the sun, or playfully skipping about
in the enjoyment of the freshness of the evening.
When captured, they inflict severe wounds with
their formidable incisors, but are soon rendered
tame and familiar. Cuvier and many naturalists
have heMtated as to the distinctness of the Syrian
and the Cape Hyrax. They are, as we think, un-
doubtedly different, and the Syrian species may be
distinguished by the presence of long bristle-like,
but slender, black hairs, dispersed not very thinly
over its body and considerably exceeding the fur :
such at least was the case with the specimen which
we examined ; while in the numerous specimens
from the Cape, of all ages, in the museum of the
Zoological Society, nothing of the kind is to be per-
ceived. Bruce, -indeed, noticed this peculiarity,
and he considered the Amharic name Ashkoko "as
derived from the singularity of those long herina-
ceoiis hairs which, like small thorns, grow about his
back, and which in Amhaia are called Ashok."
A fossil form closely allied to the Hyrax, the skull
of which has been discovered in the clay near Heme
Bay, has been descrit)ed by Professor Owen.
Genus Tapiriis. — This genus comprehends, as far
as known, only three species, of which two are
natives of Soiitli America, the other of Sumatra and
Malacca.
The geographical distribution of the existing
species of pachydermatous animals is so partial,
that we are surprised to find the islands of Sumatra
and the peninsula of Malacca dividing with South
America this limited genus between them. America,
compared with Asia and Alrica, is deficient in
living forms of the Pachydermata : two only are
indigenous to that vast continent, viz., the peccary
and tapir; and, reasoning from analogy, we should
not expect to find either of these forms in any por-
tion of the Old World, and more especially in the
islands of the Indian Archipelago. The great mass
of the Pachydermata are peculiar to the warmer
regions of Asia and the continent of Alrica; and
many genera, as Elephas, Rhinoceros, Sus, and
Equus. give species to each, but not to America : so
that the existence of cognate species in one of the
Indian Islands and in South America appears as if
it were an exception to a general rule, at least if
we limit our views to the races now extant on the
earih. Once, indeed, America was replete with
animals of this order : and why so few stiould now
appear as their representatives is a point not easy
of solution. In their general form and contour the
tapirs remind us of the hog; but the snout consists
of a flexible proboscis, not, indeed, elongated like
that of the elephant, but still sufficiently developed
to serve as a hook by which the animal is capable
of drawing down twigs to the mouth, of grasping
fruit or bunches of herbage. The nostrils open at
its extremity in the form of two transverse fissures,
but there is no finger-like appendage. (For ana-
tomy see ' Proceed. Zool. Soc.,' 1830, p. 163.)
The tapir is a massive, powerful animal ; the
limbs are thick and moderately long ; the head is
large, compressed, and, in the American species,
elevated at the occiput (see Fig. 402), whence the
thick neck rises with a. prominent upper crest or
ridge, along which runs a mane of stift' thinly-set
hairs. The eyes are small and deep set ; the ears
are rather short ; the tail is rudimentary. The an-
terior feet are divided into four toes, the hinder into
three, the tips only being cased in hoofs. The skin,
which is thick, tough, and solid, is sparelv covered,
excepting in one species, with very short close
hair. The dentition (see Fig. 403) consists of six
incisors in each jaw ; the canines are small, espe-
cially those of the upper jaw, and are separated
from the molars by a considerable interval ; the
molars are seven on each side §bove, and six below,
and, until worn down by attrition, the crowns pre-
sent two transverse ridges. Fig. 401 represents the |
skeleton of the ordinary American Tapir ; in gene-
ral details it approaches that of the rhinoceros. Of
the two species of tapir peculiar to America, one has
been only recently discovered. It was found by Dr.
Roulin in the most elevated regions of the Cordil-
lera of the Andes, and is covered with long, thick,
black hair. The bones of the nose are more elon-
gated than in the other species, and Cuvier regards
it as approaching in some respects to the fossil genus
Palaeotherium.
398, 399.— The Common American.Tapib
(Taph'us Americanus). This species is very ex-
tensively spread throughout the warmer regions of
South America, but especially between the tropics,
where it inhabits the deep forests, leading a solitary
life, and seldom stirring from its retreat during the
day, which it passes in a state of tranquil slumber.
During the night, its season of activity, it wanders
forth in quest of food, which consists of water-melons,
gourds, young shoots of brushwood, &c. Its choice
of food is not very limited ; and indeed, it appears
to be as omnivorous as the hog. Azara, who states
that the Guaranis term this animal Mborebi, and
the Portuguese of Brazil, Anta, affirms that it de-
vours the barrero, or nitrous earth of Paraguay, and
that he has found a quantity of this substance in the
stomach. Its senses of smell and hearing are ex-
tremely acute, and serve to give notice of the ap-
proach of enemies. Its voice, which it seldom
utters, is a shrill kind of whistle, in strange contrast
with the massive bulk of the animal. Of enormous
muscular power, and defended with a tough, thick
hide, the tapir is capable of tearing its way through
the underwood in whatsoever direction it pleases :
when thus driving onwards, it carries its head low,
and, as it were, ploughs its course.
Its fondness for the water is almost as strong as
that evinced by the hippopotamus. It swims and
dives admirably, and will remain, as we have seen
while observing the specimens in the gardens of the
Zool. Soc, submerged for many minutes, rise to the
surface for breath, and plunge again. When hunted
or wounded it always, if possible, makes for the
water, and in its nightly wanderings will traverse
rivers and lakes in search of food, or for pleasure.
The female is very attentive to her young one, lead-
ing it about on the land, and accustoming it at an
early period to enter the water, where it plunges and
plays before its parent, who seems to act as its in-
structress. The male takes no share in this work, and
does not constantly associate with the female.
In its disposition the tapir is peaceful and quiet,
and, unless hard pressed, never attempts to attack
ii either man or beast; when, however, the hunter's
dogs surround it, it defends itself very vigorously
with its teeth, inflicting tenible wounds. We have
witnessed those in confinement in the gardens of
the Zool. Soc. occasionally break out into fits of
irritation, plunging about, lunging violently with
their heads, and snapping with their teeth like a
hog. The most formidable enemy of this animal (if
we except man) is the jaguar; and it is asserted
that when that tiger of the American forest throws
itself upon the tapir, the latter rushes through the
most dense and tangled underwood, bruising its
enemy, and endeavouring thus to dislodge him, and
sometimes succeeds in the attempt.
In Cayenne the Tapir is occasionally domesticated,
and is harmless and quiet : it becomes indeed fami-
liar, and often proves troublesome to those who
caress it, as may be imagined would be the case
with a pet hog under similar circumstances. The
adult Tapir measures from 5 to 6 feet in length, and
between three and four in height ; its colour is uniform
deep blackish brown ; the young are longitudinally
marked with spots and six or eight bands of fawn-
colour along the body, and with numerous spots of
the same tint on the cheeks. (See Fig. 400.)
396, 397. — The Malay ob India.n Tapib
(Tapirus Iiidicvs, Farquhar). This species was first
introduced to science by Major Farquhar in 1816.
It is a native of Sumatra and the Malay Penin-
sula, where it is called tannoh or tennu ; and is as
well ^nown in Malacca as the elephant or rhino-
ceros. In disposition it resembles its Amencan
relative. It feeds on vegetables, and is very partial
to the sugar-cane. Though the natives have not
domesticated it, this species is as easily tamed as
the Tapir of America, and becomes as gentle and
familiar. Major Farquhar possessed one which was
completely domesticated, and as much at home aa
any of the dogs : it fed indiscriminately on all kinds
of vegetables, and was very fond of attending at
table to receive bread, cakes, and the like. This
Tapir was procured in the Malay Peninsula. (See
'Trans. Asiat. Soc.,' vol. xv., 1820.) A Sumatran
tapir was about the same time presented alive to
the Asiatic Society by G. J. Siddons, Esq., resident
at Bencoolen. It was of a lazy habit, very familiar,
1 and delighted in being rubbed or scratched ; and this
I favour it solicited from the people about him, by
throwing itself down on its side, and making sundry
movements. It is distinctly stated of this Sumatran
specimen, that another of its great delights was to
bathe, — also "that it remained a very considerable
time under water." The living specimen, says Sir
S. Raffles, sent from Bencoolen to Bengal, " was al-
lowed to roam occasionally in the park at Barrack-
pore. The man who had the charge of it informed
me that it frequently entered the pond, and appeared
to walk along the bottom under the water, and not
make any attempt to swim." This characteristic
habit of the animal was not observed by Major Far-
quhar in his Malacca specimen. That gentleman
says, indeed, that he thought he might venture to
affirm that the Malacca tapir is not, like the Ame-
rican species, amphibious in its nature. He adds,
that the one he reared showed rather an antipathy
to water, and that in the peninsula of Malacca these
animals are found to frequent high grounds. As,
however, it is admitted on all sides that the Malacca
and the Sumatran tapirs are the same, and as these
creatures difter in no material points of conformation
from the American tapir, it is not easy to imagine
that, while the American animal and that from Su-
matra are so aquatic in their habits, the animal from
Malacca should exhibit contrary piopensities. In
Sumatra the tapir inhabits the dense forests of the
interior, and is, therefore, seldom seen : hence it has
been considered rare in that island : it must, how-
ever, be observed, that after the loss of the ship Fame
by fire, when a living Sumatran tapir with other
animals perished, Sir S. Rafiles, during the short
period of his stay in Sumatra, was enabled to procure
other specimens, one of which is in the museum of
the Zoological Society, and another in the museum
of the East India Company.
The Indian tapir exceeds the American in size : it
has no mane, and the snout is longer and more pro-
boscis-like. The most striking external difterence
between the eastern and western animal, however,
is in colour. Instead of being of the uniform dusky-
bay tint of the American, the Indian tapir is strangely
parti-coloured. The head, neck, fore-limbs, and lore-
quarters are quite black : the body then becomes
suddenly white or greyish-white, and so continues to
about half way over the hind-quarters, when the
black again commences abruptly, and is spread over
the legs. The abruptness and contrast of the mark-
ing of this animal makes it look precisely as if it
were covered round the body with a while horse-
cloth, leaving the fore and hind-quarteis exposed.
The young, until the age of four months, are black,
beautifully marked with spots and stripes of fawn
colour above, and white below.
According to Sir S. Raffles, the Indian tapir re-
ceives various names in difterent districts. By the
people of Liraun it is called Saladang : in the inte-
rior of Manna. Gindol ; at Bencoolen, Babi Ala ; and
at Malacca, Tennu. Marsden .states that it is de-
nominated by the Malays in many districts Kuda-
aj'er, or river-horse. Though the flesh of the Indian
Tapir, like that of the American, is dry and disagree-
able, and therefore of little value as an article of
food, still the animal might be domesticated with
advantage (and the same observation applies to the
western species), and employed as a beast of draught
or burden, its docility and great strength being
strong recommendations. Its skin would prove,
from its toughness, useful for various purposes.
Hogs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
95
404, 405. — The PAL^OTHKBirM.
la the larypsum-quarries near Paris and in various
parts of Fiance have been discovered the fossil rehcs
of a group of Pachydermatous animals, to which
Cuvier gave the title of Palaeotherium. Ten or
eleven species are recognised, varying from the size
of a rhinoceros to that of a hog. The most imme-
diate alliance of these fossil forms is to the Tapir,
and they, perhaps, take an intermediate station be-
tween tliat animal and the rhinoceros. The bones
of the nose prove that the Palceotheria must have
been furnished with a short proboscis ; the toes
were three in number on each foot : the dentition
consisted of 6 incisors in each jaw ; canines, as
usual ; and 7 molars on each side above and below.
Figs. 404 and 405 represent --espectively outlines
of the Palseotherium magnum and Palaeotherium
minus, as restored by Cuvier ; Figs. 406 and 407
represent the skeletons of the same animals ; Fig.
40« is an imperfect skull of Palaeotherium magnum ;
Fig. 409 shows the characters of the molar teeth ol
the upper jaw ; Fig. 410, the lower jaw and molar
teeth, imperfect.
The restoration of the skeletons of these extinct
forms is one of the triumphs of science ; and, by
persons unacquainted with the law of harmonious
dependence which reigns throughout the structure
and organization of animal bodies, might be deemed
an improbability, or at least, an uncertain process :
not so — the bones of the feet, the teeth, the spine,
or of the limbs, are to the comparative anatomist
a foundation upon which he can rear a super-
structure, a clue to the recomposition of the fabric, i
Speaking of the accumulated stores of fossil relics
at his command, Cuvier thus writes : — " I at length
found myself, as if placed in a charnel-house, sur-
rounded by mutilated fragments of many hundred
skeletons of more than twenty kinds of animals
piled confusedly around me ; the task assigned to
me was to restore them all to their original positwn.
At the voice of comparative anatomy every bone
and fragment of a bone resumed its place. I can-
not find words to expres.s the pleasure I experienced
in seeing, when I discovered one character, how all
the consequences which I predicted from it were
successively confirmed. The feet accorded with
the characters announced by the teeth ; the teeth
were in harmony with those indicated previously by
the feet. The bones of the legs and thighs, and
every connectmg portion of the extremities, were
seen joined together precisely as I had arranged
them, before my conjectures were verified by the
discovery of the parts entire. Each species was
in short, reconstructed from a single unit of its com-
ponent elements." The relics of the Palaeotheria
are found mingled with those of many other extinct
forms in a stratum of fresh-water formation, as is
evidenced by the shells it contains : it is the first
of the great fresh-water formations of the Eocene
period of Lyell, a deposit in which nearly fifty extinct
species were discovered by Cuvier. We cannot
doubt but that, like the tapir and rhinoceros of the
present day, the Palaeotheria frequented the borders
of lakes and large rivers, feeding upon the leaves
and twigs of brushwood : there they lived and died ;
their dead carcasses drifted to the bottom of the lake,
swept off from the shore in seasons of flood, when
the swollen rivers cleared the adjacent lowlands of
hosts of dead, and perhaps also of the living, hurry-
ing them to destruction, and depositing their relics,
to be in other ages brought to light, the " reliquia
vetustioris aevi."
Another fossil genus allied to the tapirs is termed
by Cuvier Lophiodon : not less than fifteen species
are determined ; and they are found in the same
fresh-water formation as the Palaeotheria. The
dentition of the Lophiodon differs from that of the
last-named animals, the lower jaw having only six
molars. The teeth in character approach those of
the rhinoceros. Fig. 411 represents a lower back
molar of the gigantic Lophiodon of Argenfon ; Fig.
412, an upper back molar; Fig. 413, a canine tooth;
Fig. 414, two incisor teeth : all of the same species.
With many essential parts of the osteology of these
extinct animals naturalists are as yet unacquainted ;
the bones of the nose, for example, and those of
the feet, are not recovered. The remains of the
Lophiodons found at Issel, Argenton, Bucksweiler.
Montpellier, Montabusard, &c., occur in beds of
fresh-water formation, but below those superficial
strata containing the bones of the Mammoth and
Mastodon. They are associated with the relics ot
forms of terrestrial animals of which we have no
living prototypes, and with those of crocodiles and
fresh-water tortoiaes. The antiquity of these beds
may be inferred from the fact that in most places
they are covered by strata of decidedly marine
formation, so that the Lophiodon existed and passed
away not only before the races had commenced
whose remains are found (and found only) in the
alluvial strata of the earth, but before the extinction
of still older races : they belong in fact to strata of
our continent, over which, after becoming consoli-
dated, the sea has rolled, and remained long enough
to cover them with rocks of a new origin.
The Family Sitidie, or the Hog tribe.— The animals
composing this family, of which the hog is the type,
are distributed over Europe, Asia, Africa, and South
America; it is indeed the only pachydermatous
group the members of which are thus distributed.
Viewed externally, the feet of these animals resemble
those of the ordinary Ruminants, and may indeed
be termed cloven ; but the distinction is evident
when we come to examine the bones. In the hog
every toe (there are four on each foot) has its own
metacarpal or metatarsal bone, and though the
outer toe on each side is shorter 1 han the two middle,
still it is as perfect in conformation. The external
similarity of the feet of the hog to those of the
cloven-footed ruminants, and their real distinction
did not escape Buffon, though at the same time
that celebrated philosopher was unable to discern
the true affinities of this animal, and its real place
in the scale of the Mammalia. In the peccaries,
hojvever, it must be observed that the metacarpal
bones of the two middle toes of the fore-limbs and
the corresponding metatarsal bones of the hind-lirabs
are consolidated into a sort of canon-bone, as in
ruminating animals, while at the same time the
stomach is divided into several distinct sacculi — an
additional point of structural approximation to the
Ruminants.
The general external characters of the hog tribe
need not be recapitulated here ; all are familiar
with them, as displayed by the ordinary tenant of
the sty.
415, — The Collared Pbccaet
(Dicotyles torquatxts). The Peccaries are the only
indigenous representatives of the porcine group in
America ; the hog, which is now common there,
being of recent introduction, though it wanders in
wild herds.
The peccary closely resembles the hog in form
and in the quality of the bristly hair which covers
the body. It differs, however, from the hog in den-
tition, the incisors of the upper jaw being four in-
stead of six, and the molars above and below on
each side six ; while the tusks, which are of mode-
rate size compared with those of the hog, instead of
taking a curve outwards, meet like ordinary canines ;
they are, however, sharp and effective weapons.
Fig. 423 represents a lateral view of the teeth of
both jaws; Fig. 424 those of the upper jaw in two
views, and Fig. 425 those of the under. The limbs
are more slender in proportion than in the hog, and
there are only three toes on the hinder feet, the
small outer toe being wanting. The tail is a mere
tubercle : beneath the skin on the top of the loins
is a large glandular apparatus, which pours out a
secretion of disgusting odour. In their voice, their
habits of rooting in the earth, the mode in which
when angry they erect the bristles of the mane, and
clash their teeth, they resemble their procine rela-
tive of the Old World.
The collared peccary is a native of the dense
forests throughout the greater part of South Ame-
rica, and is usually met with in pairs or small fami-
lies : they take up their abode in hollow trees and
holes of the earth, where they seek a refuge from the
pursuit of their enemies, of which, man excepted,
the jaguar is the most destructive. Plantations of
maize, sugar-canes, and potatoes often suffer from
their incursions. It is only when hard pressed that
the peccary defends itself : indeeil it displays nothing
of the sullen courage of the wild boar, but retreats
on the appearance of danger, and precipitately seeks
its hiding-place.
Azara states that the Guarinis term this species
Taytetou, and the white-lipped species Tagnicati.
It IS, he adds, domesticated with more facility than
the wild hog, and becomes troublesome from its fami-
liarity. " It is saia, and I believe it, that their flesh
is good, but not so fat as that of the hog; when
killed, however, the elandular orifice between the
haunches must be removed, since, if this be not
done, the flesh acquires a bad odour and taste.
Nevertheless the Indians eat it without this pre-
caution." The inferiority of the flesh of the pec-
cary to th»t of the hog, and its dorsal gland, will
combine to exclude it from the European farmyard.
The collared peccary is about three feet in length,
and is distinguished by a stripe of white or yellowish
white passing from the withers down each shoulder
and meeting on the throat. Its general colour is
grizzled blackish grey ; the bristles being ringed
grey, straw-colour, and black.
The white-lipped peccary (^Dlcotyhs lahiatus) is
larger than the collared species and more robust; it
associates in vast troops directed by an old male ;
when attacked they surround the man, dog, or ja-
guar, and if there be no means of escape, their
enemy is soon torn to pieces. M. Schomburgk had
a narrow escape from an infuriated herd, the leader
of which he shot in the act of rushing at him; as
the troop approached where he stood, the noise wa«
like that of a whirlwind through the bushes; " but
the peculiar growl and awful clapping of the teeth,"
he adds, " did not leave me long in doubt as to its
cause : it was evident the herd had divided, and
were coming directly towards me : I know not yet
how I climbed the lower part of a mora-tree, when
by they rushed, their muzzles almost sweeping the
ground, and their rough bristles on the back stand-
ing erect : they might have numbered fifty. They
came and passed like a whirlwind ; and before I had
recovered from my astonishment, I heard them
plunge into the river and swim to the opposite
bank." Both species delight to wallow in the mire
and muddy pools, and readily take to the water,
swimming with great vigour.
In captivity the white-lipped peccary hag ap-
peared to us to be more reserved and savage than
the collared species, and more ready to testify
by the clashing of its teeth its feelings of dis-
pleasure.
416, 417. — The Babiboussa
{Sus Babirussa, Linn. ; Babirttssa alfunu, F. Cuv.).
The terra Babiroussa means literally hog-deer, and
there is some reason to think that the ancients were
not altogether unacquainted with the animal. Pliny
notices a wild boar with horns on the forehead,
found in India ; and Cosmes, a writer in the sixth
century, uses the term hog-deer (xoip«Ao())os) as the
designation of an Indian animal : however this
may be, it is only recently that naturalists have be-
come well acquainted with it and its habits, though
its skulls have been brought over to Europe
in abundance by vessels trading among the Mo-
luccas.
The Babiroussa differs somewhat in dentition
from the hog, the incisors being four above, instead
of six, and the molars five on each side in either
jaw. The upper canines or tusks of the male emerge
directly upward from their apparently distorted
sockets, and sweep with a bold arch backwards,
attaining to a very great length. The skin is thick,
coarse, gi-anular, of a blackish tint, and sparingly
beset with very short bristly hairs. The tusks of
the lower jaw are long, strong, and sharp, emerging
like those of the boar. The tusks of the upper jaw do
not pass out between the lips, but cut their way
through the skin, nearly halfway between the end
of the snout and the eyes. The tusks of the lower
jaw are formidable weapons. The male when adult
equals the largest hog ; the female is of much
inferior size, and destitute of the curled upper tusks,
or has them only rudimentary.
The Babiroussa is found in the marshy forests in
the interior of Bourou, and other of the Molucca
islands, as Araboyna, and also Java, where it as-
sociates in troops. Its habits resemble those of
the wild hog, and it is restless and ferocious. Ac-
cording to Lesson it feeds chiefly upon maize, giving
preference to that grain beyond other articles of
diet. It is partial to the water, and swims with the
greatest ease, often crossing the straits betneen
adjacent islands without any difficulty. Some time
.since a pair of these animals were living and pro-
duced younsr in the menagerie of Paris. They were
fond of nestling under the straw, and when the male
retired to rest the female would cover him over
with litter, and then creep under the straw to him,
so that both were concealed. The following are
notes which we made from a young male babiroussa
living in the gardens of the Zool. Soc. : — This
animal is hog-like in its figure, and much resembles
a small pig of the Chinese breed. It is roundly
formed like a young well-bred hog, and the skin
lies close, giving a compactness to its appearance.
The head is small, and high between the ears ;
the snout is elongated ; the ears are very small, erect,
and pointed ; the eyes in their form and expression
resemble those of a stag ; the iris is brown ; the
skin, which is thinly clothed with short black bristly
hairs, is everywhere dotted with small granulations,
which spread and become rougher, coarser, and
more decided about the limbs and feet, and espe-
cially on the anterior part of the head and sides
of the face and under-jaw. Closely as the skin lies,
it becomes thrown into a series of regular and prettily
arranged wrinkles or furrows with the different move-
ments of the body, and varying in direction accord-
ingly. As the animal turns to one side, these fur-
rows are transverse ; in other attitudes they become
more or less oblique ; but none are to be seen when
the animal stands still or lies quietly on its straw.
The tail is rather long, slender, and tapering ; the
limbs are well proportioned, and do not appear
to be longer, in relation to the size of the body,
than in the hog ; the tusks of the upper jaw (in the
present individual) are at present small, but curved
back.
In its state of captivity this young babiroussa
seems as contented as a pig in its sty, and it is not
only quiet, but disposed to familiarity, raising itself
up on its hind-legs, and putting its snout to the bars
<0S.— Skeleton of TilBOtlnriiuil nugnum.
4U7.-Skel*ton or Falaollurium mlnat.
406,— Skull of Paleolhcrium maf^num.
4M.-~Ou0inm't MBoifaeriium mignum.
40S.— OwIIm or Pilsotherivm Minus.
41«.— Btbiroiusa.
417.— Bibinnuu.
409.— Molu teeth of upper Jaw of the nme, Men from above.
410.— External »iew of part of the lower jaw of the same.
^-lll of Lopliiodon.
414.— ainll of BabirouMa.
418 Head of Babitoujsa, acan in pioSle.
4 1».— Collated Peccary.
96
429 — Skull of the 11. ir.
^--t$^^^
4::) to 422. -Teeth of liablroussa
430.— Tetth of ihe Hog.
423 to 425.— Teeth of Collared Pcccaiy.
426.— Wild Boar.
CI.— Boar-htiBt.
B
fe^^^
^%fc
I0i00^^
■—-
428.— Boar-bout.
m30^
:,. 13.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED -NAIURE.]
«7
98
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Hogs.
of the enclosure, evidently soliciting food. It turns
the straw over and over with it* snout, and champs
in eatini;, but utters, as far as we could learn, no
grunt, as does the hoe, nor has it the unpleasant
smell of the latter. That the babiroussa might be
reclaimed, notwithstanding Lesson's account of its
savasre disposition in capti% ity, and added to our
domestic animals, is rer)- evident. Its flesh is re-
ported to be held in high estimation. Fig. 418
represents the head of the male babiroussa («) and
of the female (A) by way of contrast. Fig. 419 is an
admirable delineation of the skull of the adult
male, in which the form of the tusks, their relative
proportions and direction are faithfully given. Fig.
420, a lateral view" of the dentition of upper and
lower jaw. Fig. 421, dentition of upper jaw in two
views ; Fig. 422, those of the lower jaw.
426, 431.— The Wild Hog
(Sus A/>er, Briss. ; Sim Scrtrfa, Linn.'). The wild hog
is, as ail naturalists admit, the origin of our domes-
tic race, but at what period it was reclaimed is very
uncertain. The circumstances indeed connected
with the domestication of everj- animal subject to
the bondage of man are enveloped in obscurity. The
domestication, however, of the wild hog would not
involve much ditficulty. Young individuals taken
in their native forest soon become reconciled to
captivity, and display the same contentment and
familiarity which are so conspicuous in the ordinary
tame beast. It is this disposition, a characteristic
of the Pachyderraata, which renders the elephant,
the rhinoceroSj the tapir, and othere, so easily sub-
jiisrated ; but, on the other hand, the readiness with
which they submit to the restraints of captivity is
counterbalanced by an equal readiness to assume a
life of independence. The hog when left to itself
resumes its original habits, as is the case in Ame-
rica, where wild herds roam the forest ; and, as we
have seen, the elephant oilen escapes its trammels
and joins its wild brethren, immediately submitting,
if retaken, to the voice of authority which it had
previously learned to obey. The hoi'se in a wild
state scours the plains of Tartary and South Ame-
rica ; it requires but a struggle to break in the most
spirited. It may be laid down as an axiom, that
the animals of whose services man stands most in
need are, each in their way, those whose nature
most readily induces them to submit to his domi-
nion, nay, even court his friendship. Some we
can tame, and only tame ; others we can educate.
The wild hog was once common in our island,
and it is almost surprising, considering the passion
for the chase which seems to be part and parcel of
our English temperament, that this animal is not
re-established in some of its old haunts, the parks
and forests of nobility. In India, indeed, the chase
of the wild boar is one of the field-sports to which
our counti-ymen are enthusiastically devoted ; nor
is there any reason why it might not be revived in
England.
The wild hog is still common in the forests of
Germany, France, and other portions of Europe,
and extends also through Asia and Africa ; if in-
deed the species is positively identical — a point
which there is some reason to question. At all
events slight differences are observable between
the Indian wild boar and the present breed of the
German forests; and Sonnini expresses a doubt
as to the identity of the Egyptian and European
wild race.
In no essential point does the wild race of Europe
differ from our domestic breeds ; the snout however
is more elongated, and, as might be expected, the
contour of the frame is more gaunt and bony. The
ears are short and erect, the tusks large, and the
bristles long and coarse ; the general colour is
rusty-black or blackish brown, more or less brindled
in patches. After the age of three years, the wild
boar leads a solitary life ifi the forest, fearless of
every foe and confident in his weapons, which,
added to his great strength, render him a formidable
antagonist. It is not, however, until the age of five
or six years that he attains to his full dimensions,
and the duration of his life is from twenty-five to
thirty years. The females with their young associ-
ate in herds for the sake of mutual protection : on
the approach of an enemy the young are placed in
the centre, the old on«s forming a circle round
them ; and should he be hazardous enough to ven-
ture on the attack, he meets with a rough reception.
It is thus that the young are preserved from wolves,
the chief foes to be dreaded by them ; to which in
some districts they often fall a prey, notwithstand-
ing the vigilance of their parent. It is only in
defence of their young that the females are furious,
but the old males are not to be approached without
caution, and often nish out upon those who venture
near the precincts of their lair. At certain seasons,
indeed, the wild boar is very savage, and should he
meet a rival, the most sanguinarj' combat ensues.
In the month of December or January, each male
attaches himself to the society of a chosen female,
whom he accompanies in the deepest glens of the
forest for about thirty days. When about to pro-
duce her young, the female seeks some imdisturbed
retreat remote from the haunts of the male, who it
appears exhibits a propensity to devour her pro-
geny if he discover the litter. To her young the
female is a most attentive mother; she suckles
them for three or four months, and they remain
with her for a long time : an aged female is some-
times seen followed by several families, among
which are some of the age of two or three years.
I These young rovei-a the French hunters call bCtes
de compagnie. The wild boar seldom stirs from
his lair during the day, and may therefore be
regarded as in some degree nocturnal ; on the ap-
proach of twilight, he rouses from his indolent
slumbers, and sets out in quest of food, which con-
sists of acorns, beech-mast, grain, different vege-
tables, and roots ; in search of the latter, he ploughs
up the ground with his snout : corn-fields in the
vicinity of forests where wild hogs exist often suffer
extensively from their nightly incureions. The
wild boar, though not truly carnivorous, does not
refuse animal matters which chance may throw in
his way : he does not however ordinarily attack and
kill others for the sake of their flesh, but only
devours what he may meet with in his lambles. In
j the morning the wild boar returns to his lair in the
j thickest and most gloomy part of the Ibrest, under
I a rock, in a cave, or under the canopy of gnarled
and intertwined branches. When roused by the
hunter and his dogs, the old boar retreats sullenly
and slowly, gnashing his teeth, foaming with anger,
and often stopping to receive his pui-suers, on whom
he ollen rushes with sudden impetuosity, striking
with his tusks, goring doers and men, and scattering
terror around. When the boar turns upon a pack,
the foremost dogs are sure to suffer, and several
will fall by as many strokes. An instance is on
record in which a boar turned suddenly upon a
pack of fifty dogs which pursued him, and instantly
despatched six or seven of them, wounding all the
rest with the exception of ten. The young boar is
less resolute than the old animal, and will run to
a considerable distance before he is brought to bay ;
nor is the assault attended with any great degree
of danger. In all ages, the chase of the boar has
been a favourite diversion ; the classic writings
abound with allusions to it and to the risk incurred.
Ovid (Fab. iv., lib. viii.) gives a spirited account
of the chase, in which the fury and strength of the
enraged beast are admirably depicted. It would
seem that the ancients endeavoured to enclose the
boar by nets so as to prevent his escaping into the
recesses of the forest : the combat was close, and
therefore dangerous ; driven from his lair by the
dogs, and hemmed in, the infuriated animal turned
savagely upon his assailants, and died, after killing
and wounding dogs and men, transfixed by spears
and javelins. Our forefathers in the Middle Ages
deemed the wild boar one of the noble " beastes of
venery," and kept a powerful breed of hounds for
the chase : the weapons used by the huntsmen were
spears, and a sort of short sword, or couteau de
cliasse ; the speai-s were used when the boar was
brought to bay, and the attack gave abundant
opportunities to the hunters of showing their skill
and courage. The loud blast of the horn, mingled
with the shouts of men and the baying of the
hounds, proclaimed the vigorous home-thrust that
struck the savage lifeless to the ground. Figs. 427,
428, and 428* are illustrative of the boar-hunt as
conducted in Europe in the Middle Ages. Fig. 432
illustrates boar-hunting as practised in India at the
present day. The hunters are always mounted on
horseback, and, instead of meeting the animal with
spears, attack him with javelins, which are launched
at him as he flies, or as he rushes to the charge,
which is often so determined that the horses cannot
be brought to stand the shock, or, if they do, are
thrown down and gored ; serious accidents some-
times occur. Mr. Johnson relates an instance in
which a large and resolute boar, after being driven
by the hunters into a plain, stood at bay and chal-
lenged the whole party : he charged every horse
that advanced within fifty yards of him, with great
ferocity, causing them to rear and plunge, and
throw off their riders, whose lives were in jeopardy :
though many of the horses were accustomed to the
sport, none would stand his charges, or bring the
rider within javelin distance, and at last he fairly
drove the party from the iield ; and then, gnashing
his tusks and foaming, he made his way to the
jungle, where it was useless to attempt to follow
him.
In our own country the boar, reserved for the
sport of the privileged classes, was protected by
severe laws. By one of the edicts of William the
Conqueror (a.d. 1087), it was ordained that any
who were found guilty of killing a stag, roebuck, or
wild boar were to have their eyes put out : some-
times, indeed, the penalty appears to have been a
painful death.
At what precise period the wild boar became
extinct in our island cannot be precisely deter-
mined ; it is evident, however, that as population
increased, and the vast woods which spread over
many parts of the country were cut down and the
land cleared, that the range of the boar would be-
come more and more limited, and its numbers
decreased, till at length its extirpation would be
complete. We look in vain for the forest which,
in the 12th century, covered the country to the
north of London, and of which Fitzstephen, in the
reign of Henry II., writes, observinsr that "on the
north are corn-fields and delightful meadows, in-
termixed with pleasant streams, on which stands
many a mill, whose clack is so grateful to the ear ;
beyond them an immense forest extends itself,
beautified with woods and groves, and full of the
lairs and coverts of beast and game, stags, bucks,
boars, and wild bulls." Banished, however, as the
wild boar is from among our native Mammalia,
"its name is immortalized," as Mr. Bell observes,
" by having given origin to the appellation of many
places in different parts of the country, and by its
introduction into the armorial bearings ot many dis-
tinguished families of every division of the king-
dom."
The skull of the hog (Fig. 429), which affords an
index of the habits of the animal, is of a conical
or wedge-like form ; the base or occipital portion
forms a right angle with the oblique upper surface,
and a bold transverse ridge is formed by the union
of the occipital and parietal bones. The nasal
i bones are prolonged nearly to the end of the snout,
which, in the living animal, terminated in a move-
able cartilaginous disc, pierced by the nostrils.
The lower jaw is of great strength. The dentition
f* 1 1 .
(Fig. 430) is as follows : — Incisors, _ ; canines, '
7 ^7
molars, - — =44. The canines of the upper jaw
are prismatic, and curve downwards, having their •
anterior surface worn by the action of the huge
canines of the lower jaw, which are sharp, sweep
out from the sides of the mouth, and often attain to
the length of eight or ten inches, and sometimes
even more. These canines or tusks are terrible
weapons : rushing on his antagonist, the boar
strikes obliquely upwards, right and left, with pro-
digious violence ; a mode of action the best calcu-
lated for bringing these weapons into effective play,
and in which the muscular powers of the neck and
shoulders are the most advantageously and naturally
exerted.
433, 434, d, e. — The Domestic Hog
is too well known to need any description ; and its
utility too well appreciated to require comment.
It is not, however, valued alike in all countries,
and in some is regarded with abhorrence. In India
both Brahmin and Mussulman reject its flesh as
food, yet in many districts of that country semi-
domesticated hogs wander about the villages, feed-
ing on the refuse which they pick up in the streets.
Colonel Sykes states that in Dukhun "every vil-
lage abounds with hogs, but any property in them
is equally abjured by individuals and the commu-
nity." Detestation of the hog was a feeling enter-
tained by certain nations in remote antiquity. It
was classed by the Jews among the vilest animals,
and in Egypt the swineherd was numbered among
the profane, and forbidden to enter the temples of
their gods ; even the Ibwest dregs of the people
refused to bestow their daughter on him in mar-
riage. The Egyptians sacrificed the hog to Bac-
chus, and to the moon when full. " In the evening
of the festival of Bacchus," says Herodotus, " thougli
every one be obliged to kill a hog before the door
of his house, yet he immediately restores the car-
cass to the swineherd that sold him." The ancient
Scythians, according to- the same authority, made
no use of swine, nor suffered any to be kept in the
country. The Abyssinians and the Cophts of
Egypt, as well as the Mohammedans, reject the
flesh of the hog. Among the ancient Greeks and
Romans, though the office of swineherd appeare to
have been held in contempt, the flesh of the hog
was in high estimation, and a sucking pig was as
favourite a dish as amongst ourselves in the present
day. The Chinese have derived no prejudices
against the hog from the Mohammedan nations Of
the East : on the contrary, they rear these animals
in great numbers for the sake of their flesh ; and
even the numerous population who tenant the float-
ing town of rafts or barges contrive to keep and
rear them.
" One of the most singular circumstances," says
Mr. Wilson, "in the domestic history of this animal,
is tile immense extent of its distribution, more
especially in far-removed and insulated spots in-
habited by semi-barbarians, where the wild species
is entirely unknown. For example, the South Sea
Islanders, on their discovery by Europeans, were
found to be well stocked with a small black-legged
Hoes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
99
hoif ; and the traditionary belief of the people in
regard to the original introduction of these animals
Rliowcd that they were supposed to be as anciently
descended as themselves. Yet the latter had no
knowledge of the wild boar or any other animal of
the hog kind from which the domestic breed might
be supposed to be derived." ('Quarterly Journal
of Agriculture.')
Among our Saxon forefathers the hog was of
great importance : its flesh was a staple article of
consumption in every household, and a great por-
tion of the wealth of the farmers and landed pro-
prietors consisted of droves of swine, which were
attended by swineherds, thralls, or bondslaves, and
which were driven into the woods of oak and beech,
in order to feed on acorns and mast, and all the
while guarded from the attacks of the wolf. The
domestic hog of that period appears to have closely
resembled, in form and colour, the wild species, and
the old unimproved breed, now seldom seen, may
be regarded as its modem representative. (Fig.
433.) There are now in our island several breeds
of this useful animal, of acknowledged excellence,
the result of judicious crossings. The test of ex-
cellence is productibility, a readiness to become fat,
small bone, and the quality of the whole animal
when converted into bacon: size is of minor im-
portance. The introduction of the small Chinese
Dreed is one great source of improvement. The
Chinese hog is short in the head, with sharp neat
ears, low on the limbs, and high in the chine. It is
very prolific, and fattens readily. (Fig. 434, </.)
The prevailing colours are black or half black and
half white. This breed, or one closely allied to it,
extends from (^'hina throughout various groups of
islands in the Pacific.
The breed nearest to the Chinese in this country
is the Suffolk (Fig. 4.34, /) : these are generally
white ; they are compactly made, and deep in the
chest.
Another source of improvement is the Neapolitan
hog: this is a plump animal of a black colour,
without any hair, and with a singular predisposition
to become fat : it is however of a tender constitu-
tion. The pure black breed of Essex, which has
very little hair, is closely allied to it, and when
crossed with the Neapolitan produces a most valu-
able stock : a cross between the Neapolitan and
Berkshire breed is also in high esteem. A breed
between the Berkshire, Chinese, and Neapolitan
may, by careful selection, produce every quality
which can be desired : great fecundity, an early
acquisition of fat, and moderate size, with admirable
form and proportions. Our group of hogs fFig. 434)
represent-i — a, the wild boar; b, the old unimproved
breed ; c, the black or wire-haired breed ; d, e, boar
and sow of the improved breed ; /, the pure Suffolk
breed ; </. the Chinese breed.
The domestic hog is by no means destitute of
intelligence, and little deserves the character of a
stupid filthy brute, as some are pleased to call it.
As regards filthiness, everything will depend on its
keeper: it is true that, like the elephant and hippo-
potamas, it delights to wallow in the mire ; but no
animal more luxuriates in clean straw, and when it
is styed up in filth justice is not done to it. The
hog is a " huge feeder," but so are the horse and ox,
and a fat hog is a more comely-looking beast than
one that is lean and ill-fed. With respect to intelli-
gence, we rank it far before the ox and horse,
though it is less docile. In Minorca it is used to
draw the plough, and works well ; and Pennant says
that in the district of Murray, between the Spey and
Elgin, it was formerly employed for the same pur-
pose, and that a. credible eye-witness informed riim
" that he had seen in his parish there, a cow, a sow,
and two younij horses voked together and drawing
a plough in light sandy soil, and that the sow was
the best drawer of the four." The senses of taste,
smell, and hearing are possessed in great perfec-
tion by the hog: it is a saying among a certain
class of persons that pigs can smell the wind ; they
are certainly aware of the approach of a storm, and
we have seen them agitated during its continuance,
screaming, and running about with straw in their
mouths, or carrying it to their sty a* if to add to
their shelter. In Italy advantage i« said to be
taken of the sense of smell with which this animal
is endowed in searching for truffles; and in our own
country the famous sow Slut was broke in to the
gun, and ittood to h^r game as stanch as the best
pointer.
The genus Su* as at present constituted contains,
besides the common wild hog and its domestic re-
latives, two other species known to naturalists : of
thes« one is the Papuan hog, or BSne of the natives
of New Guinea (.Sus Papuensis), figured and de-
scribed in the 'Zoologie de la Coquille,' by MM.
I<es«on and Gamot. It is remarkable for its small
•ize, and its light and agreeable proportions, and
the shortness of the tusks. It is common in the
forests of New Guinea, where it is esteemed by the
native Papuan* a* delicate food: they contrive to
catch these animals when young, and rear them in
a state of domestication.
The other animal is the Woodswine of South and
Eastern Africa, and of Madagascar, the Uosch-Vark
of the Dutch colonists of the Cape (Sus larvatus,
Cuv.). This savage and formidable animal resem-
bles the wild boar of Europe, but its head is larger
in proportion, its snout broader, and an elevated
callous protuberance is seated on the cheeks be-
tween the tusks and eyes, giving a revolting aspect
to the physiognomy. Prompt and vicious, the
Bosch-Vark is much to be dreaded in combat, its
strength and the size of its tusks rendering it a
match for almost any foe. It dwells in excavations
in the ground, where it is dangerous to attack it, as
it ruiihes out suddenly from its retreat and deals
rapid destruction among its assailants. Dr. Smith
obsei-ves that this species is subject to great variety
of colouring, scarcely any two specimens being pre-
cisely alike : some are of a brownish black variegated
with white, and others are of an almost uniform light
reddish brown or rufous without white markings ;
and it is scarcely possible to say which is the most
prevailing style of colouring. The bristles are long,
particularly upon the upper parts of the neck and
back; the canines are of huge size and strength:
the ears are short, and thinly covered both without
and within with coarse black hair, which is longest
at their tips. The tail is thinly covered with black
bristles. Average length of body, between four and
five feet; of the tail, one foot.
The discovery of the bones of an extinct hog of
huge size in the cavern of Sundwick in Westphalia
is due to M. Goldfuss. Bones of three distinct
species occur in the Epplesheim sand (Miocene
division of tertiary deposits, Lyell), and fossil relics
of a species have been found in Ilutton Cave, in
Mendip, and in other places.
Several species of an extinct genus (Chseropo-
tamus) closely allied to the hog have been disco-
vered in the gypsum of Montmaitre, in certain
strata in Switzerland, and in the Eocene formation
of the Isle of Wight, &c.
Genus Phacochcerus. — ^The animals contained in
this genus resemble the hog in manners, form,
and aspect, so that, were it not for the peculiarity
of their dentition, they would necessarily be included
in the genus Sus. Their dentition, however, is so
different from that of the hog as to justify their se-
paration. Instead of presenting the ordinary struc-
ture, the grinders have a great analogy with those
of the elephant: they are composea of vertical
cylinders of enamel, enclosing an osseous deposit,
and are cemented together by cortical substance,
or crusta petrosa. It is long before the root of these
teeth is perfected, and they advance in rotation
from behind forwards, pushing before them the
first molars, which in old individuals are found to
be either greatly reduced or to have entirely dis-
appeared. It is not till after ceasing to push for-
ward that the roots become consolidated. With
regard to number they appear to vary. In the skull
of the Abyssinian Phacocnoere (Ph. ./Eliani, Riipp.),
which we have carefully examined, the molars
were found to be four on each side above and three
below. From the first molar above, which was
very small, to the third, the increase in size was
gradual, but the fourth molar was long and nar-
rowed gradually as it proceeded backwards. Had
the animal lived much longer, it is probable that
the first molar would have disappeared : the denti-
tion would then have been as represented in Fig.
4.36. The incisors were two above and six below.
The tusks were enormous. It would seem that the
presence of incisors is variable ; for in the South
African species they either do not exist or are un-
developed. Cuvier states that vestiges of them are
sometimes found under the gum ; but in specimens
from Cape Verde the incisors are generally com-
plete.
Fig. 436 is one side of the upper jaw of the South
African Phacochoere : Fig. 4'}7, one side of the lower
jaw of the Cape Verde species : Fig. 438, a lateral
view of the last molar tooth, which may be compared
with the molar of the elephant.
The head of these animals is enormously large
and heavy ; the eyes are small and set high on the
forehead, which is depressed between them ; under
each eye is a large coarse fleshy lobe ; and a warty
excrescence appears on each side of the muzzle, be-
tween the eye and the tusks. The muzzle is very
broad, and the ears are erect.
435.— The South African PHACOCHffiHE
(Phacochanu yJUl/iiopiau, F. Cuvier), or Vlacke
Vark of the Cape colonists. The phacochoere found
in Guinea, at Cape Verde, and along the Senegal,
is regarded as distinct from the present species by
F. Cuvier, in consequence of the possession of
incisors ; and is termed by him Ph. Africanus, The j
range of the South African phacochfere, or Vlacke '
Vark, does not appear to be precisely determined ; [
formerly it existed within the limits of the Cape I
colony, and still lingers on the frontier districts,
but is much more common in the remoter latitudes.
In the frontier districts these animals seldom venture
to seek their food during the day ; but in the coun-
tries inhabited by natives who are destitute of the
efHciunt arms of the colonists they are at all times
to be met, though their favourite feeding-times are
early in the morning, late in the evening, and even
during the night, if it be moonlight. When disturbed
in its retreats, and especially when hunted, the
yiacke Vark is a very dangerous animal ; fur though
it will not turn out of its way to give chase, yet if
brought to bay, or forced to extremity, it attacks
with furious impetuosity, and strikes with its tusks,
which are dreadful weapons : it has been known to
cut with one stroke completely through the fleshy
part of a man's thigh. We learn that though this
animal is used as food by the colonists, the Hotten-
tots, and Bechuanas, it is rejected by the Coa*t
Caffres, who are much more particular as to what
thev eat than any other natives of South Africa,
anu consider as an inferior class the persons who
consume as food the articles which they hold as
prohibited. The top of the head, the upper part of
the neck, and the anterior part of the back are
covered with very long and rigid bristles of a black-
brown colour, those on the top of the head diverging
like the rays of a circle. On the other parts the
hair is shorter and of a dull brown, slightly inclined
to white on the belly and flanks. The tail, except
along the top, where it is furnished with a number
of blackish brown bristles, is nearly naked. Lengtlv,
of head and body, about five feet ; of the tail, about,
eleven inches.
439, 440. — The Abyssinian PHACOCHfERE
(Ph. JEliani, Iliippell), This species was found by
Riippell first in Kordofan, but afterwards in greater
abundance on the eastern slope of Abyssinia. It
haunts low bushes and forests ; and has a habit of
creeping on its bent fore-limbs in quest of food. In
this altitude, it uses its tusks in digging up or tear-
ing out of the ground the roots of plants, which
constitute part of its diet. When thus engaged it
pushes its body forwards by means of its hind-legs,
in order to move along. This habit of kneeling to
feed has been observed in the species from Cape
Verde. We have occasionally noticed it in the
common hog.
441, 442.— The ANopi.oTnp.iimM. 1»,
Our figures give Cuvier's restoration of the out-
lines of two species of the extinct group of Pachy-
dermata termed Anoplotherium, the (ussil relics of
which, mixed v/ith those of the Palajotherium,.
occur in the gypsum-quarries near Paris, and also,
though more rarely, in the neighbourhood of
Oritans and Genoa. These Anoplolhcria are
remarkable for the characters of their dentition;
the teeth consist in each jaw of six incisors, two
canines, and fourteen molars, reckoning both sides -
together; and these are arranged^ in a continued
and uninterrupted series ; without any vacancy
between the incisors and the canines, or between
the canines and the molars. The canines resemble
the incisors in form, and might be mistaken for
them ; the four posterior molars are like those of
the rhinoceros. The feet are cloven as in the deer,
being divided into two toes, sheathed with a hoof
at the extremity ; in the deer and other Kuminant*
the metacarpal and metatarsal bones arc blended
into a single canon-bone, but in the Anoplotherium
they are separate as in the hog. Allied to the
Pachydermata in some points, and in others to the
Kuminantia, the Anoplotheria appear to have occu-
pied an intermediate station between these two
great orders : their heads, judging from the skull,
partook of the form of that of the horse and of the
camel ; the snout was not elongated into a pro-
boscis as in the tapir or the elephant. The Anoplo-
theria are divideu into three subgenera, on various
minor details of structure. The restricted division
Anoplotherium Proper comprehends two species,
viz., A. commune ("big. 441), about the size of the
ass, and the A. secundarium, about the size of the
hog. These animals were low on the limbs, and
probably resembled the tapirs in their habits, but
were furnished with a long tail compressed horizon-
tally at the base, and rendering them more essen-
tially aquatic : they resorted to lakes and marshes
in search of aquatic plants, and, as the flattened
form of the tail indicates, must have swum and dived
with greater ease than either the hippopotamus or
tapir.
The subgenus Ziphodon contains but a single
species (A. gracile : Fig. 442), a light, slender,
graceful creature, with much of the contour of the
gazelle : it was probably fleet and active, and wa*
confined to the dry land, where it fed like the deer.
The tail was short, and in this respect and in its
general figure, as the skeletons prove, it must have
exhibited a complete contrast to the low-built,
heavy Anoplotherium commune. The third sub
02
■■C\
"^JMjUII:
433.— DocMtlc Hog.
434.- Group of I>(;in(»st!c Hops.
431.— Fin;a!e Wild Hog nml Young.
436 to 43S.— Teeth of Phacochoere.
ICO
' 14? ■ ' try,
438.— Africiui Boar.
432.— Boar-hunting hi India.
442.— Anoplotberium.
441.— Anoplotlieiiniii.
439. — Abyssinian riiaccclicere.
428*.- (J-and Bonr-hiint.
^mmm^^^^
440.— Abywlnlan Phaccchcerp.
44-i*.- Skeleton of Horse.
]01
102
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[flORSES,
genus, Oichobnnes, contains three species, D. lepo-
rinum, murinum, and obliquum : the first about the
size of a hare ; the other two, of a guinea-pig. Tliey
appear to have had much of the form, and probably
of the habits, of the httle musk-deer, or chevro-
tains.
Genus Equus. — This penus, which contains the
Horse and its immediate relatives, presents us with
a Solidungulous group of Pachyderms, of which the
utility of some to man scarcely requires to be
pointed out. These animals have but a single toe
on each foot. The fore-arm (see skeleton, Fig. 444»)
consists of a single bone, made up, it is true, of an
ulna and radius, but the ulna is only to be traced in
the olecranon process showing itself as a fixed
appendage to the radius at the elbow-joint. The
carpus consists of seven bones, and to these suc-
ceeds a long metacarpal bone, in one solid piece,
called the canon-bone : to this succeed three
phalangal bones, forming one digit; the first is
termed the pastern, the second the coronet or
crown-bone, the last the coffin-bone, which is in-
closed in a hoof of thick, firm horn. On this the
horse treads with an elastic step resulting from the
oblique position of the bones of the leg and foot,
but especially from the yielding of the pastern, its
elasticity being provided for by a ligament which
passes down the canon-bone and along the pastern
to the coffin-bone. The expansibility of the hoof
must not be overlooked ; it is essential to a free and
safe step, but is too often irreparably injured by the
mode of shoeing pursued by farriers. Under the
coffin-bone, forming a sort of sole, is a part called
the frog, consisting of an elastic, fatty cushion,
covered by a triangular elevation of horn ; at each
step the frog yields beneath the superincumbent
pressure, and, swelling out laterally, expands the
heels of the hoof. This frog ought always to touch
the ground : it does so naturally ; and where bad
shoeing prevents it, the crust of the hoof bearing
all the weight of the body, and the shock of every
step as the animal trots along a hard road, inflam-
mation and disease ensue. It has been said, that
the canon-bone of the horse, representing the meta-
carpus (and the same observation applies to the
canon or metatarsal bone of the hind-leg), consists
of a single piece : there is, however, on each side
at its inferior extremity a slender styloid-bone,
narrowing as it proceeds to a point. These must be
regarded as the rudiments of two additional meta-
carpal bones.
The dentition of the genus Equus is as follows :
6—6
— =40.
Incisors -, canines in male , — r, molars „
6 1 — 1 o
The incisors in youth have broad edges channelled
out into a cavity, which by degrees becomes ob-
literated. The molars have square crowns, sharply
edged with enamel, in a crescent form; the
canines are only in the males. i\Iany tricks are
played by horse-dealers, to give apparent age to
a colt, and thereby enhance its value ; and, after
maturity, to give to the teeth that appearance which
they would have when the prime of strength and
vigour was just attained to. The following observa-
tions from the 'Penny Cycloptodia' are very ex-
cellent : —
"The honest mouth of a three-year-old horse
should be thus formed : — the central incisors or nip-
pers are palpably larger than the othere, and have
the mark on their upper surface evident and well
defined. They will however be lower than the
other teeth. The mark in the next pair of nippers
will be nearly worn away, and that in the comer
nippers will begin to wear.
" At three years and a half the second nippers will
be pushed from their sockets, and their place gradu-
ally supplied by a new pair ; and at four and a half
the comer nippers will be undergoing the same
process. Thus at four years old the central
nippers will be fully grown ; the next pair will be
up, but will not have attained their full height ; and
the comer nippers will be small, with their mark
nearly effaced. At five years old the mark will
begin to be effaced from the central teeth, the next
pair will be fully grown, and the blackness of the
mark a little taken off, and the corner pair will be
protruding or partly grown.
" At this period, or between the fourth and fifth
year, another change will have taken place in the
mouth; the tushes will have begun to appear.
There will be two of them in each jaw, between the
nippers and the grinders, considerably nearer to the
former than the latter, and particularly so in the
jower jaw. The use of these tushes in the domesti-
cated state of the horce is not evident ; but they
were probably designed as weapons of offence in the
wild state of the animal. Attempts are too fre-
quently made to hasten the appearance of the
second and the corner teeth, and the gum is often
deeply lanced in order to hasten the appearance of
the tush.
" At six years old the mark on the central nippers
will be diminished, if not .obliterated. A depres-
sion and a mark of rather brown hue may remain,
but the deep blackened hole in the centre will no
longer be found. The other incisors will also be
somewhat worn, and the tush fully developed.
" At seven the mark on the next pair of incisors
will have nearly disappeared and the tush will be
rounded at the point and the edges.
" At eight the mark will have disappeared from
all the incisor teeth, and the tush will be evidently
rounder and blunter."
In the horse there are warty callosities on the
inner aspect of the fore and hind legs ; in the other
species, on the fore legs only. The lips are muscu-
lar and prehensile, and the muzzle hairy.
443.— The Horsk
(Equus Caballus). We present at one view a group
of British horses, which cjinnot fail to interest those
who admire this noble animal, and are aware (and
who is not ?) of the excellence of our breeds. Fig.
443 : a represents the Welsh poney ; b, the Shetland
poney; c, the Cart Horse; d, the Hunter; e, the
Itacer. Fig. 444 is the copy of a horse's head,
from a fragment in the Elgin Marbles, British
Museum, which will serve to give an idea of
the characters of the war-horse of ancient Greece,
and which forcibly calls to mind the splendid
description in the book of Job — " Thou hast given
the horse strength, thou hast clothed his neck with
thunder" (Job xxxix. 19 — ^25) ; or that of Vir-
gil— " Turn siqua sonum procul arma dedere," &c.
('Georg.' lib. iii., line 83, et seq.)
A natural question at the outset of our description
of the horse suggests itself; it is one, however,
which has been often asked, but which is not easy
of solution. What is the origin of our domestic
horse ; and at what period, and by what people,
was it first reclaimed ? We may at once state that
the origin of the domestic hoi-se is unknown, and
probably does not exist. The troops of wild horses
which scour the deserts of Taitary are regarded by
naturalists, and with justice, as the descendants of
a domesticated stock ; and the herds of horses which,
roam over the plains of South America are con-
fessedly derived from horses introduced by the
Spaniards, according to Azara, in 1535. It is a
hazardous opinion, but some have been disposed
to entertain it, that the horse as now existing is not
the pure descendant of a single species, but a
factitious being, the result of a mixture of closely-
allied .primitive species, whose hybrid offsprings,
possessing prolific powers, have again and again
blended together, till, by care, climate, and soil, the
distinct breeds have been formed which are now
spread over different parts of the globe. How far
this hypothesis, which was entertained by Pallas and
others, approximates to the truth it is impossible
to say ; certain it is that no primitive species of
horse, no wild descendant of the original stock, is
now existing. Whatever it once was, it exists no
longer ; nor know we when or under what circum-
stances it vanished from the face of the earth. Of
what country is the horse originally a native ?
According to Mr. Bell, who considers it "at least
highly probable that the Egyptians first reduced the
hoi-se under human subjugation, it is to the same
country, or at least to those parts of Africa which
were in close relationship to it, that we may rea-
sonably look for its native locality before that
event." It may be so ; out we cannot help think-
ing that the wild horse (if specifically the same)
was spread over many countries : nor is it per-
haps too much to suspect that the bones found
so abundantly in superficial gravels, sands, and
clays, &c., may be, some of them at least, the
relics of the primitive race, from which the modern
stock has descended ; but which has, after giving
to man a reclaimed progeny, passed utterly away.
With respect to the ox, Cuvier maintains a similar
theory, and Mr. Bell leans to the same opinion :
" In this country," he observes, " and in many parts
of the Continent, have occurred numerous Ibssil
bones of oxen, with large horns," &c. ; and he adds,
"I cannot but consider it as extremely probable
that these fossil remains belonged to the original
wild condition of our domestic ox — an opinion which
Cuvier appears to have entertained, who calls the
skulls ' cranes semblables i ceux d'un boeuf domes-
tique.' They are found only in very recent de-
posits, mingled with the remains of various other
animals."
It is generally supposed that the Egyptians were
the first who reclaimed the horse, and this opinion
is founded on the circumstance that in Scripture the
first notice of the horse is in connection with Egypt,
when Joseph attained to power and dignity, and that
at a subsequent period Egypt supplied Solomon with
horses. Certainly the horse was at an early period
domesticated in Egypt, and used as an arm of war,
and on state occasions : " And he (Pharaoh) made
him (Joseph) ride in the second chariot which he
had" (Gen. xli. 43) ; and during the seven years'
famine Joseph not only sold corn out of the royal
granaries for money, but " gave them bread in ex-
change for horses" (Gen. xlvii. 17) ; and no doubt
Egypt had a noble breed. In their contests, how-
ever, for the Promised Land, we find the Israelites
brought in collision with the Canaanites, Amorite8
and others, in whose armies were " horses, and cha-
riots very manv" (Joshua xi. 4) ; and we read
that " he houghed their horses, ana burned their
chariots with fire'' — so that other nations of that
period besides the Egyptians employed this animal,,
and in the same manner. As far back as the re-
cords of history conduct us, we find the Scythians-
possessed of horses and celebrated as horsemen.
vVas the Scythian breed anciently obtained from
Egypt ? The Babylonians possessed vast numbers
of horses : Tritantoechmes, a Satrap of Babylonia,,
possessed, in addition to his war-horses, 800 for
private use, and 16,000 brood mares. India pos-
sessed horses, and assisted Xerxes with cavalry and
chariots of war ; some drawn by horses, others by
wild asses. The Bactrians and Caspians also brought
cavalry and infantry. (Herodotus.) The same au-
thor, speaking of the products of India, viz. quadm-
peds and birds, whicti are larger than those of any
other country, excepts the horse, which is surpassed
in size by the Nisoean horse of the Medes, of which
ten gorgeously caparisoned added to the splendour
of Xerxes's array ; and Strabo expressly asserts that
there was a dispute as to whether the Niscean horse
was a native of Media or Armenia, as specimens of
the breed were to be found in both countries.
Leaving undecided, as it ever must be, the origin
and original country of the horse, we may observe,
that at an early period the horse was used in our
island. When Julius CiEsar invaded our shores, he
was opposed not only by infantry, but by horsemen
and charioteers ; and the skill with which the horse*
and chariots were managed excited the great war-
rior's admiration — a circumstance sufficient to prove
a long acquaintance with the animal, as well as
that the Britons in Caesar's time were more ad-
vanced in social refinement than some historian*
have admitted. We do not know with certainty
the characters of the ancient British horse ; yet, from
the rapid movements of the cavalry and the man-
ner in which the charioteers dashed along, we may
readily infer that the horses were light, strong,
docile, and spirited ; probably they much resembled
those used by the Cossacks of the Don and Wolga
at the present day. They were at all events highly
valued, and were exported, together with Britisti
mastiffs, to Rome.
We know that the Romans possessed an excellent
breed of horses, and paid great attention to them.
In modern Italy the breed is crossed with the barb
from the North of Africa ; at least, the horses used
for light work, the saddle, and trials of speed, aie
of this mixture, and the term barbari is given to
them. These barbari are small, generally rather
under than over fourteen hands, clean limbed, well
formed, compact, and spirited, giving evidence of
good blood. The barb is an offset of the Arab race,
and is greatly mixed with the best Andalusiau stock
in Spam.
The Persian horse closely resembles the Arab,
but is generally taller. M. Huzard states that in
the north of Persia a race of horses exists stronger
than the Normandy horse, and which are fed on the
vast plains of Chirvan and Mazenderan. He adds
that these horses are in great request for the Persian
cavalry.
The best horses in India are of Arabic or Persian
descent. In Moore's ' Notices of the Indian Archi-
pelago,' we are assured that in every country lying
east of the Burrampooter and south of the tropic,
the horse, however diversified, is little better than a
poney.
This fact, after quitting Bengal, is first noticed
in the countries of Cassay, Ava, and Pegue. Here
the horse seldom equals thirteen hands high, but is
active, spirited, and well formed. As we proceed to
the south and east, the horse becomes more diminu-
tive, and those of Lao, Siam, and the southern pro-
vinces of China are inferior in size and beauty to
those of Ava and Pegue. The Siamese and Cochin-
Chinese have no cavalry, and make no use of their
poneys except for riding on ordinary occasions. Even
for this last purpose they are not esteemed, the ele-
phant being always preferred as a more respectable
and dignified mode of conveyance. In the Malayan
Peninsula there are no plains or roads, and the in-
habitants, living almost exclusively on the low and
woody banks of the rivers, naturally substitute theit
canoes and boats for beasts of carriage and burden,
and hence the horse has not yet been naturalised
amongst them. Proceeding eastward in the .Ma-
layan Islands, the. horse fii-st occurs in the interior
of Sumatra, and her^ we have two of the best
breeds known in those countries, the Achin and
Batta, both very spirited, but .small, and better suited
for draught than the saddle.
Of all the countries of the Archipelago the horse
Horses.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
103
is most frequent in the island of Java. The
Javanese poney is generally larger than that of
Sumatra, and has more the form of a horse, is more
temperate, but less gay and handsome. Two dis-
tinct races may be described — that of the plains, and
that of the mountains. The iirst of these is some-
what coarse, somewhat sluggish in disposition, and
so large as occasionally to reach the height of
thirteen hands and an inch. The second is small
and hardy, and, as in the case of the kuningan, a
breed in the interior of Qheribon, sometimes very
handsome. The horse is used in Java for the saddle,
and as a beast of burden, but never by the natives
in agricultural labour or any species of draught.
Europeans use them extensively in their carriages,
and on the level and well-constructed roads of Java
the traveller is conveyed at the rate of twelve and
even fifteen miles an hour in a carriage drawn by
four of these little animals. We must take this oppor-
tunity, however, to remark that there is no advantage
whatever in the employment of this diminutive
breed of cattle. A pair of good English post-horses
■will go a stage of fifteen miles on such roads as those
of Java without difficulty. To perform the same
distance in a carriage of the same weight requires
twelve .Javanese poneys. One horse therefore is
equal to six poneys, and as at the utmost a fnll-
grown horse will not consume above double the
food of a poney, the charge of maintaining him, in
proportion to the work he is capable of performing,
is no more than one third.
The horse, but of a very inferior breed, is found
on the islands of Bali and Lombok. Passing over
these, we come to the island of Sambawa, which
produces two different races — those of Tamboro
and Bima. The last, especially those of Gunong
Api, are by far the handsomest breed of the Archi-
pelago, and are extensively exported. The Bima
poneys possess strength, symmetry, and beauty; and
at first appearance bear some resemblance to the
Arab. Upon a closer examination, however, it does
not appear that they are entitled to be considered
as possessed of the quUities designated blood in the
language of the turf, and which is only to be found
in the Arab, and his descendant — the English race-
horse. The limbs indeed exhibit this character,
but it is wanting in the skin and coat, which are
thick and harsh, and it is not even present in the
shape and expression of the head, although very
pretty.
Alter pa.ssing Sambawa, the horse is traced to
Flores, Sandal-wood Island, and Timor; but no-
where farthrr to the east, being unknown in the
Moluccas. New Guinea, and the neighbouring
islands. Next to Java, the horse is found in the
greatest abundance on the island of Celebes. Upon
the whole, we consider this to be the best breed of
the Archipelago. In the great island of Borneo
the horse is found only in its north-eastern extremity
opposite to the Suluk cluster, where also, as well as
in the group of the Philippine islands, it is frequent.
The Philippine poney bears some resemblance to
that of Celebes, but, judging from the specimens
we have seen, is somewhat larger than this, and in
figure and beauty inferior to the breeds of Sambawa,
Java, and Sumatra. We do not imagine that it
contains any admixture of the Spanish blood,
althoueh this has been suspected.
Within the Archipelago, as in other part* of the
world, the colour of the horse is singularly connected
with qualify, temper, and locality. The prevailing
colour of the Achin poneys is piebald, which be-
comes rarer and rarer as we proceed eastward. A
Bima poney of this colour is as rarely seen as a black
Arab. The prevailing colour of the liatta poney is
bay and mouse-colour. In Java the best horses are
those of the most prevalent colours, viz., bays and
greys ; the roan and mouse-coloured horses are very
generally good. The worst colours are black and
chestnut. The Javanese have such a dislike to the
latter colour, that chestnut horses are not permitted
to appear at their public tournaments. Bays, greys,
and duns are the best and most frequent colours in
the Bima poneys. Blacks itnd chestnuts are not
frequent, but they are not considered inferior.
■Greys and bays prevail amongst the poneys of Ce-
lebes and the Philippines, nearly to the exclusion of
all others.
In the plains of Celebes wild herds of horses
exist, doubtless the descendants of a domesticated
ftock.
During the dominion of the Romans in Britain it
is very probable that some modification in the
characters of the British horse would result from its
admixture with other breeds imported by the con-
querors from Italy, Gaul, and Spain ; but to what
extent this took place we have no means of ascer-
taining. At a suDsequent period, during the Saxon
dway, it would appear that a fine breed existed in
our island : for we find that Athelstan (a.d. 930)
forbade the exportation of horses under any circum-
itances, cxct^it as presents to monarchs, whence it
may be concluded that the English horse was then
valued on the Continent. Besides endeavouring to
preserve the native breed, Athelstan endeavoured
to improve it, and received several German running-
horses, that is, horses formed for speed, from Hugh
Capet of France.
The Norman Conquest was productive of changes
in the English breed, resulting from the introduc-
tion of the Spanish horse by some of the barons on
the estates Ihey had acquired by the right of the
sword. The Crusades brought the English into con-
tact with the spirited horses of Arabia and Syria ;
and there is little doubt that some were brought to
our country. Two horses of Eastern origin, and
purchased at Cyprus, were possessed by Richard
Cocur-de-Lion, and are celebrated as unequalled for
speed : most probably they were not adapted for the
tournament or the shock of battle, or the weight of
a knight cased in a heavy mail.
In the reign of John, who, as Rapin observes,
scarcely possessed one valuable qualification, chosen
horses were introduced by his direction from Flan-
ders, for the purposes of improving the breed of
draught horses; and that monarch himself accu-
mulated a stud of the most superb horses to be
found.
During subsequent reigns Spanish barbs, Lom-
bardy war-horses, and heavy Flanders horses, were
obtained ; and thus gradually three sets or breeds
of horses became established, exclusive of the
poney, which, time immemorial, has inhabited the
mountains of Wales and Scotland, and the Shetland
Islands.
Of these breeds, one was the war-horse, fitted
to bear a warrior clad in heavy armour, oppressive
to the wearer, but more to the horee, which was
also to a great degree protected in the same man-
ner. Its principal requisite was strength and en-
durance, not, however, to the exclusion of a certain
degree of fleetness : it probably resembled the
coach-horse of the present day, and was a powerful
animal, of high action and great spirit. Besides
this stalwart breed, there was evidently a lighter
race, fitted for ordinary purposes, of moderate
stature, fleet, yet strong, and capable of under-
going fatigue. Horses of this kind were termed
running-horses : they were used as hackneys, for
travelling, and also for running races, a sport prac-
tised at Smithfield as early as the time of Henry II.,
though racing cannot be said to have fjeen then in
its palmy days. It was in the reign of Henry VIII.,
and especially of Elizabeth, that regular race-
meetings were established at Chester, Stamford,
and elsewhere ; gradually a passion for the sport
increased, and in the reign of James I., who en-
couraged racing both in England and Scotland, it
assumed a more definite character, and beci^me
conducted according to fixed regulations. The
breed appropriated to this sport, originally selected
for speed, now became improved by Arab, Turkish,
and Barbary admixture. James I. introduced the
Arab, and purchased one of great celebrity for the
then enormous sum of IjOO/. In the time of
Charles I., Turkish and Barbary horses were ob-
tained, and also in the reign of Charies II. It was
in the reign of Queen Anne that the celebrated
Dariey Arabian, bred in the deserts of Palmyra,
was introduced, and which may be regarded as the
progenitor of the most celebrated of our modem
racing stock. He was the sire of Flying Childers.
At a subsequent period. Lord Godolphin's barb,
generally called the Godolphin Arabian, contributed
to the celebrity of the English racer. From these
and from other Eastern horses, which might also
be enumerated, have descended a stock unequalled
by any in the world for spirit and fleetness. Such,
then, is the more than half Oriental orig:in of eur
racer ; but while this stock was thus rising out of
the old English running-horse, that breed itself
partook of the improvement, and we have now the
naif-blood saddle-horse and the three-parts-blood
hunter.
The third breed of the olden days was hea-
vier and slower than the war-horse, and used for
the purposes of draught. This breed, overlooked
by the nobles, would necessarily vary in qualities
as circumstances might influence it ; but in pro-
portion as the war-horse and hackney improved, so,
indirectly, would the old cart-horse become ele-
vated into the Cleveland bay, the Suffolk punch,
and the huge Lincolnshire black.
The Suffolk punch is now seldom seen pure,
being much crossed with other breeds. The Cleve-
land bay is confined principally to Durham and
Yorkshire. The Lincolnshire black exceeds all in
size, and is a noble and massive animal. Its per-
fection is to be attributed to the Flanders horse ;
and it is of this admirable mixed breed that the
teams in the brewers' and distillers' carts in London
are chiefly composed. No one can behold them
without being struck with their appearance. Their
strength is prodigious, and many stand seventeen
hands in height.
From the varied stocks of horses which we now
possess witliin the limits of our own island, by selec-
tion and judicious admixture, may be acquired
breeds modified to suit every purpose of use or
luxury, from the racer to the serviceable roadster,
from the splendid carriage-horse to the farmer's
hard-working servant.
When we look at the elephantine dray-horse, and
the Welsh and Shetland poneys, the transition with
respect to size is so great, that we are almost
startled by the comparison, and wonder that such a
difterenee can exist between two individuals of the
same species.
Wales and the Shetland Isles have been ever
celebrated for miniature horses of great beauty,
spirit, strength, and hardiness. The Welsh poney is
often a model : a small head, high withers, a deep
yet round body, short joints, flat legs, and small
round hoofs, characterise him ; his ears are small,
his eyes full and animated, and his actions are free
and vigorous.
The Shetland poney is still less in size than the
Welsh, and is often very handsome, but the shoul-
ders are usually low and thick ; the limbs, however,
are well knit, and the strength of the animal in pro-
portion to its size is astonishing. In 1831 we mea-
sured a poney of the Shetland breed of very small
dimensions, but of great beauty. Its height at the
withers was only thirty-four inches ; its length, from
between the ears to the insertion of the tail, follow-
ing the curve of the neck and back, four feet two
inches.
Poneys of different degrees of value range the
New Forest, Exmoor, and the Highlands of Scotland,
but much attention is not paid to their breeding.
We have already stated that at a very early
period the horse was employed in Egypt, both for
the saddle and in drawing chariots. Among the
very interesting series of Egyptian paintings in the
British Museum is one (see Pig. 460) representing
in the upper compartment a pair of horses yoked
to a light chariot, of which one (the foreground
horse) is black ; the other, of which the head, limbs,
and tail are partially shown, is red. In the lower
compartment are also a pair of horses, as most
suppose, of a pale milk colour, attached to a chariot :
one is about to eat or drink from a vessel before it.
This chariot or car is perhaps intended to carry the
sheaves of corn which a reaper is cutting. It has
been observed that the tails of these horses appear
as if shaved, with a tuft left at the end ; but we are
inclined to think the animals are intended as mules,
not horses, both from this appearance of the tail,
and from the marked difference in the contour
between them and the horses of the upper compart-
ment, which cannot be mistaken. The chariot
they are yoked to is a war-chariot, the form of
which is more definitely given at Fig. 455, and
which will convey a clear idea of the chariots with
which Pharaoh pursued the Israelites, or of that to
which Achilles lashed the body of Hector before the
walls of Troy.
It is remarkable that though there was a mounted
cavaliy in Egypt, and that Solomon's horsemen
were mounted on trained Egyptian horses, there is
but one representation of a man on horseback in
the whole range of the sculptured and painted an-
tiquities of that country. The copy. Fig. 465, will
be regarded with interest: the animal in all its
points is an Arab.
At what period the Arabs began fo employ the
horse is not very clear ; certainly not till a compa-
ratively late era, nor, as far as we are aware, is
it known whence they obtained their breed. May
it not be descended from the stock of Egypt, with
which Solomon replenished his stables? Accord-
ing to Burckhardt, there are three breeds of horses
at the present day in Syria — the true Arab breed,
the Turkman, and the Kourdy, which last is a
mixture of the two former. The Turkman horses,
from their superior size and more martial ajipear-
ance, displaying when dressed the Turkish trappings
to the greatest advantage, are preferred by the
Osmanlis to the Arab horses. They are trained to
walk gracefully, fo set off suddenly at full speed, to
turn with the gentlest touch, and to stop short in-
stantaneously.
The Arabian horses are of more slender make,
and less showy in appearance than the Turkman,
but they are beautifully limbed, more hardy, and
much fleeter. The esteem in which the Arabs
hold them, the scrupulous care taken to preserve
the purity of the breeds, and the reluctance with
which the Arabs part with their mares, are circum-
stances frequently noticed by travellers. The Rev.
V. Monro, in his 'Summer's Ramble in Syria,'
relates that on the visit to the river Jordan, one of
the Arab escort, "a great ruffian, was mounted on
a white mare of great beauty ; her large fiery eye
gleamed from the edge of an open forehead, and
her exquisite little head was finished with a pout-
ing lip and expanded nostrils; her ribs, thighs, and
shoulders were models of make, with more bone
than commonly belongs to the Syrian Arab, and
4U.— Eqnestriiu Ciaitto of the £iut.
444.— Horses Head.
\i'mM^m
i55.— Kgyptian War-cbariot.
104
4U.— ArabUn Hone.
No,
.14.
4(i8.— English Hunter.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
453.— Tnrklsh War-horse.
105
106
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[HORSKS.
her stately step receivyd additional difmity from
that aristocratic set on, and carriage of the tail,
which is the infallible indication of good family.
Having inquired her price, I offered the sum,
whereon the dragoon asked one-third more. Alter
much abating and debating, I accciled, and he im-
mediately stepped back in the same proportion as
before. This is invariably the practice with the
Arabs. I therefore discontinued my attempts to
deal. The Arab said he loved his mare better
than his own life ; that money was of no use to
him, and that when mounted upon her he felt rich
as a pasha. Shoes and stockings he had none, and
the net value of his dress and accoutrements might
be calculated at something under seventeen-pence
sterling."'
The fondness for their horses which the Arabs
manifest partakes of the extravagance of Oriental
feelings : they rear them up in their tents, among
their children and family : they caress them, and ap-
ply to them the most endearing epithets : witness the
lamentations of an Arab, Ibrahim Abou Vouaases,
over a favourite mare of noble race, which he had
parted with; but which he frequently went to
Kama to see : " He would embrace lier,"' savs D'Ar-
vieux, "and wipe her eyes with his handkerchief,
and rub her with his shirt-sleeves, and would give
her a thousand blessings during whole hours that
he would be talking to her. ' My eyes, my heart,
my soul,' would he exclaim ; ' must I be so unfortu-
nate as to have thee sold to many masters, and not
be able to keep thee myself?! am poor, my gazelle.
You know well enough, niv sweet,' that I have
brought thee up like a child ; I never beat thee,
never chid thee, but did cherish thee as the apple
of mine eye : God preserve thee, my dearest ; thou
art beautiful, thou art sweet, thou art lovely : God
defend thee from the evil eye :' and so he would
go on saying a thousand things like these ; he then
embraced her, kissed her eyes, and went backwards
bidding her the most tender adieus."
The Arabs prefer mares for riding, the Turks
prefer horses, and this difference of taste acts very
well. The price of an Arab horse in 1810-1816
was, according to Burckhardt, from 10/. to 120/. ,
but the price of a mare varies from 60/. to 200/,
Some have sold for 500/., and Burckhardt mentions
a sheikh who purchased a celebrated mare for 4001.,
with an agreement to give to the seller the first
female colt she produced, or to keep the colt and
return the mare.
The Arab horses seldom exceed fourteen hands
in height, but have all certain characteristic beau-
ties which distinguish their breed from any other.
Five noble breeds are counted, each, as is said,
deduced from one of the five favourite mares of
Mohammed. But these five races diverge into
infinite ramifications ; and any mare of superlative
excellence may give origin to a new breed, the
descendants of which are called after her. "On
the birth of a colt of noble breed, it is usual to
assemble witnesses to write an account of its dis-
tinctive marks, with the name of its sire and dam.
These genealogical tables never ascend to the
grand-dam, because it is presumed that every Arab
of his tribe knows by tradition the purity of the
whole breed. Nor is it always necessary to have
surh certificates ; for many horses and mares are
of such illustrious descent that thousands might
attest the purity of their blood. The pedigree is
often put into a small piece of leather, covered with
a waxed cloth, and hung by a leather thong round
the horee's neck." (Palestine.)
Figs. 456, 457, 458, 459, are spirited illustrations
of the Turk and Arab horse, and embody our ideas
of its docility, and the fire and energy of its tem-
perament. Fig. 456 represents the mode of playing
the ball with a goff-stick on horseback, as pmctised
in Turkey and Syria, and proves how admirably the
spirited animals are trained, obeying the least touch
of the bridle, wheeling, galloping at full speed, and
stopping suddenly at the will of the rider. In Syria
and elsewhere in western Asia the horse is fed upon
chopped straw and barley, and of this provender a
certain quantity is given morning and evening, none
being supplied in the interim. In the spring season
the horses are fed from 40 to 50 days on green bar-
ley cut as soon as the corn begins to ear. This is
termed tying down to grass, during which time the
animals remain constantly exposed in the open air,
and for the first eight or ten days are neither cur-
ried, mounted, nor led about. After this they are
dressed as usual and rode out gently, but are never
much worked during the grass season. Some feed
the horses with cut barley in the stable-yards, but
the general practice is to confine them to a certain
circuit by means of a long tether in the barley-field.
This grazing is considered of great service to the
health of the horses, and gives a beautiful gloss to
their skin.
Some Arab tribes, however, do not thus give their
horses green barley, but allow them to feed on the
kerbs of the desert, and give them a paste made of
dates and water, and camel's milk to drink. " Even
flesh, raw as well as boiled, is given to the horses in
some quarters, together with the fragments of their
owner's meals." An inhabitant of Hamah assured
Burckhardt that he had often given his horses roasted
meat before the commencement of a fatiguing jour-
ney, that they might be better able to endure it ; and
the same person, fearing lest the governor should
take from him his favourite horse, fed him for a fort-
night exclusively upon roasted pork, which so excited
its spirit and mettle, that it became unmanageable,
and no longer an object of desire to the governor.
That the horse should under any circumstances be
brought to eat animal food is very startling, but
Burckhardt's authority induces us to believe it. It
serves to show how domestication may modify ani-
mal instincts, nor is it perhaps more strange than
that the carnivorous dog and cat should be brought
to eat bread and boiled greens, to which latter we
have known cats apparently partial, feeding upon
them when even meat was at hand. Horses will
drink ale with great relish ; and the taste in this
instance is certainly an acquired one.
With respect to the wild horses in the countries
bordering the Volga and the Oural, little is accu-
rately established. They are said to associate in
troops headed by a leader, but from all accounts to
be depended upon they are by no means remarkable
for beaury, though they appear to be fleet and
hardy. In the Museum at Paris is the specimen
of a wild horse from the country of the Bashkirs : it
has a heavy, clumsy head, and short limbs ; and the
hair, of a dirty greyish white, is long and shaggy,
and hangs in a beard-like manner under the lower
jaw. Pallas describes a young mare caught in the
country between the Jaik and the Volga, which be-
came very docile : its limbs were strong, the head
large, the ears long and lying back upon the occi-
put; the hoofs small and somewhat pointed, the
colour light bay, with a black mane and tail. In
South America the rich plains extending from La
Plata to Paraguay are tenanted by herds of horses,
in a wild condition, the descendants of those origi-
nally introduced by the Spaniards. These horses
are caught and broke in, and the singular mode in
which their subjugation is effected is thus described
by Captain Head:— "A man, mounted on a strong
steady horse, threw his lasso over the neck of a
young horse, and dragged him to the gate. For
some time he was very unwilling to leave his com-
rades, but the moment he was forced from them, his
first idea was to gallop away ; however, the jerk of
the lasso checked him in the most eft'ectual man-
ner. The Peons now ran after him on foot and
threw the lasso over his four legs just above the fet-
locks, and, twitching it, they pulled his legs from
under him so suddenly that 1 really thought the
fall he got had killed him. In an instant a Gaucho
was seated on his head, and with his long knife in
a few seconds cut off the whole of the horse's mane,
while another cut the hair from the end of the tail.
This they told me is a mark that the animal has
been once mounted. They then put a piece of hide
into his mouth to serve as a bit, and a strong hide-
halter on his head. The Gaucho who was to mount
arranged his spurs, which were unusually long and
sharp ; and while two men held the animal by his
ears he put on the saddle, which he girthed ex-
tremely tight ; he then caught hold of the horse's
ears, and in an instant vaulted into the saddle ; upon
which the man who was holding the horse by the
halter threw the end of it to the rider, and from
that moment no one seemed to take any further no-
tice of him. The horse instantly began to jump in
a manner which made it very difiicult for the rider
to keep his seat, and quite different from the kick
or plunge of an English horse ; however the Gau-
cho's spurs soon set him going, and off he galloped,
doing everything in his power to throw his rider.
Another horse was immediately seized ; and so
quick was the operation that twelve Gauchos were
mounted in a space which I think hardly exceeded
an hqur."
The neigh of the horse, contradistinguished from
the bray of the ass— its general form and propor-
tions— and our mode of defending its hoofs, a mode
unpractised in antiquity, are known to all.
Fig. 461 represents the English Cart-horse ; Fig.
462, the old Roadster ; Fig. 463, the Anglo-Arab ;
Fig. 464, the Racer, mare and foal ; Fig. 466, the
Welsh Pony ; Fig. 467, the old English War-horse ;
Fig. 468, the English Hunter. Fig. 469 is the Head
of a Horse in Greek statuary.
The following original anecdotes, proving the saga-
city of the horse, were sent to the ' Penny Magazine '
from a correspondent. They refer to horses bred
and reared in North America : —
■' A short distance below Fort Erie, and about a
mile from where the river Niagara escapes over a
barrier of rock from the depths of Lake Erie, a ferry
has long been established across that broad and
there exceedingly rapid river, the distance from
shore to shore being a little over one-third of a mile.
On the Canada side of the river is the small village
of Waterloo, and opposite thereto, on the United
States side, is the large village of Blackrock — dis-
tant from the young and flourishing city of Buffalo
two miles. In completing the Erie Canal, a pier
or dam was erected — up and down the river, and
opposite to Blackrock, at no great distance from
the shore, for the purpose of raising the waters of
the Niagara to such a height that they might be
made to supply an adjoining section of the Erie
canal. This pier was (and is) a great obstruction
to the ferry-boats ; for previous to its erection pas-
sengers embarked from terra /irma on one side of
the river, and were landed without any difficulty on
the other : but after this dam was constructed it
became necessary to employ two sets of boats — one
to navigate the river and the other the basin ; so
that all passengers, as well as goods or luggage, had
to be landed upon this narrow wall, and re-shipped.
Shortly after the erection of the pier-dam, a boat
propelled by horses was establi-shed between this
pier and the Canada shore. The horses moved
upon a circular platfoi-m, which consequently was
put in motion, to which other machinery was con-
nected, that acted upon paddle-wheels attached to
the sides of the boat. "The boat belonged to per-
sons connected with the ferry on the American side
of the river ; but owing to the barrier formed by
the pier, the horses employed on the boat were
stabled at night in the village of Waterloo. I well
recollect the first day this boat began to ply, — for
the introduction of a boat of that description, in
those days, and in such a situation, was considered
an event of some magnitude. The two horses (for
that boat had but two) worked admirably, consi-
dering the very few lessons they had had pre-
vious to their introduction upon the main river.
One of the horses employed on the new ferry-
boat had once been a dapple-grey, but at the period
I am speaking of he had become white. He was
still hale and hearty, for he had a kind and indul-
gent master. The first evening after the horses had
been a short time in the stable, to which they were
strangers, they were brought out for the purpose of
being watered at the river, the common custom at
this place. The attendant was mounted upon the
bay horse — the white one was known to be so gentle
and docile that he was allowed to drink where
he pleased. I happened to be standing close by,
in company with my friend W n, the ferry
contractor on the Canada side, and thus had an
opportunity of witnessing the whole proceedings of
old Grizzle, the name that the white horse still went
by. The moment he got round the corner of the
building, so as to have a view of his home on the
opposite side, he stopped, and gazed intently. He
then advanced to the brink of the river, — when
he again stopped and looked earnestly across for a
short time ; — then waded into the water until it had
reached his chest, — drank a little, liftedhishead ; and,
with his lips closed and his eyes fixed upon some
object upon the further shore, remained for a short
time perfectly motionless. Apparently having made
up his mind to the task, he then waded farther
into the river until the water reached his riDs,— when
off he shot into the deep water without hesitation.
The current being so strong and rapid, the river
boiling and turmoiling over a rocky bed at the rate
of six miles the hour, it was impossible for the cou-
rageous and attached animal to keep a direct course
across, although he breasted the waves heroically,
and swam with remarkable vigour. Had he been
able to steer his way directly across, the pier-wall
would have proved an insurmountable barrier. As
it was, the strength of the current forced him down
to below where the lower extremity of this long
pier abuts upon an island, the shore of which being
low and shelving, he was enabled to effect a land-
ing with comparative ease. Having regained terra
/irma, he shook the water from his dripping flanks, but
he did not halt over a few minutes, when he plunged
into the basin, and soon regained his native shore.
The distance from where Grizzle took the water to
where he effected a landing on the island was about
seven hundred yards ; but the efforts made to swim
directly across, against the powerful current, must
have rendered the undertaking a much more labo-
rious one. At the commencement of his voyage his
arched neck and withers were above the surface, but
before he reached the island his head only was visible.
He reached his own stable-door, that home for
which he had risked so much, to the no small
astonishment of his owner. This unexpected visit
evidently made a favourable impression upon his
master, for he was heard to vow, that if old Grizzle
performed the same feat a second time, lor the
future he should remain on his own side of the river,
and never be sent to the mill again. Grizzle was
sent back to work the boat on the following day,
but he embraced the very first opportunity that
occurred of escaping, swam back in the way he had
done before, and his owner, not being a person to
break the promise he had once made, never after-
AssKs ]
MUSEUM OF AMMATED NATURE.
107
wards dispossessed him of the stall he had long been
accustomed to, but treated him with marked kind-
ness and attention."
" During my residence on the head-waters of the
Susquehana, I owned a small American horse, of
the name of Charlie, that was very remarkable for
his attachment to my own person, as well as for his
general good quaUties. He was a great favourite
with all the family ; and being a favourite, he was
frequently indulged with less work and more to eat
than any of the other horses on the farm. At a
short distance from the dwelling-house was a small
but luxuriant pasture, where, during the summer,
Charlie was often permitted to graze. When this
pasture had been originally reclaimed from its wild
forest state, about ten yeare previous to the period
of which I am speaking, four or five large trees of
the sugar-maple species had been left standing
when the rest were cut down, and means had after-
wards been found to prevent their being scorched
by the tire at the time the rest of the timber had
been consumed. Though remarkably fine trees of
their kind, they were, however, no great ornament,
their stems being long and bare, their heads small,
and by no means full of leaves — the case generally
with trees that have grown up in close contact with
eacl) other in the American forests. But if they
were no ornament, they might serve as shade-trees.
Beneath one of these trees Charlie used to seek
shelter, as well from the heat of the meridian sun,
as from the severe thunder-gusts that occasionally
ravage that part of the country. On an occasion of
this sort Ctiarlie had taken his stand close to his
lavourite tree, his tail actually pressing against it,
his head and body in an exact line with the course
of the wind; apparently understanding the most
advantageous position to escape the violence of the
storm, and quite at home, as it were, for he had
stood in the same place some scores of times. The
storm came on, and raged with such violence that
the tree under which the horse had sought shelter
was literally torn up by the roots. I happened to
lie standing at a window from whence I witnessed
ihe whole scene. The moment Charlie heard the
roots giving way behind him, that is, on the con-
trary side of the tree from where he stood, and pro-
l)ably feeling the uprooted tree pressing against
his tail, he sprang forward, and barely cleared the
ground upon which, at the next moment, the top
of the huge forest tree fell with such a force that
the crash was tremendous, for every limb and branch
were actually riven asunder. I have many a time
seen horses alarmed, nay, exceedingly frightened ;
but never in my life did I witness anything of the
sort that bore the slightest comparison to Charlie's
extreme terror ; and yet Charlie, on ordinary oc-
casions, was by no means a coward. He galloped,
he reared his mane and tossed his head, he stopped
short, and snorted wildly, and then darted off at the
top of his speed in a contrary direction, and then as
suddenly stopped and set off in another, until long
after the storm had considerably abated, and it was
not until after the lapse of some hours that he
ventured to reconnoitre— but that at a consider-
able distance — the scene of his narrow escape. For
that day at least his appetite had been completely
spoiled, for he never offered to stoop his head
to the ground while daylight continued. The next
day his apprehensions seemed somewhat abated,
but his curiosity had been excited to such a pitch
that he kept pacing from place to place, never
failing to halt as he passed within a moderate dis-
tance of the prostrate tree, gazing thereat in utter
bewilderment, as if wholly unable to comprehend
the scene he had witnessed the preceding day.
After this occurrence took place I kept this fa-
vourite horse several years, and during the summer
months he usually enjoyed the benefit of his old
pasture. But it was quite clear that he never for-
got, on any occasion, the narrow escape he had
had ; for neither the burning rays of the noontide
summer sun, nor the furious raging of the thunder-
storm, could compel Charlie to seek shelter under
one of the trees that stiii remained standing in his
small pasture."
473, 477, 502.— The Ass
{Equus Asinus, Linn.). It would appear, from vari-
ous evidence, that the ass was domesticated at an
earlier period than the horse : it vi'as the beast of
civil life, in contradistinction to the horse, which was
used almost exclusively for war. In the East the
asH is treated with care and attention, and there its
appearance is very different from that of the ser-
viceable but neglected and undervalued beast of
western Europe. According toChardin, " the asses
of Arabia are among the finest in the world ; their
coat is smooth and clean ; they carry their head
elevated, and have fine well-formed legs, which they
throw out gracefully in walking or galloping. They
are used only for the saddle, and are imported in
vast numbers into Persia, where they are frequently
aoUi for four hundred livres, and being taught a kind
of easy ambling pace, are richly caparisoned, and
used only by the rich and luxurious nobles."
White asses are not uncommon, and appear an-
ciently to have been selected for the use of persons
of distinction (Fig. 477). In Syria there are three
or four distinct breeds of asses, of which the most
valued is that of Arabia.
Domesticated as the ass has been from the re-
motest antiquity, and valued as it has ever been in
western Asia, it was long before the animal became
introduced into western Europe. Aristotle states,
that in his time there were no asses in Pontus, Scy-
thia, or in the country of the Celts (modern Ger-
many and France) : and we know that even as late
as the time of Queen Elizabeth the ass was ex-
tremely rare in our country.
It is a mistake to suppose that in every part of the
East the ass is large ; there is a small but spirited
breed in Syria, upon which the Syrian ladies are ac-
customed to ride, and in western India we are assured
" that the asses are not much larger than good-sized
Newfoundland dogs. They are used in droves to
carry small loads of salt or grain ; they are also
used by the pofmakers to carry their clay, and are
always seen, as in Europe, associated with gypsies."
(' Proceeds. Zoological Society,' 1837, p. 95.) It
is in fact principally in western Asia, the genial
climate of the ass, that it is held in esteem, and
carefully bred and reared.
From the accounts of travellers there would ap-
pear to be several species of wild ass, or Onager of
the ancients, and the subject is altogether in con-
fusion. Bruce talks of wild asses which he saw in
Abyssinia, but he is of little authority on matters of
natural history. Bell, in his ' Travels in Tartary,'
notices a species of wild ass resembling the ordinary
kind, excepting that their hair is waved white and
brown, like that of a tiger ; an indefinite description,
and if applicable to a species in the deserts of Tar-
tary, naturalists are unacquainted with it. There is
the wild ass, or Koulan, as it is called by the Tartars,
which is said to be of a uniform silvery grey, with
a broad coffee-coloured stripe extending down the
spine, and crossed on the shoulders by a transverse
band as in the domestic variety (see Fig. 473). This
species is regarded as the origin of the ordinary ass.
There is next the Ghur (Ghurkhud ?) of Persia, of
which a detailed account occurs in Sir R. Ker Por-
ter's Travels (vol. i.), and which he describes as being
ten or twelve hands high, with a sleek coat, of a
reddish colour, passing on the belly and hinder parts
into silvery grey : the limbs were beautifully slender,
" the mane was short and black, as was also a tuft
which terminated his tail, but no line whatever ran
along his back or crossed his shouldera." Moor-
croft, in his ' Travels in the Himalayan Provinces,'
describes another species under the name of the
Kiang (Equus Kiang), with shorter ears than the
wild ass, and which he says is certainly not the
Gurkhor (Khur?), or wild ass of Sindh. From this
the Dzigguetai, or Dzigtai (Equus Hermionus, Pal-
las), is again distinct ; and which is a native of
Mongolia and the borders of Thibet and China. Its
general colour is Isabella yellow, passing into white
on the under parts ; a dark cholocate line runs along
the spine.
In South Africa Le Vaillant observed, as he states,
a wild ass, in large herds, of an Isabelline or pale yel-
low colour, which is called by the Greater Namaquas
the White Zebra. If Le Vaillant be correct, this
animal is unknown indeed ; no traveller in Africa
has seen it but himself, and Colonel Hamilton Smith
suggests that he may have mistaken for this wild ass
the female of the Isabelline antelope.
In the Cutch and Northern Goojrat there is a
wild ass, which Colonel Sykes identifies with the
Dzigguetai of southern Siberia and the Ghur of
Persia, considering them as one species, and observ-
ing that all the " discrepancies of descriptions may
be easily remedied by the supposition that animals
examined by different individuals, at different sea-
sons of the year, did really slightly differ owing to
the difference of seasons." " The wild ass of Cutch
and the north of Goojrat is not found farther south
in India than Deesa on the banks of the Bunnas
river, in lat. about 30° 30', nor have I heard of it to
the eastward of the 75° of longitude on the south
side of the Himalaya mountains. In Cutch and
Northern Goojrat it frequents the salt deserts and
the open plains of Thoodpoor, Jaysulmer, and
Bickaneor. By swimming the Indus it may com-
municate through Sindh and Baloochestand with
Persia, and in Persia it evidently exists from Sir
Robert Ker Porter's descriptions: to the north and
east Persia abuts upon the peculiar localities of the
Dzigguetai, through Bucharia to the Deserts of
Cobi, where it delights in the salt marshes, as it
does in India, and thence to Tartaiy, Thibet, and
South Siberia." (' Proceeds. Zool.Soc.' 1837, p. 94.)
The wild ass is common in many parts of central
Asia ; herds in summer are found about the lake
Aral, whence they migrate southwards in winter,
returning northwards in the spring. The Persians
and Tartars hold its flesh in high esteem, and hunt
it in preference to all other descriptions of game.
It is found west of the Euphrates ; " indeed we are
informed by Colonel Smith," says the author of the
'Physical History of Palestine,' "that not only is
the Syrian ass larger and more handsome than the
Ghurkhud of Persia, but that the species improves
west of the Euphrates, and is very fine in the Bahar
el Abaid, Africa." " Burckhardt declares that wild
asses are found in great numbers in Arabia Petraea
near the gulf of Akaba. The Sherarat Arabs hunt
them, and eat their flesh, but not before strangers.
They sell their skins and hoofs to the pedlars of
Daniascus and the people of the Haouran. The
hoofs furnish materials for rings, which are worn by
the peasants on their thumbs, or fastened under their
armpits, as amulets against rheumatism." (Notes
on ' Bedouins.')
The Tartars, Arabs, and Persians are not singular
in their partiality for the flesh of the wild ass. The
epicures of Rome held it in the same estimation as
we do venison, and from a passage in Pliny it would
appear that the species inhabited North Africa,
and that the most delicate and best flavoured fat
foals {lalisiones) were brought from that continent
to the Roman market. Leo Africanus also gives
North Africa as the locality of the wild ass. We
have quoted above our authority for stating that it
exists in Arabia and in the Bahar el Abaid. We are
not aware that a specimen of the true wild ass, with
a cross over the shoulders, has ever been imported
into Europe.
470, 471, 472.— The Dzigguetai
{Eqtms Hei-mionus). Supposing that this species be
identical with the wild ass of Cutch and Goojrat,
and with the Khur (or Ghurkhud) of Persia, as we
have stated is the opinion of Col. Sykes, its range
will be very extensive. Its fleetness is extreme.
Col. Sykes states that " Major Wilkins, of the cavalry
of the Bombay army, who was stationed with his
regiment for years at Deesa, on the borders of the
Runn, or salt marshes east of Cutch, in his morning
rides used to start a particular wild ass so frequently,
that it became familiar to him, and he always gave '
chace to it ; and though he piqued himself on being
mounted on an exceedingly fleet Arabian horse, he
never could come up with the animal." A similar
statement is given by Sir R. Ker Porter, of the
Khur, one of which he chased in vain. "Tlie sun
was just rising over the summits of the eastern
mountains when my greyhound suddenly started oft"
in pursuit of an animal which my Persians said,
from the glimpse they had of it, was an antelope.
I instantly put spurs to my horse, and with my at-
tendants gave chace. After an unrelaxed gallop
of three miles, we came up with the dog, who was
then within a short stretch of the creature he pur-
sued, and to my surprise, and at first vexation, I
saw it to be an ass. Upon a moment's reflection,
however, judging from its fleetness that it must be
a wild one, a creature little known in Europe, but
which the Persians prize above all other animals as
an object of chace, I determined to approach as
near to it as the very swift Arab I was on would
carry me. But the single instant of checking my
horse to consider had given our game such a head
of us, that notwithstanding all our speed, we could
not recover our ground on him. I however hap-
pened to be considerably before my companions
when at a certain distance the animal in its turn
made a pause, and allowed me to approach within
pistol-shot of him : he then darted off again with
the quickness of thought, capering, kicking, and
sporting in his flight, as if he was not blown in the
least, and the chace was his pastime. When my
followers of the country came up, they regretted
that I had not shot the creature when he was within
my aim, telling me that his flesh is one of the
greatest delicacies in Persia. The prodigious swift-
ness and peculiar manner in which he fled across
the plain coincided exactly with the description
that Xenophon gives of the same animal in Arabia.
But above all it reminded me of the striking por-
trait drawn by the author of the Book of Job. I
was informed by the Mehmendar, who had been in
the desert when making a pilgrimage to the shrine
of Ali, that the wild ass of Irak Arabi diftere in
nothing fiom the one I had just seen. He had ob-
served them often for a short time in the possession
of the Arabs, who told him the creature was per-
fectly untameable. A few days after this discussion,
we saw another of these animals, and, pursuing it
determinedly, had the good fortune to kill it."
The Dzigguetai lives in troops under the conduct
of a leader whose motions the rest follow. Ever
quick and watchful, they take the alarm on the
least appearance of danger, and on the approach of
the enemy skim the desert, clear hills and rocks,
and bid defiance to pursuit. It is easy to conceive
the difficulties attending the chace of this fleet and
wary animal ; indeed without the aid of fire-arms
pursuit would be in vain.
P 2
'1l»*'
SOT.— Male.
473.-Wn<l A»».
108
"^
M«.- Italian Uorn lUclos.
47?.— Auet.
^m
4M^4tan>.
475. -Male.'
*3^
474.— Male.
47«.— Male.
109
no
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Zebras.
With all its attractions, thi« spirited beautiful crea-
ture has never been brought into the service of man.
It is indeed extremely vicious, and uses its heels on
the most trifling occasion, kicking violently, and
for a considerable time together, rendering it dan-
gerous for a person to venture near it. Yet it ap-
pears that in India it has occasionally been tamed,
and M. Dussumier states, "a European resident at
Cutch had a dzigguetai which was accustomed to
follow him in his rides. One day, having ended
his ride at a large sheet of water, he went on board
a boat ; the animal remained for some time, at tiret
quiet on the shore, but becoming impatient on find-
ing that the boat did not soon return, he took to
the water, and swimming, came up with it and fol-
lowed it to the end of the excursion."
If the dzigguefai of southern Siberia andTartary,
the wild ass of Cutch, and the ghur of Persia and
Tartary, be one species, as we believe — in what, we
would ask, doei< this animal differ from the wild ass
of Tartary and other parts, called (as Desmarest
expresses himself) Koulan or Choulan by the Kal-
mucs? Every detail, as far as we can make out,
which applies to one, applies to the other also;
and as it respects colour, we know well that the
dzigguetai itself, as naturalists must admit, varies
in tint, and the lireadth and intensity of the dorsal
stripe. We may here add, that one of the dziggue-
tais in the gardens of the Zool. Soc. was certainly
brought from Cutch ; and another, presented by
Capt. Glasspoole, R.N., was most probably brought
from the same country, or from Sindh or Persia,
along the coasts of which three states he sailed in
pursuance of his maritime duties.
474, 475, 476, 478, 503.— The Mule.
The mule is the offspring of the male ass and mare ;
the offspring of the horse and female ass is termed
the hinny, and is a small inferior animal of little
value. The mule in general has the form of the
ass, in some respects modified, and on a larger
scale, but the head and tail approach nearer to those
of the horse. We learn that the mule was bred in
ancient times ; it is noticed in the reign of David,
when it appears to have been in common use for
the saddle, and consequently must have been known
much earlier. The fiwt mention of mules is in
Genesis xxxiv. 24; but the true meaning of the
word thus rendered is doubtful. Bochart is of
opinion that the word (yemin) really denotes a gi-
gantic people, and this opinion has the sanction of
the Samaritan text and version ; while the Syriac
renders the word as " waters," in which meaning St.
Jerome, Gesenius, and others concur.
At the present day there are various breeds of
mules in Syria, and very beautiful animals are
produced between high-blood Arab mares and well
selected male asses. (Fig. 476.) In Europe the
Spanish mule is deservedly celebrated, as is also the
Spanish ass.
In Spain the muleteer is the general medium of
traffic, and the legitimate traverser of the land,
crossing the Peninsula from the Pyrenees and the
Asturias to the Alpuxarras. the Serrania de Ronda,
and even to the gates of Gibraltar. He lives fru-
gally and hardily : his alforjas of coarse cloth hold
his scanty stock of provisions ; a leathern bottle,
hanging at his saddle-bow, contains wine or water,
for a supply across barren mountains and thirsty
f)Iains. A mule-cloth spread upon the ground is
lis bed at night, and his packsaddle is his pillow.
His low but clean-limbed and sinewy form betokens
strength ; his complexion is dark and sunburnt ; his
eye resolute, but quiet in its expression, except
when kindled by sudden emotion ; his demeanour
is frank, manly, and courteous, and he never passes
you without a grave salutation — " Dios guarde h
usted!" "Vausted con Dios, Caballero!" "God
guard you ! God be with you, Cavalier ! " — Wash-
ington Irving. (Figs. 505, 507.)
We once saw four white Spanish mules of large
size and admirable symmetry.
In all mountain countries, the mule, from itssure-
ness of foot, its instinctive caution in choosing the
path, and the management of its proceeding in
descending a perilous and steep track, is eminently
serviceable. It is employed in the Andes, where it
has superseded the Llama.
The mule does not breed with the mule, but has
occasionally been known to breed with the mare ;
and an instance occurred in the gardens of the Zool.
Soc, of a mare producing a foal, of which the male
parent was a hybrid between the zebra and the ass.
The use of the mule in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and
also in the countnes of the East, is too well known,
and has been too often described by travellers, to
need our enlarging upon it. Next to the horse it is
our most valuable beast of burden, and in some
situations far preferable. In England, however, it
is not in recjuest, nor is any care taken in the acqui-
sition of a fine race ; yet its hardiness, strength, and
power of enduring fatigue are great recommenda-
tions in its favo'ir.
The word mule,. observes Mr. Bell, "is doubtless
derived from ^^Ao;, /ciAour ; from whence the Latin.
multts, which atfoids the Italian mulo, the French
ntulet, and our mule. It was formerly called Moyle
and Moil ; and this word is still employed lx)th in
the pouthern counties of England and in Scotland
to signify labour. Thus Bums, in his exquisite
' Cotter's Saturday-night ' —
" The toil-worn cotter tne hi* labour go«a :
Thii night bit weekly moil is at an end."
He adds — " Mr. Yarrell informs me that in Corn-
wall the word moyle signifies barren : this is a very
remarkable coincidence ; and, after all, may probably
be the etymology of the last-mentioned name of
our animal." A mule may be produced between
the zebra and the mare, or the quagga and the
mare.
" Some years since the Earl of Moreton, being
desirous of obtaining a breed between the horse and
the quagga (Burchell's zebra ?), selected a young
mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, and a fine male
of the latter species ; the produce was a female hy-
brid. The same mare had afterwards, first a filly
and next a col t, by a fine black Arabian horse. They
both, strange to say, resembled the quagga in the
dark line along the back, the stripes across the fore-
head, and the bars across the legs. In the filly the
mane was short, stiff, and upright, like that of the
(juagga. In the colt it was long, but so stiff as to
arch upwards, and hang clear of the sides of the
neck ; in other respects they were nearly Arabian,
as might have been expected from fifteen-sixteenths
Arabian blood."
To the physiologist this circumstance opens an
interesting subject for investigation, nor is the fact
unimportant to the breeders of animals, inasmuch
as it incontestably proves that the characters of the
male parent of the mother's first progeny exert a
marked influence on her subsequent offspring,
whatever may be the peculiarities of the father of
the latter.
479, 508.— The Zebra
(Eqtats Zebra; Equus montanus, Burchell). This
beautiful iiuimal is a native of the mountain dis-
tricts of southern Africa, and is found, according to
various writers, in Congo, Guinea, and even Abys-
sinia, according to Ludolphe. Bruce, however,
states that " the zebra is found nowhere in Abys-
sinia, except in the south-west extremity of Kuora,
amid the Shangalla and Galla, in Narea and Caff, and
in the mountains of Dyre and Tegla, and thence to
the southward." It is called in South Africa Wilde
Paarde by the Cape colonists.
The zebra is regulanly striped, even down to the
hoofs, with glossy brownish black on a white or
yellowish white ground. The ears are long, the
neck short and deep, with a sort of dewlap under
the throat produced by a loose fold of the skin ;
the mane is short, and the tail sparely clad with
long hair.
Wild and swift, this species lives in troops in the
bold ranges of craggy mountains remote from the
abodes of man. Its disposition is savage and in-
tractable, and it is by no means easily obtained, not
only from its fleetness, but from the nature of the
locality it frequents, where, like the wild ass of
Tartary, in "the wilderness and the barren land is
his dwelling; he scorneththe multitude of the city."
Two mules in the gardens of the Zool. Soc. are
between the male zebra and the common ass. They
are strong, and work well.
481. — Burchell's Zebra
(Equus BurcheUu), the Dauw of the colonists of
South Africa. This species is a tenant of the plains,
and is found occurring in every district north of
the Orange river, as far as travellers have pene-
trated. It dwells in troops, which make occasional
migrations from the interior to the more fertile
districts in search of food. At irregular and uncer-
tain intervals there occur seasons of drought in
South Africa, when the pools of the desert are dried
up, and the surface of the wilderness is parched.
Driven from their native solitudes by the desolation
around them, zebras, antelopes, and other animals
in incredible multitudes pour like a torrent over
the cultivated districts, destroying the pasturage
and the corn ; with the return of the rain they re-
trace their steps and seek their desert fastnesses.
Burchell's zebra is strong and muscular, with sinewy
limbs, and might perhaps be made serviceable to
man. It is an animal that admits of being tamed
to a certain extent with facility, and occasionally a
half-domesticated specimen is exposed for sale at
Cape Town with a rider on its back. The persons,
however, who have had most opportunities of be-
coming acquainted with its character, regard it,
tractable as it may sometimes appear, as treache-
rous, fickle, vicious, and obstinate. It is a remark-
able fact that this species, and the quagga also, are
oOen seen in company with the ostrich ; several of
the latter feeding tranquilly in the midst of a herd,
without experiencing any molestation.
This species may be distinguished from its moun-
tain relative by the shortness of its ears, by the ab-
sence of stripes on the limbs and under surface of
the body, and by the stripes of the upper parts be-
ing brown.
These animals present a brilliant appearance
when flying in troops before the hunter. Their
flesh (with that of the zebra and quagga) is relished
by the natives, but Mr. Burchell thought it not much
superior to horseflesh, and he would, with most
Europeans, think the same respecting the flesh of
the wild ass, which in Persia is in the highest esti-
mation, and served at royal banquets. The drawing
(Fig. 481) represents the spearing of one of these
animals by a mounted Cafire.
480.— The Qdagoa
(•Equus Quagga). Like the preceding species, the
Quagga is a native of the plain, and occurs south of
the Orange river, within the limits of the Cape
Colony. It roams in large herds, as does Burchell's
zebra, but the herds of the two animals never
mingle together, nor are the two species known to
produce a mixed progeny.
The quagga is far inferior to Burchell's zebra
both in size and beauty ; its ground colour is a dull
brownish white, clouded and striped with a darker
colour on the head, neck, and withers, and less
distinctly on the sides of the body ; the haunches
are greyish ; the under parts, tail, and legs white.
In its temper the quagga is wild and vicious ; never-
theless it is said to be sometimes employed by the
natives for the purposes of draught.
We have already stated that fossil relics of animals
of the genus Equus are abundant, and very widely
dispersed. They occur in the third period of the
tertiary series (Pliocene of Lyell), in the fresh-water
deposits in what is called diluvial detritus, in super-
ficial gravels, sands, and clays in the ossiferous
caverns, in the osseous breccia, and in the Eppels-
heim sand, &c. Captain Cautley found bones of
the horse (but not in abundance) among other fossil
remains lying on the slopes among the ruins of the
■fallen clilifs, and also in situ in the sandstone of the
Sewalik Mountains, at the southern foot of the
Himalayas, between the Sutlej and the Ganges. M
Several species of Equus have been recorded, •
as Equus fossilis (E. Adamiticus, Schlotheim),
Equus (Caballus) primigenius; Equus (Mulus) pri-
migenius ; Equus (Asinus) primigenius. It is very ■
probable that these recorded species may be reaJly ■
distinct from each other, yet it is by no means cer- '
tain, for it would appear that it is rather upon size
than any definite and persistent characters that the
distinctions are founded. Indeed the bones of the
living species do not afford any certain data by
which to discriminate one from another. Cuvier
informs us that he had carefully compared the
skeletons of many varieties of horses, those of the
mule, of the ass, the zebra, and the quagga, and
that he could never find a character sufficiently
fixed to enable him to pronounce on a species from
an isolated bone. Size, he observes, furnishes but
incomplete marks of distinction. Horses and asses
vary much in this respect from their states of
domestication ; and he adds that though he had
not yet procured the skeleton of a dzigguetai, he
doubted not its resemblance to the other species
as much as they resemble each other in the same
particular. To distinguish the skeleton, or a few
bones of the skeleton, of the zebra, from those of
Burchell's zebra, or the quagga, or the dzigguetai,
is indeed difficult ; but still where the relics indi-
cate great difference of size to have existed, taking
into account the circumstance that the extinct
Equi were wild, and therefore unmodified by the
influence of domestication, there are good grounds,
i"rom difference of size alone, for assuming specific
flistinctions. With regard to the probability that
to some of these extinct wild species is to be attri-
buted the origin of our domestic races, we have
jilready expressed our opinion.
482. — Skull of the Fossil Adapis.
To the order Pachydermata Cuvier refers an extinct
animal, of which the remains have been found in
the plaster-quarries of Montmartre. The remains,
however, are very rare, and we believe that only
tiiree fragments of skulls have been recovered.
The adapis was evidently a small animal, its skull
being only about a third larger than that of a
hedgehog. There were four incisors, sharp-edged
and oblique, in each jaw, followed byacanine tooth
of a conical form and not exceeding the molars in
length. Of these latter there were seven on each
side, in each jaw. In the upper jaw the first molar
was trenchant, the second and third surrounded by
a small ridge, the last four flat-crowned. In the
lower jaw the first three molars were pointed and
trenchant, the remainder flat-crowned and tuber-
culous, like those above opposed to flicni. Of the
DlNOTHERIUM.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
Ill
general outline of the adapis we have as yet no
means of arrivins: at any idea.
483, 485. — The Dinotherium
(X). giganteum), as restored by Professor Kaup.
Cuvier, from teeth and isolated fragments, gave, in
his work on fossil bones, the title of " Tapir gigan-
tesque " to the huge animal of which they were the
relics, the only ones then discovered. It was re-
served for Professor Kaup to add to our knowledge
of the animal in question, by the discovery first
of several lower jaws (Fig. 487), and subsequently
of the skull (Fig. 486), which were found imbedded
in a stratum of sandstone (the second or Mio-
cene system of tertiary deposits), at Eppelsheim,
about twelve miles south of Mayence, in company
with relics of the following, viz. : a second species
of Dinotherium, making the species 2 : Tapirus, 2,
larger than living species ; Chalicotherium (allied
to Tapirs), 2; Rhinoceros, 2; Tetracaulodon (allied
to Mastodon), 1 ; Hippotherium (allied to Horse),
1 ; Sus, 3 ; Felis (some as large as a Lion), 4 ;
jilachairodus (allied to Bear, Ursus cultridens):
Gulo (Glutton), 1 ; Agnotherium (allied to Dog, but
as large as a Lion), 1.
Cuvier, before he had completed the last edition
of his ' Regne Animal,' became aware of M. Kaup's
discovery of the lower jaw, and in his Additions,
vol. i. p. 581, he alludes to this fragment as afford-
ing data for the separation of the "Tapir gigan-
tesque " into a distinct genus. To this genus M.
Kaup has given the title Dinotherium. The skull
of this extraordinary animal is more than a yard in
length, and the size and situation of the nasal oritice
(Fig. 484), with the salient portion of the short
nasal bones, indicate the probable possession of a
proboscis ; we say probable, because in the Manatee
or Lamantin, and also the Duyong, we have a
similar extent and situation of the nasal orifice, a
circumstance militating against the inference that
a proboscis necessarily accompanies this conforma-
tion of the skull. Indeed the general aspect of the
skull of the Dinotherium, setting aside the tusks of
the lower jaw, and its strange alveolar projection,
strongly reminds us of that of the Lamantip (Mana-
tus, Cuv.j. The orbits themselves are very small,
but the temporal fossae are very deep and extensive,
indicating the great mass of the temporal muscle.
The lower jaw is most remarkable. It is armed at
the extremity with two enormous tusks (incisors),
which, instead of projecting upwards or forwards,
sweep downwards, and curve gently backwards,
having their roots imbedded in enormous alveoli.
0?
The dentition is as follows: — Incisors — , Canines
0-0 5-5
' — ^, Molars, -^ — r = 22. Of the molars the third
0-0 5— o
has three transverse ridges across its surface, the
others have two, with the exception of the first
molar of the lower jaw, which has only one at its
posterior part, the anterior portion being trenchant.
Fig. 488 represents the palatal view of the skull of
the Dinotherium. Fig. 490, the molar teeth and
the relative bearing of the two rows, which approxi-
mate towards each other anteriorly.
The situation and afiinities of the Dinotherium
have been the subject of much speculation, and very
opposite opinions have been entertained by different
naturalists. M. Kaup, influenced by the discovery
of huge claws and a scapula, resembling in charac-
ter those of the Pangolins (Manis), assigns the ani-
mal to the Edentata, but differing from all extant
species not only in exceeding the elephant in size,
but in having, like the elephant, a proboscis. Dr.
Btickland regards the Dinotherium as approximating
to the tapir, of aquatic habits, and furnished with
a proboscis, by means of which it conveyed to
the mouth the vegetables raked from the bottom of
lakes and rivers by its tusks and claws ; and he
alludes to its claw resembling that of the Pangolins.
MM. Blainville and Dum^ril consider the Dino-
therium to have been allied to the Lamantins, or
"aquatic gravigrades," — to have been in fact a
Duyong with tusk-incisors, and therefore one of the
concluding forms of the Pachydermata. They con-
sider that it had no proboscis, but a huge inflated
muzzle and upper lip. Gaeger places it with the
seals. Now as regards M. Kaup's theory, we may
at once state that the claws and scapula on which
he founds it are not proved to belong to the Dino-
therium ; and he himself admits that should the dis-
covery take place of other fossil relics whence the
certain existence of a Manis gigantea might be
presumed, his theory would be overthrown. Our
own opinion coincides with that of M. Blainville.
The occipital condyles (see the posterior view of the
»kull see from below. Fig. 489, and the skull. Fig.
480) are terminal, or in the direction of the longitudi-
nal axis of the skull, as in Lamantins, and also the
Cetacea Mammalia modified for aquatic existence.
The occipital surface is large, subvertical, and even
inclined from before backwards, with a profound
mesial depression for the insertion either of a very
strong cervical ligament or powerful muscles for
the elevation of the head. The basilary portion of
the skull (Figs. 488, 489) is narrow in its com-
ponent parts, while the vertical surface (Fig. 486)
is, as in the Lamantins and Duyongs, very wide,
overplumbing the temporal fossae, of which the
depth and width indicate the enormous levator
muscles of the lower jaw, not only for the purpose
of mastication, but for the particular action of the
lower jaw, with its rake-like tusks. Moreover, in
the lower jaw we find an analogy to that of the
Duyong, of which the branches curve downwards
for a third of their length to a deflected symphysis,
only that in the Dinotherium this downward curva-
ture is carried to a far greater extreme, for the im-
plantation of tusk -incisors. What were the limbs of
this gigantic animal ? If its habits were terrestrial,
which a consideration of the skull forbids us to be-
lieve, the Dinotherium must have had solid pillars of
support, like the limbs of the elephant, and destitute
of that liberty which even in the Pangolins they are
endowed with ; but, if our ideas are correct, its limbs
were adapted for aquatic locomotion, and perhaps
the posterior pair were wanting, or formed the ele-
ments of a terminal paddle. Its diet was undoubt-
edly vegetable, as in the Duyong ; and we may
conceive it tearing up the strong-fibred vegetables
from their subaquatic bed by means of its tusks,
which might serve also as weapons of offence, or
as anchors for the purpose of mooring itself to
the banks of the lake or river, or of dragging its
unwieldy body partially out of the water.
Dr. Buckland informs iis that bones of the Dino-
therium have lately been found in tertiary fresh-water
limestone near Orthes, at the foot of the Pyrenees,
and with them remains of a new genus allied to
rhinoceros, of several unknown species of deer, and
of a dog or wolf equalling a lion in size.
Cuvier and Kaup calculate the length of the
Dinotherium at about eighteen feet ; the massive
lower jaw measures nearly four feet, exclusive of
the tusks.
491, 492. — Fossil Skull of Toxodon
(Toxodon Platensis, Owen). We are inclined to refer
the Toxodon, of which an imperfect skull and frag-
ments of a lower jaw, and some teeth, are our only
guides, to the aquatic Pachyderms ; and, as in the
instance of the Dinotherium, we draw our deductions
from the weight of the skull, from the form and
position of the nasal aperture, the slope of the
occiput, and the position of the occipital condyles.
The skull in question was brought by Mr. Darwin
from South America. It appears that during his
sojourn in Banda Oriental he heard of some giant's
bones at a farm-house on the Sarandis, a small stream
entering the Rio Negro, about 120 miles north-
west of Monte Video. Accordingly there he rode,
and for the sum of eighteen-pence purchased the
cranium now in the museum of the Royal College
of Surgeons, London. Mr. Darwin was informed by
the people at the farm-house that the relics were
exposed in consequence of a flood having washed
down part of the bank of earth. When first found
the skull was perfect ; but unfortunately the boys
of the neighbourhood knocked out the teeth with
stones, and set up the head as a mark to tlirow at.
Mr. Darwin, however, found a perfect tooth, and
fragments ascertained by Professor Owen to be
those of the lower jaw. These remains were so
fresh as to render it difficult to believe that ages
had passed since their interment ; and Mr. Darwin
observes that they contained so much animal
matter, that when a portion was heated in the fiame
of a spirit-lamp, it not only exhaled a very strong
animal odour, but burnt with a slight flame. The
deposit in which they were imbedded was a whitish
argillaceous earth, forming the banks of the Sa-
randis, overlying a granitic foundation.
The skull in question equals in size that of the
hippopotamus, measuring two feet four inches in
length, and one foot four inches in extreme breadth.
The form of the skull (Figs. 491, 492) is elongated
and depressed ; the zygomatic arches are of enor-
mous size and strength, an index of the great
volume of the temporal and masseter muscles. The
occipital region (Fig. 493) slopes from the condyles
upwards and forwards. The maxillary portion of
the skull is compressed laterally, narrow across, and
with large intermaxillary bones, slightly dilated at
their extremity. The superior part of the skull was
cavernous, with cells, or sinuses, giving to it greater
apparent volume than the cerebral cavity would
Jead us to infer : we have already alluded to the
deceptive volume of the skull of the elephant.
According to Professor Owen the dental formula
is as follows : — Incisors _, canines none, a vacant
6
7 7
space being m their place ; molars =38. The
incisor teeth (see Fig. 496, the fragment of the an-
terior part of the lower jaw, with the teeth in situ;
' and Fig. 495, an incisor of the lower jaw) are re-
markable for their resemblance in many respects to
those of the Rodents : they were rootless, and had
persistent pulps ; growing, therefore, as worn down
by use. In the upper jaw the two central incisors
were very small ; the two e<xternal ones very large,
curved, with their sockets extending back in an
arched direction through the intermaxillary bones
to the maxillary, and terminating, without becoming
contracted, immediately anterior to the grinding
teeth. In the lower jaw the two middle incisors are
largest, the rest gradually diminishing in size. (Fig.
496.) The molar teeth also were rootless, and curved,
whence the name Toxodon (joiov, a bow, bioit,
a tooth) ; and their grinding surface presented one
or more folds of enamel re-entering the osseous sub-
stance of the centre, as in Rodents. See Fig. 494,
the last molar teeth but one of upper jaw ; Fig. 497,
the grinding surface of the same ; Fig. 498, the
grinding surface of the corresponding molar of lower
jaw.
We might here enter on many minutiae, and follow
Professor Owen through his anatomical details, were
it not that they are rather adapted for the close atten-
tion of the comparative anatomist than the general
leader. Those who wish to gain the fullest information
on these points we may refer to the ' Proceeds. Geol.
Soc. Lond.' 1837 ; and the ' Zoology of the Beagle :
Fossil Mammalia.' We may observe, however, that
" in the aspect of the plane of the occipital foramen
and occipital region of the skull, in the form and
position of the occipital condyles, in the aspect of
the plane of the bony aperture of the nostrils, and
in the thickness and texture of the osseous parietes
of the skull," the Toxodon manifests an affinity to
the Dinotherium and the aquatic Pachyderms (the
herbivorous Cetacea of Cuvier, but whicli in man-
ners and organization have little relationship to the
true whales, excepting as far as they are all modified
for the waters of the deep).
With respect to the limbs of the Toxodon, we have
as yet no evidence respecting their form or number ;
how far, therefore, they were constructed for aquatic
progression, whether for this solely, or for occasional
visits to the land, is yet a problem to be solved.
Professor Owen, however, suggests that the pre-
sence of lai'ge frontal sinuses renders it not im-
probable that the habits of this species were not
so strictly aquatic as the total absence of hinder
extremities would necessitate.
In speaking of the Dinotherium and Toxodon it
will be seen that we have referred them, with the
Lamantins and Duyongs (often written Dugongs),
to the aquatic Pachyderms, between which group
and the ordinary Pachyderms we regard the hippo-
potamus as forming a link, though decidedly within
the pale of the latter. Cuvier has remarked that
such of the Pachydermata as approach the Rumi-
nants in the structure of their feet partake in some
degree of the complication of the stomach which
in the animals of the latter order is so remarkable
a character ; and it may be said, per contra, that
such Pachyderms as approach in a certain degree
in habits to the aquatic group resemble them in
the structure of the same organ. The stomach of
the semi-aquatic hippopotamus, for example, con-
sists of certain sacculi, which renders it analogous to
that of the lamantin. Sir E. Home observes that
" the stomachs of the manatee and hippopotamus
bear a close resemblance to each other in structure,
and are in many respects similar to that of the
peccary, which is a variation of the hogs, to which
the tapir is also allied ; and these circumstances
throw no small light upon the preparatory processes
required for the digestion of difterent kinds of ve-
getable food. The grass of the field is the food of
Ruminating animals, and, from the structure of their
digestive organs, it is evident that much previous
digestion is necessary for its preparation. The
grass and weeds at the bottom and on the banks of
rivers is the food of the manatee and hippopotamus,
and the apparatus formed for preparing these sub-
stances displays an approach to the stomachs in
Ruminants. In the hog tribe the resemblance is
less, those animals having a more indiscriminate
diet : the structure of their stomach shows that
grass is by no means their natural food. The
stomachs of the manatee and hippopotamus, then,
which at first sight appear so extraordinary and
incomprehensible, are in fact the links which
unite the Ruminants to those animals which feed
on roots and various vegetable substances, and form
a key, without which the different gradations can-
not be satisfactorily explained."
It is not only in the form of the stomach, but in
the structure and contour of the skull, the position
of the eyes and nostrils, and even in the nature of
the skin, with its subcutaneous layer of fat, that we
trace the approximation of the hippopotamus to the
Lamantins ; and it may be that the Toxodon, and even
Dinotherium, form links between the Lamantins and
hippopotamus, being within the pale of the group
to which the former belong.
We may here observe, that the number of fossil
485.— Dlnotherinm.
487.— Lower Jaw of Dinotberium.
112
Fig. 494.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
114
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[TOXODOM.
genera included within the Pachydermata g^atly
exceeds that of genera containing living specie*,
of which latter many, as Eqiius, Elephas, Rhino-
ceros, and Hippopotamus, have fossil as well as
living species : so that the number of fossil or ex-
tinct species already ascertained of the Pachyder-
matous order, taken collectively, is far greater than
the number of living species. In some, perhaps
many, instances the affinities of the fossil Pachy-
derms are not understood, fragments of bones only
having been recovered : in some instances they can-
not be mistaken.
We began our observation on the Pachydermata
by alluding to the unfilled intervals between the
forms now living on the surface of the earth, and
a statement that in fossil forms — some yet to be
discovered, others to be made out, and, as it were,
re-coDstructed — would the lost links in the chain be
recovered ; and we again express our opinion that
ultimately the work will be, if not perfectly, at least
to a great extent, accomplished.
That our ideas are not unreasonable we have
from time to time satisfactory proofs. Sir Thomas
Mitchell has recently transmitted from Australia
some fossil bones which incontestably prove the
existence of at least one gigantic Pachyderm, at
some remote period, in that region. These fossils
consist of a piortion of a molar tooth, of the shaft
of a thigh bone, with part of the spine, of a sca-
pula, and some smaller fragments of a long bone.
They were found on the Darling Downs, those ex-
tensive plains marked to the south-west of Moreton
Bay on most maps of Australia, at the source of
the river Darling, and upwards of 4000 feet above
the level of the sea. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his
letter to Professor Owen, to whom the relics were
forwarded, states that these huge bones are found
in some abundance. It would appear from Profes-
sor Owen's examination, that this huge extinct
animal was allied both to the Mastodon and Dino-
therium. Fig. 499 represents the femur of this
extinct Australian Pachyderm : a, its transverse sec-
tion. Figs. 500, 501, two views of the portion of a
molar tooth of the same. These fossils, now in the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, cannot,
observes Professor Owen, be contemplated without
suggesting many interesting reflections.
"They tell us plainly that the time was when
Australia's arid plains were trodden by the hoofs of
heavy Pachyderms ; but could the land then have
been, as now, parched by long continued droughts,
■with dry river-courses, containing here and there
a pond of water? All the facts and analogies which
throw light on the habits of the extinct Mastodons
and Dinotheres indicate these creatures to have
been frequenters of marshes, swamps, or lakes.
Other relations of land and sea than now charac-
terize the southern hemisphere, a different condition
of the surface of the land and of the meteoric in-
fluences governing the proportion and distribution
of fresh-water on that surface, may therefore be
conjectured to have prevailed when huge Masto-
dontoid Pachyderms constituted part of the quad-
ruped population of Australia. Rlay not the change
from a humid climate to the present particularly
dry one have been the cause, or chief cause, of the
extinction of such Pachyderms? Was not the
ancient Terra Australis, when so populated, of
freater extent than the present insular continent?
he mutual dependences between large mammalian
quadrupeds and other members of the animal king-
dom suggest other reflections in connection with
the present fossil. If the extinct species ever so
abounded as to require its redundancy to be sup-
pressed by a carnivorous enemy, then some de-
structive species of this kind must have co-existed,
of larger dimensions than the extinct Dasyurus
laniarius, the ancient destroyer of the now equally
extinct gigantic Kangaroos, Macropus Titan, &c.,
whose remains were discovered in the bone-caves
of Wellington Valley. Extremely few copropha-
gous beetles have hitherto, I believe, been found in
Australia ; and the scarcity of such is readily ex
plained by the absence of native species of large
herbivorous mammals ; but the dung of the Masto-
dontoid quadrupeds which formerly existed in Aus-
tralia must then have afi"orded the requisite condi-
tions for a greater abundance of such Coleoptera.
These and other speculations are naturally suggested
hy the highly interesting fossils here described.
The great importance of such organic remains will
be obvious from the few inferences which have
been briefly noted; our obligations to the en-
lightened collector and transmitter of the Masto-
dontoid fossils are great, and the arrival of addi-
tional facts and specimens will be most earnestly
welcomed."
A consideration of the fossil relics of extinct ani-
mals throws the mind back upon remote periods
before the surface of our globe had acquired its
present aspect, its present arrangement of land
and water, of mountains and plains, islands and
conUnents ; and when we begin to review the histoij'
of its phases, we find ourselves carried back into the
obscure of time, till — in comparison with the ages
which have passed since the commencement of the
Primary period, wherein those oldest rocks were
formed in which there are no traces of animal or
vegetable life : to the conclusion of the Secondary
geological period — the date of man's existence on
the globe seems but of yesterday, and the few thou-
sand years through which he has played his part
sink into a span.
But though the vast antiquity of the globe is
clearly demonstrated, still the length of time which
has elapsed during the formation of the whole or
of any definite portion of the crust of the earth is a
problem yet to be solved. We know that at one
period life had no place on our planet. The gneiss
and mica-schist systems of strata of the Primary pe-
riod are destitute of all trace of organic remains.
In these, the most ancient of rocks, which exhibit to
us the combined effects of igneous and aqueous
agency, no fossil relics speak of a Fanna or Flora
during their formation, and we may believe that
few or none of the organised wonders of nature
were then in existence, because the physical con-
ditions of the globe requisite for the existence of
animals and plants were not then established.' How
long did this state of the earth continue ? It is a
question which cannot be answered. Passing from
the primeval rocks,
*• Where the bird dared not build, nor insect wing
Flit o'er the herbless granite,"
we come to the Snowdon rocks of argillaceous slate,
and the calcareous and argillaceous rocks, consti-
tuting the Cumbrian system, in which a few traces of
organic life have been detected, but of organic life
in its lowest type. Then the Silurion or transition
system succeeds, consisting of sandstones, limestones,
and shale ; here corals, crinoidea, trilobites, terebra-
tulae, &c., all belonging to extinct species and often
to extinct genera and families, and all aquatic, are
abundant. From these systems of the primary
strata, we advance to the secondary strata — rich in
oceanic life — divided into the carboniferous system,
the saliferous or new red-sandstone system, the
oolitic system, and the cretaceous or chalk system.
The deposits constituting each of these systems are
replete with organic remains, but all of extinct spe-
cies and often of extinct genera. The coal-mea-
sures are rich in an extinct Flora, principally con-
sisting of ferns, often in an extraordinary degree of
preservation, the most delicate leaves being spread
out, and so arranged as to constitute a beautiful
Hortus Siccus of a long-past period. About 300
species of plants have been discovered in the coal-
measures of this and other countries. Their luxu-
riance indicates a genial temperature and a humid
ground. " It would hardly be credited," says Pro-
fessor Lindley, in his ' Fossil Flora of Great Britain,'
" by persons unacquainted with the evidence upon
which such facts repose, that in the most dreary and
desolate regions of the present day there once flou-
rished groves of tropical plants, of Coniferae, like
the Norfolk Island and Araucarian pines, of bananas,
tree-ferns, huge cacti and palms ; that the marshes
were filled with rush-like plants 15 or 20 feet high,
and the coverts with ferns like the undergrowth of
a West India island. Our engraving (Fig. 510) is
a restoration of some of the animals and plants
characteristic of the oolitic system (lias, limestone,
oolite, &c.) of the secondary strata, which will
serve to convey some idea of the Fauna and Flora of
the period when those strata were in process of
formation — a period in which strange monsters
ploughed their way through waters which have
given place to solid rock. Plants. — a. Ferns (Fili-
ces). b, Zamia (Cycadae). c. Arbor Vitae. d,
Dracaena, e, Araucaria pine. /, Equisetum. —
Animals. — g. Dragon-fly. h. Tortoise, j, Mega-
losaurus. k, Ichthyosaurus. /, Plesiosaurus. to.
Ammonites, n. Echinus, o, Nautilus, p. Cuttle-
fish, q, Encrinites. r, Pterodactylus.
The chalk system is rich in extinct corals, zoo-
phytes, and echinoderms. Our lofty chalk hills and
the white cliffs of Dover have been formed through
a long succession of ages at the bottom of a deep
sea. From the Secondary we advance to the Ter-
tiary periods. In general, says a talented writer,
" No contrast can be more complete than that
between the secondary and the tertiary rocks ; the
former retaining so much uniformity of character,
even for enormous distances, as to appear like the ef-
fect of one determined sequence of general physical
agencies ; the latter exhibiting an almost boundless
local variety, and relations to the configuration of
land and sea not to be mistaken. The organic bodies
of the secondary strata are obviously and completely
distinct from those of the modern land and sea; but
in the tertiary deposits, it is the resemblance between
fossil and recent kinds of corals, shells, plants, qua-
• We exclude microscopic animalcules from our consideration, be-
cause at present we scarcely know under what circumstances they can
live.
drupeds, and other vertebrata, which first arrests the
judgment. In genera] there is a decided break
between the two groups of rocks, a discontinuity
which is nowhere completely filled. Yet besides the
pseudo-tertiary or transition chalky rocks of Maes-
tricht and the Pyrenees, and the conchiferous marls
of Gosau, we have in England and France above
the chalk a prevalence of green and ferruginous
sands similar to those below. Perhaps they have
been derived from the waste of those older rocks.
Mr. Lyell supposes the tertiaries of the London basin
to have been formed from the waste of the second-
ary strata of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire.
With the tertiary system came into existence, if we
may trust the evidence which the eariier strata pre-
sent, many races of quadrupeds, some birds, reptiles
and fishes, extremely analogous to, though for the
most part specifically distinct from, the modern de-
nizens of land and water; thousands of corals, shells,
Crustacea, &c. which present with living races quite
as great analogy as obtains between the tribes of the
Atlantic and the Pacific oceans of our day. The
general features of land and sea as they now exist
began to appear, and there can be no doubt that in
a philosophical study of the revolutions of the globe
the tertiary era of geology cannot be properly sepa-
rated from the existing system of nature."' "The ter-
tiary period, taken in this extended sense, saw the
creation and extinction of the mammoth, the mas-
todon, the palaeotherium, the fossil rhinoceros and
hippopotamus, the dinotherium, the toxodon, and the
huge pachyderm of Australia : and next, the creation
of all our modern races of animals.
During the period of the deposition of the tertiary
strata, the relations of land and sea were greatly
altered in various portions of the globe ; in Europe
by the rising of the Pyrenees beyond the heightthey
reached after the cretaceous era, and by the uplift-
ing of the Alps from the Mediterranean towards
Mont Blanc. " In England we may believe the up-
ward movement of the southern counties connected
with the Hampshire axis of elevation, and the Isle
of Wight convulsion was ended at an early epoch
of the tertiary period. The eastern range of the
Alps from Mont Blanc to Vienna is of later date,
and may be viewed as the most marked phenomenon
of elevation which accompanied or preceded the
dispersion of erratic blocks in Europe."
Besides the alterations thus produced in the rela-
tion of the land and the sea, changes have taken
place, and are still in progress, from other causes.
Rivers bring down vast quantities of the disinte-
grated particles of the strata through which they
flow, and deposit the sediment at their mouths,
forming deltas, or low tracts, won as it were particle
by particle from the domain of the ocean ; on the
other hand, the sea itself wears down coasts to a
great extent, making vast inroads on the land, and
converting the isthmus into an island : sometimes,
by the sudden or gradual elevation of a large tract
of land, an inland sea becomes drained, leaving in
Its place a sandy desert. In the depths themselves
there is no rest ; multitudes of zoophytes and testacea
there live and die, there their remains accumulate
layer upon layer, forming beds of vast thickness,
which at a future day may be laid bare, covered with
alluvium, and engage the researches of another
Cuvier. The chemical action of the atmosphere ;
heat and cold, rain and snow, winds, springs, rivers,
torrents, the action of the tides ; life, animal and ve-
getable ; and volcanic agencies, all contribute their
part to alter the surface of the land, and to eff'ect
changes in its relative extent to that of the sea,
changes which are in reality never stationary, but,
imperceptible as they may seem, in constant pro-
gress.
The deposits of the tertiary period are divided by
Mr. Lyell into three series : the oldest, or Eocene, in
which there occurs from three to five per cent, of
existing species of shells ; secondly, the series of the
middle age, or Meiocene, averaging 18 per cent, in
the occurrence of existing species of shells ; and
thirdly, the superficial or Pleiocene deposits, in
which the ratio of existing shells is from 40 to 95
per cent.
We trust we shall be pardoned for this brief '
digression, into which we were led by a desire to
show that fossil relics are not all of the same era, and
that Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary periods haw
each their distinguishing characteristics, their own -
fossil relics ; that on the whole the progression of i
life has been from the lowest aquatic forms, to formi i
analogous to those now tenanting the earth, which
when they existed in the Eocene, Meiocene, or Pie
iocene epoch of the Tertiary period, must have pre-
sented to a certain extent the superficial features it i
at present exhibits, though there were doubtless '
great modifications in the arrangements of land and ■
water, and in the temperature of given latitude*. ■
We beg to refer our readers to the articles ' Organic *
Remains ' and ' Geology,' in the ' Penny Cyclopedia.'
The perusal will give additional interest to our dfri
tails of fossil relics.
Camels.
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
115
ORDER RUMINANTIA.
This order, termed Pecora by Linnaeus, is one of the
most natural of the primary groups into which the
Mammalia are divided. It contains all those qua-
drupeds in which a cloven hoof, the act of rumina-
tion (chewing the cud), and the absence of incisors
in the upper jaw coexist together as data upon
which to draw a line between them and all other
Mammals. It is true that the Camelidae, or camel
tribe, including the Llamas, exhibit in their denti-
tion a departure from the rule, and exhibit, both in
this particular and in osteological structure, some
approximation to the Pachyderms ; nevertheless
even the Camels, in common with the Ruminants
generally, partake of those definite structural pecu-
liarities from which there is no deviation, and which
constitute a common bond of union.
A rapid glance at the distinguishing characteris-
tics of this order will not, we trust, be unacceptable ;
certainly it is not out of place. Decidedly herbivo-
rous, with lips modified either for browsing, as the
camel, giraffe, &c., or for grazing, as in the ox, the
Ruminantia are accordingly furnished with teeth,
digestive organs, and limbs in accordance with the
habits involved.
To begin with the teeth. We may observe that
there are no incisors in the upper jaw, the hardened
gum sustaining the pressure of the lower incisors,
which are eight in number, with thin, broad edges ;
their position is not vertical, but oblique, so that
their edges do not press directly against the gum,
but rather their posterior surface. The two central
are in general the largest, and the outermost on each
side the smallest and most oblique. In the giraffe,
hovtever, the outermost is the largest, and it ap-
I>ears as if divided by a furrow. The molars are
six on each side in both jaws : of these the first three
are preceded by milk or deciduous teeth ; the three
posterior are originally permanent. Their surface
IS marked by two pairs of crescentic ridges. In the
lower jaw these crescents have the convexity out-
wards ; in the upper, the reverse. These crescents
as they wear down by use show a centre of bone
surrounded by a ridge of enamel. Between the
molars and incisors of the lower jaw intervenes a
vacant space.
With respect to the camels, though the number
of molars on each side above is really six, five only
are in a continuous series, and resemble molars in
their shape : anterior to these continuous teeth, and
separated by a considerable space, we find a tooth
resembling in shape a stout short canine, being of a
rimple conical figure ; this is the first molar : it has
been called a second canine, but erroneously, the
true canine, which is large, strong, and pointed, be-
ing placed before it, a small interval separating
them. In the lower jaw the continuous molars are
four, with a similar pointed and detached molar and
canine ; there being true canines, as well as canine-
like molars, in both jaws. Incisors also are found in
both jaws : four in the upper, but the two central
are small and fall out early ; the two lateral are per-
manent, and resemble canines in figure. In the
lower jaw there are only six incisors, compressed,
oblique, and pointed. Fig. 517 shows the dentition
of the upper jaw, in two views; Fig. 518, that of the
lower, also in two views.
The dentition of the Llamas closely approaches
that of the camel ; there are, however, in these ani-
mals only four molars on each side below, and five
above, there being no detached canine-like molars.
The Chevrotains (Moschidae) are remarkable for the
developement of the canines of the upper jaw in the
male ; they are pointed, recurved, compressed, with
a posterior sharp edge, and project downwards out
of the mouth. In the musk-deer they measure two
inches and a half in length. There are no canines
in the lower jaw. Incisors eight, as usual ; none
above. The existence of canine teeth in the upper
jaw of the males, though not a universal feature
among the Ruminants, is by no means uncommon.
They occur in the males of many of the deer tribe,
and we have seen them in a rudimentary state and
buried in the gum in the female of the South
American species ; and they have been found in one
species of antelope (Ant. montana, Riipp.) — in this
animal, however, they are only half-developed germs,
becoming lost before the animal attains to maturity.
(See ' Proceeds. Zoological Society,' 1836, p. 3.)
As the dentition of the Ruminants is so constant
and unvarying in its general characters, so is the
structure of the organs of progression ; and where, as
in the Camelidae, we find a variation in the former,
so do we also find a corresponding variation in the
ktter. On looking at the feet of a Ruminant, the
ilnrt thing we observe is, that they are hoofed and
cloven ; an anatomy shows us that these hoof-cased
toes, consisting of three phalangal bones, terminate
• single long canon-bone. In the camels, however,
the toes, instead of being stiort, abruptly truncated,
and cased in pointed hoofs, so as to form a solid
basis on which to rest, are elongated and only tipped
with small hoofs, the animal resting on a large pulpy
sole or pad, placed like a cushion beneath the toes
(See Figs. 520 and 521.) Besides the two large or
true toes, there are in some groups, as for instance
the deer, two small short lateral toes consisting of
three phalanges, and supported by stylets of bone.
In the sheep these accessory toes are merely horny
protuberances filled with condensed fatty cellular
tissue.
The act of ruminating supposes a complicated
structure of the stomach. This organ is divided
into four compartments, viz. : 1, the first cavity or
paunch, la pause (ventriculus) ; 2, the hood or honey-
coinb, le bonnet (reticulum) ; 3, the manyplies, le
feuillet (omasus or psalterium) ; 4, the rud, la cail-
lette (abomasus). These cavities are so arranged
that the coarsely-ground herbage received into the
first cavity is gradually propelled into the hood
through a valvular aperture, where it is compacted
into small balls, which, while the animal reposes at
its ease, are returned seriatim to the mouth, to be
remasticated by a voluntary effort. The aliment,
when sufficiently remasticated, is again swallowed,'
and passes at once into the third, or plicated, com-
partment, by means of a peculiar mechanism, where
it is compressed into flattened portions, which are
gradually transmitted through a valvular orifice into
the fourth compartment, or abomasus, the true
digestive cavity.
The inner membrane of this portion secretes a
fluid (the gastric juice) well known for its power of
coagulating milk ; taken from the calf, salted and
dried, it is known under the name of rennet, and
used in making cheese.
In young Ruminants, while their food is merely
the mother's milk, the process of rumination is not
carried on ; and the proportion which the different
compartments of the stomach bear to each other is
very different from that presented afterwards, when
their aliment is changed from milk to herbage. The
huge paunch, forinstance, is less than the abomasus,
or fourth stomach, this being as yet the largest of
the compartments, and the milk as it is swallowed
passes at once into it, where it becomes curdled and
then digested.
In the camel, besides the almost total absence of
the third stomach, or omasus, there is another pecu-
liarity to be noticed, viz. an arrangement of deep
cells in the paunch for the reception and preserva-
tion of water, and the enlargement of the cells of
the reticulum for the same purpose. 'The paunch
is divided into two portion?, a right and a left, by
a longitudinal ridge of muscular fibres: in the left
is a series of deep cells capable altogether of con-
taining from four to five quarts of water; in the
right is a smaller series capable of containing about
a quart. When these cells are filled, the fluid is
kept free from mixture with the food by the con-
traction of the orifice of each cell, and it can be
forced out at pleasure by the action of a muscular
expansion covering the bottom of this cellular ap-
paratus. The deep cells of the reticulum are ar-
ranged in twelve rows, and are formed by muscular
bands, intersecting each other transversely. This
compartment in the camel appears to be destined
exclusively as a reservoir for water, never receiving
solid food, as in the ox or sheep ; and it would seem
that the remasticated food passes into the third
small cavity, being conducted along the upper mar-
gin of the second, through a canal formed by a mus-
cular ridge, which contracts with so much force as
not only to open the orifice of the second cavity but
so as to bring forward the mouth of the third into
the second, by which action the muscular ridges that
separate the rows of cells are brought close together,
so as to exclude these cavities from the canal through
which the water passes. Sir E. Home observes,
that " while the camel is drinking, the action of the
inuscular band opens the orifice of the second ca-
vity ; at the same time it directs the water into it :
and when the cells of that cavity are full, the rest
runs oft' into the cellular structure of the first cavity.
It would appear that camels, when accustomed to
journeys in which they are kept for an unusual
number of days without water, acquire the power of
dilating the cells, so as to make them contain a
more than ordinary supply for their journey ; at least
such is the account given by those who have been
in Egypt." The llama resembles the camel in the
arrangement of a cellular apparatus in the stomach.
Fig. 51 1 represents a portion of the cellular appara-
tus of the camel's stomach, one-ninth of the natural
size.
The Ruminantia are dispersed throughout the
globe from the equator to regions within the arctic
circle ; but are most numerous in the warmer lati-
tudes. The universality of the distribution of these
animals is essentially connected with the welfare of
our race, for not only is the flesh of most species ac-
ceptable as food, but that of some is in the highest
estimation : nor is this all— their hair or wool, their
skin, their hoofs, their horns, their antlers, nay, their
bones, and even their intestines, are converted to our
benefit. It is from this order that man has derived
the most valuable of his domestic animals, which
have spread with him as he has spread, becoming,
like himself, denizens of the globe. Such is the case
with the ox, the sheep, and the goat. Domesticated
from the earliest period, they have ever formed a
main part of the national wealth of civilized king-
doms, in all ages, and are intimately connected with
the prosperity of our race. All the Ruminants, how-
ever, which man has domesticated are not univer-
sally spread ; some few are adapted by their consti-
tution to certain localities, beyond the bounds of
which their value becomes diminished. They are
formed for the places they tenant, and there are of
the highest importance. Of these, one is the rein-
deer, an animal essential to the comforts if not the
existence of the simple inhabitants of Lapland's ice-
bound realm, where the ox and the sheep cannot
exist. There " the reindeer form their riches." And
again, who has not heard of the ship of the desert,
the camel, which now, as in ancient days, freighted
with merchandise, traverses the burning desert pa-
tient of thirst and hunger? To this animal let us
first direct our attention.
513 to 540.— The Camel
(Camdus Dromedarius; Gamal of the Hebrews
Djemel of the Arabs). Our pictorial museum is rich
in specimens of the camel, with accompanying de-
tails so pertinent as to set forth the animal's history,
and declare its use in graphic language speaking to'
the eye. There is something strange and imposing
in the aspect of the gaunt and angular camel, desti-
tute, as it confessedly is, of grace and animation.
We are amazed at its height, its uncouth proportions,
its long thin neck, its meagre limbs, and the huge
hump on its back, which conveys the idea of distor-
tion. Quietly it stands in one fixed attitude, its
long-lashed eyelids drooping over the large dark
eyes : it moves— and onwards stalks with slow and
measured steps, as if exercise were painful. "To
complete the picture, it is covered with shaggy hair,
irregularly disposed, here forming tangled masses,
there almost wanting. Its thick mobile upper lip
is deeply divided ; its feet are large and spreading,
the toes being merely tipped with little hoofs.
There are two species of this animal, the Bactrian
and the Arabian. It is to the latter that we shall
first direct our observation.
The Arabian camel is distinguished from the-
Bactrian by having only one large fatty hump upon
the back, and in being of a somewhat slighter make.
It is not known in a wild condition, but most pro-
bably was indigenous in Arabia and the adjacent
regions, the whole of its structure proclaiming the
desert as its destined abode. Reclaimed fro'm the
earliest state, its history is interwoven with that of
the patriarchs of old : time immemorial it has been
the bondslave of man ; and under his mastership
is spread over the whole of northern Africa as far as
Nubia, and from Syria, throughout Arabia, Persia,
and India, being valued in all these regions as a
beast of burden. In central Asia the Bactrian
camel takes its place, but it is inferior in those
qualities which render the Arabian species so emi-
nently adapted to the arid burning desert over
which it moves silently along, heavily loaded, pa-
tient of thirst and hunger, thus maintaining an in-
tercourse between districts separated by vast plains
of sand, a barrier more effectual than that of the
rolling ocean. It is the unwearied patience, the
strength, the docility, the power of maintaining
long journeys on scanty fare, that render the camel
in its own country of intrinsic importance. By its
means the merchant transports his merchandise
from Aleppo or Baghdad to Mekkah or El-Basrah.
Long strings of camels, or caravans, as they are
called, venture across the desert, each animal
bearing a load of 500 or even 600 pounds weight,
and the procession moves at the rate of nearly three
miles an hour, regular as clock-work, day after day
for eight hours daily. A caravan of camels thus
wending their way over the plain, their footsteps
falling noiselessly, so that the ear cannot catch the
sound of their approach, whether on hard ground or
sand, strongly impresses those who for the first time
witness this truly eastern spectacle, which indeed
calls to mind the days when "a company of Ish-
maelites came from Gilead with their camels, bear-
ing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry
it down to Egypt."
The more prominent of the structural peculiari-
ties of the camel may here be briefly noticed. The
camel treads flat on his toes, and not, as the ox,
on a thick hoofed termination : we have already
stated that they are cushioned beneath with large
spreading callous elastic pads, connecting them
together, and extending laterally beyond them, the
horn-covered tips being alone free and separate
(see Fig. ,520— the Camel's Foot with the skin re-
moved). This cushion expands by pressure at each
step, a provision of evident advantage to the animal
Q 2
/
r-r,.-u-'*-'' «*»■■
.'.i:!. — S>:i: canul.
tit.— Cameis WucHag.
5:6.— liomiei) Cmncls.
■"'"u,^
Fig. 611.
Sir. i1«.— T«rth.orCaml.
6U.— CameU Tethered.
616.— S»-lft Cuniel.
116
26.— Oriental Migration.
118
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
'Camels.
in paasini; over a sandv, yielding surface, while on
hard or stony ground the elasticity of the pad
tives ease to its movements. The camel kneels
own to be loaded, and kneeling is its natural state
of repose, and hence it is provided with certain
callosities upon which to throw the weight of the
body, both in kneeling down and rising up. The
largest of these callosities occupies the chest,
which is always brought to the ground ; one is
placed on each elbow and knee of the fore-limbs,
one on the front of each knee of the hind-limbs, and
a very small one on the outer side of each hock.
These natural cushions are not produced by the
habit of kneeling, as some have been ready to sus-
pect, for the young camel is born with them already
formed, and it may be observed that a similar cal-
lous pad is spread on the breast of the ostrich,
which dwells in the desert, and reclines upon its
chest. The camel is essentially the inhabitant of
a flat expaase of country, beneath a burning sky.
Elevated as it carries its head, it can discern the
green oasis in the sea of sand, at a vast distance ;
and so acute is its sense of smell, that it can scent
the far-distant water. To shield the large eyeball
from the glare of light, a beetling brow overarches
it, and long lashes fringe the upper lid. Incessantly
exposed to clouds of suffocating dust, the camel has
its nostrils so constructed as to exclude, as much as
possible, the particles of sand driven by the wind ;
they are in the form of slits, converging towards
each other, with elevated margins, the upper of
which is capable of being shut down like the lid of
a box, so as to close the aperture, or keep it open to
anv degree, at pleasure.
hard and scanty is the desert fare upon which
this animal subsists; but the fertile meads and
flowery vales of our climate would afford it no
temptation. Thorny shrubs, date-leaves, and the
leaves and branches of the tamarisk, are its staple
diet ; and dates, beans, the hard kernels of which it
cnishes to powder, with cakes of barley, provided
by its master, suffice to refresh it on its wearisome
pilgrimage. Hence we see the necessity of its
strong incisors, canine teeth, and canine-like mo-
lars, which enable it to browze on the coarsest
shrubs with ease, and sever branches of considerable
thickness. With its powerful, cleft, prehensile lip
it draws the twigs or leaves to its mouth, or even
nips off the tender shoots, or holds the tuft of herb-
age as it is gradually undergoing mastication.
Hard and scanty, we have said, is the desert fare of
the camel, but oftentimes the supply fails for days,
or is to be obtained only in small quantities, and the
travel-worn beast is put upon short allowance ;
then it is that we recognise the utility of that
hump, which seemed at first a deformity. The
fatty mass is gradually absorbed into the system,
which thus receives nutriment; for the hump is
a magazine against a time of want, to which the
system has recourse when other supplies are in-
aidequate.
It is a saying of the Arabs that the camel feeds
on its own hump, and in a certain sense they are
correct. After the wasting of this fatty mass, as
described, three or four months of repose and
copious nourishment are required to restore it to
its usual condition, and this does not take place till
the other parts are well replenished. When an
Arab is about to commence a journey, the first
thing about which he is solicitous is the state of his
camel's hump.
We have already alluded to the cellular appara-
tus in the camel's stomach. At all times patient of
thirst, with this provision the camel can endure for
se\eral days, beyond what is reserved in the cells ;
and sometimes, it is said, driven by necessity, the
driver sacrifices his camel in order to obtain the
water, and prolong, perhaps preserve, his existence.
This may have happened, but the statement rests
on insufficient authority.
From the data collected by Burckhardt there is
great difference among different breeds of camels as
respects the power of enduring thirst, according to
the mode of life to which they have been inured.
Thus the camels of Anatolia require water every
second day during a summer's journey ; but the
camels of Arabia can dispense with it until the
fourth, or even the fifth. In spring, when the young
herbage is succulent, the camel scarcely requires
to drink, and the journey across the great Syrian
desert, from Damascus to Baghdad, twenty-five
days, may be then performed without any water
being needed by or given to the camels.
The senses of sight, hearing, and smell are ex-
quisitely acute in the camel : it is said to delight
in the jingle of the bells hung about its neck, for it
is often thus ornamented, as in ancient days, and as
pack-horses formerly were in England, perhaps in
order that stragglers may be enabled to rejoin the
caravan. (See Fig. 524.) Shells called cowries,
and even ornaments of silver, are also added : the
shells are strung in a semicirc\ilar form ; hence the
phrase, " ornaments like the moon."
During a journey it is customary to halt about
four o'clock, to remove the loads and permit the
camels to feed. If the Arabs are desirous of pre-
venting them from straying too far, they tie their
fore-legs together, or bind the fetlock to the upper
joint by a cord. Towards evening they are called
in for their evening meal, and Jpil&ced in a kneeling
posture round the baggage. They do not browze
after dark, and seldom attempt to rise, but continue
the process of rumination for the greater portion
of the night. Amongst themselves they are some-
times very quarrelsome, and after the hardest day's
journey, no sooner is the baggage removed than
they begin to fight, and are prone to give each
other the most savage bites, and are not to be
separated without danger. (Fig. 532.) One of the
favourite amusements of the Turks of Asia Minor is
camel-fighting : each being previously muzzled,
they stnke each other's heads, twist their neck,
wrestle with their fore-legs, eSch endeavouring to
throw the other to the ground. Crowds attend to
witness the spectacle, and, as at the disgraceful dog-
fights of our country, the Turks will clap their
hands, encourage their respective favourites, and
bet upon their success. The Pasha of Smyrna used
frequently to regale the people with these games in
an enclosed square before his palace. It is, how-
ever, only at particular seasons that the temper of
the animal is thus excited, and that these combats
take place.
The camel is often excessively loaded, and some-
times, inhumanly, the load is laici on sores or wounds ;
yet even then the animal neither refuses to rise
nor attempts to cast it off: when suffering and
irritated, however, he cries out, but his com-
plaint is only of injustice, and then it must be ex-
treme for him to complain at all. Fig. 532* is a de-
lineation of the head of an ill-used camel uttering
its cry of distress. When a camel, loaded or
unloaded, fails, from hunger and excessive fatigue,
and sinks down, it seldom gets on its legs again, and
is left to perish. Wellsted tells us that he often
passed them when thus abandoned, and remarked
the mournful looks with which they gazed on the
receding caravan. When the Arab is upbraided
with inhumanity, because he does not at once put
a period to the animal's sufferings, he answers, that
the law forbids the taking away of life save for food,
and even then pardon is to be asked for the neces-
sity which compels the act. When death approaches
the poor solitary beast, vultures collect around, and,
eager for food, commence their repast even before
life is extinct. The traveller continually sees re-
mains of this faithful servant of man, exhibiting
sometimes the perfect skeleton covered with a
shrunk, shrivelled hide, sometimes the bones only,
deprived of flesh, and bleached to dazzling white-
ness by the scorching rays of a desert sun.
The Arabian or one-humped camel is usually
called, by way of distinction, the Dromedary, but
erroneously. The Dromedary is a light variety of
this species, and is termed Maherry or el Heirie in
the Arabian desert, and Sabayee in the North of
Africa. It is used principally for journeys of dis-
patch, carrying a single rider, or but a very light
burden ; and it will perform very long journeys in
an almost incredible space of time. " When thou
shalt meet a heirie, and say to the rider, ' Peace be
between us,' ere he shall have answered, 'There is
peace between us,' he will be far off, for his swift-
ness is like the wind," is an Arabian figure to
illustrate the fleetness of this saddle-dromedary.
This fleetness is however much overrated, and it is
less by positive speed than by extraordinary powers
of sustained exertion, day after day, through a time
and space which would ruin any other quadruped,
that it accomplishes such surprising journeys.
Urged to a gallop, it cannot maintain its pace for
half an hour, and is easily distanced by the horse :
but it can sustain a forced trot for several hours
together ; Wellsted says for 24 consecutive hours,
at the rate of from six to eight miles an hour. A
gentle and easy amble of five or five miles and a
half an hour is however the favourite quick pace of
the dromedary, and if allowed to persevere in it,
the animal will carry its rider an uninterrupted
journey of several days and nights. A common
caravan journey of 25 days is sometimes performed
in five days at this rate. This swift breed is of
great antiquity, and is referred to in several places
in the Scriptures. The camels of Oman are the
fleetest, the most beautiful, and the most high
prized. It would appear that there is also a swift
breed of the Bactrian or two-humped camel, which
is in request in China.
The rate of travelling long journeys performed by
the heavy caravan, each camel carrying from 500 to
800 pounds weight, does not exceed two miles and
a half or two miles and three quarters an hour.
This, however, can be maintained for .50 days in
succession, and for eight hours each day ; but a
more lightly loaded caravan will not only travel
quicker, but continue the march for nine or ten
hours daily. In 1751 Mr. Carmichael traversed
the great desert from Aleppo to Bussorah, his
course being 797 miles with a caravan of heavily-
loaded camels, and was .322 hours on the road. In
1781 Mr. Irwin travelled over the little desert from
Aleppo to Baghdad, his route being 480 miles, in
193J hours.
The soil best adapted to the camel's foot is a dry
and hard, but fine and gravelly plain ; where the
sand is deep and soft, the loaded animal sinks at
every step, and becomes rapidly exhausted. It can
also ascend steep and rugged mountain-paths with
considerable ease, but, as Belzoni once experienced
to his cost, sometimes slips and rolls down.
Besides the commercial caravans which traverse
the desert, there are also caravans of pilgrims to
Mecca, enjoined by the Mohammedan religion.
At Mecca meet the Mohammedans from Abyssinia
to India. It appears, according to Burckhardt, that
the pilgrimage from Damascus to Mecca with the
Syrian caravan cannot now be performed in the
most humble way under a cost of 125/. sterling;
and yet there are from five to seven great caravans
which regularly arrive at Mecca after the feast of
Bairam, which follows the Ramadhan. To have
visited the tomb of Mohammed, which entitles the
pilgrim to the proud distinction of being a hadji, is
an honour to which the meanest devotee aspires ;
and thus it is that within the walls of Mecca are
annually assembled vast bodies of Asiatics and
Africans, who have toiled thither, sustaining every
privation and misery, and of whom many, worn out
with fatigue, never return to claim the rewards of
their enthusiasm. In these extraordinary journeys
the camel sustains an important part, and, indeed,
without the services of these animals — some bear-
ing water in skins, some the merchandise of distant
lands, some the food and necessaries of the pilgrims,
and their own provender, and others the devotees —
the pilgrimage could not be accomplished.
Mr. Parsons, who saw the pilgrim caravan set out
from Cairo about 40 years ago, has given a pro-
gramme of the procession, drawn up with all the
precision of a herald, and which occupies ten pages
of his quarto work. The cavalcade was six hours in
passing him. The most striking appearance to a
European must have been the camels, in every
variety of splendid trappings, laden with provisions,
clothes, and cooking apparatus, and water-skins,
and tents, and artillery, and holy sheiks, and Mame-
lukes. There were camels "with two brass field-
pieces each" — others " with bells and streamers" —
others " with men beating kettle-drums" — others
" covered with purple velvet" — others " with men
walking by their sides, playing on flutes and flageo-
lets"— others " handsomely ornamented about their
necks, their bridles being studded with silver, inter-
mixed with glass beads of all colours, and ostrich
feathers on their foreheads" — and, last of all, " the
sacred camel, an extraordinary large camel, with a
fine bridle studded with jewels and gold, and led by
two holy sheiks, in green, a square house or chapel
on his back." In addition to these camel splen-
dours there were horses with every variety of
caparison ; Mamelukes, and pikemen, and janissa-
ries, and agas, and the emir Hadjy (commander of
the pilgrimage) in robes of satin — to say nothing of
numberless " buffoons playing many pranks." Mr.
Parsons sums up the splendour of this pilgrim
caravan by declaring that "it is by much the
grander exhibition than the spectacle of the Lord
Mayor and Aldermen going in procession through
the City of London ;" — Ijut this may be doubted by
some as the exaggeration of a traveller, while others
may deem it impossible.
Differing from the usual practice of commercial
caravans, the pilgrimage is performed chiefly by
night. The caravan generally moves about four
o'clock in the afternoon, and travels without stop-
ping till an hour or two after sunrise. A large
supply of torches is carried from Cairo, to be lighted
during the hours of darkness. The Bedouins, who
convey provisions for the troops, travel by day only,
and in advance of the caravan. The watering-
places on the route are regularly established. Each
is supplied with a large tank, and protected by
soldiers, who reside in a castle by the well through-
out the year. On parts of the route the wells are
frequent and the water good ; but on others, three
days of the journey frequently intervene between
one watering-place and another — and the fountain
is often brackish. When the Cairo caravan is com-
pletely assembled, and the formalities which we
have just descril)ed are gone through, the great
body of travellers begin to move, the stations of the
different parties of hadjis, according to their pro-
vinces and towns, being appointed, and rigidly
observed throughout the march. "This order is
determined by the geographical proximity of the
place from which each party comes. At Adjeroud,
where the Egyptian caravan halts on the second day's
march, it is supplied with water from Suez ; and
here it reposes a day and a night, to prepare for a
Camels.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
119
forced march of three days and two nights, through a
region where there is no water, the desert of El Tyh,
which nearly extends from the head of one gulf of
the Red Sea to the other — that is, from Suez to
Akaba. The Hadj route is circuitous. It is here
that the privations both of men and quadrupeds
commence. The splendid trappings of the camels,
their velvets and their bells, have lost their attrac-
tion ; but their power of endurance becomes the
safety of the pilgrims — while the richly-caparisoned
horse, impatient of thirst, and more easily subdued
by fatigue, is more frequently a burthen to the
caravan than an advantage. The route of the
Egyptian caravan, alter it passes the Akaba, lies
by the shores of the Red Sea for nearly six hundred
rniles; and, therefore, it cannot properly be said
at any time after the first ten days' march to be
upon the desert, as the Syrian caravan is for thirty
days. But its difficulties are more numerous ; and
it has to pass regions quite as arid and inhospitable.
Every part of Arabia is covered with sandy plains ;
and when the mountain steeps are crossed, the long
extended valleys rarely offer water. The Arabic
language is rich in words expressing every variety
of desert, differing from each other by very slight
shades of meaning : thus, they have terms descrip-
tive of a plain— a plain in the mountain — a plain
covered with herbs — a naked sandy desert—a stony
desert — a desert with little spots of pasturage — a
desert without water.* Although the caravan route
from Cairo to Mecca presents, with the exception of
the desert El Tyh, none of those enormous wastes,
like the great Southern Desert of Arabia, " where
the Arabs have only the sun and the stars to direct
their way ;" nor is, like the Libyan desert, " a sea
without waters, an earth without solidity, disdaining
to hold a foot-print as a testimony of subjection, '~f
there are many tracts, as well as the desert from
Suez to Akaba, in the forty days' journey, which
offer to the pilgrim abundance of fatigue and suffer-
ing. If water fail, as it sometimes does, even at
the wells at particularly dry seasons — if the water-
skins evaporate more quickly than they ordinarily
do — the camel's power of endurance is severely tried
— for his wants are the last attended to. Happy
are the pilgrims if the rain of the mountains have
filled the banks of some little river. Even the
much-enduring camels, at the sighl of water, after
many days' abstinence, break the halters by which
they are led, and in rushing or stumbling down the
banks throw off their loads, and occasion infinite
disorder.'j; Mr. Buckingham has however described
a scene in which the patience of the camel is con-
trasted in a remarkable way with the eagerness of the
horse : — " It was near midnight when we reached a
marshy ground, in which a clear stream was flowing
along, through beds of tall and thick rushes, but so
hidden by these, that the noise of its flow was heard
long before the stream itself could be seen. From the
length of the march, and the exhausting heat of the
atmosphere, even at night, the horses were exceed-
ingly thirsty : their impatient restlessness, evinced,
by their tramping, neighing, and eager impatience
to rush all to one particular point, gave us indeed,
the first indications of our approach to water, which
was perceptible to their stronger scent long before
it was even heard by us. On reaching the brink of
this stream, for which purpose we had been forcibly
turned aside, by the ungovernable fury of the ani-
mals, to the southward of our route, the banks were
found to be so high above the surface of the water,
that the horses could not reach it to drink. Some,
more impatient than the rest, plunged themselves
and their riders at once into the current ; and, after
being led swimming to a less elevated part of the
Dank over which they could mount, were extricated
with considerable difficulty ; while two of the horses
of the caravan, who were more heavily laden than
the others, by carrying the baggage as well as the
persons of their riders, were drowned. The stream
was narrow, but deep, and had a soft muddy bottom,
in which another of the horses became so fastly
stuck, that he was suffocated in a few minutes.
The camels marched patiently along the edge of
the bank, as well as those persons of the caravan
who were provided with skins and other vessels con-
taining small supplies of water; but the horses
could not, by all the power of their riders, be kept
from the stream, any more than the crowd of thirsty
pilgrims, who, many of them having no small ves-
sels to dip up the water from the brook, followed
the example of the impatient horses, and plunged
at once into the current.., . This scene — which,
amidst the obscurity of the night, the cries of the
animals, the shouting and quarrelling of the people,
and the indistinct, and perhaps exaggerated, appre-
hensions of danger, from a totally unexpected
cause, had assumed an almost awful character —
lasted for upwards of an hour." ^
• Seo Hamboldt'i Voyige,tom.vi. Note to p. 7.
+ Furchaii.
J BiiEckharfU'!! Nubia, p. 3S8,
\ Kuckinifham'i Masopotamia.
Fig. 512 represents this scene with considerable
spirit.
The camel is not only valuable as a beast of bur-
den, its milk is in requisition : it is the milk used
for ordinary purposes by the Arabs, that of goats
and sheep being generally made into butter. The
Arab feeds his colt with it, and even gives it to his
mare. Flour made into a paste with sour camel's
milk is a common dish among the Bedouins ; it is
called ayesh. Rice or flour boiled with sweet
camel's milk is another : it is called behatta.
Though the flesh of the camel was among the
meats prohibited to the Jews, it is not only eaten,
but relished by the Arabs : it is not often, however,
that the Arab kills a camel in order to enjoy this
luxury. When this does happen, the flesh is cut
into large pieces : some part is boiled, and its
grease mixed with borgoul (wheat boiled with some
leaven and then dried in the sun) ; part is roasted,
and, like the boiled, put upon the dish of borgoul
The whole tribe then partakes of the delicious feast
The grease of the camel is kept in goat-skins, and
used like butter. The woolly hair of the camel,
which towards the close of spring is loose and easily
pulled away from the skin, is applied to various pur-
poses and woven into coarse cloth used as tent-
coverings. Even the dung of the camel is not
neglected : it forms the chief material for fuel in
Egypt, Arabia, and Persia, and from the smoke, or
rather soot, of this fuel is obtained sal-ammoniac,
which was formerly procured almost exclusively
from this source, and for the manufacturing of which
there were, in 1720, laboratories at Cairo and other
towns in Egypt.
At San Rossora the Tuscan government esta-
blished a stud of camels for the purpose of carrying
faggots, hay, straw, &c. from the domain of San
Rossora to Pisa and other towns. It would appear
that this establishment was founded about the mid-
dle of the seventeenth century, in the reign of the
Grand-Duke Ferdinand de' Medici II. We have
not been able to ascertain to what extent the stud
is now kept up, but in 1789 it consisted of one
hundred and ninety-six camels, male and female,
and in 1810 of about one hundred and seventy.
The Moors introduced the camel into Spain,
and after the conquest of Granada, and the expul-
sion of the Moorish inhabitants, many of these ani-
mals remained in the southern districts ; but the
race was not kept up, and therefore Spain, where
in various localities the camel would be peculiarly
serviceable, no longer possesses this useful animal.
We learn that camels have been lately imported
into South America from the Canary Islands with a
probability of success.
The camel has bred in the gardens of the Zoolo-
gical Society.
The colour of this animal, as of most domestic
animals, is subject to variety. The brown colour
appears not to be esteemed ; reddish or light grey
is preferred. Occasionally black camels are seen.
In Egypt the average price of one of these beasts of
burden is from thirty to fifty dollars : but the swift
Oman camels, which are much valued, sell at a
higher rate, and Burckhardt mentions an instance
in which 300 dollars were given for one. When
travelhng in Nubia Burckhardt saw the camel
almost in a wild state, whole herds being left to
pasture unattended by men : they were kept for
the sake of their flesh and milk, few being employed
as beasts of burden ; they even appeared fright-
ened at the approach of men and loaded camels —
a circumstance this traveller had never before
witnessed. The Nubian camels are generally
white.
Many of our pictorial specimens of the camel
are illustrative of scenes in its domestic life, and
consequently of the manners of the people whose
servant it is, and with whose history its own is in-
timately connected. Fig. 514 — camels tethered, and
unloaded of their luggage. Fig. 516— Loaded camels
on a Journey. Fig. 51.'^— the Swift Camel, or Dro-
medary ; Fig. 515— the same. Fig. 519— a Caravan
traversing the Desert. Fig. 522— a Camel at the sight
of which a horse is startled — the latter animal, unless
used to the camel, evinces fear at its appearance.
Figs. 523, 52,5— Loading the Camel. Fig. 526— an
Oriental Migration. Fig. 530— Halt of Camels. Figs.
529, 531 — Mounted Camels. Fig. 535, — Camel car-
rying a Bride. " One of the greatest solemnities of
these simple Arab tribes is that of conducting a
bride to her husband. The lady is placed in a frame
on the back of a camel, and is housed over with
carpets, shawls, and ostrich feathers. The camel is
led by a relation of the bride, preceded by dancing
people, music, mounted and dismounted Arabs, who
shout and fire their guns, running backward and
forward in the procession. Captain Lyon made a
drawing of the bridal camel and his trappings." Fig.
536 — the Swift Camel, mounted. " The wandering
Arab and his Maherry have an extraordinary appear-
ance, which Captain Lyon has described. The sad-
dle is placed on the withers, and confined by a band
under the belly. It is very small and difiicult to
set, which is done by balancing the feet against the
neck of the animal and holding a tight rein to steady
the hand." Fig. 537— a Malefactor after punish-
ment, paraded on a camel ; his crime and sentence
being proclaimed as he is led along. Fig. 528 —
Camel of the swift breed. Fig. 539 — Camels water-
ing at a Reservoir, called birket, and supplied by an
Aqueduct, where caravans are accustomed to halt.
Fig. 538 — an Attack, by Arab robbers, upon a Cara-
van in the Desert. Fig. 540— a Bedouin Encamp-
ment. " Those who are, from reading or travelled ob-
servation, conversant with the existing manners of
the Asiatic pastoral tribes, as the Arabians and the
Tartars, can easily form in their minds a picture of
this great migrating party. Under the conduct of
their venerable emir, and the active direction and
control of his principal servants, we behold, from
the distance, a lengthened dark line stretching across
the plain, or winding among the valleys, or creeping
down the narrow pathway on the mountain side.
That in this line there are hosts of camels we know
afar oft', by the grotesque outline which the figures
of these animals make, their tall shapes, and their
length of neck ; and that the less distinguishable
mass which appears in motion on the surface of the
ground is composed of flocks of sheep, and perhaps
goats, we can only infer from circumstances. On
approaching nearer we find that all this is true, and
that, moreover, many of the camels are laden with
the tents, and with a few utensils and needments
which the dwellers in tents require ; and if the na-
tural condition of the traversed country be such as
to render the precaution necessary, some of the ani-
mals may be seen bearing provisions and skins of
water. The baggage camels follow each other with
steady and heavy tread, in files, the halter of those
that follow being tied to the harness of those that
precede, so that the foremost only needs a rider to
direct his course ; but nevertheless women, children,
and old men are seen mounted on the other burdens
which some of them bear. These are slaves, re-
tainers, and other persons not actively engaged in
the conduct of the party, and not of sufficient conse-
quence to ride on saddled dromedaries. Such are
reserved for the chiefs of the party, their women,
children, relatives, and friends; and are not, un-
less it happen for convenience, strung together
like the drudging animals which bear the heavier
burdens."
533, 534. — The Bacthian Camel
(Camelus Bactrianus). This species is at once to
be distinguished from the Arabian by the presence
of two humps on the back ; it is comparatively rare,
and limited in the extent of geographic range : it is
spread, however, through central Asia, Thibet, and
China, and is reported to exist in a wild state in
Turkestan, anciently Bactriana. Pallas states that
very large camels with two hunches occur wild in
the deserts of Shamo, towards the frontiers of China ;
but as the Calmucks liberate all animals upon a
principle of religion, we may conclude that these
camels are the descendants of the domestic stock.
Occasionally the Bactrian camel is seen in Egypt
and Arabia : during his travels through the latter
country Niebuhr saw three, and only three, speci-
mens—^-and Mr. Macfarlane met with only one in
Asia Minor, which came from some remote pro-
vince.
In 1829 a Bactrian camel was daily led about the
streets of London ; it was a very fine male, of a
dark rusty-brown colour, and very picturtsque and
striking in appearance, walking with a stately pace,
and apparently well able to bear our climate. His
hair was full, long, and shaggy, and hung like a fringe
along his throat. The natural country of this spe-
cies, viz. the great middle zone of Asia, to the
north of the Taurus and the Himalayah moun-
tains, is very different in temperature from the
hot regions of Arabia, whence it is probable that it
might with due precautions become naturalized in
Europe.
The manners of the Bactrian camel are the same
as those of the Arabian, and its utility is as great as
that of the latter. It is the patient, laborious, and
willing slave of man, travelling over sandy deserts,
and administering to the wants of a wandering
people.
The height of this species is about eight feet be-
tween the two humps.
Here, then, we conclude our sketch of the history
of the camel — an animal, in the countries for which
it is specially organized, the most important and
valuable to man, and one of the earliest which he
reclaimed to his service. It is true that it has not
spread, like the horse and the ox, over the whole
globe, but the reason is evident : out of its own
regions its value and importance are diminished ;
within them no other beast of burden can compete
with it, and for ever will it remain, as it is and has
been, the ship of the desert.
.— ^lalcfactur Paraded on CameL
640.— Bedouin Kncampment.
120
517.— Vlcagna.
550.— Paoo.
549.— Male Brown Wild Uama, or Gtiatiaco
548.— Gnimacp.
SSSmtG nuiacoi and Tame White Llama.
' 551.— Foot of Llama.
[THE MUSEUM OP ANIMATED NAIUliE.]
55i.— White Llama.
121
^w.
122
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Llamas.
547 to 556.— Thk Llama
Genus Auehenia). Under Ihe general term Llama
are comprehended three, if not more species, which
belong to the same section of the Ruminants as
the camel (CameKdtr). Indeed the llama was re-
ferred by Linnsus, and other naturalists of the
last century, to the genus Camelus ; from which
1 Hitter separated it, and assigned it to a genus
which he established under the title of Auehenia,
in allusion to the length and slenderness of the
neck, for.«hich the llamas are remarkable.
The llamas may be regarded as the analogues of
the camel ; and, in the Cordilleras of Peru and
Chili, are the mountain representatives of that
desert-bom servant of man.
In outward form, excepting that there is no hump
on the back, in the general structure and cellular
apparatus of the stomach, with the concomitant
power of enduring thirst, or abstaining lor a long
season from water, in the expression of the large
full overhung eye, in the mobility and division of
the upper lip, the fissured nostrils, the slender neck,
and meagre limbs, together with the long, woolly
character of the clothing, the llama and the camel
exhibit striking points of agreement. The foot of
the camel, however, with its broad elastic pad, ex-
pressly adapted for traversing the sands of the de-
sert, differs in its modification from that of the
llama, destined to inhabit the rough and rocky
Cordilleras, along the craggy sides of which the
llama proceeds vfith a free and fearless step.
The foot of the llama (Fig. 551) consists of two
springy toes, completely divided, each with a rough
cushion beneath, and provided at the end with a
strong short hoof; these hoofs are pointed at the
tip, and hooked down somewhat like a claw ; they
are compressed laterally, and the upper surface
represents an acute ridge; the under surface is
linearly concave — a form well fitted for a mountain
climber. j^,.,-
When the Spaniards first invaded Peru and Chili,
they found the llama domesticated, and used as a
beast of burden, its flesh and wool being also in
great request. It was their only beast of burden :
its flesh was eaten, its skin prepared into leather,
and its wool spun and manufactured into cloth.
One of the labours to which the llama was sub-
jected was that of bringing down ore from the
mines among the mountains : its ordinary load was
80 or 1(X) pounds, and its average rate of travelling
with its burden 12 to 15 miles a day, over rugged
mountain-passes ; but, like the camel, if too heaviiy
laden it would lie down, and obstinately refuse to
proceed, nor would it bear to be urged beyond its
accustomed pace. Gregory de Bolivar estimated
that in his day 300,000 were employed in the trans-
port of the produce of the mines of Potosi alone,
and four millions annually killed for food.
Augustin de Zerate, treasurer-general of Peru,
in 1544, under the Spanish dominion, thus describes
the llama, which he calls a sheep, though it is,
he observes, camel-like in shape, but destitute of a
hump :— " In places where there is no snow, the
natives want water, and to supply this they fill the
skins of sheep with water, and make other living
sheep carry them, for it must be remarked, these
sheep of Peru are large enough to serve as beasts
of burden. They can carry about one hundred
pounds or more, and the Spaniards used to ride
them, and they would go four or five leagues a day.
When they are weary they lie down upon the
ground, and as there are no means of making them
get up, either by beating or assisting them, the
load must of necessity be taken off. When there
is a man on one of them, if the beast is tired, and
urged to go on, he turns his head round, and dis-
charges his saliva, which has an unpleasant odour,
into the rider's face. These animals are of great
use and profit to their masters, for their wool is
very good and fine, particularly that of the species
called Pacas, which have very long fleeces ; and
the expense of their food is trifling, as a handful
of maize suffices them, and they can go four or five
days without water. Their flesh is as good as that
of the fat sheep of Castile. There are now public
shambles for the sale of their flesh in all parts of
Peru, which was not the case when the Spaniards
came first; for when one Indian had killed a sheep
his neighbours came and took what they wanted,
and then another Indian killed a sheep in his
turn.
D'Acosta gives nearly a similar testimony ; and
notices two kinds (species)— one which is woolly,
and called Paco by the natives : the other covered
with a slight fleece (villis levibus) only, and nearly
naked, whence it is more fitted for carrying bur-
thens, called Guanaco.
Captain G. Shelvocke, an Englishman who sailed
round the world in 1719-22, gives a similar account,
informing us that the Indians of Peru call these
animals Llamas ; the Chilese, Chilihueque ; and the
Spaniards, Cameros de la tierra.
With respect to the distinct species of llama, we
learn from De Laet that, besides the domestic race,
there are in Peru and Chili various wild animals, of
which some are called Guanaco, or Huanacu, whence,
from their resemblance to the lame breed, the latter
have obtained the same appellation ; their flesh is
good, but, according to Garcilaso, inferior to that of
the doraesticor Huanacu llamas. These animals in-
habit the mountain-ranges, where the males keep
watch above whilst the females are feeding in the
alpine valleys. When the males observe men ap-
proaching in the distance, they utter a sort of neigh,
not unlike that of a horse, to warn the females ; and
if the men advance nearer, they flee, driving the
females before them. The wool of these animals is
short and rough, but is notwithstanding used by the
natives for making cloth. These animals are taken
in traps and snares. Another kind are termed Vi-
cunas ; excepting that th^ have no horns, they are
not much unlike goats, but are larger, and of a
tawny or lion-like colour with a rufous tint : these live
in the highest mountains, giving preference to the
colder regions, and especially the bleak solitudes
which the Peruvians designate by the common name
of Punas. Frost and snow, so far from annoying,
seem rather to invigorate them. They associate in
flocks, and run with great swiftness. Such is their
timidity that at the sight of men or wild beasts, they
instantly betake themselves into hidden and inac-
cessible fortresses. Formerly these animals were
very numerous, but they are now become much more
rare in consequence of the promiscuous licence for
hunting. Their wool is very fine, and resembles
silk, or rather the fur of the beaver, and the natives
deservedly estimate it highly : besides other proper-
ties, it is sajd to resist heat and impart coolness, and
consequently is especially used in the manufacture
of caps. Besides these are the Tarugas or Tarucas,
which are larger and more swift than the Vicunas,
and of a more burnt colour, with pendulous and
light ears ; they rarely associate in flocks, but wander
singly about the precipices : according to Garcilaso
they are a species of deer, inferior in size to those
of Europe. In the time of the Incas they were in-
numerable, and even entered the precincts of the
towns, nor was there any deficiency of their fawns
and does. All these animals, he adds, produce be-
zoar stones.
A question here arises, what is the Taruga de-
scribed by De Laet ? Is it identical with the Paco
(otherv/ise called Pacaor Alpaca") of D'Acosta, who,
it may be observed, does not mention the Vicuna or
Vicugna? This question is not easily answered.
With respect to the Chilihueque of Shelvocke, the
Hueque or Hueco of Molina, it is evidently identical
with the Huanacu of De Laet, which is the Guanaco,
and the words are the same, with trifling differences
in orthography easily accounted for. We have
then the domestic Llama, the Guanaco, the Paco or
Alpaca, the Taruga, and the Vicugna.
Now it is generally believed by naturalists, and
among them F. Cuvier, that there are really only
three species, viz. the Llama, called, when wild, Gua-
naco, the Paco or Alpaca, and the Vicugna. Mr.
Bennett, indeed, and Baron Cuvier, suspect there are
but two species. The former expressly states that
he should have little hesitation in proceeding still
farther than F. Cuvier, being strongly inclined to
agree with the Baron in regarding the Paco as a
mere variety of the Llama with the wool more amply
developed, and in considering the Vicugna as the
only animal of that group that deserves to be spe-
cifically distinguished from that animal. From our
own personal observations we are inclined to believe
that there are three species as indicated by F.
Cuvier, but we confess that we have our doubts as
to whether De Laet's Taruga with pendulous ears
may not prove to be a fourth species— a point, how-
ever, on which we would not insist. Our figures
of these animals are as follows :— Fig. 553— the re-
cumbent animal is the Domestic, the standing ani-
mal the Wild Llama; Figs. 554, 555, are the
Domestic Llama; Figs. 548, 549, 552, the Wild
Llama or Guanaco ; Fig. 550— the Paco or Al-
paca ; Figs. .547, 556, the Vicugna.
The Guanaco (Auehenia Llama) ; in a domestic .
state, the Llama.— At what period the Guanaco be-
came domesticated, whether before the foundation
of the ancient Peruvian empire while the natives
were in the rudest state of savage life, or after Manco
Capac had established over the Peruvians the reign-
ing line of Incas, it is useless to inquire. All we
know is, that the Spaniards on their invasion found
the llama trained as a beast of burden, and except-
ing as regards its milk, to them what the camel is
to the native of the Arabian desert.
The Guanaco, or wild llama, is more slender and
has an aspect more expressive of energy and spirit
than its domesticated relative, but it soon becomes
familiar in captivity. In its native regions, the
highlands of Peru and Chili, it lives in herds, con-
tinuing among the mountains during the summer,
but descending to the valleys on the approach of
winter. At this latter season the Chilians hunt
them with dogs, but it is only the young and the
feeble that can be thus taken ; the old ones are swift,
active, and vigorous, and easily escape. During the
chase they ai-e said frequently to turn upon their
pursuers, neigh loudly, and then take to their heels
again. Indeed when alarmed they often stop in
their flight to gaze at the ob'ect of their fear, and
again gallop off.
The guanaco feeds upon mountain herbage, and
especially a species of rushy grass called ycho ; and
when there issufiicient of this green fodder for them,
they are never known to drink. The same observa-
tion applies to the domestic breed and the Paco and
the Vicugna. Mr. Bennett suggests as a probability
that they may have the power of extracting from
their food sufficient liquid to satiate theirthirst. It
cannot have esca|)ed notice that the secretion of
saliva in these animals is remarkably abundant, even,
as we have observed, in the hottest weather in Eng-
land, and that upon the slightest ofi'ence, real or
supposed, they discharge a copious shower of it
over the person of the offender. May it not be that
the naturally abundant flow of this saliva obviates
the necessity of frequently drinking ? This saliva
was once supposed to possess acrid, irritating quali-
ties, which certainly is not the case, though it must
be confessed a sprinkling with rose-water would
be more pleasant.
When assaulted and pushed to defend themselves,
these animals strike with their fore-feet, and that
with great energy, giving very severe blows : we
have, indeed, seen them strike upon trifling provo-
I cation, though in general they are quiet and in-
offensive.
The wool of the guanaco is in request, being
of fi^e texture : the general colour is rich rufous
brown, the head and ears being grey. The neck is
peculiarly long ; the tail a little raised and curved
down. Height at the top of the shoulders about
three feet and a half.
Mr. Darwin states, the guanaco " abounds over
the whole of the temperate parts of South America
from the wooded islands of Tierra del Fuego,
through Patagonia, the hilly parts of La Plata,
Chili, even to the Cordillera of Peru. Although
preferring an elevated site, it yields in this respect
to its near relative, the vicugna ; on the plains of
Southern Patagonia we saw them in greater num-
bers than in any other part. Generally they go in
small herds from half-a-dozen to thirty together,
but on the banks of the St. Cruz we saw one herd
which must have contained at least .500. On the
northern shores of the Strait of Magellan they are
also very numerous. Generally the guanacoes are
wild and extremely wary. The sportsman fre-
quently receives the first intimation of their pre-
sence by hearing from a distance the peculiar shrill
neighing note of alarm. ,Ifhe then looks attentively,
he will perhaps see the herd standing in a line on
some distant hill. On approaching them, a few
more squeals are given, and then off they set at an
apparently slow, but really quick, canter along
some narrow beaten track to a neighbouring hill.
If, however, by chance he should abruptly meet a
single animal, or several together, they will gene-
rally stand motionless and intently gaze at him ;
then, perhaps, move on a few yards, turn round,
and look again. What is the cause of this dif-
ference in their shyness ? Do they mistake a man
in the distance for their chief enemy, the puma,
or does curiosity overcome their timidity? That
they are curious is certain; for if a person lies
on the ground and plays strange antics, such as
throwing up his feet in the air, they will almost al-
ways approach by degrees to reconnoitre him. It
was an artifice that was frequently practised by our
sportsmen with success ; and it had, moreover, the
advantage of allowing several shots to be fired,
which were all taken as parts of the performance.
On the mountains of Tierra del Fuego, and in other
places, I have more than once seen a guanaco, on
being approached, not only neigh and squeal, but
prance and leap about in the most ridiculous man-
ner, apparently in defiance, as a challenge. These
animals are very easily domesticated, and I have
seen some thus kept near the houses, although at
large on their native plains. They are in this state
very bold, and readily attack a man by striking him
from behind with both knees. The wild guanacoes,
however, have no idea of defence : even a single
dog will secure one of these large animals till the
huntsman can come up. In many of their habits
they are like sheep in a flock. Thus when they
see men approaching in different directions on
horseback, they soon become bewildered, and know
not which way to run. This greatly facilitates the
Indian method of hunting, for they are thus easily
driven to a central point and encompassed. The
guanacoes readily take to the water ; several times
at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from
island to island. Byron, in his Voyage, says he saw
them drinking salt water. Some of our officers,
Llamas.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
123
\
likewise, saw a herd drinkini; the briny fluid from
salina near Cape Blanca. I imagine, in several
parts of the country, if they do not drink salt water,
they drink none at all. In the middle of the day
they frequently roll in the dust in saucer-shaped
hollows. The'raales fight together; two one day
passed quite close to me, squealing, and trying to
bite each other ; and several were shot with their
hides deeply scored. Herds sometimes appear to
set out on exploring parties. At Bahia Blanca,
where, within 30 miles of the coast, these animals
are extremely unfrequent, I saw one day the
tracks of30 or 40 which had come in a direct line
to a muddy salt-water creek. They must then
have perceived that they were approachmg the sea,
for they had wheeled with the regularity of cavalry,
and had returned back in as straight a hue as they
had advanced. The guanacoes have one smgular
habit, which is to me inexplicable,' namely, that on
successive days they drop their dung in the same
defined heap. I saw one of these heaps which was
eight feet in diameter, and necessarily was com-.
posed of a large quantity. D'Aubigny says that all
the species of this genus have this habit; and Fre-
zier remarks that it is very useful to the Indians,
who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved the
trouble of collecting it. The guanacoes appear to
have favourite spots for dying in. On the banks of
the St. Cruz the ground was actually white with
bones in certain circumscribed places, which were
generally bushy, and all near the river. On one
such spot I counted between ten and twenty heads.
I particularly examined the bones ; they did not
appear, as some scattered ones which I have seen,
gnawed and broken, as if dragged together by some
beasts of prey. The animals must have crawled,
before dying, beneath and amongst the bushes.
Mr. Bynoe informs me that during the voyage he
observed the same circumstance on the banks of
the Rio Gallegos. I do not understand the reason
for this, but I may observe that all the wounded
guanacoes at St. Cruz invariably walked towards
the river. At St. Jago, in the Cape de Verd islands,
I remember having seen in a retired ravine a corner
under a cliff where numerous goats' bones were
collected : we at the lime exclaimed that it was
the burial ground of all the goats in the island. I
mention these circumstances, because in certain
cases they might explain the occurrence of a num-
ber of uninjured bones in a cave, or buried under
alluvial accumulations, and likewise the cause why
certain mammalia are more commonly imbedded
than others in sedimentary deposits. Any great
flood of the St. Cruz would wash down many bones
of the guanaco, but probably not a single one of the
puma, rhea, or fox." (' Voyage of the Beagle.')
Like the elephant, the horse, the camel, and many
others, the guanaco has its fossil prototypes. Mr.
Darwin found at Port St. Julian (Patagonia) the
fossil bones of a llama which must have fully
equalled the camel in magnitude ; and he observes
that, " as the guanaco is the characteristic quad-
ruped of Patagonia, and the vicugna of the snow-
clad summits of the Cordilleras, so in bygone days
this gigantic species of the same family must have
been conspicuous on the southern plains."
The domestic llama is more stoutly built than
the guanaco, its limbs are thicker, its neck shorter,
and its aspect more subdued. The wool is longer
and fuller, but of a coarser quality. We have seen
brown and white individuals, but the white seem to
be the most common.
When the Spaniards became acquainted with
Peru and Chili, these animals were kept by the
natives in vast numbers ; but now the horse, the
ass, and especially the mule, have superseded the
llama as a beast of burthen ; while the introduction
of the sheep, the goat, and the ox has rendered it
less necessary, either as contributing by its flesh or
its fleece to the benefit of man. Tn some places,
however, it still is, or was recently, employed as a
beast of burthen.
The Paco (Auchenia Alpaca, Desm. ; Camelus
Pacos, Linn.), Figs. 548, 549, 532, is as large as the
guanaco, but proportionately shorter in the limbs ;
its forehead, instead of being regularly arched to
the nose, rises abruptly promment above the eyes ;
the wool is long, delicately fine, and silky, ex-
cepting on the head and limbs, and of a deep fawn
colour; it is moreover disposed in long flakes or
tassels. Black varieties also occur, of which a most
beautiful specimen some years ago existed in the
Gardens of the Zool. Soc. Lond.
The paco dwells in herds among the mountains
of Peru and Chili ; it is less fleet than the light-
limbed guanaco, but its general habits are the
game ; it would appear, however, to frequent a
higher and colder range of elevation, as it is said to
be frequently seen with herds of vicugnas.
The Vicugna, or Vicuiia (Avchenia Vicugna),
Figs. 547, 556, is a smaller animal than either the
guanaco or the paco, and more slender in its pro-
portions. Its limbs are thin, its neck swan-like.
the forehead is broad and also prominent, but not
abruptly so, as in the paco ; the muzzle is very
narrow, and the head short. The eyes are large,
and the ears long. The height of the animal at the
shoulder is about two and a half feet.
The wool of the body is extremely delicate and
soft, varying from an inch to three inches in length :
on the breast it is of the latter measurement ; on
the head and limbs it is close. The colour is
pale yellowish brown, passing into white on the
under parts.
The vicugna lives in herds on the bleak and
elevated parts of the mountain-range bordering the
region of perpetual snow, amidst rocks and preci-
pices, where the chase is both toilsome and arduous.
The Cordilleras of Copiapo, Coquimbo, and Peru are
the principal seats of its abode, but it is also found in
Chili. Its manners very much resemble those of
the chamois of the European Alps, and it is as
active, vigilant, wild, and timid. Its wool is highly
valued, and for this alone thousands are annually
killed, various means being employed in their whole-
sale destruction.
Holding, as the llamas do, especially the paco
and vicugna, so conspicuous a place among wool-
bearing animals, it is singular that after Europeans
became acquainted with them, and with the beauti-
ful fabrics manufactured by the native Peruvians,
three centuries should have elapsed before any at-
tention was paid in Europe to the importation of
their produce as an article of commerce, or any
attempts were instituted with regard to the na-
turalization of the animals in localities best fitted
for their multiplication ; and this more especially
as the fineness of the wool had, from the first, at-
tracted the notice both of the Spaniards and other
Europeans. That no diflSculty exists in the trans-
portation of the llama to Europe, and that it bears
our climate well, is abundantly proved by the nu-
merous individuals which have lived both in the
Gardens of the Zoological Society and in other
places, and which, under the inevitable disadvan-
tages of confinement, and perhaps too luxurious a
diet, have continued long m health and vigour — ■
as long, indeed, as animals indigenous to Europe
under the same circumstances. There can be there-
fore no doubt but that if suffered to wander at large,
in situations resembling as nearly as possible those
of their native regions — regions, be it remembered,
of cold, and snow, and storms — these animals would
thrive and multiply.
The coarse herbage of the mountains, and the rushy
grass, called ycho, which covers the slopes of the hills,
constitute the natural diet of the wild races ; and in
the mountains of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland herb-
age of a corresponding nature would meet their ap-
petite, while, as far as temperature is concerned, there
would be no imnediraent to their naturalization.
At the Ninth Meeting (held at Birmingham) for
the Advancement of Science, the value of the silk
wool of these animals, and the benefits which would
result from their naturalization in our country,
formed an interesting topic of discussion. The sub-
ject was introduced by Mr. W. Danson, who, in ill-
lustration of his views, exhibited samples of Alpaca
wools, and manufactured specimens in imitation of
silk (and without dye) as black as jet. Mr. Danson
urged that " the animals producing it ought to be
propagated in England, Ireland, Scotland, and
Wales, and stated that to the two latter places the
alpaca is well suited, being an inhabitant of the
Cordilleras, or mountain district in Peru. Importa-
tions (of the wool) have already taken place to the
extent of one million of pounds, and are likely to
increase. There are five species of llamas: of these
the alpaca has fine wool, six to twelve inches long, as
shown by the specimens exhibited ; the llama, coarse
long hair ; and the vicugna, a very short fine wool,
more of tlie beaver cast. The Earl of Derby has
propagated the alpaca in his private menagerie at
Knowsley, and Mr. Danson understood that Mr.
Stephenson, at Oban in Scotland, has a few of these
animals. The wool of these animals would not
enter into competition with the wool of the sheep,
but rather with silk. It is capable of the finest
manufacture, and is especially suited to the fine
shawl trade of Paisley and Glasgow, &c. The
yams spun from it are already sent to France in
large quantities, at from 6s. to 12s. Gd. per pound,
the price of the raw Alpaca wool being now 2s. and
2s. 6d. per pound."
560, 564, 565, 5G6.— The Giraffe
(Camelopardalis Giraffa; Zarapha, Zerafet, and
Ziiralel of the Arabs ; Surnapa, Ziirnapa and Ziirnepa
of the Turks). The genus Camelopardalis stands
in a certain sense isolated among the Ruminants,
and is the representative of a family group, interme-
diate, as Professor Owen's researches demonstrate,
between the Deer and the Antelopes. Col. H.
Smith, indeed, has observed that the characters of
the giraffe offer a mixture of several genera, among
which the followers of the quinary system may
select whether to class it, with Illiger, among the
Camels, or, with other naturalists, among the Cer-
vine or Antelopine animals ; and he points out its
assimilation with the camels, in the length of its
neck, the callosities on the sternum and knees, and
the want of spurious hoofs, adding that this ap-
proximation did not escape the notice of the an-
cients.
This extraordinary animal, of which at one period
the very existence was almost doubted, has become
now familiar to us ; and though we gaze with won-
der upon its strange proportions, we no longer re-
gard it as one of the monsters of a land which
credulity pictured as tenanted by creatures which
exist only in imagination. On beholding the giraffe
we are at once struck with the shortness of its body,
the length of its limbs, the elevation of its withers,
and the elongation and slenderness of its neck,
supporting a small and delicately modelled head.
Its movements are no less strange than its figure ;
for owing to the shortness of the body, and the
length of the limbs, the hind-hoofs are brought at
each step as far Ibrward as the spot the previous
moment occupied by the fore-hoofs, but somewhat
to the outside of it, for the hind-limbs diverge
somewhat outward from the hock-joint. The legs
of each side are in action nearly in unison together,
those of the right side appearing to alternate with
those of the left, and vice versa.
The giraffe, however, is not really awkward, and
is very far from being slow ; indeed the swiftesst
coursers of the desert are scarcely equal to the
chase, and among rugged and broken ground utterly
unable to overtake it.
When walking along, the giraffe does not ordi-
narily carry its beautiful swan-like neck upright,
but obliquely forwards in a line continued from the
spine, over the withers, to the top of the head — an
attitude scarcely consistent with grace ; the animal,
however, often wreaths it very gracefully, nor can
anything produce a more imposing effect than the
giraffe when its neck is stretched up to the full,
while the animal gazes around with his large beam-
ing eyes, or plucks the foliage from the branches of
the trees, browsing beneath their shade.
It is scarcely necessary to state that the giraffe
is exclusively confined to the continent of Africa.
Its characters may be detailed as follows : — The head
(Fig. 562) is small, and narrows to a slender elongated
muzzle entirely covered with hair. The nostrils are
longitudinal slits capable of being closed or opened
at pleasure ; the upper lip is endowed with great
flexibility and muscular power, and projects beyond
the lower ; it is used as an organ of prehension in
the acquisition of food. The tongue is an extraordi-
nary instrument, and requires special notice. It is
long, slender, pointed, and endowed with a surpris-
ing share of mobility. Nor is this all ; it is capable
of being greatly elongated, and in this state of being
coiled round twigs or branches, and of drawing
them to the mouth (P'igs. 559, 561). In this respect
it is analogous to the proboscis of the elephant,
and is at once a feeler, a grasper, and an organ of
taste. It is interesting to see with what address the
giraffe uses this instrument, and how dexterously he
applies it as a hook or holder. It is smooth, ex-
cept when the papillas are raised — its surface then
becomes rough: its colour is black. The eyes are
full, dark, lustrous, and prominent, and the upper
eyelid is furnished with a fringe of long lashes. So
prominent indeed are the eyes, that they command,
without the animal moving its head, a survey of the
whole horizon, thus enabling it to see, without
turning, what passes on each side and even behind
it, and, from the elevation of the head, to discern its
enemies at a great distance. Fig. 558 represents a
back view of the giraffe's head, showing this ad-
vantageous position of the eyes. The ears are long,
pointed, and moveable; and the sense of hearing
is very acute. There are no suborbital sinuses.
Both sexes have horns, if they can be so termed,
for they are truly analogous to the peduncles of
the horns in the Muntjak-deer, being in fact
processes of bone covered with skin, having a tuft
of black hairs at the top ; but besides these sub-
stitutes for horns, a similar but shorter process
projects from the forehead between the eyes, more
developed in males than females, and in adults than
in the young. According to Riippell and Cuvier,
this, like the other horns, is articulated by suture to
the skull ; but Professor Owen has demonstrated that
this frontal protuberance is not a true horn articu-
lated by a suture, but results from a singular thick-
ening of the bone of the forehead (see Fig. 563).
The osseous peduncles, or horns as they are com-
monly called, continue for along time united to the
frontal bone only by means of a suture, and are not
fairly anchylosed till at an advanced period. This
indeed is the case with all the bones of the skull of
the giraffe: it would appear that the process of ossi-
fication is carried on but slowly in this part of the
framt-work, and as it respects the horns,that nature
having completed the first stage of her intentions,
R2
557.- Skeleton ut Giraffe.
xSUr^Blck Tlew of Oinffe's Head.
666.— Ginffe alwut to lie down.
566.- Vicngiu.
124
659. — >I(xla of prccming Food.
S6l.~Mode of procuring Food,
562.— Head of Giraffe.
' S63.-^£l»U cf Qiroffe.
565.— OiTaffes.
664— Giraffe.
125
126
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Giraffes.
having in fact prepared the peduncles, was ar-
rested in her operations and forbidden to add the
antlers.
The lone flexible neck of the giraffe is provided
with a short mane extending from the withers to the
top of the head : the elevation of the withers is re-
markable, and from this part to the crupper there is
a rapid descent, whence has arisen the idea that the
fore-limbs are much longer than the hinder pair,
which is not the case. The fore-knees are large,
and when about to lie down the animal sinks upon
thcra, and assumes an attitude by no means easy or
graceful. (.Fig. 566.)
The tail is ratlier long, slender, and tufted at the
extremity with long coarse black hairs. The skele-
ton of the giratfe (Fig. 557) is well worthy the at-
tention of an anatomist ; we cannot here enter into
osteological minutiie, but recommend our readers to
Professor Owen's papers in ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc'
1838 ; and to Cuvier's ' Le9ons d' Anatomic Com-
par<5e.'
In giving a sketch of the history of the giraffe, we
may commence by observing that some naturalists
of the present day consider that there are two
distinct species, one peculiar to Nubia, Abyssinia,
and the adjacent districts, the other a native of the
regions of Southern Africa. We regard them as
mere varieties.
It is with the North African variety that the
ancients were acquainted, and of which there are
several delineations preserved to the present day.
Among the most remarkable is one on the Prae-
neitine pavement, where two of these animals are
pictured : one in a straddling attitude endeavouring
to reach the ground with his mouth ; the other in
the act of browsing on the trees. It is supposed
that this pavement, which was executed by the
direction of Sulla, is the work of Egyptian Greeks.
Belzoni notices the giraffe on the walls of the Sekos
of the Memnonium and on the back of the temple
of Erments. A giraffe led by Nubians is given in
Rosellini's work on Egypt.
It is supposed by some that the word Zemer,
translated Chamois in the book of Deuteronomy
(ch. xiv., V. 5), of which animal the flesh was for-
bidden, really refers to the giraffe, and there is cer-
tainly some affinity between the Hebrew Zemer and
the Arabic Zurafa or Zurafet. It is a point, how-
ever, not easily decided.
Though the Praenestine pavement was made by
the orders of Sulla (born a.c. 138), the animal itself
was not seen in Rome before the time of Julius
Caesar, who exhibited it at the Circensian games. It
is described by Pliny (book viii.) from a specimen,
as is conjectured, which Varro mentions as having
been brought from Alexandria. Afterwards the
giraffe became not unfrequent among the animals
exhibited in the Roman games.* Oppian, who lived
in the second century, notices this animal in the third
book of his treatise on hunting. Gordian III., em-
peror of Rome from a.d. 239 to 244, is stated to have
possessed ten of these animals. After the fall of
the Roman empire we hear nothing of the giraft'e
for a considerable period. The first instance, after
the darkness of the middle ages had passed, of a
living giraffe in Europe, is that of one possessed by
Frederick II., king of Germany (crowned 1215),
which he received from the prince of Damas, now
Damascus, and which was described by Albertus
Magnus under the name of Anabula, with the sy-
nonyms Seraph, Oraflus, and Orasius.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century the Sol-
dan of Egypt presented one of these animals to
Lorenzo de' Medici, grand-duke of Tuscany : it was
a great favourite with the inhabitants of Florence,
and was accustomed to walk about the streets,
stretching its neck to the balconies and windows
for fruits and other articles of food. Its picture
exists in the frescoes of the Poggio Acajano, one of
the duke's villas near Florence.
From this time no living giraffe was seen in Eu-
rope for nearly three centuries and a half; though
in that space various descriptions and figures were
published by writers on natural history, mixed up
with abundant errors. Gesner, however, gives a
tolerable account and figure in his ' Natural History,'
published in 1551. Thevet, in his ' Cosmographia '
p.575), describes and figures the giraffe ; Bellonius,
in his ' Observations,' 1605, also figures it ; Wolf-
fang, in his ' Historia Animalium Sacra,' mentions it.
opsell, in his ' History of Four-footed Beasts ' ( 1C07),
describes it, and gives two figures. Leo Africanus
and Ludolph both describe the giraffe, as does
Johnston (cum figura) in his 'Quadrupeds.' We
may also mention Alpinus (' Nat. Hist. Egypt ') ; and
Carteret, whose paper read before the Royal Society
is entitled ' Observations on a Camelopardahs
found about the Cape of Good Hope.' (See ' Phil.
Trans.' Ix. p. 27.) Buffon describes and figures the
giraffe, but in his drawings, as in those of all the
preceding writers, the fore-leg^ are much too long.
• ' DiTemiDi confun genus Paatheni Camelo.'
Horace. Epitt, ii. 195.
In the supplement (Supp. vol. vii.) the figure is
improved, but still is not without faults. Vos-
maer published in 1787, at Amsterdam, a quarto
tract on this animal, with tolerable figures. It
may here be noticed that when the supplement to
Bunon's great work was published there was an
adult female specimen in the museum of Paris, and
M. Allemand of Amsterdam had also a young spe-
cimen.
Le Vaillant when in South Africa hunted the
giraffe and procured some specimens ; his descrip-
tion of the habits of the animal and his narrative of
the incidents of the chase are interesting and graphic,
but perhaps a little overcoloured. It is from this
time that we may date our correct knowledge of
this animal, of which several skins found their way
from time to time into our island ; that brought by
Mr. Patterson, and ultimately deposited in the Bri-
tish Museum, being the first.* It was in the year
1827 that the first living giraffe visited our shores.
The Pasha of Egypt destined four of these animals
as presents to some of the European princes : of
these, one died at Constantinople ; one reached
Venice, 1828; one was sent to Paris; and the fourth,
which fell by lot to England, reached its destination
safely in August, 1827, but died, worn out by illness,
in 1829. Its preserved skin and skeleton were
presented by H. M. George IV. to the Zoolo-
gical Society, and now grace the museum of that
Society.
In 1836 the arrival of four living giraffes at the
gardens of the Zool. Soc, procured in Kordofan by
M. Thibaut, created a lively sensation in the world
of science. From a letter of M. Thibaut to the
secretary of the Zool. Soc, in which he details
his proceedings and manner of conducting the ex-
hausting pursuit, we take the following extract : —
" The first run of the giraffe is exceedingly rapid.
The swiftest horse, if unaccustomed to the desert,
could not come up with it unless with extreme
difficulty. The Arabs accustomed their coursers to
hunger and to fatigue ; milk generally serves them
for food, and gives them power to continue their
exertions during a very long run. If the giraffe
reaches a mountain, it passes the heights with
rapidity : its feet, which are like those of a goat,
endow it with the dexterity of that animal : it
bounds over ravines with incredible power ; horses
cannot, in such situations, compete with it. The
giraffe is fond of a wooded country. The leaves
of trees are its principal food. Its conformation
allows of its reaching their tops. The one of which
I have previously spoken as having been killed by
the Arabs measured twenty-one French feet in height
from the ears to the hoofs. Green herbs are also
very agreeable to this animal ; but its structure
does not admit of its feeding on them in the same
manner as our domestic animals, such as the Ox
and the Horse. It is obliged to straddle widely ;
its two fore-feet are gradually stretched widely
apart from each other, and its neck being then bent
into a semicircular form, the animal is thus enabled
to collect the grass. But on the instant that any
noise interrupts its repast, the animal raises itself
with rapidity, and has recourse to immediate flight.
The giraffe eats with great delicacy, and takes its
food leaf by leaf, collecting them from the trees by
means of its long tongue. It rejects the thorns,
and in this respect differs from the camel. As the
grass on which it is now fed is cut for it, it takes the
upper part only, and chews it until it perceives that
the stem is too coarse for it. Great care is required
for its preservation, and especially great cleanliness.
It is extremely fond of society, and is very sensible.
I have observed one of them shed tears when it no
longer saw its companions or the persons who were
in the habit of attending to it." (' Proceeds. Zool.
Soc," 1836.)
The efforts made by the spirited agent of the
Zool. Soc. in Nubia, and the success of his ar-
rangements for the transport of the animals from
the interior to the coast, not only encouraged others
to make a similar attempt, but opened the way
for .them in which to proceed; and subsequently
other living specimens were sent to Malta, and
thence to England, so that at one time there were
seven giraffes in London.
The giraffe with due care endures our climate
well; the female in the gardens of the Zool. Soc.
has bred twice ; the first fawn died, but the second,
which grew rapidly, is in excellent health and con-
dition.
The giraffe, as its figure, the mobility of the lips,
and the prehensile power of the tongue declare, is
formed for browsing on the leaves of trees, those of
the mimosa being especially relished. The first
giraffe which Le Vaillant saw was under one of
* Mr. Patterson was sent to the Cape as botanist by Lady Strath-
more, and lie l)A(i|{lit to this country the Hrsl entire skin of a giraffe
on rerowl- La^ Striithmore gave it to the celebrated John Hunt«T,
in whose museum it was preserved- Alterwards the trnsU'es of the
Uoyal CoUt'du of Surgeons tran>ffrred tiie skin to the British Museum.
Its condition is very bad, the hair Ivinjj almost all oft the skin: yet
as a sort of Imtorical monument in the department of Zoology, it is
worthy of preservation.
thee trees, on the leaves of which it was making
a re,)a8t : with his characteristic enthusiasm he
began the pursuit— "We saw her cross the plain
towards the west, and hastened to overtake her:
she was proceeding at a smart trot, but did not
appear to be at all hurried. We galloped after
her, but she insensibly gained so much upon us,
that after having pursued her for three hours we
were forced to stop, because our horses were quite
out of breath, and we entirely lost sight of her."
Le Vaillant afterwards was more successful.
We have already alluded to the difficulty which
the giraffe experiences in putting its lips to the
ground, being obliged to set its fore-limbs wide
apart ; it is indeed an action which it seldom at-
tempts unless induced by some tempting morsel,
as, for instance, sugar, of which the giraffes in the
gardens of the Zoological Society are very fond,
and for which they will follow their attendants,
trying to gain possession of it by insinuating their
long slender tongue or upper lip into the hands of
the person who holds it. In their play we have
several times noticed that they strike out with the
fore-limbs, and these, as well as the hind-limbs,
they use in self-defence, lashing out with rapid and
impetuous force. "His defence," says Le Vaillant,
"consists in kicks, and his hinder limbs are so
light and his blows so rapid, that the eye cannot
follow them ; " and " I know beyond a doubt that
by its kicking it often tires out, discourages, and
even beats off the lion." After his dogs had
brought an individual to bay, they dared not make
an attack, as it defended itself "with asuccession of
rapid kicks." Major Gordon notices the force with
which one which he killed spumed the ground in
the agony of death.
Le Vaillant observes that the giraffe never uses
its horns in resisting any attack ; we have, however,
often seen the gentle and beautiful animals in the
gardens of the Zoological Society, while playing
with each other, swing the head round and butt
with the horns ; but in earnest self-defence we may
easily believe that this mode would never be
adopted. While speaking of these individuals, we
may state that they often take each other's mane
between the lips, and appear to nibble it as they
pass their mouth along its course. They are ex-
tremely confiding in disposition : the presence of
strangers is far from giving them annoyance ;
they gaze with calmness on the crowd of admirers
around them, and bend their necks down as if to
contemplate them more closely, or in order to
solicit some delicacy.
In its native wilds, man excepted, the lion is the
only enemy to be feared by the giraffe ; and from
various sources we learn the lion often surprises the
latter when he comes to drink at the pools or foun-
tains, and springs from his ambush upon the tall
and powerful beast, which, mad with terror and
pain, rushes over the desert, bearing the " great
destroyer," till, strength failing, he reels, sinks, and
expires.
According to M. Thibaut, the Arabs of Nubia
are very fond of the flesh of the giraffe ; and he
himself partaking of the repast (viz., broiled slices),
found it to be excellent. In South Africa its flesh
is equally acceptable.
The height of the male giraffe to the top of the
head is from fifteen to sixteen feet, of the female
from thirteen to fourteen. The general colour is
fawn-white, marked regularly with large angular
spots of chocolate-brown, compacted rather closely
together ; the throat and legs are white ; the tuft
at the end of the tail black ; the hair is close and
glossy. The South African variety is generally
darker than the Nubian. The specimens presented
by Mr. Burchell to the British Museum came from
Kosi Fountain, and of these the female is lighter
coloured than the male. A specimen from Cen-
tral Africa, presented by Colonel Denham, is
young, and the spots are lawn-coloured on a white
ground.
In the Museum at Paris is a very young giraffe,
about four feet seven or eight inches in total height,
of a uniform mouse-colour, the hair being remark-
ably close and fine, resembling the nap of velveteen ;
the place of each horn is indicated by a tuft of
black hairs. The Nubian giraffes in the Zoolo-
gical Gardens differ in the intensity of their colour,
one of the males being of a lighter tint than the
other.
The period of gestation is about sixteen months.
(See 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc.,' 1839, p. 108.)
In a state of confinement the giraffe eats hay,
carrots, and onions, to the latter of which it is very
partial. We have never heard these animals utter
any noise or cry, nor do travellers make any men-
tion of their voice. The giraffe shot by Colonel
Gordon, to which we have already alluded, when so
wounded as to be incapable of rising from the
ground, exhibited no signs of anger or resentment,
nor is it stated to have made any moan. Hence
we conclude that the giraffe is mute.
Deers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
127
Family MoschidiB. — Linnaeus gave the title
Moschus to a group of Ruminants, from the circum-
stance of one of the species producing that well-
known substance called musk, the secretion of a
peculiar glandular pouch in the abdomen of the
male, for the sake of which the animal is eagerly
hunted in the regions it frequents, namely, the high
mountain -ranges in China, Thibet, Tonquin, Pegu,
and also Southern Tartary. The musk-deer, how-
ever, is the only known species of this srroup in
•which this secretion is produced. The Moschida;
closely resemble the deer in general form and ap-
pearance ; but they resemble them in miniature, for
with the exception of the true Musk (M. moschife-
nis), which equals a roebuck in size and stature,
the rest are extremely small, some not exceeding a
hare in magnitude. They are extremely beautiful :
the eyes are large, dark, and beaming with a mild
and animated expression; the head is small and
tapers to a slender muzzle ; the eai-s are moderate
and open ; the haunch elevated and round ; and the
limbs delicately slender and tapering to narrow-
pointed hoofs. The family characters consist in
the absence of horns, and also of suborbital sinuses
(pits beneath the inner angle of the eye), so con-
spicuous in many of the deer and antelopes. The
muzzle is naked. There are long canines in the
upper jaw of the males, projecting downwards, and
coming out from between the lips. These canines
are compressed, pointed, arched backwards, and
have a sharp posterior cutting edge. In the true
musk they are at least three inches in length. The
crowns of the molars are acutely tuberculated.
Fig. 569 represents the teeth of the upper jaw
in two views: Fig. 568, those of the lower; Fig.
570, a lateral view of teeth of both jaws together.
Besides the two toes united to a single canon-bone,
as usual, there are two accessory toes on each foot,
each of which has its own slender metatarsal or
metarcarpal bone. See Fig. 571, the skeleton of
the Moschus moschiferus, and Fig. 572, the skeleton
of the Meminna, which are excellent illustrations of
their osteology. There are no horns or antlers, nor
even their rudiments.
Mr. Gray divides the Moschidae into three
genera, viz., Moschus, Meminna, and Tragulus.
The latter title, however, is applied by Mr. Ogilby
to a species of antelope (A. pigmaea). Most au-
thors, moreover, adopt the Linnaean genus Moschus,
and we shall in this instance follow their example.
Setting aside the true Musk, the other members of
the genus are termed Chevrotains, and till very re-
cently were supposed to be respectively restricted
to Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and perhaps other adja-
cent islands : recently, however, to the surprise of
naturalists, a species has been discovered in Sierra
Leone, to which, from its aquatic habits, Mr. Ogilby
has given the title of Moschus aquaticus. (See
' Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1840, p. 35.)
573, 577.— The Musk-Deer
{Moschus moschiferus'). The musk-deer, unlike its
relatives which tenant the forests of Ceylon and
Java, &c., inhabits the great mountain-range which
belts the north of India, and branches out into Si-
beria, Thibet, and China, through a vast extent of
which it ranges, preferring the bold precipitous crags
and wild rocks on the borders of the line of snow to
the valleys or the lower elevations. It is common
to Nepal, Boutan, Thibet, and the adjacent districts
of Chma. It also abounds in the Altaic range near
Lake Baikal, where it was observed by Pallas on the
mountains of Kouznetzk, near the lake Telet Koi.
The texture and thickness of the fur of the musk-
deer sufficiently demonstrate the animal to be the
native of a cold and elevated region. The fur is not
only full and long, but presents that peculiar harsh
or rigid and inelastic texture, which we observe in
the chamois, or rather in the Klip-springer of the
mountains of South Africa. Instead of lying flat on
the skin, it grows erect, and is so closely set as to
form a dense substantial covering. Common as is
the musk-deer in the great alpine ranges of Asia,
nevertheless it does not appear to have been known
to the ancients, a circumstance doubtless to be attri-
buted to the almost inaccessible nature of the regions
it frequents. Neither Aristotle nor Pliny mentions
either the animal or its celebrated produce. It is
from the male only that the drug and perfume
termed musk is procured ; it is the unctuous secre-
tion of a certain glandular pouch, and when dry it
becomes dark brown or black, and somewhat granu-
lar. Its peculiar odour is well known. Formerly it
was in high repute for its medicinal qualities, and
still holds a place as an antispasmodic in the Materia
Medica. It was first, as we learn, introduced into
the practice of medicine among the Arabfans, by
whose writers the animal producing it is iirst dis-
tinctly mentioned; having, as Daubenton states,
been described by Serapion in the eighth century :
but we know not the time when this article first
found its way to Europe ; probably after the early
Crusades. In Boutan, Tonquin, Thibet, Sec., it ap-
peal's from time immemorial to have been used as a
medicine and perfume, and to have formed an arti-
cle of trade amongst the inhabitants of those coun-
tries. Abusseid Serafi describes the musk-deer as
an animal resembling the roe, but erroneously as-
signs to it horns, in which error he is followed by
Aldrovaiidus. Among other Arabian writers who
notice this animal is Avicenna, who refers to its
musk-pouch and large bent canines. Kircher (' La
Chine illustrce,' Transl. Fran?., IGIO) gives an ac-
count of the musk-deer which is tound in the pro-
vinces of Xensi and Chiamsi : he quotes several de-
tails respecting it from the Chinese Atlas, whence
we learn that the Chinese term it Xe, which means
odour ; that its flesh is accounted delicate ; and that
it abounds in the provinces of Suchuen and Junnan.
In some districts the musk-deer is very common,
and multitudes are slaughtered for the sake of their
costly perfume ; which, however, is always greatly
adulterated. To the practice of adulterating it the
celebrated merchant-travellerTavernieralludes, add-
ing that the odour of the substance when recent is
so powerful as to cause the blood to gush from the
nose. Chardin says, " It is commonly believed that
when the musk-sac is cut from the animal, so power-
ful is the odour it exhales, that the hunter is obliged
to have the mouth and nose stopped with folds of
linen, and that often, in spite of this precaution, the
pungency of the odour is such as to produce so vio-
lent an haemorrhage as to end in death. I have,"
he adds, " gained accurate information respecting
this circumstance ; and as I have heard the same
thing talked of by some Armenians who had been to
Boutan, I think that it is true. The odour is so
powerful in the East Indies that T could never sup-
port it ; and when I trafficked for musk, I always
kept in the open air, with a handkerchief over my
face, and at a distance from those who handled the
sacs, referrmgthem to my broker ; and hence I knew
by experience that this musk is very apt to give
headaches, and is altogether insupportable when
quite recent. I add, that no drug is so easily adul-
terated, or more apt to be so."
These accounts must be taken, we suspect, with
some allowance. Certain it is that, when procured
in Europe in the ordinary way of commerce, it pro-
duces no such violent effects. It must be confessed,
however, that before arriving in Europe, not only
much of its strength is lost, but it has undergone
several adulterations.
Tavernier states that the musk-deer is very nu-
merous in the sixtieth degree, among the wooded
mountains, whence in Februa>y and March, when
the snows have deeply covered the earth, hunger
drives them southward into the lower lands, to the
forty-fourth or forty-fifth degree, in search of herb-
age. At this season the peasants wait for them on
their passages, and catch them in snares, or kill
them with clubs and arrows. At Patana he bought
on one occasion 1673 musk-bags, weighing 2557^
ounces, and of pure musk 452 ounces.
In size the musk-deer is about equal to our Eu-
ropean roebuck, standing two feet in height at the
shoulders ; the forehead is arched, the eyes large,
the ears rather ample, and very moveable ; the tail
is a mere rudiment, concealed by the long, harsh,
and almost spine-like hair with which the animal
is universally covered. The general contour is
compact, and displays great vigour, the limbs being
robust, and well adapted for climbing and leaping
among the rocks of the mountain ranges. The
hoofs are strong, broad, and expanded ; and the
posterior rudimentary hoofs are so developed as
to touch with their points the surface on which the
animal treads, so as to add to the security of its
footing.
The general colour of ^he musk-deer is brown,
washed with grey and pale yellow, each hair being
tipped with ferruginous ; obscure grey or whitish
marks often occur on the sides, especially in imma-
ture individuals; the shoulders and limbs are of a
deeper tint than the body. The female is less than
the male, and is destitute of tusks or long canine
teeth, and of a musk-sac. The teats are two in
number. In its manners the musk-deer resembles
the chamois : its favourite haunts are the pine-
forests on the mountains, and its agility is very
great, enabling it to spring from rock to rock with
great ease and address. It is extremely wild and
shy, and is said to be cautious and watchful against
surprise, taking refuge, when pursued, among the
crags and precipices of the more elevated peaks of
the ranges it tenants ; yet, in despite of all its
vigour and shyness, it falls a sacrifice to the energy
and the contrivances of man.
In 1772 a male of this species was living in the
park of Mons. de la Vrilliere, at Versailles, in
France ; and Daubenton, who published a descrip-
tion of it, informs us that the odour it exhaled, and
which was carried with the wind, was quite suffi-
cient to guide to the spot where the animal was
kept enclosed. " When I first saw it," he adds,
" I recognised much resemblance in its figure and
attitude to those of the roe, the gazelle, and the
chevrotain. No animal of this (the deer) tribe has
more activity, suppleness, and vivacity in its move-
ments."' It was extremely timid and wild ; but
like all the species of the peculiar group to which it
belongs, it is gentle and inoffensive. The chev-
rotains, as we well know, may be rendered very
tame : and it is probable that if the musk-deer
were taken while young, it might be easily domesti-
cated, since the former animals are shy and timid
in the extreme while in a state of natural freedom,
but soon gain confidence, and have even bred in
captivity in our uncongenial climate.
A good figure of the musk-deer is given by Buffon
in the 6th vol. of his Supplement.
574.— The Meminna
{Moschus Meminna). This elegant little species is
a native of Ceylon and Java, and is also found in
considerable numbers in the dense woods of the
Western Ghauts (but never on the plains), where it
was seen by Colonel Sykes, who observes, that it
readily reconciles itself to confinement : the flesh
is excellent eating. In size it exceeds a large hare,
being about one foot five inches long, and eight inches
high. Its colour is olive-grey, spotted and streaked
on the sides and haunches with white ; the ears are
large and open ; the tail is very short.
575.— The Napu
{Moschus Javanicus). The species constituting the
little section of which the Napu is a representative,
are characterised by having the hinder edge of the
metatarsus bald and slightly callous: the throat is
provided with a somewhat naked concave subglan-
dular callous disc, from which a band extends to
the fore part of the chin ; and most of them have
three diverging bands of white on the chest. The
animals of this group are distinguished by their
beauty and diminutive size, the largest not equal-
ling a hare. Their limbs are very slender and deli-
cate ; their hoofs are long and narrow ; the muz-
zle is acute ; the eyes large and dark ; the ears
pointed.
The species are enveloped in some degree of
confusion ; indeed they resemble each other so
closely, that it requires some attention to discrimi-
nate between them. Mr. Bennett, who investigated
these animals with the greatest care, considered
that three species were defineable, viz., the Napu,
the Kanchil, and the Pelandok ; the two former of
which are described by Sir T. S. Raffles, in the
'Linn. Trans.' vol. xiii. Mr. Gray considers the Pe-
landok to be in all probability iden^al with a
species described by him under the specific title of
Rufiventer, and adds another species to the group
under the designation of Stanleyanus— of this species
a pair bred in the gardens of the Zool. Society.
The napu is a native of Java and Sumatra, and
is the largest of this section ; its colour is ferru-
ginous brown above and white beneath, the chest
having two longitudinal dusky stripes, so as to pro-
duce a central and two diverging lateral lines of
white, below which passes a transverse band of
pale yellowish fawn. The muzzle, which is naked,
is black, with a tinge of flesh colour, as are the ears,
which are also nearly naked. The tail is rather
short, and white at the tip. In its native regions
the napu gives preference to thickets and districts
overgrown with brushwood, near the sea-shore, and
feeds principally on the berries of a species of Ar-
disia. It is said to be inferior to the kanchil in
speed,, activity and cunning, and is therefore more
exposed to danger from the assaults of wild beasts,
which abound in the forest ; and hence it prefers to
lurk in coverts nearer the vicinity of man, from
whose observation it can more easily conceal itself
than from the watchful eyes of the feline race.
In its manners the napu is mild and gentle, and
soon becomes reconciled to captivity : it bears our
climate well, with care ; though destitute of marked
intelligence, its graceful form, agreeable colouring,
and full dark eyes render it an interesting object.
576. — The Kanchil
{Moschus Kanchil, Raffles). The Kanchil is lighter
in form and more spirited than the napu, and con-
siderably smaller. Independent of the difference
in size, it is easily distinguished by its darker co-
lour, by a broad stripe of dark chestnut verging
upon black, which runs down the back of the neck,
and by the width of the band across its chest. Of
all the chevrotains this is the most active and ele-
gant ; indeed its address and resolution are the
common theme of discourse in Java, its native
country ; and the most extraordinary instances are
related of its cunning. Unlike the napu, it resides
in the depths of the mighty forests which cover so
large a portion of the island, feeding chiefly on the
frijit of the Kayo-briang (Gmelina villosa) : and
though it will live in confinement, it endures cap-
tivity with great impatience and restlessness,
availing itself of the first opportunity of escape
572.— Skoleton of Meminna.
tU.— Skeleton oT Unsk-Decr.
^
~^^^ F%. 569. ^
Fig. 668.
516.— KanchtL
Fig. tn.
i\ \ fjf'if'lr,
578.— Horna of FaUow-Oeer.'
57t.— Hemlnoa.,
S79.-St«g8' Bonu.
I
1 2 1 3
M^^
480.— HoiM of WapiU.
11 \ll2
581.— Horns of Fallow-Deer.
S77.— Mnsfc-Deer.
592.— Foot of Rein-Deer. .'.93.— Foot of llein Deer.
■-, 6
586.— MoawDwi.
No. 17.
<>»4. — IiiKCU which attack Uein-Deer.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
oHj.- AlUtTlUUU ii.lh.
129
130
MUSEUiM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Dker.
that sffers, when it bounds away for the forest, the
deep recesses of which afford it a welcome refuge.
Such are its cunning and alertness, and so prompt
is it with expedients when pressed by dxnger, that,
as Sir Stamford lUffles informs us, " it is a oommon
Malay proverb, to designate a great rogue to be as
cunning as a kanchil ;"ami he adds, of this cunning
many instances are related by the natives. "If
taken in a noose laid for it, the kanchil, when the
hunter arrives, will stretch itself out motionless, and
feign to be dead ; and if, deceived by this manoeuvre,
he disengage the animal, it seizes the moment to
(tart on its legs, and disappears in an instant. A
■till more singular expedient is mentioned, viz. that
when closely pursued bv dogs, the kanchil will
sometimes make a bound upwards, hook itself on
the branch of a tree by means of its bent tusks, and
there remain suspended till the dogs have passed
beneath." In vigilance, activity, and cunning, if
these statements be but partially true, the kanchil
surpasses the rest of the group ; none indeed, except-
ing this, have gained a reputation for these qualities,
though all are light-limbed, free, and vigorous.
Among the species to be erased from the genus
Moschus, are the Guevi, or pigmy antelope, or Sene-
gal (Antilope pigmtBa), regarded by Buifon as a
chevrotain ; and the Moschus Americanus, and M.
delicatulus of South America, »vhich are- the young
of one of the deer of that country. The Moschus
pygmff!us, Linn., is the young of an antelope. The
Moschus Guineen.sis, Bri^son and Gmelin, is al.so
mcst probably the young of an antelope. As we
have said, however, Africa produces one species
at least of the genus Moschus, of which a perfect
skin and skeleton are in the museum of the Zool.
Soc. Ijond.
The African musk-deer (Moschus aquations, Ogil-
by, ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1844, p. 35) very much
resemble the meminna, but is larger, being about
midway in size between that species and the Moschus
raoschiferous. Its general colour is a deep rich
brown, with white spots and markings, nearly similar
to those of the meminna, but with the throat-marks
as in the napu or kanchil. This interesting species
is a native of Sierra Leone, where it lives on the
borders of rivers, and takes freely to the water.
CERVID/E, OR THE DEER TRIBE.
The animals of this great group, celebrated for
their beauty, vigour, and speed, are spread very ex-
tensively, each quarter of the globe having its own
peculiar species. To this universality of distribution
there are, however, certain exceptions ; none are
found in Australia, and none in the southern and
central regions of Africa, their place in the latter
regions being supplied by the giraffe and hosts of
antelopes Hills of moderate elevations, wide plains,
and forests, are the localities to which these fleet-
limbed creatures give preference ; none tenant the
peaked ridges of the mountain-top, where the cha-
mois and musk-deer find a congenial abode. They
deligiit in a wide range of country, and trust to their
swiftness of flight for safety. Most herd together in
troops; some few live singly. It may be observed
that, in general, their body is round and stout;
their limbs long, sinewy and powerful ; their neck
long, and very muscular; their head small, and
carried high ; their eyes large and full ; their ears
ample.
Many species have suborbital sinuses (or lachry-
mal sinuses), but not all. With respect to these
sinuses, or fissures below the eyes, in so many both
of the deer and antelopes, we may here remark that
their use is not understOdd : they have nothing to do
with respiration, being mere follicles or pits in the
skin, having no communication wilh the interior
of the nasal passages. They secrete a peculiar
unctuous fluid, exuding more abundantly at certain
seasons than at others, when their edges become
very tumid, and are incapable of being closed to-
gether as at other times. The animals often apply
them to objects near them, widely opening them at
the same moment, which they do also when irritated
or under excitement. In several species they are
greatly developed, and no doubt serve some im-
poitant purpose in the animal economy. In most
species the muzzle, which is small, is flat and
naked ; in some, as the elk and rein-deer, it is larire
and hairy, and the upper lip is prehensile. The
females have four teats.
Throughout all the species the males are furnished
with antlers, commonly called horns, which are lost
and renewed yearly, increasing in the size, and the
number of their branches, at each renewal until a
certain period. They are seated upon an o.sseous
peduncle or footstalk risintr from each frontal bone,
at its central point of ossification : these peduncles
are enveloped in skin. It is not till the spring, or
beeinning of the second year, that the first pair of
horns begin to make their appearance. At this
epoch a new proces.s commences : the skin envelop-
ing the peduncles swells, its arteries enlarge, tides
of blood rush to the head, and the whole system ex-
periences a fresh stimulus. The antlers are now
budding, for on the top of these footstalks the
arteries are depositing layers of osseous matter,
particle by particle, with great rapidity ; as they
increase the skin increases in an equal ratio, still
covering the budding antlers, and continues so to
do, until they have acquired their due development
and solidity. This skin is a tissue of blood-vessels,
and the courses of the large arteries from the head
to the end of the antlers are imprinted on the latter
in long furrows which are never obliterated. In
ordinary language, the skin investing the antlers is
termed velvet, being covered with a fine pile of
close short hair. Suppose, then, the antlers of the
young deer now duly grown, and still invested with
this vascular tissue; but the process is not yet
complete. While this tender velvet remains the
deer can make no use of his newly-acquired
weapons, which are destined to bear the brunt of
many a conflict with his compeers : it must there-
fore be removed, but without giving a sudden check
to the current of blood rolling through this extent
of skin, lest by directing the tide to the brain, or
some internal organ, death be the result. The
process then is this : — as soon as the antlers are
complete (according to the age of the individual),
the arteries at their base, where they join the per-
manent footstalk (always covered with skin), begin
to deposit around it a burr, or rough ring of bone,
with notches, through which the great arteries still
pass. Gradually, however, the diameter of these
openings is contracted by the deposition of addi-
tional matter ; till at length the great arteries are
compressed as by a ligature, and' the circulation is
effectually stopped. The velvet now dies for want
of the vital fluid ; it shrivels, dries, and peels oft' in
shreds, the animal assisting in getting rid of it by
rubbing his antlers against the trees. They are
now firm, hard, and white ; and the stag bears them
proudly, and brandishes them in defiance of his
rivals. From the burr upwards, these antlers are
now no longer part and parcel of the system ;
they are extraneous, and held only by their mecha-
nical continuity with the footstalk on which they
were placed ; hence their deciduous character, for
it is a vital law that the system shall throw off
all parts no longer intrinsically entering into the
integrity of the whole. An absorptive process
soon begins to take place just beneath the burr,
removing particle after particle, till at length the
antlers are separated and fall by their own weight,
or by the slightest touch, leaving the living end
of the footstalk exposed and slightly bleeding.
This is immediately covered with a pellicle of skin,
which soon thickens and all is well. The return of
spring brings with it a renewal of the whole process
with renewed energy, and a finer pair of antlers
branches forth.
The common stag begins to acquire his antlers in
the spring, and losesthem early in the spring succeed-
ing. His first antlers (second spring) are straight,
small, and simple : he is now termed a Brocket.
The next pair are larger, and have a brow antler
directed forwards from the main stem, sometimes
with one or two small branches above. The third
pair of antlers has two forward stem branches be-
sides the brow antlers, and one or two snags at the
top. The fourth pair have the brow and stem antlers
increased and more snags ; the fifth and sixth pairs
exhibit still greater development, and an increase in
the number of snags. Any disturbance in the system
produces a corresponding deterioration in the form
and proportions of the horn. Our figures develop
the progress of the successive annual horns in the
stag or red-deer, and in the fallow deer. The horns
are from the left side.
Fig. 679 (Stag) :— I, Horn of first growth ; 2, 3,
4, ditto of second; .^, 6, of third and fourth; 7, of
fifth; 8, 9, of the sixth growth; 10, 11, 12, the
seventh and subsequent growths; the horns being
at their maximum. Fig. 580 represents horns of
the Wapiti deer: a, horn produced in unfavourable
circumstances, in confinement ; b, horn of the same
anirtial the year afterwards, and finely branched.
Fig. 581 (Fallow-deer) : — 1. Hornofthe first growth ;
2, 3. 4, horn of the second ; .5, 6, 7, horns of the
third growth ; 8, 9, horns of the fourth ; 10,
11, 12, 13, horns of the fifth and sixth growth.
Fig. 578 shows the horns of a fallow-deer in an
unnatural state, and not shed at the proper time
(Ccrvo evirato).
The CervidtD are divided by Col. Hamilton Smith
into the following sections, which many naturalists
have adopted, and which seem to us very natural.
1, Alee, or the Elk group ; 2, Rangifer, or the Rein-
deer group; 3, Dama, or the Fallow-deer group; 4,
Elaphus, or the Stag group ; 5, Riisa, or the Sani-
bur-deer group; 6, .\xis, or the .Axis-deer group;
7, Capreolus, or the Roebuck group ; 8, Mazama,
or the .\merican Fallow group: 9, Sabulo, or the
Guazu or Brocket group of America ; 10, Slylocerjs,
or the Muntjacks.
1. Alce. — Horns sessile, more or less subdivided,
without either basilary or mesial antlers, but termi-
nated by a vast palmation, designated on its external
border only.
585, 586.— Thb Amesicait Euc, ob Moosx-
Ukeb.
(/ffcw Americanut ; Cerau Meet, Linn.). The
Elks are the largest of the Cervidae, and are distin-
guished by the broad palmation of their antlers,
furnished with numerous digitations on their outer
edge only ; a large isolated branch springs from the
stem, which latter is thick and short, and begins im-
mediately to expand ; the head is heavy, the ears
large ana open, the eyes small and dull ; the muzzle
elongated, thick, projecting, pendulous, and flexible
— it is covered with hair. Two small pendulous
dewlaps of loose skin hang from the throat; the
neck is short and thick, the body strong and short ;
the limbs are long and awkward ; the toes are
broad, and divided so high that they diverge as the
animal presses them to the ground ; the tail is ex-
tremely short; the hair is full, harsh, long, and pro-
duced on the neck and shoulders into a mane.
It has been considered by many naturalists, that
the American Elk and the European Elk are speci-
ficially identical ; it is probable, however, that they
are distinct. The European Elk is spread but thinly
through the wild forest-regions of Norway, Sweden,
part of Prussia, Lithuania, and Russia, from the
fitty-third to the sixty-third degree of latitude. It
extends also through Asiatic Tartary to the north
of China. Buff'on supposes that the Greeks were
unacquainted with this animal, and it does not ap-
pear to have been noticed by Aristotle. That it was _
the Saktj, Alce or Alces, of Pausanias, Caesar, and ■
Pliny, there can be no doubt. The word ,\lce or ■
Alchis is merely the Celtic Elch or the Scandinavian
jElg modified. In book viii. ch. xvi. Pliny gives an
account of the Alce, which he distinguishes from the
Alchis, regarding them at the same time as allied
animals : but it is easy to see through his error ; his
account of it walking backwards while feeding, in
consequence of its overhanging lip, and his state-
ment ;that there is no joint at the hock, we need
scarcely say are fabulous. According to Mr. Lloyd
('Field Sports of the North of Europe') the elk is
far jess common than formerly, and restricted only
to certain districts. It frequently attains the height
of seven and even eight feet, but does not attain to
full growth till about the fourteenth year. A young
elk two years old, in the possession of Mr. Wise,
the Swedish consul-general, measured upwards of
six feet at the shoulder. " By nature," says Mr.
Lloyd, "the elk is timorous, and he usually flies at
the sight of man. At certain seasons, however, like
other animals of the deer kind, he is at times rather
dangerous. His weapons are his horns and hoofs ;
he strikes so forcible with the latter, as to annihilate
a wolf or other large animal at a single blow. It is
said that when the elk is incensed the hair on his
neck bristles up like the mane of a lion, which gives
him a wild and frightful appearance. The usual
pace of the elk is a high shambling trot, and his
strides are immense, but I have known him, when
frightened, to go at a tremendous gallop. In pass-
ing through thick woods he carries his horns hori-
zontally, to prevent them from being entangled in
the branches; from the formation of his hoofs, he
makes great clattering, like the rein-deer when in
rapid motion. In the summer season the elk usually
resorts to mora.sses and low situations ; for, like other
animals of the deer kind, he frequently takes to the
water in warm weather; he is an admirable swim-
mer. In the winter time he retires to the more shel-
tered parts of the forest, where willow, ash, &c, are
to be tbund, as from the small boughs of these trees
he obtains his sustenance during that period of the
year. In the summer and autumn the elk is often
to be met with in small herds, but in the winter
there are seldom more than two or three in company.
At the latter season, indeed, he is frequently alone.
The flesh of the elk, whether fresh or smoked, is very
excellent: the young are particularly delicious.
The tongue and the nose are thought to be great
delicacies in Scandinavia as well as in America.
Great virtue was once placed in the hoof of that
animal ; but this idle notion must, by this time, 1
should think, be nearly exploded. The skin is con-
vertible to many purposes, and is very valuable.
Mr. Grieft' says — ' It is not long since that a regi-
ment was clothed with waistcoats made from the
hides of those animals, which were so thick that a
ball could scarcely penetrate them.' The elk is
easily domesticated. Formerly these animals were
made use of in Sweden to draw sledges, but, owing.
as it was said, to their speed frequently accelerating
the escape of people who had been guilty ot mur-
ders or other crimes, the use of them was prohibited
under great penalties. Though I apprehend these
ordinances, if not abrogated, are obsolete, I am not
aware that the elk is ever made use of in that king-
dom al the present day, either to draw a sledge or
Deer.1
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
131
for other domestic purposes. In Sweden, it is con-
trary to law at this particular time to kill the elk
at any season of the year: this is not the case in
Norway ; for in that country, these animals may be
destroyed, with certain limitations as to numbers,
from the 1st of July to the 1st of November inclu-
6i\c. The penalty however for killing an elk out
of season, in Norway, is very much heavier than in
Sv.eden ; it amounts indeed, including legal ex-
penses, &c., to about 20/., which is no inconsider-
able sum in that kingdom." (Lloyd, Northern
Field Sports, vol. ii., p. 329, et seq.)
Immediately following the passage above quoted
there is a very interesting account of the mode of
hunting the elk, in Scandinavia, upon "skidor," or
snow skates, interspersed, as most of such narratives
are, with notices of the habits of the animal ; but
as our limits will not permit its insertion, we refer
the reader to the work, which is well worthy of his
attention.
The American Elk, or Moose-deer (Mousoa of
the Crees; Mongsoa of the Algonquins; Denyai of
the Chippewyans), presents the same habits and
manners as the Elk of Scandinavia. Formerly its
range was more extensive than at present. Dr.
Richardson, in his ' Fauna Boreali-Americana,' says,
" Du Pratz informs us, that in his time the moose-
deer were found as far south as at Ohio ; and
Denys says, that they were once plentiful in the
island of Cape Breton, though, at the time he wrote,
they had been extirpated. At present, according
to Dr. Godman, they are not known in the state
of Maine ; but they exist in considerable numbers
in the Bay of Fundy. They frequent the woody
tracts in the fur countries, to their most northern
limit. Several were seen on Captain Franklin's last
expedition, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, feeding
on the willows, which, owing to the lich alluvial
deposits on that great river, extend to the shores
of the Arctic Sea, lat 69°. Farther 1o the eastward,
towards the Coppermine River, they are not found
in a higher latitude than 65°, on account of the
scarcity on the barren grounds of the aspen and
willow, which constitute their food. Mackenzie
saw them high up on the eastern declivity of the
Rocky Mountains, but I suspect they are rarely, il
ever, found to the westward of the mountains."
The moose-deer appears to be a solitary animal,
at least in the more northern latitudes ; the older
writers .speak of it as being found in small herds, but
there is room for suspicion that the moose and wapiti
are confounded together. From its exquisite sense
of hearing, and habitual wariness, the chase of the
moose-deer is very difficult : indeed, as Dr. Richartt-
son states, " The art of moose-hunting is looked
upon as the greatest of an Indian's acquirements,
particularly by the Crees, who take to themselves
the credit of being able to instruct the hunters ol
every other tribe.'' In summer the moose is so
tormented by mosquitoes, that he becomes, to a
certain degree, regardless of the approach of man ;
but in winter, when the ground is covered with
snow, in which the hunter tracks the animal by its
footmarks, it requires the greatest caution to get
within gun-shot. The slightest noise, the rustling
of a leaf, or the cracking of a twig, is sufficient to
give the alarm and disappoint the hopes of the
hunter. Nor is the chase always unattended with
danger, for if the animal be an old male, and the
shot does not bring him down, he will often turn
infuriated on his enemy, who is then obliged to
shelter himself behind a tree ; and Dr. Richardson
observes, that he has heard of several instances in
which the enraged animal has completely stripped
the bark from the trunk of a large tree by striking
with his fore-feet. On firm snow, owing to the
spread of its hoofs, which make a loud crackling
noise at each step, the moose can sustain a length-
ened pursuit ; Captain Franklin records an instance
of a chase kept up by three hunters for six suc-
cessive days, until the track of the animal was
marked with blood. On the fourth day the chief
hunter sprained his ankle, and the others were tired
out, but one of them, after a rest of twelve hours,
followed up the game, which after a chase of two
days more he succeeded in killing. The moose is
often killed by the Indians while crossing rivers ;
and the young, as Heme states, are so simple as
to allow an Indian to paddle his canoe up to them :
he has seen an Indian lake one by the poll without
experiencing the least opposition, "the poor animal
swimming at the same time alongside the canoe as
if swimming by the side of its dam, and looking up
in o'-ir faces with the same fearle^s innocence that
a honse-lamb would, making u.se of its fore-foot
almost every instant to clear its eyes of mosquitoes,
which at that time were remarkably numerous.
The moose is the easiest to tame and domesticate
of any of the deer kind."
From the length of its limbs and the shortness of
its body, the rnoose shuffles or ambles alone, and
when it is at full speed the hind-leet straddle to
avoid treading on the fore-heels, which sometimes
happens so as to trip it up. During its progress
it raises its head horizontally in order to throw the
horns upon the withers. The moose does not at-
temp to leap, but steps easily over a fallen tree or
any other obstacle. It swims with ease and ra-
pidity, and is very fond of the water, in which it
often remains immersed for a whole day in hot
weather, in order to escape the attacks of the
mosquitoes, and leisurely browses upon the twigs
within its reach. The shortness of the neck, the
length of the limbs, and the formation of the upper
lip combine to render the moose a browsing ani
mal : the shoots of the willow and birch are a
favourite food; it is particularly partial to the red
willow (Cornis alba), and also, according to Lewis
and Clark, to the evergreen leaves of the Gualthe-
riashallon. Its skin, when dressed, forms a soft
and pliable leather, excellently adapted for moc-
cassins.
Destitute as is the elk of the grace and compact-
ness of form so conspicuous in the stag, it is never-
theless a noble and striking animal : those who
have contemplated it amidst the wilds of its native
regions describe the effect of its appearance as very
imposing.
2. Rangifer. — Antlers flattened.
587 to 591.— The Rein-Deer
(Rangifer Tarandus, Cervns Tarandus, Linn. ; Cer-
vus Uangifer, Brissot). The rein-deer presents the
following characteristics, which form good grounds
of separation from the other sections. Both sexes
possess horns and canine teeth ; the muzzle is
covered with hair, excepting that there is a small
naked space between the nostrils, the indication, as
it were, of the naked muzzle which we find in the
succeeding groups. The nostrils are oblique and
oval. The head is somewhat large and long, the
neck is short and thick, and carried horizontally.
The horns, especially in old males, are of great
size, but present considerable variation of figure.
They may be described, in gene ral terms, as consist-
ing each of a long slender compressed skin, inclined
backwards with an outer ami upward sweep ; a
brow antler sometimes found only on one horn,
sometimes on both, advances forward, assuming a
vertical palmated form, and hanging over the
muzzle : this plate usually terminates in digiiations ;
sometimes, however, it is plain. A second antler
rises at some distance above the brow antler, and
ascends upwards, assuming at its extremity either
a palmated form or dividing into two or three small
branches. Besides these, one or two snags rise from
the main stem, which generally terminates palmated
with deep digitations.
The feet are deeply fissured ; when pressed to
the ground they spread— when raised up they close
together, and, if the animal be in quick motion,
with a smart snap (Fig. 592 represents the hoofs
closed ; Fig. 593. the hoofs expanded). The hoofs
are round and very concave beneath, with sharp
edges; the accessory toes are much developed.
The fur consists of two sorts, a soft close underwool,
and an outer covering of close, harsh, brittle, erect
hairs, which are elongated beneath the neck so as
to hang down like a fringe. The limbs are short
and muscular, the shoulders and neck very power-
ful, the body firmly built, and the whole contour of
the frame is such as eminently qualifies the animal
for the service of the Laplander.
The rein-deer is spread throughout the Arctic
regions of Europe, Asia, and America, the wilds of
the polar circle being its congenial abode. The
finest animals are those of Finmark, Lapland, and
especially Spitzbergen ; those of Norway and Swe-
den being inferior in strength and stature. In Asia
it extends farther to the south than in Europe,
ranging along the Ural chain to the foot of the
Caucasian mountains ; it is common through the
northern latitudes of Siberia, and abounds in Kamt-
schatka. In America, where it is termed the
Caribou, it is most numerous between the sixty-
thiid and sixty-sixth degrees of latitude, its most
southern limit being about .W.
It has been a question whether the rein-deer of
Europe, Asia, and America are specifically the
same or distinct : we are inclined to regard them
as varieties of one species ; but are aware that
in the opinion of some zoologists there are two
distinct species, as indicated by the form of the
skull, in the Old World; and that the American
rein-deer is again distinct ; indeed it is a question
whether in America there be not two species ; cer-
tainly there are two well-marked varieties. The
decision of points like these is, however, alien to our
present object.
The rein-deer (we allude more expressly to the
European animal, though the remarks apply to that
of Asia and America) is eminently migratory in its
habits, and herds in troops, which travel from the
woods to the open hills and back again, according
to the season. The woods are their winter refuge ;
here they subsist on the long pendent lichens
which hang in festoons from the trees, on the wnite
lichen which covers the ground, and on the twigi
of the birch and willow. \Vith the return of spring
they begin their migration from the forest to the
mountain ranges, partly to obtain their favourite
food, but chiefly in order to escape the myriads of
mosquitoes ; and especially from the gad-fly (Ois-
trus Tarandi), which now begins to appear : the
latter being greatly dreaded by the rein-deer, the fly
not only tormenting it with its sting (ovipositor),
but placing its egg in every wound it makes. Fig.
594 represents this formidable insect. So impe-
rative is the instinct that impels the Lapland rein-
deer to these migratory movements, that it cannot
be modified in the domestic race which constitutes
the sole wealth of the Laplander, and on which he
depends for existence : hence he is obliged to lead
a semi-nomadic life, taking periodical journeys of
no ordinary toil, from the interior of the country to
the mountains which overhang the Norway and
Lapland coasts, and back to the interior.
Lapland, says Hoflberg, is divided into two tracts,
called the Alpine and Woodland country. Those
immense mountains, called in Sweden Fjelfen, divide
that country from Norway, extending towards the
White Sea as far as Russia, and are frequently
more than twelve miles in breadth. The other,
called the Woodland division, lies to the east of this,
and differs from the neighbouring provinces of
Norway by its soil, which is exceedingly stony and
barren, being covered with one continued tract of
wood, of old pine-trees. This tract has a very
singular appearance. The trees above are covered
over with great quantities of a black hanging lichen,
growing in filaments resembling locks of hair, while
the ground beneath appears like snow, being totally
covered with white lichens. Between this wood
and the Alps lies a region called the Woodland, or
Desert Lapmarc, of thirty or forty miles in breadth,
of the most savage and horrid appearance, consist-
ng of scattered uncultivated woods, and continued
plains of dry barren sand, mixed with vast lakes
and mountains. When the mosses on part of this
desert tract have been burnt, either by lightning or
any accidental fire, the barren soil immediately
produces the white lichen which covers the lower
parts of the Alps. The rein-deer in summer seek
their highest parts, and there dwell amidst their
storms and snows, not to fly the heat of the lower
regions, but to avoid the gnat and gad-fly. la
winter these intensely cold mountains, whose tops
reach high into the atmosphere, can no longer
support them, and they are obliged to return to the
desert and subsist upon the lichens. Of these, its
principal food is the rein-deer lichen. There are,
says Hoft'berg, two varieties of this : the first is
called sylvestris, which is extremely common in
the barren deserts of Lapland, and more particu-
larly in its sandy and gravelly fields, which it
whitens over like snow ; its vast marshes, full of
tussocks of tuif, and its dry rocks, are quite grown
over by it. The second variety of this plant, which
is less frequent than the former, is named, the
Alpine ; this grows to a greater height, with its
branches matted together: it has this name be-
cause when those mountains are cleared of their
wood the whole surface of the earth is covered
with it; yet it is seldom to be found on their tops.
When the woods become too luxuriant, the Lap-
lander sets fire to them, as experience has taught
him that when the vegetables are thus destroyed,
the lichen takes root in the barren soil and mul-
tiplies with facility ; though it requires an interval
of eight or ten years before it comes to a proper
height. The Laplander esteems himself opulent
who has extensive deserts producing this plant
exuberantly ; when it whitens over his fields, he is
under no necessity of gathering in a crop of hay
against the approach of winter, as the rein-deer
eats no dried vegetable, unless perhaps the river
horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile). They rout for this
lichen under the snow like swine in a pasture. It
sometimes happens (but very rarely) that the winter
sets in with great rains, which the frost immedi-
ately congeals ; the surface of the earth is then
covered with a coating of ice before the snow falls,
and the lichen is entirely incrusted and buried in
it. Thus the rein-deer are sometimes starved, and
famine attacks the Laplanders. In such an exi-
gence they have no other resource but felling old
fir trees overgrown with the hairy liverworts. "I'hese
afford a very inadequate supply, even for a small
herd, but the greater part of a large one, in such a
case, is sure to perish with hunger.
With the approach of winter the coat of the rein-
deer begins to thicken, and, like that of most polar
quadrupeds, to assume a lighter hue. In a domes-
ticated state the animal is subject to a great variety
of colour : many are white, and mottled individuals
are by no means uncommon. Sir Arthur Brooke
and other writers notice the strange propensity to
devour the lemming (Arvicola Norvcgicus; Mus
Lemnus, Linn.) which this animal often exhibits ;
S2
iM,— R«ii>-Daer.
&M.— FVIlow-Deer ud Honea.
606, — Honu of MooM-De«r.
691.— Rein-Deer hannwd to a Sledge.
i87.— Milking the Rein-Deer.
S95, s*6.— Hon* of C* abooh
■/?o;^^
"^ ^.««."^^^V- J--j=^
'■^J. .-'-'- -^I«^*^^^■c^^^
fM.— Reia-Daer and Laplaoderi.
»»7.-FaUow-Deer.
589.— Rein-Deer.
132
599. — Group of Fallow-Deer.
too.— Skeleton of Fossil Elk.
ISS
134
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Deer.
and Captain Franklin observe* that the American
rein-deer "are accustomed to enaw their fallen
antlers, and to devour mice." We cannot account
for such an anomaly in the habits of a ruminalins;
animal, otherwise than by attributini; it to a morbid
appetite. To the natives of Finmark, Lapland, and
the shores of the Arctic Sea, the rein-deer is in every
•ense important : not only is it a beast of burden,
but its flesh and milk are alike in requisition. In
these countries
» Tbeit raia-dMt tea Uwlrrieh« : then their lenti,
Tbalr nbee. their bede. end M their homey wealth
Oapplr— their erhoheoaie hre, and cheerful cupe;
Obeeqiilooe lo their cell, the docile tribe
Yield to ilir tied their necke, and whirl them nrift
U>r hill and dale."
M. de Broke says, " The number of deer belong-
in? to a herd is from three hundred to five hundred ;
with these a Laplander can do well, and live in
tolerable comfort. He can make in summer a suf-
ficient quantity of cheese for the year's con-
sumption, and during the winter season can afford
to kill deer enough lo supply him and his family
pretty constantly with venison. With two hundred
deer, a man, if nis family be but small, can manage
to get on. If he have but one hundred, bis subsist-
ence is very precarious, and he cannot rely entirely
upon them for support. Should he have but fifty,
he is no longer independent, or able to keep a sepa-
rate establishment, but generally joins his small
herd with that of some richer Laplander, being then
considered more in the light of a menial, under-
taking the laborious office of attending upon and
watching the herd, bringing them home to be milked,
and other similar offices, in return for the subsistence
afforded him."
Von Buch, a celebrated traveller, has well des-
cribed the evening milking-time, of which a repre-
sentation is given in Fig. ^7. It is a Laplander's
summer encampment on the mountains.
Early in September the herds and their owners
commence their return from the coast in order to
reach their winter-quarters before the fall of the
snows ; and it is when the winter is fairly set in that
the peculiar value of the rein-deer is felt by the
Laplander, and his powers called into operation.
Without him communication would be almost utterly
suspended. Harnassed to a sledge (Fig. 591") the
rein-deer will draw about 300 lbs. ; but the Lap-
lander generally limit the burden to 240 lbs. The
trot of the rein-deer is about ten miles an hour ; and
the animal's power of endurance is such, that jour-
neys of one hundred and fifty miles in nineteen
hours are tiot uncommon. There is a portrait of a
rein-deer in the palace of Drotningholm (Sweden),
which is represented, upon an occasion of emer-
gency, to have drawn an officer with important
despatches, the incredible distance of eight hundred
English miles in forty-eight hours. This event is
stated to have happened in 1699, and the tradition
adds, that the deer dropped down lifeless upon his
arrival.
In America the rein-deer appears to be as migra-
tory as its Old World relative. Dr. Richardson
describes two varieties of this animal inhabiting the
northern regions of that continent; the one under
the nafne of the Woodland Caribou (Var. sylvestris) ;
the other under that of the Barren-ground Caribou
(Var. Arcfica).
The Woodland Caribou (Caribou, of Theodat, La
Hontan, Charlevoix, &c. ; Rein-deer, of Drage,
Dobbs, &c. ; Attekh of the Cree Indians; Tant-
seeah of the Copper Indians, Richardson). — This
variety is much larger than the Barren-ground
Caribou, but iiil'erioras an article of food. Its proper
country is a stripe of low primitive rocks well
clothed with wood, about 100 miles wide, and ex-
tending, at the distance of 80 or 100 miles from the
shores of the Hudson's Bay, from Lake Athapescow
to Lake Superior. " Contrary to the practice of the
Barren-ground Caribou, the Woodland variety
travels to the southward in the spring. They cross
the Nelson and Severn rivers in immense herds in
the month of May, pass the summer on the low and
marshy shores of James's Bay, and return to the
northwarrd and at the same time retire more inland
in the month of September." The weight of the
Woodland Caribou varies from 200 to 240 lbs.
The Barren-ground Caribou (Common Deer of
Ileame ; Bedsee-awseh of the Copper Indians and
Dug-ribs ; Bedsee-choh (male), fsootai (female),
Tarapeh (female with a fawn) of the same ; Took-
too of the Esquimaux, Took-took dual, Took-toot
plural (Richardson); Tukta of the Greenlandeis
(Pangnek male ; Kollowak, female ; Norak, young,
Fabncius). — This variety (species?) is of small sta-
ture, the buck weighing, exclusive of the offal, from
90 to 130 lbs., according to the animal's condition.
The herds of the Barren-ground Caribou spend the
summer on the coast of the Arctic Sea, and in
winter retire to the woods between the sixty-third
and sixty-sixth degrees of latitude, where they feed
on the UsnesB, Alectarise, and other arboreal lichens,
as well as on the long grass of the swamps. About
the end of April they make short excursions from
the woods, in order lo obtain the terrestrial lichens
(Cetrariffi,Cornicularia;, and Cenomyces), which, now
that the snows are partially melted, are both soft and
easily to be collected. " In May the females pro-
ceed to the sea-coast, and towards the end of June
the males are in full inarch in the same direction.
At this period the sun has dried up the lichens on
the Barren-grounds, and the Caribou frequents the
moist pastures which cover the bottoms of the nar-
row valleys on the coast and islands of the Arctic
Sea, where they graze on the sprouting carices, and
on the withered grass or hay ol the preceding vear,
which at that period is still standing and retaming
part of its sap. The spring journey is performed
partly on the snow, and partly, after the snow has
disappeared, on the ice covering the rivers and lakes,
which have in general a northerly direction." Soon
after their arrival on the coast, the females produce
their young. In September the herds begin their re-
turn southwards to the tbrests, which they reach
towards the end of October ; and are then joined by
the males. This retrograde journey is performed after
the snows have fallen, but before the heavy frost has
set in, so that they are able to procure the lichens,
which are still tender and pulpy, by scratching up
the snow with their feet, which are well adapted by
Uie concavity of their rounded sharp-edged hoofs for
this important purpose. Figs 595 and 596 are copies
of drawings, by Captain Back, of the horns of two
old Buck Caribous, killed on the Barren-grounds in
the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise. They are
distinguished by their palmations. Dr. Richardson
states that he can confidently assert, after having
seen many thousands of the Barren-ground Caribou,
" that the horns of the old males are as much if not
more palraated than any antlers of the European
rein-deer to be found in the British museums;"
which is contrary to Colonel Smith's opinion, that
the horns of the Caribou are shorter, less conclave,
more robust, with a narrower palm, and fewer pro-
cesses than those of the Lapland rein-deer. So nume-
rous, however, are the varieties of form which the
horns of the rein-deer assume, that little stress can
be laid upon them as affording distinguishing cha-
racters.
It is not only the flesh of the Caribou that is sought
after by the Indians, its skin is of great value.
Dr. jilichardson informs us, that the skin of the
Caribou dressed with the hair on it is so impervious
to cold, that if clothed in a suit of this material, and
wrapped in a mantle of the same, a person may
bivouac all night in the snow with safety during the
intensity of the Arctic winter. So closely indeed are
the hairs set, that it is impossible, by separating
them, to discern the skin from which they arise. To
the tribes of the polar circle clothing of such mate-
rial is inestimable.
The flesh, when in high condition, has several
inches of fat on the haunches, and is equal to the
best fallow-deer venison. The tongue is highly
esteemed. A preparation called Pemmican is made
by pouring one-third of melted (at over the pounded
meat, and incorporating them well together. The
Esquimaux and Greenlanders consider the paunch
with its contents of lichen a great delicacy ; and in
Boothia, as Captain James Ross affirms, these con-
tents form the only vegetable food which the natives
ever taste.
3. Dama. — Antlers merging into broad digitated
palmations.
597, 598, 599.— The Fallow-Deer.
This well-known ornament of our parks is the Hydd
(Buck), Hyddes (Doel, Elain (Fawn), of the ancient
British; Le Daim (Buck), La Daime (Due), Faon
(Fawn), of the French; Daino (Buck), Damma
(Doe), Cerbietto, Ct-rbietta (Fawn), of the Italians ;
Gama, Corza (Buck), Venadito (Fawn), of the
Spanish ; Corza (Buck), Veado (Fawn), of the Por-
tuguese ; Damhirsh of the Germans ; Dot', Dof
Iljort, of the Swedes ; Daae, Dijr, of the Danes ;
Dama vulgaris of Gesner : Cervus palmatus of
Klein ; Cervus platyceros of Ray ; and Cervus
Dama of Linnoeus.
Desmarest, who regards the Fallow-deer as the
Platyceros of Pliny, and the 'EKaps iijMi{a.{, of
Oppian (as did also Pennant), observes that it is less
extensively spread in Europe than the sta:;: it does
not exist in Russia, but it would seem that it in-
habits Lithuania, Moldavia, and Greece, the north
of Persia and China, and also Abyssinia; it is abun-
dant in England, but of rarer occurrence in France
and Germany.
Cuvier, who remarks that the fallow-deer has
become common in all the countries of Europe,
adds, " but it appears to be originally a native of
Barbary." And he subjoins in a note, that " since
the publication of his last edition of the ' Ossemens
Fossiles,' he has received a wild fallow-deer killed in
the woods to the south of Tunis." We have our-
selves examined horns of the fallow-deer brought ;;
from the same territory. In Spain, according to I
Pennant, the breed is very large ; and he goes on to
state that, " in every country excepting our own,
these deer are in a state of nature, uncontined by
man, but they are, and have been for some time, con-
fined in parks on the Continent, as they are in
England." We may observe that in England, at
one period, before parks were enclosed and (as is
necessary in our day) the herds were restricted with-
in due bounds, the fallow-deer wandered in freedom,
like the stag or roe; they tenanted the great forest
which in the time of Henry II. stretched northwards
from London, and which, as Fitz-Stephens says, was
the covert of stags, deer (damarum), boars, and wild
bulls. Pennant informs us that in the old Welsh
laws a fallow-deer was valued at the price of a cow,
or, as some say, a he-goat.
The fallow-deer is too well known to need describ-
ing in detail. Its venison is far superior to that of
the stag or roe, and its horns and skin are valuable.
Except during the pairing season, when the bucks
associate with the does, and during the winter,
when the troops mingle promiscuously together,
the males and females form separate herds.
The female goes eight months with young, and
produces one, sometimes two, at a birth, concealing
them among the tall fern or dense underwood of
the park ; they afterwards associate with the herds
of does.
The buck acquires a different name, in the lan-
guage of " venerie," every year to the sixth. 'The
first year he is a/aim— the second, when the simple
horns appear, a pricket — the third, a «orre/— the
fourth, a soare — the fifth a buck of the Jirst head
the sixth, a buck complete. In Shakspere's play
of ' Loves Labour's Lost,' the " extemporal epitaph
on the death of the deer," in which Holofernes
" something affects the letter," and in which three
of the above terms are employed, is familiar to all.
During the pairing season, which takes place at the
end of summer or in autumn, the males utter a
deep tremulous cry, and engage with each other in
obstinate battles, which are continued day after
day, till the mastery is completely established. We
do not however believe that at this season they
are dangerous to persons approaching them ; the
stag has been known to make a furious attack, but
we never heard of similar instances with respect to
the fallow-deer.
The fallow-deer may be easily rende.'ed tame and
familiar, as \ve ourselves have often seen. It is
said, when thus tamed and brought up in the
stable-yard, to delight in the company of the horee ;
and in proof thereof, it may be observed, that at
Newmarket (1828) there was a deer which was ac-
customed regularly to exercise with the racehorses,
and the creature delighted to gallop round the
course with them in their morning training. Fig.
598 represents the morning gallop of the associated
deer and horses.
The fossil elk of Ireland (Cervus megaceros;
C. giganteus, Goldf.). To the Platycerine or Dama
group appears to belong that noble species com-
monly called the fossil elk of Ireland, from its abun-
dance in that country, where its remains occur in
bogs and marl-pits, and that so abundantly, that
they have ceased to be regarded as objects of cu-
riosity. The huge antlers, indeed, have been used
as gates, as stop-gaps in the fields, and for similar
purposes. Though most frequent in Ireland, the
bones of this species are also found in similar de-
posits in the Isle of Man, as well as in England ;
and have been dug up in France, Germany, and
Italy, where, according to Cuvier they occur in the
same strata with bones of elephants. Ireland was
perhaps the last stronghold of the species, which
appears to have once thronged that island. It is
very seldom, however, that an entire skeleton has
been discovered, the remains consisting for the
most part of skulls, with the horns attached, and
various separate bones disposed without any order.
They generally occur in a deposit of she'll-marl,
covered by a layer of peat, and resting on clay. In
this situation, one of the few entire skeletons dis-
covered is stated to have occurred. " Most of the
bones," says Archdeacon Maunsell, " and heads,
eight in number, were found in the uiarl ; many of
them, however, appeared to rest on the clay, and
to be merely covered with the marl." It is worthy
of remark, that the fossil remains of no other ani-
mals are mingled with them. Of the skeleton to
which we have alluded, and which graces the mu-
seum of the Royal Dublin Society, Mr. Ilart drew
up a Memoir. "This mag.iilicent skeleton," he
observes, " is perfect in every single bone of the
framework which contributes "to Ibrni a part of its
general outline ; the spine, the chest, the pelvis,
and the extremities are all complete in this respect ;
and when surmounted by the nead and beautifully
expanded antlers, which extend out to a distance of
nearly six feet on either side, forms a splendid dis-
play of the reliques of the former grandeur of the
animal kingdom, and carries back the imagination
to a period when whole herds of this noble anima'.
Deer. 1
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
135
wandered at large over the face of the countiy."
The following are a few points of its admeasure-
ment : —
ft. in.
Length of the head . 1 fff
Breaiith between the orliits 0 lOi
Distance between the tins of the horns, meajured ) , , , „
by the skull /ll '"
Ditto, in a straight line across 9 2
Length of each horn ,59
Greatest breadth ol'palm 2 9
Circumference of the beam at the root of the> , „,
brow-antler | * *^f
Length of spine 10 ]0
Height to t!ie top of the back 6 6
Ditto, to the highest point of the tip of the horn 10 4
None of the deer tribe of the present day, ex-
cepting the Scandinavian Elk, can at all be com-
pared for magnitude to this fossil species ; and,
until Cuvier pointed out the differences, the antlers
were generally regarded as identical with those of
that animal or of the moose of Norih America.
Independently of size, however, they differ in many
essential points: for example, in the moose-deer
the horn has two palms, a lesser one growing for-
ward from the front of the beam where the prin-
cipal palm begins to expand : the palm of the
moose-deer's horn is directed backwards, and is
broadest next the beam. (Fig. 607.) In the fossil-
animal the palm increases in breadth as it pro-
ceeds, which it does in a lateral direction ; nor are
there fewer differential characters in the skull and
general skeleton.
Of the habits of the Cervus megaceros we can
only form a conjecture. The size and lateral di-
rection of its spreading antlers must have prevented
its inhabiting the dense forest — it must have dwelt
on the heath-clad hills: there, armed with the
most powerful weapons of self-defence, it ranged
secure from the assault of any single aggressor,
capable of dashing down the wolf or hysena with
a blow. Did man exist coeval with this animal in
its native land ? Most probably— yes. A head of
the fossil elk, together with several urns and stone
hatchets, was discovered in Germany in the same
drain. " In the ' Archaeologia Britanica ' is a letter
of the Countess of Moira, giving an account of a
human body in gravel under eleven feet of peat,
soaked in the bog-water : it was in good preserva-
tion, and completely clothed in antique garments
of hair," conjectured to be that of the fossil elk.
But what is still more conclusive, there exists a rib
in the Royal Dublin Society, evidently bearing
token of having been wounded by some sharp in-
strument, which remained long fixed in the wound,
but had not penetrated so deep as to destroy the
creature's life : it was such a wound as the head of
an arrow would produce.
Of the causes which involved the fossil elk in
destruction— whether one general catastrophe uni-
versally affected the whole race wherever existing
— whether local causes, operating at different epochs,
have successively extinguished the species, which
might have lingered the longest in Ireland— or
whether its extermination has been effected by the
hand of man, whose agency upon the animal crea-
tion IS everywhere apparent, no decided opinion
can yet be given. We know it existed, and that is
all : Its history and its fate are buried beneath the
shadow of years gone by.
Fig. 600 represents a perfect skeleton of this ex-
tinct species; Fig. 601. a figure of the skull and
horns- ihe brow antler on the right horn is unde-
veloped ; Fig 602, a direct front view of the skull :
Jig. 603, a palatal view of the skull ; Fig. 604, pro-
file of the skull ; Fig. 605, a horn somewhat dif-
ferently shaped to the others; Fig. 606, horns of
the moose, given by way of comparison.
4 Elaphiis, or Stag group.— The common stag
of Europe, with its allied species the Barbary stag
and the Persian stag, the Wapiti of America, and
among others the Cervus Elaphoides, Hodgson, and
Cervus Wallichii, Cuvier, both natives of Nepal
may be adduced as examples of this section. The'
characters consist in the form of the horns, which
have three antlers produced from the beam, viz
the brow-antler, the bez-antler, and the antler-
royal, besides the snags, or crown {surroyal), in
vvhich the beam terminates; in the nakedness of
the muzzle, and in the possession of large suborbital
sinuses. The males have canine teeth, and in old
animals the brow-antler is often double. A fine
specimen of the horns of the wapiti in the museum
ol the Zool. Soc. exhibits this luxuriance of growth.
(Fig. 607.)
609, 600a. 610.— The Common Stag, or Red Deer
(Cenms Elnphm). Carw (Stag), Ewig (Hind), Elain
Ooung or Calf), of the ancient British; Le Cerf
^ (?'\?)' '''* "^x^he (Hind), Faon (Young or Calf), of
m, the \ rench ; Cervio, Cervia, of the Italians ; Ciervo,
m^ I lerva, of the Spanish ; Cervo, Cerva, of the Portu-
■ ^^n >.^i■"^ u''^''''' ^•^'''?)' H'"'' (Hind), Hindc
m Kalb (Calf,,of the Germans ; Hart (Stag), and Hir.de,
of the Dutch ; Hjort, Kronhjort (Stag), and Hind, of
the Swedes ; Kronhjort, Hind, Kid or Hind Kalv,
of the Danes.
The red-deer is a native of our island and of the
temperate portions of Europe, and considerably
exceeds the fallow-deer in size, standing about four
feet in height at the shoulders. The hi~nd or female
is smaller ; the young is spotted with white on the
back and sides. During the pairing season, which
commences in August, the stags fight desperately
with each other, and are even dangerous to persons
venturing near their haunts. Formerly the stag
was very abundant in the wild hills and in the ex-
tensive forests of our island, but the disforesting of
vast woodland tracts and the extension of agricul-
ture have limited the range of this noble animal to
the larger parks and chaces of our country, to the
Cheviot Hills, and to the heath-covered mountains
of Scotland. Few or none are to be seen in the
New Forest, nor in Woolmer Forest, in Hamp-
shire, where they were once numerous ; nor do any
now remain in Epping Forest. In the central part
of the Grampians there are large herds of red-deer:
they frequent the southern part of the bleak and,
generally speaking, naked ridge of Minigny, which
lies between the Glen of Athol on the south and
Badenoch on the north ; and between the lofty
summits of Ben-yglac on the east, and the pass of
Dalnavardoch on the west. The greater part of
this ridge is the property of the Duke of Athol,
although m.any deer are found on the lands of the
Duke of Gordon, and others towards the east.
The deer are seldom on the summits ; but gene-
rally in the glens of the Tilt and Bruar. These
deer are often seen in herds of upwards of a thou-
sand ; and when, in a track where there is no human
abode for twenty or thirty miles, a long line of
bucks appear on a height with their branching
horns relieved upon a clear mountain sky, the sight
is very imposing.
The forest of Athol, consisting of a hundred thou-
sand acres, is devoted to red-deer; they exist in Mar
Forest and Glenartney, and in the west districts of
Ross and Sutherland. The chace of the red-deer
has ever been, from its excitement, a favourite diver-
sion—and formerly was conducted in a style of great
magnificence, vast herds being driven " with hound
and horn " to where the hunters were stationed with
guns (formerly bows and arrows), and who dealt
havoc among their numbers. The deer moved for-
wards in close array, guided by a leader, and often
in despair broke through the circle of their foes, and
made their escape. We may imagine the danger
resulting from the rush of perhaps a thousand deer
determined to break through the line of their as-
sailants.
The spirited description of a similar scene in Sir
W. Scotfs novel of 'Waverley ' is familiar to all. This
mode of driving the deer is now never practised, at
least on the great scale. The present plan, that of
deer-stalking, is to proceed cautiously within due
distance of the herd, and, being concealed, to bring
them down with the rifie : when wounded and
brought to bay, the stag often rushes on his assailant,
whose life is in imminent danger. The red-deer is
too well known to require a detailed description.
He svyims vigorously, and will cross lakes, and pass
from islet to islet at considerable distances apart.
611. — The Wapiti.
(Cervus Wapiti, MitcheW). C.strongyloceros, Schre-
ber ; C. Canadensis, Briss. ; American Elk, Bewick ;
Waskeesews of Hutchins ; Wawaskeesho, Awaskees,
and Moostosh of the Cree Indians. The Wapiti
has been confounded with the Elk, this name being
given to it in Lewis and Clark's Voyages. It is
the Red-deer of the Hudson's Bay traders.
This American representative of our European
stag differs from the latter, in being much larger
and more powerful, and also of a darker colour; his
form is more heavy, and the limbs more robust ;
the neck is of vast thickness and strength.
The wapiti does not extend its range higher north
than the fifty-seventh parallel of latitude, nor is it
found to the eastward of a line drawn from the north
end of Lake Winepeg in long 103°, and from thence
till it strikes the Elk River in the hundred and ele-
venth degree. It is common among the clumps of
wood that skirt the plains of the Saskatchewan, where
it lives in small herds of six or seven individuals.
They feed, says Dr. Richardson, on grass, on the
young shoots of willows and poplars, and are very
Ibnd of the hips of the Rosa blanda, which forms
much of the underwood of the districts which they
frequent. Their voice is a shrill whistling, quivering
noise, nothing resembling the "bell" of our stag.
Hearne considers the wapiti as more stupid than
any other species of the deer tribe.
The horns of this species (Fig. 607) attain to a vast
size and weight (53 or 54 lbs. the pair), and are most
foimidiible weapons; nor is the male thus armed
to be approached without caution ; his temper being
vicious and irascible, and his strength prodigious.
A few years since, one of the male wapitis in the
gardens of the Zoological Society, London, in a fit
of rage drove his biow-antlers into the body of a fe-
male of the same species, lifted her up, and threw
her down dead.
The male wapiti stand upwards of four feet »nd
a half at the shoulders. The general colour is yel-
lowish brown, a black mark extending from the
angle of the mouth along the lower jaw ; the tail is
short and encircled (as in the red-deer and others of
this section) by a pale yellowish haunch-mark.
5. RusA. — This group consists of deer peculiar
to India, several species being large and formi-
dable. The horns are rugged and cylindrical, with
a large sharp brow-antler, but no bez-antler. the
beam bifurcating at the top into a sharp anterior
and posterior snag: the muzzle is broad and naked,
the suborbital sinuses are deep and large, and the
males possess canine teeth ; a mane of long coarse
hairs runs down the neck. Of six or seven species
belonging to this section, we may notice the
Sambur.
612. — The Sambur
(Cervus Hippelaplms). Several specimens of this
deer are in the gardens of the Zoological Society,
London; and the males when armed with their
antlers are noted for their vicious temper. In
size the male sambur exceeds our common slag,
but is inferior to the huge and heavy wapiti : and if
less powerful, is more active and alert. The hair
is close, harsh, and of a dusky or greyish brown : a
band of black surrounds the muzzle, but the edges
of the upper tip and the tip of the under are white ;
the hairs of the throat are long and bristly, forming
a full fringe ; a mane of similar hair runs along the
back of the neck : the crupper-mark round the tail
IS very circumscribed, and yellowish. The sambur
IS found in the Ghauts of Dukhun, in Kandesh, and
the lower hills of Nepal. It occurs also in other
districts of India. In common with the rest of the
Rusa tribe it is fond of the water, and resides in
wooded situations.
Another species of this section is the the Cervus
Ari-stotehs, Cuvier. a native of Bengal and the low
hills of Nepal. It is termed elk by the British
sjiortsman. and is said to be extremely powerful
and vicious. Mr. Hodgson notices a black deer in
the Nepal hills belonging to the Rusa tribe, but
undescribed. (' Zool. Proceeds.' 1834, p. 99.)
Of the other species to be referred to this group,
and described by various authors, we may mention
the Cervus equinus, Cuvier, found in Sumatra and
the lower hills of Nepal ; the C. unicolor, Smith,
a native of the dense forests of Ceylon ; the C.
Peionii, Cuvier, and the C. Maiiannus, Quoy and
Gaimard— the former a native of Timor, the latter of
the Marianne Islands, or Ladrones.
Mr. Hodgson observes that a new species of deer,
to which he has given the name of C. Bahrainja,
serves, with C. Wallichii, to connect the Elaphine
and Rusan groups. Fig. 613 represents the skull of
the sambur-deer.
6. Axis.— The characters of this section differ
but little from those of Rusa; the horns have a
brow-antler, and bifurcate at the top; the subor-
tiital sinuses are moderate, and the males are des-
titute of canines. It is, however, in size, contour,
and disposition that the greatest contrast exists be-
tween the Axine and Rusan groups. In the Axine
group the limbs are delicate, the general form is
more graceful than robust, and none in size much
exceed our fallow-deer, to which the common axis
especially (excepting as respects the antlers) bears
a near resemblance ; the females, indeed, of both
species being, on a superficial view, scarcely dis-
tinguishable. The hair is short, smooth, and close ;
the expression of the physiognomy is gentle, yet
animated, and agrees with the disposition. In cap-
tivity these deer are quiet and inoffensive.
614. — The Axis Deer
{Cervus Axis. Erxl.). The spotted axis is, perhaps,
the best known of all the Indian deer ; it thrives
well not only in our menageries, but even in paiks.
and bleeds in our climate. It is very abundant on
the banks of the Ganges and in Bengal, as well as
in the larger islands of the Indian Archipelago,
where it lives in herds, the luxuriant veiretation of
the jungles (its favourite localities) affording abund-
ance of food. The general colour of this species is
fawn-yellow, a black stripe running down the spine
of the back ; the sides are beautifully and regu-
larly spotted with white ; a row forming an almost
continuous line passes along each side of the belly.
The hog-deer (C. Porcinus) is another species
belonging to this section : it is lower on the Hmbs
and stouter in the body than the spotted axis : its
colour is yellowish grey, spotted slightly on the
back and flanks.
A new species from the Ganges is described by
Mr. Ogilby in the 'Zool. Proceeds.' 1831, p. 136,
under the title of C. Nudipalpebra. A specimen
exists in the museum of the Zoological Society.
408.— Bed Oe«f;
616. — Hoebuck.
609.— The Red Deer, or SUg, and the Roebuck.
'6U Sambur-Deer.
019.— Muntjuk.
617* — Guazn*bln.
626.— Gronp of Ariel GaieUei.
623 — Ariel Gazelle.
«S1.— Aniin«l« tram E|t;ptian Snilptirei.
622.— Animals from Kgyptian Sculptures.
«27, — Tame Gazelle.
r^.^^r^erf
62<.— Ariel Otielle.
[THE MUSEUM OP ANIMATED NATURE.]
eSO,— <3ueU« caught In lasso (Egyptian).
137
138
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Deer.
7. Caprkolui.— The Roes. — The roes or roe-
buckg are dUtingtiUhed by the folIowiiiEr charac-
ters :— The horns are small, cylindrical, and nijfged ;
and when fully developed are divided above into
three snairs. of which the largest is seated ante-
riorly. The muzzle is naked, and there are neither
canines nor suborbital sinuses. The tail is ex-
tremely short, the body compact, the limbs slender
but vigorous.
603 b. 615.— The Common Roebuck
(Certta Capreoliu). This species is the Caprea,
Capreolus Dorcas, of Gesner; Capreolus, of Ray
ana of Sibbald ; Cervus Capreolus, of Linneeus ;
Cervus minimus, of Klein; Jwrch (male), lyrcheli
(lemale), of the antient British; Le Chevreuil. of
the French; Capriolo, of the Italians; Zurlito, Ca-
bronzillo monies, of the Spanish ; Cabra monies, of
the Portuguese ; Rehbock (male), Rehgees, of the
Germans ; Radiur, Rabock, of the Swedes ; Raaedijr,
Raaebuk, of the Danes.
The roebuck was formerly common throughout
the whole of our island, but is now almost exclu-
sively confined to the wooded hills of Scotland
north of the Forth. South of that river it is very
rare, one or two wild parks only possessing a few ;
but in the rugged woods of Westmoreland and
Cumberland it is tolerably abundant. It is widely
spread throughout the temperate latitudes of con-
tinental Europe, wherever extensive forests and
wild uncultivated districts covered with brushwood
afford it an asylum.
The roebuck is the least, and one of the most
active and beautiful, of our European deer ; wild,
shy, and cautious, it does not herd in troops, but
lives singly, or in small companies consisting of the
male, female, and young; the latter being gene-
rally two, sometimes three, in number. These re-
main for eight or nine months with their parents,
which continue attached for life. The roe is more
cunning than the stag, and when hunted will en-
deavour, by various subtle artifices, to elude its
pursuers. It will wind and double on its track,
then take bounds of surprising extent, and lie close
amongst the herbage of its covert till the dogs,
having lost the scent, pass off to a distance. Tlie
flesh of this animal is not in high estimation.
The roe stands about two feet three inches in
height at the shoulder. In the winter the hair on
the body is long, the lower part of each hair is
ash-coloured ; there is a narrow bar of black near
the end, and the tip is yellow. On the face the
hair is black, tipped with yellow. The ears are
long, of a pale yellow on the inside, and covered
with long hair. In summer the coat is short and
smooth, and of a bright reddish colour. The chest,
belly, legs, and inside of the thighs, are yellowish
white ; the rump is pure white ; and the tail very
short. On the outside of the hind-leg, below the
joint, is a tuft of long hair.
A specimen of the roe of Tartary (C. Pygargus,
Pallas), the tailless roe of Pennant, once fell under
our notice. In size it equals the fallow-deer; it
inhabits the mountain districts of Hyrcania and
other parts of Northern Siberia, and also the snowy
range of Central Asia.
8. Mazama, or American fallow.— The elegant
deer composing this section are all confined to the
American continent. The horns are rough, with a
cylindrical stem, and slightly compressed branches,
which have a tendency to lorm arches or segments
of a circle. Of these an anterior branch, projects
somewhat forwards ; the stem sweeps outwards,
curving inwards and forwards at its extremity, which
divides into two or three branches. There are no ca-
nines. The suborbital sinuses are small, and appear
like a fold of the skin. The ears are long and open ;
the tail is long, and inclining to be bushy ; the muzzle
is naked. The species belonging to this section
are numerous. The Virginian deer is the best
known. This beautiful species is spread very ex-
tensively, ranging from Canada to Cayenne : it
tenants the woods in small herds, and its chace is
everywhere followed with ardour, so that in a few
years the rifle will exterminate it in many districts
where it is still common. The three modes of
"Still-hunting," " Fire light-hunting,' and " Driv-
ing " are amusingly described by Audubon in the
first vol. of his ' Ornitholoeical Biography.'
In the museum of the Zool. Soc. Lond. there is
a fine specimen of the black-tailed deer (Cervus
macrotis. Say), which inhabits the plains of the
Missouri, Saskatchewan, and Columbia; it is nu-
merous in the Quamash Flats which border the
Kooskookee river. It is remarkable for the size
of its ears, and the length and fulness of the
tail, which is white with a tinge of brown, and
largely tipped with black. The general colour is
brownish grey. It exceeds the Virginian deer,
its height at the shoulders being two feet six
inches.
The Cervus leucurus is another allied species,
which, from its size, form, and habits, has obtained
the name of Roebuck from the Scottish High-
landei^ employed by the Hudson's Bay Company,
and that of Chevreuil from the French Canadians.
It is common in the districts adjoining the river
Columbia, and especially the fertile prairies of the
Cowalidske and Multnomah rivers. The young
are spotted until the middle of the first winter,
when they assume the uniform colour of the adults.
Azara describes two species belonging to this
section, under the terms Gouazoupoucou (Cervus
paludosus, Desm.) and Gouazouti (C. campestris,
F. Cuv.), both natives of Paraguay.
The Gouazouti (or Guazuti, Cervus campestris)
inhabits the open Pampas, where it is more than
a match for a horse in speed. It stands about two
feet six inches in height at the shoulder. The
hair is rough, close, and of a reddish bay, the
space round the eyes, and the under parts of the
head and body being white; the hairs of the back
are of a leaden grey colour at the base, the tips
only being red. The fawns are spotted with while.
A most powerful and disgusting odour of garlic pro-
ceeds from the males, especially when their horns
are in perfection : this odour is not lost in the pre-
served skin, as we can personally testify. " Fre-
quently," says Mr. Darwin, " when passing at the
distance of half a mile to the leeward of a herd, I
have perceived the whole air tainted with the
effluvium." "This deer," says the same talented
author, " is exceedingly abundant throughout the
countries bordering on the Plata. It is found in
northern Patagonia as far south as the Rio Negro
(lat. 41°), but farther southward none were seen by
the ofiicers employed in surveying the coast. It
appears to prefer a hilly country. I saw many
small herds, containing from five to seven animals
each, near the Sierra Ventana, and among the hills
north of Maldonado. If a person crawling close
along the ground advances towards a herd, the
deer, frequently out of curiosity, approach to re-
connoitre him. I have by this means killed from
one spot three out of the same herd. Though so
tame and inquisitive, yet when approached on
horseback they are exceedingly wary. In this
country nobody goes on foot, and the deer knows
man as its enemy only when he is mounted and
armed with the bolas. At Bahia Blanca, a recent
establishment in northern Patagonia, I was sur-
prised to find how little the deer cared for the noise
of a gun: one day I fired ten times from within
eighty yards at one animal, and it was much more
startled at the ball cutting up the ground than
at the report of my rifle. My powder being ex-
hausted, I was obliged (to my shame as a sports-
man be it spoken) to get up and halloo till the deer
ran away."
9. SuBULC— The Guazus, or Brockets, as they are
termed, are distinguished by the simplicity of their
horns, which consist of a single slender stem with-
out snags; the suborbital sinuses are small; the
nose is pointed, and the naked muzzle small, ex-
tending at the side of the nostiils into a glandular
spot. The species of this section are small, and
delicately formed ; they inhabit the swampy woods
of South America, in small families consisting of
eight or ten females, in company with a single
male ; from which circumstance arose the mistaken
idea that this part of the globe possessed deer en-
tirely destitute of horns, while their simple form in
the few males seen (for the females are far more
numerous) led to the supposition that these were
young animals with their first or brocket horns.
Hence the term Brocket, adopted as the descriptive
appellation of the group. In the museum of the
Zool. Society is a specimen of the female of a deer
which most probably belongs to the present sec-
tion. It is described in the ' Proceeds.' for 1831,
p. 27, as the Cervus humilis, Benn. : — it is about
a foot and a half in height at the shoulders, and of
a rufous colour, the fore-parts having a blackish
tinge. The body is stout; the limbs short; the
face broad. Mr. Bennett, by whom this species
was characterized, " was informed by Captain P. P.
King, R.N., that a second skin of the same species
had been brought to England by him; that the
young was spotted with yellow, and had a yellow
stripe on each side of the back ; and that the ani-
mal was plentiful at Concepcion, and found even as
far south as the archipelago of Chiloc, living, he be-
lieved, in small herds." Until the horns of the male
be known, this species stands only provisionfilly
where we have placed it.
The other known species of this section are the
Guazu-pita (Cervus Rufus, F. Cuv.), the Guazu-
bira (Cervus nemorivagus, F. Cuv.), and the Apara
Brocket (Cervus simplicicornis, H. Smith).
CIC. — The Guaza-pita
(Cervus rvfus). The Guazu-pita is somewhat
larger than a roebuck : its general colour is rufous
with a dusky tint on the face and legs ; the lips
and chin being white. Azara states that the .pro-
portion of males to females in this species is one
♦o ten ; and that the fawns are spotted with white.
It frequents dense forests, in which it remains
concealed during the day, but at night or during
the dusk of the evening it ventures into the open
lands bordering the woods, and often invades the
cultivated fields or gardens of the natives, for the
sake of obtaining French-beans, which are a fa-
vourite food. Although not destitute of activity, it
is soon exhausted, and easily taken either by dugs,
•r by means of the lasso.
617. — The Guazu-bira
(Cervus nemorivagus) is smaller and more deli-
cately formed than the preceding species, which,
however, it resembles in general habits and man-
ners, inhabiting also the low moist woods of South
America. The colour of this little deer is dusky
grey, passing into white on the under parts.
"The Cervus simplicicornis is a native of Brazil :
its colour is rich fulvous, with a dusky ring round
the orbits and a spot of the same tint at the angle
of the mouth.
10. Styloceros, or the Muntjaks. — The species
of this section arc natives of India and the Indiaii
Islands, and there is something so peculiar in their
physiognomy and appearance, that a glance serves
to discriminate between them and all others of the
deer tribe. Setting aside the horns, with which
the males only are furnished, they remind one
strongly of the musk-deer, or Chevrotains, though
of larger stature. The body, as in the musk-deer, is
rounded ; the head triangular, and tapering to a fine
muzzle; their limbs slender and delicately turned,
and their tongue long and flexible. The males,
moreover, have long canines in the upper jaw,
which protrude beyond the lips. In manners they
are timid and gentle, but are easily domesticated,
and soon become familiar.
One remarkable character in the Muntjaks con-
sists in the form of the horns, and the manner in
which they rise from the forehead, supported on
long slender peduncles covered with skin, and
turned oblique^ outwards, with a tuft of hair along
their anterior aspect, becoming very full round the
burr of the ho'Ti ; the hair on the back part and
sides of these peduncles is close. These supports
for the small horns do not rise abruptly, but are
continued from two prominent ridges beginning be-
low the angle of each eye, running obliquely up-
wards, diverging as they proceed, and constituting
an abrupt outline to the flat triangular forehead.
(See Fig. 618, the Skull of the Muntjak.) These
ridges are covered with the skin of the forehead,
which for the space of nearly an inch on the inner
side of each ridge, parallel to the eyes, forms a
narrow naked fold, or kind of sinus, capable of being
opened or closed at pleasure, and evidently of a
pandular nature. When closed these sinuses are
hidden by the hair. The horns scarcely, if at all,
exceed the peduncles in length ; they are pointed,
converge at their points, and have a small rudimen-
tary snag at their base anteriorly. The suborbital
sinuses are large and deep, the muzzle is small and
naked, the eyes are large and animated, the ears
large and open. The first horns obtained are sim-
ple, and it is said that there is only one renewal, the
second pair being permanent (a doubtful circum-
stance). As the females want horns, the peduncles
and their continuation as ridges down the forehead
are absent, but a lull of hair indicates their situa-
tion.
The species composing the present section arc but
imperfectly known. Colonel H. Smith enumerates
five, of which two at least are doubtful. The most
familiar example of the group is the Muntjak of
Java and Sumatra, the Kidang of Horsfield.
619.— The Kidang, or Common Muntjak
{Cervus Muntjak). This most elegant and beautiful
animal equals a roebuck in size. According to Dr.
Horsfield, its favourite haunts in Java are lulls co-
vered withbrushwood, andelevated grounds adjacent
to wild forests, or shrubby districts between the latter
and the cultivated grounds. Its voice is so like the
barkingofadogastodeceiv^e the ears ot persons
not familiar to the sound. The food of this species
consists principally of the Saccharum spicatum, the
Phvllanthus emblica, and other mfdvaceous plants
abundant in the hilly districts. -The Muntjak is
eaeerly hunted, both for the sake of its tiesh, which is
excellent and for the sport which the chase affords.
Its flight is very rapid, but it generally makes a cir-
cle returning to the spot whence it started. W hen
broiK-ht to bay, the male defends itself against the
doo^^vith great courage, using its horns and long
sharp tusks with severe effect. It is often taken m
snares, and sometimes by riding it down on hoi-se-
back, and striking it with a sword. This mode is
hiehlv dangerous, but is followed nevertheless with
the utmost enthusiasm, bv daring huntei-s, mounted
onihe naked back of horses trained to the chace,
which is conducted with frantic impetuosity.
Antelopes 1
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
133
The general colour of this species is bright red-
dish brown, the under parts being white.
Colonel Sykes observed a species of Muntjak in
the Ghauts ofDukhun, which he states to be never
seen on the plains. It is termed BaiUer by the
Mahrattas. Mr. Hodgson notices a species called
Katwa, proper to the central region of Nepal, but
occasionally occurring in the lower valleys of Ka-
char. A species from China is described by Mr.
Ogilby under the title of Cervus Reevesii.
HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS.
1. Antelopes. — The word antelope (antilope),
now so generally used, is of very uncertain origin.
It appears first to have been adopted as the desig-
nation of a species, but was subsequently given by
Pallas as the title of a genus. The first occurrence
of the word AvdoXoxti is in the ' Hexameron ' of Eusta-
thius (fourth century), as the name of an apparently
fabulous animal. Bochart supposes it to be derived
from the Coptic Panthalops, which signifies the
Unicorn ; but it may be derived from the Greek
AyOos, a flower, and nif, the eye, or oirrofioi, to see,
in allusion to the brightness and beauty of the full
beaming eyes which are so remarkable in most of
these animals, and which have often rendered the
gazelle the theme of the Persian and Arabian poets.
The name of the gazelle, dorcas, from SepKo, or
Sfp/co^ai, to see, was a common name for women
among the Greeks and Romans.
It is interesting to trace the acquaintance which
the ancients had with objects of natural history, as
demonstrated by their drawings or sculptured re-
presentations : nor is the examination of them un-
important ; they often supply us with a hint as to
the ancient geographical distribution of animals,
or as to facts connected with their history, and
prove that many hundred years past the species
existed with the same forms and characters as at
the present time. It is therefore not out of place
to draw our readers' attention to some figures in
outhne from the Egyptian sculptures. Fig. 620
represents a gazelle caught by the noose or lasso,
an in.strument used by the ancient Egyptians, and
by the modern Gauchos of South America. Fig.
621: a, Ibex; b, Antelope leucoryx ; c. Gazelle;
d, a species of Stag. Fig. 622 : a, Antelope ; b,
Goat ; c, Aoudad or Kebsch (Ovis Tra^elaphus,
Desm.), found in the mountains along the Nile, and
on the northern coast of Africa.
The section or family to which the title of An-
telope (Antilope) is ordinarily given, embraces, it
must be confessed, a somewhat ill-assorted assem-
blage, requiring to be distributed into several dis-
tinct genera. The fact is, that every hollow-homed
ruminant, which is neither one of the sheep, goats, nor
oxen, has been assigned to the antelopes, and hence
the diversities of form and habits which we see among
the members of this extensive group. Mr. Ogilby
('Zool. Proceeds.,' 1836, p. 132) makes the remark,
that " the genus Antelope has become a kind of
zoological refuge for the destitute, and forms an
incongruous assemblage of all the hollow-horned
ruminants which the mere' shape of the horns ex-
cluded from the genera Bos, Ovis, and Capra ; thus
it has come to contain nearly four times as many
species as all the rest of the hollow-horned rumi-
nants together. So diversified are its forms, and
so incongruous its materials, that it presents not a
single character which will either apply to all its
species, or suffice to differentiate it from conter-
minous genera."
In analyzing and re-arranging the antelopes,
Mr. Ogilby draws his characters from the horns,
the form of the upper lip, whether modified for
grazing or browsing, the existence of lachrymal
sinuses, inguinal sacs, and interdigital pores, and
the number of the teats in the female. With respect
to interdigital pores, he observes that their exist-
ence or non-existence is an important point, as their
use appeal's to be to lubricate the hoofs by a fluid
secretion : hence are they connected with the geo-
graphical distribution of the species, confining them
to the rich savannah or the moist forest, or enabling
them to roam over the arid mountain, the parched
karroo, and the burning desert. Among the ante-
lopes, then, there are, on the one hand, species
allied to the goats and sheep; on the other, to the
oxen ; and as widely differing in form and appear-
ance from the gazelle or the Indian antelope as does
the wild bull or the ibex.
But we must not forget, nor do we forget, that
our object is not to enter into the minutia; of scien-
tific disquisitions, fit only for the pages of works
devoted to the more abstruse departments of Zoology.
Were we to follow our feelings, we should expatiate
on this part of the subject more perhaps to our own
gratification than that of our reader: we shall there-
fore forbear ; and, allowing the family termed An-
telope to remain as it does, we shall merely divide
it for the sake of perspicuity into four subdivisions,
namely: — True Antelopes, Bush Antelopes, Capri-
foim Antelopes, and Boviform Antelopes.
The antelopes differ essentially from the deer in
the structure of the horns. In the deer the horns,
or more properly antlers, are deciduous ; but in
the antelopes, and the same observation applies to
the goat and ox, these organs consist of a horny
sheath, investing a conical support of bone; their
increase is gradual, and they are not yearly shed
and renewed. The bony central support, or core, is
a process from the frontal bone : in most antelopes
it is solid, or nearly so ; it commences small at first,
and assumes various directions in the various spe-
cies. One antelope has four horns. The horny
sheath consists of fibres analogous to those of whale-
bone, or rather hair, running longitudinally orspirally,
and agglutinated into one uniform mass. If this
sheath be stripped from its bony core, the latter
will be found covered by a highly vascular perios-
teum, from which the fibrSs in question are secreted.
They are formed in regular succession as the bone
grows, so that the horn which covered the whole
process or core in the youns: animal will in due time
be thrown to its summit. The outermost layer was
once in contact with the core, but was gradually
pushed outwards and upwards. In some groups of
antelopes both sexes are furnished with horns, in
others only the male : and it is difficult in many
cases to discriminate between the hornless females
of one of the antelope and of one of the deer tribe.
It is chiefly to the warmer latitudes that the ante-
lopes are confined, and Africa may be regarded as
their great nursery; many, however, are Asiatic;
the Saiga and the Chamois are natives of Europe ;
the Prongbuck and a closely-allied species (if they
can be called antelopes) are natives of America.
True Antelopes.
Gazella, Ogilby. Horns in both sexes, lachrymal
sinuses distinct and moveable. Interdigital pits
and inguinal pores large. Female with two teats.
Horns lyrate.
623, 624, 625, 626, 627, 628.— The Ariel G.\zelle
(Antilope Arabica). This beautiful species inhabits
Arabia and Syria, where it is seen in large herds,
bounding over the desert with amazing fleetness.
Its eyes are peculiarly large, dark, and lustrous, and
have supplied a simile to the Oriental poets and
orators; indeed, to say of a woman "she has the
eyes of a gazelle," is a most flattering commen-
dation. The Ariel antelope is an object of the
chace in Arabia, as it was among the antient
Egyptians, whose delineations of it are abundant.
Its'flesh is said to be excellent. So swift are these
animals, that the greyhound unaided cannot over-
take them : the falcon, therefore, is brought into
service. The huntsman advances as near as pos-
sible to the herd, the dogs are then slipped, and
the falcon thrown off; the individual which the dogs
have singled is attacked by the falcon, which is
trained to strike at the head and eyes, so as to con-
fuse the game, and check its speed, thereby enabling
the dogs to come up to it. It is a common practice
to shoot the gazelle. Burckhardt informs us that
on the eastern frontier of Syria are several places
allotted for the hunting of this animal, or rather for
its entrapment and destruction. An open space on
the plain, about one mile and a half square, is en-
closed on three sides by a wall of loose stones, too
high for the gazelle to leap over. Gaps are left in
different parts of the wall, and at each gap a deep
ditch is sunk on the outside. The inclosure is situ-
ated nearsomerivuletorspringto which the gazelles
resort in summer. When the sport is to begin,
many peasants assemble and watch till they see a
herd of gazelles advancing from a distance towards
the enclosure, into which they drive them. The
gazelles, frightened by the shouts of the people and
the discharge of the fire-arms, endeavour to leap
over the wall, but can only effect this at the gaps,
where they fall into the ditch outside and are easily
taken, sometimes by hundreds. The chief of the
herd always leaps first, and the others follow him
one by one. The gazelles thus captured are imme-
diately killed, and their flesh sold to the Arabs and
neighbouring Fellahs. Of the skin a kind of parch-
ment is made, and used to cover the small drum
with which the Syrians accompany some musical
instruments or the voice. When taken young, wild
and timid as the gazelle is, it is readily tamed, and
becomes familiar and quite at ease. Tame gazelles
are frequently seen at large in the courtyards of
houses m Syria, and their beauty, exquisite form,
and playfulness render them great favourites. The
Ariel gazelle is about one foot nine inches high at
the shoulder; its limbs are slender, but vigorous;
and all its actions are light and spirited. In full
flight it lays the horns back almost on the shoulders,
and seems to skim over the level plain, almost with-
out touching it.
The general colour above is dark fawn or yellow-
ish brown ; the under parts are white, divided from
the colour of the upper parts by a black or deep
brovrn band along the flanks ; the nose has a broad
mark of dark brown, and on each side of the face a
broad stripe of white passes from the horns over the
eyes to the nose, while a narrow stripe of black,
from the inner angle of the eye to the nose, separates
the white streak from the f^n-colour of the cheeks;
the knees are furnished with dark brushes of hair.
A closely allied species, the Ahu or Tseyran (A.
subgutturosa) is common in Persia and the country
round Lake Baikal. Whether it be truly a distinct
species or only a mere variety of the Ariel gazelle
remains to be decided. It is hunted in Pereia with
greyhounds and falcons, which mutually asstst each
other.
629. 630.— The Dorcas Gazelle
{A. Dorcas). This species differs from the Ariel
gazelle chiefly in being of a much lighter colour,
presenting, however, the same markings and ar-
rangement of tints. It is a native of Northern
Africa, and lives in large herds upon the borders of
the Tell, or cultivated country, and the Sahara, or
desert. When a troop of these gazelles are pursued,
they fly to some distance, then stop, turn round
and gaze at the hunter, and again take to flight.
If hard pressed they disperse in different directions,
but soon reunite ; and when surrounded and brought
to bay, they defend themselves with spirit and
obstinacy, uniting in a close circle, with the females
and fawns in the centre, and presenting their horns
at all points to their enemies. This gazelle is the
common prey of the lion and panther.
Another gazelle (perhaps a variety), called the
Kevel (A. Kevella, Pallas), resides in vast flocks
on the open stony plains of Senegal.
631. — The Blessbok
(Antilope Py/jarga). Southern Africa is the na--
five country of this fine antelope, which is also
called Bontebok, or Painted Goat, by the Dutch
colonists. It is superior in size to the stag of Eu-
rope, exceeding, when adult, three and a half feet
in height at the shoulder. The horns are sixteen
inches long, large, and regularly lyrated.
The blessbok was once very common within the
districts of the Cape Colony, where in some parts
it still exists, but not in such multitudes .as formerly,
when it was said to cover the plains in troops of
thousands. In the country beyond the colonial
borders it is tolerably abundant. The blessbok is
fleet and active ; and its markings are very orna-
mental. The colours of the head and body are most
singularly disposed ; the whole animal appears as
if it had been artificially painted with ditt'erent
shades, laid on in separate masses. The head and
neck are of a brilliant brownish bay, so deep as to
resemble the colour of arterial blood : this is par-
ticularly visible upon the cheeks and about the
root of the horns, from the central point between
which descends a narrow stripe of the purest white
as far as the orbits, immediately above which it
expands and covers the whole face and nose down
to the muzzle, forming a broad mark, or, as it is
called in horses, a blaze, and giving origin to the
name of blessbok, or blazebuck, by which this
species is known among the Cape colonists. The
back is of a brownish bay, thickly overlaid, or, as it
were, glazed or japanned with dull purplish white,
and there is a very broad purplish brown band on
the flanks passing from the fore-arm backwards,
and extending obliquely over the outer face of the
thighs. The breast, belly, and interior of the fore-
arms and thighs are white, and this colour also
shows itself on the posterior face of the hips and
thighs, and passes in a small crescent over the rear
of the croup, forming a white disc around the tail,
and giving origin to the specific name of Pygarga,
which has been rather arbitrarily bestowed upon
this animal, the real pygarga of the ancients being
certainly a different species, and an inhabitant of
Northern Africa. The tail is long and switched,
nearly naked at the root, and terminated by a tuft
of very long black hair. The knees are without
brushes. The young are at first of a brownish red
colour on the body, partially glazed, as in the
adults; but what is most remarkable of all is, that
the face, instead of being white as in the grown
animal, is of a very deep brownish black colour,
slightly mixed with scattered grey hairs.
It was from a young animal that our engraving
(Fig. 631) was taken.
632. — Scemmering's Antelope
(Antilope Sammcringii) . This light and graceful
antelope, which exceeds the Ariel gazelle in size,
is a native of Abyssinia, where it was discovered by
Ruppel during his journey through the northern
provinces of that country, and afterwards described
by Cretzchmar in the zoological portion of RUppel's
account of his travels.
It frequents hilly districts, but is not gregarious
like the common gazelle : it lives in pairs, and is
fleet and vigorous. Beyond these points we know
nothing of its history. The horns of this elegant
antelope are regularly lyrated, bending boldly out-
«!.).- M lion
629.- Dorcas Gaieile.
140
639.— Kleuibtjk*
637. — Madoqua.
635.— Indian Antelopo
""'^!^^
6-41.— Cliamoi*.
141
142
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Antelope*
wards towards the points, and then suddenly tum-
insT inwards towards one another, with a very
sharp and well defined curve ; they are annulated
M'ith fifteen or sixteen prominent and complete
rings, which reach from the base to the inward
curvature within about two inches and a quarter
of the points. The peneral colour is a beautiful
clear Isabel or yellowish dun, the hair being ex-
tremely short, and appearing almost as if it had
been clipped or shorn. It does not lie close and
smooth upon the hide, nor does it all follow the
same direction, as in the generality of animals, but is
disposed in innumerable small waves, pointing in dif-
ferent directions, as if it had been regularly shaded
and parted on each side, and appearing glossy or
glazed along their ridges with a shining dun shade,
more or less intense according to the light in which
it is observed. AH the under parts of the body are
abruptly of the most pure and brilliant white, and
a large disc of the same colour surrounds the tail
and passes over the rump and croup. The tail is
small and slender, nearly naked at the root, and
furnished at the extremity with a tuft of mixed
brown and grey hairs. The outsides of the legs are
very pale fawn colour, the insides white, and the
knee-brushes white and fawn mixed. The ears are
pretty long, and brown, with a narrow black border
surrounding their outer edge. The face is dark
brown in some specimens, and pure black in others,
curiously .mixed with wavy red on the forehead ; on
each side of this a broad white band passes from
the root of the horns over the eyes to the nose, and
there is an indication of a small black one from the
anterior angle of the eye to the corner of the mouth,
separating this white band from the cheeks and
sides of the lower jaw, which are uniform fawn
colour. The horns of the female have nearly the
same curvature as those of the male, and are fully as
long, but they are much more slender, and have not
such prominent annuli.
(A.
G33.— The M'horr
Mliorr, Bennett). The M'horr is a native of
Wednoon, twelve days' journey inland from Moga
dore, whence some years since two living speci-
mens were sent to the gardens of the Zool. Soc.
Lond. The species is described and figured by
Mr. Bennett in the 'Zool. Transactions.' Of its
habits we have no account. Its general colour is
deep fulvous or reddish brown, becoming paler on
the sides of the face and passing into white about
the eyes, nose, lips, and lower jaw ; an irregular
black mark between the eyes and the mouth. A
square mark midway on the front of the neck ; the
under parts, croup, back of the thighs, tail, and
inside the limbs are abruptly white ; the tail has a
fringe of black hairs at its termination ; the horns
are somewhat lyrate, and strongly annulated, and
after bending back, suddenly curve forwards, the
points being hooked. Height at the shoulder two
feet six inches,
634.— The Springbdck
(Anlilope Euchore). Among the true antelopes this
species is one of the most graceful and beautiful ;
and its movements are light and rapid. It is a
native of the wild karroos of South Africa, where it
lives in vast troops, which are irregularly migratory.
Its name springbuck (springbok) is given in allu-
sion to its singular habit of leaping perpendicu-
larly when alarmed or as it scours the plain, and
that to the height of several feet. Mr. Burchell
well describes the effect produced by large herds
of these interesting creatures spread "over an ex-
tensive plain, intermingled with troops of gnus and
quaggas. Two thousand springbucks seen at one
view must, indeed, have been a noble spectacle.
The plain, he says, " afforded no other object to fix
the attention, and even if it had presented many, I
should not readily have ceased admiring these ele-
gant animals, or have been diverted from watching
their manners. It was only occasionally that they
took those remarkable leaps which have been the
origin of their name ; but when grazing or moving
at leisure they walked and trotted like other ante-
lopes or the common deer. When pursued or
hastening their pace, they frequently took an ex-
traordinary bound, rising, with curved or elevated
backs, high into the air, generally to the height of
eight feet, and appearing as if about to take flight.
Some of the herds moved by us almost within
musket-shot, and I observed that in crossing the
beaten road the greater number cleared it by one
of those flying leaps." The most remarkable point
in the history of the springbuck relates to its
habits of migration. The karroos, or vastt wilds in
the interior of Southern Africa, where this animal
resides in almost incredible multitudes, are subject
to seasons of drought, in which the pools are dried
up, the pasturage burnt by excessive heat, and
every green leaf or blade withered. Driven by
necessity, all the animals hurry from this scene of
banenness ; and of these the springbucks are in
636.-
(^Antilope melampus). This magnificent antelope
is a native of South Africa, where it was discovered
by I.ichtenstein. It inhabits Catfaria and the country
of the Bachapins, never descending farther south
than the Koosges valley in one direction and the
Kamhanni mountains in the other. This species as-
sociates in families of six or eight individuals, al-
ways residing on the open plains: their swiftness is
astonishing, and they leap with great vigour and
much in the manner of the .springbuck. They are
I myriads. They literally inundate the fertile dis-
tricts, over which swarm after swarm passes like
wave after wave, destroying the hopes of the colo-
nists. The grazier drives his flocks and herds to a
distant pasturage, dispossessed of his lands till the
heavy rains set in ; the corn-lands are ruined for
the season, and the line of their march is one broad
track of desolation. It is not with impunity, how-
ever, that the springbucks make these forced in-
cursions. The gun of the colonists thins their num-
bers ; and lions, hyicnas, and jackals follow in their
train, and prey incessantly upon them. When the
rains begin to fall, the horde, thinned by man and
beast, begins to return to the interior, and in a few
days the whole have disappeared. These migratory
swarms are called by the Dutch colonist trek-bok-
ken. Mr. Pringle once passed through one of
them, near the Little Fish river; he could not pro-
fess to estimate their numbers : they whitened,
or rather speckled, the co<mtry as far as the eye
could reach ; there could not have been less in
view than twenty-five or thirty thousand. The
springbuck is .shot in great numbers by the Dutch
boors. This sport is usually pursued on horse-
back, and in the heat of the aay. The animal
is then lying in its habitual lair, and on being dis-
turbed by the sportsman, springs away with a suc-
cession of bounds, than which nothing can be more
beautiful or graceful. The Dutch boor is generally
an unerring shot ; but in case the antelope should
be only wounded, the buck-dog (a species of large
mongrel) is always at the heels of his master's horse,
and, at the report of his gun, darts forward and
secures the animal. It is then placed behind the
saddle, in the way shown in Fig. 634.
The general colour of the springbuck is light
cinnamon-red, a band of deep reddish brown passing
along the sides and edging the pure white of the
under surface. On the croup is a large patch of
long white hairs enclosed by a fold of skin on each
side, the edges of which approximate when the
animal is quiet, so as to reduce the white to a mere
line. In the act of leaping these folds are widely
opened, and the long white hairs spread beautifully
out, so as to cover the whole of the haunch, pro-
ducing a striking effect. When taken young the
springbuck is easily tamed, and becomes playful
and familial', displaying the confidence and even
petulance of the goat, and using its horns in butting,
either sportively or in earnest.
Anlilope, Ogilby. — Horns in the male only ; la-
chrymal sinuses mobile and distinct; interdigital
pores large ; inguinal pores large ; teats in the fe-
male, two ; horns annulated and spiral.
635. — The Indian Antelope
(Anlilope Cervicapra). The saisin, or common an-
telope of India, IS spread over almost every part of
that country, residing on the open plains in large
herds of females and young, under the guidance of
a single old male. They are extremely wary and
caulious, and when feeding or lying down to ru-
minate are guarded by sentinels (young bucks),
who give the alarm on the slightest appearance of
danger. Their fleetness and activity are such, that
greyhounds are useless in the chase. Captain Wil-
liamson assures us that he has seen a buck antelope
lead a herd of females over a net at least eleven
feet high, and that they frequently vault to the
height of twelve or thirteen feet, and pass over ten
or twelve yards at a single bound. The flesh of
this sjjecies is dry and unsavoury, but the animal ii
often hunted, for the sake of the sport, by means of
trained chetahs, as described in the history of the
latter. (See Felidae, p. 6.)
The Indian Antelope is about two feet and a half
in height at the shoulder, and is lightly formed, but
endowed with great vigour. The adult males are
of a blackish brown above, and white beneath, the
nose, lips, and a large circle round each eye being
likewise white ; the hair is short and close ; the
knees are furnished with tufts or biushes. The
horns have two or more spiral turns, and are strongly
annulated ; the Fakirs and Dervishes polish them
and forta them into offensive weapons by uniting
them at the base, so that they are pointed at each
end ; these they wear in their girdles, instead of
swords and daggers, which their vows and religious
character prevent them from using. The young
males, and also the females, are of a tawny brown,
with a streak of silvery grey along each side.
•The Pallah
very numerous on the elevated plains in the neigh-
bourhood of Lattakoo, where the natives choose
them for the sake of their flesh, which, though defi-
cient in fat, is much esteemed. The Pallah (as it is
called by the Bachapins) stands three feet high at
the shoulder. The general colour is deep rulous ;
the lips, eyebrows, interiorof the ears, all the under
parts, the inside of the limbs, and the region below
the tail are white ; a black cresccnlic mark on the
croup separates the white from the rufous colouir
on the back ; the outside of the heel and knee are
marked by black spots; the horns have an irregular
lyrate tendency, bending first forwards and very
much outwards, then with a large circular sweep
inwards, and finally pointing forward again, ap
preaching within three inches of one another at the
tips, after being nearly a foot distant in the middle ;
thev are about twenty inches long in adult animals'
and surrounded for two-thirds of their length with
irregular rings, often splitting into two, and forming
prominent knobs on the front of the horn, but fre-
quently obliterated, and always less strongly marked
on the sides, which are slightly compressed.
Madoqua, Ogilby.— Horns only in the male.
Lachrymal sinuses distinct, but small. Interdigital
pits distinct. Inguinal pores wanting. Teats in
the female four. Horns straight.
637. — The Madoqua Antelope
(Anlilope Salliana). This beautiful little antelope,
which scarcely equals a hare in magnitude, is a
native of Abyssinia, where it was first discovered by
Bruce about the sources of the Abawi, or eastern
branch of the Nile. Specimens are in the British
Museum and in that of the Zool. Soc. Of its
habits little is known : it is said to live in pairs in
mountainous districts, and Pearce informs us that
many of the Abyssinians object to eat its flesh, from
superstitious motives, because, as they assert, it is
often found in the society of monkeys and baboons.
The height of this species at the shoulder is about
fourteen inches ; the horns are sharp and slightly
bent outwards and forwards ; the face, forehead, and
legs, as well as the tuft of long hair between the
horns, are of a bright and deep red, as are likewise
the backs of the ears ; the neck, shoulders, flanks,
rump, and outsides of the thighs are of a clear grev
colour, like that of the American grey squirrels, eacii
hair being annulated with alternaterings of black and
white ; the back, from the shoulders to the rump, is
a deep reddish brown, and the breast, belly, interior
of the fore-arras and thighs, and hindersurface of the
hips, of the most pure unmixed white, forming alto-
gether a variety, clearness, and brilliancy of colour-
ing rarely met with among quadrupeds ; the tail is
very short, being in fact little more than a mere
stump ; the ears are round and nearly the length of
the horns; the hoofs small, well formed, and, like
the horns, of a deep black colour; the forehead is
perfectly flat, and the head is compressed suddenly
below the eyes, and tapere to a small and attenuated
snout ; the legs are long in proportion to the weight
of the body, and so small that they scarcely equal
the little finger in thickness.
Eleotragus. — Horns with a single carve, bending
forwards more or less decidedly towards the points,
or straight — none in the female. Suboibital sinusea
wanting. Inguinal pores large ; muzzle naked.
638. — The Reitbok, or Reedbuck
(Anlilope Elotragus). The interior of South Africa
is the abode of the Reitbok, where it is by no means
uncommon, living in pairs or small families, and fre-
quenting the reedy banksof mountain-streams which
are dried up during the heat of summer. Some-
times it is found along the borders of the rivers in
dense woodland solitudes : plants growing in humid
or niarehy situations are its iood.
The Reitbok is about two feet ten inches high at
the shoulder. The hair over the neck and body is
long and rough, and of a dull ashy grey, sometimes
tinged with red ; the under parts and inside of the
limbs are silvery grey. The tail is long and bushy.
Beneath the ears on each side of the head is a n.aked
oval space of a shining black colour. The horns
curve Ibrvvards very boldly, and are annnlated at
the base with prominent rings.
Bush Antelopes. — The animals so termed are
of a compact form and low in the limbs, which are
slender but vigorous. The hair is smooth and usu-
ally close ; the neck is short, and held almost hori-
zontally, and the back is arched. The horns are
straight and short, and situated high on the head, at
a considerable distance from the eyes ; in one sub-
genus they are possessed by females as well as
males. There is no suborbital sinus, but its absence
is compensated for by a long maxillary gland run- _
ning down each side of the face between the angle
of the eye and the muzzle, indicated by a naked
space on the skin, of a blade colour, and moistened
by a peculiar secretion. These animals live singly
or in pairs, frequenting jungles, dense reed-beds,
and the underwoods of forests, most preferring
Antelopes.J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
hills or mountain-districts of moderate elevation.
When pursued, they dive through the thicket, and
quickly disappear.
Tragulus, Ogilby.— Horns in both sexes ; maxillary
glands oblong ; interdigital pores wanting ; inguinal
pits wanting ; teats in the female four.
G39. — The Kleenbok
{Antilope perptisilla). This little antelope is a
native of South Africa, and lives singly or in pairs
among the bushes, in the covert of which it hides
itself so completely, that it is not often to be seen
even where it is abundant. It is very active, shy,
wary, and timid, and displays great address and
cunning in eluding pursuit. When domesticated it
becomes very familiar, will distinguish persons about
it, and answer to its name when called. This species
is the A. pygmaea of Desmarest, who confounds it
with the Guevi of Senegal : it is also the A. coerulea
of Col. H. Smith.
The height of the Kleenbok at the shoulder is
about a foot ; the head is long and pointed. The
general colour is dark slaty brown, passing in the
under pai-ts to ashy grey ; the forehead and nose
are brown bordered on each side by a line of sandy
red ; the legs are reddish brown ; the horns are small
and straight, not more than an inch and a half long
in the male ; nearly an inch in the female.
Capkiform Antelopes. — Head heavy; neck
short ; contour robust ; limbs strong ; hoofs adapted
for rocky or mountain situations ; horns small or
moderate ; hair coarse and deep, or harsh and wiry.
Rupicapra.— Horns common to both sexes, rising
immediately above the orbits, at first vertically, then
looking abruptly backwards, small and smooth, with
sharp points ; lips hairy and attenuated ; suborbital
sinuses wanting ; inguinal pores and post-auditory
sinuses ; teats of females two.
640. 641, 642.— The Chamois
'^Antilope Rupicapra). This celebrated animal is
found in all the alpine chains of Europe and Western
Asia, in the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Carpathian and
Grecian mountains, and the ranges of Caucasus and
Taurus. Everywhere it tenants the loftiest ridges,
displaying the most astonishing activity. During^the
summer it is only to be found on the mountain-tops,
or in sequestered rock-giit glens, where the snow lies
unmelted throughout the year ; but in winter it de-
scends below the line of perpetual snows to the gi-assy
slopes, where it becomes doubly cautious and wAy.
Its senses of hearing, sight, and smell are extremely
acute, and it scents the approaching hunter at the
distance of half a league. When its fears are once
excited, it bounds from rock to rock, as if to gain a
view of the surrounding district, uttering at the
same time a singular hissing sound ; but no sooner
has it caught sight of its enemy, than off it bounds,
scaling the most fearful rocks, clearing chasms, and'
leaping from crag to crag with amazing rapidity.
its course is not stopped by a perpendicular precipice
of twenty or thirty feet in depth : with astonishing
boldness it takes the leap, striking the face of the
rock repeatedly with its feet, for the purpose both
of breaking the fall, and of directing itself more
steadily to the point it aims at. It pitches on the
smallest ledge, where the eye of man scarcely discerns
room for its foot ; and it traverses with security the
beetling shelf that overhangs the deepest abyss.
The perils of the chamois-hunter have been too often
narrated to need repetition ; his life is one of per-
petual jeopardy : he is like a man infatuated by a
spell, and though he knows the awful risk he runs,
yet to the chase is he impelled by the same feelings
which urge the gamester in a career of ruin. The
sketch (Fig. 643) represents the dangerous situation
of two celebrated hunters in 1826, and is copied
from a print published at Basle.
The food of the chamois consists of mountain
herbs and flowers, and the tender shoots of shrubs ;
it seldom drinks, but is extremely partial to salt!
and many stones are met with in the Alps hollowed
out by the continual licking of the chamois, on
account of the saltpetre with which they abound.
At the root of each horn on the back of the head
there is a sinus or opening of the skin, which does
not seem to be connected with any gland, nor is its
use understood. The females produce one, rarely
two kids in March or April. The chamois exceeds
two feet in height : the whole body is covered with
long hair of a deep brown in winter, and brownish
fawn colour in summer ; the chaffron, muzzle, and
sides of the lower jaw are white or straw-coloured ;
the tail is very short.
Mazama, Ogilby.— Horns in the male only, com-
pressed laterally at the base, diverging as they rise
upwards, then hooking backwards and inwards,
rough and scabrous, and giving off above their base
a bold, compressed, pointed prong directed for-
wards ; lips hairy ; neither inguinal pits nor lachry-
mal sinuses; interdigital pita distinct ; teats in the
female, four; knee-brushes large; accessory hoofs
wanting.
644. — The Prongbuck
(Antilope Furcifer). The Prongbuck is a native of
the western parts of North Amenca, from the 53° of
north latitude to the plains of Mexico and California •
presuming that it is identical with the animal de-
scribed by Hernandez as the Mazama. It is grega-
rious in Its habits, frequenting wide open plains or
hills of moderate height, but is never found to inha-
bit forests or closely-wooded districts. It migrates
from north to south, according to the season. On
the banks of the southern branch of the Saskat-
chewan, and on the upper plains of the Columbia
river it is very numerous. The Prongbuck is com-
pactly formed, active, and vigorous; and, on firm
ground, will outstrip most animals, but after a slight
mil of sriow a good horse will easily overtake it.
These animals, like many other Ruminants, display
a sort of stupid curiosity at the sight of novel objects,
which, as Dr. Godman states, the Indians, and even
the wolves, turn to their own advantage. If they
crouch down, assume strange postures, now move
forwards, now stop, or play antics, the prongbucks
wheel round and round the object of their attention,
decreasing their distance at every turn, till at last
they approach near enough to be killed by the In-
dian, or spning upon by the wolf. Their flesh, how-
ever, is not in any estimation, and it is only in times
of scarcity that the Indian will take the trouble of
hunting them. The females produce one or even
two kids early in the month of June. The prong-
buck stands three feet in height at the shoulder : its
body is covered with closely compacted hair stand-
ing out from the skin, and of a most singular tex-
ture ; it is tubular, or hollow like a quill, but so
brittle and devoid of elasticity that it snaps with the
smallest effort, and when pressed between the thumb
and finger crushes like a dry reed, and never regains
its original form ; on the head, ears, and legs the
fur is close and of the ordinary quality ; that on the
body is two inches long, but down the back of the
neck it is six inches in length, and forms a mane.
The general colour is pale fawn, the hairs being of
a bluish tint at the roots ; the under parts and inner
aspect of the limbs are white ; a broad disc of white
surrounds the tail, and passes over the croup; and
the throat is marked also with two transverse white
bands. This, it must be observed, is the winter dress
of the animal ; in summer the new coat which it
then acquires consists of hair of the ordinary quality,
which as the winter comes on gives place to the
covering described.
Nemorhedus, Smith.— Horns short, parallel,
curved gently backwards, annulated at the base and
longitudinally striated; in both sexes, muzzle naked.
Suborbital sinuses in the form of a circular orifice.
Neither inguinal pores nor knee-brushes. Limbs
stout. Fur harsh and wiry ; a nuchal mane. Teats
four.
645.— The Cambino-outan, or Wild Goat of the
Malays
(Antilope Stimatrensis, Desm.). In aspect and man-
ners the Cambing-outan resembles the common
goat and the ibex; it inhabits the forests which
clothe the mountains of Sumatra, and is bold and
active. The Cambing-outan stands about two fct
three inches in height at the shoulder, and is covered
with long coarse hair of a dark brown or black
colour ; the mane along the back of the neck being
white, and the hair on the lower jaw being of a straw-
colour. On each side of the muzzle there is a naked
linear space ; the suborbital sinuses are small. This
species is closely allied to the Thar of the Nepal
(Antilope Thar, Hodgson). In this group the
Goral of Nepal (Antilope Goral, Hardwick) is placed
by Mr. Hodgson ('Zool. Proceeds.,' 1834, p. 85) ;
but it has no suborbital sinuses, nor is the muzzle
entirely naked. It will form the type of a distinct
subgenus (Keraas, Ogilby).
BoviFORM Antelopes.— As the antelopes of the
last section approximate to the true goats, so, on
the other hand, do the animals of this section
approach the oxen. They do not, however, all dis-
play an equal degree of proximity : some, indeed, as
the Nyl-Ghau, are closely allied to groups among
the true antelopes, while others have nothing of the
antelope in form or appearance. In general they
are distinguished by their massive contour, large size,
and powerful limbs, conjoined with a heavy head,
short neck, and elevated withers. The horns are
large, often very thick and solid, and the eyes small ;
they are in fact bovine in their contour and habits'
and gradually link on with the genus Bos. In those
which approach the nearest to this genus there are
horns in both sexes.
Tragelaphus, Ogilby.— Horns in the male only.
Suborbital sinuses large. Interdigital fossae distinct.
Inguinal pits wanting. Muzzle broad and naked
Teats in the female, four.
646, 647.— The Nyl-ohau
(Antilope picta). This magnificent species, which
stands upwards of four feet in height at the shoulder,
143
is a native of the dense forests of India, where it re-
sides alone or in pairs; it is extremely vicious, reso-
lute and powerful, and will turn upon its pursuers
with great fury. Even in confinement it is not to
be approached without caution. Previous to mak
1!!^.'^.**''^'^'' '' '^'■"P* "P°" its fore-knees, and in
that attitude gradually advances, till within a cer-
tain distance of its foe, when it darts suddenlv
forward with amazing force and velocity. Bold and
spirited, however, as it is, it is the most common
prey of the tiger. During the day the nyl-ghau
urks m the covert of the forest, whence early in
the morning or during the night it wanders ibrth
to teed invadmg the adjacent corn-fields and culti-
vated lands. This species is often bred in captivity
both in this country and in India. The female
usually produces two at a birth.
The male considerably exceeds the female in size.
The general colour is slaty blue ; m the female tawny
ed. The lips, chin, and under parts are white;
there is a large vvhite spot on the throat, two smalle^
ones on the cheeks, and one in the front and two in
r«PmhT °,.,*^r pastern-joint. The young males
resemble the females in their colour, which is ex-
changed for slaty blue on arriving at maturity. A
bunch of long pendant hair hangs from the fore part
ot the neck, and a similar tuft terminates the tail
Ihe hmbs of the nyl-ghau are well-formed, but
when the animal is standing are gathered close under
he body and the tail is drawn in between the hind-
egs. Mr. Ogilby regards this animal as the Hippe-
aphus of Aristotle. It is placed by the author of
the article on Antelopes in the 'Penny Cyclopaedia'
in the same group with the Steenbok, Grysbok, and
Khpspringer of Africa; but it has neither their form
nor habits.
Koba.— Horns only in the male ; long, stout
nearly straight, inclined backwards, with a slight
inward tendency. Inguinal pores distinct. Subor-
mtal sinuses wanting. Muzzle broad and naked,
teats in female, four.
648.— The Koba, or Sing-Sing
(Antilope Koba, Ogilby). This species is the
" grande vache brune " of the French of Senegal, of
which country it is a native. It equals the common
stag in stature, and is covered with a coat of long
rough hair; a rough bristly mane runs down the
back of the neck. The general colour is dark
sandy red, passing into grey on the under parts ;
the lace and limbs are dark brown or black; the
lips, chin, and a stripe over each' eye are white
Ot the native habits of the koba little is known • in
captivity, judging from the specimens we have
seen, it is a gentle and quiet animal. When at
rest Its attitude resembles that of the nyl-<rhau
An allied but smaller species, the Kob, or "petite
vache brune" of. the French, inhabits Western
Africa. The figure (648) of the koba represents
the female.
Oryx.— Horns in both sexes long, erect, annu-
lated ; muzzle nearly naked, or quite; interdigital
pits large ; neither suborbital sinuses nor inn-uinal
pores ; teats of female, four.
649.— The Addax
(Antilope Addax, Licht.). This animal is the Strep-
siceros of Pliny, which he states is termed by the
Africans Addax, or Addas ; and, according to Riip-
pel and Hemprich, and Ehrenberg, who may be
said to have re-discovered this species in Dongola
it IS denominated Akasch. or Akas, or Addas by the
Arabs, with the additional prefix of Abu, "father"
—thus, Abu-Addas, a title they bestow on many
other animals, as for example the sacred ibis, which
they call Abu Hannes, or Father John. The addax
appears to be widely spread in Central Africa,
tenanting the deserts in pairs, or perhaps small
groups ; but of its habits we have no detailed ac-
counts. It stands three feet in height at the shoul-
der, and is heavily made; the head is large, the
neck thick, and the legs robust. The horns are
long and round, rather slender in proportion to their
length, twisted outwards and describing two turns
of a wide spiral, annulated to within five or six
inches of the points, which are smooth and sharp;
the form of the horns of the female does not difter
from that of the male, but in the young they are
almost straight. The ears are pretty long and pro-
portionally broader than in most of the smaller
antelopes, and the tail reaches almost to the hough
and is terminated by a switch of long, coarse, grey
hair. The whole head and neck, both above and
below, are of a deep reddish brown colour, except
a transverse mark of pure white across the lower
part of the forehead, between the orbits, which ex-
pands on the cheeks and half surrounds the eyes;
a patch of black curly hair surrounds the root of
the horns, and there is a scanty beard of the same
colour on the larynx ; all the rest of the animal,
including the entire body from the neck backwards
as well as the legs and tail, is greyish white ; the
hoofs are black, and remarkably broad, to enable
<43.— Wild GoM orilio Milan.
^-'jy ^^^ ^.f^^' ••-'V v-l %^
<SA.~BI>t»rliok.
C4S. — Koba.
MS.— AdAax
eil^Aba-Bub.
CM.— Cuina.
614.— Prongbuck.
144
6iO.— Wild Ox of the Arabs.
652.— Orvi.
6y7. — Gnu.
SiC— Herd of 6)11 u.
639.— Head of Gm.
658.— Gnn..
iil.-tUoikio.
No. 19.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
140
146
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Antelopes.
the animal to pan more easily over the fine and
loose sands of the deserts in which it resides.
630. — ^Thz BuicwBOK
(Antihpe leucoj^uta). This antelope is a native of
South Africa, and was formerly common within the
boundaries of the Cape Colony, where it is now
never seen. It occurs in the extensive open plains
north of the Gariep, living in pairs or small families
of five or six. It is a bold and fierce animal, and
when wounded will turn upon the hunter with great
resolution. At certain seasons it is reported to at-
tack indiscriminately every animal that approaches
near it. The blauwbok stands three feet seven inches
in height at the shoulder : the horns exceed two
feet in length, and are formidable weapons ; they
are round, uniformly curved backwards, and marked
with from twenty to thirty prominent rings ; the
points for the extent of six inches, are smooth,
and terminate very acute. The term blauwbok, or
blue-buck, has been given to this animal by the
Dutch colonists from its peculiar hue, resulting from
the colour of the hide, which is deep black, being
reflected through the ashy-grey hair that covers it,
giving it a general dark-blue tone.
651.— The Abc-Habb
(AntSope leucortfx). This species is the Oryx of
the ancients, a term now given to an allied South
African species, but which of right belongs to the
Abu-Harb, which lives in large herds in Sennaar
and Kordofan, feeding principally on the leaves ot
various species of acacia. It is represented in
abundance on the monuments of Egypt and Nubia,
and in particular in the inner chamber of the great
pyramid at Memphis, where a whole group of these
antelopes are represented, some driven forward,
others dragged along by the horns, or by a cord
around their neck, apparently as trophies brought
from a conquered country, or a tribute or present
from some subjugated nation.
This animal nearly equals the addax in size.
The horns are long and slender, arched gently
backwards, annulated at the base, and very sharp
at the points. The tail is long and tufted at the
extremity with black and grey hairs mixed together.
The hair on the head, body, and extremities is
universally short, and lies smoothly along the hide,
except upon the ridge of the back, where it is rather
longer and reversed, or turned towards the head in
a direction contrary to that on the other parts of
the body, and forming a short reversed mane from
the middle of the bacK to the occiput. The head is
white, with a brown mark descending perpendi-
cularly from each orbit, and expanding over the
cheek, and a similar stripe passing down the centre
of the face from the horns to the muzzle ; the whole
neck also, on the throat as well as on the upper
part, is of a uniform rusty-brown colour, but, with
these exceptions, all the rest of the body, as well as
the legs and tail, are milk-white.
652.— The Obts
(Antilope Oryx). The oryx is a native of South
Africa, and differs from the Abu-Harb in having
the horns straight : there is a lar<:e black mark or
the forehead, united with a broad stripe across each
cheek.
This powerful antelope is found in the karroo
south of the Orange river, and is resolute and dan-
gerous when hard pressed, using its long sharp
noms with amazing energy and address, often
transfixing several of the hunter's dogs before he
can get within shot. The horns measure three feet
in length.
653.— The Casna
{Antilope Oreas). The Eland or Elk of the Dutch
colonists of the Cape ; the Impoof of the Caffres.
The canna is a native of Southern Africa, and
the largest of all the antelopes, if it can be so
termed, measuring full five feet in height at the
shoulder, and weighing from seven to nine hundred
weight. The horns in the male are large and
heavy, measuring a foot and a half in length, nearly
straight, sharp at their points, and surrounded
almost to the top with a thick prominent spiral
wreath. In the female the horns are smaller, and
often almost destitute of a wreath. The muzzle is
naked ; the neck is thick and compressed at the
sides, as in the ox, with a large protuberance on the
throat, and a deep-hanging dew-lap. From the
centre of the forehead to the tail runs a short and
nearly erect mane, of dark-brown hair, which is
reversed along the back of the neck, but directed
in the usual way along the dorsal spine. The
shoulders are very much elevated, the processes of
the vertebric being greatly elongated at the withers.
The tail ends in a black tuft. The general colour
is reddish-fawn above ; white on the under parts ;
an ashy-grey tint generally prevails on the head and
neck.
The flesh of the canna is in high estimation, con
sequently the animal is much sought after. Unlike
antelopes generally, it acquires fat, and indeed
often becomes so loaded with it as to be incapable
of much exertion. It is asserted that when the
animal is hard run, a red oily perspiration has been
seen to ooze from the pores of its skin, and that it
will sometimes drop aown from plethora. The
canna is mild and gentle, living in large herds
upon the plains and low hills, the old males gene-
rally resicfing apart : so little suspicious are they,
that a horseman may ride through the very midst ot
a herd without causing any alarm, and in this way
the sportsman may easily pick out and bring down
with his gun the largest and the fattest. The well-
conditioned males are generally chosen, and to such
an extent have the herds been thinned of these, that
some have been seen without a single male among
them. The parts of this bovine antelope most es-
teemed are the large muscles of the thighs, which,
when cured and dried, are termed thigh-tongues,
from their flavour and fineness of grain.
Calliope, Ogilby. — Horns only in the male : no
lachrymal sinuses nor interdigital pores ; inguinal
pits distinct ; muzzle naked ; horns spiral ; teats in
female four.
654.— The Koodoo
{Antilope Strepsiceros). This magnificent antelope
is about four feet in height at the shoulder, and is
heavily and robustly made, more resembling in ex-
ternal appearance an ox than an antelope. The
muzzle IS broad and naked ; the ears large and
slouching ; the limbs thick and muscular. The
horns of the male are about four feet in length,
very thick at the base, and beautifully twisted into
a wide sweeping spiral of two turns and a half,
surrounded by a prominent wreath, or rather keel,
which follows their flexure ; they spread boldly out-
wards, and the animal generally carries them thrown
back on the shoulders, partly for the sake of keeping
them from striking against branches or becoming
entangled in brushwood, and partly on account ot
their great weight.
The kood;;o is a native of South Africa, and is
found along the wooded borders of the rivers of
Cafiraria, living in small families of five or six indi-
viduals, and feeding on the shoots and leaves oi
trees and bushes. Desmarest says it leads a solitary
life in mountain districts, but in these respects he
is in error ; it dwells neither on the hills nor the
open plains, but in the wooded tracts following the
course of rivere ; nor is it solitary. When chased,
it takes to the water, and swims vigorously ; ami
though heavy, it leaps with wonderful agility.
Desmarest says it takes bounds of surprising extent,
and it has been seen to clear the bars of a gate ol
the height of ten feet, though it had but a very li-
mited space for gaining the impetus necessary for
the leap. When hard pressed, the males are formid-
able from their immense strength and determination,
and from their formidable horns, which they wield
with great address. The koodoo, however, when
taken young, is easily tamed, and becomes quiet
and gentle.
The general ground-colour of the koodoo on the
back and sides is a light fallow-brown, with a narrow
white ribbon along the spine, and eight or ten similai
bands descending from the back and passing ob-
liquely down the sides and hips ; the belly and
under parts are pale silvery brown. On the neck
and withers is a thin spare mane of a brown colour,
and the chin, throat, and breast are furnished with
similar long hairs, forming a species of beard. The
cheeks are marked with two or three round white
spots, and a narrow grey line passes from the an-
terior angle of the eye down towards the muzzle.
The tail is moderately long, and equally covered
with short hair.
Bubalus, Ogilby. — Horns in both sexes heavy,
thick, and annulated, first inclined forwards, then
suddenly bent backwards, making a bold angle in
front. Lachrymal sinuses minute. Interdigital pita
large. Inguinal pores wanting. Muzzle half naked.
Feats in the female two.
655. — The Bekb-el-Wash, oe Wlld Ox op
THE Arabs
{Antilope Bubalus). This animal is the Bubalus ol
the ancients ; the " animal Africae proprium, vituli
cervive quSdam similitudine " of Pliny. Its repre-
sentation occurs among the figures on the monu-
ments of Upper Egypt. This animal is spread
throughout a great extent of northern Africa, living
in numerous herds on the confines of the Tell, or
cultivated district, and the Sahara or Great Desert.
According to Captain Lyon, it is found on the moun-
tains south of Tripoli. Though Barbary may be
regarded as its real habitat, yet it is not altogether
limited to that extent of country, for it sometimes
crosses the Libyan desert, and gains the banks ol
the Nile ; and was once probably common in Upper
Egypt.
The Bubalus, or Bekr-el-Wash, is as large' as a I
heifer, and very bovine in appearance ; the head is
singularly long and narrow, with a straight flat chaf-
fron ; hence the eyes appear as if placed high in the
nead. The shoulders are elevated, and the neck
resembles that of the ox ; the general colour is red-
brown, a black tuft of long hair terminating the
tail.
The bubalus is easily tamed, and, according to
Dr. Shaw, of so familiar a disposition, that the young
calves frequently mix with domestic cattle, and soon
learn to attach themselves to the herd without at-
tempting to escape afterwards. The male bubalus
in its mode of combat resembles the bull ; he lowers
his muzzle to the ground, and striking upwards, or
from side to side, endeavours to gore and toss his
antagonist with his horns, which are very formidable
weapons.
There is in South Africa a species very nearly
allied to the Bekr-el-Wash of Barbary, termed by
the Dutch the Hartebeest (A. Caama, F. Cuvier). It
resides in large herds, and is an object of the chase,
its flesh being very finely flavoured, and more nearly
resembling the beef of the ox than that of any other
animal except the canna. It is moderately fleet, its
pace when at full speed resembling a heavy gallop ;
but when at some distance from its pursuer, it will
stop and turn to gaze, as if to ascertain whether he
be followed or not— a habit which operates to its
disadvantage. It is mild and tractable ; but when
hard pressed, and infuriated by wounds, it uses its
powerful horns with great effect, dropping on its
fore-knees, and in this position advancing towards
its enemy, and then suddenly darting forwards with
great force and rapidity. The Hartebeest has rather
an extensive range, being found in the Cape Colony,
as well as almost everywhere between it and the
tropic of Capricorn. In the former locality, however,
it is now only found on the extensive flats bordering
upon the Caffre frontier. Another allied species is
the Sassaby, or Bastard Hartebeest (A. lunata).
Though this species (as it is stated in the catalogue
of the South African Museum) is not known to occur
so far south as the Colony, yet it is tolerably abun-
dant in the neighhourhood of Lattakoo, and very
much more so between 26° and the tropic of Capri-
corn. In the latter locality especially it is found,
like the Hartebeest, in herds of from six to ten or
even more individuals, and chiefly frequents flat and
wooded districts. Where fire-arms are used, or where
the necessities of natives have made them indefati-
gable in the chase, this animal is vigilant and shy ;
but in situations where it has been left in compara>
live peace, it regards the approach of man with curi-
osity, almost unmixed with fear; just discontinuing
to feed, and raising its head to gaze, but never at-
tempting to fly, unless he approach very close. Its
flesh is fully as valuable as that of the Hartebeest.
Catoblepas, H. Smith. — Horns in both sexes, com-
iTiencing in a dense mass covering the top of the
forehead, whence they sweep downwards over the
eyes, and then turn boldly upwards, terminating in
sharp round points. Head heavy and ox-like ;
muzzle very broad and muscular; and the nostrils
covered by a large moveable lid, continued from
the skin of the muzzle, and capable of being opened
3r shut at pleasure. Suborbital sinus reduced to a
small gland in the skin, concealed in a tuft of hair.
No inguinal pores. Females with two teats. A
full mane runs down the neck. Tail furnished with
long hairs and bushy.
The animals belonging to this generic group are
remarkable for the singularity of their form, which
partakes of that of the horse and buffalo. The head
and horns are those of a buffalo ; the eyes are large,
wild, and expressive of a savage and vindictive dis-
position. The neck, with its mane, the tail, and
the general contour of the body are those of the
horse ; the legs are well turned and vigorous, re-
sembling those of the stag. The action and gallop
of these animals (the Gnus) are so much like those
of a horse, that a troop of them seen scouring the
plain at a distance might easily be mistaken for
zebras or quaggas, were it not for the difference of
colour. Besides the mane down the back of the
neck, the chaffron above the muzzle is furnished
with a tuft of long, diverging, bristly hairs, and the
chin and throat are also covered with hairs of a
similar character, forming a shaggy beard, while a
full mane flows down from the chest between the
fore-limbs.
656, 657, 658.— The Gjin
{Antilope Gnu), T'Gnu of the Hottentots. The
gnu equals a well-grown ass in size, exceeding four
feet in height, and is a native of the wild karroos
of South Africa and the hilly districts, where it
roams mostly in large herds, which migrate ac-
cording to the season. The extent of its range in
the interior regions is not known ; as far, however,
as travellers have penetrated, herds have been
met and chased, for its flesh is prized as food both
by the natives and the colonists. They are, how-
ever, extremely wild, and not to be approached
I
Goats.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
147
I
without difficulty. On the first alarm, away scours
the troop, not in a tumultuous mass, but in single
file following a leader. Their speed, as might be
expected from the vigour and compactness of the
body and limbs, is very great. Sometimes, how-
ever, when any object of apprehension appears,
they do not exert it, but plunge about, flinging out
their heels, butting, and tossing up their heads, and
exhibiting emotions of violent fury. It is seldom,
however, that they venture upon an attack, unless
hard pressed or wounded, when they defend them-
selves with desperation ; dropping on their knees,
they dart forward upon their assailants with extraor-
dinary force and impetuosity, and unless he be cool
and prepared he cannot escape his fate.
Mr. Pringle assures us that the gnu taken young
will become as domesticated as the cattle of the
farm, with which it associates harmlessly, going and
returning to pasture ; it appears, however, that few
farmers like to domesticate it, as it is liable- to a
cutaneous eruption which it communicates to the
cattle, and which is invariably fatal. In confine-
ment the gnu often becomes ferocious, and is not to
be approached without caution ; the females are
less dangerous than the males, and more easily
manageable.
The general colour of the gnu is deep umber-
brown verging upon black ; the tail and mane are
grey ; the latter indeed is nearly white. Fig. 656
represents a herd of gnus on the karroo ; Fig. 659,
a front view of the head of the animal, which may
be compared with the characters we have detailed.
Besides the common gnu, two other species of this
genus are known. The first is the Kokoon, as the
ooshwanas term it (A. taurina, Burchell). It is
larger than the preceding species, with which,
though inhabiting the same districts, it never asso-
ciates ; it is far less daring than the gnu, and is
sometimes found solitary, but most frequently in
herds, which wander over the vast plams of the
interior.
The next species is the Brindled Gnu (A. Gorgon,
H. Smith) : little is known respecting it, and it
appears to be comparatively rare, and is perhaps
restricted to certain territories beyond which it does
not wander.
A specimen exists in the Museum of the London
Missionary Society, which was brought from South
Africa. It is certainly very distinct from either of
the preceding animals.
So far then as the specimens in our ' Pictorial
Museum ' permit, have we endeavoured to give a
sketch of the Antelopes, a family which, as it usually
stands in systematic works, consists of a num-
ber of distinct forms or genera, ill-assorted under
one head, and exhibiting very different degrees
of relationship to each other. When we compare
the Canna on the one side, and the Pronghorn
on the other, with the Gazelle of the desert, we
see few points of affinity, and are forced to the con-
viction that the division-line between the family
" Antelope " of most writers, and that of the ox
and the goat, is purely arbitrary. Our object has
been, without departing from our plan of clothing
science in a popular dress, to convey some idea of
the principal groups, as illustrated by our pictorial
specimens, into which the Antelopes are resolvable,
and to delineate succinctly the habits and manners
pervading each group, or displayed by the more
remarkable species. Though we have given generic
titles and definitions, yet we have used the term
"Antilope," throughout, in the specific name of
each animal, as being more familiar to general
readers than such words as Catoblepas, the title of
the genus comprehending the gnu ; Calliope, that of
the koodoo, &c., deeming it sufficient to have stated
them, and noted their characters at the head of
each genus. Those who wish to investigate this
subject at length, may consult Col. Hamilton Smith's
' Treatise on the Ruminants,' in Griffith's transla-
tion of the ' Regne Animal ' of Cuvier ; and a paper
by Mr. Ogilby, in the ' Zool. Proceeds.' for 1836, p.
132, et seq.
Goats and Sheep. — Though the domestic races
of goats and sheep, as we are accustomed to see
them in Europe, exhibit marked distinctive features,
yet the diagnostics fail us in a great measure when
we turn to the breeds of sheep in other countries,
which exhibit a greater length of limb, a more goat-
like form of body, and a clothing of hair ; and it is
from paying attention to domestic breeds, rather
than to truly wild species, that naturalists have been
inclined to consider both goats and sheep as gene-
rically the same, seeing that it is for the most part
in countries where the domestic sheep is woolly
that its difference from the goat is at once palpable.
" So little," says Cuvier, " do the sheep deserve to
be generically separated from the goats, that they
even produce together a mixed fertile race," an
assertion we query. Again in the ' Zool. Proceeds.'
1834, Mr. Hodgson, after a long table of differ-
ences between sheep and goats, adds, "After all,
there are no physical distinctions at all equivalent
to the moral ones (those deduced from temper and
disposition of the two species) so finely and truly
delineated by BufFon, and which, notwithstanding
all that Col. Hamilton Smith urges in favour of the
courage and activity of the', sheep, will even be re-
cognised as the only essential diagnostics of the two
genera." If there are, indeed, no other distinctions,
the " moral ones " are nothing, for the wild species
of goat and sheep are not so contrasted in dispo-
sition ; and even if they were, it is not from such
points that the naturalist has to deduce generic cha-
racters.
In the goats, and also in the sheep, there are
horns in both sexes ; there are also glandular inter-
digital pits in the sheep and goat, and they are
alike formed for rocky or mountain abodes ; the
muzzle is small and hairy. The females have two
teats. The goats have the horns compressed late-
rally, rugose on their anterior aspect, and arching
upwards and backwards; there is no suborbital
iinus. The sheep have the horns voluminous, turned
to the sides, curling downwards, and often making a
double flexure. There are deep suborbital sinuses,
with a linear oriflce incapable of being expanded,
and, unless sought for, not to be seen amidst the
wool or dense hair. Besides these characters, the
chafFron is generally more arched in the sheep
than the goat ; and the latter has mostly the lower
jaw furnished with a beard. Neither have inguinal
pores.
Genus Capra — the Goats.
660.— The Common Goat
(Capra Hirais, Linn.). A/| (» xai n, but generally
used for the female), 'rpiym, x't^"?" (the male),
ipiipts (young male kid of three or four months),
x'l^'pii (young female before its first winter), of the
Greeks; Caper and Hircus (male), Capra (female),
Hoedus, or Hsedus (a young male kid), Hoedulus, or
Hoedillus (a very young male kid, or kidling, i>?«),
Capella (female kid), of the ancient Italians ; Becco
(male), Capra (female), Capretto, and Caprettino
(kid and kidling), of the modern Italians; Bouc
(male), Chevre (female), Chevreau (kid), of the
French; Cabron (male), Cabra (female), Cabrito
(kid), of the Spanish ; Cabram (male),Cabra (female),
Cabrito (kid), of the Portuguese ; Bock (male),
Geisz (female), Bocklein (kid), of the Germans ;
Bok (male), Giyt (female), of the Dutch ; Bock
(male), Geet (female), Kiidh (kid), of the Swedes ;
Buk, Geedebuk (male), Geed (female). Kid (kid), of
the Danes ; Bwch (male), Gafr (female), Mynn (kid),
of the ancient Britons.
As is the case with almost every domesticated
quadruped, great uncertainty hangs over the origin
of the goat. Some naturalists refer it to the Ibex
of the European mountain-ranges, others regard it
as descended from the Paseng of Persia (Capra
iEgagrus) or from the Caucasian Ibex (Capra Cau-
casica, Giildenst.). Cuvier says that the Ibex of the
European Alps, as well as that of the Caucasus,
breecfs freely with the common goat, producing a
fertile progeny ; and there were in the Garden of
Plants at Pans, goats of very large stature, taken
wild on the Alps and Pyrejnees, the produce, as
asserted, of the Ibex with the common goat. After
all, however, nothing positive can be ascertained
on the point in question ; it is one of those which
must be left in abeyance. The subjugation of the
goat, whatever may be its primitive stock, took
place at a very early epoch, and it is evident that
the flesh of the kid was accounted a delicacy. There
wiu formerly in Syria, as there is at the present day,
a breed of igoats with long pendent ears, and fine
long hair fit for the manufacture of some kinds of
stuffs. In this respect they perhaps resembled the
Angora goat (Angora is in Anatolia, Asiatic Tur-
key). We read that the Israelites made curtains of
goats' hair as a covering for the Tabernacle, and
the modern Arabs manufacture the cloth of their
tents from the hair of the long-eared breed, which
is generally of a black colour, and which they
prefer to the hair of the camel. The females of
this breed yield excellent milk in profuse quantity,
and are therefore much esteemed. Burckhardt no-
tices a very fine breed of goats of this race in the
valley of Baalbec, which he says are not common
in other parts of Syria ; they have very long ears,
large horns, and long hair, but not silky like that
of the goats of Anatolia. The hair of the goats
of Italy in the time of Virgil was long, but of
coarse quality. In the 'Georgics' (lib. iii.) the
shepherds are directed to shear the beards and long
hair of the Cinyphian goats for the service of the
camp, and for garments for the mariner. Varro
also observes that goats were shorn for the use of
sailors, for coverings to engines of war, and to work-
men's instruments. From the earliest antiquity the
milk of the goat has been in requisition, and in the
present day the goat and sheep in Syria take
the place of the cow, if not exclusively, to a great
extent.
From the beginning of April to the beginning of
September, the towns are supplied with milk by
large herds of goats, which pass through the streets
every morning, and are milked before the houses of
the customers. The products of the milk are fur-
nished in abundance at the same season. In Switz-
erland, flocks of goats are kept for the sake of their
milk, and our classical reader will remember the
lines in Virgil ('Georgics,' lib. iii.) which are still
applicable, "Pascuntur vero sylvas," &c. Besides
the long-eared and long-haired race of Syria, of
which Figs. 661, 662, and 663 are representations,
there is also a breed closely resembling that common
in Europe : among other races, we may here notice
the Dwarf African, with close hair, almost beardless,
and with a little pendulous tassel-like excrescence of
skin hanging from each side of the throat : of this
breed we have seen specimens in England.
The most celebrated variety of f he domestic race
is the goat of Cashmir (Figs. 664 and 665), which
produces a wool of exquisite fineness, from which
are manufactured the costly Cashmir shawls, not
to be purchsised even in the country where they are
wrought but at a great price. This goat is spread
through Thibet, and in the country of the Kirghiz,
at the bend of the Ural, north of the Caspian Sea;
it is covered with silky hair, long, fine, flat, and
falling, and with an under-vest in winter, of delicate
greyish wool ; and it is this wool which constitutes
the fabric of the shawls. The average weight of
wool produced by a single goat is about three
ounces, and it sells in Thibet for about five shil-
lings a pound : ten goats are required to furnish
sufficient wool for a shawl a yard and a half square.
It appears that in Thibet the wool is first combed
from the goats in the mountains and sent to Cash-
mir, where it pays a duty on entry. It is there
bleached with rice-flour, spun into thread, and
taken to the bazaar, where another tax is paid
upon it ; the thread is then dyed, and the shawl is
woven and the border sewed on ; but the weaver
has now to carry it to the custom-house, where a
collector puts on it any tax he pleases, and in this
he is only limited by the fear of ruining the weaver,
and consequently losing future profit. All the
shawls intended for Europe are packed up and sent
to Peshawer across the Indus: this part of the
journey is generally performed upon men's backs,
for the road is in many parts impassable, even by
mules, being across deep precipices, which must
be traversed by swinging bridges of ropes, and per-
pendicular rocks, which are climbed by wooden
ladders. At each station of this toilsome journey,
which lasts twenty days, a tax is paid, amounting to
about two pounds sterling for the whole journey.
From this point till they come near the confines of
Europe, in addition to the many custom-houses at
which they must pay tribute, these valued articles
of merchandise are exposed to the marauders of
Afghanistan and Persia, and to the Turkomanic
hordes, whose forbearance must be purchased at a
high price. After leaving Persia, many shawls get
to Europe over the Caucasus, and through Russia,
but the largest number reach Constantinople through
the Turkish provinces.
In April, 1819, M. Jaubert, under the French
government, succeeded in bringing a flock of
Thibet goats, with great loss and difficulty, from
the Kirghiz territory to France ; but the small pro-
duce of wool obtained from each animal precluded
all hope of making a profit by rearing these animals,
and the scheme would have failed had it not oc-
curred to M. Polonceau that a cross between the
Thibet and Angora goat, remarkable for the length,
and silkiness of its hair, might be an improvement
on both. The experiment was tried, and succeeded ;
and instead of three ounces, several of the mixed
race produced thirty ounces of down in one season,
and of a superior quality, being of finer and longer
staple, while the animals themselves were more
hardy and docile.
In 1824 some of the pure Thibet goats were im-
ported from France into England by Mr. Tower, and
located at Weald Hall, Essex; but their limited
produce militated against the extension of the breed
with advantage. In 1831 Mr. Riley, an enterpris-
ing proprietor of New South Wales, purchased from
M. Polonceau ten females and three males, which
he conveyed safely to London, and thence to New
South Wales ; but with what ultimate results we
are not able to state.
To describe the common goat is superfluous ; its
habits, its boldness, and its activity are well known.
It climbs rocks and rugged mountains with great
agility, and will stand secure wherever it can
manage to get the most limited footing. In Egypt
and Syria goats are often taught various feats of
dexterity, for the performance of which their natural
address and activity peculiarly qualify them, but to
execute which, nevertheless, requires considerable
practice. Dr. Clarke, in his 'Travels' (vol. ii.), notices
an instance of this kind, which he describes as fol-
lows : — " Upon our road we met an Arab with a
goat, which he led about the country for exhibition,
U2
MO.— Ouamon G<»t.
669.— Dmi.
66S.— Ibex.
MT.— Uws.
666. — Arab anii tjuJt.
6T1. A/Hiillul, or Kebscb.
(61.- Long-eusd Syrian Ooat.
670. — Paseng.
148
473.— Moaflon ofConlca.
Q60.— Head of Votir-horned Bam.
•7-1.— Moullan of Corsica.
149
150
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Sheep.
in order to pun a livelihood for iUelf and owner.
He had taught this animal, while he accompanied
itii movements with a sone, to mount upon little cy-
lindrical blocks of wood, placed successively one
above the other, and in shape resembling the dice-
boxes belongring to a backgammon table. In this
manner the goat stood, first, upon the top of one
cylinder, then upon the top of two, and atterwards
of three, four, five, and six, until it remained ba-
lanced upon the top of them all, elevated several
feet from the ground, and with its four feet collected
upon a single point, without throwing down the dis-
jointed fabric upon which it stood. The practice is
very ancient. It is also noticed by Sandys. No-
thing can show more strikingly the tenacious foot-
ing possessed by this quadruped upon the jutty points
and crags of rocks ; and the circumstance of its
ability to remain thus poised may render its appear-
ance less surprising, as it is sometimes seen in the
Alps, and in all mountainous countries, with hardly
an^ place for its feet, upon the sides and by the
brink of most tremendous precipices. The diameter
of the upper cylinder, on which its feet ultimately
remained until the Arab had ended his ditty, was
only two inches, and the length of each cylinder
was six inches." Fig. 666 represents this perform-
ance.
The period of gestation with the goat is five
months, and the female usually produces two, some-
times three young at a birth.
The use of the goat in England, compared with
other countries, is very limited ; the demand for its
milk is only occasional, and the flesh even of the
kid is not in much request. Few stable-yards, how-
ever, are without a goat or two, the peculiar odour
of the animal (especially strong in the male) being
supposed to be both salutary and grateful to horses.
While doubting this, we can well imagine that the
presence of the active, familiar, and playful goat may
not be unproductive of benefit to the horse confined
in his stall, as the latter, like most animals, delights
in society, and instances of attachment between
goats and horses are far from being uncommon.
From the domestic goat we must pass to consider
our specimens of some of its wild representatives.
667, 668, 669.— The Ibex, Bouqcetik, or
Stein BOK
(Copra Ibex). This bold and powerful animal,
armed with huge sweeping horns, inhabits the alpine
heights of Europe and Western Asia. It associates
in small troops, consisting of a male and a few fe-
males. The norns of the male curve boldly over
the back, their anterior surface presenting a series
of regular protuberances or partial rings: their
length is often three feet. In the female they are
smaller. The hair of the Ibex in summer is short
and close, in winter long and thick ; its colour is
yellowish grey, a black streak extending along the
spine ; the croup is white, as are also the under
parts of the body, a dark tint abruptly dividing the
white from the general colour above. The chin is
bearded. The Ibex stands two feet six or eight
inches in height, and is extremely active and vigor-
ous. The chase of the Ibex is as arduous as that
of the chamois, the animal leading its pursuer, un-
less he can steal upon it unawares with his rifle, a
dangerous track over steep and rugged mountain
pinnacles, along the brink of precipices, and over
fearful chasms: when at last hard pressed, the Ibex
will often turn upon its foe with impetuous rapidity,
and hurl him headlong down the steep rocks or
abrupt precipice.
The Ibex is vigilant and wary ; and it is only
during the night that it descends to pasture in the
woods, but at sunrise again repairs to the bleak
mountain summits. Like the chamois, it is satisfied
with a frugal fare and a scanty supply of water.
It is said that the old males seek more elevated
spots than the females and younger males, which
are more easily to be obtained. The only sound
which the animal makes is a short whistle, and
when irritated, a snorting noise. In Europe its fa-
vourite haunts are the Alps, the Apennines, the
Pyrenees, and the mountains of Tyrol. In Asia it
is found in the mountain-chain of the Taurus.
670.— Thb Paseso
iCapra ^gagrus). The Paseng is found in the
mountains which traverse the north of Persia and
India as far as China, and especially the Caucasian
chain and that of Taurus. It is known to the Tur-
komans, Kirghiz, and other nomadic people to the
north of Persia, and also to the natives of the Per-
sian provinces at the southern base of the moun-
tains. The Paseng exceeds the largest domestic
goat in size, and is very strong and active, precisely
resembling the Ibex m habits and manners. The
general colour is grey, shaded with rusty brown : the
forehead is blackish brown, whence a Une of the
same colour extends down the spine, crossed by a
similar band over the withers; the beard is long
and of a dark brown, which is the colour of the
I limbs; a white patch occupies the crupper. The
horns of the male are very large, compres&ed, and
slightly diverging as they arch backwards; their
anterior edge Is narrow, and marked by a series ot
protuberances with deep notches between.
A species of Ibex, distinct, it is believed, from
the European, inhabits the Caucasian range, and
especially the neighbourhood of the sources of the
rivers Terek and Caban. It is the Capra Caucasica
of Guldenstet. (Fig. 667.)
Kuppell, in his * Zoological Atlas,' describes and
figures an ibex from the mountains of Abyssinia,
under the native name of Walie (Capra Walie,
Riipp.). It is of a dark-yellowish umber, the under
surface and inside of the limbs being white.
Another distinct species is the Jemlah Ibex,
described by Col. H. Smith (Capra Jemlaica),
with horns peculiarly massive at the base. It is an
inhabitant of the range of the Himalaya moun-
tains. This species would appear to be the Jhdral
of Mr. Hodgson. Its height is thirty-three inches ;
the head is finely formed, full of beauty knd expres-
sion, clad in close short hair, and without the least
vestige of a beard. The Jhiiral is of compact and
powerful make, with a spare, short, and bowed
neck ; deep barrel and chest ; longish, very strong
and rigid limbs, supported on perpendicular pas-
terns and high compact hoofs. The fur is of two
sorts, an outer coat of straight and somewhat harsh
hair, and an inner vest of soft fine wool. The fore-
quarters are superb, and wholly invested in a long,
flowing, straight, lion-like mane, feathered verti-
cally from the top of the withers and sweeping
down below the knees. The horns are nine inches
long, subtriangular, wrinkled across, and gently re-
curved. The colour is deep brown superficially,
but under the outer coat hoary blue, which is the
prevailing tint of the mane ; chin and lips hoary,
with a blackish mark below the angle of the mouth.
This fine species is found in the Kachar region of
Nepal, solitary or in small herds : it is bold, capri-
cious, active, and pugnacious, but easily tamed, and
breeds, as does the ibex, with the common goat.
(See 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1834, p. 106.) Mr.
Hodgson considers it distinct from the C. Jemlaica,
and terms it C. JhSral.
An ibex from Nubia and Arabia is described by
Fred. Cuvier, under the title of Capra Nubiana.
It is more slightly built than the common iljex, with
slender elongated horns two and a half feet in
length. A specimen is preserved in the museum
of the Zool. Soc. Lond. How far the species of
ibex we have noticed are truly distinct from each
other, or mere varieties resulting from climate and
other causes, we will not attempt to decide. It is
perhaps the Caucasian ibex that exists in Palestine,
Edora, and Sinai, and which is stated closely to
resemble the ibex of bouquetin of the Alps. It is
called in Arabic Beden and T^ytal. The former
appellation is exclusively applied to the male,
which is readily distinguished by a beard and
large knotted horns curving backwards over the
body. The horns of the female are very much
smaller, scarcely exceeding in size those of the
gazelle.
671. — The Aohdad
(Capra Tragelaphtts ; Ovis Tragelaplms, Pallas;
Ammotragus Tragelaphus, BIyth, in 'Zool. Pro-
ceeds." 18-10, p. 78). This species is in some re-
spects intermediate between the goat and sheep,
with which latter it is associated in most systematic
works. It differs from the sheep in having a con-
cave chaffron, and in the absence of suborbital
sinuses, but in the form of its homs it resembles
them more than it does the ibex or wild goat.
These horns are stout, subquadrangular, and ringed ;
they diverge more laterally than those of goats in
general, and curl as in the sheep. There is no
beard, but a pendent mane of long coarse hairs
begins under the lower jaw, and runs along the
under side of the neck and chest. The fore-legg
above the knee are also covered with long hair,
which hangs round the leg below the knee like a
ruffle, whence the French term this species " mou-
flon ii manchettes." The rest of the body is clothed
with short hair ; the general colour is dull yellowish
brown. The male attains a large size, exceeding a
fallow-deer, and measuring more than three feet
at the shoulder. The horns are sometimes two
feet in length following the curve. The female is a
third smaller than the male.
The Aoudad, as it is called by the Moors of Bar-
bary, is found in Sinai, and in the mountains which
border the Nile to Ethiopia and Abyssinia, In
Egypt it is termed Kebsch by the modern Arabians.
It is also spread throughout the whole of North
Africa, about 18^, frequenting in small families the
steepest and most inaccessible crags. It is abund-
ant in the range of the Atlas, tenanting the woods
at a high elevation, and the precipitous rugged
heights usually clothed with forests at their base.
The Aoudad is wonderfully agile, and leaps with
amazing precision to great distances, from ledge to
ledge, and from point to point, over the most elevated
ridges. The old ones are not unfrequently shot by the
Moors of Tunis, Tripoli, and other places, and the
young are occasionally captured alive. It is, however,
very rarely seen in European menageries. A female
some years existed in the gardens of the Zool. Soc.
London, and is the only one we have ever had the
opportunity of examining alive. Fine preserved
specimens are both in the British Museum and that
of the Zool. Soc. This species is clearly delineated
on the monuments of ancient Egypt.
Genus Ovis. — Sheep.
Of all our domestic animals, the sheep is that of
which we have the earliest notice : •' Abel was a
keeper of sheep." It was reclaimed in the primor-
dial era of man's existence on the globe, and we
must look to western Asia as its original habitat.
From this centre it has more or less gradually spread
by the agency of man, and, influenced by climate,
food, and treatment, has ramified into numerous va-
rieties. Naturalists have amused themselves with
conjectures as to the wild stock whence the do-
mestic sheep has descended ; some asserting the
Mouflon of Crete, Corsica, and the islands of the
Grecian Archipelago to be its origin ; others the
Argali of Siberia: others, again, that the European
sheep are the descendants of the Mouflon, the Asi-
atic of the Argali. Mr. BIyth considers it likely
" that more than one wild species have commingled
to form the numerous domestic races," though, as he
adds, certainly none as yet described; and though
so many decidedly distinct wild species have been
added to the genus, we are far from having ascer-
tained the complete number existing, several more
yet remaining to be discovered, upon the lofty table-
lands and snowy mountains of Middle Asia, from the
Caucasus and Taurus to the Altai ; and among them
it is probable there may be some much more nearly
allied to the domestic races than any at present
known. He beUeves that a wild sheep or Argali in
central Persia, noticed by Sir John MacNeill, will
prove upon further investigation to be the wild stock,
or one at least of the wild stocks of the domestic
sheep. This wild Persian species is at present un-
described. When we consider that for several
thousand years the domestic sheep has been subject
to man, and undergone many modifications, we can-
not help doubting as to the recognition of its primi-
tive type ; nay, we even doubt whether that type be
extant. Hector Boethius describes a wild breed of
sheep in the Island of St. Kilda exceeding the largest
goat in size, with heavy massive horns, longer than
those of the ox, and as bulky, and with a tail hang-
ing to the ground. Skulls of sheep, perhaps belong-
ing to this race, occur in peat-bogs ; two of these
crania, one probably that of a male, the other of a
female, which were obtained in Ireland from the
peat, were some time since exhibited to the Geolo-
gical Society. Pennant remarks that such an ani-
mal as Boethius has described is figured on a bas-
relief taken out of the wall of Antoninus near Glas-
gow. These animals, whether they ever existed
Or not, were distinct not only from the Mouflon of
Corsica, but from any other of the wild species as
far as we know them.
In the 'Zool. Proceeds.' 1840, is a paper by Mr.
BIyth, entitled 'An amended list of the genus Ovis,
which is too full of information to be altogether
passed over. We may premise by observing that
Fig. 672 is a sketch of the head of the Armenian
Argali (Ovis Gmelinii, BIyth) ; Figs. 673 and 674 are
drawings of the Mouflon of Corsica (Ovis Musimon).
The species (granting that they are all distinct
from each other) enumerated by Mr. BIyth are the
following, some of which are new to science : —
The Pamir sheep, or Rass (Ovis Polii, BIyth).
" In the narrative of the celebrated Venetian tra-
veller Marco Polo, we read that upon the elevated
plain of Pamir, eastward of Bokhara, and 16,000
feet above the sea-level, wild animals are met with
in great numbers, particularly sheep of a large size,
having horns three, four, and even six palms in
length. The shepherds form ladles and vessels
from them for holding their victuals. They also
construct fences for enclosing their cattle and secur-
ing tlt'em against the wolves, and which likewise
destroy many of the wild sheep. More recently an
animal called the Rasse was indicated, from report,
in Sir A. Burnes's ' Travels in Bokhara,' and its horns
have been since transmitted to the Royal Asiatic
Society, by Lieut. Wood, of Sir A. Burnes's party,
through the medium of G. I. Vigne, Esq." This
pair of horns was labelled Rass or Roosh. Sir A.
Burnes writes : " I have heard of an animal called
Ross by the Kirghises, and Kooshgar by the natives
of the low countries ; but Lieut. Wood, in the narra-
tive of his recent journey to the source of the Oxxis,
distinguishes between the Ross and the Kutchgar,
the former having straight spiral horns, and its
dun-colour being of a reddish tinge. Both are said
to be peculiar to the Pamir. The same writer, speak-
ing of the Kutchgar, says it was a noble animal.
Sheep.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
151
standing as high as a two-year old colt, with a vene-
rable beard, and two splendid curling horns, which,
with the head, were so heavy as to require consider-
able exertion to lift them. Though poor in condi-
tion, the carcass divested of its offal was a load for
a bagsage pony. The Kutchgar is gregarious, con-
gregating in herds of several hundreds ; they are of
a dun colour." This traveller confirms Marco Polo's
narrative : " We saw," he writes, " numbers of the
horns -strewed about in every direction, the spoils of
the Kirghise hunter." " The ends of the horns pro-
jecting over the snow often indicated the direction of
the road, and wherever they were heaped in large
quantities, there our escort recognised the site of a
Kirghise encampment." The flesh is much prized
by these people, who shoot it (the animal) with ar-
rows. " The Rass is said to delight in the coldest
districts ; a common-sized individual will require
two horses to bear its flesh from -the field." The
horns, following their curvature, are nearly five feet
in length. It would appear that the Kutchgar has
yet tobe added to the list of species.
The Siberian Argali (Ovis Ammon). — ^This noble
sheep is described by Pallas.
The Kamtchatkan Argali (Ovis nivicola). — M.
Eschscholtz, who describes this species, states it to
be very numerous on the mountains of Kamtchatka ;
in summer it resides upon the snow-clad heights,
but in winter it descends to the lower regions. Kot-
zebue notices its agility.
America presents us with two species very closely
allied to the Siberian Argali — The Rocky-Mountain
Argali (Ovis Montana), and the Calif'ornian Argali
(O. Californiana, Douglas).
The Nahoor, or Snk, of Thibet (Ovis Nahoor,
Hodgson), a native of the Kachar region of Nepal
and the glaciers of the Himalaya.
The Burrhel (Ovis Burrhel, Blyth), a species allied
to the latter, and inhabiting the highest ridges of the
Himalayan chain, where it " bounds lightly over the
encrusted snows, at an altitude where its human
pursuers find it difficult to breathe. It has the bleat
of the domestic species, as indeed they all have, and
is very shy and difficult of approach. Flocks of ten
or twenty have been observed conducted by an old
male, which make for the snowy peaks upon alarm,
while their leader scrambles up some crag to recon-
noitre, and, if shot at, bounds off a few paces, and
again stops to gaze. They pasture in deep and
hollow grassy glens." A specimen, in the Museum
of the Zoological Society, was shot near the Boo
rendo Pass, at an altitude of about 17,000 feet.
The Caucasian Argali (Ovis cylindricornis, Blyth),
hitherto confounded with the Siberian Argali.
The Armenian Argali (Ovis Gmelinii, Blyth). —
Specimens of this sheep, from Erzeroom, are living
in the Gardens of the Zoological Society. " Accord-
ing to Gmelin, this species is found only in the
highest mountains in Persia. The males, he informs
us, are very quarrelsome amongst each other, inso-
much that he had been at one place where the
ground had been strewed with horns that had been
knocked off in their contests." It is allied to the
Corsican Mouflon. "Sir John MacNeill informed
me that 'it appears to be the common species of the
mountains of Armenia ; occurring likewise on the
north-west of Persia ;' but the wild sheep of the
central parts of Persia is evidently distinct, ' having
horns much more resembling those of the domestic
ram, being spiral, and completing more than one
spiral circle. I think I am not mistaken in sup-
posing,' continues Sir John, ' that I have also had
females of this species brought to me by the huntsman
with small horns, resembling those of the ewes of
some of our domestic sheep ; but, on reflection, I
find that I cannot assert this positively, though I
retain the general impression.' It is highly proba-
ble that a wild type of O. Aries is here adverted to
which would thus inhabit the same ranges of moun-
tains as the wild common goat (C. jEgagrus) ; and
with respect to the circumstanc'e of horns in the fe-
male sex, I may here remark that this character is
very apt to be inconstant throughout the present
group."
The Sha (Ovis Vignei, Blyth), a Mouflon inhabit-
ing the mountains of Little Thibet and the Sulimani
range between India and Khorassan. "Vast num-
bers of this species are driven down by the snow
in winter to the branches of the Indus, where the
river breaks through the chain of the Himalaya."
The wild sheep of the Hindoo Koosh mountains,
described in the 'Journal Asiatic Soc. Beng.' for
lS40, is either this 'or a closely allied species. Its
climbing powers are extraordinary.
The Corsican Mouflon (Ovis Musiraon, Linn.), a
native of Corsica and Sardinia. Speaking of this
sheep, Mr. Blyth remarks — " It has always ap-
peared to me, however, that the specifical distinct-
ness of the Mouflon is very obvious, and I doubt
whether it has contributed at all to the origin of any
tame race. That it interbreeds freely with the lat-
ter, under circumstances of restraint, is well known ;
but we have no information of hybrids, or Umbri,
as they are called, being ever raised from wild Mou-
flons, though the flocks of the latter will occasion-
ally graze in the same pasture with domestic sheep ;
and all but mingle among them. The male of this
animal is denominated in Corsica Mufro, and the
female Mufra, from which BufFon, as is well known,
formed the word Mouflon ; and in Sardinia the male
is called Murvoni, and the female Murva, though it
is not unusual to hear the peasants style both indis-
criminately Mufion, which (as Mr. Smyth remarks,
in his description of that island) is a palpable cor-
ruption of the Greek Ophion. It is sometimes stated,
but I do not know upon what authority, that a few
of these animals are still found upon the mountains
of Murcia."
The Cyprian Mouflon, probably different from the
preceding, and termed by Mr. Blyth O. Aphion.
In this review of Mr. Blyth's paper we have
omitted the Ixalas Probation, Ogilby (of which a
unique specimen exists in the museum of the Zool.
Soc. London, the history of which is obscure), and
the Aoudad (Ovis Tragelaphus, auct.), which we
refer to the goats.
From none of the species here enumerated can
we confidently select the type of the domestic sheep
(Ovis Aries, Linn.).
The Mouflons and Argalis.that is, the wild species
of the genus Ovis, are covered with a harsh kind of
hair, having beneath it at its roots a short spiral
wool, which in winter becomes longer and fuller.
Mr. Bell, indeed, considers the harsh hair as essen-
tially wool in its structure, presenting the imbrica-
tions which the microscope shows to be the cha-
racteristic of wool, and on which its felting property
depends ; and he regards the short under-coat as
composed of hair and not of wool. Mr. Youatt
makes the contrary statement, and notwithstanding
the appearances noticed by Mr. Bell, we incline to
Mr. Youatt's opinion ; for, be it observed, in the
Cashmir and the Angora goats the long outer gar-
ment is hair ; the short under-coat exquisitely fine
wool. In other wool-bearing animals, as the beaver
and otter, the same arrangement prevails ; and we
know, moreover, that in some neglected breeds of
common sheep the wool becomes mixed with long
hairs (not short and fine), which more or less
obscure the wool.
The causes which have rendered the fleece of the
European sheep what we now find it are involved in
obscurity. We attribute much, in the first in-
stance, to the effeets of temperature ; for though
the merino sheep of Spain (a race originally im-
ported from England), and the flocks of Australia
and Southern Africa, are pre-eminent as wool-
bearers, yet it would seem that the predisposition
to develop wool at the expense of hair is acquired
only in temperate, elevated, or even cold climates.
For instance, we learn from Mr. Hodgson that the
wool of the Bhotean domesticated sheep, called
Huniah, is superb, and he adds, the animal is suited
only to the northern district of Nepal, suffering
much from the heat of the central district. (' Zool.
Proceeds,' for 1834, p. 99.) On the other hand, it
is clear that in the early ages of man's history, the
shepherds must have selected for breeding those
individuals on which the wool predominated, and
that, by following up this system, the sheep gradu-
ally attained its present condition, so that a wool-
bearing breed became at length permanently esta-
blished. Originally, perhaps, the sheep, then a
wool-bearer, and long domesticated, was of a brown
or rusty-black colour, a hue still lingering on the
faces and limbs of many of our breeds, and some-
times appearing as the general tint of individuals,
thus conspicuous in the midst of their white-fleeced
companions. Nine out of ten of the sheep of Duk-
hun are black, with short, crisp, coarse wool.
As the primitive fleece of the sheep was a mix-
ture of hair and wool, we cannot be surprised to
find races domesticated in which the hair predomi-
nates over the wool, and that so greatly, that they
may with propriety be termed hairy. Sometimes
the hair is like that of a spaniel dog, long and silky,
and many of the flocks of the Bucharian Tartars
are thus clothed. To this breed may be referred
the Cretan or Wallachian sheep (Ovis Aries, var.
Strepsiceros), common in Crete, Wallachia, Hun-
gary, and the western parts of Asia. (Fig. 675.)
Of this variety a splendid ram from Mount Par-
nassus was presented by Dr. Bowring to the Zool.
Soc. Lond. It was vicious, unruly, and of amazing
strength. Its horns were very large, and spirally
contorted, adding greatly to its striking and pic-
turesque appearance. Its fleece consisted of hair
and wool, the former being of great length, perfectly
straight, close-set, and beautifully fine, falling from
the middle of the back on each side of the animal,
almost to the ground. On the face the hair was
short, and of a rusty black ; on the body it was
white. In general, the horns in the male rise almost
perpendicularly from the skull, making a series of
spiral turns in their ascent, the first turn being the
largest, while in the female they diverge, taking a
lateral direction. In the specimen, however, to
which we have alluded, they extended laterally
from the skull, and after the first turn took a down-
ward sweep ; variations in these points may be ex-
pected in domesticated animals. In some varieties
of the Guinea sheep the hair is coarse and often
shaggy. In the specimens of Guinea sheep figured
(Fig. 676), the limbs are long, the body gaunt, the
ears pendulous, the forehead arched, and two fleshy
excrescences hung from the throat. A smaller
hair-clad breed extends along the Slave Coast.
The Fezzan sheep, of which we have seen examples
in England, closely resemble the Guinea sheep, but
have a pendulous dewlap instead of the tassels of
skin on the throat. They are gaunt, coarse-haired,
ill-formed animals, with high withers like a buffalo.
The males have small horns. -In Madagascar the
sheep are covered with short hair. In Persia, Tar-
tary, and other parts of the East, there has long
existed a singular variety, with a great deposit of
fat on the tail and croup, giving an unsightly ap-
pearance to the animal : the tail itself is short, and
seems buried in the mass on each side ; the body is
generally white, the head and neck black : of the
variety (Ovis Aries, var. Steatopygus) we have seen
specimens in the gardens of the Zool. Soc. Lond.
J ig 677 is a portrait of one of these sheep, with a
Caracal brought from Persia. The fleece of the
sheep consisted of short, coarse wool, mixed with
hair.
Among other strange varieties of sheep may be
here noticed the sheep of Syria and Egypt, with a
long tail loaded with fat, which sometimes even
trails on the ground. This race (Ovis Aries, var.
Macrocercus) is closely allied to the preceding (see
Figs. 678, 679). In the Egyptian animals the tail
is broad throughout, but in the Syrian it narrows to
a point. The ordinary weight of the tail is fifteen
pounds, but in some of the larger kinds, well fat-
tened, the tail will weigh seventy, eighty, and it is
said, even one hundred and fifty pounds. Ludolph
saw in Egypt a sheep's tail of eighty pounds' weight.
This overgrown tail is a great inconvenience to the
animal, and in order to prevent injury to it, the
shepherds are often obliged to fix a thin piece of
board to the under surface of the part that trails on
the ground, to which small wheels aie sometimes
added. Our figures exhibit the Syrian variety with
only a moderate caudal development. The caudal
deposit of fat in these varieties of sheep is oleagi-
nous, being of a consistence between fat and mar-
row, and is often used in the place of butter ; when
the animal is young, this fat is stated to be little
inferior to the best marrow. The long-tailed breed
(var. Macrocercus) is not only found in Arabia,
Syria, and Egypt, but is very numerous in the in-
terior and southern parts of Africa, and is covered
with a mixture of coarse short wool and hair.
Before we proceed to take a general survey of
the more important breeds of our British sheep, we
may observe, that besides the variations to which
we have alluded, respecting fleece and general
form, the horns are subject to great difference of
size and curvature, and are sometimes wanting in
both sexes, sometimes only in the female ; while,
on the contrary, in some breeds the number of horns
is increased beyond the natural allotment.
In Iceland and the Feroe Islands there are two
races of sheep : one of a small size, and of a dun or
rust-black colour ; the other of larger size, and
white. Both these races are remarkable for the
number of their horns, varying from three to eight.
Four, however, is the usual number, as in the draw-
ing of the head. Fig. 680. Of the larger race we
have seen many individuals: they are strongly-
built animals, with a coarse fleece, consisting of
long hair externally, and an under-layer of close
wool, impenetrable by the heaviest rain. The wool,
however, is of little value, being fit only for horse-
cloths and common rugs. These sheep yield an
extrordinary quantity of milk, far superior to that
of any of the southern breeds. Von Troil, in his
' Letters on Iceland,' states that a single ewe will
yield from two to six quarts a day. In the Feroe
Islands is a wild race of sheep, of great antiquity.
They are covered with black, short, curled wool, and
their flesh has a peculiarly dark appearance and
venison-like flavour.
In 1821 Mr. Trevelyan visited the Feroe Islands,
and found the remnants of this wild race, in no way
dependent upoi) or under the control of man. They
are sometimes caught by dogs, but can seldom be
obtained, except by being shot, or intercepted in a
narrow space and driven over the cliffs.
Among the breeds of Europe which have at-
tained to the highest celebrity, and by means of
which, through judicious crossing, the sheep of
Saxony, Prussia, Austria, and England have been
greatly improved as respects the quality of the
fleece, is the far-famed Merino of Spain (Fig. 682).
The term " merino "alludes to the over-sea origin of
the race, and there are good grounds for believing
that these Spanish sheep are originally of British
678.— FM-tailed Sha^ of Syria.
e7S.— detut or'Walltctaini Sheep.
6S4.— DritUh Middle-voolM Sheep.
152
679.— Fat-tiiled Sheep of Syria.
6S2.— Merino Sheep, Male and Female.
67f). — Guinea Sheep.
681 . — Sheep-washing.
'm~'
(83.— Oriental Shepberdi.
085.— British Long-wooUed Sheep.
HT^ XT * T'TTDT? 1
154
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Sheep^
extraction, beine of the old Ryland or Cotswold
stock. Stow and Baker, in their Chronicles, say,
" This yere (1464) King Edward IV. gave a licence
to pass over certain Coltcswolde sheep into Spain."
Baker adds. " King Edward IV. enters into a league
with King John of Arragon, to whom he sent a score
of Costal ewes and four lambs."
There are other breeds of sheep in Spain besides
the Merinos, more or less intermixed with them ;
but of the pure race it is calculated that there are
about ten millions, which, excepting perhaps the
flocks of Leon and Estremadiira, are migiutory,
and termed transhumantes, being periodically con-
ducted from one part of the country to another, and
back again.
These transhumantes are divided into tlocks,
which, under the care of a mayoral, or chief
shepherd, and assistants, migrate from the moun-
tains of the north to the plains of the south in
winter, and return back to the mountains in summer.
The flocks follow the shepherds, who lead the way,
and direct the length and speed of the journey :
a few wethers, perfectly tamed, tread in the foot-
steps of the conducter, and the rest follow in due
order; a powerful breed of dogs accompany the
shepherds in order to defend the tlock from wolves,
and a few mules carry their provision and other
necessaries, as well as materials for making up the
fold at night.
This migratory system is regulated by a tribunal
termed Mesta, which has been of old standing ; it
can be traced back to the middle of the fourteenth
centur)', at which period definite laws with respect
to it were enacted, by which persons were pro-
hibited from travelling along the course of the
route pursued by the flocks while the sheep were in
motion ; it also established a right to graze on all
the open and common land that lay in the way ; and,
moreover, it claimed a path nmefy yards wide,
through all the enclosed and cultivated country.
The journey taken by the Merino flocks is upwards
of four hundred miles, which they accomplish in six
or seven weeks, and the same time is spent in re-
tracing the route, so that in every year about four-
teen weeks (or nearly a quarter) are spent in these
toilsome journeys. Popular prejudice in Spain at-
tributes the superiority of the Merino wool to this
practice — a practice injurious to the agriculturist,
through whose corn-lands and vineyards the flocks
pass, and injurious to the keepers of stationary
sheep ; inasmuch as the common and pasture lands
are completely eaten bare by the multitudes that
slowly pass over them, while wilfully, or through
carelessness, serious damage is done to farms, plan-
tations, fields, and vineyards, for which no redress
can be obtained.
It is, howerer, much to be doubted that the Me-
rino wool owes its superiority, as is asserted by the
Spaniards, to this system. The stationary Merinos
in Leon and Estremadura produce wool equal in
■quality to that of the migratory flocks, and these
are again exceeded by some of the German Merinos,
which never travel ; so that at least the advantages
of the Mesta system have been overrated, while
the evils resulting to the flocks from fatigue, and
the injury done to the lands in their course, have
been treated with indifference.
In Spain, as in the East, from the earliest times,
the shepherd leads his flock. In Italy, in Greece,
and some parts of France, it is still the custom ; and
the reed-pipe of the shepherd may be heard calling
the flock together, or the troop seen following him
as he leads them to their evenmg folding-place.
In Greece it is usual, as formerly, to give names
to the sheep, which they know and will answer,
coming to the shepherd when called. Fig. G83 re-
presents the pleasing spectacle of sheep thus con-
ducted, and on terms of familiarity with their leader,
whose voice they obey, though " they know not the
voice of strangers."
Reverting from foreign sheep to those of our own
island, we may remind the reader that we possess
several different breeds, distinguished by different
qualities, both as regards form and size, and the
characters of the wool. These breeds, or varieties,
are the result of skilful treatment, of pasturage, and
judicious crossings.
We may divide them into three groups : the
short-woolled, the middle-wooUed, and the long-
woolled breeds.
The short-woolled breed formerly included many
varieties, now, from the improvement of their fleece,
to be ranked under the second division, as the
South-Down, Norfolk, and Cheviot sheep. It is at
present, however, represented by the Anglo-Merino
race, to which the sheep of New Holland and Van
Diemen's Land also belong. The average length of
the wool is about two inches and a half, and its tex-
ture is peculiarly fine, soft, and even silky. Short
wool is used in the manufacture of delicate and
beautiful fabrics ; it i.s, however, generally mixed
with wool of a longer staple. The Saxony wool, so
valued for its fineness, comes under the present
division : it is shorter and finer than the Australian
wool, but less silky, the serrations of the fibre being
more numerous, and disposing it to felt more closely.
Hence Saxony wool is the most valuable for the
manufacture of fine broad-cloth.
The average weight of the fleece of the Australian
short-woolled sheep is from three pounds to three
and a half; soaietimes it amounts to five.
" There is no wool," says Mr. Hughes, " which
spins so well as the Australian ; large importations
are annually sent to the British market, at an aver-
age of 2». &rf. per pound. In 1833 the quantify im-
Eorted from New South Wales and Van Diemen's
,and amounted to 3,51G,8G9 pounds."
It has been the object of the British wool-grower
to convert the short-woolled breeds into a race with
wool which, while its length is increased, preserves
its original fineness and delicacy. Thus we have
now, in place of the old short-woolled breeds, a mid-
dle-wooUed race of great value, and of which the
fleece is in the highest request. Fig. C84 represents
several examples of breeds of this race : a, the
Welsh sheep ; ft, the South-Down sheep ; c, the
Dorset sheep; rf, the Black-faced Cheviot sheep;
e, the Norfolk sheen ; /, the Ryland sheep.
The middle-woolled sheep include the South-
Down, the Dorset, the Norfolk, the Sufi'olk, and the
Cheviot breeds, together with several others, and
which were formerly short-woolled. The length of
the staple is, on the average, three and a half or four
inches.
That the improvement of the old short-woolled
sheep into a middle-woolled race is an advantage in
every sense, especially as the short wool used ex-
clusively in the manufacture of fine cloths is abun-
dantly supplied from foreign " growers " (as the term
is), no one can doubt. Of this race, one of the first
is the improved South-Down breed depasturing on
the long range of chalky hills extending from the
sea-coast of the Isle of Thanet, and the cliffs of
Dover, through Kent and Sussex. Formerly this
breed, as Mr. Ellman states (' Library of Agricul-
tural Knovt'ledge '), was a small size, far from possess-
ing a good shape, and late before they were capable
of being fattened ; now, however, they are greatly
improved both in shape and constitution. " They
are smaller in bone, equally hard, with a greater dis-
position to fatten, and much heavier in carcass when
fat. They used seldom to fatten till they were four
years old, but it would be a rare sight to see a pen of
South-Down wethers at market more than two years
old, and many are killed before they reach that
age." The South-Down sheep is in fact the model of
what a hill sheep ought to be, and the flesh in fine-
ness of grain and flavour is peculiarly excellent. The
wool is of a very useful quality, but is both larger in
fibre and' less numerously serrated than the short
Saxony, and does not therefore possess such a felting
power ; hence it is rarely used in the manufacture of
fine broad-cloths. Still from its fineness and felting
powers, compared with the wool of many other
middle-woolled breeds, it is highly esteemed — and
for flannels and worsted goods in general is exten-
sively employed. In Surrey, Hampshire, and Berk-
shire, the South-Downs have either superseded or
been blended with the old short-woolled sheep.
Dorsetshire possesses its own breed, encroached
upon, however, by the South-Downs. The males
have large, spirally-twisted horns, and the females
have also horns, but much smaller than those of the
male. Neither the wool nor the flesh equals that
of the South-Down breed. The old Norfolk breed
of middle-woolled sheep is very valuable, but it is
rapidly giving way to the South-Down. The rams
are distinguished by long spiral horns, those of the
ewes and wethers being smaller; the flesh is re-
markably fine, and the wool delicate, and felts well.
The figure of these sheep is tall and slender; the
legs are long, and the face and limbs black or mot-
tled. The general aspect is wild and animated.
This breed thrives on the coarsest pasturage. The
wool is not used in fine broad-cloths, but is used in
such as are of inferior quality, and in woollen stuffs
generally.
In Suffolk the South-Down breed prevails. The
black-faced and horned sheep of Westmoreland,
Cumberland, and various parts of Scotland, as
Lanarkshire, belong to the middle-woolled section.
With respect to their wool, these sheep do not rank
high ; it exceeds in length that of the middle-woolled
breeds generally, but is harsh and coarse ; to com-
pensate for this these sheep are very hardy, have
an admirable contour, and the flesh in fineness of
grain and delicacy of flavour equals either the South-
Down or the Welsh Mutton.
The Cheviot breed is very distinct from the com-
mon mountain or black-faced race, with which it is
on all sides immediately surrounded, these two
races dividing the north between them.
The Cheviot breed is hornless, and the general
contour is excellent ; the shoulders are full, the
body round and long, and the limbs small-boned.
The mutton is in great esteem ; and the wethers
average sixteen, eighteen, or even twenty pounds
weight per quarter. It appears from the testimony
of practical farmers, that the attention paid to the
improvement of this breed, in reference to the con-
dition of the carcassL, has been followed by a dete-
rioration in the quality of the wool, which is said to
have been formerly capable of entering into the
manufacture of fine cloths. Still, however, the
wool IS good, though inferior to that of the South-
Downs. It far surpasses that of the black-faced
breed, and as the Cheviot race is equally hardv and .
as capable of sustaining cold as the former, and is
content with the alpine plants of the bleak hills and
mountains, it will soon supersede the black-faced
breed, as it has already done in the forest of Ettrick
and the whole of Selkirkshire, and even Sutherland.
The foreknowledge which these sheep possess of
approaching storms, and the assiduity with which,
while the shepherd dreams of no impending evil,
they will seek a place of shelter and security, are
curious traits in their history. It is thus that they
often warn the shepherd, by the display of this
instinct, wisely implanted within them, and lead him
to add his precautions to those which they have
themselves adopted. In spite, however, of the vigi-
lance of the shepherd and the instinct of the sheep,
many often perish, buried beneath towering snow-
drifts, and sometimes whole flocks are lost. It often
happens that sufficient shelter cannot be obtained,
the flock crowd together for the purpose of mutual
warmth, and are soon covered beneath the snow.
If this does not occur, the lambs, unable to endure
the severity of the storm, perish, and the mothers,
bewildered, wander about seeking their offspring,
till they themselves sink exhausted with their eflbrts
and distress. With but little food sheep can re-
main for many days buried beneath the snow ; but
where this cannot be obtained, the period of endu-
rance is proportioned to the strength of the animal's
constitution and the intensity of the cold. In the
winter of 1800, a sheep ne.ar Kendal was buried
in the snow for thirty-three days and nights, without
the possibility of moving, and yet survived ; and a
sheep in Cumberland was buried for thirty-eight
days. When extricated it was found to have eaten
the wool off" both its shoulders, and its frame was
reduced almost to a skeleton. By due attention,
however, it gradually recovered.
Having thus specified some of the more important
of the middle-woolled breeds of sheep in our island,
most of them, or all, derived from the old short-
woolled breeds by a system of judicious manage-
ment, we shall now take a hasty survey of the long-
woblled breeds. (Fig. 685.)
As we have already stated, the middle-wool varies
in different breeds, in fineness and in its power of
felting. Long wool is much more uniform, and for
this reason, that it is the produce of the Leicester
race, and of races with which the Leicester race
has become completely intermingled. " All long-
woolled sheep," says Mr. Youatt, " both in appear-
ance and in fleece, are becoming one family."
Long wool, which has lately very much improved, it
being the aim of the breeder to render it finer (at
the expense of its length, which it will bear), is
characterised by strength and transparency, but it is
deficient in the power of felting. Its average length
is about eight inches. This applies more particu-
larly to that sort called the long-combing vnooI ;
there is, however, a variety of long wool which
approximates to the middle wool, and termed the
short-combing wool, which is somewhat shorter
than the other, finer, and more disposed to felt.
The long-combing wool is used in the manufacture
of hard yarn and for purposes in which length and
firmness are essential ; the other for stuffs of a
softer texture, and for hosiery goods. We have
alluded to the Leicester breed as the typical exam-
ple of the long-fleeced races, but it is to be observed
that this breed is an improvement upon the heavy,
ill-made, and coarse-vvoolled race, formerly spread
over all our midland counties. Lincolnshire also
had a breed of sheep celebrated for their fine long
wool ; but this breed, defective in form, and yield-
ing mutton of inferior quality, is now greatly im-
proved, and in fact is blended with the new Leices-
ter sheep.
It is not within our province to follow out the
changes which have already taken and are still
taking place among the long-woolled breeds of sheep
for which our island is expressly celebrated, and in
which neither France ijor Belgium can at all com-
pete with the English sheepgraziei-s. To those who
wish to gain an acquaintance with this part of the
subject, we recommend Mr. Youatfs valuable work
on sheep, where they will find much information and
abundant reference to various writers on agricul-
tural toi)ics.
There, is, however, one question which suggests
itself, and which we cannot omit to notice. As far
as records serve us, it would seem that a long-
woolled and a short-woolled (now middle-woolled)
race of sheep have tenanted our island from the
Oxen .J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
155
earliest times. Now, to what are we to attribute this
original difference ? Are the two races descended
from different primitive sources, or have food and
soil gradually produced the differences which have
been so long maintained ? No one, we think, will
hesitate to say the latter ; impossible as it may be
to follow step by step the progress of the change, or
to determine the modus operandi of the causes con-
tributing to effect it. It is, however, very remark-
able that it is only in animals which have been so
long domesticated that we cannot tell their primeval
origin, and which there is reason to think are fac-
titious beings (that is, the produce of different, but
still closely-allied species commingling together),
that these extreme variations as to size, figure, and
length and quality of fur are most decidedly observ-
able. We see these varieties in the dog — from the
silky long-haired spaniel of Spanish race to the
close-haired old setter of the saine country ; from
the woolly French poodle to the matin ; from the
rough English water-dog to the mastiff: so in the
sheep we find a short-fieeced breed, with the fila-
ments of the wool peculiarly fine and numerously
serrated ; a still longer-fleeced breed, again sub-
divided into many minor varieties, and having the
wool fine, and more or less capable of felting, or,
in other words, more or less numerously serrated ;
and a long-woolled race of old standing, in which
the wool, but thinly serrated, is inferior in felting
properties, but of great value to the woolcomber.
But further, as the mixture of a long and silky-
haired breed of dogs with one of close hair does not
improve the coat, the young resembling some the
male, some the female, but not equalling them in
their excellences ; so the crossing of long-woolled
and short-wooUed sheep leads to no good results ;
and, as with dogs, the improvement of each breed
depends on a judicious and careful selection of the
best and purest of that breed, by which the proper-
ties distinguishing it may be developed to their
maximum in their progeny.
In England the sheep is now only valuable for
the sake of its wool and flesh ; but in various parts
of both Europe and Asia the milk of the ewe has
been used from the earliest times, either pure or
curdled, as an article of diet. Formerly, in many
parts of England, cheese was made from the milk of
the ewe, and the ewes, to the injury of the lambs,
were milked regularly, as described in the 'Odyssey,'
and, at a later era, by Virgil ; —
" He next betakes him to hU evening cares.
And sittini; down, to mitk his ewes prepares ;
Of half tlieir udders eases first ttie dams.
Then to tlie mothers' teats submits tlie lamlis.
Half the white stream to hardenintj cheese he preas'd,
And high in wicker baskets heap'd ; the rest,
Ileserved in bowls, supplied the mighty feast."
Pope, Odyss., lib. ii.
To the process of shearing we need scarcely
allude ; all are familiar with the manner in which
the removal of the fleece is effected, and it would
seem that in the earliest patriarchal ages the same
process was in use. Among the Romans, however
(and the practice has been but lately discontinued
in the Orkney Islands, and is, perhaps, still preva-
lent in Iceland), the wool was torn off the animals,
and, as Pliny states, they were kept for three days
previously without food, in order that the wool
might be the more easily detached, their bodies
being exhausted. In his time, however, the prac-
tice of shearing had begun to supersede this cruel
and unjustifiable method. It gave, however, origin
to the word vellus (fleece), from lello (to pull away),
and the hill termed Velleia was the ancient spot on
which this craelty was perpetrated.
With us the season of sheep-shearing is a season
of rejoicing, and the manner in which the important
work is conducted, and the dexterity of the shearers,
arc, to those not accustomed to rural life, replete
with interest and amusement. It is, indeed, a
pleasing spectacle to see a large flock of snow-
white sheep collected together, and in turn losing
their soft fleece, rolled into an unbroken and well-
arranged whole, beneath the shears of the shearer :
the picture is full of poetry, and he must be destitute
alike of taste and patriotism that can look coldly
upon it. Our sketch (Fig. 681) is a spirited repre-
sentation of sheep-washing for the purpose of cleans-
ing the fleece preparatory to shearing.
To enter into a disquisition on the commercial
importance of the sheep, its connexion with national
prosperity and international relationships, is not
our place. We leave this to the political econo-
mist.
Before we close, let us again revert to our start-
ing-point— the question as to the origin of the
domestic sheep. It is clear that we cannot identify
it with any wild species with which we are yet ac-
quainted. If such exists, it is most probably to be
found on the mountains of Armenia — but this is
problematical ; and there is some ground for sup-
posing that, though the sheep of every region inter-
mingle with each other, they have descended from
different primitive origins. The subject is full of !
obscurity. It is, indeed, strange that while history
teems with the accounts of battles, massacres, inva-
sions, the reigns and the crimes of kings, it throws
no light upon the domestic animals which man has
reclaimed. The motives which led man to attempt
this important work, the manner in which he accom-
plished it, the characters and native abodes of the
species selected, are buried in silence. The subject
was too mean for history — the actors too humble to
be noticed ; but thus it ever is, that the glare of
mighty deeds effaces the record of the useful, the
beneficent, and the truly great.
Genus Bos, Oxen. — Horns in both sexes. Nei-
ther suborbital sinus, interdigital fossae, nor in-
guinal pores. Teats in females four. The animals
of this genus are, with some few exceptions, the
largest and most massive of the hollow-horned
Ruminants ; their limbs are low and strong, their
body heavy, with wide haunches, and thick and
often elevated shoulders ; the head is large, and
furnished with horns common to both sexes ; their
progressive increase being marked by annuli at the
base. They sheathe a hollow or cancellous bony
core, continued from the sides of a bold frontal
ridge. The forehead or chaffron is expanded ; the
muzzle, except in the subgenus Ovibos, is broad,
naked, and moist ; the neck is thick, deep, com-
pressed laterally, carried horizontally, and furnished
with a pendent dewlap. The spinous processes of
the anterior dorsal vertebrae, at the withers, are
very long and stout. Fig. 686 represents the Den-
tition of the Ox, in two views of the upper and
under jaw; Fig. 687 is a very characteristic deli-
neation of the Skeleton of the English short-horned
Cow ; and Fig. 688 is a representative of the osseous
structure of the Fore-foot (a) and of the Hind-foot (6)
of the Ox. All the Ox group are gregarious in their
habits, and no quarter of the globe is destitute of its
indigenous species, existing in a state of freedom,
tenanting the deep glades of the forest, or roaming
over hills or plains : —
" Villosi ter<ra Bisontes
Latisque feri cornibus Uri."
The Genus Bos may be subdivided into the fol-
lowing minor groups, or subgenera: Bos, Anoa,
Bubalus, Bison, and Ovibos. Of each of these minor
sections our pictorial museum contains most inter-
esting examples.
The Ox (Bos Taurus) is now only known as a
domesticated animal, spread far and wide through
almost every region of the globe, contributing by
its services and products to the well-being of man.
Although referred to as a domestic animal in the
earliest ages by the author of the Mosaic record,
impenetrable darkness hangs over its primeval his-
tory, nor know we what is its wild origin, nor whether
that origin is in existence.
Temperature, soil, food, a thousand circumstances
operating through the revolutions of years, have
combinetl to effect a series of modifications in the
ox ; every country possesses its peculiar races, and
these races, by their intermixture, are perpetually
producing others, so that it is impossible to say to
what extent these changes may be carried, and how
far the original type has become already modified.
Certain it is that we are acquainted with no animal
in a state of original independence to which we
can refer as the primitive type of the ox. It is
true, however, that within the period of authentic
history certain wild oxen existed in Europe ; but it
is not to Europe what we must look as the cradle of
the domestic ox, nor indeed are the accounts left
us of these oxen reconcilable with any of them
being specifically identical with our domestic race,
which mdeed, when we look at the Zebu breeds,
seems to claim more than one source. One of these
wild animals was termed by the ancients Uius
(latis cornibus), and another Bison (jubatus, or vil-
losus) ; we have also an animal described under the
name of Bonasus (Jiovaaaot or Tiovaaoe, Aristotle).
A few observations on these animals may not be
uninteresting. The Urns, which existed in the
Hercynian forest, is thus described by Caesar : " These
uri are little interior to elephants in size, but are
bulls in their nature, colour, and figure. Great is
their strength, and great their swiftness; nor do
they spare man or beast when they have caught
sight of them. These, when trapped in pitfalls, the
hunters unsparingly kill. The youths, exercising
themselves by this sort of hunting, are hardened by
the toil, and those among them who have killed
most, bringing with them the horns as testimonials,
acquire great praise. But these uri cannot be
habituated to man, or made tractable, not even
when young. The great size of the horns, as well
as the form and quality of them, differs much from
the horns of our oxen. These, when carefully se-
lected, they ring round the edge with silver, and use
them for drinking at their ample feasts." Perhaps
the wild bulls with horns of extraordinary size which
Herodotus assures us inhabited Macedonia, as well
as did the lion, were uri.
The Bison jubatus of Pliny. — This species, re-
garded by Cuvier and most naturalists as identical
with the Bonasus of Aristotle, is considered, and
perhaps with reason, as referable to the Aurochs or
Zubr (Bos urus of modern naturalists, not Urus
of Caesar) still existing in the wild forests of Lithu-
ania. In Europe and Siberia the fossil crania of
an aurochs are not uncommon, and these skulls,
though they scarcely differ in anything from the
Uthuanian animal, Cuvier inclines to believe may
be of a different, though closely-allied species. He
gives the figures of a skull in the Pans museum,
here copied (Fig. 689, front view ; Fig. 690, lateral
view), so like, as he observes, to the living aurochs,
that the most practised eye can scarce'v distinguish
it ; and also so fresh, that he is in doubt whether n
be really a fossil relic, or, on the contrary, recent,
owing its fossil appearance to having been much
weathered. Mr. Lyell states tliat the bones of the
aurochs (or bison) have been found in the North
Cliff in the county of York, in a lacustrine forma-
tion, in which .all the land and fresh-water shells,
thirteen in number, can be identified with species
and varieties now existing in that county. To
return to the urus of Caesar and the ancients.
We have stated this animal to be characterized by
the immensity of its horns, and its vast stature, in
which former particular it differs materially from
the ancient full-maned bison, or Lithuanian aurochs.
This urus no longer, as it would appear, exists; but
fossil skulls of a species far exceeding the largest
domestic ox in magnitude, with the core of massive
horns, are abundant in the superficial strata of
Europe. This species is termed by Cuvier Bos
primigenius ; and he carefully distinguishes the
skull from that of the fossil aurochs. In a specimen
found at Melksham, and described by Mr. Woods,
the cores of the horns measured at their widest
expansion upwards of four feet ; we may easily
conceive what must have been the expansion of the
horns themselves : the skull, destitute of the lower
jaw, and not perfect otherwise, weighed sixty-three
pounds. Larger specimens, however, have been
discovered. Fig. 691 represents a front view of the
skull of Bos primigenius ; Fig. 692, a palatal view ;
Fig. 693, a back view ; Fig. 694, a profile.
This extinct species Cuvier regards as the type
of the domestic ox, in which opinion Mr. Bell and
most naturalists coincide, at the same time that
they consider the " celebrated white wild oxen of
Craven, of Chillingham Park, and Scotland, as
specifically the same with the common ox ; on the
contrary. Col. Hamilton Smith and Mr. Swainson
regard the white ox of Chillingham Park (Bos Seo-
ticus of some authors) as distinct from the common
ox. The former regards the Chillingham ox as a
white variety of the fossil species Bos primigenius ;
while Mr. Swainson believes it to be the descendant
of a smaller species belonging to the same genus as
the Bos primigenius or ancient urus, of which " the
skulls exhibit the type of a form essentially different
from that of the domestic ox."
"All these skulls,' he continues, "are nearly
one-third larger than those of the Bos Taurus ; they
are square from the orbits to the occipital crest and
somewhat hollow at the forehead. The horn.s placed
at the side of the above crest, show a peculiar rise
from their roots upwaids ; then bending outwards,
and then forwards and inwards. No domestic races
show this turn ; but numerous specimens of inferior
sizes, found fossil in the Cornish mines, have this
shape, and the wild bull of Scotland, the only ex-
ample of this type now known to exist, retains it.
The domestic oxen, on the contrary, of whatsoever
country oi- breed they may be, have the square con-
cave forehead, with the horns rising from the ends
of the frontal ridge It appears then that
the ancient urus, or wild bull, was a perfectly
wild, savage, and untameable animal : not only does
every account handed down from remote antiquity
assure us of this, but it is even verified by the only
living example of this form we possess, the Bos
Scoticus, still preserved in one ortwoof the northern
parks. Although domesticated so far as to live
within such precincts without absolute unprovoked
violence to its keepers, it retains essentially all the
savage characters ascribed to the more powerful
species mentioned by the ancients."
Now, as to the specific identity of the white oxen
of Chillingham with our ordinary breed, we have
no doubt on the subject ; in size, form, and aspect
they resemble the finer breeds of black cattle, and
the query is, not — Are they distinct i* but — Are they
the descendants of a wild breeil, or, on the contrary,
the descendants of domesticated individuals, which
have resumed their wild character, " from having
ceased to feel through many srenerations the effects
of human domination '■ " We suspect the latter.
With regard to C'uvier's Bos primigenius, granting
it to be the urus of Csesar, we are not quite so sure
that it was the wild type of the domestic ox. Its
vast size, and the extraordinary magnitude of the
horns, to say nothing of its ferocity, and the pro-
bability that it is to Central Asia, rather than to the
X2
156
698.— Yorluhiie Cow.
699.— English Domestic Cattle.
697. -EngUih Ball.
7U0.— Cattle and Drorer.
167
158
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Oxen.
wild forests of Central Europe, that we ought to
look for the type of the domestic race (or races ?),
are sufficient to induce a doubt.
The term urus is evidently identical with the
terms aurr, ur, auerochs, ure-ox, the root also of
the wordtaurus; and we atrree with Mr. Woods
in the belief that the aurochs, or ure-ox, of the
ancient Germans, was the unis of Ceesar, but that
the word, on the extinction of that animal, bocame
transferred to the bison of the ancients, now known
as the aurochs, and also under names derived from
a different root, as zubr (Lithuanian), zimbr (Molda-
vian), bison, vison, wisont, and wisant, whence bo-
nasus, monasus, &c.
Besides the Bos primigenius, the following fossil
species of ox have been named : — Bos trochocerus
(Hermann von Meyer), subapennine beds; Bos
(Bison) priscus (Bonjanus), Bu£9e fos^ile de Sibcrie
(Cuv.). uos latifrons (Harlan), Broad-headed fossil
Bisnn and Bison fossilis, ' diluvium ' of Europe and
North America, bone-caves and bone breccias ; Bos
(Bison ?) bombifrons (Harlan\ Big-bone-lick, North
America ; Bos Pallasii (Dekay), I3os moschatus fos-
silis ? Bos canaliculatus (Fischer) ? Siberia and North
America; Bos velaunus (Robert), Cussac, Haute
Loire.
Abundant remains of the ox were foimd by Capt.
Cautley in the Sewalik Mountains, at the southern
foot of the Himalayas, between the Sutlej and the
Gantres, partly lying on the slopes among the ruins
of fallen cliffe, and partly in situ in the sandstone,
in company with the bones of mastodon, elephant,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hog, horse (compara-
tively scarce), elk, deer, several varieties ; carnivora,
canine and feline (comparatively scarce) ; crocodile,
gavial, emys, trionyx, and fishes. There were also
portions of undescribed mammalia.
695, 696. — ^The Wild White Cattle of
Chillingham Park
(Bos Taunts, var. Scoticus). Having thus intro-
duced this beautiful breed of cattle to our readers'
notice, we shall proceed to a few interesting details
respecting its history.
Mr. Youatt, in his admirable work on cattle
(' Library of Useful Knowledge '), clearly expresses
his belief in the identity of the wild breed with our
domestic races, and adds that the slightest observa-
tion will convince us that the cattle in Devon,
Sussex, Wales, and Scotland are essentially the
same breed changed by soil and climate, yet little
changed by the intermeddling of man. " Every
one who has had opportunities of comparing the
Devon cattle with the wild breed of ChStelherault
Park, or Chillingham Castle, has been struck with
the great resemblance in many points, notwith-
standing the difference in colour." In another place
the same writer says : " To the Principality we na-
turally look for some trace of the native breed of
cattle, for the Welsh were never entirely subdued
by any of the early invaders. The Romans pos-
sessed merely a portion of the country ; the Saxons
scaicely penetrated into Wales, or not beyond the
county of Monmouth. The Welsh long resisted the
superior power of the English under the Norman
kings, and it was not till late in the thirteenth
century that the Principality was annexed to the
crown of England. We therefore expect to find
more decided specimens of the native productions
of our own island, nor are we altogether disap-
pointed. Howell Dha, or Howell the Good, de-
scribes some of the cattle in the tenth century as
being white with red ears, resembling the wild cattle
of Chillingham Castle. An early record speaks of
a hundred white cows with red ears being demanded
as a compensation for certain offences against the
princes both of North and South Wales. If the
cattle were of a darker black colour, a hundred and
fifty were to be presented. When the Cambrian
princes did homage to the king of England, the
same number of cattle, and of the same description,
were rendered in acknowledcment of sovereignty.
Speed tells us that Maud de Breos, in order to ap-
pease King John, whom her husband had offended,
sent to his queen a present from Brecknockshire of
four hundred cows and a bull, all white with red
ears. Whether this was the usual colour of the
ancient breed of Welsh and British cattle, or a rare
variety esteemed on account of its beauty, and
chiefly preserved in the parks of the nobles, we are
unable lo determine. The latter is the most pro-
bable supposition ; and the same records that de-
scribe the white cattle with red ears, speak also of
the dark or black coloured breed which now exists,
and which is general throughout the Principality."
As a further point in favour of the probability of the
white wild cattle being specificallv the same as our
domestic races, we select the following quotation
from the work above referred to: "The colours of
the improved short-horns are red or white, or a
mixture of the two, combining in endless variety,
and producing very frequently a most brilliant
effect. The white, it is very probable, they obtained
from an early cross with the wild breed, and when-
ever this colour shows itself it is accompanied more
or less with a red tinge on the extremity of the ear,
a distinctive character also of the wild cattle."
Are then the wild cattle of ChStelherault Park,
Lanarkshire, or Chillingham Park, Lime Hall, Che-
shire, and other places, the descendants, as Mr.
Youatt seems to infer, of these white cattle of
ancient race, so valued in early times; or are they
descendants of the wild breea which at an early
period tenanted the great forests of our island, and
which, as the forests became cleared and the land
cultivated, were gradually thinned, till at length
their remnant found in the chase or park of the
nobleman that safety which as old denizens of the
soil they might well claim, and but for which the
breed would long since have been utterly extirpated ?
Again, was the wild breed which roamed the Cale-
donian forest, and the great forest north of London,
so late as the latter part of the twelfth century, and
mentioned by Fitzstephen, identical with the white
Cambrian breed ? These are questions more easily
asked than solved. One thing is certain — the wild
cattle of Chillingham will breed with the domestic
race, but the progeny has never been preserved, the
calves having been always killed at an early age,
from a pardonable desire to keep this ancient race
in all its purity ; we fii-mly believe, however, that
the cross-breed would be as fertile as any of our
domestic varieties.
The author of the article Bos in the ' British
Cyclopaedia ' is of opinion that the white cattle in
question are domesticated oxen which have run
wild ; and, moreover, that they are not descended
from an aboriginal stock, but that the race was
originally imported by the ecclesiastics from Italy,
where herds of wild cattle much resembling them
still exist. In this, as in all other theories, authen-
ticated facts as our basis are wanting.
The Chillingham wild cattle are invariably of a
creamy white colour with a black muzzle ; the whole
of the inside of the ears, and the tip externally, are
red ; the horns are white, with black tips, very fine
and bent upwards. Some of the bulls have a thin
upright mane, an inch and a half or two inches long.
The weight of the oxen is from 35 to 45 stone the
four quarters (14 lbs. to the stone) ; that of the cows,
from 25 to 35 stone. The beef is finely marbled
and of excellent flavour.
These cattle are fleet and active : " At the first
appearance of any person they set off in full gallop,
and at the distance of about two hundred yards
make a wheel round and come boldly up again,
tossing their heads in a menacing manner ; on a
sudden they make a full stop at the distance of forty
or fifty yards, looking wildly at the object of their
surprise ; but upon the least motion being made
they all again turn round and fly off' with equal
speed, but not to the same distance, forming a
shorter circle ; and, again returning with a bolder
and more threatening aspect than before, they ap-
proach much nearer, probably within thirty yards,
when they again make another stand, and then fly
off: this they do several times, shortening their dis-
tance and advancing nearer and nearer till they
come within such a short distance that most people
think it proper to leave them, not choosing to, pro-
voke them further."
The females hide their calves for a week or
ten days after birth in some sequestered situation,
and visit them two or three times a day. If any
person approach the calves, they crouch close, like
a hare in form , and endeavour to hide themselves, but
when roused exhibit great fury, pawing, bellowing,
and butting at the intruder; the females are resolute
in the defence of their young, and attack persons
discovered near their lair with impetuous ferocity.
Formerly the hunting of these animals was con-
ducted with great par.ade, many scores assembling
on horseback, and iuindreds on foot, to witness the
sport ; but from the number of accidents that hap-
pened, and perhaps from the disturbance created
among the game, this practice has been long dis-
continued. The keeper now uses a rifle, and steals
upon the animal selected, until within range, and
drops it at a single shot.
697 to 702. — English Domestic Cattle
(Bos Taurus). To describe the form, contour, and
colour of the domestic ox is superfluous; and all
know that within the precincts of our fertile island,
affording unequalled pasturage, the animal has ra-
mified into many breeds, which it has been the care
of the farmer to improve and modify to his own
advantage. Excepting in a few districts, the ox is
not employed in our country as a beast of draught,
or for the labour of the plough, which it was in an-
cient times on the Continent, and still is in many
countries; on the contrary, it is for its flesh on the
one hand, and its milk on the other, that this animal
is so valuable ; indeed, everywhere the true import-
ance of the ox is in itself and not its labour, though
in many parts of the world it is used both as a beast
of burden and draught. Restricting our present
observations to British cattle, we may observe that
there are two parties immediately, and we may say
professionally, interested in the culture of cattle —
the grazier and the dairy-farmer; and both require
different and, to a certain degree, incompatible ex-
cellences. With the grazier, roundness of form, a
moderate sraallness of bone, depth of chest, and an
aptitude to acquire external fat upon a small con-
sumption of food, are among the points of excel-
lence aimed at and expected. On the contrary, the
supply of a large quantity of rich milk is the desi-
deratum of the dairy-farmer; and it very seldom
happens that the qualities prized by tlie one party
are combined with those required by (he other :
both therefore attend to their exclusive interests,
agreeing only in the caie bestowed upon the ani-
mals subservient to their respective purposes. To
note every variety and enter into minutiic — the part
rather of the farmer than the naturalist — is far iiom
being our object; a sketch, however, of some of the
principal breeds will not be uninteresting as an
accompaniment to the pictorial specimens be-
fore us.
Among the older breeds was a long-horned race,
now greatly modified, of which Lancashire and the
West Riding of Yorkshire might be considered as
the central district ; whence it extended, not to the
exclusion of other races, through the midland coun-
ties, and even into Ireland. This breed was termed
the Craven, from a district of that name in York-
shire, bordering upon Lancashire, where it is said
to have originally appeared. This breed was large,
coarse boned, and apt to be long in the body, which
besides was destitute of roundness. The milk, if not
abundant in quantity, was extremely- rich, and suited
the purpose of the dairy-farmer. The horns were of
enormous length; sometimes they projected hori-
zontally on each side of the head ; generally, how-
ever, they swept downwards, with an inward fiexure,
often reaching below the level of the muzzle, or
even meeting before it, so as to interfere with the
facility of grazing : we have indeed often seen the
points press against the sides of the muzzle, render-
ing it necessary to shorten them. In the beginning
of the eighteenth century various agriculturists
commenced a series of attempts towards the im-
provement of this old breed, which resulted in the
establishment of the Dishley or new Leicester long-
horn. To the grazier the improvement was most
immediately beneficial, but the dairyman preferred
the old stock. In process of time, however, the new
breed extended, improving the cattle of the middle
and northern counties, and especially of Ireland.
In its turn, however, this breed has almost every-
where yielded to a middle or short-horned race, and
even in Leicestershire, the stronghold of the Dishley
breed, few are now to be seen. In Cheshire also
— which till recently retained a long-horned breed
derived chiefly from the old Lancashire and new
Dishley stocks — the Durham or short-horned race
has made decided inroads, but with doubtful advan-
tage as respects the quality of the cheese for which
that county is celebrated.
Among the long-horned race must be reckoned
the old Shropshire breed, a large-boned and hardy
race, well fitted to serve the dairy. It would apjiear
that this breed is seldom to be seen pure, having
been crossed with advantage by the short-horned
Holderness. In Staffordshire tlie old long-horned
breed has been in most parts superseded by short-
horned cattle ; it still, however, maintains its ground
in the north of that county, more particularly along
the banks of the Trent, and the Dove, close to the
borders of Derbyshire. Between the long-horned
and the short-horned races of our cattle intervenes
a race termed '• middle-horns," represented by the
North Devonshire, Somersetshire, Herefordshire,
Gloucestershire, and Sussex cattle.
The Devonshire breed is of great antiquity, and
has been long celebrated for beauty ; like most of
our other breeds it has become improved during the
last 50 or GO years, and has perhaps now attained to
its perfection" The head of the Devon ox is small,
but broad across the forehead and narrow at the
muzzle ; the horns curve gracefully upwards, the
chest is deep, and the back straight. The cow is
small compared with the bull.
The system of ploughing with oxen is very gene-
rally practised in Devonshire, and where the land is
not too heavy, no teams of oxen are superior, if
equal, to these in this kind of work. It is, however,
to the grazier that this breed is more especially
valuable, few oxen rivalling the Devonshire in dis-
position to fatten and in the quality of the flesh.
Generally speaking, this breed is inferior to many
others for the dairy, not indeed as respects the
quality of the milk— for it yields a more than average
proportion of cream and butter— but the quantity.
Some farmers, however, have found the North
Devons to yield even a large produce of milk, so
that in this particular much may depend on choice
of pasturage.
Oxen.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
In Soraereetshire the Devon breed prevails, or at
least the original breed has been greatly crossed by
the Devon of which it presents most of the excel-
lences. The Somersetshire cattle are ahke valu-
able lor '-the pail, the plough, and grazin.' " The
tract of country between Bridgewater and Cross
produces cheese of well-known excellence; the best
Cheddar cheese is made either in that tract or the
marshes round Glastonbuiy.
The Hereford improved breed, with white faces,
IS valuable as fattening rapidly, and that on inferior
lare ; ttie ilesh is flne-grained, and highly prized in
the market : the cows, however, yield but a scanty
portion of milk. In Gloucestershire the Hereford's
are preferred for the team, and by graziers for fat-
tening ; but the old Gloucester breed for milk
This old breed is of mixed origin, consisting of a
race of Welsh descent, as is supposed, crossed by
various others, and among them the Alderney. The
rich Vale of Berkeley produces the iinest Gloucester
cheese.
The breed of cattle in Sussex closely resembles
that of Devonshire : according to judges it is inter-
mediate between the Devon and Hereford, " having
the activity of the first, the strength of the second
and the propensity to fatten and the beautiful fine-
grained flesh of both." Its colour is deep chestnut
red, or blood-bay, and a deviation from these colours
indicates a cross. In the Weald of Sussex oxen of
this valuable stock are generally used for team-
work ; and so great is their strength and quickness
that many teams have been known to travel with
heavy loads fifteen miles a-day, for several successive
weeks and that without distress. The Sussex cow I
as IS the case with the Devon and Hereford is verv
inferior in size to the bull ; and though the milk
yielded is good, it is of trifling quantity
A valuable breed of middles-horned cattle extends
through South Wales, and of this the Glamorgan-
shire variety is highly celebrated. The oxen are
oTmilk ""'' ''"' ''°"'' ^'''''^ ^ '''''■ quantity
Fig. 6D9 presents specimens of the following
breeds :-a, the old Craven bull ; b, the Shropshirl
ox ;c, the new Leicester bull; d, the Devon cow;
e the Hereford bull;/ the Hereford cow; a the
bussex cow. -'
The most extensively difi-used breed of cattle on
our IS and, and by far the most valuable, is that
i*;™!! V I''*^°'''^,'l''"'=''°"' *he shoit-horned, and
01 which the central bull in Fig. 701 is an example
presenting every point in the highest excellency
_ Of his breed England may justly be proud; in it
IS united a,s far as possible every good quality. The
term is admirable; the oxen fatten quickly, and
often attain to an enormous weight, and the cows
are excellent as milkers.
It would appear that Durham and some parts of
Yorkshire had long possessed a breed of short-
iiorned cattle of large size, and celebrated for the
quanti y of milk yielded by the cows , but this breed
not only in figure, but in aptitude to fatten and in
J^!„,^"tl''-'' °^ **!" '*"'''' '«1"'^«'l ?«at improve-
ment, other races lar excelling it in these points, so
important to the grazier. This stock still lin-ers
and IS certainly valuable to the dairy farmer, who
might however, substitute the improved breed for it
with advantage. It is about 80 years since the im-
proved f ock of this old but really fine breed beg^n
to be established on the banks of the Tees, ow!n"
to the judgment and care of the intelligent breeder
of that district. It diff-ers from the old short hom^
n possessing a well-developed figure, and in apti-
i^..?l. ° ""T^'.u'- ^\^ *f ' ^'^P °f ™Provemen ,
resulting from the practical knowledge of Mr Mill
Dank and other coadjutors, opened the way for the
successful exertions of subsequent spirited breeders
who, by pursuing a judicious plan in crossing, have
brought the breed to the highest pitch of perfection
tZZ^ hT ""^^f".,!' 's supposed that the white
wild breed has contnbuted a share, and to this cir
cumstance is attributed the prevalence of white as'
characteristic of the stock. i^i wniie as
Among the most successful of improvers was Mr
hi'K^ '"^Ju"*"" '"■^'^ "'^ celebrated Durham ox ex-
hibited in the years 1801-5-6, the produce of one of
the ordinary short-horned cows and a bull termed
Favourite of noble figure. At five years old!Tays
the excellent author of the work on cattle "the
Durham ox was sol.l to Mr. Bulmer, of Ha'rmley
J!?; Bed^'e. for public exhibition, at the price ^f
t40/. This was in February, 1801. He was at that
•mie computed to weigh 168 stones of 14 lbs Ws
wllhTd"!' '""'-' -'" ^•°"'=«-- *'>- extraordinary
weight did not arise Irom his superior size, but from
the excessive ripeness of all his points." The Dur-
ham ox in a short time passed into the possession of
Mr J, Day, who travelled with him through the
Ox?or'rthrith°'A"^,'""^ ""'^ Scotland, ^till at
his h Ihnl I "^ i'^'^^fy- IW, he dislocated
his hip-bone and continued in that state till the 15th
of April, when he was obliged to be slaua-htPrprl
and. notwithstanding he must have l^t consfderabi;
w3<.H ,h Z'^''* ^^^^^ "f '""«'^' his carcass
weighed, the four quarters 165 stones 12 lbs., tallow
11 stones 2 lbs., and hide 10 stones 2 lbs
Among the most remarkable of Mr. Colline's ex-
periments in breeding, was that of a cross bftween
the improved short-horns and a polled Galloway
cow, which being interbred with the pure short^
horned stock, gave origin to a breed called the
Alloy a term at first given by way of disparage-
ment, but continued afterwards when the exc'el-
iences ot the breed were acknowledged. Some idea
saleof'MrV'^In^'^?'^"^^'^.''™'"*'^'^ '■^''f' 'hat at a
sale of Mr. Colling s cattle forty-eight animals (cows,
bu k yejir-old bu l-calves, and heifer-calves) realized
sand guineas '"" "'""^'^ ^"""^^ '"''^ "'^ ^ "">"-
Of the Alloy breed was the stock, or part of the
stock, of the late Rev. H. Berry; the figure of the
cows was excellent in every respect, and their milk-
ng quality is stated to have been by no means of
low degree.
.tnlT",^*!,'"' ™°'' celebrated of the short-horned
T li" AUK P'''''*"* ''*>'' 'hat in the possession of
J^ord Althorp is one ol the most distinguished It
was originally derived from the stock of Mr. R
Lolling and no pains have been spared in bringing
It to the highest excellence. A celebrated bull,
belonging to this nobleman, and which is known
under the cognomen of Firby, may be regarded as
"hT^"^ °V''* ^'""^- " '» ^ peculiariFy in this
short-horned race, that the cows are excellent as
milkers, and moreover that when dried they fatten
thfuJf'nh \ °*f "' ^' '' !' acknowledged, are fit for
the bu Cher at the age of two years; but this ten-
dency to acquire fat renders them indolent workers
and more unfitted for the team than other breeds •
a circumstance of little consequence, as cattle which
aie profitable to the breeder at two years old, and
I llZr'^l '°^'^' ''"'Cher at this age as those of
any other breed at three or even four, ought never
to be submitted to the yoke. The bulls indeed
I being extremely docile, may be employed with adi
l^T^u" ""^"^ oP^^ations going on in every farm,
a plan the more advisable as they are apt to acauire
diminish ' "''''''' '^°'^''"''' '"^""^ '^°^^'^ '«"'' t° !
It must not be supposed that every breed of short- '
teristlf T^ -.-endowed with the q^l.ties charac-
Shlp Th ""PT"' '*"'''''• ^hich render it so
valuable. There is, for example, a breed of short-
liorned catt e in Lincolnshire, with which the Smith-
fied market IS abundantly supplied; but, the cattle
ot this stock are by no means first-rate animals; the
head IS not finely modelled, the bone is compara-
tively large, the limbs hi<rh, and the hips wid7 In
many instances the stock has been improved by
tZ 1 ""i*^^ T'^ hi^hly-bred animals, and ren-
dered valuable but the flesh is not finegrained.
On the whole these cattle are better adaptet? lor the
dairy-tarmer than the grazier, as the cows yield a
fair quantity of milk. •'
Among the short-horned race must be enumerated
that singular breed of cattle called Alderneys, which
has gained, and deserves, a degree of celebrity from
the peculiar richness of the milk afforded by the
''°T:^. These cattle are originally from Normandy
"" V V /'.' 5"'"' °" ,'h« ^'■'^"ch coast, from one of
which (Alderney) they take their name. They are
hpm •"1i"'k' r'™^""^ 'haped, with a peculiar
bendmtheback, and in every point more or less
detective. The milk yielded is not great in quantity,
but abounds with butter; and it is from its richness
that these animals are favourites. Improbable as it
might seem from the apjiearance of the Alderney
its apt, ude to fatten is remarkable ; even the cows
when dried, soon gain flesh, and even acquire con-
siderable weight. It is chiefly in pleasure-grounds
and the paddocks attached to the houses of per.sons
not engaged in farming for profit, that cows of this
breed are to be seen. In Hampshire alone the
Alderney breed is general, constituting the stock of
he farmer. It would appear that it is more suited
to the pasturage of that county than others which
require richer grazing grounds, consume a lar^e
S^ofmilk' *""'"^' ^"'^ ''*''"''" * '^'^proportionate sup-
Our cut (Fig. 701) represents the followin<r •_
a, cow ol the Alderney breed ; b, bull of the same
i> if' ^ '=°"' °^'he Alloy breed belonging to the
Key. Mr. Berry ; d. Lord Althorp's celebrated short-
horned bull Firby ; e, a cow of the same stock : f, a
i)olled or hornless cow ; .9, a short-horned cow of the
West Highland breed ; A, a Glamorganshire cow ; i
improved Lincolnshire ox -j, bull of the Alloy breed •
*, Yorkshire cow. With respect to other breeds of
thnn'^nTh H^ M ^1' ««"• nothinff, we may observe
that in the Highlands of Scotland a race of small
black cattle prevails, of which large herds are
driven southwards, and depastured in the grazin-
ands ot England. Of these numbers are brought
to the London market. Of this race many varieties
nOh w . I7^'"''>' particularize the Kyloes
of the Western Islands and the Hebrides: they are
159
small, but hardy and well-formedThriving on coarse
m at'" TSff"" fine-grained and hig^-flavour^d
meat. Ihe diff'erent islands of the Hebrides con
tain, says Mr. Youatt, "about one hundred and
hlty thousand of these cattle, of which it is calcu-
ated that one-fifth are annually sent to the main
he i r^Ti^y "".""Sh .Jura, o% across the fery of
heL fh °' ^''^'- K'^'''^ ■■"^"■■'^'^ about 51. Lr
thefentaLnh°""l^'" I"" ,^^"'"""'- "'■ "'°'« tlmn
Sated J inr^^on/''?"^''' ^^^ich Mr. Macdonald
greatef sum °.^H^° i; ^"} ''^''^ "°" P'°J"ce a
commodr^f n ^ '"?^°'''' constitute the staple
hundred L'' Hebrides. Three thousand fiVe
Isky alone'" '^ ^ '"P'"*''^ ^'°'^ '^e island of
thin thn"°''i■^K^'^'■Sy'«^hire the cattle are larger
£e w'hi° h tl e n ^''^'•''•'^' ''"'' ^--c h'-e'i to the Ibl
qual ties nf h ^"'^''""Se will admit and the good
It 1st th i di . ■T.T^ ^''''' "''thout deterioration:
cluir,^i^\t'nett'';: „"'%'}!r p^'r "■^^'^"'^
pactlv built «hn,f I ., ^'^^ animals are com-
nof onlv 1 "lu ^° '^"''hfy them for the dairy wi 1
HE ■ 0?ir«* -^-k4s:
fn,; tl' ^ , P'"'.' "f Ayrshire and Dumfriesf form-
ing the old province of Galloway, a beautilulnolled
or hornless breed of cattle exist's, highly e"temed
for their many excellences. In fi|ure they are
a£'sTto:;tr'rp*!"^" v^^' ^^^^ .-ck'of ihe b.ir
chTan auH h V ii"' '^'^ '^"'^ '^ ''^^p, the limbs
round RI^M '• ^t ^'''^' ^"'^'Sht, and the body
round. Black is the prevailing colour. These
cattle Pl?""-t'^L''"'^ *''"'" fl«'* is excellent f -'Few
cattle sell so high in the Smithfield market, and ,T
buC.k?'.7"fr "^'"" '° ''' ""« of these little
th rn^h th 1 ' "■ ^'''■^'^ Lincolnshire bullock, al-
though the latter IS heavier by several stones."
the Galloway cattle are remarkable for gentle-
ness; and robust and muscular as the bulls afe, one
of mschievous habits and bad temper is seldom met
alt^-^^'f^u'' Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, and
other districts have then- peculiar breeds. In Wales
severa breeds of cattil are found; in the I e
b a^ tt't? "''';? '^ ^ ^"^ ™'=c °f middle-horned
hlack cattle, with a deep chest, heavy shoulders
enormous dewlap, and round body. The appear:
ance ot the bulls of this breed is very nobirand
mpos ng. the expression of the head is animated,
IhtX ''^Z ^'™'' ' ^"'^ *his character is not lost
that^unt'rH" ^)\°''Vl ^""^ ''°^^- I' "* calculated
fmm fh ,°'i'" thousand are annually exported
Ijom this island. The flesh of these cattle is of
B, 1 . ,. '■•'^ iicsu ui uiese cauie is of
fnnnJr ? f'^''!^' /'"^ ""serous inferior crosses or
amfof ''1' of "oubtful origin, into which the
cattk of our island have ramified, need no especial
.tTl^'v^ represents an Exhibition of Prize-Cattle,
at the Horse Bazaar, Portman Square, London.
Ihis annual exhibition, by the Smithfield Cattle
en^a;r'H '"'cresting not only to those immediately
who '^^flppt ''^'■'"'Itural pursuits, but to every oni
who reflec s upon the importance of the ox in a
commercial sense, independently of every other
consideration. Here are to beSeen tlie^e°uhs
ot exertions principally carried on during the last
eighty years to unite and bring to perfection the
most desirable points in the various breeds of do-
TtnLr'TA "■*'!"'?,''"' °"°c peculiar to diff-er-
ent parts of Great Britain, but are now spread in
the r improved lorm over every part of the country,
in the gallery, a jiortion of which overlooks the
show-yard, are to be seen agricultural implements
and machinery of the latest and most improved con-
struction; roots and plants adapted to our climate,
but which are as yet comparatively unknown ; spe^
cimens of artificial manures, and of the soils of
districts differing from each other in their geologi-
cal formation. In spite of all the advances which
agricu tiire has made during the present century,
now slowly do improvements extend beyond the
intelligent circle in which they are first adopted •
and It IS one of the great advantages of institu^
tions such as the Smithfield Club, to spread them
more rapidly and widely by drawing the agricul-
turist from the secluded scenes in which he carries
on his occupations, and bringing them before him
in the manner best calculated to demonstrate their
A prize ox or sheep is fatter than the ordinary
TJ^^I^ '■cq"";c«' aid hence it is often supposed
that the stimulus ot prizes for bringing an animal
into a state ot unnecessary fatness is altogether a
work ol supererogation. But tne power of reaching
an excessive size is simply a test. A piece of -rtil-
70S.— ExliiWtinn of I'riM Cattle.
i'f!'\ f\yT-
701.— EngUih Short-honied Cattle.
160
723. — Modern Egyptian Ploughing.
'•i'*-
7.16. — M'lM Biill-hiinfinjj in tli3 -Ali'mtejo.
TOS.— Spanish Buil-Aght.
70- -»iill-li|iht.
723.— ,4ncieat Plough.
70.^.— Bull of the Campn;4na of Rome,
No 21.
710.— Bnllcck WauKcn of Sout'i .Africa,
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
IGI
I
162
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[OxBK.
lery is tried by a charge greater than is ever required
in ordinary practice : anil an ox is fattened for exhi-
bition beyond a useful marketable condition simply
to chow the capacity of the breed lor acquiring, at
the least expense of food, and at the earliest age,
such a condition as the public demand really renders
necessary. , „ •.. i. ..i
We must now leave the subject of British cattle,
and comment uiwn our pictorial speciuieiis Irom
other portions of the glolie. ;|
Figs. "OJ, 704.— These delineations present us 11
with an uncouth, savage, half-wild breed of cattle,
spread throuch the Maremiiia of Italy. The Ma- 1|
remmaisaflat stripe of country, except in a few h
places where hills intervene, extending from the "
mountains of Genoa to the extremity of Calabria, a
length of about seven hundred miles. Its breadth
is trom the base of the lower range of the Apennine
chain to the shore of the Mediterranean. This
sweep of country is pestilential in the extreme in
summer, and though it yields the most luxuriant
harvests, is only partially brought into cultivation,
the greater portion being left for pasture. Here,
besides the cattle used as beasts of burden, or
draught, and employed in the work of the farms,
large herds roam unmolested under the care of
keepers, which, together with the buffalo-keepers,
and forest-rangei^, are the only stationary popula-
tion in the wild Maremma. The former, as wild
and savage as the animals under their charge, are
always mounted on fleet horses, and armed with a
long lance, which they use in driving the cattle,
and in defending themselves against the fierce bulls,
which, as well as the buffaloes, are extremely dan-
gerous. These men are often criminals, who have
fled from justice into the Maremma, where they are
obliged to sojourn, and are often employed by the
proprietors of the farms and cattle, as rangers or
drivers. Those who are not fugitives adopt their
occupation from choice, which, dangerous and labo-
rious as it is, is one of independence and freedom ;
they are the analogues of the Arab of the desert,
or the Gauchos of the Pampas. Besides being paid
for their services, they rear cattle of their own, which
they are allowed to feed with the rest. In the sum-
mer months they retire to the shady forests along
the sea-shore, where the air is not so unwholesome
as in the open plains. The cattle are collected at
various times, and driven by these men, called
vaccari, to the faii-sheldinthe towns, for sale. Both
the bull and the buflalo are baited in Italy, by
men and dogs, for the entertainment of the Roman
people, who seem to be as fond of circenses as
were their great predecessors. The scene of the
sport, which is called La Giostra, is, like many other
buildings in Rome, a curious compound of the
modern and ancient. The Amfiteatro Correa, as
the place is designated, is situated in the massive
cluster of buildings raised upon the site, and partly
with the materials, of the mausoleum of the em-
peror Augustus in the Campus Martius. The
walls of this amphitheatre and the seats are all
of modern structure. The arena occupies the plat-
form of the ancient mausoleum, which in other
times was cultivated with flowers and rare shrubs,
while the pyramid that bore the statue of Octavius
rose in the midst. The vaults beneath, which once
held the ashes of the Caesars, are now in part used
as dens for the wild cattle that are brought in from
the Campagna and other places to be baited. Twice
every week during the summer do these exhibitions
take place : they begin at five in the evening, and
last till dusk.
The men who are to encounter the bulls and buf-
faloes are called Giostratori. They are dressed in
white, with a red sash round the waist ; each bears a
short stall' with a red pennon at the end of it : they
muster in the arena, make their bows to the assem-
bled spectators, and wait the onset of the mighty
animal. Among them are generally two or three
of great reputation for skill, these are usually
vaccari (herdsmen), or bulfalari (buffalo-keepers),
men brought up from their childhood among the
cattle they respectively manage, and familiarized
with their habits. The Giostratori from Viterbo
have the reputation of excelling all others, and
hence the term II Viterbese (the Viterbonian) is used
metonymically to designate any celebrated bull-
fighter. In the centre of the arena is a strong post
firmly fixed, by dodging round which a man may
for a considerable time evade the assaults of a bull
or buft'alo. At a given signal the door of a den is
opened, and the bull rushes forth, wildly gazing
around him, till observing the Giostratori, with their
>carlet sashes and pennons, he singles out one,
and roaring and lashing his tail drives furiously to-
wards him. The man nimbly avoids the charge,
.ithers come to the rescue, drawing off the bull's
attention from him, and inviting its attack ; till the
enraged animal, distracted by the number, quick-
ness, and mantsuvres of his antagonists, and wearied
with vain efforts, ceases the pursuit. The den is
then thrown open, and he generally retires of his own
accord, as if glad to escape. When the bull, as is
sometimes the case, perseveringly follows a man, and
presses him hard, he catches hold of one of the iron
rings placed at certain distances round the wall en-
closing the arena, and by a rapid movement springs
to the top, ivhich like a terrace runs round the foot
of the lower seats of the amphitheatre. The height
of this parapet is G or 7 feet, and it requires great
agility, strength, and presence of mind, as well as
precision, to avoid being pinned to the wall in the
act of taking the leap; such accidents sometimes j
happen, but when the Giostratori see one of their
number thus endangered, they use every means to
divert the bull's attention.
The bull (and also the buffalo) is on some occa-
sions baited with fierce dogs of the Corsican breed,
resembling our bull-dog, and distinguished by the
same " tenacity of tooth" and indomitable courage.
They usually pin the bull by the nose or lip, but are
very frequently tossed m the air, or ripped up by
the sharp horns of the maddened animal. At these
exhibitions, strange to say, females are among the
spectators, and not less interested than the rougher
sex.
Some of the bulls procured in the Campagna of
Rome are very noble and spirited animals, of fine
figure and great strength.
Fig. 705 represents a bull of the Campagna of
Rome.
In Spain and Portugal, where extensive wilds
and forest lands afford ample pasturage, large herds
of oxen, born in freedom, wander uncontrolled, and
untroubled, excepting by man, from whom they flee
with precipitation, till roused to fury by his assaults,
when they attack in turn, and bear upon him with
resistless impetuosity. It is from these herds that
the Spaniards and Portuguese select the fiercest
and boldest for the revolting contests of the arena;
while others are tamed, and broken in for the ordi-
nary purposes of husbandry.
We may easily imagine the excitement produced
by the chase and capture of a herd of these fierce
animals, and the danger to man and horse. The
engraving (Fig. 706) represents such a scene in the
great forest of Alemtejo.
The chase is thus described by an eye-witness, who
was engaged in it : — " I had received,'' he says,
"intimation that the village of Alcoxete, on the
Tagus, was to be the scene of a bull-fight, and that
the villagers for many miles were invited to join in
the hunt, which was to take place the following
day. I accordingly crossed the river in the company
of about twenty persons, each being provided with
a long pole having a small spike fixed in one end,
and mounted as inclination or ability suited. When
we arrived at the opposite bank a little before day-
break, we found about two hundred and fifty or
three hundred persons assembled, some mounted on
different sorts of quadrupeds, from the noble An-
dalusian horse to the humble donkey, and many
were on foot. All were armed in a similar manner
to ourselves. We divided into two parties, one
stretching in a long line to the right, the other to
the left ; not far had we advanced in this manner,
when we fell in with a herd of cattle having twelve
bulls with it, which no sooner descried us, than
they bounded off with the speed of lightning. The
sport had now begun ; we put our horses to the
utmost speed, threading our way among the tall
pine-trees as well as we could, and endeavouring
by wild cries to drive the bulls towards the other
party. At length, after about an hour's chase, some
half-dozen of us, who were better mounted than the
rest, came up with them, and commenced the at-
tack with our long poles. The manner was this: —
one person riding at full speed gave the hull nearest
him a sharp prick with the goad, which it no
sooner felt than it turned upon its assailant and
gave chase; another horseman then coming up
attacked it on the other side, when, leaving the
first assailant, it turned upon the second; he in like
manner was rescued by a third, and so on. The
attention of the infuriated animal was thus so dis-
tracted as to prevent his escape, and give time for
I the other hunters to come up. The bulls were thus
at length separated from the herd, and a sufficient
number of persons having arrived to form a circle
round them, we commenced operations for the
purpose of driving them towards the town. All the
skill of the riders was now necessary, and all the
activity possessed by both man and horse, to keep
clear from the pointed horns which were presented
against him, as well as to prevent the herd from
breaUng through the living net with which it was
surrounded. This was, perhaps, the most difiicult
part, and was attained by keeping each bull sepa-
rately engaged, and thus preventing united ac-
tion ; for what line was sufficient to resist the
simultaneous rush of these powerful animals? The
continued exertion had knocked up many of
the horses which had started in the mornine, and
the circle became smaller and smaller as the day
advanced; several persons, indeed, had been car-
ried off severely wounded by the horns and feet of
the bulls. Redoubling our efforts, however, we at
length, about four o'clock in the afternoon, succeeded
in driving them into an inclosure, where a number
of oxen (all at one time wild) were quietly grazing.
Here they were kept till required for the next day's
sport." These bulls were baited in the square of
Alcoxete, converted into a temporary arena, and
afterwards reduced to a complete state of servitude.
The picadores, or men who encountered them, were
on foot, and only armed with short darts, and dis-
played the most surprising courage and address;
and when at last they were to be thrown, a man
leaping between the horns (Kig. 707), there sup
ported himself till the cords were lashed round the
animal's limbs.
The bull-fights as conducted in the amphitheatres
of Spain and Portugal, the lingering relics of tho^e
contests in which Rome so much delighted, and
which prevailed more or less throughout the Roman
empire, have been often described. These san-
guinary spectacles are the delight of the Spanish
people, and are not only tolerated, but encouraged
by the higher classes of both sexes, who find great
satisfaction in the torments which the bull endures
from the lance of the cavalier, or the horse from the
horns of the bull.
The most graphic and spirited description of this
" ungentle sport" is that by Lord Byron, in ' Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage,' canto i., which we forbear to
quote, feeling assured that all are familiar with it.
In a note by Sir J. C. Hobhouse the following ad-
ditional particulars are recorded : — "The magistrate
presides, and after the horsemen and picadores
have fought the bull, the matadore steps forward
and bows to him for permission to kill the animal.
If the bull has done his duty by killing two or three
horses, or a man, which last is rare, the people
interfere with shouts, the ladies wave their hand-
kerchiefs, and the animal is saved. The wounds
and death of the horses are accompanied with the
loudest acclamations and many gestures of delight,
especially from the female portion of the audience,
including those of the gentlest blood." Fig. 708,
representing a bull-fight, shows the manner in
which—
" tile tnatadores aroiinri htm play.
Shake the red cloak, and poise the reaily 1}rand"
before dealing the fatal blow which severs the spinai
chord at the back of the neck.
Of the effects of such exhibitions on the charac-
ter of the people nothing need be said ; whatever
atrocities may be committed by men " nurtured in
blood betimes" cannot surprise us.
Within the Arctic Circle the ox gives place to
the rein-deer, but in Iceland cattle are reared in
great numbers, and are valuable. In size and ap-
pearance, excepting that they are seldom horned,
they resemble the breeds of the Scottish Islands.
It would appear that the Icelandish farmers conduct
the breeding of their stock on no principles ; con-
sequently, there is great room for improvement ;
nevertheless, the cattle on the whole are handsome,
and the cows yield a considerable quantity of milk.
In Norway and Sweden cattle are numerous, and
also in Rus.sia ; as is well known, the main exports
from Russia to England are tallow and hides. In
that extensive empire vast numbers are reared,
principally in the southern provinces, and the mar-
kets of St. Petersburg and other towns are supplied
by cattle sent from distant parts of the country.
The herdsmen live in a state of barbaric simplicity,
and are nomadic in their habits ; they travel with
their herds to Moscow, St. Petei-sburg, and other
places, which depend more upon them for a supply
than upon the farmers of the adjacent districts.
The following passage in Johnstons ' Russia' con-
veys a good idea of the Russian cattle-keeper and
his herd : — " Along the road," he says, " we passed
one or two large droves of horned cattle proceed-
ing to St. Petersburg. We learned that they were
brought from the provinces south of Moscow.
These cattle are all of a whitish colour, well made,
and of about seven hundredweight. Their journey
to S*. Petersburg occupies three months; they
travel from eight to sixteen miles during the night,
and are allowed to pasture and rest during the day
on the sides of the road. The herds are attended
by one or two men, who convey their cooking uten-
sils, baggage, &c. in a waggon drawn by two oxen ;
and while their numerous herds repose undisturbed
under the shade of the delicate birch, they stretch
themselves on the ground and pass their time in a
true Scythian stale. Here are also seen a few sheep,
but of an inferior breed, covered with hair some-
what like that of a goat. This country is not favour-
able for the pasture of sheep, owing to the coarse-
ness of the grass and quantity of wood. Little or
no attention seems to he used in the rearing of any
other animal besides the horse; to him alone the
Russ devotes his whole attention, and from him he
derives his livelihood."
In Wallachia and Moldavia cattle are abundant;
Oxen.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
163
a the latter district, indeed, the people continue
in a great measure their ancient nomadic habits,
makins; use of the services of the ox as a beast of
draught or burden : united in immense caravans,
they roam over an immense extent of territory,
transporting; in tall vehicles of singular construction
various articles of produce, provisions, and other
thiiig:s to the towns scattered at wide distances
about the vast plains of Moldavia. Day by day
they move cheerfully on, to the slow and measured
sound of the footsteps of their oxen, and are often
an entire month without seeing a single human
habitation. At the approach of evening the cara-
van halts, the numerous waggons are disposed in
the form of a square, and the oxen are turned out
to graze at large, underthe watchful care of intrepid
dogs who accompany the caravan. In the middle
of the square a fire is now lighted, at which the
conductor prepares his simple repast, and after-
wards disposes himself for sleep, sheltered by a
warm and heavy coverlid that completely enwraps
him. These indefatigable walkers are no less ex-
cellent riders: they possess a fine race of horses,
which are employed for drawing lighter vehicles,
while the heavier waggons are drawn by the slow
oxen. There are no high-roads in .Moldavia; the
plain is open, and each traveller chooses his own
track, and it is often with difficulty that the oxen
can drag their way through heavy ground : storms
of wind, rain, or snow make the matter worse, so
that a passage can only be achieved by great
patience, labour, and resolution. The sketch (Fig.
709) represents a bullock-caravan of Moldavia
wending its weary way over the vast plains of Mol-
davia, while lighter vehicles drawn by swift horses
are seen in the distance. It is by these caravans
that the trade and commerce of Moldavia are carried
on, and the town supplied with grain.
In Switzerland there is an excellent breed of
cattle, and in no country are these animals more care-
tiilly attended to, or held in greater esteem for their
utility, as far as the dairy is concerned. Travellers
have frequently noticed their docility and intelli-
gence, which they have at the same time not a little
exaggerated. It is customary to hang bells round
the necks of the cattle, sheep, and goats, in order
that if they stray among the hills and mountains
the herdsmen may be directed by the sound in his
pursuit of them, the slightest tinkle being beard at
a great distance in those lofty and still regions.
The cows selected to bear the bell become accus-
tomed to it from habit, and often, we doul)t not. be-
tray signs of uneasiness when deprived of it, but the
account given by some writers respecting their
feelings borders on the ludicrous. " The cow,
whose superior beauty, sagacity, or good conduct
seems to calculate her for the leader of the herd,
is always on gala days distinguished by the largest
and finest toned bell, and the bravest ornamental
collar, and so down through all the gradations of
good, to the small appendage that marks the indif-
ferently good or clever animal, and the total absence
of ornament and distinction which points out the
self-willed or vicious. If any cow iias been guilty
of straying, of unseemly behaviour, breach of dis-
cipline, or any vicious trick, the displeasure of the
vacher is not testified by tjlows, but by the tem-
porary deprivation other bell, and this seldom fails
to reduce her to order and prevent a repetition of
the offence. It is only necessary to see the cow on
a gala day, with her badge of distinction strapped
round hei; neck, and then to see her deprived of it
for some rea.son or other, to be convinced that this
is true. She is now gay, good-humored, and fro-
licsome ; then sulky and gloomy." (Latrobe's 'Al-
penstock.')
The pastoral economy of Switzerland, which is
common to Savoy and other alpine countries, and the
annual progress of the .shepherds and cowherds with
their flocks and cattle to and from the mountains,
are interesting. The richer proprietors and breeders
in the Alps possess tracks of pasturages, and some-
times houses, at different heishts. In winter they
live at the foot of the mountain in some sheltered
valley, but this they quit in the spring, and ascend
gradually, as the heat brings out vegetation, on the
higher lands. In autumn they descend by the
same gradations to the valley. Those who are less
rich have a resource in certain common pastures, to I
which they send a number of cows proportionate
to their means of keeping them during the winter, j
Eight days after the cows have been diivcn up to
these common pastures, all their owners assemble,
and the quantity of milk each cow produces is accu-
rately weighed. This operation of weighing is
repeated one day in the middle of summer, and
again at the end of the season. The milk of all
the cows has, in the meanwhile, been put together
and made into butter and cheese, and this common
product is divided into shares according to the
quantity of milk each owner's cows yielded on the
days of trial.
in some parts of Switzerland, and more particu-
larly in the retired parts of the Forest cantons, the
peasants make use of the Alp-horn for the purpose
of collecting their herds. This primitive instru-
ment is a tube of wood about five feet in length, of
very simple construction ; it produces a deep, mel-
low, and prolonged note, resounding to a great dis-
tance, floating over the upland pastures, and echoing
from crag to crag and from rock to rock. On hear-
ing the well-known summons, which is regularly
given at sunset, the cattle bestir themselves, and
wend their way to the chalet, where the peasants are
waiting their arrival. The deep note of the Alp-
horn hea.rd among the mountains, and multiplied by
echoes till the last tone dies away, produces a pleas-
ing impression on the traveller, which he long
leniembei-s.
Fig. 710 represents a scene on the banks of the
Vial river, South Africa, illustrative of the uses of
the ox in that country, where its services as a beast
of draught and burden are of the greatest import-
ance. Waggons drawn by oxen, often cruelly
overtasked, are the ordinary travelling vehicles of
South Africa, and are admirably adapted for the
country, which is rugged and mountainous, and
generally destitute of any other roads than the rude
tracks originally struck across the wilderness by
the first European adventurers. Each waggon is
provided with a canvas tilt, to protect the traveller
from sun and rain, and is drawn by a team of six,
eight, or even twelve oxen, fastened with wooden
frames to a strong central trace, or trek-tow, formed
of twisted thongs of bullock"s hide. The driver, who
sits in front, has a whip of enormous length, which
he often uses with unsparing severity.
Formerly, indeed, if the account given by Barrow
is to be credited, the treatment exercised by the
Dutch-African boors to their oxen was brutal in
the extreme. The Dutch boors, moreover, made
use of very large and clumsy waggons, and de-
lighted in transporting tremendous loads at a time.
It was a common sight to see six, eiglit, ten, or
even a dozen pair of oxen yoked to an enormous
vehicle. But even this number was inadequate to
such burdens as they bad to draw, and the resist-
ance of such roads. The most disgraceful cruelties
were used to force these poor creatures on their
way. Their drivers cut them with knives, and
when, worn out, they laid themselves down, and
refused to rise, it was a common practice to light
fires under their sides, and so force them to go.
One of these brutal boors, whose knife had been
often employed on the flesh of his cattle, boasted
that he could start his team at full gallop by merely
whetting that knife on the side of his waggon.
Once as he was exhibiting this experiment, the
waggon was overturned, and one of the company,
" unfortunately not the proprietor," says Mr. Bai-
row, " had his leg broken."
When the Dutch took possession of the Cape of
Good Hope, they found 1 he Hottentots a pastoral
people, possessed of flocks and herds ; the oxen
were of large size, with the horns long and sweep-
ing forwards and upwards, and they were not only
trained for riding, but even as guardians of the
flocks and cattle, and as instruments of destruction
in battle. The Hottentots, says Kolben, who visited
them while they yet retained their name and inde-
pendence as a nation, "have oxen which they use
with success in battle ; they call them Bake-leys :
every army is provided with a large troop of these
war-oxen, which permit themselves to be governed
without trouble, and which their leader lets loose
at the appointed moment. The instant they are
set free they throw themselves with impetuosity on
the opposing army; they strike with their horns,
they kick with their heels, they overthrow, they rip
up, and trample beneath their feet, with frightful
ferocity, all that opposes them ; they plunge with
fury into the midst of the ranks, and thus prepare
for their masters an easy victory. The manner in
which these oxen are trained and disciplined cer-
tainly does great honour to the talent of these
people."
Le Vaillant, who was in South Africa in 1781,
saw some of these oxen, which were then, as he
states, only used by certain tribes of Hottentots;
but he gives the same account of their mode of
fighting as Kolben, who also describes the Bake-
leys as guardians of their flocks. " When out in the
pasture-grounds, at the least sign of their conduc-
tors, they will hasten to bring back the cattle which
are straying at a distance, and keep them herded
together ; they rush on strangers with fury, whence
they are of great service against the Boschmen, or
robbers, who may attempt to plunder the flocks.
Each kraal has at least half a dozen of these bake-
leys, which are chosen from among the most spirited
oxen ; on the death of one, or when one in con-
sequence of old age becomes unserviceable, in
which case its owner kills it, another ox is selected
from the herd to succeed it. The choice is referred
to one of the old men of the kraal, who is thought
to be most capable of discerning that which will
most easily receive instruction. They associate
this noviciate ox with one of long experience, and
they teach him to follow his companion, either by
beating or some other method. During the
night they are tied together by the horns; and
they are also thus kept tied during the greater part
of the day, until the learner has become a good
guardian of the flock. These guardians know all
the inhabitants of the kraal, men, women, and
children, and testify the same respect towards them
that a dog displays towards all those that live in
the house of liis master. There is, therefore, no
inhabitant of the kraal who may not with safety
approach the flocks; the bake-leys never do them
the least injury ; but if a stranger, and particularly
a European, should offer to take the same liberty
without being accompanied by some Hottentot, he
would he in great danger from these guardians of
the flock, which usually feed rouncl it, and which
would come upon him full gallop. Then, unless he
be within hearing of the shepherds, or have fire-
arms or good legs, or unless a tree be near in which
to climb, he is sure to be killed; it would be useless
for him to have recourse to sticks or stones; a
bake-ley has no fear for such feeble weapons."
Sparrman, who visited South Africa in 1775, was
one of the last travellers who found the Hottentots
in their original stale of pastoral freedom ; he men-
tions a woman who was possessed of sixty milch-
cows, and that, on the cattle of the kraal being
brought home from pasture, the evening was en-
livened by singing and dancing.
The CafTres, Oorannas, and other tribes have oxen
in abundance, which are employed as beasts of bur-
den. The Corannas are a nomade race, frequently re-
moving with their flocks and herds to fresh pasture-
land ; and transporting their mats, tents, and
utensils strapped on the back of oxen, which also
carry ihemselves and their wives and children:
*' Fast by his wilil resournling river
The listless Coran lingers pver ;
Still drives his lieifers I'orth to teed.
Sooth'ii by tlie gorrah's humming reed ;
A rifver still uncheck'd will range.
As humour calls or seasons chani,'e,
Ilia tent of mals and leathern gear
All packed upon the patient steer."
Prinqle.
Burchell thus describes the saddle-oxen of South
Africa: — "These oxen are generally broken for
riding when not more than a year old. The first
ceremony is that of piercing the nose to receive the
bridle ; lor which purpose they are thrown on their
back, and a slit is made through the septum, or cai-
tilage between the nostrils, large enough to admit
a finger. In this hole is thrust a strong stick
stripped of its bark, and having at one end a forked
branch to prevent its passing through. To each
end of it is fastened a thong of hide, of a length
sufficient to reach round tlie neck, and form the
reins ; and a sheep-skin, with the wool on, placed
across the back, together with another folded
up, and bound on with a rein long enough to pass
several times round the body, constitutes the sati-
dle. To this is sometimes added a pair of stirrups,
consisting only of a thong, with a loop at each end,
slung across the saddle. Frequently the loops arc
distended by a piece of wood, to form an easier rest
for the foot. While the animal's nose is still sore,
it is mounted and put in training, and in a week or
two is generally rendered sufficiently obedient to its
rider. The facility and adroitness with which the
Hottentots manage the ox have often excited my
admiration. It is made to walk, trot, or gallop at
the will of ils master, and, beint' longer legged and
rather more lightly made than the ox in England,
travels with greater ease and expedition, walking
three or four miles in an hour, trotting five, and
galloping on an emergency seven or eight."
In other parts of Central Africa the ox is em-
ployed in like manner. Major Denham thus gives
an account of its use in the central countries wliicli
he visited ; — "The beasts of burden," he observes,
" are the bullock and the ass. A very fine breed
of the latter are found in the Mandara valleys.
Strangers and chiefs in the service of the sheikh, or
sultan, alone possess camels. The bullock is the
bearer of all the grain and other articles to and
from the markets. A small saddle of plaited rushes
is laid on him, when sacks made of goat-skins, and
filled with corn, are lashed on his broad and able
back. A leathern thong is passed through 1 he carti-
lage of his nose, and serves as a bridle ; while on
the top of the load is mounted the owner, his wife,
or his slave. Sometimes the daughter or wife of a
rich Shouaa will be mgunted on her particular bul-
lock, and precede the loaded animals, extravagantly
adorned with amber, silver rings, coral, and all
sorts of finery; her hair streaming with fat; a
black rim of kohal, at least an inch wide, round
each of her eyes ; and, I may say, arrayed for con-
quest at the crowded market. Carpet or robes are
then spread on her clumsy palfrey ; she itiu jambe
de <;a, janibe de Ki, and with considerable grace
guides her animal by the nose. Notwitlistanding
709.— UuUock Caravvi in Motdftvia.
TS4.— Modern Egyptian Fioughinif.
729.— Zebus ami Car.
7ll.-0riental Landicape and Cattle.
730. — Zebus and Indian Car .
727.— Bullock Carts of the Nomade Tartm.
732.— Zebiu of the Zoologiul Gardeni.
731.— Indian Zebu.
720.— Ancient Egyptian Pluaghing.
' 721.— Frum the Shield of Achille*.
713.— Ploughing with Ox and Ass.
^I'l,
^v . }'i^--^
733.— IJralimin Zebu iiuU.
134.— Zebuiand Turklih Atabah.
Ifi."!
166
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
roxEx.
the peaceablenen of his nature, her vanity still
enables her to torture him into something like ca-
perings and curvelin«."
The ox was one or the first of the domestic animals
carried over to Amerii-a by the early Si)ani>h settlers ;
there it has multiplied ami spread, and indeed in some
■ degree has recovered its oritrinal independence.
Herds of wild oxen rosm the Pampas, where they
are hunted and slain for their hides, which form an
important article of commerce. These wild herds
are in some districts exceedingly numerous; they
differ in no respect from their domestic relatives,
and are themselves rendered tame without much
difficulty. According to .Azara, '- Captain John de
Salazar, born in the city of Poniar in Arragon,
transported from Andalusia seven cows and a bull
to the coa-st of Brazil ; I'lora thence he conducted
them overland to the river Parana at the place
opposite to where it receives the river Mondai. He
there constructed a raft, ]>laced the cattle on it,
and gave tiiem in charge to a certain Gat;t6, whilst
he himself went by land to Paraguay. Gaiin;
descended the Parana to its union with the river of
Paraguay, and steering up this, he safely arrived
at ttie city of Assumption in 154G. He spent many
months in this voyage, and as he had only one cow
given liiin for payment, the saying has hence arisen
in allusion to the great value of anything, 'It is
deare." than Gaijic's cow.' The second founders of
Buenos .Ayies took, in 1580, some cows from Para-
guay, which multiplied in the neighbourhood ; and,
from want of due care, many of them became wild,
and bent their course towards Rio Negro. The In-
dians of the Cordillera of Chili became acquainted
with these animals, which had already attained
their boundaries, and they commenced to carry
from them herds of tamed cattle to Chili, where the
presidents of this settlement purchased them from
these Indians. Those Indians who could not live
in their country without some resource, established
themselves in the plains which were occupied by
these callle, and some even mixed with the Pampas
Indians. In the meantime, the Indians who were
unsubdued dtstrcyed the cattle to the south of
Buenos Ayies ; the Spaniards of those parts, how-
ever, did not neglect to take a portion, which they
conducted to Cordova and Mendoza, whilst the
Spaniards of Buenos Ayres made up entire cargoes
of the hides of bulls and cows ; for at that time the
animal itself was not considered of value, its skin
being all that was sought after. The result of all
this (and the same will soon take place at Monte
Video) was, that towards the middle of the century
wild cattle no longer existed in the Pampas ; and
the unsubdued Indians saw themselves under the
necessity of stealing the domestic animals, or of
making incursions into the estancias of the Pampas.
This was the commencement and cause of the
bloody war which the Spaniards had with the In-
dians. The herds of these revolted or wild cattle.
which are also called oreillards in the plains of
Monte Video, do not pass to the north of the south-
ern establishments of the Guaranis Missions. The
following is the account which I have collected of
their origin : — The city authorities of Buenos Ayres,
iu the name of certain of its inhabitants, as is proved
by its archives, made, at the commencement of the
century, contracts, on the one part, with the Eng-
lish, tor the acquisition of Negroes, and, on the
other part, with certain Spaniards, who were thus
authorized to procure the hides of the animals on
the plains situate to the north of the Rio de la
Plata on payment to the city of a certain tax, of
■which the sum total was shared between these
Spanish inhabitants, who from this circumstance
were called Actionnaires. The primitive source of
this right or this proceeding is not known, but cer-
tain it is that all the inhabitants did not participate
in it, and that its produce was the exclusive share
of these Actionnaires, who were the descendants of
the earliest of the original settlers. Such is the
origin of the homed cattle of these countries, where
they prodigiously multiplied.* About eight hun-
dred thousand ox-hides are annually exported from
Buenos Ayres and Monte Video to Europe." Mr.
Darwin states, "that from the latter place the an-
nual exportation is three hundred thousand, and
the home consumption from waste very consider-
able. In order to obtain these hides, some horse-
men join together and arrange themselves in two
lanks which form an angle ; they then press on the
two sides a small number of cattle, and one of the
horsemen who goes last in the angle hamstrings the
animals with a knife in the shape of a crescent or
half-moon, fastened at the end of a staflt'. While
this goes on the horsemen continue to ride forwards,
and when they have thus secured a sufficient num-
ber of animals they retrace their steps ; and the
person who hamstrung them gives each beast thus
maimed a finishing stroke with a sharp spear, and
* In tlie Ftlltland Inlands ttie wild ciiltle and lioraes were Intro-
ilnced Ijv tlie French in nC4 : tl»e cattle are magnillcent, but the
*u>ne> amall.
j the horsemen dismount to strip the carcass, some-
times of the fat and suet, but always of the skin:
this they do with such dexterity, that some men
I without assistance will strip twenty-six cattle at a
day's work. When a single head of cattle is to be
killed for the sake of its flesh, a horseman throws a
lasso over its horns or neck, and another dues the
same over one of its feet ; then straining in opposite
directions they prevent it from struggling free, and
so strangle it. Admirable is the dexterity with
! which, when the animals pass as they rush forwards,
the lasso is thrown, so that directed backwards
under its feet, the animal at the pleasure of the
I horseman is entangled either by one foot or by two
together."
it is a singular feature in the history of the New
World that so many of our domestic animals there
imported should have returned to their primitive
independence : the ox, the horse, the hog, the ass,
the rabbit, the cat, and the dog, have thus estranged
themselves from the coatrol of man. Individuals
have at different times escaped from confinement
or been neglected ; a vast region lay before them,
presenting abundance of food ; they multiplied, and
their offspring in turn; and thus within a biief
period have the plains of the New World been
peopled by alien races of animals, which claim Asia
or Europe as their staiting-point.
America is not the only portion of the globe to
which, by the agency of man, in modern times, the
ox has been introduced. We allude to Australia,
New Zealand, and the groups of islands which
sprinkle the Pacific Ocean. " With the appearance
of Vancouver," says Otho von Kotzebue, speaking
of the Sandwich Islands, " aiose the fortunate star
of these islands. Among the innumerable benefits
he conferred upon them, they are indebted to him
for the possession of sheep and cattle ; Tameamea
(the native king) declared these animals under a
tabu for ten years, which allowed time for so large
an increase, that they now run wild in the forests."
Of the benefits resulting from the introduction of
the ox into a country naturally destitute of it, no-
thing need be said ; but the gift of cattle to a
people who, though yet uncivilized, are yet capable
of appreciating their value, is to commence a revo-
lution in their state and condition immeasurably for
the better: for the possession of property is one of
the bonds of society, and the desire of acquiring it
the great stimulus to industry. With the introduc-
tion of the ox, the condition of the people of these
islands must necessarily be improved. Not only
will cattle be reared for home consumption, but
for supplying the ships that navigate these seas
(whalers, &c.), other valuables being given in ex-
change ; hence will the rearing of cattle be gene-
rally undertaken : this involves care and attention,
and a state of peace; agriculture and commerce
follow, and prepare the way for the arts of civilized
life.
To Asia and its border-lands let us turn our at-
tention— regions in which the ox from the earliest
epoch has been in a state of domestication, and
where this animal, with sheep and goats, constituted
the riches of patriarchs, and chiefs, or princes, who
deemed it not beneath them to take an active in-
terest in the management of their flocks and herds.
In that age of patriarchal simplicity such scenes
as that (Fig. 711) delineated by the pencil of
Berghem were not imaginary, and the pastoral
poetry of classical antiquity has not only rendered
them familiar, but thrown an air of grace and even
dignity over them.
In the fourth chapter of the Book of Genesis (ver.
20} we read of Jabal that " he was the father of such
as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle."
In the thirteenth chapter of the same book cattle
are enumerated as forming part of the riches of
Abraham and also of Lot ; and in the previous
chapter we read that oxen were presented by the
Pharaoh of Egypt, together with sheep, a.sses, and
camels to Abram, during his sojourn iu that land.
In the eighteenth chapter, veal, or the flesh of the
calf, and butter and milk, are mentioned as articles
of food. Subsequently abundant mention is made
of all these domestic animals, while at the same time
we glean that a wild race of oxen long continued to
exist in Syria and the adjacent regions ; for instance,
in the Wosiac injunctions regarding animals to be
used as food (Dtut. xiv. 5) the wild ox is expressly
noticed, and Isaiah alludes also to the wild hull
(" as a wild bull in a net"). Hence it would
appear, that though a domestic breed, established
at a period antecedent to historic record, the Scrip-
ture outline excepted, formed part of the wealth of
man in the primeval ages of his history, that a wild
race still tenanted their aboriginal pasture-lands.
Wild oxen are exhibited in the Egyptian sculptures,
and the chase of them isoften represented : they were
sometimes hunted with dogs, the huntsmen bearing
bows and arrows, and sometimes they were caught
with the noose or lasso, as depicted in our outline
(Fig. 712).
The utility of the ox was well appreciated in an-
cient times, insomuch that it t)ecamc an emblematic
object of woi-ship among most of the nations of anti-
quity. The traditions of every Celtic nation enrol
the cow among the earliest productions, and re))re-
sent it as a kind of divinity. Among the Egyp-
tians, the god Apis was worship])ed in the foini of
a bull, anti Herodotus describes the lerenionies at-
tendant upon the choice of this bovine deity, to
whose honour other bulls chosen by the priests were
sacrificed. The goddess Isiswas represented by the
same people under the figure of a woman with the
horns of a cow, as the Grecians represented lo : and
the sacrificial offering was a bullock ; the cow was
never sacrificed, being sacred to Isis. The venera-
tion of the cow was equally prevalent in Lybia.
The Lvbians, says Herodotus, from Egypt to the
Ijike "fiitonis, are breedei-s of cattle, eat' flesh, and
drink milk, but abstain from the flesh of cows, as do
also the Egyptians, and will not keep swine. Nay,
among the women of Syrenc, to strike a cow is ac-
counted a crime, because they celebrate the feasts
and festivals of the Egyptian Isis. Neither will the
Barcman women taste the flesh either of a hog or
of a cow.
In India, where in many points the practice and
worship of the ancient nations were the same as
those of the Egyptians, the ox was held sacred, and
still is so by the Brahmins. The religious writings
of India say that the cow was the fiist animal cre-
ated by the three gods who were directed by the
supreme lord to furnish the earth with animated be-
ings. In the sculptures of the cave-temples of Ellora,
the sacred bull is represented with great truth and
spirit. Colonel Tod ('Trans. Ro\al Asiatic Soc."
vol. ii., p. 560) says, " In Hindu mythology the
bull Nanda is at once the guardian of one of the
two gates of heaven, of Iswaro or Bal-Siva, and his
steed. The astronomic allusion thus blended with
mythology is evident, viz., the entrance of the sun
into the sign Taurus, the equinoctial festival of re-
mote antiquity, and regarded as a jubilee by the
Indo-Scythic nations hemming the shores of the Me-
diterranean to the Indian Ocean." We need not
say how the idolatry of the Egyptians affected the
Israelites, and mingled itself with the religious ce-
remonies of other nations, whose worship required
the ox as a sacrifice to imaginary deities.
The estimation in which the ox was held, and
which led to its consecration, did not arise fiom the
circumstance alone of the cow yielding milk, nor
from the value of the flesh of the animal as food,
but from its services in agricultural labour.
It was employed as a beast of burden, for the
cart, for the plough, and lor treading out the gram
from the car. Our pictorial collection presents us
with many illustrations of its use in these points
among the ancients, and which need no detailed
description to render them intelligible.
The Mosaic ritual lays down several rules respect-
ing the treatment of the ox : one forbids the yoking
together of tiie ass and the ox in the same plough
(Fig. 713), perha[)s from the inequality of their size
and strength, which would render the draught irre-
gular, and oppress both animals. Another injunc-
tion is, "Thou shall not muzzle the ox when he
treadeth out the corn." The first idea suggested by
this passage is, that the operation of threshing was
eftected simply by the feet of the cattle passing over
the sheaves; and, such indeed, was the case in the
times of patriachal simplicity. Afterwards, as other
passages show, rollers and wheels of wood, and
threshing instruments with teeth, were used: these
were drawn over the sheaves by oxen, and greatly
facilitated the process. With respect to the pri-
mitive mode of threshing by means of the feet of
oxen, there is express allusion to it by Homer,
which proves that the practice was common in his
time and country : —
" A» with autumnal harvests covered o'er,
And tl.ick bestrewn, lies Ceres' sacied floor.
Where round and round with never-wearied pnin,
The tramplinjj steers tireak out tli' unnumlier'd grain."
Pope's Tr. lit/id^ xx., lines orOrig. 403-8.
The ancient Arabs, Egyptians, and Romans, as
well as the ancient Greeks, threshed their corn in
this manner: Virgi! ('Georg.' lib. i.) describes the
manner in which the threshing-floor is to be laid
down, showing that nothing like our mocern mode
of threshing could have been practised. In Syria,
Egypt, and Nubia, at the present day, the grain is,
as lormerly, either trodden out by the feet of o.'<en
or mules, or partly trodden out, and partly crushed
out by means of a roller or other machine which
the oxen drag after them, and which more or less
destroys the straw, and even injures the grain. Figs.
714 and 715 represent two modes of threshing, viz.
by the drag, and by the sledge upon rollers, still
practised in Egypt, Syria, and Western Asia.
Our representations of oxen di awing the ploughs
in ancient times (Figs. 71(J, 717, 718, 719, 720, 721.
7'22), and in Egypt at the present day (Figs. 7"23 and
724), illustrate many allusions in the sacred and clas-
OxEN.J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
1C7
sical writers. The plough was a very simple instru-
ment, as it still continues in the East, and is rather
formed for turning up superficially a light soil, than
for making deep lunows in heavy land. It appears
that the ploughman, to work it effectively, was
under the necessity of guiding it with great care,
bending over it, and loading it as far as possible
with his own weight, otherwise the share would only
glide the surface without making a furrow, and tlie
slighte.^t inattention or cessation of liis labour would
be followed by the dragging out of the share from
the earth, or by irregularity in the depth and direc-
tion of the furrow ; hence the expression of Pliny,
" arator, nisi incurvus, praevaricatur." The illus-
trations of the use of the ox in ancient times in
Egypt (Fig. 725) and in modern Syria (Fig. 726), as
well as in Tartary by the nomadic people (Fig. 727),
need no particular comment.
Fig. 728 represents the Ox of Syria, together with
the wild Ass and Camel.
Fics. 720, 730, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, are illus-
trations of the Zebu breed of oxen, which claims a
few observations. Whether the zebu breed of oxen
be derived, as some contend, from a distinct origin
from that of the ordinary ox, we will not attempt to
determine : suffice it to say that it presents marked
peculiarities which clearly characterize it. Narrow
high withers surmounted by a large fatty hump,
an arched back rising at the haunches and sud-
denly falling to the tail, slender limbs, a large
pendulous dewlap falling in folds, long pendent
ears, and a peculiarly mild expression of the eye,
proclaim the zebu race — a race varying in size
from that of our largest cattle to that of a young
calf. This breed is spread over India, China, and
the Indian Islands ; it is also found in Madagascar
and on the eastern coast of Africa, in the interior
regions, and parts of the western coast, and is used
for the ordinary purposes of draught and burden.
India appears to be its parent country, and we may
readily believe that in remote ages, when an exten-
sive commerce existed between that country and
Egypt, it was introduced into the land of the Pha-
raohs. In Upper Egypt, Abyssinia, and Ethiopia,
it is now almost exclusively prevalent ; but in Lower
Egypt, as we learn from Burckhardt, the zebu or
humped race is unknown. In the ancient Egyptian
repre>entations of animals, both the humped race
and the ordinary ox with long horns are clearly
depicted. (Fig. 736.) It is the zebu ox which is
sculptured in the cave-temples of Ellora, and the
seven pagodas, as they are commonly called, at
Mahimalaipur on the Coromandel coast. We have
thus proofs of the extreme antiquity of this breed,
and of its distinctness at a remote era from the
ordinary ox, and that its peculiar characters were
what we now see.
UufFon observes that the ox without a dorsal
hump (which he erroneously terms the Aurochs
race) occupies the cold and temperate zones, and is
thinly distributed towards the regions of the south ;
on the contrary, the ox with the hump (which he
terms also erroneously the Bison race) exclusively
occupies all the southern regions — namely, the en-
tire continent of the Indian empire, the islands of
the Eastern and Southern seas, and the whole of
Africa from Mount Atlastothe Cape of Good Hope,
including Madagascar, and the island of St. Juan
on the channel of Mosambique. With respect to
the Cape of Good Hope, it is certain that the zebu
race does not prevail there, at least in the present
day ; but F. Leguat (see his ' Voyages,' &c., 1720)
observes that " the oxen are of three sorts at the
Cape of Good Hope, all of a large size, and very
active ; some have a hump on the back, others have
the horns long and pendent, while others have
them turned up and well shaped, as in English
cattle."
With respect to the ox represented on the Greek
and Roman sculptures, which is not of the true zebu
race, it must be confessed that in many points, and
more particularly in the pendulous folded dewlap,
it resembled the zebu, and may probably have been
the ultimate product of a mixture of the zebu race,
introduced at an early date from India, with the
ordinary cattle of Greece and Italy. This, however,
is a mere sugge?tion. In the Greek sculptures the
o.x is represented without any hump, but ttie withers
are hiph and the crupper rounded. " To the clas-
sical antiquary," says a talented writer, " we beg to
suggest that the dewlap of the Brahmin bull offers
an olyi'Ct of much attention and interest, by reason
of its sharp and decided outline, and perpendicular
creases or folds, wonderfully veiilying the correct-
ness of those Greek sculptures on bronze and
marble, in medals and statuary, in which we see
rejiresentations of Victory sacrificing a bull, of the
oxen of Ceres, &e. These representations will no
longer be considered out of drawing l)y those who
may have an opportunity of examining the sacred
bull of India, nor exfiggeiated in the.r Ibre-qiiaiters,
although critics of the last century (less fortunate
in this respect than the visitors of the Zoological
Society's gardens) have determined them without
hesitation to be altogether incorrect." Several
beautiful specimens of the zebu ox, both of the
large-sized variety and also of the dwarf caste, are
in the Zoological Gardens. They are remarkable
for their docility and quiet temper.
Mr. Youatt inlbrms us that a beautiful zebu bull
and cow of the Nagore breed were exhibited at the
Christmas Cattle-show in 1832, and adds, that they
were bred by Lieut. -Colonel Skinner, on his farm at
Danah near Pukah, on the borders of the Bichaneer
desert, a hundred miles to the westward of Delhi.
They were of the highest breed of Indian cattle,
used by the higher orders to draw their state car-
riages, and much valued for size, speed, and en-
durance. The specimens in question " arrived at
Calcutta, a distance of fourteen hundred miles, in
January, 1829, and were then something under six
months old. They were sent as a present to Mr.
Wood, who was then residing at Calcutta, and by
whom they were forwarded to Mr. Perkins. Colonel
Skinner has a large stock of them, and six or seven
beasts are always kept saddled, to carry the mili-
tary despatches. They remain saddled three or four
hours, and if not wanted in that time, fresh ones
are brouglitout to relieve their companions. They
will travel with a soldier on their back fifteen or
sixteen hours in the day, at the rate of six miles an
hour. Their action is particularly fine, nothing
like the English cattle with the sideway circular
action of their hind-legs : the Nagore cattle bring
their hind-leE:s under them in as straight a line as
the horse. They are very active, and can clear a
five-barred gate with the greatest ease. Mr. Per-
kins has a calf which has leaped over an iron fence
higher than any five-barred gate, and the bull fre-
quently jumps over the same fence in order to get
at the water, and when he has drunk his fill, leaps
back again." ..." Mr. Perkins very properly ob-
serves, that the chief advantage of these Brahmin
bulls would probably consist in their speed and
strength, in both of which they surpass any of our
breeds."
Of the extensive use and consequent value of the
Brahmin or large zebu breed in their native climate,
we can scarcely form an adequate idea. In some
parts of India the dwarf races are unknown, and
this is bred exclusively. Accoiding to an observa-
tion of Colonel Sykes, in the ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc.,'
the Brinjarees, a singular erratic people, possess vast
herds, and breed the Brahmin cattle on an exten-
sive scale ; " and an army rarely moves in the field
without 15,000 or 20,000 bullocks to carry its sfiain.
Dwarf cattle are not met in Dukhun." The buffalo,
however, divides the palm of usefulness with the
zebu in the agricultural labours of India, and is pre-
ferred for many purposes, on account of his more
robust constitution. In the Mawals, or hilly tracts
among the Ghauts, this animal supersedes the zebu.
" In those tracts," says Colonel Sykes, " much rice
is planted, and the male buffalo, from his superior
hardihood, is much better suited to resist the effects
of the heavy rains and the splashy cultivation of
rice than the bullock. The female is also infinitely
more valuable than the cow, from the very much
greater quantity of milk she yields." In point of
beauty and docility there is no comparison between
the heavy savage buffalo and the " Sacred bull of
Bramah." Nor is the former ever devoted to l!al-
Siva as a meritorious offering. On the contrary, it
is common to meet with Brahmin bulls thus devoted,
which wander at their pleasure, exempt from the
servitude of the yoke, and which are regarded as
endowed with a sacred character. The beautiful
form and sleek appearance of tliese fortunate crea-
tures particularly eneaged the notice of Bishop
Heber. The first which the bishop met in his
journey was grazing in a green paddy-field, and was
branded on the haunches with the emblem of Siva.
He crossed their path tame and fearless, and seeing
some grass in one of the Europeans hands, coolly
walked up and smelt it. These privileged bulls are
turned out when calves, on certain solemn occasions,
by wealthy Hindoos, as acceptable offerings to the
divinity Siva. To strike or any way injure or mo-
lest one of them is held as a mortal sin. " They
feed," he observes, " where they choose, and devout
persons take great delight in ]}ampering them. They
are exceeding pests in the villages near Calcutta,
breaking into gardens, thrusting their noses into the
stalls of fruiterers' and pastry-cooks" shops, and help-
ing themselves without ceremony. Like other petted
animals they are sometimes mischievous, and are
said to resent with a push of their horns any delay
in gratifying their wishes."*
Between this absurd reverence for consecrated
bulls and the ordinary treatment of the working ox
there is a vast distinction: the latter is harshly and
often severely treated. The cow, however, has
more forbearance exercised towards her than from
the treatment of the ox might be expected. Bishop
Heber, speaking of the mode of treading out the
• • Journey,' vol. i., p. 145.
corn still practised in India, relates the following : —
" One of the Hindoo farmers was threshing out a
small kind of millet by driving oxen over it, round
and round in a circle. They were just leaving off
work as I came up, and a hind was bringing a large
bundle of green Indian-corn, weeded from the thick,
crop, for their provender. I observed, however,
that the animals, during their previous employment,
were not muzzled, according to the Scriptural rule,
at the same time they were kept so constantly
moving, that a few mouthfuls were all they could
get. While I was examining this heap of grain,
and asking the old man some questions, his cows
came for the evening, and I pleased him exceed-
ingly, when the cowman ran forward to beat them
from my path, by forbidding him to strike them.
' Good ! good!' he said, with an air of much satis-
faction ; ' one must not beat cows.' It seems to me
that the tender mercies of the Hindoos towards ani-
mals are exhausted on cows (and Brahmin bulls)
only ; for oxen they have no pity — they are treated
with much severity.'* That the ox should be se-
verely treated or employed in haid work by the
Brahmins seems a sort of contradiction to the prin-
ciples by which these people profess to be guided ,
but such inconsistencies are too common to be sur-
prising.
Thfivenot, who describes the zebu oxen of India
as excellent both for the saddle and draught, adds
that some gallop as fast as a good horse, and goes,
on to state that they are equally used for the plough
and for coaches and chariots. They are harnessed
by means of a long yoke at the end of the pole
which is placed on the neck of the two oxen, and
the driver holds in his hand the cord which is at-
tached to a small double cord passed through the
gristle of the nose, instead of a bit in the mouth, as
in the case of the horse.
It would appear that white oxen are highly es-
teemed in India, as they have also been in other
parts of the world. Olearius (tome i., p. 4.08) notices
the procession of an Indian prince, who was draun
in a carriage by two white oxen, which had the
neck short and a hump between the thoulders, but
which were as lively and active as horses. Bishop
Heber observes that the Thakoors, the nobility of
the Rajpoots, generally travel in covered wagg"ons
drawn by white oxen, whose horns they gild. Ta-
vernier observes, " The two oxen which -were har-
nessed to my carriage cost me nearly six hundred
rupees. The reader need not be astonished at this
price; for these are oxen of great strength, and
which travel journeys of twelve to fifteen leagues a
day for sixty days, and always on the trot. When
they have done half their day's work they have
two or three balls (the size of a penny loaf) of
wheaten flour kneaded with butter and coarse
sugar; and in the evening their ordinary tare con-
sists of chickpeas bruised and steeped half an hour
in water."
Of the docility, activity, and services of the zebu
ox in India much more need not be said. Nume-
rous travellers, both in the past and present century,
give the same testimony and record observations
bearing upon the same point.
Receding westward from India to Persia we
gradually lose the zebu race, or at least find it in-
termingled with that of another type. Chardin
(vol. i].) observes, " Tiie oxen of Persia are like ours,
excepting towards the frontiers of India, where they-
have the hunch on the back. Throughout the
whole country, the ox is seldom eaten as food; it
is only reared as a beast of burden or for tillage.
Such as are used lor burdens are shod with iron, in
consequence of the stony mountains over whicli
they have to travel." The shoeing of oxen, where
the country is rugged and the roads hard or stony,,
is also practised in India, as Th6venot relates, biit
is not a general custom. The shoes are light, and
two are placed on each foot, as the cloven character
of the hoof necessarily requires, so that the natuial
freedom of each part is not impeded. In Persia
the bull is offen made to fight with the lion, and
sometimes conies off victorious, though dreadfully
lacerated. (Fig. 737.)
Thus much respecting the distinction between
the zebu race of cattle and the ordinary breeds of
Europe, and their apparently natural distribution.
Whichever breed or race we contemplate, we shall
find it adapted to the service and necessities of
man, its value being in proportion. It will readily
be admitted, however, that the interest which at-
taches to the ox does not arise from its intelligence,
but from its absolute utility ; the pleasure which the
mind experiences when we gaze on peaceful herds
feeding in tranquil security is of a complex origin,
the result of an association of ideas more or less
remotely connected with the presence of these crea-
tures, which, time immemorial, have formed the
wealth of man, and which have therefore engaged
alike the attention of the statesman, the poet, and
the philosopher.
• ' Journey,' vol. i., p. 311,
718.— OrienUl Thresbiog wuh th« Sledge.
?37.— Zebu and Lion tigbdng.
71t).— Aticieiit Gjfvptiaa Plouj$bin(f.
728.--^vrian Ox. Camel, and Wild Ass.
7U. — OrienuL Threslnny with the Drag.
712.— Oxcauglit in Lasw : E;;yptian Sculpture.
731. — Oxen, from Egyptian Sculpture.
735.— Zebus and Ethiopian Car.
168
748.— Ijl nott«.
"^' ^ ^^^^X/
741. -Cava.
738.— Milking-ibed.
740.— Cow with martin^le. /
743.— Ileaiiof Gy«U.
742.— Ilca.l of Wild Gavfil.
^739, -Cattle-layer.
''■is.— Hems of Goiir.
7K — Jungly'Gau.
No. 22.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE].^
169
170
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Oxen.
Tie- 738 represents a London milking-shed. such
as may be »een at Islini^ton, where between 30 and
40 cows are arranged on each side ; nolhine can ex-
ceed the attention to order and cloanliiiess displayed
in the conducting of such establishments lor sup-
plying the British metropolis with milk ; nor to the
treatment ami feeding of the animals.
Fig. 73S) represents a Cattle-layer, or place erected
for the repose of cattle driven from great distances
to the Smithfield market ; these cattle-layers are
principally on the northern outskirts of London, and
the grazier or drover agrees with the proprietor of
them for a few hours' shelter, rest, and fodder for
his drove, for a stipulated but very moderate sum.
Fig. 7-io represents the simple but efficient mode
adopted in Normandy of preventing the cow, by
means of a sort of niartmgale, from nibbling and
breiikins down the lower branches of the apple-
trees with which the vast cornfields of that district
are studded, or which form extensive but unfenced
orchards. The apple is there greatly cultivated for
the sake of cider, the " bon cidre ae Normandie "
being greatly celebrated.
Figs. 741, 742.— The Gayal
(Bos Gavanis). Gravaya, Sansc. ; GavHT or Gayfil,
Hind.; Gobaygoru, Beng. ; Gaujangali, Pers. : Me-
thane, Mountaineers (Ciicis, &c.) east of Silhet;
Shiil, Mountaineers (Ciicfa) east of Chatgaon ;
J'hongnua, Mugs; Niinec, Burmas; Gauvera, Ceylon.
India presents us with several species of wild
oxen, independent of such as belong to the buffalo
tribe, some of which are domesticated in certain dis-
trict.s. beyond which they are not dispersed; such is
the Gayal. According to Mr. Macrae, the gaySl is
found wild in the range of mountains that form the
eastern boundary of the provinces of Anacan, Chit-
tagong (Chatgaon), Tipura, and Silhet. The Ciic'is,
or Lunetas, a people inhabiting the hills immediately
to the eastwai-d of Chatgaon, have herds of them in
a domesticated state. The animal is called Gabay
in the Hindu Sistra. but, as it would appear, is little
known beyond the limits of its native mountains,
except to the inhabitants of the provinces above
mentionid. We learn from the same author that
the gayal is of a dull heavy appearance, but that
its form at the same time indicates great strength
and activity, like that of the wild buffalo. Its dispo-
sition is gentle, and in a wild state on its native hills
it is not considered dangerous, never standing the
approach of man, much less sustaining his attack.
The Ciicis hunt the wild animals for the sake of
their flesh. The gayal is a tenant of the forest, and
prefers the tender shoots and leaves of shrubs to
grass : it never wallows in the mud like the buffalo.
In a state of domestication among the Ciicis, it does
not undergo any labour, nor is the milk of the fe-
male, which though small in quantity is extremely
rich, held in any request: the animals are bred and
reared solely for the sake of their flesh and hides,
of which latter the Ciicis form strong shields. These
domesticated herds roam at large in their forests
during the day and return home to their villages in
the evening, being taught to do this very early by
being fed when young every night with salt, of
which these animals are very fond. Though the
Ciicis slaughter the domestic gayal, the Hindus in
the province of Chatgaon will not kill this animal
(their gabay), which they hold in equal veneration
with the cow, but they hunt and kill another gaySl
(as Igayal, or Seloi), as they do the wild buffalo.
The cry of the gayal is a kind of lowing, shriller,
but not so loud as that of the European ox, without
any resemblance to the grunt of the buffalo.
The gayfil is nearly of the size and shape of the
English bull ; it has short horns, which are distant
at their bases, and rise in a gentle curve upwards
and outwards, their transverse section near the
base ovate ; the forehead is broad, and crowned
with a tuft of lighter-coloured, lung-curved hair;
the dewlap is deep and pendent; there is no mane
or hump as in the ztbu, but the withers rise to a
considerable elevation. The tail is short, the body
covered with a tolerable coat of straight dark-brown
haif ; on the belly it is lighter coloured, and the legs
and face are sometimes white. The form of the ani-
mal and the way in which it carries its head will be
understood from our cut (Fig. 741), which is reduced
from that by a native artist, prefixed to Mr. Cole-
brooke's iiaper on this species in the ' Asiatic Re-
searches' (vol. viii.).
From various experiments it is proved that the do-
mestic gayal will breed with the ordinary zebu cattle
■of India ; but whether the offspring will interbreed
Willi each other is yet to be ascertained.
Fig 742 is the head of the true wild gayfil, or, as
the natives term it, Aseel Gayal, from a drawing by
'General Hardwicke : the specimen was a female
irom the south-east frontier of Bengal.
743.— The Gyai.l
<(Sosfr<mtalis, Lambert;. In the seventh volume of
Ihe ' Linntean Transactions ' will be found the figure
and description of a Gyall (which died in Ix>ndon in {
1842), by A. B. Lambert, Esq., who quotes the fol-
lowing letter from George Harris, Esq., this latter
gentleman being well acquainted with the domestic
gyall in its native country : referring to a commu- i,
nication from Mr. Lambert, he writes, " I have before il
me your note, with the drawing, which appears to ^
me to be the figure of the animal I mentioned to :
have in my possession. Some parts of the drawing
seem to be rather too much enlarged, as the base of
the horns and the rising between the fore-shoulders. \
The animal I described to you, and which I have
kept and reared these last seven years, and know ',
by the name of the gyall, is a native of the hills to I
the north-east and east of the company's province
of Chittagong, in Bengal, inhabiting that range of
hills which separates it from the country of Arracan. ,
The male gyall is like our bull in shape and appear- ■
ance, but I conceive not quite so tall, and of a j
blackish-brown colour ; the horns short, but thick
and strong towards the b^e, round which, and across
the frons (chaffron), the hair is bushy, and of a dirty
white colour. The chest and forehead are broad
and thick. He is naturally very bold, and will de-
fend himself against any of the beasts of prey. The
female difl'ers little in appearance ; her horns are
not quite so large, and her make is somewhat more
slender; she is very quiet, and used for all the pur-
poses of the dairy, as also (I have been informed by
the natives) for tilling the ground, and is more tract-
able than the buffalo. The milk which these cows
give has a peculiar richness in it, arising, I should
conceive, from their mode of feeding, which is al-
ways on the young shoots and branches of trees, in
preference to grass. I constantly made it a practice
to allow them to range abroad amongst the hills and
jungles at Chittagong during the day to browse, a
keeper attending to prevent their straying so far as
to endanger losing them. They do not thrive in
any part of Bengal so well as in the afore-mentioned
province, and in the adjoining one, Tippeiah, where
1 believe the animal is also to be found. I Jiave
heard of one instance of a female gyall breeding
with a common bull."
Lesson, and the author of the article ' Ox ' in the
' Penny Cyclopjedia,' seem to regard the gaySl and
the gyall as distinct; from the descriptions, how-
ever, which are given, it is quite evident that they
relate to one and the same species, as Fischer, in
his ' Synopsis Mammalium,' considers them to be.
The title frontalis, therefore, must be retained by
right of priority over Gavceus. Among the syno-
nyms given by Fischer, are, " Bos fiubalus Gau-
vera, Pennant, ' Quadr.' : Gauvera, Knox, Ceylon :
Bantinger Javan, and Bos Sylhetanus, F. Cuvier."
The Bos Sylhetanus, the Jungly Ghau, and the Aseel
Gayal, are then identical.
Fig. 744 is a representation of the male Jungly
Ghau, or Aseel Gayal (Bos frontalis, Lambert ; Bos
Gavaeus, Colebrooke; Bos Sylhetanus, F. Cuv.)
Duvaucel, who hunted this animal at the loot of
the Silhet Mountains, describes it as very wild, but
easily domesticated ; he states, that until he had
opportunities of seeing it in a state of nature, he
entertained the opinion that it did not differ essen-
tially from our domestic ox, his impression being
received from an inspection of specimens living tame
in the menagerie at Barracpore : subsequently he
regarded it as distinct.
745.— The Gour
{Bos Gour, Traill, in ' Edinb. Phil. Journ.' Oct.
1824). Of this noble species of wild ox we are able
only to give a figure of the horns from a drawing
by General Hardwicke. The gour to which they
belonged was killed, as General Hardwicke be-
lieved, by the same hunting-party described by
Capt. Rogers, and the horns were presented to the
General by the principal member of that party, the
late Major Roughsedge. These horns were fifteen
inches between the tips; their colour is horn-grey,
with black and solid tips, which are extremely
sharp. A fine pair are in the museum of the Zool.
Soe. Lond.
According to Capt. Rogers, the gour occurs in
several of the mountain-districts of Central India,
but is chiefly found in Myr* Pat, or Mine Pant, a
high insulated mountain, with a tabular summit, in
the province of Sergojah, in South Bahar. " This
table-land is about thirty-six miles in length, by
twenty-lour or twenty-five miles in breadth, and
rises above the neighbouring plains probably two
thousand feet. The sides of the mountain slope
with considerable steepness, and are furrowed by
streams that water narrow valleys, the verdant banks
of which are the favourite haunts of gours. On
being disturbed they retreat into the thick jungles
of saul-trees which cover the sides of the whole
range. The south-east side of the mountain pre-
sents an extensive mural precipice from twenty to
forty feet high. The rugged slopes at its foot are
covered by inpenetrable green jungle, and abound
with dens formed of fallen blocks of rocks, the suit-
able retreat of ligere, bean, and hysnas. The
western slopes are less rugged, but the soil is
parched and the forests seem withered by ex-
cess of heal. The summit of the mountain pre-
sents a mixture of opens, lawns, and woods. There
were once twenty-five villages on Myn Piit, but
these have been long descried on account of the
number and ferocity of the beasts of prey. On this
mountain, however, the gour maintains his seat.
The Indians assert that even the tiger has no chance
in combat with a full-grown gour, though he may
occasionally succeed in carrying off an unjirotected
calf. The wild buffalo abounds iii the plains below
the mountains, but he so much dreads the gour,
according to the natives, that he rarely attempts to
invade its haunts, and the hunting-party only met
with three or four urnas (arnees) on the mountain.
The forests which shield the gour abound, how-
ever, with hog-deer, saumurs, (Sambur deer), and
porcupines."
It was in these wild and romantic retresLts that
Cspt. Rogers and party hunted the gour, which
when wounded turns round upon his adversary,
ready to do battle. A short bellow, imitated by the
syllables ugh-ugh, was the only cry which the
animal was heard to utter, and that not until it
had been struck by the bullet. The gour is gre-
garious, herding together in parties varjing from
ten to twenty ; they browse on the leaves and shoots
of tender trees and shrubs, and also graze on the
banks of the streams. In cold weather the saul-
forests are their places of concealment, and the
heats bring them out to feed on the green lawns
and valleys. They do not, it seems, wallow in swamp
and mire like the buffalo. If the natives are to be
credited, the gour will not brook captivity, and
even when captured at an early age the mounlain-
caif droops and dies. The period of gestation is
stated to be twelve months: the females produce
their young in August. The native name of the
bull-calf for the first year is Puroiah. of the cow-
calf Pareeah. The lull-grown cow is termed
Gourin.
The gour attains to a very large size : Dr. Traill
gives the dimensions of one not lully grown, which
measured from the nose to the end of the tail nearly
twelve feet, and stood neariy six feet high at the
withei-s ; the limbs are vigorous, clean-made, and
more deer-like than bovine; the back is strongly
arched, and when the animal stands still the line
from the nose to the base of the tail, along the
spine presents a nearly uniform curve. This appear-
ance is partly owing to the curved form of the chaf-
fron, and still more to a remarkable ridge of no
great thickness which rises six or seven inches above
the general line of the back, from the last of the
cervical to the middle of the dorsal vertebrae, where
it gradually declines and becomes lost. This eleva-
tion is very conspicuous in gours of all ages, although
they were loaded with fat, and has no resemblance
to the hunch found on the withers of the zebu breed
of cattle. There is not a trace of the dewlap, which
is well marked in the gayal. The hair of the skin
generally is short and sleek, having somewhat the
oily appearance of a fresh seal-skin. The colour is
deep brownish black, almost approaching to bluish
black ; between the horns is a tuft of curling, dirty
white hair, and over each hoof is a ring of the same
colour.
We may here briefly notice a species of the bo-
vine race, the Yak of Tartary {Bos grunniens), too
remarkable to be altogether omitted in our sketch
of the Ox tribe. Whether the Yak belongs to the
restricted genus Bos is very doubtful ; in some
points it ceitainly is related to the musk ox {Ovi-
bos), at least if we are to judge from the skins, more
or less imperfect, which we have had opportunities
of examining. The followingis the description of a
skin wanting the horns and limbs, in the Zoological
Museum.
Nostrils naiTow, converging below, with a small
naked space between them, and a narrow naked
border round them, so that there is no frtie broad
naked muzzle, as in the common ox ; the ears
are small and pointed ; the forehead is covered with
black, curling locks, but ils degree of convexiiy
cannot be accurately determined, owing to the ab-
sence of the skull. The back is covered with
smooth hair, of a deep chocolate brown, a white
stripe occupying the ridge of the withers, and an-
other the centre of the croup. From the shoulclcre,
sides, and under surface of the body, and also from
the inside of the thighs, hangs a jiendent mane of
long hair, lalHng in huge masses so as to cover the
limbs and almost touch the ground. This mane is
grizzled black, except a central line along the belly
of pure white. The tail is tufted with a huge mass
of glossy white and rather coarse hairs, 18 or 20
incites in length. In size the animal could not have
exceeded the small Scotch breed of cattle.
On the authority of Gmelin and Turner, the horns
are round, small, pointed, and bent in a semicircle
forwards. The withers are elevated, and the colour
Buffaloes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
171
IS said to vary. We have seen an example in which
the tail was black.
The yak is a native of the mountains of Thibet,
and when wild is said to be savage and dangerous;
it is, however, reclaimed, and a domestic breed is
kept by the natives of the range tenanted by the
animal in its wild condition. The yak is perhaps
the Poephagus described by iElian ; from an early
period its tail was used as a standard by the Mon-
gols and Tartars, being one of the distinguishing in-
signia of superior officers. In India these tails are
mounted on ivory or silver handles, and, under the
name of chowries, are used to brush away the flies ;
elephants of state are taught to carry a splendidly
mounted chowrie in their proboscis, and wave it
backwards and forwards.
or the habits of the yak in a state of freedom
little or nothing is known. As regards the do-
mestic yak, Turner, in ' Account of an Embassy to
China,' after giving a description of it, observes
that " these cattle, though not largf-boned, seem,
from the profuse quantity of hair whh which they
are provided, to be of great bulk ; they have a
downcast heavy look, and appear, what indeed they
are. sullen and suspicious, discovering much im-
patience at the near approach of strangers. They
do not low loud, like the cattle of England, any
more than those of Hindostan, but make a low grunt-
ing noise, scarcely audible, and that but seldom,
when under some impression of uneasiness. These
cattle are pastured in the coldest parts of Thibet
upon tlie short herbage peculiar to the mountains
and bleak plains. The chain of mountains situated
between the latitudes 27" and 28', which divides
Thibet from Bootan, and whose summits are mostly
clothed with snow, is their favourite haunt. In this
vicinity the southern glens afford them food and
shelter during the severity of winter ; in milder
seasons the northern aspect is more congenial to
their nature, and admits a wider range. Tiiey are
a very valuable property to the tribes of itinerant
Tartars called Duckba, who live in tents, and tend
them from place to place ; they at the same time
afford their herdsmen an easy mode of conveyance,
a good covering, and wholesome subsistence. They
are never employed in agriculture, but are extremely
useful as beasts of burden, for they are strong, sure-
footed, and carry a great weight. Tents and lopes
are manufactured of their hair, and amongst the
bumbler ranks of herdsmen I have seen caps and
jackets made of their skins. The best requital with i
which the care of their keepers is at length rewarded
lor selecting them good pastures, is in the abundant
quantity of rich milk which they give, and in the
butter produced from it, which is most excellent.
It is their custom to preserve this in skins or blad-
ders, and the air being thus excluded from it, it
will keep in this cold climate throughout the year ;
so that after some time tending their herds, when
a sufficient store is accumulated, it remains only to
load their cattle and drive them to a proper market
with their own produce, which constitutes, to the
utmost verge of Tartary, a most material article of
commerce."
Genus Anoa : —
746, — ^The Anoa
(^Anoa liepressicomis). Our figure rejiresents the
horns of this rare animal, which has been considered
by some naturalists as belonging to the antelopes,
by others to- the Ox tribe ; this uncertainty arises
from the circumstance that thouiih the animal has
been noticed for many years, only a few fragments
of skulls and horns have hitherto been brought to
Europe.
The liorns are erect, perfectly straight, and in the
plane of the forehead : they are about the same
length as the head, that is, about nine or ten inches,
strongly depressed or flattened in front, of nearly
the same breadth till within three inches of the ex-
tremities, whence they are rather attenuated to the
tips, which are bluntly pointed, and irregularly
wrinkled, or rather crumbled throughout the greater
part of their length. The head is long and narrow,
terminating in a broad muzzle.
Mr. Pennant is the first naturalist who has men-
tioned this animal, but he has given no account of
its characters, and merely relates, that it is about
the size of a middling sheep, is wild and fierce, and
resides in large herds among the rocky mountains
of the island of Celebes. He considers it as a small
species of wild buffalo, and adds, that it is cap-
tuted only with great difficulty, and is so fierce in
confinement, that some of these animals, belonging
to Governor Loten, in one night ripped up the
bellies of fourteen slags which were kept in the
»ame paddock with them. The next author who
mentions the anoa from original documents or per-
sonal observation is Colonel Hamilton Smith, who,
in the fourth volume of Griffith's translation of the
• Rigne Animal,' describes the head and horns, and
considers the animal as a species of antelope.
Colonel Smith's fragment was brought from Celebes
by the late Dr. Clarke Abel, who obtained it on his
return from China in the suite of Lord Amherst;
but since that period various other heads have been
brought to Europe, some of which are deposited in
the British Museum and in the collection of the
London Zoological Society.
Genus Bubalus : —
747. — The Arnee, or L^rna
(Bos Ami of Shaw and others). The Arnee is by
some naturalists regarded as nothing more than the
wild ordinary buffalo ; but we are inclined to the
opinion that it is a distinct species, as we think is
clearly evidenced by the characters of the horns,
which are not uncommon in museums, though no
specimen of the animal itself exists in Europe. It
tenants the high lands of Hindostan, and is known
in Bengal and the neighbouring provinces by the
name of Arna. It is described as a large and for-
midable beast, conspicuous for strength, courage,
and ferocity. The horns of this animal, which we
have figured (Fig. 747), are remarkable for their
enormous size, often measuring from four to six feet
in length. They rise upwards, first inclining out-
wards and backwards, and then, arching gradually
towards each other as they proceed to the points,
form together a bold crescent : they are compressed
on their anterior and posterior surfaces, and rough
with numerous transverse furrows and ridges. The
chaffron is narrow and coiive.K.
748, 749, 750 — The Common Buffalo
{Bos buhnlus). The Buffalo has been long domes-
ticated in India, where its services as a beast of
draught and burden render it extremely valuable.
From India it has spread into Egypt, Greece, Italy,
and Spain.
The buffalo differs materially in its form and
general aspect from the ox, being a heavier and
more clumsy animal, as well as more powerful.
Though lower in stature than the bull, it is more
massive in the body, which is supported on short,
thick, solid limbs ; the hide is coarse and dense,
covered rather sparingly with black wiry hair. The
head is large, and carried with the muzzle project-
ing ; the forehead is convex, the muzzle large ; the
horns are compressed, and lie back, turning up
laterally and often attaining to a large size, but the
direction seldom allows the points to be used for
goring ; the ears are large and pendulous ; the
dewlap is small ; the eyes are wild, savage, and
malicious in expression ; the tail is long and
slender.
In its native regions the buffalo is a formidable
animal, and capable of contending with the tiger,
which is often Ibiled in the deadly strife. When
excited, the beast rushes desperately on its foe,
strikes him down with the horns or forehead, kneels
upon him, crushing in his chest, and then tramples
on the lifeless body, as if to satiate its vindictive
fury. Its natural temper, indeed, renders it difficult
to tame, and difficult to manage, while its pro-
digious strength and adaptation for certain localities
render it a valuable acquisition. The hot morass
teeming with pestilence is the genial abode of the
buffalo, and its delight is to wallow in the stagnant
water, where it will luxuriate for hours during the
heat of the day, with its black muzzle just elevated
above the surface. Its flesh is hard and unsavoury,
but the milk of the buffalo-cow is of peculiar rich-
ness, and in the East a considerable quantity of
butter is procured from it. The hide is greatlv
esteemed lor its solidity and toughness. Colonel
Sykes states that the long-horned variety of the
buffalo is bred in great numbers in the Mawals, or
hilly tracts along the Ghauts : " in those tracts much
rice is planted, and the male buffalo, Irom his
superior hardihood, is much better suited to resist
the effects of the heavy rains and the splashy culti-
vation of the rice than the bullock. The female
is also infinitely more valuable than the cow,
from the very much greater quantity of milk she
yields."
Dillon states that the buffalo at Malabar is
larger than the ox, with white eyes, and flat horns,
often two feet long ; its legs arc thick and short ;
" It is an ugly animal, almost destitute of hair, goes
slowly, but carries very heavy burdens. Herds
may be seen, as of common cows, and they afford
milk, which serves to make butter and cheese ;
their flesh is good, though less delicate than that of
the ox: the animal swims perfectly well, and tra-
verses the broadest rivers. Besides the tame ones,
there are wild buffaloes, which are extremely dan-
gerous, tearing men to pieces, or crushing them
with a single blow of the head. They are less to be
dreaded in the woods than elsewhere, because their
horns otten catch in the branches and give time to
the persons pursued to escape by flight. The
skin of these animals serves for an infinity of pur-
poses, and even cruses arc made of them for hold-
ing water or liquors: the animals on the coast of
Malabar are almost all wild, and strangers are not
prevented from hunting them for their flesh." In
Ceylon, as in Malabar, the buffalo exists both in a
wild and domesticated state, and the tame herds
are not unfrequently joined by wild individuals,
which the inhabitants sometimes entrap, and at
other times shoot. Buffaloes, it would appear, are
more common in Bombay than in Bengal. At
Boitpoor, Bishop Heber was shown a white buffalo,
probably an albina, which was pointed out by the
Indians as a rare curiosity.
From India the buffalo is distributed throughout
Siam, Cochin-China, Malacca, and the adjacent
islands, as Sumatra, Java, Borneo, &c., together
with the Philippines; it is also common in China,
where it is used in the various labours of agri-
culture.
In Africa it is abundant along the Nile, and in
other districts, existing in a wild or emancipated
state, as well as in a state of dpmestication. In
Abyssinia, more ])ariicularly in the forests of Ras
el Fil, the buffalo is veiy common ; its skin is chiefly
employed in that country for the making of shields,
in which considerable art is displayed.
In the middle ages the buffalo was introduced
into Spain and Italy, where in course of time the
animal became naturalised, and in some districts
may be regarded as in a state of nature.
We have already alluded to the Maremma of
Italy ; in the worst parts of that pestilential tract of
country, there the savage buffalo may be seen, roam-
ing at will, under the care of wild keepers, buffa-
lari, whose lives are passed in this dangerous
employment. Wherever large herds of buffaloes
occur, they may be taken as the sure index of mal-
aria. In the wild provinces of the Calabrias,
where most of the plains and valleys are always
partially swamped by the Laino, the Chratis, the
Amato, and numerous other rivers and torrents, they
are very common ; they range, almost the only
occupants, ever the plains of Peestum, and the still
wilder and more extensive flats of Apulia. The
Pontine Marshes offer them a favourite retreat, and
in the Pestilential Maremme, both of Rome and
Tuscany, scarcely any other animals, except wild
boars, are ever seen. In northern Italy, where there
is infinitely less malaria than in the south, they
occur in greatest numbers where the causes of that
pest exist, and where its effects are often felt, in
the inundated rice-grounds of Lombardy, in the
marshes formed by the overflowing of the Po,
the Tanaro, the Ticino, or of some other livers or
lakes.
In every part of Italy, but especially in the south,
are buffaloes used as beasts of burden, and their
strength and perseverance render them available in
many emergencies when oxen or horses would fail.
In some of the marshy plains of Calabria communi-
cation would be almost impracticable were it not
for the buffalo. There are not only morasses,
swamps, and bogs in every direction, but rivers
suddenly swollen to torrents in rainy weather, and
unprovided with bridges of any sort, frequently
occur. Here horses, mules, or oxen are useless, but
a pair of good buffaloes working chest-deep in the
mud will, slowly indeed, but surely, drag a large
carro with its goods or passengers through them.
Yoked to a high cart with wheels of prodigious
diameter, they will fearlessly take to the swollen
torrent, and, provided the water does not entirely
cover them, drag it safely to the opposite bank.
On the great plain of Apulia the buffalo is the
ordinary beast of draught, and at the annual fair
held at Foggia at the end of May, immense droves
of almost wild buffaloes are brought to the town
for sale. Fearful accidents occasionally happen,
enraged animals breaking from the dense mass in
spite of all the exertions of the buffalari, and rushing
upon some object of their vengeance, whom they
strike down and trample to death. It is dangerous
to over-work or irritate the buffalo, and instances
are known in which, when released by the brutal
driver from the cart, they have turned instantly
upon the man, and killed him before any assistance
could be rendered.
The buffalo, as well as the bull, is baited in the
amphitheatres of Italy. One kind of sport with the
buffalo is called La Botta. (Fig. 748.) A large
tube made of wicker-work or other flexible mate-
rials well wadded without and within, and open at
both ends, looking in short like a cask or butt
(whence its name) with the ends stove in, is rolled
across the arena. Presently a man creeps into this
botta, and then lifting it up on end, rises on his feet
and begins to move, with his head peeping above the
cask towards the buffalo, who at first stares bewil-
dered at the sight, and then runs and upsets the
novel object. In this game the man must be carefnl,
when the charge is made, to draw in his head and legs,
and keep himself entirely covered, like a torf\)ise in
his shell. The buffalo seeing that the botta no
longer moves, kicks it, butts at it for a while, causing
it to roll along, and then leaves it, but presently the
cask is again raised on end, and moved by the man
m.— Chpc Buflalo.
32.— Cajx- Buffalo.
-53 — 8kuU of Bo> Cuirw.
750.— Tiger and BuTalo.
749.— Gleanen of the Pontine Maistie^.
747.— Iloms of Ameo.
172
/'''f:%
J4. — Aurochs.
767.— Musk-Ox.
'if)'). — AmeTi*^an I'ison.
760^— Amvricin Bisons.
761.*-American Biwn.
113
174
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[BCFFALOES.
towards the beast. This trick could not be played
with the Toro Vaccino, whose sharp and stronfj
horns, better placed for allack than the buffalo's,
would pierce the cask throuii;h and through.
The attack of the buffalo in the arena is more
dangerous than that of the bull, and in his rage,
wheu he has missed his toiTOentor. he often strikes
the wall furiously with his head and horns, making
fiagments of stone fly in all directions, apparently
without suffering any injury from the violence of
the shocks. ■ u t. •
Fi(r. 740 represents a common scene in the Ponlme
Marshes— gleaners in harvest-time, returning from
work, with their cart drawn by two black, sullen
buffaloes, whose red eyes indicate their wild and
savage disposition.
751, 759. — The Cape Buffalo.
(Bos Caffmr). This ferocious animal is a native of
Southern Africa, associating generally in troops, fre-
i)uenting the watered glens and ravines among the
hills. Like the common buffalo, it is fond of wal-
lowing in pools or swamps, where it sometimes passes
the greater part of the aay. Its temper is depicted
in its lowering eye, and the malevolent expression of
the countenance, to which the position of the horns
overshadowing its fiery eyes not a little contributes.
These weapons form at their base a solid ruRged
mass, covering the forehead, from which they bend
downwards and somewhat outwards, gradually di-
minishing to the points, which suddenly curve up-
wards. The distance between the points of the
horns is fie<iuenlly five feet, but the rugose massive
base of lach is in cootact, forming an impenetrable
helmet ; their colour is black. The ears are a foot
in length, pendent, and in a great measure defended
by the horns ; yet it is observed that they are always
torn and jagged, either from the wounds received
in their combats with each other, or from the lace-
ration of thorns and spines, the animals continually
forcing their way through the dense thickets.
Thoush not taller than an ordinary ox, the Cape
buflalo is a far stouter, heavier, and more powerful
beast ; its limbs are short and thick, its body bulky,
and its head ponderous. The hide is thick and
tough, and sparingly covered with harsh blackish
hairs, those on the under lip and about the corners
of the mouth being elongated so as to form a scanty
beard.
Considering the massive proportions of this fierce
tenant of the wilds of Southern Africa, it possesses
no inconsiderable share of fleet ness, and when pur-
sued by the hunter it tears through the thicket and
up the'mountainside with surprising impetuosity.
Not unfrequently, however, it returns to the attack ;
so that it is not to be encountered without the ut-
most caution and the means of escape at hand.
Many are the fatal accidents and the narrow es-
capes from death recorded by the various travellers
who have penetrated the country of the Cape buf-
falo.
The bellowing of the Cape buffalo when wounded,
his fury as he tears up the earth with his horns, and
his efforts to revenge himself upon his foes before
he sinks expiring, are terrific.
It is the general opinion of the natives of South
Africa, that though the lion frequently attacks the
buffalo, he cannot overcome it by dint of strength,
but has recourse to stratagem, lying in ambush near
gome stream where the beast comes to drink. They
say that the lion springs upon its back, drives its
tremendous claws into the victim's sides and the
nape of the neck, tearing and mangling, till the
buffalo falls and dies. At other times they affirm
that the lion dartssuddenly upon the buffalo, fastens
on its chest and neck, lacerating and sqiieezing the
mouth and nose with its fore-paws, till, half suffo-
cated, and exhausted by vain efforts and loss of
blood from deep wounds, it expires. The lion, how-
ever, does not always make these attacks with im-
punity, for his carcass is sometimes found gored and
trampled, evidently by buffaloes, the herd having
come to the rescue of their companion. An allied
species (Bos Pegasus, H. Smith) is found in Western
Africa.
Fig. 753 represents the skull of the Bos Caffer.
Genus Bison : —
754. — The Aurochs, or Zubr
(Bison Europaus ; Bos un/s, Gmelin). This noble
species exists in the great forest of Bialowicza (pro-
nounced Bealawezha in Poland), in Lithuania, where
it is protected by stringent laws. In its proportions
the aurochs is robust, and its withers are massive and
elevated. The largest males stand about six feet
high at the shoulders. The hair is of two sorts :
one is soft, woolly and short, covering the whole
tnmk and limbs ; the other is long and rough, cover-
ing the upper part and sides of the head, the neck,
and shoulders, where it forms a mane ; under the
lower jaw and along the throat to the chest it is
lengthened into a sort of beaid. In old bulls the
mane is often a foot in length, and i( thickest in
November. The eyes are small, but fierce and
sparkling when the animal is irritated. The tongue,
lips, and palate are blue. The tail, which is short,
is furnished with a tult of stiff hairs at its extremity.
An odour, described as between that of musk and
violets, is exhaled from the skin, especially from
that part of the skin covering the convexity of the
forehead ; it is stronger in the male than the female,
and may be perceived at the distance of a hundred
yards from the herd.
The flesh of this animal is highly esteemed, but
when roasted is said to have a bluish tinge.
Thickets near the swampy banks of rivers are the
favourite resorts of the aurouchs ; but in summer and
during the warmer portion of autumn, according to
Dr. Weissenbom, the herds select sandy spots : in
winter they keep quiet by day in the thickest part
of the fir-wood, only browsing at night, and finding
sustenance in the bark of young trees : in spring
they visit spots where the. herbaceous plants they
relish begin to sprout. They are fond of tree-lichens.
The voice of the aurochs is a deep short grunt, wliich
may be heard at a considerable distance.
" The strength," says Dr. Wei#Snborn, " of the
zubr is enormous, and trees of five or six inches in
diameter cannot withstand the thrusts of old bulls.
It is neither afraid of the wolf nor bear, and assails
its enemies both with its horns and hoofs. An old
zubr is a match for four wolves ; packs of the latter
animal, however, sometimes hunt down even old
bulls when alone, but a herd of zubrs has nothing
to fear from any rapacious animal.
" Notwithstanding the great bulk of its body, the
zubr can run very swiftly. In galloping its hoofs
are raised above its head, which it carries very low.
"The animal has, however, but little bottom, and
seldom runs farther than one or two English miles.
It swims with great agility, and is very fond of
bathing.
" The zubr is generally exceedingly shy, and
avoids the approach of man. They can only be
approached iiom the leeward, as their smell is ex-
tremely acute. But when accidentally and sud-
denly fallen in with, they will passionately assail
the intruder. In such fits of passion the animal
thrusts out its tongue repeatedly, lashes its sides
with its tail, and the reddened and sparkling eyes
project from their sockets, and roll furiously. Such
IS their innate wildness, that none of them have ever
been completely tamed. When taken young they
become, it is true, accustomed to their keepers, but
the approach of other persons renders them furious,
and even their keepei-s must be careful always to
wear the same sort of dress, when going near them.
Their great antipathy to the Bos Taurus, which they
either avoid or kill, would render their domestication,
if it were practicable, but little desirable. The ex-
periments made with a view of obtaining a mixed
breed from the zubr and Bos J'aurus have all failed,
and are now strictly prohibited."
Figs. 755, 756, represent the skull, in front and
profile, of a young aurochs; Figs. 757 and 758, of
an old male.
759, 760, 761, 762.— The American Bison
(Bison Americantis; Bos Americanus). The Ame-
rican Bison, formerly spread more extensively than
at present, still exists in vast numbers in Louis-
iana, roaming in countless herds over the prairies
that are watered by the Arkansas, Platte, Missouri,
and upper branches of, the Saskatchewan and Peace
rivers. Like its congener the aurochs, the Ame-
rican bison is of powerful frame, and exceeds in
bulk the ordinary race of cattle, its height at the
fore-quarters being upwards of six feet, and its
weight from twelve to fifteen hundredweight, and
sometimes much more. The head is huge, pon-
derous, and carried low ; the withers are massive
and elevated ; the eyes are small and their expres-
sion is ferocious ; the horns are small and black.
The neck, withers, and chest are covered with a
profusion of long shaggy hair, contributing to render
the appearance of the animal wild and terrific ; the
hinder quarters are clothed with shorter wool. The
general colour is umber brown, acquiring a rusty
tint in winter. Endowed with the sense of smell in
great perfection, wary, and fierce, the bison asso-
ciates in large herds conducted by one or two old
bulls, whose molions the rest appear to follow ; but
herds of bulls also live separately. 'l"heir food con-
sists of gia.ss and rank herbage, to obtain which in
winter they scrape away the snow with their feet.
On the apjiroach of an enemy the herd immediately
takes to flight ; but if one be wounded, the life of
the hunter is placed in great jeopardy, for turning
in a moment, it rushes on its assailant with head-
long impetuosity and with determined resolution.
Several latal instances might be cited in which the
hunter has perished from want of caution in attack-
ing this formidable beast, and many hairbreadth
escapes are on record.
In defending itself from a dog the bison etrikes
violently with its fore feet, and easily keeps it« an-
noying foe at bay.
The flesh of this animal is accounted excellent,
the tongue and hump, or flesh on the top of the
withers, being especial delicacies. The chnse of
the bison is theretbre assiduously carried on, both
by the natives and the Europeans.
The bison swims well, and during the heats of
summer vast herds make their way toshady rivulets,
streams, and pools, in which they delight to pluuge
and bathe. Herds of twenty thousand, crossing
rivers upwards of a mile in breadth, have been seen,
as Lewis and Clarke inform us, or darkening the
plains on their passage to fresh feeding- erounds.
Salt-springs, or saline morasses, or salt-licks, are
great attractions to this animal, and at all seasons
are visited by numerous herds. These, however,
are incessantly thinned by the hunters, and the
time is probably not far distant when the American
bison will be as rare and as limited in its extent of
range as the aurochs of Lithuania.
At certain seasons of the year the bulls engage
in terrible conflicts, and rush furiously upon man, or
any other animal which ventures near them. With
the exception of man the most formidable enemy
against which the bison has to contend is the huge
giisly bear, and before this dreaded monster the
strongest bull goes down.
It appears that the bison will breed with the or-
dinary race of domestic cattle, against ivhich the
aurochs displays the greatest antipathy, though in
one respect the latterapproaches nearerto the com-
mon ox than does the bison ; we allude to the number
of ribs, which are thirteen in the ox on each side,
fourteen in the aurochs, and fifteen in the bison.
Figs. 763, 764, represents the skull, front view and
in profile, of a young female bison ; Figs. 765, 766,
of an old male bison.
Genus Ovibus: —
767.— The Musk Ox
(Ovibos Moschatus). The characters of the genus
Ovibos, as exhibited by the only known species, are
as follows: — The horns are expanded at their liase,
forming a helmet-like mass, covering the forehead,
where their edges are in contact with each other ;
from this mass they emerge round and taperina:,
first bending down between the eye and ear, and
then sweeping suddenly upwards. The ears and
tail are short; the eyes moderate; the nostrils
oblong, and inclined to each other from above down-
wards ; there is no true naked muzzle, but a very
narrow naked line surrounds each nostril, the rest
being covered with hair ; there is no furrow in the
upper lip.
The musk-ox is a native of the high lattitudes of
North America, from the sixty-first to the seventy-
fifth degree of latitude. In size it scarcely equals
the smallest of the Highland breed of cattle, but
appeal's larger than it really is fiomthe profusion of
long matted woolly hair with which it is covered,
and which hangs on each side almost to the ground,
almost concealing the limbs to the pasterns ; the
tail is entirely hidden. Beneath the lower jaw,
throat, and chest the hair flows full, long and mane-
like. The general colour is dull grizzled umber
brown, darker on the sides and under surface : on
the centre of the back is a brow nish-white mark or
saddle.
The districts inhabited by the musk-ox, says Dr.
Richardson, are the proper lands of the Esquimaux,
and their name for it is Oomingmak. It frequents
wild and rocky situations, mostly destitute of wood,
feeding on grass during one season of the year, and
on lichens during the other. When fat its flesh is
tolerable, but at certain times both that of the bulls
and cows smell slrougiy of musk. Though the
limbs of the musk-ox an,' short, they are very vigor-
ous, and the animal is fleet and active. Dr. Rich-
ardson mentions one pursued on the banks of the
Coppermine, which scaled a lolly sand-cliff so steep
that the parly were obliged to crawl up it on their
hands and knees.
In September these animals assemble in herds,
and are then much harassed by the hunters. The
sport, however, is not free from danger, for the bulls
are very irascible, and when wounded will dart fu-
riously upon the hunter, who requires both practice
and presence of mind in order to escape. If, how-
ever, the huntere remained concealed when they
fire upon a herd of musk-oxen, the poor animals
mistake the noise for thunder, and fornung them-
selves into a group, crowd nearer and nearer tOfrether
as their companions fall around them ; but should
they discover their enemies by sight, or by their
sense of smell, which is very acute, the whole herd
seek for safety by instant flight.
The wool of this animal is fine, and some stock-
ings which were made from it in France are said to
have been equal to those made Iiom silk. If it
could be obtained in sufficient quantity, it might
doubtless be employed advantageously as an article
for manufacture.
Sloths.
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
175
f
ORDER EDENTATA.
Cuv. (Bntta, Linn.) This order, which contains
the Sloths, the extinct Megatherium and Mylodon,
the Armadillo, the Pangolin, and the Ant-eater,
appears at a lirst glance to be less natural than upo:i
careful analysis it is proved to be. Several import-
ant links indeed, the absence of which left voids in
the chain, have lortunately been recovered, their
fossil relics restored, and the species assigned to
their true place. In this philosophic labour Pro-
fessor Owen has rendered to science the most import-
ant service, and his work, entitled a 'Description of
the Skeleton of an extinct gigantic Sloth, but which
is in iiict an elaborate analysis of the structure and
affinities of the megatheroid quadrupeds m general,
is a monument of research and acumen.
With respect to the term Edentata (toothless ani-
mals) it must be taken in a qualified sense. The
ant-eaters and pangolins arc indeed destitute ofteeth,
but the other genera possess these organs with cer-
tain limitations as to number, and of peculiar struc-
ture, wanting both the neck part and enamel.
Without further preface we may observe that the
Edentata resolve themselves into two great sections,
namely, Leaf-eaters and Insect or Flesh-eaters.
These" sections, from their respective habits, have
been termed bv Desmarest, Tardigrada, or slow-
paced, and Effodientia, or diggers: but to these
terms, as they are not universally applicable to the
species they include, there are some objections.
I. LEAF-EATERS.
Family Sloths (Tardigrada, Owen ; Bradypolidse
Auct.).
Genus Bradijpm, Linn. (Acheus, F. Cuv.)— Claws
on the fore-feet, three.
768, 769, 770.— The Common Sloth, or Ai.
^Bradypm tridactylus, Linn.). The Sloths are crea-
tures as extraordinary in their habits as in their
organization, the one having a mutual relationship
to the other. They are exclusively arboreal ; the
trees afford them at once their needful food and
their permanent abiding-place : and for the trees
alone are they structurally adapted. It is not long
since that the sloth was condemned as a degraded
miserable being ; slow and embarrassed in all its
movements, and wretchedly framed, as if Nature
had bungled in its creation. Inconsistent with phi-
losophy, and presumptuous in the extreme, is such
an opinion. The tall giraffe and the sinewy-limbed
antelope are not more directly organized for their
respective requirements, than is the slolh for its
appointed p'ace in the scale of creation. Were it a
tenestrial animal, then indeed might we call its
structure defective ; but, its mode of life taken into
consideration, we view it in another light, and per-
ceive that it affords a marked example of design
and purpose.
Buffon's eloquent misrepresentation of the sloth
need not detain us, but we cannot avoid expressing
our surprise that the great Cuvier not only quotes
the words of that naturalist, but even follows up his
ideas. The only excuse is, that the habits of the
animals till recently were very imperfectly under-
stood ; yet might we not expect that a philo-
sopher would pause before concluding that in
the works of nature there occurred exceptions
to the laws of harmony by which the whole is
governed ?
A few observations on the organization of the
«loth may not be unacceptable.
Fig. 771 represents the skeleton of the common
three-toed sloth ; Fig. 772 the pelvis of the same ;
Fig. 773 the skeleton of the Unau, or two-toed
sloth.
In the skeleton of the sloth we are struck at once
with the great length of the fore-limbs, which are
twice as long as the hinder pair, and with the huge
hook-like claws by which all four are terminated ;
we perceive, too, that the pelvis is bird-like in its
■conformation and of great breadth, separating the
thigh bones to an unusual distance from each other ;
added to this, the thigh bones are directed obliquely
outwards, while the limb from the knee downwards
has an inward inclination ; and the structure of the
wrist and ankle is such, that the palm or sole, in-
stead of being directed to the surface of the ground,
as in other animals, is turned inwards towards the
body in such a manner as to render it impo.ssible
for the sloth to place the sole of its foot straight
down on a level surface, but to compel it under
such circumstances to rest upon the external edge
of the foot (see skeleton. Fig. 771). The hip-joint,
as in the orang-outan, is destitute of the ligamen-
tuin teres, whence the head of the thigh bone is
endowed with greater freedom of motion. In the
Ai Mhree-toed sloi4i) the neck consists of nine
vertebriB, instead of seven, the ordinary number in
mammalia, and the two tables of the skull in all
the species are separated by large air-cells, so that
the small bird like brain is defended by a double
case, a provision against accidental falls, should
the branch to which the animal is clinging give
way.
Professor Owen observes, respecting the sloths,
that " they illustrate the affinity or tendency to the
oviparous type, liy the supernumerary cervical ver-
tebrse, supporting false ribs, and by the convolu-
tion of the windpipe in the thorax, in the three-
toed species; by the lacertine (lizard-like) character
of three and twenty pairs of ribs in the unau ; and
by the low cerebral development, by the great
tenacity of life, and long-enduring irritability of
muscular fibre in both species." The muscles of
the sloth are endowed with the most aston-
ishing energy ; llieir force is, indeed, almost in-
credible, and harmonizes with the arboreal design
of the skeleton, of which the limbs alone sufficiently
indicate the creature's habits. Who can mistake
the meaning of the solid hook-like structure of the
paws, or the design of the long arms, or of the,
security of the union of the clavicle to the large
scapula? We might here enter into minute de-
tails, but we refrain, only observing that Nature in
these points aimed at rigid unyielding strength, and
has obtained the re:sult she wished ; the long arms
of the sloth being thus furnished with strong hooks,
which are drawn to the palm (and the same obser-
vation applies to the claws of the hind-feet) by
means of elastic ligaments it can reach to a distant
branch, and there fix itself with facility, or, while
clinging to one branch, can draw towards itself
another loaded with buds, fruits, or leaves, which
offer a grateful repast. Rigid as its paw is, it can
use it as a hand, and with great address convey
food to its mouth.
LTnfitted then for the ground, on which he
can only drag himself along by applyir.g the claws
of the fore-feet to any rough projection within reach,
the sloth is eminently qualified for the branches of
the forest, and that rather for their upper than
their under surface; clinging to them, he rests
and travels suspended, yet in perfect security ; here
his awkwardness disappears, and he traverses the
branches or passes from tree to tree in the dense
forest with considerable celerity, either in quest of
food, or in order to escape his enemies. Stedman,
in his ' History of Surinam,' has an engraving of a
sloth in this position, which we have copied as
illustrating its singular mode of progression (Fig.
770). But the arms of the sloth are also his wea-
pons of defence, and weapons of no little force :
when attacked on the ground, he throws himself on
his back, fixes his claws on his adversary, and
grasps him with enormous power; in this manner
he has been known to strangle a dog, holding him
all the while at arm's length, and in this manner he
grapples with snakes of large size, to the attacks of
which he is said to be subject.
Mr. Burchell (says Professor Buckland, in an
interesting paper on these animals in the ' Linn.
Trans.' 1835) observed, that " his captive sloths
assumed during sleep a position of perfect ease
and safety on the fork of a tree, their arms em-
bracing the trunk, their backs resting on the angle
of a branch, and their head reclining on their
own bosom. The animal is thus rolled up nearly
in the form of a ball ; the entire vertebral co-
lumn, including the neck, assumes a nearly cir-
cular curve, and not only is the weight of the
whole body maintained in an attitude of ease and
safety, but the head is supported between the
arms and chest, and the face lies buried in the long
wool which covers those parts, and is thus pro-
tected during sleep from the myriads of insects
which would otherwise attack it." According to
Mr. Burchell, the buds and young shoots of a spe-
cies of Cecropia form the principal food of the
sloth. These frees grow only in damp places, and
rise with a slender stem to the height of thirty or
forty feet, giving off horizontal branches, hollow
internally, except at the extremities. Along these
branches it travels, and the young cling round the
body of the mother. It would appear that the
moisture of leaves or buds suffices the sloth for
drink, as none kept by Mr. Burchell took liquid in
any other way. In the aspect of the sloth there is
an expression of profound melancholy; it seldom
utters any cry; it notices nothing with any positive
mark of attention except perhaps the trees to which
unerring instinct draws it, nor by any action evinces
much intelligence.
The dental system of the sloth is the most simple
that can well be conceived. They have no incisor
teeth, but canines and molars only : and in the Ai
the canines are diminutive, and in all respects very
similar to the other teeth. The molar teeth are
universally eight in the upper jaw and six in the
lower, four and three on either side respectively.
Their construction is most simple ; they are cylin-
drical, unrooted, consisting, as Professor Owen has
demonstrated, of a centre of vascular dentine sur-
rounded by unvascular dentine or ivory, the whole
enveloped by a layer of coementum, ctiaracterised
by numerous minute calciferous cells. Ill fitted for
grinding the food, the teeth merely bruise it or break
down the tender structure of the buds or leaves,
their deficiency in this point being most probably
compensated by the singular complication of the
stomach, which is sacculated.
The sloths bring Ibrth and suckle their young
like ordinary quadrupeds. They have two mammae,
which are situated on the breast ; and the young
sloth, from the moment of its birth, adheres to the
body of its parent till it acquires sufficient size and
strength to shift for itself. The head of the Ai is
, short, the face small and round like that of the Ame-
rican monkeys, the ears concealed in the long hair
which sun ounds them, the eyes small and deeply
sunk in the head, and the tail a mere rudiment.
The Indians like its flesh, and are in continual
pursuit of it.
Naturalists reckon two distinct species of the Ai,
and three or four varieties, some of which may pro-
bably be found to be specifically different, when
they come to be dissected and carefully compared
with one another. 1. The common Ai (Bradypus
tridactylus, Linn.) has a short round head, furnished
with coarse shaggy hair, disposed on the crown in
verging rays, like that of the human species ; the
face is of a yellowish colour covered with very
short hair, whilst that of the body and extremities
is universally long and shaggy ; the eyes are en-
circled by a brown ring ; the hair of the body varied
with irregular patches of dark and light brown, or
silvery white: between the shoulders there is an
oval patch of short orange-coloured hair, of a finer
quality than that found on other parts of the body,
and divided in the centre by a longitudinal black
stripe ; the throat and breast are frequently of a
light straw-colour. The texture of the hair is
altogether peculiar, and more nearly resembles dry
hay, or grass shrivelled and withered bv the sun,
than the hair of ordinary quadrupeds. It is coai-se
and flattened at the extremity, but as small at the
root as the finest spider's web; and its dry and
withered appearance forms the Ai's principal se-
curity against its pursuers, as it renders it extremely
difficult to detect it whilst at rest among the
branches covered with bark and moss of the same
colour; it is only when in motion that it can be
readily distinguished from the trunk beneath which
it hangs suspended. In other respects, dift'erent
individuals of this species differ considerably from
one another, in the shade and disposition of their
colours, and in the intensity of the mark between
the shoulders; some even want this latter mark
altogether, others are of a uniform ash-colour over
the whole body, and there are others still, which
have the hair of the head parted in the centre, and
hanging down upon each side.
Length of the adult about seventeen or eighteen
inches.
The Collared Ai, (Bradypus collaris,) is a very
distinct species, even in the bony structure of its
cranium. Its face is naked and of a black colour;
the hair of its body less flattened and withered-look-
ing than in the common species; the Ibrehead,
temples, chin, throat, and breast covered with red-
dish or rust-coloured hair, slightly frizzled ; on the
crown of the head it is long and yellow, and on the
rest of the body pale orange : but the most dis-
tinguishing mark of the species is a large black
collar which completely surrounds the neck, and
from which its specific name of collaris is derived.
Beneath this outer coat there is an inner one of
very fine fur, which is of a dark brown colour on the
collar, but gradually diminishes in intensity towards
the croup, where it is entirely white.
Both these species feed upon the leaves of trees,
and bring forth but a single young one at a birth.
When in motion in the forests they emit a feeble
plaintive cry, resembling the word Ai, and which is
the origin of the name they bear among the Eu-
ropeans settled in America. They are extremely
retentive of life, and have been seen to move their
legs, and exhibit other symptons of vivacity, a full
half- hour after being deprived of the heait and other
viscera.
The Unau, or two-toed sloth, of which we figure
the skeleton (Fig. 773), is placed by Illiger in a dis-
tinct genus, under the title of Cholcepus. It is the
Bradypus didactylus of Linnajus. In its manners it
closely resembles the Ai, which it exceeds in ssize.
In both genera the skull is rounded, and the
muzzle short, but more especially in the Ais. The
zygomatic arch is very bold and stout, but is incom-
plete in the centre. The malar bone is very deve-
loped, and gives off a descending branch reaching
over the lower jaw, but its zygomatic process does
not reach the corresponding process of the temporal
bone ; hence the arch, as we have said, is imperfect.
The orbits are nearly circular, but incomplete be-
hind. The lower jaw is large and strong.
In the two-toed sloth there are no pro-dorsal or
supernumerary vertebrae in the neck ; the feet are
far less universally consolidated together.
770,— Sloth ; mode of progrenton.
772.— Pelvis of Sloth.
769.— Sloth.
176
5. — Lower Jaw oj Mylodon.
7T6,— Right branch of tlie above; external view.
T!7.— Tooth of Mylodon.
778.— Tootli ol Mvlodon.
77J. — Skeleton of Mvloilon robustim.
7»4. — IVlvit* and Hiad Legof Mej^lheriam.
77!>.— Hemaina of Skii'.l of Scelidotheiinni.
785. — Ungueal Phalanx of Megatherium.
No. 23.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
7>*6.— Tooth of Megatherium.
177
178
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Meqa.thericj«;
Family Graviobada, Owen.— Feet short, very
itroni;, equal or subequal ; fore-feet with five or
four toes, of which one or two of the outermost are
unarmed, fit for support and progression ; the rest
are armed with huge clawu. Zygomatic arch com-
plete, clavicles perfect ; tail moderate or stout, acting
an n fulcrum or prop.
Such are the characters of this family, as laid
down by Professor Owen. It contains the following
Ifenera :— Megalonyi, Megalheriuui, Mylodon,
Scelidotheriuni, Coelodon.and Sphenodon; of these
genera all the species are extinct, and only known
from their fossil relics.
774. — Mylodox robustus.
We figure the skeleton of this extinct giant, now
preserved in the Koyal College of Surgeons, and
which, except that it' was formed for tearing down
the trees of the forest, and not living in their
branches, was closely related to the comparatively
pigmy sloths of the present day. Conceive of a
ilolh of the size and bulk of a rliinoceros or hippo-
)>otamus, but with bones intinilely more massive,
muscles infinitely more voluminous and powerful,
with a thick tail acting as a support, and forming
with the hind limbs a firm tripod, while the animal
thus raised upright, and exerting its enormous
strength, sways the tree to and fro. and lays it at
last prostrate ; — and our reader will have a good
idis. of what this mighty devastator of the primitive
forests of South Ameiica must have been.
The skeleton in question was discovered, as we
are informed by Pro|■e^sor Owen, " in the year 1841
by M. Pedro de Angelis, seven leagues north of the
city of Buenos Ayres, in the fluvial ile deposits con-
stituting the extensive plain intersected by the great
Kio Plata and its tributaries, and which has been
raised during a recent geological epoch above the
level of the sea.
" In this formation, and most probably anterior
to its elevation, the animal must have been buried
entire, and if the present heat of the climate pre-
vailed, soon after its death, for the parts of the ske-
leton were found little disturbed, and the very few
bones that are wanting are such as would be likely
to escape the search of the most diligent collector.
" About the same time and near the same place
a tessellated osseus carapace of some large qua-
druped like an armadillo was exhumed, and infor-
mation of this discovery having been communicated
to the Royal College of Surgeons by Sir Woodbine
Parish, late Her Majesty's Chargd d'Aflaires at
Buenos A> res, both this carapace and the above-
mentioned skeleton were purchased by the College.
They arrived in November, 1841, in many pieces,
fragile from the loss of the animal matter ; but
having been restored in some measure to their
original tenacity, the parts of the carapace were
re-united, the skeleton was articulated, and both
are now placed in the museum."
We may here observe that the tessellated carapace
belongs to a large extinct armadillo, to which the
largest living species, the Dasypus Gigas, is but a
pigmy ; it is termed by Professor Owen, Glyptodon
clavipes.
With respect to the fossil genus Mylodon, Pro-
fessor Owen describes three distinct species, viz.,
M. Darwinii, M. Harlani, and M. Robustus, which
far exceeds the others in size.
We regret that want of space prevents us from
following Professor Owen through his elaborate
examination of the skeleton of Mylodon robustus,
which to the scientific is replete with interest, nor
enter into the affinities of the Mylodon to the Me-
gatherium, Megalonyx, and other extinct Edentata,
which are rigidly scrutinized.
Fig. 775 represents the lower jaw of Mylodon :
Fig. 770, the external view of the right branch of the
lower jaw of Mylodon. Figs. 777 and 778, the sim-
ple teeth of the Mylodon, showing the depth of
their implantation. The cavity at the base of the
tooth is seen at a. Fig. 777. As in the sloth, the
Megatherium, and Megalonyx, these teeth, formed
for crashing leaves, are composed of a central pillar
of coarse ivoiy, immediately invested with a thin
layer of fine dense ivory, and the whole surrounded
with a thick coating of cement.
From the structure of these teeth it is evident that
the Mylodon fed on leaves, like the sloths of the
present day. But, notwithstanding Dr. Lund's
opinion, it was certainly not adapted for climbing
trees ; besides, what trees could bear its weight ?
How then di 1 it obtain its food ? The whole of its
osseous confirmation suggests the answer — it was
formed to uprend the trees that bore its sustenance.
The enormous expanse of the pelvis, the great bulk
and strength of the hind-legs, the solidity of the tail,
to which its evidently vast muscles were attached,
enabling it with the hind-limbs to complete a firm
tripod of support, the proportions of the fore-limbs,
unequalled for massiveness by those of any existing
or extinct animal, the size and strength of its claws, —
in short the whole mechanism of the colossal frame
becomes intelligible only on the ground of the her-
culean labour to which the animal was appointed.
Perhaps it commenced the process of prostrating
the chosen tree by scratching away the soil from the
roots, and then proceeded to grapple with it thus
partially undermined, and apply the surpassing
strength of its limbs and body, the muscles of the
trunk and extremities, being animated by the in-
fluence of the unusually large spinal chord.
It may here be stated that the skull of the speci-
men described by Professor Owen had at some time
or other been fractured and had healed ; the animal
living long afterwards : and it will at once occur to
the reader that these animals must have been un-
usually liable, from their habits, to blows from heavy
falling bodies; to meet such accidents the scull was
])eculiarly constructed, its outer and inner table
being separated by extensive air-cells, so that the
fracture of the outer table might occur without in-
jury to the brain. It was by virtue of this structure
that the subject of the Professor's memoir appears
to have been saved.
779, 780, 781, 782, 783.— ScKLiDOTHKKiuM.
Our Figures represent (Fig. 779) the remains of the
skull; Figs. 780, 781, the dentition of an extinct
animal, to which Professor Owen has given the title
of Scelidotheriuin. Figs. 782, 783, show the depth
of the implantation of the teeth and their structure ;
e, the crown of a tooth seen from above.
This animal was evidently allied to the Mylodon
and Megatherium, and belongs to the same family.
The lossil remains, viz., a cranium, several ver-
tebrae, the scapulae, and various bones of the limbs,
were discovered by Mr. Darwin at Punta Alia, in
northern Patagonia, and in the same bed of partly
consolidated gravel as that wherein the lower jaws
of Toxodon and a species of Mylodon were im-
bedded. All the parts were discovered in their
natural relative position, indicating, as Mr. Darwin
observes, that the sublittoral formation in which they
had been originally deposited had been but little
disturbed. This beach is covered at spring-tides,
and many portions of the skeleton were encrusted
with flustiw. Small marine shells were lodged
within the crevices of the bones.
The teeth in structure resemble tliose of the
Mylodon ; there are neither incisors nor canines ;
the molars are five on each side above, and four
below. According to Professor Owen, the Cape
Ant-eater, or Aard-vark, of all the Edentata most
nearly resembles the Scelidotheriuni in the form of
the skull ; and next to the Aard-vark may be cited
the great Armadillo {Dasypus Gigas).
"Although the Scelidothere, like most other Eden-
fals, was of low stature, and, like the Megatherium,
presented a disproportionate development of the
hinder parts, it is probable that bulk for bulk, it
equalled, when alive, the largest existing Pachy-
derms not proboscidean. There is no evidence that
it possessed a tessellated osseous coat of mail."
784, 785, 786, 787, 788, 789.-
Mkgatukrium.
-The
The relics of this colossal beast, of which Figs. 787,
788, and 789 represent the skeleton, have been dis-
covered only in South America, of which continent,
at some remote period, it was an inhabitant.
The affinity of this animal to the sloths and other
Edentata was pointed out by Cuvier, but many
points required elucidation ; in fact zoologists have
been led, not without apparent grounds, into some
errors, recently corrected.
For a long time the museum of Madrid afforded
the only relics of the Megatherium in Europe ; but
the skeleton they compose is deficient in several of
its parts ; fortunately the recent acquisition by the
Royal College of Surgeons of a great portion of the
bones of this animal has tended to supply the de-
fects, at least to a considerable extent.
These splendid and valuable remains form the
subject of an interesting paper from the pen of Mr.
Clift, in the third vol., p. 3, of the 'Trans. Geol.
Soc. Lond.' accompanied by an improved figure of
the sk«.lefon, and ligures of various detached parts,
together with a map of that part of the province of
Buenos Ayres in which the places where the bones
in question were found, and also those of the Madrid
specimen, are marked down.
The acquisition of these remains by the Royal
College of Surgeons is due to the zeal and liberality
of Woodbine Parish, Esq. " They were found in the
river Salado, which runs through the flat alluvial
plains to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres. Their
discovery was owing to a succession of unusuallydry
seasons in the three preceding years, which lowered
the waters in an extraordinary degree, and exposed
part of the pelvis to view as it stood upright in the
bottom of the river. It appears that this and some
other parts of the skeleton, having been carried to
Buenos Ayres by the country-people, were very
liberally placed at Mr. Parish's disposal by Don
Ililario Sosa, the owner of the property on which
they were found. In the hope of obtaining the
other parts of the skeleton, an intelligent person
was subsequently sent to the same spot, who suc-
ceeded, after considerable difficulties, in getting out
of the mud forming the bed of the river the re-
mainder of the collection. Further inquiry led Mr.
Parish to suppose that similar remains might be
met with in other parti of the provinces of Buenos
Ayres, and he applied to the local aulhoritits to
assist him in makin'g further search. This was given
by the governor, Don Manual Rosas, and the re-
mains of the two other skeletons were found on his
excellency's own properties of Las Averias and Vil-
lanueva, one to the north, the other to the south of the
Salado, but at no great distance from the place where
the first had been discovered. In the latterinstance
the osseous remains were accompanied by an im-
mense shell, or case, portionsof which were brought'
to this country." A fragment of this shell, or os-
seous shield, IS figured by Mr. Clift; its external
surface is rough, and it appears to consist of an as-
semblage of smaller parts, like rosettes in sculpture,
united together by suture ; the sutures being plainly
marked on the under surface, which is smooth. By
M. Blainville, Dr. Buckland, and indeed by most
naturalists, this buckler or carapace was regarded
as belonging to the Megatherium, whose colossal
bulk it was regarded as having protected, as is the
case in the Armadillos, to which it was believed to
be closely related, not only in structure and habits,
but also food.
It has, however, been recently demonstrated by
Professor Owen, and we believe to the entire satis-
faction of Dr. Buckland himself, that the tessellated
carapace found with the Salado remains did not
belong to the Megatherium, but to a large arma-
dillo-like animal, to which Professor Owen assigned
the title of Glyptodon, and whose hind-feet, like the
fore-foot, appear to be so modified as to form the
bases of columnar limbs destined to support an
enormous incumbent weight. Moreover, from a
rigorous examination of the details of the skeleton
of the Megatherium, into which we forbear to enter,
he proves the incompatibility of such a shield with
its osseous structure, which differs in marked essen-
tials from that of the Armadillo, in which latter
animal the skeleton is exjiressly modified for the
armour which covers the hack and head.
In his paper on the Glyptodon, wherein the claims
of the Megatherium to this armour are discussed.
Professor Owen gives a tabular account of the dis-
covery of twelve skeletons of the Megatherium, and
in no instance did any portion of bony armour occur
with or near the bone ; and in a note the wiiter of
the article' Megatherium' in the ' Penny Cyclopsedia'
states as follows : —
" Sir Woodbine Parish has just now (May 29,
1839) kindly communicated to us a letter received
by him, giving information of the discovery of an
almost entire skeleton of an adult Megatherium on
the banks of the Rio de la Matanza, with all the
vertebra; of the body, all the ribs, all the teeth, the
head and the legs, in short, with the whole of the
hones except the tail and one foot. Close to it was
the skeleton of a 'Tatou gigantesque ' (Glyptodon
probably), with its bony armour complete. There
was also found a very small and perfect Megathe-
rium, which must have been only just born at the
epoch of destruction. No mention is made of any
traces of bony armour orshell about the Megatheria.
In the old animal only one foot is wanting. It has
been suggested that the so-called young Megathe-
rium may possibly be a skeleton of Scelidotherium."
It is then to the armadillo-like Glyptodon, and
not to the Megatherium, that the strong bony ar-
mour belongs; of this latter animal relics have been
found on the left bank of the Pederual, near Monte
Video, and are preserved in the Museum of that
town. Portions of bony armour also have been ob-
tained in the Rio Seco and Banda Oriental, similar
in structure to the specimen of the Pedernal.
" The collection of fossils," says Professor Owen,
" brought to England from South America by Mr.
Darwin, has enabled me to add the following facts
to the history of the Megatherium. Its teeth, for
example, do not differ in number from those of the
sloths, there being five on each side o( the upper
jaw. Microscopic examination having demonstrated
a marked difference in the intimate structure of the
teeth of the sloths and armadillos, I have ascertained
by this mode of investigation that the teeth of the
Megatherium have the same te.xture and composi-
tion as those of the sloth. And if frbm identity of
dental structure in two different animals we may
predicate a similarity in their food, a glance at the
bony framework of the Megatherium is sufficient to
show that it must have resorted to other means of
obtaining its leafy provender than that of climbing
for it, whereby the necessity of inferring a propor-
tionate magnitude of the trees which nourished the
Megatherium is obviated." It would a|)pear that,
like the Mylodon, the Megatherium uprooted the
trees, on the leaves of which it fed, and ivas fur-
AnMADILLOS]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
179
nished with a small proboscis as an adjunct to the
tongue in strippina: off the smaller branches of the
prostrate tree ; its skull, moreover, has the two tables
separated by cells, as in the Mylodon. Fij;. 784
represents the pelvis and hind-leg of the Megathe-
rium in the Royal College of Surgeons ; Fig. 785, the
ungueal phalanx ; Fig. 786, the teeth of Megathe-
rium.
With respect to the Megalonyx, it was an animal
closely related to the Megatherium, and doubtless
of the same habits, but of inferior size, not exceed-
ing the size of an ox, though more solidly and
heavily built. Its relies are apparently more rare
than those of the Magatherium, at least fewer have
been recovered.
11. INSECTIVOROUS EDENTATA.
Family Loricata, or Armadillos.— This family
group includes the true armadillos {Dasypus), the
Chlarayphorus, and also the Aard.vark, or African
Ant eater, which, though not covered with armour,
approaches in its structure nearer to the armadillos
than to the American ant-eaters (Mynnecopliaga),
v'ith which animals it was formerly associated,'
and which it resembles very closely in manners and
food.
The Armadillos (Dasypjis) are divided by Cuvier
into five minor groups, or subgenera, according to
number of the teeth and fore-claws ; viz., Cachi-
chames, Apars, Encouberts, Cabassous, and Prio-
dontes.
The Cftchichames have four toes on each foot, and
seven teeth on each side above and below. The
Apars have four toes on each foot, and nine or ten
teeth in each side in both jaws. The Encouberts
have five toes on the fore-feet, and nine or ten teeth
on each side above and below, with two incisor
teeth in the upper. The Cabas.sous have five toes,
but those of the fore feet are disposed obliquely, and
in such a manner that the thumb and index finder
are small, the middle and fourth toes armed with
tremendously large trenchant claws, and the fifth
very small : teeth nine or ten on each side above
and below. The Priodontes, in addition to the un-
equal toes and enormous claws of the Cabassous,
have from twenty-two to twenty-four small teeth on
each side in each jaw.
The Armadillos are exclusively confined to the
warmer portions of the American continent, and
the species are tolerably numerous, none, however,
attaining to a very large size excepting the Dasypus
Gigas, which itself is bift a pigmy to the extinct
Glyptodon.
These animals are burrowing in their habits,
vfith thick, short, powerful limbs, and a flattened
broad, stout body, covered above with plates and
bands of horny armour. The head is broad between
the eyes, whence it runs to a pointed muzzle ; the
mouth is small ; the teeth are cylindrical, feeble,
destitute of true roots, set apart from each other, and
mutually fit, when the jaws are closed, into the inter-
vals. The tongue is smooth, slender, and moderately
extensible ; it is most probably endowed with the
sense of taste in a high degree, as we have observed
especially in one species, the Dasypus Peba, the
animal touched with it whatever was presented by
way of food ; and we know that it is lubricated abun-
dantly with a glutinous fluid, poured out chiefly from
the submaxillary gland. (See ' Zool. Proceeds.' for
1831, p. 144.)
The portions of armour which cover these animals
consist of a triangular or oval plate on the top of
the head, or rather on the chaffron, its posterior
margin projecting over the neck ; a large buckler
over the shoulders, and a similar buckler over
the haunches, while between these solid portions
there intervenes a series of transverse bands over-
lapping each other's edges, and allowing to the
body due freedom of motion. Each of these
separate portions consists of a multitude of small
parts, all consolidated together, giving the idea of
what is termed mosaic-work, especially on the
head and shoulders, the pattern differing in different
species. The limbs, which are short and thick, are
almost entirely concealed by the edges of this
armour, but the feet, which are unprotected by it,
are covered by a hard tuberculated skin. The tail
is covered with a series of calcareous rings; the skin
of the under surface of the body is very rough and
beset with long scattered hairs; and from between
the joints of the rings and plates of the dorsal armour
there issue hairs of the same kind, more numerous
in young than adult individuals. In some species,
however, as the Mataco (Da.sypus Apar), whose
armour is peculiarly thick and solid, no hair is to be
discovered.
The eyes of the Armadillos are small and lateral ;
the ears, varying in size in the different species, are
firm, and covered with tuberculated skin. Most
of the species are nocturnal in their habits, remain-
ing concealed in their burrows during the day ;
these are of considerable extent, dipping at an in-
clination of about 43 degrees ; they have one or two
sharp turns, and very narrow, just admitting the
passage of their occupier. The animals make these
burrows with great expedition, and can only be
forced out by smoke or water ; such is their strength
and the tenacity of their hold, that they have been
known to leave their tail in the hands of the hunter,
on his attempt to drag them forth.
AVhen alarmed during their excursions, the first
endeavour of these animals is to gain their burrows,
to which they run with a degree of celerity little
to be expected from their clumsy appearance.
Most of the species will easily outstrip a man; their
movements, however, resemble those produced by
mechanism, for as the spinous processes of the
vertebral column are all inclined the same way,
viz , towards the tail, there being no central points
to which those of the upper and those of the lower
portion mutually converge, so the motions of the
limbs are unaccompanied by corresponding inflex-
ions of this column, as is the casein other animals
whose progressive motions are free and uncon-
strained.
When hard pressed and unable to gain their bur-
row, they either attempt to dig a temporary place
of refuge, or they gather up their limbs beneath
their coat of mail, bend down their head, assume a
partially rolled-up figure, and wait the event. The
mataco, which does not burrow, and is by no means
swift, can roll itself up completely. "They never
attempt to bite or otherwise defend themselves.
The food of the armadillos consists principally of
fallen fruits, roots, and worms ; but they do not
reject carrion, and have been known to penetrate
into graves, when not properly protected by stones
or brick-work. Azara informs us that ants are
never found in the districts inhabited by the arma-
dillos, and that these animals break into the ant-
hills, and devour the insects as greedily as the true
ant-eaters. Nature, it is true, has not provided
them with the same apparatus for this purpose, but
the armadillos may, notwithstanding, destroy vast
quantifies of ants, though it is probable that they
expel them from their own peculiar districts as
much at least by destroying the habitations as by
actually devouring the insects themselves. The
ordinary food of the armadillos consists chiefly of
the roots of the manioc, of potatoes, maize, and
other similar substances of a vegetable nature,
though, as already observed, without rejecting ani-
mal substances naturally soft or so far decomposed
as to be easily torn without the help of canine teeth.
They are also very destructive to the eggs and
young of such birds as build their nests on the
ground, and greedily devour worms, frogs, small
lizards, and M. Azara says, even vipers. The
chief animal food of the armadillos, however, is
derived from the immense herds of wild cattle which
cover the plains and savannas of every part of
South America. These are rarely slaughtered but
for the sake of the hide and tallow ; and as the
carcases are left to rot on the pampas, or plains,
the smell soon attracts vast crowds of carnivorous
animals of various species, and among others, great
numbers of armadillos, which greedily devour the
half-putrid flesh, and soon become extremely fat
and corpulent. In this condition, not»vithstanding
the filthy nature of their food, their flesh is esteemed
a great delicacy, both by the native Indians and by
the Portuguese and Spaniards of Ameriea. The
animal is roasted in its shell, and considered one of
the greatest dainties which the country produces.
The armadi'los see but indifferently, particularly
in bright sunshiny weather ; but their sense of hear-
ing is extremely acute, and amply compensates for
any imperfection of sight. When alarmed by any
unusual or strange sound, they prick up their ears,
stop for a moment to satisfy themselves of its dis-
tance and direction, then commence a precipitate
retreat to their burrow, or, if that be too remote,
begin to construct a new one. Smell is, however,
by far the most acute of their senses.
It is generally believed that the female armadillo
brings forth but once during the year, but she pro-
duces at a birth frequently six, eight, or even ten
young ones ; yet she has never more than four teats,
and, according to the report of M. Azara, the most
accurate and extensive observer who has written
upon the history of these animals, in some species
only two — an anomaly, with respect to the number
of young and the number of teats, which appears
to contradict the general rule observable among
other mammals.
It may here be observed that one of the weasel-
headed armadillos (D. Encoubert) in the Zoological
Gardens, produced only two at a birth : when first
born they were quite blind, about four inches in
length, soft, and white, but the skin presented all
the furrows and mosaic-work which characterize it
when indurated and .solid. The growth of these
animals was not a little surprising ; in six or eight
weeks they attained nearly to the size of their
parents. One born on the .'Jrd of September, 1831,
and which died on the 16th of November of the
same year, had increased in weight during that shcrt
period .'52 ounces 2 diams, and measured 11^ inches
from the nose to the root of the tail. The young
are far more hairy than the adults.
790.— The Peba.
(Daft/pus Peba). The Tatouhou, or Black Tatu, of
the Guaranis, is an example of Cuvier's group of
Cachichames, which, according to Gumilla, is tlie
general name of the Armadillos on the banks of the
Orinoco. In zoological catalogues we find it under
the ambiguous names of Dasypus septemcinctus,
D. octocinctus, and D. novemcinctus; three differ-
ent species being thus made out from the erroneous
supposition that the number of moveable bands on
the back was invariabla in the same species;
whereas the truth is that the number of bands is
subject to a certain degree of variation ; thus in the
Mule Armadillo there are six or'seven bands, in the
Peba from six to nine. It appears also that the
young have not the full complement of bands, l)y
one or two which become developed afterward.^.
The Peba is a native of Guiana, Brazil, and Para-
guay, and is timid and nocturnal ; it is tolerably
rapid in its movements, and very expert in burrow-
ing.
It is never found in woods, but frequents the open
and cultivated plains, and is much hunted by the
inhabitants on account of its flesh, which, when
roasted in the shell, is said to be extremely delicate,
resembling that of a sucking-pig.
The length of the head and body is about sixteen
inches; of the tail, which is slender and tapering
fourteen inches. The muzzle is greatly elongated,
straight, and pointed; the ears are rather large and
the eyes small ; the tongue long, narrow, pointed,
and extensible. The general colour of the shell is
dusky black.
Allied to the Peba is the Mule Armadillo (Da.sy-
pus hybridus, Desm.), called M. Courigua, or Mule
Tatu, by the Guaranis, in allusion to its long upright
ears. It is of smaller size than the Peba, and its
tail is comparatively shorter. It wanders by day
over the plains, feeding on beetles, larvae, roots,
&c. ; differing from the Peba in being diurnal in
its habits. It is common on the Pampas of Buenos
Ayres.
791.— The Mataco. •
{Dasypus Apar). This species is an example of
Cuvier's group of Apars. The Mataco, or Bolita
(little ball) as it is sometimes called, has its shell of
defence extremely hard and solid, forming an ad-
mirable coat of mail. It has only three bands on
the back. Of all the Armadillos, the Mataco is the
only one which can assume the complete figure of
a ball, enclosing the head and legs ; and this
faculty, together with the strength of the skull,
appears the more necessary, as it does not burrow,
its limbs being feeble, and its claws little adapted
for scratching up the ground. It is diurnal in its
habits, and slow in its movements. It is a native of
the Pampas of Buenos Ayres ; the tail is short, not
much exceeding two inches in length, while the
head and body measure nearly fifteen inches.
Rolled up in its tessellated shell, it is safe from the
attacks of dogs ; " For the dog," says Mr. Darwin,
" not being able to take the whole in its mouth,
tries to bite one side, and the ball slips away. The
smooth hard covering of the Mataco offers a better
defence than the sharp pines of the hedgehog." A
shell of this species, which formed the cup of a
cacique, is in the Mus. Zool. Soc.
r92.-
-The Poyou, or Wbasel-headed Arma-
dillo.
{Dasypus Encoubert, Desm.\ This Armadillo
belongs to Cuvier's section teimed Encouberts: it
is very common in Paraguay, and burrows in the
ground with almost incredible celerity. Its strength
and activity are very remarkable, and notwithstand-
ing the shortness of its legs, few men can overtake
it. It is of a restless unquiet disposition, inquisitive
and confi'dent ; and when any noise is made at the
entrance of its burrow, it is said to come fearlessly
forth to investigate the cause. Its voice is a low
grunt, like that of a young pig. These animals live
solitary or in pairs, and haunt wooded districts,
where they excavate very deep burrows : when dan-
ger threatens, they carry on their mining operations,
rendering it difficult to dig them out. They feed
upon melons, potatoes, and other vegetables; but
also to a great extent upon carrion ; the natives
nevertheless eat the fle^•h of this species without any
repugnance. When it stops or rests on the ground,
it has a habit of squatting like a hare in her fojui,
and in this situation the great breadth of the body
is very apparent. The head is large, flat, and nearly
triangular: the face short, and the muzzle blunt;
the ears are moderate.
Several individuals of this Armadillo have at va-
rious times lived in the menagerie of the Zool. Soc,
They appear to have little fear, and soon become
2 A 2
7S7.— Skdcina of Mffgalli^riuin.
;«!.— Wcuel-bruM AmuidiUo.
789.— Skeleton of MegaUwrium.
781}, — 3k«1«toB ot HegftUioriam.
7(3.— TtUmy.
790.— Pelia.
7D1.— Mi'aco.
180
eCB.— A«id-vMk.
802*.— Skeleton or ricliicui^'o.
181
182
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Armadillos.
familiar even with strangers ; when running about
their enclosure, durins warm or sunny weather, they
turn up the turf rapidly with their noses apparently
in search of worms or insects ; bread and milk is the
diet on which thcvare fed : their actions are prompt
and rapid. The' Poyou measures about sixteen
inches in the leniflh of the head and body ; the tail
is about six or seven inches lonjr.
Another example of this section is the Pichiy, or
Pichy {Dasypus minutus). It is extremely abundant
on the arid plains near the Sierra Ventana,and like-
wise in the neighbourhood of the Rio Negro. " At
Bahia HIanca," says Mr. Darwin, " I found in the
stomach of this Armadillo, coleoptera. iarvie, roots
of plants, and even a small snake of the genus
AmphisbiEna.
"The Pichy prefers a dry soil ; and the sand-
dunes near the coast, where for many months it can
never taste water, are its favourite resort. In the
course of a day's ride near Bahia Blanca several
were generally met with. The instant one was
observed, it was necessary, in order to catch it,
almost to tumble off one's horse; for if the soil was
soft, the animal burrowed so quickly, that its hinder
quarters almost disappeared before one could alight.
The Pichy likewise often tries to escape notice by
squatting close to the ground. It appears almost a
pity to kilt such nice little animals; for, as a Gaucho
said while sharpening his knife on the back of one
* Son tan mansos' (They are so quiet)."
The Pichiy measures only ten inches In the length
of the head and body, and about four inches in that
of the tail. It is diurnal in its habits.
793.— The Tatouay
(Dasypus Tatouay, Desm.). This species is an ex-
ample for Ciivier's section Cabassous. The Tatouay,
or Wounded Armadillo, is so called by the Indians
in allusion to its tail, which is naked, or as it were
rudely deprived of the crust or bony tube which
covers this organ in all the other species. The
whole length of the tatouay, as given by Azara,
is twenty-six inches and a half, including the tail,
which is seven inches and a half, round, pointed,
and naked, with the exception of a few round scales
or crusts on the under surface of the third nearest
to the extremity, which frequently trails along the
ground when the animal walks : the rest is covered
with soft brown fur, interspersed with a few stiff
short hairs on the superior surface. The head is
longer, narrower, and more attenuated than that of
the poyou, though considerably less so than in the
peba and mule armadillo ; the ears are unusually
large, being nearly two inches long, and in figure
forming a segment of a circle ; the body is round ;
the claws of the fore-l'eet, particularly that of the
middle toe, are excessively large. The bucklers of
the croup and shoulders are composed of ten and
seven rows of scales respectively, each scale forming
an oblong rectangle ; the moveable bands are thirteen
in number, composed of scales much smaller than
those of the bucklers, and of a nearly square figure.
The habits of this species are altogether unknown.
It inhabits Guiana and Brazil, and is rarely found
so far south as Paraguay.
794. The Great Armadillo
(Dasypus Gigas). This Armadillo is an example
of Cuvier's group Priodontes. The Great Arma-
dillo measures nearly three feet three inches in
length, from the nose to the origin of the tail ; the
head is seven inches and a half long, the ears an
inch and three-quarters, and the tail one foot five
inches. Its superior size is alone sufficient to dis-
tinguish this species from all the other known arma-
dillos, but it possesses numerous other characters
not less remarkable. Its head is proportionately
smaller than in the other species, the forehead is
more protuberant, and the face, from the eyes down-
wards, assumes a tubular cylindrical form, like that
of the peba; the ears are of a moderate size,
Cointed and habitually crouched backwards ; the
ucklers of the shoulders and croup are composed of
nine «nd eighteen rows of plates respectively, and
separated by moveable bands to the number of
twelve or thirteen, formed of rectangular scales,
about half an inch square. The tail is thick at the
root, being upwards often inches in circumference:
it is gradually attenuated towards the tip, covered
with plates disposed in rings at the base, and form-
ing spiral or crescent-shaped lines throughout the
rest of its length. The claws are large and power-
ful, but in their relative form and dimensions
differ little from those of the tatouay already de-
scribed.
This species inhabits Brazil and the northern parts
of Paraguay. It is never found in the open country,
but keeps close to the great forests, and burrows
with surprising facility. Those who are employed in
collecting the Jesuits' bark frequently meet with it
in the woods, and report that when any of their
companions happen to die at a distance from the
settlements, they are obliged to surround the body
with a double row of stout planks, to prevent it
from being scratched up and devoured by the Great
Armadillo.
Gemu Chlamypltorus :
795, 796. — The Pichiciauo
(CMamyphorus truncatus). This extraordinary
little creature, though scarcely six inches in length,
is formed on the plan of the utmost strength and
solidity, being destined for burrowing habits. It isa
native of Chili, where, like a mole, it works out galle-
ries in the rich soil of the valleys, living for the most
part underground in quiet seclusion. So rare is
this animal, that it is regarded by the natives as a
curiosity. Its food, so far as we are assured by its
! dentition and the imperfect accounts collected, con-
sists of insects and larvae : night probably is the sea-
son of its activity, and of its unfrequent visits to the
"upper world."
The appearance of the pichiciago reminds lis of
the armadillos, for it is covered above by a shell,
not however of very hard consistence, nor very thick,
but of a texture between horn and leather. This
shield-like plate commences on the head and ex-
tends over the back and haunches, over which
latter it dips down quite abruptly and perpendicu-
larly, so as to make it seem as if the bo<iy was cut
off abruptly at its hinder part. It is divided by
intersecting furrows into a series of bands or strips,
each strip being itself made up of fifteen or twenty
plates of a square form, except on the head, which
IS covered with a single plate composed of a mosaic-
work of rounded and irregular portions, and the
perpendicular haunch-plate, which is also tessellated
(Fig. 797). This horny covering or shield is not
fixed by the whole of its inferior surface to the
integuments beneath, as is the case with the arraa- !
dillo ; but merely rests on the back, free throughout,
" excepting along the spine of the back and top of
the head; being attached to the back, immediately
above the spine, by a loose cuticular production,
and by two remarkable bony processes on the top
of the OS frontis (bone of forehead), by means of
two large plates which are nearly incorporated with
the bone beneath ; but for this attachment, and the
tail being firmly curved beneath the belly, the
covering would be very easily detached." The ex-
tremity of the tail is formed like a paddle. " The
whole surface of the body and under-side of the
shield are covered with fine silk-like hair (of a
delicate straw colour), longer and finer than that
of the mole, but not so thick. The anterior of the
chest is large, full, and strong : the anterior extre-
mities short, clumsy, and powerful." The hand,
which is amazingly thick and compact, is furnished
with five powerful but compressed nails, which
arranged together in their natural situation, consti-
tute one of the most efficient scrapers or shovels
which can be possibly imagined ; and expressly
adapted for progression underground, but in an
equal ratio ill-fitted for celerity on the surface.
The hind-legs are comparatively weak, the feet
being long and plantigrade, the toes being furnished
with small flattened nails. Sight is but a secondary
sense as regards its importance in the economy of
an animal living in darkness beneath the ground.
The organs of vision, therefore, are very minute,
and buried in the silky fur by which the circular
orifices of the ears are completely concealed. The
head is almost conical in figure, going off from a
broad base to a pointed muzzle furnished with an
enlarged cartilage, somewhat as in the hog, and
doubtless for the purpose of grubbing and burrowing
for food.
In accordance with the details of external confi-
guration, the skeleton is equally indicative of the
animal's habits. The skull is firm, and prevented
from being pressed upon by the shield which rests
on the two projections. The bones of the fore-limbs
are short, thick, and angular; the scapulae broad
and strong: the ribs thick, and capable of re- ||
sisting great pressure. The hip-bones are of !
singular construction, and admirably formed for
protecting the internal organs from injury. Such i
IS an outline of the structure and habits of the
chlamyphorus, an animal which, though bearing in
some points a resemblance to the armadillos, yet
possesses characters so exclusively its own as to '
render it one of the most interesting discoveries in i
zoology. Of this rare animal two specimens alone i
exist, one in the Museum of Philadelphia, the
other, with its skeleton, in the Museum of the Zoo-
logical Society, London.
For an account of the structure of this animal,
see Mr. Yarrell's paper in the 'Zoological Journal.'
Fig. 798 represents a lateral view of the skqll of the
pichiciago ; Fig. 799, an upper view ; Fig. 8<X),
a basal view of the same ; Fig. 801, lower jaw ; Fig.
802, the cervical vertebra;, and first bone of the
sternum, with parts of the first and second ribs seen
from below. Fig. 802*, the skeleton; Fig. 803,
pelvis seen from behind; Fig. 804, same seen from
below ; Fig. 805, vertebrse of tail.
Geuui Orycteropus:—
80C. — ^The Aard-vase
(Orycleropus Capensii). This animal, known to the
colonists of the Cape of Good Hope by the name
ofaard-vark, or earth-hog, is the sole example, as
far as ascertained, of the genus Orycteropus. The
aard-vark is essentially burrowing in its habits, and
insectivorous in its diet. Its proportions are thick
and strong, though the general contour is elongated
and the limbs short. It is neither protected by
plates nor scales, but the skin is thick, tough, and
coarse, and covered with stiff hair, resembling bris-
tles in quality, and somewhat scantily disposed,
especially on the head. The muzzle is elongated,
narrow, and hog-like at its apex ; the mouth small,
and the tongue extensible ; the eyes are rather
small ; the ears large, long, and pointed ; the tail
tapering from a very stout base; the limbs are
short, thick, and very muscular ; the fore-feet have
lour stout toes armed with large solid nails, re-
sembling hoofs in appearance, and admirably
adapted as scrapers of the dry hard ground of an
Afiican desert. The hind-feet are long and planti-
grade, having five toes armed with nails of the
same character as those of the fore-feet.
The teeth consi:>t of seven molars on each side
above, of which the first is minute and distinct from
the rest, and six on each side below. Fig. 807 gives
the teeth of the upper jaw in two views ; Fig. 808,
those of the lower jaw; Fig. 80J, the teeth of both
jaws together.
The aard-vark attains to a considerable size, mea-
suring, when fully grown, upwards of five feet in
total length, of which the tail is one foot eight or nine
inches. Its food consists exclusively of ants, which
it takes by means of its long glutinous tongue, after
effecting a breach in the dome-like houses of solid
indurated mud-work which those insects construct,
and which are very abundant in certain districts.
These hillocks are from two to three feet high, and
their structure is irregularly cellular, not unlike
volcanic honeycomb stone, exhibiting a maze of
passages opening into each other. In demolishing
these buildings for the sake of their multitudinous
inmates, which are devoured by wholesale, the aard-
vark employs the active portion of its existence.
The dwelling of the aard-vark itself is at a~burrowat
a little distance beneath the surface of the ground,
out of which it comes forth only during the night,
for in its habits it is entirely nocturnal ; hence
during the day it is seldom seen, but may be ob-
served as the dusk approaches creeping from its
hole intent upon its prey. These burrows, where
numerous (as they are in some districts, where also
innumerable ant-hills cover the plain), are dan-
gerous to waggons travelling over the country ; and
cattle and horses occasionally break through the
surface of the ground into them, and thus suddenly
stumble or fall. They are often very extensive, and
it is incredible with what despatch the animal
makes them, and with what rapidity it mines on-
wards when endeavouring to elude the search of
persons attempting to dig it out of its retreat : hence
it is not captured without difficulty. The flesh of
the aard-vark, and especially the hind quarters when
made into hams, are accounted excellent.
The aard-vark is a connecting link between the
armadillos and the next section.
Family Toothless Akt-katers : —
Genus Myrmecopliaga. — The genus Myrmeco-
phaga, as established by Linnaeus and retained by
Desmarest and others, is not strictly natural. Per-
haps we should hardly be justified in separatinz the
Tamandua from the Tamanoir (Great Ant-bear, or
Ant-eater) ; but with respect to the little two-clawed
ant-eater it certainly forms the type of a distinct
genus.
810.— The Great Ant-eater, or Ant-bear
(Myrmecophagajubata). The Tamanoir of Buffon.
This species, a native of Guiana, Brazil, and Para-
guay, IS characterized by the total absence of teeth,
a narrow head with an extremely slender elongated
snout, contrasting strangely with the clumsy mas-
sive contour of the limbs and body. The mouth is
a small slit at the extremity of the snout ; the eyes
are small, and the tongue long, cylindrical, and pro-
tractile, constituting an organ for obtaining insect
food, and is lubricated by a gummy saliva; the
limbs are short, but of great thickness, furnished
with huge hook-like claws well adapted for making
forcible entrance into the solid dwellings of the
Termite ants. The claws of the fore-feet aie four
in number, the inner one being the smallest ; of the
hind feet, five. Those of the fore-feet, in a state
of repose or when the animal is walking, are doubled
inwards on a rough callous pad, and the outer por-
tion only of the fore-feet is applied to the ground.
The claws of the hind-feet are snort, and the sole is
a naked protuberant pad. The ears are short and
round ; the tail is of great thickness at the base,
Ant-eaters.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
IS3
whence it narrows to the apex, l)eins: laterally com-
pressed, but its I'orra is hid beneath a prolusion of
Ions;, coarse, flowing hair, which hangs like a full
plume or fiiuge.
The hair of the head is short and close, but over
all the rest of the animal it is Ion-; and shafrsry, par-
ticularly on the top of the neck and along the back,
v.here it forms a kind of long mane, and on the tail,
where it is a foot in lenj^th, and hangs down on
fach side, sweeping the ground when the ant-bear
walks.
Tho prevailing colour on the head, face, and
cheeks of the ant-bear is a mixture of grey and
brown; that on the upper parts of the body and
tail is deep brown, mixed with silvery white. A
broad black band, bordered on each side with a
similar one of white or light greyish brown colour,
commences on the chest," and passes obliquely over
each shoulder, diminishing gradually as it approaches
the loins, where it ends in a point.- The sides, arms,
and thighs are silvery grey, with a slight mixture of
brown, marked with two deep black spots, one on
the carpus, and the other on the toes; the hind
legs are almost perfectly black, and the breast and
belly of a deep brown, almost equally obscure.
The following is an abstract of the habits of this
animal, as observed by Dr. Schomburgk (see 'Zool.
Proceedings,' 183J, p. 21) :—
Dr. Schomburgk observes, that at a distance the
ant-bear appears to be a much taller animal than it
reallj' is, owing to the elongated and nearly erect
hair of the mane, and also the erect manner in
which it carries its large bushy tail. When walk-
ing, the outer portion of the fore-foot is applied to
the ground, and the long claws are then doubled
inwards. It runs with a peculiar trot, and is not,
as has been represented, slow in its movements and
easily overtaken ; for when chased, it will keep a
horse in canter, and does not tire readily. White
ants, or termites, constitute its chief food. When
the ant-bear meets with one of the tumuli con-
structed by the white ants, it immediately pulls the
fabric down by means of its large strong claws, and
when the ants are thus exposed, its long slender
tongue is thrust out to collect them. The move-
ments of the tongue, alternately being protruded
and retracted, are so rapid, says Dr. Schomburgk,
that it is no longer surprising how so large an animal
can satiate its appetite with such minute insects.
The ant-bear is, however, an economist, and does
not destroy more than he wants. When he finds
that the termites diminish on the surface, and every
one seeks to escape in the numerous galleries of the
ruined edifice, he uses his left foot to hold some
large lumps of the nest, whilst with the right he
leisurely pulls them to pieces.
With the termites he swallows a considerable
quantity of the material of which the ants' nest is
constructed. Of this fact Dr. Schomburgk assured
himself by dissection, and he is of opinion that the
substance of the nest serves as a corrector.
" It has been generally thought," says Dr. Schom-
burgk, "that the ant-bear lives exclusively on ants ;
this, however, is not the case. In one which I dis-
sected a year ago, a species of Julus was found ; and
the avidity with which an adult one now in my pos-
session swallowed fresh meat, which was hashed up
for it, makes me believe that even in the wild state
it does not satisfy itself exclusively with ants, and,
provided the food is of such a size that it can take
it up with its moveable upper lip, it does not despise
it." According to the same authority the great ant-
eater makes no burrow, its tail serving as a sufficient
protection : the female produces a single offspring,
which she carries on her back ; she defends herself
by striking with her fore feet, while raised on her
haunches, or throws herself on her back, dealing
blows with both her claws. The young soon be-
come tame and familiar, growl like a puppy, or
utter a plaintive whine. The sense of smell is ex-
quisite ; and the animal is directed more by this
than by sight. The teats of the female are two, and
pectoral. The young remains with its parent for
the space of a year.
Dr. Schomburgk domesticated an adult female
ant-eater, which he found capable of climbing with
great facility, and also of taking up objects with its
paws. It ate beef and even fish cut small. When
not asleep, it rested on its haunches; but in feeding
kneeled as goats and sheep often do. Its height was
three feet ; the length of the head one foot three
inches ; of the back three feet seven inches ; of the
tail three feet six inches.
811.— The Tamandua
(Myrmecophaga Tamandua, Cuv.). The Middle
Ant-eater, Shaw ; the Cagouan; of Azara.
This species is a native of Brazil and Paraguay.
In the general plan of its osteology, the Tamandua
agrees with the Tamanoir, but the bones of the
muzzle are shorter than the cranial portion, instead
of being twice u long : hence the whole head is
more abbreviated : the snout is also more conical, and
presents a less tubular appearance. Independently,
however, of ihis difference, the Tamandua is easily
distinguished from its congener. It is far inferior
in size, and its tail, instead of being furnished with
full flowing hair, is a long, taper, thinly covered
organ of prehension, nearly naked indeed at the tip,
though well covered at the base. The fur of the
body is thick, dense, and harsh, and on the hinder
quarters of tolerable length, but on the head and
fore-quarters it is short, wiry, upright, and glossy,
and radiates from an areola between the shoulders ;
the point of the muzzle is bare ; the eyes are small ;
the ears of a moderate size and rounded ; the mouth
is small, and the nostrils are lateral slits.
In the structure of the limbs it closely resembles
its larger congener. The Tamandua when fully
grown measures about two feet in the length of the
head and body, and sixteen or seventeen inches in
that of the tail. A young specimen before us mea-
sures nineteen inches in the body ; and thirteen in
the tail. Its colour on the head and fore-quarters
is yellowish white : the sides of the body, the
haunches, and the under surliice, together with the
base of the tail, being black, and a black stripe
passes along each shoulder.
M. GeofFroy regards as distinct species one alto-
gether black, which he terms T. nigra, and another
with a double shoulder-stripe, which he has named
T. hivittata. They are, however, most probably
only varieties ; at least Cuvier states, in his 'Osse-
mens Fossiles,' that however these animals may
vary in colour, they present no difterence in their
proportions, nor in the details of their skeletons,
though he lias rigidly compared them together.
Azara tells us that he once found dead a Cagouare
thirty-seven inches and three-quarters long, which
was of an universal yellowish white; whence he con-
cludes that the perfect livery is not gained until the
second year. The young are of an universal pale
cinnamon colour.
In its manners the Tamandua agrees with the
Tamanoir, with this difference, that it often climbs
trees, aiding itself by its prehensile tail, which,
however, is much inferior as a prehensile organ to
that of the little two-toed ant-eater, and its claws
are also less calculated for arboreal habits. Azara
suspects that it feeds much upon honey and bees,
which he adds, are here (in Paraguay) destitute of
stings, and take up their abode in trees. When re-
f)osing, the Tamandua doubles its head on its chest,
ies on its belly, places its fore-limbs along its sides
and its fail over its body. It smells strongly of
musk, and the odour when the animal is irritated,
is very disagreeable, and may be perceived at a great
distance. The female produces one at a birth ; it
is, says Azara, very ugly, and is carried by the
mother on her shoulders.
812. — The Little Ant-eater
(^Myrmecophaga didactyla, Linn.). The distinguish-
ing characters of this species consist in the shortness
of the muzzle, which is conical; in the number of
the claws, which are two on each fore-foot, of hook-
like shape, compressed laterally and very sharp, the
outer one being considerably the largest ; in the ob-
lique position of the hind-feet, which are armed with
four short compressed claws ; and lastly, in the
strongly prehensile power of the tail, which is very i
long and covered with fine silky fur, like that of the
body, except for three inches of the under surface at
the tip, where as in the spider-monkey, it is perfectly
naked. The claws of the fore-feet, which resemble
those of the sloth, are folded down on a callous pad,
and with these the little creature can cling to a
branch while the inward tournure of the hind-limbs
combines with the prehensile structure of the tail to
fit it for its arboreal residence. It may be observed
that the animal possesses clavicles, which do not
exist in the great ant-eater, the Tamandua, nor yet
in the Pangolins.
The eyes are small, the ears close and buried in
the fur ; the mouth is small, and the tongue long and
vermiform. The fur is exquisitely fine, soft, curled,
and silky : the general colour is delicate golden
straw, with a brownish mark on the back, often
wanting. Length of head and body, ten inches ; of
the tail, ten inches and a half.
The little ant-eater is a native of Guiana and Bra-
zil, where it tenants the forests, suspending itself by
its long tail, as well as clinging by means of its
claws: it searches for insects among the fissures of
the bark, and attacks the nests of wasps, the nymphte
of which it pulls out with its fore-claws or nippers,
and eats them while it sits up like a squirrel. In
defending themselves, these animals strike with both
the fore-paws at once, and with con.siderable force.
In their habits they are nocturnal, sleeping with the
tail twisted round their perch. They utter no cry.
The female is said to breed in the hollows of trees,
making a bed of leaves, and producing only one at
a birth. There is a pale variety, regarded by some
as a distinct species.
Genns Manis. — The American Ant-eaters are
represented in India and Africa by the Pangolins,
or Scaly Ant-eaters, which constitute the genus
Manis of Linnaeus. These singular animals may
at once be known by the armour of dense horny
scales, or triangular plates overla])ping each other,
by which every part of the body, except the middle
line of the under surface, is com))letely invested.
The body is depressed, rounded above, long and
low ; the head is small and conical, the eyes are
minute, there are no external ears, the mouth is
small, and the tongue long and extensible ; the tail
is long and broad, and covered above and below
with hard imbricated scales ; the limbs are very
short and thick, and mailed like the rest of the
body ; no distinct toes are apparent beyond the claws,
which on the fore-feet are five in number, the three
central ones being of enormous size, arched, thick,
and bluntly pointed. The fif-st and the last claw
are very small. The large claws fold down on a
thick coarse pad, as in the ant-eater, and the mode
of progression in both cases is the same. The hind-
feet have five short, thick, blunt claws, edging a pad-
like sole, covered with coarse granular skin, and so
protuberant, that the claws do not fairly touch the
ground. The ungueal phalanges, or last joints of
the toes (both of the fore and hind feet), which are
sheathed by the claws, are remarkable for being bi-
furcated at their extremity, a peculiarity found in
no other of the Edentata. It is evidently a confor-
mation intended to give the claws a more secure
attachment.
The osseous framework in general is moulded
upon the same plan as that of the ant-eaters. Slow
in their motions, and unfurnished with weapons of
offence, the manis defies the assaults of almost
every foe ; when attacked, it rolls itself up into a
ball, wraps its tail over the head, and raises all its
pointed and sharp-edged scales in serried array, and
thus invulnerable, conquers by passive resistance.
The food of the manis consists of termites and ants,
which it takes in the same manner as the American
ant-eaters. It dwells in holes which it burrows out
in the ground.
813. — The Short-tailed Manis
(Manis hrachyura, Erxl.). This spepies is a native
of India, and is very common in the Dukhun, living
on termite ants. The specimen before us measures
about four feet in total length. A second Indian
species is from Java ; it is the Manis Javanica of
Desmarest. A third species has recently been dis-
covered by Mr. Hodgson in Nepal.
813. — -The Long-tailed Manis
{Manis longicaudata, Geoft'.). This is the best-
known of the .African species, and attains to a large
size, measuring about two feet in the length of the
body, and about three feet in the length of the tail.
814. — Temminck's Manis
(Manis Temmenckii, Smuts). The present pangolin
is a native of South Africa. Mr. Ijennett observes
that the most remarkable features of this animal
are the shortness of the head, the breadth of the
body and the breadth of the tail, which is nearly
equal to that of the body, and continues throughout
the greater part of its extent of nearly the same
width, tapering only slightly towards the end,
where it is rounded and almost truncate. Mr.
Bennett further remarks that a peculiarity in the
distribution of the scales of Manis Temminckii is
the cessation of the middle series of them at a short
distance anterior to the extremity of the tail, so
that the last four transverse rows consist of four
scales each, each of the preceding rows having five.
(' Zool. Proc.' 1834.)
Habits, Food, SjV. — Dr. Smith relates that when
Manis Temminckii is discovered, it never attempts
to escape, but instantly rolls itself up into a glo-
bular form, taking especial care of its head, which
is the only part that is easily injured. Ants con-
stitute its chief and favourite food, and these it
secures by extending its projectile tongue into holes
which may exist in the habitations of these insects
or which it may itself form ; and when, by means
of the glutinous matter with which its tongue is
covered, a full load has been received, a sudden
retraction of the retractor muscles carries both into
its mouth, after which the ants are immediately
swallowed. (' Illustrations of the Zoology of South
Africa.')
It is a rare species, the natives having a prejudice
against it, and burningevery individual they find,
so that it is almost extirpated in many places. Tig.
813 represents the posterior view of the skull of
the short-tailed manis ; Fig. 816, the skull seen
from above ; Fig. 817, ditto seen from below; Fig.
818, ditto profile : Fig. 819, the fore-foot ; Fig. 820,
the hind foot ; Fig. 821, the skeleton ; Fig. 822, the
pelvis.
ii...— i..L..v Aiit cater.
8ld.— Shon-IBilcd Manii^uul Long-iiilod Minis.
814.— Tjmminrk'ii Mani«.
810— «!».- Skull ul Silort tailed Manis.
807— 800.— Tielh of .'linl-Tark.
SSI,— Skclston of .Shoit-Uileil ManU.
164
ifefcrv^iS;^^^J;§*^V;*-SS.rs-i%^i5j5v^
823.— Bear ar.d Bws.
S24.— Teeth of IJcar.
928.— Bsar witli (lea I I'.orii.
^5^
838 Grislv Bear.
82T — Skeleton of Polar Bear.
No. 24.
834. — American Black Bear.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
8;9.— Berand Dogs.
isa
186
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Bears.
ORDER CARNIVORA.
URSID.E.
(Bears, and allied animals). — The members of the
family B;roup termed Unidee are characterized for
the most part by their robust figure, by their heavy
gait, and plantigrade walk, as well as by the tuber-
cular surface of the grinders — a form connected
with diet, in great part at least, consisting of vege-
table products. The alimentary canal is simple.
Most of the species are expert climbers : they con-
ceal themselves in caves, holes of the earth, or in
hollow trees, in which the females produce their
young.
We may here remark that under the general
term Plantigrada many genera have been associated
together, which are by no means nearly related ;
and some indeed have been placed with the bears,
only from their feet being plantigrade, while in
reality they belong to another family group. We
shall not adopt the terms Plantiprada or Digitigrada
as the names of sections of the Carnivora ; the ani-
mals of which order, as will be shown on a future
occasion, resolve themselves into well-marked
families.
Genus Urstis. — The animals of this genus, viz., the
Bears, are distinguished by their ponderous bulk,
massive limbs, and heavy gai* : they are completely
plantigrade in their walk, but their huge claws, which
are tremendous weapons, are not retractile ; they
are, however, well ailapted for digging. They are
completely omnivorous, devouring flesh, vegetable
roots, grain, fruits, and honey. "The bear," says
Aristotle, " is an omnivorous animal, and by the
suppleness of its body climbs trees, and eats the
fruits, and also legumes ; it devours honey likewise,
having first broken up the hives ; as well as crabs,
ants, and flesh."
In the 'Tour on the Prairies,' the ranger describes
the fondness of the bear for honey in language
which, if it be not quite classical, is at all events
graphic. "The bears is the knowingest varmint for
finding out a bee-tree in the world ; they 'II gnaw
for a whole day together at the trunk, till they make
a hole big enough to get in their paws, and then
they 'II haul out the honey, bees and all."
We do not know whether the predilection of the
bear for this Itiscjous food ever brings him into the
trouble in which he is represented in our woodcut,
Fig. 823 ; but we may easily conceive that the swarm
would endeavour to revenge the assaults upon their
hive.
The dental formula of the genus Ursua is as fol-
6 1—1 6—6
lows: — Incisors -; Canines . — r; Molars;; — 3"= 42
o 1 — 1 7 — 7
(Fig. 824.) Fig. 827 represents the skeleton of the
Polar Bear.
The feet are 5-toed ; the tail is short ; the limbs
are robust ; the eyes are small, but quick and ani-
mated ; and the head is large and broad across the
top.
Europe, Asia, and America present us each with
their peculiar species of this genus ; but with respect
to Africa the existence of any there has been more
than doubted, and many attempts have been made
to explain away the passages in ancient writers re-
ferring to the bear in Africa.
Pliny, however, not only asserts that the bear is
not an African animal, but expresses surprise at a
statement in some records that a hundred Numidian
bears were brought to Rome during the consulship
of M. Piso and M. Messala, for the Circus, by
Domitius Ahenobarbus, curule aedile, who also
brought a hundred Ethiopian chasseurs (see
lib. viii.'). But as Pliny elsewhere states that there
are neither boars, nor stags, nor goats, nor bears
in Africa, we know how far he can be trusted.
That there are bears in Africa, notwithstanding
all that has been said to the contrary, is now well
established.
Ehrenberg hunted a bear in Abyssinia : his words
are, "Moreover we ourselves have seen in the
mountains of Abyssinia, and therefore in Africa
itself, an animal most like to a bear — nay, why had
I not said a bear? — and hunted it repeatedly, but
in vain. It is called by the natives Karrai." And
he also observes that Forskal has brought tidings of
an indigenous Arabian bear.
It is ascertained, moreover, that the bear exists on
the range of the Atlas and the Tetuan mountains ;
and in a letter to the curator of the Zoological
Society, from Edward Blyth, Esq., while on his
voyage to India, is the following interesting pas-
sage : —
" Upon questioning Mr. Crowther respecting the
bear of Mount Atlas, which has been suspected to
be the Syriacus, he knew it well, and it proves to be
a very different animal. An adult female was infe-
rior in size to the American black bear, but more
robustly formed, the face much shorter and broader,
though the muzzle was pointed, and both its toes
Md claws were remarkably short (.for a bear), the
latter being also particularly stout Hair black, or
rather of a brownish black, and shaggy, about four
or five inches long; but, on the under parts, of an
orange rufous colour ; the muzzle black. This
individual was killed at the foot of the Tetuan
mountains, about twenty-five miles from that of the
Atlas. It is considered a rare species in that part ;
and feeds on roots, acorns, and fruits. It does not
climb with facility ; and is stated to be very difl'erent-
looking from any other bear. The skin, like that of
the ' Sherif-al-Wady,'* was attempted to be pre-
served, but unfortunately met with the same fate."
(' Zool. Proceeds.' August 10, 1841.)
The genus Ursus has been divided into the fol-
lowing sub-genera, upon somewhat uncertain
grounds, viz. : — Danis, Prochilus, Helarctos, and
Thalarctos.
823, 8-28, 829, 830.— The Brown Bear
(Ursus Arctos). Ours of the French; Orso of the
Italians; Bar of the Germans; Bjorn of the Swedes.
This species, which is spread through all the moun-
tain districts of Europe, from the arctic circle to the
Alps and Pyrenees, and, as it is stated, through
Siberia, Kamtschatka, and even Japan to the east-
ward, was formerly a tenant of the forests and wild
hills of our island ; whence in the time of the Romans
it was imported to the capital of the world, in order
to gratify the people by its combats in the Circus.
If Martial may be trusted, its ferocity was sometimes
turned against the persons of criminals, who were
condemned to a horrid death.
The bear appears to have lingered, as did the
wolf, longer in Scotland than in England, that
country aflbrding it better concealment ; for in
' The History of the Gordons' it is stated that one
of the family, so late as the year 1057, was directed
by the king to carry three bears' heads on his ban-
ner, as a reward for his valour in slaying a fierce
bear.
In later times, when a virein queen enjoyed the
sports of the be«r-garden in Southwark, and a bear-
ward was kept in the establishment of the highest
nobility, bears were imported from the Continent to
fight with savage dogs for " his lordshippe's pas-
time," no less than for the diversion of the com-
monalty. Such were the recreations of " the good
old English gentleman, all in the olden time.''
The general habits of the bear are well known :
unsocial and solitary, they frequent the gloomiest
recesses among the mountains, glens, and caverns,
and the depths of the forests : there they dig or en-
large a cave in which to dwell, or usurp the hollow
of some huge decayed tree, or form a sort of rude den
under the covert of a maze of intertwined branches,
lining their habitation with moss. Here they pass
the w-inter, in a state bordering on torpidity ; and it
is during this retirement, in January, that the female
brings forth her young, which are well formed, and
very far from being the shapeless mass supposed by
the ancients. The cubs are from one to three in
number— mostly, however, two; at first their eyes
are closed, and they remain blind for thirty days.
When the bear retires to its winter-quarters on the
approach of the cold season it is very fat, but on
coming forth in the spring is generally observed to
be lean, the fat having been absorbed for the nutri-
ment of the system during the animal's torpidity :
but a query here exists, — is the female, who pro-
duces her young, and has to attend to them, torpid ?
and can she suckle them without receiving any
aliment herself? This is very improbable ; and
tends to prove that the seclusion of the animal is
neither so absolute, nor its torpidity so complete, as
is generally asserted. That bears support them-
selves in their winter retirement by sucking their
paws is a vulgar error, and need not be seriously
refuted.
Unless provoked by aggression, or incited by
hunger, the Brown Bear seldom attacks man ; but
when roused is most formidable, and displays
greater activity and address than might be expected
from its heavy clumsy figure. Its strength is pro-
digious. Mr. Nilsson, a Swede, states that a bear
has been seen, bearing a dead horse in his fore paws,
to walk on his hind legs on a tree stretched across
a river. (Fig. 828.) The firm support afforded by
the well-developed sole and the form of the hinder
limbs (the thigh-bone, though shorter, closely re-
sembling in form that of man) enable these animals
not only to rear themselves up on their hind feet,
but even to walk erect with considerable facility,
as was observed by Mr. Lloyd (' Northern Field-
Sports'), who asserts that they can proceed along in
that position bearing the heaviest burdens.
In the wilds of the North the bear attains to a
prodigious magnitude : Mr. Lloyd killed one of the
weight of four hundred and sixty pounds, and they
have been found to exceed seven hundred.
Though bears, as Mr. Falk informs us, may reside
for years in the neighbourhood of cattle without
doing them any injury, yet they will sometimes
* A nen- ipeciei of Ox, Its skin ^Yas destroyed by rats.
visit herds solely from the desire of prey, and in-
stances have been known of their climbing upon
and fearing ofl" the roofs of cow-houses, in order to
gain admittance to the cattle confined within, which,
after slaughtering, they have managed to drag
through the opening in the low roof, and carry
away.
In the North the bear is hunted and taken in
pit-falls and traps of various kinds, and in some
countries there is no part of the animal which is
vrithout value.
The courage and devotion of the female bear in
defence other young are proverbial. No adventure
can be fraught with more danger to the hunter than
an attack upon one accompanied by her cubs, for
the sake of which wounds and even death are en-
countered with unflinching resolution, uttering deep
growls till the last moment.
The bear climbs trees or rocks with great dex-
terity, and descends in the attitude in which it as-
cends, availing itself cautiously of every projection.
Those who have seen the bears in the Zoological
Gardens climb to the top of their long poles, and
fearlessly balance themselves at the top, soliciting
food from the visitors, may conceive some idea of
the animal's address. It also swims well and fast,
and during the heat of summer frequently takes the
water for the sake of the bath. When captured
young, the bear is easily domesticated, and evinces
no trifling share of intelligence. The age to which
it attains is very considerable. Individuals have
been kept between forty and fifty years in cap-
tivity.
A variety (Ursus Pyrenaicus, F.Cuv.), considered
by some naturalists as a distinct species, inhabits
the Pyrenees and the Asturias.
831, 832.— The Siberian Bear
{Ursus collaris) approaches close in form to the
Brown Bear, with the distinction of a large whitish
collar, which passes over the upper part of the back
and shoulders, and is completed on the breast.
This is not improbably also a variety.
Dr. Richardson describes a Brown Bear which
he terms the Barren-ground Bear (Ursus Aictos ?
Araeiicanus), and which is a native of the barren
lands lying northward and eastward of the Great
Slave Lake and extending to the Arctic Sea. "It
differs," he says, " from the American Black Bear,
in its greater size, profile, physiognomy, longer soles,
and tail ; and from the Grisly Bear also in colour
and the comparative smallness of its claws. Its
greatest afiinity is with the Brown Bear of Norway,
but its identity with that species has not been esta-
blished by actual comparison. It frequents the
sea-coast in the autumn in considerable numbers
for the purpose of feeding on fish."
833, 834, 835. — The American Black Bear
(Ursus Americanus). This species, the Sass of the
Chippewayan Indians, the Musquaw of the Crees, is
smaller than the Brown Bear ; its muzzle is narrower,
more arched and pointed, continued in a line with-
out interruption from the forehead ; the ears are
more distant ; and the fur, instead of being shaggy,
is soft, smooth, and glossy black.
" The Black Bear," says Dr. Richardson, " inhabits
every wooded district of the American continent,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina
to the shores of the Arctic Sea." Everywhere, how-
ever, its numbers have been greatly thinned, owing
to the value of the animal s skin in commerce;
besides which the tide of European colonization has
driven it to remoter districts, to mountain ranges,
and vast forests as yet untouched by the axe, or
only recently invaded by the settler. In some jmrts
of Canada it is still common, and tolerably abun-
dant on the western coast as far as California. It
has, we believe, been seen, but that rarely, in the
Blue Ridge in Virginia.
The Black Bear feeds on berries and wild fruits ;
and to these it adds roots and eggs ; and though it
does not refuse animal food, yet it does not eat it
from choice, but necessity ; utterly neglecting it if
vegetable aliment can be obtained.
This species is not very daring, and, unless forced
to self-defence, or wounded, will seldom venture to
attack a man, except in the instance of a female
with cubs, the retreat of which she is solicitous to
cover.
Its speed is said not to be very great, and it is as-
serted that a man may easily escape, especially in a
willow grove, or in the midst of loose grass, where "
it stops for the purpose of reconnoitring. Dr.
Richardson, however, "saw one make off with a
speed that would have baffled the fleetest runner ;
and ascend a nearly perpendicular cliff with a fa-
cility that a cat might envy." In the Fur Countries
this species usually hybernates, selecting a spot
under a fallen tree, where it scratches a hollow in
the earth ; here it retires at the commencement of
a snow-storm, and the snow soon furnishes it with a
close warm covering. Its breatli makes a small
Bears.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
187
opening in the snow, and the quantity of hoar-frost
which occasionally gathers round the opening serves
to betray its retreat to the hunter. In more south-
ern districts, where the trees are larger, bears often
shelter themselves in the hollow trunks. It has been
observed by the Indians, that unless bears are very
fat on the approach of winter, they do not hybernate ;
and as the males are often thin and exhausted in
September, should the winter set in before they
have time to recover their fat, they migrate south-
wards in search of food. So carefully do the females
with young conceal themselves, that Dr. Richard-
son's numerous inquiries among the Indians of Hud-
son's Bay ended in the discovery of only one man
who had killed a pregnant bear.
In the northern districts of America, as in Norway
and other parts of the continent of Europe, the chase
of the bear is followed up with the utmost ardour,
nor will it surprise us to learn that an animal from
which the Indian derives so much benefit (its flesh
and every portion being in requtJst), and which in
the hour of combat is terrible, should be the subject
of many superstitious observances, pardon being
asked for its slaughter, to which necessity impelled
the hunters, and every means taken to propitiate the
offended spirit of the dead animal. Fig. 836 illus-
trates Bear-hunting by the Chippewayan Indians.
The Black Bear is subject to varieties of colour ;
its fur being sometimes of cinnamon tint, and some-
times of a still more yellow tone. Occasionally it is
seen with a white throat-mark.
Cinnamon bears, as well as black, exist in the
gardens of the Zoological Society.
837. — ^The Spectacled Beab
( Ursus omatus). The Spectacled Bear, so called
from the two semicircular marks of buflf-colour ex-
tending from the muzzle and arching over each eye,
is a native of the Cordilleras of the Andes in Chili.
Its general fur is smooth, shining, and black : the
muzzle is buff-coloured; the throat and chest are
whitish. Of its habits nothing is known. Spe-
cimens exist in the gai-dens of the Zoological
Society.
In the 'Zool. Proceeds.' for 1833, p. 114, is the
notice of a bear, brought to Caraccas from the
Andes, differing, accoi-ding to Sir R. Ker Porter, in
gome points from the Ursus ornatus, of which it was
evidently a mere variety.
838, 839, 840.— Thb Grisly, or Gbizzly Beae
{Ursus (Danis) ferox). Ursus horribilis. Say;
Mesheh Musquaw of the Cree Indians ; Hohhost
of the Chopunish Indians. This formidable species
is a native of the Rocky Mountains and the district
eastward of them. To the north it has been observed
as far as sixty-one degrees of latitude : to the south
it is said to extend as far as Mexico. Everywhere it
is dreaded for its great strength and ferocity ; even
the huge bison falls prostrate before it, and the
savage conqueror " drags the dark bulk along "
(weighing a thousand pounds) to its haunt, and digs
a pit for its reception, repairing to it as hunger dic-
tates, till the whole is consumed.
Lewis and Clarke give the measurement of one of
these bears as nine feet from nose to tail, but had
seen them of larger dimensions. They attain the
weight of eight hundred pounds. The length of
the fore-foot is nine inches, of the hind-foot twelve,
without including the enormous claws ; its breadth
seven inches. The tail is short, and lost in the
shaggy hair. We query Lewis and Clarke's mea-
surement of nine feet.
The Grisly Bear digs with great facility, but when
adult is not capable of ascending trees ; a fortunate
circumstance for the hunter, for such is the animal's
tenacity of life, that it seldom falls until it has re-
ceived many balls. It would seem that though the
adult Grisly Bears cannot climb trees, that the cubs
are able, if the reports of the Indians are to be cre-
dited. The cubs, and females with young, hyber-
nate ; but the older males often come abroad during
winter for food.
An individual of this species, distinguished by his
enormous size and ferocity, some time since attracted
the attention of all who visited the gardens of the
Zoological Society. He had previously been about
twenty years in the Tower, when, at the breaking
up of the menagerie there, he was presented by his
Majesty William IV. to the Society. Hi-s morose
indomitable temper was never subdued, but remained
unaltered, as if he had been at large surrounded by
the savage rocks and gloomy pine-forests of his
native regions.
841.— The Syrian Bear
{Ursus Syriacits). Though the bear is distinctly
alluded to in the Scriptures (see 2 Kings ii. 23, et
seq. ; also 1 Samuel xvii. 34, et seq.1 as a native of
Syria, few travellers have noticed the existence of
this animal in that country. Hassclquist omits it in
his catalogue of the animals given in his ' Travels
in the Levant ;' nor is it recorded as a species by
Desmarest, Fischer, or Lesson. It is in fact only
recently, that naturalists have become aware that
such an animal still prowled about the mountains of
Lebanon.
Matthew Paris, however, in his ' England,' relates
how Godfrey, during the siege of Antioch, rescued
a poor man from the attack of a bear, which, turning
upon the warrior, unhorsed him, having lacerated
his steed, whereupon he continued the combat on
foot, and, though he received a most dangerous
wound, succeeded in burying his sword up to the hilt
in his savage adversary, and killed him. ('Hist.
Engl.,' t. ii. p. 34, fol. Lond. 1040.) Seetzen (a
German traveller, in 1811) was informed in Pales-
tine that bears existed in the mountains; and La
Roque states that in his time they were tolerably
abundant upon the higher Lebanon mountains, from
which they descended at night in search of prey,
and even occasioned apprehension to travellers.
Notwithstanding these casual notices, the animal
remained in obscurity till brought before the sci-
entific world by Emprich and Ehrenberg, who, in
their ' Symbolae Physicae,' give the figure and de-
scription of a middle-aged female, killed near the
village of Bischerre, in Syria, and which they dis-
sected. They observe, that Mount Lebanon is
crowned with two snowy summits, one called Gebel
Sanin, the other Makmel, both of which they vi-
sited, but found bears only upon the latter, near the
village of Bischerre, to the gardens of which they
wander in winter, but in the summer remain in the
neighbourhood of the snow. The individual killed
was about four feet two inches long ; her den, which
they saw, was formed by great fragments of cal-
careous rock casually thrown together. The flesh
of the animal was tasted, and found to be sapid, but
the liver was sweet and nauseous. The gall is in
great esteem ; the .skins are sold, and so is the dung,
under the name of Bar-el-dub, the latter being used
in medicine, and for diseases of the eye, in Syria
and Egypt. The Syrian bear frequently preys on
animals, but for the most part feeds on vegetables ;
and the fields of cicer arietinus (a kind of chick-
pea), and other crops near the swowy region, are
often laid waste by it.
The Syrian bear is of a uniform fulvous white
(sometimes variegated with fulvous^ the ears are
elongated ; the forehead is but slightly arched.
The fur is woolly beneath, with long, straight, or but
slightly curled hair externally ; a stiff mane of
about four inches long runs between the shoulders.
It was evidently this species which figured in the
procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria,
and which is called by Athenseus (a Greek writer
of Lower Egypt, contemporary with Commodus)
a bear of white colour and large size {ioKTo; /ih
Xii/«fl lUiyaA-n i^'m) : and which some, strange to say,
have regarded as the Polar Bear from the shores of
the Arctic Sea.
842.— The Thibet Bear
(Ursus Thibetanus) . This species was discovered
by M. Duvaucel in the mountains of Sylhet, and
about the same time by Dr. Wallich in the Nepal
range. The neck of the Thibet bear is thick, and
the head flattened, the forehead and muzzle forming
almost a straight line ; the ears are large ; the body
compact, and the limbs thick and clumsy ; but the
claws are comparatively weak. The general colour
is black, but the lower lip is white, and a large
Y-shaped mark of the same colour on the breast
sends up its branch on each side in front of the
shoulder. It is not of large stature. Fruits and
other vegetable productions appear to constitute its
principal food.
843.— The Malayan Beak
{Ursus (Helarctos) Malai/anus). Bruang of the
Malays. This species is found in Sumatra, and, with
others of the subgenus Helarctos, is distinguished by
the extensibility of the lips, the length and flexibility
of the tongue, the shortness and smoothness of the
fur, and the magnitude of the claws.
"The Malayan Bear, or Sun Bear, is said to be a
sagacious animal, and to displa.y great fondness for
sweets. The honey of the wild bees of its native
forests is supposed to be a favourite food, and cer-
tainly its long slender tongue well adapts it for the
reception of this delicacy. It feeds extensively on
vegetables, and issaid to be attracted to the vicinity
of man by the young shoots of the cocoa-nut trees,
to which it is very injurious ; indeed Sir T. Stam-
ford Raffles found those of the deserted villages in
the Passuma district of Sumatra destroyed by it.
It is often kept domesticated, and is playful and
familiar. Of one which lived two years in the possies-
sion of Sir T. Stamford Raffles, he writes : — " He was
brought up in the nursery with the children, and
when admitted to my table, as was frequently the
case, gave a proof of his taste by refusing to eat any
fruit but raangosteens, or to drink any wine but
champagne. The only time I ever knew him to be
out of humour was on an occasion when no cham-
pagne was forthcoming. He was naturally of an
affectionate disposition, and it was never found
necessary to chain or chastise him. It was usual lor
this bear, the cat, the dog, and a small blue moun-
tain bird, or lory of New Holland, to mess together,
and eat out of the same dish. His favourite play-
fellow was the dog, whose teasing and worrying was
always borne and returned with the utmost good
humour and playfulness. As he grew up he became
a very powerful animal, and in his rambles in the
garden he would lay hold of the largest plantains,
the stems of which he could scarcely embrace, and
tear them up by the roots."
The general colour of this bear is jet black, with
the muzzle of a yellowish tint, and a semilunar
white mark upon the breast. When adult it
measures about four feet six inches along the
back.
844. — The Bornea'n Bear
(Ursus (Helarctos) euryspilus). In general form,
habits, manners, and colouring this species closely
resembles the Sumatran bear ; but is perhaps rather
less, and has a large orange-coloured patch upon
the chest ; the fur is extremely close. In captivity
it is playful and good-tempered.
The Bornean Sun Bear not only sits upon its
haunches with ease, a position it usually assumes,
but ca.n stand upright with great facility. Its senses,
especially those of sight and smell, are very acute;
the olfactory organs indeed appear to be in con-
tinual exercise. By various and amusing gestures
it solicits food from spectators ; and when a morsel
of cake is held at a small distance beyond its reach,
it expands its nostrils, protrudes its upper lip, and
often its tongue, while with its paws it makes every
effort to obtain the proft'ered delicacy. Having
gained it, and filled its mouth, it places the remain-
der with singular coolness on its hinder feet, as if to
keep it from being soiled by the floor, and brings it
in successive portions to its mouth. It often places
itself in an attitude of entreaty, earnestly regarding
the spectators, and stretching forth its paws ready
to receive their offering It is fond of notice, con-
scious of kind treatment, and delights to be patted,
and rubbed ; but when vexed or irritated, refuses all
attention so long as the ofiending person remains
in sight.
Both this and the preceding species excel in
climbing, and they are said to occasion much injury
to groves of cocoa-nuts, both by climbing up them,
and devouring the top shoot, thereby killing the
tree, and also by tearing down the fruit, to the
milky juice of which they are very partial.
845. — The Sloth-Bear
(Vrsus (Prochilus) labiatus). Ours paresseux
and Ours jongleur of the French ; Aswail of the
Mahrattas.
This uncouth animal was first described and
figured (from the life) by Bewick, in his 'History of
Quadrupeds,' without any name, but as an animal
that had hitherto escaped the attention of natural-
ists. It was then (1701) taken for a sloth, and re-
ceived from Shaw the names of Bradypus ursinus,
and ursiforrnis ; and from Pennant that of Ursiform
Sloth. Blainville and others restored it to the genus
Ursus ; Illiger having previously founded the genus
Prochilus for its reception, a name which is still
retained in a subgeneric sense only.
The sloth-bear is a rough clumsy animal, with
short massive legs, and huge hooked claws; and
possessing great mobility of the snout. It inhabits
the mountainous partsof India, and was observed by
Colonel Sykes in Dukhun.
It dwells in caves, and its food is said to consist
of fruits, honey, and termite ants, for the demolish-
ing whose houses its claws are well adapted. It is
said also frequently to descend to the plains, and
commit great havoc on the sugar-cane plantations.
On these occasions it becomes an object of pursuit
to the Indian and European hunters.
The sloth-bear attains to nearly the size of the
brown bear of Europe ; it is robustly framed. The
hair is remarkably long and shaggy ; on the upper
part of the head and neck it is sometimes twelve
inches in length, and separates into two portions,
one of which overhangs the eyes, imparting a
peculiarly heavy appearance to the animal's physi-
ognomy ; while the other forms a thick mane across
the shoulders. The general colour is black, inter-
mixed with brown : a triangular mark on the breast
is white. The head is carried low ; the back arched ;
the muzzle, which is of a dirty yellowish white, is
very much elongated ; the lips are thin, flexible,
and project at all times considerably in front of the
jaws ; and possess singular mobility, being capable
of protrusion in a tubular form far beyond the muz-
zle, thus constituting an instrument of suction. The
tongue is long, flat, and square at the extremity. We
have seen the animal protrude his lips, while at the
same time they were kept apart for several minutes
2B2
%^'
.«1 B;>r.
S4>/— 8lo:b B«»r.
. -I'rcwn Bear.
*'ftawA_rsffi5,*
mm^'
626. — Bear-hunting by the Chippewayan Indians.
832.— Siberian Beax.
640.— Grisly Beiir.
844. — Bornean Bcir.
Ki3.— Ma'ayan Bear.
188
846.— Polar IVar* an.l Seal.
849.— I*ret ended Hvbrid of Bear and Doi;.
'"^'W*-W,:,'',., Ji
842.— Thibet Bear.
'?4t.— ioiiir jiear.
^Si. — AmtTican Black IJear.
851.— Racoon.
199
190
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Racoon.
together, and on these occwions the interior of the
mouth was distinctly visible.
A pair of these animals, which we have observed
in captivity, were at times very playful, contending
with each other, in rude sport, with great violence,
•truggling and endeavouring to throw each other
down, and all the while utterine a loud roanng
noise : at other times, huddled tocrether, they passed
whole hours in sleep. In India it is often led about
by mountebanks and jugglers, as is the brown bear
According to CaptainWilliamson (' Oriental Field-
Sporti ') these animals are numerous on the boun-
daries of Bengal, which to the east and west are
mountainous, rocky, and overrun with low under-
wood : their principal resort is under banks, in large
burrows or natural cavities ; but they do not hyber-
nate. Their pace is shuffling and awkward, but
quick enough to overtake a man on foot. They
ascend trees with great facility.
The natives greatly dread them ; the venr sight of
a bear, however distant, disheartens them, knowing,
as they do, the strength and savage disposition of
the sable shuffler. Of their ferocity, and the dilatory
torments to which they subject their victim. Captain
Williamson gives several horrible instances: observ-
ing, that they " will chew and suck a limb till it is
a perfect pulp," not biting away the flesh, like most
beasts of prey.
846, &i7, 848.— The Polar Bear
(Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimm). Ours polaire of the
French ; Wawpusk of the Cree Indians ; Nannook
of the Esquimaux ; Nennook of ihe Greenlanders.
Within the regions of the arctic circle dwells the
Polar Bear, one of the largest and most formidable
of the group. Formed to endure the roost intense
severity of cold, this monarch of a gloomy desolate
realm prowls in sullen majesty over wastes of snow
and among ice-glazed rocks in quest of food ; he
traverses fields of ice along the shore, clambers over
rugged icebergs, or even swims out from floe to floe,
orlVom island to island, ravenous for his prey. He
dives with admirable address, and is capable of con-
tending with his prey amidst the rolling waves.
The seal forms its favourite diet, logether with
marine exuviae, such as dead fishes and cetaceous
animals ; and he will attack even the walrus him-
self. In summer mountain-berries are eagerly
sought for, nor are sea-weeds or marsh-plants re-
jected. Of the activity of this bear in the water we
may form an idea from a statement by Cartwright,
that he saw a polar bear dive after a salmon and
kill his fish.
Captain Lyon gives the following account of its
mode of hunting the seal :— " The bear, on seeing
his intended prey, gets quietly into the water, and
swims until to leeward of him, from whence, by fre-
quent short dives, he silently makes his approaches,
and so arranges his distance, that, at the last dive,
he comes to the spot where the seal is lying. If the
poor animal attempts to escape by rolling into the
water, he falls into the bear's clutches; if, on the
Contrary, he lies still, his destroyer makes a powerful
spring, kills him on the ice, and devours him at
leisure." The same author informs us that this bear
not only swims with rapidity, but is capable of
making long springs in the vvater. Captain Sabine
states that he saw one about midway between the
north and south shores of Barrow's Straits, which are
forty miles apart, though there was no ice in sight
to which he could resort for rest.
The pace of this bear on shore is a kind of shuffle,
but more quick than might be expected ; and when
at full speed as rapid as the sharp gallop of a
horse.
The average length of the jwlar bear (which has
been greatly exaggerated) is about six feet ; but it
occasionally attains to larger dimensions. Piillas
describes an adult female six feet nine inches in
length. The greatest length, from nose to tail, re-
corded by Captain Phipps, is seven feet one inch ;
the weight of the beast being 610 lbs. Captain Ross
records the measurement of one seven feet ten
inches, the weight being 1160 lbs.; and Captain
Lyon, that one, which was unusually large, measured
■eight feet seven inches and a half, and weighed
1601) lbs.
It is stated on the best authorities, that the male
does not hybemate, but that the female, on the
approach of the severer season, retires to some rift
among the rocks or ice, or digs a lair in the frozen
snow ; the falling snow drifts over the den, covering
it to a great depth, a small aperture for breathing
being always open. In this retreat, about the latter
part of December, she brings forth two cubs, and in
March quits the den with them, then about as large
as a shepherd's dog, and prowls abroad, lean, gaunt,
and ferocious ; hunger and the presence of her off-
spring adding fury to her savage temper.
The male wanders about the marshes and adjacent
parts until November; he then goes out to sea upon
the ice in quest of seals, and becomes very fat. It
often happens that he become* drifted out from the
coast on a floating field of ice ; and in this way, says
Dr. Richardson, polar bears are often carried from
the coast of Greenland to Iceland, where they com-
mit such ravages on the flocks, that the inhabitants
rise in a body to destroy them."
Of the devotion of the female polar bear to her
young, and of the danger attendant upon the chase
■ of these animals, many travellers have made men-
1 tion, and recorded various facts which came under
I their own observation. These, however, are so
I popularly current, that it is sufficient to allude to
I them.
It was not until Linnseus published the tenth
edition of his ' Systeraa Naturae,' that he had any
idea that the polar bear was distinct from the
brown bear, the only species he appears to have
known. Martens, however, had previously dis-
tinguished it, and indeed was the first to cnarac-
terize it from actual observation. (' Spitzbergische
Oder Gronlandische Reisebeschreibung,' Hamb.,
1675.)
This species is of a more lengthened form than
that of the others; the head is very much elongated
and flattened, the ears and mouth comparatively
small, the neck very long and thick, and the sole of
the foot very large. The fur is silvery white.tinged
with yellow ; close, short, and even on the head,
neck, and upper part of the back; long, fine, and
inclined to be woolly on the hinder parts, legs, and
belly. The sole of the foot is almost entirely co-
vered with long hair, affording the animal a firm
footing on the ice. The claws are black, not much
curved, thick and short. Captain Lyon's crew found
none of the terrible effects (skin peeling off, &c.)
from eating the flesh, ascribed to it by some of the
earlier voyagers.
849. — A Pretended Hybrid between a Dog and
A Bear.
From time to time supposed hybrids of this sort
have been exhibited, and there is generally an in-
clination to believe in the existence of creatures the
offspring of such a parentage. That two animals
so different in structure, dentition, general habits
and instincts as the dog and bear should breed
together is improbable — nay, contrary to the laws of
nature and to physiology. We are not, however,
surprised that at a lime when a belief in monsters,
both of the human and brute creation, was almost
universal, that men of education should have cre-
dited the existence of a dog-bear.
Our figure is copied from a curious work, entitled
' Histoires Prodigieuses extraictes de plusieurs fa-
meux Autheurs, Grecs et I.atins, sacrez et profanes,
divisees en cinq tomes, le premier par P. Boaistuau.
Tome Premier, Paris, 1582.' It would appear that
M. Pierre Boaistuau, who visited England in the
reign of Elizabeth, and was introduced to the court,
was shown two dogs, asserted to be of the parentage
in question, both of which were presented to M. le
Marquis de Trans : one this nobleman gave to M. le
Compte d'Alphestan ; the other, of which the figure
is given by M. Boaistuau, he took to France. He
describes the beast as extremely ferocious, and in
form intermediate between the dog and bear, the
latter being its male parent. There can be but
little doubt that the bearwards palmed off these
animals upon him and others as hybrids, but which
were really dogs selected for their bear-like appear-
ance, an appearance increased by cropping the ears
and tail, and other skilful artifices.
The genus Ursus is rich in the reliquiae of extinct
species. These occur for the most part in various
caverns in Germany, Hungary, and England, along
with the bones of other Carnivora, as the wolf, hysena,
tiger, glutton, &c., and also of herbivorous animals,
though these are less in number. In most of these
caves (that of Kirkdale excepted, where the remains
are principally those of an extinct species of hyaena)
the bones of the bear tribe are the most prevalent.
In the vast cavern of Gaylenreuth this is remark-
ably the case, the bones being referable to three
distinct species which have been termed Ursus
prisons, U. arctoVdes, and U. spelaius. They lie for
the most part confusedly in a bed of animal earth,
and are oiten encrusted with stalagmite, which lines
the roof and walls of the cave. Though scattered
and broken, these bones exhibit no tokens of having
been rolled. Professor Goldfuss states that with
regard to the cave of Gaylenreuth, if we assume
1000 buried individuals of the various species found
there, the proportion will be as follows : — Hyaena
spelaea, 25 ; Canis spelajus, 50 ; Felis spelaea, 25 ;
Gulo spelseus, 30 ; Ursus priscus, 10 ; Ursus arc-
toides, 60 ; Ursus spelceus, 800. I
Of these extinct bears, the skull of the Ursus '
spelseus is distinguished by the bold elevation of the
forehead, and its size, which indicates the animal to j
have greatly exceeded any living species. The
skull of the Ursus arctoides, though as large as that
of U. spelaeus, has the forehead much less elevated.
The skull of Ui-sus priscus is smaller, and ap- 1
proache* in size and contour that of the common
brown bear, but is more flattened along the upper
surface.
It may here be observed that certain serrated
canine teeth attributed to bears, under the names of
Ursus etruscus and Ursus cultridens by Cuvier and
others, and to the genus Felis by Bravard, are, ac-
cording to Kaup, the relics of an animal allied to
the Megalosaurus, one of the Saurian reptiles, but of
a distinct genus, to which he has given the name of
Machairodus. In Fig. 850, a is a tooth of Machai-
rodus, natural size, imperfect below ; b. the outline
of a cast of the perifect tooth ; c, a tooth of Mega
losaurus, natural size. Professor Owen, however,
regards the teeth (a, c) as having belonged to a
mammiferous animal, not however a bear ; and the
proof is afforded by the cast (6) which shows that
the tooth was originally lodged in a socket, and not
anchylosed to the substance of the jaw, and that the
fang is contracted and solidified by the progressive
diminution of a temporary formative pulp, and
does not terminate in an open conical cavity, like
the teeth of all known Saurians, which are lodged
in sockets.
Genus Procyon. — Dental formula :
1—1
6—6
6
Incisors ^ Ca-
-, Molars ^;^= 40.
The two true molars
on each side are equal, or nearly so ; and the car-
nassicre nearly resembles the true molars, not being
suited to cutting flesh.
851, 852.— The Racoon
(Proci/on lotor). Raton of the French; Mapach,
Yllamaton, Maxile, and Cioatlamacazque of the
Mexicans, according to Hernandez.
Notwithstanding Buffon's assertion to the con-
trary, the Racoon inhabits Canada as well as the
warmer regions of America ; its range being from
about 50° north lat., extending through Mexico and
the United States, and thence, as it would seem, into
South America as far as Paraguay. In size these
animals equal a common fox, having a stout body
with moderate limbs, and a plantigrade, or rather
semi-plantigrade, walk ; for though the sole is naked
it is only when the racoon rests that it is totally ap-
plied to the ground. The toes, five in number, are
armed with sharp claws ; the muzzle is acute, the
nose tapering beyond the lips, and flexible ; the eyes
are moderate, with a circular pupil ; the ears are
short, erect, and rounded ; the whiskers long ; the
tail moderate, and somewhat bushy. General co-
lour brownish grey, the tail being tinged with a
blackish tint ; muzzle dirty white ; a black or dark-
brown mark across the eyes and cheek, and another
between the eyes, extending from the forehead ;
under parts pale grey.
The racoons are nocturnal in their habits, sleep-
ing out the day in their holes, and prowling at night
in search of food. The borders of the sea and the
margins of swamps and rivers are their favourite
localities ; and they prey upon small animals, birds,
eggs, and insects, adding roots, fruits, and sweet
succulent vegetables to their diet. .Nor are crabs,
oysters, and other " shell-fish" less acceptable, for
which they visit the shores at low wafer. 'To the
partiality of the racoon for oysters we can ourselves
testify ; for some years since we repeatedly tried one
of these animals with the hard-shelled mollusk in
question, which it greedily devoured. Its first
action was to crush the hinge of the shell between
its teeth : which done, it wrenched the two valves so
far asunder as to enable it to scrape out the mollusk
with its claws.
In the description of a tame racoon by M. Blan-
quart des Salines, we are informed, " It opens oysters
with wonderful skill ; it is sufiicient to break the
hinge, ils paws complete the work. It must have
an excellent sense of touch. In this operation rarely
does it avail itself of sight or smell ; for instance, it
passes the oyster under its hind-paws, then without
looking seeks by its hands the weakest place : it
there digs in its claws, forces apart the vaWes, and
tears out the fish in fragments, leaving nothing
behind." This was precisely what we ourselves
witnessed.
The racoon is asserted to have the habit of dipping
its food into water before eating it, whence it has
received the appellation of lotor, or washer ; but
although we have had numerous opportunities of
observing the animal in captivity, we never saw this
mode of proceeding.
Though incapable of grasping objects with its
paws, the racoon can hold its food between them
pressed together, in doing which it usually sits upon
its haunches like a bear, and in this attitude it very
often feeds.
Of the senses of this animal, that of smell is the
most developed, and is very acute : the eyes, though
the pupil is round, are better adapted for twilight "or
night than for the glare of day ; indeed, a strong
light distresses and confuses these animals exceed-
Panda.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
191
ingly. In its natural state, in fact, the racoon is
nocturnal, and it is most probably from the circum-
stance of the eyes being incapable of sustaining day-
light, that blindness from cataract (opacity of the
lens) is so common in these animals in a state of
captivity, when they are liable to be roused up, and
are often kept awake during the whole or greater
part of the day.
The gait of the racoon on the ground is oblique,
and when it moves quickly its mode of progression
consists of a series of bounds, reminding us of the
lemurs, but with nothing of their grace and light-
ness. When taken young this animal is easily
tamed, becomes playful, and is fond of being
noticed and caressed, but is at the same time very
capricious and easily oifended ; and to some per-
sons, without any apparent cause, it will show from
the iirst marked signs of hostility. When enraged
or desirous of attacking a person, the racoon ad-
vances, as we have often witnessed, with arched
back and bristly hairs, and with it^ chin or under
jaws close to the ground, uttering gruff sounds of
displeasure. If once injured it seldom forgives its
enemy.
It greedily attacks poultry within its reach, and is
as cunning and destructive as the fox ; though, ac-
cording to M. Blanquart des Salines, it only devours
their heads, which agrees with Dr. Richardson's
observations.
When roused from its diurnal indolence, the ra-
coon is restless, inquisitive, and prying ; it climbs
with the greatest skill, in the same manner as a bear,
ascending and descending a tree, a pole, or branches
fastened in its apartment, with the utmost address.
It is apt to become very fat, and its flesh is said
to be palatable. The fur is used in the hat manu-
facture, and the skins are imported in tolerable
numbers.
6
Genus Ailurus.—BentaX formula : Incisors -, Ca-
6
nines ^~^ ; Molars = 36. In dentition this
1—1 5—3
genus approaches that of the racoons ; but the mo-
lars have their crowns studded with sharp tubercles,
which, as in General Hardwicke's specimen, become
worn down by long usage. The molars of the
upper jaw are broad and large, those of the lower
jaw narrow. Fig. 8.53 represents the teeth of the
Panda ; a and b are the incisors, or front teeth, of
the upper and lower jaw.
854.— The Panda
(Ailurusftdgens). The Panda is an inhabitant of
the Himalayan Hills, between Nepal and the Snowy
Mountains, and was first discovered by General
Hardwicke, who published a description in the fif-
teenth volume of the ' Linn. Trans.' Subsequently
M. Duvaucel sent the skin of the animal to Paris,
and a description and figure were published by F.
Cuvier in the fifteenth number of the 'Histoire des
Mammiffires,' which appeared prior to the paper by
General Hardwicke.
The Panda is a short-muzzled animal, covered
with full soft fur, and having a tail of moderate
length, resembling a lady's boa. In size the animal
equals a badger, and is of a robust figure. Its limbs
are stout: its feet five-toed ; but the soles, instead of
being naked, are covered with thick close wool of a
pure white in some specimens, of a greyish white in
others, forming a singular contrast to the deep
black of the legs and under surface. The claws are
short, sharp, and semi-retractile. Fig. 855: a re-
presents the anterior foot, left side ; b, the hinder
foot, right side ; c, the sole of one of the posterior
feet, showing its woolly covering. The ears are
short, pointed, and lined and tufted with white fur.
The colour of the upper surface is beautiful fulvous
red, the head being much paler ; the muzzle is
white, with a red dash beneath the eyes ; the tail is
banded red and yellow, but not very strongly ; the
limbs and under parts are abruptly black. The fur,
which is very full and deep, consists of a woolly
undercoat, with long soft hairs overlaying it.
We learn from General Hardwicke that the
haunts of the Panda " are about rivers and moun-
tain torrents." It lives much in trees, and feeds on
birds and the smaller mammalia; it is frequently
discovered by its loud cry or call resembling the
word wha, ol>en repeating the same ; hence is de-
rived one of the local names by which it is known.
It is also called the Chitwa.
Genus Nasua : —
8.56.— The Brown Coati
( Nasua ftisca). The Coatis, or Coati-mondis (Nasua),
are restricted to the warmer regions of the American
continent, and in dentition and general economy
approximate to the racoons.
These curious animals, formerly placed by Lin-
naeus with the ViverriB, cannot easily be confounded
with those of any other group.
They may be known at once by_ the peculiar
elongation of their snout, which projects consider-
ably beyond the lower jaw. This snout is not, as
in the hog, supported by a continuation of the
nasal bone, but is a cylindrical and flexible pro-
boscis, with a truncated extremity, forming a sort
of disc where the nostrils open, and altogether
giving a singular character to their physiognomy.
"They turn it about in various directions while in
search for food, and root with it in the eaith in
quest of worms and insects. The eyes are small,
but quick ; the ears moderate and rounded ; the
body long, deep, and compressed ; the tail long ;
the limbs short and stout ; the toes five on each
foot, and armed with large powerful claws, well
adapted for digging. The fur is rather coarse, but
long, full, and close ; the tail is ringed with alter-
nate bands of dark and pale tints — in the red
coati (Nasua rufa) of rufous, in the brown coati
(N. fusca) of dusky brown. The canine teeth are
remarkable for their size and sharpness, especially
those of the upper jaw, which are compressed, and
have a cutting edge both before and behind.
In captivity these animals sleep much during the
day, and are most active as the evening advances,
at which time they traverse their cage, turn their
snout from side to side, and pry into every corner.
They do not, however, pass the whole of the day in
sleep, but are active for hours together, retiring to
rest only at intervals. Their temper is capricious :
we have, indeed, seen some individuals tolerably
good-tempered, but most are savage, and their bite
is very severe.
In drinking, the coati laps like a dog ; but as its
long snout would be in the way during this opera-
tion, it turns it up, so as to prevent its being sub-
merged.
These animals are highly gifted with the sense of
smell ; they examine everything with their long
nose, which is in almost perpetual motion. Their
temper is irritable and capricious ; — they cannot
be trusted, even by those with whose persons they
are the most familiar, and consequently, are not to
be touched without great caution. Their voice,
seldom exerted, is, under ordinary circumstances, a
gentle hissing ; but when irritated or alarmed, they
utter a singularly shrill cry, something like that of
a bird. They defend themselves vigorously when
attacked by a dog, or any animal, and inflict
desperate wounds. Like the racoon, they are said
to be fond of the juice of the sugar-cane, but we
know not on what authority. Azara does not
allude to this partiality ; it is, however, far from
being improbable. In climbing they descend head
foremost, being in this respect unlike the bear,
which animal they far surpass in activy, being
indeed better climbers than even the cat, and
exceeded among their own tribe only by the kin-
kajou, whose prehensile tail gives it a great ad-
vantage.
In their native climate they tenant the woods,
living for the most part in small troops among the
trees, which they climb with great address, and
prey upon birds, which they surprise, rifling also
their nests of eggs, or unfledged young. Worms,
insects, and roots form also part of their diet.
The species presented in the cut is the brown
coati (N. fusca). Its colours are very variable, the
brown being more or less tinged with yellow, and
sometimes shaded with black ; the under surface is
yellowish grey; the snout is generally black, and
several spots or marks of greyish yellow encircle
the eye. It is a native of Brazil, Guiana, and
Paraguay.
6
Genus Cercoleptes. — Dental formula :— Incisors-,
Canines _^L , Molars = 36.
1_1 .5—5
Fig. a57 represents the Teeth of the Kinkajou.
858, 859.— The Kwkajou
{Cercoleptes Cavrlivolmlus). Of the genus Cerco-
leptes one species only is known, the Kinkajou,
Potto, Mexican Weasel, or Yellow Macauco of Pen-
nant ; the true affinities and situation of which in
the system of mammalia seem sadly to have puzzled
naturalists.
The kinkajou is a native of Southern and Inter-
tropical America, where it appears to be extensively
spread, and is known under different appellations.
In New Granada it is called, by the native Indians,
Gushumbi, and Manaviri in the mission of Rio
Negro. In its manners it much resembles the
coati-mondi (Nasua fusca), but differs from that
animal not only in the shape of the head, which is
short and compact, but also in having a prehensile
tail. Of recluse and solitary habits, the kinkajou
lives for the most part among the branches of
trees in large woods or forests, and is in every re-
spect well adapted for climbing: being, however,
decidedly nocturnal, it is but little exposed to the
observation even of those who sojourn among the
places frequented by it. During the day it sleeps
in its retreat, rolled up like a ball, and, if roused,
appears torpid and inactive. As soon, however,
as the dusk of evening sets in, it is fully awake,
and is all activity, displaying the utmosi restless-
ness and address, climbing from branch to branch
in quest of food, and using its prehensile tail, to
assist itself in its manoeuvres. Few mammalia are
more incommoded by light than the kinkajou : we
have seen the pupils of the eyes contracted to a
mere round point, even when the rays of the sun
have not been very bright, while the animal at the
same time testified by its actions its aversion to the
unwelcome glare.
In size, the kinkajou is equal to a full-grown cat,
but its limbs are much stouter and more muscular,
and its body more firmly built. In walking, the
sole of the foot is applied fairly to the ground, as in
the case of the badger. Its claws are strong and
curved, the toes on each foot being five. The ears
are short and rounded. The fur is full, but not loner,
and very closely set. There is no animal among
the Carnivora (as far as our eiperience goes) in
which the tongue is endowed with more remarkable
powers of extension. Among ruminating animals,
the giraffe is, as we know, capable of extending this
organ to a very great length, and of using it much
in the same manner as the elephant does the ex-
tremity of his proboscis, drawing down by it the
twigs and boughs of the trees, upon the leaves of
which the creature feeds ; in like manner can the
kinkajou thrust forth its tongue, a long and slender
instrument, capable of being inserted into crevices
or fissures, in search of insects, reptiles, or the eggs
of birds. Baron Humboldt informs us that this ani-
mal is an extensive devastator of the nests of the
wild bee, whence the Spanish missionaries have
given it the name of " honey-bear," and that it uses
its long tongue to lick up the honey from the cells
of the comb. In addition, however, to this food,
birds, eggs, small animals, roots, and fruits consti-
tute the diet of the kinkajou ; and, as we have seen,
it will draw these articles towards it with ils tongue,
when presented just within its reach. In drinking
it laps like a dog, and also makes use of its fore-
paws occasionally in holding food, and even in con-
veying it to the mouth, as well as in seizing its
prey. In its aspect there is something of gentle-
ness and good-nature ; and in captivity it is ex-
tremely playful, familiar, and fond of being noticed.
In its natural state, however, it is sanguinary and
resolute.
An individual of this species died at the gardens
of the Zoological Society : it had lived in the pos-
session of the Society about seven years, and was
remarkable for gentleness and its playful disposition.
During the greater part of the day it was usually
asleep, rolled up in the inner partition of a box of its
large cage ; this, indeed, was invariably the case in
the morning, unless purposely disturbed, but in the
afternoon it would often voluntarily come out, tra-
verse its cage, take food, and play with those to
whom it was accustomed. Clinging to the top wires
of its cage with its hind-paws and tail, it would thus
suspend itself, swinging backwards and forwards,
and assuming a variety of antic positions. When
thus hanging, it could bring up its body with the
greatest ease, so as to cling with its fore-paws as
well as the hind pair to the wires, and in this man-
ner it would travel up and down its cage with the
utmost address, every now and then thrusting forth
its long tongue between the wires, as if in quest of
food, which if offered outside its cage, it would
generally endeavour to draw in with this organ. It
was very fond of being stroked and gently scratched,
and when at play with any one it knew, it would
pretend to bite, seizing the hand or fingers with its
teeth, as a dog will do when gambolling with its
master, but without hurting or intending injury. As
the evening came on, its liveliness and restlessness
would increase. It was then full of animation,
traversing the space allotted to it in every direction,
examining every object within its reach, rolling
and tumbling about, and swinging to and fro from
the wires of the cage : nor was its good-humour
abated ; it would gambol and play with its keepers,
and exhibit in every movement the most surprising
energy. In this state of exercise it would pass the
night, retiring to rest on the dawn of the morning.
The age of this individual is not ascertained; the
state of its teeth, however, which are much worn
down, shows it to have attained an advanced period ;
its colour was a pale yellowish grey, inclining to
tawny — the hairs, in certain lights, have a glossy ap-
pearance. Its dissection after death fully confirmed
the propriety of assigning it a place among the
plantigrade Carnivora.
The Binturong (Arctitii Binturong, Temminck ;
Tetides ater, F. Cuv.) seems to take the place of
the kinkajou in the forests of Java and Sumatra.
These animals are prehensile-tailed and arboreal,
and resemble the racoons in the principal details of
their dentition. They live both on animal and ve-
getable food, and are particularly fond of plantains;
they also eat eggs and birds.
niO Brown Cottl
192
S59. — Kinkajou.
»T0.— Dingo.
-MMtiir.
No. 25.
869.— Miitln.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATUKE.]
857.— Spaniel,
193
194
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Dogs.
CANID^ (the Cajjink F»mily).
Tiiw family includes the Dog. the Wolf, the Jackal,
the Fox, and the Lycaon ; in otiier wo«U, all those
animaU which Linn»u( assigm to his genus Canis,
and which, though agreeing in dentition, and in the
digiliRrade structure of the feet, may nevertheless
with propriety be divided into subgeneric groups.
In all the muizle is elongated ; the bony palate
terminates in a line with the hinder margin of the
posterior molars, in this respect differing from that
of other Camivora ; and there are two true molars
on each side both of the upper and lower jaw. The
genus Megalotis, in the form of the lower jaw, in the
dentition, and in the prolongation of the bony
palate, offers an exception to the general rule.
Dental formula :— Incisors, -; Canines, -II- ;
0 1 — I
o 3 J J 2—2
Molar*— false - — :,cama«8i4re8j-— ^,true^--^ .
.42.
The true molars below are small, the last being even
minute, as is the first false molar, and often drop-
ping out early. Fig. 860 illustrates the dentition
of the dog.
Fore feet with five foes ; hind feet with four toes,
and sometimes a fifth on the tarsus ; claws not re-
tractile.
Genus Cams: —
861, 8C2, 863, &c.— The Dog
(Canitfinniliaris). Our ' Pictorial Museum ' is rich
both in skulU and examples of the races into which
the domestic dog has ramified, and which are so nu-
merous and interblended, as to present every variety
of size, form, and disposition, from the high-bred
greyhound or gigantic mastiff, to the puny cur or
ill-formed mongrel.
Turning first to the skulls, we may observe that
Figs. 8(i4 and 865 represent the skull of the mas-
tiff (Dogiie de forte race) in two views; and it may
be added that though the head is larger by a third
or more than those of the shepherd's dog and spaniel,
the cranial capacity is by no means so great. Figs.
866 and 867 show the skull of the spaniel (Barbet)
in two views; Figs. 868 and 869, the skull of the
Danish dog (Matin) in two views, Fig. 870, the
skull of the half wild Australian dingo, may be con-
trasted with Fig. 871, the skull of the intelligent
shepherd's dog.
It is with a feeling of something like hesitation
that we enter upon the history of the dog, respect-
ing whose origin few naturalists have an opinion
in common, and which has given rise to many con-
jectures.
It was the opinion of Pallas that the dog is a fac-
titious animal, that is, not descended from any
single original wild stock, but from a mixture of
nearly allied primitive species, whose hybrid off-
springs have possessed prolific powers; and he
observes that those domesticated animals which
either do not intermix with other species, or which
produce with others an unprolific progeny, are very
little changed, however completely and anciently
they have been under the dominion of man. "When
indeed we look at the great differences in instincts,
form, and size which the domestic dog exhibits, we
find it difficult to believe, interbreed as they may
together, that all are the lineal descendants of one
common origin. Yet is this opinion the most gene-
rally entertained. Mr. Bell even goes a step farther,
and refers the domestic dog to the wolf as its pri-
maeval parent ; some indeed have referred it to the
jackal.
"In order," saysMr. Bell, "to come to any rational
conclusion on this head, it will be necessary to
ascertain to what type the animal approaches most
nearly, after having for many successive generations
existed in a wild state, removed from the influence
of domestication and of association with mankind.
Now we find that there are several different instances
of dogs in such a state of wildness as to have lost
that common character of domestication, variety of
colour and marking. Of these, two very remark-
able ones are the Dhale of India and the Dingo of
Australia. There is besides a half-reclaimed race
amongst the Indians of North America, and another
also partially tamed in South America, which
deserve attention ; and it is found that these races
in different degrees, and in a greater degree as they
are more wild, exhibit the lank and gaunt form,
the lengthened limbs, the long and slender muzzle,
and the great comparative strength which charac-
terize the wolf; and that the tiiil of the Australian
dog, which may be considered as the most remote
from a state of domestication, assumes the slightly
bushy form of that animal. We have here then a
considerable approximation to a well-known animal
ofihe same genus, which, though doubtlessdescended
from domesticated ancestors, have gradually assumed
the wild condition ; and it is worthy of special
remark that the anatomy of the wolf, and its osteo-
logy in particular, does not diffar from that of the
dogs in general, more than the different kinds of
dogs do from each other. The cranium is abso-
lutely similar, and so are all or nearly all the other
essential parts; and to strengthen still further the
probability of their identitv, the dog and wolf will
readily breed together, and their progeny is fettile.
The obliquity of the position of the eyes of the
wolf is one of the characters in which if differs from
the dogs ; and although it is very desirable not to
rest too much upon the effects of habit on structure,
it is not perhaps straining the point to attribute the
forward direction of the eyes in the dogs to the
constant habit, for many successive generations, of
looking towards their master and obeying his voice."
Mr. Bell adds, as another corroborative circumstance,
the fact that the period of gestation in the dog and
the wolf is the same, sixty-three days, while in the
jackal it is fifty-nine days.
The opinion of so eminent and judicious a naturalist
is certainly entitled to great weight ; but while we
admit that Mr. Bell has made a strong case, we
cannot but observe that several points are defective.
In the first place, it is assumed that all wild dogs
are the descendants of a domestic race ; but though
respecting some few this may be true, yet it by no
means follows that the assertion applies to all :
we may instance the Biiinsu, or wild dog of NepSI,
described by ]\fr. Hodgson under fhe title of Canis
primaevus. This animal, which he believes to be
the origin of the domestic dog, and not its descend
ant, ranges from the Sutlege to fhe Burhampootra,
and seems to extend, with some immaterial dif-
ferences, into the Vindyia. the Ghauts, the Nilgiris,
the Casiah Hills, and the chain passing brokenly
fiom Mirzapore through South Bahar and Orissa
to the Coromandel Coast. " Of this race, although
so wild as rarely to be seen, Mr. Hodgson has
succeeded in obtaining many individuals. He is
consequently enabled to describe not only the form
and colours, but the manners also, which he does
in great detail. Some of those he obtained pro-
duced young in captivity, having been pregnant
when taken. The Bu-insu, he observes, preys by
night as well as by day, and hunts in packs of fi om
six to ten individuals, maintaining the chase rather
by its powers of smell than by the eye, and gene-
rally overcoming its quarry by force and perse-
verance. In hunting it barks like a hound, but its
bark is peculiar, and equally unlike that of the
cultivated breeds of dogs and the strains of the
jackal and the fox. Adults in captivity made no
approach towards domestication ; but a young one
which Mr. Hodgson obtained when it was not more
than a month old, became sensible to caresses,
distinguished the dogs of its own kennel from others,
as well as its keepers from strangers ; and on the
whole, its conduct manifested to the full as much
intelligence as any of his sporting dogs of the same
age." (' Zool. Proceds.,' 1833, p. 111.)
In the same number of the ' Proceeds.' is the
notice of a communication from W. A. Wooler,
Esq., giving an account of a wild dog from the
Mahablishwar Hills, in the Presidency of Bombay,
and called there Dhale. The habits of this dog in
a state of nature accord with those of the Biiinsii
of Nepfll, and with which animal it is most probably
identical.
Colonel Sykes proves, we think, that the wild
dog of the Dukhun, called by fhe Mahrattas Kolsun,
is fhe same as the Biiansii of NepSI, the skulls and
external characters precisely agreeing. (' Zool. Pro-
ceeds.,' 1833, p. 133.)
Colonel Sykes observes, that this dog differs from
any wild species hitherto described. Its head is
compressed and elongated ; its nose not very sharp ;
the eyes are oblique, the pupils round, the irides
light brown. The expression of fhe countenance
is that of a coarse, ill-natured Persian greyhound,
without any resemblance to the jackal, the fox, or
fhe wolf; and in consequence essentially distinct
from the Canis Quao, or Sumatrensis, of General
Hardwicke. The ears are long, erect, and some-
what rounded at fhe top ; fhe limbs are remarkably
large and strong in relation to the bulk of fhe animal,
which is intermediate in size between the wolf and
jackal ; it hunts in packs, and in the stomach of
one killed was found a portion of the Nylghau ante-
lope. (' Zool. Proceeds.,' 1831, p. 100.)
Here then we have a genuine wild dog, called
in the different mountain districts it inhabits,
Biiiinsu, Dhale, and Kolsun, of a sandy red or rufous
colour, and destitute of fhe last small molar of the
lower jaw. Colonel Baber, in a note subjoined to
Col. Sykes's description in fhe ' Trans. Asiat. Soc.,'
states that it was often seen by him on fhe western
coast, and in the Balaghat district, where it is nu-
merous. " As often," he adds, "as I have met with
them, they have invariably been in packs of from
thirty to perhaps sixty, fhey must be very formi-
dable, as all animals are very much afraid of them.
!j Frequently remains of hogs and deer have been
I brought to me, which had been taken overnight by
II these wild dogs. The natives assert that they kill
tigers and chetahs, and there is no doubl of the
fact. It is quite correct fhat they are found in the
Nilageris, though only in the western parts. I
myself was followed, while travelling between the
Paifera river and Naddlbaft, a distance of eight or
nine miles, by a pack of them ; and had I not re-
peatedly fired off my pistols, they would certainly
have carried away three or four terriers and SpanLsh
dogs that were following me at the time. Two or
three times I succeeded in getting young ones, but
I did not keep them longer than three or four
weeks, they were so very wild as well as shy. It
was only at night that they would eat, and then
most voraciously."
With respect to the Canis Quao of General Hard-
wicke, it is a red wolfish-looking dog in the Ram-
ghur Hills; the Canis Sumatrensis is a wild dog of
fhe same general characters, found in Sumatra, but
with ears less acutely pointed.
From every account of wild dogs, it would appear
that their colour is always sandy-yellow or red, a
colour occasionally seen In animals of the domestic
breeds. We do not, however, while we contend
fhat these wild dogs are genuine, pretend to assert
that any of them are the originals of any one of our
domestic breeds ; all we wish is to prove fhat there
are genuine wild dogs, which fact being established,
the necessity of looking to fhe wolf as fhe origin of
fhe dog falls to fhe ground, for these wild dogs are
not wolves.
Again, we have yet to learn, and experiment only
can decide, fhat there is fhat pliability, that suscep-
tibility of modification in fhe physical and moral
nature of the wolf, which will permit of its conver-
sion into the mastiff, the setter, the greyhound, and
fhe spaniel.
In the next place, though the wolf and dog will
breed together, their progeny, if fertile, as Buffon
seems to prove, is so in a low degree only, fhe
mixed race gradually falling, and becoming extinct;
but granting the contrary, nothing is proved, be-
cause, whatever naturalists may say, there is reason
to believe that closely allied species (there are de-
grees of aflSnity) will interbreed and produce a per-
manently mingled stock.
Moreover, we have yet to be shown a race of true
wolves, fhe descendants of dogs which have re-
turned to their natural condition, and reassumed
their genuine characters. If the wild dogs which
we have described, and which we regard as genuine,
be really fhe descendants of a domestic stock, even
then, seeing that they have resumed their original
characters (as evidenced by their uniformity of size,
figure, colour, and instincts), the argument that fhe
wolf is the primaeval type of fhe dog is at once nulli-
fied ; for, as we have said, these rulbus wild dogs
are distinct from fhe wolf. While we thus venture
to question fhe theory entertained by Mr. Bell and
other eminent naturalists, we are not prepared to
point out the origin or origins of fhe domestic dog ;
and we venture to say that the subject will always
remain a Gordian knot, which science will never un-
ravel. Buffon has eloquently observed, that " those
species which man has greatly cultivated, whether
belonging to the animal or the vegetable world,
are, beyond all, those which are fhe most altered ;
and as fhe alteration is sometimes to such a degree
that we cannot recognise in them any thing of their
primitive form (such being the ease with wheat,
which has no resemblance to the plant from which
it is supposed to have derived its origin), it is not
impossible that among the numerous varieties of
the dog which we see in the present day, there is
not one which bears a resemblance to fhe original
type, or rather, to the first animal of the species."
If we pass from dogs confessedly wild fo those
which are half-wild, only semi-domesticated, the
Dingo, or Australian dog, is one of fhe most remark-
able and best known. Of the origin of this dog,
and of fhe circumstances connected with its Intro-
duction into Australia, we are totally Ignorant.
We know that wild packs exist there in the remoter
districts, the scourge of the country, preying on the
native kangaroo, and making havoc among fhe
flocks and herds of the European settlers. So Wolf-
like are these dogs in general form (though they
are specifically distinct from fhe wolf), that the
first navigators who touched at New Holland
scarcely recognised them as dogs. Dampler, in the
account of his voyage performed in 16!)9, states
that his men saw two or three beasts like hungry
wolves, and the similarity is to a certain degree
very striking. The domestic breed, if domestic it
can be called, in all respects resembles those which
are completely emancipated.
The Dingo, called Warragal by the natives, is
about as large as a harrier; its body is firmly built,
its limbs muscular ; Its head Is broad between fhe
ears, and its muzzle is acute ; the neck is thick and
powerful ; fhe eai-s are short, pointed, and erect ;
Its fail, which is rather long, is somewhat bushy
and pendulous, or at most raised only horizontally.
The general colour is sandy-red ; the eyes ai-c rather
Dogs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
195
small and oblique, and have a sinister expression.
It is not found in Van Dienien"s Land.
The agility and muscular powers of the dingo are
extraordinary, and its cunning and ferocity are as
much so. It never barks, bnt howls loudly ; as far
as we have observed, it never evinces pleasure by
wagging the tail. A dingo bred in this country
came some few years since under our personal ob-
servations ; it was about six weeks old when re-
moved from the mother. On putting the young
animal into a room, it immediately skulked into the
darkest corner, and there crouching, eyed us with
looks of great distrust and aversion ; as soon as left
to itself, it commenced the most melancholy howl-
ing, which ceased on any person's entrance. This
for some days was its constant practice, and when
placed in a kennel the greater part of the day was
thus employed. It grew up .strong and healthy,
and gradually became reconciled to those from
whom it was accustomed to receive food, but was
shy towards others, retreating into its kennel at
their approach. It never barked, nor, like other
dogs, gave notice of the approach of strangers, and
therefore as a guard was perfectly useless. A great
part of the day was spent in howling, and that so
loudly as to be heaid at the distance of more than
half a mile. When the moon rose brightly, it
would sit and utter for hours its wild lamentations,
not a little to the annoyance of the neighbourhood.
With all its shyness, it was at the same time savage,
but would never make an open attack ; several
times it snapped at persons who happened to be
walking within its reach, but only when their backs
were turned, and it immediately retreated again
into its kennel. So great was its strength, that
though encumbered by a heavy chain, it leaped a
wall of considerable height, and was not secured
without difficulty. Fig. 861, 6, Figs. 872 and 873, :
represent the dingo.
We have lately seen a small dog from the Niger,
where it is domesticated, very nearly resembling in
form the dingo, but on a much more diminutive and
lighter scale, and with a longer muzzle in propor-
tion ; its general colour was reddish. It neither i
barked nor wagged its tail, at least when first ob-
tained, but if we mistake not, it subsequently
learned the latter, if not both, of these canine ac-
complishments.
Among the wild races of dogs, or rather of dogs
become wild, to which Buffon alludes, are those of
South America and the We»t Indian Islands, con-
fessedly sprung from a European slock abandoned
by the early settlers in the vast plains, and which
have given origin to an unreclaimed race. Azara
states that these dogs are called Yagoua (a name
given also to the jaguar) in Paraguay, where they
are very common, inhabiting caves. They for-
merly abounded in Hayti, Cuba, and all the Carib-
bean islands, but are now extirpated there. Mr.
Darwin alludes to wild dogs in Randa Oriental as
attacking sheep. According to Oexmelin these
dogs resemble the greyhound ; but others more
accurately describe them as having the head flat
and elongated, the muzzle »harp, the body slender,
the general aspect wild and savage. They are
strong and active, and hunt their prey in packs.
It would appear, however, that the Europeans on
their arrival found native dogs both in the Carib-
bean Islands and in Peru. " Those belonging to
the savages of the Antilles," says Butfon, " had the
head and ears very long, and resembled a fox in
appearance." (See 'Hist. Gen. des Antilles,' par le
P. du Tertre, Paris, 1667.) He also adds that the In-
dians of Peru had a large and a smaller kind of dog,
whichtheyname Alco, and that those of the Isthmus
were ugly, with rough long hair and erect ears.
With respect to the Alco of Peru and Mexico,
we know nothing more about it than what Dampier
and Fernandez mention. The latter describes two
breeds, viz. the fat Alco, or Michuacaneus, called
by the natives Ytzcuinte porzotli, and the broad-
footed Alco, or Techichi. Both were small, some
of the latter race not much exceeding a guinea-pig
in size. The head was small, the back arched, the
body thick, the ears pendulous, and the tail short.
An individual probably of this race was brought
to this country from the neighbourhood of Mexico,
by Mr. Bullock ; it was white, variegated with
black and reddish yellow ; this specimen was pro-
cured in the mountains of Durango, where it bore
the name of Acolott-e. It died in a few days, and
its stuffed skin formed part of the collection ex-
hibited in Piccadilly, being; placed under a glass
with a huge bull-frog, which equalled it in size.
These specimens are, we believe, now in the pos-
session of Mr. Leadeater. Dogs resembling the
Alco were seen as early as 14i)2 in several of the
West Indian Islands, by Columbus, and were also
found in Martinique and Guadaloupe, in 1635, by
French navigators, who describe them as resembling
the httle Turkish or Barbary dogs without hair,
adding that they were eaten by the inhabitants.
All trace of them is now lost.
The probability is that these Alco dogs were not
indigenes of the soil either in the islands or on the
continent of Peru, but were brought by some of
the tribes by whom South America was populated.
The breed might have been introduced by that
strange people^ (of Malay descent i") who founded
the Peruvian and Mexican empires. In the South
Sea islands, dogs of a similar race exist, which are
fed on vegetable food, and eaten, as were the Alco
dogs in South America.
Wild dogs exist in Congo, Guinea, and other
parts of Africa, hunting in packs, and dwelling in
caves or burrows. Clapperton met with them in
the country beyond Tinibuctoo. In the island of
Teneriffe, a large wolfish breed of dogs is domes-
ticated and valued for the chase.
Fig. 874 presents the portraits of a leash of fine
hounds from Africa, by Major Denham, who had
employed them in hunting the gazelle, in the chase
of which their exquisite scent and extraordinary
speed were displayed to great advantage ; they
would frequently quit the line of scent for the pur-
pose of taking a direct, instead of a circuitous
course (sportsmen call this cutting off a double),
and recover the scent again with wonderful facility.
These beautiful hounds were consigned to the
Tower menagerie, where, shut up in a close den,
they evidently felt miserable. Instead of exerting
their energies in pursuit of the antelope on the
plains of Africa, here they were prisoners, with no
means of escape, and with no room or opportunity
for the exercise of their powers and instincts.
These hounds, however, were not of the wild breed ;
in symmetry and action they were perfect models,
and in temper were gentle, excepting that confine-
ment rendered the female irritable. Other repre-
sentations of the African hound are given in Figs.
873 and 861,/.
To the group of dogs which in their aspect and
physiognomy retain a marked air of wildncs*, as in-
dicated by the sharpness of the nuizzle, the erect or
serai-erect position of the ears, and the oblique di-
rection of the eye," giving an air of cunning and
distrust to the countenance, is to be referred the
Esquimaux dog, Fig. 861, a, and Fig. 876. In gene-
ral aspect, the Esquimaux dog (Canisfamiliaris, var,
borealis), so closely resembles the wolf of its native
regions, that when seen at a little distance it is not
easy to distinguish between them ; so much so
indeed, that Sir Edward Parry's party during their
second voyage forbore to fire upon a pack of thir-
teen wolves, which had closely followed some
Esquimaux, lest they should commit an irreparable
injury upon these poor people by destroying their
faithful and powerful allies.
Those visiting the museum of the Zoological
Society and looking at a fine specimen of the Es-
quimaux dog (No. 212, d, of Catal. Mamni. 1838)
which is placed near a grey wolf from the high
northern parts of America (No. 214, Cat. Mamra.),
might suppose, unless informed to the contrary, that
the two animals were of the same species. In both
the fur is deep and thick, both have the same erect
ears, the same breadth of skull between them, and
the same or nearly the same sharpness of muzzle.
In addition we may state that, in its native wilds at
least, the voice of the dog is not a bark, but a long
melancholy howl.
In the dog, however, the tail is more bushy than
in the wolf, and is carried in a graceful curve over
the back, while in the wolf it hangs down between
the legs. It is further to be remarked that the
antipathy of the Esquimaux dog to the wolf is
inveterate ; these animals not only regard the wolf
as an enemy, but fear it, and though they attack
the bear witli undaunted energy, they never, unless
impelled by necessity, venture to assault the wolf.
Often, indeed, they fall a sacrifice to this beast
of prey, and are carried off even in sight of their
owners.
To the Esquimaux their dogs are of the greatest
importance ; to these faithful slaves they look for
assistance in the chase of the seal, the bear, and
the reindeer ; for carrying burdens, and for drawing
them on sledges over the trackless snows of their
dreary plains. In summer, a single dog carries
a weight of thirty pounds in attending his
master in the pursuit of game ; and in winter six
or seven dogs, yoked to a heavy sledge, with five
or six pirsons, or a load of eight or ten hundred-
weight, will perform a journey of forty or fifty miles
a day. On good roads they will travel this distance
at the rate of eight miles an hour for several hours
together ; but on untrodden snow, twenty-five or
thirty miles would be a fair day's journey. The
same number of dogs well fed, with a weight of
only five or six hundred pounds, that of the sledge
included, are almost unmanageable, and on a
smooth road will go at the rate of ten miles an
hour. While thus travelling, should they scent a
* An oblique direction of the eye is one of the diagnostics of a low
degree of cultivation, and is never seen In what are termed high-bred
racej, however produced be tlie muzzle— as the greyliound.
reindeer even a quarter of a mile distant, they gallop
off furiously in the direction of the scent, and soon
bring the game within reach of the anow of the
hunter. So acute, indeed, is their sense of smell,
that they will discover a seal-hole by it entirely, at
a very great distance.
The average height of the Esquimaux dog is one
foot ten inches ; generally the colour is white with
something of a yellow tinge, but some are brindled,
some black and white, and some black.
If the Esquimaux dog resembles the grey wolf of
North America, equally does the Hare Indian's
or Mackenzie River dog resemble the fox. This
dog (Canis familiaris, var. lagopus) is characterized
by a narrow, elongated, and pointed muzzle, by
erect sharp ears, and by a bushy tail, not carried
erect, but only slightly curved upwards, and by the
general slenderness of the form. (Fig. 877.) The
hair is fine and silky, thickening in winter, when
it becomes white or nearly so ; but in summer it is
marked by patches of greyish black or slate-grey,
intermingled with shades of brown. So nearly
does this dog resemble the arctic fox of the regions
wheie it is found (namely, the banks of the Mac-
kenzie River and of the Great Bear Lake, tiaversed
by the arctic circle), that they have been considered
merely as varieties of each other, one being of the
wild, the other of the domesticated race. The
Hare Indian's dog is never known to bark in its
native country, and the beautiful pair brought to
England by Sir John Franklin and Dr. Richaidson
never acquired this canine language ; but one born
in the Zoological Gardens (the pair in question
having been presented to the Society) readily learned
it, and made his voice sound as loudly as any Eu-
ropean dog of his size and age.
This variety is of great value to the natives of the
bleak and dreary realms where the moose and the
reindeer are objects of the chase. Though it has
not strength fitting it for pulling down such game,
yet its broad feet and light make enable it to run
over the snow without sinking if the slightest crust
be formed on it, and thus easily to overtake the
moose or reindeer, and keep them at bay until the
hunters come up. In the fox the pupil is oblong,
in the dog circular ; but independently of this, it is,
to say the least, highly improbable that this intel-
ligent dog is specifically identical with the arctic
fox : but if for argument we grant that it is, as some
contend, and also that the Esquimaux dog is iden-
tical with the wolf, other dogs also being reclaimed
wolves, we are involved in a dilemma ; for we must
then admit that the wolf and fox will breed together
and produce a fertile oft'jpring, which those who
contend for the wolfish origin of the dog by no
means will allow to be possible.
The Pomeranian or wolf-dog (chien-loup) and
the Siberian dog, the Lapland dog, and the Iceland
dog, of Buffon, appear to be closely related to the
Esquimaux dog. Buffon regards them as varieties
of the shepherd's dog, which he considers to be that
which of all is nearest to the primitive type, since,
as he observes, in all inhabited countries, whether
men be partially savage or civilized, dogs resem-
bling this more than any other are spread ; and he
attributes its preseivaiion to its utility, and its being
abandoned to the peasantry charged with the cai-e
of flocks. If, however, gr-eat cerebral development
and intelligence are to be received as tests of culti-
vation, we should be inclined to regard the shep-
herd's dog as one of the most remote from the
original wild type, sharp and pointed as are its nose
and ears. (Figs. 878 and 802, /.) The forehead
rises, the top of the head is arched and broad be-
tween the ears, and the hair is long and sometimes
matted. This dog is of middle size, but light, active,
and strong.
Of the sagacity and faithfulness of the shepherd's
dog many interesting narratives are current ; it
knows ils master's flocks, it will single orrt a sheep
under his direction, keep it separate, or disengage it
again Irom the rest of the flock, should it regain or
mingle with them ; it will keep two flocks apart,
and should they coalesce, re-divide them. It will
watch and defend thera from strange dogs or foxes,
and will drive them to any place reqirired. It is
in fact the shepherd's friend and assistant ; it
watches every look and every sign, is quick in ap-
prehension, prompt in obedience, and jjleased with
ils master's praise : and well does he who tends his
flocks on the wide pasture-lands or mountain dis-
tricts of our island appreciate the services and
fidelity of his attached ally.
Closely allied to the shepherd's dog is the cur or
drover's dog ; it is generally larger than the Ibrmer,
with shorter hair, and stands taller on the limbs.
The tail is mostly cut short, but Bewick says that
many are whelped with short tails, which seem as
if they had been cut, and these are called in the
North " self-tailed dogs." Though this writer thinks
the drover's dog to be a true or permanent breed,
it seems to us that it is a cross between the shep-
herd's dog and some other race, perhaps the terrier.
2 C 2
M
i'r->
I9fi
MB. -I:ea3le.
8"<.— African HUio<i-Iiound«.
-^id*
877.— Dog of Mackeniie River.
893.— Thibet Watch-^og.
,-4^*.
M86,— Anbian Oreyhonnd.
8"fi.— Esquimaux Dog.
884.— Strret Dogs of the But.
('98.— Lion and Spaniel.
,>fW A.^VAv'^.-i-.-
*<8?. — Scotrli Orflyhound.
esc- Turkman Watchdog.
197
198
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Dogs.
These dogs bite severely, and always attack the
heels of cattle, and, as thev are prompt, courageoim,
and intelligent, a fierce 'bull w easily driven by
thcra.
Supposing the shepherds dogto be the represent-
ative of a small section of the domestic canine race,
the next to which we may turn is that of the terriers.
Two breeds of this spirited and well-known dog are
common : one called the Scotch Terrier, with rough
wiry hair, short legs, and a long body ; the other,
called the English Terrier, sleek, with longer le.gs
and a more elegant form ; its ordinary colour is
black with tanned limbs, and a tanned spot over
each eye. In both the muzzle is moderately long,
and sharp, and the ears erect ; the eye is quick, and
the power of smell acute ; for unearthing the fox or
badger, for worrying rats, and for courage and de-
termination, these dogs are celebrated ; and they
nake excellent house-guards. Who is not familiar
with the pepper-and-mustard breeds, as depicted by
the graphic pencil of Sir Walter Scott ? (See Figs.
870.880,881.) .
Fig. 879 represents ver)' spiritedly three of these
dogs"engaced in the occupation of rat-catching, and
evidently entering into the sport with the ulmost ar-
dour, encouraged by their professional director, who
holds in his hand their assistant the ferret, which
thev have learned to regard as their ally.
The Lurcher (Fig. 802.) d appears to be a mixed
breed between the rough terrier or shepherds dog
and the greyhound. Bewick informs us that it is
shorter than the latter, with stronger limbs, and is
covered with a rough coat of hair, commonly of a
pale yellow colour. As this dog possesses the
advantage of a tine scent, it is often employed in
killing hares and rabbiU in the night time. It
steals silently and cautiously upon them while they
are feeding, and then suddenly darts forward and
seizes them.
The Greyhound (Fig. 861, d, and Fig. 882, the
Scotch greyhound; Fig. 8C1, e, the English) is the
example of a distinct group : Buffon regards the
French MSlin and the great Danish dog as the mam
stocks of the greyhound race ; but this is not clear.
In Scotland and Ireland there existed in very an-
cient times a noble breed of greyhounds used for
the chase of the wolf and the deer, and which ap-
pears to us to be the pure source of our present breed ;
It is quite as probable that the matin is a modifica-
tion of the ancient greyhound of Europe, represented
by the Irish greyhound or wolf-dog, as that it is the
source of that fine breed. Few, we believe, of the
old Irish greyhound exist. In Scotland the old deer-
hound may still be met with, and though it exceeds
the common greyhound in size and strength, it is
said to be below its ancient standard. With the
extirpation of the wolf the necessity of keeping up
the race to the highest perfection ceased. The
hair is wiry, the chest is remarkable for volume, and
the limbs are long and muscular. A similar breed
existed and still continues to exist in Albania, 'and
was celebrated by the ancients for its prowess. In
England the greyhound was larger and stronger
formerly than at present, and employed in chasing
the stag. Queen Elizabeth was gratified one day
after dinner by seeing from a turret sixteen deer
pulled down by greyhounds upon the lawn at Cow-
drey Park in Sussex. The Italian greyhound is
well known as an elegant attendant of the parlour.
In Arabia, Persia, and other parts of the East, a
breed of greyhounds has existed time immemorial ;
these dogs strongly resemble light coursing dogs
represented in Egyptian paintings, and are probably
descended from them ; of the same type are the
semi-wild unowned street-dogs of Egypt, Syria, and
South-western Asia. From the antiquity of the
greyhound breed, we might be induced to suppose
that in it is to be seen the nearest approach to the
primitive source, or one of the primitive sources of
the reclaimed race, and perhaps the Arabian grey-
hound or the lurcher-like sfreet-dcgsof Egypt retain
some characters in common with the primitive
stock. (Figs. 883 and 884.) Care and attention
have elevated the British greyhound far above the
ancient Egyptian coursing dog, or that of Arabia
(represented by Fig. 885), of which the form of the
head is wolfish, the tail fringed with long hair, and
the ears, as seen in the paintings of the ancient
Egyptians, erect and very acute. Fig. 88C is a
sketch of the Turkman watch-dog for guarding
sheep. It is described as a large, rugged, fierce ani-
mal equalling the wolf in stature, shaped like the
Irish greyhound, and with equally powerful jaws.
The ears are erect, the tail rather hairy, the general
colour deep yellowish red. This race is of great
antiquity, and doubtless still retains much of its
pristine aspect, which is so wolf-like, that, according
to Colonel Hamilton Smith, " a friend being present
in Asia iMinor at a wolf-hunt, allowed one (a wolf)
to pass out of a brake, because he mistook him for
one of the Turkman dogs.''
Of the races with pendent ears and a moderately
iengtiiened muzzle, we may first advert to the
spaniels, among which we include the pure setter
and the rough water-dog. These dogs are remark-
able for intelligence, docility, and their atfectionate
disposition. The fur is long and silky, sometimes
curled or crisped, the ears are large and pendent,
and the expression of the countenance is spirited,
yet gentle and pleasing. All possest excellent
scent, especially the setter, formerly so valued by
the sportsman.
The water-spaniel is extremely useful to persons
engaged in the pursuit of water-fowl ; it swims well,
is very hardy, and is an excellent retriever. (Fig.
862, a.) The French poodle may be referred to the
spaniels : it appears to be very nearly allied to the
rough water-dog figured by Bewick, the "grand
barbet " of Buffon, and of which there is a smaller
variety termed " le petit barbet."
The rough water-dog is a most intelligent animal ;
it is robustly made, and covered universally with
deep curly hair ; it exceeds tht water-spaniel in
size and strength, but has the same aquatic habits
and docility. It is much used as a retriever by the
shooters of water-fowl.
We are inclined to consider the Italian wolf-dog
(used in the Abruzzi by the shepherds to defend
their flocks), the Newfoundland and Labrador dog,
and the Alpine dog, as the representatives of a
distinct group ; the latter dog, indeed, approximates
to the mastitis. We have seen several noble speci-
mens of the Alpine or St. Bernard breed : their size
is equal to that of the largest mastitf; the muzzle
is deep, the ears are pendulous, the fur is rather
long and wiry, the eye is full and very expressive,
and the form of the body and limbs indicates great
strength. Their sense of smell is very acute, and
aids them in the work of mercy to which the worthy
monks of the convent of the Great St. Bernard have
applied them. To the honour of those excellent
men be it spoken, that while others have trained the
dog to the combat, to the chase of the runaway
slave, and to the pursuit of game, they have availed
themselves of the power, intelligence, and courage
of the dog, in rescuing the unhappy traveller fiom
the horrors of death amidst the snows of the moun-
tains.
One of these noble dogs was decorated with a
medal in commemoration of his having saved the
lives of twenty-two persons, who but lor his saga-
city must have perished. He was lost in 1816, in an
attempt to convey a poor traveller to his anxious
family. The man was a Piedmontese courier,
who arrived at St. Bernard in a very stormy
season, labouring to make his way to the little
village of St. Pierre in the valley beneath the
mountain, where his wife and children dwelt ;
it was in vain that the monks attempted to check
his resolution to reach his family. They at last
gave him two guides, each of whom was accom-
panied by a dog, of which one was the remarkable
creature whose services had been so valuable to
mankind. Descending from the convent they were
in an instant overwhelmed by two avalanches, and
the same common destruction awaited the family
of the poor courier, who were toiling up the moun-
tain to obtain some news of their expected friend ;
they all perished. A story is told of one of these
dogs, who having found a child unhurt, whose
mother had been destroyed by an avalanche, in-
duced the boy to mount upon his back, and thus
carried him to the gate of the convent: the subject
(Fig 887) is represented in a French print.
The wolf-dog of the Abruzzi is pure white, some-
what more lightly formed than the Newfoundland
dog, but strong and muscular. The hair is long
and flowing ; two beautiful specimens are in the
gardens of the Zoological Society. (Fig. 887*.)
The Labrador and Newfoundland dogs are often
confounded together. The Labrador dog exceeds
in size the Newfoundland animal, and is often of
extraordinary dimensions. A fine specimen mea-
sured some time since, gave us the following par-
ticulars : — Total length, including the tail, six feet
three inches ; height at the shoulder, two feet six
inches; length of head from occiput to point of
nose, eleven inches ; circumference of chest, three
feet one inch. In Labrador these powerful and in-
telligent dogs are used for drawing sledges loaded
with wood, and are of great service to the settlers.
(Fig. 8C2,e.)
The Newfoundland dog is of less stature, but
more compactly built, and is muscular and saga-
cious. These animals are also used for drawing
sledges and little carriages laden with wood, fish,
and other commodities, and are very valuable in
their native country. Both the Labrador and New-
foundland breeds are admirable water-dogs, and
make excellent retrievers. Their fidelity and at-
tachment to their masters are well known, and all
are familiar with instances in which human beings
about to perish in the water have owed their life
to the courage and exertions of these devoted
creatures.
Oui next group contains the hounds, including
the pointer. Several varieties of hounds now exist
in our island, and of these the Beagle, the Harrier,
and the Kox-hound are familiar to all our readers!
No country equals England in the swiftness, spirit,
and endurance of its hounds, and in no country is
so much attention paid to the diiJ'erent breeds, espe-
cially the harrier and tbx-hound. The beagle (Fig.
888) was formerlya great favourite, but is now liitle
used. It is of small stature, but of exquisite scent,
and its tones, when heard in full cry, are musical.
It has not, however, the strength or fleelness of the
harrier, and still less so of the fox-hound, and hence
it does not engage the attention of the sportsmen of
the modern school, who, unlike Sir Roger de Co-
verley, are impetuous in the field, preferring a hard
run to a tame and quiet pursuit. The beagle was
only employed in hunting the hare, as is the harrier,
but the fox-hound is trained both for the deer and
the fox. The strength and powei-s of scent of the
fox-hound are very great, and many astonishing
instances of the energy and endurance of these
', animals are on record.
t Formerly two noble varieties of the hound were
common in England, which are now seldom seen.
We allude to the old English hound and the blood-
hound.
Of the old English hound, which is described by
Whittaker, in his • History of Manchester,' as the
original breed of our island, we some years since
saw a line specimen in Lancashire. It was tall and
robust, with a chest of extraordinary depth and
breadth, with pendulous lips, and deeply set eyes ;
the ears were large and long, and hung very low ;
the nose was broad, and the nostrils large and moist.
The voice was deep, full, and sonorous. The gene-
ral colour was black, passing into Ian or sandy red
about the muzzle and along the inside of the limbs.
Shakspere's description of the hounds of Theseus,
in the ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' is true to the
letter as referring to this breed, with which he was
no doubt well acquainted : —
" My hounds are bred out of the Spartun kind,
.So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung
W'ith ears that sweep away tlie murninj^ dew ;
t'rook-knee'd and dew-capped like Ttiessalian bulls ;
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like belts,
Each under each."
Besides the old English or Southern hound, was
the old English stag-hound, or Talbot ( Fig. 8U2, jr),
a powerful dog, but of lighter tbrm, and more fleet,
than the former: from this breed has descended the
still lighter and swifter fox-hound of the present
day.
Among the hounds of the " olden time " was the
Blood-hound, so celebrated for its exquisite scent
and unwearied perseverance, qualities which were
taken advantage of, by training it not only to the
chase of game, but to the pursuit of man. A true
blood-hound (and the pure blood is rare) stands
about eight and twenty inches in height, muscular,
compact, and strong; the forehead is bioad, and
the lace narrow towards the muzzle ; the nostrils
are wide and well developed ; the ears are large,
pendulous, and broad at the base ; the aspect is
serene and sagacious ; the tail is long, with an up-
ward curve when in pursuit, at which time the
hound opens with a voice deep and sonorous, that
mav be heard down the wind for a very long dis-
tance. (Figs. 888* and 862, h.)
The colour of the true breed is .stated to be almost
invariably a reddish tan, darkening gradually to-
wards the upper parts till it becomes mixed with the
black on the back ; the lower parts, limbs, and tail
! being of a lighter shade, and the muzzle tawny :
Pennant adds, " a black spot over each eye,'" but
the blood-hounds in the possession of Thomas Astle,
Esq. (and they vverc said to have been of the ori-
ginal blood) had not these marks. Some, but such
instances were not common, had a little white
about them, such as a star in the face, &c. The
better opinion is, that the original stock was a mix-
ture of the deep-mouthed Southern hound and the
powerful old English stag-hound.
Our ancestors soon discovered the infallibility of the
blood-hound in tracing anv animal, living or dead,
to its resting-place. To train it, the young dog, ac-
companied by a staunch old hound, was led to the
spot whence a deer or other animal had been taken
on for a mile or two ; the hounds were then laid on
and encouraged, and after himting this " drag 'suc-
cessfully, were rewarded with a portion of the veni-
son which composed it. The next step was to take
the young dog with his seasoned tutor, to a spot
whence a man whose shoes had been rubbed with
the blood of a deer had started on a circuit of two
or three miles : during his progress the man was
instructed to renew the blond from time to time, to
keep the scent well alive. His circuit was gradually
enlarged at each succeeding lesson, and the young
hound, thus entered and trained, became, at last,
fully equal to hunt by itself, either for the purpose
of woodcraft, war, or " following gear," as the pur-
suit after the property plundered in a border foray
was termed.
Dogs]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
199
Laid on the (rack of a marauder, it kept up a
steady, persevering chase, and was not baffled with-
out difficulty. Sir Walter Scott, in his graphic de-
scription of the " stark moss-trooper" Sir William of
Deloraine, " good at need," gives, as a proof of his
merit, that he
*' By wilv turns and desperate bonnds
Had baffled Percy's best blowi-hounds ;'*
and the same accomplished knight, his stern nature
touched by sorrow at the sight of Sir Richard Mus-
grave slain, thus eulogizes his dead enemy : —
" Yet rest Ihee God I for well I know
1 ne'er shall find a nobler foe.
In all the northern countries here,
Whose word is snafile, spur, and spear.
Thou wert the best to follow gear.
*T was pleasure, as we look'd behind,
To see how thou the chase couldst wind.
Cheer the dark blood-hound on his way.
And with the bu^le rouse the fray.
I'd give the lands of Deloraine,
Dark Musgrave were alive again."
Sir Walter Scott states that the breed of blood-
hounds was kept up by the Buccleuch family on their
border estates till within the eighteenth century.
In former ages these dogs, or, as the Scotch called
them, " Sleuth-hounds," were kept in great numbers
on the Borders ; and fugitive kings as well as moss-
troopers were obliged to study how to evade them.
Bruce was repeatedly tracked by these dogs, and
on one occasion only escaped by wading for a con-
siderable distance up a brook and climbing a tree
which overhung the water. " A sure way of stop-
ping the dog was to spill blood upon the track,
which destroyed the discriminating fineness of the
scent. A captive was sometimes sacrificed on such
occasions. Henry the Minstrel tells a romantic
story of Wallace, founded on this circumstance.
The hero's little band had been joined by an Irish-
man named Fawdon, or Fadzean, a dark, savage,
and suspicious character. After a sharp skirmish
at Black-Erne Side, Wallace was forced to retreat
with only sixteen followers. The English pursued
with a border blood-hound. In the retreat Fawdon,
tired, or affecting to be so, would go no farther;
Wallace having in vain argued with him, in hasty
anger struck off his head, and continued the retreat.
When the English came up, their hound stayed upon
the dead body." (Notes to the ' Lay of the Last
Minstrel.')
To the present group has generally been referred
the Cuban blood-hound, as it is termed, a dog of
Spanish descent, sagacious and savage, and which
was employed by the Spaniards with atrocious bar-
barity in their conquest of America ; and more re-
cently (1795) in Jamaica against the Maroons, who
had revolted, and were waging a bloody and suc-
cessful war against the government forces, but
which the very terror these dogs inspired at once
happily brought to a close.
These dogs, used in Cuba in the pursuit of mur-
derers and felons, have a fine scent and great
power : specimens exist in the Gardens of the Zool.
Soc. (Figs. 889,890. 891).
Their colour is tawny, with black about the muz-
zle ; the ears are comparatively small ; the muzzle
is shorter and more pointed than in the ordinary
hound, and they are shorter on (he limbs ; in some
points they approach the mastiff or ban-dog, espe-
cially in the form of the head, which approaches
that of the bull-dog : indeed, by many, and with
reason, they are regarded more as a variety of the
mastiff (han the hound, and for ourselves, we hesi-
tate not to regard them as such. They make ex-
cellent watch-dogs, and attack both the bull and
the bear with determined resolution. Their height
at the shoulder is about two feet.
We have hi(her(o said nothing of (he pointer
(Fig. 8G2, c). The present pointer is derived from
a heavy dog, possessing the sense of smell in the
highest perfection, known as the old Spanish
pointer, and decidedly related to the hound ; this
dog is now seldom seen ; like the talbot, (he
source, as we presume, of (he light, active, but
vigorous fox-hound, the old Spanish pointer has
merged into the intelligent, vigorous dog so much
prized by the sportsman for its excellent qualifica-
tions. In some breeds of pointers there is, we be-
lieve, a cross of (he fox-hound, which improves their
strength and energy.
We now enter upon a group of dogs distinguished
by the shortness of (he muzzle and the breadth of
the head, (his latter character resulting not from a
cirresponding development of the brain, but from
the magnitude of the temporal muscles, which are
at(ached to a bony ridge passing down the median
line of the skull. The expression of the eyes is
lowering and ferocious; the jaws are very strong,
the lips pendulous; the general form is thick-set
and robust ; the limbs are muscular.
This group comprehends the Bull-dog, the Mas-
tiff, and their allies. In saeacity and intelligence
the dogs of the pre.^ent section are not to be com-
pared to the Newfoundland dog, the spaniel, or the
shepherd's dog ; they surpass all, however, in de-
termined courage and prowess in combat. In early
times the English mastiff was celebrated for its
strength and resolution, characteristics which did
not fail to attract the attention of the Romans
when this island formed a part of their widely-spread
empire. To a people in whom a partiality for
scenes of bloodshed and slaughter, and for the
sanguinary games of the amphitheatre, was a ruling
passion, dogs so fitted to gratify their taste were
peculiarly acceptable, and accordingly we find that
they were bred and reared by officers specially ap-
pointed, who selected such as were distinguished
for combative qualities, and sent them to Rome for
the service of the amphitheatres, where (hey were
ma(ched in fight with various beasts of prey. Dr.
Caius, a naturalist of the time of Elizabeth, states
that three were reckoned a match for a bear, and
four for a lion.
Stow, in his ' Annals,' gives us the account of an
engagement between three mastiffs and a lion,
which took place in the presence of James I. The
battle reminds us of a recent occurrence, excepting
that the dogs which fought with Nero and Wallace
were not mastiffs, but half-bred bull-dogs. " One of
the dogs," says Stow, " being put into the den, was
soon disabled by the lion, which took it by (he head
and neck, and dragged it about. Another dog was
then let loose, and served in the same manner ;
but the third, being put in, immediately seized the
lion by the lip, and held him for a considerable
time ; till, being severely torn by his claws, the dog
was obliged to quit its hold, and the lion, greatly
exhausted in (he conflict, refused to renew the en-
gagement, but, taking a sudden leap over the dogs,
fled into the interior part of his den. Two of the
dogs soon died of their wounds; the last survived."
The mastiff is by far the most sagacious of the pre-
sent section, and, of all other dogs, makes the best
guardian of property. It is attached to its master,
but towards sirangers is fierce and suspicious. Its
bark is deep and sonorous.
Though the mastiff has by no means (he keen
sense of smell which the hound possesses, it seems
to be (at least such is our opinion, and that not
hastily formed) either an offset from that branch,
or a cognate branch from the same root. The mas-
tiff, however, has a finer scent than persons are
generally aware of, and its hearing is very acute.
A dog of this breed, chained to his kennel, and
never suffered to wander about the premises nor
treated as a friend and companion, affords but a
poor example of what the animal really is. Con-
finement spoils its temper, and cramps (he develop-
ment of its noble qualities. (See Fig. 863, a, and
Fig. 892.)
We have said that the mastiff is allied to the
hound : the Cuban mastiff, to which we have al-
ready alluded, is, indeed, often termed a blood-
hound. The pendulous ear, not so large in the
mastiff as in the hound, the thick hanging lips, the
broad moist nose, the brindled markings, and the
general figure, attest the affinity. The masfiff is
larger and stronger than the hound, and useless for
(he chase ; (his latter circumstance, however, is no
proof of diversity of origin. It must be remembered
that particular instincts and qualities are acquired,
and that the excellences of the hound are the re-
sult of long-continued and judicious culture. We
do not say that the mastiff can be converted into
the hound, but merely that two branches from the
same root may be so cultured as to assume, to a
given point, diverse characteristics.
The huge Thibet watch-dog (Fig. 893) belongs
to the present section. This dog {Canis fami-
Harts, var. Molossiis Thihetanus) is kept by the
natives of the Thibet range of hills as a guardian of
their flocks and their villages. It is very fierce,
and its bark is loud and terrific. The colour is
generally black.
The Ban-dog (Fig. 863, c) is a term given to any
of the fierce animals of the present section, which
are in ordinary cases kept chained or secured in
kennels. Bewick, however, applies it to a dog, of
which he gives an excellent figure, and which he
states to differ from the ma.stitf in being lighter,
more active and vigilant, but not so powerful or so
large ; its muzzle, besides, is not so heavy, and it
possesses in some degree the scent of the hound.
Its hair is described as being rather rough, and
generally of a yellowish grey streaked with shades
of black or brown. It is ferocious and full of
energy. Bewick gays that this dog is seldom to be
seen at the present day ; we have, however, had
occasion to notice varieties of the mastiff so closely
agreeing with Bewick's figure and description, as
(o convince us that he took both of them from
nature.
Of all the dogs of this section none surpass in
obstinacy or ferocity the bull-dog. This animal is
smaller (han (he mastiff, but more compactly
formed ; the chest is broad and deep ; the loins
narrow; the tail slender and arched up ; the limbs
short and robust; the head is broad and thick ; the
niuzzle short and deep ; the jaws strong, (he lower
jaw often advancing, so that the interior incisor
teeth overshoot the upper ; the ears are short and
semi-erect, the nostrils distended, the eyes scowl-
ing, and (he whole expression calculated to in,spire
terror. This dog is distinguished by tenacity of
tooth and indomitable resolution. In all its habits
and propensities it is essentially gladiatorial : it is
a fighting dog, and nothing else ; its intelligence is
very limited ; and though dogs of (his breed are
attached to their masters, (hey exhibit in the de-
monstration of their feelings, unless when incited
to combat, a perfect contrast to the Newfoundland
dog or spaniel. These latter delight to accompany
their master in his walks, and scour the fields and
lanes in the exuberance of delight ; the bull-dog
skulks at its master's heels, and regards with a sus-
picious glance everything and everybody that passes
by ; nor, indeed, is it safe (o approach the animal,
for it often a((acks without (he slightest provoca-
tion. A cross between the bull-dog and the terrier
is celebrated for spirit and de(ermina(ion.
It has been usual to consider the pug-dog as a
degenerate variety of the bull-dog, but we doubt
the correctness of this theory. It has indeed some-
what the aspect of the bull dog, on a miniature
scale ; but the similarity is more in superficial ap-
pearance than reality. The pug is a little round-
headed short-nosed dog, with a preternatural abbre-
viation of the muzzle, and with a tightly twisted
tail. Like the Gillaroo trout, it is a specimen of
hereditary malformation. Not so the bull-dog, in
which the bones of the skull and (he (emporal
muscles are finely developed, and in which the
muzzle and head are in perfect harmony.
The pug-dog is snarling and ill-tempered, but
cowardly, and by no means remarkable for intelli-
gence. Formerly it was in great esteem as a pet,
but is now little valued, and not often kept.
In taking a review of the various breeds of the
domestic dog, we cannot fail to observe that they
are endowed respectively with qualifications or
habits certainly not innate, but the result of educa-
tion, at least originally ; which education, continued
through a series of generations, has produced per-
manent effects. For example, no dog in a state of
nature would point with his nose at a partridge,
and then stand like a statue, motionless, for the dog
would gain nothing by such a proceeding. Man,
however, has availed himself of the docility and
delicacy of scent peculiar to a certain breed, and
has taught the dog his lesson, and (he lesson thus
learned has become second nature. A young
pointer takes to its work as if by intuition, and
scarcely requires discipline. Hence, therefore,
must we conclude that education not only effects
impressions on the sensorium, but transmissible
impressions, whence arise the predispositions of
certain races. Education in fact modifies organ-
ization : not that it makes a dog otherwise than a
dog, but it supersedes, to a certain point, instinct,
or makes acquired propensities instinctive, heredi-
tary, and therefore characteristics of the race.
The effect of (his change of nature is not to render
the dog more independent, nor to give it any ad-
vantage over its fellows, but to rivet more firmly
the links of subjection to man.
It is not to the pointer alone that these observa-
tions apply ; all our domestic dogs have tlieir own
acquired propensities, which, becoming second
nature, make them, in one way or another, valuable
servants. No one, we presume, will suppose that
the instinctive propensities implanted by nature in
the shepherd's dog make it not a destroyer, but a
preserver of sheep. On the contrary, this dog, like
every other, is carnivorous, and nature intends it to
destroy and devour. But education has supplanted
instinct, to a certain point, and implantetl a dis-
position which has become an hereditary charac-
teristic, and hence a shepherd's dog of the true breed
takes to its duties naturally. But a shepherd's dog
coulil not, delicate as its sense of smell is, be
brought to take the place of the pointer in the field,
even though it were subjected to training from the
earliest age ; nor, on the other hand, could a pointer
be substituted with equal advantage in the place
of a shepherd's dog as the assistant of (he drover.
Each is civilized, but in a different style, and edu-
cation has impressed upon each a different bent of
mind, a different class of propensities.
The following is the arrangement of the groups
into which the breeds of the domestic dog seem to
us to resolve themselves : —
1. Dingo — semi-domestic?
2. Esquimaux dog?
3. Hare Indian's dog?
To what groups these respectively belong is not
very clear ; probably to the first or second of the
following groups : —
Ears sharp, erect, or sub- Sliepberd's (lojf.
erect; nose poiiiteti ; Iiair Silierian.
long. Piimeraiiian.
Icelantlish, &c.
8.9, -Uat-raU-her am) Terneni.
895. — I'ogs, Tnnu K^'\plian I'nintliiys.
200
No. 26.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATUllE.]
201
202
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Dogs
Muzxle Int acute; ran tub-
ctecl ; bair aburt or wirjr.
Ran moderate, narrow, gene-
rally {leiiiluluiu ; muule
protluccU.
Kara moderately large, pen-
dent ; muuie muUerate ;
hair long.
Eaif moderately large and
pendent ; muule deep and
atroug ; bair long or
wiry.
Ears large and pendent ;
mutile long and deep;
IKMC large ; hair cloK.
Ear* moderate, iwndpnt ;
muule ihort and tbick ;
bair (bort.
Terrier, rough and mootb.
Turiwpit
Bariiary dog.
Lurcher, &c.
Great Daniih dog.
Irish wulf-dug.
Scotch Gtey-buund, or Deer-
bound.
Entflisb ditto.
Italian ditto.
Perfiun ditto.
Albanian dug, &0.
Spaniel.
Wat«?r-Spaniel.
R(Ki(;h water-dog.
Setter, &c.
Italian wolT'dog.
Newfuundland dog.
Liilirailor dog.
Alpine dog, &c.
Pointer.
Beagle.
Harrier.
Fox-bound.
Old Knglisli hound.
Dloml-hoiind.
African bound, &c.
Culian maatiff.
Mastiir.
Dan-dog.
Bnll-dog.
Conican bull-dog, &e.
Pug-dog t
This and every other attempt to arrange the
various breeds of dogs under different heads will
necessarily be defective, from our want of informa-
tion respecting the races of antiquity ; an accurate
knowledge of which would throw considerable light
on our modern varieties. We know indeed that
the Greeks and Romans had valuable dogs for
hunting vaiious wild animals, and paid great atten-
tion to them, but we know little beyond. They
had watch-dogs, hounds, a greyhound breed, and
probably a breed of spaniels, the Catiis Tuscus, also
described as Proles de sanguine Ibero. Fig. 894
is a copy of a dog represented on a mosaic pave-
ment at Pompeii, fastened by a chain, with the
caution " Cave canem " (" Beware the dog ") written
at its feet : the smal I sharp ears and elongated muzzle
give it a wild aspect : it appears to be a strongly-
made, vigorous animal ; but if it represent the Dogue
de foite race of the Romans, we cannot wonder at
their sending to Britain for our old indigenous
mastiff.
In Egypt the dog was a favourite, and carefully
bred, and, as the paintings of that people prove,
there were several breeds. It would appear, indeed,
that some kinds were regarded with religious vene-
ration, and embalmed after death. Mummies of
them arc still found. We have seen the remains of
a red short-haired dog thus preserved. Figs. 895
and 836 are outlines of dogs from Egyptian paint-
ings. Fig. 895, a, two hounds, or a hound and
greyhound in couples. The style of colouring on j
the foremost dog, regarded as a hound, reminds us
of the hounds of modern days ; b is evidently a !
pet domestic dog, with sharp ears and a curled tail ; I
c, a hound; d, a short-legged dog, not unlike our |
turnspit, with sharp ears, and which appears to have I
been a favourite ; e is probably a watch-dog of
the "forte race," excepting that its tail is more
curled, it has a striking resemblance to the Roman
house-dog (Fig. 894); f is & liunling-dog, as it
would seem, being found frequently in attendance
on chasseurs. Fig. 896 represents a huntsman
bringing home an antelope with a brace of coupled
hounds. The modern greyhound of Arabia (Fig.
885) so closely resembles the delineations of the
ancient greyhound, that we cannot doubt their affi-
nity. The Egyptians in the chase used the bow
and spear, and intercepted the game as it fled
before the hounds, discharging their arrows when-
ever it came within range. Whenatierce antelope,
as the Leucoryx, was brought to bay, the hunter
gallantly used his spear, as the boar-hunter of the
middle ages in Europe. On the level plains of
Egypt the chasseur often followed in his chariot,
urging his horses to the full speed, and endeavour-
ing to meet the game, or place himself in the
direction the dogs were forcing it to take, with his
bow and arrows ready. It was perhaps the par-
tiality evinced by the Egyptians to the dog, that led
the Israelites to reganl it with abhorrence, as an
unclean animal ; in which feeling they have been
followed by the Mohammedans. Be this as it may,
Palestine "is the country in which this animal has
the longest been refused that entire domestication
with man which he has enjoyed in most other
lands; in other words, the treatment of the dog has
almost, always in Palestine been such as it has only
in other countries been subject to since the propa-
gation of the Moslem faith. And since the ideas
concerning dogs have been much the same with
the ancient Jews and modern Moslems, there is no
doubt that the existing practices of the latter
illustrate the ancient practices of the foimer.
Among both we trace the despised, but not mal-
treated dog of the streets, and among both we dis-
cover that, with every predisposition to do without
them, certain breeds of dogs nave forced their ser-
vices upon man. from the indispensable nature of
their help in hunting and in guarding the flocks."
These street dogs (Figs. 883 and 884), called Pariah
dogs in India, have excited the attention of all
travellers in India, Turkey, and the whole of the
Levant. They roam the streets of towns, cities, and
villaf^es, owned by no one, but, for their services in
clearing away carrion and offal, universally tolerated.
We find allusions to them in the earliest records of
aiitiquitv. Homer pictures them in conjunction
with vultures, as feeding upon the slain : —
** Wlioae limbe unburied on the niked gliore
DeTOuring dogs and hungry vulture* tore."
Pope'* Trtfiu/.
In the Scriptures there are abundant allusions, as
Tor example. Exodus xxii. 31 ; I Kings xxi. 19 and
23; 2 Kings ix. 35, and elsewhere. The passages
of most force, " In the place where the dogs licked
the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even
thine;" and, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the
wall of Jezreel," bring to mind the picture of a
scene painted in modern days by a poet, who had 1
travelled in Greece and Turkey, and well knew the i
habits of the masterless dogs that "wander up and
down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied :"
*' lie saw the lean Hogs Iwneath the wall
Hold o'er ilie dea«l their carnival ;
Gorginif and grou ting o'er rarcass and limb,
They were too busy to bark at him.
From a 'I'artar's skull they had stripp'd the flesh.
As ve peel the Hg when the fruit is fresh ;
I Anu Uleir white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull,
As it slipt through their jaw-s when their edge grew dull.
As they lazily mumbled the l><)nes of the dead.
As they scarce could ri^ie from the spot where they fed.
So well had they broken a lingering fast
With those who' had fallen for that night'u repast,"
Byron $ Siege of Corinth,
Pariah dogs herd together in troops, and keep to
their respective districts ; they display all the qua-
lities and propensities of their race, and if they are
fierce and ravenous, it is because they are left to
their own resources, since to become at once do-
mestic they require only to be owned and noticed.
Colonel Sykes, speaking of the Pariah dog of
Dukhun, observes that it is there very numerous,
and not individual property, but breeds in the towns
and villages unmolested. He remarks that the
Turnspit dog, long-backed, with short crooked legs,
is frequently found among the Pariahs. There is
also a petted minute variety of the Pariah dog,
usually of a white colour, with long silky hair, cor-
responding to a common lap-dog of Europe ; this is
taught to carry flambeaux and lanterns. The last
variety noticed is the dog with hair so short as to
appear naked, like the Barbary or Egyptian dog.
It is known to Europeans by the name of tne Polygar
dog. Of the Domesticated dogs, Colonel Sykes
states, that the first in size and strength is the
Brinjaree dog, which somewhat resembles the Per-
sian greyhound, but is much more powerful.
It may here be expected that we should enter
into some details illustrating the intelligence and
fidelity of this animal, which seems expressly made
for man, which instinctively clings to him, and
which watches his every look and gesture. But
who from his own experience cannot bear testimony
to the good qualities of the dog ! It has been
somewhere said, and with truth, that man is the god
of the dog, for to man he looks up with reverence
and affection, and the praise of his master is his
richest reward. Is this instinctive attachment of
the dog to man an acquired feeling, or is it an
original impulse implanted in its nature, by the All-
wise Creator, for man's benefit, so that in the pri-
mitive condition of society he might have a friend
and assistant, all-important in the chase, and in the
extirpation of wild beasts, which ere he can settle
in the laud and found a colony, he must drive to a
distance or destroy ? a
We turn to our pictorial specimens, and one (Fig.
897) appeals strongly to our feelings ; it represents
a fine Newfoundland dog, dripping with the briny
water, and in whose face is depicted the utmost
anxiety, as if watching eagerly for assistance, while
one foot rests upon the shoulder of a wrecked sea-
man which he has succeeded in dragging to shore.
The picture tells its own story.
The following anecdote respecting the Newfound-
land dog is very interesting : —
"A native of Germany, fond of travelling, was
pursuing his course through Holland, accompanied
by a large Newfoundland dog. Walking one even-
ing on a high bank, which formed one side of a
dike, or canal, so common in that countiy, his foot
slipped, and he was precipitated into the water,
and, being unable to swim, he soon became sense-
less. When he recovered his recollection, he found
himself in a cottage on the opposite side of the dike
to that from which he had fallen, surrounded by
peasants, who had been using the means so gen«>
rally practised in that country for restoring anima-
tion. The account given by the peasants was, that
one of them returning home from his labour ob-
served, at a considerable distance, a large dog in
the water swimming, and diagging, and sometimes
pushing, something which he seemed to have great
difficulty in supporting, but which he at length
succeeded in getting into a small creek on the op-
posite side to that on which the men were.
"When the animal had pulled what lie had
hitherto supported as far out of the water as he was
able, the peasant discovered that it was the body of
a man. The dog, having shaken himself, began
industriouslv to lick the hands and face of his
master, while the rustic hastened across ; and, hav-
ing obtained assistance, the body was conveyed to
a neighbouring house, where the usual means of
resuscitation soon restored him to sense and recol-
lection. Two very considerable bruises, witli the
marks of teeth, appeared, one on his shoulder, the
other on the nape of the neck ; whence it was pre-
sumed that the faithful animal first seized his
master by the shoulder, and swam with him in this
manner for some time ; but that his sagacity had
prompted him to let go his hold, and shift his grasp
to the neck, by which he had been enabled to
support the head out of the water. It was in the
latter position that the peasant observed the dog
making his way along the dike, which it appeared
he had done lor a distance of nearly a quarter of a
mile. It is therefore probable that this gentleman
owed his life as much to the sagacity as to the
fidelity of his dog."
Wordsworth, in a beautiful little poem, has given
an affecting instance of the fidelity of a dog, which
we need make no apology for quoting : —
" A barking sound the shepherd hears,
A cry as of a (log or fox ;
lie halt-s, and searches with his eyes
Among the scattered rocks :
And now at di.^tanre can discern
A stirrint; in a brake of fern ;
From which immediately leaps out
A dug, and yelping runs about,
Tlie dog is not n1 mountain breed ;
Its motions, too, are wild and shy;
With something, as the shepljerd thinks,
l^nusual in its cry :
Nor is there any one in sight
All round, in hollow or in height ;
Nor shout nor whistle strikes Tiis earl
What is the creature doing here?
It was a cove, a htige recess.
That keeps till June December's snow ;
A lofty precipice in front,
A silent tarn* below.
Far in the bosom of Helvellyn,
Remote from public load or dwelling.
Pathway, or cultivated land.
From trace of human foot or hand.
There sometimes does a leaping fish
Send through the tarn a lonely cheer ;
The crags repeat the raven's croak
In symphony austere.
Thilher the rainbow comes, the cloud ;
And mists that spread the Hying shroud,
And «unbearas ; and the sounding blast
That, if it could, would huirv past.
But that enormous barrier binds it fast.
Not knowing what to think, aw hile
The shepherd stood ; then makes his way
Towards the dog, o'er rocks and stones,
As quickly as he may ;
Nor far had gone before lie found
A human skeleton on the ground.
Sad sight I the shepherd w ith a siKh
Looks round to learn the history.
'rom those abrupt and peri
The man h;ul falen, that place of fear I
At length upon the shepherd's mind
From those abrupt and perilous rocks
epl
It breaks, and all i^ clear :
He instantly rccall'd the name.
And who he was niul w-hence he came;
Rememlier'd, too, the verv day
On which the traveller paju'd this way.
But hear a wonder now, for sake
Of which thismournlul tale i telU
A lasting monument of words
This wonder merits well.
The dog, which still w-as hovering nigh.
Repeating the same timid cry.
This dog had lieen through three months
A dweller in that savage place.
Yes, proof was pi .in tliat since the day
On which the traveller thus had died
The dog had watched about the spot.
Or by his master's side.
How- nourished here Ihroegh such long time
lie knows, who gave tl at love sulilime.
And gave that strength of feeling, great
Above all human estimate."
ipace
It
about thirty-seven years ago that the
fatal accident happened which furnished a subject
for the above beautiful poem by Mr. Wordsworth.
The circumstances were recently detailed to a
tourist by one of the guides who conducts visitors
to the summits of Skiddaw and Helvellyn. The
unfortunate man who perished amidst these soli-
tudes was a resident of Manchester, who was peri-
odically in the habit of visiting the lakes, and who,
confiding in his knowledge of the country, had ven-
tured to cross one of the passes of Helvellyn, late
in a summer afternoon, in company only with his
faithful dog. Darkness, it is supposed, came on
before his expectation ; he wandered from the track ;
and fell over the rocks into one of those deep re-
* Taim is a small lake, or mere, mostly in high mouniaini.
"Wolves.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
203
cesses where human foot never treads. The dog was
found by the side of his master's body, after many
■weeks' fruitless search. The man who told the
story had never heard of the poem, but the senti-
ment of natural piety with which it concludes was
on his lips. '- God knows," he said, " how tlie poor
beast was supported so lonf;."
Fig. 898 illustrates the singular attachment that
occasionally takes place between the dog and other
animals. The wood-cut represents a spaniel bitch
in company with a young lion, belonging to Atkins's
menagerie, in 1828. The lion was ill, and the
spaniel nourished it and tended it with the utmost
solicitude.
We have alluded to the great similarity, not-
withstanding their mutual hostility, which exists
between the Esquimaux dog and the wolf, and we
have introduced a representation of the former ani-
mal, in order the better to tompare it with the
wolf, and to show how closely it resembles a mixed
breed between the dog and the wolf, of which two
individuals were exhibited in 1828 in Mr. Womb-
well's menagerie. Fig. 899 is a representation of
several Esquimaux dogs harnessed by their masters
to a sledge ; Fig. 900 represents the two specimens
of the mixed breed ; Figs. 901, 902, 903, the Wolf.
We have already denied the correctness of the infer-
ence, that because the wolf and the jackal respec-
tively breed with the dog, they are therefore, as
Hunter affirmed, all of one species : no one, we think,
will now regard the wolf and the jackal as identi-
cal ; nor is there any more ground for believing
that the dog is either the one or the other, than for
assuming that the wolf and the jackal are one.
Figs. 904 and 905 are the skull of the European
wolf, in two views : it diifers in various minor de-
tails from the skull of the Canada wolf, of which
Figs. 906 and 907 are two similar views.
Figs. 908 and 909 represent the skull of the
Jackal, in two views ; it differs from those both of
the European and American wolf. These skulls
may be compared with those of the various breeds
of dogs previously given. Fig. 910 is a spirited
delineation of the head of the Wolf, for comparison
with that of the nearest of the dogg. We shall now
pass from a consideration of the dog, to its proxi-
mate ally.
901, 902, 903, 911, 919.— Thb Wolf
(Canis Lupus). Mkos, Aristotle ; le Loup, French ;
il Lupo, Italian. A robust but gaunt frame, a
skulking or irresolute gait, ferocity mingled with
cunning and cowardice, and a wild yet sinister ex-
pression of the physiognomy, characterize this beast
of prey. Spread throughout Europe and various
parts of Asia, it is more particularly in mountain
and forest districts that the wolf prevails, where the
population is scanty, and collected into small towns
or villages, with a wide country around, destitute of
human dwellings. In the Pyrenees, the Carpathian
mountains, in Poland, Hiingary, some parts of Aus-
tria, France, Italy, and Spain ; in Norway, Sweden,
and Russia, the wolf is yet common ; as well as in
western Asia, and the border territories included in
Europe. Formerly this animal was abundant in
the British Islands, and the plague and terror of the
country. Verstegan, in his ' Restitution of decayed
Intelligence in Antiquities, concerning the most
noble and renowned English nation,' 1605, observes
that January was called Wolf-monat by the Anglo-
Saxons, " because people were wont in that moneth
to be more in danger to be devoured of wolves than
in any season els of the yearc, for that through the
extremity of cold and snow those ravenous crea-
tures could not find other beasts sufficient to feed
upon." The universal fear which the wolf, where
numerous, would naturally inspire, was formeriy
heightened by superstition, and fiends or malignant
beings were imagined as having power to assume
the form and power of this dreaded animal. Ly-
canthropos of the Greeks, the Were-wolf of the
Anglo-Saxons, and the Loup-garou of the French
had reference to some such preternatural monster,
whose name was associated with all that is horrible
and mysterious. Conspicuous then, and dreaded for
its power and ferocity, we can scarcely wonder that
the wolf should have had its name assumed, or given
to men of distinction, by our barbarous but warlike
forefathers, among whom such appellations as Ethel-
wolf, Eadwolf, Berthwolf, and many more, were
common.
It must not be supposed, however, that our Saxon
ancestors tamely suffered the wolf to ravage the
country. The attempt at extirpating this animal
commenced in the tenth century under the reign of
Edgar, and appears to have succeeded in the thir-
teenth century, during the reign of Edward I , as no
historical mention is made of any royal edict, sub-
sequently to that period, to promote their destruc-
tion. The last record of their existence in any
formidable numbers was in 1281. It is said by Mr.
Topham, in his notes to Somerville's ' Chace,' that
it was in the wolds of Yorkshire where a price was
last set upon a wolfs head. In Scotland and Ireland
the wolf remained for a considerable period longer.
In 1577, according to Hollinshed. these animals
were destructive to the flocks in Scotland, and in
Ireland they were exterminated only at the begin-
ning of the last century.
In almost every department of France infested
by the wolf there is a society called Societe
de Louveterie, the object of which is to keep that
animal down ; and premiums, varying in the amount
according to the sex and age of the animals killed,
are likewise paid. The means hitherto employed,
however, have been inadequate to effect the pur-
pose.
In Poland wolves are numerous and formidable ;
and they increased especially in the years from 1807
to 1815, in the province of Posen, after its separa-
tion from Prussia. In 1814 three grown persons and
sixteen children were devoured by them in the small
circle of Wiingrowiec alone. When Prussia re-
gained the province of Posen in 1815, no time was
lost by the government in getting rid of so great a
public nuisance ; and in that province within five
years, from 1815 to 1819 inclusive, 4C18 dollars were
paid by the government in rewards for killing
wolves. Latterly wolves have again increased in
that province ; for the use of fire-arms having been
in a great measure prohibited in Poland after the
Revolution, these animals are rapidly multiplying
there, and invade the neighbouring territories.
In the parish of Briala, district of Rawa, during
the month of August, 1837, four girls were torn to
pieces not far from their own houses. What must
these animals be in winter, when even in summer
they are thus daring !
Mr. Lloyd, in his ' Field-Sports in the North of
Europe,' relates many narratives respecting these
animals; it would appear that they are less dan-
gerous to man than might be expected, though
they sometimes, especially when combined in troops,
attack travellers with great audacity. A gentle-
man attached to the emlaassy of St. Petersburgh, says
Mr. Lloyd, related to me the following circum-
stance : — " It happened, at no great distance from St.
Petersburgh, and only two years previously, a pea-
sant, when one day in his sledge, was pursued by
eleven of these ferocious animals. At this time he
was only about two miles from home, towards which
he urged his horse at the very top of his speed. At
the entrance of his residence was a gate, which hap-
pened to be closed at the time ; but the horse
dashed this open, and thus himself and his master
found refuge in the court-yard. They were fol-
lowed, however, by nine out of the eleven wolves ;
but very fortunately, at the very instant these had
entered the enclosure, the gate swung back on its
hinges, and thus they were caught as in a trap.
From being the most ferocious of animals, the na-
ture of these beasts, now that they found escape
impossible, became completely changed : so far,
indeed, from offering molestation to any one, they
slunk into holes and corners, and allowed them-
selves to be slaughtered almost without making
resistance." In the government of Livonia in Rus-
sia, a district of about two hundred and fifty miles
long and one hundred and fifty broad, the following
animals were, according to official reports, destroyed
by wolves in 1822: — horses, 1841; fowls, 1243;
cattle, 1807; calves, 733; sheep, 15,182; lambs,
726; goats, 2545; kids, 183; swine, 4190; young
pigs, 312; dogs, 703; geese, 673.
Desniarest says that the wolf is solitary and noc-
turnal, but that in winter it unites in troops, which
attack horses and men. The sense of smell is very
acute, but its speed is not very great, and it wearies
out its victim by dint of untiring perseverance.
When in full chase of its prey, it gallops along, per-
tinaciously following the track of the fugitive. The
descriplion of a troop of wolves in pursuit is admi-
rably described by Lord Byron in his poem of
' Mazeppa :' —
•• We milled through the leives like wind,
Left shrubs and trees and w olves behind ;
By nifflit I heard them on the track.
Their troop came hard upon our back.
With their lon|{ jrallop, wiiich can tire
Tlie hound's deep hate and hunter's tire ;
Where'er we (lew th'-y followed on.
Nor left us witli the morning sun.
Behind 1 saw them scarce a rood
At daybreak winding througli the wood.
And through the night had heard their feet
Tlieir stealing rustling step repeat."
From the numerous allusions to the wolf in the
Scriptures, it is evident that it must have been well
i known formerly in Syria — and indeed also in Egypt,
for we find it figured on ancient sculptures, together
with the hyaena and greyhound. (Fig. 912.) At
present, however, this animal is seldom met with
in Syria, although it still exists in that region, but
keeps itself concealed.
j So habitually cautious and suspicious is the wolf,
; that it is difficult to take it in trap.n, and for the same
reason anything like the appearance of artifice deters
it from an attack. Tig. 91.3.) It nas been sup-
posed the wolf never carries his tail elevated, but
this is not altogether correct ; we have often
watched the wolves in the Zoological Gardens
gallop round the enclosure with the tail raised up
as it is when the animals are in chase of prey ; and
also, as Dr. Richardson states from observation,
when they gambol with each other.
When pursued the wolf rushes along, with his
muzzle almost to the ground, his eyes like glowing
fire, the hair of his neck and shoulders erect, and
his tail lowered and drawn close ; when out of
danger, he slackens his pace, raises his head, sniffs
about, and whisks his tail around, as if exulting in
his escape; but if brought to bay by hounds, he
defends himself to the last, and often kills and
maims some of his antagonists before he falls over-
powered by numbers. (Tig. 914.) The Kirghese
Tartars employ a large hawk in the chase, which
fastens upon the animal's head, and tears its eyes.
(Fig. 902.)
Fierce as the wolf is, like the hyaena it can be
tamed and even domesticated, but they require to
be taken very young. M. F. Cuvier gives a very
I interesting account of a tame wolf, which showed
all the affection that the most gentle dog could
evince towards its master. When full-grown, he
was presented by his owner to the menagerie at
Paris. For many weeks he was quite disconsolate
at the separation from his master, who had been
obliged to travel ; he would scarcely take any food,
and was indifferent to his keepers. At length he
became attached to those about him, and he seemed
to have forgotten his old affections. His master
returned after an absence of eighteen months ; the
wolf heard his voice amidst the crowd in the gardens
of the menagerie, and, being set at liberty, displayed
the most violent joy. Again was he separated from
his friend ; and again was his grief as extreme as
on the first occasion. After three years' absence,
his master once more returned. It was evening,
and the wolfs den was shut up from any external
observations ; yet the instant the man's voice was
heard, the faithful animal set up the most anxious
cries ; and the door of his cage being open, he
rushed towards his friend, leaped upon his shoulders,
licked his face, and threatened to bite his keepers
when they attempted to separate them. When the
man left him, he fell sick, and refused all food ; and
from the time of his recovery, which was long very
doubtful, it was always dangerous for a stranger to
approach him. He appeared as if he scorned any
new friendships.
Other instances of domestication are on record,
and, indeed, from our own personal experience, we
hesitate not to state that the wolf may be completely
reclaimed — -more so than the Australian dingo.
The power of the wolf, especially in the muscles
of the head, neck, and shoulders, is immense ; and
his bite is terribly severe, generally cutting out the
flesh with a snap. Among themselves they fight
often with great desperation, the combat ending
with the death of the weaker. It is said that wolves
wounded by the gunshot of hunters or travellers are
torn in pieces and devoured by their fellovvii.
The average height of the wolf at the shoulders
is about two feet six inches ; the female rears her
young in some cave or gloomy recess, and produces
from five to nine young at a birth. These are born
with the eyes closed, as in the dog. In the defence
of her offspring the female is furious, and greatly to
be dreaded. The voice of the wolf is a prolonged
howl, resounding dismally through the stilly dark-
ness of the night.
On the southern side of the Pyrenees there exists
a variety perhaps of the wolf, termed, from its co-
lour, the Black Wolf (Canis Lycaon, Linn.), the
Loup noir of Buffon. These animals are asserted to
be more ferocious than the ordinary grey wolf, but
perhaps without any foundation.
The common wolf of North America differs in
some respects from its European relative, and is
perhaps a distinct species. It wants the gaunt
appearance, the comparatively long jaw and taper-
ing nose, the high ears, long legs, slender loins, and
narrow feet of the European wolf. Its frame also is
more compact, the fur finer and thicker, the muzzle
more obtuse, the head larger and rounder, and the
forehead broader and more arched : the limbs are
shorter, and the tail more fox-like and bushy.
Dr. Richardson, in his ' Fauna Boreali-Americana,
enumerates several varieties of this North American
wolf, depending on colour, viz., the grey, the white,
the piud, the dusky or clouded, and the black.
Black wolves abound on the Missouri, and, according
to the Indians, black and grey wolves occur in the
same litter. The dusky or clouded wolf was regarded
by Say as a distinct species, and named by him
Canis nubilus. (Fig. 915.)
The American Wolf agrees in its general habits
with the wolf of our Continent, though it appears to
be less formidable as far as man is concerned. In-
deed Captain Lyons, in his observations on the wolves
2D 2
^^^^^^
HOI.— Svrian Wolf.
on— WolfinTrip.
90S.— Wolf.
M?.— Skull of Canadian Wolf.
•05.— Skull of European Wolf.
911.— Wolf and Fox.
809.- Skull of J»ckal.
cjj. — Esquimaux Uogs harn<-sstMi to a Siolgr.
900.— Mixed Breed of Dog and Wolf.
204
917.-Jackal.
".19.— Wolf and Lamb.
910.— Head of Wolf.
tic— Jackals.
912.— From Egyptian Sculpture.
91i.— Dudcy or Clouded Woir.
914.— WolMiuiit, after Snjdcrs.
205
?06
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Foxes.
of Melville Peninsula, states that both English and
EiMliiimaux were accustomed to pass them without
any weapon, or even a stick ; " the animals, how-
ever, exhibited no symptoms ot fear, but rather a
kind of tacit asreeraent not to be the beginners of a
quarrel, even though they might have been certain
of provmg victorious."
These wolves hunt in packs, and when pressed for
food their audacity is astonishing. The^r will seize
the Esquimaux dogs, before their masters' faces, and
carry them off— for though bold in attacking the
bear, this breed of dogs, as previously notice<l, fears
the wolf, and makes but a slight resistance. They
have been known not only to steal provisions from
under a man's head in the night, but even to come
into a traveller's bivouac and carry off some of his
dogs. "During our residence at Cumberland House,
in 1820," says Dr. Hichardson, " a wolf which had
been prowling round the fort, and was wounded by
• musket-ball and driven off, returned after it be-
came dark, whilst the blood was still tlowing from
its wound, and carried off a dog from amongst fifty
others, that howled piteously, but had not courage
to unite in an attack on their enemy."
The American Wolf is extremely cunning, and in
attacking moose or Wapiti deer, animals which
exceed it in speed, it has recourse to a singular
stratagem. Several combine, and arrange them-
selves in the form of a semicircle, and thus advance
upon their prey, so as either to hem it in or drive
it over a precipice. Captain Franklin often found
the remains of deer which had been thus dashed
down steep cliffs and devoured, and he states that
this is a frequent expedient when the plains are
bounded by precipitous cliffs. " Whilst the deer
are quietly grazing, the wolves assemble in great
numbers, and, forming a crescent, creep slowly to-
wards the herd, so as not to alarm them much at
first ; but when they perceive that they have fairly
hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut off
their retreat across the plain, they move more quickly,
and with hideous yells terrify their prey, and urge
them to flight by the only open way, which is to-
wards the precipice, appearing to know that when !
the herd is once at full speed, it is easily diiven ;
over the cliff, the rearmost urging on those that are ;
before. The wolves then descend at leisure, and
feed on the mangled carcasses."
On one occasion a troop of wolves endeavoured
to put the same stratagem into practice against Dr.
Richardson. Having the first watch, he " had gone
to the summit of a hill, and remained seated, con-
templating the river that washed the precipice
under his feet, long after dusk had hid distant objects
from his view. Histhoughts were perhaps far distant
from the surrounding scenery, when he was roused
by an indistinct noise behind him ; and on looking
round, perceived that nine white wolves had ranged
themselves in form of a crescent, and were advanc-
ing apparently with the intention of driving him
into the river. On his rising up, they halted ; and
when he advanced, they made way for his passage
down to the tents."
In the dreary realms that advance into the Polar
Sea,
** Where the wolf and Arctic fox
Prowl amidst the lonely rocks."
Captain Franklin and his companions, during their
arduous journeys, were often obliged to dispute their
scanty food with the lean wolves, that would scarcely
retreat. On one occasion, when they had captured
a moose deer, and had buried a part of the body,
the wolves absolutely dug it out from their very
feet, and devoured it while the weary men were
sleeping. On another oecasion, when the travellers
had killed a deer, they saw by the flashes of the
Aurora borealis eight wolves waiting round for their
share of the prey. Sometimes, however, the wolves
were their caterers, arid helped them to a welcome
meal. When a group of wolves and a flight of
crows were discovered, the travellers knew there
was a carcass to be divided, and they sometimes
succeeded in obtaining a share of the prey, if it had
been recently slaughtered.
Of the American wolves we may notice the
Prairie wolf (Canis latrans. Say), which inhabits the
plains of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, as well as
those of the Columbia. It is smaller and fleeter than
the common wolf, associates in large troops, and
dwells in burrows on the plains remote from the
forests. In Mexico is found a distinct species of
wolf (Canis Mexicanus, Desm.) ; and a species
termed the red wolf (Canis jubatus, Desm.) in-
habits the Pampas of La Plata. The Antarctic
wolf (Canis Antarcticus, Desm.) is a native of the
Falkland Isles, and seems to be an intermediate
link between the wolves and foxes. It feeds princi-
pally upon a species of goose (anser leucopterus),
goes in packs, which wander about by day, but
more commonly in the evening, and dwell in holes
ivhich they burrow. This species is about fifteen
inches in height at the shoulder ; the tail is short,
and white at the tip; the limbs are short, but the
contour of the head is wolf-like. It is termed by
Pennant the Antarctic Fox.
Colonel Sykes has described a wolf from Dukhun,
under the title of Canis pallipes, which he states to
be numerous in the open stony plains of that region,
but not tu be met with in the woods of the Ghauts.
(' Zool. Proceeds.' 1830.)
Mr. Hodgson notices the common European wolf
as occurring in the lower region of the Nepal Moun-
tains.
910, 917.— The Jackal
(Canis aureus). Of the animals known by the
name of Jackals, one species (Canis Anthus) is a
native of Senegal ; another, the Cape jackal (Canis
mesomelas) is a native of the Cape of Good Hope ;
and a third, the common jackal (Canis aureus), is
spread from the north of Africa, through Syria, Per-
sia, and the greater part of Indta. Colonel Sykes
states it to be numerous in Dukhun, where it is called
Kholah by the Mahrattas. It is somewhat larger
than a fox, but its tail is shorter in proportion, reach-
ing only to the hock ; its head is short, with a pointed
muzzle ; the general colour above is grey, abruptly
divided from a paler tint spread over the under sur-
face ; the tail is slightly tipped with black.
This animal is most probably the Shual of the
Scriptures. It is the Chical of the Turks ; Sciagal,
Sciugal, Sciachal, or Shacal of the Persians.
The jackal dwells in troops, which lie concealed
in holes and burrows during the day, but come forth
at night to hunt for food, giving chase to sheep or
antelopes and other animals, like the wolf, stealing
fox-like into fowl-roosts, and attacking any animal
they are capable of overcoming. They do not,
however, confine themselves to living prey, carrion
and offal of every description being greedily de-
voured. Nor are roots and fruits less acceptable ;
in the vineyard, indeed, they make great havoc, and
their fondness for grapes is notorious. The "shriek"
of the jackal is terrific. Those travellers who have
heard them, describe the nocturnal yells of these
animals as extremely piercing and dissonant ; now
close, now at a distance, troop answering troop from
different points, themselves unseen, while their
fearful chorus breaks the stillness of the hours of
darkness. Their cries thus heard amidst the ruins
of cities of ancient date might seem " to listening
Fancy's ear'" like the wail of legions of spirits over
the departed glories of other days. Mouldering
ruins, fallen temples, crumbling tombs, and craggy
rocks are the abodes of the jackal.
Sly and suspicious in its disposition, this animal
when taken young is nevertheless easily tamed, \
and loses that unpleasant odour which renders the
wild animal almost unbearable. We have seen in
the Zoological Gardens a hybrid between the jackal
and dog.
920, 921.— The Common Fox
(Canis vulpes, Linn. ; Vtdpes vulgaris, Brisson).
Volpe of the Italians ; Rapasa, Spanish ; RKpoza,
Portuguese ; Fuchs, German ; Vos, Dutch ; Kaff,
Swedish ; Rev, Danish ; Tod, Scottish provincialism ;
Llwynog. and female Llwynoges, of the Welsh.
The common fox (the representative of the sub-
genus Vulpes, characterized by a linear pupil and
a long bushy tail) is too well known to need a
minute description. This wily animal is common
in our island, and in most parts of Europe, extend-
ing into Northern Asia, and is everywhere celebrated !
for its canning and rapacity. As its linear pupil
intimates, the fox is crepuscular or nocturnal in its
habits, but is occa-sionally seen abroad during the
day. In general, however, it is as the dusk of the
evening advances that the fox steals from its bur-
row, with noiseless steps, to prowl about for prey.
His senses of smell and hearing are extremely keen,
and he listens, and snuffs the breeze, attentive to
every .'^ound, appreciating every odour. His eyes
gleam, as he creeps along in a crouching attitude,
intent upon his prey. His movements are all
stealihy: he surprises the rabbit gambolling near
its burrow ; tha hare in her form; the poultry on
the perch, lie slaughters all he can, reserving the
overplus for a future exigency, and for that purpose
buries it in the earth. In times of scarcity field-
mice, frogs, weasels, and even insects are devoured.
On the Continent the fox visits the vineyards, being
as partial to the ripe grapes as is the jackal.
The fox is solitary in his habits, and dwells alone
in a burrow, which he has either made or usurped,
and which is generally in some secluded situation,
not readily to be discovered, and in the neighbour-
hood of a rabbit-warren, preserves of game, or farms.
The female breeds in April, and on her alone de-
volves the entire care ol the cubs. She produces
thieeor four at a birth, ina deep burrow, where she
has prepared abed of dried leaves, grass, and moss.
The young are very playful, and remain about foi'r
nionttis with their parent, who is watchful and le-
sulute to the extreme in their defence. Even when
taken at an early age, the fox is not easily tamed,
never loses its innate suspiciousness, and never be-
comes truly domestic ; adults are ferocious when
placed in confinement, and soon die. Though
slightly made, the fox is very vigorous, and bites
with great severity. Its power of endurance and its
speed have in our country recommended it to all
lovers of the chase, for whose gratification the breed
is preserved, where possible. Foxes have been
known to run before the hounds fifty miles at a
stretch : when hard pressed, the animal neither loses
his courage nor self-possession ; he puts in practice
every expedient which cunning dictates, to baffle
the hounds or conceal him from their search, and if
ail fail, he dies defending himself to the last, with-
out uttering a cry.
The voice of the fox is a sort of yelp, which,
however, it only occasionally exerts, antl never
when in quest of prey. It is said by Bewick, anil
we have often heard it affirmed, that the fox breeds
with the dog ; and have seen sharp-nosed dogs
called fox-dogs, and were at the same time assured
that they were a cross between the two animals,
but it has always so happened that the assertion
could not be substantiated.
In Italy there exists an allied species of fox
(Canis (vulpes) melanogaster) closely allied to the
common species. To Dr. Riippel we are indebted
for a knowledge of the Vulpes lainelicus, the Vulpes
variegatus, and the Vulpes pallidus, natives of
Nubia and the adjacent territories.
922. — The Egyptian Fox
(Canis Nilolicus). In Egypt and Syria there is a
species of fox, called Tahaieb by the Copts, Sabora
by the Arabs ; it is the Canis .(Egyptiacus of Sonnini ;
the Canis Nilotieus of Geoffroy.
It is the size of our common fox, but the ears
are wider apart and longer, and it stands somewhat
higher on the limbs. Foxes apparently of this
species are very abundant in the stony country
about Bethlehem, and are also numerous near the
convent of St. John in the desert, especially about
the vintage time, and are then very destructive in
the vineyards, which must be strictly watched in
order to prevent their incursions. "These animals
live in burrows, and have the general habits of the
common European fox, to which they are nearly
related.
923.— The Caama
(Canis Caatna). Of the African foxes, which are
numerous, our pictorial museum presents us with a
specimen of the Caama of the Cape of Good Hope
(Canis (vulpes) Caama), one of the smallest of its
race. A few individuals of this species are to be met
with within the limits of the colony, but its favourite
residence seems to be more to the northward ; though
there it is becoming less and less numerous, owing
to the skins being much in request among the natives
as a covering for the cold season. So important are
these skins consi lered, that many of the Bechuanas
are solely employed in hunting the animal down
with dogs, or laying snares in the places to which
they are known to resort. In common with other
foxes ibis is a great enemy to birds which lay their
eggs upon the ground ; and its movements in par-
ticular are closely watched by the ostrich during the
laying season.
When the caama has surmounted all obstacles in
procuring eggs, he has to encounter the difficulty
of getting at their contents ; but even for this diffi-
culty his cunning finds an expedient, that, namely,
of pushing them forcibly along the ground, until they
come in contact with some substance hard enough
to break them, when the contents are speedily dis-
posed of. The natives, from having observed the
anxiety of the ostrich to keep this animal from
robbing her nest, avail themselves of this solicitude
to lure the bird to its destruction ; for, seeing that it
runs to the nest the instant a lox appears, they fasten
a dog near it, and conceal themselves close by, and
the ostrich, on approaching to drive away the sup-
posed fox, is frequently shot by the concealed
hunter.
Of the Asiatic foxes we may notice the small
Indian insectivorous fox (Canis Bengalensis), found
in Bengal, and also in the Nepal hills: the fox of
the Dukhun, called Kokiee by the Mahrattas
(Canis Kokree, Sykes). and the hill fox of the
Himalayan Mountains (Cai;is Ilimalaicus), remark-
able for the beauty of its fur. It is not uncommon
in Doon and in Kumaon. (See ' Proceeds. Zool.
Soc' 1836, p. 103.)
924. — Americas Red Fox
(Canis fiilvus, var. decussahn,'). It has been the
opinion of many naturalists, and even of Cuvier,
that the European fox extends over the northern
portion of the American continent ; we consider,
however, that the red fox (Canis (vulpes) fulvus) of
Fox-Es.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
207
that portion of the globe to be a distinct species.
It differs from its European congener in tha same
points and desrees as does the wolf of the one
country from that of the other. The American fox
is in fact to be distinguished by the breadth of its
feet, and their consequent capacity for progression
on the snow, and by the quantity of long hair
clothing the back part of the cheeks, which, in con-
junction with the shorter ears and nose, gives the
head a more compact appearance. The red fox
has a much finer brush than the European, and is
altogether a larger animal. The fur of the body is
full, long, soft, and of a bright rufous brown ; the
skin is therefore valued as an article of trade, and
about eight thousand are annually imported into
England from the fur countries, where the animal
is very abundant, especially in the wooded parts.
It is not, however, confined to the colder latitudes ;
its range, in fact, extends throughout the whole of
the United States. In habits and manners the red
fox agrees with our common Reynard, but possesses
neither the same wind nor the same vigour and
power of endurance.
" It mns," says Dr. Richardson, " for about a
hundred yards with a great swiftness, but its strength
is exhausted in the first burst, and it is soon over-
taken by a wolf or a mounted huntsman." Foxes
of various gradations of colour, termed Cross Foxes,
are common in the fur countries of North America.
These are considered by Dr. Richardson and most
naturalists to be varieties of the red fox, and such
is the opinion of the native hunters, than whom
none are more likely to possess accurate knowledge
on such points. Fig. 924 represents the ordinary
cross fox, distinguished by a grey fur mingled with
black, which latter colour prevails over the shoul-
ders. A rarer and more valuable variety is the
Black or Silver Fox (Canis fulvus, var. argentatus).
Dr. Richardson states that seldom more than four
or five of this variety are taken in a season at one
post, though the hunters no sooner find out the
haunts of one than they use every art to catch it,
because its fur fetches six times the price of any
other fur produced in North America. This fox is
sometimes found of a rich deep glossy black, the
tip of the tail alone being white : in general, how-
ever, it is silvered over ^" sable silvered"), the end
of each of the long hairs of the fur being white,
producing a beautiful appearance. A fine specimen
IS preserved in the Museum of the Zool. Soc.
The Virginian Fox (Vulpes Virginianus) appears
to be a distinct species, and so most certainly is the
Kit, or Tricoloured Fox (V. cinereo-argentatus), of
which the skins are common in the shops of furriers.
This animal is of small size, ami is numerous on the
plains extending from the Saskatchewan to the
Missouri, and on those of Columbia. It prefers the
open countrv, at a distance from wooded districts,
where it dwells in deep burrows of its own exca-
vation, and is extremely vigilant and fleet. Dr.
Richardson suggests that it may be regarded as the
American representative of the Corsac Fox of the
deserts of Tartary, being similar to that species in
habits and manners, and frequenting localities of
the like character.
925.— The Arctic Fox
(Cam's (Vulpes) Lagoptis). Terreanee-arioo of the
Esquimaux of Melville Peninsula; Terieniak of the
Greenlanders ; Wappeeskeeshew-makkeeshew of the
Cree Indians ; Peszi of the Russians.
In the high northern latitudes of the globe the
Arctic fox is the sole representative of its race. Its
range extends through Siberia, along the borders of
the Arctic Ocean, through the bleak regions of the
Esquimaux and the dreary realms of Greenland.
" These foxes," says Dr. Richardson, " inhabit the
most northern lands hitherto discovered." In North
America their southern limit appears to be about
latitude 50". They are numerous on the shores of
Hudson's Bay, north of Churchill, and exist also in
Behring's Straits. They breed on the sea-coast, and
chiefly within the Arctic circle, forming burrows in
sandy spots, not solitary, like the red fox, but in
little villages, twenty or thirty burrows being con-
structed adjoining to each other. We saw one of
these villages on Point Tumagain, in lat. 68i
degrees. Towards the middle of winter they retire
southwards, evidently in search of food ; keeping as
much as possible on the coast, and going much
farther to the south in the districts where the coast-
line is in the direction of their march. Captain
Parry relates that the Arctic foxes, which were pre-
viously numerous, began to retire from Melville
Peninsula in November, and that by January few
remained. Towards the centre of the continent, in
lat. 6.5°, they were seen only in the winter, and then
not in numbers. They are very scarce in lat. 61°,
and in lat. ~).P two only were seen in forty years!
" Hearne says (hat when taken young the Arctic
fox may be domesticated in some degree, but he
never saw one that was fond of being caressed."
Though not destitute of intelligence, the Arctic fox.
unlike the common fox, is unsuspicious and des-
titute of caution : it has been known to stand by
while the hunter was preparing a trap, and on his
retiring to run headlong into it. Captain f.,yon re-
ceived fifteen from a single trap in four hours. The
voice of this species is a kind of yelp, and when a
man approaches their breeding-places, they put
their heads out of their burrows and bark at him,
allowing him to come within range of shot. They
appear to have the power of decoying other animals
within their reach by imitating their voices.
" While tenting," says Captain Lyon, " we ob-
served a fox prowling on a hill side, and heard him
for several hours afterwards in different places imi-
tating the voice of a brent-goose." Eggs, young
birds, blubber, and carrion of any kind constitute
the food of this fox — especially different species of
lemmings, which are greedily devoured. In general
form the Arctic fox resembles the European species,
but is considerably smaller, and, owing to the great
quantity of white woolly fur with which it is covered,
is somewhat like a little shock-dog. The brush is
large and full, affording an admirabla covering for
the nose and feet, to which it acts as a muff when
the animal sleeps. Although the head is not so
pointed as in our English species, yet it has that
air of slyness which is so characteristic of all foxes.
The eyes are clear and bright, and of a hazel
colour.
Captain Lyon remarks that the muzzle of the
femak is shorter than that of the male, and has less
of cunning and more of mildness in its expression.
The ears are short, and thickly covered with hair,
and their edges appear as if they had been cropped.
The cheeks are ornamented by a projecting rufl',
which extends from behind the ears quite round the
lower part of the face, to which it gives an agreeable
appearance. The legs are rather long than other-
wise, and show great strength of muscle. The feet,
which are large, are armed with strong claws.
" When the animal is standing still, the hind-legs
are so placed as to give the idea of weakness in the
loins, which is certainly not the case, as few animals
can make more powerful leaps. The general weight
is about eight pounds, although some were found to
be as low as seven, and a few as high as nine pounds
and a half when in good case."
The Arctic Ibx is cleanly, and free from any un-
pleasant smell: it is habitually watchful, and when
asleep, opens its eyes at the slightest noise near it.
Day is its season of rest : during the night its activity
is extreme, and it gambols or hunts for food till day-
break. While in pursuit of its prey it is mute, but
in captivity, or when irritated, it utters a short sharp
bark. When first taken its rage is ungovernable,
nor is it ever thoroughly reconciled to confinement.
Those which Captain Lyon had were observed to
hide their food, like the dog, under lumps of snow ;
snow also was their substitute for water, and they
would roll in it with evident satisfaction. " When
the snow was slightly scattered on the decks, they
did not lick it up, as dogs are accustomed to do, but
by repeatedly pressing with their nose, collected
small lumps at its extremity, and then drew it up
into the mouth with the assistance of the tongue."
Though a few Arctic foxes remain white during the
summer, it is only in the winter that the majority
assume this pure snowy livery, accompanied by an
increase in the fulness and thickness of the fur,
which deeply covers even the soles of the feet. In
summer the fur is thinner, and of a dusky brownish
ash or leaden tint ; and the callous pads of the toes
become partially visible.
926.— The Fennec
(Megalotis Fennectis). Canis Zerda, Zimmermann ;
Megalotis Cerdo, llliger ; Fennicus Cerdo, Lacepede ;
Viverra aurita, Blumenbach ; Fennec of the Arabs,
Bruce.
For our first knowledge of this elegant little ani-
mal we are indebted to the celebrated Abyssinian
traveller Bruce, who discovered it in Nubia. So
little, however, was its true character understood,
that in the third volume of the Supplement to
Buffon's work it is termed "animal anonyrae,"
and even M. Geoffrey for some time regarded it as
identical with the Senegal Galago ; in fact the French
naturalists were disposed to sink the fennec as a new
species of canis altogether. Colonel Denham, how-
ever, recognized the animal in the interior of North
Africa, and accurately figured it in the Zoological
Appendix to his Travels : he also brought a specimen
to this country, and thus established the truth of
Bruce's description. Ruppell re-discovered it in
Nubia, where Bruce had first seen it. A preserved
specimen and a perfect skeleton, both in excellent
preservation, are among the riches of the Museum
of the Zoological Society. A detailed account of
the osteology of this animal, drawn up by Mr. Yar-
rell from this skeleton, will be found in the third
volume of the ' Zoological .Journal.' Whoever
examines the skeleton of (lie fennec will not hesi-
tate for a moment as to the place in nature which
the animal occupies. The skull, the teeth, the feet,
declare it at once to belong to the Canine group.
The fennec frequents the sandy desert tracts of
Nubia, and other districts of Northern Africa, dwell-
ing in burrows of its own excavation. It is said to
live much on the fruit of the date, and to climb
trees in order to obtain its food : this fact, if true, is
very remarkable, being a marked departure from
the habits and manners of the rest of the present
family. Bruce, indeed, says that it builds its nest
in trees, and does not burrow in the earth ; but this
statement is contradicted by M. RUppell. The in-
dividual which Bruce had in his possession while
at Algiers was fond of dates or any sweet fruit, and
was also partial to eggs. He would eat bread when
hungry, especially if sweetened with honey or sugar.
The sight of a bird aroused him to eager watchful-
ness as long as it was present, and a cat was his
aversion. He would endeavour to hide from the
latter, and never showed a disposition to resist or
defend himself. The animal was disposed to sleep
by day, but as night came on became restless to
excess. It was never heard to utter any sound.
The fennec is small and slightly made, with slen-
der limt)s. The length of the head and body is
about thirteen inches, that of the tail eight ; the
head is narrow, the muzzle pointed ; the pupil of the
eye large and black, the iris deep blue ; whiskers
long and thick. The ears are extremely large, as
long as the head, broad at the base, erect and
pointed. The fur of the body is rather short, but
full and silky. The colour is uniform pale fawn or
cream colour, passing into white beneath ; the in-
side of the ear is fringed with long white hairs; the
whiskers are white. In the districts of Benni Mez-
zab and Werglah, where the date grows, the fennecs
are hunted for their skins, for which, according to
Bruce, there is a market at Mecca, whence they are
exported to India.
In the sub-genus Megalotis, Cuvier associates
with the fennec a species from South Africa, the
Canis Megalotis of De Lalande (Megalotis Lalandii,
H. Smith). This animal is somewhat less than the
common fox, but comparatively higher on the
limbs ; its general colour is yellowish grey, but the
feet and tail, together with a stripe down the spine,
are black : the ears are large and spreading.
927. — The Cape Hunti.ng-Dgg
{Lijcaon tricolor, Brookes). Canis pictus, Desma-
rest; Hyicna venatica, Burchell. This daring and
ferocious animal, one of the pests of Sjuthern Africa,
is a complete dog, or canis, in the form of the skull
and the characters of the teeth ; it has, however, as
in the hyaenas, only four toes on the anterior feet,
and the same on the feet behind. In figure it is
tall, lightly built, but muscular and well propor-
tioned ; the limbs are long, the ears large and erect,
the jaws powerful, and the teeth strong. Its aspect
is wild and fierce, and its disposition treacherous.
The fur is close and of a sandy yellow, irregularly
clouded and blotched with black and a little white.
The tail is somewhat bushy and of moderate length.
The colour is subject to variation.
Wild, fleet, and savage, this species hunts in
packs mostly during the night, but frequently in
the day; and so fleet is it that few animals can
escape. It often commits extensive ravages on the
flocks and herds of the farmer, though it seldom
attacks horned cattle openly, but steals on them
while asleep, and bites oft' their tails, even at the
root, with one snap, a feat which the wide gape and
vast power of its jaws enables it to do with ease.
Mr. Burchell, on his return from Africa, brought a
living individual to England, which retained during
life all its native ferocity. The preserved skin ia
in the rnuseum of the Zoological Society. A spe-
cimen in the Tower some years since arrived in
company with a young Cape lion, both occupying
the same den, till the lion became too strong and
rough in his play, when the hunting-dog was asso-
ciated with a striped hysena and two of the spotted
species, with which it agreed tolerably well.
It is generally the opinion of naturalists that this
species, for which the celebrated anatomist, the late
Joshua Brookes, Esq., founded the genus Lyeaon,
is an intermediate link in the chain of the C'arnivora,
uniting the canine group to the hycenas; indeed, in
some points of general aspect, and in the number
of the toes, the approximation of this dog to the
latter animals is so marked, that Mr. Burchell re-
garded it as a liysBna, and as such Temminck de-
scribed it under the title of Ilyaena picta, though he
afterwards assigned it to the genus Canis. The
name of Hyaena-dog has also been conferred upon
it, but as Mr. Swainson gives this title to the Aard-
wolf (Proteles), we drop it altogether for the sake
of avoiding confusion or misapprehension.
In size the Cape hunting-dog (Wilde Ilonden of
the Dutch colonists) is as large »% a pointer or
hound, but higher on the limbs in proportion to the
bulk of the body. We are not aware that any
serious attempts have been made to domesticate it
021.— Common Fox.
o
1)»8.— I'^jVptlau I'ox.
208
---5^■N^
932.— striped HyiBna.
935.— Spotted Hyatna.
} 92».— Skull »i Spotted Hyaiu.
930.— Skull ofSpotfed Hyiena.
•33.- Striped HyBM.
No. 27.
931.— Skull of Stripe<l Hyena.
928.— Teeth of Hyana.
'J3«.— Prcteles, or AardWolf.
034.— Striped Hyaena.
«tr
537.— Villoie Ilywnu.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
936.— S'pottea Ilya-na.
209
210
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED XATURIi:.
rilviENAS
We are led from the Canine Tamily, through the |
Lvcaon, or Hunfing-Doir ol the Cape, to the true
Hytenas, which form a section of the family Viver-
riate, comprising the Civets, the Genets, the Ich-
neumons, and the Paradoxures. Destined for a life
of rapine, the Viverrida? are active and vigorous ;
in ceneral, the body is rather elongated, the head
somewhat 'conical, the muzzle often acute, the eyes
oblique, and the tongue rough, with retroverted
homy papillae. In most groups, the feet are digili-
);rade ; in some, lemi-plantigrade. Many are remark-
able for a strongly scented musky secretion, pre-
pared in certain glandular sacs. Nocturnal or
crepuscular in their habits, they emerge from their
retreats with the close of day, and begin their prowl
in quest of food. Of restless, wild, and savage tem-
per, they are by no means destitute of intelligence,
and are even capable of being domesticated. The
Viverridae approach, through the hy»na, on one part,
to the Canine race ; they are through other links
allied to the UrsidiE, the Felidae, and the Mustelidae.
Genu* Spana. — Dentition : — Incisors, - ; Canines,
6'
; False Molars, — ; Carnaisidres, or Laniary
1— I 3—3 ■'
Molars, -IZ. ; Tubercular Molars, ^- — 34.
1 — 1 V — t)
Fie. 92S shows the denlilion of the hyasiia: a, teeth
of the upper jaw in two views ; ft, those of the lower
in two views; c, the teeth of both jaws together.
Fie. 929 represents the skull of the Spotted Hyajna
in profile ; Fig. 930. the skull of the same animal
viewed from above ; Fig. 931, the skull of the Striped
Hytena in profile. The skull of the hyaena is re-
markable for its solidity : the muzzle is short ; the
zygomatic arch of vast strength and thickness ; and
the sides of the cranium are compressed, and sweep
up to a high longitudinal ridge, which projects far
back from the occiput, affording space for an im-
mense mass of the temporal muscles, which, with
those of the neck, are greatly developed. Accord-
ing to Cuvier, the vertebrae of the neck are .sometimes
found to be anchylosed, or soldered together, in
consequence of the violent and continual strain to
which they are subject, and hence probably arose
the belief that these vertebrae in the hyaena were one
solid piece.
In the port and ficure of the hyaena there is
something very remarkable. The neck, chest, and
(boulders are amazingly robust, but the hind-quar-
ters are low, from the crouching posture of the hind-
legs, which may be termed knock-kneed, the heel-
joints approaching each other. The movements of
these limbs are of a dragging character, influencing
the pace of the animal, which, though rapid, is a sort
of awkward shuffle. The toes are four on each foot,
furnished with blunt, stout, unretractile claws. The
ears are laree and erect; a full mane runs down
the spine ; there is a deep glandular subcaudal
pouch ; the pupil is somewhat oblong ; the tongue
roneh ; the habits are nocturnal.
The hyaenas were not separated by Linnaeus from
the genus Canis, but subsequent naturalists have
placed them in various groups according to their
views of affinity. We believe them to form a group
of the Viverridae.
Tliree distinct species are known.
932, 933, 934.— The Stripkd Hy.ena
{Hyana vulgarLi, Desm.). Hyaena striata, Zim-
merman ; H. orientalis, Tiedem. ; H. Antiquorum,
Temm. ; Canis Hyaena, Linn. This species is a na-
tive of Asia, and of northern and central Africa. It
is found in the Caucasian and Altaic mountains, in
Asiatic Turkey, in Syria, Turkey, Persia, India ; and
in Barbary, Arabia. Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Sou-
dan. Senegambia, &c.
We may here premise, that much of what relates
to the striped hyaena, so extensively spread, applies i
equally to the other species, which appear to be
confined exclusively to South Africa. They are
all destined to fill up an important .station in the
economy of nature. It is their part, with vultures
and other foul-feeding creatures, to cleanse the
earth of putrescent animal matters, and especially
of the decaying carca.sses of the larger beasts, whose
remains, if not speedily removed, would infect the
atmosphere with pestilential effluvia. They are
Nature' s scavengers, and assiduously do they la-
bour in their vocation : they clear the battle-
field of the victims of barbarous warfare, gorging
on the bodies of the slain ; they disinter the dead
from the lightly-covered grave ; they ransack towns
and villages in search of offal ; they prowl about
the fields, and around the enclosures of human
dwellings. The carrion which chance throws in
their way furnishes a luxurious meal, nor are .the
strongest bones unacceptable— such is the power of
their jaws, that thev crunch the thigh-bone of an
ox, for the sake of tne marrow it encloses.
Carrion and dead bodies, however, are not their
only food ; they prey upon horses, sheep, and cattle,
often committing extensive depredations ; nor are
human beings safe from their murderous assaults.
They seldom, indeed, attack man openly, and usually
avoid a contest with him ; but when driven to sell-
defence, they turn furiously upon their assailant,
and combat with determined obstinacy. On the
conti-ary, the sleeping man, woman, or child, which
they chance to discover in their nightly prowl,
almost certainly falls a victim. Their haunts by
day arc dens and caves, gloomy rocks, and the ruins
of towns and sepulchral monuments of antiquity ;
there the "fell hyaena" rears her brood. As
darkness sets in, these fierce beasts emerge from
their lair, and menacing, with teeth displayed and
glaring eyes, warn the intmder to a timely retreat.
In some districts the striped hyaena is fearfully
numerous. Bruce records that in Abyssinia they
were the scourge of the country " both in the city
and the field, and appeared to surpass the sheep in
number. From evening till dawn of day the town
of Gondar was full of them ; here they sought the
different pieces of slaughtered carcasses which were
exposed in the streets without burial. Many a time
in the night, when kept late in the palace, on going
across the square from the king's house, I have
been apprehensive lest they should bite me in the
leg. Thev grunted in great numbers around me,
although i was surrounded by several aimed men,
who seldom passed a night without wounding or
slaughtering some of them. One night I went out
of my tent, and returning immediately, I perceived
two blue eyes glaring at me in the dark ; I called
my servant to bring a light, and we found a hyaena
.standing near the head of the bed, with two or three
large bunches of candles in his mouth, by keeping
which, he seemed to wish at that time no other
prey. I was not afraid of him, but with a pike
struck as near the heart as I could. It was not
until I had done this, that he showed any signs of
fierceness : but upon feeling his wound he dropped
the candles, and endeavoured to run upon the shaft
of the spear to arrive at me ; so that I was obliged to
draw a pistol from my girdle and shoot him, and
nearly at the same time my servant cleft his skull
with a battle-axe. In a word, the hyaenas were the
plague of our lives, the terror of our midnight walks,
and the destruction of our mules and asses, which
are their favourite food." Major Denham gives a
similar account. At Kauka, he says, the hytenas are
" everywhere in legions, and grew now so e.xtremely
ravenous, that a good large village where I some-
times procured a draught of sour milk on my duck-
shooting excursions, had been attacked the night
before my last visit, and the town absolutely carried
by storm, notwithstanding defences of nearly six
feet high of branches of the prickly trilloh, and
two donkeys, whose fiesh these animals are particu-
larly fond of, carried off in spite of the efforts of the
people."
Few animals have been the subjects of more false
and superstitious opinions, both in ancient and
modern times, than the hyaena. Among the writers
of antiquity, however, Aristotle accurately describes
it, and even explains the p(y)ular error current in
his day, as it has been since, respecting the bi-sexual
character of the animal; an error in which Pliny
seems to acquiesce, though he alludes to Aristotle's
contradiction of it ; but it is evident that he knew
nothing himself of the true history of the animal,
for, as Cuvier has observed, the Romans were not
really acquainted with the animal till at a compara-
tively late period. Gordian III. is the first, and
apparently the only one, of the emperors who im-
ported it ; he had ten which were exhibited in the
games of Philip, in the year of Rome 1000, or a. d.
247. It is not, in fact, until within the last few-
years, comparatively speaking, that the moderns
have recognised the true hyaena. Belon, who wrote
in 1553 4-5, &c., mistook the Civet for it, which
animal indeed resembles the hyaena in having scent-
pouches, a mane, and a transversely barred or waved
style of colouring ; yet at the same time that he fell
info this error, he was in possession of a good figure
of the true hyaina, but, without suspecting the real
fact, he gives this under the title of Sea-Wolf, and
describes it as an animal from the coasts of England.
From the time of Belon to that of Buffon, no natu-
ralist figured the hyiena from nature ; and it is
only within the last few years that its real character
has been understood.
The hyaena has been represented as ferociously
untameable : nothing can be more untrue ; it is
easily domesticated. Bishop lleber saw one in
India that followed its master and fawned on him
like a dog. Barrow, speaking of the South African
Spotted hya;na, states that in the district of Schneu-
berg it is domesticated and used like a hound for
the chace. Colonel Sykes kept a young hyaena
tame in India, and brought the animal over to
England ; he presented it (then full grown, yet
gentle as a dog) to the Zoological Society. " In
India," says Colonel Sykes, "it was allowed to run
about my house, and on board ship it was released from
its cage two or three times a day, to play with
the sailors and gambol with the dogs. It early
recognised my pereon and voice, would obey when
called, and in general was as playful and good
humoured as a puppy. My visits to it in the Gardens
have been rare and at long intervals, nor have I
ever carried it food. I anticipated, therefore, that
it would outgrow its early affection, and that I
should be to it as any other stranger; but it has
always greeted me not only as an old acquaintance,
but as an old friend, and if I am to judge from its
agitation and peculiar cries, the animal's recognition
is that of affection. Un Sunday last it was asleep
in its cage when I approached. On calling it by its
name, it looked up, distinguished me in the crowd,
started on its legs, and on my applying my hand to
its mouth to smell to, it threw itself down against
the bars, rubbed its head, neck, and back against
my hand, and then started on its legs, and
bounded about its cage uttering short cries. On
ceasing to speak to it and moving away, it looked
wistfully after me, nor resumed its motions till I
addressed it again. Its manifestations of joy were
so unequivocal as to excite the surprise of a great
number of bystanders." ('Zool. Proceeds.' 1833,
p. 7G.)
935, 936.— Thb Spotted Hv-kna
(Hytaia crociita). Tiger-wolf of the colonists at
the cape ; Hyaena Capensis, Desm.; H. maculata,
Thunberg.
This species is the nuisance and even terror of
South Africa, where it is well known to the farmers,
who too often experience the effects of its destruc-
tive habits ; for it not only devours the carrion
which chance throws in its way, but it invades the
farmers' pens or folds during the night, and often
succeeds in killing or mutilating such of the larger
kinds of live stock as have not been secured before
dusk. Sickly animals, as we are assured, are less
liable to suffer from the voracity of this creature
than those which are in full health: the latter by
their rapid flight inspiring the enemy with a courage
of which by nature he is destitute ; whereas the
sickly face him, and thus intimidate him. So anx-
ious is he for the flight of animals as a preliminary
to his attack, that he uses all the grimace and
threatening he can command, to induce them to
run, and never dares to attack them unless they do
so. The spotted hyaena seldom moves abroad during
the day ; night is his season of activity, and towards
nightfall his bowlings are regularly heard, announ-
cing to the various animals that their foe is on his
prowl. These dismal sounds appal the timid; and
as they are heard on every side around, confuse the
aftVighted fugitive, who often runs into the danger
from which he seeks to escape. Formerly hyoenas
were in the habit of paying nightly visits to the
streets of Cape Town, and even now occasionally
approach the town, and their bowlings are often
heard from the Table Mountain. In the Caffre
country they are numerous and daring, approaching
the villages, and attempting, either by force or stra-
tagem, to pass the wattles by which the houses are
defended. If so far succesful, they next attempt to
enter the houses, and not unfrequently succeed in
carrying off' a young child of the family.
Mr. Steedman, in his ' Wanderings and Adven-
tures in the Interior of Southern Africa,' gives most
appalling accounts of the rapacity of the spotted
hyaena. He states that Mr. Shepstone, in a letter
from Mamboland, relates that the nightly attacks
of wolves, as the hytenas are generally called, have
been veiy destructive amongst the children and
youth; for within a few months not fewer than
forty instances came to his knowledge wherein that
beast had made a most dreadful havoc. " To show
clearly," says that gentleman, " the preference of
the wolf (spotted hyaena) for human flesh, it will be
necessary to notice that when the Mambookies
build their houses, which are in form like beehives,
and tolerably large, often eighteen or twenty feet in
diameter, the floor is raised at the higher or back
part of the house, until within three or four feet of
the front, where it suddenly terminates, leaving an
area from thence to the wall, in which every night
the calves are tied to protect them from the storms
or wild beasts. Now it would be natural to suppose,
that should the wolf enter, he would seize the first
object for his prey, especially as the natives always
lie with the fire at their feet; but notwithstanding
this, the constant practice of this animal has been
in every instance to pass by the calves in the area,
and even by the fire, and take the children from
under the mother's kaross, and this in such a gentle
and cautious manner, that the poor parent has been
unconscious of her loss until the cries of her little
innocent have reached her from without when a
close prisoner in the jaws of the monster." Mr.
Shepstone then particularizes two instances within
his own knowledge, one of a boy about ten years of
age, and the other of a little girl about eight, who
had been carried off by this species, and vi'retchedly
Hy^.nas.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
211
mangled, but recovered by the attention of Mr.
Shepstone and his friends.
Vaiious methods are employed for the destruction
of this ferocious beast, as snares, pit-falls, traps,
spring-guns, &c , but so cunning and suspicious is
the animal, that he mostly avoids them.
The general colour of this species is yellowish-
brown, with numerous spots, more or less distinct,
of a deeper tint ; the mane down the neck and
back is less full and long than in the striped hyaena,
and the hair generally is shorter.
937. — The Villosk Hy^na
(JHyana villosa. Smith). Straand-Wolf of the Dutch
colonists of the Cape. For our knowledge of this spe-
cies, which lesembles in some respects the Striped
Hyaena, we are indebted to Dr. A. Smith, who figured
and described it in the fifteenth volume of the ' Lin-
naean Transactions.' The Villose Hyaena is a native
of South Africa, but is by no means so common as
the spotted species, and is found chieiiy along the sea-
coast, but has been observed in the neighbourhood
of Nieuveld Mountains, a considerable distance in
the interior of the country. The Villose Hyaena, or
Straand-Wolf, devours carrion, and such dead ani-
mal substances (whales for instance) as the sea
casts up ; but when pressed by hunger its habits
seem to resemble those of the other species, for it
then commits serious depredations on the flocks and
herds of the colonists, who hold its incursions in
great (iread. Mr. Steedraan, who sta.tes this, says
that he saw a very fine specimen, which had been
shot by a farmer residing in the vicinity of Blauw-
berg, and was informed that it had destroyed three
large calves belonging to the farmer. He adds,
that it is said to be a remarkably cunning animal, re-
tiring to a considerable distance from the scene of
its depredations to elude pursuit, and concealing
itself during the day-time in the mountains, or in
the thick bush which extends in large patches
throughout the sandy district in which it is usually
found.
The Villose Hyaena stands about two feet four
inches in height at the shoulder, and measures four
feet four inches from the nose to the root of the
tail. The hair of the body is long and coarse. lis
general colour is dusky-grey, variegated with inde-
finite clouds or oblique bands of black, the latter
prevailing on the limbs.
The fossil bones of extinct species of Hyaena
prove the abundance of these animals at one period
m our portion of the globe. Jn the Cave of Kirk-
dale these relics were found in vast numbers, ex-
ceeding those of any other carnivorous animal.
They have been discovered also in other places in
our island. On the continent they occur in the
Cavern of Gaylenreuth, and in most of those where
the fossil bones of bears are met with, to which we
have already alluded.
9.38. — The Proteles
{Protdes cristata). Aard-Wolf (earth-wolQ of the
Dutch colonists of the Cape ; Proteles Lalandii,
Isidore, Geotfroy ; Viverra Hysenoides, Desmarest ;
Civette Hyenoide of F. Cuvier.
The genus Proteles, which appears to link the
Hyaenas to the Civets, contains, as far as known,
only one species which is a native of South Africa.
In general contour and manners this singular ani-
mal much resembles the former animals, but is of
inferior size : the hinder quarters are low and trail-
ing; the shoulders thick and muscular; while a
full coarse mane runs along the side. In denti-
4 4
tion it is very remarkable. The molars are 5—5,
3 — 3
much separated from each other. Of those above,
the three first are false, and the fourth is small and
tuberculous, with three points. The three molars
below have each the character of false molars.
Incisors and canines as usual.
On their fore-feet there are five toes, but the
thumb is short, rudimentary, and high on the car-
pus as in the dog ; the hinder feet have four toes.
The claws are strong, large, blunt, and well adapted
for scratching. There are no decided scent-pouches,
as in the Civets, but a furrow in their stead. The
form of the head more resembles that of the Civets
than the Hysenas, being somewhat elongated, and
having the muzzle conical and pointed. The ears
are long, erect, acute, and thinly covered with hair ;
the whiskers are strong ; the tail is short and bushy,
with coarse hair. The body is covered with woolly
fur, intermixed with long coarse hairs. The
general colour is of a yellowish-grey, radiated
with distinct transverse stripes of dusky-black, the
mane being waved with black, which is al.so the
colour of the feet and extreme half of the tail. The
young are much darker, both in general colour and
their markings, than adults. Length of an adult
female specimen in the museum of the Zool. Snc,
two feet six inches, exclusive of the tail, which is
eleven inches. The male is somewhat larger.
The Aard-wolf, or Proteles, is nocturnal in its
habits, and constructs a deep burrow, at the bottom
of which it lies concealed during the day-time.
This subterranean chamber, to which there are three
or four different entrances, is usually occupied by
several individuals, so that the animal appears to
be partially gregarious. Notwithstanding the trail-
ing contour of its hind-quarters, it runs with con-
siderable quickness : when irritated, it erects its
mane, like the hysena. Its food consists of carrion
and small anim.als, not excluding ants, which were
found by Sparrman in the stomach of one he killed.
939, 940.— The Civet
( Viverra Civetta). The restricted genus Viverra, as
established by modern naturalists, contains only a
limited number of species, characterized by the
possession of a large double sacculus, secreting an
unctuous substance of a strong musky odour ; by
the claws being half retractile ; and the pupil of
tiie eye circular during the day. The dentition,
similar to that of the Ichneumons (Fig. 941), is
as follows : — Incisors, - ; canines, ^^ ; molars,
6—6 ,
6=6=^-
The body is long and compressed laterally ; the
fur is somewhat harsh, full ; and a mane, as in the
Proteles runs along the spine. The head is stout,
but the muzzle is elongated ; the ears are short,
wide, and rounded; the tail is shorter than the
body. The eyes gleam in the dark with great bril-
liancy.
Of nocturnal habits, wild and savage, the animals
of this genus are decidedly carnivorous, preying
upon birds, reptiles, and small mammalia, which
they take by surprise, and exhibit great energy and
bodily activity* When taken young they are easily
tamed, but adults can never be reconciled to cap-
tivity.
The Civet is peculiar to North Africa, and is
especially common in Abyssinia, frequenting hilly,
uncultivated districts and arid situations. It gives
its name to the musky perfume for which all
the species are equally remarkable. In figure the
civet IS robust, but the body is compressed laterally ;
in size it equals a dog of middle stature, being
i| about twenty-six inches in length, exclusive of the
!: tail, which is thirteen or fourteen inches. Button
I states that in his time numbers were kept in Hol-
land for the commercial advantage of obtaining
their odorous secretion ; but we are not aware that
such is now the case. In North Africa, however,
the practice is in vogue. The colour of the civet
is dark grey, thickly banded with black ; a white
stripe runs along the sides of the neck, bounded by
a black line above, the throat and sides of the
muzzle being black. A thick mane of coarse black
hair runs along the neck and back, and continues
over the tail, which is consequently somewhat
bushy.
In India the Civet is represented by the Zibet
(Viverra Zibetha, Linn. ; Viverra undulata. Gray),
and in Java by the Tangalung (the Tangalunga
Padi of the natives). This is the Spotted Civet,
Viverra Tangalunga, of Gray, and the V. Zibetha
of F. Cuvier, Dr. Horsfield, Sir T. Raffles, who con-
founded it with the former, from which it is deci-
dedly distinct. It is the Viverra Hardwickii of
Lesson.
942, 943.— The Genet
(Genetta vulgaris). The Genets are distinguished
by a slim and graceful contour ; the neck is long ;
the head is narrow, and terminates in a pointed
muzzle ; the limbs are short ; the ears broad, short,
and rounded ; the tail lengthened ; the pupils of
the eyes linear and vertical ; the musk-pouches are
inconsiderable or reduced to a mere depression.
In their manner.?, as well as in several anatomical
peculiarities, the Genets approximate closely to the
Cats. Like those animals they hiss when ap-
proached or irritated ; spring upon their prey, tak-
ing it by surprise ; strike and lacerate with their
talons, which are completely retractile ; and climb*
trees with ease and rapidity. In the markings and
character of the fur also we see a marked approach
to the ( 'ats.
The Common Genet is found throughout Africa,
and occurs in the South of France and other por-
tions of Europe adjacent to the Mediterranean. It
is said to haunt the borders of streams and rivers,
especially near their source. This beautiful but
fierce animal is easily domesticated, and is kept
tame in Constantinople, where it is in repute as a
destroyer of rats and mice. Its odour is not very
powerful, nor at all disagreeable.
The general colour is greyish-yellow, with black
lines down the back, and spotted on the sides with
the same ; on the cheeks, above the eyes, and on each
side of the muzzle, there is a streak of white ; the
tiii! Is alternately banded with black and white.
944. — The Rasse Genet
(Genetta Rasse). Viverra Rasse, Horsfield; Viverra
Gunda, Hamilton, MSS. This species, which is a
native of Java, appears to be different from the
Genetta Indica. According to Dr. Horsfield, it
frequents forests of moderate elevation, where it
preys upon small birds and animals of every descrip-
tion, and possesses the sanguinary appetite of the
animals of this family in a high degree. In con-
finement it will devour a mixed diet, and is fed on
eggs, fish, flesh, and rice. The natives affirm that
salt is a poison to it. Its odoriferous secretion is
termed dedes by the Javanese, and jibet by the
Malays, and is held in high esteem. In the Mu-
seum of the Zool. Soc. there are eight distinct spe-
cies of the present genus, to which has yet to be
added the Fossane of Madagascar.
945. — The Delukdukg
(Prionodo/i gracilis). This beautiful and singular
species, a native of Java, was regarded by Dr. Hors-
field as so intimately related to the Cats, that he
terms it Felis, and assigns it a sectional place in
that group. We consider it to be the most nearly
allied to the Genets, though destitute of scent-
glands, and differing somewhat in the dentition,
which is as follows : — Incisors, _ ; canines, -^^ ; mo-
6 1 — 1
5 5
lars, - — -. Of the molars above, the first is bi-
0 — o
cuspid, the second tricuspid, as is the third ; the
fourth, or carnassiSre, has an elongated cutting
edge ; the fifth is tubercular. This jagged form of
the teeth has suggested the name of Prionodon, from
Tcpiuv, ' a saw,' and oBovg, ' a tooth.' (See Fig. 946 :
a, an external view of the teeth of both jaws; b, an
internal view of the same ; c, front view of the
teeth.) The Delundung was discovered in 1806, by
Dr, Horsfield, during his researches in the district
of Blambangan, at the eastern extremity of Java,
where it is very rare, and still more so in other parts
of the island : it inhabits the extensive forests
with which the district is almost entirely covered.
Of its habits no details were collected.
This animal is extremely slender and elongated,
with a tapering head and sharp muzzle, a long thick
tail, and slender delicate limbs. The eyes are
sprightly, the irides brown, the pupils circular. The
claws are minute and sharp, and perfectly retractile.
The fur is silky at the base, and soft to the touch.
The whiskers are very long. The ground-colour is
of a delicate yellowish-white ; four broad transverse
bands of rich blackish-brown traverse the back at
equal intervals ; an interrupted stripe, originating
behind the eye and between the ears, passes along
the side, and terminates in large spots on the thigh ;
the shoulder is similarly spotted ; and the tail is
ringed at regular but increasing intervals. The
tout-ensanble brings to mind the cloudings on a
rich piece of tortoiseshell. Fig. 946 presents a
front view of the head: d, the fore-foot covered with
fur ; e, the hind-foot with the fur removed.
947. — The Ckyptoprocta
(Cryptopiocta ferox). This remarkable and rare
animal is a decided link between the Viverrine and
the Feline groups, approaching very nearly to the
latter in external characters, and still more so in in-
ternal anatomy.
The body is slender, but the limbs are robust and
muscular ; the head is narrow ; the eyes rather
small ; the ears unusually large and rounded ; the
toes five on each foot ; the tail long. General
colour a light brownish-red.
The individual on which Mr. Bennett founded his
description was immature, having not yet lost its
milk-teeth ; it was thirteen inches and a half in the
length of the head and body, that of the tail being
eleven inches and a half.
Of the habits of the Cryptoprocta ferox nothing
definitely is known. The specimen in question was
sent to the Zool. Soc. by Mr. Telfair, President of
the Mauritius Natural History Society, who states
that he received it alive from the interior and south-
em part of Madagascar, and that he had not seen
in the Mauritius any of the Madagascar people that
were acquainted with it. Hence it would seem to
be rare. He remarks, " It was the most savage
creature of its size I ever met with ; its motions,
power, and activity were those of a tiger, and it had
the same appetite for blood and the destruction of
animal life. Its muscular force was very great, and
the muscles of the limbs were remarkably full and
thick."
948. — The Subicate
( Rijz<Eimtetradactyla, III.). Regarding the Pro-
teles as leading to the Hyainas, and the Cryptoprocta
to the Cats, another line of the Viverridae appears to
conduct us to the Ferrets, through the Ichneumons.
But before we notice these, two rematkable genera
claim our attention, each containing a single species,
which in form and habits appears to exhibit a cer-
2K 2
«4S.— Gtmt.
<%
A
,%||^j|M
a^^ fe AMjuSfc^-
Ml.— Teeth ot rchnenauo.'
iia.-Gmt.
MS.— He>iJ, Teetli, and Fe«t of Delundung.
9>0.— Mangne.
944. -DuseGenrt.
Ma.— Qenet.
212
947.— Crypt procU.
^48.— Suricate.
9»3,^n4i«n Ichneamons.
OSO.— SaWo-lnmtins.
213
214
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Ichneumon.
tain degree of affinity to the Racoom, liaving, like
those animals, a lone, pointed, moveable nose ; feet
almost entirely plantigrade ; eyes obliquely set ; the
body strongly built, and the habit of nilUng up on
the haunches, while the fore-paws are employed in
holding fooil. While, however, the approach of
these species to the Racoons is discernible, their
alliance to the Ichneumons cannot be mistaken.
We first select the Suricate. A nose remarkably
long, sharp, and flexible ; quick, lively, oblique eyes,
with circular pupils ; and close ears, give a peculiar
expression to tlic physiognomy of the Suricate.
The toes on each foot are four, those of the anterior
limbs beiii:; armed with large hooked claws, minia-
ture copies of those of the Sun-bears. The dentition
(Fijr. IM'J) resembles that of the ichneumons, except
that there is one false molar less on each side, above
and below.
This rare animal is a native of Southern Africa,
and is emmently carnivorous in its habits. Its
length is about a foot, exclusive of the tail, which
is nearly six inches. There are two scent-glands.
The general colour is yellowish-grey, waved trans-
versely with dark brown and rufous, the hairs, as in
the ichneumons, being ringed with different tints ;
the tail is rufous-brown, ending in black. The fur
is long and rather coarse.
We have had an opportunity of observing two
specimens, a male and female, in captivity ; they
were lively, inquisitive, and docile, but betrayed
great excitement when birds or other small animals
were presented before their cage, endeavouring to
seize or dart upon them. They used their paws
with much address, and would sit up, peeping be-
tween the wires, or caressing each other, for they
exhibited great mutuiJ attachment. The female
died first ; the male became dull, pined, and shortly
followed his companion. The notes of their ana-
tomy, by Professor Owen, are given in the ' Zoolo-
pcal Proceedings' for 1830-31.
930. — The Mangub
{Crotsarchui obscurus). The Mangue, the only
known representative of the genus Crossarchus, is a
native of Sierra Leone and other parts of Western
Africa. It resembles the Suricate in the form of
the head and nose, in dentition, and general struc-
ture, internal as well as external. It has, however,
five toes on each foot, and is fairly plantigrade. Its
general colour is deep chocolate-brown, grizzled
with yellowish-white, each hair being ringed with
this colour. The individual which we have observed
in captivity resembled the Suricate in its habits,
and was very intelligent. With respect to its man-
ners in a state of nature we have no particular
details. In the ' Zool. Proceeds.' for 1834 will be
found our account of the internal anatomy of this
animal, compared with that of the Suricate and the
Viverrida: in general.
951. — The Egyptian Ichneumon
(Herpestes Fharaonis, Desm.). With long agile
bodies, small glowing eyes, a pointed nose, long
tail, short limbs, and semi-plantigrade feet, the Ich-
neumons, or Mangoustes, as they are also called
(Mangusta, Oliv. ; Ichneumon, Geoff. ; Herpestes,
Illie'.), in their general form, no less than in their
habits, display a certain approximation to the ferrets,
being bold, active, and sanguinary, and unrelenting
destroyers of birds, reptiles, and small mammalia,
which they take by surprise, darting rapidly upon
them. Beautiful, cleanly, and ea.sily domesticated,
they are often kept tame in the countries they
naturally inhabit, for the puipose of clearing the
houses of vermin, though the poultry-yard is not
safe from their incursions. The ears are short, wide,
and rounded ; the hair long, rather coarse and waved
or grizzled, each hair being ringed with different
tints ; the scent-gland is large ; the feet are five-toed,
the nails sharp and semi-retractile ; the pupilsof the
eyes oblong: Fig. 941 gives the dentition. The
ichneumons are natives of the hotter parts of the
Old World, the species being respectively African
and Indian. Night is their sea-son of activity ; they
then prowl in quest of their prey, stealing along
with noiseless step, urced by hunger and the in-
stinct of destruction. The Egyptian ichneumon is
a native of North Africa, and was deified for its
services by the ancient Egyptians. Its Coptic
name is Nems ; its Arabic, among the Moors, Serro.
Snakes, lizards, birds, crocodiles newly hatched, and
especially the eggs of the crocodile, constitute its
food ; and the ancients believed that it attacked
and killed that huge reptile when fully grown.
Pliny states that when gorged with food, and lying
with the mouth open, a little bird, called Trochilos,
enters the jaws of the crocodile to pick the teeth,
to the great satisfaction of the monster ; and he ad(b,
that the ichneumon, espying him asleep, darts down
his throat and tears his inside. We need not enter
into any grave refutation of this marvellous ac- !
co-'nt.
The ichneumon is fierce and daring, and glides |
with sparkling eyes towards its prey, which it fol-
lows with snake-like progression ; olten it watches
patiently for hours together in one spot, waiting the
appearance of a mouse, rat, or snake from its lurk-
ing-place. We have frequently seen the animal
sit up like the Suricate while Ceding. In a state
of domestication it is gentle and affectionate, and
never wanders from tne house or returns to an
independent existence ; but it makes itself familiar
with every part of the premises, exploring every
hole and corner, inquisitively peeping into boxes
and vessels of all kinds, and watching every move-
ment or operation. Sonnini, who travelled in
1777-8-9, observes that few or none are now reared
in Egypt in a state of domestication ; Hasselquist,
however, mentions that Mr. Baiton, English Consul
in Egypt, had a tame ichneumon, and adds that it
frequently goes about the houses like a cat. It
would appear that, like tlie 'polecat, it often de-
populates the fowl-roost.
"The colour of the Egyptian ichneumon is brown-
ish-grey, each hair being ringed with white and
dark tints of brown ; the tail tapers towards the ex-
tremity, which is tufted and black. Length twenty-
one inches, exclusive of the tail, which is eighteen.
953. — The Indian Ichneumon
(^Herpestes griseus). This species is much less than
the Egyptian ichneumon, and of a beautiful freckled-
grey. It is common in India, and frequently brought
to this country ; it is easily tamed, and is inquisitive,
active, cleanly, and docile. Mr. Bennett, in his
account of one kept in the Tower, says that on one
occasion it killed no fewer than a dozen full-grown
rats, which were turned out before it in a room six-
teen feet square, in less than a minute and a half.
954. — ^The Garangan
{Herpestes Javanicus). According to Dr. Horsfield,
this species, termed Garangan by the Javanese,
I inhabits chiefly the large teak-forests, and its
agility is greatly admired by the natives : it attacks
and kills serpents with excessive boldness. " It is
very expert in burrowing in the ground, which pro-
cess it employs ingeniously in the pursuit of rats.
It possesses great natural sagacity, and, from the
peculiarities of its character, it willingly seeks the
protection of man. It is easily tamed, and in its
domestic state is docile, and attached to its master,
I whom it follows like a dog ; it is fond of caresses,
and frequently places itself erect on its hind-legs,
regarding everything that passes with great atten-
tion. It is of a very restless disposition, and always
carries its food to the most retired place to consume
it. It is veiy cleanly in its habits ; it is exclusively
carnivorous, and very destructive to poultry, em-
ploying great artifice in surprising chickens :" hence
the natives seldom keep it tamed, nor is it altoge-
ther to be trusted, as it is subject to fits of excessive
violence. Its mode of encountering serpents was
related by the natives to Dr. Horsfield, exactly as it
is described by Rumphius, who informs us that the
.Javanese nobles amuse themselves with these con-
tests. When the two enemies are opposed to each
other, the serpent endeavoure to twine round the
quadruped and kill it ; the latter inflates itself to tur-
gcscence, and, as the reptile is about to inflict the
fatal wounds, contracts its body, slips through the
scaly coil, and seizes its foe by the neck. We sus-
pect that in this stoty some allowance must be made
for over-colouring.
955. — Steedman's Ctnictis
(Cynictis Steedmannii, Ogilb.). The genus Cynic-
tis differs from Herpestes in the number of the toes
on the hind-feet being only four, and in the absence
of a false molar on the lower jaw. The tail is long
and bushy. The characters of the skull and denti-
tion are seen at Fig. 956 : a, the skull from above ;
b, the same in profile ; c, the dentition of the upper
jaw ; d, the dentition of the lower jaw.
The Cynictis Steedmannii is a native of South
Africa, and appears to resemble the ichneumons in
its general habits. It excavates burrows in which
it dwells. Though only introduced to our know-
ledge within the last few years, it was most probably
seen by Sparrman and Barrow, the latter of whom
describes an animal so closely resembling the pre-
sent, that there can be no doubt as to their identity.
The general colour is foxy red ; the tail is bushy,
tipped with white. Length one loot six inches, ex-
clusive of the tail, which is one foot. A second
species of this genus, Cynictis melanurus, is a native
of Sierra Leone ; and several others have been lately
discovered in South Africa.
957. — The Common Paradoxurh
(Paradorurus Typus). The genus Paradoxunis
appears to be one of the links which conduct us from
the true Viverrae to the aberrant forms of the Ursida;.
This genus is peculiar to India and the adjacent
islands. It is characterized by a semi-plantigrade
condition of the feet, the greater portion of the sole
being naked and callous; the toes, five closely
united together by intervening webs ; claws short,
sharp, and semi-retractile ; the pupil linear ; a mere
fold instead of scent-pouches ; molars ;; — • nearly
o — 6 ' '
resembling those of the Genets ; the tail frequently
spirally contorted, but not prehensile ; the fur full.
In size the paradoxure exceeds a common cat, its
total length, including the tail, being three feet.
The general coloui- is greyish black tinged with yel-
low, and indistinctly banded and spotted with a
dusky hue ; a whitish streak occupies the cheek
below the eye, and another runs above ; muzzle
black. The paiadoxurcsaie to a great extent fnigi-
vorous, and are in the habit of climbing trees, which
they do with great facility. Dr. Horsfield, in his ' Zoo-
logical Researches,' gives a description of the Java
paradoxure, or Musang, well worthy of notice. Its
manners, he observes, are very similar to those of the
Genet. " If taken young, it becomes patient and
gentle during confinement, and receives readily
animal and vegetable food. It requires little atten-
tion, and contents itself with the scanty remains of
the meals of the natives, with fish, eggs, rice, pota-
toes, &c., the structure of its teeth being particularly
adapted to vegetable diet. It prefers, however, the
delicate and pulpy fruits, but when pressed by
hunger attacks lowls and birds. It is most abun-
dant near the villages situated at the confines of
large forests, and constructs a simple nest in the
manner of squirrels, of dry leaves, grass, or small
twigs, in the forks of larger branches or in the hol-
low of trees. From these it sallies forth at night to
visit the sheds and hen-roosts of the natives, in search
of eggs, chickens, &c. Its rambles are also parti-
cularly directed to gardens and plantations, where
fruits of every description within its reach, aixl
particularly pine-apples, suffer extensively from its
depredations." The coffee plantations in some parts
of the island are greatly infested by it, and on this
account it has obtained the name ol coffee-rat. It
selects the msst ripe and perfect beriies, and as the
seeds pass uninjured through the alimentary vis-
cera, it spreads that plant extensively, and gives
origin to splendid groves in various parts of the
forests, but particularly on the declivities of hills,
thus counterbalancing the injuries it commits. It
native name is Leewak.
Fig. 958 represents the dentition of the Binturong
(Artitis Binturong, Tem. ; Ictides ater, Cuv.). This
animal, a native of Java and Sumatra, represents in
its own country the kinkajou of the forests of South
America. It is a slow, heavy, plantigrade animal,
with short limbs, and a long, powerful, prehensile
tail, very thick and muscular at the base, and with
which it assists itself in climbing, being arboreal in
its habits. One that was kept alive many years by
Major Farquhar partook both of animal and vege-
table food. It is timid and nocturnal, sleeping dur-
ing the day, and wandering about at night in quest
of food. In size it exceeds a domestic cat, mea-
suring two feet five inches in the length of the head
and body, the tail being upwards of two feet. Its
fur is long and coarse ; general colour black ; pupils
of the eyes linear. Cuvier notices the approxima-
tion of these animals to the racoons.
Family Musteud.b, or the Weasels, &c. Smaller,
for the most part, than the animals of the cat tribe
(Felidae), and consequently less formidable as far as
man is concerned, but equally carnivorous and san-
guinary, the Mustelidae (we speak of the typical
species) are appointed to prey on the multitudinous
races of the weak and the timid — such as birds,
rabbits, hares, and even fish and reptiles : of slender
elongated figure, and with shoit legs, they appear
to glide along, and indeed, from the extreme flexi-
bility and the cylindrical form of their bodies, which
enable them to force their way through the smallest
openings, they have been termed Vermiform Fer?e.
They are silent, cautious, and creeping, and attack
their prey with unflinching resolution. Having
seized their victim, they never let go their hold.
They generally aim at the neck below the ear,
where they pierce the large blood-vessels with their
teeth, or they fix upon the back of the head and
drive their teeth through the skull. Few quadru-
peds exceed them in agility and address ; they bound
and spring with vigour, and climb trees with aston-
ishing dexterity, traversing the branches with a
rapid gliding motion. Of nocturnal habits, they
pass the greatest part of the day in their retreats,
which are in the hollows of decayed trees, in bur-
rows, holes in walls, and similar places. With the
approach of night they rouse from their slumbers,
and, greedy for blood, begin their prowl. A polecat
in the neighbourhood of a farmyard is a direful pest,
and in one night will destroy a whole brood of poul-
try, for the sake of the blood and brains.
The shortness of the muzzle, the characters of the
teeth, and the solidity of the skull, form a good in-
dex of the disposition of these animals. In the
genus Putorius (Mustela), of which the polecat is
Weasels.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
215
an example, the dentition is as follows : — Incisors, - ;
1—1 2-
canines, y— r ; false molars, —
small tubercular molar, - — -.
carnassiere,
1—1
In the genus Martes,
Ray (Mustela, Cuvier), of which the marten is an
3 3
example, the false molars are - — -. In the genus
"^ 4 — 4
Gulo the dentition (as seen in Fig. 959) is as in the
genus Martes.
In a commercial point of view the present family
is by no means unimportant. From several species
the most costly furs are procured, pre-eminent for
beauty : we need only mention the sable (Martes
Zibellina), and the ermine (Mustela erminea). The
true sable is a native of the dreary regions of Sibe-
Tia, where it haunts the gloomy pine-forests which
stretch over immense tracts of country remote from
human abodes. It is into the midst of these Vi'ilds
that the sable-hunter has to penetrate in the pursuit
of his game, and the chace is carried on in the
winter, for it is then that the fur is the finest. Great
are the hunter's penis and privations. He has to
traverse plains and mountains covered with snow,
and swept by the keen tempests of an arctic winter ;
— to spend daj's and nights in patient watching,
and in the solitudes of the dismal forest ; — he is ex-
posed to overwhelming snow-storms, of which, in
our climate, we can form but an imperfect idea.
He often loses his way ; his provisions fail, and he
finds himself exposed to all the horrors of cold and
famine. Who has not heard of the hardships of
the hunter of sables in the deserts of Siberia ? (See
Fig. 960.)
961. — British Mustelid.e.
We have arranged in our Pictorial Museum a most
interesting group of British Mustelidae, typical of
the family. Of these, a is the Polecat (Mustela
Putorius) ; b, the Stoat (Mustela erminea); c, the
Beech-.Marten (Martes fagorum) ; d, the Ferret
(Mustela furo) ; e, the Weasel (Mustela vulgaris).
Fig. 962 represents the Pine-Marten (Mustela abie-
tum) ; Fig. 963, the Beech-Marten (Mustela fago-
rum).
The polecat, fitchet, or foumart is very common
in some parts of our island, where the farmer and
the sportsman make common cause against it.
Poultry, young and old, ducks, geese, and turkeys
fall a prey to its sanguinary disposition : it destroys
all within its reach. Mr. Bell instances one case in
which sixteen large turkeys were killed by a polecat
during the course of one night, and another in which
ten ducks were similarly destroyed, and the perpetra-
tor of the outrage, when in the morning the door of
the outhouse in which they were shut was opened,
marched out licking his bloody jaws, without the
slightest alarm. Many similar instances have come
under our own personal knowledge. The predilec
tion of the polecat for the brains and the blood of
poultry is well known : it seldom touches the rest
of the carcass ; and we may here observe that rats
display the same taste for the brains of birds. We
could adduce many instances, within our own know-
ledge, in which birds kept in aviaries have been
destroyed by rats, the brain of the victims being in
every case eaten out of the skull.
It is generally in winter that the polecat haunts
the farm-yard. In summer it resorts to plantations,
woods, and preserves of game, where it makes havoc
among leverets, young partridges, and pheasants ;
nor are the nests of birds safe from its attacks, the
eggs or callow brood being equally acceptable.
No animal is more pernicious in the rabbit-warren.
It can follow its prey through their subterranean
galleries, which the fox cannot do ; besides which, its
love of slaughter seems insatiable. It would appear
that even the tenants of the water are not safe from
its attacks. Mr. Bewick, on his own testimony,
affirms that in one instance eleven fine eels were
discovered in the retreat of a polecat near a rivulet,
to which its nocturnal visits were rendered apparent
by tracks in the snow, both of its feet and of the
writhing eels. In Loudon's 'Magazine ' (vol. vi.
p. 206) an instance is related in which the nest of a
female polecat was opened containing five young
ones, while in a side hole were packed forty large
frogs and two toads, barely alive, each having been
paralyzed by a bite through the brain. When at-
tacked by dog or man, the polecat makes a vigorous
resistance, and will defend itself to the last. The
female breeds in the spring, making a nest of dry
grass in her burrow. The young are from three to
five in number. The adult polecat measures about
one foot four or five inches in length, exclusive of
the tail, which measures nearly six inches. The
body is covered with a woolly undercoat, and this,
with the ba.se of the long hairs, which form an outer
garment, is of a pale yellow ; the extremities of the
long hairs are of a deep glossy blackish-brown ; the
margins of the ears and part of the lips are white.
Though by no means so valuable as that of the sable
or marten, the fur of this animal (known generally
by the name of Fitch) is imported very extensively
from the North of Europe, and is abundant in the
furriers' shops of our metropolis.
The Ferret is closely allied to the polecat ; so
closely, indeed, that many naturalists regard them
as the same species, the more especially as a mixed
breed between them may be procured. We do not,
however, consider this opinion to be correct. The
polecat is a native of temperate and northern Eu-
rope ; the Ferret, of Africa, whence, as we are told
by Strabo, it was imported into Spain for the pur-
pose of destroying rabbits, with which, at one period,
that country was injuriously overrun. From Spain
it has spread through the rest of Europe, not as a
wild, but as a domesticated animal.
From the earliest times it was used in the capture
of rabbits by being turned, muzzled, into their bur-
rows. Pliny alludes to this practice in his eighth
book. The ordinary colour of the ferret is yellow-
ish-white ; but we have frequently seen specimens
of a brown colour : these, indeed, were said to be
of the mixed breed between the polecat and the
ferret, and probably were so, as they were always
larger and stouter than the white. One of the
brown kind, in the possession of a relative of the
writer's, was so tame as to be allowed the liberty of
the house, and it slept in his chamber — a dangerous
experiment, as instances have been known of their
attacking persons and wounding them severely.
An instance in which an infant nearly fell a sacri-
fice to a ferret is related by Mr. Jesse, in his ' Glean-
ings,' and quoted by Mr. Bell. The child had the
jugular vein and the temporal artery opened ; the
face, neck, and arms lacerated ; and the sight of one
eye destroyed. The ferret is not only employed by
the warrener, but also by the ratcatcher, who prefers
the mixed breed.
The ferret is very sensitive of cold, and requires
to be kept snug and warm, especially during winter,
as it perishes if exposed to the severity of the sea-
son.
The Weasel (Mustela vulgaris) is so well known,
that any description of its form and colour is use-
less. Small as this animal is, it has all the courage
and ferocity of its race, and will prey upon leverets,
chickens, young pigeons, and ducklings ; its favour-
ite food, however, are mice, rats, water-rats, and
even moles. In the farmer's stack-yard and E;ranary
it is of the greatest utility, and well repays by valu-
able services the occasional abstraction of a chicken,
a pigeon, or a few eggs. Of this, indeed, many
farmers are well aware, and encourage it for the
sake of the incessant ■vvail'are it keeps up as^ainst
mice and rats, which, from their excessive numbers,
often occasion a serious loss in grain, besides under-
mining the barns and outhouses.
The weasel climbs trees and runs up the side of
a wall with facility, its movements being singularly
graceful. When it attacks its prey, it fixes its teeth
on the back of the head, and pierces the brain,
which it then devours. It is said to prefer putrid
flesh to that just killed, but this is very doubtful,
and has arisen most pmbably from the circumstance
of dead birds in a putrid state having been found in
its hole or near its retreat, left by their destroyer.
The weasel hunts by the scent, like a dog ; and fol-
lows mice and moles with the utmost perseverance,
tracking them through all their runs or winding
galleries. It will even cross the water in the pur-
suit, if its prey be in sight, nor does swiftness avail,
for onwards will the weasel travel, fill its victim
fails from exhaustion. The wolverene of North
America (Gulo arcticus) pursues the beaver and
other prey in a similar manner.
Instances are on record in which several weasels
have united in attacking men, who with difficulty
have prevented the fierce little animals from lacer-
ating their throats, and certainly twelve or fifteen
weasels would prove no mean adversaries.
The weasel often falls a prey to hawks, owls, and
kites ; but sometimes succeeds in coming off vic-
torious. Many anecdotes are on record of weasels
and stoats bringing eagles or large hawks to the
ground — and Mr. Bell gives an instance, assuring
us of its truth, in which a kite that had seized a wea-
sel and mounted into the air, was observed to wheel
irregularly, and at length to fall to the ground dead ;
the determined little animal having torn open the
skin and large blood-vessels under its wing.
The weasel breeds two or three times in a year,
having a litter of five at each birth. She makes her
nest of dry herbage ; a hole in the bank side, among
rambles, or in an aged tree, is the usual place of
her retreat ; and when molested, she defends her-
self and her progeny with indomitable courage.
The Stoat (Mustela erminea) is allied very closely
to the weasel, but is considerable larger, being up-
j wards of nine inches long, excluding the tail. Its
habits are precisely those of the weasel, but it preys
habitually on larger game, as hares, leverets, &c.,
not excluding the rat and water-rat. Of the latter.
indeed, it destroys great numbers, following them
into their burrows. It hunts its prey by the scent.
Some idea of the extent of the depredation of this
animal may be conceived from the circumstance of
two leverets, two leverets' heads, two young par-
tridges, and a pheasant's egg having been found in
the retreat of one. In our climate the stoat becomes
partially white during the winter, hut in more
northern regions this change is complete, the tip of
the tail alone remaining black. In this state it is
called the Ermine. Large importations of ermine-
fur are made from Russia, Norway, and Siberia to
our country. In 1833 the importation amounted
to 105,139 skins.
The Beech-Marten (Martes fagorum) and the
Pine-Marten (Martes abietum) are both natives of
our island; but the former,"distinguished by a white
breast, is said to be the most common. The pine-
marten is distinguished by a yellow breast and
throat. It must be confessed, however, that the
specific distinction between these two animals is
by no means very apparent, nor indeed is it ad-
mitted by many. We have many times seen the
yellow-breasted or pine-marten in the fir-woods
which clothe the sides of some of the hills in Derby-
shire, and especially near Buxton. It prefers wild
and unfrequented places, deep wooded glens, and
the depths of forests ; and is common throughout
northern Europe. The Beech-marten also frequents
woods, but not so exclusively as the former, and
often lurks about farm-houses and destroys poultry.
Both are destructive to game. They take up their
retreats in hollow trees or holes in rocks, and the
female makes her nest of leaves and moss for her
brood. The asility and gracefulness of these ani-
mals are remarkable ; they climb trees with the ease
of the squirrel, and traverse their branches or leap
from bough to bough with admirable address and
celerity. Their fur, especially that of the pine-
marten, is full, deep, and soft, and of a beautiful
brown, and not far inferior to that of their imme-
diate ally the sable. The marten exceeds the pole-
cat in size, and the tail is long and bushy. The
ears are large and open, and the eyes bright and
lively. In general instincts they agree H'ith the
other Mustelae.
Distinct from both of these, we regard the Ame-
rican pine-marten, characterized by a shorter tail
and fuller fur. Its skins are annually imported
into England from North America, where it is abun-
dant in the high latitudes. Dr. Richardson observes
that in America "particular races of martens, dis-
tinguished by the fineness and dark colour of their
fur, appear to inhabit certain rocky districts. The
rocky, mountainous, but wooded region of the
Nipogon, on the north side of Lake Superior, has
been long noted for its black and valuable martens,
skins.'' The animal is usually taken in traps baited
with the head of a bird. It is very bold, and when
attacked shows its teeth, hisses like a cat, and bites
with great severity. " Upwards of one hundred
thousand skins have been collected annually in the
fur countries." Another and larger species, the Pe-
kan, or Fisher (Martes Canadensis), is common in the
northern parts of America, ranging from Penn-
sylvania to the Great Slave Lake, and from shore
to shore across the country. Its fur is Jess valuable
than that of the former. It gives preference to
damp spots and humid forests bordering water.
964, 965.— The Glutton
(Gulo arcticus, Desm.). Pallas and Gmelin referred
the Glutton to the genus Ursus ; it belongs, however,
to the present family : see its dentition" (Fig. 959).
Linnajus rightly regarded it as a Mustela.* In
their general port and figure the gluttons are inter-
mediate between the polecats and the badgers.
They have no decided scent-pouch, but a glandular
fold of the skin.
Two varieties, perhaps species, of Glutton are
known : one, a native of the nigh northern latitudes
of the Old World ; the other, of the cold regions of
America. The Old World species (Gulo arcticus),
the Rossomak of the Russians, is of a deep chestnut
passing into black on the limbs, with a brown disk
on the back. The American animal (Gulo luscus,
Sabine), termed Wolverene, Carcajou, and Quick-
hatch, is paler. The glutton is nocturnal in its
habits : the limbs are strong and short ; the feet
subplantigrade, with five toes, armed with sharp
claws ; the head broad, ending in a narrow muzzle ;
the ears are short and rounded ; the tail moderate.
As we are inclined to regard the Old Worid and
American gluttons as mere varieties, we shall
not disjoin their history. The first writer who
has described this animal is Olaus Magnus.
"Among all animals," he says, "which are re-
garded as insatiably voracious, the glutton in the
northern parts of Sweden has received an express
appellation, being called, in the language of the
country, Jei-ft' ; and in German, 'Vielfrass. In
* ',?y''- ^'"'■.' ' 2th edit. He retains, however, the term Ursus for
the Wolverf ne, naming it Urtus ftucus.
rc^^^m^^'ih:'-
r:v
Ml.— Brituh MoMclidae (Wnwh).
'''^r^^jiim^ys^'
MT.-OlatUttud Rein Deer.
216
9^9. -Teeth of Glutton.
966.— Grison.
WO.— Teeth of Rat**!.
>''>i\l,lJ ^.*
9«8.— e i-j .
970— Indian Rate!,
Xo. 28. Vol. I.
971. — Common liadger.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
217
218
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[RATELa
the Slavonian lanf^ua^re its name is Rowomaka,
in allusion to its voracity; in Latin, however, it
is only known by the fictitious name of Gulo, from
its habits of corgini; (^lo k gulositate appella-
tur)."— Ol. Mag., ' Hi». de Gent. Septent.'
The glutton is indeed a voracious animal, but by
no means formidable to man or the larger beasts,
though, in proportion to its size, its strength is very
treat. Slow in its movements, it makes up bv per-
severance and industry for this defect, and at a
steady pace pursues its prev for miles, hunts out
weak or dying animals, and destroys hares, mar-
mots, and birds, which it seizes unawares.
Buffon, relying on the authority of Olaus Magnus,
Isbrandt, and others, has contributed to render cur-
rent the statement (which many later naturalists
have deemed not incredible) that the glutton has
recourse to the most subtle artifice in order to sur-
prise its victims, and that it lurks in the branches of
trees until the reindeer approaches to browse be-
neath, when it throws itself upon the unsuspecting
animal with unerring rapidity, fixes its strong claws
in the skin, and proceeds to tear the neck and
throat till the wretched victim falls exhausted and
dies, when the victor devours his prey at leisure.
Gmelin, in his account of his journey through
Siberia, after quoting the statement of Isbrandt,
adds, " This address of the Glutton managing to
seize animals by surprise is confirmed by all
hunters." ...." Although it feeds on all animals,
living or dead, it prefers the reindeer. It lies in
wait for large animals as a robber on the highway,
and it also surprises them as they lie asleep." To
the circumstance of the glutton fixing on the rein-
deer, and also the elk, Desmarost expressly alludes,
evidently relying on the narratives of the earlier
writers. On the contrary. Dr. Richardson, in his
able history of the American Glutton, or wolverene,
affirms that no such artifice is resorted to by that
variety, and he appears altogether to disbelieve the
account. No doubt the details have been exagge-
rated, still we are not altogether to throw aside the
assurances of old travellers of credit ; indeed we
think it very probable that the glutton may steal
upon the reindeer asleep, or attack enfeebled or
dying deer, or young fawns, and fixing on the great
blood-vessels of the throat (as the weasel does when
attacking the hare), thus destroy its victims.
Gmelin, Dr. Richardson, and Mr. Graham agree in
the fact that the glutton is extremely annoying to
the fur-hunters, visiting their traps and devouring
the animals taken in them. In Siberia it rifles the
traps of the sable and corsac fox ; and, as Mr. Gra-
ham observes, in Northern America it will follow
" the marten-hunter's path round a line of traps ex-
tending 40. .")0, or GO miles, and render the whole
unserviceable merely to come at the baits, which
are generally the head of a partridge on a bit of
<!ried venison. They are not fond of the martens
themselves, but never fail of tearing them in pieces
or of burying them in the snow by the side of the
path at a considerable distance from the trap. Drifts
of snow often conceal the repositories thus made, in
which case they furnish a regale to the hungry fox,
whose sagacious nostril guides him unerringly to the
spot. Two or three foxes are often seen following
the wolverene for this purpose." During the sum-
mer the beaver is the common prey of this animal.
The glutton is nocturnal, cunning, and deter-
mined ; it fights very resolutely, and is more than a
match for a single dog, its strength being very great.
Its fur is in much request, especially that of the
Siberian animal, which is dark and beautifully
glossy. The length of the glutton, exclusive of the
tail, IS about two feet si.x inches; that of the tail,
including the long full fur, ten inches. The female
breeds once a year, the cubs being from two to four
in number. Their fur is soft, downy, and of a pale
yellowish white.
960.— The Grison
(Galiclis vUtata, Bell-); Gulo vittalus, Desmarest;
Viverra vittata, Linn.; Petit furet, D'Azara; Gri-
sonia vittata. Gray ; Lutra vittata, Traill ; Ursus
Braziliensis, Thunberg; Fouine de la Guyane, Buff.
' Suppl. III.' The giison is a native of the intertro-
pical provinces of America, Guiana, Paraguay, and
Brazil. It is remarkable for its sanguinary and
fierce disposition, and the disgusting odour of the
secretion of its scent-glands. A specimen was living
some time since in the menagerie of the Zoological
Society, and its death afforded us an opportunity of
investigating its internal anatomy. (' Zoological
Proceedings,' 1833, p. 1.0. ) In its figure the grison
is very elongated, the head is flat, and the muzzle
somewhat acute ; the general colour is grizzled
black ; the top of the head and neck grey, with a
white semi-lunar shaped band across the forehead,
extending to the shoulders. Length of body one
foot six mches ; of tail six inches and a half. A
second and larger species has been characterized by
Mr. Bell, under the name of Galictis Allamandi.
Linnaeus applied the name of Mustek barbata to a
large musteline animal inhabiting the woods of
Brazil and Paraguay, which Azara denominated the
Grand Furet and Pennant the Guiana Weasel. By
Desmarest it is referred to the genus Gulo, and is
termed Gulo Barbulus. This animal is the Taira (or
Galera of Brown). Two specimens from Trinidad,
differing from each other in colouring, are preserved
in the Museum of the Zoological Society. (See
' Proceeds. Zool. Soc.,' 1831, p. 74.) To the muste-
line group belong the Zorilles of Africa: most
writers seem to consider the Zorille as constituting
a single species (Zorilla Capensis). We are however
of opinion that the Cape species is difi'erent from
that which we have seen repeatedly from the
northern coast of Africa. The Senegal zorille has
not come under our notice, but it is stated to differ
from the Cape animal. The zorille is less than the
polecat, and, like that animal, is fierce and exceed-
ingly active. It dwells in burrows, which it digs in
the ground, concealing itself during the day. The
colour of the back is an irregular mixture of black
and white in broken or indefinite lines. The head,
sides, and under surface arc black, with the ex-
ception of a white oval spot on the forehead, and a
white mark over each eye. To this genus is appa-
rently referable a species from Madagascar, Mustela
striata, Geoff. ; Putorius striatus, Cuv. ; Galictis
striata of Isidore Geoftroy.
967.— The Skunk
(Mephitis Americana). Several species of these
animals, called Mouffettes, Mephitic Weasels, Betes
puantes, Enfansdu Diable, &c., are natives of Ame-
rica. The genus is intermediate between that of the
polecats and the badgers.
These animals are notorious for the intolerable
odour of the secretion of their glandular pouches,
which neither man nor dog can endure. The head
is small, the snout pointed, the body robust and
covered with long coarse hair, the tail rather long
and very bushy. The general colour of the upper
surface is white, interrupted byastripe, more or less
broad, of black along the spine ; the limbs and
under surface are black. According to Kalm, the
skunk of North America " brings forth its young in
the hollows of trees and in burrows; it is not con-
fined to the ground, but climbs tree ; it is an enemy
to birds ; it destroys their eggs and also devours
their young; and when it can enter the poultry
roost it makes great destruction. When it is chased
either by men or dogs it runs as far as it can or
climbs a tree ; but when it finds itself hard pressed,
it ejects its fluid against its pursuers : the odour of
this is so strong as to suffocate ; if a drop of this
pestilential secretion falls in the eyes, it is at the
risk of losing sight ; and when it falls on the clothes,
it communicates an odour so powerful, that it is
very difficult to get rid of it ; most dogs fear to
attack it, and flee when touched by a drop." Mr.
Graham confirms this account, and says that he
knew several Indians who had lost their eyesight
in consequence of inflammation produced by this
fluid having been thrown into them by the animal,
which has the power of ejecting it to the distance
of upwards of four feet. The odour produces
nausea, a sense of suffocation, and not unfrequently
fainting. With all this, however, the skunk is often
taken young and tamed, when the animal seldom
gives out its pestilential secretion ; its flesh, more-
over, is very frequently eaten, and is said to be
well flavoured. It appears that, when the natives
kill a skunk, they remove the whole of the glandular
sacs, in order that no unpleasant smell or flavour
may be communicated to the flesh. In the northern
latitudes the skunk passes its winter in a hole, sel-
bom stirring abroad, and then only for a short dis-
tance. It preys on young hares, rats and mice, and
has been observed to feed much on frogs. The
skunk is about eighteen inches in length, exclusive
of the tail, which is nearly as long as the body.
Besides the common skunk (Mephitis Americana)
four distinct species are in the Museum of the Zoo-
logical Society. From the genus Mephitis we pass
by an easy transition to that group of the Mustelidse
which includes the Ratel, the Mydaus or Teledu,
and the Badgers.
968.— Cape Ratel
(Itatdus Capensis, F. Cuv.) ; Mellivora Capensis,
Storr ; Viverra mellivora, and Uisus mellivorus,
Bhimenb. ; Taxus mellivorus, Tiedcni. ; Meles
mellivora, Thunberg ; Ratel, Spanman • Honey-
weasel, Shaw. In their dentition, the ratels closely
approximate to the true badgers (Meles}, excepting
that the last molar is smaller and narrower in pro-
portion from its anterior to its posterior edge (see
Fie. 96'.)).
The Cape ratel is a thickset clumsy animal, with
short limbs, and a partially plantigrade walk. The
claws are very robust, the muzzle is elongated, the
eyes are small and sunk, and the external ears
nearly rudimentary ; the general as|)ect is badger-
like. The Cape ratel is a native of South Africa,
and has been celebrated for the destruction it makes
among the nests of the wild-bee, to the honey of
which it is said to be very partial. Doubtless, how-
ever, itavails itself of other food, and probably, like
the badger, devours flesh and roots. In the discovery
of bees' nests it is said to be directed by the actions
and voice of a bird termed the Honey-guide (Indi-
cator Vaillantii). These insects, in South Africa,
usually build their cells in the deserted excavations
of the wild-boar or the porcupine, and from
these the ratel digs out its plunder. It preys
chiefly in the evening, remaining during the greater
portion of the day in its burrow. When taken
young, it is easily domesticated. The hide of the
ratel is extremely tough and loose, and, according
to Sparrman, if a person catches hold of it by the
back part of the neck, it is able to turn round, as it
were, in its skin, and bite the arm that molests it
The Cape ratel is about two feet six inches long,
exclusive of the tail, which is about eight inches.
The general colour above is grey, the under parts
black, and a white line runs on each side from the
ears to the origin of the tail, abruptly dividing
these two colours.
970. — The Indian Ratel
(Ratelus Indicus). This species, though known to
Pennant and Shaw (who termed it Ursus Indicus),
has only been recently recognised as a distinct
species. Lesson was not aware of the difference —
nay, neither he nor Desmarest appears to have known
of the existence of the Indian ratel ; and General
Hardwicke, who figured it in the ' Linn. Trans.,'
vol. xi., makes no allusion to the Cape ratel, appa-
rently overlooking their relationship. Mr. Bennett
observes tliat the only difference he has been able
to detect between the Asiatic and African animals
consists in tlie absence of the white line dividing
the two colours in the Indian species, and which
are not so abrupt. The absence of this line we
coiLsider to have been an individual peculiarity.
I The Indian ratel is a native of various provinces of
India, on the high banks of the Ganges and the
.lumna, where it rarely comes forth from its burrow
by day, but prowls at night about the houses of the
natives, enters the cemeteries, and with extra-
ordinary celerity works its way to the bodies re-
cently interred, which it greedily devours. It feeds
also upon rats, birds, &c. When taken young, the
Indian ratel is easily tamed and becomes playful.
It is fond of climbing, but its actions are clumsy,
though it securely traverses the larger branches.
Its voice is a deep hoarse guttural bark. (See
' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1835,
p, 113.)
The following description of a specimen from
Madras, in the menagerie of the Zoological Society,
is from the pen of Mr. Bennett : — " As far as its
manners have yet been developed, it appears to be,
with regard to man at least, one of the most play-
ful and good tempered of beasts, soliciting the
attention of almost every visitor by throwing its
clumsy body into a variety of antic postures, and
when noticed, tumbling head over heels with every
symptom of delight. But towards animals it ex-
hibits no such mildness of temper ; and it is curious
to observe the cat-like eagerness with which it
watches the motions of any of the smaller among
them that happened to pass before its den, and the
instinctive dread manifested by the latter on per-
ceiving it. Its food is of a mixed nature, consist-
ing, like that of the hears and other less carnivorous
beasts, of bread and milk in the morning, and flesh
in the latter part of the day." (' Zoological Gar-
dens.')
Allied to the ratels is the teledu (Mydaus meli-
ceps\ an animal confined to the mountain districts
of Java, and which resembles the badger in its
habits. It is well described by Dr. Ilorsfield in the
' Zoological Researches.'
971, 972.— The Badgkr
(Meles vulgaris). The approximation of this ani-
mal to some of the Ursida; is evident ; yet is there
still ail important line of demarcation. All the
Ursidaj have two true molars ; in the true ursine
group the posterior molar is long ; in the aberrant
group, including Ailurus, Procyon, Nasua, and
Ceicoleptes, the two molars are nearly equal in size.
In the badger, the ratel, &c., as in the polecats,
there is but one true molar. That of the upper-
jaw in the badger is very large (see Fig. 973, the
teeth of the badger), and adapted for the mastica-
tion of vegetable aliment.
The badger is extensively spread through Europe
and Asia ; it is recluse and nocturnal in its habits,
frequenting deep woods, where it makes a deep
commodious burrow, for the excavation of which
its short muscular limbs and powerful claws are
well adapted. The burrow has only one entrance,
leading into difi'erent chambers, and terminating in
one of a circular form, which is comfortably lined with
grass and hay. Here the animal spends the day in
Badgers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
219
repose, moving out only at night, in search of food.
It feeds upon roots, fruits, insects, frogs, young
rabbits, field-mice, &c., as well as upon the eggs
and young of partridges and pheasants, &c. It is
said to attack the nests of the wild-bee, plundering
the store of honey, and also devouring the larvte,
without dread of the stings of the enraged insects,
which cannot penetrate its thick tough skin.
The badger measures about two feet three inches
in the length of the head and body, that of the tail
being seven inches and a half. The head is long
and pointed, the ears close, the body broad, stout
and low, the hair trailing along the ground as the
animal moves along. The fur is full, coarse, and
deep ; its general colour above is brownish grey,
lighter on the sides and tail : the under parts are
black, as are also the legs and feet. The head is
white, with a black stripe extending from the
shoulder over the ear and eye almost to the muzzle.
From its colour, this animal is in some parts called
the grey ; its old Anglo-Saxon name is Broc, a
word still retained in Scotland and the adjacent
counties of England. It has a glandular subc'audal
pouch. The badger is by no means active or alert,
and is generally observed to be very fat, as is the
case with most animals that lead a tranquil, indolent
life, and feed upon vegetable as well as animal
diet. It is nowhere very common, especially in the
more cultivated countries, where the woods are
thinned, and its solitudes invaded by the axe.
The female produces from three to five young in
the summer, having prepared a nest in her deep
burrow for their reception. They are nursed for
five or six weeks, and then begin to shift for them-
selves. When taken at an early age, the badger
may be tamed with little trouble, and soon becomes
playful, and very attached to its keepers. Though
harmless and indisposed to enter unnecessarily into
a combat, yet it shows when assaulted great spirit
and resohition, and is no mean antagonist for a drg
twice its own weight to grapple with ; its general
muscular power is great ; its skin is loose and touuh,
and well protected by coarse shaggy fur, and its
bite is dreadfully severe ; indeed the jaws are
endowed with astonishing strength, and the lower
one at its joint or hinge with the skull is so locked
as to be inseparable, the cavity into which the
condyle is fitted being modified in such a manner
as to retain it permanently in its place. From its
prowess and bodily qualifications the badger was
formerly in much request for the brutal sport of
baiting, a favourite and exciting pastime, gratifying
to those who are indifferent to the pain they inflict
and incapable of purer pleasures.
The skin of the batfger is not without value in
commerce. It makes excellent pistol-holsters, and
the hair is used for painters' brushes and various
other purposes. The flesh, or at least the hams of
this animal are said to be palatable, and to resemble
those of the liear, for which a relish has been felt or
afl'ected by sportsmen epicures. In China, the
badger, as " Honest John Bell " the traveller states,
may be seen in the meat markets by dozens. In
America a species of badger, the Meles I.abradorica,
is widely spread; this species, accoiding to some
naturalists, forms the type of a distinct genus. (Tax-
idea, Waterhouse ; see ' Proceedings of the Zoologi-
cal Society,' 1838, p. 153.)
974. — The Indian Badger
(Arctoni/z collan's, F. Cuv.) ; Meles collaris ; Bal-
loo-soor, Hindustanee. This animal was first de-
scribed and figured by Bewick, in his 'History of
Quadrupeds' (from a living specimen kept in the
Tower about the year 17iX)), under the title of Sand-
Bear. Bewick at once recognised its affinity to the
badger, but, ignorant of the country from which it
vras brought, suspect id it to be the white badger of
North America described by Brisson ; a mistake we
may readily pardon. Not aware that any English
writer had described it, Duvaucel, who saw two in-
dividuals at Barrackpore, in the menagerie of the
governor-general, considered the species as al-
toeether new. Fred. Cuvier regarded it as the type
of a distinct genus.
The size of the sand-hog, for such is the meaning
of the term balloo-soor (not Bali-saur, as Duvaucel
writes it, norBhalloo-soor, which signifies bear-pig),
is that of a badger, but it stands higher on the legs,
and its snout is elongated and truncated at the ex-
tremity like that of a hog. The ears are small,
covered with hair, and surrounded by a circle of
white. The muzzle is flesh-colour, and nearly naked ;
two black bands run on each side of the head, and
unite near the muzzle ; the larger of these bands
on each side passes round the eye to the ear, and
along the neck and shoulder, to unite with the
black colour prevailing on the fore-limbs. The
general colour of the body above is yellowish-white,
the hairs on the back being coarse and tipped with
black. The under surface is very thinly clothed,
and llie tail resembles that of a hog. The toes (five
on each foot; are united together their whole length,
and armed with large strong claws adapted for dig-
ging. Of the habits of this animal in its natural
condition little is known. The individuals, a male
and female, observed in the menagerie of the go-
vernor-general at Barrackpore by Duvaucel, were
remarkably shy and wild. The female, however, was
less savage than the male, and showed a certain
degree of intelligence, which gave reason to believe
that, if taken young, this animal might be easily
domesticated. They passed the greater part of the
day buried beneath the straw of their den in deep
sleep. All their movements were remarkably slow.
Though they did not altogether refuse animal food,
yet they exhibited a marked predilection for
bread, fruits, and other substances of a vegetable
nature. When irritated, they uttered a peculiar
kind of grunting noise, and bristled up the hair of
their back ; if still further tormented, they would
raise themselves upon their hind-legs like a bear,
and appeared, like that animal, to possess a power
in their arms and claws not less formidable than their
teeth. This is confirmed by Mr. Johnson, in his
' Sketches of Indian Field-Sports.' " Badgers in
India," says he, "are marked exactly like those in
England, but they are larger and taller, are ex-
ceedingly fierce, and will attack a number of dogs.
I have seen dogs that would attack a hyeena or
wolf afraid to encounter them. They are scarce,
but occasionally to be met with among the hills."
975, 976, 977, 978.— The Ottee
(Lutra vulgaris) ; Mustela I.utra, Linn. This, there
can be little doubt, is the IwSph (Enhydris) of
Aristotle and the Greeks, and the Lutra of the an-
cient Italians. It is the Lodra, Lodria, and Lontra
of the modern Italians ; Nutria and Lutra of the
Spanish ; Loutre of the French ; Otter and Fisch
Otter of the Germans ; Otter of the Dutch ; Utter of
the Swedes; Odder of the Danes; Dyfigi of the
Welsh; Balgair, Cu-donn (Brown Dog), and Matadh
of the Northern Celts ; and Otter of the modern
British.
On introducing the otter to notice, we may ob-
serve that these animals seem to conduct the Mus-
telidae to the seals ; though it must be confessed the
dentition of the latter is modified on a different and
peculiar type. The otters in fact constitute an
aquatic group of the Mustelis; indeed many of the
true weasels resort occasionally to the water in quest
of prey ; the vison of North America (Mustela
vison), and a near ally, the Mustela lutreola of
northern Europe and Asia, for example, are aquatic
and otter-like in their habits ; and approximate to
the otter in form.
The otters are distinguished by the peculiar
breadth and flatness of the head, and the rounded
outline of the muzzle ; the lips being large and
fleshy, and furnished with strong whiskejs, which
are evidently the communicators of feeling ; the ears
are very small, and close to the skull ; and the eyes,
of moderate size, are provided wilh a nictitating
membrane as a defence to their surface. The tail,
which in most aquatic mammalia is an important
instrument, is long, but very stout and muscular at
the base, somewhat compressed horizontally, and
tapering gradually to the extremity. In swimming
and diving it is used as a rudder, enabling the
animal to turn rapidly and abruptly, and assisting it
to perform its varied and gracelul manoeuvres while
in chace of its finny prey. The tongue is somewhat
rough. The body is elongated and flattened, and
the limbs are short and stout ; the toes (five on each
foot) are webbed, and spreading ; the soles are
naked. On land the progression of the otter is
plantigrade, and by no means free or rapid : hence
it trusts to the water for safety, making to it when
attacked or in any danger. The fur of these
animals at once indicates their aquatic habits ; it is
close, short, and fine, consisting of a thick woolly
undercoat, and an upper layer of smooth glossy
In their dentition (Fig. 979) the otters differ
from the polecats, martens, and shunks, the
3 3 ] 1
molars being . — - ; carnassiere, ; tuber-
o — o 1^—1
culous, -H-r Fig. 980 represents the skeleton of
the common European Otter.
This well-known species is by no means confined
to the lakes and rivers of Europe, but abounds also
on many parts of the coast, and is common on the
shores of Scotland and Ireland, as well as on the
rocky Hebrides and Shetland Islands, where it
dwells in hollows and caverns, going out to sea
to fish, or entering the mouths of rivers, and making
sad havoc among the salmon, on which account, in
Antrim, where it hides among the basaltic masses
on the east coast, a price is set upon its head. The
otter is nocturnal, night being the period in which
it carries on its work of slaughter ; sly and recluse,
it lurks by day in its deep burrow, the mouth of
which is concealed among masses of stone ; the
luxuriant herbage of some steep bank which over-
hairs,
little
false
hangs the water, or beneath the twisted roots of an
overshadowing tree.
The movements of the otter in the water are re-
markably graceful, and it swims at every depth
with great velocity ; every now and then it comes
for a moment to the surface to breathe, previously
expelling the air pent up in its lungs, which rising
in bubbles marks its subaquatic course. Having
taken breath afresh, it dives noiselessly like a shot,
and gives chace to its prey, which it follows through
every turn and maze, till at length the exhausted
victim can no longer evade the jaws of its rapacious
foe. Whoever has witnessed the feeding of those
which from time to time have been kept in the
gardens of the Zoological Society, cannot fail to
have remarked the fine sweep of the body as the
animal plunges into the water, its undulating move-
ments while exploring its prey, the swiftness and
pertinacity of the pursuit, and then the easy turn
to the surface with the captured booty. This is ge-
nerally devoured before the chace of another fish is
commenced ; sometimes, however, instead of treat-
ing them thus separately, the otter contrives to bring
up several at a time, managing not only to seize
them, but to carry them hanging from its mouth.
In eating them it commences with the head, which
it crushes in an instant between its teeth. Eight or
ten moderate-sized fish serve for a single meal, but
it is well known that in a state of nature the otter
slaughters a much larger number of fish than it
devours : hence some idea may be formed of the
havoc occasioned by a pair of otters in support of
themselves and their young. Indeed the animal
seldom devours more of a fish than the head and
upper portion of the body. When fish is scarce, the
otter will feed on frogs and water-rats. Mr. Bell
informs us that " when driven by a scanty supply of
fish, it has been known to resort far inland to the
neighbourhood of the farm-yard, and attack lambs,
sucking-pigs, and poultry, thus assuming for a time
the habits of its more terrestrial congeners." In
winter, when the smaller streams and ponds are
frozen, the otter wanders in search of places in the
river, the depth of which secures them against the
effects of the frost, or travels down the smaller
streams to the large river, into which they merge,
and there continues its work of destruction.
It is during the spring and summer months, while
the young of the otter are dependent upon the
mother's care, that the destruction she mak(;s among
the lish is most considerable ; she has not only her
own wants, but those of her offspring to provide for,
and her exertions during the silent hours of night
are unremitting. The track she leaves in the mud
or the soft soil on the water's edge, as she goes to
and fro from her retreat, witnesses the extent of her
labours, and also their success : a fish-preserve, if
near her haunt, at this season suffers immensely
from her depredations, and is certain to be visited
night after night until none but the smaller fry
remain. The mill-dams of trout-streams aie also
favourite fishing-places of this cunning animal, and
are often sadly thinned of the finest fish. Nor is
the injury done by the otter confined to the mere
destruction of fish for food; its presence militates
against their increase, inasmuch as Ihey are scared
by their enemy from their spawning-places, and
prevented from depositing their spawn so as to se-
cure the vivification of the ova, to the mortification
of all "honest anglers." Izaak Walton says "an
otter will sometimes go five or six or ten miles a
night to catch for her young ones, or glut herself
with fish ;" but it also as often happens that where
the otter finds a piece of water replete with prey,
that it there takes up its abode, and perhaps carries
on for weeks, unsuspected, its depredations. In-
dependently, however, of the footsteps of the otter
betraying its residence in the vicinity, the circum-
stance of its always voiding its spraint, or dung, on
one spot often leads to its discovery ; the undigested
remains of fish, their bones and scales, denote the
nature of their devourer ; and the alarm of an otter
in the neighbourhood is soon followed by a search
for the delinquent.
Otter-hunting was among the favourite field-sports
of our ancestors, and is still eageily carried on in
the islands of Scotland, where the difficulties of the
chace, from the rocky, broken nature of the shore,
add to the excitement. Figs. 981 and 982 are spi-
rited illustrations of an otter-hunt in the Hebrides.
The otter is intelligent, and when taken young
easily tamed, and may be taught to assist the fisher-
man, by driving shoals to the nets, or by catching
salmon. Daniel, Bewick, Shaw, and Goldsmith re-
cord instances in which the otter has been domes-
ticated, as do also Mr. Bell and Mr. Macgillivray ;
the late Bishop Heber noticed in India, on one oc-
casion, a number of otters tethered by long strings
to bamboo stakes on the water's edge, and was in-
formed that it was customary to keep them tame in
consequence of their utility in driving the shoals of
fish into the nets, as well as of bringing out the
larger fish with their teeth.
2 F2
-JvP
22()
f>S2.— 'Otter-hunting at a Cairn.
976.— Otter in Cave.
I'iS":;?!!-,.,,.,,
965.— Common Seal.
•93.— Harp Seal.
-- "^*#
^t .V
983.— Sea Otter.
X/v/^'^
S8 J.— Skeleton of European River Otter.
990.— Teeth of Seal.
987, 988, Skull of Seal.
221
222
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
Otters.
The common European otter measures about two j
feet two inches in the length of the head and body, I
the tail being one foot four inclicu. Its usual weight \
is from twenty to twenty four pounds, but instances
have been known in which it has attained the ,
weight of forty pounds. Those that frequent the j
tea-coast are generally larger and darker- coloured
than the otter* of inland rivers or sheets of water.
The female produces from three to five young, and
is devoted to them, nureing them with the greatest
assiduity.
A variety, spotted with white, is sometimes seen ;
this is regarded by the Scotch pea.sanfry as the
king of the otters, and they hold that it bears a
charmed life, and is never killed without the sudden
death of some man or other animal at the instant it
expires itself. The skin is considered as a sure
preservative from infection, wounds, and dangers of
ti'.e sea.
983.— The Sea-Ottke
(Enhydra marina, Fleming^. Lulra marina, Sleller ;
Mustela lutris, Linn.: Enydris Stelleri, Fischer;
Kalan of the natives of Kamtchatka. This remark-
able animal in many respects approaches nearer the
seals than the otters of the genus I.ufra, and may
be regarded as an intermediate link between the two
groups. We have fortunately been enabled to exa-
mine its skeleton (see ' Zool. Proceeds.,' 183G, p. 5C),
which to the comparative anatomist presents cha-
racters of great interest. The muzzle in the sea-
otter is blunt and short, the ears are rounded, the
body cylindrical, the fore-limbs are extremely short,
the paws small and impacted in skin to the end of
the toes, the sole being naked and granular. The
hind-legs are short, but placed as far back as pos-
sible ; the thigh-bone is thick, with a round head,
destitute, as in the seals, of the ligamentum teres ;
the hind-foot or paddle is of great length and
breadth; and the toes (five in number) are regu-
larly graduated from the inner, which is the '
smallest, to the outer toe, which is the longest and
stoutest : they are all united by webs to the very
tip. The claws are small. The dentition is as
follows : — Incisors -, canines, - — -, molars - — -. Of
4 1 — 1 5 — a
the molars above, the first is very small and conical,
the second is larger; the third, or carnassiere, is
lai se and compressed, with three rounded tubercles
on its surface; the last molar is still larger, flat,
with a slightly elevated and rounded edge. Of the
five molars below, the three first increase gradually
in size ; the fourth is large and flat, with three small
and rounded tubercles ; the last is small and flat.
The tail is rather short, and when the hinder
patldles are stretched out in the act of swimming,
this organ will appear placed between almost as
much as it is in the seals.
The sea-otter is a native of the north-west coast
of America, from California to latitude CO", and of
the opposite coast of Asia, from the Yellow Sea to
the north of Kamtchatka and the intermediate
islands. Its fur, which is of a black colour, some-
times chestnut-brown, and occasionally even yellow,
is soft, full, and beautiful, and is an object of com.
merce, being procured by the Russians for the
Chinese market, where it sells for a high price.
This animal haunts sea-washed rocks, and lives
mostly in the water, where it procures its food,
which consists of fish, and, as is indicated by the
characters of the teeth, which are evidently formed
for bruising hard substances, shelled mollusks, and
Crustacea. In summer the sea-otter often ascends
the rivers to the inland lakes. The female produces
on land a single cub. The average length of this
species is three feet, exclusive of the tail, which
measures about ten inches.
Family VYLOCVOM (Seals).
Of all four-limbed mammalia the seals (Phocidae)
are those which most display in every part of their
organization a fitness for the watery element. The
body is elongated, and conical, tapering from the
chest to the tail (see skeleton. Fig. 984), the pelvis
being so narrow as not to interrupt the gradual de-
crease. The spine is provided with muscles capable !
of inflecting it with considerable force. The
clothing consists of short, stiff", glossy haire, very \
closely set, and adpressed against the skin. The ]
limbs are oars or paddles. The anterior pair have
the humerus and fore-arm so short, that little more
than the paw alone advances from the body : this
in reality consists of five fingers, but they are im-
pacted in sliin, the nails, which are flat, indicating
■their number. The hinder limbs are directed back-
warils, and terminate the body ; the bones are short
«nd strong, and the hip-joints want the ligamentum
teres. The feet are broad-webbed paddles, consist-
ing of five toes, the central of which is the shortest,
the outer one on each side the longest : when not
in action the webs of these paddles are folded, and
the toes in contact, but when brought into use they
spread and effect a broad surface. Between these
paddles is the short and compressed tail. On land
or masses of ice these animals are very awkward
and clumsy, but they scuttle along by the action of
the anterior paddles, dragging their hinder quarters
after ihem, and manage to proceed with tolerable
rapidity; they can also climb rocks and crags
of ice.
The neck in these aquatic animals is very long
and singularly flexible ; the head is round, with a
lar|^ full fleshy muzzle, furnished with long stiff
whiskers; the nostrils are valvular, and capable of
being closed at will ; the eyes are large and dark,
with a mild intelligent expression, and are adapted
for subaquatic vision. The external ears are either
wanting or very small, and the auditory orifice is
valvular ; the tongue is almost smooth, and is
abrupt and indented at its tip; the brain is large;
the lungs voluminous; the stomach capacious.
The internal arrangement of the venous system is
very remarkable, and adapted so as to effect a sort
of reservoir for the blood, which naturally accumu-
lates in it when the circulation is impecled during
the suspension of breathing, as is perpetually the
case, as the animals are pursuing their prey beneath
the surface of the water. Between the skin, which
is very tough, and the muscles, there intervenes a
fibrous loose elastic tissue of a dark red tint ; indeed
the muscles are dark, and the blood of a blacker
hue than in most mammalia. From the anterior
part of the breastbone (sternum) a long cartilaginous
continuation projects forwards for the more exten-
sive attachment of the voluminous muscles acting
upon the anterior paddles. The arteries of the
limbs are plexiform, as we have described them in
the Loris (page 47).
The varying forms of the skull in the Phocidae
will be easily appreciated by reference to our pic-
torial specimens. With respect to the teeth, we
may describe them as prehensile ; they are not
formed for grinding, but for seizing the slippery
prey and dividing its flesh into large portions. Their
number is very different in the different species, nor
less so are the minor details of their structure. The
incisors are six or four above, and four or two
below ; the canines are large and strong ; the
molars are either simply conical or furnished with
cutting edges, and more or less deeply notched
with a large central point. Without entering into
any disquisition respecting the genera into which
the seals are divided, and their arrangement — a
point of the less importance, as our knowledge of
the group is at present confessedly imperfect — we
shall proceed at once to comment upon the speci-
mens before us.
985, 986. — ^The Common Seal
{Phoca vitidina). Calocephalus vitulinus, F. Cuvier;
Le Veau marin and Phoque coramun of the French ;
Vecchio raarino of the Italians : Lobo raarino of
the Spanish ; Meerwolf and Meerhund of the
Germans ; Zeehund of the Dutch ; Seel-hund of
the Danes; Sial of the Swedes; and Moelihon of
the ancient British.
For the general characters of the skull, in the
genus Phoca, or Calocephalus of F. Cuvier, refer-
ence may be made to Fig. 987, an upper view;
Fig. 988, an under view; and Fig. 989, a profile of
the Phoca Monachus. Fig. 990 illustrates the
5 5
dentition. Molars, - — r.
5 — D
The Phoca vitulina of Linnaeus has only within
the last few years been disengaged from con-
fusion ; three distinct species, according to Nilsson,
having been included under that denomination,
viz.. Ph. variegata. Ph. annellata, and Ph. leporina.
To the first of these the terra vitulina is really
applicable, and the term variegata, given by Nilsson,
must be abandoned. The common seal is found
along the shores of temperate Europe, and is com-
mon on many parts of the Scottish coast, and also
of those of England and Ireland. It is gregarious
in its habits, and haunts caverns and recesses
among the rocks, to which the females retire to
breed. The >oung are generally two in number,
and the mother nurses them with great assiduity
and affection, taking them out to sea very early.
When surprised basking on the shore, which the
seal often does, luxuriating in the sun, its first
effort is to make for the water; but if intercepted, it
shows fight, and with a growl turns on its adversary,
who, unless he avoid the attack, is in some danger,
for the animal has great power and weight (often
two hundred and twenty-four pounds) : having over-
set its antagonist, it shuffles to the water, and there
disappears. All are familiar with Sir Walter Scott's
humorous narrative of Hector Mac Intyre's discom-
fiture by a "phoca." (' The Antiquary.') The voice
of the seal is a gruff grunt, not unlike that of a pig,
but when wounded it often utters a peculiar moan-
ing sound. These animals are sagacious and watch- )
ful, and while half-slumbering on the beach their
customary caution seldom leaves them, for one of
their number is usually placed a little higher on the
rock than the others, and he seems constantly
awake, and ever and ancn upraises his •' giiia
feature," scenting the windward air. Fiatfisli,
especially flounders, are the favourite food of this
species, at least off the coaat of C'olonsa), where it
is common. In the estuary of the Tees it makes
great havoc among the salmon. This seal is hunted,
as are others also, for the sake of its skin and
blubber. The fishing commences in autumn, and
is practised by means of nets stretched across
narrow sounds where the seals are in the habit of
swimming. In these nets they are entangled, but
it is only the young that can be thus captured ; the
old ones are shot, or their recesses and caves are
entered at night by boatmen with torches and
bludgeons, upon which the animals, alarmed by the
glare and the shouts of the men, ru»h tumultuously
forward to the sea, and as they push along in con-
fusion and terror they are knocked on the head
with clubs, the men being duly stationed for the
purpose.
The common seal can remain under water for
about five minutes, and swims so rapidly that, if
alarmed, it will proceed nearly half a mile during
that period. The seal is intelligent and docile, and
easily domesticated ; it becomes attached like a dog
to its master, and may be readily taught to assist in
fishing. Many anecdotes respecting tame seals
are recorded. Few animals have a finer sense of
hearing, and musical sounds appear to afford it
freat delight. Laing, in his account of a voyage to
pitzbergen, states that the violin, when played on
board the vessel, would generally draw around it a
numerous audience of seals, which would continue
to follow it for miles. Sir Walter Scott alludes to
the same curious fact in the following lines ; —
" Rude Heiskar's seals through snrges dark
Will long pursue the miuKtrel's bark.'*
The common seal is from four to five feet in
length ; its colour is yellowish-grey, more or less
dappled and spotted with dusky-brown.
Figs. 991 and 992 represent seal-hunting in Scot-
land, but the seal figured is not the common seal ;
it IS a much larger and fiercer species, viz., the grey
seal, Halichaerus Giyphus (Phoca Gryphus, Fabri-
cius), which is also common round the Farn Islands.
(See Mr. Selby's observations in 'Ann. and Mag.
Hist. Nat.,' February, 1841, p. 462.) This
species has till lately been confounded with another,
viz., the Phoca barbata, which is rarely if ever seen
on our coasts.
The grey seal is of great size, sometimes attaining
the length of twelve feet, and producing upwards
of twenty gallons of oil. It swims and dives with
wonderful rapidity, but from its curiosity often
comes within range of the rifle, for as the boats ap-
proach it while reposing on the rocks, or swimming
on the water, it raises its head and remains for
many minutes gazing at the objects of its attention.
The grey seal has but little intelligence, and cannot
be tamed. The young, which are produced in
August, grow rapidly, and are able to follow their
dams to the water within a fortnight after birth.
Mr. Newman, in his interesting ' Notes on Irish
Natural History' ('Mag. Nat. Hist.,' December,
1839, p. 575), observes that "these seals are most
abundant all round the coast of Cunnemara, from
Galway to the Killery ; indeed, I imagine, on every
part of the coast of Ireland : they are strong, reso-
lute, and ferocious animals, anj totally different
from the Phoca vitulina, which is in these respects
the reverse. The Halichaerus Gryphus grows occa-
sionally to an enormous size, sometimes attaining
even the length of twelve feet, and Mr. Bull of
Dublin told me of one he had killed at Howth
Harbour, which he believed to weigh five hundred
pounds. Phoca vitulina occurs not unfrequeiitly
on the north coast of Ireland, and among the Scotch
islands, but it appears to be nearly expelled from
the southern half of Ireland by the more powerful
and savage species above referred to." Mr. Selby
records one killed in the Farn Islands, weighing
upwards of forty-seven stone, fourteen pounds to
the stone.
The Grey Seal is stated by Nilsson to be solitary
in the Baltic ; but such is not the case either on the
Farn Islands or the coast of Ireland, where it tenants
caves and rocks, in parties of twelve or fourteen, or
perhaps more. No doubt, like the Common Seal,
it is often seen alone.
993.— The Harp Seal
{Phoca Grcsnlandica). The native regions of this
seal are the shores of Greenland, Newfoundland,
Iceland, Kamtchatka, &c. It is one of the species
in the chace of which the Greenlander encoun-
ters so many perils. Crantz, in his history of
Greenland, states, that it is there called Attar-
soak. " It has a pointed head and big body, and
is, when full grown, nearly three yards long ; it
is then almost all of a white grey colour, and has a
black figure on its back like two half-moons, with
their horns in a uniform direction towards one ano-
?EALS.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE
223
other. But there are others somewhat blackish all
over. All seals vaiy annually in colour till they
are lull-grown, but no sort so much as this, and the
Greenlanders vary its name according to its age. In
the first year it is called Attarak, and is of a cream
colour : in the second year, Atteisiak ; it is then
grey : in the third year, Aglektok ; it is then painted :
in the fourth year it is Milektok ; spotted: in the
filth year, Attarsoak ; it then wears its half-moon,
the signal of maturity."
It is singular that the Greenland Seal, in its
immature livery, occasionally visits the British
shores and also the coasts of France. In the ' Pro-
ceedings of the British Institution' for 1836, there is
an account of two caught in the Severn ; one cap-
tured on the coast of France lived for some time
in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. Fred. Cuvier,
considering it a new species, gave it the title of
Calocephalus (Phoca) discolor. Professor Nilsson
also regarded the immature as a distinct species,
and characterized it as such under the name of
Phoea annellata. The titles, therefore, discolor and
annellata, must both merge into Groenlandica.
Fig. 994 is the immature Harp-Seal, the Phoca
discolor of F. Cuvier, from a specimen which was
captured on the coast of France, and lived for
several weeks in the Paris Menagerie. M. F.
Cuvier declares that he never knew any wild animal
that was more easily tamed or attached itself more
strongly. When it first came to the Jardin des
Plantes, it did its best to escape when M. F. Cuvier
tried to touch it ; but in a very few days its timidity
vanished, and it rather courted his caresses than
shunned them. In the same enclosure with it were
two little dogs, and they amused themselves by
mounting on the seal's back, barking, and even
biting it : the seal, however, took it in good part,
and seemed pleased with them, though it would
sometimes give them slight blows with its paws, as
if more to encourage their play than repress their
liberties. When the little dogs made their way out
of the enclosure, the seal tried to follow them, not
deterred by the rough and stony ground. In cold
weather they all three huddled kindly and warmly
together. If the dogs snatched the fish from the
seal's mouth when he was feeding, he bore it pa-
tiently ; but he exhibited very different conduct to
another seal, who shared his mess ; for they generally
had a fight over their meal, the combat ending, as
usual, in the defeat of the weakest.
993. — The Sea-Leopard
{Stenorhynchtts Uopardinvs) ; St. Weddellii, Les-
son ; Phoca leopardina, Jamieson. The genus
Stenorhynchus is characterized by the prominence
of the muzzle and the jagged form of the teeth,
which have each a bold acute middle tubercle, and
an anterior and posterior acute tubercle of smaller
.size, separated from the middle one by a deep
notch. Claws very small.
4 ] 1
Dental formula i^Incisors, - ; canines, ;
4 1 — I
molai-s, ■— -. = 32. (See Fig. 996.) Fig. 997 repre-
sents the skull of a species of Stenorhynchus.
Of the habits of the Sea-Leopard little is ascer-
tained. It inhabits the South Shetlands (south of
Terra del Fuego), in 60° 37' S. lat., and attains to
the length of eleven feet. The hair is soft and thin,
greyish above, yellowish on the under parts : the
whole of the upper surface is spotted with whitish.
The claws are sharp, black, curved, and grooved.
998.— Thb Cbested Seal
{Stemmatoptia eristaius). In the genus Stemma-
topus the head is surmounted by a curious hood-
like appendage, the nature of which is not well
understood. Molars with simple roots, short, wide,
and striated only on the crown; muzzle narrow,
4 1—1
and obtuse. Dentition : — Incisors, - ; canines, r ;
molars, ^^ = 30. (See Fig. 999.) Fig. 1000 repre-
sents the skull.
The crested seal is a native of Greenland and
various parts of the coast of North America.
Crantz says it is called Neitsersoak by the Green-
landers, and also Clapmutz, from the " thick folded
skin on its forehead, which it can draw down over
its eyes like a cap to defend them against the
storms, waves, stones, and sand." The apparatus-
consists of a cartilaginous crest which arises from the
muzzle and increases rapidly in height as it passes
backwards, being about seven inches high at its
Eosteiior edge, which is separated into two planes
y an intervening depression an inch deep : this
cartilaginous appendage is a development of the
septum of the nose, and it runs into the hood or
»ac-like appendage of the head, which is strongly
muscular, with circular fibres round its two orifices
at the snout like nostrils, the true nostrils opening
on each side of the cartilaginous crett beneath the
hood, and are of an oblong figure. In the females
and young the curious apparatus is undeveloped,
being peculiar to the adult male. The eyes, which
are capable of being drawn deeply into the socket
during repose, are eminently formed for discerning
distant objects. The fur is soft, long, and woolly
beneath ; in old individuals it is black, silvered on
the under parts. In young animals it is grey,
spotted irregularly with brown. The dilatable sac
which crowns the head is covered with short brown
hair.
The crested seal attains to the length of eight
feet. It haunts the open sea, and is said to visit the
land chiefly in April, May, and June. These ani-
mals are commonly seen on large ice-islands, where
they sleep without precaution. Great numbers are
found in Davis's Straits, where they are stated to
make two voyages a year — in September and
March. They depart to bring forth their young,
and return in June very lean and exhausted. In
July they proceed again to the north, where they
appear to procure plenty of food, for they return in
high condition in September. One male is lord of
many femailes. They fight among themselves very
desperately, inflicting deep wounds with the claws
and teeth. Their bite is indeed very formidable.
The voice of this seal is stated to resemble the bark
and whine of a dog. Great numbers of the skins of
this animal are bro'ught to England, and it is one of
those seals which are so valuable to the Green-
landers.
It is the Phoca cristata of Gmelin, the Phoca leo-
nina of Fabiicius.
1001, 1002.— The Elepiiakt-Seai.
(Macrorhinus proboscideus) ; Bottle-Nose of Pen-
nant; Phoque a trompe of Peron ; Miouroung of
the Australians. In the genus Macrorhinus the
males have the power of lengthening their large
moveable snout into a proboscis resembling that of
the tapir, through which, when excited, they
respire violently. The teeth consist of four incisors
above and two below, formed like the canines : the
canines themselves are very large, conical, and re-
5 5
curved : the molars are , with simple roots far
5—5
exceeding in circumference the crowns, which are
mere mammillary projections (see Fig. 1003).
Fig. 1004 represents the skull of Macrorhinus.
The whiskers are strong, coarse, long, and screw-
twisted ; the eyes are large and prominent ; the
paddles well developed, the nails small ; hair short
and close ; its colour greyish or bluish grey, rarely
blackish brown. Length from twenty to thirty feet,
girth from fifteen to eighteen feet. In the female
there is no proboscis ; the colour is dark olive-
brown above, passing into yellowish bay on the
under parts. 'The hair lies in patches in all direc-
tions, giving a spotted appearance to the body
somewhat like watered-silk. No nails on the hind-
toes.
The elephant-seal is a native of the southern
hemisphere, both in the Atlantic, Pacific, and
Southern oceans, between 35° and 55° S. lat., Ker-
guelen's Land, South Georgia, Juan Fernandez,
South Shetland, and the Falklands. This huge seal
lives in troops, which at certain seasons frequent
various islands in the southern seas, especially where
fresh-water lakes or swamps, in which they delight
to wallow, are easily accessible. They are in fact
migratory animals, advancing with the winter season
towards the tropic of Capricorn, and towards the
south in the summer. It is in the middle of June
that they perform their first migration, covering, in
countless multitudes, the shores of King Island,
which, as the sailors report, are sometimes black-
ened by them. Here the females produce their
young, and, as it is affirmed, the males form a line
between the females and the sea, while the latter
are nursing their cubs, in order to prevent the pos-
sibility of their deserting their charge, even for the
shortest space of time. The period of nursing and
imprisonment lasts for seven or eight weeks, during
which time the females are debarred from food, and
become extremely emaciated ; some, it is said, occa-
sionally perish. The growth of the young is very
rapid. After birth they measure between four and
five feet, but in eight days are double their original
dimensions, and in the third year are from eighteen
to twenty-five feet in length. At this period the
proboscis begins to be developed in the male.
When the term of imprisonment has expired, the
whole troop, young and all, visit the sea, where the
females soon recover their strength and condition,
and where they sojourn for about a month, when
they again visit the shore, which now becomes the
arena of most furious conflicts between the adult
males, the females remaining passive spectators.
When these scenes of bloodshed and excitement
have ended, the troop, under the guidance of a
leader, leave the shores of the islands in lat. 33',
and migrate southwards towards the antarctic circle,
where they spend the summer months. It is ob-
served, however, that a few remain in the former
localities, even during the summer, probably in con-
sequence of being disabled by wounds or debility
from undertaking the ordinary journey. As soon as
the frost commences in the low southern latitudes,
the herds begin their return towards the tropic, and
in June have arrived at their accustomed breeding
places.
Captain Carmichael, in his description of the
island of Tristan d'Acunha (see ' Linn. Trans.,' vol.
xii.), observes that a full-grown male will yield
seventy gallons of oil ; indeed, as they crawl along,
their body trembles like a great bag of jelly.
" These seals pass the greater part of their time on
shore: they may be seen in hundreds lying asleep
along the sandy beach, or among the long grass
which borders the sea-shore." These huge animals
are so little apprehensive of danger, that they must
be kicked or pelted with stones before they make
any effort to move out of one's way. When roused
from their slumber, they raise the fore-part of their
body, open wide their mouth, and display a for-
midable set of tusks, but never attempt to bite.
Should this, however, fail to intimidate their dis-
turbers, they set themselves at length in motion,
and make for the water, but with such delibera-
tion, that on an excursion we once made to the
opposite side of the island, two of our party were
tempted to get upon the back of one of them, and
rode him fairly into the water." These animals
taken young are easily tamed, and become very
affectionate ; one petted by an English seaman be-
came so attached to his master from kind treatment
for a few months, that it would come at his call,
allow him to mount upon its back, and put his hands
into its mouth.
The voice of the male is deep, hoarse, and terrific,
and may be heard at a great distance ; that of the
females and young is a kind of loud bellowing.
The food of the elephant-seal appears in great
part to consist of cuttle-fish and seaweed, the beaks
of the former and remains of the latter, often
mixed with pebbles, being commonly found in the
stomach.
It is for the oil of this species principally, which,
besides being yielded in great abundance, is clear
and inodorous, that the seal-fisheries of the South
Pacific are conducted. The skin, moreover, is va-
luable, from its strength and thickness, and is ex-
tensively used for carriage and horse harness. The
flesh is oily and disgusting, but the tongues, when
salted, are said to be very excellent.
1003. — The Ursine Seal
(Arctocephahis ursimts) ; Phoca ursina, Linn. ; Ursus
marinus, Steller; L'Ours marin of Buffon. The cha-
racters of the genus Arctocephahis are as follows : —
Head with a narrow retracted muzzle : the dentition
thus : — Incisors, - ; canines,
1—1 , 6—6
; molars,
1—1 ' ' 5—5
36 (see Fig. 1006) ; small external ears. Fig. 1007
represents the skull of Arctocephalus.
The ursine seal attains the length of nearly eight
feet ; its fur is brown, washed with grey ; it is long
and erect, especially around the neck in old males,
where the hair is two inches in length and stiff;
there is beneath the hair a soft brownish-red wool
close to the skin. This species inhabits the islands
on the north-west of America, Kamtchatka, the
Kurile Islands, &c., and is migratory in its habits.
When these seals appear off Kamtchatka and the
Kuriles early in the spring, they are in high condi-
tion, and the females are pregnant. They remain
on or about the shore for two months, during which
the females bring forth. They are polygamous, and
live in families, every male being surrounded by a
crowd of females (from fifty to eighty), whom he
guards with the greatest jealousy. These families,
each including the young, amounting to 100 or 120,
live separate, though they crowd the shore, and that
to such an extent on the islands off the north-west
point of America, that it is said they oblige the tra-
veller to quit it and scale the neighbouring rocks.
Both male and female are very affectionate to their
young, and fierce in their defence ; but the males are
often tyrannically cruel to the females, which are
very submissive. If one family encroaches on the
station of another, a general fight is the consequence.
They will not, in fact they dare not, leave their
stations, for if they did they must encroach on that
of some other family. Steller relates that he had
been beset by these seals for six hours together, and
was at last obliged to climb a precipice to get rid of
the infuriated animals, at the imminent peril of his
life. They have their war-notes and several other
intonations. When amusing themselves on the
shore, they low like a cow, chirp like a cricket after
a victory, and, when they are wounded, cry like a
whelp. They swim very swiftly, and are as great a
terror to other seals as the sea-lion (Phoca jubata,
Gmel.) is to them.
The skin of the ursine seal is very thick, and from
its full deep fur makes excellent winter clothing.
9«9.— Teeth of Crested Seal.
Mi.-CrMled S<*l.
1001.— Elephant Seal. Female.
224
1008.— Fonter'i S«»-Lion.
No. 29.
1011.— WalruiM.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
225
226
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
LWalruskh
Steller »p«uk» of a (farment which he made for him-
telf from one, when he was in Behriiip» Island, with
grateful remembrance.
1008.— FOBSTERS SeA-Lioif
(Ptatyrkynchta Ftaleri). Otaria Fosteri, l^ss., in
• Diet. Claw. ;• Phoca Foreteri, Fischer. The genus
Platyrhynchus differs little from Arctocephalus, ex-
cept in a few minor points in the dentition ; in the
greater plevation of the cerebral re-;ion of the skull,
anil in the enlareement of the muzzle. There are
external ears. Fig. 1009 represents the skull.
Several species of seal have been termed sea-
bcara or ursine seals ; and several sea-lions, among
which may be mentioned the huge elephant-seal
already described. Dr. Hamilton considers, however,
that three distinct members of the present genus
have been thus designated :— 1. the sea-lion of
Steller (Phoca jubata, Gmelin), inhabiting the
eastern shores of Kamtchatka and the Kurile
Islands; 2, the sea-lion of Forster (Leo marinus,
Buff.), a native of the southern hemisphere; and
3, the sea-lion of Pernetty (Piatyihynchus leoninus,
F. Cuvier). a native of the Falkland Islands.
Forsters sea-lion is a native of the southern seas,
frequenting the Magellanic coast. Terra del Fuego,
and the Magellanic Islands. The skin is thick,
the hair reddish, yellowish, or dark brown ; no fur
or short wool under the long hair. A mane on
the neck of the male reaches to the shoulders.
Head small in proportion to the body, which is
everywhere equally thick-looking, as BufFon de-
scribes it, like a great cylinder, more suited for roll-
ing than walking. Ears conical, about six or seven
lines long ; cartilage firm and stiff, but yet rather
curled at the margin. Upper lip overhanging the
lower, both furnished with long, coarse, black
whiskers, which become white with age. Length
from ten to fourteen feet ; the females shorter and
mor^ slender.
Captain Cook states that it is not at all perilous
to go among these animals, for they either fled or
stood still. The only danger was in going between
them and the sea; for if they took fright at anything,
they would come down in such numbers, that the
person in the way would be run over. When he
and his party came suddenly upon them, or waked
them out of their sleep, they would laise up their
heads, snort and snarl, and look fierce, as if they
meant to devour the intruder ; but when the men
advanced, the sea-lions always ran away. He states
that the male is surrounded by from twenty to thirty
females, and that he is very attentive to keep them
all to himself, beating off every male that attempts
to come to his flock. Others, again, had a less
number, some no more than one or two ; and here
and there was seen one lying growling in a retired
place, suff'ering neither males nor females to come
near him. These he judged to be old and super-
annuated.
Forster relates that the rocks along the shore in
New Years Harbour were covered with multitudes
of these sea-lions. " We put into a little cove under
the shelter of some rocks," says he, "and fired at
some of these tierce animals, most of which imme-
diately threw themselves into the sea. Some of the
most unwieldy however kept their ground, and were
killed by our bullets. Ttie noise which all the ani-
mals of this kind made was various, and sometimes
stunned our ears. The old males snort and roar
like mad bulls or lions, the females bleat exactly
like calves, and the young cubs like lambs. They
live together in numerous herds. The oldest and
fattest males lie apart, each having chosen a large
rock to which none of the rest dare approach with-
out engaging in furious combat." Forster goes on
to relate that they were often seen to seize each
other with an indescribable degree of rage, and that
many of them had deep gashes on their backs,
which they had received in the wars. The younger
active sea-lions, with all the females and the cubs,
lay together. They commonly awaited the approach
of the people ; but as soon as some of the herd
were killed, the rest precipitately fled, some females
carrying oft' a cub in their mouths, while many were
so terrified that they left the young behind. When
undisturbed, they were often observed caressing each
other in the most tender manner, and their snouts
often met together as if they were kissing. The
same author states that they come on shore on those
uninhabited spots to breed, and that they do not
feed during tneir stay on land, which sometimes
lasts for several weeks ; they then grow lean, and
swallow a considerable quantity of stones to distend
the stomach. He adds that the stomachs of many
of them were found entirely empty, and those of
others were filled with ten or twelve round heavy
stones, each of the size of two fists.
1010, 1011.— The Walrus, OR MoBSK
{TricJtecus Rosmarus). Leaving the genuine seals,
we come to the genus Trichecus, of which we are
acquainted with only one species, the Walrus or
Morse, and Sea-cow of the British ; Morse, Vache
Marine, Cheval Marin, and BSte k la grande dent
of the French. It is the Horse-whale or Whale-
horse (Hval-ros) of Octher the Norwegian, who,
about the year 890, made his report of it to Alfred,
as having in its teeth bones of great price and ex-
cellency, some of which he brought to the king on
his return from his voyage beyond Norway ; also
Rosmar of the Norwegians ; Morss or Morsh of the
Russians, and Morsk of the Laplanders.
The walrus is a native of the polar regions of both
hemispheres, and it is more than probable that the
arctic animal is specifically distinct from the ant-
arctic, though in habits and manners they agree
precisely. The arctic walrus has occasionally vi-
sited the British shores, and is therefore figured by
Mr. Bell in his ' History of British Quadrupeds,'
though it can scarcely be accounted one of their
number. In general form,- no less than in habits,
the walrus closely resembles the larger species of
seals, but it dlft'ersfrom all the sneciesof this group
in the general contour of the skull and in the dental
formula. Fig. 1012 represents the skull and lower
jaw; Fig. I0l3the molars andatusk of this animal.
The first peculiarity which strikes us in the skull
of the walrus consists in the enormous magnitude of
the canine teeth of the upper-jaw, which are from
eighteen inches to two feet in length, stout and
solid, with large roots imbedded in protuberant
alveoli, or sockets, occupying the anterior part of the
muzzle, and rising above the cranium, which appears
of disproportionate volume. The immense develop-
ment of the alveoli of these canines, gives a swollen
appearance to the face, which is increased by the
tumid character of the lips, covered with thick
wiry moustaches. The dentition is as foUovps : —
Upper-jaw, incisors four, of which the two middle
are deciduaiy, falling out at an early period ; the
two lateral have the character of molars. Of the
enormous canines we have already spoken. Molars
on each side four, cylindrical, short, and obliquely
truncate; lower jaw, incisors wanting, canines want-
ing ; molars as in the upper jaw. The lower jaw is
not only small in proportion to the general volume
of the skull, but is compressed as it proceeds, in
order to fit in between the huge canines of the
upper jaw, which sweep with a gentle curve per-
pendicularly downward. The nostrils, in conse-
quence of the development of those imbedded in the
maxillary bones, are thrown upwards, so as to open
considerably above the muzzle with a vertical aspect.
The eyes are small, but brilliant ; the orifices of the
ears are placed very far backwards on the head ; the
neck is short and thick, the chest of great volume ;
the tail short ; the body thinly clothed with short
stiff brownish hair : the hinder paddles are large.
In length the walrus attains to fifteen or sixteen
feet, and its body not only yields abundance of oil,
but its skin is highly valued for its toughness and
durability. The tusks of this animal, which remind
us of those of the elephant, are instruments both of
defence and of progression ; by their aid it assists
itself in clambering up floating icebergs, or in tra-
versing the fields of ice along the shore, to which it
resorts both to rest and breed. It uses them also
with great effect in defending itself from the attacks
of the polar bear, which may be regarded as its
most formidable adversary, and with which it often
engages in bloody conflicts. But there is also
another use to which these tusks are destined : the
walrus feeds to a great extent on a species of marine
vegetable, the fucus digitatu-s, and these instruments
are admirably calculated for tearing up the long
wreaths of sea-weed fast rooted in the bed of the
ocean. Besides this vegetable, they also feed upon
other aliment ; Mr. Scoresby found in their stomachs
shrimps, a kind of crayfish, and the remains of
young seals. They are probably omnivorous.
The Walrus, like the seal, is gregarious in its
habits, and is often observed in vast flocks reposing
upon the ice, or upon rocky islands or sand-banks ;
on these occasions some appear to act as sentinels,
and give notice of the approach of an enemy ; their
voice is a loud roar or bray, and may be heard at a
considerable distance : Captain Cook observes that
in the night or in foggy weather, the roaring of the
walruses gave notice of the vicinity of the ice
before it could be seen. When attacked or fired
at, the whole troop rashes tumultuously into the
sea; should one be wounded, its companions hasten
with loud cries to the rescue, and, emboldened by
their numbers, assail the boat with great ferocity,
and endeavour to upset or break it with their
powerlul tusks. The thickness and toughness of
the skin render it no easy matter to drive a lance
or harpoon into the animal's body, and a sharp
weapon notunfrequently glances off without pierc-
ing. When wounded on shore, the morse turns
furiously upon its adversary, striking right and left
with its tuskF and endeavouring to dash him to the
ground ; the roaring with pain and fury it makes
off into the a, where it is joined by its companions.
Zorgdrager, in his description of the Greenland
fishery (1750), state» that before the morse had been
so persecuted, laige troops would olten advance on
the shore to a considerable distance from the edge
of the water, so that it was easy to cut otf their
retreat, and the more so as the animals exhibited
no alarm on seeing the approach of the hunters,
who would often kill several before the rest
attempted to regain the sea. As is the case with
the whale, the annual slaughter made among these
animals for the sake of their oil, and of their tusks,
which are of the finest ivory, has thinned their
numbers, or driven them from haunts where they
formerly abounded, to seek shelter in more inac-
cessible localities. That they are not without
courage or sympathy for their wounded companions
there is ample testimony. When Martens wounded
one, others speedily surrounded the boat, and whilst
some endeavoured to pierce it with their tusks,
others raised themselves out of the water and en-
deavoured to board her. Captain Phipps, after-
wards Lord Mulgrave, relates that when near a low
flat island opposite Waygat's Straits in 1773, two
of the officers went in a boat in pursuit of sea-
horses. They fired at one and wounded it. The ani-
mal was alone when it was wounded, but diving into
the sea, it brought back a number of others. They
made a united attack upon the boat, wrested an oar
from one of the men, and were with difliculty pre-
vented from staving or oversetting her ; but a boat
from the Carcass joining that Irom the liacehorse,
they dispersed. Captain Phipps adds that one of
that ship's boats had before been attacked in the
same manner ofi' Moffen Island. Sir Edward
Parry encountered about two hundred in Foxe's
Channel, lying piled as usual over each other on
the loose drift-ice. A boat's crew from both the
Fury and Hecia went to attack them, but they
made a desperate resistance, some with their cubs
mounted on their backs, and one of them tore the
planks of a boat in two or three places. Their
parental affection is great. Captain Cook states that
on the approach of the boats, which were hoisted out
to attack them in Behrings Straits, all the Walruses
took their cubs under their fins, and endeavoured
to escape with them from the ice into the sea.
Several whose young were killed and wounded, and
were left floating on the surface, rose again and
carried them down, sometimes just as the people
were going to take them into the boat: and they
might be traced bearing them to a great distance
through the water, which was coloured with their
blood. They were afterwards observed bringing
them up at times above the surface, as if for air,
and again diving under it with a dreadful bellow-
ing. The female in particular, whose young had
been destroyed and taken into the boat, became so
enraged that she attacked the cutter, and struck her
tusks through the bottom of it.
In the arctic regions the flesh of the walrus is
held by the natives in great estimation; Sir Edward
Parry remarks that the flesh was tolerably good,
affording variety amid the ordinary sea fare. The
ivory is finer than that of the elephant ; the skin
makes excellent carriage-harness ; and the oil is va-
luable, though only from twenty to thirty gallons are
yielded by a single carcass ; its blubber, as Crantz
says, being white and solid like bacon, and a hand's
breadth thick, but not giving out much fluid oil.
Fig. 1014 represents a Greenlander in his kajak
hunting seals.
Seals' flesh, says Crantz, supplies the Green-
landers " with their most palatable and substantial
food ; the fat furnishes them with oil lor lamp-liiiht,
chamber and kitchen fire ; and whoever sees their
habitations presently finds that, even if they had
superfluity of wood, it would not be of use, they
can use nothing but oil in them. They also mollily
their dry food, mostly fish, with oil; and finally
they barter it for all kinds of necessaries with the
factor. They can sew better with fibres of the
seals' sinews than with thread or silk ; of the skins
of the entrails they make window-curtains for their
tents, and shirts; part of the bladder they use as a
float to their harpoons, and they make oil-flasks of
the stomach. Neither is the blood wasted, but is
boiled up with other ingredients and eaten as soup.
Of the skin of the seal they stand in the greatest
need, because they must cover with seal-skins both
the large and small boats in which they travel and
seek their provisions. They must also cut out of
them their thongs and straps, and cover their tents
with them, without which they could not subsist in
summer. No man therefore can pass for a right
Greenlander who cannot catch seals. This is the
ultimate end they aspire at in all their device and
labour from their childhood up.'' To the Green-
lander, then, the sea is his pasturage, where his
flocks and herds are fed ; the sea is his hunting-
domain, where, in his light kajak, he skims over tlie
waves.
"There tumblinj; in tlieir seal skin-boat.
Fearless Uie liiingry fisliers Iloat,
And from teeming seas supply
The food their niggard plains deny."
Bats.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
227
ORDER CHEIROPTERA, OR BATS.
We regard the Bats (Family Cheiroptera, Cuvier ;
Vespertillonida, Gray) as constituting a distinct
order, as it stands in the Catalogue of Mammalia
in the ' Mus. Zool. Soc.,' 1838.
The Bats, or Flitter-mice (Fledermauser of the
Germans ; Pipistrelli and Nottoli of the Italians ;
Chauvesouris of the French), are termed Cheiroptera,
that is, wing-handed (xe<>, a hand; irrtpov, a wing),
because their anterior limbs are modified as organs
of flight. Of all the mammalia, the bats alone emu-
late the feathered tribes in their aerial endowments.
They are essentially flying Insectivora: in the air
they pass the active portion of their existence and
revel in the exercise of their faculties. Their organs
of flight, however, consist not, as in the bird, of stiiF
feathers disposed in order and based upon the bones
of the fore-arm, but of a large thin membrane
stretched over and between the limbs, to which the
bones act as stretchers, like the strips of whalebone
in an umbrella, the tail in many species assisting
also. Of this membrane the bones of the arms and
hands are the principal supporters and levere of
motion— we say hands, because, though not graspers,
such must the anatomist consider them. All these
bones, those of the carpus excepted, are slender
and remarkably elongated, and here we refer to
the skeleton of the bat (Fi?. 1015). The hu-
merus,/, is long and slender, but much more so is
the radius, g, the only complete bone of the fore,
arm, the ulna. A, being reduced to a mere rudi-
ment. The carpus, i, consists of six bones in two
rows, the fii-st row having two, the second row four
bones, on which are based the metacarpal bones of
the thumb, k, and of the fingers, I. These bones
of the fingers are very slender and of extraordinary
length, diverging from each other as they proceed.
They are, however, moveable upon the metacarpus,
and are not only capable of closing together, but of
being folded down in contact with the fore-arm.
The phalanges, or true finger-bones, m, carry on the
elongation of this framework, and taper to a point,
like the extremity of an angling-rod, unfurnished
with nails or claws. These fingei-s are essential not
only for carrving out the wins to a due distance,
but for keep'ing its margins stretched out, and for
folding it down when requisite. In some genera
the first finger consists but of one very fine bone,
the second finger consists of three : occasionally the
first fincer is tipped with a very small hook-like
nail. The thumb, k, is free, and usually short, con-
sisting of a metacarpal and two digital bones, the
last of which is armed with a strong hooked claw.
Such then is the hand of the bat, essentially an
apparatus for flight. Thu.<i designed and constructed,
rotation of the fore-arm would not only be an un-
necessary, but indeed an inconsistent endo\yment ;
its motion, therefore, is simply hinge-like, while that
of the shoulder is to a great extent rotatory.
It will easily be conceived that a membrane so
extensive as the wing of the bat will require for its
effective movements an extraordinary development
of the muscles which govern it. That part of the
skeleton, therefore, on which these muscles are
fixed is accordingly modified ; the clavicles, d, and
scapula, e, are of great magnitude and strength ;
the sternum, or breast-bone, though narrow, has
a keel-like elevation along its anterior surface, ana-
logous to what is seen in birds, while its upper end
is developed into a manubrium, a, for the support
of the large clavicles, which are thus thrown far
laterally, the pectoral muscles being at the same
time exceedingly voluminous ; indeed the whole of
the osseous and muscular structure of the bat is
concentrated upon its organs of flight. The hinder
limbs can scarcely be regarded as organs of loco-
motion ; they principally serve, in conjunction with
the tail where present, to keep the membrane duly
expanded — they are therefore comparatively feeble :
the toes are five in number, and armed with sharp
hooked claws, by which the animal suspends itself
while at rest in its retreat. When with folded wings
the bat attempts to proceed along a level surface,
its movements, though tolerably quick, are awkward
and shuffling ; and it uses the claw of its thumb as
a hook for catching hold of any irregularities in
order to drag itself along : hence, on a smooth po-
lished surface it is greatly embarrassed, but in the
hollows of trees, in the crevices of masonry, and in
rough chinks or fissures, it can climb and crawl
about with considerable facility, as also about the
wire-work of a cage, as we have often witnessed.
The ground, however, is not the destined province
of the bat — the air is its home ; it is here that these
sin^MJar creatures are all alertness, pursuing their
insect prey, and uttering their short sharp cry as
they wheel in circling flights, or perform their
abrupt and zigzag evolutions.
In the bat, the senses of smell and hearing, as
might be concluded from the development and
complication of their respective organs, are wonder-
fully acute. In several extensive genera, with a
view to the refinement of these senses, we see the
nose furnished with a membranous foliation or leaf
of most delicate structure, and often complex in its
arrangement; while the external membranous ears
are large, expanded, and often united together,
having folds or an inner reduplication, and capable
of being folded down. (See Fig. 1016, the head of
Megaderma trifolium.) In short, both the osteo-
logical characters of the skull and the development
of the external appendages, traversed by multitudes
of nerves, announce the acuteness both of smell and
hearing. But these creatures have another sense,
that of feeling, so exquisitely refined as to require
especial notice. The wings of these creatures con-
sist, as we have stated, of a delicate and nearly
naked membrane of great amplitude ; and these,
as well as the membranous tissues of the eai-s and
nose, are abundantly supplied with nerves, and have
their sensibility so high, as to afford something like
a new sense which stands in the stead of sight.
The modified impressions which the air in quies-
cence or in motion, however slight, communicates—
the tremulous jar of the faintest current— its tem-
perature ; the indescribable condition of such strata
as are in contact with different bodies, are all ap-
parently appreciated by the bat. If its eyes be co-
vered up— nay, if it be even cruelly deprived of sight,
it will pursue its course about a room with a thou-
sand obstacles in its way, avoiding them all ; neither
dashing against the walls nor flying foul of the
smallest thing, but threading its course with the
utmost precision and quickness, and pas^ing adroitly
through apertures, or the interspaces of threads
placed purposely across the apartment. This en-
dowment, which almost exceeds belief, has been
abundantly demonstated by the experiments of
Spallauzani and others ; it is the sense of touch re-
fined to an inconceivable degree of perfection, ren-
dering the bat aerial in feeling as in habits.
Bats are all crepuscular or nocturnal ; during the
day they sleep in their recesses, hanging head
downwards, suspended by the hind-feet. Numbers
often congregate together on one common dormi-
tory, and in Java and other adjacent islands one
of the most extraordinary sights is that of a tree
literally loaded with a crowd of huge roussettes, or
flying foxes (Reropus), all clustered together in
pendant rows along the branches. In our latitudes
I he bats all hybernate, hanging in the same manner
as during their ordinary sleep ; but whether this
law of hybernation prevails among those species
which are natives of the hotter regions does not
appear to be satisfactorily determined; probably it
does, for the tenrec (an animal allied to our hedge-
hog) hybernates in Madagascar, its native country.
The bats are extremely numerous, and are distri-
buted over every portion of the globe, excepting in
the coldest latitudes; it is, however, in the warmer
regions that they are the most abundant, and attain
to the largest dimensions.
We have said that the bats are insectivorous;
some, however, are bloodsuckers ; and some, as the
roussettes (Pteropus), eat fruit, plundering the gar-
dens of their choicest productions. It would seem
that some of the Brazilian bats also are frugivoi ous,
devouring the fruit of the fig-tree, and that it is
almost impossible to prevent the mischief, as they
will creep, like mice, under the netting spread to
protect the trees.
In the bats the mammae are two, and pectoral ;
the dentition varies: the symphysis of the lower
jaw is firmly ossified, as in man and the ape tribe ;
a slender stylet (s, Fig. 1015) runs from the heel to
support the interfemoral membrane. The bats are
divided by Mr. Gray into five great sections or
tribes, as follows, under two primaiy heads :—
I. Istiophori, or Leaf-nosed Bats.— Nostrils placed
in a bald space, often elevated behind into a leaf;
teeth acutely tubercular; index-finger not clawed.
Tribe 1. Phyllostomina. Nose-disc expanded
into a leaf behind, simple, and pierced with the nos-
trils in front.
Tribe 2. Rhinolophina. Nose-disc expanded into
a leaf behind, and with a pit or process between the
nostrils in front.
II. Anistiophori.— Simple-nosed Bats. Nostnls
without a nasal leaf.
Tribe 3. Vespertilionina. Grinders acutely tu-
bercular ; wings broad and large ; tail elongated
and inclosed in the large conical interfemoral mem-
brane ; upper incisor teeth near the canines, with a
central space.
Each nostril placed in front of a groove, with a
spiral, convolute, outer margin lobed anteriorly.
Tribe 4. Noctilionina. Grinders acutely tuber-
cular; wings long and narrow; body thin; tail
thick, short, the tip appearing on the upper surface
of the large interfemoral membrane.
Tribe 5. Pteropina. Grinders bluntly tubercular ;
nose simple ; nostrils slightly produced ; end of
index-finger clawed ; head conical ; ears simple ;
wings long; lower joint of thumb long, united fo
the wing by a membrane ; interfemoral membrane
short ; tail none, or short. Fruit-eating bats of
Indian Islands and Polynesia.
Each of these tribes is again subdivided accord-
ing to the variation of minor points of structure, the
genera being arranged under each subsection ; but
to pursue the subject into these niceties would be
here out of place ; we, however, recommend our
scientific readers to the ' Revision of the Genera of
Bats,' &c., by J. E. Gray, F.R.S., published in the
' Magazine of Zoology and Botany,' No. XII.
or the first tribe (Phyllostomina), our pictorial
museum aft'ords us several examples.
1017. — The Crenulated Javelin-Bat
{Phyllostoma crenulatnm). In the genus Phyllo-
stoma the canine teeth are ,very strong. Dental
4 ' J I 5 5
formula : — Incisors, - ; canines, - — j ; molars, - — -
=32. There are two nasal appendages, one like
a horseshoe, the other like a leaf or spear-head,
rising up behind the former; the ears are large,
with a dentellated inner slip (oreillon, or tragus) ;
the tongue is bristled with papillae ; the tail is
variable in length, sometimes wanting. The pre-
sent species, of which the habits and exact locality
are unknown, is a native of America.
1018. — The Greater Javelin-Bat
(Phyllostoma perspicillatum). This species is a
native of South America. Mr. Darwin found it at
Bahia.- Of its habits we have no details.
1019.— The Vampire-Bat
(Vampirus spectrum). The genus Vampirus diffei's
from Phyllostoma in having one molar more on
each side in the upper jaw. Fig. 1020 shows the
characters of the incisors and canines.
This species, the Andira-Guacu of Piso, is a native
of South America ; its total length is about six
inches. Piso thus describes its habits : — These bats
"seek out every kind of animal and suck their
blood ; but in Slaranham there is a certain kind
which approaches by night the naked feet of men,
and wounds them lor the sake of sucking human
blood. The bite is so slight and subtle, that the
wounded do not feel it before the bed, covered with
blood, gives token of the wound. So great a quan-
tity of blood flows liom the envenomed bite, that it
can only be stopped with difficulty, and the peril is
imminent unless a cure by the prescribed remedies
be effected. The inhabitants first wash these
wounds with sea-water, and afterwards apply hot
ashes, or even cautery, if the blood be not stopped."
Captain Stedman, who states that he was bitten,
thus describes the operation : — " Knowing, by in-
stinct, that the person they intend to attack is in a
sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet,
where, while the creature continues fanning with
its enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he bites
a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small,
indeed, that the head of a pin could be scarcely
received into the wound, which is consequently not
painful ; yet through this orifice he continues to
suck the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. He
then begins again, and thus continues sucking and
disgorging till he is scarce able to fly ; and the suf-
ferer has often been known to sleep from time into
eternity. Cattle they generally bite in the ear, but
always in places where the blood flows spontane-
ously. Having applied tobacco-ashes as the best
remedy, and washed the gore from myself and my
hammock, I observed several small heaps of con-
gealed blood all round the place where I had lain
upon the ground ; on examining which, the surgeon
judged I had lost at least twelve or fourteen ounces
during the night."
From these and similar accounts, themselves a
little overcoloured, have arisen extravagant repre-
sentations and false statements, to which too much
credit has been given; blood-sucking propensities,
moreover, have been attributed to the bats of Java
and other countries, without any authority ; and the
tongue, instead of the sharp lancet-like teeth, has
been regarded as the instrument by which the
puncture is made. D'Azara, speaking of the blood-
sucking bats of South America (and he is a faithful
describer), observes that " the species with a leaf
upon the nose differ from the other bats (of Para-
guay) in being able to run, when on the ground,
nearly as fast as a rat, and in their fondness for
sucking the blood of animals. Sometimes they will
bite the wattles and crests of fowls while asleep,
and suck their blood. The fowls generally die of
this, as gangrene is engendered in the wounds.
They bite also horses, mules, asses, and horned
cattle ; usually on the shoulders, buttocks, or neck,
as they are better enabled to arrive at those parts,
from the facilities afforded them by the mane and
tail. Nor is man himself secure from their attacks :
on this point I am able to give a very faithful testi-
mony, since I have had the ends of my toes bitten
2Ga
:o I (.— CiwUr JanllD-Bat.
:015.— Skeleton of Hat.
:i>l».— V«Bpii«-BK.
-^F-
101'.— Cienulated JaTelin-Bat.
:osj.— BritUh Bats.
1022.— Splendid Ilanesboe-Ikt.
:023^-TIiree-toMhed IIoneihoe-Bat.
■|0!i4.— Genflpoy'i Njcteriea.
lOM.
1028.— Mauritius Taphozous.
!021,-£k«Ieton of Vami^ie.
— '" ^
1916,— Trifoliated Megailerma.
".OW.— Leporine Noctilio,
228
1030.— Head, Skull, and Front Teeth, of Dusky Mnlossos.
2Q.— Head and Skull of ('ommon Bat.
1034.— lialong.
IC33. — Kalong.
I03G.— PalUt'B Mulucca iiat.
1033. — Kalon;
1027. — Timor Lung^eared Bat,
^'s.y
t^^^^Mi
••^
a wi b ' c
;o-i]. — Feet ot Shrews.
1C39.— Teeth of Slirew.
103T. — Coinmon threw.
229
2^
by them, four time*, while I wa» sleeping in the
cottages in the open countr>'. The wounds whicn
they inflicted, without my feeling them at the time,
were circular, or rather elliptical ; their diameter
iras trifline and their depth so superficial as
•carcely to Mnetrate the cutis." The blood drawn
" U merely from the capillary vessels of the skin,
and is extracted thence, beyond doubt, by the
action of sucking or licking." Nobody " feajs these
animals or gives himself any trouble about them.
To the same effect is Mr. Swainson's testimony.
" They are constantly in the habit of attacking ani-
mals during the night and sucking their blood. Our
own horses and mules on many occasions, atter
having arrived at the end of the day's journey and
being turned out to graze, would be brought in by
the guides in the morning with their shoulders and
haunches covered with blood ; neither is it an un-
common thing for these real vampires to enter the
habitations of the natives, and fasten on the legs of
some incautious sleeper who has not snugly secured
bis feet beneath the coverlid. Stories, indeed, are
told of these incautious sufferers having bled so pro-
fusely as to have died ; but we never could ascertain
the fact, nor did we ever suffer from the visits of
these midnight phlebotoraists."
Mr. Darwin was fortunate enough to capture a
bloodsucking bat (Desmodus D'Orblgnyi, Water-
house) in the act. "The vampire-bat," says Mr.
Darwin, in that part of his highly interesting book
which relates his adventures when travelling on
horseback in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro, " is
often the cause of much trouble by biting the horses
on their withers. The injury is generally not so
much owing to the loss of blood as to the inflam-
mation which the pressure of the saddle afterwards
produces. The whole circumstance has lately been
doubted in England : T was, therefore, fortunate in
being present when one was actually caught on a
horse's back. We were bivouacking late one even-
ing near Coquimbo, in Chile, when my sei-vant,
noticing that one of the horses was very restive.
went to see what was the matter, and fancying he
could distinguish something, suddenly put his hand
on the beast's withera, and secured the vampire.
In the morning the spot where the bite had been
inflicted was easily distinguished, from being slightly
swollen and bloody. The third day afterwards we
rode the horse without any ill effects."
"It is interesting," says Mr. Waterhouse, "to
find that the structure of the animal is in perfect
accordance with the habits above detailed by Mr.
Darwin. Among other points, the total absence of
true molars, and the consequent want of the power
of masticating food, is the most remarkable : on the
other hand, we find the canines and incisors perfectly
fitted for inflicting a wound such as described, while
the small size of the interfcmoral membrane (giving
freedom to the motions of the legs), together with
the unusually large size of the thumb and claw,
would enable the bat, as I should imagine, to fix
itself with great security on the body of the horse.
(' Zool. of Beagle,' No. 1 of Part II., p. 2.)
Fig. 1021 represents the skeleton of a species of
vampire, as figured by De Blainville.
)0i6. — ^Thk Trifouated Megaderma
(Megaderma trifolium). In the genus Megaderma
the nose-leaf is simple and erect ; the wings and
ears are very large ; there is no tail ; incisor teeth
wanting. The Megaderma trifolium inhabits Java,
where it is called Lovo by the natives: b represents
the skull of the Megaderma frons of Western
Africa.
Passing to the second tribe, Rhinolophina, we
find the following examples :
1022. — The Splendid Horseshoe-Bat
(Rlunolophui itobilis, Horsf.) ; Hipposideros nobilis.
Gray. This fine species, a native of Java, is called
Kebbiak by the Javanese. The nasal apparatus
consists of a broad membrane stretching transversely
across the nose in form of a shelf; the sides are
bounded by several parallel fold% and inferiorly it
constitutes a semicircular envelope, which has a
short, obtusely rounded point in the middle. Colour
above, piire brown ; beneath, brown, variegated with
grey. Fur remarkably long and silky, and supplied
with a most delicate down at the base, so as to be
throughout very soft to the touch. Body four inches
in length. Expansion nineteen inches and a half.
]02.3. — The Tbrbe-toothbd Horseshok-Bat
{RMnolophm tridem, Geoff.) ; Hipposideros tridens,
Gray. This is a small species, found in great numbers
in the tombs of Egypt, where the objects of ancient
idolatry are, indeed, given " to the bats," which find
in the recesses and chambers of temples and pyra-
mids a congenial retreat.
Of the third tribe, Vespertilionina, the following
are specimens: —
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[BATfl.
1024.— GBOFfBOY's NyCTKRIS
{Nycterit Geoffroyi). We have already alluded to ■
the sensibility with which the integumenU of ttie i
baU are endowed ; this, however, is not the only
peculiarity to be noticed, for in the genus Nycteris
there exists a power of inflation to such a degree,
that when the faculty is exerted, the animal look^
according to Geoflroy, like a little balloon fitted
with wings, a head, and feet. The subcutaneous
tissue is the part inflated, and as the skin adheres
to the body at particular points only, the connexion
being by means of loose cellular membrane, spaces
are left which can be filled with air at the will of
the Nycteris, through the cheek-pouches, which are
perforated at the bottom so as to communicate with
those spaces. When the Nycteris wishes to inflate
iU skin, it draws in its breath, closes its nostrils, and
transmits the air through the perforations of the
cheek-pouches, to the sul)cutancous spaces, and the
air is prevented from returning by the action ol a
sphincter, which closes those openings, and by
valves of considerable size on the neck and back.
The characters of this genus may be thus summed
up:— a deep furrow down the forehead; nostrils
covered by a cartilaginous moveable lid; interfe-
moral membrane very large, comprehending the
tail, which terminates in a little bifid cartilage:
incisors, - ; molars, : ears large, united at their
6 0 — i>
base. Geoffrey's Nycteris is a native of the Thebaid
and Senegal.
Fig. 10-25, three British bats: a, the Common Bat
(Vespertilio pipistrellus) ; b, the Great Bat (V. noc-
tula) ; c. the Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auntus).
Fig. 1026 represents the head and skull of the Ves-
pertilio pipistrellus. Fig. 1027, the head and skull
of the Timor Long-eared Bat (Plecotus Tiniori-
ensis) : b, front view of the teeth ; c, profile of the
skull ; d. profile of the head.
Of tribe 4, Noctilionina, the following are ex-
amples : —
1028. — The Mauritius Taphozocs
(Taphozous Mauritiamts). In the genus Taphozous
there are no incisor teeth on the upper jaw. Several
species are known ; the one of which we represent
the head is a native of the Mauritius.
1029. — ^The Leporine Noctilio
{Noctilio leporinus). Canines very strong; muzzle
short and swollun, and divided and studded with
fleshy tubercles or warts; nose simple, and losing
itself in the lips; ears small and lateral; interfc-
moral membrane very much developed ; tail enve-
4
loped at its base. Dental formula :—incisors, — ;
1—1 , 4—4 ^
canines, j—: ; molars, ^— = 28.
Fig. 1029 : a, profile of head ; b, profile of skull ;
c, front view of muzzle ; d, front view of teeth.
The Noctilio leporinus is of the size of a rat. Fur
of a uniform reddish-yellow. This is the Vespertilio
leporinus of Gmelin ; Noctilio unicolor of Geoffroy.
Localities— Brazil, Peru, and Paraguay.
1030. — ^TuE Dusky Molossus
(Molossus obscurus). Head short, muzzle swollen;
ears large ; earlet external : interfcmoral mem-
brane straight, with a square termination ; tail long,
enveloped at its base, and most frequently free at its
2
extremity. Dental formula: — Incisors,-; canines,
J I 5 5
; molars, = 28. The geographical distri-
1 — 1 5 — 0
bution of this form is wide : Africa, Asia, and South
America possess it ; but the species which are
numerous occur principally in the two last-men-
tioned localities.
The Molossus obscurus (Molossus fumarius of
Spix ; Dysopes obscurus of Temminck) is of the size
of the Barbastelle of Europe. Fur composed of
hair of two colours, blackish-brown above, and ash-
brown below. Whiskers at the border of the lips.
Length about three inches three lines. Expansion
nine inches. Localities, Brazil and Guiana.
The fifth tribe, Pteropina, contains the follow-
ing:—
1031. — The Amboyxa Pteropus
(Pteropus Dvssumieri). The Roussettes, Ternate
Bats or Flying Foxes as the Pteropi are termed, are,
most of them, of large size, with fox-like heads and
, , • .1. 1 5—5 4—4
a vast spread of wing ; the molars are - — - or -: — -,
"^ o — 6 b — 6
and bluntly tubercular; the tongue is short; inter-
femoral membrane very little developed. Fig. 1032
represents the skull of Kerauden's Koussette. The
present species is a native of India and Amboyna,
and i» of large size ; its manners closely resemble
those of the kalong.
1033, 1034, 1035.— The Kalono
(Pteropus Javanicvs). This species, which mea-
sures five leet in the spread of the wings, is a native
of Java. The upper part of the neck is smoky-red ;
the rest of the fur dull black. In the lower parts of
Java it is very common, and lives in troops, which
do not appear to visit the more elevated districts.
Numerous individuals, says Dr. Horsfield, select a
large tree for their resort, and, suspending them-
selves by the claws of their hind-limbs to the naked
branches, often in companies of several hundreds,
afford to a stranger a very singular spectacle. A
species of Ficus, resembling the Ficus religiosa of
India, which is often found near the villages of the
natives, afibrds them a very lavourite retreat, and
the extended branches of one of these are some-
times covered with them. They pass the greater
portion of the day in sleep, hiinging motionless;
ranged in succession with the head downwards, the
membrane contracted about the body and olten in
close contact, they have little resemblance to living
beings, and by a person not accustomed to their
economy are readily mistaken for a part of the tree,
or for a fruit of uncommon size suspended from its
branches. In general these societies preserve a
perfect silence during the day ; but if they are dis-
turbed, or if a contention arises among tliem, they
emit sharp piercing shrieks, and their awkward ai-
temjjts to extricate themselves when oppressed by
the light of the sun exhibit a ludicrous spectacle.
In consequence of the sharpness of their claws, their
attachment is so strong that they cannot readily
leave their hold without the assistance of the ex-
panded membrane: and if suddenly killed in the
natural attitude during the day, they continue sus-
pended after death. It is necessary, therefore, to
oblige them to take wing by alarming them, if it be
desired to obtain them during the day. Soon after
sunset they gradually quit their hold, and pursue
their nocturnal flight in quest of food. They direct
their course, by an unerring instinct, to the forests,
villages, and plantations, occasioning incalculable
mischief, attacking and devouring indiscriminately
every kind of fruit, from the abundant and useful
cocoa-nut which surrounds the dwelling of the
meanest peasantry, to the rare and most delicate
productions which are cultivated with care by
princes and chiefs of distinction. By the latter, as
well as by the European colonists, various methods
are employed to protect the orchards and gardens.
Delicate fruits, such as mangoes, jambus, lansas, &c.,
as they approach to maturity, are ingeniously se-
cured by means of a loose net or basket, skilfully
constructed of split bamboo. Without this precau-
tion, little valuable fruit would escape the ravages
of the kalong. There are few situations in the lower
parts of Java in which this night -wanderer is not
constantly observed : as soon as the light of the sun
has retired, one animal is seen to follow the other at
a small but irregular distance, and this succes.sion
continues uninterrupted till darkness obstructs the
view. The flight of the kalong is slow and steady,
pursued in a straight line, and capable of long con-
tinuance. The chace of the kalong forms occa-
sionally an amusement of the colonists and inha-
bitants during the moonlight nights, which in the
latitude of Java are uncommonly serene. He is
watched in his descent to the fruit-trees, and a dis-
charge of small shot readily brings him to the
ground. By this means I frequently obtained four
or five individuals in the course of an hour.
1036.— Pallas's Molccca Bat
{Harpyia PallasU). The genus Harpyia of Illiger
(not of Cuvier) differs in having the wings arising
from the centre of the back; the lips thick, and the
head broad and short; index finger clawed. The
Harpyia Pallasii (Cephalotes Pallasii, Geoffioy) is a
native of the Moluccas. It measures two feet in the
expansion of the wings. The dental formula is
2 1—1 , 4 — 1
thus :— Incisors, - ; canines, - — - ; molars, - — ;.
Of the habits of this species we have no details.
It may surprise some to learn that fourteen dis-
tinct species, referable respectively to the genera
Rhinolophus, Barbastellus, Plecotus, Vespertilio,
and Scotophilus, are indigenous in our island.
Of these, however, several are extremely rare
and restricted to certain localities; but some, as
the Piptslrelle (Vespertilio Pipistrellus, Geoifr. ;
Scotophilus communis, Gray), the long-cared bat
(Plecotus auritus), are everywhere abundant. Nor
is the Great Bat (Vespertilio Noctula, Schreb. ;
Scotophilus Noctula, Gray) of unfrequeut occur-
rence.
For an account of the habits and manners of out
British bats, we may here refer to the ' Penny
Magazine' for January, 1843, where the reader will
find some interesting details.
Shrews.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
231
ORDER INSECTIVORA.
The animals ol' this order, as the name implies, are
siiecially appointed to check the overwhelmmg
increase of the insect world, to assist m the work ot
warfare against hordes of beings individually insig-
niticant, but which, if permitted to multiply uncon-
trolled, would render the labours of many truitless.
Insects, and especially their larvs, with slugs,
worms, and other creeping things, constitute their
food. It is not among the Insectivora that we are
to look for the powerful, the fierce, and the territic.
Timid little creatures, they neither alarm us by
their presence, nor force themselves upon our
notice by their powers or ferocity. Of unobtrusive
habits, they elude our cursory observation, ihey
flee from our approach, and they remain in con-
cealment till man withdraws from his labours in
the evening, and leaves field and woodland to their
revels and enjoyments. Hence it is that their,
manners and instincts are neither very generally
not very detinitely understood. It is true hat the
structure of their teeth, of which the molars are
crowned with sharp elevations, declare the nature ot
their food, at least to the eye of the naturalist— and
that of many, as the mole, their general organization
would lead us to infer certain modes ol hie ; but
beyond these points, the observation of the animals
themselves, living and in the enjoyment ol Ireedom,
must instruct us for by this alone can their nicer
instinctive peculiarities be ascertained.
1037, 1038.— The Common Shkew
(Sorexte tragonunts). Sorex araneus. Bell ; but not
of the continental authors. The Shrews (genus
Sorex, divided by Duvernoy into three subgenera,
viz. Sorex, Hydrosorex, Amphisorex) constitute a
numerous group of little animals, still in much con-
fusion, partly owing tothe difficulty of determining
the species, and partly to the contrary speci&c titles
which have been given to many of the European
species by British and continental naturalists; the
latter points, indeed, have been recently cleared up
by the Rev. L. Jenyns, who has also added some
new s|)ecies to the British list.
In the genus Sore.\, including the subgenera, the
2
dentition is as follows :— Middle incisors, -;
3—3
lateral
incisors, or false molars (in Sorex), - — - or
4—4
4=4'
■i— D 4 — 4
(in Hydrosorex), 1-^ ; (in Amphisorex), ^— ^ ;
The true or middle
5—5
0—0 , •* — *
canines, j^-g; molars, ^-^
incisors are much produced ; the upper ones are
curved and notched at the base ; the lower ones are
almost horizontal, with a smooth edge in Sorex, a
denticulated edge in Hydrosorex, and a smooth
edge; but in this subgenus the two first false
molars above are of equal size, while in Sorex they
diminish rapidly in size from the iirst to the last.
Fig. 1039 represents the dentition of a species of
shrew taken in the Mauritius, six times larger than
nature.
The Shrews may be known by their long, taper,
moveable snout, their velvety fur, and their ex-
tremely minute eyes, almost hidden in the surround-
ing hairs ; the ears are small and close ; the tail
moderately long, and a musky odour is exhaled
from small glandular oritices, surrounded by stiff
close hairs, situated on the sides of the body. This
odour renders the shrews distasteful to the cat
(though the latter readily destroys them), but not
to weasels, hawks, or owls, which are great enemies
to these little nocturnal insectivora.
The common shrew is of a reddish mouse-colour,
paler beneath ; the tail is quadrangular in adults,
rather shorter than the body, and not ciliated
beneath. Length of head and body, two inches
seven lines ; of the tail, one inch ten lines.
This little animal is common in our island, fre-
quenting tufted banks, hedge rows,thickets,gardens,
farm-yards, &c.,and feeding on worms, and insects,
caterpillars, &c., after which it grubs with its long
pointed snout among the close herbage or under
the sott loose soil. It is very impatient of hunger,
and extremely pugnacious, two seldom meeting
without engaging in combat ; and if two be con-
fined together in a box, the weaker falls a prey to
the stronger, and is soon partially devoured. Many
are killed and eaten by the mole, and in August
numbers are often found dead in the lanes, and
pathways across the fields, but to what cause their
destruction is owing, at the season in question, is
not very apparent. As was the case with the
hedgehog and some other animals, superstition and
ignorance have attributed the most baneful pro-
perties to the shrew ; it was supposed by our an-
cestors to paralyze the. limbs of cattle by merely
creeping over them, afflicting them with excruci-
ating torments, and to poison them by its bite.
Aristotle, Pliny, and Agricola also attribute poi-
sonous effects to the bite of the shrew, which, as
they assert, produces tumours and ulcerations. Agii-
cola states that the Latins called the animal miis
araneus from its injecting venom into the wound it
makes, as does the spider (aranea), and he notices the
characters of the teeth, and quadrifid figure of the
wound they inflict, adding that in warm regions the
wound is generally pestiferous, but not in cold
climates: his remedial prescription is to place the
body of the shrew cut asunder on the injured part.
Among our ancestors the remedies were to make
the person or animal pass through the arch of a
bramble rooted at both ends, or to apply to the
limbs of suff'ering cattle the twigs or leaves of a
shrew-ash, that is an ash into the trunk of which a
deep hole had been bored, and a poor devoted
shrew plugged in alive.
The voice of the shrew is a shrill, feeble, chirring
cry, which may be often heard when the animal
is unseen : we have known persons whose ears were
unable to catch it, however attentively they have
listened, though of other tones they were perfectly
susceptible.
The shrew makes long superficial burrows in
banks and among the roots of trees and brushwood ;
the female makes a nest in her retreat of soft
herbage, with an aperture at the sides ; she breeds
in the spring, producing from five to seven young.
10-10. — Three Bkitish Shrews.
This plate represents three British Shrews : a, the
Oared Shrew (Sorex remifer, Geoff. ; Sorex eiliatus,
Sowerby) ; b, the Water-Shrew (Sorex fodiens,
Gmelin, not of Duvernoy nor of modern continental
authors; Sorex bicolor, Shaw) ; and c, the Common
Shrew which we have described (Figs. 1037 and
1038). ^. ^
The water-shrew is nearly black above, white be-
neath, the colours being abruptly separated ; the
sides cf the feet and the under surface of the tail
are ciliated or fringed with long, stift', white hairs.
Length of head and body, three inches and three
lines ; of the tail, two inches one line.
This elegant little animal is aquatic in its habits,
frequenting clear fresh-water ditches and brooks,
in the banks of which it makes extensive burrows ;
it swims and dives with great address, the sides
being spread out, the belly flattened, and the tail
extended as a rudder. When diving, the black
velvety coat of the animal appears as if beautifully
silvered, from the innumerable bubbles of air that
cover it. These are pressed out of tlie fur, which
repels the water, the animal being quite dry when
it emerges. It has the power of completely closing
the orifices of the ears, so as to exclude the
water while beneath the surface. The food of
the water-shrew consists of insects, the larvae of
ephemera;, and perhaps the ova of fishes ; in quest
of these it swims and dives or grubs in the mud with
its snout. These little water-shrews form colonies
in certain spots, making runs or tracks along the
banks, leading from their subterranean dwellings
to the water ; when two meet in these, or while
swimming about, they utter their shrill, feeble,
querulous cry, perhaps a token of recognition. The
water-shrew, though only recognised as a native of
our island within the last few years, is not uncom-
mon in most of our counties, and has been captured
in Scotland and Devonshire.
The oared shrew is closely allied to the water-
shrew, and appears to have the same aquatic habits.
The tail is quadrangular, and compressed towards
the apex, and is ciliated on the under surface ; the
feet are strongly ciliated ; the body is black above,
greyish black below ; the throat is of a yellowish co-
four. Itisofabout the size of the former. Fig. 1041
represents the under surface of the hinder feet of—
a, the common shrew ; b, the water-shrew ; c, the
oared shrew.
1042. — Thb Desmak
(Ml/gale moscJiala). Biesamratze of the Germans;
Wychozol of the Russians. The genus Mygale,
Cuv. (Myogalla. Fischer; Castor moschatus, Linn.),
presents us with the following dental characters :—
t 2.0-0, 10—10
Incisors, - ; canines, -— - ; molars,
8 O — 'J
7—7
of
The desman measures upwards of ten inches iji
the length of the head and body, that of the tail
being seven (from specimen in Paris Museum).
This beaver-like aquatic shrew is abundant in the
lakes and rivers of Southern Russia, feeding on
worms, aquatic insects, fish, and especially leeches,
which it searches for in the mud at the bottom of
the water with its long flexible snout. Its burrow
is deeply hollowed out in steep overhanging banks,
the entrance being below the level of the water,
whence it rises gradually, so as never to be filled
during the highest floods. The desman seldom
comes on shore voluntarily, but is often captured in
the nets of the fishermen ; and it is frequently seen
swimming about or diving in pursuit of prey. It
exhales a strong musky odour, the secretion of small
glandular follicles at the root of Xhe tail ; and this
flavour of musk it communicates to pikes and other
fishes vi'hich prey upon it, rendering their flesh dis-
gusting.
1044. — The Cape Elephant-Shrew
(Macroscelides typiats). Allied to the shrews are
some little animals peculiar to Africa, constituting
the genus Macroscelides of Dr. A. Smith. They are
called elephant-mice or elephant-shrews, from the
proboscis-like form of the snout ; but the scientific
name bears reference to the jerboa-like elongation
of the hinder-limbs. The dentition is as follows -.-^
2 _2
Incisors, -— ^ ; false molars (called canines by Dr.
the molars the first seven on each side above, and
the first four below, are false; between the two
large incisors below, are two minute teeth, and the
two upper incisors are flattened and triangular.
See Fig. 1043 for the teeth of the upper-jaw. In
these animals the snout is elongated into a flexible
proboscis furrowed down the middle, which they
. are incessantly turning about ; the tail is long, thick,
j scaly, and conpressed at the sides; the eyes are
very small ; external ears wanting : the fur is full
\ deep, soft, and glossy, like that of the beaver; the
feet are broad and completely webbed, toes five in
] number. Two species are known, both aquatic in
their habits: the one is the desman or musk-rat of
Russia ; the other, a smaller species, is found in the
I Pyrenees.
2-2
4—4
, 5—5
molars, .
5—5
Fig. 1045 shows the
Smith),— ^,
skull and teeth of Macroscelides : a, upper surface
of the skull, natural size; b, profile; c, lower jaw;
d, under surface of the skull, twice the natural size \
e, the lower jaw, twice the natural size. The nostrils
are at the apex of the proboscis ; the eyes are
moderate; the ears large and rounded; the tail
rather long, and like that of a mouse. Feet five-
toed. The Cape elephant-shrew (Macroscelides
typicus) is the Sorex araneus maximus of Petever.
The fur is soft and long ; the general colour is red-
dish-brown, clouded on the back with a darker tint,
the under surface white : the ears nearly naked ;
whiskers long : length of head and body, three inches
and three-quarters; of tail, three inches and a
quarter.
This curious animal inhabits open plains, and lives
in burrows under ground, the passage to which runs
for some distance almost perpendicularly down-
wards. During the day it seeks its food, and may
be seen basking in the heat of the sun, sitting erect
on its hinder legs in the full glare of the rays.
When disturbed, it flies immediately to its subterra-
nean retreat, and with such velocity, that it is im-
possible to make out its form or general appearance
as it skims along. It feeds upon insects. Six or
seven species are known, peculiar to South Africa ;
and one a native of Algiers.
1046. — The Solenodoit
(Solenodon paradoxus). The genus Solenodon of
Brandt (' Mem. de I'Acad. Imperiale des Sciences de
St. Petersbourg,' tome ii., livr. 36me, 1833) contains,,
as far as yet known, only one species, an animal
peculiar to Hayti, where it is known under the
name of Agouta. Allied in many respects to the
genera Sorex and Mygale, in the character of the
ears, the fur, and the tail it resembles the opossums.
(Didelphis). Its dentition approximates the most
nearly to that of Mygale. In size the Solenodon ex-
ceeds a rat ; its snout is lengthened into a slender
naked proboscis, at the tip of which are the nos-
trils with a furrow between them ; the ears are
moderate and rounded ; the fur is coarse and long,
and of a yellowish red ; from the lips and cheeks
proceed slender whiskers of great length ; the
limbs are stout ; the toes, five on each foot, armed
with large hooked claws ; the tail is long, rat-like,
and scaly, being destitute of hairs. Dentition as
follows :— Incisors, - ; false molars, ; true
o 6 — 6
Q Q
molars, - — -. The two middle incisors of the upper
o — o
jaw are remarkable for their size and the distance
between them and the succeeding incisors; they
are compressed, pointed, and perpendicular. The
zygomatic arch is incomplete, as in the shrews
(Sorext), the Tanrecs (Centetes), the Echinops, &c.
Fig. 1047 represents the skull and dentition of the
solenodon: a, skull of solenodon (profile); b, seen
from above ; c, seen from below ; d, mandible or
lower jaw ; e, anterior part of the intermaxillary
bone, with the two anterior incisor teeth ; /, anterior
surface of an anterior upper incisor tooth ; g, ante-
rior parts of the manclible, with the four anterior
incisor teeth ; h, the crown of a second or middle
incisor tooth of the mandible, seen on its internal
surface, and exhibiting its triangular canal. The
foregoing figures are nearly of the natural size.
,-, teeth of the upper jaw seen laterally; i, ], nat.
X\.vi '
l.~.*olendoa.
1041 ^Drano.
1049.— ShiDw- Mule.
^^•^•••.' ^^
•■It- f ■ '
1040.— Btitbh Shnws.
1045.-Skull md Teeth of Ckpe Ecphint Shrew.
>r^^
lOil.— Mole.
1050.— Tieth of Shrew-Moio.
1044.— Cmpe Elephnnt-Shrew.
232
1047.— Skull and Teeth of Solenodon.
No. 30.
1068.— Cape Clirysoch'ore.
[THE iMUSEUM OF ANIM.ITED NATURE.]
li.'59, — Slar-nosed Mole;
S84
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
IM0LE9.
•iie ; 2, 2, matniified. (Brandt.) Fig 1048, a, the
fore-loot of solunodon, upper surface ; b, hinj-foot,
upper surface.
Of the habits of the solenodon little is known : iU
itroni; claws and pointed snout, the base of which i*
supported by a stylet of bone, denote it to be a bur-
rowinK animal. An imperfect skin, in the museum
of the Zoolou'ical Society, was sent by Mr. Hearne
from Hayti, who thus writes respecting it :— " The
only qiiaJmped, I believe, found on the island on
the landing of Columbus was the agouta, a little
larger than, and somewhat resembling a rat, with
an equally long tail and a longer snout, whose food
is chii'fly grain, although the animal is carnivorous
also : its hair is red. I had one alive, intended for
the Society, but it received a wound from a cat, of
which it died." (' Zool. Proceeds.,' 1835, p. 105.)
1049.— The Shrew-Molb
{Scalopt canadensis, Desm.) ; Sorex aquaticus,
Linn. ; Scalops aquaticus, Fischer. The ammals of
this genus are peculiar to North America. Their
form is mole-like ; the eyes are minute in the ex-
treme, and scarcely to be discovered ; there are no
external ears: the fur is velvety ; the fore-paws,
like those of the mole, are adapted for burrowing;
2
the tail is short : the teeth are — incisors, ^ ; molars,
ioEio' "'' »<"<=<'r<ling to F. Cuvier, g^. See Fig.
1050. The snout is long, tapering, flexible, and
with a terminal disc.
The Canada shrew-mole measures about seven
inches and a half long, exclusive of the tail, which
is one inch and a half. The general colour is
brownish- black. It inhabits the banks of the Co-
lumbia and the adjoining coasts of the Pacific.
According to Dr. Richardson, the shrew-mole re-
sembles the common European mole as much in
habits as in form, forming galleries, throwing up
mounds, and feeding on worms and grubs. Dr.
Godman states that these animals are most active in
the morning, at midday, and in the evening, coming
daily to the surface, when in their natural state, at
noon, at which time they may be taken by driving
a spade beneath them and throwing them on the
ground ; but they are not easily taken at any other
part of the day. They burrow in a variety of soils,
but in wet seasons retire to the high grounds. An
individual kept in confinement by Mr. T. Peale, fed
largely on fresh meat, cooked or raw ; drank freely,
was lively and playful, and would follow the hand
of its feeder by scent ; it would then burrow for a
short distance in loose earth, and after driving a
circle, return for more food. It employed its flex-
tible snout in a singular manner whilst it was eating,
doubling it down, like a proboscis, upon its food, so
as to direct and force it into the mouth. An allied
species (Scalops Townsendii) is a native of Cali-
fornia, and another (Scalops Pennsylvanicus, Har-
lan) is found in Pennsylvania.
1051, 1052.— Thb Common Mole
(Talpa Europeea). Mouldwarp and Mouldiwarp ;
Want in Dorsetshire and Devonshire ; Wand, Old
Danish ; Vond, Norwegian ; Maulwerf, German ;
Mol, Dutch ; Muldvarp, modern Danish ; Mulvard
and Surk, Swedish ; La Taiipe, French ; Talpa,
Latin and modem Italian ; Topo, Spanish ; Tou-
peiro, Portuguese ; Gwadd and Twrch daear, an-
cient British.
We need not say that the mole is a miner, living
an almost exclusively subterranean life, ever pursu-
ing its prey through the soil, and working out long
galleries in the chace. In accordance with its
destined habits is the whole of its structural deve-
lopment. The body is cylindrical and compact ;
the snout prolonged and pointed; the limbs very
short ; the anterior pair present a thick, contracted
arm, terminating in broad solid paws, with five
lingers scarcely divided, and armed with strong flat
nails. The toumure of these scrapers, for such they
are, gives them an obliquely outward position, and
facilitates their use as scooping instruments, by
which the soil is not only dug up, but thrown back-
wards at each stroke, and that with great energy.
The hinder limbs are small, and the feet feeble in
comparison with the anterior scrapers ; while the
body tapers to them from the chest and shoulders,
so the hinder quarters offer no impediment to the
animal's progress through its narrow galleries. The
fur, moreover, is such as best befits a subterranean
dweller — it is extremely close, fine, short, and
smooth, and resembles the nap of black velvet.
There is no external conch to the organs of hear-
ing, the sense of which is acute in the extreme ; a
simple auditory opening, capable of being closed
or dilated at pleasure, leads to the internal appa-
latus, which is eff'ectually defended from the intru-
sion of particles of earth or sand. At a cursory
glance the mole appears to be destitute of eyes ;
they are however not wanting, though very small,
and buried in the fur. A limited power of vision is |
sufficient for this dweller in the dark ; the mole, |
however, can see better than might be imagined. |
By a peculiar muscular contrivance it is capable of 1
bringing forward, or of drawing in, the eye— and
this, when withdrawn, is enveloped in and defended
by the close fur ; so that, as is the case with the ear,
no particles of earth can injure it. We have said
that the sense of hearing is exquisite ; and to it the
mole trusts for warning on the approach of
danger : —
" Prny yoa, tread tofUy, that lite blind mole may nut
llcara fuut (all.'* — s'uakapekk.
But the sense of smell is equally delicate ; and by
this it is guided in its search for foo<l. It bores its
long sharp nose in the earth as it traverses its gal-
leries, and immediately detects worms and the larvae
of insects, which constitate its chief food. Nor is
the feeling of this part at a low ratio ; it is, on the
contrary, very acute and susceptible, and aids the
sense of smell in the procuring of food. The
pointed snout is, indeed, a finger-like organ of
prehension, as well as a boring instrument. The
general skin of the body is strong and tough, and
not easily lorn or lacerated.
The osseous and muscular development of the
mole exhibits a perfect correspondence with its ex-
ternal characters and the perfection of its senses.
The great development of the skeleton (Fig. 1053) is
anteriorly, namely, in the bones of the shoulders,
arms, and chest. The skull (Fig. 1054) is depressed
above, elongated, and pointed ; and the snout, con-
tinued beyond the maxillary and nasal bones, is sup-
ported by a little additional bone, produced by the
ossification of the cartilage. Its boring faculties are
rendered still more effective by the ossified condi-
tion of the ligament of the neck, which passes liom
the back of the skull, down the cervical vertebrae,
and which in other animals is elastic. The teeth
are small, exhibiting a decidedly insectivorous cha-
racter, the molars being crowned with sharp-pointed
tubercles or eminences. (See Fig. 1055.)
It would appear that the subterranean labours of
the mole are exerted in the accomplishment of very
ditferent objects. Each mole may be said to have
its own district or manor, its hunting-ground, and
its lodges ; and this ground is traversed by high-
road tunnels, through which it travels from one
I part to another, all branching oif from a central
fortress — its ordinary residence, which is, however,
j not only distinct, but olten remote from the chamber
in which the nest is made and the young reared.
We will begin by describing the fortress or ordinary
domicile (Fig. 1056).— This fortress is constructed
under a hillock of considerable size (not one of
those ordinarily thrown up every night, indicating
its hunting excursions), and raised in some secure
place, where a high bank, the roots of a tree, or the
base of a wall, afford protection. The earth forming
this mound is well compacted together, and made
solid by the labours of the architect ; and within
this firm-set mound is a complex arrangement of
galleries and passages of coniuiunication. Firet, a
circular gallery occupies the upper portion of the
mound, and this communicates by means of five
descending passages with another gallery at the base
of the mound, enclosing a larger area. These pas-
sages are nearly at equal distances. Within the
area of this lower gallery is a chamber, not imme-
diately communicating with it, but with the upper
fallery, by three abruptly descending tunnels,
"his chamber is the dormitory of the mole. From
the basal gallery opens a high-road tunnel, which is
carried out in a direct line to the extent of the manor
over which the individual presides, and from the bot-
tom of the central chamber a passage descends, and
then sweeping upwards joins this main road at a little
distance from the hillock ; so that the mole can
enter the high-road either from its dormitory or
from the basal gallery. Besides the high-road, eight
or nine other tunnels are carried out from the basal
gallery ; they are of greater or less extent, and
wind round more or less irregularly, opening into
the high-road at various distances from the hillock :
these irreguJar tunnels the mole is continually ex-
tending in quest of prey ; throwing up the soil
above the turf, through holes which it makes for
the purpose, and which form the ordinary mole-
hills which we often see crowded thickly together.
The high or main road exceeds in diameter the
body of the mole, and is solid and well-trodden,
with smooth sides ; its depth varies, according to
the quality of the soil, instinct directing the little
excavator in his work. Ordinarily it is five or six
inches below the surface, but when carried under a
streamlet or pathway it is often a foot and a half
beneath. It sometimes happens that the mole will
drive two or more additional high- roads in order to
the extention of its operations ; and one high-road
occasionally serves several moles, which, however,
never trespass on each other's preserves. They
often meet in these roads, which will not admit of
two passing at the same time ; one therefore must
retreat, but when two males thus come into collision
they frequently attack each other, the weaker fall-
ing a victim in the combat. The alleys opening
from the sides of the high-road are generally in-
clined downwards with a gradual slope, and then
at the termination of these the mole excavates
branch alleys, upheaving mole-hills, as it works on-
wards in pursuit of prey. This, however, is not
invariably the case, but rather where prey is abun-
dant in rich soils : where the soil is barren, the mole
is constantly driving fresh alleys; these in winter
are carried deep down to where the worms have
pierced their way beyond the line to which the
frost penetrates ; for, be it observed, the mole does
not hybernale, but is as active during winter as in
spring or summer, though the results of his opera-
tions are less manifest. In soft rich soils, where
the worms are among the roots of the turf, the mole,
as may be often noticed, drives very superficial runs
in the pursuit of then > 'hese runs are lo be seen
where a thin layer of richly manured soil overlays
a stratum of gravel: in fact, the depth of these
alleys is always determined by the quality of the
soil and consequent situation of the worms. With
respect I o the nest of the female, it is generally con-
structed at a distance from the fortress, where, at
some convenient part, three or four passages inter-
sect each other : this point of convergence is en-
larged and rendered commodious, and fitted to re-
ceive a bed made of dry herbage, fibrous roots, &c.
The chamber is generally beneath a large hillock,
but not always; and the surrounding soil is usually
such as to afford abundant food to the female with
little trouble on her part. The mole breeds in the
spring, mostly in April, and brings forth four or five
young at a birth. These are supposed to lemain
under the mother's care till about half-grown, when
they commence an independent existence.
Such isthe constitution of the molethatashort fast
proves fatal. It would appear that all its animal
appetites are in excess ; its hunger is voracity
amounting to rage, under the influence of which it
fastens on its prey with intense eagerness. Earth-
worms are its favourite food, and these it skins with
great address, squeezing out the earthy contents of
the body before swallowing it. It is not, however,
exclusively upon earthworms and the larvae of in-
sects that the mole feeds : during the months of
June and July it is in the habit of leaving its runs
under the turf, and of wandering during the night
(and occasionally even during the day) on the
surface, in quest of prey, such as birds, mice,
frogs, lizards, snails, &c. ; but it refuses to touch
the toad, in consequence no doubt of the acrid
exudation from that reptile's skin. During these
nocturnal excursions it often falls a prey to the
owl ; and we have seen it in the day-time caught
and killed by dogs.
The voracity of the mole and its perpetually re-
curring repasts upon animal food render water not
only a welcome refreshment, but necessary lo its
existence. A run, sometimes used by many indi-
viduals, always leads lo a ditch, stream, or pond, if
such be within a moderate distance. If these natu-
ral supphes be not at hand, the mole sinks little
wells, in the shape of perpendicular shafts, which
become filled with the rain, and retain the water;
and they have sometimes been found brimfull.
Scarcity of water, or a drought, as well as a scarcity
of worms, often obliges the mole to shift its quarters,
and locate upon other grounds. In its migration it
will cross brooks or rivers, swimming admirably;
and when spring or autumn floods inundate the
fields; it easily saves itself by these means. It is
moreover afiirmed that in this peril the male and
female brave the waters together, and expose them-
selves to the utmost danger in order to save their
young, in which office of parental devotion they
mutually assist and protect each other.
The disposition of this animal is fierce and com-
bative. If several moles be kept in a box of earth,
and not supplied with an abundance of food, they
attack each other, and the weaker falls a prey to the
stronger ; when the mole seizes, it holds like a
bull-dog, with a tenacious gripe, and is not
easily disengaged. M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire de-
scribes the manner in which the mole approaches
and seizes a bird : it exerts several stratagems to
get within reach of its victim, employina; the ut-
most address and caution ; but when this is ac-
complished, it suddenly changes its plan, and
makes an instantaneous and impetuous attack,
fastens on the hapless bird, tears open the abdomen,
thrusts its snout among the viscera, and revels in
its sanguinary repast. After satiating its ravenous
appetite, it sinks into a profound repose : in the
winter it slumbers in its fortress ; but in the
summer, beneath some ordinary molehill in one of
its alleys. This sleep endures lor about four hours,
or perhaps longer, in the middle of the day, when it
awakes with a renovated appetite. Its busiest time
is in the evening, during the night, and early in the
morning. It might be supposed from the figure of
Tenrecs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
235
The teeth consist of incisors, ^ ; canines, -j — : ; mo-
the mole that its motions were very slew and de-
liberate ; it trips along, however, at a fair pace, and
travei-ses its underground runs and galleries with
great rapidity.
The mole does not exist in the extreme north of
Scotland, in Zetland, or the Orkney Islands, nor has
it been seen in any part of Ireland.
Varieties of this animal often occur: we have
examined specimens of a mouse-colour, of a white,
cream-white, and pale yellowish orfinge.
1057, 1058. — The Cape Chrysochlore
(Cliiysochlon's Capensis). The Mole is represented
in Alrica by the Chrysochlore, but the fore-paws are
only armed with three nails, of which the outer-
most is long, thick, arched, and pointed ; there is
no tail. This singular animal is le§s than a mole,
and appears to be entirely destitute of eyes. Its
velvety fur has a metallic lustre, changing from
dark green to bronze or copper in different lights.
This species is a native of Southern Africa, where
it lives like the mole in burrows, and feeds on
worms and insects. It is the Taupe doree of the
French. A second species, the Rufous Chrysochlore
(Ch. Hottentota), has been discovered by Dr. A.
Smith.
1059. — The Thick-taileb Co^•DYHIRE, oe Stab-
nosed Mole
(Conrii/ltira Macroura). The Condylures, or star-
nosed moles, are confined to North America ; they
closely resemble the common mole in their feet,
general aspect, and habits, but the tail is longer,
and the disc at the end of the snout is encircled by
little moveable cartilaginous processes like the
rays of a star. The eyes are extremely minute ;
external ears are wanting ; fur deep, thick, and line.
2 1—1
'4' """•"""
lars, ^3;^. (See Rg. 1060, teeth of C. cristata.)
We have no minute, details respecting the man-
ners and instincts of the Chrysoch lores, of which
three species are distinguished : they are burrowing
animals, feeding upon worms and the larvae of in-
sects, &c. The thick-tailed Condylure was dis-
covered by Mr. David Douglas on the banks of the
Columbia River. The colour of the fur above is
deep lustrous brown, paler on the under parts. The
tail is contracted- at its root, whence it gradually
enlarges, and then tapers to a fine point. Length
of head and body, four inches and a half; of the
tail, two inches and a half.
1061.— The Hedgehog
(Erinacens Etiropams). Riccio of the Italians ;
Erizo of the Spanish ; Ourizo of the Portuirnese ;
Herisson of the French: Igel of the Germans; Eegel-
varken of the Dutch ; Pin-suin of the Danes ; Drae-
nog and Draen y coed of the ancient British ;
Urchin, Provincial English; "Ex'tos of the Greeks.
It is superfluous to enter into an elaborate descrip-
tion of this spine-covered animal ; all are well
acquainted with its external characters, and all
know that it has the power of rolling itself up into
a ball, presenting an array of serried spines formi-
dable to its antagonist. A peculiar muscular ex-
pansion beneath the skin enables the hedgehog
thus completely to enshroud itself in its panoply, as
in a hood, the margin of which is closed by means
of a circular muscle, the head and limbs being
retracted within. While the animal is thus en-
veloped in its armed skin, the spines are stiffly set
by the action of the muscular expansion, and
radiate from the ball : and such is the strength and
elasticity of this covering, that a hedgehog may
roll down a steep place or precipitous bank without
the slightest injury. Mr. Bell assures us that he
has repeatedly seen a domesticated hedgehog in his
possession run towards the precipitous wall of an
area, and without hesitation or a moment's pause
for preparSition throw itself off, contracting at the
same instant into a ball, in which condition it
reached the ground from a height of twelve or
fourteen feet, when, after a few moments, it would
unfold itself and run off unhurt. The hedgehog is
nocturnal in its habits : it frequents woods, copses,
old gardens, orchards, and thick hedgerows, where
it remains rolled up in its retreat during the day,
coming forth on the approach of twilight, and con-
tinuing on the alert till morning. Its motions are
quick and irregular, and its pace a sort of heavy
paddling, the body being close to the ground, and
the feet plantigrade. Its food consists of insects,
slugs, frogs, toads, mice, and even snakes ; to which
it adds eggs, young nestlings, and various kinds of
vegetables, »3 the roots of grass and plantain, and
ripe orchard-fruits which fall from the trees. White
notices the manner in which it bores with its snout,
to get at the root of the plantain, which it eats,
leaving the tuft of leaves untouched. In the first
volume of the ' Zoological Journal ' is the narrative,
from the pen of Mr. Broderip, of an experiment
made by Professor Buckland, relative to the de-
struction of snakes by the hedgehog, from whicli it
would appear that the cunning quadruped makes a
sudden attack on the reptile, and giving it a hard
bite, instantly rolls i'self up for safety, then cau-
tiously unfolds, and inflicts another wound, repeating
its attacks till the snake is " scotched," its back-bone
being broken in several places; it next passes the
body of the snake gradually through its jaws, crack-
ing the bones at short intervals, which done, it pro-
ceeds to eat its victim as one would eat a radish,
beginning with the tip of the tail, and slowly pro-
ceeding upwards. We have frequently seen hedge-
hogs eat frogs, rapidly crunching their bones with
an audible noise. The hedgehog may be easily
domesticated, and becomes familiar, feeding on
soaked bread, vegetables, and meat; it is useful in
kitchens, which it eftectually clears of crickets,
cockroaches, beetles, &c., and as it keeps quiet in
its nest or retreat all day, produces itself nd incon-
venience. Superstitious ignoiance, as in the case
of the poor little shrew, has led to the cruel per-
secution of the hedgehog, because, forsooth, it was
(and in some places still is) believed to drain dry
the udders of ihe cows during the night, to the
surprise of the milkmaid and the indignation of the
farmer. To the Slow- worm and the Fern-owl
(Caprimulgus) the same mischievous habits have
also been attributed, the physical impossibility of
their committing such a theft being overlooked or
not appreciated. With respect to the hedgehog,
this accusation, as Mr. Bell observes, is about as
well founded as that by Pliny, and exaggerated by
Sperling, who asserts that it ascends trees, knocks
off the apples and pears (jElian says figs), and
throwing itself down upon them so that they may
stick to its spines, trots off with the prize.
The hedgehog hybernates, passing the winter in
a state of complete torpidity. It makes its retreat
in banks under the hollow roots of trees, in holes or
other sheltered and convenient places, constructing
a sort of nest or bed of grasses, dried leaves, and
moss ; with these it covers itself deeply and closely,
and when discovered hybernating resembles a ball
or roundish mass of herbage, which it seems to have
attached to its spines by repeatedly rolling itself
round amidst the heap it had stored up.
The female breeds early in the summer, forming
an artful nest, roofed so as to throw off the rain ;
within, it is well lined with leaves and moss. The
young, from two to four in number, are blind at their
birth, about two inches long, perfectly white, and
naked, though the rudiments of the prickles are
perceptible. These soon develop themselves, and
harden even before the eyes are opened, but it is
not till a later period that the young are able to
draw down the skin over Ihe muzzle, and fold them-
selves into a complete ball. The mother is devoted
to her offspring, and unremitting in her duties.
Formerly the flesh of the hedgehog was eaten in
our island, and is so still on some parts of the Con-
tinent. An intimate friend of the writer had one
dressed and served up for dinner, and assured us
that it was excellent ; we must, however, remember
the old adage " De gustibus," &c. : few, we think,
would willingly partake of such " small deer." The
Romans made use of the spiny skin of the hedge-
hog in hackling hemp for the weaving of cloth.
The hedgehog is found in most parts of Europe ;
its length, when full grown, is about nine inches and
a half. Fig. 1062 represents the skull. The den-
tition is as follows : — Incisors, ;:, the two middle the
u
3 3
longest ; false molars, - — - ; molars with acute
O'—O
3 3 ] 1
tubercles, - — -„ ; small tuberculous molars, — r.
o — o 1 — 1
Closely allied to the genus Erinaceus is the genus
Centetes, 111. (Centenes, Desm. ; Setiger, Geoff.),
which comprehends certain hedgehog-like animals,
confined, as far as we know, to the Mauritius and
Madagascar. They are covered with spines, but
these spines are feebler than those of the hedge-
hog, nor do the animals enjoy so completely the
power of rolling themselves up into a ball. They
differ moreover in their dentition, the incisors
,.•64 .1-1 , 6—6
being - or 7 ; canines, :: — r ; molars, - — -. bee
6 4 1 — 1 D — b
Fig. 106.3. The muzzle is long and pointed ; the tail
wanting. These animals hybernate during the dry
season, when their natural food, insects and worms,
fail, and revive on the return of the rainy season.
In their habits they are nocturnal.
1064.— The Tenrkc, or Tanbec
(Centetes ecauftatm, Cuv. ; Erinaceus ecaudatus,
Linn.). This species exceeds our hedgehog in size,
and is covered above with long flexible spines ex-
cept on the top of the head ; the under parts are
clad with yellowish bristly hairs, a few black ones
being intermixed.
The Tenrec is a native of Madagascar, but has
been naturalized in the Mauritius. Of its habits
we have but imperfect details. On June 14, 1831,
a letter respecting these animals, addressed to the
Zoological Society, and dated Port Louis, December
15, 1830, was read at the scientific meeting. It
referred to previous unsuccessful attempts on the
part of the Society's valuable correspondent to
transport from the Mauritius to England living
Gouramies and Tanrecs, and promised a repetition
of the experiment. Mr. Telfair states that he has
now a pair of living Tanrecs, fully grown, ready to
send to England when he can place them under
proper care. "They live on boiled rice, but will
probably not exist long upon that alone, as their
natural food is chiefly composed" of worms, insects,
lizards, and the eggs of snails, of which it would
be difficult to carry a sufficient supply in a living
state on board ship. Fresh supplies might, how-
ever, be obtained at Madagascar or the Cape of
Good Hope, at St. Helena, Ascension, and the Cape
de Verd Islands ; and the animals might thus arrive
in good health in England, where they would pro-
bably survive for some time, burrowing under a
dungheap, or living in straw in a hothouse or
greenhouse. An opportunity would lluis be fur-
nished of observing their habits. In the Mauritius
they sleep through the greater part of the winter,
from April to November, and are only to be found
when summer heat is felt, which being generally
ushered in by an electric state of the atmosphere,
the negroes (with whom they are a favourite food)
say they are awakened by the peals of thunder
which precede the summer storms or "pluies
d'orage." Even in summer they are not often seen
beyond the holes in which they burrow, except at
night. Their favourite haunts are among the old
roots of clumps of bamboos. They have a veiy
overpowering smell of musk at all times, which is
increased to an extraordinary degree when they are
disturbed or frightened ; yet their flesh is con-
sidered so savoury by the negroes, that they are
unwilling to sell those which they catch, and would
not exchange it for any other food, except perhaps
for the " ouiite," which is the catfish hung up in
the sun until it acquires a most fetid smell, tainting
the atmosphere to a great distance ; in this state it
is a chief ingredient in their favourite ragout."
1065. — The Stbipkd Tenrec
(Centetes semispinosus). This species is of small
size : the head is very conical ; the muzzle elon-
gated and pointed ; the body is clothed with a
mixture of spines and bristles, and is banded lon-
gitudinally yellow and black. Native country,
Madagascar.
1066.— The Spiny Tenrec, ob Texdeac
(Centetes spinosus) ; Ericulus nigrescens ? of Isidore
4 7—7
GeofFroy. Incisors, - ; molars, = — -.
The tendrac of BufFon is more like a hedgehog in
appearance than are the two previous species. It
is covered above with close, short, stiff' spines, and
with bristle-like hairs on the under parts. The
spines are of a deep mahogany colour, whitish at
the root and point. Under-parts yellowish-white.
Native country, Madagascar, where ,it is said to
make a burrow in the neighbourhood of fresh or
salt water ; its habits resemble those of the rest
of its race, and it is acceptable to the negroes as
food.
An insectivorous animal allied to the Tendrac,
and called Sokinah at Madagascar, will be found
described and figured under the name of Echinops
Telfairi, Martin, in the 'Trans. Zool. Soc.,' vol. ii.,
p. 249, and characterised in the ' Zool. Proceeds.,'
1838, p. 17. Of its habits and manners no accounts
have been obtained, but from the rigidness of the
spines, and the development of the muscular sub-
cutaneous expansion (Panniculus carnosus), it ap-
pears probable that this animal has, like the hedge-
hog, the power of rolling itself up into a ball, which
is not the case with the tenrec.
1067.— The GYMNtiRK
(Gymnura Eafflesii). Of the genus Gymnura (Hors-
field and Vigors) one species only is at present
recognised. It is a native of Sumatra, and its intro-
duction to science is due to the late Sir T. Stamford
Raffles, who first described it under the title of
Viverra Gymnura. Cuvier observes that it appears
to approach Cladobates (Tupaia) in its teetli, and
the shrews in its muzzle and scaly tail. The toes
are five in number on each foot ; the eyes are small ;
the whiskers long ; the fur consists of a short dense
woolly undercoat, and long coarse thinly-set hairs.
The body, legs, first half of the tail, and a stripe
2 H 2
IC64.— Teniec
l(MtT. — Gymaun,
lOej—Striptd Tentec.
1081.— IlcdgehcgF.
i096. — Spiny Tfnrec.
236
1080.— Teeth of Dugong.
>079.— T.eth of Manatee.
1077.— Skull of Du,M.i:g.
108'.— DjgonfT.
1082.— Mai.atev.
1078.— Skull of Manatee.
-^tiHSiSSm^'^'^^
1075,— Skeleton of Manalee.
1093.— Foiril Teeth of Zeoglotlon,
108B.— Common Porpoiie.
237
238
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[PACHYDEttMATA.
above the eye* are black ; the head, neck, ar.d end
of the tail are while ; the muwle i» elongated. The
6 1 — ^
dentition a* follow* :— Incisors, g ; canine*. —^ J
molars, ^^. or its habits nothing definite is
t>— 6 ^
known. It exhales a strong niusky smell. Speci-
mens are preserved in the Museum of the Zoological
Society.
1068.— Th« Ban.xkisg
(l\ipnia JavanicaK The genus Tupaia, Raffles
(ClaUobates, F. C'uvier ; Sorexglis, Diard; GUs-
sorex, Desmarest ; Hyogale, Temminck), contains
about three species, natives of Sumatra and Java,
where they inhabit the forests. In their dentition
there is some resemblance to that of the hedgehog.
2
The formula stands as follows :— Incisors, f.; ca-
1—1 7—7
nines, t— r ; molars, ^j— - . Fig. 1069 represents the
teeth : n. those of the upper jaw ; 6, those of the
lower. The head is oblong and depressed ; the
snout long and attenuated ; the nostrils lateial ; the
eyes veiy large and rather prominent ; the body
long, slender, and covered with close fur and soft
hairs; the tail is longer than the body, and com-
pressed ; the feet plantigrade and pentadactyle ; the
toes compressed and lurnislied with hooked clavys ;
the thumb is distinct, and moveable in a direction
opposite to the others. Fig. 1070 repre^cnts the head
of the Tupaia Tana of Sumatra: a, in pio<ile;and
t, as seen from above. Fie. 1071 represents the head
of the Banxring (Tupaia Javanica) : and Fig. 1072 ;
o, the fore-foot ; b, the hind-foot ; in both the
thumb is seen distinct, especially in the hind foot.
Dr. Horsfield (' Zoological Researches in Java ')
states that in the Malayan language the name of
Tupai is a general term for various small animals
which have the external form and agility of the
squirrel ; while each different species, agreeably to
the observations of the natives of the islands of the
Eastern Archipelago, where these animals are
found, is distinguished by a particular epithet.
Thus two smalTanimals, which, according to Dr.
Horsfield's classification, belong to the genus above
described, are, he says, denominated Tupai Press
and Tupai Tana; while several other animals be-
longing to the genus Sciurus are denominated
Tupai Jinjang, Tupai Tankrawa, &c. The same
author states that three species of Tupaia had been
discovered v\'hen he wrote, two of which are natives
of Sumatra, Penang, and Singapura, while the
third has been found exclusively in Java, where it
is distinguished by the name of Bangsring or Sins-
rinir.
The tupaias, instead of being strictly terrestrial,
lead, to a certain extent, the life of squirrels, having
all their sprightliness and activity, and much of the
general appearance of those animals. They are, in
fact, semi-arboreal insectivora, and were it not for
their long head and pointed snout, could scarcely
be distinguished, at a distance, from some of the
Sciuri. Their fine soft fur is of a dark red, and on
the tail the hair, which is long and bushy, is dis-
tichous, or arranged laterally, especially if viewed
on the under surface. Sir T. Stamford Raffles states
that they are decidedly diurnal, their large bright
eyes being suited to daylight, and that they live
principally on fruits, and especially that of the
Kayo gadis. The Banxring or Bangsring of Java is
lively and active. Dr. Horsfield, who met with it
during his researches in Java, states that in travers-
ing the province of Blambangan, in 1806, he dis-
covered it in the extensive forests which almost
entirely cover the eastern extremity of the island ;
and he thinks that its range, though it may not be
confined exclusively to that province, is extremely
limited. From the scanty information afforded by
the natives, it would seem that the bangsring lives
on trees, and " feeds on fruits and nuts ;" but Dr.
Horsfield observes that this account must be received
with duelimitation,and he refers to the system of den-
tition as indicating thatthebangsringismore adapted
to animal than vegetable food. Length, from ex-
tremity of nose to the root of the tail, six inches
five lines ; of tail, six inches five lines.
The fur of the bangsring is close, silky, and deli-
cate, with a few longer, more rigid, and darker-
coloured hairs dispersed throughout it. The upper
parts are brown, slightly diversified with grey of
different shades; the lower parts dirty white, with a
slight tint of greyish : the tail agrees with thejupper
parts ; and the scapular line, which is nearly an inch
long, agrees with the neck.
The Ferruginous Tupaia is a native of Sumatra,
and does not appear to differ essentially in its habits
from the Java species. Sir Stamford Raffles states
that a tame Tupaia ferruginea was suffered to go
about at perfect liberty, ranged in freedom over the
whole house, and never failed to present himself
on the breakfast and dinser table, where he jiartook
of fhiit and milk. Dr. Horsfield also quotes an ex-
tract from the ' Proceedings of the Asiatic Society,'
where it is stated that a living Tupaia ferruginea
was brought to Bengal by a medical gentleman ; it
ran about the house tame, but would not allow
itself to be caught for close insneclion. Though at
liberty to run out of doors whenever it liked, it
showed no disposition to leave its quarters, and
evinced some attachment to the family ; for when-
ever strangers entered th»! house it showed dis-
quietude aiid made a chattering noise. It gave no
trouble in feeding, for it was always on the search
after insects, and its favourite food seemed to be
flies, crickets, grasshoppers, and cockroaches. Spe-
cimens of the three species are preserved in the
Museum of the Zoological Society.
Tribe— AQUATIC PACHYDERMATA
(The Herbivorous Cetacea of Cuvier).- If our
reader will turn to our account of the fossil Dino-
therium and Toxodon, p. Ill, he will find that we
have there alluded to the Dugong or Duvong,
and the Lamantin (the Aquatic Gravigrades of Blain-
ville), as belonging to the Pachydermatous order,
and as having in manners and organization little
relationship to the true whales, excepting in so far as
they are alike modified for the waters of the deep.
In their external form, indeed, these aquatic
pachyderms are whale-like: there are no hinder
limbs, the pelvis being either rudimentary or want-
ing, and the fore-limbs are converted into flippers
or paddles; the body is continued conical till it ter-
minates in a transverse or horizontal tail, consisting
of an expanse of cartilage covered with tendinous '
fibres and skin, and which is the chief oigan of
aquatic locomotion. The skin is almost naked, oily, ^
and covers a layer of subcutaneous blubber or fat ; j
the lipsarestudded with thick wirybristles. Although ;
the nasal opening is placed hii^h on the skull, the nos- |
trils in the skin are placed at the extiemity of the
muzzle, which is remarkably obtuse and truncate —
a form advantageous for the browsing habits of these
animals, which feed on submarine vegetables. The
eyes are protected by a membrana rictitans, and the
teats in the females are situated just behind the
roots of the flipi)erty— two points of difference be-
tween these aquatics and the whales. The stomach
is sacculated ; the teeth present flat bruising sur-
faces; there are no intercostal and intra-vertebral
arterial plexuses, as in the true Cetacea (Fig. 1073).
The bones of the skeleton are of dense texture and
destitute of medullary cavities; they are not loaded
with oil, as in the Cetacea. In the Indian Dugong
there are seven cervical vertebra!, nineteen costal
vertebrse, and thirty lumbar, pelvic, and caudal.
In the Dugong ofthe Red Sea these latter vertebrae
amount to thirty-three ; making in all fifty-nine.
The number of the ribs is nineteen on each side.
The lower jaw is articulated to the cranium by
a true synovial capsule, reflected over cartila-
ginous surfaces, and not, as in the true Cetacea,
by a coarse, oily, ligamentous substance. In the
Lamantin or Manatee, the ribs are sixteen on
each side. Fisr. 1074 represents the skeleton ofthe
Dugong, and Fig. 1075 that of the Manatee. They
may be compared together, and with the skeleton
of the Porpoise, Fig. 1076 (a true cetacean), with
advantage.
Fig. 1077 represents the skull of the Dugong ; Fig.
107t*, that of the Manatee. The skull ofthe manatee
may be distinguished from that of the dugong by
the following particulars :— The nasal bones are
very small, and imbedded, so to speak, in the frontal,
which consist of two portions advancing forwards,
so as to enter into the upper margin of the nasal
orifice, and form the ceiling of the orbits. The in-
termaxillary bones (a) advance far forwards, but are
destitute of teeth, excepting during the early stages
of the animal's existence ; these bones form the
lateral edges ofthe nasal orifice, which is very spa-
cious ; b'lt in the living animal the bones are con-
tinued by a cartilaginous addition, so that the nos-
trils open at the end ofthe muzzle. The orbits are
situated far forwards, and their margin is very pro-
minent ; the zygomatic arch is broad and strong ;
the muzzle advances directly forwards with a very
slight gradual downward bend. The dentition of
the manatee (Fig. 1070) is not correctly ascertained.
In adultskulls eight molars on each side are usually
found, in others nine or ten ; and Fred. Cuvier ob-
serves that, as in some of the ordinary Pachyder-
mata, the anterior molars, worn the first, fall as the
posterior ones become develoi)ed, being, indeed,
pushed out by their advance.
The skull ofthedugong (Fig. 1077) isdistinguished
by the enormous size of the intermaxillary bones,
17, which extend backwards as far as the middle of
the temporal fos-sae, and are bent down with asudden
angle (reminding us of the beak of the flamingo)
over the elongated symphysis ofthe lower jaw. In
this deflected portion of each intermaxillary bone is
lodged the root of a permanent, tusk-like, but not
very prominent incisor, there being two of these
teeth above, none below. This development and
shape of the intermaxillary bones throws the nasial
orifice higher up than in the manatee ; the lower
jaw is thicker, shorter, deeper, and its symphysis fits
the deflected portion of the intermaxillary bones.
In the young dugong the inolai-s are five on each
side, above and below ; but the three anterior are
deciduous, the two last being permanent (see den-
tition. Fig. 1080). To those who wish to investiga:e
the anatomy of this animal we recommend a jiaper
by Professor Owen, in the ' Zool. Proceeds.' for
1838, p. 28.
1081.— The Dugono
(Halicore Dugong, F. Cuv.) ; Halicore Indicus, Des-
marest. This species is a native of the Indian seas,
being common among the islands of the Indian
Archipelago, and visiting also the coasts of New
Holland. Its favourite haunts are the mouths of
rivers and straits between proximate islands, where
the depth of water is but trifling (three or four
fathoms), and where, at the bottom, grows a luxu-
riant pasturage of submarine algse and fuci : here
in calm weather may small troops be seen feeding
below the surface, and every now and then rising to
take breath. The position of the mouth, the mus-
cular powers and mobility of the lifis garnished with
wiry bristles, and the short incisor tusks of the upper
jaw, enable these animals to seize and drag up the
long fronds of the subaquatic vegetables which
constitute their nourishment.
The dueong is in high esteem as an article of
food, its flesh being terider and not unlike beef;
hence it is hunted assiduously by the Malays, who
attack the animal with harpoons, in the manage-
ment of which they are very dexterous.
The mutual afiecfion of the male and female is
very great, and the latter is devoted to her offspring.
If a dugong be killed, the survifvor ofthe pair, care-
less of danger, follows after the boat, carrying the
body, impelled by an overmastering passion, and
thus often shares the fate of its partner; indeed, if
one be taken, tire other is an easy jirize.
The dugong attains to the length of seven or eight
feet ; its caudal paddle is crescent-shaped ; the large
thick upper lip hangs over the lower; the skin of
the body is thinly set, with very short prickly bris-
tles ; the anterior limbs, or flippers, are destitute of
nails. The ventricles of the heart are not united
together, but form as it were two distinct hearts
joined at the top : this separation of the ventricles
does not alter the routine of the circulation. The
eyes are very small.
An allied species (Halicore Tabernaculi) has been
discovered by MM. Ehrenberg and Riippell in the
Red Sea.
1082. — The Manatee, oe Lamaktiit
(Manatns Amerkanus ; Tricliecus Manatus, Linn.).
The American manatee inhabits the embouchure of
the Amazon, Orinoko, and other rivers of Soutn
America, and feeds upon subaquatic herbage. Its
flippers exhibit rudiments of nails, and by their aid
it sometimes drags its unwieldy body on shore, and
crawls up the banks, either to bask in the sun or
seek for terrestrial vegetables. The males and
females are mutually attached to each other, and
the latter are tenderly devoted to their young, which
soon alter birth they carry under their flippers where
the teats are seated. This species measures from
six to seven feet in length ; the head is small, the
muzzle thick and fleshy, presenting at its extremity
a semicircular disc, at the upper part of which are
the nostrils, semicircular orifices, directed forwards.
The eyes are small ; the aperture of the auditory
canal almost imperceptible. From the shoulders
the body gradually diminishes, and terminates in a
flat, horizontal, oval paddle.
A distinct species (Manatus Senegalensis, Desm.)
is found in the embouchure of the Senegal and other
rivers of Western Africa ; its manners resemble
those of the preceding, but we have no very precise
details.
According to Dr. Harlan, a distinct species ot
manatee, which he terms Manatus lalirostris, inhabits
the shores of some parts of North America,
1 083. — Zedglodon.
The fossil teeth here represented were discovered
by Di-. Harlan in America, and attributed by him
to an extinct reptile, which he termed Basilosaurus.
Professor Owen, however, proves them to belong to
an extinct animal referable to the present tribe, and
allied to the manatee and dugong : and for this ani-
mal he has proposed the name of Zeuglodon, a word
suggested by the form ofthe posterior molars, which
resemble two teeth tied or yoked together, a, re-
presents the cut surface of one of these teeth, each
part exhibiting a central pulp cavity, aud concentric
I striae of growth. For minute details see ' Mag. Nat
I Hist.' May, 1839, p. 209.
Porpoises.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
239
ORDER CETACEA.
The Cetacea are characterised by the conical fish-
like form of the body covered wiih a smooth naked
skin, adapted tor the medium in wliich they live ;
between the skin and the muscles is a layer of
blubber, varyinir in thickness in different species,
and most abundant in the Greenland whale, its
thickness bein?; from eight or ten to twenty inches.
The uses of this layer are various : — in the first place
it renders the hu2;e body of these animals specifically
lisrhler than the surrounding iluid ; secondly, it ma-
terially tends to the preservation of the vital heat;
and, thirdly, it affords protection to the internal
orprans agafust the effects of the enormous pressure
to which these animals are subject while plunging
deep into the abysses of the ocean. The fore-limbs
are modified into flippers, and the posterior part of
the body, destitute of hind limbs, is continued coni-
cal, and terminates in a broad horizontal cartilasi-
nous paddle. On the central line of the upper surface,
and generally towards the tail, is sometimes seated a
small vertical cartilaginousfin,unconnected with the
skeleton. This fin varies in figure, and is often ab-
sent. It ispartly by theaid of this fin, where present,
but more so by that of the flippers, that the cetacea
balance themselves in the water, for when dead or
dyins they float on the side or the back. The mode
of progression consists of a series of leaps or impulses
produced by the action of the tail, which is bent
down and then struck out with greater or less vio-
lence, according to the rapidity with which the
animal is cleavmg its way. By means of this organ
it can dive instantaneously, or even leap out of the
water, throwing the waves around into spray and
foam. In the ordinary position of the cetacea while
floating, only the top of the head and part of the
back appear above the surface, their capacious
jaws, and also the eyes, being beneath ; hence, in
order to admit of uninterrupted respiration, the
situation and structure of the nostrils are modified
accordingly.
These animals are called blowing cetacea, because,
in consequence of the structure of the nostrils, they
are capable of throwing up jets of water or spray
accompanied with a loud noise ; this act is termed
blowing, and the nasal orifices blow-holes or spi-
racles ; they open on the top of the head, and lead to
two large membranous pouches seated immediately
■below the integument. These pouches are recep-
tacles for fluid, which, being forced up into them, is
prevented from returning into the throat by certain
valves furnished with strong muscles, lodged above
the intermaxillary bones, see Fig. 1084, the skull of
the Dolphin : it is in the hollow at the top of the head
that these pouches are placed. The posterior nasal
passage is furnished with longitudinal and circular
muscular fibres, and opens into the pharynx or back
part of the mouth, and into it the larynx rises in the
form of a pyramid, and the circular fibres of the nasal
passage have the power of grasping it by their con-
tractions. The channel, therefore, from the larynx
through the posterior nasal passage into the pouches
is plain. Now these pouches are lodged, as we have
said, beneath the skin, and the nostrils which conduct
to them open externally by a transverse semilunar
slit, while very strong muscular fibres, radiating from
the entire circumference of the cranium, cover the
whole surface of the apparatus, and act as compres-
sors of the pouches. Let us suppose, says Cuvier,
" that the cetaceous animal has taken into its mouth
some water which it wishes to eject ; it moves
its tongue and jaws as if it were about to swal-
low, but, closing the pharynx, it forces the water to
mount into the nasal passage, where its progress is
accelerated by the action of the circular fibres, until
it raises the valves and distends the membranous
pouches above. Here it can be retained until the
animal wishes to eject it, and take in breath. In
order to spout, the valves being closed, it forcibly
compresses the pouches by means of the muscular
expansions which cover them ; and compelled to
escape by the narrow crescentic aperture, it is pro-
jected to a height corresponding to the force of the
pressure." The noise, however, called blowing, shows
that the animal forcibly exhausts its lungs of the pent-
up breath, driving the air through the nasal orifices
which, mingled with the water contained in the
pouches, rises like spray or dense mist. Fig. 1085
represents a section of the head ofthe porpoise, show-
ing the structure of the nasal apparatus. This ap-
paratus is of little use as an olfactory organ, the sense
of smell being very deficient. As respects the or-
gans )f sight we may observe that the eye is very
small, and adapted, as in fishes, to the density of the
surrounding medium, the cornea being flat, and the
crystalline lens globular; there is no lachrymal
gland, but the lids are furnished with certain little
glands secreting a fluid adapted for lubricating the
eye-ball. The external aperture of the ear is mi-
nute and capable of being closed at pleasure. Under
water the whale hears the smallest sounds, the
itlightegt splash of the oar, but to sounds in the air
above, even the report of a cannon, as Scoresby
states, it is insensible. Its auditory apparatus, en-
closed in a bone (petrous portion of the temple) re-
markable for hardness, appreciates only the vibration
of water. The sense of taste does not appear to be
acute.
The cetacea, passing their existence in the wild
waste of seas, are capable of remaining submerged
for a considerable length of time, and the vascular
system is modified accordingly, the arteries not only
of the limbs, but of the chest and vertebral canal,
being singularly plexiform. The discovery of this
arrangement is due to the celebrated W. Hunter,
who published an account of it in the Phil. Trans.,
1787. These animals, he says, " have a greater pro-
portion of blood than any other known, and there
are many arteries apparently intended as reservoirs
where a larger quantity seemed to be required in a
part, and vascularity could not be the only object.
Thus we find that the intercostal arteries divide into
a vast number of branches, which run in a serpentine
course beneath the pleura (lining membrane of the
chest), the ribs, and their muscles," forming a deep
maze of intermingled and contorted tubes. "These
vessels everywhere lining the sides of the thorax
pass in between the ribs near their articulation, and
aI^o behind the ligamentous attachment of the ribs
and anastomose with each other. The spinal cord
is surrounded with a net-work of arteries in the same
manner, more especially where it comes out from the
brain, and where a thick substance is formed by their
rnmifications and convolutions; Fig. 1073 repre-
sents the arrangement of the arteries of the chest.
Nor is this plexiform arrangement peculiar to the
arterial system, it is even more strongly displayed in
the venous: the veins in certain parts forming im-
mense plexiform reservoirs. This curious disposition
of the vascular system in the cetacea is, as we have
intimated, most probably connected with their habits
of diving, during which their respiration is sus-
pended, and consequently the passage of the blood
through the lungs impeded ; while at the same time
they are subjected to a great pressure. Hence per-
haps the arterial plexuses are needed as reservoirs
stored with oxygenated blood for the use of the
system, while the venous plexuses are reservoirs for
the sake of safety during the suspension of respiration.
I The females of this order have two teats deeply
imbedded at the lower portion of the abdomen. The
stomach is very complicated, divided into several
compartments, "and digestion is very rapid.
As these animals have to plough the waves head
foremost, a long or even decided neck would inter-
fere with their movements, consequently the cervi-
cal vertebrae are compressed into a small space, and
more or less entirely anchylosed into one mass, to
the total immobility of the head, the axis of which
cannot be altered without a corresponding alteration
of that of the body. It is moreover remarkable that
the two halves of the head do not precisely corre-
spond in symmetry. This is especially observable in
the dolphins, porpoises, grampus, and cachalot.
(See Meckel's xVnatomie Comparee, vol. iv. p. 361.)
Tlie cetacea are all carnivorous, but their prey
difl'ers from the small mollusk to fishes and even the
smaller of their own order ; and their teeth are mo-
dified accordingly. They are divided into the fol-
lowing families: —
1. Delphinidce, Dolphins, Grampuses, Narwhals,
&c. 2. CatodonlidcB, Cachalots or Spermaceti
Whales. 3. Baleenidae, Rorquals and Blubber
Whales.
Family DELPHiKiDiE (Dolphins, Porpoises, &c.): —
1086, 1087. — The Common Porpoise
(Phocana communis). In the genus Phocaena the
snout in the living animal is not produced as in the
Dolphin ; but in other respects the characters are
the same. The teeth are numerous, compressed,
rounded, and interlock when the jaws are closed,
and are well fitted for snapping at and retaining the
slippery prey. (Fig. 1088.) A dorsal fin is present.
There are several species.
The common porpoise is active, fleet, and vora-
cious ; it frequents, in troops, the bays and. inlets
of our coast, and especially the mouths of rivers,
not unfrequently advancing to a considerable
distance up their stream. In such places it is often
taken in nets by the fishermen, becoming entrapped
while eagerly pursuing its prey. When the shoals
of herring and other fish which periodically visit our
coast make their appearance, they are harassed,
among other enemies, by this active and voracious
animal, which revels in the luxury of a perpetual
feast ; and as its appetite is enormous and its diges-
tion rapid, the slaughter in which it appears inces-
santly occupied must be very great. The porpoise
is common at the Nore, and few have sailed to Mar-
gate or Ramsgate who have not seen these animals,
tumbUng along, as they appear to do, in the rushing
waves. The peculiarity of their motion results from
the horizontal position of the tail-paddle, and the up-
and-down stroke which it gives ; and their momen-
tary appearance is for the purpose of breathing,
which accomplished, they plunge down in seaicli of
their food. In former days the flesh of the porpoise
was highly esteemed as a delicacy for the table, and
was served at public feasts; indeed, it is but lately
that it has fallen into disrepute, and been omitted
at city entertainments, where the turtle usurps its
place. Our forefathers must have had a difterent
notion about table delicacies from ourselves; for
few, we believe, would now relish the rank, oily,
fishy flesh of this animal. Length about five feet.
Fig. 1076 represents the skeleton.
Fig. 1084 represents the skull of the Dolphin (Del-
phinus Delphis), a species celebrated by the ancients,
and resembling the porpoise in its habits and food.
The aquatic evolutions of these animals, as seen
sporting around ships, apparently for the sake of
amusement, their varied and rapid turns, and gam
bols, are well described by Ovid—
** Undiqne dant saltua, muUaque adspergine rorant :
Emerguntque iterum. redeuntquesub fequora ruraiis,
Inquechori ludunt speciem, lascivaque jaL-tanf.
Corpora, et acceptum patuUs mare naribus efflant,'*
1089, 1090.— Thj! Narwhal
(Monodon monoceros). The genus Monodon, of
which the Narwhal is the only recognised species,
is provisionally placed by Cuvier in the family Del-
phinidse. It evidently forms the type of a distinct
group. Among the cetacea inhabiting the dreary
realms of the Polar Ocean, the narwhal, if not the
largest or among the largest, is nevertheless one of
the most remarkable: its general form resembles
that of the porpoises ; it has, however, no teeth,
properly so called, but two ivory tusks, or spears,
implanted in the intermaxillary bone, but of which
tlie right remains usually rudimentary and concealed
during life. The left tusk, on the contrary, attains
to the length of from five to seven or eight and
sometimes ten feet in length, and projects from the
snout in a right line with the body, tapering gradu-
ally to a point, with a spiral twist (rope-like) through-
out its whole extent (Fig. 1091), where, by an over-
sight, the tusks have been transposed. In its structure
and growth this tusk resembles that of the elephant,
being hollow at its base or root, and solid at its
extremity. It is in the male only that this spear-
like weapon, under ordinary circumstances, becomes
duly developed, the females (and indeed the young
males) having the left as well as the right tusk con-
cealed within its bony socket. This rule, however,
is not invariable, for females have not only been
seen with the left tusk projecting, but the right also,
if we may credit the account of Lacepfide, who
states that Capt. Dirck Peterson, commander of a
vessel called the Golden Lion, brought to Hamburg,
in 1683, the skull of a female narwhal, having two
tusks implanted in it, of which the left measured
seven feet five inches, the right seven feet. It may
be added that Capt. Scoresby brought home the
skull of a female narwhal in which both tusks pro-
jected, though only to the distance of two and a
quarter inches, and which was examined by Sir E.
Home. Nor with respect to the male must it be
supposed that the right tusk never becomes deve-
loped, for, on the contrary, instances sometimes
occur in which the right tusk projects exterhally
nearly as far as the left ; and there are grounds for
supposing that when the left becomes lost, or broken
by accident, the right tusk becomes developed to
supply the deficiency. Formerly these horns, or
tusks, were looked upon to be the horns of the fabu-
lous land-unicorn, and therefore they were valued
as an inestimable curiosity, and sold excessively
dear, till the Greenland fishery was set on foot,
when they became more common, and their real
nature known.
The use as.signed to the tusk of the narwhal by
Crantz, viz. that of uprooting marine vegetables on
which to feed, is altogether a supposition. As the
male only ha.s this instrument developed, or gene-
rally the male, the female must be reduced to sad
difficulties in the procuring of food ; but in truth
the position of the tusk renders such a use as is here
attributed to it impossible. Moreover the narwhal
does not subsist on marine fuel, or algae, but on
soft animal matters, as mollusks and fish. Capt.
Scoresby found the remains of cuttle-fish in the
stomachs of several which were opened by him, and
similar remains were also found in the stomach of
one driven ashore near Boston.
In general form the narwhal resembles the por-
poise, but the head is small and blunt ; the mouth
IS small, and not capable of much extension. The
under-lip is wedge-shaped. The eyes are placed
in a line with the opening of the mouth, at the
distance of thirteen or fourteen inches from the
snout, and of small size, being about an inch m
diameter. The spiracle, or blow-hole, is a single
oriifice of a semicircular form, on the top of the
iieivd, directly over the eyes. The fins, or flippers,
aru about fourteen or fifteen inches long, and from
lO'd.— Sk laon or Pocpobe.
1 087.— Common Porpoi.e.
1085.— Section of Hwd orForpoiw.
lOSS.-Nurwhtl.
240
1.
-^-^■7
6.— Skull of Spermaceti Wiale, seen from below.
u ^
1095. — Skull of Spermaceti Uliale, seen from above.
1096.— Spemnccti Whale.
IIOS.— Oraenland Whale.
S
I
I
i ioJ.— Sktill of Greenland Whale» ander view, lower jau remored.
109?.— Skull of SptrmaceM Whale, bick vieiv.
1101.— Skill! of Greenland Whale, in protile.
i;=croia5fi[^^^
IIM.— Skeleton of Greenland W hale.
1 102.— Skull of Greenland Whale, upper view.
No. 31.
1092.— ItcUiKa.
[THE MUSEU.M OF ANIM.-VTED NATURE.]
lOM,— Skull of Sp«nnueti Whale, in profile.
241
■242
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
Wll \LES. J
»ix to eieht broad; their situation on the sides of the
animal being at one-finh of its length frooi the
snout. The breadth of the tail is from fifteen to
twenty inches. There is no dorsal fin, but a sharp
rid^e runs down the centre of the back, the edge of
which is frenerally found to be rough and worn, as
if by rubbing against the ice. At an early age
the narwhal is blacki&h-grcy on the back, with
numerous darker spots and markings running into
each other, forming a general dusky-black sur-
face. The sides are almost white, with dusky and
more open markings: the under surface is white.
In adult specimens the ground-colour of the back is
yellowish-white, with markings varying from dark
grey to dusky-black, and of a roundish or oval figure,
with interspaces of white or yellowish-white between
them. The skin resembles that of the common
Greenland whale (Balaena myslicetus), but is thin-
ner. The female narwhal produces a single young
one at a birth, which she nourishes with milk for
several months.
To the rapidity, the great powers, and the ferocity
of the narwhal when attacked, many writers have
borne testimony. Its form is admirably adapted for
cleaving the waters, and we can well believe that
the shock of its weapon, di-iven full tilt against an
enemy, must produce a terrible effect. The ribs of
the stoutest boat would be transfixed by the dint of
such a blow, far more easily than was ever shield
by the lance of knight in battle or tournament.
Several instances have indeed been known in which
the animal has plunged his weapon deep into the
thick oak timbers of a ship, when it has fortunately
snapped short, the fragment remaining fixed in the
orifice, so as to plug it up. A portion of wood
taken from the hull of a ship with a piece of nar-
whal's tusk firmly imbedded in it came some few
years ago under our own inspection. It is probably
only in defence of the females and their young,
unless indeed when attacked himself, that the male
narwhal thus rushes against ships or boats ; for we
utterly discredit the usual accounts of its causeless
and indiscriminate attacks upon any object which
approaches within its range. Doubtless when
wounded and harassed it becomes desperate ; and
its power, its velocity, and weapon combine to
render it formidable.
The narwhal is gregarious, associating in troops of
from six or eight to twenty or more ; and numbers
are often seen clustered together, both in the open
sea, and in bays and inlets free from the ice, forming
a compact phalanx, moving gently and slowly along.
Under such circumstances the independent move-
ments of each individual are necessarily embar-
rassed, so that a considerable slaughter may be
easily effected among them. When attacked at
such a time, the hind ranks, instead of turning
against their assailants, press upon those before,
sliding their long weapons over the glossy backs of
their leaders, and all becomes disorder and con-
fusion. Opportunities of this kind are welcome to
the Greenlandere, to whom the narwhal is an im-
portant animal. Independently of the oil, which
the narwhal yields in considerable quantity and of
excellent quality, the flesh is much esteemed by
these people as tcod, and eaten both fresh and in a
dried and smoked state, being prepared over the
fire of iheir huts. The tendons of the muscles are
useful in the preparation of thin but tough cordage ;
and Duhamel states (see his ' Traite des Peches')
that several membranous sacs are obtained from the
gullet made use of as parts of their fishing appa-
ratus. The ivory spear, or tusk, the Greenlanders
employ in various household and economical pur-
poses instead of wood, and in the manufacture of
weapons, as daits or arrows, &c. When struck by
a harpoon, the narwhal dives with great velocity,
and in the same manner as the whale, but not to
the same extent. In general it descends about 200
fathoms ; and on returning to the surface, is de-
spatched by a whale-lance without any difficulty.
The blubber is about three inches in thickness, and
invests the whole body : it aiibrds about half a ton
of oil.
The narwhal may be registered among the occa-
sional visitants to the Uritish shores. Uf its visits,
however, only three instances are on record, as far
as we can learn. The first is recorded by Nicolas
Tulpius iu 1648. The second is of one killed, in
1800, near Boston in Lincolnshire, and said to have
been twenty-five feet in length. The third instance
occurred in 1800, at the Sound of Weesdale, in Shet-
land.
1092. — The Beluga
(Ddphinapterus Zeucas, Pall.). The genus Del-
phinapterus is characterized by the presence of a
dorsal fin. Head small, and blunt; teeth variable
in number. The Beluga (White Fish, or White Whale)
is a native of the high northern latitudes, and is one
of the most beautiful, confident, and acUve of its
race. Its colour is clear milk-white, sometimes
tinged with a rose-colour or a slight wash of yellow.
tnd the skin is very soft, smooth, and slippery. It
associates in small troops or families, and is in the
habit of following and surrounding boats or ships,
gambolling like the dolphin around them ; or chasing
its finny prey, in quest of which it often ascends the
mouths of nvers, occasionally to a considerable dis-
tance. Duiing the intense severity of the winter,
the beluga is said to migrate southwards ; this jour-
ney cannot, however, be to any great extent, as it
very rarely occurs in the sea around the most
northern portion of the British Isles. Indeed we do
not know of more than one instance on record of
this species visiting our coasts; we refer to the in-
dividual taken, in the summer of 1815, in the Frith
of Forth, where it had been observed for nearly
three months ascending with the flood-tide and
regularly descending witli the ebb. This individual,
as is proved by the time ofthe year in which it was
seen, was a stray wanderer from its native latitudes,
and not on a regular journey of migration. The
flesh of this animal is eaten by the Gre»nlanders
and other people of the boreal regions. Crantz
says it is as red as beef, and of somewhat similar
flavour : Pallas, that it is black. The carcass yields
excellent oil, and it is principally for the sake of
this that the beluga is hunted. It is sometimes in-
tercepted by nets extended across the inlet or
stream it has entered, and attacked with lances
while endeavouring to force its return : on other
occasions it is harpooned, and sometimes even
caught by means of hooks baited with fish. The
female produces one or two young at a birth, to-
wards which she di.->plays the strongest attachment ;
they follow her in all her movements, and do not
quit her until they are of considerable size. Cuvier
states that the teeth are nine in number on each
side, above and below. Mr. Bell states that, in a
cranium in his possession, there are eight teeth in
the upper and six in the lower jaw, on each side ;
but that, as two have evidently fallen from the
former, there must have been ten originally. Aged
individuals are often found without any teeth in the
upper jaw. The beluga measures, when adult,
seventeen or eighteen feet in length. That caught
in the Frith of Forth measured thirteen feet four
inches, and nearly nine feet in circumference at the
thickest part, viz. the centre of the body, whence
it tapers both to the head and to the tail.
Family C.\todontid.« (Pliyseteridce, Bell). This
family, which includes the Cachalots, is charac-
terized by the immoderate size of the head, which
equals one third the length of the body, and termi-
nates in a deep, abrupt, truncate snout, advancing
beyond the lower jaw, which is mu-iow, the two
rami being in contact for the greater part of their
length, and armed each with a row of compressed,
solid, conical teeth, at equal distances fitting into
cavities in the upper jaw, which is either destitute
of teeth, or merely furnished with a few in a rudi-
mentary state and almost covered by the gum. The
blow-holes open externally by a single orifice. The
tongue is small and pointed.
1093. — The Common Cachalot, oe Spermaceti
Whale
(Phyieter macrocephalus, Linn. ; Physeter Catodon,
Linn. ; Catodon trmnpo, Laccpede ; Blunt-headed
Cachalot, Pennant). The Caclialot is one of the
mightiest of the Cetacea, the adult male measuring
upwards of seventy feet in length ; and Irom its
powere, and not unfrequent paroxysms of fury, is
one of the most dangerous of the monsters of the
deep which the daring sailor is called upon to
combat.
The cachalot roams the ocean at pleasure, and is
seen in all latitudes, but its native regions may be
considered as the arctic and antarctic seas.* It
would seem that the animal is gregarious, and is
generally seen in parties consisting of half-grown
males, or of females attended by their young, and
guarded by one or two males of the largest size.
When solitary cachalots are observed, they inva-
riably prove to be aged males.
According to Mr. F. De Bell Bennett (' Zool.
Proceeds.,' 1837, p. 39), the speed of an alarmed
cachalot does not exceed from eight to ten miles
an hour, though, when harpooned, its temporary
velocity may be estimated Irom twelve to fifteen
miles. When thus flying from pursuit, the huge
animal moves with a regular and majestic, although
rapid jiace, and with a gently leaping gait ; the an-
terior and upper portions of the colossal head are
rai^ed above the water, and a portion of the back is
also frequently exhibited. When parties are pur-
sued, they often move in lines like a troop of horse,
and exert all their movements, and descend, rise,
and even spout in unison. When about to plunge
* H.iron Cuvier conslden that only one species of <ipermacpti wliale,
or caclialot. exists. And Pre<l. Cuvier aflopta his opinion, with some
dotiht as to w hether the southern cachalot may not be distinct, which
Mr. Ilcll regards as bfinif the fact. As the elucidation of doubtful
species is not our present object, we leave the question open, and
speak of the cachalot in general terms as a native of the Nortliern and
Southern oceans.
deep, the cachalot assumes a vertical position,
raising the caudal fin, or " flukes," perpendicularly
in the air, an action that is performed leisurely, and
one that distinguishes this from most other species
of Cetacea. This evolution is not, however, in-
variably performed, since, when tranquilly feeding,
or carelessly avoiding a boat, the cachalot will
descend very gradually, lowering itself, or, as it is
technically termed, " settling down."
The ordinary length of time which the cachalot
remains under water, when alarmed or wounded, is
three-quarters of an hour, but in some instances the
time has extended, it is said, to an hour and a
quarter.
The chace of this animal is very hazardous, for
although generally the tioop fly on the appearance
of danger, yet, when one is wounded, the others
often come to the rescue, especially in the case of
the females, which mutually assist each other ; while
the males, as Mr. Bennett affirms, commonly make
a speedy retreat. One of the latter, however, if
attacked and infuriated, is extremely formidable,
and will rush with immense velocity, head foremost,
against a boat, shivering it to pieces, or, lashing
with its tail, will cut it asunder, scattering the hap-
less mariners, some, perhaps, struck dead, others
maimed, on the surface of the rolling ocean. Oc-
currences of this kind are indeed numerous, and
many a thrilling narrative of the '• hair-breadth
'scapes," and of loss of men and boats, in the close
encounter with this giant of the waters, can an old
South Sea whaler tell, and many have been recorded,
which of themselves would fill a goodly and not
uninteresting volume. Not only aie the boats in
jeopardy, but the " whaling vessel" itself is notse-
cure : — Mr. Bell refers to an authenticated instance
of an American ship of large size being stove in and
foundered by a blow from a gigantic male cachalot
rushing head foremost against it.
The food of the cachalot consists of seals, and
fishes of a large size, which it pursues with great
pertinacity ; but it would appear that a large spe-
cies of cuttle-fish (Octopus) forms its principal nu-
triment.
M'e have already noticed the magnitude of the head
of the present species, and we may here observe that
this magnitude is not owing to any extraordinary
development of the skull : the maxillary and inter-
maxillary bones are indeed prolonged, but the
cranial, portion is small, and rises abruptly (see
Fig. 1094, Skull of the Cachalot in profile). If, how-
ever, we look at the upper surface of the skull
(Fig. 1095), we find the top deeply concave, with a
margin continued along the outer edge of each
maxillary bone. It is in this concavity principally
that the substance termed spermaceti, or more pro-
perty cetine, is lodged, and that in such immense
quantity as to give to the head its extraordinary
size and figure. This substance, in a semi-fluid
state, is contained in a tissue of cells, not only
tilHng up the concavity of the surface of the skull,
but giving to the head a singular elevation, the
whole being invested by a dense cartilaginous ex-
pansion. Cetine is also found in cells along the
back and in other parts of the body. This cetine
exists mixed with oil, and when the whale is killed,
a hole is made in the outer and upper part of the
head, and the oleaginous fluid is baled out with
buckets. The first process is the separation of the
oil by means of draining and squeezing ; the im-
pure cetine is then put into barrels, in the state of
a yellow unctuous mass, and is afterwards further
purified by the following process: — "The mass is
put into hair or woollen bags, and pressed between
plates of iron in a screw-press, until it becomes
hard and brittle ; it is then broken into small pieces
and thrown into boiling water, where it melts and
the impurities are separated from it. After being
cooled and taken from the first water, it is put into
a boiler of clean water, and a weak solution of
potash is gradually added. This is thrice repeated,
after which the whole is poured into coolers, when
the spermaceti concretes into a white semicrystal-
lized mass, and on being cut into small pieces ex-
hibits a beautiful flaky appearance, so well known
as belonging to the spermaceti of commerce.'' An
ordinary-sized whale will yield twelve large barrels
of crude spermaceti.
Like other whales, the cachalot is clothed with a
layer of blubber, but in less abundance than in the
common whale (Balajna mysticetas). The oil pro-
cured from it, however, is thinner and more valuable.
Fig. 109G represents in outline, a, the spermaceti
whale, with the sections marked for flencing; b, the
anterior aspect of the head ; c, the harpoon ; d, the
lance.
There is another substance produced by the ca-
chalot, known iu commerce under the name of am-
bergris. This substance, in the form of opake
greyish masses, marbled with darker tints, and some-
what hard and brittle, is found floating in many parts
of the sea, or thrown up on the shore. It is most
abundantin the neighbourhood of the Moluccas and
Whales.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE,
243
alongthe coasts of China, Japan, Madagascar, Africa)
and also South Ameiica. Its consistence resembles
that of common wax ; it is fatty, inflammable, and
when heated emits a fragrant but powerful musky
odour. In general it is mixed up with the beaks of
cuttle-fish, the bones of fishes, and other foreign mat-
ters. For a long time the nature of this substance
was utterly unknown. - It has been regarded by
some as a sort of bitumen, or as a kind of giwn,
and by others as a composition of wax and honey.
It is now known to be produced, as a concretion, in
the intestines of the cachalot, and is often found in
sickly or diseased animals; indeed. Dr. Schwediawer
asserts that the existence of these indigestible con-
cretions olten occasions abdominal abscesses, after
the bursting of which the ambergris is found float-
ing on the surface of the sea. Formerly this sub-
stance was in high estimation as p. medicine ; at
present it is only used as a perfume, but is seldom
to be obtained unadulterated. As in most of the
Cetacea, the skull of the cachalot is destitute of sym-
metry, having a turn as it were, or bend, towards the-
left ; it is asserted also that the left eye is smaller
and more limited in visual range than the right, on
which account the sailors endeavour to attack it on
its left. Mr. Bennett makes no allusion to this cir-
cumstance, but merely observes that if boats are not
brought within the line of vision, the animal maybe
approached with great facility, the sense of hearing
fcemg very imperfect ; " a deficiency, however, which
appears to be in some measure compensated for by
the perfection in which it possesses the sense of
touch, through the medium of a smooth skin abun-
dantly supplied with nervous papillae. It even ap-
pears as though the cachalots had the means of con-
veying impressions to one another through the water,
at considerable distances ; for it is a fact well known
to the southern whalers, that upon a cachalot being
struck from a boat, others that are miles distant will
almost instantaneously display by their actions an
apparent consciousness of what has occurred, and
either take themselves oiFor come down to the aid
of their injured companion." This intelligence he
supposes can only be communicated by a concussion
of the water.
We have said that the cachalot roams all seas ;
it appears, however, to be more scarce in the arctic
latitudes than formerly, but is abundant in the
Southern Ocean, and within the regions of the ant-
arctic circle. According to Colnett, the neighbour-
hood of the Galapagos constitutes a sort of rendez-
vous in spring for all the cachalots frequenting the
coasts of Mexico, Peru, and the Gulf of Panama.
We have several instances on record of this ani-
mal having been captured on our own coast, and on
that of the adjacent continent ; it has been seen in
the Mediterranean, oft' the soul hem shores of Europe,
as well as off the shores of Southern Africa, and in
the Channel of Mozambique.
In 1 769 a cachalot was killed in the Frith of Forth,
and one was seen off the Kentish coast. In 1774 a
large one was stranded on the coast of Norfolk ;
some few years since a small one was captured in
the Thames near Gravesend. In 1784 thirty-two
cachalots ran aground on the coast of Audierne, being
stranded on the sands towards Cape Estain. In
1819 one of 63 feet in length was killed in Whit-
stable Bay. According to Lowe, the cachalot " is
often driven ashore about the Orkneys, nay, some-
times caught."
The general colour of this species is greyish black
above, lighter beneath ; the eye is small, with a few
stiff hairs around. There is no dorsal fin, but a dis-
tinct protuberance ; the pectoral fins are small, and
slightly grooved longitudinally. Fig. 1097 repre-
sents a portion of the lower jaw, to show the teeth.
Fig. 1098, the skull seen from below. Fig. 1099,
the back view of the skull, showing its occipital
elevation above the articulating processes and fora-
men magnum (See also Fig. 1094).
Family Bal,bnid.b (the true Whales). — These ani-
mals equal the cachalot in size, but have the head
more proportionate to the bulk of the body, and dis-
play a less clumsy contour. They are moreover
distingijished from all other Cetacea by the total ab-
sence of teeth; their place in the upper jaw, which
is extremely narrow, being supplied by pendant
homy laminae, called whalebone, or baleen. The
palate of the whale is arched and oval (see Fig.
1 100), and forms a vaulted roof to which the plates
of baleen are attached transversely, in two rows, pa-
rallel to each other. Each plate consists of a cen-
tral coarse fibrous layer, lying between two, which
are compact and externally polished, constituting a
sort of enamel or varnish; but which outer layers
do not cover the internal or true baleen to its ex-
treme free edge : the latter, therefore, extends beyond
the former, and terminates in a fringe, in which are
entangled the small molluscous animals which con-
stitute the food of this huge animal. Each plate of
baleen is of a subtriangular figure, and its base, at-
tached to the palate, has a long furrow, fixed upon
a pulp, buried deeply in the firm vascular substance
of the gum covering the under surface of the max-
illary and intermaxillary bones. The outer layers,
of compact matter, are continuous with a white
horny layer of the gum which passes on to the sur-
face of each plate, and the pulp is therefore the se-
creting organ of the internal layer of coarse elastic
fibres. The number of plates composing each row
is from 300 to 400, and the palate being oval, the
longest are those situated in medio ; those towards
the muzzle and near the entrance of the throat being
consequently the shortest. The longest of these la-
minae often measure 15 feet and upwards in length ;
and the abbreviation anteriorly and posteriorly is
gradual. Each plate, as we have said, is fringed, and
the filaments of the fringe are very numerous, and fill
up the cavity of the mouth sufficiently to form a
strainer. The lower jaw is arched boldly outwards on
each side, so as to form a broad elli^^se, the margin of
a huge spoon which ladles in and conveys to the
strainer or fringes vast quantities of water replete with
shoals of small Crustacea, of the clio borealis, and
other small tenants of the briny deep, which abso-
lutely crowd its waters. The tongue is very large,
thick, fleshy, fat, soft, and spongy. In the Greenland
whale it often exceeds 20 feet in length, and nine or
ten in width. The orifice of the gullet is very small ;
so that fish even of a moderate size cannot pass
down. The eyes are small, and seated just above
the angle of the enormous mouth. There are two
distinct blow-holes on the top of the head. The
skin is smooth and glossy. The blubber is abundant.
In the Greenland whale the layer of this subcuta-
neous lard varies from eight or ten to 20 inches in
depth, and a single whale of large size will yield
about 40 tons ;* but much more has occasionally
been obtained. The lips appear to be composed
of little more than cellular tissue and blubber.
Referring to our pictorial specimens of osteology,
Fig. 1101 shows the skull of the Greenland whale in
profile ; Fig. 1 102, an upper view of the same ; Fig.
1 103, an under view of the same, with the lower jaw
removed; Fig. 1104 represents the skeleton of the
Greenland whale, in which the rudiments of the
pelvis are apparent.
1105, 1 106. — The GaEEXLAifD Whale, or
Gkeat Mtsticete
(BalcBna Mysticettts). This colossal animal, yield-
ing oil and whalebone, both valuable in a com-
mercial point of view, is a native of the arctic seas,
whither it is followed by a daring race of mariners
amidst horrid icebergs and extensive floes, where
danger in every form is imminent. Cold, intense
beyond description, — this has to be borne ; hunger,
for often are the vessels icp-bound, and the pro-
visions scanty, — this has to be endured ; watchful-
ness, fatigue, and the chance of being ingulfed
during the tremendous conflict, — these the sailor
bears and braves, content if he return home with a
rich harvest gleaned from the arctic waters. The
Greenland whale, therefore, even in this sense, is
one of the most interesting of the Cetacea ; nor is it
less so from its habits and manners, which various
observers, and in particular Captain Scoresby, have
contributed to illustrate. The ordinary length of
this species is from sixty to seventy or eighty feet ;
but it is said to attain occasionally to greater dimen-
sions. Seen at a distance, it appears as a dark ill-
defined mass floating on the surface of the water,
and indeed it is only when lying on its side, after
death, that its true outline is to be made out. (See
Fig. 1106.)
It is upon minute animals, such as small shrimp-
like Crustacea, the clio borealis, medusae, &c., that
this huge animal supports his colossal frame.
Ploughing his way beneath the surface with open
mouth, he engulfs his prey by myriads, which be-
come entangled among the filaments fringing the
baleen, and thus are as it were sifted from the water,
which escapes at the sides. Every few minutes he
rises to breathe, expelling through the blow-holes a
column of steam and water, and again plunges to
continue his repast. In order to dive, the whale first
raises his head, and then plunges it under the sur-
face, drawing his tail at the same time underneath
the body so as to form the segment of a circle ;
instantaneously he strikes it out, and goes down like
a shot. The length of time passed beneath the
surface varies, but according to Captain Scoresby it
seldom exceeds half an hour, and this only when
harpooned ; under such circumstances, on appearing
again, which is generally at a considerable distance
from the spot where the animal descended, he is
always in a state of great exhaustion, owing chiefly
to the immense pressure it has sustained, but no
doubt in part to the long suspension of respiration :
under ordinary circumstances the whale rises to
breathe every eight or ten minutes.
The velocity of the whale is very great. Captain
Scoresby harpooned one which, on being struck, de-
scended four hundred fathoms, at the rate of eight i
miles an hour. But under the pain of this weapon
* 'Hie pruportio i of pure oil to tlie blubber is as tliree to four. t
they often descend a much greater depth, subject-
ing themselves to an enormous pressure of water
and are at the same time so overcome by terror, as
often to bruise themselves severely by the rocks met
with in their course, and sometimes even to strike
so violently against the hard bed of the ocean as to
fracture their jaws. At the depth of 800 fathoms
Captain Scoresby calculates the pressure^ at 21 1,200
tons.
The most pleasing as well as astonishing exhi-
bition of the power and activity of these animals is
during the pairing season, when they gambol and
frolic in the waters, throwing themselves about in
the exuberance of delight, little aware of the ap-
proach of their enemies. Sometimes they dart
along the surface, and then dive and re-ascend with
such energy as to leap entirely out of the water ;
sometimes they raise themselves perpendicularly,
sometimes, head downwards, they flourish their
tails aloft, and lash the water with tremendous
violence, throwing the sea around them into foam,
and producing a roaring noise resounding to a
considerable distance. The tail is, in fact, not only
their organ of locomotion, but their weapon of
defence, and though extremely timid and peaceful,
they often use it, when driven to despair, with ter-
rible effect; and this the more particulariy when
one of a pair is struck, or the life of the cub is in
danger. The mutual attachment of each pair, and
the affection of the female for her young one, are
intense ; and many are the instances on record in
which the one has died in defending the other.
Captain Anderson relates that, " having struck one
of two whales, a male and female, that were in
company together, the wounded one made a long
and terrible resistance ; it struck down a boat with
five men in it by a single blow of the tail, and all
went to the bottom; the other still attended its
companion, and lent it every assistance, until at
last the whale that had been struck sunk under its
wounds, while its faithful associate, disdaining to
survive the loss, stretched itself upon the dead
animal, sharing its fate." A more affecting instance,
exemplifying the strength of maternal attachment,
is related by Captain Scoresby. One of his har-
pooners struck a cub, in the hope of capturing the
mother (a plan, we are sorry to say, frequently
made use of), who arose, and seizing the young one
with her paddle, dived instantly, dragging about a
hundred fathoms of line out of the boat with con-
siderable velocity. Again she arose to the surface,
furiously darted to and fro ; frequently stopping
short, or suddenly changing her direction, and ex-
hibiting every symptom of extreme agony. For a
considerable length of time she thus continued to
act, although closely pursued by the boats, but her
concern for her offspring made her regardless of the
danger by which she was surrounded. After two
fruitless trials, she was harpooned, but even then
did not attempt to escape, notwithstanding her suf-
ferings, but still clung to her offspring, and allowed
the other boats to approach, so that in a few-
minutes three more harpoons were fastened, and in.
the course of an hour both the mother and cub
were floating dead.
The female of this species pioduces only one cub
at a birth, which remains under her care for a con-
siderable period, until, by the development of the
baleen plates, it is enabled to procure its own sup-
port. The whale usually lives in pairs, but some-
times numbers are seen together, in places to
which abundance of food or other causes induce
them to resort.
The unceasing persecution to which the Green-
land whale has been long subjected has not only
thinned its numbers, but driven it from localities in
which it was formerly common. It is at present
chiefly to be found in the icy seas of Spitzbergen,
in Davis's Straits, Baffin's Bay, and the waters of
the polar circle. General colour above, a velvety-
blackish grey ; under parts, white.
An allied species, the Cape or Southern Whale
(Balaena Australis, Cuv.), but not attaining to so
large a size, inhabits the Southern Ocean, and in
the month of June visits the bays of Africa adja-
cent to the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of
bringing forth its young. It is, in fact, only the
females that thus approach the coast, and they
return to the main ocean in September. Two skele-
tons, brought by De Lalande in 1820, are in the
museum of Paris, and the osteological differences
between this and the Greenland whale have been
described by Cuvier. The speculations of com-
merce have been directed to this representative of
the northern mysticete, which at a future day may
in like manner become driven from its old haunts
to more remote abodes.
Fig. 1107 is the outline of a species of Balaena
(Balaena Antipodarum), tenanting the ocean near
New Zealand. Fig. 1108 represents the mode of
attacking the Greenland whale ; and Fig. 1109 con-
veys some idea of the dangers of the contest. The
cut relates to the following incident : — " Captain
212
-Ilaipooning Um WIul*.
UOT^Maw Zealand While.
1109.— Dangers of the Whale-Fuhery.
1 : 18.— Skeleton of Qorqual.
1111.— liorqual.
UOe.— Greenland Whale.
244
"•^J-ifJ.
Z77m///!,'///,/»"'^'
1117.— Teeth of Skunk.
use.— Weasel.
245
246
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Whalm.
Lyons, of the Ruth of Leith, while prosecuting the
whale fishfry on the Labrador coast, in the season
of 1902, discovered a large whale at a short distance
from the ship. Four boats were sent in pursuit, and
two of them succeeded in approaching it so closely
together, that two harpoons were struck at the same
moment. Ttie nhale descended a few fathoms in
the direction of another of the boats, which was on
the advance, rose accidentally beneath it, struck it
with its head, and threw the boat, men, and appa-
ratus about fifteen feet into the air. It was inverted
by the stroke, and fell into the water with its keel
upwards. All the people were picked up alive by
the fourth boat, excepting one man, who, having
got entangled in the boat, fell beneath it, and was
unfortunately drowned." Fig. 1110 represents, a,
the har|)oon ; b, the lance used in the attack.
1111, 1112.— The Rorqual
(Balemoptera Boops, Flem. ; UaK-enoptera Rorqual,
I^cep.). The Rorquals, constituting the genus Ba-
Isenoptera, differ from the Greenland whale and its
allies in the possession of a small dorsal fin on the
lower part of the back (not seen in the position of
the pictorial specimen), and a series of longitudinal
folds on the skin of the under surface of the body,
and particularly the throat and chest. The plates
of baleen are short. The food of these animals
consists of fishes, and especially herrings and other
species which go in shoals, and they engulf multi-
tudes at once in the abyss of their capacious mouth.
They are remarkable for the rapidity and ease of
their movements : they dart along or dive with
almost unequalled impetuosity, and are dangerous
to attack. From this cause, as well as from the
small quantity of blubber they afford, and the in-
ferior quality of the baleen, they are seldom chased
by the crews of the whaling-vessels. The species
do not seem to be as yet well determined.
The Great Rorqual is one of the largest, if not
the largest, of this gigantic race of bemgs, often
exceeding a hundred feet in length. Its native
regions are the polar seas, where it is seen both in
troops and pairs, the paired males and females
exhibiting devoted attachment to each other. The
rorqual is more restless, more suspicious, and fiercer
than the common whale, and when struck by the
harpoon descends with such velocity as often to
snap the hue. It was an individual of this species
which, in the month of November, 1827, was stranded
near Ostend, and of which the skeleton was subse-
quently exhibited in London and Paris. The length
of the skeleton was ninety-five feet ; the head
measured twenty-two feet. The spinal column
consisted of sixty-two vertebras ; the ribs were
fourteen on each side. The expanse of the caudal
paddle was twenty-two feet and a half. The op-
portunity of examining the internal anatomy of this
animal was lost, a circumstance lamented in indig-
nant but just terms by M. Van Breda, whose
memoir on the subject is published in Cuvier's
• Histoire Naturelle des Cetacfis.' This writer
states that besides the usual plates of baleen, the
animal had at the tip of its muzzle a thick tuft of
rounded horny filaments, or rather coarse hairs,
united at the root by a common membrane, and
divided into finer threads at their points; these
filaments were of difi"erent lengths, some exceeding
three feet. This peculiarity had not, we believe,
been previously noticed. The weight of this indi-
vidual when captured was 480,000 pounds, and
4000 gallons of oil were extracted from the blubber.
Weight of the skeleton alone, 70,000 pounds. Fig.
1020 represents the skeleton.
Here we close our survey of the specimens of the
Cctacea which are contained in our Pictorial
Museum. It is a class which yet requires much
elucidation; its species are still involved in con-
fusion, and of many almost everything is yet to be
learned. They have seldom indeed been contem-
plated in their native regions by professed naturalists
— hence, the changes they may (many of them, at
least) undergo in their progress from youth to
maturity, the duration of their lives, the rapidity of
their growth, and many points in their economy are
yet desiderata. Who has counted the years of the
whale; who has marked an individual from birth,
till, one of the patriarchs of its oceanic race, it has
failed beneath the burden of ages? Who has
tracked these colossal beings in their migrations, or
patiently studied their nicer instincts, their less pro-
minent mannei-s and habits ? — Their ways are hid-
den in the deep, and the little that we know of them
is the result of accumulated, but fortuitous observa-
tion, to which commerce has impelled a daring
class of men, whose great object is their destruction.
Much inf]ormation will be doubtless added from
time to time, but after all, many points will neces-
sarily remain beyond our powers of acquisition.
We may conclude by observing that the chace of
the whale was carried on by the Norwegians as
early as the ninth century, principally, as it would
appear, for the sake of its flesh, which was accounted
a delicacy. Formerly a species of whale abounded
in the Bay of Biscay, and was killed by the inha-
bitants of the coast ior the same object, till at length
it was driven away from that bay by incessant per-
secution; the Biscayan mariners then carried the
navijgation farther and farther from their own shores,
till at last they approached the coasts of Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland; and thus wiis com-
menced, in the course of the sixteenth century, the
northern whale fishery as pursued in modern limes;
the object being not the flesh of the animal, but the
blubber and baleen.
We have now, before leaving the Mammalia, to
refer to several new pictorial specimens, illustrative
of various groups, and to be regarded in the light
of additions to our collection, subsequent to our
notice of the oi-ders and families to which they
respectively belong. Some of the species are indeed
duplicates ; others, however, are lor the first time
introduced into our Pictorial Museum, and merit
particular attention.
ADDITIONS TO THE QUADRUMANA.
1113. — The Douc, oe Cochis-Chixa Moskei
(Semiiopit/iecus tienuEtis, F. Cuv.). Pygathrix ne-
mseus, Geoflfr. ; Lasiopyga nemseus. 111.
The Douc, a genuine example of the genus Sem-
no))ithecus, is one of the most beautiful, if not the
most beautiful, of all the monkey race. We give
the following description Irom a tine adult male in
the Paris Museum. The face is naked, and of an
orange colour, surrounded by full long whiskers of
a glossy whiteness; the fur of the forehead is black-
ish, passing .into delicate grizzled grey, which is the
colour of the whole head, the back, the sides, and
abdomen, each hair having annulations of white iind
dusky black to the number of eleven or twelve.
From the eyebrows to the ears extends a pencil of
chestnut red ; the throat is white ; a band, or gorget,
of chestnut red extends across the fop of the chest
Irom shoulder to shoulder, succeeded by a band of
black spreading over the top of each shoulder. The
forearms, the tail, and a square patch above its root
are of a snowy white. The knees, the legs, and the
tarsal portion of the feet are of a rich chestnut ; the
fingers, the toes, and the thighs are black; space
round the callosities, white ; callosities and naked
skin of the palms, yellow. Fur, full and soft.
Length of head and body to root of tail, two feet
one inch. Native country, Cochin-China.
The douc has never been brought alive to Europe,
and of its habits and manners we have but meagre
information. Bezoar-stones are said to be frequently
found in its stomach, a proof that it is sacculated, as
in the other Semnopitheci, and also in the Colobi.
In the ' Magasin de Zoologie ' (' Voyage autpur du
Monde de la Corvette La Favorite') I836, it is
stated that "these animals live in troops, more or
less numerous, in the vast woods which cover the
country along the shore ; and their manners are
certainly far from being wild, as has been supposed.
They are, indeed, little troubled by the presence of
man, and often come near to the habitations of the
Cochin-Chinese, who appear to offer them but little
molestation, and do not attempt to draw from the
beautiful fur of the doucs all the advantages which
might be obtained from such a source. However,
the incursions of the sailors of the corvette La
Favorite in a very short time inspired these animals
with such terror, and so rapid was their flight, that,
numerous as they were, they were not procured
without difficulty."
Though Buffon, on the authority of M. de Poivre,
gave the name of douc to this species, as its native
appellation, nevertheless it would seem that such is
not the term by which it is known in Cochin-China.
M. Rey, the captain of a French merchantman, who
visited that country in 1819-20, informs us that these
monkeys are there called Venam, which, he sajs,
signifies ' men of the woods.' M. Rey had no diffi-
culty in killing nufnbei-s of them, but it was not
without great trouble that he succeeded in capturing
living individuals. So numerous were they, that on
one occasion, in the course of a few hours, a hun-
dred were slaughtered. Desirous, however, of taking
some alive, for the purpose of transporting them, if
possible, to France, he set to work in earnest. In
the attempt many were shot dead, and others
wounded ; and as they fell, the survivors collected
round the dead and dying, endeavouring to carry
them off into the deeper parts of the forest. Three
young ones were ultimately secured, which held so
fast round the bodies of their dams that it required
no small effort to detach them. They did not reach
France alive. M. Rey remarks that this species of
monkey greatly resembles the orang-outan in stature
and inoffensive manners, inhabiting the mountains
and tops of the loftiest trees, and living on fruit.
Its fur he describes as being exceedingly fine.
Some of the males measured, when standing up-
right, about four feet four inches in height.
ADDITIONS TO THE URSID^.
1114. — Thb Rufous Coati
(Nasua nrfa). We have already alluded to the
I genus Nasua as one of those foims which link the
UrsidsB, on one side, with the Mustelidac, or Weasel
tribe, of the other. The rufous coati in habits and
manners agrees with the brown coati, living in pairs
or small troops in the forests of South America, and
climbing with great facility ; but then- mode of
climbing does not resemble that of the cat or the
squirrel, or of any of the light-limbed and sharp-
clawed animals; — they do not run up a tree and
bound from branch, to branch, but proceed in the
same heavy manner as on the ground ; and it is be-
cause they can apply the palm of their paws, or the
sole of their hind-feet, fairly to any object (not,
however, grasping it), that they are enabled thus to
climb. They use their feet, in fact, in the same
manner ai man, and their mode of climbing re-
sembles his, except that their paws do not grasp ; in
descending, they generally come down hind-quarters
foremost, carefully availing themselves of every
projection. The bear always does so, and, as far as
we have observed, the racoon also.
1115. — The Racoon
(Proci/on Lator). We have little to add to our
previous account of this species : Buffon, in speak-
ing of the localities tenanted by the racoon, says,
" This animal is originally from the southern regions
of America : it is not found in the Old World ; at
least, travellers who have spoken of the animals of
Africa and the East Indies, make no mention of it.
It is, on the contrary, very common in the warm
climates of America, and especially in Jamaica,
where it inhabits the mountains, whence it descends
to feed upon the sugar-canes. It is not found in
Canada, nor in the other northern portions of this
continent : nevertheless, it does not greatly fear the
cold ; M. Klein brought up one at Dantzick, and
that which we had has passed a whole night with
its feet locked up in the ice without experiencing
any ill effects." As respects the racoon not in-
habiting Canada. Buffon is most certainly wrong.
It is even eaten in Canada, as we are positively in-
formed by a gentleman who has seen it brought to
the table. i)r. Richardson informs us that the
racoon " inhabits the southern parts of the fur dis-
tricts, being found as far north as Red River, in
lat. 50°, from which quarter about one hundred
skins are procured by the Hudson's Bay Company.
If there is no mistake as to the identity of this spe-
cies, the racoon extends farther north on the shores
of the Pacific than it does on the eastern side of the
Rocky Mountains. Dixon and Portlock obtained
cloaks of racoon skins from the natives of Cook's
river, in lat. 60° ; and skins, supposed to be those of
racoon, were also seen at Nootka Sound by Captain
Cook. Lewis and Clark expressly state that the
racoon at the mouth of the Columbia is the same
with the animal so common in the United States."
To this Dr. Richardson adds, " its flesh, when fed
on vegetables, is reported to be good."
In captivity the racoon exhibits much cunning
and a resentful temper. M. Blanquart des Salines,
who kept one of these animals, states that a servant
had one day struck his racoon a few blows with a
whip: "in vain did the man afterwards attempt a
reconciliation ; neither eggs, nor food most coveted
by the animal, availed in pacifying it. At his ap-
proach it enters into a sort of fury ; with sparkling
eyes it darts at him, and utters loud cries of suft'eiing.
Whatever is presented to it at that time, it refuses
until its enemy has disappeared. Its accents of
anger are very singular; sometimes one might fancy
them the whistling of the curlew, at othere the
hoarse bark of an old dog. If any one beats it, or
if it is attacked by an animal which it thinks
stronger than itself, it opposes no resistance ; like a
hedgehog, it conceals its head and its paws, and
forms its body into a ball : no cry escapes it, and in
this position it would suffer death." With much
caprice, there is no little cunning in the character
of the racoon, mixed with malice and a fondness for
destruction. The writer above quoted informs us
that the chain of his racoon is sometimes broken,
"and that liberty renders it insolent ; it takes pos-
session of a room, and will suffer no one to come
near it; it is not without difficulty that it can be
refettered. Since it has lived with me, its slavery
has frequently been suspended. Without losing
sight of it, I often allow it to walk with its chain,
and every time a thousand little gambols express to
me its gratitude. It is quite the contrary, however,
when it escapes itself: it then rambles sometimes
for three or four days together over the neighbour-
ing roofs, and descends at night into the court-
yards, enters the poultry-roosts, strangles the fowls
and eats their heads, attacking more especially the
Guinea fowls. Its chain did not render it more
gentle, but only more circumspect : it then em-
ployed artifice, and familiarized the poultry with it,
Weasels ]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
247
permitting them to come and partake of its repast ;
and it was only after having inspired them with the
greatest security, that it would seize a fowl and tear
it to pieces. Some young cats have experienced
from it the same sort of treatment."'
ADDITIONS TO THE VIVERRIDiE.
1116.— Th6 Skunk
{Mephitis Americana, Sabine). We need add no-
thing to our previous account of this species, so
celebrated for its disgusting odour ; and respecting
which Audubon, in his ' Ornithological Biography '
(p. 310), gives, under the name of "Polecat," an
amusing narrative, proving how long wearing ap-
parel tainted with the odorous secretion preserves,
spite of every attempt to remove it, the overpower-
ing effluvium. Fig. 1117 represents the dentition of
the genus Mephitis ; Fig. 1118, the incisors and ca-
nines. Fig. 1119 represents the head of another
species of the present genus (Mephitis dimidiata). -
1120.— Thk Tel EDU
(Mydaus meliceps, F. Cuv.). In Java and Sumatra
the Teledu holds the place of the skunks in America ;
and may be regarded as representing them : it
agrees with them in dentition and general habits,
and the secretion of a fluid unsupportably disgusting.
The teledu is considerably less than a badger in
size ; the ears are close and scarcely apparent (see
the head of the Teledu, Fig. 1121) ; the head is co-
nical, and the snout gristly at the tip and almost
destitute of hair. The feet are remarkably strong,
the toes, five in number, being united as far as the
last joint, and armed with enormous claws, espe-
cially those of the fore-feet. The hair of the body is
coarse, and rises to a peak on the occiput, that
covering the neck being directed forwards. The
general colour is deep brown ; a white stripe, begin- |
ning broad on the top of the head and back of the
neck, rtms along the spine, and includes the short
tuft-like tail. The teledu is slow in its motions,
and lives in burrows which it excavates in the
earth. Notwithstanding its offensive odour, it is
eagerly sought for by the natives who prize its flesh
as food, which, if the animal be surprised and sud-
denly dispatched, is almost entirely free from any
offensive taint. The following interesting account
of this animal is from the pen of Dr. Horsiield, who
investigated its native regions. " The mydaus me-
liceps presents a singular fact in its geographical
distribution. It is confined exclusively to those
mountains which have an elevation of more than
7000 feet above the level of the ocean ; on these it
occurs with the same regularity as many plants.
The long extended surface of Java, abounding with
conical points which exceed this elevation, affords
many places favourable for its resort. On ascending
these mountains, the traveller scarcely fails to meet
with our animal, which, from its peculiarities, is
universally known to the inhabitants of these ele-
vated tracts, while to those of the plains it is as
stranee as an animal from a foreign country. A
traveller would inquire in vain for the teledu at
Batavi.i, Samarang, or Surabaya. In my visits to
the mountain districts I have uniformly met with it,
and, as far as the information of the natives can be
relied on, it is found on all the mountains. It is,
however, more abundant on those which, after
reaching a certain elevation, consist of numerous
connected horizontal ridges, than on those which
terminate in a defined conical peak. Of the former
description are the mountain Prahu, and the Tengger
Hills, which are both distinctly indicated in Sir
Stamford Kaffles's map of Java. It was less common
on the mountain Gede, south of Batavia ; on the
mountain Ungarang, south of Samarang; and on
the mountain Tjen, at the farthest extremity; but
I traced its range through the whole island.
" Most of these mountain-ridges furnish tracts of
considerable extent, fitted for the cultivation of
wheat and other European grains. Certain extra-
tropical fiuits are likewise raised with success ;
peaches and strawberries grow in considerable
abundance, and the common culinary vegetables of
Europe are cultivated to a great extent. To most
Europeans and Chinese a residence in these elevated
regions is extremely desirable ; and even the na-
tives, who in general dislike its cold atmosphere,
are attracted by the fertility of the soil, and find it
an advantage to establish villages and clear the
grounds for culture.
" Potatoes, cabbages, and many other culinary
vegetables are extensively raised, as the entire supply
3f the plains on these articles depends on these ele-
vated districts. Extensive plantations of wheat and
other European grains, as well as of tobacco, are
here found, where rice, the universal product of the
plains, refuHcs to grow. These grounds and planta-
tions are laid out in the deep vegetable mould
where the Teledu holds its ranare as the most
ancient inhabitant of the soil. In its rambles in
search of food thig animal frequently enters the
plantations, and destroys the roots of young plants,
in this manner it causes extensive injury ; and on
the Tengger Hills particularly, where these planta-
tions are more extensive than in other cultivated
tracts, its visits are much dreaded by the inhabi-
tants. It burrows in the earth with its nose, in the
same manner as hogs, and in traversing the hills its
nocturnal toils are observed in the morning in small
ridges of mould recently turned up.
" The. Mydaus forms its dwelling at aslight depth
beneath the surface, in the black mould, with con-
siderable ingenuity. Having selected a spot de-
fended above by the roots of a large tree, it con-
structs 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 subterranean conduit or avenue, about six feet in
length, the external entrance to which it conceals
with twigs and dry leaves. During the day it re-
mains concealed like a badger in its hole ; at night it
proceeds in search of its food, which consists of
insects and their larvae, and worms of every kind.
It is particularly fond of the common Lumbrici, or
earth-worms, which abound in the fertile mould.
The Teledu, agreeably to the information of the
natives, lives in pairs, and the female produces two
or three young at a birth."
When taken young, the Teledu is easily tamed,
and perfectly inoffensive.
Fig. 1122 represents the skull of the Teledu.
Fig.1123, the teeth of the upper jaw; Fig. 1124, the
teeth of the lower jaw. The molars it will be seen
consist, in the upper jaw on each side, of two false —
a pointed carnassiere, and a large and nearly square
tuberculous molar ; in the lower jaw, of three false
molars, a large carnassiere, and a very small tuber-
culous posterior molar. Incisors and canines as
usual.
1125.— The Ferret
(Mustela Furo) ; Putorius Euro, Cuv. Already
described.
1126.— The Weasel
(Mustela vulgaris) ; Putorius vulgaris, Cuv. We
need not enlarge our account of this animal, of
which the habits are well known.
1127, 1128.— The Ermine
(Mustela Erminea) ; Putorius Erminea, Cuv. Fig.
1127 represents this animal in its summer dress ;
Fig. 1 128 exhibits, in its winter livery of snowy white,
the tip of the tail remaining black, — a beautiful con-
trast. In this stage it is the ermine of the furriers.
1129. — The Polecat
(Mustela Putorius), Putorius communis, Cuv. This
species forms the type of Cuvier's genus Putorius,
which he has, we think without sufficient reason,
exchanged for that of Mustela ; while on the con-
trary he has assigned the term Mustela as the sub-
generic name of the Martens, to which Ray had
long since given the more appropriate name of
Martes. The latter name is adopted by Mr. Bell in
his ' British Quadrupeds,' who takes no notice of
Putorius as applied to the polecats and weasels by
Cuvier. A needless alteration of names is ever to
be avoided by the naturalist, as tending not to sim-
plicity and knowledge, but confusion and doubt.
1130.— The Pine Marten
(Martes Abietum). The principal differences be-
tween this and the Beech Marten consist, according
to Mr. Bell, " in the greater length of the legs, and
the smaller head of the Pine Marten ; its fur, too,
is more abundant, of a finer and softer texture, and
of a richer colour; and is consequently more
highly valued, though it is not nearly equal to that
of the sable."
1131. — ^TiiE Beech Marten
(Marte* Fagorvm). This is the most common of the
two .species'in our country, excepting in certain dis-
tricts. We are not quite sure that they are not mere
varieties of each other.
Fig. 1132 represents the dentition of Mustela
(Putorius, Cuvier), which is as follows :— Incisors,
1—1
1— I
tubercular molar,
canines.
2 2
false molars, "^ — ; carnassiere.
1 — 1 trilobed
6'
1—1
: a represents the
1 — 1 minute
teeth of both jaws together.
Fig. 1133 represents the dentition of the genus
Maries, which chiefly differs in the false molars
3 3
which stand — — : a shows the teeth of both jaws
together.
ADDITIONS TO THE RODENTIA.
1 134. — The Short-tailed Field-mouse
(Arvicola agrestis). Campagnol, BufTon ; Arvicola
arvahs, Selys-Longchamps. The short-tailed field-
mouse (or Field-vole of Bell) is one of thos'e Rodentia
I from which we often receive extensive injury, prov-
ing how necessary it is that, in order to keep their
numbers within due bounds, an incessant warfare
be maintained against them, —a warfare to which
birds and beasts of prey are appointed.
This species is a native of the greater part of
Europe, and is common in our island, where its de-
predations (and in France and other parts of the
Continent the same may be said) have rendered it
notorious. It is exclusively a tenant of woods,
plantations, corn-fields, and meadows ; and not un-
I'requently appears in enormous multitudes. Often
is the farmer disappointed of his crop of wheat, the
newly-sown grain having been all rooted up and
devoured by an army of these " wee coweiin creepit
timorous beasties," formidable not from their indivi-
dual size, but their numbers. Whole plantations of
young trees have in like manner been destroyed, the
root of every sapling being eaten, or the bottom of
the stem barked round. In the years 1813 and 1814
the ravages of these animals in the New Forest and
the Forest of Dean were so great, as to create an
alarm lest the whole of the young trees in those ex-
tensive woods should be destroyed by them. In the
first vol. of the ' Zool. Journal' is a letter from Lord
Glenbervie to Sir Joseph Banks, entering into a
detailed account of the devastations committed.
Mr. Jesse, in his ' Gleanings.' referring to the planta-
tions in these forests, says, that soon after their for-
mation, " a sudden and rapid increase of mice took
place in them, which threatened the destruction of
the whole of the young plants: vast numbers of
these were killed, the mice having eaten through
the roots of five-year-old oaks and chestnuts, gene-
rally just below the surface of the ground. Hollies
also, which were five or six feet high, were barked
round the bottom, and in some instances the mice
had crawled up the tree and were seen feeding on
the bark of the upper branches. In the reports
made to government on the subject, it appeared
that the roots had been eaten through wherever
they obstructed the runs of the mice."
Various plans were adopted for their destruction ;
and in holes dug purposely to entrap them, in the
Dean Forest alone, 30,000 mice were caught in about
three months, and a much greater number destroyed
by stoats, weasels, kites, hawks, owls, crows, &c.,
and also by cats purposely turned out. In the New
Forest about the same number were also destroyed,
and it was calculated that the total destruction, in-
cluding those caught in pits and traps, and those
killed by other animals, and by their own species
(for when their food fell short they attacked and
devoured each other), amounted in the two forests
to more than 200,000.
The field-vole measures four inches one line in
the length of the head and body, and one inch three
and a half lines in that of the tail. The fur is red-
dish brown above, grey beneath. A distinct species,
the Bank-vole (Arvicola pratensis, Baillon ; A. ri-
parica, Yarrcll ; A. rufescens, Selys-Longchamps) is
found on the Continent, and in some parts of Eng-
land. It is less than the former species, with a
longer tail, and differs in several particulars in its
internal anatomy.
1133. — The PoBCUPiifE
(Histrix cristata). To our account of the Porcu-
pine, p. 70, we may add that Col. Sykes regards the
porcupine of the Dukhun, called " sayal " by the
Mahrattas, as distinct from the ordinary species.
It is nearly a third larger, and all the spines and
lubes of the tail are entirely white ; the spines are
also so long as to reach the insertion of the tail.
The ears are much less rounded, and the nails
shorter and stronger. We have compared skulls of
the common Indian and African porcupines to-
gether, in the Paris Museum, and other bones of
the skeleton, and we perceived a marked difference
in many details. To the Indian species or variety
Col. Sykes has given the title H. Leucurus ; it is
very abundant and good eating. Like the African
porcupine, when alarmed or irritated it shakes the
tubes and spines of its tail violently, producing a
startling noise. It stamps also with great energy,
and when it assails an adversary it runs obliquely
backwards, transfixing the foe with its spines. (See
'Cat. Mamm. of Dukhun,' p. 10, and ' Zool. Pro-
ceeds.' 1831, p. 103.)
ADDITIONS TO THE CARNIVORA.
' 1136.— A Tail'PIece.
In our description of the wild cat, which we have
stated to be specifically distinct from the domestic
species (see p. 7), we alluded, amongst other points,
to the difference of the tail. We here give, a, the
tail of a domestic cat which had betaken itself to
the woods, leading an independent life, and h, the
tail of the true wild cat (Felis catus).
END OF THE PICTORIAL MUSEUM OF THE MAMMALIA.
1 133. — rorcupine,
■sf
1 134.— Khort-tailed Field Mice.
^^Q^fcl^y^
1133.— Teeth or Martrn.
112T — Kroiinp; SiimmtT dress.
1132.— Teeth of Polecat.
248
1 .44.— Tail of Bmnid.
No.
32.
Uia^Whxg at Bnimd (puUy stripped).
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
1150.— T»ll of Kestrel.
249
CLASS AVES, OR BIRDS.
Therk is, perhaps, no class of the animal king-
dom more ftenerally interesting than birds; and
not without reason. Tlieir infinite variety of form,
habits, and manners ; their plumage, always beauti-
ful, often rich and gorgeous; their aerial endow-
ments ; their nidification ; their voices ; the bittern's
boom, the cawing of busy roots, the cock's shrill
clarion, the thrilling lay of the skylark, or the rich
strains of philomel — nay, even the hoarse cries of
those that tenant moorland and morass, fen or lake,
or wheel in buoyant flight over the broad expanse
of ocean ;— these all combine to throw a halo of at-
traction around them, heightened by associations
which in every mind hold an abiding sway. Who
sees the swallow on his tirst return, and dreams not
of spring in times long past? Who hears the
cuckoo's voice, and thinks not of schoolboy days,
ready to repeat with Wordsworth, —
" And I cmn listen to thee yet.
And lie upon the plain ;
And listen till I do beget
That ^'oUlen time again !'*
Hence it is that, although all birds are interesting,
the birds of our own country, albeit others are more
gaily attired, are the most attractive. We have
marked their ways ; we have watched them building
their nests, and rearing their brood ; their melody
has rung in pleasant strains on our ear, and though
the toilsome mid-day may have succeeded to life's
joyous morn, there are few who cannot recall to
mind some old familiar spot— and how welcome the
reminiscence ! — when our feelings in their fresh-
ness, and keenly alive to the beauties of nature,
revelled in all of beautiful and fair, which the
hand of Omnipotence has showered in profusion
around us.
Before we enter fairly upon our present sub-
ject, to have to request attention to some prelimi-
naries, of no little importance, at least to those who
wish for information: we have arranged in our
pictorial museum a series of preparations by way of
introduction, and it is on these that we would offer
a few remarks. We need not say that birds (with
certain e.xceptions) are all formed for flight ; the air
is their domain, and their structure expressly fits
them for the part assigned them in the economy of
mature.
If we look at a bird, say a hawk or a iMgeon, we
perceive the general contour of its body is boat-
shaped, as best adapted for counteracting tlie re-
sistance of the air, throuijh which it has to make a
rapid way : we see it clothed with feathers, and also
that the anterior limbs are fashioned into wings,
acted upon by powerful muscles, and which, striking
the air, bear up the bird, and at the same time
propel it onwards. But there is another and less
palpable arrangement, which we must notice, con-
nected with the aiirial habits of birds ; we allude to
the extension of the lungs by means of voluminous
cells. The skeleton of a bird is proportionately very
light, for all the larger bones, those of the limbs es-
pecially, are hollow, and unfilled with marrow, as
they are in the analogous bones of quadrupeds. Now
these hollow bones are reservoirs for air ; nor is this
all : there are various extensive membranous cavi-
ties, or sacs, some internal, others external, between
the skin and the muscles, along the throat and
chest, between the muscles, or along the tendons
of the humerus ; and these, as well as the cavities
of the bones, communicate immediately with the
lungs, of which they may be con.sidered, in a certain
sense, as extensions. The lungs, themselves, do not
■float frei> in the chest, as do those of Mammalia, but
are attached to the dorsal portion of the spine, and
fill up the hollows between the ribs at their junction
with it. The design of this cellular apparatus ap-
pears first, as a means of effecting a more complete
aeration of the blood, necessary to the vigour of the
muscles, especially during rapid flight, when their
•energy is most needed and most expended, and re-
spiration perhaps irregularly performed ; secondly,
as tending to increase the relative lightness of the
body in the surrounding atmosphere ; for when the
cells are distended, not only is the surface of the
body enlarged, but that, by means of air, rarefied,
and necessarily lighter than the surrounding me-
dium. Having said thus much, let us turn to the
skeleton. Fig. 1137, that of a hawk, and for a moment
contemplate it. We shall not enter into elaborate
details. The development of the cranium ; the
length and flexibility of the neck ; and the con-
solidation of the dorsal and pelvic bones : the os-
seous union of the ribs with the breast-bone, broad
and convex externally, with a deep central keel for
the attachment of the voluminous pectoral muscles ;
and the short caudal vertebrae, ending with a larger
bone, the ploughshare, which beats the tail-feathers,
might engage more explanation than our space will
permit. 'The scapulse are narrow and somewhat
scythe-like in form, and the shoulders are kept apait
by a bone analogous to our clavicles, and termed
the furcula, os furcatum, or merrythought, and
which is most developed and the strongest in birds
of the greatest powers of flight. The scapulse are
united to the top of the breast-bone by clavicular or
coracoid bones, tending to strengthen the point to
which the muscular strain of the wings converges.
The wings consist each of a humerus, a radius, and
ulna, carpal or wrist bojies, a thumb, metacarpal
bones, and the phalanges of the fingers, or their re-
presentatives, consisting of two joints. In fact, we
nave a nearer approach to the human arm than we
find in the horse or the ox. In like manner the
lower limbs consist of a femur or thigh-bone, of two
leg bones, viz. a tibia and fibula, more or less con-
solidated ; of a single metatarsal or shank bone
(called the leg, and usually covered with scales), to
which is united in general three anterior toes, and
a posterior, or thumb.
Fig. 1 138 represents the same skeleton lettered :
A, the skull : b, cervical vertebrse ; c, the dotted
lines indicate the extent of the anchylosed vertebrae
of the back ; d, the caudal vertebrae, the letter is
C laced on the ploughshare; e, the ribs; f, the
reast-bone; o, the furcula, or merrythought; hh,
the clavicular or collar-bone ; h*, the scapula, or
shoulder-bone ; i, the humerus ; k, l, the bones of
the fore-arm, ulna, and radius; m, metacarpus of
hand; n, phalanges of fingers: o, p, q, the pelvic
bones ; k, the femur or thigh-bone ; o, o, the pa-
tella or knee-pan ; s, the leg, tibia and fibula ; t, t,
the OS caleis, or heel-bone ; v, v, the metatarsal
bones; w, w, the toes. Fig. 1139 represents the
bones of the wing. Fig. 1140, the bones lettered:
G, outline of the furcula; h*, outline of part of
scapula ; i, humerus, or arm-bone ; k, the ulna ;
L, the radius, both forming the fore-arm ; ** carpal
or wrist bones ; m, m, metacarpal bones ; 'm, the
thumb; n, n, n, the phalanges of the fingers.
Let us now in imagination clothe our skeleton
with muscles and skin, and dress that skin in its
natural clothing of featheis. These are all arranged
in due order, and those of many parts, especially of
the wings and tail, have received names, with which
the student of ornithology must make himself ac-
quainted. Fig. 1141 represents a bird displayed to
show its plumage : A, A, are the primaries, or great
quill-feathers of the wings, which are succeeded by
the secondaries and these by the tertials, u, b; c, c,
are the lesser coverts : d, d, the greater coverts ; k, e,
the ba.stard wing, or winglet ; f, f, the scapularies ;
G, the upper tail-coverts ; h, the under tail-coverts ;
I, the tail-feathers (rectrices).
In order that the arrangement of the feathers of
the wings may be the better understood we refer
to Fig. 1 142, the wing of the common buzzard,
stripped of all its feathers, excepting those which
give it power and expanse, and which are those
arising from the hand and the ulna, and termed
quill-ieathers. They form two sets. The first set,
A, A, A, consist of those arising from the hand (meta-
carpus and phalanges), and constituting the most
important of the series, being mainly instrumental,
by their length and shape, their stiffness or flexi-
bility, in determining the character or the power of
theii- flight. They are termed the primaries, or pri-
mary quill-feathers, and are ten in number, but they
differ in form as well as in relative length. The
second set arise exclusively from the ulna, and are
termed the secondaries, or secondary quill-feathers,
B : they are usually shorter, broader, and less rigid
than the former ; their number varies. From the
small bone which represents the thumb, arise cer-
tain short stiff feathers, lying close upon the quills
of the primaries, and constituting the spurious wing
or winglet, c. Besides these, there is a group of
feathers, termed fertiaries, arising from the humeral
joint of the fore-arm, and which in many birds, as
the curlews, plovers, lapwings, &c., are very long,
forming a sort of pointed appendage, very apparent
during flight : in most birds, however, they are very
short, or not to be discriminated from the rest of the
greater covei-ts, of which, in fact, they are a con-
tinuation ; hence they cannot strictly be reckoned
among the quill-feathei-s. The same observation
also applies to the feathers, d, attached to the upper
part of the humerus, and termed scapularies ; these
lie along the sides of the back, and in many birds
are ofi^eat length. The position of these feathers,
and of the coverts, will be seen in the annexed
sketch. Fig. 1143, which is the expanded wing of a
curlew : a, a series of feathers termed the lesser
coverts, disposed in scale-like order, row after row,
on the fore-arm and carpal-joint ; they cover the
barrels of the quill-feathers ; below them extends a
series of larger feathers, b, which sweep across the
wing, encroaching far on the primaries, and when
the wing is closed usually hiding the secondaries ;
these are the greater coverts, of which the tertiaries
are to be regarded as a continuation. The under
surface of the wing is lined with softer feathers,
termed under-coverts.
We have said that the last bone or ploughshare
of the caudal vertebrae, and which is more developed
than the others, supports the tail-feathers, the quills
of which are fixed in capsules ; it is also furnished
with powerful muscles, for the purpose of acting on
these feathers, for they are capable of being ex-
panded (as in the turkey-cockj or closed, elevated
or depressed. The terminal joint of the tail merely
stripped of its feathers, is, as we know, somewhat
heart-shaped, owing to the muscles, which are con-
tiguous to the bone, and to the lateral arrangement
of the capsules for the reception of the quills of the
tail-feathers. The mechanism of the tail of the com-
mon fowl will convey a good idea of the subject.
The tail-feathers vary in size, length, shape, and
strength, in various groups or genera ; they vary also
in number ; their usual number, however, is twelve,
sometimes they amount to fourteen, and in the Gal-
linaceous tribes to eighteen, or even more. The tail-
feathers of the common buzzard (Fig. 1144) afford a
good illustrationof their ordinary arrangement. Six
on each side are disposed one above another, and
they partially overlay each other, the lateral one
on each side being overlaid by the next in succes-
sion, and so on to the centre ; of the two central
feathers one overlays the other. The quills of the
tail-feathers are hidden beneath what are termed
the upper tail coverts, which in some birds, as the
peacock, the resplendent trogon (Trogon resplen-
dens, Gould), &c., form long flowing plumes of ex-
quisite beauty. Beneath the quills of the tail-
feathers are covered by under tail-coverts, consisting
of lax feathers, and in some birds, as the marabou,
forming plumes of great softness and delicacy. Oc-
casionally, indeed, as in the ostrich, the menura
superba (lyre-bird of Australia), and others, the tail-
feathefs themselves lose their ordinary character,
and are soft, lax, and flowing.
It must be evident that the shape, arrangement,
and texture of the feathers composing the wings,
and tail must materially affect the flight of birds,
both as it respects rapidity and peculiar character.
Of all birds, the swift (Cypselus) and the humming-
birds are the most remarkable for the rapidity of
their aerial movements ; let us attend to the cha-
racter presented by their wings.
We are at first struck with the length of this organ
in comparison with that of the bird itself; but we
see also that its breadth is not in proportion to its
length, and that its general form is somewhat like
that of a sabre. This, however, is not all ; the wing
appears to consist exclusively of primary quill-
feathers, so greatly are these developed, and so
small, comparatively, are the secondaries : the firet
primary quill - feather is the longest, the others
shorten in gradual order, so that the wing is pointed.
Now we may here observe that a pointed form of
wing is essential to rapidity of flight ; we see this
principle exemplified in the true falcon, in the
pigeon, in the swallow, the pratincole, birds of
great powers of aerial progression. In a pointed
wing the first or second quill-feather is always the
longest, but sometimes the second and third are
equal. In a pointed wing the primaries greatly ex-
ceed the secondaries.
To revert, however, to the wing of the humming-
bird, there is something in the texture of the
feathers composing it which must not be over-
looked. A rapid flight supposes a succession of
smart blows upon the air, which it is evident cannot
be given by yielding, downy plumes. Now the
feathers composing the primaries in the humming-
bird consist of a thick, elastic, taper shaft, in some
species developed to an extraordinary degree at the
base, as in the blue-throated sabre-wing (Campy-
lopterus latipennis. Swains. 'l : the vane on each side
of the shaft is narrow, firm, and rigid, as if made of
a thin plate of burnished metal ; this appearance is
produced by the minuteness of the plumelets of
which the vane is composed, and by their closeness
to each other, and the firmness with which they are
united together. The wings thus present a firm
resistance to the air, and, as they are rapidly agi-
tated, produce a humming sound. The wings qf the
falcon, pigeon, &c., though not composed of feathers
so rigid nor so metal-like in structure as in the
humming-bird, are nevertheless very beautifully
adapted as regards the texture' and elasticity of the
primaries for velocity ; and we may set it down as
a rule, that wherever a long and pointed wing is
found, the primaries will be firm and elastic. The
wings of birds of rapid flight are seldom veiy con-
cave beneath,^on the contrary, they are almost flat,
when extended ; and this flatness, while it contri-
butes to the velocity of motion as the bird sweeps
along, destroys the power of a direct upward
ascent, which is possessed in far greater perfection
where the wings are at once ampie and concave.
The falcon, in order to soar, is obliged to sweep
round in circles, or to fly against the wind, and he
thus rises obliquely, on the same principle as is
shown in aflat piece of tile or an oyster-shell thrown
smartly against the wind.
Wings somewhat rounded, concave, ample, and
composed of stiff' and well-formed quill-feathers,
while inferior in some points as organs of flight, are
superior in others ; they enable their possessor to soar
AVES.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
251
with ease, and to sail with graceful freedom in the
higher regions of the air. This form of wing is ex-
emplified in the condor : it may be observed, that
though the concavity of these ample wings aids in
soaring, it obliges the bird in descending to sweep
down in a series of gyrations, each circle contract-
ing, till the bird gains the ground.
Where the wings are concave, as in the owl, and
composed of lax, soft feathers (the whole of the
plumage being full and downy), the flight is buoy-
ant, noiseless, wheehng, and differing altogether
in character from that of the falcon or swallow.
The feathers yield too much, and are too soft, to
produce any whistling or rushing noise in flight;
no rigid edges cut the air, the vanes of the quill-
feathers are" lax, and the outer edge of the first,
instead of being plain, is fringed with a line of short
lashes (the prolonged terminations of the plumelets
composing the vane), as if to guard against the least
possibility of sound being produced by the winnow-
ing of the air.
Concavity of wing, joined with shortness and
roundness, is unfavourable to flight. Birds \vith
this form of wing are for the most part terrestrial in
their habits ; their bodies are heavy, and their great
powers reside in the legs : the common fowl or the
turkey are examples in point. There are, however,
such modifications among terrestrial birds in the
structure of the wings as to render some far superior
in flight to others. The wings of the common
partridge, for instance, are short, round, and con-
cave, and its flight is necessarily short, whirring, and
destitute of ease ; but, on the other hand, the quail,
its immediate ally, in consequence of a somewhat
more lengthened and pointed form of the pri-
maries, possesses, if not great, at least tolerable
powers of flight, and is one of our birds of pas-
sage.
As illustrations of wings, Fig. 1145 represents that
of the common Grosbeak ; Fig. 1146, that of the
Chaflinch ; Fig. 1147, that of the common Sparrow? ;
Fig. 1 148, that of the Magpie ; Fig. 1 149, that of the
Chinese Jacana, in which the primaries have narrow
plumose appendages at the tips.
With respect to the wings of the sparrow, gros-
beak, and chaffinch, it will be observed that their
form is moderately pointed ; still, however, the
flight of these birds is not remarkable for velocity ;
for, in the first place, the extent of wing does not
bear that comparative relationship to the size of
the body which it does in the falcon, vulture, or
swallow ; and in the second place, the quill-feathers
are destitute of firmness, the shafts are weak, and
the vanes are soft and flimsy ; while at the same
time the primaries but little exceed the secondaries,
so that the breadth of the extended wing is half, or
more than half, of its length.
The crow and rook have ample and moderately
pointed wings ; the first quill-feather is much
shorter than the second and third, these being ex-
ceeded by the fourth, which is the longest: they
are firm and elastic. The flight of these birds is
•teady, and they sail with ease, often at a very great
elevation : and sometimes perform a series of rapid
evolutions, wheeling, diving, and as suddenly re-
asce'nding. Allied to the crow and rook (Corvus),
the magpie diff'ers materially from them in its
mode of flight, and in the figure and proportion of
its wings. The wing of the magpie is short and
rounded : the first quill-feather is narrow, and about
half the length of the second; the fourth and fifth,
which are nearly of equal length, are the longest in
the wing. " Magpies and jays,'' says White, " flut-
ter with powerless wings, and make no despatch."
The flight of the magpie is supported by short
quick strokes.
Some birds have appendages of various kinds to
their wings, the uses of which cannot well be ac-
counted for. In the Chinese jacana, for instance,
the tips of the primaries are furnished with slender
narrow plumes or appendages. In some of the
night-jars we have a singular development of
plumes. In the Leona night-jar, from the
midst of the wing-coverts issues a long elastic
shaft to the extent of twenty inches, and tipped for
about five inches with a broad web. In another
species, from Sierra Leone, the ninth quill-ieather
is produced to an amazing extent, running narrower
as it proceeds, and is soft and flowing. In many
birds the tertials are produced into pendent plumes
of great length, which fall gracefully down and
almost touch the ground, as we see in the Demoi-
selle and the Stanley cranes. The tertials of the
common crane also form elegant plumes, each fea-
ther drooping with dishevelled barbs : the tertials
of the sacred ibis are also produced into lax plumes.
In the egret the scapularies are elongated into
wavy plumes, the feathers haviijg their vanes com-
posed of long filamentous plumelets or barbules
distant from each other. In the cranes, herons,
egrets, &c., the wings are long and ample.
Some birds, as we have observed, are very infe-
rior in flight to others, their wings being modified
accordingly; but there are not only birds incapable
of easy and graceful progress through the air, but
there are some which are utterly destitute of the
power of flight, even in its lowest degree. There
are two conditions of wing connected with the want
of this power: first, that in which the wing is
simply undeveloped, both as respects osseous struc-
ture, muscles, and feathers — as in the ostrich, cas-
sowary, &c. ; secondly, that in which the wing is
converted into an organ of aquatic progression—
as in the great auk, but more particularly in the
penguin, which has its paddle-like wings fur-
nished with close, minute, rigid feathers resembling
scales.
From the leading modifications exhibited in the
wings of birds, we turn to those presented by the
tail, the osseous structure of which, with the mode
in which the feathers are ordinarily arranged, has
already been pointed out. Even more numerous
than those of the wings are the diversities of form
and size presented by this organ ; diversities more
or less directly influencing the character of the
flight. In some instances the tail is reduced to a
mere rudiment, or is even wanting, and in others it
is large and of great length. Nor is it only from its
form or size that the tail of the feathered race
influences the peculiar manner of flight ; the tex-
ture and quality of the feathers themselves are of
great importance. Where the tail consists of soft
plume-like feathers, we may at once set it down
that the bird thus furnished is ill adapted for aerial
progression ; and it will be found, moreover, that
the structure of the wings and the nature of the
general plumage will invariably correspond with the
characters of the tail ; for wings well calculated for
aerial progression, and a tail unadapted for it, would
be a violation of the laws of Nature, there being no
contradiction of parts and purposes in her ways.
On the contrary, if the feathers of the tail be firm
and the barbs close — though the tail itself may not
be very ample — it will be of great avail. .There
are many examples of birds with small tails being
endowed with surprising powers of flight ; indeed in
most birds of rapid flight, the wings, when closed,
advance with their points to the end of the tail, or
even pass beyond it : we may mention the peregrine
falcon and the swift; in the latter bird the tail
feathers are only ten in number, and are far ex-
ceeded by the wings when closed. Where, how-
ever, the tail is much reduced, as in the kingfisher,
its rudder-like power is evidently diminished, and
though the flight may still be rapid, it is necessarily
straight and arrow-like, there being no power of
sailing in easy circles, or of making abrupt turns
and doubles, as we see in the kite on the one hand,
and in the swallow on the other.
We need hardly say that in the act of flying birds
expand their tails, and thus the extent of surface is
increased to their manifest advantage. Where the
wings are ample, and the tail ample at the same
time, the flight is easy and graceful ; where the tail
is short and the wings long and vigorous, the flight i
is generally rapid and impetuous; but where the
tail is long and ample, and the wings rounded and
short, as in the magpie, the flight is laborious. The
principal forms assumed by the tail are as follows : —
1, square, or even; 2, rounded; 3, graduated regu-
larly (every feather advancing in due degree), or
irregularly (some advancing to an extreme beyond
the others) ; A, slightly forked with rounded points :
5, more or less deeply forked with acute points; 6,
plumose.
The size of the tail varies under every modifica-
tion of form, and the forms themselves difl'er to a
considerable degree, as it regards a very great num-
ber of minute particulars ; the feathers also com-
posing the tail exhibit an infinity of diff'erences,
both in form and texture.
As examples of some of the principal forms in the
tail of birds we select the following illustrations : —
Fig. 1130, the tail of the Kestrel spread out ; Fig.
1144, the tail of the common Buzzard; Fig. 1151,
the tail of a species of Humming-bird; Fig. 1152,
the tail of the Heron; Fig. 1153, the tail of the
Sandpiper; Fiir. 1154, the tail of the Coot; Fig.
1155, the tail of the Pied Wagtail; Fig. 1156, the
tail of the Magpie; Fig. 1157, the tail of the
Chaffinch; Fig. 1158, the tail of the Lark; Fig.
1159, the stift' rudder-like tail of the Cormorant;
Fig. 1160, the scansorial tail of the Tree-creeper.
Having thus spoken of the arrangement of
the feathers, which, it may be added, the bird
moults and renews at certain seasons, we proceed to
explain the different parts of a feather itself. A
feather consists of a stem (scapus), divided into the
barrel or hollow base (calamus), in which the
nutrient vascular pulp was originally contained, and
which remains shrivelled as a pith ; the shall
(rachis), and the web or vane on each side (pogo-
nium), which consists of numerous barbs (radii
pogoniorum) closely interlocked (at least usually)
by means of minute processes called barbules
(radioli). In many feathers the base of the web
consists of loose, free, soft barbs ; and there is fre-
quently an accessory plume at the base of the
shaft, generally a downy tuft, but sometimes almost
as much developed as the feather from which it
emanates, as in the emu, in which bird each feather
seems double, with one barrel.
There is no external auditory apparatus, but the
orifice to the internal auditory apparatus is covered
with a tuft of close feathers ; sometimes, however, as
in the owl, there are external membranous valves,
capable of being opened or closed at will. The
sense of hearing is acute. The jaws of birds are
invested with a horny sheath, forming a beak dif-
ferently modified in different groups. In the par-
rots the upper jaw (or mandible) is articulated to
the skull in such a manner as to be freely move-
able.
In many birds the base of ttie upper mandible is
clothed with a tough skin called the cere, in which
the nostrils are placed, but the situation of these
greatly varies. Between the base of the beak and
the eye a naked space called the lore (loruni) often
intervenes.
With respect to the eye of birds, we may observe
that the bony orbits are capacious, and the organs
seated therein of according magnitude. In birds
of prey the general shape of the eye is that of a bell,
or chalice ; the cornea, which is very convex, forms
the bottom of the chalice ; the posterior segment of
the sclerotica its cover. This peculiar form (see
Fig. 1162) arises from the curvature and length of
the bony plates, which, as in all other birds, occupy
the front of the sclerotica, lying close together and
overlapping each other. These bony plates form a
flat or slightly convex ring ; but in the rapacious
birds they form a concave ring, which gives to the
eyeball the above-mentioned form. By means of
this ring the eye becomes a kind of self-adjusting
telescope, so as to take in both near and very distant
objects.
A representation of the sclerotic plates forming
the bony ring in the eye of the penguin (Apteno-
dytes) is represented at Fig. 1161. They remind us
forcibly of the eye-plates in some of the reptiles,
particularly of those belonging to the eyes of the
Enaliosaurians, or fossil marine lizards. The pen-
guin has to adjust its eye for vision both on land
and under water. This contrivance must greatly
assist the adjustment necessary for seeing clearly in
such different media.
The crystalline humour is flat in birds ; and the
vitreous humour is very small. The colour of the
iris varies in different species, and in many eases is
very brilliant. The raarsupium, which arises in the
back of the eye, and the use of which is not very
clearly ascertained, is a peculiarity in the eye of
birds. They have three eyelids, two of which, the
upper and lower, are closed in most of the race by
the elevation of the lower one, as may be fiequentlv
seen in our domestic poultry. The owl, the goat'-
sucker, and a few others have the power of depress-
ing the upper eyelid. Of these birds the upper
only is furnished with eyelashes generally : the
ostrich, secretary vulture, some parrots, and a few
other birds have them in both lids. But the third
eyelid, or nictitating membrane, forms the most
curious apparatus. When at rest, this, which is a
thin semi-transparent fold of the tunica conjunctiva,
lies in the inner corner of the eye, with its loose
edge nearly vertical. By the combined action of
two muscles which are attached towards the back
of the sclerotica, it is capable of being drawn out
so as to cover the whole front of the eyeball like a
curtain, and its own elasticity restores it to the
corner in which it rested. This, it is said, enables
the eagle to look at the sun : it may be seen in
operation to much advantage in the Great South
American Eagle (Harpyia destructor) at the gar-
dens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's
Park.
Fig. 1162 shows the section of.the eye of the owl-
a, the quadrangular bony scale within the substance
of the sclerotic, giving it firmness ; b, an expansion
called the ciliary body, extending over the whole of
the inner surface ; c, a curious membrane, called the
pecten, projecting through the choroid into the
vitreous humour, and in some birds attached to the
side of the lens : of its use little is known. Fig.
1163 shows the orbit turned so as to expose the
recti and other muscles. Fig. 1164 shows the pos-
terior view of the eyeball; Fig. 1165 a lateral view
of the same. These show the two muscles which
originate from the sclerotic, and are applied to its
curved surface round the entrance of, the optic
nerve (Fig. 1164, a). The larger represents rather
more than half of what if completed would be a
broad circular ring (Fig. 1164, b) : it is called the
quadratus. Attached by its wider edge, near the
margin of this part of the sclerotic, its fibres con-
verge to the narrower edge, and terminate in a nar-
row tendon (Fig. 1164, c), perforated through its
whole length like the hem of an apron. The
second smaller muscle, called the pyramidalis, from
2K2
A
IISl.— Tail orHummiBg-bitd. IIM.— T^il oTCoot.
nit.— T«a of Sandpiper.
U&S.— TaaorBmn.
IIM.— Tail of Magpie.
llii— TaU of Pied Wagtail.
UM.— lUlofUik.
1197.— Tail of Chafflnisli.
1 199.— Tail of Cormonnt
1 1 to.— Tail of Ti«e<nepei.
IIM.- EjebaU of Owl : posterior view . ;n65.— Eyeball of Owl : lateral view,
1 IM.— Skull and Tonfue of Woodpecker.
11»9.— Fkrt of Windpipe of Wild Swan.
tH».-VW««d Egg.
1 170.— Windpipe of Bittern.
1171.— Section of Head of Horabill.
1161 Sclerotic Plates of Peng uin.
1167.— Breaat.bone and Windpipe of Wild Swan.
ll«t,-^oint of Keel-bone of Wild Swan. 1162.— Sectmn i i;. oiOwl.
im.— Egg Organ.
1163.— Eye of Owl.
252
1 175.— Egg and Genn at Twelve Hours after Incubation.
1176.— rEgif and Germ at Sixteen hours.
1 177. — Egg and Germ at Thirty-six hours.
'•fi — 14,'g ana Chick at Tliirty-six Hours,
-Kg'^ .inti Cliick on Fourth Day,
1180.— Egg and Chick on Fi. ,h Day.
1187.— Chick at Ten Davs.
lltl.— Egg "nd Chick en Sixth Day.
11»».— Egi and Chick on S»TOnth Day.
1183.— Egg and Chick on Eig:hth Day.
25.3
254
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[AVES-
Hi shape (Fi^. 1164, </) at an opposite part of the
circumference. Its fibres converge, and are iixed
into a long round tendon (Figs. 1164 and 1165, e),
which passes through the loop or hem (c) of the
quadratus, and hence turning over the edge of the
broad part uf the sclerotic, is continued along the
surface of ils bolUsliaped portion, where it passes
through several thread-like loops or pulleys which
keep jt applied to the concavity, and round a bony
point which projects from the surface, and is at-
tached near the edge of the cornea to the edge of
an elastic fold (Fig. 1165, /) of the conjunctiva,
which IS called the third eyelid, or nictitating
(i. e. winkini:) membrane. It will be easily seen by
the help of the figures, from this description, that
the effect of the simultaneous contraction of the two
muscles will be to draw the membrane with great
rapidity, mailing it sweep over the surface of the
cornea. It returns by its own elasticity with nearly
equal quickness. A bird may be seen to use thi«
mechanism twenty times in a minute ; in fact, as
olten as it may bu necessary to cleanse the surface
of the eye. llie colour of the membrane is milky ;
and it is seen to pass from the upper and inner to
the outer and lower corner of the eye with the
speed for which the act of winking is proverbial.
Though all birds possess a tongue, it is probable
that but few find enjoyment in the organ as minis-
tering to their taste ; and in those it is soft, thick,
and covered with papillx. Some of tlie birds of
prey, some of the swimmers, and the parrots gene-
rally, have such a tongue, and there can be no
doubt that these taste food of a sott or fluid nature,
and select that which they like best. But in general
the tongue is horny and stiff, and appears unsuited
to convey such impressions, though as an organ for
taking food it becomes of the highest importance.
In the humming-birds and other honey-suckers it is
a tubular pump, and in the woodpeckers it is an
insect-spear. In both cases it can be protruded and
refracted at pleasure , and the simple but beautiful
machinery by which this act of volition is per-
formed IS adapted with the most masterly fitness to
the motion required. Upon examining the tongue
of the common green woodpecker (Fig. 116G), we
shall find that, instead of being very long, as it is
erroneously supposed to be, it is really very short,
sharp-pointed, and horny, with barbs at its sides.
Behind this lies the singular tongue-bone (os
hyoides), slender, and with two very long legs or
appendages (crura). This is made up of five parts,
consisting of a single portion and two pairs of car-
tilages. Let us suppose the tongue to be at rest,
and then the single piece lies in a fleshy sheath,
capable of great extension. To this piece the first
pair of cartilages, which are situated at the sides of
the neck, are joined ; while the second pair, spring-
ing from these, run under the integuments com-
pletely over the skull, and, advancing forwards, con-
verge in a kind of groove, terminating generally in ■
the right side of the upper jaw. This second pair
by their elasticity become the springs which set the
whole in motion. When the organ is to be pro-
truded, the anterior pieces are drawn together, and
enter the extended sheath of the single piece ; the
tongue is thus elongated as it were, and the bird can
thrust it far forth.
The organs of the voice in birds bear a striking
resemblance to certain musical wind-insti-uments.
The larynx is double, or, rather, made up of two
parts ; one, the proper rima glottidis, situated at the
upper end of the windpipe ; and the second, the
bronchial, or lower larynx, which contains a second
rima glottidis, furnished with tense membranes that
perform in many birds (and especially in the aqua-
tics) the same part as a reed does in a clarionet
or hautboy, while the upper rima, like the ventage
or hole of the instrument, gives utterance to the
note.
The length of the windpipe and the structure of
the lower larynx vary much in different species and
even in the sexes, particularly among the water-
birds. In the domestic or dumb swan the windpipe
is straight ; in the male wild swan (Cygnus Bewickii)
the windpipe is convoluted in the hollow of the
breast-bone like the tube of a French horn.
See Fig. 1167, the breast-bone, with part of the
keel removed to show the convolutions of the trachea
within ; Fig. 1 168, the point of the keel, showing the
opening through which the trachea enters and re-
turns; Fig. 1169, part of trachea of Cygnus Bewickii;
Fig. 1170, the trachea of the bittern.
The following are the conclusions of M. Jacque-
min, in his paper lately read before the French
Academy; and though many of the facts were
previously known, M. Jacquemin's communication
must be considered as a valuable addition to this
part of the subject. After observing that the air
entere not only into the lungs and about the parietes
of the chest, but that it also penetrates by certain |
openings (foramina) into eight pneumatic bags or
air-cells, occupying a considerable portion of the |
pectoro-abdommal cavity, and thence into the upper I
and lower extremities, he concludes, 1. That the
pneumatic bags are so situated as to be ready con-
ductors of the air into the more solid parts of the
body ; and that the air, by surrounding the most
weighty viscera, may support the bird in flight, and
contribute to the facility of its motions when so
employed. 2. That the quantity of air thus intro-
duced penetrates the most internal recesses of their
bodies, tending to dry the marrow in the bones and
a portion of the fluids; a diminution of specific
gravity is the result, the true cause of which has
been, m his opinion, vainly sought in the quantity
alone of permeating air. 3. That in birds the
oxidation of the nourishing juices is not entirely
efiected in the lungs, but is much promoted also
in the pneumatic bags above-mentioned, for their
contained air operates through the membranes upon
the blood-vessels and lyhiphatics in contact with
them ; a more complete and speedy oxidation is
the result. 4. That not only the skeleton, but all the
viscera are much more i)ermeable by air in birds
than in any of the other vertebrated animals. 5.
That the air-reservoirs are not always symmetrical,
their shape and extent depending entirely upon the
form and situation of the organs among which they
occur; but the supply is so modified that the total
quantity received into the pneumatic bags on the
light side of the body is equal to that which enters
into those on the left, and indeed without the main-
tenance of this condition the act of flying would be
impossible, and that of walking diflicult. 6. That
no portion of a bird's structure is impervious to air ;
it reaches even the last joints (phalanges) of the
wings and feet, and the last caudal vertebra;, or
rump-bones. The quill of the feathers is not ex-
cepted, as has been sometimes asserted. 7. That
the air within the head has a separate circulation,
and does not directly communicate with the air-
pipes of the rest of the body. 8. That in no instance
does the air come into direct contact with the viscera
or nourishing juices, but invariably through the
medium of a membrane, however fine and trans-
parent. 9. That the volume of air which birds can
thus introduce into their bodies, and the force with
which they can expel it, offer the only explanation
how so small a creature as a singing-bird (the
nightingale, for example) is able to utter notes so
powerful, and, without any apparent fatigue, to
warble so long and so musically.
Fig. 1171 is a section of the head of the rhinoceros
hornbill, showing the extensive development of the
air-cells.
Birds are either carnivorous, insectivorous, grani-
vorous, or omnivorous ; and their digestive apparatus
is modified accordingly. The crop, which is a
dilated sac at the termination of the gullet, leads by
a canal into a second enlargement, the commencing
portion of which is surrounded by a zone of
glands pouring out a solvent or gastric fluid. This
portion is termed ventriculus succenfuriatus, and in
granivorous and many other birds conducts to the
gizzard, composed of two firm voluminous muscles,
surrounding a cavity lined with a thick tough mem-
brane. These muscles exert a sort of opposite,
grinding motion, with pressure on each other, like
two mill-stones, and the effect is a reduction of grain
and other vegetable matter into a pulpy mass ; but
this cannot be done without a number of pebbles or
coarse particles of sand are swallowed with the food
(at least in granivorous birds), which by the work-
ing of the walls triturate the food among them. In
moUusk-feeding ducks the gizzard is enormously
powerful, grinding down hard and sharp shells. In
carnivorous birds there is no gizzard.
Birds are all oviparous, that is, they produce eggs
which are hatched by incubation, and from which
the young are excluded, in dift'erent degrees of de-
velopment, those of the gallinaceous and duck tribes
being the most matured ; they are indeed capable
of running about and picking food in the course of
a few hours. Our pictorial museum contains an
interesting series of eggs in different stages ; but of
these our notice must be very cursory.
Fig. 1172 represents the egg-organ of the fowl :
the eggs in this apparatus are Ibund in all stages of
maturity, from a minute yellow grain, upwards, to
the size of a walnut ; the largest are destined to be
laid first ; all are enveloped in a delicate membrane,
but are destitute of the white, or albumen, and the
shell ; they exhibit the germ of the future bird,
under a slightly elevated spot: see Fig. 1173. After
becoming disengaged and passing into the egg-
tube, they become covered with albumen, this with
a double membrane, and lastly with a calcareous
envelope. The albumen is laid on layer after layer
in the egg-tube, and gradually coats the membrane
enclosing the yolk, some of it being inspissated so as
to form an almost invisible membrane, the chalaza,
which, being twisted by the revolutions of the yolk,
is gathered into delicate spiral cords, retaining
the yolk in its place. This albumen and chalaza
are secreted in the first part of the egg-tube ; in
the next part the investing membrane (membrana
putaminis) is formed and added, and lastly the
shell.
The anatomy of the egg, prior to the commence-
ment of incubation, says Professor Jones, is suffi-
ciently simple (see Fig. 1174). Immediately be-
neath the shell (permeable by air) is the membrana
putaminis, consisting of two layers, separating at
the larger end, so as to leave a space called the
vesicula aeris, which is filled with air containing
an unusual portion of oxygen, destined to serve for
the respiration of the future chick. Enclosed in
the membrana putaminis is the albumen with the
suspending cords (chalaza), and lastly the yolk with
its germ, enclosed in the membrana vitelli. It is
by the natural warmth of the body of the parent,
brooding over the eggs, that the vital, though a»
yet torpid, germ is called into activity, and begins
to develop. Its. progress is gradual, but rapid, till
the chick breaks from its imprisonment, and com-
mences a new career.
The changes which the chick undergoes in the
il egg during the process of incubation have engaged
" the attention of many philosophical naturalists,
who have given the minute details of every phase :
we shall not follow them, but refer to the series
.1 in our pictorial museum, as exhibiting the progress
with sufficient clearness for those to whom minute
jj anatomical disquisitions (scarcely allowable under
I, our present pl^n) would not prove very attractive.
Fig. 1175, an egg as it appears twelve hours after
incubation, with a magnified view of the germ in
its first stage of development. Fig. 1176, an egg
as it appears sixteen hours after incubation, with
a magnified view of the embryo chick. Fig. 1177,
the same, thirty-six hours alter incubation. Fig.
1178, the same, with the chick and the first ap-
pearance of the principal blood-vessels magnified.
Fig. 1179, an egg opened four days after incuba-
tion, with a magnified view of the chick. Here the
pupil of the eye is distinctly visible, and in the
head are five vesicles, filled with a fluid ; and these,
as they enlarge, approach each other, coalesce, and
form the brain invested with its membranes. Fig.
1180, the appe.trances of the fifth day: the lungs
now begin to form. Fig. 1181, the egg and mag-
nified chick six days after incubation. The spinal
marrow, divided into two parts, is extended along
the trunk. Fig. 1182, the appearances seven days
after incubation. Fig. 1183, the development eight
days after incubation. Fig. 1184, the same, nine
days after incubation. Fig. 1 185, the same egg turn-
ed more to its right side. The bones are now begin-
ning to form. Fig. 1186, tenth day. The muscles
of the wings and germs of the feathers appear.
Fig. 1187 represents the chick at this stage re-
moved from the egg. Fig. 1188, the fourteenth day.
Fig. 1189 shows the external half of the vesicle re-
moved; FiiT- 1190, the chick removed; Fig. 1191,
the eighteenth day. Fig. 1192, the same, wuth part
of the vesicle removed, showing the chick more
clearly. Fig. 1193, the chick opened to show the
absorption of the yolk into the body. Fig. 1194,
the condition of the chick on the twentieth day.
Figs. 1195 and 1196, the position of the chick in
the egg previous to liberation. Fig. J 197, eggs
fractured by the^included chicks in the act of libe-
rating themselves. Fig. 1198, positions of th«
shell after the escape of the chick. Contiary t.o
what some persons suppose, the chick frees itself
from its narrow prison by its own exertions, and not
by the aid of the mother, as some have supposed
from the circumstance that pieces of the shell are
often broken oft', while the membrane within re-
mains unruptured : but the fact is that the mem-
brane is yielding and elastic, while the shell is not ;
the latter therefore breaks, while th^ membrane
stretches. It might be supposed that this task was
much above the strength of the yet feeble chick,
did we not reflect that instinct calls upon it to
exert its utmost enerjjies, and that its very position
favours its efforts. The bill is still soft, indeed,
and might at first seem ill fitted for breaking the
shell ; but a provision is made — for, as Mr. Yarrell
observes, " upon the curved part of the ujiper man-
dible, just above the point, will be seen a small
horny scale, nearly circular, having at its centre
a hard and sharp projecting point, and, by th?
particular position of the head, this sharp point is
brought into constant contact with the inner sur-
face of the shell." Such, at least, is the use gene-
rally attributed to this horny point ; and it is to be
remarked that when the chick escapes, and the
beak hardens by exposure to the air, it soon falls
off, and on the second or third day only a light-
coloured mark is observable on the spot it had oc-
cupied. In pigeons, and other birds which are long
before they become capable of running about and
feeding themselves, this horny point remains for
more than a week. It is worthy of note that on the
beak of the very young Ornithorhynchus a similar
horny scale exists. Here, then, we have our pre-
liminary observations, and advance to our pictorial
specimens of the feathered tribes.
Eagles.]
Museum of animated nature.
255
ORDER RAPTORES.
Beak strong and hooked ; flight soaring and rapid ;
talons sharp, incurved, and powerful. Appetite
carnivorous. Digestive organs simple. Females
in general larger than the males. Toes, three be-
fore and one behind.
Family FALCONID.^
{Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Kites, Buzzaeds, Hae-
BIEBS, &c.).
1199, 1200.— The Golde.v Eagle
(Aquila chrysaetos). We select the Golden Eagle
as a specimen of the present family ; not indeed be-
cause it is what modern naturalists call the type,
which may be found in the Peregrine or the Iceland
Falcon, but because it is associated in our minds
with ideas of courage, strength, and ferocity; cha-
racteristics which are not displayed even by some
of the species of the genus Falco, as the Kestrel for
example, and still less so by the species of other
genera.
What the feline and musteline races are among
terrestrial quadrupeds, that are the Falconidae among
birds. They live by slaughter ; their life is passed
" in armis," and they carry on with unceasing ac-
tivity the work of destruction : they rejoice in car-
nage, and cower with outspread wings over their
reeking quarry, uttering shrieks of exultation.
Their bearing is lofty and noble ; their eyes are
large, bright, and piercing; their frame sinewy and
muscular ; their flight impetuous. Their beak is
strono- and hooked, and the talons are formidable.
Look\t those of the Golden Eagle (Fig. 1201), and
picture them driven with remorseless force into the
flesh of the agonizing victim.
The Falconidae live either alone or in pairs; some
tenant deep forests, others scour wide and level
plains or high moorland ; some haunt the sea-shore,
and build on the wave-beaten rocks ; and some
make the " difficult peak " of the mountain range
their home. They surround their eyry with the relics
of many a sanguinary feast, and their " young ones
suck up blood."
. Among the Falconidae the eagles are pre-eminent
in size and daring. When at rest on the crag of
the rock, they assume an attitude of dignified calm-
■ ness, as if conscious of superiority ; but the bright
glance of the eye betrays the ferocity of disposition,
which the next moment may be displayed in a ter-
rific burst, as, sweeping down with irresistible force,
they prostrate their victim, and dye their beak and
talons in its gore.
In all the eagles the cere at the base of the beak
is large and perforated by the nostrils ; the talons
are strong ; the wings ample and slightly rounded,
the fourth quill feather being the largest. In the
genus Aquila, which includes the golden eagle, the
tarsi are plumed to the toes ; the beak is subtrian-
gular above ; the nostrils are rounded.
The golden eagle (Eryr Melyn of the ancient
British) was once common in many parts of England,
and, till in comparatively recent times, bred annu-
ally in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the Peak of
Derbyshire. It is still to be seen in the Highlands of
Scotland, and in some districts oflreland is far from
being uncommon. Mr. Thompson (' Mag. of Zool.
and Botany,' vol. ii. p. 43) states that the game-
keeper of Mr. Stewart, between the years 1828 and
1832, had killed thirteen or fourteen golden eagles
on the mountain range of the Horn (the name given
to the peninsula bounding the western entrance to
Sheephaven, in the county of Donegal, and which
terminates in the stupendous promontory of Horn
Head) ; and the same observant naturalist writes —
" On visiting Achil, off the coast of Mayo, in June,
1834, in company with Robert Ball, Esq., of Dublin,
Lieutenant Reynolds of the Preventive Service, a
keen sportsman, and well acquainted with birds, as-
sured us that one or two pairs of golden eagles breed
annually in the island. When subsequently on the
mountam of Croagh-patrick, which terminates vol-
cano-like in a magnificent cone, and is in elevation
♦ he second in Connaught, we for a considerable
time observed a pair of these eagles towering above
its summit. In the county of Kerry, a few weeks
afterwards, an eagle, supposed to be of this species,
was seen by some of our party when viewing the
Lakes of Killamey, from the topmost ridge of Man-
gertine. When on a visit to this same place the
previous autumn, my friend Robert Patterson, Esq.,
t)f Belfast, made the following note, which he has
kindly permitted me to use ;— • Near to the little
lake called the Devil's Punchbowl, we disturbed
four eagles, preying on a full-grown sheep: they
rose majestically into the air as we approached.
The people who were with us supposed the sheep,
being perhaps sickly, had been killed by the eagles,
a supposition corroborated by the quantity of fleece
«cattered over the ground for some yards in one
direction. The flesh of the neck was completely
removed, although that of every other part was un-
touched. We were assured that two eagles will
occasionally pursue a hare, one flying low, coursing
it along the ground, the other keeping perpendicu-
larly above the terrified animal. When the lowest
eagle tires, they change places, and pursue the same
system of tactics, until the hare is completely
wearied out. I was told the same circumstance a
few days afterwards near Tralee, and again near
Monasterevan : my informant in every instance
stated the fact as having fallen under his own know-
ledge, and not as a matter of hearsay.' "
The mode of pursuing the hare above described,
and on the correctness of which we rely, reminds us
that either this or an allied eagle (Aquila impe-
rialis) is employed by the Tartars in the chase of
antelopes, wolves, foxes, hares, &c., nor would it
appear that there is much difficulty in training these
powerful birds to the work, for, though eagles cap-
tured when adult are extremely savage and indocile,
they are as easily reclaimed as the Peregrine Falcon
when taken young from the nest. Mr. Thompson
observes that R. Langtry, Esq.,of Fortwilliam, near
Belfast, " has at present an eagle of this species
which is extremely docile and tractable. It was
taken last summer from a nest in Inverness-shire, and
came into his possession about the end of Septem-
ber. This bird became at once attached to its owner,
who after having it about a month ventured to give
it its liberty, a privilege which was not on the eagle's
part abused, as it came to the lure whenever called.
It not only permits itself to be handled anyway,
but seems to derive pleasure from the application of
the hand to its legs and plumage. The eagle was
hooded after the manner of the hunting-hawks for
some time, but the practice was abandoned ; and
although it may be requisite if the bird be trained
for the chase, hooding is otherwise unnecessary, as it
remains quiet and contented lor any length of time, i
and no matter how far carried on its master's arm.
It is quite indifferent to the presence of any persons
who may be in his company, and is unwilling to
leave him even to take a flight, having to be thrown
into the air whenever he wishes it to do so. When
this eagle is at large, he has only to hold out his
arm towards it, which, as soon as pergeived, even
at a distance, it flies to and perches on. I have
seen it thus come to him not less than a dozen times
within half an hour, without any food being offered.
It runs very fast, and when on the ground and the
lure is thrown comparatively near, it prefers this
mode of progression to using its wings. Live
rats have several times been turned out of the
cage-trap to this bird, but before running very far
were invariably pounced upon." Other instances
of the docility of the golden eagle might be ad-
duced.
Of the boldness, or rather familiarity, of this spe-
cies, the followingstatement, from the writer already
quoted, is a proof: — " A sporting friend," he says,
" who was eye-witnesst 0 the fact, assures me that when
out hunting among the Belfast mountains, many
years ago, an eagle, which from the darkness of its
plumage he considered was the golden, appeared
above his hounds as they came to a fault on the
ascent to Davis (the highest of the chain) after a
good chase. As they came on the scent again, and
were at full cry, the eagle for a short time kept
ahove them, but at length advanced, and carried off
the hare when at the distance of from three to four
hundred paces before the hounds."
Fig. 1200 is a spirited delineation of an eagle
brooding over her callow young, which are well
supplied with game ; instances, indeed, are on
record (as that of a peasant in Kerry, and of a man
at Glenaritt'in Antrim) of persons supporting their
family for a considerable length of time on the pro-
duce of the industry of the parent birds, which con-
tinue to bring food to their young, making up for
the recurring abstraction. Young lambs, hares,
rabbits, and grouse, form the chief articles of provi-
sion. Low, in his ' Fauna Orcadensis,' says, that
! they do not abstain from pork in the Orkneys, but
occasionally seize both old and young swine. A
clergyman told him that he had seen one, mounted
in the air, with a pretty large pig in her talons,
which she let fall alive when he fired at her.
Martin, in his ' Description of the Western Islands
of Scotland,' published in 1716, speaking of this
bird, says, — " The eagles are very destructive to
the fawns and lambs. The natives observe that it
fixes its talons between the deer's horns, and beats
its wings constantly about its eyes, which puts the
deer to run continually till it falls into a ditch or
ovpr a precipice, where it dies, and so becomes a
prey to this cunning hunter. The eagle never en-
gages in a perfectly solitary chase except when the
female is confined to her eggs or her young. At
that season the proper prey of these eagles is gene-
rally so abundant that the male is able to provide
for his own wants and those of the family without
the assistance of the female. At other times they
unite their exertions, and are always seen either
together or only at a short distance from each other.
It is said that the one beats the bushes, while the
other, perched on an eminence, watches the escape
of the prey."
Pennant adds his authority to part of Martin's
statement, and says that the eagles in the island ot
Rum have nearly extirpated the deer that used to
abound there. He also states that eagles seem to
give a preference to the carcases of cats and dogs.
" Persons who make it their business to kill these
birds lay that of one or other by way of bait, and
then conceal themselves within gun-shot. They
fire the instant the eagle alights, for she that mo-
ment looks about before she begins to prey."
Martin, in the work just quoted, relates the fol-
lowing anecdote ; and one very similar is also re-
lated by Sir Robert Sibbald : — " There 's a couple ot
large eagles who have their nest "on the north end
of the isle [St. Kilda]. The inhabitants told me
that they commonly make their purchase in the
adjacent isles and continent, and never take so much
as a lamb or hen from the place of their abode,
where they breed. I forgot to mention a singular
providence that happened to a native of the Isle ot
Skye, called Neil, who, when an infant, was left by
his mother in the field, not far from the houses on
the north side of Loch Portrie ; an eagle came in
the mean time and carried him away in its talons as
far as the south side of the loch, and there laid him
on the ground. Some people that were herding
sheep there perceived it, and, hearing 'the infant
cry, ran immediately to its rescue, and, by good
providence, found him untouched by the eagle, and
carried him home to his mother. He is still living
in that parish, and by reason of this accident is dis-
tinguished among his neighbours by the surname of
Eagle." Ray mentions an instance of a child a year
old being seized by an eagle in one of the Orkneys
and carried to the eyry, about four miles distant.
But the mother, who was aware of its situation,
pursued the bird thither, found her child in the
nest, and took it home unhurt. Other instances are
related, but we confess we regard them with sus-
picion. (See Fig. 1206.)
Fig. 1202, an eagle among the wild mountains of
Glencoe.
Elevated on some lofty pinnacle (Fig. 1203), or
soaring in the sky, " towering in his pride of place,'
the eagle gaze? below and around, and marks his
prey at an astonishing distance. His wonderful
powers of vision have supplied the poets with apt
similes, as have also his powers and ferocity.
Homer, speaking of Menelaus, describes him as—
*' the field exploring witli an eye
Keen as the eagle's— keenest eyed of all
'J'hat wing the air, whom, though he soar aloft,
The leveret 'scapes not, hid in thickest shades.
But down he swoops, and at a stroke she dies."
It., xvii. 6r4. — Cowper.
The eye of the eagle is indeed large, compared
with the skull, though the mere bulk of the eye is a
fallacious test, and, as in the woodcock, owl, &c.,
is often connected with nocturnal or crepuscular
vision. Fig. 1204 represents a preparation of the
skull and eyes of the Golden Eagle ; and Fig. 1205
represents, a, the bony ring of the orbit of the eye ;
B, the crystalline lens of the same bird ; a, the an-
terior surface, somewhat less convex than tlie pos-
terior one.
The golden eagle is common in many parts of
the Continent, where, in level districts, it frequents
extensive forests. It is found in France, in the
forest of Fontainebleau, as well as on the mountains
of Auvergne and the Pyrenees : it is abundant in
Tyrol, Russia, Sweden, Franconia, and Snabia, but
is rare in Holland. Of the havoc it occasions
where common, some idea may be formed lioni the
statement of Bechstein, that in one eyry in Ger-
many the skeletons of three hundred ducks and
forty hares were found ; and these were, in all pro-
bability, the relics of such prey only as it could
carry to its nest, the remains of the larger game,
sheep, fawns, roebuck.*, &c., being left after the
feast on the spot where the animals were slaugh-
tered. The present species is found in various parts
of Asia. We have seen specimens from India, and
Colonel Sykes enumerates it among the birds of the
Dukhun. Nor is it to the Old World that this eagle
is confined. It inhabits North America, irom the
temperate to the Arctic regions, wiiere, according to
Wilson, it is sparingly dispersed, breeding on high
precipitous rocks, and always preferring a moun-
tainous country. Dr. Richardson, in his ' Fauna
Boreali-Americana,' mentions it with a query as
breeding in the recesses of the subalpiue country
which skirts the Rocky Mountains, and as seldom
seen farther to the eastward. It is the Koeoo of the
Cree Indians. This eagle " is held by the abori-
gines of America, as it is by almost every other
people, to be an emblemof might anil courage; and
the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle-plume
as the most honourable ornament with which he
can adorn himself. Its feathers are attached to the
calumets, or smoking-pipes, used by the Indians in
the celebration of their solemn festivals, which has
1I>1.— £g{ OB Eifhtcrath D>y.
11*0.— Chkk at Foutwn Thyt.
IIM.-Chick on Twentieth Day.
1 193. — Chick, showing ahBorpUon of yolk.
1I92j— Egg on Eighteenth Day, with vesicle
partly removeJ.
1 197.— Egg finetnied by Chick in act of liberating itself.
1199.— Golden E.igle.
1201.— Talons of Golden Eagle.
1 1 98.— Pcaition of Shells after Escape of Chick.
I199^Chick in Egg.
119«.— Chick in Egg.
[ItOO.— GoWen Esgle."'
256
IJOS.— P4rts of Eye of Eagle.
'-^'
1S03.— Golden Eagle.
120T.— Eag:le flown at Wolf.
1808.— Imperial Eagle.
'mMmm
1 "'■',\*R*^'''^/'.\'''>*
No. Ou.
• 1202.— EasleofGlenroe.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
257
258
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Eagles.
obtained for it the name of the Calumet Eagle.
Indeed so highly are thes>c oriiamenta prized, that a
warrior will often exi-han);e a valuable horse lor the
tail-fi-athera of a (ingle eagle.
The age attained by the eagle is venr great : one
that died at Vienna is said to have livea in confine-
ment one hundred and four years.
As is the case with all the Falconidse, the young
and old birds differ in the colour and markings of
the plumage, a circumstance which, before it was
clearly understood, led to the erroneous multiplica-
tion of species, as the works of the older naturalists
abundantly testify.
The old birds have the top of the head and back
of the neck covered with slender-pointed feathers of
a bright golden red : all the other parts of the body
are obscure brown, more or less blackish according
to the age of the individual ; inside of the thighs
and feathers of the tarsus clear brown ; no white
feathers among the scapulars ; tail deep grey, regu-
larly barred with blackish brown, and terminated
at the end by a large band of that colour; beak
horn-colour ; iris brown ; cere and feet yellow. In
this state M. Temminck considers it to be the
Aquila fulva of Meyer ; Falco niger, Gmelin ; Faleo
fulvus and F. Canadensis, Graelin ; Faleo chrysae-
tos, Linnseus ; Aigle royal, Buffon ; Grand Aigle,
Gerard.
Length about three feet ; expanse of wings about
eight feet. Female three feet and a half in length ;
expanse of wing nine feet.
Young birds of one or two years old, the Ring-
tail Eagle of various writers, have all the plumage
of a ferruginous or clear reddish brown, uniform on
all parts of the body. Lower tail- coverts whitish ;
inside of the thighs and feathers of the tarsus white ;
tail white from the base to three-fourths of its
length, but afterwards brown to the end. In the
third year the adult plumage is assumed. The
females, as in all the Falconidae, exceed the males
in size, contrary to the general law.
The nest of the golden eagle is composed of
sticks, twigs, rushes, heath, &c., and is generally
placed upon the jutting ledge of some inaccessible
precipice : here it rears its young, generally two,
sometimes three, in number, feeding them with
bleeding morsels of the yet warm victim. In forests
the nest is placed near the summit of a lofty tree.
Fig. 1207 represents an eagle flown at a wolf.
1208. — The Imperial Eaglb
(Aquila imperialis, Temminck) ; Aquila heliaca,
Vieillot. This species is closely allied to the golden
eagle, but has longer wings and large white sca-
pulary feathers. It is extremely powerful, fierce,
and destructive. The imperial eagle inhabits the
mountain districts of the south of Europe and the
adjacent countries of Asia, but is never seen in the
British Islands.
1209. — ^The White-Heabed Eagle
(Hali(tehu leucocephalus) ; Bald Eagle, Latham
and Wilson ; Falco ossifragus (young), Wilson.
The chai-acters of the genus Haliaietus may be
summed up as follows: — Bill elongated, strong,
straight at the base, curving in a regular arc in
advance of the cere to the tip, and forming a deep
hook ; nostrils transverse, large, lunate. Wings
ample ; the fourth quill-feather the longest. Legs
having the tarsi half-feathered, the front of the
naked part scutellated, and the sides and back reti-
culated. Toes divided to their origin ; the outer
one vei-satile. Claws hooked and strong, grooved
beneath ; claw of hind-toe the largest, and next
that of the inner toe. See Fig. 1210, the Head and
Foot of the White-headed Eagle.
Of the present genus several species, generally
called Fishing or Sea Eagles, are known, as the
Chilian Sea-Eagle (H. aguia), the Cape Fishing-
Eagle of South Africa (H. vocifer), the Sea-Eagle,
Erne, White-tailed Eagle, or Cinereous Eagle (H.
albicilla, Selby) of Europe and the British Isles,
and the White-headed Eagle of America. It is the
latter that will more particularly engage our present
attention.
This species (like its British representative) varies
greatly in its plumage at different stages of life :
hence the Cree Indians, who term the species Mee-
keeshew, add other epithets by way of distinction.
The mature bird is called Wapustiquan-Meekee-
shew, or White-headed Eagle ; the immature bird,
Appisk-Meekeeshew, or Black-headed Eagle ; and
the yearling bird, Meekeeseeseesh.
This noble bird, emblazoned on the national
standard of the United States of America (not much
to the satisfaction of Benjamin Franklin), is spread
throughout nearly the whole of the northern divi-
sion of the New World, and is common along the
course of the larger rivers, and at their embou-
chures, as well as along the coast of inland lakes
and of the sea.
"The celebrated cataract of Niagara," says Wilson,
" is a noted place of resort for the bald eagle, as
well on account of the fish procured there, as for
the numerous carcasses of squirrels, deer, bears, and
various other animals, that, in their attempts to
cross the river above the falls, have been dragged
into the current, and precipitated down that tre-
mendous gulf, where, among the rocks that bound
the rapids below, they furnish a rich repast for the
vulture, the raven, and the subject ol the preient
account." "Formed by nature for braving the
severest cold ; feeding equally on the produce of
the sea and of the land ; possessing powers of flight
capable of outstripping even the tempests them-
selves ; unawed by anything but man ; and from the
ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad
at one glance over an immeasurable expanse ot
forests, fields, lakes, and ocean deep below him, he
appears indifferent to the change of seasons, as in a
few minutes he can pass from summer to winter,
from the lower to the higher regions of the atmos-
phere, the al)ode of eternal cold, and thence de-
scend at will to the torrid or to the arctic regions
of the earth : he is therefore found at all seasons in
the countries he inhabits, but prefers such places as
have been mentioned above, from the great par-
tiality he has for fish." " In procuring these, he
displays, in a very singular manner, the genius and
energy of his character, which is fierce, contempla-
tive, daring, and tyrannical ; attributes not exerted
but on particular occasions, but, when put forth,
overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the high,
deatl limb of some gigantic tree that commands a
wide view of the neighbouring shore and ocean, he
seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the
various feathered tribes that pursue their busy avo-
cations below — the snow-white gulls slowly win-
nowing the air, the busy tringae coursing along the
sands, silent and watchful cranes intent and wading,
clamorous crows, and all the winged multitudes
that subsist by the bounty of this vast magazine of
nature. High over all these hovers one whose
action instantly arrests his whole attention. By his
wide curvature of wing and sudden suspension in
air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling
over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye
kindles at the sight, and, balancing himself with
half-opened wings on the branch, he awaits the
result. Down, rapid as an arrow, from heaven de-
scends the distant object of his attention, the roar of
its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the
deep, making the surges foam around. At this
moment the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour;
and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish-
hawk once more emerge struggling with his prey,
and mounting in the air with screams of exultation.
These are the signal for the eagle, who, launching
into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon gains
on the fish-hawk. Each exerts his utmost to mount
above the other, displaying in these rencontres the
most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The
unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just
on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a
sudden scream, probably of despair and honest ex-
ecration, the latter drops his fish ; the eagle, poising
himself for a moment, as if to take a more certain
aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his
grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-
gotten booty silently away to the woods." It is this
eloquent descriptive passage which the representa-
tion. Fig. 1209, is intended to illustrate.
This is not the only mode in which the while-
headed eagle procures his sustenance. Young
lambs and pigs, ducks, geese, swans, and various
sea-fowl, are attacked and carried away. Mr. J.
Gardiner stated to Wilson that he had seen one fly-
ing with a lamb ten days old, but which, from the
violence of its struggles, it was obliged to drop, at
the height of a few feet from the ground. He adds
that, by running up and- hallooing, he prevented it
from again seizing the lamb, whose back it had
broken, and to whose misery he put an instant ter-
mination. The dam seemed astonished to see its
offspring suddenly snatched up, and borne off by a
bird. Sheep, if old or sickly, are also subject to the
attacks of these tyrants of the feathered race ; nor
do they reject canion, keeping the vultures (over
which they often exercise their despotism) at a re-
spectful distance, waiting till they have gorged their
fill and departed. Now and then they procure fish
for themselves in shallow places, wading in the
water, and striking at them with their beak. They
have been known even to attack children. We
have quoted Wilson's animated description of the
attack of the white-headed eagle upon the fish-
hawk or osprey; and, in justice to Mr. Audubon,
we will transcribe his equally graphic details of a
different conflict: — "To give you," he writes,
"some idea of the nature of this bird, permit me to
place you on the Mississippi, on which you may
float gently along, while approaching winter brings
millions of waler-ibvvl, on whistling wings, from the
countries of the north, to seek a milder climate in
which to sojourn for a season. The eagle is seen
perched, in an erect attitude, on the summit of the
tallest tree by the margin of the broad stream. His
glistening but slern eye looks over the vast ex-
panse; he listens attentively to every sound that
comes to his quick ear from afar, glancing every
now and then on the earth beneath, lest even the
light tread of the fawn may pass unheard. His
mate is perched on the opposite side, and, should
all be tranquil and silent, warns him, by a cry, to
continue patient. At this well-known call he pailly
opens his broad wings, inclines his body a little
downwards, and answers to her voice in tones not
unlike the laugh of a maniac. The next moment
he resumes his erect attitude, and again all around
is silent. Ducks of many species— the leal, the
widgeon, the mallard, and others — are seen passing
with great rapidity, and following the course of the
current, but the eagle heeds them not : they are at
that time beneath his attention. The next moment,
however, the wild trumpet-like lound of a yet dis-
tant but approaching swan is heard. A shriek from
the female eagle comes across the stream, for she
is fully as alert as her mate. The latter suddenly
shakes the whole of his body, and, with a few
touches of his bill, aided by the action of his cuti-
cular muscles, arranges his plumes in an instant.
The snow-white bird is now in sight; her long neck
is stretched forward ; her eye is on the watch, vigi-
lant as that of her enemy ; her large wines seem
with difficulty to support the weight of her body,
although they flap incessantly : so irksome do her
exertions seem, that her very legs are spread
beneath her tail to aid her in her flight. She
approaches however. The eagle has marked her
for his prey. As the swan is passing the dreaded
pair, starts liom his perch the male bird in piepaia-
tion for the chase, with an awful scream, that to the
swan's ear brings more terror than the report of the
large duck-gun. Now is the moment to witness the
display of the eagle's powers. He glides through
the air like a falling star, and, like a flash of light-
ning, comes upon the timorous quarry, which now,
in agony and despair, seeks by various manoeuvres
to elude the grasp of his cruel talons. It mounts,
doubles, and willingly would plunge info the stream
were it not prevented by the eagle, which, possessed
of the knowledge that by such a stratagem the swan
might escape him, forces it to remain in the air by
attempting to strike it with his talons from beneath.
The hope of escape is soon given up by the swan.
It has already become much weakened, and its
strength fails at the sight of the courage and swift-
ness of its antagonist. Its last gasp is about to
escape, when the ferocious eagle strikes with its
talons the under side of it.s wing, and, with unre-
sisted power, forces the bird to fall in a slanting
direction upon the nearest shore. It is then that
you may see the cruel spirit of this dreaded enemy
of the feathered race, whilst, exulting over his prey,
he, for the first time, breathes at ease. He pres.ses
down his powerful feet, and drives his sharp claws
deep into the heart of the dying swan; he shrieks
with delight as he feels the last convulsions of his
prey, which has now sunk under his efforts to ren-
der death as painful as it possibly can be. The
female has watched every movement of her mate ;
and if she did not assi.st him in capturing the swan,
it was not from want of will, but merely that she
felt full assurance that the power and courage of
her lord were quite sufficient for the deed. She
now sails to the spot where he eagerly awaits her ;
and when she has arrived, they together turn the
breast of the luckless swan upwards, and gorge
themselves with gore."
The white-headed eagle is seldom seen alone,
but generally in company with its mate ; the union
continues during life ; they hunt for the support of
each other, and feed together. The nest is usually
placed on some tall tree, with a massive towering
stem destitute of branches for a considerable height.
It is composed of sticks, clods, weeds, and moss,
and measures five or six feet in diameter ; and being
annually augmented by fresh layeis (for it is used
year after year), it is ollen as much in depth. The
eggs are from two to four in number, and of a dull
white. The attachment of the parents to their
young is very great; and they provide abundantly
for their support, bringing home fish, squirrels,
yoilng lambs, opossums, racoons, &c. Incubation
commences in January.
This eagle requires at least four years before it
attains the full beauty of its plumage, and acquires
the white head and neck; but it breeds the first
spring after birth. Colour of adult : — general plu-
mage of a deep chocolate, approaching black ; head,
neck, tail, and upper tail-coverts white.
1211, 1212. — ^The Ospbkv, Fish-hawk, oe Bald
Buzzard
(Pandivn Hal'ucetus, Savigny) ; Le Balbusard,
Butfon. The generic characters of the genus
Pandion are these: — beak rounded above; cere
hispid ; nostrils lunulated ; tarsi naked, and covered
anteriorly with rigid reticulated scales. Toes five,
Eaoli:s.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
259
outermost versatile. Claws large, much curved,
equal, and rounded underneath; under surface of
toes very rough with sharp pointed scales. Wings
long and ample, second and third quill-feathers the
longest. See Fig. 1213, the Head and Foot of the
Osprcy.
The osprey is widely spread, being dispersed
over Europe and a great part of Asia, as well as
North America, but is everywhere a bird of passage.
Being strictly piscivorous, it is only in the vicinity
of lakes and rivers and along the coast that it is
ordinarily met with. In England, according to
Montagu, this bird is more abundant in Devonshire
than in any other district. In Ireland it occasion-
ally visits the lakes of Killarney. In Scotland it
appears to be more common. Mr. Selby observed
several upon Loch Lomond, where they are said
to breed, and upon Loch Awe, whele an eyrie is
annually established upon the ruins of a castle near
the southern extremity of the lake, and another in a
similar situation nearly opposite to the gorge or
egress of the River Awe. On the Continent this
bird annually visits the larger rivers and lakes of
Russia, Germany, and the middle districts of Europe,
whence it passes southwards on the approach of
winter. In its habits it appears to be partially gre-
garious, several pairs associating together, and in
harmony pursuing their occupation. In America
the fisli-liawk, according to Wilson, arrives on the
co.ists of New York and New Jersey about the 21st
of March, and retires to the south about the 22nd of
September. " On the arrival of these birds in the
northern parts of the United States in March, they
Bometimes find the bays and ponds frozen, and ex-
perience a difficulty in procuring fish for many
days ; yet there is no instance on record of their
attacking birds or inferior land-animals with intent
to feed on them, though their great strength of
flight, as well as of feet and claws, would seem to
render this no difficult matter. To the white-
lieaded eagle the arrival of these fish-hawks brings
promise of gain ; we have shown the tyrannical
conduct of the former; sometimes, however, a num-
ber of the fish-hawks make common cause against
their oppressors, and succeed in driving them from
the scene of action. " The first appearance of the
fish-hawk in spring is welcomed by the fishermen
as the happy signal of the approach of those vast
shoals of herring, shad, &c., that regularly arrive
on the coast, and enter the rivers in prodigious
multitudes. Two of a trade, it is said, seldom
agree : the adage, however, will not hold good in
the present ease, for such is the respect paid to
the fish-hawk, not only by this class of men, but
generally by the whole neighbourhood where it
resides, that a person who should attempt to slioot
one of them would stand a fair chance of being
insulted. This prepossession in favour of the fish-
hawk is honourable to their feelings. They asso-
ciate with its first appearance ideas of plenty and
all the gaiety of business ; they see it active and
industrious, like themselves ; inoffensive to the pro-
ductions of their farms, building with confidence,
and vWthout the least disposition to concealment,
in the middle of their fields and along their fences,
and returning year after year regularly to its former
abode."
The fli*;ht of this bird is easy and graceful, and
its plunge, when sweeping down to its finny prey,
inconceivably rapid. Audubon says that it never
strikes at a fish leaping out of the water. In the
Gulf of Mexico, where these birds are numerous,
and where shoals of flying-fish are continually
emerging from the sea to escape the pursuit of the
dolphins, he observed that the fish-hawks never
made a sweep at them, but would at once plunge
after them, or other fish, while swimming in their
usual mode near the surface. When it plunges
into the water in pursuit of a fish, it sometimes
proceeds deep enough to disappear for an instant,
throwing the water around into foam : on rising, it
mounts a few yards into the air, shakes off the
spray, and flies off to its nest with its booty, or to
an accustomed tree, there to satisfy its appetite,
when, without longer repose, it again launches into
• he air, and sails, circling at a great height over the
waters.
The nest of the fish-hawk is built on a tree, and
consists of a mass of sticks, seaweed, grass, turf, &c.,
and being repaired every year, is sometimes a fair
cartload. Among the interstices of the materials
other birds are permitted to nidify, and several pairs
of grakles, or crow-blackbirds, may be often seen
taking up their abode around the margin and sides
of the structure, " like humble vassals round the
castle of their chief," laying their eggs, rearing
their young, and living together in the utmost
harmony.
The fish-hawk breeds in May ; and both parents
are devoted to their young, defending them from
any assailant with indomitable resolution, and
using both beak and talons with terrible effect.
Tlie young are generally three in number. The
eggs are yellowish white irregularly spotted with
yellowish brown.
■ The fish-hawk is about two feet in length, and
about five feet three or four inches in expanse of
wing. The plumage is very compact and imbri-
cated ; bill brownish black, blue at the base ; cere
light blue, iris yellow. Feet pale greyish blue,
claws black. General colour of the upper parts
dusky brown ; tale barred with pale brown ; upper
part of head and neck white, with a brown mark on
the crown, and a brown stripe from the bill down
each side of the neck. Under parts of the neck
brownish white streaked with dark brown. Under
parts generally white.
1214. — The Barred H^matornis
(Hamntornis vndulatus). The genus Hiematornis,
which contains several species, was first charac-
terized by Mr. Vigors. Beak rather strong, mode-
rately elongated : upper mandible straight at the
base, very much curved at the apex ; nostrils oval
and oblique. Wings long, and rather rounded.
Feet weak for an eagle ; tarsi rough, reticulated
with scales ; toes rather short ; claws strong ; tail
moderate and rounded.
To this genus belongs the Bacha Eagle of South
Africa (H. Bacha); the Manilla Haematornis (H.
holospilus) ; and the Barred Haematornis (H. un-
dulatus), a native of the Himalayan Mountains.
The description of the latter is as follows : —
Back and wings intense brown ; head crested with
feathers white at the base, black at the point.
Wing-coverts marked with small white spots ; quill-
feathers marked with white towards the oase of the
inner web. Under parts brownish red ; breast with
wavy bands of brown ; abdomen with white spots
margined with a ring of brown. Cere, base of beak,
and legs yellow ; claws black. Length about two
feet seven inches (male) ; female a third larger.
Of the habits of this species little is known : pro-
bably they resemble those of the African species,
which preys habitually on the Daman, or Cape
Hyrax, w atching for its victims, as they emerge from
their retreats, and instantly darting upon them.
1215, 1216.— The Harpy Eagle
(Har])i/ia destructor). The Harpy Eagle constitutes
the type of a distinct section among the birds
of prey, a section first established by Cuvier, and
adopted by most naturalists. The species compre-
hended in this genus, Harpyia, are exclusively
American : they are characterized by the enormous
thickness and strength of the tarsi, which are
feathered halfway down ; the wings are short and
rounded ; the beak is strongly hooked, as are the
talons also, and of formidable magnitude. Com-
paring the harpy with the golden eagle, we ob-
serve the former to be distinguished not only by
shorter, but by more rounded wings, by larsi far
more robust, and only partially feathered, by more
powerful talons, and by a more stout and curved
beak : the physiognomy of the two birds is also very
dift'erent; both have a stern, but glistening eye,
indicative of courage and ferocity ; of both the port
is royal, but the arrangement of the feathers of the
head in the harpy in some degree reminds us of the
great-eared owl. In the golden eagle the head
and neck are covered with long, narrow pointed
feathers, which fall over each other, and yet pre-
serve their distinctness of appearance. On the con-
trary, the feathers of the neck and sides of the head
in the harpy eagle are broad and rounded at their
anterior margin, and capable of being pufted up ;
while on the back of the head, the feathers, still of
the same character, but longer, form a crest, which
the bird can raise or depress at pleasure. The
middle feathers of this crest are shorter than the
more lateral, so that when erected it is lowest in the
centre, and rises at each side somewhat in the form
of ears or tufis; but the proud deportment and
the fierce glance of the eyes redeem the owl-like
character thus given to the head. Often have we
watched the splendid harpy eagle in the gardens
of the Zoological Society, as he has sat upright on
his perch, and motionless as a statue, unmoved by
every attempt to intimidate him, or disturb his
dignified composure, while the gleam of his eye
fixed steadily upon us betokened at once daring
and energy. In strength none can equal him ; in
courage and ferocity none excel him. But we have
seen the harpy eagle under other circumstances :
we have seen him feasting on his slaughtered prey,
with his talons buried in the body, and his beak
crimson with gore ; on our approach, instead of j
quitting it, he has expanded his ample wings over i
It, so as to conceal it, and assumed a menacing atti- '
tude, as if prepared to contest the possession of it to j
the utmost ; and such was the ferocity and power ■
displayed, as to convirjce us that any attempt at
interference (had it been practicable) would have
been a most dangerous undertaking. The harpy
eagle is a native of Guiana and other parts of South
America, where it frequents the deep recesses of
the forests remote from the abodes of man. Of its
habits, however, in a state of nature, we have but
little information. It is feared for its great strength
and fierceness, and is reported not to hesitate in
attacking individuals of the human race ; nay, that
instances have been known in which persons have
fallen a sacrifice, their skulls having been fractured
by the blows of its beak and talons. This may be
an exaggeration, but certainly it would be a hazard-
ous experiment to venture unarmed near the nest
of a pair of these formidable eagles. Hernandez
states that this species not only thus ventures to
assault man, but even beasts of prey. According to
Mandruyt, it makes greait destruction amongst the
sloths, which tenant the branches of the forest, and
are ill fitted to resist so formidable an antagonist ;
it also destroys fawns, cavies, opossums, and other
quadrupeds, which it carries to" its lonely retreat,
there in solitude to satiate its appetite. Monkeys
are also to be numbered among its victims; but the
sloth is said to constitute its ordinary prey. Of its
nidification we know nothing ; as the eagles, how-
ever, lay only from two to three eggs, it is reason-
able to suppose that the present species is not an
exception to the rule.
It has been correctly observed by Mr. Selby, that
the members of the Aquiline division of the Rap-
torial order do not possess the same facility of pur-
suing their prey upon the wing which we see in the
falcons and hawks ; for though their flight is very
powerful, they are not capable of the rapid evolu-
tions that attend the aerial attacks of the above-
named groups, in consequence of which their prey
is mostly pounced upon on the ground. The short-
ness of the wings of the harpy eagle, when compared
with those of the golden eagle of Europe, and their
rounded form and breadth, though well adapting
them for a continued, steady flight, render tliem
less efficient as organs of r?.pid and sudden aerial
evolutions than those of the latter ; but as it in-
habits the woods, and does not prey upon biids, but
upon animals, incapable of saving themselves by
flight, its powers of wing (or rather the modification
of those powers) are in accordance with the circum-
stances as to food and locality under which it is
placed. If the harpy eagle soars not aloft, hovering
over plains and mountains, it threads the woods,
it skims amidst the trees, and marks the sloth sus-
pended on the branch, or the monkey dozing in
unsuspicious security, and with unerring aim strikes
its defenceless victims. Mr. Selby, commenting on
the fierceness of a pair of golden eagles in his pos-
session, and their readiness to attack every one
indiscriminately, observes that when living prey (as
hares, rabbits, or cats) are thrown to them, the
animal is "instantly pounced on by a stroke behind
the head, and another about the region of the heart,
the bill appearing never to be used but for the
purpose of tearing up the prey when dead." It is
precisely in this manner that the harpy eagle deals
with its victims ; death seems the work of an
instant ; the strongest cat, powerless in his grasp, is
clutched, and expires. Nor will this surprise any
one who has contemplated the power seated in the
talons of this bird ; strong as are the talons of the
golden eagle, great as is the muscular development
of its limbs, and Ibrmidable as are its claws, they
seem almost trifling compared with those of the
harpy eagle. In the museum of the Zoological
Society are skeletons of both these birds, which it is
interesting to compare together. The thickness of
the bones of the limbs in the latter, and especially of
the tarsus, which is more than double that of the
golden eagle, and the enormous size of the talons,
are sufficient to convince the observer of the ease
with which, when living, the fierce bird would bury
its sharp-hooked claws in the vitals of its prey, and
how vain resistance when the fatal grasp was taken.
In its native regions the harpy eagle is said to be
by no means common ; were it so, the destruction
occasioned by its presence would, it might be
naturally expected, preponderate over the reno-
vation cf the species which constitute its habitual
food, and the balance which Nature has established
between the destroyed and the destroying, the
sanguinary and their victims, be thus disarranged.
No doubt that (as is the case with all carnivorous
animals) its numerical ratio in a given space is pro-
portionate to that of the animals on which it is
destined habitually to feed. Where the sloth is
most abundant, there will most abound the harpy
eagle.
The general colour of this noble bird is slate-
black ; the head is light slate-grey, passing into
dusky black on the crest ; the under parts are
white, with a broad band of dark slate-colour across
the chest. The tail is barred with black and slate-
colour. The beak and claws are black ; the tarsi
yellow.
1217 to 1220. — The Lammergey£R
(Gijpaetus barbatits). Among the Raptorial birds,
classed by naturalists under the Aquiline section,
2L2
:!;3 — Had and Foot of Osprey.
Ii09^White-he«de<l E.gle aud FUt-Hawk.
ISll.— Osprey.
260
i:i».— Harpy Eagle.
ISH.— Barred Hamatomia.
i
rm^^
1219, — Lammergeyer,
-Lammergejer,
2 1 B.— Lammergeyer.
261
2t>2
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Eagles
are many which have neither the bold bearin? nor
the ferocity and great powers of the genuine eagles,
represented by the golden eagle or the harpy. Some
form a series of intervening links between the eagles 1
and the bu2xartls and kites, while others appear to l
hold an intermediate station between the eagles and \
the vultures. Among the latter may be instanced !
the lammergeyer, which various writers, according
to their ditferent views, assigned to the vultures on
Uie one hand or to the eagles on the other. Storr,
a naturalist of great eminence, rescued it from the
intermediate situation in which it previously stood,
and founded for its reception a new genus, to which
he gave the title of Gypaetus (rW', a vulture ; <«it«,
an eagle), thereby alluding to its intermediate situ-
ation, though it still, in our opinion, comes within
the pale of the Aquiline family. The characters of
the genus are these : — head and neck clothed with
feathers; nostrils covered with bristly hairs, which
form a sort of pendent tuft or beard ; bill elongated
and hooked ; tarsi short, and feathered to the toes,
which are of considerable strength, and armed with
sharp but slightly curved talons.
The lummergeyer, or, as it is sometimes called, the
bearded vulture, which equals or exceeds the largest
eagle in size, is found throughout the whole of the
great mountain-chains of the Old World, being in
fact very widely dispersed. It occurs in the Py-
renees, and in the Alps of Germany and Switzer-
land, where it is notorious for its destrucliveness
among the lambs and kids which are fed on the
green slopes of the lower ranges.
The intermediate situation assigned to the lum-
mergeyer, and which is aptly expressed in the gene-
ric appellation Gj-paetus, is clearly indicated in its
form and general habits. Of a powerful and robust
make, it has neither the bill nor the talons of the
eagle, the former being elongated, and hooked only
at the tip, and the latter comparatively small ; yet
it prefers to prey on victims which it has itself de-
stroyed, or upon the flesh of animals recently
slaughtered, and unless hard pressed by hunger re-
jects putrid carrion, the favourite repast of the vul-
ture. The eagle bears off his prey; the lammer-
geyer, unless disturbed, or providing for its youns,
seldom attempts to remove it, but devours it on the
^pot. Attracted by the carcass of some unfortunate
animal which has recently perished among the ra-
vines of the mountains, a number of these birds
gradually congregate to share the booty, and gorge,
like the vulture, to repletion. The lummergeyer
.attacks hares, lambs, kids, and the weak and sickly
of the flocks with great ferocity ; the strong-limbed
-chamois is not secure, nor, when rendered desperate
by hunger, will the ravenous bird forbear an attack
on man. Children, indeed, are said to have often
fallen sacrifices to its rapacity. Young or small
animals are easily destroyed, for, though elongated,
the beak is hard and strong, and well adapted for
lacerating the victim ; but larger animals, instead
of being at once grappled with, are, as it is said, in-
sidiously assaulted while upon the edge of some
precipice or steep declivity, the bird unexpectedly
sweeping upon them with fury, and hurrying them
into the abyss, down which it plunges to glut its ap-
petite. As illustrative of the boldness of the liim-
mergeyer, Bruce relates that, attracted by the pre-
parations for dinner, which his servants were making
on the summit of a lofty mountain, a bearded
vulture "slowly made his advances to the party,
and at length fairly seated himself within the ring
they had formed. The affrighted natives ran for
their lances and shields, and the bird, after an inef-
fectual attempt to abstract a portion of their meal
from the boiling water, seized a large piece in each
of his talons from a platter that stood by, and car-
ried them off slowly along the ground as he came."
Returning in a few minutes for a second freight, he
was shot.
There is little in the general aspect of this bird to
remind one of the vulture, and yet the character of
-the head and the general contour of the body are
strikingly different from those of the ea,;le : there
is a want of dignity and quiet grandeur in its atti-
tude, and the glance of its small red eye, though
"keen and cruel, is deficient in that expression of
daring and resolution which we admire in the
feathered monarch. The bristly beard which de-
pends from the lower mandible, tends also to give
a peculiar character to its physiognomy. Of the
nitiification of the liimraergeyer little is ascertained,
except that it selects the most inaccessible pinnacles,
as the site of its eyrie. Pallas states that it is known
to breed on the high rocks of the great Altaic chain,
and beyond the lake Baikal.
The eggs are two in number, marked with brown
blotches on a white ground.
In length this extraordinary bird measures about
four feet from the bill to the end of the tail, and
from nine to ten in the expanse of its wings.
Larger admeasurements have been given by various
writers, which are probably exaggerated — none of
the numerous specimens which we have seen ex-
ceeding our statement. The tarsi are short and al-
most hidden by the feathers of the thighs ; the iris
is bright red ; the wings are ample, the second and
third quill-feathers being the longest ; the tail is
graduated : the head is clothed with feathers, and
from the sides of the under mandible proceeds a row
of black bristles, which form a beard or pencil at its
angle, and a layer of similar bristles, beginning at
the eye, covers the nostrils. The general colour of
the upper surface is dark greyish brown, the centre
of each feather having a longitudinal dash of white.
The neck and the whole of the under surface are
white, tinted with reddish brown. The young
birds are darker in the general hue of their plumage
than the adult, and the white spots are larger and
less defined ; in this stage it has been mistaken for
a distinct species.
The flight of the liimmergeyer, as its great bodily
powers, its ample wings" and tail, sufficiently indi-
cate, is sweeping and majestic. It sails round the
Alpine summits, whence it marks its quarry from
afar, and collecting all its energies for the onset,
glides like an arrow upon its prey. If, however, it
be lured from its acnal altitude by the carcass of
some animal, it no longer emulates the eagle in its
pounce, but calmly descending to some neighbour-
ing crag, it then sets out, flying with heavy wings,
at a short distance from the ground, towards its re-
past, to be joined by others of its species.
It would appear that in Europe this noble bird
was formerly much more common than at present.
It was once, as M. Temminck remarks, abundant on
all the high mountains of Tyrol, Switzerland,
and Germany, various hunters in the eighteenth
century having killed their forty, fifty, or sixty liini-
mergeyers. The chasseur Andreas Durner had
killed sixty with his own hand. In Sardinia it is
still far from being rare. Specimens have been re-
ceived from the north of Africa, and also from the
Cape of Good Hope, differing in no respect from
individuals belonging to the European Alps.
It occurs in the lofty mountains of Central Africa,
and towards the borders of the Red Sea ; and in
Asia, tenants the chain of the Caucasus, the Hima-
layan, Siberian, and Persian mountains. The liim-
mergeyer is the Avoltoio barbuto of the Italians ; and
the Weisskopfige Geier Adierof the Germans. Ac-
cording to Bruce, the Abyssinians call it Abou
Duch'n, or Father Longbeard. He figures it under
the title of Nisser, the Ethiopic for Eagle.
Passing from the liimmergeyer, various other
aberrant forms, as the naturalist terms them, meet
our attention, and claim a few remarks: — of these
some are half vulturine in form as well as in habits.
1221. — The Aquilise Ibycter
(lin/cter aquilinus). Head and foot. In the genus
Ibycter the beak is convex above ; the lower man-
dible notched at the apex and sub-acute ; the
cheeks, throat, and crop featherless ; the claws
acute.
The Aquiline Ibycter, the Petit Aigle d'Amdrique
of BufFon, is a native of South America, but of its
peculiar habits we have no details. Gmelin regards
it as the Red-throated Falcon of Latham. The
colours of this bird are well contrasted ; the beak is
cerulean blue ; the cere and feet are yellow ; the
iris is orange. The plumage above, deep blue ;
below, red passing into white: the feathers of the
neck are of a purplish tint inclining to rufous : the
claws are black.
1222. — The Black Daptbius
{Daptrivs ater). Head and foot. It is not quite
clear that this bird is generically separable from the
preceding. The beak is shorter and stouter than in
Ibycter, and the tarsi longer, but in other respects
the characters closely correspond. They are evi-
dent links between the eagles, perhaps the sea or
fi.shing eagles, and the vultures.
The present species is the Iribin noir of Vieillot ;
and the Caracara noir, Falco aterrimus of M. Tem-
minck. Back with bluish reflexions ; tail white at
its base and rounded ; beak and claws black ; cere
dusky ; space round the eyes naked and flesh-
coloured ; feet yellow. Length about seventeen
inches.
1223. — The Brazilian Cabacaba ob Cabeancha
{Polybonis Brasiliensis). Head and foot. The
generic characters of Polyborus are these :— Beak
compressed above, lower mandible entire and ob-
tuse ; cere large, and covered with hairs ; cheeks
and throat featherless ; crop woolly.
The best account of the Caracara is given by Mr.
Darwin ('Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle,'
vol. iii.\ who had many opportunities of observing
these birds in a state of nature, and whose delinea-
tion of their habits is very interesting: — Speaking
of the " Carrion Hawks," as he terms them, which
frequent the extra-tropical parts of South America,
he says. " the numlier, tnmeness, and disgusting
habits of these birds make them pre-eminently
striking to any one accustomed only to the birds of
Northern Europe. In this list may be included
four species of Caracara :— the Turkey Buzzard (a
vulture, Vultur aura); the Gallinazo (a vulture,
Cathartes atratus) ; and the Condor.
"The caracaras are, from their structure, placed
among the eagles : we shall soon see how ill they
become so high a rank. In their habits they well
supply the place of our carrion-crows, magpies, and
ravens, a tribe of birds totally wanting in South
America. To begin with the rolyborus Brasilien-
sis.— This is a common bird, and has a wide geogra-
phical range ; it is most numerous on the gras!<y sa-
vannahs of I^ Plata where it goes by the name of
carrancha, and is far from unfrequent through the
sterile plains of Patagonia. In the desert between
the rivers Ne^ro and Colorado numbers constantly
attended the line of road to devour the carcasses of
the exhausted animals which chanced to perish from
fatigue and thirst. Although thus common in these
dry and open countries, and likewise on the arid
shores of the Pacific, it is nevertheless found inha-
biting the damp impervious forests of West Pata-
gonia and Tierra del Fuego. The carranchas, to-
gether with the Polyborus Chiniango, constantly
attend in numbers the estancias and slaughtering-
houses. If an animal dies on the plain, the galli-
nazo commences the feast, and then the two kinds
of caracara pick the bones clean. These birds,
though thus commonly feeding together, are far
from being friends. When the carrancha is quietly
seated on the branch of a tree or on the ground, the
chimango often continues for a long time flying
backwards and forwards, up and down, in a semi-
circle, trying each time at the bottom of the cui-ve
to strike its larger relative. The carrancha takes
little notice, except by bobbing its head. Although
the carranchas frequently assemble in numbers, they
are not gregarious, for in desert places they may be
seen solitary, or more commonly in pairs. Besides
the carrion of large animals, these birds frequent the
borders of streams and sea-beaches to pick up what-
ever the watei-s may cast ashore. In Tierra del
Fuego and on the west coast of Patagonia they must
exclusively live on such supplies. The carranchas
are said to be very crafty, and to steal great num-
bers of eggs. They attempt also, together with the
chimango, to pick off the scabs from the backs of
horses and mules. The poor animal on the one
hand, with its ears down, and its back arched, and, on
the other, the hovering bird eyeing at the distance
of a yard the disgusting morsel, form a picture which
has been described by Captain Head with his own
peculiar spirit and accuracy. The can-anchas kill
wounded animals ; but Mr. Bynoe saw one seize in
the air a live partridge (oityx ?), which escaped, and
was for some time chased on the ground. I believe
this circumstance is very unusual ; at all events there
is no doubt that the chief part of their sustenance
is derived from carrion. A person will discover the
necrophagous habits of the carrancha by walking
out on one of the desolate plains and there lying
down to sleep. When he awakes, he will see on
each surrounding hillock one of these birds pa-
tiently watching him with an evil eye. It is a fea-
ture on the landscape of these countries which will
be recognised by every one who has wandered over
them. If a party goes out hunting with dogs and
horses, it will be accompanied during the day by
several of these attendants. After feeding, the un-
covered craw protrudes ; at such times, and indeed
generally, the carrancha is an inactive, tame, and
cowardly bird. Its flight is heavy and slow, like
that of an English rook. It seldom soars, but I have
twice seen one at great height gliding through the
air with much ease. It runs in contradistinction to
hopping, but not quite so quickly ,as some of its con-
geners. At times the carrancha is noisy, but
is not generally so ; its cry is loud, very harsh, and
peculiar, and may be likened to the sound of the
Spanish guttural g followed by a rough double r.
Perhaps the Gauchos from this cause have called it
carrancha. Molina, who states that it is called
Tharu in Chile, says that when uttering this cry it
elevates its head higher and higher, till at last, with
its beak wide open, the crown almost touches the
lower part of the back. This fact, which has been
doubted, is quite true. I have seen them several
times with their heads backwards in a completely
inverted position. Tlie carrancha builds a large
coarse nest, either in a low cliff or in a bush or
lofty tree. To these observations, I may add, on the
high authority of Azara, that the carrancha feeds
on worms, shells, slugs, grasshoppers, and frogs;
that it destroys new-fallen lambs, and that it pursues
the gallinazo till that bird is compelled to disgorge
the carrion it may recently have swallowed. Lastly,
Azara states that several carranchas, five or six to-
gether, will unite in the chase of large birds, even
such as herons. All these facts show that it is a
bird of very versatile habits and considerable in-
genuity."
The caracara, or carrancha, measures about f Aeiity-
Eagles.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
263
two inches in length. The whole upper surface of
the head is black, with the feathers sliglitly elongated
backwards, and capable of being partially elevated
in the shape of a pointed crest. The entire neck is
of alight brownish grey, which also forms the ground-
colour on the breast and shoulders, but with the ad-
dition on these parts of numerous transverse wavy
bars of a deeper brown. Nearly all the rest of the
plumage is of a tolerably uniform shade of blackish
brown, with the exception of the tail, which is at
the base of a dirty white, with numerous narrow,
transverse, undulated bands of a dusky hue, and, in
its terminal third, black without any appearance of
banding. The beak is horn-coloured at the tip and
bluish at the base ; the iris hazel ; the cere and
naked cheeks of a dull rod ; the legs yellow, and
the claws black. Such at least are the colours of
the living specimen in the Society's Garden. Se-
veral changes, however, take place in the plumage
of the bird as it advances in age.
With respect to the Polyborus Chiraango, noticed
by Mr. Darwin, and which is smaller than the '
carrancha, we may observe that it is common on
both sides of the same continent. It is found in
Chiloe and on the coast of Patagonia, but does not
appear to inhabit Tierra del Fuego. It feeds on
carrion, and is the last bird to leave the carcass,
and, as Mr. Darwin says, may be often seen within
the bare ribs of a cow or horse, like a bird in a cage.
The chimango, he adds, "often frequents the sea-
coast, and the borders of lakes and swamps, where
it picks up small fish. It is truly omnivorous, and
will even eat bread when thrown out of the house
with other offal. I was assured that they materially
injure the potato crops in Chiloe, by grubbing up
the roots when first planted. In the same island
I myself saw them by scores following the plough,
and feeding on the worms and larvae of insects. I
do not believe they ever kill birds or quadrupeds.
They are more active than the carranchas, but
their flight is heavy ; I never saw one soar. They
are very tame, but are not gregarious ; they com-
monly perch on stone walls, and not upon trees,
and frequently utter a gentle shrill scream."
Mr. Darwin notices a third species of Polyborus,
of rare occurrence, and which he only met with in
one valley of Patagonia. The fourth species to
which he alludes is the Polyborus Novae Zelandiae.
This bird, he remarks, is exceedingly numerous over
the whole of the Falkland Islands, which appear
to constitute its metropolis. He was informed by
the sealers, that they are found on the Diego Ra-
mirez Rocks, but never on the mainland of Tierra
del Fuego, nor on Georgia or the more southward
islands. In habits and manners they resemble in
many respects the carranchas, living on the flesh
of dead animals, and on marine productions, which
latter on the Ramirez rocks must constitute their
principal, if not their sole subsistence. They are
ordinarily tame and fearless, and confidently haunt
the precincts of houses for ofTal. When, tie adds,
a hunting-party kills any animal, a number of these
birds soon collect, and wait patiently, standing on
the ground on all sides. After gorging themselves,
their uncovered craws are largely protruded, giving
them a disgusting appearance.
" They readily attack wounded birds ; a cormo-
rant in this state having taken to the shore, was
immediately seized on by several, and its death
hastened by their blows. The Beagle was at the
Falklands only during the summer, but the officers
of the Adventure, who were there in the winter,
mention many extraordinary instances of the boldness
and rapacity of these birds. They actually made
an attack on a dog that was lying asleep close to
one of the party ; and the sportsmen had difiiculty
in preventing the wounded geese from being seized
before their eyes. It is said that several together
wait at the mouth of a rabbit-hole, as is the prac-
tice also of the carranchas, and seize on the animal
when it comes out. They were constantly flying
on board the vessel when in the harbour; and it
was necessary to keep a good look-out, to prevent
the leather being torn from the rigging, and the
meat or game from the stern. These birds are
very mischievous and inquisitive ; they will pick
up almost anything from the ground ; a large-
sized glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as was
a pair oT heavy balls (bolas) used in catching cattle.
Mr. Ilsborne experienced, during the survey, a more
severe loss, in their stealing a small Kater's com-
pass, in a red morocco leather case, which was
never recovered. These birds are, moreover, quar-
relsome and very passionate, tearing up the grass
•with their bills from rage. They are not truly gre-
garious, and do not soar. Their flight is heavy and
clumsy, but on the ground they run with extreme
quickness, very much like pheasants. They are
noisy, uttering several harsh cries one of which is
like that of the English rook ; hence the sealers
always so call them. It is a curious circumstance
that when crying they always throw their heads
upwards and lackwards, after the same manner as
the carrancha. They build on the rocky cliffs of
the sea-coast, but only in the small islets, and not
in the two main islands. This is a singular pre-
caution in so tame and fearless a bird. The sealers
say that the flesh of these birds, when cooked, is
quite white, and very good eating."
These rapacious birds are, as the above details
sufficiently prove, vulturine in their habits, and
have no immediate relationship to the true eagles;
they evidently compose a distinct group. The fol-
lowing species seem to exhibit an alliance with the
buzzards and harriers, which they resemble in form
and modes of life.
1224. — The Ueubitixga, or Brazilian Eagle
OP Latham
{Morphnus Uivbitinga). Head and foot. The
characters of the genus Morphnus may be thus
summed up : — beak convex above ; nostrils ellip-
tical; tarsi elevated, scutellated anteriorly; some-
times feathered toes rather short ; claws acute.
The Urubitinga is a native of Brazil and Guiana,
frequenting water, humid grounds, and inundated
places, where it seeks its prey, consisting of small
animals. The general plumage is dusky black, the
wings being waved with ash-colour, the tail-coverts
and base of tail white ; the beak is strong ; the
eyes large ; the cere and legs are yellow ; claws
black. The young of the year are blackish yellow
below, each feather having a central dash or spot
of blackish brown. The throat and cheeks are
marked with brown streaks on a whitish ground.
1225. — The Chested Morphnus, or Huppart
(Morphnus occipitalis). Head and foot. This is
the Aigle-Autour, Noir Huppe d'Afrique, the Falco
occipitalis of Daudin. Its tarsi are closely feathered
to the toes. This species is a native of Africa,
where it seems to be almost universally spread. It
equals a raven in size. The plumage is black, and
a crest of long feathers ornaments the back of the
head.
1226. — The Hook-billed Ctmiiidis
(Ci/mindis Immatus). Beak and foot. There are,
says Cuvier, Raptorial birds in America with a beak
like the preceding species, with tarsi short and
reticulated, and half covered anteriorly with fea-
thers, and with wings shorter than the tail, and
whose distinctive feature consists in the nostrils being
nearly closed, bearing the appearance of a narrow
slit. Of these, one is the present species, which,
however, lias the tarsi scutellated anteriorly, and
the upper mandible very much hooked. This bird
inhabits Brazil, and when adult is of a uniform
lead-colour, the cere and feet being yellow. Length
about seventeen inches. The young of the year
have the plumage of a sombre brown, each feather
being bordered and blotched with red; the cheeks
are marked with yellowish rashes, and a stripe of
the same colour runs below the eyes : the front of
the neck is whitish.
1227. — The Cayenne Cymindis
(Cymindis Cayennensis). Head and foot. This
species, which inhabits Cayenne, has a small tooth-
like projection on the edge of the beak where it
begins to curve down. The adult is white with a
blue-black mantle, the head ash-coloured, and the
tail barred with four white bands. In the young
the mantle is variegated with brown and red, and
the head is white with a few black dashes. It is
the Petit Autour de Cayenne of BufFon.
1228. — Grey Asturina
{Asturina cinerea). Head and foot. Generic cha-
racters : — beak convex above ; nostrils lunulate ;
tarsi short and somewhat slender ; cJaws long and
very acute.
The Grey Asturina is a native of Guiana. The
general plumage is of a bluish ash-colour, with
whitish bands on the under part of the body. The
tail, which is white at the point, is traversed by two
black bands. Beak blue ; cere yellow. Of its
habits we have no particular details.
1229. — The Short-toed Circaetus
(Circaetm brachydactyliis) . Head and foot. This
bird is the Aigle Jean-le-Blanc of Temminck ; Falco
Gallicus, Graelin ; Falco leucopsis, Bechstein.
The genus Circaetus, says Cuvier, holds an inter-
mediate station between the fishing eagles, the
osprey, and the buzzards : the wings resemble those
of the eagles and buzzards, while the tarsi are reti-
culated, as in the osprey. The external toe is
united to the middle by a short membrane.
The Short-toed Circaetus, or Jean-le-Blanc, is a
native of Europe and Asia ; it is found in the great
fir-forests on the eastern parts of northern Europe,
but is elsewhere not very common. It is, in fact,
never seen in England or Holland, and is rare in
Fiance. It is oct;asiona!ly observed in Italy.
In size, this species exceeds the osprey, but its
toes are proportionally short, though powerful.
Its manners are those of a buzzard ; it feeds on
snakes and other reptiles, and small quadrupeds,
rarely on birds or domestic poultry. It builds its
nest on the highest trees, and the eggs are two or
three in number, of a lustrous grey, and spotless.
Colonel Sykes notices it among the birds of the
Dukhun, and states that in the stomach of a female
which he shot were found the remains of a snake
and two rats. Its length was thirty inches.
Description of Old Male.- — Head very large ;
below the eyes a space clothed with white down ;
summit of the head, cheeks, throat, breast, and belly
white, but variegated with a few spots of bright
brown ; back and coverts of the wings brown, but
the origin of all the feathers of a pure white ; tail
square, grey brown, barred with deeper brown, white
below ; tarsi long and greyish blue, as are the toes;
beak black ; cere bluish ; iris yellow.
Of Female. — Less white than the male. The
head, the neck, the breast, and the belly are marked
with numerous brown spots, which are very much
approximated.
Of Young.— Upper parts darker, but the origin
of the feathers pure white ; throat, breast, and belly
of a red-brown, little or not at all spotted with
white ; bands on the tail neau-ly imperceptible ; beak
bluish ; feet greyish white.
1230, 1231.— The Secretary.
Among the aberrant forms of the Aquiline group
must be placed this extraordinary bird, which to
naturalists has been a sort of " Petrum scandali et
lapsis ofFensionis." Some have placed it among the
vultures, othera among the Gallinaceous birds, and
others among the Wading birds, as did Vieiliot,
after repeatedly changing his opinions.
That naturalists should have assigned it to the
Gallinaceous or the Wading orders, with the former of
which it has nothing in common, and with the latter
only the elevation of the tarsi, is indeed not a little
surprising. With respect to the vultures, it exhibits
but little affinity to them: Fig. 1232 represents the
Head of the Secretary in two views; the short
abruptly hooked beak, the large eye, the overhang-
ing brows, with a row of strong black bristles, the
breadth of the head across the top of the skull, and
the occipital plumes are anything but characteristic
of the vulture ; whereas in many of the genera
intermediate between the eagles and the hawks, we
trace these characteristics, conjoined with that length
of Jimb whictl fits them for terrestrial habits, and
which is carried to its ultimate in the Secretary.
It is among these aberrant terrestrial Falconidae,
feeding on reptiles and small quadrupeds, that
we consider the genus Gypogeranus to stand.
The generic characters of this genus are as fol-
lows:— Bill rather slender, shorter than the head,
strong, very much hooked and curved nearly
from its origin ; cere extending almost naked
over the cheeks ; nostrils diagonal, oblong ; tarsi
long and slender; toes short, rough below, hind-toe
articulated higher than the anterior toes; wings'
long, armed near the elbow-joint with obtuse spurs ;
five first quill-feathers the longest and nearly equal ;
occipital plume ; the two middle tail-feathers longer
than the others.
It is not quite clear whether there are not, in
reality, three distinct species of Secretary : one in-
habiting the regions of South Africa : one, Sene-
gambia ; and one, the Philippine Islands, north of
Borneo.
In some interesting observations on the genus
Gypogeranus, by Mr. Ogilby ('Zool. Proceeds.' 1&35>
p.l04), that naturalist gives certain distinctive
characters, from which it would appear that the
Philippine bird at least (whatever the Senegam-
bian may hereafter prove to be) is distinct from the
South African.
South African Secretary (G. Capensis, Ogilby). —
" With the plume of long cervical feathers com-
mencing upon the occiput spreading irregularly over
the upper part of the neck, narrow throughout the
greater part of their length, as if the vane had been
cut on each side, close to the shaft of the quill,
spreading only at the point."
Senegambia Secretary (G. Gambiensis, Ogilby). —
" With the cervical crest commencing some distance
below the occiput, arranged in two regular series,
one on each side of the neck, with the intermediate
space clear, and composed of long spatule-shaped
feathers, much broader throughout than in the last
species, though similarly decreasing in width to-
wards the root. In both these species the two
middle feathers of the tail are considerably longer
than the others."
Philippine Secretary (G. Philippensis, Ogilby). —
"With the cervical crest spread irregularly from
the occiput to the bottom of the neck, the longest
feathers being those situated the lowest, which is
just the reverse of what we observe in Gyp. Gam-
biensis, and with the two exterior tail-feathers the
longest, so that the tail appears forked. This is
lta&.— Head ud Foot of Ciestnl Mcrphniu.
^-^
1221.— Head and Foot of Aquiline Ibycter.
1S24 — Head and Foot of BrazUian Eagle.
1228. — Ileitd and Voot of Grev Asturina.
1222.— Head and Foot of Black DiaptrilM.
12S9.— Head and Footof Sliort-toed CirBi5tra.
264
ISSL— Head and Foot of Hook-biUed Cymlndii.
1223.— Head and Foot of Braiilian Caraoara.
1236. — Peregrine Falcon.
No. 34.
1237.— Peregrine Fulcom.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
1231 .—Secretary-bird.
265
266
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Falcons.
apparent not only in Sonnerat's fii^re, but is ex-
pressly mentioned in liis detailed dt-ncription, and,
if confirmed by future observation, is clearly indica-
tive of a specific distinction. Inhabits the Philip-
pine Islands. Described and figured in Sonnerat's
'Voyage k la Nouvelle Guinde,' p. 87, t. 50.» The
colours of the three species or varieties here indi-
cated do not seem to be materiallv different in other
respects." It is to the South African species or
variety that our details more particularly apply.
This sinerular bird is termed, in allusion to its
habits, Slangen-vreeter, or Serpent-eater, by the
Dutch colonists of the Cape, and its Hottentot
name has the same meaning : snakes, in fact, con-
stitute its principal food, and in the attack and
defence it displays the greatest coolness and address.
The Slangen-vreeter, says Sparrman, has a peculiar
method of seizing upon serpents. When it ap-
proaches them, it always takes care to hold the
point of one of its wings before it, in order to parry
off their venomous bites; sometimes it finds an
opportunity of spuming and treading upon its an-
tagonist, or else of taking it up on its pinions and
throwing it into the »ir : when by this method of
proceeihngit has at length wearied out its adversary,
and rendered it almost senseless, it then kills it and
swallows it without danger. Though I have very
frequently seen the Secretary Bird, both in its wild
and tame stale, yet I have never had an opportunity
of seeing this method it has of catching serpents ;
however, I can by no means harbour any doubt
concerning it. after having had it confirmed to me
by so many Hottentots a.-* well as Christians, and
since this bird has been observed at the menagerie
at the Hague to amuse and exercise itself in the
same mannei with a straw. If, finally, this Serpent-
cater is to be referred to the Accipitres, or the Hawk
kind, the name of Faico serpentarius appears to be
the most proper to distinguish it by in the ' Sysfema
Naturae.' It has ever been remarked that these
birds, when tame, will not disdain now and then to
put up with a nice chicken.
Sparrman, it is true, did not himself see the scene
which he describes ; but his account is confirmed by
Le Vaillant, who thus gives the results of his own
observations, which go to prove, contftiry to Buffon's
statement, that the Secretary is bold and cou-
rageous.
" In descending from a mountain into a very deep
bog (Ibndriere), I perceived, nearly perpendicularly
below me, a bird which raised and lowered itself
very rapidly, with very extraordinary motions.
Although I well knew the Secretary, and had killed
many of these birds at Natal, it was impossible for
me to recognise it in the vertical situation in which
I found myself, and I only suspected that it was one
from its bearing. Having found means, by favour
of some rocks, to approach sufficiently near, noise-
lessly, and without being discovered, I found that
this bird was a Secretary combating a serpent. The
fight was very sharp on both sides, and the skill (la
ruse) equal on the part of each of the combatants.
But the serpent, which perceived the inequality of
its strength, employed that adroit cunning which is
attributed to it, in order to save itself by flight and
regain its hole ; while the bird, divining its inten-
tion, stopped it at once, and throwing itself before
the serpent by one spring, cut off its retreat.
Wherever the reptile essayed to escape, there it
always found its enemy. Then, uniting skill with
courage, it erected itself fiercely to intimidate the
bird, and presented, with a frightful hiss, a menac-
ing gapi', inflamed eyes, and a head swollen with
rage and poison. Sometimes this offensive resist-
ance suspended hostilities for an instant ; but the
bird soon returned to the charge, and covering its
body with one of its wings, a.s with a shield, struck
its enemy with the other, with the bony protube-
rances of which 1 have already spoken, and which,
like small clubs, overpowered it the more surely,
inasmuch as it presented itself to the blows. In
effect, I saw it reel and fall extended : then the
conqueror threw himself upon it to finish his work,
and with one blow of the bill split its skull. At this
moment, having no further observations to make, I
killed it. 1 found in its crop (for it has one, which
nobody has stated), on dissecting it, eleven rather
large lizards, three serpents, as long as one's arm,
eleven small tortoises very entire, many of which
were about two inches in diameter, and, finally, a
quantity of locusts (sauterelles) and insects, the
greater part of which were sufficiently whole to
deserve being collected and to be added to my
specimens. The lizards, the serpents, and the tor-
toises had all received the stroke of the bill on the
head. I observed besides, that, independently of
• .'jpe.liiiy of tlie mannen of this birf, Sonnnat nyt, tint It U
•ocUMf and live, in a natr of domrsticily; that it hunu rata, and
miglit in llii. point of vie» become uwful in the colonies, where it
woDld prolaNy nut be difflrult lo muIiiplT it. Alttiouxh he er.c
Moiialy de«Tibe. tlie bill and Icet of the Secietary (Philippine) u re-
aemblin» tliOM of Galli„,ceou, bird, (fowl, turkev, «cc ). he ilatei
inat It recdj on Heah, and ought conaequently to be placed in the
SuUtod e^' *""*' "'"°"* *'■'''''■''« •^'*'' " '"""« »" tntirely
this mass of aliments, the craw (poche) of the animal
contained a species of pellet, as large as a goose's
egg, and formed of the vertebra of serpents and
lizards which the l)ird had devoured previously, scales
of small tortoises, and the wings, feet, and corselets
of different scarabaei. Doubtless when the undi-
gested mass is become too large, the Secretary, like
other birds of prey, vomits it and gets rid of it. It
results from the superabundant quantity of nourish-
ment which this specimen had secured, that in at-
tacking the serpent of the bog it was not hunger
which nad stimulated it to the combat, but the hatred
and antipathy which is bears to these reptiles. Such
an avei^iun as this is of an inappreciable advantage
in a country where the temperature wonderfully
favours the multiplication of an infinity ol noxious
and venomous animals. In this point of view the
Secretary is one of natute's real benefactions ; and
indeed its utility and the services rendered by it are
so well recognized at the Cape and in its neighbour-
hood, that the colonists and Hottentots respect it
and do not kill it : herein imitating the Dutch, who
do not kill the stork, and the Egyptians, who never
injure the ibis. The secretary is easily tamed, and
when domesticated, every kind of nourishment,
cooked or raw, agrees with it equally.
" The eggs ordinarily amount to from two to
three, nearly as large as those of a goose, and white,
like those of a hen. The young remain a long time
before they quit the nest, because, their legs being
long and slender, they su.stain themselves with dif-
ficulty. They may be observed, even up to the age
of four months, unable to progress, except by
leaning on their heels ; which gives them a strikingly
clumsy and ungraceful air. Nevertheless, as their
toes are not so long nor their claws so curved as
the other birds of prey, they walk with much more
facility than those. So that when they have at-
tained the age of seven months they m&y be seen
to develop easy and graceful movements which suit
well with their noble bearing."
M. Lesson, in his description, quotes the account
of Mr. Smith, who relates, " that one day ho saw
a Secretary take two or three turns on the wing at a
little distance from the place where he was. The
bird soon settled, and Mr. Smith saw that it was
attentively examining an object near the spot where
it had descended. After approaching it with great
precaution, the Secretary extended one of its wings,
which the bird continually agitated. Mr. Smith
then discovered a large serpent raising its head, and
appearing to wait the approach of the bird to dart
upon it ; but a quick blow of the wing soon laid it
prostiate. The bird appeared to wait for the
serpent's raising itself, in order to repeat the blow ;
but this the serpent, it seems, did not attempt, and
the Secretary, walking towards it, seized it with the
feet and bill, and rose perpendicularly into the air,
whence the bird let the serpent fall on the ground,
so that it might be securely destroyed.''
The Secretary was so called by the Dutch from
the plumes at the back of its head, which reminded
them of the pen stuck behind the ear, according to
the custom of the ' gens de cabinet ' in Holland, and
the name has since been generally adopted. These
birds, at least in South Africa, are not gregarious,
but live in pairs, and build on hisrh trees or in dense
thickets. "Their gait is a singular stalk, reminding
us of a person moving along on elevated stilts; but
they run with great swiftness, and are not to be
approached without difficulty by the sportsman.
Attempts have been made, how far successful we
know not, to introduce this bird into Martinique, for
the purpose of destroying the deadly hincc-headed
viper, or yellow serpent, of the Antilles (Trigono-
cephalus lanceolatus), which abounds there, and is
greatly dreaded.
The general colour of this species is bluish grey ;
the primary and secondary quill-feathere are black,
as are also the feathers of the thighs, and those
composing the crest. The two long middle tail-
feathers are grey, becoming black towards theii
extremities, and ending in a white tip, as do the
rest of the tail-feathers, which are otherwise black.
Length of head and body, including the tail, three
feet.
FALCONS.
Among all the Raptorial birds, none are more bold
and daring than the falcons, though there are
certain exceptions. All are formed for rapid flight,
and pureue their prey with extreme velocity, or
soaring above, descend upon it with a swoop, bear-
ing it to the ground. Some, as the kestrels, which
feed principally on frogs and mice, not excluding
insects, sail in the air performing easy circles, and
often appear motionless over one spot for a con-
siderable time; when, perceiving their prey, they
make a sudden and rapid descent, and pounce upon
it with unerring certainty. But the nobler falcons,
as they are termed — viz., the peregrine and ger-
falcon, which prey chiefly on birds, as pigeons,
grouse, sea-fowl, &c., strike their victim on the
wing, and carry it in their talons to their eyry.
The falcons are distinguished by the following
characters: the beak is short, strong, and abruptly
hooked, the edge of the upper mandible, near the
curve, being furnished with a tooth-like projection.
The wings are long and pointed, the second quill-
feather being the longest. The tarsi are of mode-
rate length, but stout ; the toes are long and power-
ful, and armed with large, sharp, retractile claws.
The eye is full, bright, and beautiful ; the contour
of the biody graceful and vigorous: the plumage
close and compact. The muscles of flight are re-
markably developed, as indicated by the breadth of
the sternum, the depth of the keel, and the strength
of the furcula, and of the calvicular or coracoid
bones. Fig. 1233 represents the sternum of the
Peregrine Falcon and its appendages : a, the ex-
panse of the sternum ; b, the keel ; c, the furcula ;
d, the clavicular or coracoid bones ; e, the scapula
broken off. Fig. }'23A represents the Head of the
Peregrine Falcon as illustrative of the generic cha-
racters of the group; Fig. 1235, the Foot.
1236, 1237.— The Pehkgei.ne Falcon
{Falco peregrinus) . This beautiful and once highly
valued bird is very widely spread, being found in
most of the bold and rocky districts of Europe,
Asia, and North America. Everywhere it seems to
be a bird of passage, whence its specific name
peregrinus. As regards the British Islands, it is
common in Scotland and Wales, building on high
precipitous rocks bordering the sea-coa.^t. It fre-
quents similar situations in Devonshire and Cornwall,
where it is called the Cliff'-hawk : and we have seen
fine specimens procured on the Needles in the Isle
of Wight. In many parts of Ireland it is abundant.
" In the four maritime counties of IJIster," says Mr.
Thompson, " it has many eyries : and in Antrim,
whose basaltic precipices are favourable for this
purpose, seven, at least, might be enumerated ; of
these one only is inland ; at the Gobbins, regularly
frequented by a pair, there were two nests in one year
within an extent of rock considerably less than a
mile." There are eyries also at the Horn in Donegal,
and many other places. The peregrine falcon is
however often seen inland, and is known to take up
its temporary residence on St. Paul's Cathedral and
Westminster Abbey, making havoc among the flocks
of pigeons in the neighbourhood. We once saw a
pigeon in Leicester Square struck and carried off
by one of these birds. In the days of falconry the
courage, power, docility, and swiftness of the pere-
grine falcon rendered it a great favourite, and
according to age, sex, 8fc. it received different
appellations. When wild or yet unreclaimed, it
was termed a haggard ; hence the sentence in
Shakspere ('Much Ado about Nothing'), " As coy
and wild as haggards of the rock " (see Fig. 1237).
The young bird was called eyess, a corruption of
the French word niais ; it was also named red
hawk, from the colour of its plumage during the
first year. The male bird was termed tiercel, tersel,
or tassel ; " tassel-gentle," a reclaimed male. The
female was called " falcon " par excellence. This
bird has by some writers been called the Lanner,
but the true lanner, which is a distinct, though an
allied species (Falco lanarius), is found only in
Asia and the south-eastern parts of Europe, and has
never been seen wild in the British Islands. It is
to the peregrine falcon that Pennant alludes (and
after him Bewick), when treating of the lanner he
remarks " this species breeds in Ireland." Besides
these names the peregrine falcon has various other
appellations, as the Slight Hawk and the Passenger
Falcon. In America it is termed the Duck-Hawk,
from the havoc it makes among wild-ducks ; and
also the Great-footed Hawk, from the size and
strength of its talons. Of the prowess and daring
of the peregrine many instances are on record.
Mr. Thompson (' Mag. Zool. and Botan.,' vol. ii.
p. 53) observes that " Mr. Sinclair, when on one
occasion exercising his dogs on the Belfast moun-
tains towards the end of July, preparatory to grouse
shooting, saw them point ; and on coming up he
startled a male peregrine falcon off a grouse (Te-
trao scoticus) just killed by him ; and very near the
same place he came upon the female bird, also on
a grouse. Although my friend lifted both the dead
birds, the hawks continued flying about, and on the
remainder of the pack (of grouse), which lay near,
being sprung by the dogs, either three or four more
grouse were struck down by them, and thus two
and a half or three brace were obtained by means
of these wild birds, being more than had ever been
procured out of a pack of grouse by his trained
falcons." The peregrine falcon attacks its prey
only while on trie wing, seldom pursuing it into
dense cover ; and it has been observed that birds
thus driven to shelter by the peregrine falcon are so
terrified, that rather than venture again on wing they
will allow themselves to be captured by the hand.
Even the black cock has been known lo be thus
taken. Mr. Thompson says the strike of this spe-
cies is more fatal than its clutch, and that when
Falcons.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
267
flown at rooks it has been known to strike down
several in succession before alighting to prey on
one ; and he adds, " an eye-witness to the fact as-
sures me that he once saw a falcon strike down
five partridges out of a covey one after the other :
but such occurrences are rare." Mr. Selby, in his
' British Ornithology,' gives a similar instance of
daring to that related by Mr. Thompson, from the
account of Mr. Sinclair. " In exercising my dogs
upon the moors previous to the commencement of
the shooting season, I observed a large bird of the
hawk genus hovering at a distance, which upon
approaching I knew to be a peregrine falcon. Its
attention was now drawn towards the dogs, and it
accompanied them while they beat the surrounding
ground. Upon their having found and sprung a
brood of grouse, the falcon immediately gave chase
and struck a young bird before they had proceeded
far upon the wing. My shouts and rapid advance
prevented it from securing its prey. The issue of
this attempt, however, did not deter the falcon,
frorh watching our subsequent movements ; and an-
other opportunity soon offering, it again gave chase
and struck down two birds by two rapidly repeated
blows, one of which it secured and bore off in
triumph." The flight of this falcon when pursuing
its quarry is astonishingly rapid. Montagu has
reckoned it at one hundred and fifty miles an hour ;
and Colonel Thornton, an expert falconer, estimated
the flight of one in pursuit of a snipe to have been
nine miles in eleven minutes, without including the
frequent turnings. Audubon, in his ' Birds of Ame-
rica,' states that he has seen this falcon come at the
report of a gun, and carry off a teal not thirty steps
distant from the sportsman who had killed it, " with
a daring assurance as surprising as unexpected.'"
This singular aptitude in the wild bird to join
men and dogs in their pursuit of game, availing
itself of their assistance, shows at once the little
trouble, comparatively speaking, requisite for re-
claiming and training it. A knowledge of the
service rendered by dogs and men in putting up
game, thereby giving it the opportunity of striking
it, is intuitive. In disposition it is confident and
docile ; and with patience, kind treatment, and
proper management, its training is soon effected.
The peregrine falcon breeds on the ledges of pre-
cipitous rocks, laying four eggs, of a reddish-brown
colour, with darker blotches and variegations.
With respect to the distribution of this species in
America, Dr. Richardson, who describes an old male
from Melville Peninsula, lat. 68^ N., says (' Fauna
Boreali- Americana'), " The peregrine being a rare
bird in the wooded districts of the fur countries
where the trading-posts are established, I did not
procure a specimen on the late expeditions ; but I
have frequently seen it whilst on the march across
the Barren Grounds. Of the two specimens figured
by Edwards, one was from Hudson's Bay and the
other was caught off the entrance of Hudson's
Straits. Captain Parry likewise brought home
several male and female specimens from Mel-
ville Peninsula, some of which are preserved in
the British Museum. It is a summer visiter of the
northern parts of America, and frequents the coasts
of the Hudson's Bay and the Arctic Sea, with the
Barren Grounds, but is very seldom seen in the in-
terior. It preys habitually on the long-tailed ducks
(Anas glacialis), which breed in great numbers in
the arctic regions, arriving in June and departing
in September. Captain Parry observed it, in his
second voyage, following flocks of the snow-bunting
on the coast of Greenland, near Cape Farewell. It
frequents the shores of New .lersey and Pennsyl-
vania in the winter, and is celebrated there for the
havoc it makes among the water-fowl. Mr. Ord
states that the ducks which are struck by it are
lacerated from the neck to the rump ; it gives the
blow in passing, and returns to pick up its bird."
According to Captain King, it is found at the Straits
of Magalhaens.
Like all the Falconidae, this bird undergoes suc-
cessive variations of colouring before attaining its
permanent livery. When young, the plumage on
the back inclines to rufous, the middle of each fea-
ther only having a tint of deep bluish ash, and the
under parts being white, with brown longitudinal
dashes. The colouring of the adult is as follows : —
Head and back of the neck blackish lead colour,
which colour, as it extends over the back, assumes
a more ashy tinge ; below the eye is a large trian-
gular mark of dark lead colour, pointing down-
wards, and commonly called the moustache — this
mark is a common feature in many others of the
genus. The throat and breast are white, with a
few slender dashes of brown ; the under parts are
dirty white, with fine transverse bars of brown.
The tail is alternately barred with bluish grey and
black. Cere, eyelids, and tarsi yellow ; iris dark
hazel brown ; claws black.
Fig. 1238 represents a peregrine falcon about to
strike a partridge ; Fig. 1239, " a hawk on fist,"
with hood and bells; Figs. 1240, 1241, 1242, 1243,
1244, and 1245, are illustrative of the not yet ex-
ploded practice of Falconry ; an art which in former
days engaged the most earnest attention, and is
still a common amusement among the Turks, in
some parts of Asia Minor, among the Persians, Cir-
cassians, and the wandering hordes of Turkomans
and Tartars. Hawking appears to have been in-
troduced into England fiom the North of Europe
during the fourth century. Our Saxon ancestors
became passionately fond of the sport, but do not
appear to have made great progress in the art of
training the birds. In the eighth century, one of
the kings of that race caused a letter to be written
to Winifred, Archbishop of Mons, begging the dig-
nitary to send him some falcons that had been well
trained to kill cranes. The month of October was
more particularly devoted to that sport by the
Saxons. We are indebted to our fierce invaders
the Danes for many improvements in Falconry.
Denmark and still more Norway were always cele-
brated for their breeds of hawks, and the natives of
these countries had attained an extraordinary de-
gree of skill in the art of training them. In the
eleventh century, when Canute, King of Denmark
and Norway, ascended the English throne, the sport
became more prevalent. We are not aware of what
restrictions were imposed under the Saxon or Danish
monarchs, but after the conquest by William of
Normandy none but persons of the highest rank
were allowed to keep hawks. Cruel laws with re-
spect to fieid-sports were framed and rigorously
executed by the first princes of our Norman dynasty.
According to the liberal views of those times, the
people were held utterly unworthy of partaking
anything except the air of heaven in common with
their noble oppressors. The life of a serf was of less
value in the eyes of a Norman baron than that of
a buck, a hound, or a hawk : and in those days the
mass of what we now call the people were serfs and
slaves. As to the keeping of falcons, the great ex-
pense attending it put it entirely out of the power
of the commonalty, but the prohibitive Norman
law was probably meant at first to extend to such
of the Saxon landholders as were rich and remained
free, but had no rank or nobility according to the
conqueror's estimation. In the days of John, how-
ever, every freeman was most liberally permitted to
have eyries of hawks, falcons, eagles, and herons
in his own iroods. In the year 1481 was printed
the ' Book of St. Albans,' by Juliana Berners, sister
of Lord Berners and prioress of the nunnery of
Sopewell. It consisted of two tracts, one on hawk-
ing, the other on heraldry. The noble dame ob-
tained from her giatelul contemporaries the praise
of being " a second Minerva in her studies, and
another Diana in her diversions." Her subject was
well chos^en ; hawking was then the standing pas-
time of the noble, and the lady abbess treated it in
the manner the most likely to please. The book
became to falconers what Hoyle's has since become
to whist-players ; but the Dame Juliana's had more-
over the merit of paying proper homage to the
jealous distinctions between man and man, as then
established. According to the ' Book of St. Albans'
there was a nice adaptation of the different kinds of
falcons to ditt'erent ranks. Thus, such species of
hawks were for kings, and could not be used by any
person of inferior dignity ; — such for princes of the
blood, such others for the duke and great lord, and
so on, down to the knave or servant. In all, there
were fifteen grades ; but whether this number was
so small owing to the species of birds, or because
it included all the factitious divisions of society
then recognised, we cannot well determine. We
have too much respect for the patience of our
readers to follow the dame through all her direc-
tions, to which additions have been made in the
fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. We would
rather accompany the trained hawks into the field.
Strut, in his industrious work on the ' Sports and
Pastimes of the English,' gives one or two engrav-
ings, from very old pictures, representing ladies
followed by dogs, and running on foot, with their
hawks on their fists, to cast them off at game. In-
deed, John of Salisbury, who wrote in the thirteenth
century, says that the women even excelled the
men in the knowledge and practice of falconry,
whence he ungallantly takes occasion to call the
sport itself frivolous and effeminate. Taken alto-
gether, however, a hunting party of this kind, com-
posed of knights and dames, mounted on their
piaffing manege horses,
" Ryding on hawkini; by the river.
With ffrey gosliawk in hand,'* *
and with their train of falconers, in appropriate cos-
tume, and their well-broken dogs, and the silver
music of the bells, mingled with a variety of other
sounds, must have been a pleasant enough scene to
behold, or to form part of.
For most species of game, it appears that spaniels,
cockers, or other dogs were required to rouse the
birds to wing. When at a proper elevation, the
hawk, being freed from his head-gear, was cast off
from the sportsman's fist, with a loud whoop to
encourage her. But here great science was re-
quired ; and it was frequently made matter of
anxious and breathless debate as to whether the far
jettee or the jettee serre should be adopted. These
terms, like many more employed in those days in
hawking and hunting, were derived from the French.
Jeter signifies to throw or cast off. The far jettee
meant to cast off the hawk at a distance from the
quarry it was to pursue ; and the jettee serre to fly
it as near to the bird, or as soon after the destined
prey had taken wing, as possible. But many con-
siderations were involved in these decisions: — the
species of the quarry, the peculiar properties of
the hawk on hand at the time, — the nature of the
country, — the force and direction, of the wind, and
numerous other circumstances, had to be duly
pondered.
When the hawk was cast off, it flew in the di-
rection of the game, and endeavoured to surmount
it, or get above it, in its flight. To obtain this
advantage, when herons and other birds strong on
the wing were pursued, the hawk was obliged to
have recourse to scaling, or ascending the air by
performing a succession of small circles, each going
higher and higher, like the steps of a winding cork-
screw staircase. In whatever way it was performed
this was called " the mount." At times, both the
pursuer and pursued would fly so high as almost
to be lost in the clouds. When the hawk reached
a proper elevation above the game, she shot down
upon it with all her force and velocity, and this
descent was technically called " the stoop," or " the
swoop." John Shaw, Master of Arts, of Cambridge,
who published a strange book called ' Speculum
Mundi ' (The World's Looking-glass), in that learned
city, in 163.5, informs us that llie heron, or hernsaw,
" is a large Ibwie that liveth about waters," and that
hath a marvellous hatred to the hawk, which hatred
is duly returned. "When Ihey fight above in the
air, they labour both especially for this one thing,
that one may ascend and be above the other. Now
if the hawk getteth the upper place, he overthroweth
and vanquisheth the heron with a marvellous earn-
est flight." It should seem, however, that this was
not always the case, and that the heron sometimes
received the hawk on its long sharp bill, and so
transfixed and killed her. When the hawk closed
or grappled with her prey (which was called bind-
ing in falconry), they generally tumbled down
from the sky together, and the object of the sports-
man was, either by running on foot or galloping his
horse, to get to the spot as soon as they should
touch the earth, in order to assist the hawk in her
struKgle with her prey.
We believe all birds of the Falcon genus nalu
rally strike their prey with their talons, or claws;
but in one of our engravings we see a hawk striking
and binding a wild duck with her beak. So correct
a delineator as Reidiiiger was not likely to make a
mistake ; and indeed we see it mentioned in one of
the books we have consulted, that a hawk, well re-
claimed and enlured, would kill the smaller game
with her beak, or the strong percussion of her breast-
bone, and then hold or bind it with her beak
(Fig. 1245).
The Falcons, it should be observed, were taken into
the field with hoods over their eyes, and with little
bells on their legs ; and the sportsman carried a lure,
to which the bird had been taught to fly by being
fed regularly upon or near it, with fresh-killed
meat. " When the hawk," says Master Gervase
(1615), is " passingly reclaimed, you must bring her
to lure by easy degrees ; first by dainties, making her
jump upon your fist, then to fall upon the lure, when
held out to it, and then to come at the sound of
your voice ; and to delight her the more with the
lure, have it ever garnished, on both sides, with warm
and bloody meat."
These lures seem to have been of various sorts.
In very old times, a " taburstycke," which was
merely a piece of wood rounded and besmeared
with blood, was in use ; bat with the progress of
civilization, a better lure, called a "hawker," was
introduced. The hawker was a staff about twenty-
two inches long, cased at the upper part with iron,
having a bell " rather of sullen tone than musical,"
and the figure of a bird, with outstretched wings,
carved at the top. When this instrument was agi-
tated, a reclaimed hawk would descend to it from
the clouds; but we believe, for a bird of the highest
training, nothing more was required than to shake
the tassellcd hood we see in the hand of the sports-
man. Fig. 1243, and to use the voice.
" Oh ! for a falconer's voice, to lure this tassel gentle back again"
is put by Shakspere into the mouth of Juliet, and
the same delineator of nature makes Hamlet ex-
claim, by way of answer to Horatio, in the language
of the falconer calling in his hawk, " Illo, ho, ho,
boy! come, bird, come I" It may interest some
to hear, that in the twenty-seventti year ot
2 M 2
1241.— Going to the Field.
1S39.— Iliwk on Fist.
1340.— Going to the Field.
.-^^SJ^:^^^-^-
1->\N^^"^-'
1!42.— Casting off the Hawk.
1238.— Peregrine Falcon and Partridge
"'^-
•v<>
1243,— Loring the Hawk.
268
1247.— Kestrel*
laiP.— Bengal FhIcoh.
1246.— Merlins.
^■
1245.— Htwking Cm Wild Duclu.
1844.- Death of the Heron.
269
270
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Falcons
his reign, Henry VIII. issued a proclamation in
order to preserve thw partridges, pheasants, and
herons, "from hi* palace at Westminster to St.
Giless-in-the-Fields, and irom thence to Islington,
Hampstead, Highi^ate, and Hornsey Park." Any
person, of whatsoever rank, who should presume
to kill or in anywise molest these binis, was to be
thrown into prison, and visited by suc-h other punish-
ments as should seem meet to his highness the
king
It is worthy of remark that Henry VIII. removed
the royal hawks (which had been kept there during
many reigns) from the Mews at Charing Cross, and
converted that place into stables. According to
Stow, the king of England's falcons were kept at
the Mew» in Charing Cross as early as 1377, or the
time of the unhappy Richard II. The term " Mews,"
in falconer's language, meant strictly a place where
hawks were put at {he moulting season, and where
they cast their feathers. The name, confirmed by
the usage of so long a period, remained to the build-
ing at Charing Cross, though Henry VIII. had so
changed its destination as to make it inapplicable.
But what, however, is much more curious is this, —
that when in more modern times the people of
London began to build ranges of stabling at the
back of their streets and houses, they christened
those places " Mews," after the old stabling at Cha-
ring Cross, which, as we have shown, was misnamed
from the time the hawks were withdrawn from it.
In accidental modes like this many an old word is
turned from its original meaning, which eventually
'is altogether lost.
The old travellers Marco Polo and Father Ru-
bruquis give graphic descriptions of hawking among
the Mongol Tartars, during the thirteenth century,
which sport was conducted in a style of barbaric
magniticence. The Khan had, among other birds
of prey, eagles trained to stoop at wolves, and such
■was their size and strength, that none, however
large, could escape from their talons. Recent tia-
vellers in Central Asia make frequent mention of
hawks and hawking. Mr. Johnson, in his ' Indian
Field-S ports,' describes the sport as carried on by
the princes and nobles of India. The late Sir John
Malcolm, in his delightful little work called 'Sketches
of Persia,' also gives some very animated descriptions
of these sports. He frequently partook in them
during his journeys and embassies to the court of
the Shah. In speaking of his stay at Abusheher (a
place on the Persian Gulf), he say?, — " The hunts-
men proceed to a large plain, or rather desert, near
the sea-side ; they have hawks and greyhounds ; the
hawks carried in the usual manner on the hand of
the huntsman ; the dogs led in a leash by a horse-
man, generally the same who carries the hawk.
When an antelope is seen, they endeavour to get as
near as possible ; but the animal, the moment it
observes them, goes off at a rate that seems swifter
than the wind : the horsemen are instantly at full
speed, having slipped the dogs. If it is a single deer,
they at the same time fly the hawks : but if a herd,
they wait till the dogs have fixed on a particular
antelope. The hawks, skimming along near the
ground, soon reach the deer, at whose head they
pounce in succession, and sometimes with a violence
that knocks it over. At all events they confuse the
animal so much as to stop its speed in such a degree
that the dogs can come up; and in an instant, men,
horses, dogs, and hawks surround the unlortunate
deer, against which their united efforts have been
combined. The part of the chase that surprised
me most was the extraordinary combination of the
hawks and the dogs, which tKroughout seemed to
look to each other for aid. This, I was told, was
the result of long and skilful training.
"The antelope is supposed to be the fleetest
quadruped on earth, and the rapidity of the first
burst of the chase I have described is astonishing.
The run seldom exceeds three or four miles, and
often is not half so much. A fawn is an easy vic-
tory ; the doe often runs a good chase ; and the buck
is seldom taken. The Arabs are indeed afraid to
fly their hawks at a buck, as these fine birds, in
pouncing, at times impale themselves on its sharp
horns.
"The hawks used in this sport are of a species I
have never seen in any other country. This breed,
which is called Cherkh, is not large, but of great
beauty and symmetry. • • »
"The novelty of these amusements interested
me ; and I was pleased, on accompanying a party
to a village, about twenty miles from Abusheher, to
see a species of hawking peculiar, I believe, to the
sandy plains of Persia, on which the Hubara, a noble
species of bustard, is found on almost bare plains,
where it has no shelter but a small shrub called
geetuck. When we went in quest of them, we
v/ere a party of about twenty, all well mounted.
Two kinds of hawks are necessary for this sport ;
the first, the cherkh (the same which is flown at
the antelope), attacks them on the ground, but will
not follow them on the wing ; for this reason, the
Bhyree, a hawk well known in India, is flown the
moment the hubara rises.
"As we rode along, in an extended line, the men
who carried the cherkhs every now and then un-
hooded and held them up, that they might look
over the plain. The first hubara we found afforded
us a proof of the astonishing uuickness of sight of
one of the hawks; she fluttered to be looiie, and the
man who held her gave a whoop as he threw her off
his hand, and then set off at full speed. We all did
the same. At first we only saw our hawk skimming
over the plain, but soon perceived, at the distance
of more than a mile, the beautiful speckled hubara,
with his head erect and wings outspread, running
forwaid to meet his adversary. The cherkh made
several unsuccessful pounces, which were either
evaded or repelled by the beak or wings of the
hubara, which at last lound an opportunity of rising,
when a bhyree was instantly flown, and the whofe
party were again at full gallop. We had a flight of
more than a mile, when the hubara alighted and
was killed by another cherkh, who attacked him on
the ground. This bird weighed ten pounds. We
killed several others, but were not always successful,
having seen our hawks twice completely beaten
during the two days that we followed this fine
sport."
To those who wish to enter more fully into the
mysteries of hawking, we recommend Turbevill
among the old writers, and Sir John Sebright
(' Observations on Hawking') as the best modern
authority on the subject.
1246.— Thk Merlin
(^Falco'JEsalon). This small but beautiful and high-
spirited falcon is a native of Europe, and breeds in
our British Islands ; Mr. Selby has found its nest
frequently in the upland moors of Northumberland.
Dr. Heysham mentions three instances that came
to his knowledge of merlins' nests in Cumberland,
where he says the bird remains all the year. It
breeds in several parts of Wales, and, according to
Mr. Eyton, on the mountain of Cader Idris. It is
indigenous in Ireland, breeding on the mountains of
Londonderry, Mourne (Down), Claggan (Antrim),
Clonmel (Tipperary), Youghal (Cork), and other
places. The nest is loosely made upon the ground
among the heath. Larks, thrushes, fieldfares, and
partridges constitute the prey of this species, which
it strikes with great address. According to Mr.
Thompson, it Irequents the sea-shore in pursuit of
dunlins (Tringa variabilis), which it has been seen
to kill.
Merlins were formerly used in the field, and, as
the author of the ' Book of Falconrie ' says, they
become " passing good hawkes and verie skilful ;
their property by nature is to kill thrushes, larks,
and partridges. They flee with greater fierceness
and more hotely than any other hawke of prey.
They are of greater pleasure, and full of courage,
but a man must make greater care, and take good
heed to them, for they are such busie and unniely
things with their beakes, as divera times they eate
off their own feet and tallons very unnatuially, so
as they die of it. And this is the ita^on and true
cause, that seldom or never shall you see a mewed
or entermewed merlyn. For that in the mew they
do spoyle themselves, as I have before declared."
Sir J. Sebright says that the merlin will take black-
birds and thrushes, and that he may be made to
wait on— that is, hover near till the bird be pursued
and started again ; " and though a merlin will kill a
partridge, they are not strong enough to be effective
in the field." (' Observations on Hawking.')
From its habit of sitting on a bare stone, or por-
tion of rock, on the mountain moorlands, this bird
has acquired the name of Stone Falcon, Rochier
and Faucon de roche of the French, and Stein-
falke of the Germans. Tlie general plumage of the
young is brown; when fully adult, the back and
v/ings are of a bluish-ash colour, each feather
haying a central dash of black ; the under parts
are rufous, with oblong blackish spots. Length of
male eleven inches, of female twelve inches and a
half. The female resembles the immature male in
having a brown plumage. The eggs, four in num-
ber, are reddish-brown, mottled with a deeper tint.
1247.— The Kestrel
(Falco Tinmmcvlus). This falcon, often called
Windhover, Stannel, and Stonegall, is very com-
mon in our islands, and is spread over Europe,
Asia, and Africa. This probably is the Kiyxp^' of
Aristotle, and the Tinnunculus of the Latins (Pliny
'Nat. Hist.,'x. 37). It is the Foutivento, Canibello,
Tristunculo, Acertello Falchetto di Torre, Gheppio,
and Gavinello ol the modern Italians ; Cercrelle,
Quercerelle, Cresserelle, and Epervier des Alouettes,
of the French ; Turmfaike, Roethel-Keyer, Mause-
falke, Winewachl, Rittl-weyer, and Wannen-weher
of the Germans ; Kyrko-falk of the Swedes ; and
Cudyll coch of the ancient British.
The kestrel is a bird of considerable powers of
[ flight, but, unlike the little merlin, seldom fak-'s it&
I prey in the air ; unless, indeed, when it gives chase
to insects, as the cockchafer, &c., for it is chiefly
on mice, frogs, &c. that it feeds. Mr. Selby, in.
deed, says that bird-catchers have seen it making a
dash at their decoy-birds, and that he has himself
caught it in a trap baited with a bird ; and Mr.
Thompson (' Birds of Ireland,' ' Mag. Zool. and
Botan.,' vol. ii. p. 57) says, that though it is gene-
rally pursued by swallows, he once saw it the
pursuer. " On September 22, 1832, when walking
with a friend in the garden at Wolfhill, near Bel-
fast, a male kestrel in full pursuit of a swallow ap-
peared in sight over the hedgerow, and continuing
the chase with extreme ferocity, lost not the least
way by the swallow's turnings, but kept within a
foot of it all the time, at one moment passing within
five or six yards of our heads. It is idle to conjec-
ture how long the foray may have lasted before we
witnessed it, but immediately on the kestrel's giving
up the chase, the swallow, nothing daunted, be-
caAie again, accompanied by many of its species,
the pursuer and tormentor, and so continued till
they all disappeared. The kestrel was probably
forced to this chase by the particular annoyance of
the swallows, they and the martins being more
numerous this day at Wolfhill than they had been
during the season." It is thus that the large white-
headed eagle is teased by the little king-bird or
tyrant flycatcher (Tyrannus intrepidus), and even
forces him to retreat. The kestrel, as the same
writer states, has been so far trained by Mr. W.
Sinclaire as to attend and soar above him like the
peregrine falcon, and fly at small birds let off from
the hand.
This species is often seen high in the air, with
outspread tail and winnowing pinions, suspended
over one spot ; its keen eye is surveying with care-
ful scrutiny the ground below — not a mouse, nor a
frog, nor a lark on her nest, escapes its glance ;
having fixed upon its victim, down it drops, clutches
its prize, and flies rapidly to its usual haunt. The
destruction of field-mice by the kestrel ought to
recommend it to the farmer, especially as it attacks
neither pigeons nor poultry ; unfortunately it is
often contbunded by the ignorant with the fierce
sparrow-hawk (indeed we have generally heard it
so called), which will devastate the dovecote and
pounce upon young chickens.
The kestrel generally usurps the nest of a crow or
magpie in which to lay its eggs and rear its young.
It breeds also on inland and marine clift's, church
towers, &c. We have many times seen it fly in
and out of the fissures of the perpendicular lime-
stone rocks of the Peak of Derbyshire, and about
Buxton. The eggs are four in number, pale red-
dish brown, mottled with a darker tint. The co-
louring is as follows : —
Male.— To-p of the head bluish grey ; upper parts
reddish brown, regularly sprinkled with angular
black spots; lower parts white, slightly tinged with
reddish and wita oblong brown spots; tail ash-
coloured, with a wide black band towards its ex-
tremity, and terminated with white ; bill bluish ;
cere, space around the eyes, iris, and feet yellow.
Length about fourteen inches.
Female. — Larger than the male ; all the upper
parts of a brighter reddish ; lower parts yellowish
rusty, with oblong black spot ; tail reddish, with
nine or ten nairow black bands, and with a large
band of that colour near its extremity, which is
terminated with reddish white.
The Yoiatg have the top of the head, the nape,
and the mantle brown-rusty streaked with blacK ;
these streaks form the angle of the back ; on the
first quills are seven reddish and whitish spots ; tail
reddish, undulated with grey-a.-h and tiansveisely
striped as in the female : throat reddish vvhite : at
the opening of the bill a small black stripe vvhich is
prolonged on the upper part of the neck ; the rest
of the lower parts whitish-rusty with oblong black
spots ; iris brown ; cere yellowish green.
1348.— The Bengal Falcon
(Hierax atrtdescens). Allapof the Javanese ; Falco
Bengalensis, Brisson. This beautiful little falcon is
generically distinguished by the edge of the upper
mandible being bidentate, and the tarsi scutellated
anteriorly. (See Fig. 1249, the Head ana Foot.) It
is a native of Java, and also, as it is stated, of Bengal.
Small as it is, for it does not exceed six and a half
inches in length, it is nevertheless bold and active,
and pursues prey equal to itself in size with great
determination. Its general colour above is glossy
bluish black ; forehead, throat, breast, and a line
continued from the bill over the eye down the sides
of the neck, white with a lerruginous tint. Under
parts ferruginous ; plumes of thighs long and silky ;
wings reaching only half-way down the tail.
HAWKS.
Beak short, hooked from the base; wings short;
fourth quill-feather the longest. Though the hawks
Hawks.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
271
differ in flight and their mode of attacking their
prey from the falcons, they are equally daring and
impetuous, and one in particular, the goshawk, was
among the most valued of the falconer's birds ; it
was termed " falcon gentil," and was flown at phea-
sants, wild geese, and even hares. Instead of soar-
ino' after the manner of the true falcons, the short-
winged hawks, as the falconer calls them, dart along
with arrow-like impetuosity in pursuit of their prey,
threading woods, glens, and ravines; they strike it
obliquely, overtaking it by their swiftness, and
clutching it in their talons, bear it of in triumph.
1250.— The Laughing Hawk
{DcBdalion cachinnans). Head and Foot. In this
genus the beak is short, the tarsi moderate, and re-
ticulated anteriorly. This species, which is a na-
tive of South America, has obtained its specific
name from its peculiar cry. It tenants the neigh-
bourhood of lakes or sheets of water, and lives upon
reptiles and fish. Its general plumage is white ;
ttie backs and wings, and the space round the eyes
with a nuchal intervening bjind, being brown ; head
crested. It is the Nacagua of Azara.
1251.— The Sparrow-Hawk
(Accipiter fringillarius). Generic characters of
Accipiter : — beak short; nostril suboval ; tarsi
elongated, smooth, anteriorly scutellated. (Fig.
1252, Head and Foot of Sparrow-hawk.)
The Sparrow-hawk is L'Epervier of the French ;
Falco palombino and Sparviere da fringuelli of the
Italians ; die Sperber of the Germans ; Sparfhoek
of the ' Fauna Suecica ;' Falco Nisus of Linnaeus ;
and Gwepia of the ancient British.
This species is notorious for its destructiveness
and daring. It is spread throughout the whole of
Europe, and is common in the wooded parts of our
-islands ; and is well known as one of the terrors of
the farm-yard. The female, which much exceeds
the male in size, is fatal to partridges and pigeons.
The sparrow-hawk flies low, skimming with great
rapidity, and pounces on its prey with unerring aim ;
in the days of falconry it was accounted the best
bird for landrails.
This hawk builds in trees and thorn bushes,
making a shallow flat nest of twigs : occasionally it
occupies the deserted nest of a crow, and in the
Orkneys it breeds on the rocks and sea-cliffs. The
eggs, five in number, are of a whitish tint, blotched
at the larger end with reddish brown. In a nest
axamined by Mr. Selby were found a lapwing, two
blackbirds, a thrush, and two green linnets, recently
killed. No hawk is more pertinacious in the pur-
suit of its quarry than the sparrow-hawk ; it has
been known to follow its terrified prey through
open windows, into rooms, barns, and churches, un-
deterred by the presence of man. The male mea-
sures about twelve inches in length. The upper
parts are of a dark bluish ash-colour ; the cheeks,
throat, and chest rufous, which colour breaks into
obscure bars as it proceeds to the under surface ;
beak blue-black, cere greenish yellow, tarsi yellow,
and tail greyish brown, with three transverse dusky
bands. The female is fifteen inches in length ; the
upper surface is of a browner tinge than in the
males, and the throat and under parts are greyish
white, the former having small longitudinal dashes,
the latter regular transverse bars of reddish brown.
The young differ very considerably in having the
general plumage brown, the feathers at the back of
the neck and the scapularies being blotched with
white, and the under parts yellowish white, with
irregular longitudinal dashes of brown. The nest-
lings are at first covered with snow-white down.
1253. — The Chanting Hawk
(^Accipiter musicus) ; Falco musicus, Daudin. It is
somewhat strange to find a song-bird among the
feathered tyrants of the air, whose cries are in
general wild, shrill, and discordant. The present
species, however, is an exception, and stands pre-
eminent and alone, the minstrel of its race. It is,
as Cuvier says, " the only known bird of prey which
sings agreeably." In size it equals a goshawk ; its
plumage is grey above, white barred with brown
on the lower part of the back and on the under
parts of the body. It is a native of Africa, and
revs upon large birds, hares, and other animals ; it
uilds in trees. According to Le Vail lant, it "utters
its strain every morning and evening, and not un-
commonly continues it the whole night ; each strain
is continued in a loud tone for more than a minute,
and after a pause it begins anew. While it is sing-
ing, it is so regardless of its safety that any one
may approach very near it ; but at other times it is
suspicious, and takes to flight on the slightest
alarm." (' Oiseaux d'Afrique,' i. 120.)
12.54. — The Goshawk
(Aatur palumbarius) . The genus Astur differs from
Accipiter in the proportionate shortness of the tarsi.
bi
This beautiful and high-spirited hawk is the
Autour and Atour of the French ; Astore (Zinan)
and Girifalco (Bonaparte) ; Sparviere da columbe
and Sparviere Terzuolo of the Italians; Grosser
gepfeilter Falck and Hunerhabicht of the Germans ;
Hebog Marthin of the ancient British.
The Goshawk is rare in the British Islands, but is
more abundant in the forest districts of the Conti-
nent, inhabiting Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and
Switzerland, France, and Germany. It extends also
into Asia.
Mr. Yarrell says, "The few that are used for
hawking are obtained from the Continent. Colonel
Thornton, who kept them constantly in Yorkshire,
procured some of his specimens from Scotland. Dr.
Moore, in his catalogue of the birds of Devonshire,
says that it is found occasionally in Dartmoor, but
I can find no record of its appearance farther west
in England, nor any notice of it in Ireland. A fine
adult male was trapped by a gamekeeper in Suffolk,
in- March, 1843; and Mr. Dsubleday, of Epping,
has sent me word that he received a young bird
from Norfolk in the spring of the same year. Mr.
Selby mentions that he had never seen a recent
specimen south of the Tweed, but states that it is
known to breed in the forest of Rothiemurcus, and
on the wooded banks of the Dee. Mr. Low says
that this species is pretty frequent in Orkney ; but
as he speaks of it in connexion with sea-beaten
rocks without shelter or woods, is there not reason to
suspect that Mr. Low was mistaken, and that the
birds he saw were peregrine falcons ?— the more so as
several recent visitors to these northern islands have
observed peregrines, but no goshawks." (' British
Birds.') Prince Bonaparte has noted the goshawk
as not common in the neighbourhood of Rome.
The goshawk frequents the deep solitudes of
forests, preying upon hares, squirrels, and the larger
kinds of birds. It makes its nest in lofty trees, pre-
ferring, it is said, the fir, laying three bluish white
eggs marked with reddish brown. The flight of
this hawk is low and rapid, and it strikes its prey as
it skims along, with terrible force ; but should the
quarry take to covert and there conceal itself, it
ceases pursuit, and waits in patience on some perch
commanding a view of the spot, till the game takes
wing. In this way it will remain hour after hour
on the watch : and an instance is on record of a
trained goshawk which drove a pheasant to cover
one evening, remaining stationary till ten the next
morning, when, on the falconers finding her and
taking her away, the poor pheasant, which all that
time had not dared to stir, but had remained fixed
to the place under the influence of terror, at once
took wing and flew off.
A full-grown female goshawk can secure a hare
with ease. With regard to using these birds, the
late Mr. Hoy, who was experienced in their train-
ing, informed Mr. Bartlett that "their habits and
mode of flight were much better suited to an en-
closed district than those of the peregrine falcon.
When used or taken into the field, the wing of a
bird or the thin end of an ox-tail is generally held
in the hand to engage their attention, which they
are constantly biting and tearing without being able
to satisfy their appetites, as that would render them
unfit for work. They do not require to be hooded,
but have bells attached to the legs for the purpose
of giving notice of their situation when they alight
(which would otherwise be difficult to ascertain),
and a leathern strap by which they are held ; it is
also necessary to have spaniels to hunt up the birds,
upon the appearance of which the hawk flies from
the hand with incredible swiftness direct at the
game, generally taking it at the fii.st attempt ; but
should the hawk fail, it will perch on some elevated
situation, and remain until the game is again started,
and is rarely known to miss a second time. When
the hawk has captured the game, he is rewarded
with a small piece of meat or a pigeon's head to
induce him to give up his prey. If the hawk be
allowed to range at pleasure, by whistling it will
return with a swiftness truly astonishing, and finding
it cannot stop suddenly to settle without striking you
with great force, it will glide past, form a circle
round you, and alight with the greatest ease and
the most gentle manner upon the hand." (' Mag.
Nat. Hist.' 1839. p. 6t)3.) These hawks, be it ob-
served, never ascend in gyrations and make the
swoop for which the peregrine falcon is so cele-
brated. The goshawk is distinguished both for
beauty of colour and elegance of contour.
The female measures about twenty-four inches in
length, the male nineteen or twenty. The beak is
bluish black, the cere wax yellow, the irides bright
yellow ; the whole of the upper surface and tail-
feathers dark greyish brown ; in the females the
colour inclines to clove brown, the upper surface of
the tail-feathers barred with darker brown ; the
nape of the neck, throat, breast, belly, and thighs,
nearly white, with spots, transvcr.se bars, and un-
dulating lines of dull black ; under tail-coverts
white ; Tore, cheeks, and ear-coverts, greyish brown,
forming an elongated dark patch on the side of the
head ; the legs and toes yellow ; the claws black.
North America pnduces a closely allied species,
distinguished by a darker colour on the head, and a
greater multitude of zigzag lines and dashes on the
under parts. It was met with by Dr. Richardson in
the Hudson's Bay territories, and is figured in his
' Fauna Boreali-Americana.'
1255.— The Bidemtate Harpagus
{Harpagus bidentatus). Head and Foot. This bird,
representing the genus Harpagus, is in all essentials
a hawk, but with a double tooth on each side of the
beak as in the genus Terax. It may be regarded
as a link between the hawks and the falcons. It is
a native of Brazil and Guiana, but of its habits we
have no details ; length about thirteen inches.
Upper surface slate-colour : throat white ; under
parts red, undulated with yellowish: lower tail-
coverts white ; tail brownish, barred with dirty
white.
Hawks and falcons often attack each other, and
sometimes two of the same species fight. Audu-
bon gives an animated account of the conflict which
he witnessed between two red-tailed hawks of Ame-
rica respecting a hare which one had killed. Fig.
125G illustrates the mode of their aerial contests.
KITES.
Beak moderate, compressed, rather hooked from
the base ; tail forked ; wings long and ample ; tarsi
short.
The birds of this section are remarkable for the
ease, grace, and buoyancy of their flight ; they
sweep through the air in wide circles, sailing on
outspread wings, and often mount to such a height
as to become nearly invisible. Their vast wings
and broad- forked tail give them great advantage.
Unlike the falcons, however, they do not make an
impetuous swoop upon their victim, but skim it
from the surface of the earth, or even water, and
bear it away in their talons. Moles, reptiles, rats,
mice, and young poultry are their habitual prey,
but they do not refuse carrion ; they have not the
daring of the hawks and falcons.
1257. — The Kite, or Glead
(Milvns Ictinus). Milan Royal of the French, from
Belon to Buffon ; Pojana, Milvio, Nicchio, and
Nibbio of the Italians ; Rother Milan of the Ger-
mans ; Glenta of Brunnich ; Glada of the ' Fauna
Suecica;' Kite, Fork -tailed Kite, Glead or Glede
(Pennant says from the Saxon ' Glida') of the Eng-
lish ; Barcud of the ancient British. In some of the
counties of England it is called the Puttock, a name
also sometimes bestowed provincially upon the
common buzzard. In Essex it is called the Crotched-
tailed Puddock.
The Kite is distributed over the greatest part of
Europe and Asia, and the northern districts of
Africa. In our islands it appears to be less common
than formerly : in Ireland it is not known. For-
merly it was very abundant in the southern coun-
ties of England, and Clusius states that when he
was in London an amazing number of kites flocked
there for the offal thrown into the streets ; they
were so tame that they took their prey in the midst
of crowds, and it was forbidden to kill them.
The kite, says Mr. Selby, " is proverbial for the
ease and gracefulness of its flight, which consists of
large sweeping circles performed with a motionless
wing, or at least with a slight and almost imper-
ceptible stroke of its pinions, and at very distant in-
tervals. In this manner, and directing its course
by the aid of the tail, which acts as a rudder, its
slightest motion producing an effect, it frequently
soars to such a height as to become almost invisible
to the human eye." Its appearance, as it wheels
over the farm-yard with eyes intent upon the broods
of chickens and ducklings, is by no means hailed
with pleasure, either by the feathered dependants
of the farm or the good man who owns them. Th
poultry set up loud cries of execration, the hens
call their broods beneatli their wings, and chanti-
cleer prepares for battle ; the very dogs are roused,
and the men run for their guns. Finding prepara-
tions made to receive him, the marauder generally
makes off; but if he has swept away a chicken be-
fore tiie alarm is given, he is almost sure of repeat-
ing his visit, and is oftentimes so successful as to
destroy a whole brood. Leverets, rabbits, young
game, and small mammalia are also the prey of this
species ; it has been known to skim off dead fish
and other floating animal substances from the sur-
face of the water with the greatest address. The
kite builds its nest in the forked branch of some
tall forest-tree, and constructs it of sticks and twigs,
lining it with wool, hair, and other soft materials.
The eggs are three in number, rather larger than
those of a hen ; they are of a dirty white, with
reddish brown spots at the large end. The female
defends her nest vigorously.
The kite (male) is about twenty-six inches in
IfMv-Oodlirk.
12M.— Kit*.
-it:--' N,
y \
13M.-Hcad ud Foot of SpwrowHavk.
12!i$.— Hawks Fighting.
1250. —Hesd and Foot of Laughing Hawk.
int.— Chuting Hawk.
1251 SpanowHawk.
liU.— Hetd and Foot of Bidentate Harpagna.
272
1261.— Biizrird.
12S3.— Hone; Bazurd.
1239.— Black-winged Swallow-Hawk
1260.— Lead-coloared Ictinia.
IS84.— Moot Harrier. I
1258 Swallow-tailed Hawk,
No. 35.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
273
274
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Buzzards.
length; beak horn-colour; cere and iride» yellow ;
feathers of the head and neck greyish white, ktreaked
Along the Bhaft with a»h-brown ; fcaihers of the
back and wing-coverts dark brown in the centre,
broadly edged with nifous ; inner web of some of
the tertials edged with white ; primaries nearly
black; upper tail-coverts nifous; tail-lcathers red-
dish brown, the inner webs barred with dark brown ;
chin and throat greyish white, streaked with dusky;
brea-st, bellv. and thighs rufous brown, each feather
with a cetili-al longitudinal streak of dark brown ;
under tail-coverts plain rufous white ; tarsi and toes
yellow ; claws black. The females are larger than
the males.
1258.— The Swallow-tailkd Hawk
(NaucUnts furcattu). The extreme length of the
wines and tail, and the strongly forked outline of
the latter, characterize the genus Nauclerus.
This beautiriil kite, remarkable for its grace and
ease on the wing, is a native of North America ;
and is described very graphically both by Wil-
son and Audubon. According to the latter, only
"a solitary individual of this species has once or
twice been seen in Pennsylvania. Farther to the
eastward the Swallow-tailed Hawk has never, I be-
lieve, been observed. Travelling southward along
the Atlantic coast, we find it in Virginia, although
in very small numbers. Beyond that state it be-
comes more abundant. Near the falls of the Ohio
a pair had a nest and reared four young ones in
1820. In the lower parts of Kentucky it begins to
become more numerous ; but in the states farther
to the south, and particularly in parts near the sea,
it is abundant. In the large prairies of the Atta-
capas and Oppellousas it is extremely common.
In the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, where
these birds are abundant, they arrive in large com-
panies in the beginning of April, and are heard
uttering a sharp plaintive note. At this period I
generally remarked that they came from the west-
ward, and have counted upwards of an hundred in
the space of an hour, passing over me in a direct
easterly course. At that season and in the begin-
ning of September, when they all retire from the
United States, they are easily approached when
they have alighted, being then apparently fatigued,
and busily engaged in preparing themselves for
continuing their journey, by dressing and oiling
their feathers. At all other times, however, it is
extremely difficult to get near them, as they are
generally on wing through the day, and at night
rest on the higher pines and cypresses bordering
the river bluffs, the lakes, or the swamps of that
district of country. They always feed on the wing.
In calm and warm weather they soar to an immense
height, pursuing the large insects called Musquito
Hawks, and performing the most singular evolutious
that can be conceived, using their fail with an
elegance of motion peculiar to themselves. Their
principal food, however, is large grasshoppers, grass-
caterpillars, small snakes, lizards, and frogs. They
sweep close over the fields, sometimes seeming to
alight for a moment to secure a snake, and, holding
it last by the neck, carry it ofi", and devour it in the
air. When searching lor grasshoppers and cater-
pillars it is not difficult to approach them under
cover of a fence or tree. When one is then killed
and falls to the ground, the whole flock come over
the dead bird, as if intent upon carrying it off. An
excellent opportunity is thus afforded of shooting
as many as may be wanted, and I have killed seve-
ral of these hawks in this manner, firing as fast as
I could load my gun. The swallow-tailed hawk
pairs immediately after its arrival in the southern
states ; and as its courtships take place on the wing,
its motions are then more beautiful than ever. The
nest is usually placed on the top branches of the
tallest oak or pine tree situated on the margin of a
stream or pond. It resembles that of a carrion
crow externally, being formed of dry sticks, inter-
mixed with Spanish moss, and is lined with coarse
grasses and a lew feathers. The eggs are from four
to six, of a greenish white colour, with a few irre-
gular blotches of dark brown at the larger end.
The male and female sit alternately, the one feeding
the other. The young are at first covered with
buff-coloured down. Their next covering exhibits
the pure white and black of the old birds, but with-
out any of the glossy purplish tints of the latter.
The tail, which at first is but slightly forked, be-
comes more so in a few weeks, and at the approach
of autumn exhibits little difference from that of the
adult birds. The plumage is completed the first
spring. Only one brood is raised in the season.
The species leaves the United States in the begin-
ning of September, moving off in flocks, which
are formed immediately after the breeding season
is over."
This species, according to Mr. Nutfall, will, like
the Honey-Buzzard, prey upon locusts and wasps,
and their larvfle, and make a regular attack on their
nests. M. Vieillot states that it visits Peru and
Buenos Ayres. Mr. Yarrell gives it a place among
the British birds on the authority of two specimens,
one killed at Balachoalist in Argyleshire in 1772,
and another taken alive in Shaw-gill, near Hawes
in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, in 1805. Apparently
to avoid the violence of a tremendous thunder-
storm, and the clamorous persecution of a flock of
rooks which attacked it at the same instant, it took
shelter in a thicket, where it was seized before il
could extricate itself, on the 6th September. The
Eerson who caught it kept it a moiiih; but a door
eing accidentally lell open, it made its escape. It
first alighted on a tree, at no great distance, from
which it soon ascended in a spiral flight to a great
elevation, and then went steadily ofi' in a southerly
direction as far as the eye could trace it. (Linn.
Trans., vol. xiv.)
Bill bluish black; cere light blue; iris black;
tarsi light greenish blue ; claws flesh-coloured. The
general plumage above is glossy black, with blue
and purple reflexions; the head, the neck, and all
the under parts are white tinged with bluish grey.
Length two feet ; the female is similar to the male.
1239.— The Black-wingkd Swallow-Hawk
{Elanus mdanopterus). In this genus the tail is
only slightly forked, and the tarsi are not only short,
but semi-plumed.
The Black-winged Swallow-Hawk is Le Blac of
Vaillant. It is common throughout the whole of
Africa, from Egypt and Barbary to the Cape. It is
found in Syria, and in some parts of India along
the Ganges, and in the mountain chain of upper
Hindostan. It is said to live principally upon
insects, which it catches with great address while
on the wing. Its size is that of the sparrow-hawk ;
the plumage is silky; general colour above ash-
grey ; the shoulders black ; under parts and greater
part of tail white ; bill black ; tarsi yellow.
1260. — ^The Lead-coloured Ictima
(Ictinia plumbea). Head and Foot. There is some
doubt as to the position of this genus ; Vieillot, who
founded it, regarded it as approaching the kites.
Mr. Vigors referred it to the buzzards or harriei-s.
An allied species (Falco Mississippiensis, Wilson) is
regarded by its describer as a kite.
The Lead-coloured Ictinia is a native of America ;
its powers of wing are very great and it flies to an
astonishing elevation, often remaining for a long
time poised or stationary. It feeds much on the
larger kinds of insects, and sweeps along rapidly in
the chase. To these it adds reptiles and small
quadrupeds. The back and wings are of a slate
blue : the head and under parts whitish spotted
with brown ; iris fine red.
Wilson, speaking of its relative, the Mississippi
Kite, states that it feeds on insects, and .sails in the
air with the turkey-vulture, — one looking out for
carrion, the other for insects. " For several miles,"
he adds, "as I passed near Bayo Manchak, the
trees were swarming with a kind of cicada, or lo-
cust, and here I observed numbers of this hawk
sweeping about among the trees, like swallows, evi-
dently in pursuit of these locusts; yet when we
contemplate the beak and talons of this bird, both
so sharp and powerful, it is difficult to believe that
they were not intended by nature for some more
formidable prey than beetles, locusts, and grass-
hoppers ; and I doubt not but mice, lizards, snakes,
and small birds furnish him with an occasional
repast." "The long pointed wings and forked tail
point out the affinity of this bird to that family
or subdivision of the Falco genus distinguished by
the name of Kites, which sail without flapping the
wings, and eat from their talons as they glide
along."
BUZZARDS.
In the Buzzards the beak is comparatively small ;
the tarsi generally short, sometimes feathered to
the toes; the wings ample and rounded; the tail
square ; the body stout and robust. The flight is
easy and undulating ; they have neither the soar
■■\ and swoop of the falcons, the arrow-like dash of the
hawks, nor the circling sweep on motionless wings
of the kite. They sail, however, easily and rapidly
along, and hunt in quest of moles, rats, mice, young
rabbits, reptiles, and insects.
1261, 1262.— The Buzzard
(Buleo vulgaris). This species is common m all
the wooded countries of feurope and the adjacent
parts of Asia. It is not rare in England, but more
so in Scotland. In Ireland it is abundant. It
occurs in the fur countries of North America. This
bird is termed La Buse by the French ; Falco Bot-
taone and Pagana by the Italians; Mause Falk and
Wald Geyer by the Germans ; and Bod teircaill by
the ancient British. It is the Quidfogel of the
' Fauna Suecica.'
The buzzard has little of the daring impetuosity
of the nobler birds of prey, though its strength and
size are considerable. It is inactive in disposition,
and is generally seen perched on the brunch of a
tree ; whence, on perceiving its prey, it takes wing,
gliding rapidly and silently on its victim. We have
Irequently observed it sailing with easy undulations
over fallow-lands bordering woods, evidently in
quest of food, liabbits, hares, rats, reptiles, and
small birds arc its prey. Mr. Thompson found this
species sailing about the basaltic precipices in the
county of Londonderry, and obtained a pair of
young from a nest previously occupied by ravens,
on a ledge midway down a precipice, at Uoslieen
mountain, near Dunl'anaghy. It breeds also on the
range of inland rocks called Salagh Braes, and on
another similar locality in Antrim; and also on the
promontoiy of Fairhead in the same county. It
builds on rocks also in Scotland. Generally speak-
ing, however, the buzzard builds in tall trees, se-
lecting the most retired part of the wood ; olten it
appropriates the desertecf nest of a crow. The eggs
are three in number, larger than those of a hen, and
of a greenish white slightly spotted with pale brown.
It defends its young with great resolution, and as its
strength is considerable, its homestead is not to be
assailed with impunity. The young are very voci-
ferous. The colour of the buzzard is subject to
considerable variety, few individuals exactly coin-
ciding in their markings. The upper parts are
usually of a deep brown ; the inferior, of a yellowish
white, with brown or reddish stains and dashes ; the
tail is barred ; the bill is lead-colour ; the cere,
tai-si, and iris yellow. Male twenty inches in length ;
female twenty-two.
Dr. Richardson (' Fauna Boreali-Americana ')
states that the common buzzard arrives in the fur
countries in the middle of April, very soon after-
wards begins to build its nest, and having reared
its young departs about the end of September. It
haunts the low alluvial points of land which stretch
out under the high banks of a river, and may be
observed lor a long time motionleis on the bough
of a free watching for some small quadruped, bird,
or reptile to pass within its reach. As soon as it
espies its prey, it glides silently into the air, and,
sweeping easily but rapidly down, seizes it in its
claws. When disturbed it makes a short circuit,
and soon settles on another perch. One of Dr.
Richardson's specimens had two middle-sized toads
in its crop. It builds its nest on a tree, of short
sticks, lining it with deer's hair. The eggs are, he
says, from three to five in number, and he remarks
that it was seen by the expedition as far north as
the fifty-seventh parallel, and that it most probably
has a still higher range. He gives a description of
two : one, a male, shot on the 17th of June, at the
nest, which contained three eggs, on the plains of
the Saskatchewan ; and another a female, killed at
the nest also, near Carlton, May 22.
1263. — The Honey-Buzzard
(^Pemis apivorus). Head and Foot. La Bondr^e
and Buse Bondr£e of the French ; Wespen-Busaid
of the Germans; Frosch-geyerl of Kramer; Slag-
hok of the ' Fauna Suecica;' Muse-Haeg and Muse-
Baage of Brunnich ; and Bod y mel of the ancient
British.
Mr. Vigors observes that Pernis is distinguished
by the singular character of the loruni that sur-
rounds the eye being covered with feathers, instead
of being naked, as in the other Falconidae, or fur-
nished only with hairs. In other respects, also, he
states the genus differs from that of Buteo ; the
tarsi are reticulated anteriorly, and the third quill-
feather the longest.
The Honey-Buzzard is very rare in England, but
more common in the warmer countries of Europe,
where it is migratory. It is found in Asia, and
specimens have been received from various parts of
India. We believe one instance only of its having
been killed in Ireland is on record. The bird in
question was shot by R. G. Bomlord, Esq., in his
demesne of Annandale, near Belfast. Mr. 'Thomp-
son states that the bill and forehead were covered
with cow-dung, from the seaich the bird had evi-
dently been making for insects. The stomach con-
tained some of the larvae and fragments of coleop-
tera and various caterpillars. It is in fact chiefly
upon caterpillars and the larvae of bees and wasps
that the honey-buzzard feeds, together with other
insects, not however to the exclusion of moles,
mice, rats, small birds, reptiles, and slugs.
According to Vieillot the honey-buzzard flies low,
but runs on the ground with great celerily. It
breeds in tall trees, making a nest of twigs with an
inner layer of wool ; the eggs are two or three in
number, of an ashy grey, dotted at each end with
small red spots, and surrounded in the middle with
a broad blood-red zone, or mottled all over with
two shades of orange-brown.
The honey-buzzard is a bird of passage, emi-
grating from Europe on the approach of winler; it
is about the size of the common buzzard, but more
slender: the top of the head is bluish ash-colour,
the upper surface generally deep brown with a
H.\.miiEns.l
MUStUxM Or ANIMATED NATURE.
275
greyish lint ; the secondary quill-feathers are barred
alternately with dusky broun and grey ; under sur-
face whitish with triangular reddish bars or dashes ;
tail crossed by three bars of dark brown.
HARRIERS.
The Harriers may be distinguished from the buz-
zards by their long slender tarsi, their slight and
more elongated contour of body, and their length-
ened wings and tail. The plumage is of soft and
loose texture, and the feathei-s round the face are
so disposed as to form a sort of ruif, approaching to
the disc so conspicuous in the owls. Beak small
and compressed.
The harriers are more active and more on the wing
than the buzzards ; they frequent heathy moors, bogs,
marshy wastes, and low flat grounds, over which
they are continually flying; they quarter the ground
like a spaniel, searchmg for snakes and other rep-
tiles, small quadrupeds and birds; their flight is
easy and buoyant, but seldom very elevated; they
build oil the ground, among reeds, fern, or rushes.
1264.— The Moor Harrier
(Circus cei-vginosas). Head and foot. Moor Buz-
zard, Marsli Buzzard of some writers ; Harpaye,
Busard Harpaye, and Busard de Marais of the
French ; Falco castagnolo and Falco con la testa
bianca (young birds), Falco albanella con il collare
(old), of'the Italians ; Schwarz-brauner, Fisch-Geyer
mit dern gelben Kopf, Brauner rohr Geyer, Braiid-
weihe, Wasserweihe, and Sumpfvveihe of the Ger-
mans ; Bod y gvverni of the ancient British.
This species is a native of most parts of Europe,
Asia, and xVfiica ; frequenting boggy moorlands and
extensive marshes. It is common in Holland and
in the Maremma of Italy, being in both countries
migratory, as on the Continent generally, but not in
our island.
The flight of the moor harrier is low, near the
ground, and noiseless; on perceiving its prey it
drops instantaneously upon it and .secures it in its
clinch. In this manner it surprises wild ducks,
coots, dab-chicks, and water-rats ; it preys to a
great extent on frogs, and will sometimes take perch
or other fish as they swim on the surface of the
water. It will also feed on dead carcasses. In
Wales, where this bird is common, it preys upon
rabbits that inhabit the sand-banks on the shores of
Caermarthenshire, and Montagu saw nine together
feeding upon the body of a dead sheep. This spe-
cies builds its nest on the ground among tufts of
grass or rushes which grow in marshy places. The
eggs, three or four in number, are of a white
colour, not spotted. The colouring of the adult
bird is as follows: — head, neck, and breast pale dull
yellowish, each feather having a central streak of
brown; upper surface brown; quill- feat hers white
at their origin, black the rest of their length ; se-
condaries and tail-feathers ashy grey ; under parts
rufous, marked with yellowish dashes: beak black;
cere greenish ; tarsi yellow. Length, one foot eight
or nine inches. During the first year the plumage
is deep chocolate brown, the feathers having paler
margins. From this stage the transition is gradual
to the permanent livery, which is assumed tlie fourth
year.
Family VULTURIDiE (VULTURES).
Although the parallels which some distinguished
naturalists in the present day have attempted to
draw between mammalia and birds sometimes
appear to be rather overstrained, there are some
instances in which they are too palpable to be over-
looked. The Falconida) represent the lions, tigers,
cats, and musteline groups ; and in the present
family, a foul-feeding race to whom the most loath-
some carrion is acceptable, we may trace an analogy
to the hya;na, jackal, and wild dog: alike scave'n-
gers of the earth, which thcjr clear of putrescent
animal remains, the noisome rejectanea, which would
otherwise corrupt the air with pestilential exhala-
tions. Providence has placed them in those countries
where their services, disgusting as they are, are
nevertheless essential. From the earliest times the
wild dogs and tlie vultures have been notorious for
their participation in the feast of carrion, the repast
of the slain :
Tatietf." — Homtrrm, Itiad, lib. xviii. line a;i.
And again, Ovid —
" UniiuiljM et r..»tro tirdin traliet ilia vultur,
Hi Kcindent avidw perRda corda canes."*
Vultures are, however, less ferocious in their dis-
position than wild dogs or hyaenas, and seldom at-
tack living prey ; where the dead are, there are they
gathered together : sailing on wide and ample wings,
they sweep from the higher regions of the air to
their repast, and gorge themselves until scarcely
able to rise Irom the ground.
In IhesL- buds tne beak, hooked at the point, varies
in strength and form. In the more typical species
the head and -neck are denuded of feathers or only
covered with a little down, while round the bottom
of the latter is a ruft' of soft or slender feathers,
arising from a loose fold of skin, within which they
can withdraw the neck and even the greatest part
of the head, while they remain in a semi-torpid
state, motionless as statues, during the digestion of
their meal. (See Fig. 1'265, Head of Gritt'on-Vul-
ture.)
On the breast and over the crop the skin is bare,
or at most scantily covered ; the limbs are of
moderate strength, but the toes are feeble, and un-
armed with formidable talons ; and they seldom
attempt to remove their carrion food, but continue
with it till satisfied. The plumage generally con-
sists of stilt' large feathers overlying each other,
and forming an almost shot-proof defence. The
wings are ample. It has been a matter of much
discussion as to whether it is by their extraordinary
powers of vision, or by the keenness of their scent,
that vultures detect their food. It has been fre-
quently noticed, that when the sky seems clear,
when not a wing can be seen in the glowing ex-
panse above, no sooner does an animal fall, no
sooner has the hunter slain and left his quarry, than,
as if suddenly called into existence, multitudes of
vultures are observed pouring from the sky and
thronging to the feast,
The ancient classic writers teem with passages
attributing to the vulture an acute and discrimi-
nating scent :
*' nare saijaci
Aera non sanum, motumque cudavere sentit."
LuCASf.
"... Per aulas . . longe ducuntur odore voUurii cadaveribiis."
l.UCBETIUS,
And Pliny, speaking of the senses, says, " Ex sen-
sibus ante caetera homini tactus; deinde gustatus;
reliquis superatur i multis, aquilse clarius cernunt,
vultures sagacius odorantur." With the experience
of the ancients agree the experiments of Mr. Water-
ton, while Mr. Audubon as strenuously maintains
that it is on sight alone that the vulture de-
pends, and such appears to be the opinion of Le
Vaillant. " Desirous," says this naturalist, " of ob-
serving how so great a number of vultures could
congregate together in so short a time, I concealed
myself one day in a thicket, after having killed a
large gazelle, which I left upon the spot. In an
instant a number of ravens made their appearance,
fluttering about the animal, and loudly croaking.
In less than a quarter of an hour these birds were
reinforced by the arrival of kites and buzzards ; and
immediately afterwards I perceived, on raising my
head, a flight of birds at a prodigious height, wheel-
ing round and round in iheir descent. These I
soon recognised to be vultures, which seemed, if I
may so express myself, to escape from a cavern in
the sky. They seemed almost to precipitate them-
selves from the clouds to share the spoil, but my
presence caused them speedily to disappear. Thus
then it is that the vultures are called upon to par-
ticipate their prey: the first carnivorous birds that
discover a carcass rouse the others which happen
to be in the environs by their cries and actions. If
the nearest vulture does not spy his prey from the
lolty region of the air in which he swims by means
of his wide-spread wings, he perceives at least the
subaltern and more terrestrial birds of prey pre-
paring to take possession of it : but perhaps he him-
self has sufficient power of vision to enable him to
discover it; he descends hastily and with a wheel-
ing flight, and his fall directs the other vultures
who witness his evolutions, aud who have, no doubt,
their instinct sharpened with regard to everything
that concerns their food." Notwithstanding this,
and various experiments by Mr. Audubon, we by
no means concur in the attempted deduction that
the vulture is destitute of the powers of smell.
Professor Owen, in his account of the dissection of
the olfactory organs of the turkey-buzzard, thus
concludes: "The above notes show that the vulture
has a well-developed organ of smell, but whether
he finds his prey by that sense alone, or in what
degree it assists, anatomy is not so well calculated
to explain as experiment." ('Zool. Proceeds.' 1837,
p. 35.)
Professor Owen's details are appended to the fol-
lowing observations on the habits of the turkey-
buzzard, called John Crow in Jamaica, where a
fine of five pounds is imposed upon those who de-
stroy the bird within a stated distance of the prin-
cipal towns. The writer is Mr. W. Sells : " It has,"
he says, "been questioned whether the vulture dis-
covers its food by means of the organ of smell or
that of sight. I apprehend that its powers of vision
are very considerable, and of most important use to
the bird in that point of view ; but that it is prin-
cipally from highly organized olfactories that it so
speedily receives intelligence of where the savoury
morsel is to be found, will plainly appear by the
following facts. In hot climates the burial of the
dead commonly takes place in about twenty-four
hours alter death, and that necessarily, so rapidly
does decomposition take place. On one occasion
I had to make a post-mortem examination of a body
within twenty hours after death, in a mill-house,
completely concealed, and while so engaged the
roof of the mill-house was quickly studded with
these birds. Another instance was that of an old
patient and much-valued friend who died at mid-
night ; the family had to send for necessaries for
the funeral to Spanish Town, distant thirty miles, so
that the interment could not take place till noon
next day, or thirty-six hours after his decease, long
before which time, and a most painful sight, it wa.s,
the ridge of the shingled roof of his house, a large
mansion of but cne floor, had a number of these
melancholy-looking heralds of death perched there-
on, besides many more which had settled on trees
in its immediate vicinity. In these cases the birds
must have been directed by smell alone, as sight
was totally out of the question."
In opposition to the above opinion, it has been
stated by Mr. Audubon that vultures and other
birds of prey possess the sense of smell in a very in-
ferior degree to carnivorous quadrupeds ; and that,
so far from guiding them to their prey from a dis-
tance, it affords them no indication of its presence
even when close at hand. In confirmation of this
opinion he relates that he stuffed a skin of a deer
full of hay and placed it in a field, and that in a
few minutes a vulture lighted near it, and directly
proceeded to attack it ; but finding no eatable food
at length quitted it. He further relates that a dead
dog was concealed in a narrow ravine, twenty feet
beneath the surface of the ground around it, and
filled with briars and high canes ; that many vul-
tures were seen sailing in all directions over the
spot, but that none discovered it. I may remark
upon the above experiments that the deer was
doubtless seen by the birds, but it does not follow
that they might not also have smelt the hide,
though inodorous to the human nose ; in the second
case, the birds had undoubtedly been attracted by
the smell, however embarrassed they might have
been by the concealment of the object which caused
it. I have in many hundred instances seen the
vulture feeding upon small objects under rocks and
bushes, and in other situations, where it was utterly
impossible that the bird could have discovered it
but through the sense of smell ; and we are to recol-
lect that the habit of the vulture is that of soaring
aloft in the air, and not that of foraging upon the
ground.
The inference we have drawn from experiment?,
anatomy, and analogy, is, that both the eye and the
olfactory organs of the vulture (and we may add the
crow, the raven, &c.) aid this bird in its pursuit of
food. We generally find every sense in due degree
subservient to the necessities, habits, and appointed
work of animals ; hence, where odour is a prevailing
characteristic of food, that the organs of the animal
intended to devour that food should be insensible to
it, seems an anomaly.
12G0, 1267, 1268.— The Egyptian Vulture
(Neophron Percnopterus). Vautour Ourigourap of
Vaillant ; Rachamah, or Pharaoh's Chicken, of Bruce
and others; Avoltoio aquilina and Caporaccajo of
the Italians; Maltese Vultur, Latham. This spe-
cies is found in Spain, Portugal, Malta, Turkey, and
in the Archipelago; abundant in Africa, Arabia,
Pei-sia, and Southern Russia. In October, 1825, one
of these birds, gorged with food, was shot near
Kilve, near Somersetshire, and is now in the pos-
session of the Rev. A. Matthew, of that place; and
another of the same species was seen, but escaped.
The utility of these birds in Egypt and other parts
of the East, in clearing the streets of filth of every
description, a task which they undertake in com-
mon with the pariah dogs, has been often alluded
to by travellers. Nor were the services of this vul-
ture less valued in ancient than in modern times :
it was among the number of the sacred animals of
Egypt, and is often accurately represented on their
monuments. Hence the appellation of Pharaoh's
Chicken. A constant attendant on the caravan as
it pursues its way from town to town ; an assiduous
frequenter of the shambles ; an industrious searcher
for carrion, it merits, at least as f;ir as public utility
is concerned, the regards of the community ; nor
are its services overlooked — if not reverenced in
the present day as a dejty, it is still protected as a
benefactor. In the neighbourhood of Gibraltar,
and in the south of Spain generally, flocks of this
vulture are annually seen : most probably they
winter in Africa, but of this we have no decided
information. Captain S. E. Cook says that he saw
them, near Seville, loliowing the track of the
plough, like rooks, in order to devour the grubs in
the upturned soil.
The long and ample wings of the Egyptian vul-
ture give it amazing powers of flight, and enable it
to soar with great buoyancy. Like the rest of the
family, however, when gorged to repletion with its
foul diet, it becomes so sluggish and unwieldy aa
scarcely to be able to raise itself from the ground
2 N 2
]S6A,— Ej^ypiian Vultures.
1«70^4, Torksy-Buiunl ; h, Ulack Vulture.
ISM.— ^ypti" Valtum.
1267.— Egyptian Vollurei.
276
^/l^§-^=^
1274. — GrilFcn- Vultures
'.273. — Grt (Ton- Vulture.
1277.— Sociable Vulture.
if
269.— Head of EgyptUn Vulture.
1SC5.— Head of GriHbn-Vul:ure.
12TS.— Pondich«rry Vulture.
IS'*.— Cinercouj Vulture.
1 27 1 Turkey-Buiiard.
1276. — Cinereous Vulture.
277
27S
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Vultures.
and indeed in tliis sUte may be easily captured ;
nut tliat the task would be very plenaant, so strong
and disgustine ui tlie effluvium which it emits.
Bruce consider* this bird to be the Kachamah of
Scripture (see the Appendix to his' Travels'), such
lieing the name by which it is now known in Egypt.
In size the KfiCyptian vuhure somewhat exceeds a
raven, its length being two feet live or six inches,
and the expanse o( its wings about five feet eight
or nine inches When in complete plumage, it is
of a uniform while, with the exception of the
greater quill-feathers, which are black. The fore-
head, cheeks, and throat are naked, the skin being
of a livid yellow. The eyes are dark. The bill is
slender and straight, abruptly hooked at the tip.
This state of plumage is acquired by successive
changes, the first livery being umber-brown, which
is gradually exchanged, at each moult, for lighter
and lighter tints, till the purity of the white is com-
plete. It breeds in the cleOs of rocks and on ele-
vated places ; its eggs are stated to be three or four
in number and of a white colour. Fig. 12CJ repi-e-
sents the Head of this species.
1270 (a), 1271.— The Tobuet-Bdzzabo
(Cathartes aura). This species is spread through
South America and the southern section of the
United Stales. It is common in Jamaica and other
West India islands.
According to Wilson, the Turkey-Buzzard is gre-
garious, roostinff in flocks on the limbs of large trees ;
rows of them may be seen on a summer morning i
spreading out their wings to the rising sun, and
remaining in that posture for a considerable time.
They are, he adds, often seen in companies soaring
at an immense height, particularly previous to a
thunder-storm. His observations allude to this bird
as observed by him in New Jersey. Mr. Darwin,
on the contrary, states that "the turkey-buzzard is
a solitary bird, or at most goes in pairs. It may at
once be recognised from alone; distance by its lofty
soaring and most elegant flight. It is well known
to be a true carrion feeder. On the west coast of
Patagonia, among the thickly-wooded islets and
broken land, it lives exclusively on what the sea
throws up, and on the carcasses of dead seals ; and
wherever these animals are congregated on the
rocks, there the vultures may be seen." Mr.
Waterton observes that though flocks collect as to
a common feast, still he does not consider the
turkey-buzzard to be gregarious, properly speak-
ing— that is, they do not form a colony, like rooks,
but each pair pursues its separate interests. We
suspect that this applies to most other vultures,
which congregate round the grand object of attrac-
tion— their putrid banquet.
The turkey-buzzard breeds in May, in the deep
recesses of the solitary swamps of New Jereey, as
Wilson informs us, the female making no nest, but
Jaying her eggs in the hollow of some decayed
-stump of a tree or log ; the eggs are three or four
in number, of a dull white, blotched, especially at
the larger end, with chocolate brown and dashes of
black. The male often watches while the female
is sitting, and, if not disturbed, the .same pair will
occupy the same breeding-place for many years in
-succession. The young are at first clothed with
whitish down. Both young and old, if molested,
•disgorge the off"ensive contents of their stomachs, so
that it is not safe to attempt to touch them.
The turkey-vulture is two feet and a half in
length. The bill is light hom-colour ; the nostrils
are wide slits ; the eyes are dark ; the head and
neck, for about an inch below the ears, are naked,
<he skin being reddish, wrinkled, and beset with
short hairs, but the neck is not so much carun-
culated as that of the black vulture. From the
back of the head to the neck-feathers the space is
covered with down of a sooty-black colour; the fore
part of the neck to the crop is bare. The general
•colour of the plumage is glossy brownish black,
Willi green reflexions ; bill elongated, feeble, and
curved only at the point.
1270 (6). — The Black Vulture, oa Gallinazo
K. Cathartes atratvs). The Gallinazo inhabits South
America and the warmer parts of the northern
division of that continent ; and in South Carolina,
Savannah, Georgia, &c., may be seen in numbers
sauntering about the streets or sunning itself on the
tops of houses ; multitudes may be often observed
in the fields congregated round the carcass of any
dead animal, and blackening the ground like aflocic
of rooks : they keep up a continual hissing while
engaged in their feast, from which it is not easy to
drive them, having become confident from long and
universal tolerance.
Wilson says that the black vultures are indolent
in their habits, loitering for hours together in one
place. They do not associate with the turkey-
buzzard, from which they differ not only in their
much darker colour and other details, but also in
flight. They rise flapping their wings, and then
sail with them extended nearly horizontally ; while
the turkey-buzzard seldom flaps its wings — and when
sailing they I'urm an angle with the body upwards.
The black vulture on the ground hops along very
awkwardly ; but the turkey-buzzard moves with an
even gait : the latter, unless pressed by hunger,
will not eat of a carcass until it becomes putrid ;
the former is not so fastidious, but will devour ani-
mal food without distinction.
According to Mr. Darwin, the gallinazo has a
different range in South America from the turkey-
buzzard, " as It never occurs to the southward of lat.
41". Azara states that there existed a tradition that
these birds at the time of the conquest were not to
be found at Monte Video, but that they subsequently
followed the inhabitants from the more nui-thern
districts. At the present day they are numerous in
the valley of the Colorado, which is three hundred
miles due south of Montevideo. It seems probable
that this additional migration has happened since
the time of Azara. The gallinazo generally prefers
a humid climate, or rather the neighbourhood of
fresh water : hence it is extremely abundant in
Brazil and La Plata, while it is never found on the
desert and arid plains of Northern Patagonia, ex-
cepting near some stream. These birds frequent
the whole Pampas to the foot of the Cordillera, but
I never saw or heard of one in Chile: in Peru they
are preserved as scavengers. These vultures cer-
tainly may be called gregarious, for they seem to
have pleasure in society, and are not solely brought
together by the attraction of a common prey. On
a fine day a flock may often be observed at a great
height, each bird wheeling round and round with-
out closing its wings, in the most graceful evolutions.
This is clearly done for sport-sake, or perhaps is
connected with their matrimonial alliances."
The gallinazo builds its nest in the large trees of
the low swamps. The length of this bird is twenty-
six inches. The head and part of the neck are
covered with a black, wrinkled, carunculaled skin,
beset with short black hairs, and downy behind ; the
nostrils are oblong slits. The general colour is dull
black, except the primaries, vvnich are whitish on
the inner vane, with a cream-white bar on the outer
vane of the first four.
1272, 1273, 1274.— The Geiffon-Vultube
( Vultur fulvus). This large species, which may be
regarded as an example of the more typical forms
of this group of birds, is a native of Silesia, the
Tyrol, Dalmatia, Spain, the Pyrenees and Alps,
Turkey, the Grecian Archipelago, Arabia, Syria,
Persia, and Africa. It is Le Griffon of the French ;
Weisskopfiger Geier of the Germans; Avoltoio di
color costagno of the Italians.
Like all its tribe, the Griffon feeds upon dead
carcasses, to which it is attracted in considerable
numbers, and when once it has made a lodgment
upon its prey it rarely quits the banquet while a
morsel of flesh remains ; so that it may be sometimes
seen perched upon the putrescent mass for several
successive days. It never attempts to cany off any
portion in its claws, not even to satisfy its young,
but feeds them by disgorging the half-digested
morsel from its maw — the ordinary manner indeed
in which the vultures rear their young, and which
is very different from that of the eagles, falcons,
hawks, &c., who bring living or yet reeking prey to
their nest, and tear it up for tlieir brood.
Occasionally this vulture attacks sickly animals
incapable of defending themselves : but this is only
when no other mode of satisfying its appetite pre-
sents. After gorging itself to repletion, the griffon
assumes an unchanged attitude, and patiently waits
till the process of digestion is complete : if disturbed,
it is incapable of flight, until it has freed its maw
from the oppressive load.
The powers of wing possessed by the griffon are
very great, and it often soars to such a pitch as to
become invisible to human sight. In captivity it is
apathetic, or at least is only roused to animation by
tlie calls of hunger; and having feasted, it resumes
its listless composure. Head and neck covered
with close white down ; lower part of the neck sur-
rounded by a ruff of long, slender, white feathers ;
a space on the middle of the breast is covered with
white down. General colour fulvous or yellowish
brown, verging towards buff; quill and tail feathers
blackish brown : length upwards of four feet ; fe-
male larger than the male. The general plumage
of the young is yellow variegated with markings of
grey, and the down of the neck is more or less
brown. Fig. 1265 is the Head of this species.
1275, 1276. — The Ciseeeous Vcltubk
( Vultur cinereus). Gyps cinereus, Savigny ; Vau-
tour arrian and Vautour noir of the French ;
Grauer Geier of the Germans. This species is a
native of ttie forests of Hungary, the south of Spain,
Sardinia, Sicily, Western Asia, Egypt, and India. In
its habits, though the beak is stouter, and the claws
more curved than in nwst vultures (the sociable
and Pondicherry vultures resembling it in these par-
ticulars), ihe Cinereous Vulture agrees with the rest
of its race. Temminck states that its food consists
of carrion, but never of living amimals, towards
which it manifests fear. Bechstein, on the contrary,
states that in the winter this vulture descends from
the mountain-ranges into the plains, where it attacks
not only hares, goals, and sheep, but even deer.
Tlie farmers are said to suffer severely from its
depredations, for it will frequently pick out the eyes
of a sheep; but, as it is not shy, often pays the
penalty of its life to the watchlul hunter, who is
well paid for shooting Ihe marauder.
Back of the head and neck denuded of feathers ;
the skin of a bluish cast ; on the rest of the neck a
yellow down; sides of the neck furnished with
curled feathers, and an ample tuft of long loose
feathers at the insertion of the wings; general
colour chocolate-brown ; tarsi half-plumed. Length
near four feet ; female rather larger.
1277. — TuE Sociable Vultubb
( Vultur auricularis). Oricou of Le Vaillant j
T'Ghaip of the Hottentots. This noble bird, a
native of South Africa, is said by Le Vaillant to be
gregarious in its habits, numbers associating to-
gether in building their nests in Ihe fissures of
craggy rocks, two or three nests being sometimes
in the same fissure or cavern, side by side, and
others in adjacent crevices : hence the title of
Sociable, a title which Dr. A. Smith considers to
be founded on error. He has never met with moie
than one nest actually occupied on the same tree
(not fissure of a rock). The mistake has probably
originated in a new nest being occasionally built
adjoining to an old one which had been deserted
on account of its having become unserviceable.
The bird, he adds, seems but little disposed to so-
ciability ; more than two are rarely seen together,
and if four occur in the neighbourhood of a carcass,
the number is considered as great; while of the
griffon-vulture it is by no means uncommon to see
a hundred or even more congregated where carrion
exists. Head and neck red and naked ; folds of
skin originating behind the ears and passing down
the sides of the neck ; rufl' of feathers at the lowei-
part of the neck black ; general plumage blackish
brown ; feathers of the under parts long and narrow,
covering a fine white down. Length nearly four
feet; expanse of wings ten^feet.
1278. — The PoNDicuEEEr Vultube
(Vultur Ponticerranus). This species, which offers
nothing differing from its race in habits and food,
is found abundantly in various parts oi India, as
Bengal, &c. Colonel Sykes met with it in the
Dukhun. It is solitary, more than two being seldom
if ever seen together. The top of the skull is re-
markably broad and flat ; a fold of skin, arising be-
low the ears, runs down each side of the neck, w hich
is flesh-coloured and naked, a few scattered hairs
being dispersed over it ; ruff at the base of the
neck composed of short rounded feathers. Crop
covered with down ; plumage geneially blackish
brown. Length thirty-six inches.
1279. — The Cuinkse Vulture
( Vultur leuconotus). A beautiful specimen of this
vulture is now living in the gardens of the Zool.
Soc. It equals a turkey in size : the general colour
is brownish black ; lower part of the back, under
side of wings, and inner side of thighs white ; when
the wings are closed, the white of the back is not
seen. Head brownish black, with short black hairs ;
back of the neck covered with whitish down ; the
front of it bare and of a livid flesh colour ; ruff at
the base of the neck dirty white ; while feathers
from each side lap over the crop ; cere blackish ;
bill horn-colour : iris dark. In aspect and manners
this species is similar to the rest of its race ; and in
captivity is quiet and contented.
1280. — Kolbe's Vultubb
{Vultur Kolbii). This species is generally dis-
persed through Africa and India; it occasionally
visits Sardinia. In South Africa it is very numerous.
Dr. A. Smith, speaking of Kolbe's Vulture, the
Vultur auricularis, and another species, the Vultur
occipitalis, says, "The three foregoing birds feed
exclusively on carrion. The Vultur Kolbii, though
not the most powerful, is by far the most courageous
species, and while it is feeding neither of the oihers
will venture to approach its prey. Its numbers,
moreover, are very great as compared with those
of the two other species, hundreds of them appear-
ing wherever there is carrion to attract them. So
numerous are they, indeed, that when an ox, a
horse, or other large quadruped lies dead, they as-
semble in hundreds, and in a few hours the whole
of the carcass is consumed. At such a time many
of these rapacious birds may be observed so exceed-
ingly gorged, as to be quite unable to fly ; when thty
Vultures.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
279
may be beaten to death with sticks : but their as-
sailants run the hazard ol" beine: severely wounded
with the strong beaks of the birds, which even in
this state will defend themselves with the greatest
vigour."
Kolbe's vulture is closely allied to the griffon-
vulture, which it closely resembles in colouring, but
is less in size. In Kolbe's vulture the feathers of
the wings of the lower parts are all rounded at the
end : in the griffon-vulture they are long and pointed.
In Kolbe's vulture the ruff is neither so long nor
so abundant as in the griffon; the plumage of the
adult is nearly of a whitish Isabella colour; while
that of the adult griffon is of a uniform bright brown
throughout.
1281. — The I.ndian Vultobe
(Vullur Indicus). This vulture is common through-
out the whole of India. It is a voradous bird, and
may be seen lingering on the sea-shore, preying on
dead flsh, and the putrescent exuviae of the waters,
left by the waves on the beach. Flocks follow
armies, and multitudes assemble on the battle-field,
for " where the slain are, there are they."
Head and neck destitute of feathers, all the upper
plumage yellovfish ash-colour, varied with brown
and greyish white ; under parts yellow ; breast
covered with close down of a brown tint ; bill black
lighter at the point; naked skin of the head rusty
ash. Length forty-two inches. Colonel Sykes says
these birds " congregate in flocks of twenty or
thirty. On a dead camel or horse or bullock being
thrown out on the plain, numbers of these vultures
are found assembled round it in an incredibly short
time, though they may not have been seen in the
neighbourhood for weeks before."
1282, 1283, 1284.— The Condob
(Sarcoramphus Gryphus). The exaggerated ac-
counts of the earlier writers and naturalists, who
painted this bird as rivalling the Rukh of Oriental
fable, have given place to the moderate details of
sober-minded observers, and we no longer look upon
this vulture as the winged guardian of mountain-
mines, within whose depths were entombed "gems
and barbaric gold," the freightage of a thousand
royal argosies, treasures
•■ which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Tnd."
We no longer imagine it the giant of the winged
race, dimming the light of the sun by its wide-
spread pinions, or, by their mighty rushing as it
sweeps down from some lofty pinnacle, or the upper
regions of the sky, deafening and stupifying the
terror-stricken beholders.
To the scrutiny of the Baron Von Humboldt and
of M. Bonpland we owe the reduction of the bird to
its proper dimensions. Nestling in the most soli-
tary places, often upon the ridges of rocks, which
border the lower limit of perpetual snow, and
crowned with its extraordinary comb, the condor
for a long time appeared to the eyes of Humboldt
himself as a wingeil giant, and he avows that it was
only the measurement of the dead bird that dissi-
pated this optical illusion. The grand scenery amid
which it is found had a precisely contrary effect on
Lieutenant Maw,* who in describing his descent
into the deep and narrow valley of Magdalena, says.
" whilst descending, several condors hovered round
us, and about the rocks on which they build their
nests: but .so vast was the scale of the rocks and
mountains, that even the.se immense birds appeared
quite insignificant, and I doubted for a time that
they were condors "
The condor, a native of the Andes of South Ame-
rica, is an example of the genus Sarcoramphus,
characterized by the fleshy carbuncles or comb-like
appendages at the base of the beak and the fore-
head, and the nakedness of t he neck , and the size and
oval form of the nostrils, placed on the anterior edge
of the cere: the third (juill-feather is the longest.
This genus is peculiar to the New World, and con-
tains, besides the condor, the King-vulture and the
Califomian vulture.
The elevation chosen by the condor as its breed-
ing-place and habitual residence varies from ten
thousand feet to fifteen thousand above the level of
the sea; and here, on some isolated pinnacle or
jutting ledge, it rears iU brood and looks down
upon the plains below for food. It is generally
seen singly or in pairs— seldom in large companies;
l» "*vJ ^""""^ *"« basaltic cliffs of the St. Cruz
Mr. Darwin found a spot where scores usually
haunt. "On coming," he says, "to the brow of
the precipice, it was a fine sight to see between
twenty and thirty of these great birds start heavily
from their resting places, and wheel away in ma-
jestic circles." It appears that many clusters of
rocks or high precipitous crags are named alter
these birds; the appellations, in the language of the
• 'Joarnal of » Parage from Oic IVidc to the Atlantic
Alaw, Lieut. R. N
by H. L.
Incas, meaning the " Condor's look-out," the "Con-
dor's roost," the " Condor's nest," &c.
High over the loftiest pinnacles may the condor
often be seen soaring, borne up on outspread wings,
describing in its flight the most graceful spires
and circles. " Except when rising from the ground,"
says Mr. Darwin, "1 do not recollect ever having
seen one of these birds flap its wings. Near Lima
I watched several for nearly half an hour without
once taking off my eyes. They moved in large
curves, sweeping in circles, descending and ascend-
ing without once flapping. As they glided close
over my head, I intently watched from an oblique
position the outlines of the separate and terminal
feathers of the wing ; if there had been the least
vibratory movement, these would have blended
together; but they were seen distinct against the
blue sky. The head and neck were moved fre-
quently, and apparently with force ; and it appeared
as if the extended wings formed the fulcrum on
which the movements of the neck, body, and tail
acted. If the bird wished to descend, the wings
were for a moment collapsed ; and then, when
again expanded with an altered inclination, the
momentum gained by the rapid descent seemed to
urge the bird upwards with the even and steady
movement of a paper kite. In case of any bird
soaring, its motion must be sufficiently rapid so that
the action of the inclined surface of its body on the
atmosphere may counterbalance its gravity. The
force to keep up the momentum of a body moving
in a horizontal plane in that fluid (in which there is
so little friction) cannot be great, and this force is
all that is wanted. The movement of the neck and
body of the condor we must suppose sufficient for
this. However this may be, it is truly wonderful
and beautiful to see so great a bird hour after hour,
without any apparent exertion, wheeling and gliding
over mountain and river."
The condor feeds, like other vultures, on carrion,
dead llamas, mules, sheep, &c. When gorged with
food they sit sidlen and drowsy on the roc'Ks, and,
as Humboldt says, will suffer themselves to be
driven before the hunters rather than take wing;
but he adds that he has seen them when on the
look-out lor prey, especially on serene days, soaring
at a prodigious height, as if for the purpose of com-
manding the most extensive view. The same writer
states that he never heard of any well authenticated
instance of these birds commencing an attack on
man, or of their carrying away children (according
to vague report); that he often approached within
a few feet of them as they sat on the rocks, but
they never manifested any disposition to assault
him : and the Indians at Quito assured him that
men have nothing to fear from them. This scarcely
applies to other animals. " Besides feeding on car-
rion," says Mr. Darwin, " the condore will frequently
attack young goats and lambs. Hence the shep-
herd-dogs are trained, the moment the enemy
passes over, to run out, and, looking upwards, to bai k
violently." Two of them will sometimes attack the
vicugna, the llama, the heifer, and even the puma,
persecuting the quadruped till it falls beneath the
wounds inflicted by the beaks of its assailants. The
condor is indeed amazingly strong, and extremely
tenacious of life. Sir Francis relates the account
of a struggle between one of his Cornish miners
and a condor gorged with food, and therefore not
in the best state for the fray ; the man began by
grasping the bird round the neck, which he tried
to break ; but the bird, roused by the unceremo-
nious attack, struggled so violently as to defeat the
plan : nor alter an hours struggling, though the
miner brought away several of the wing-feat hers in
token of victory, does it appear that the bird was
despatched.
According to Mr. Darwin (and Humboldt states
the same), " the condor makes no sort of nest, but
in the month of November and December lays two
large white eggs on a shelf of bare rock. On the
Patagonian coast I could not see any sort of nest
among the cliffs where the young were standing.
It is said the young condors cannot fly for an entire
year. At Concepcion, on the fifth of March (cor-
responding to our September), I saw a young bird,
which, thouijh in size little inferior to an old one,
was completely covered with down like that of a
gosling, but of a blackish colour. Alter the period
when the young condors can fiy, and apparently as
well as the old birds, they yet remain at night on
the same ledge and hunting by day with their
parents. Before, however, the young bird has the
ruff turned white, it may be often seen hunting by
itself." Mr. Darwin considers it probable that the
condor breeds only once in two years.
At the age of two years the condor is not yet
black, but of a yellowish brown ; and up to this
time the female has no ajijcarance of a ruff:
hence, ignorant of the chanire in the plumage of
this bird, many travellers talk of two species of
condor.
The feathers of the condor are so close and firm,
and overlap each other so regularly, as to throw off
j a bullet, unless it hits point blank. The general
colour of the adult male is glossy black, with a
tinge of grey. The greater wing-coverts, except at
the base and tips, and the secondary quill-feathers,
are white ; and a white ruff of downy feathers en-
circles the base of the neck. This part, as well as
the head, is bare, the skin being coarse and wrinkled,
and of a dull reddish colour, with a tinge of purple.
A large firm comb surmounts the forehead, and the
skin at the back of the head folds into irregular
wrinkles, converging into a sort of loose wattle be-
neath the bill, which, as in the turkey, is capable of
being dilated at pleasure. The tail is broad and
somewhat wedge-shaped. Length about four feet ;
expanse of wing about nine feet ; tarsi powerful.
The female wants the comb, and the greater wing-
coverts are blackish grey.
The condor is captured by the lasso, or taken in
various traps and stratagems. According to Mr.
Darwin, the Chilenos are in the habit of marking
the trees in which they roost, frequently to the
number of five or six together, and then at night
climb up and noose them. They are such heavy
sleepers, he adds, as I myself witnessed, that this is
not a difficult task. Lieutenant Maw saw the condor's
quill used as a pen in the Cordillera (Toulea).
1285, 1286.— The King-Vultcbe
(Sarcoramphus Papa). This beautiful species is a
native of the intertropical regions of America, and
is seen occasionally in Florida, probably its most
northern limit. It is not, like the condor, a moun-
tain bird, but tenants the low humid forests bor-
dering rivers and savannahs, where animal life is.
abundant, and where decomposition rapidly succeeds
death. It is amidst the most luxuriant scenery
that this monarch of the vultures reigns ; the turkey-
buzzard and gallinazo being in subjection under
him. Waterton in his amusing work relates, that
while sailing up Essequibo, he observed a pair
of king-vultures sitting on the naked branch of a
tree, with about a dozen of the common species,
waiting to begin the feast upon a goat, killed by a
jaguar, but which he had been forced to abandon.
The pair seemed rather to tolerate the .presence of
the rest, than to associate with them on terms of
familiarity. The same traveller, having killed a
large serpent, caused it to be carried into the forest
as a lure for one of these vultures which he wished
to obtain. He watched the result. " The foliage,"
he says, " where he laid the snake was impervious,
to the sun's rays ; and had any vultures passed over
that part of the forest, I think I may say with safety,
that they would not have seen the body through the
shade. For the first two days not a vulture made it&.
appearance at the spot, though IcouldseeaVultvn-e
aura gliding on appaiently immovable pinions
at a moderate height over the tops of the forest
trees. But during the afternoon of the same day,
when the carcass of the serpent had got into a state
of putrefaction, more than twenty of the common
vultures came and perched upon the neighbouring-
trees, and the next morning, a little before six
o'clock, I saw a magnificent King of the Vultures.
There was a stupendous mora-tree close by, whose
topmost branches had either been dried by time or
blasted by the thunder-storm. Upon this branch L
killed the King of the Vultures before it had de-
scended to partake of the savoury food which had
attracted it to the place. Soon after this another
King of the Vultures came, and after he had stuffed
himself almost to suffocation, the rest pounced down
upon the remains of the serpent, and stayed there till
they had devoured the last morsel."
Though this species is mostly seen alone or in
pairs, travellers state that in Mexico it is sometimes
observed in flocks. The general account, that the
other vultures stand patiently by till their monarch
has finished his repast, and which appears to be not
without foundation, may be easily accounted for by
the superior strength and courage of this species.
The colours of the king-vulture are very splendid.
The naked skin of the head and neck is deeply
tinged with mingled scarlet, orange, and violet : be-
neath the eye are several deep wrinkles converging
to a fold of skin extending obliquely downwards
along the neck. Over the cere of the beak hangs a
loose comb of bright orange ; the circle round the
eyes is scarlet, in singular contrast with the pearl
white of the iris ; the ruff round the bottom of the
neck is soft, downy, and of a delicate grey. The
general plumage is of a bright fawn-colour; the quill-
feathers, the greater coverts, and tail-feathers glossy
black. Length about two feet and a half; expanse
of wings upwards of five leet. The young birds of
the year have a dull bluish plumage, and a violet
head and neck; in the second year their plumage
is dusky, marked with longitudinal white spots ; in
the thirtl year the permanent eolounng is nearly
assumed, and is completed on the subsequent change
of feathers.
1293.— King Vulture'
I2II1.— Indian Vulture.
280
1243. — Head of younj; Bwn OwU
1290.— External Ear of Owl.
1293— External Ear of OwU
1291.— Bony Ring md Lens of Snowy Owl.
IS96.— Skall of Homed Owl.
1 29S.— Foot of Bira-Owl.
1297.— Barn-Owl.
1292.— Ctum of Ew in Birdi.
12«l.— Head of Horned Owl.
ISST.— Head of Bim-Owl.
No. 36.
THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATUKK.]
281
S82
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
Family STRIGID.E (OWLS).
The birds of thi« family have large heads, and great
g rejecting eyes directed forwards, and surrounded
y a circle or disc, more or less developed, formed
of loOM and delicate feathers, the margin consist-
ing of feather* of a tirmer texture and more defi-
nite outline. The beak is hooked and raptorial ;
the claws are curved, sharp, and retractile ; and
the outer toe is versatile, in order to strengthen the
grasp. The plumage is full and sett, generally
•potted, barred, and clouded with different shades
Of tawny, brown, and yellow. Many species have
the top of the head garnished with elongated
plumelets, or tufta, capable of being erected or de-
pressed ; they rise from the margin of the disc over
each eye, and are commonly, but of course erro-
neously, called ears or horns. See Fig. 1287, the
Head of the Common Bam-Owl, exhibiting the
facial disc; Fig. 1288, Head of the Horned Owl,
showing the tul1s ; Fig. 1289, the Foot of the Barn-
Owl. In Fig. 1290, a represents one of the Feathers
of Disc, magnified.
The owls, some few excepted, are crepuscular
and nocturnal in their habits ; they come forth with
the diwk of evening to prowl for food ; they win-
now the air with silent pinions, their ears attentive
to eveiy slight sound, and their eyes quick to dis-
cern their creeping prey, on which they glide with
noiseless celerity.
The organic endowments of these nightly ma-
rauders are in admirable concordance with their
destined mode of life. Let us look at the common
bani-owl as a type of the family. The eyes, we
observe, are large and staring, but they are incapa-
ble of bearing the strong light of day ; the iris is
irritable, and the pupil almost completely con-
tracted ; the lids are half closed, and the membrana
nictitans almost constantly drawn over the ball, like
a delicate curtain ; but when twilight sets in, the
eyes display a very different appearance— the lids
are wide open, the curtain is folded back, the pupil
is widely dilated, and they gleam with lustrous
effulgence. In all British birds, and, we believe, as
a general rule, the bony ring of the eyeball is con-
vex externally ; but in the owls it is concave, and
lengthened — the transparent cornea being placed,
as it were, at the end of a tube, the whole resem-
bling the glass used by watchmakers. Fig. 1291
aepresents, I, the bony ring of the Snowy-Owl :
2, the crystalline lens of the same bird ; a, the
-anterior surface, less convex than the posterior one.
The facial disc of feathers materially aids vision
by concentrating the rays of light. Mr. Varrell
-observes that the extent of vision enjoyed by the
falcons is probably superior to that of the owls, but
that the more spherical lens and corresponding
■ cornea give to the eyes of the latter im intensity
better suited to the opacity of the medium in which
their power is required to be exercised. They may
be compared to the eyes of " a person near-sighted,
who sees objects with superior magnitude and bril-
liancy when within the prescribed limits of his
natural powers of vision from the increased angle
these objects subtend."
We have previously said that birds have no ex-
ternal ears, but in the owls, whose sense of hearing
is exquisite, and who listen for their prey, we find
. an exception to the general line. If we part the
feathers forming the back part of the rim of the
disc, we shall find the large auditory orifice enclosed
between two valves of thin skin, from the edges of
which proceed the feathers in question. The leaves
of this double valve are capable of being thrown
wide apart, so as to concentrate as well as admit
every slight vibration, the effect of which is in-
creased by the widely-diffused cavities connected
^•ith the internal chambers. The drum of the ear
■is very thin and transparent, and its vibrations are
conveyed to those winding hollows called the laby-
rinth, by a single osticulum, as in reptiles. In order
to distend, support, or relax the drum, there is a
cartilaginous organ stretching from the side of the
passage almost to the middle of the membrane, while
thereis another cartilage divided into three branches,
of which the middle one being the longest, is joined to
the top of the cartilaginous organ before mentioned
(see Fig. 1292), and assists in bearing upthe external
membrane (the drum). The cartilage joins the top of
the omailum or columella, which is a very fine,
light, bony tube, the bottom of which expands into a
plate', fitting into the /orani«n ovale (the entrance to
the labyrinth), to which it is braced all round by very
slender muscles. Figs. 1290 and 1293 represent
the external Ear of the Owl ; Fig. 1294, the Head
of a young Bam-Owl. The head is so turned as to
expose the auditory passage and valvular omculum.
a, the cranium ; b, the nostril on the beak ; c, the
neck ; d, the eye ; «, the termination of the exter-
nal skin surrounding the orifice of the ear ; /, the
anterior flap or opercular fold of the ear ; </, part
of the tympanic or quadrate bone ; h, membrana
tympani, or drum of the ear.
From the loose texture of their soft full plumage, j
and from the laxity of the quill-feathers (of which |j
the outer edges are fringed by a pectinated line ot i
delicate lashes, the terminations of the barbs), the j
flight of the owl, though buoyant and easy, is by no
means distincniished for velocity, like that of the
falcon ; tne wings gently fan the air; they present
no rigid edges; they do not cut it with the .
whistling stroke of the pinions of the hawk or dove ; I
no rustling sound is heard as the owl skims lightly
by ; and in accordance with this condition of the j
plumage and feathers of the wing, is the develop- j
ment of the sternum and its appendages. Variation i
of course exists in different species, but the keel
(see Fig. 1295) is less deep and projects less for-
ward than in the falcon ; the furcula is less arched,
more slender and more distinctly triangular; and
the coracoid or clavicular bones are less robust and j
straighter; the whole is less solid and expansive. |
Fig. 1296 represenU the skull of the Strix otus, |
showing the orbit, and, below it, a, the large audi-
tory orifice.
The owls prey on living animals: the larger
species on hares, rabbits, birds, &c. ; the smaller j
on mice, moles, rats, and reptiles.
1297, 1298.— -The Babn-Owi,
(Strix fammea). This is the Effraie, Fresaie, and
Petit Chathuant Plomb6 of the French; Barba-
gianni, Alloco Commune e Bianco, of the Italians ;
Schleierkauz, Perlschlietkautz, and Peri-Eule of
the German; De Kerkuil of the Netheriands;
Bam-Owl, White Owl, Church-Owl, Gillihowlet,
Howlet, Madge Howlet, Madge Owl, Hissing Owl,
and Screech Owl of the modern British; and
Dylluan wen of the ancient British.
This beautiful bird is spread throughout the tem-
perate and warmer regions of Europe. It is common
in England and Ireland, but less so in Scotland ; in
the high northern latitudes of the Continent it is
not known. The barn-owl conceals itself during
the day in deep recesses among ivy-clad ruins, in
antique church-towers, in the hollow of old trees,
in barn-lofts, and similar places of seclusion. At
night it sallies forih for prey, which consi:-ts of mice,
rats, moles, and shrews, but, we believe, never birds.
Hence it is persecuted by the farmer in vain, who
suspects that it thins his dovecot, and little knows
the extent of the services which the bird renders to
him. "If," says Mr. Waterton, " this useful bird
caught its food by day, instead of hunting for it by
night, mankind would have ocular demonstration
of its utility in thinning the country of mice, and it
would be protected and encouraged everywhere.
When it has young it will bring a mouse to the nest
every 12 or 15 minutes "(that is during the night) ;
and he adds, "formerly I could get very few young
pigeons till the rats were excluded from the dove-
cot ; since that took place it has produced a great .,
abundance every year, though the barn owl fre- :l
quents it, and is encouraged all round it ;" and he
aflSrms that the pigeons neither regard it " as a bad
or suspicious character."
Mr. Thompson (' Mag. Zool. and Botan., vol. ii.
p. 178), observes that " the white (bam) owl is a
well-known visitor to the dovecot,— and m such a
place, or rather a loft appropriated to pigeons, in
the town of Belfast, I am informed by an observant
friend, that a pair once had their nest ; this con-
tained four young, which were brought up at the
same time with many pigeons. The nests contain-
ing the latter were on every side, but the owls
never attempted to molest either the parents or
their young. As may be conjectured, the owl's nest
was frequently inspected during the progress of the
young birds ; on the shelf beside them never less
than six, and often 15 mice and young rats (no
birds were ever seen) have been observed, and this
was the number they had left after the night's re-
past. The parent owls, when undisturbed, remained
all day in the pigeon-loft." In further proof, it may
be urged, that the remains of rats, mice, and occa-
sionally beetles, have been found, to the exclusion
of feathers, in the stomachs of most owls when ex-
amined. Such remains were found in the stomachs
of all those opened by Mr. Thompson, and of such
are the pellets cast by the owls invariably com-
posed.* The owl quarters the ground for food with
great regularity, and drops upon it with unerring
aim Selby says it occasionally utters loud screams
during its flight ; and Mr. Yarrell says it screeches
but does not generally hoot. But Sir Wm. Jardine
asserts that he shot one in the act of hooting, and
that at night, when not alarmed, hooting is its
general cry. It snores and hisses, and when annoyed
snaps its bill loudly.
The barn-owl constmcts a rude nest; the eggs
are three or four in number, and of a white colour,
and, strange to say, the female often lays a second
time before the young are able to leave the nest —
• Tlie owl .nd all Oie hiwk tribe cut up the indigestible !»';■ »'
their prev, «> bones, feather., hair, rl«wi, tec, in the lorm of pellet. ;
•nd in the iong-ten.utiKl h«unt of »n owl thcM greatly accumuUte.
Owls.
hence young owls have been found late in the
autumn, and even in December. Mr. Blyth, in the
' Field-Naluralist's Magazine ' (vol. i.), says, " A nest
of the bam-owl in this neighbourhood (Tooting)
contained two eggs ; and when these were hatched
two more were laid, which were probably hatched
by the warmth of the young birils ; a third laying
took place after the latter were hatched : and the
nest at last contained six young owls, of three dif-
ferent ages, which were all reaied."
The plumage of the bam-owl is very beautiful ;
the upper parts are bright yellowish, varied with
grey and brown zigzag lines, and sprinkled with
a multitude of small whitish dots ; face and throat
white ; lower parts in some individuals rusty white,
sprinkled with small brown dots; in others bright
white, marked with small brownish points ; in others
again, without the slightest appearance of spots;
feet and toes covered with very short down ; iris
yellow. Length about thirteen inches ; no hom-likc
tufts.
In the female all the tints are brighter. The
young are covered with a thick white down, and re-
main long in the nest.
1299.— The Ubai. Owl
(Sumia Uralensis). Strix Uralensis, Pallas ; La
Chouette des Monts Urals, Sonnini ; Die Ural
Habichtseule, Bechstein.
This rare species is a native of the arctic regions
of the Old Worid, Lapland, the north of Sweden,
Norway, Russia, Hungary, and Japan. It is occa-
sionally seen in Germany.
In the Ural owl the tail is long, and far exceeds
the tips of the folded wings ; the tarsi are rather
short and robust. Leverets, rats, mice, grouse,
ptarmigans, and other birds, are the prey of this
species. It constructs its nest in the hollows of
decayed trees, often, it is said, near the dwellings of
man ; the eggs are three or four in number, and of
a pure white. The head of this owl is of consider-
able size ; the facial disc large, and of a greyish
white marked with some blackish hairs ; the mar-
ginal circle of the disc is composed of white fea-
thers spotted with brownish black. Top of the head,
nape, back, and wing-coverts, marked with great
longitudinal spots disposed on a whitish ground ;
all the under parts whitish, marked in the middle
of each feather with a large longitudinal stripe of
brown. Quill and tail feathers banded with brown
and white alternately; seven bands on the tail.
Beak yellow, neariy hidden in the long hairs of the
face. Iris brown ; tarsi and toes covered with hairs
of a white colour freckled with brown ; claws very
long, and yellowish. Total length about two feet
1300.— The Hawk-Owl
(Sumia funerea). This is the Strix Ulula, Linn. ;
Strix funerea, Gmel., Forst. ; Strix Hudsonia,
Gmel. ; Strix Canadensis et Freti Hudsonis, Briss. ;
StrLx Hudsonia, Wils. ; Strix nisoria, Meyer ; Chou-
ette de Canada et Chouette Eperviere, ou Capara-
coch, and Chouette k longue queue de Siberie,
Buffon ; (Eul 463, a very good figure of this species,
under the erroneous name of the Ural mountains
Owl ;) Chouette Epervihre, Sonn. ; Sperbereule,
Meyer, Naum. ; Habichtseule, Bechst. ; Plattkop-
fige and Hochkopfige Habichtseule, Brehm. ; Hawk- •
Owl of Pennant and Wilson ; Little Hawk-Owl of
Edwards ; Canada Owl of Latham ; Paypaw thee-
cawsew or Cobadecootch of the Cree Indians ;
Theechazza of the Copper Indians and Chepewyans ;
and Ood no hseoot of the Esquimaux.
The Hawk-Owl is a native of the arctic regions
of both continents ; it sometimes appears in Germany
during the winter retiring northward on the return
of spring. It seldom visits Fiance ; and though one
settled and was taken on board a collier vessel a
few miles off the coast of Cornwall, in 1830, it does
not appear to have been ever seen within the shores
of our island. Wilson says that this species is rare
in Pennsylvania and the more southern of the
United States, its favourite range being along the
borders of the arctic regions, making occasional
excursions southward when compelled by severity
of weather, and consequent scarcity of food. The
facial disc of the hawk-owl is very limited ; its
head is comparatively small, and the face narrow,
approaching in resemblance to that of some of the
Harriers (Circus). It preys moreover by day, its
eyes being adapted for a dull light, and its flight is
steady. From these circumstances it has obtained
its English appellation. Fig. 1301 represents the
Head in profile. From the writer alluded to, we
learn that it is bold and active, and will follow the
fowler, carrying off his game as soon as shot.
According to Dr. Richardson, the Hawk-Owl re-
mains all the winter in high northern latitudes, and
is rarely seen so far south as Pennsylvania, and then
only in severe winters. Wilson saw only two speci-
mens in the United States. It is a common species
throughout the Fur-countries, from Hudson's Bay
to the Pacific, and is more frequently killed than
Owls.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
283
any other by the hunters, which may be partly at-
tributed to its boldness and its habit of flying about
by day. In the summer season it feeds principally
on mice and insects ; but in the snow-clad regions,
which it frequents in winter, neither of these are to
be procured, and it then preys mostly on ptarmigan.
It is a constant attendant on the flocks of ptarmigan
in their spring migrations to the northward. It
builds its nest on a tree, of sticks, grass, and fea-
thers, and lays two white eggs. When the hunters
are shooting grouse, this bird is occasionally at-
tracted by the report of the gun, and is often bold
enough, on a bird being killed, to pounce down
upon it, though it may be unable, from its size, to
carry it off. It is also known to hover round the
fires made by the natives at night." (' Fauna
Boreali- Americana.')
The colouring is as follows : — Forehead dotted
with white and brown ; outer margin of the facial
disc black ; upper parts marked with brown and
white spots of various forms : on the borders of the
wings are similar white spots disposed on a brown
ground; throat whitish ; the other lower parts white,
transversely striped with ashy brown ; at the inser-
tion of the wings a great spot of blackish brown ;
tail-feathers ashy brown, striped at considerable
distances with transversal narrow zigzags ; bill
yellow, varied with black spots according to age ;
iris bright yellow ; feet feathered to the claws.
Total length about fifteen inches. The colours of
the female are less pure than those of the male,
and she is rather larger — measuring seventeen or
eighteen inches.
1302.— The Great Owl
{Bubo maximus). The generic characters of Bubo
(Cuvier) are these : — Conch of the ear small ; facial
disc imperfectly formed ; two tufls or feathered horns
above the eyes.
This species is the Strix Bubo of Linnaeus ; Le
grand Due of the French ; Gulb, Gufo erande, and
Gufo reale of the Italians ; Schuffut, Uhu, Grosse
ohreule Huhu of the Germans ; Uff of the 'Fauna
Suecica ;' Buhu of the Lower Austrians ; Great Owl,
or Eagle Owl, of Willughby, Ray, and Pennant.
The Great Owl is the largest of the Strigidae, and
is most probably the /Sms of Aristotle, and the Bubo
funebris mentioned by Pliny, and of which the ap-
Searance upon two occasions within the walls of
lorae occasioned no little alarm, a lustration being
performed each time to purify the city. Butler thus
humorously alludes to the circumstance; —
" The Roman Senate, when within
Tlie city walls an owl was seen,
Did cause their clef gy with lustrations
(Our Synod calls humiliations)
The round-faced prodigy t' avert
From doinf( town and country hurt."
The great or eagle owl is a native of the exten-
sive forests of Hungary, Russia, Germany, and Switz-
erland, and is said to occur eastward as far as
Kamtchatka. It is rare in France, and never seen
in Holland. Pennant states that it has been shot in
Yorkshire, and Latham adds Kent and Sussex as
localities in which it has been found ; it is said to
have been seen also in Orkney. In Mr. Stewart's
' Catalogue of the birds of Donegal,' is the remark,
that " four of these birds paid us a visit for two
days after a great storm from the north, when the
ground was covered with snow. They have not
been since seen here. As I am informed that a
pair of them breed in Tory Island, about nine miles
to the north of this coast, it is probable that they
came from that island : I have heard of them no-
where else." Young roes and fawns, hares, rabbits,
rats, and moles, reptiles, and winged game are the
prey of this species. From its lonely retreat in
some deep forest glen, some rift among hoary rocks,
where it reposes in silence during the day, this
winged marauder issues forth at night, intent upon
its victims, its harsh dismal voice resounding at
intervals through the gloomy solitudes of a wild and
savage scene.
The eagle-owl makes its nest in the fissures of
rocks, in old ruined and deserted castles, and simi-
lar places. The eggs are two or three in number,
round, and white. The young are abundantly sup-
plied with food, and the broods of partridges and
moor-fowl are sadly thinned to supply their wants.
This noble bird is upwards of two feet in length.
The upper surface is barred, waved, and streaked
with black on a mingled brown and yellow ground.
The throat in the male is white ; the under surface
is yellow, with longitudinal dashes of black on the
eheist, and fine transverse bars below ; tarsi feathered
to the toes ; beak and claws black ; iris fine orange
colour.
1303. — The Vihgikias Horned Owi,
(Bubo Virrjinianm). Due de Virginie of BufFon ;
Netowky-omesew of the Cree Indians, according to
Mr. Hutchins; Otowuck-oho, of the Crees of the
plains of the Saskatchewan, according to Dr.
Kichardson.
The species is a native of North America, being
found in almost every quarter of the United States,
and in the Fur-countries where the timber is of
large size.
Wilson thus describes the haunts and habits of
the Virginian horned owl : — " His favourite resi-
dence is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps,
covered with a growth of gigantic timber ; and
here, as soon as the evening draws on, and mankind
retire to rest, he sends forth such sounds as seem
scarcely to belong to this world. . . Along the
mountain shores of the Ohio, and amidst the deep
forests of Indiana, alone and reposing in the woods,
this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me
of the approach of morning, and amused me with
his singular exclamations. Sometimes sweeping
down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sud-
den 'Waugh O! Waugh O!' sufficient to have
alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal
solos, one of which very strikingly resembles the
half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating or
throttled." Wilson treats this visitation like a
philosopher, but after reading his description and
that of Nuttall (' Ornithology of the United States'),
we shall cease to wonder at the well-told tale in
' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' of the winter night of
agony endured by a party Of Scottish Highlanders
who, according to Dr. Richardson, had made their
bivouac in the recesses of a North American forest,
and inadvertently fed their fire with a part of an
Indian tomb which had been placed in the secluded
spot. The startling notes of the Virginian horned
owl broke upon their ear, and they at once con-
cluded that so unearthly a voice must be the moan-
ing of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they
supposed they had disturbed.
The flight of this bird is elevated, rapid, and
graceful. It sails with apparent ease in large circles,
and rises and descends without the least difficulty,
by merely inclining its wings or its tail as it passes
through the air. Now and then it glides silently
close over the earth with incomparable velocity,
and drops as if shot dead on the prey beneath. At
other times it suddenly alights on the top of a fence,
stake, or dead stump, and utters a shriek so horrid,
that the woods around echo to its dismal sound.
During the utterance of the deep gurgling cries so
well described by Wilson, it moves its body, and
particularly its head, in various grotesque ways,
and at intervals violently snaps its bill. Its food
consists of various gallinaceous birds, half-grown
turkeys, domestic poultry of all kinds, ducks, grouse,
hares, opossums, and squirrels ; and whenever chance
throws a dead fish on the shore, this bird feeds on
it with peculiar avidity. The Virginian horned owl
is very powerful, and equally spirited. Mallards,
guinea-fowl, and common fowls fall an easy prey,
and are carried off in its talons to the depths of
the woods. When wounded, says Audubon, it ex-
hibits a revengeful tenacity of spirit, scarcely sur-
passed by the noblest of the eagle tribe ; disdaining
to scramble away, it faces its enemy with undaunted
courage, protruding its powerful talons, and snap-
ping Its bill. Its large goggle eyes open and shut
in quick succession ; and the feathers of its body are
putted up, and swell out its apparent bulk to nearly
double the natural size. In some districts it is a
great nuisance to the settler, making sad havoc
among his stock of poultry. Among some of the
Indian nations a sort of reverential horror is en-
tertained towards this bird, and the priests and
conjurers have adopted it as the symbol of their
office, carrying about with them a stuffed specimen
with glass eyes, which excites general awe. This
bird usually constructs a bulky nest in the forked
branch of a tree, composed externally of crooked
sticks, and lined with coarse grass and feathers.
The eggs are three or four in number, and of a dull
white.
In size this species is nearly, if not quite, as large
as its European representative, the eagle-owl, and
in the general style of colouring is similar, the
upper parts being waved and mottled with black
and brownish red ; a tinge of grey as the ground-
colour prevails on the lower part of the back ; the
throat is pure white ; the rest of the under surface
is marked by innumerable narrow transverse dusky
bars, on a reddish ground-colour, thinly interspersed
with white ; beak and claws black ; iris bright
orange ; fascial disc brown with a margin of black.
1304, 1305.— The Burrowikg Owt,
(Noclua cunicularia). This singular little owl (if
the species be identical) is widely spread through
the American continent, everywhere inhabiting bur-
rows ; it is diurnal in its habits, as well as terres-
trial ; is of slender contour, and walks about with
ease elevated on long naked tarsi ; the fascial disc is
circumscribed. C. L. Bonaparte thus describes the
strange economy of this bird : —
"In the trans-Mississipian territories of the United
States the burrowing owl resides exclusively in the
villages of the marmot or prairie dog, whose ex-
cavations are so commodious as to render it unne-
i cessary that our bird should dig for himself, as he is
said to do in other parts of the world where no
burrowing animals exist. These villages are very
numerous, and variable in their extent, sometimes
covering only a few acres, and at others spreading
over the surface of the country for miles together.
They are composed of slightly elevated mounds,
having the form of a truncated cone, about two feet
in width at the base, and seldom rising as high as
eighteen inches above the surface of the soil. The
I entrance is placed either at the top or on the side,
and the whole mound is beaten down externally,
especially at the summit, resembling a much used
footpath. '
" From the entrance, the passage into the mound
descends vertically for one or two feet, and is thence
continued obliquely downwards, until it terminates
in an apartment, within which, the industrious
marmot constructs, on the approach of the cold
season, a comfortable cell for his winter's sleep.
This cell, which is composed of fine dry grass, is
globular in form, with an opening at top capable of
admitting the finger; and the whole is so firmly
compacted, that he might, without injury, be rolled
over the floor.
" In all the prairie-dog villages the burrowing owl
is seen moving briskly about, or else in small flocks
scattered among the mounds, and at a distance it
may be mistaken for the marmot itself when sitting
erect. They manifest but little timidity, and allow
themselves to be approached sutticiently close for
shooting ; but if alarmed, some or all of them soar
away and settle down again at a short distance ; if
further disturbed, their flight is continued until they
are no longer in view, or they descend into their
dwellings, whence they are difficult to dislodge.
" The burrows into which these owls have been
seen to descend on the plains of the river Platte (a
tributary to the Missouri), where they are most nu-
merous, were evidently excavated either by the
marmot, whence it has been inferred by Say that
they were common though unfriendly residents of
the same habitation, or that our owl was the sole
occupant of a burrow acquired by the right of
conquest. That the latter idea is correct was
clearly presented by the ruinous condition of the
burrows tenanted by the owl, while the neat and
well-preserved mansion of the marmot showed the
active care of a skilful and industrious owner. We
have no evidence that the owl and marmot habitu-
ally resort to one burrow ; yet we are well assured
by Pike and others that a common danger often
drives them into the same excavation, where lizards
and rattlesnakes also enter for concealment and
safety. The owl observed by Vieillot in St. Do-
mingo digs itself a burrow two feet in depth, at the
bottom of which its eggs are deposited on a bed of
moss, herb stalks, and dried roots.
" The note of our bird is strikingly similar to the
cry of the marmot, which sounds like Cheh, Cheh,
pronounced several times in rapid succession ; and
were it not that the burrowing owls of the West
Indies, where no marmots exist, utter the same
sound, it might be inferred that the marmot was
the unintentional tutor to the young owl : this cry
is only uttered as the bird begins its flight. The
food of the bird we are describing appears to con-
sist entirely of insects, as on examination of its
stomach nothing but parts of their hard wing-cases
were found."
Azara describes the burrowing owl of Paraguay
under the name of Suinda : he states that "it never
enters woods or perches upon trees, but exclusively
haunts the open country where game abounds,
making its nest and concealing itself in the holes *
or kennels of the armadilloes, which are not very
deep but well lined with hay and straw." Mr.
Darwin states that this species, on the plains of
Buenos Ayres, exclusively inhabits the holes of the
bizcacha, or viscacha (see page 71), but that in
Banda Oriental it is its own workman. " During
the open day, but more especially in the evening,"
says this acute observer, " these birds may be seen
in every direction, standing frequently by pairs on
the hillocks near their burrows. If disturbed, they
either enter the hole, or, uttering a shrill, harsh cry,
move with a remarkably undulatory flight to a
short distance, and then turning round steadily gaze
at their pursuer. Occasionally in the evening they
may be heard hooting. I found in the stomachs of
two which I opened, the remains of mice, and I
one day saw a small snake killed and carried away.
It is said these latter animals are their common prey
during the daytime. I may here mention, as show-
ing on what various kinds of food owls subsist, that
a species that was killed among the islets of the
Chonos Archipelago had its stomach full of good-
sized crabs." (' Journal of Researches in Geology
and Natural History.')
The general colour of this owl above is light
burnt umber, spotted with whitish ; the wings are
darker ; the lower part of the breast and under parts
whitish. Length about ten inches.
2 0 2
1304. — Curroi\ iajj-UwU antl Pxairio-DOa's.
1299 — Dral-Owl. ;
130^.— ^utaowiiig OmI.
liOS.— Great Oul.
248
130€. — Bird aale«p.
131(i._Foot of Ni'ht-Jar.
i:V.X!
t30-.— Lcj! of nird Perched.
Head and Foot of Niglit-Jar.
13U.— Nigiit-IIauks,
1314.— Great Ib'jau.
Ul>^Nigll^Jar.
t30».— Head of Roller, sbowing the- Vibilaaa.
I312.-Nijli!a«.
285
286
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Nioht-JarSi.
ORDER INSESSORES (Vigors).
That eminent omitholo^st, Mr. Vigors, established
this extensive order for the inclusion of the Pic»
and Pameres of Linnaeus ; Kroups, it must be con-
fessed, containing, especially the former, an ill-
lorted union of genera, and which Cuvier had pre-
viously re-arranged, not, indeed, in one order, as
was subsequently done by Mr. Vigors, but in two,
viz., " Paasereaux," or " I'asseres," and "Grim-
peurs." or " Scansores ;" whereas Mr. Vigors makes
the Scansores (or Parrots, Cuckoos, Trogons, &c.) a
tribe of the Insessores. For ourselves we must lay
that we conceive the group Scansores, whether we
regard it as an order or as a tribe of an order, to be
anything but natural ; and, to confess our opinion,
we thi.nk that the whole order Insessores requires
utterly re-modelling. It is not, however, here our
place to enter into any scientitic disquisitions ; we
shall, therefore, pause, merely observing that though
we enumerate the tribes as instituted by Mr. Vigors,
we shall, as we proceed, attend only to the natural
families into which they are resolvable, and so leave
anv subsequent arrangement open.
fhe Insessores, then, are divided by Mr. Vigors into
the following tribes or primary sections: —
1. Fissirostres, including Night-jars, Swallows,
King-fishers &c.
2. iJffn/iVoj^res, viz., Flycatchers,Shrikes, Thrushes,
Warblers, &c.
3. Omirostiet, viz. Finches, Starlings, Crows,
Hornbills, &c.
4. Scansoret, viz., Toucans, Parrots, Woodpeckers,
Tree-creepers, and Cuckoos.
5. Temdrostret, viz.. Sun-birds, Humming-birds,
Honey-suckers, Hoopoes, &c.
The term Insessores * means " perching-birds,"
and must be defined rather by negations than any
positive characters : it includes all birds which are
neither raptorial, nor gallinaceous, nor waders, nor
swimmers ; yet do its subjects feed on every kind
of diet, from flesh to grain, and they exhibit every
variety of habits and manners, from those of the vo-
racious raven to those of the tiny humming-bird or
brilliant honey-sucker ; consequently their beak,
plumage, limbs, and digestive organs are as diver-
sified as their modes of life. Take, for example, the
parrot and the cuckoo — and yet these are both ex-
amples not only of one order, but of one tribe.
Leaving all this, however, we may proceed to
observe that the security and firmness with which
birds perch have often excited surprise, and no doubt
led many to conjecture that there must be some
peculiarity in the mechanism from which such tena-
city of grasp proceeds. Fig. 1306 represents a bird
in a perched attitude asleep, with the leg dissected,
after Borelli, and in which the mechanism is shown ;
but much more clearly at Fig. 1307, the anatomy
of the leg of a bird at rest — nothing can be more
simple, yet more effective, a is a muscle which
arises from the haunch-bone, and becoming sud-
denly tendinous, passes over the outer angle of
the thigh-joint (analogous to our knee) at 6; then
winding down the bone, being diverted from its
straight course, and firmly bound down so as not
to slip, it passes posteriorly over the angle of the
tarsal joint, c, and proceeds down the back of the
tarsus to the under side of the toes, d, into the
bones of which slips from it are respectively in-
serted. From this arrangement it is evident that
when the bones of the leg and thigh are bent to-
gether (the joints forming acuter angles) by the
weight of the sleeping bird, the tendon will be
stretched more and more over the angles b and c,
and the toes become more strongly drawTi together
or clasped. Hence birds can rest as easily, perhaps
more so, on one leg than on both, and, as is well
known, it is on one leg only that most sleep perched ;
while the flexibility of the neck allows it to be
turned back upon the body, and the head brought
under the wing, so as to throw the centre of gravity
more over the feet, and thereby increase the sta-
bility.
Fig. 1308 relates to a different subject, and ex-
hibits the VibrisssE or Bristles round the base of the
beak of the Roller. Most birds which feed on in-
sects are distinguished by a fringe of bristles at the
base of the beak, not unlike the whiskers of the cat,
and evidently intended to aid them in capturing
their prey. These bristles are larger in the night-
jars than in most other birds ; but are very distinct
in our small insectivorous feathered tribes generally,
as the nightingale, red-breast, shrike, flycatcher, and
the roller, selected by way of example. To these
vibrissae we shall have to make frequent allusion.
Family CAPRIMULGIDiE (NIGHT-JARS
or GOATSUCKERS).
The birds composing the present family are crepus-.
cular and nocturnal in their habits ; they spend the
* Thoajfli we would not carp at termi, yet ft muit be acknowledged
thatthii convey! no definite or retrtrictive idea; for eagles, liawlu,
bad owl* perch, la well aa ravens, and beUer than woodpeckers.
I hours of day in repose, shrouding themselves from |
I observation in the gloom of wikkIs, or amidst the
I dense foliage of trees; coming forth at evening to |
feed upon such insects as, like tnemselves, are roused
from inertion by the advance of darkness. They
take their prey upon the wing, and perform during
the chase the most elegant aerial evolutions. Their
eyes are large and of the true nocturnal character ;
the beak is small, but the ^ape is enormous, ex-
tending below the eyes, reminding us of the mouth
of a toad (see Fig. 1309, the Head of the common
Night-jar) ; its margin is fringed with strong vi-
brissa ; the wings are long and pointed ; tlic tarsi
usually very short ; the hind toe is, in some genera,
united close to the base of the inner toe, and di-
rected almost as equally forwards; the middle of
the three anterior toes is the longest, and in the
genus Caprimulgus is armed with a long claw,
having a comb-like (pectinated) inner margin. (See
Figs. 1310 and 1311, the foot of the Night-jar.)
The plumage is full and soft, and beautifully varie-
gated with dots, bars, dashes, and zigzag marks of
mingled grey, brown, fawn-colour, black, and white ;
difficult to describe and almost as difficult to imi-
tate. Rapid and abrupt as is the flight of these birds,
still it is noiseless; lesembhng in that respect the
flight of the owl, and from the same cause — the lax-
ness, the want of rigidity in the quill-feathers : but,
from the form of the wing, the flight is of a different
character. Some have the sides of the head adorned
with tufts of soft feathers.
1312, 1313.— Thb Night-Jae
(Caprimulgus Europmu). This is the Goatsucker,
Jar-owl, Churn-owl, Fern-owl, Dor-hawk, Night-
hawk, and Wheel-bird of various writers. AlyttiXnt
of the Greeks; Caprimulgus of the Latins; Calca-"
botto Piattaglione, Porta quaglie, Boccaccio, and
Cova-terra of the modern Italians ; Chotacabras of
the Spaniards ; Tette-chevre, Engouleverf, and
Crapaud volant of the French ; Milchsauger, Geiss-
milcher, Nacht Rabe, Nacht Shcwalb^, and Tag-
schliiferof the Germans ; Natskraffa, Natskarra, and
Quallknarren of the ' Fauna Suecica ;* Natravn,
Nat-skade, and Aften-bakke of Brunnich ; Mucken-
stecker and Nachtrabb of Kramer ; Aderyn y droell
and Rhodwr of the ancient British.
An evil name has this beautiful bird had from
the earliest times, and among almost all European
nations. Aristotle, who describes it under the title
AlytH\<ii, accuses it of flying upon goats and
sucking them (whence its GreeK name) ; and adds
as a common report, that the teat of the goat after-
wards becomes dry, and the animal itself blind.
Elian's version is nearly to the same effect, and so
also is Pliny's. In France the same erroneous
opinion has long been entertained, and also in Italy,
as well as in Germany and England : in short, it
seems to be a bupeistition of universal prevalence. ,
In our country it is not the udder of the goat, but
that of the cow, that it is supposed to drain (a nefa-
rious practice attributed also to the poor little
hedgehog) ; and not this only, for, as White says
(' Selborne'), " the country-people have a notion that
the fern-owl or churn-owl, or eve-jar, is very injurious
to weaning calves, by inflicting, as it strikes at them,
a fatal distemper. Thus does this harmless, ill-fated
bird fall under a double imputation which it by no
means deserves ; — in Italy, of sucking the teats of
goats, whence it is called Caprimulgus ; and with
us, of communicating a deadly disorder to cattle."
The disease in question is in reality occasioned by
the ravages beneath the skin of the maggots of a
species of fly (cestrus) ; and if the fern-owl was ever
seen making a sweep near the suffering calves, that
is, as it would appear, striking at them, it was in
order to snap at some insect, from the torments of
which the calf would be gladly freed.
The night-jar preys upon moths, chaffers, and
other large insects, and may be often seen, when
the sun begins to set, darting in chase of its food,
displaying almost unequalled rapidity of flight, and
the most rapid and surprising evolutions ; yet it
flits a'ong noiseless as a shadow, not a rustle is
heard : on many occasions, in days past by, we have
watched this interesting bird thus occupied, and we
have seen it settle, and with head depressed almost
to the perch on which it rested, and swollen quiver-
ing throat, utter its jarring vibratory note, and again
give chase to its prey. White says, and though we
never observed it ourselves, we fully believe it, that
" when a person approaches the haunt of the fern-
owls in an evening, they continue flying round the
head of the obtruder, and by striking their wings
together above their backs, in the manner thnt the
pigeons called smiters are known to do, make a
smart snap; perhaps at that time they are jealous
for their young, and their noise and gesture are in-
tended by way of menace."
It is not often that this bird utters its churring
sound in the air; but usually when perched, a bare
branch, high palings, or the ridge of any building
being chosen as a resting place. The fern-owl does
not perch across the branch, as birds in general do,
but lengthwise, and rests upon it, instead of grasp,
ing it, and that with the head low, so as almost to
touch it. The male sometimes utters a kiuhII squeak
repeated four or five times, when playfully chasing
his mate through the boughs of trees.
Much h.is been said and written respecting the
pectinated claw on the middle toe of the fern-owl,,
but its use has not yet been explicitly determined.
White supposed it to serve in the capture of its
prey ; but that the bird should strike at its prey with
its little feet and short legs is out of the question ;
when observed by White to bring its foot to its beak
during flight, might it not have been clearing its
bill and vibrissae of the hard wing-cases and limbs
of the beetles it had captured? In which case the
worthy historian of Selborne would indeed have
seen what he relates, incorrect as we deem hii
inference. It is remarkable, however, that other
birds of very different habits, as the heron. Sec.,
have the claws similariy pectinated : may not thia
modification be connected with their mode of perch-
ing on the bare branches of trees ? These are
queries yet to be decided : certainly the serrations,
whether in the fern-owl or the heron, have nothing
to do with the seizure or retention of prey ; in fact,
the comb-like teeth are directed obliquely forwards,
not backwards, as they ought to be, if intended aa
letainere of struggling or slippery captives.
The fern-owl, or night-jar, is a bird of passage,
arriving on our island in May, and departing in
September : it is spread over all the southern and
middle districts of Europe, and retires to pass the
winter in Africa. Woods skirting heaths, or com-
mon lands, plantations of oak, or rows of sycamores
near farm-houses, are the favourite spots which it
haunts. It builds no definite nest, but lays its eggs
on the ground among fern or heath, or under the
protection of shrubs; they are two in number, mar-
bled with white, yellowish brown, and grey.
The plumage of this bird is beautifully diversified
with a rich and intricate commingling of grey,
black, brown, rufous, and yellowish, in dots, dashes,
and zigzag bars, the latter being conspicuous on the
under parts and tail. Length almost ten inches.
1314.— The Great InuAu
(Nt/ctibiut grandis). Caprimulgus grandis, Latham ;
Grand Crapaud volant de Cayenne, Buffon. The
principal character of the genus Nyctibius consists
in an obtuse tooth on each edge of the upper man-
dible of the beak.
This bird is a native of South America, and in
general habits resembles the night-jar ; being noc-
turnal and insectivorous, pursuing its prey on
rapid pennons ; during the day it haunts hollow
trees, especially in the neighbourhood of water.
The bill is much depressed, and broad at the base ;
the tail is rather rounded ; the hind toe is stout and
flattened. The general plumage is brown, speckled
with black, fulvous, and white ; the grountl-colour
is deepest on the breast; head, neck, and lower
parts barred. Length nearly thirteen inches.
1315.— The Night-Hawk.
( Chordeiles Americanus), Caprimulgus Amerlcanus,
Wilson ; C. Virginianus, Prince of Musignano and
Canino. — Edge of beak smooth ; tail forked. This
bird is common in the United States of America,
and ranges in summer through the Fur-countries of
the north, even to the remotest arctic islands. It
is the musquito-hawk described in Parry's first
voyage. Its manners, as described by Wilson,
remind us closely of those of our own night-jar: it
is a bird of strong and vigorous pinions, and in dull
and cloudy weather is abroad during the day,
giving chase, hke the swallow, to its insect prey,
sometimes at a considerable height, sometimes
skimming over marsh and meadow, and uttering
shrill squeaks as it dashes along. Often from an
elevation of GO or 80 feet, will the male, hovering
over the female engaged in the duty of incubation,
dart suddenly down, head foremost, with incon-
ceivable rapidity, and as sudtlenly wheel up, utter-
ing, at the moment he makes the turn, a loud
vibratory booming sound, produced by the sudden
expansion of his capacious mouth as he sweeps
through the air. Having mounted, he again repeats
this aerial feat, with the same impetuosity and the
same sound as before. The female lays her eggs
on the bare ground; these are two in number, of a
dirty white, thickly marbled and dashed with dark,
olive-brown. Like our British species, this bird
perches lengthwise on the branches of trees, or on
the edge of fences. During the time the female is
sitting she will permit a person to approach her
within a foot or two, before she attempts to stir, and
then, like our lapwing, feigns lameness, and flutters
and tumbles about, keeping just before the pursuer,
till she has drawn him to a distance from the spot;
when, just as he hopes to succeed in catching her,
she mounts and disappears in an instant. The
young when just hatched are very shapeless, and
Night-Jars.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
287
covered with fine brownish down. When the
night-hawk is wounded and captured, it opens its
mouth widely, utters a guttural whizzing noise, and
strikes with its wings, but never with the bill or
claws. The general ground-colour of the plumage
is dark liver-brown glossed with greenish; head,
neck, and wing-coverts spotted with yellowish
brown ; back and tertials mottled with brownish
white and greyish brown ; a band of white across the
middle quill-feathers ; a white broad arrow-shaped
mark on the throat, and a white dotted stripe above
the eyes. Plumage below barred with brownish
white and dark liver brown ; tail barred j claw of
middle toe serrated. Length nine inches and a half.
1316.— The Whip-poor-Will
{Caprimulgns vocifens]. Female and Young.
This species, universally spread over all the
United States of America, has received its name
from the singularity of its notes, which seem to arti-
culate the words Whip-poor-Will with considerable
distinctness, the first and last syllables being uttered !
with great emphasis ; and when two or more males
meet, they seem as if endeavouring to overpower
each other by the vehemence of their vociferations.
At these times, and indeed generally, they fly low,
skimming round the house or barn, and alighting on
stacks, palings, or the roof. Towards midnight they
generally become silent, unless a clear moonlight,
when they are heard without intermission till morn-
ing. It is about the 25th of April, according to
Wilson, that this bird is heard in Pennsylvania, and
in Kentucky about the 14th, commencing its call as
the dusk begins to set in ; and hundreds are some-
times heard at once in dilFerent parts of the wood,
striving to outdo eacli other. Early in June, when
the young appear, the notes of the male usually
cease ; but towards the latter end of the summer
they are again occasionally heard, though with less
vehemence and emphasis than in the spring. Early
in September the birds all move southwards, per-
forming a regular migration.
The favourite haunts of this species are high dry
barren or hilly situations ; they seldom visit low
marshy tracts, or the low lands along the sea-coast ;
they abound in the barrens of Kentucky, where in
April and May their confused clamour is incessant
every evening, and, as Wilson asserts, extremely
agreeable to the inhabitants, who are lulled to sleep
by their voices, to which, especially on the approach
of dawn, the fuil-toned "tooting" of the pinnated
grouse forms a pleasing bass.
The food of this species of Caprimulgus consists
of various sorts of insects : its flight in the pursuit is
rapid, zigzag, and noiseless; but it utters during
the time a low murmuring sound. Its general
habits and mode of perching resemble those of our
British night-jar.
The female lays her eggs on the bare ground, and
puts every " ruse " in practice to decoy intruders
from her young, which are little shapeless things
covered with a down-like mould, and scarcely to be
seen amidst the withered leaves. It would appear
that, if the young be disturbed, the parent bird re-
moves them to a more secure locality. During the
day the Whip-poor-Will, unlike the night-hawk, is
completely confused by the light, and it sits sleep-
ing on a low branch or log, or even on the ground,
and that so soundly, that with caution a person may
pass within a very short distance of it without dis-
turbing it. When startled, however, it flies off, but
only to a short distance, and soon again, if unmo-
lested, settles into tranquil slumber.
The plumage of this species is soft : the general
colour of the upper parts is dark brownish grey,
streaked and minutely sprinkled with brownish
black ; cheeks brownish red ; quill-feathers and co-
verts dark brown, spotted in bars with light brown :
the three lateral tail-feathers white at the tips. A
yellowish white transverse band across the fore part
of the neck ; under parts paler than the upper, and
mottled. Length nine inches.
1317.— The Chuck-Will's-Widow
(^Caprirmdgm Carolinensis) . The name of this
species is taken from its cry, which it utters with
great clearness, repeating the sound Chuck-Will's-
Widow loudly and distinctly six or seven times in
«uccession, then stopping and repeating it again.
It is to the southern parts of the United States of
America that this bird pays its annual visit, coming
from Mexico, and perhaps still warmer climates,
where it sojourns during the ivinter. Louisiana,
Florida, and the lower portions of Alabama and
Georgia, are the districts in which it chiefly abounds.
Ravines, swamps, and extensive pine-ridges are
alike resorted to by the Chuck-Will's-Widow, its food
abounding equally in all those places, which also
afford it ample means of safety during the day. It
principally roosts in the hollow of decayed trees or
prostrate logs, and often in company with bats, which
cling to the sides of the cavities. " When surprised
in such situations," says Audubon, " instead of try-
ing to effect their escape by flying out, they retire
backwards to the farthest corners, ruffle all the fea-
thers of the body, open the mouth to its full ex-
tent, and utter a hissing kind of murmur; when
seized and brought to tJie light of day, they open
and close their eyes in rapid succession, as if it
were painful for them to encounter so bright a light ;
they snap their little bills in the manner of flycatchers,
and shuffle along as if extremely desirous of making
their escape." During the hours of dusk they are
all animation, and display the most rapid and varied
evolutions in the air, wheeling, sweeping along,
mounting and descending with admirable ease and
grace. The mode of incubation resembles that de-
scribed of the other species, and the manner of
perching is the same. The young, and also the
eggs, if meddled with, are removed to another
spot. " When the Chuck-Will's-Widow," says Au-
dubon, "either male or female, for each sits alter-
nately, has discovered that its eggs have been
touched, it ruffles its feathers, and appears ex-
tremely dejected for a minute or two, after which
it emits a low murmuring cry, scarcely audible
to me as I have lain concealed at a distance of 18
or 20 yards. At this time I have seen the other
parent reach the spot, flying so low over the ground
that I thought its little feet must have touched it
as it skimmed along. After a few low notes and
some gesticulations, I have witnessed each take an
egg in its large mouth, and both fly oft' together,
skimming closely over the ground, until they dis-
appeared among the branches and trees. But to
what distance they remove their eggs I have never
been able to ascertain, nor have I ever had an op-
portunity of witnessing the removal of the young.
Should a person coming upon the nest when the
bird is sitting, refrain from touching the eggs, the
bird returns to them and sits as before : this fact I
have also ascertained by observation." The Chuck-
Will's-Widow arrives in Georgia about the middle
of March, and in Virginia early in April, and imme-
diately gives notice of its arrival by its evening
call, numbers keeping up the chorus during the
hours of twilight, and through the night, if it be
clear. They leave the United States towards the
latter end of August. The colours of the plumage
of this elegant bird consist of yellow, ferruginous,
and blackish brown, blended and mingled together ;
the head and back are dark brown, minutely mot-
tled with yellowish red, and longitudinally streaked
with black ; the wings are barred with yellowish
red and brownish black, and minutely sprinkled
with the latter colour. Tail similarly barred and
sprinkled : the inner webs of the three outer feathers
white. Under parts blackish, sprinkled with yel-
lowish red : a slight band of whitish across the fore
part of the neck.
1318. — The Gdacharo
{Steatornis Carlpensis, Humboldt). This extra-
ordinary bird was discovered by Baron Humboldt in
the cavern of Caripe, called Cueva del Guacharo, in
the province of Cumana, which it haunts, in thou-
sands ; and either the same or a closely allied spe-
cies was seen by him in a ravine, traversed by two
natural bridges, of the valley of Icononzo (Cordil-
leras), visited by himself and Bonpland on their way
from Santa Fe de Bogota to Popayan and Quito.
This ravine is represented at Fig. 1319, and the dis-
tance of the upper bridge from the little mountain-
torrent below is about 315 feet. It is in this deep
ravine that these birds congregate, flitting in the
gloom, like foul spirits, as if unwilling to meet the
light of " garish day." In the middle of this second
bridge there is a hole, of about ninety square feet in
area, through which can be seen the bottom of the
abyss below. The torrent seems as if it flowed away
into a dusky cavern ; and a mournful sound falls on
the ear, proceeding from an infinite multitude of
night-birds that dwell in the dusky cleft, and are
to be seen in thousands hovering over the water.
It is impossible, however, to catch any of them ; and
the only mode of obtaining anything like a distinct
view of them is by throwing down squibs or
torches to produce a momentary light. They were
described by the Indians (who call them Cacas) as
being about the size of a hen, and having the eyes
of an owl, with crooked beaks. The colour of their
plumage is uniform throughout, and of a brownish
grey, whence Humboldt rightly conjectures that
they belong to the Caprimulgidae, of which there
are many varieties in this region. The stream,
over which these bridges are suspended, flows from
east to west; and the view in our illustration is
taken from the northern part of the valley, from a
point where the arches are seen in profile.
With respect to the Cueva del Guacharo, it is not
actually in the valley of Caripe, but at the distance
of three leagues from the convent, and is pierced in
the vertical profile of a rock ; the entrance is to the
south, forming a vault 80 feet broad and 72 high.
The rock surmounting the cavern is covered with
trees of gigantic height, and all the luxuriant pro-
fusion of an intertropical climate ; and it is worthy
of o'oservation that this luxuriance of vegetation
penetrates even into the vestibule of the cave. The
travellers saw with astonishment plantain-leaved
heliconias 18 feet in height, the praga-palm, and tree-
arums follow the banks of the river even to the sub-
terranean places. The party went forwards for
about 430 feet without being obliged to light their
torches. Where the light began to fail, they heard
from afar the hoarse cries of the Guacharo birds.
These birds quit the cave only at nightfall, especi-
ally when there is moonlight ; and Humboldt remarks
that it is almost the only frugivorous night-bird yet
known. It feeds on very hard fruits (an exception
to the rule among the Caprimulgidae), and the In-
dians assured him (though we place little dependence
on their statement) that it does not pursue either the
hard-winged insects or the moths that serve as the
food of this tribe of birds. It is, he states, difiicult
to form any idea of the horrible noise made by thou-
sands of the Guacharo birds in the dark recesses of
the cavern, whence their shrill and piercing cries
strike upon the vaulted rock, and are repeated by
the echo in the depths of the grotto. By fixing
torches of copal to the end of a long pole, the
Indians showed the nests of these birds fifty or sixty
feet above the heads of the explorers, in funnel-
shaped holes, with which the cavern-roof is pierced
like a sieve.
Once a year, near midsummer, the Guacharo
cavern is entered by the Indians. Armed with poles,
they ransack the greater part of the nests, while the
old birds hover over the heads of the robbers, as if
to defend their brood, uttering horrible cries. The
young which fall down are opened on the spot.
The peritoneum is found loaded with fat, and a
layer of the same substance on the abdomen
forms a kind of cushion between the bird's legs.
At the period above-mentioned, which is generally
known at Caripe by the designation of " the oil-
harvest," huts are built by the Indians with palm
leaves, near the entrance and even in the very porch
of the cavern. There the fat of the young birds just
killed is melted in clay pots over a brushwood fire ;
and this fat is named butter or oil (manteca or
aceite) of the Guacharo. It is half-liquid, transpa-
rent, inodorous, and so pure that it will keep above
a year without becoming rancid. In the kitchen of
the monks of the convent of Caripe no other oil is
used, and Humboldt never found that it imparted
a disagreeable taste or smell to the aliments. The
quantity of very pure manteca collected does not
exceed 150 or 160 bottles, each being sixty cubic
inches ; the rest, which is less transparent, is pre-
served in large earthen vessels : the whole hardly
seems to correspond with the immense annual car-
nage of birds."* The use of the Guacharo oil is very
ancient, and the race of Guacharo birds would have
been extinct long since if several circumstances had
not contributed to its preservation. The natives,
withheld by superstitious fears, seldom dare to pro-
ceed far into the recesses of the cavern. Humboldt
had great difficulty in persuading them to pass be-
yond the outer part of the cave, the only portion of
it which they visit annually to collect the oil ; and
the whole authority of the Padres was necessary to
make them penetrate as far as the spot where the
floor rises abruptly at an inclination of sixty degrees,
and where a small subterraneous cascade is formed
by the torrent. In the minds of the Indians this
cave, inhabited by nocturnal birds, is associated
with mystic ideas, and they believe that in the deep
recesses of the cavern the souls of their ancestors
sojourn. They say that man should avoid places
which are enlightened neither by the sun nor the
moon ; and " to go and join the guacharoes " means
to rejoin their fathers — in short, to die. At the en-
trance of the cave the magicians and poisoners per-
form their exorcisms to conjure the chief of the evil
spirits. It appears also, as another cause of pre-
servation, that Guacharo birds inhabit neighbouring
caverns too narrow to be accessible to man, and
from these perhaps the great cavern is repeopled;
for the missionaries declared that no sensible dimi-
nution of the birds had been observed. Young
birds of this species have been sent to the port of
Cumana, and have lived there several days, but
without taking any food — the seeds offered to them
not suiting them. The crops and gizzards of the
yoting birds opened in the cavern contained all sorts
of hard and dry fruits, which are conveyed to them
by their parents ; these are preserved, and under the
name of semilla del Guacharo (Guacharo seed) are
considered a celebrated remedy against intermittent
fevers, and sentto the sick at Cariaco and other low
localities where fever prevails. Our limits will not
allow us to pursue Humboldt's description farther ;
and we must content ourselves with referring the
reader to the ' Narrative ' for many interesting de-
• The author remarks that this branch of industry reminds one of
the harvest of piReon's oil, of which some thousands of barrels were
formerly collected in Carolina from the younj^ of tlie I'assenger Pigeon,
JicttfpitU:'/ migratoria. (CoLVUBlD.i', vol. vil., p. 373.)
Mn.-Cbwk WUfi WUo«.
lUO.— Lonf-Mml rodugwa.
1316.— Whip-poor-WiiU
288
1324.— Fork-toiled Goatsucker.
No. 37.
1325.— African Long-tailed Night-jar.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
1322.— Cold-river Fodargns.
289
290
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Swallows.
tail* respecting the cavern itself and the surrounding
scenery.
1329— Tub Loxg-barko Podabous
(Podargut mmttu). The genus Podareus is one
of the aberrant proups of the CaprimulKido", ami as
its structure deparls to a certain extent from the
typical form presented by our common ni^ht-jar, so
also it exhibits a correspondine difference with re-
gard to habits and manners. ExcUisively confined
to Australia and the islands of the Indian Archi-
peliuro, the penus Podareus contains ten or twelve
recotrnised species, of which our Pictorial Museum
contains some of the principal species. They are
nocturnal in tlieir habits, appearitiE slupified by'day.
Tlie formation of the winjt rendei-s their fliijht less
buoyant and undulating than in the typical nis;ht-
jars, thoue;h it is at the same time rapid: and the
enormous pape of the beak, conjoined with its
strength, enables them to take in the largest insects.
The French give the name of Crapaud volant, or
flying toad, to the common night-jar, in allusion to its
wide gape ; but the depressed form of the head and
the enormous width of the gape of these birds give
them a much better claim to such a title, and indeed
without much impropriety they may be regarded as
representatives among the feathered race of those
nocturnal dusky insectivorous reptiles.
In the genus Podargus the eyes are large and
staring; the bill is robust, and the tip and margins
of the upper mandible fold over those of tlie lower;
the ridge of the upper mandible is elevated and
arched: vibrissae scanty; tarsi short; the middle
claw not serrated, nor the hind toe directed forwards :
they perch in the ordinary manner. Many have
plumelets produced by the elongation of the ear-
tufts. The colouring of the plumage is sombre, and
'Composed of deep tones of brown, black, grey, and
tawny yellow bhended together.
The long-eared Podargus is a native of Sumatra :
•in its aspect it is very owl-like. Its head is volu-
minous. Its eyes large, and the gape of its bill is
enormous ; and the elongation of the ear-plumes
adds to the singularity of its appearance. It is a
recluse bird, and active only during the hours of
darkness ; but beyond this we know nothing of its
economy. It forms the type of the sub-genus Ba-
trachostomus.
1321. — The Papuan Podarqus
{Podargus Papuensis). This is another species of
the present genus, and is destitute of elongated ear-
tufts. It appears to be nearly related to a Japanese
species, described by Dr. Horsfield under the title
of Podargus Javanensis, and is very characteristic of
the group to which it belongs. As we have already
observed, the night-jar is a migratory bird through-
out every part of Europe ; but whether the species
of the genus Podargus obey a similar law is not
very clear. It is not unlikely, however, that those
peculiar to Australia pass periodically from one
district to another, as is the case with the greater
number if not all the feathered tenants of that vast
continent ; which, according to the statements of
travellers, migrate from region to region according
to the season, and regularly return to their summer
breeding haunts, summer there answering to our
■winter. In North America, the Night-hawk, the
Whip-poor-Will, and other Caprimulgidie are migra-
tory. With respect to nocturnal habits, the members
-of the genus Podargus are more confused by light
than the ordinary Caprimulgidoe, if we except that
strange bird theGuacharo: they haunt the solitudes
-of the woods, and the sombre but intermingled tints
■of their plumage screen them from observation. At
night they issue forth on their aerial chase, and
retire with the first streaks of day to their wonted
seclnsion.
1322. — Thb Coud-Rivbe Podargus
{Podargus humeralis) This species is a native of
New Holland : above, it is variegated with ashy-
brown and yellow ; the head and sides of the back
are conspicuously striped with black; the forehead
and dorsal plumage lightly dotted and banded with
white. The plumage of the under parts is trans-
versely striped with narrow lines of black, on a dirty-
yellow ground. Total length, twenty inches.
In the ' Zoological Proceedings' for 1840, p. 163,
will be found the description of a closely allied but
smaller species, under the name of Podargus bra-
chypterus, or Macrorhynchus, which inhabits the
district of the Swan River, Western Australia, but
withoutany account of its habits or manners; indeed
there is much in the economy of the whole of these
strange-looking birds which remains yet to be ascer-
tained.
1323. — Tbe.Javanese Podabous
{Podargus Javanensis, Horsfield). Chabba-wonno
cf the Javanese, or Burong saiang : see ' Catalogue
of a Collection of Birds from Malaya,' by T. C.
E)-ton, Esq, 'Zool. Proceeds., 1839,' p. 101, The
general colour of thb bird is ferruginous or rufous,
with a tint of buff yellow, varied by undulatiag
transverse bands of dark brown ; a collar of pale
yellowish white, variegated with two narrow bands
of deep brown, passes round the lower part of the
neck, and from this collar several large irregular
white marks are disposed in an interrupted series
from the root of the wing to the middle of the back ;
on the breast and under parts several white feathers
are scattered The tail, which is rounded, is marked
with strong transverse bands; the feet are rufous;
the claws blackish; the bill obscure, yellow, and
rather shining. Length, nine inches.
Tills species, which is a native of Java, is of small
size compared with the Podargi generally, but it
agrees with them in form and style of colouring. It
tenants the depths of extensive forests, passing the
houra of day in sleep,, and rousing up on the
approach of night to commence its chase of insect
prey : no further details of its habits have been
received.
1324 — Toe Foek-tailed Goatsuckeb
(Psahirus macropterus). The genus Psalurus
closely approaches the genus Capiimulgus in its
principal characters: the vibrissae of the bill are
strong ; the tail is excessively long, and deeply
forked.
This singular bird is a native of Paraguay and
Brazil : a bright ruddy demi-collar ornaments the
back part of the neck; the two external tail-feathera
in the male are greatly elongated, far surpassing the
others ; but in the female these feathers are not so
excessively produced. The Fork-tailed Goatsucker
flies with great rapidity, expanding and closing its
tail as it skims along. It is crepuscular and noc-
turnal, and, like our Night-jar, gives chase to insects,
on which it feeds.
1325. — The African Long-tailed Night-jar
(Scotomis climattirus). In the genus Scotornis the
outer toe is shorter than the inner ; the vibrissse of
the beak are strong and numerous ; the tail is
lengthened and graduated.
The present species, which is common in Senegal,
appears to be larger than it really is, from the great
length of the tail, whic(i measures nine inches, of
which three inches and a quarter are occasioned by
the two middle tail-feathers exceeding the others.
The vibrissas are longer than the bill : of the quill-
feathers the third is longest. The ground colour of
the plumage is light ferruginous brown varied with
dark freckles. The chin and a stripe from the
angle of the gape white ; the lesser wing-coverts
have at their tips a broad band of white, and the
greater have a terminal spot of cream colour much
smaller than the former. The ground-colour of the
five primary quills is entirely black, without any
rulous, their tips only benig freckled with grey ; but
they are crossed in the middle by a snowy white
broad band beginning in the inner web of the first
and terminating on the outer web of the sixth quill ;
the remaining quills are varied with black and
rufous and tipped with white. The tail is variegated
in the usual manner, the middle pair of feathers
having about twenty very slender transverse bars,
but much undulated, while the outer margin of the
exterior feather and the tips of that and of the next
are pure white. No grey in the plumage. Total
length, including the tail, thirteen inches.
1326.— The Leona Night-Jar
{Macrodipteryx Africanus). Caprimulgus Macro-
dipterus, Afzelius ; C. longipennis, Shaw; Pennon-
winged Nightjar ; Long-shafted Goatsucker. This
curious bird is remarkable for two long elastic
shafts issuing from the middle of the wing-coverts,
and varying in length from eight or ten to twenty
inches ; they are tipped with a broad web for three,
four, or five inches, and occur only in the male.
What may be their use is difficult to imagine. Mr.
Swainson ('Birds of Western Africa'), after stating
that the female is entirely destitute of these long-
shafted or supplementary feathers, proceeds to
observe that the fact is important, as " it goes far
to prove that they are not essential to the economy
of the species ; for if otherwise, both sexes would
possess tnem, unless it be contended — a supposition
highly improbable — that the male feeds in one
manner and the female in another. In the absence
of all information on this point, we are led to con-
clude that they are more ornamental than useful,
given to the male sex as attractive decorations to
the female, in a similar manner as the flowing
feathersof the Paradise-bird are known to distinguish
the male sex. In their texture they are remarkably
flexible, moving about with the least breath of
wind."' The inner web at the end is two inches
broad in the middle ; the outer web is scarcely half
an inch.
The Leona Night-jar is a small species, measuring,
from bill to end of tail, about eight inches. The
wings are long, exceeding the tip of the tail, which
latter is even, and consists of ten feathers ; the bill
is feeble ; the vibrissa strong. The colour of the
plumage consists of mingled tints. Upon each web
of every primary quill-feather is a row of nine rufous
and nine black spots. The secondary quill-feathers
are black, with four rufous bands; the middle tail-
feathers are grev, speckled with black points, and
crossed by six black bars ; the outer web of the
lateral tail-feather on each side is fulvous white,
with about ten black spots at equal distances from
each other. Some of the scapulars have a broad
cream-coloured stripe, which forms a connected
series when the feathers lie over each other. The
male has a few obscure white mottles about the
throat and ears.
Of the habits of this species nothing is known.
1327.— The Nacunda
(Pro'illiera diuma, Swainson). Caprimulgus diut-
nus, Wied. The genus Proithera differs from Ca-
primulgus in the paucity of the vibrissse round the
gape of the beak, in the great length of the wings,
the shortnei's of the tail, and the size and complete
nakedness of the tarsi.
The Nacunda is a native of Brazil and Paraguay,
and is, to a great extent at least, diurnal in its
habits, being seen abroad in cloudy days in flocks
of fifteen or twenty, skimming over the ponds in
pursuit of insects, precisely in the manner of swal-
lows.
The plumage above is a mixture of grey-brown,
yellowish red, and brownish black, with great spots
of blackish brown, and wide borders of yellowish
red. The chin is pale yellow, striped with grey
brown. The tail is marked with brownish black
and bright yellow, and crossed by nine or ten trans-
verse bands speckled with brownish black. Plumage
beneath, white ; streaked with grey brown on the
chest ; below spotless.
Family HIRUNDINID^ (SWALLOWS).
The present family comprises an extensive and
very natural group of birds, distinguished for their
powers of flight and insectivorous appetite. The
limbs are short and comparatively feeble, but the
toes are furnished with sharp hooked claws for the
purpose of clinging to walls or the sides of rocks.
In the swifts the toes are all directed forwards. In
the true swallow the hind-toe is revei-sible ; the
wings are long and pointed, and the quill-feathers
of firm texture : the general plumage is close set,
always smooth, sometimes burnished and glossy :
the beak is small, depressed, broad at the base, and
with a wide gape. The food, consisting of the
smaller species of insects, is always taken on the
wing ; and they often completely fill the throat with
their insect prey, so as to distend it like a pouch,
doubtless in order that their nestlings may have a
full supply at each visit. The whole of the active
existence of these birds is, in fact, passed upon the
wing : they skim along with marvellous rapidity
quarter their ground over meadows, lakes, and
rivers ; wheel round barns and steeples, and dash
along apparently as untired when evening closes as
when they began their aerial evolutions with the
first dawn of day. They feed and drink on the
wing, and pursue each other in sportive chase, per-
forming the most rapid and beautiful evolutions.
The British species of this group are the Chimney-
Swallow (Hirundo rustica), the Martin, or Window-
Swallow (H. urbica), the Sand-martin (H. ripara),
and the Swift (Cypselus apus). We may add
the White-bellied Swift of Gibraltar, or Alpine
Swift (Cypselus Alpinus), as a rare and accidental
visitor. All our swallow tribe are birds of passage ;
they come in spring, and depart in autumn, winging
their way to the south, and passing the winter in
Africa, the great rendezvous of the migratory birds
of Europe.
Fig. 1328 represents a group of British Hirundi-
nidse ; o, the Swallow ; b, the Martin ; c, the Sand-
Martin ; d, the Swift.
1328 (a), 1329.— The Swallow
(Hirundo rttstica). "The swallow," says Sir H.
Davy, "is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of
the nightingale ; for he glads my sense of seeing as
much as the other does my sense of hearing. He
is the joyous prophet of the year, the harbinger of
the best season ; he lives a life of enjoyment amongst
the loveliest forms of nature ; winter is unknown to
him, and he leaves the green meadows of England
in autumn for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy
and for the plains of Africa."
The swallow is too well known to need a very de-
tailed description. It makes its appearance in our
island about the middle of April, though sometimes
a few stragglers arrive eariier, before the spring has
fairly opened : and, as they disappear, should the
weather set in cold, we are inclined to suspect that
they retrace their passage to a warmer latitude, and
return with the great body on their way northwards.
Who has not watched the swallow on the wing;
Swallows.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
291
who has not marked its rapid flight, now smoothly
skimming along, now executing sudden turns and
abrupt and intricate evolutions with astonishing
celerity? The swallow delights to quarter the sur-
face of pasture-lands, new-mown meadows, streams,
and ponds, attracted by the abundance of insects on
which it feeds, a smart snap of its bill, easily dis-
tinguishable by an attentive ear, accompanying the
capture of its prey. If the weather be warm, it dips
in the water as it passes along, and emerges shaking
the spray from its burnished plumage uninterrupted
in its career.
The swallow breeds twice a year, choosing dif-
ferent situations as they may present themselves:
we have known tliem frequently attach their nest
to the inside of tall old chimneys ; we have seen
them building in barns and outhouses against the
beams or rafters; and we well remember a pair or
two annually building in a wheelwright's workshop,
undisturbed by the noise of hammer, axe, and saw,
to the satisfaction of the good man, who left a place
open for their entrance and exit when his workshop
was shut. Mr. Selby says that where coal-pits
abound the swallow sometimes fixes its nest against
the side of a deserted shaft, a circumstance we have
ourselves once or twice noticed. The nest is open
at the top, and composed of clay or mud, worked
up by a glutinous exudation from the mouth of the
bird into a proper consistence. It is lined inter-
nally with a bed of feathers. The eggs are five in
number, of a white colour, speckled with reddish
brown.
" The swallow," says White, " is a delicate song-
ster, and in soft sunny weather sings both perching
and flying on trees in a kind of concert, and on
chimney-tops." Its notes are indeed pleasing, but
are hurried and twittering, and are generally uttered
at sunrise, when the weather is warm and genial.
The swallow brings out her first brood about the
lask week in June or the first in July, and her
second brood towards the middle and end of August.
During the month of September the young of the
last incubation have acquired full strength of wing ;
and at the end of that month, or in the beginning of
October, the great migratory movement southwards
commences. Multitudes from various quarters now
congregate together, and perch at night in clusters
on trees, barns, house-tops, but especially among
the reed-beds of marshes and fens, round which, as
evening draws on, they may be observed wheeling
and skimming, now sinking, now rising and wheel- I
ing again, all the while uttering their garrulous !
concert, till, as I
" Evening draws o'er all 1
Her gradual dusky veil," |
they finally settle down, and all is quiet and silent.
It is strange that so excellent an observer of nature
as Gilbert White should have entertained the opi-
nion that swallows hybernate submerged in marshes,
or secreted in holes and caverns, like bats ; and the
more so as the ancients were well aware of their
migratory movements, and of their winter residence i
in Africa. I
It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of
our Hirundinidae, that they return annually to the
same place, and resume and repair their old nests,
or, if they have been destroyed, build others in their
gtead ; but the question arises, is not this to a
greater or less extent the same with all our summer
visitors? Do they not return to their old haunts,
and if they do not repair their nests, which are
always spoiled by the winter's rains and snows, do
they not return to the same hedge-row, the same
copse, the same garden ? Even with respect to non-
migratory birds we think we have observed a ten-
dency to build in the vicinity of their former nest,
especially if unmolested ; indeed, in the case of the
hedge-sparrow (Accentor raodularis) we have reason,
from personal experience, to believe it to be so.
The swallow is very assiduous in the nurture of
her young. She leads them, as soon as Ihey are
able to leave the nest, to the ridge of the barn or
house-top, where, settled in a row, and as yet unable
to exert their pinions in flight, she supplies them
assiduously with food. In a few days they begin to
trust to tlieir wings, and follow their parents, who
feed them during their aijrial evolutions ; but in a
little time they depend on their own exertions.
The forked character of the tail easily dis-
tingui.-ihes the swallow from the rest of our British
Hirundinidae. The forehead and throat are rich
chestnut, the whole of tl.ie upper surface and the
breast are black with reflexions of steel blue and
purple : a white spot on the inner web of all the tail-
feathers except the two middle. Under surface
white with a wash of reddish brown.
1330. — The Swallow op Palesti.ve.
The common swallow appears to have a most ex-
tensive range ; not only does it visit Europe, but
Asia Minor, Palestine, and the adjacent country
and in the earliest times its habits of regular mi-
gration were observed and understood ; hence the
expression: — "The stork in the heaven knoweth
her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane
and the swallow observe the time of their coming "
(Jeremiah viii. 7). From a passage in Aristophanes
we learn that among the Greeks the arrival of the
crane pointed out the time of sowing, that of the
kite the time of sheep-shearing, and that of the
swallow the time to put on summer clothes. Ac-
cording to the Greek Calendar of Flora, kept by
Theophrastus at Athens, the ornithian winds blow
and the swallow comes between the 28th of Feb-
ruary and the 12th of March.
1331.— The Cliff-Swallow
{Hirundo fvlva). The Republican Swallow of
Audubon. This elegant species is a native of the
western parts of the United States of America, and
it is only recently, comparatively speaking, that it
has ventured within the domains of civilized man.
Already, however, it is familiar in different localities
of Ohio and Kentucky, and has more recently
appeared in the western part of New York. Like
all the other American swallows, it passes the winter
in tropical America, and arrives at its northern
breeding-places in April. This species is grega-
rious in its habits, and numbers construct their
symmetrical nests in clusters, as seen in Fig. 1331.
At the dawn of day they commence their labours,
collecting the mud of which the exterior is formed,
and persevere in their work until near midday,
when they relinquish it for some hours, employing
the time in the capture of insects and in aerial
gambols. In un.settled countries these birds avail
themselves of the sides of rocks under the shelter
of overhanging ledges ; but in civilized districts
they have already evinced a predilection for the
abodes of man, building against the walls of houses,
under the eaves of the roof, though they have not
in the least changed their style of architecture.
The nest is hemispherical, five inches in diameter
at its attachment to the wall, from which it.projects
six inches, having the entrance at the end of a
short neck-like projection somewhat turned down-
wards. It is lined with dried grass and straw. The
whole is completed in three or four days. The clift-
swallow is more closely related to our martin in
form, habits, and manners, than to our chimney-
swallow ; it is active and rapid, feeding on the
wing. Its note is peculiar, and may be imitated by
rubbing a moistened cork around the neck of a
bottle.
This swallow is characterized by its even tail.
Instead of having the lower part of the back white,
like our window swallow or martin, it is of a pale
ferruginous tint, as is also the foiehead ; a narrow
black line extends over the bill to each eye ; the
upper parts generally are glossy violet black ; the
breast is pale rufous ash-colour; the under parts
dirty white. Length, five inches and a half. Eggs,
four in number, white spotted with duaky brown.
1332. — The Amebican Baen-Swallow
{Hirundo nifa). This species is the representative
of our chimney-swallow in the United States of
America, and is a universal favourite. It builds in
barns and outhouses, but never in chimneys. It is
very customary to fit up boxes for it to nestle in,
and the country-people have a superstitious idea
that if they permit the swallows to be shot their
cows will give bloody milk, and moreover that the
barn they tenant will never be struck with light-
ning; so at least was Wilson assured, who adds, " I
nodded assent, for when the tenets of superstition
lean to the side of humanity, one can readily respect
them."
"Early in May," says this admirable writer, " they
begin to build. From the size and structure of the
nest, it is nearly a week before it is completely
finished. It is in the form of an inverted cone,
with a perpendicular section cut otf on that side by
which it adheres to the rafter; at the top it has an
extension of the edge, or an oifset, for the male or
female to sit on occasionally ; the upper diameter
is about six inches by five, the height externally
seven inches. This shell is formed with mud
mixed with fine hay, as plasterers do mortar with
hair to make it adhere the better ; the mud seems
to be placed in regular layers from side to side ; the
shell is about an inch in thickness, and the hollow
of the cone is filled with tine hay well stuffed in,
and above that is laid a handful of downy feathers.
Though it is not uncommon for twenty or even
thirty to build in the same barn, yet everything
seems conducted with great order and aff'ection ; all
seems harmony among them, as if the interest of
each were that of all. Several nests are often
within a few inches of each other, yet no appear-
ance of discord or quarrelling takes place in this
peaceful and affectionate community." They have
generally two broods in the season. The male
twitters with great sprightliness, and thus cheers
his mate duiing her task of incubation. The fiight
of this species is rapid and circuitous, and varied
by the most complicated and zigzag evolutions. The
American barn-sv»allow ditters from our European
swallow in having the under parts and the lining
of the wing of a bright chestnut in the male, and
of a rufous white tint in the female. Length, seven
inches.
1328 (i).— The Martin, ob Window-Swallow
{Hirundo vrbica). Who is not acquainted with
this elegant little bird, and with its clay-built nest,
the " pendent bed and procreant cradle," which it
makes under the eaves of our houses ? It is the
temple-haunting martlet of Shakspeare, the guest of
summer, that
— " does approve
By Ills loved mansionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooinifly."
The martin, or, as White calls it, the house-martin
usually appears a few days later than the swallow
repairing to its old quarters, where, after examining
the shell of its nest, it gives some time to play
sporting and gambolling, and chasing its insect
fflod. Towards the middle of May it sets itself
seriously to work in restoring the dilapidated tene-
ment, or constructing a new one. The crust or shell
is made of clay or mud, tempered with glutinous
sahva, and lined with straws, grass, and feathers
The eggs are from three to five, and of a pinkishl
white. We may often observe rows of these clay-
built homesteads under the eaves of barns or farm-
houses ; and it is interesting to see two or three
little heads peeping out of each, watching their
parents as they wing their way, and dash by in
pursuit of insects, or querulously receiving the food
which, arresting their career for an instant, their
parents bring them. During the season of incuba-
tion the male utters his soft guttural song, some-
times while on the wing sometimes while clinging
to the nest, or even in it, as if to cheer his faithful
mate, patient in her appointed duties. Two broods
are generally produced every year, the first leaving
the nest in July, the second in August or the begin-
ning of September.
The flight of the martin differs from that of the
swallow, in being more smooth and uniform, with
lewerand less abrupt turns and evolutions; it is very
rapid, but scarcely so much so as in the latter
species.
Towards the end of September, and at the begin,
ning ot October, martins assemble in multitudes
day after day increasing their numbers, till at last
they swarm in myriads, the air appearing crowded
with them, and the roofs of barns and houses and
the larger branches of the trees literally covered by
them. This " re-union " is preparatory to their
departure, which takes place towards the end of the
month, flock after flock leaving, till, by the 6th or
8;h of November all have disappeared. The martin
IS distinguished by the less forked character of the
tail, and by the pure white of the rump, breast, and
under surlace. The head, back, and wings are
purplish black. The tarsi are covered with white
down to the very claws.
1328 (c).— The Sand-Maetin
{Hirundo ripana). The sand-martin, or bank-
swallow, IS the smallest of our British Hirundinidse
but It certainly makes its appearance the earliest'
often about the end of March. Its flight is less
impetuous than that either of the swallow or house-
martin, and more vacillating, though still brisk
and animated. In Spain, from the manner in which
It flies, this species is called by the country-people
the mountain butterfly (Papillon de Montagna), and
It IS sold in the markets at Valencia for the table.
It IS fond ol skimming over the surlace of water,
and flat heaths and commons: seventv years ago
White says, "Some few sand-martins, I see, haunt
the skirts of London, frequenting the dirty pools
in St. George's Fields and about Whitechapel ;"
and we ourselves have seen them in flocks over the
Serpentine in Hyde Park. The query is, where do
these individuals make their nests ? for, unlike the
swallow or martin, this species bores with its bill
deep holes in abrupt precipitous sand-banks, at the
extremity of which it makes an inartificial nest of
hay, straw, and feathers. A convenient spot is
often colonized by scores of these birds, we may
say hundreds; we have seen steep sand-clifFs in
Cheshire and other places, especially if overhanging
a rivulet, loop-holed by their burrows in the most
extraordinary manner, and in close array ; and Pro-
fessor Pallas says that on the high banks of the
Irtish their nests are in some places so numerous,
that when disturbed the inmates come out in vast
flocks and fill the air like flies. These burrows are
sometimes three feet in depth, and more or less
tortuous ; and it is surprising that so small a bird
should be so efficient a miner. Its beak, however
(see Fig. 1333), instead of being soft and tender, as
White describes it, is uncommonly hard and sharp
and well calculated for working on the loose-lcMureU
material subjected to its action. The bird clines
2P2
^^m ^f9^
ItSi^Heaa tna Foot o( So ift.
in:.— Reid orBuk SmOlow.
MM.— Hmd and Foot of Uit(e-wiB(«<l Sirallov,
1332. — Amvriean Bam Swillow.
1333.— Swallosr ofPalmCilw.
132«.— Bntisil Swalloivt.
1331.— N«U of the Ciff-Swallow .
n2D.— S«all!)\v and Nest.
292
1341,— Esculent Swallow and Nest,
I334.— Purple Martina and Neat.
1339.— White-banded Swallow.
;. — (jiands of Stomach in Birds.
mt.—JiL-nuese Eu7Uiiiiiu.
1338.— Tail of Long-winged Swift
1337. -I^ong-winged Swift.
1313.— Green Todies,
IS-IO.— Esculent Swallow and Nest.
293
294
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[SwALWwa.
with its clawi to the face of the cliff, and pegs away
with its miniature pickaxe, making greater progress
than could be expected ; as it proceeds, it scrapes
out with its feet the sand detached by its bill, and
so continues its labours till the requisite depth is
attained.
This species is decidedly gregarious, and may be
seen flying about, not only in company with others
of its own species, but with swallows and martins,
busy in the chase of prey. It probably breeds twice
if not thrice in the season. The general colour of
this species is mouse brown above, white beneath.
The eggs, five in number, are white.
1334. — TiiE PcBFLi Mabtix
(Hirvndo purpurea). This well-known bird, says
Wilson, " IS a general inhabitant of the United
States (of America), and a particular favourite
wherever he takes up his abode." It arrives in the
southern frontiers late in February or early in
March, reaches Pennsylvania about the first of
April, and extends its migrations as far north as
the country round Hudson's Bay, where it is first
seen in May and disappears in August.
"The summer residence of this agreeable bird is
universally among the habitations of man, who,
having no interest in his destruction, and deriving
considerable advantage as well as amusement from
his company, is generally his friend and protector.
Wherever he comes he finds some hospitable retreat
fitted up for his accommodation and that of his
young, either in the projecting wooden cornice, on
the top of the roof, or sign-post, in the box appro-
priated to the blue-bird f Saxicola sialis) ; or, if all
these be wanting, in the dove-cot, among the
pigeons. In this last case he sometimes takes
possession of one tier of the premises, in which
not a pigeon dare for a moment set its foot.
Some people have large conveniences formed for
the martins, with many apartments, which are
usually fully tenanted and occupied every spring ;
and in such places particular individuals have been
known to return to the same box for several suc-
cessive yeare. Even the solitary Indian seems to
have a particular respect for this bird. The Chac-
taws and Chickasaws cut off all the top branches
from a sapling near their cabins, leaving the prongs
a foot or two in length, on each of which they
hang a gourd or calabash, properly hollowed out
for their convenience. (See Fig. 1334.) On the
banks of the Mississippi the negroes stick up long
canes with the same species of apartment fixed to
their tops, in which the martins regularly breed.
Wherever I have travelled in this country, I have
with pleasure seen the hospitality of the inhabitants
to this favourite bird."
The purple martin is the terror of crows, hawks,
and eagles, uniting with the king-bird in attacking
them ; and so well is this known to the lesser birds
and to the domestic poultry, that as soon as they
hear the martin's voice engaged in fight, all is con-
fusion.
" To observe with what spirit and audacity this
bird sweeps round the hawk or the eagle is asto-
nishing. He also bestows an occasional bastinading
on the king-bird, when he finds him too near his
premises, though he will at any time instantly co-
operate with him in attacking the common enemy."
The flight of this bird is remarkably graceful,
easy, and rapid ; he darts along with the swift-
ness of an arrow, and wheels and turns with the
most surprising address. His usual note is loud
and musical, resembling the syllables " peuo-peuo-
peuo," but is frequently succeeded by others more
low and guttural. Most of the swallow tribe feed
upon the smaller insects. This species, on the
contrary, preys on wasps, bees, and even large
beetles, as goldsmiths (Cetonia), &c., which are
swallowed whole."
"At the approaching dawn," says Nuttall, "the
merry martin begins his lively twitter, which, con-
tinuing for half a minute, subsides until the twilight
is fairly broken. To this prelude succeeds an ani-
mated and incessant musical chattering, sufiicient,
near the dwelling, to awaken the soundest sleeper.
His early vigils are scarcely exceeded by the
domestic cock : the industrious farmer hears the
pleasing call to labour, and associates with the
favourite bird the idea of an economical, cheer-
ful, and useful guest. In the middle States, from
the 15th to the 20th of April, the martins begin to
prepare their nest, which is usually made of small
green or dry leaves, straws, hay, and feathers, laid
in considerable quantities. The eggs, pure white,
are from four to six, and without spots. They
rear two broods in the season. Several pairs also
dwell harmoniously in the same box. The male,
very attentive to his sitting mate, also takes part in
the task of incubation ; and his notes at this time
have apparently a peculiar and expressive tender-
ness."
The male purple martin is dark bluish glossy
purple: the wings and forked tail are brownish
black. The female and young are bluish brown, and
have the belly whitish. Tail considerably forked.
Length, about eight inches. Alar extent, sixteen.
1328 (</).— Thb Swirr
{Cyptdus Apus). Cypselus murarius, Temminck ;
Hirundo Apus, Linnseus ; Provincial, Screech,
Develing, Black Martin, Screamer, Squeeler ;
Moutardier, Martelet, Martinet Noir, ou Grand
Martinet, of the French ; Rondone, Dini, and Dar-
dano of the Italians; Ring-swala of the Swedes;
Thurm Schwalbe of the Germans; Gier Zwaluw
of the Netherlanders; Martin dQ of the antient
British.
In the genus Cypselus the tarsi are thickly fea-
thered ; all the four toes are directed forwards, the
two middle are equal. (See Fig. 1335, the Head
and Foot oftheSwitt.)
This species is the largest of our British Hirundi-
nidae, but its weight is proportionately small to its
extent of wing ; the former being scarcely one ounce,
the latter measuring eighteen inches. Length,
eight inches.
From its form, the swift is the most rapid in its
flight of our swallow tribe ; the air is its home. On
the ground, from the shortness of its tarsi, it can only
crawl ; and from the length of its wings, unless it
avails itself of some trifling elevation, it finds ditfi-
culty in rising and does not succeed until after one
or two trials. On the ground, however, the swift
never willingly settles. Its feet, armed with sharp
curved claws, are admirably adapted for clinging to
the slightest roughness on the surface of rocks or
towers, in the dark crevices of which it rears its
young. The swift is the latest of its tribe to visit
us, and the earliest to depart, appearing about the
middle of April and retiring southwards in August ;
and rearing only one brood.
There are few village steeples round which these
birds may not be seen wheeling and screaming dur-
ing the fine evenings and mornings of June and
July, now soaring aloft, now dashing round the
angles of the building with astonishing address and
velocity. It >s interesting to watch them ; on the
wing they feed— they drink — they collect the ma-
terials of their nests — and enjoy the pleasures of
existence. From dawn, till darkness commences,
are they thus engaged, excepting the females, brood-
ing over their eggs in darkness : these are ever and
anon visited by their mates, who wing their way
repeatedly close past the crevices where the nests
are placed, uttering a scream as they glide by, which
is answered by a low murmur of complacency.
The nest of the swift is composed of dry grass
and light straws, interwoven and held together by a
viscous substance ; and lined with feathers, silk,
and linen threads, skimmed from the ground during
flight. The eegs are white, and from two to four
in number. When the female, says White, has sat
hard all day, she rushes forth just as it is dusk, re-
lieves her weary limbs, snatches a scanty meal, and
returns to her work of incubation. The same writer
notices the pouch full of insects under the tongue,
which, when these birds are wantonly shot, is usually
discovered. It is in this way that all our British
swallows store up food for their young.
In Derbyshire, the swift, the swallow, and the
martin, haunt the precipitous rocks of limestone, and
there build and breed, as we have abundantly ex-
perienced. The swift, short as is its stay in these
latitudes, is spread over the greater part of Eu-
rope. It visits Lapland, Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden; in which last country Professor Nilsson
states that it makes its nest in hollows of trees in
the woods. Its eastward range appears to be as far
as the mountain-lake Baikal. At Erzerum it has
been observed in numbers from May till September.
Mr. Yarrell states that he has never seen this species
in any collection brought from India. It has been
noted at Madeira. Montagu extends its southward
range in Africa as far as the Cape : Temminck limits
it to the tropics. In our own country it has been
remarked that swifts are less plentiful with us than
they formerly were.
With the exception of the throat, which is dusky
grey, the plumage is sooty black with a greenish
tinge. The tail is forked. The plumage is close
and firm.
1336. — Thb Laboe-winoed Swali.ow
(Macropteryx Imigipennis, Swainson). Head and
Foot. Generic characters : — Tarsus remarkably short
and naked ; anterior toes long, and nearly equal ;
hinder toe very short. Tail long and forked. Lo-
cality, India.
The present species, given as an example of the
genus Macropteryx, is of an obscure glossy green
above ; the throat, breast, and lower part of the
back light grey ; belly, spot on the scapulars, and
line over the eye, white ; ears rufous ; front with
an incumbent crest.
Mr. Swainson, whose description this is, and who
has given an elegant figure of the bird in the second
series of his 'Zoological Illustrations,' inquire*
whether the Hirundo Klecho of Dr. Horstield
(Sambor-galen^ of the Javanese), which is described
by the doctor in the 13th vol. of 'Linn. Trans.' as.
eight inches and a half in length, is not the temale
of this species. Mr. Swainson considers Macropteryx
intermediate between the typical swifts and the
swallows. To the first, he remarks, it is allied by
its strong scansorial feet ; to the latter by the length
and fixed position of the hind toe, and the depression
of the bill.
1337. — The Loko-wihoed Swift
{CluBtura macroptera). Generic characters: — Feet
as in Macropteryx ; but the tarsus longer than the
middle toe. Tail short and even, with the shafts-
prolonged into acute points. (See Fig. 1338.)
The long-winged swift is brown, with the wings-
and tail glossed with greenish blue, the back being
of a grey white, the chin and under tail-coverta-
snowy ; the tail is even. This species and the
Hirundo albicoUis are two of the largest species yet
discovered of a very singular group of swifts which
have the tail-feathers spined, and even more rigid
than those of the wood-peckers ; by this structure^
as Mr. Swainson remarks, the birds can remain for a
considerable time in the most perpendicular situa-
tions. The expanded tail, he adds, thus acts as a
powerful support, which is further increased by the
size and strength of the claws, these last being much'
larger than those of ordinary swallows. Most of the
species are natives of America, but Mr. Swainson
does not say whether this is a native of that country.
1339. — The White-banded Swallow
(Hinmdofasciata). Hirondelle a ceinture blanche,.
BufFon. This bird, which is extremely rare, is a
native of South America. According to Buffon it
is sometimes seen perched on floating trees in the
rivers of Guiana, but of its habits and nidification.
we have no details.
340. — Tbb Salakgane, or Esculebt Swallow
{Hirundo esculenta). Lawet of the Javanese.
1341. — The Lincui
{Hirundo fucipltaga). Linchi of the Javanese,
These two species, with others not clearly defined,
are the constructors of those singular nests which
are prized as luxuries by the Chinese, and form so
considerable an article of commerce.
The Lawet is brown above, whitish beneath, and'
at the end of the tail, which is forked. The Linchi
is rather smaller than the former, being about five
inches long ; its under parts are white, and its wings
are longer in proportion. Specimens of both these
birds are in the Museum of the East India Company.
Much has been written about these birds and
their nests, till, from clashing opinions, the subject
has become involved in difiiculty. According to
Lamouroux, there are three species which make
edible nests, the most valuable being those of the
smallest species, which he states is distinguished by
the feet not being covered with down ; it is never
found inland, but always on the sea-coast. The nest
is clear and white, and. composed, as he believes, of.
sea-plants of an order termed by him Gelidia, which
by boiling or steeping in water may be almost wholly
reduced to jelly. Others consider the nest as a sort
of fish-spawn ; others as composed of inspissated
sea-loam, or the juice of a tree ; and others of mol-
luscous animals.
To give an idea of these nests, several of which,
varying in clearness of composition, we have ex-
amined, we may describe them as resembling in form
that of the chimney-swallow, being concave, shallow,
and lined with leathers ; but the crust or shell, instead
of being made of clay, is something in appearance
like fine manna as sold at the druggist's shops,
approximating, however, to coarse isinglass. Sir G.
Staunton says: — "In the Cass, a small island of
Sumatra, we found two caverns running horizontally
into the side of the rock, and in these were a number
of those birds'-nests so much prized by the Chinese
epicures. They seemed to be composed of fine
filaments cemented together by a transparent viscou*
matter, not unlike what is left by the sea upon stones
alternately covered by the tide, or those gelatinous,
animal substances found fioating on every coast..
The nests adhere to each other, and to the sides of
the cavern, mostly in horizontal rows, without any
break or interruption, and at different depths froia
fifty to five hundred feet. The same sort of nests,
are also said to be found in the deep caverns at the
foot of the highest mountains in the middle of Java,
at a distance from the sea." " The value of these
nests is chiefly ascertained by the uniform fineness
and delicacy of their texture, those that are white
and transparent being most esteemed, and fetching
often in China their weight in silver."
Montbeillard, who in 1741 visited the straits of
Sunda near Java, and went ashore on an islet called
the Little Toque, discovered a deep cavern in the
Kingfishers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
295
rocks on the brink of the sea, the mouth of which
was darkened by multitudes of swallows pourin;^ out
in swarms, and the roof of the cavern was covered
with their nests. He describes them as softenina; in
water, and as composed of fish-spawn, resembling
halt-melted glue which floats on the sea, and adds,
" sometimes threads of this viscous substance are
seen hanj^ing to the bills of these birds, and which
have been supposed, without foundation, to be ex-
tracted from the stomach in the breeding-season."
It was perhaps this passage that induced Sir E.
Home to examine the gastric glands of a species of
swallow of very large size, and which he regarded
as the edible swallow, brought from Java by Sir T.
S. Raffles. In this species he found the gastric
glands projecting, and splitting into several por-
•tions like the petals of a flower, and argues that their
development is to supply a secretion Xor the forma-
•tion of the nests. Fig. 1342 s'hows :— a, the gullet and
gizzard of the Java swallow laid open ; b, the gas-
tric glands magnified two hundred and twenty-five
times ; c, the same glands in the common swallow ;
.D, the same glands in the blackbird ; e, similar
glands in the pylorus of the human stomach, mag-
nified nine hundred times. Against the inference
•of Sir E. Home it is objected, and with force, that
it does not appear that the swallow he examined
(double the size of our swallow) was one of the
edible species, and that we have not the shadow of
proof from analogy to conclude that these gastric
glands, for whatever reason they might be deve-
loped, secrete the materials of the nest. The most
probable theory is, that whatever else may be used,
the bird, as is the case with the swallow and swift,
employs a viscid saliva as a cementing medium ;
^is M. Reinwardt, a celebrated professor, who re-
sided a considerable time in Java, and made some
careful researches upon the subject, came to the
•conclusion that the bird consolidates, if it does not
wholly form, its nest with a viscous and glutinous
fluid, secreted by its very large parotid (salivary)
glands. Mr. Crawford, late British resident at the
■court of the Sultan of Java, and who superintended
the collection of these nests (for they are claimed as
royal property, and form a valuable branch of the
revenue of the state) at Karang-Bolang for several
years, has given us an interesting commercial his-
tory of them too long to be quoted. We may ob-
-serve, however, that about twenty-seven thousand
pounds, the chief part of the best quality, are an-
nually exported from Java, but a still greater
quantity from the Suluk Archipelago ; that much is
also exported from Ceylon and New Guinea : and
that altogether about thirty thousand tons of Chinese
shipping are engaged in the traflic, freighted with
property worth in the Archipelago 284 290/. The
danger attendant upon the collecting of the nests in
the awful caverns is described as imminent in the
extreme.
Family TODID^, Vigors (THE TODIES).
The Todies are characterized by a peculiar flat-
ness or depression of the bill, which has a wide gape
margined with vibrissas. The breadth varies: in
some (as the Eurylaimi) it is very broad, somewhat
.resembling the bill of the Podargi, with a boat-like
upper mandible. The wings are rounded; the
tarsi of moderate length ; the two outer toes are
united as far as the last joint. The habits of these
birds are little known.
1343.— The Green Tody
■(Todus viridis). Generic characters : — Bill length-
ened ; broad throughout, suddenly contracting at
^he tip; very flat. Vibrissae few and weak; fail
short; tarsi weak; toes short. Locality, Tropical
America.
The green tody inhabits the islands of Jamaica,
Hayti, and others. It is said to be a bird of recluse
habits, haunting the borders of retired marshes, and,
as Sloane says, " melancholy places," sitting with its
head crouched between its shoulders ; and suffering
itself to be approached within a few feet, and gazed
at for minutes together before it will move. " It
keeps much about houses in the country parts, flies
very low, and probably may be easily tamed."
These birds, says Lesson, live upon insects which
they catch in the mud or the water ; " they are in
trcith water nwucheiolles, and their wide and flat-
tened bill, furnished with asperities, or teeth, permit
them to sift the raud and retain the prey: they also
seek for small insects under the moss or on the
banks of rivulets." The nest is built on the ground,
of cotton down, feathers, moss, and other soft ma-
terials ; the eggs are five in number and of a blue
colour. This little bird, which does not much ex-
ceed a wren in size, is of a fine bright green above,
whitish beneath; the throat is scariet; the sides
rosy ; the under tail-coverts yellow.
1344.— The Javanese Eurylaimus
{Eurylaimus Javanicm). Generic characters :— Bill
broader than the head; under mandible very thin ;
nostrils basal, transverse, oval; wings rounded: tail
rounded. Fig. 1345 displays the characters of the
bill and feet in this genus, which is restricted to
India and the Indian Archipelago.
The Javanese Eurylaimus is a native of Java and
Sumatra ; it frequents the banks of rivers and lakes,
feeding on insects and worms. It builds its nest
pendent from the branch of a tree which overhangs
the water. In Java it tenants the most remote and
inaccessible wastes covered with extensive forests
and abounding with rivers and marshes. General
colour, rich vinous purple ; forehead black ; back of
the neck brown ; wings blackish brown, with a yel-
low streak between the coverts and secondaries ; and
bordered with yellow, which extends underneath
the shoulders. Tail-coverts black, with yellow tips ;
tail-feathers black, with a white mark, the two middle
excepted. Bill irregulariy variegated and striped :
the ridge yellowish; the edges black. Tarsi dusky
yellowish.
Family HALCYONIDiE (KINGFISHERS).
In this family are included several genera which
differ much in their habits and modes of life ;
some resembling our well-kliown kingfisher in the
metallic brilliancy of their plumage, as well as in
their darting upon fishes, which constitute their
food; others again, with a fuller and less glossy
plumage, feeding on reptiles, insects, and small qua-
drupeds, andnever plunging into the water after prey.
Varying in minor details, all present the follow-
ing characters : —the beak is lengthened and pointed ;
the tarsi are short ; the toes feeble, and the outer
and middle are united as far as the last joint. In
some there are only two anterior toes, the innermost
being deficient.
We shall not enter into the minutiae of subgeneric
details; but proceed to illustrate the family by a
few observations on our pictorial specimens, which
will convey a clearer idea of the various forms it
includes than a dry disquisition on the slight diffe-
rential characters which guide the naturalist in his
subdivisions.
1346. — The Gigantic Kingfisher
{Dacelo gigantea). This remarkable bird (one of
the aberrant forms of the family) is a native of New
Holland. The plumage is full and soft ; and the
feathers of the head are elongated into a crest.
The bill is large, long, powerful, and swollen at the
sides : the edge of the upper mandible is bowed in
near the point, which latter is acute and bends over
the point of the lower mandible. The tarsi are
stout; the toes armed with sharp claws; the wings
are rather long, advancing when folded half way
down the tail — this is long, broad, and somewhat
rounded. The eyes have a forward situation, being
placed close to the base of the beak, imparting a
sharp, cunning, and even fierce expression to the
aspect, and well depicting the disposition of the
bird, which is daring and rapacious. Among the
wooded mountain districts in many parts of Aus-
tralia, and especially those which border the Mnr-
rumbidgee river, this species is very common, and
may be observed sitting on the watch for its prey,
which consists of insects, small quadrupeds, and
reptiles. Ever and anon it breaks out into a singular
abrapt laugh, somewhat resembling the syllables
yah-yah-yah, commencing in a low and gradually
rising to a high and loud tone, startling when heard
amidst the solitudes of the woods. From this wild
and discordant cry it has obtained from the colo-
nists the title of the " laughing or feathered jackass."
The natives at Yas call it gobera or yogobera.
One seldom laughs without being answered by a
second, and among diurnal birds it is the first which
is heard in the morning, and the last at the close of
evening; it rises with the dawn, when the woods
re-echo with its gurgling laugh, and at sunset they
are heard again in dissonant chorus.
Unqualified for plunging in the stream, this bird
is vigilant in the pursuit of reptiles and insects.
Snakes are a favourite food, and it may often be seen
flying to a tree with one of these reptiles in its beak,
holding it just behind the head. Generally the
snake is killed before being carried away ; but some-
times the bird is observed on the branch to break
the reptile's head to pieces with its strong sharp
beak. Occasionally, as it is asserted, the gigantic
kingfisher will kill young chickens, and cany away
eggs ; but its services in destroying reptiles com-
pensate the settler for these petty depredations. We
have seen a specimen of this bird in captivity : ge-
nerally it sat quietly on its perch, earnestly watching
all around it, and now and then uttering its abrupt
laugh; on food being presented, it became highly
excited, traversed its cage, repeatedly exerting its
voice, and manifesting by every action the utmost
eagerness and spirit. The general colour above is
olive brown: beneath whitish, with obscure dusky
bars on the brea.st; top of the crest brown ; a white
belt above each eye goes round the occiput ; and a
broad white collar extends from the throat over the
sides of the neck ; the tail banded with black and
ferruginous white at the tip. Total length, one foot
six inches.
1347. — The Cinnamon Crab-eater
(^Halcyon cinnaviomina, Sw.). This species is a
native of New Zealand. The general plumage is
of a delicate fawn-colour ; the wings and tail change-
able blue-green ; ear-feathers sea-green, whence a
narrow black line extends round the back of the
neck. Total length, ten inches. Of its habits we
have no precise details.
1348. — The Belted Kingfisher
(Alcedo Alcyon, Linn.^. The Belted Kingfisher
is a native of America, from Hudson's Bay to
Mexico, and is a constant resident in the states
of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and all the
districts that lie to the South of North Carolina,
whence it migrates southwards during severe
winters. The fiight of this bird is very rapid,
and in the course of its excursions, if it passes over
a pool, it suddenly checks itself in its career,
poises in the air like a kestrel, and inspects the
water beneath, watching the movements of the
fishes ; it then dashes spirally down headlong into
the water, seizes a fish, and alights on the nearest
tree or stump, where it swallows its prey in a mo-
ment. Wilson states that this bird delights in
murmuring streams and falling waters, " not merely
that they may soothe his ear, but for a gratification
somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of
the cataract, or over the foam of a torrent, he sits
perched upon an overhanging bough, glancing his
piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly
prey, which, with a sudden circular plunge, he
sweeps from their native element, and swallows in
an instant. His voice, which is not unlike the
twirling of a watchman's rattle, is naturally loud,
harsh, and sudden, but is softened by the sound of
the brawling streams and cascades among which he
generally rambles." " Mill-dams are particularly
visited by this feathered fisher, and the sound of his
pipe is as well known to the miller as the rattling of
his own hopper. Rapid streams, with high perpen-
dicular banks, particularly if they be of a hard, clayey,
or sandy mixture, are also the favourite places of
resort for this bird, not only because in such places
the small fish are more exposed to view, but because
those steep and dry banks are the chosen situation of
his nest. Into these he digs with his bill and claws,
sometimes to the extent of four or five feet." The
extremity is made capacious, and here, on a few
sticks and feathers, the eggs are deposited, five in
number, and of a pure white. The parents are very
attentive to their young, and the female employs
various artifices to draw the intruder from her
brood. The same excavation is used by the same
pair year after year in succession.
The plumage of this bird is close and compact.
General colour above, light blue, the shaft of each
feather blackish ; a white spot before the eye, and
a streak of the same below it ; quill feathers brown-
ish black, barred with white ; .secondaries blue on
the outer web. Two middle tail feathers blue ; the
rest brownish black barred with white ; a broad
collar of white from the throat over the sides of the
neck ; a blue band across the breast ; sides mottled
with blue ; under parts white. Total length, twelve
inches and a half. The feathers of the head are
long, narrow, and pointed, and form a crest capable
of being elevated and depressed.
1349, 1350. — The Commoit Kingfisher
{Alcedo Ispida). This is the Martin-Pecheur of
the French ; and also Pescheur, Martinet Pescheur,
Tartarin, Aitre, and Mounier, according to Belon ;
Piumbino.Uceilo del Paradiso, Pescatore, Pescatore
del Re, Martino Pescatore, Ucello di Santa Maria,
and Vitriolo of the Italians, according to Belon;
Ucello della Madonna, Ucello Santa Maria, Piora-
bino, and Alcione of the same, according to the
Prince of Musignano : Gemeine Eisvogel (Bech-
stein) and Grosser Kleiner und Fremder Eisvogel
(Biehm) of the Germans ; Glas y dorian of the an-
cient British.
The kingfi.sher is common in most parts of Eu-
rope ; and there are few of our streams and rivers
flowing through fertile meads, abounding with fish,
over which this beautiful but voracious bird may
not be seen glancing backwards and forwards, its
metallic hues glittering in the sun. Oc;'asionally
it hovers at a moderate elevation over the water,
and then darts down with astonishing velocity and
suddenness on some unwary fish, which, heedless of
its foe, ventures near the surface, and which is sel-
dom missed by the keen-eyed bird. The ordinary
manner, however, in which the kingfisher captures
its finny prey is by remaining quietly perched on
some stump or branch overhanging the water, and
then intently watching with dogged perseverance
for the favourable moment in which to make its
plunge ; it marks the shoals of minnows gliding
lt}2.- naranii-biiii.
2l
1*»1.— SKicd KingfUwi.
1349.— Common Kinj;(lt]ier.
1S«.— Bill and Foot of Eurykimut.
'' iffy^!
13M.— Common Kingfluber
1345.— Gigantic Kingfisher.
1318^Belt«d KiBSfi*^'*
lS4T.-Cinnaaoii Crab-<ater.
1353.— Lucon Ccyx.
296
I
]35S>-^Paniuc Jiicanur.
.im.-^M«44>iUca{.aqprci«iiA.
1306.— Tcrnate Kin^lilwr.
lIM^Oreal «e>K«>l KagOslaa.
#^1 \i
:U&0,~l!ee-«ater.
ia»«.-4(aic*]i MMaut.
13<4.— OrienUl Smilow-Roller.
No. 38.
I3«2.-Roller.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
189S.— IVew'Boiland Klng(lah*r.
297
•->98
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[KlNGFISHEBS.
ptJ ine trout ItirkinfT tieneatli the concealment
of some stone or m the stiaitow of the biiik — the
roRfh and dace pursuing their course. At length,
attracted by a floating inhect, one rises to lal^e the
prize; at that instant, like a shot, down descends
the giitterine biid, tlie crystal water scarcely bub-
bling with its plunsre : the next moment it re-
appears, L>earine its victim in its l)eak, with which
it ri'lurns to it* rotintf place; without looMng its
hold, it passes the fish between its mandibles, till
it has liiirly erasped it by the tail ; then l)y strikinK
smartly its' head three or Tour times a^^ainnt the
branch, ends its stru^des, reverses its position, and
swallows it whole. Quiet secluded nooks, seldom
disturbed by the intrusion of any save the " honest
angler," sheltered spots of the river margined with
alders and willows, mill-dams, surrounded by tran-
quil pastoral scenery, are the favourite haunts of
this bird. Its mate is its only companion, and both
labour assiduously in the support of their young;.
The place chosen for incubation is the bank of the
river where it is steep or overhanein?. and here it
either constructs, or appropriates to itself, a burrow
two or three feet in extent, bearing diaf^onally up-
wards. It is said to select not unfrequently the old
burrow of a water-rat, but of this we are not con-
vinced ; at all events we have seen the holes of the
kingfisher half-way down the steep and perfectly
perpendicular face of banks, which the water-rat
could not have made, and which, we have no doubt,
Vfere the work of the birds themselves. At the end
of the gallery is a little chamber, and here, without
making any nest, the female lays her eggs, from
five to seven in number, and of a clear pinky white.
While engaged in the work of incubation the female
is supplied Ijy her industrious mate, and as the fish-
bones and scales are disgorged (for, like owls, the
kingfisher recasts the indigestible parts of its food),
a circle of these rejectanea surround the eggs,
which, after the young are hatched, is greatly
increased, and hence has arisen the supposition
that of pellets of fish-bones is the nest composed.
The young are clamorous for food, uttering an in-
cessant cry ; they soon acquire their brilliant plu-
mage, and when able to leave their abode, follow
their parents, and resting on a branch in some
lonely retreat, tax the industry of their parents.
They are, however, soon able to fish for themselves.
The kingfisher performs a sort of limited migra-
tion: when winter sets in. and drives the fish from
the shallows to deep and sheltered bottoms, freezes
the mill-dams, or coats with ice the sluggish basin
worked out by the river's current in rich alluvial
soil, these birds wander from the interior to the
coast, and frequent the mouths of rivulets, entering
large navigable rivers, dikes near the sea, and
similar places, especially on the southern portion of
our island. This circumstance was not unknown
to Belon, and in his ' Portraits d'Oyseaux,' under
the cut of the kingfisher he gives the following
" quatrain :" —
** I* Murtinet-pescheur fait sa demeure
En tempi d'liyver an bord de I'ocean,
Lt en este, nur la riviere ou estan,
Et de poisson se repaivt a toute heure."
The colouring of this beautiful bird is as follows :
Bill blackish brown, reddish at the base. Behind
each eye is a patch of light orange brown, suc-
ceeded by a white one. From each corner of the
under mandible proceeds a streak of verditer blue,
tinged with verdigris green. Crown of the head
deep olive green, the feathers tipped with verdigris
green. From the nape of the neck to the tail is a
strip of verditer blue feathers, tinged in some shades
with verdigris green. Chin and throat yellowish
white. Breast, belly, and vent orange brown,
palest towards the under tail-coverts. Tail green-
ish blue; the shafts of the feathers black. Legs
pale tile red. (Selby.)
The irides are hazel. The bill of the female is
not so long as in the other sex. The colours also
are deeper and more of a green shade. Length,
seven inches.
1351. — The Sacred Kingfisher
(Todiramphtts sacer). The Sacred Kingfisher (with
other allied species) is a native of the islands of the
South Seas. These birds inhabit woods, and perch
almost constant lyon.t he cocoa- palms. Their nourish-
ment appears to consist almost exclusively of small
flies; these they catch, when settling on the spathes
loaded with the flowers of the palm. The islanders
name these birds 0-tatatd, and used to regard them
as sHcred, severe penalties being inflicted on those
who destroyed them.
In the islands of Tahiti, Borabora, &c., the pre-
sent species is very common, frequenting the cocoa-
nut trees, which Ibrm girds on the shores of those
islands. Its flight is >lior1, and it is not timid. Ac-
cording to Latham it has been found in Dusky Bay,
New Zealand.
The total length of this beautiful bird is about
nine inches. Bill black, white at the origin of the
lower mandible ; summit of the head covered with
brownish green feathers, which form a sort of hood,
separated by a large white streak which liseson the
I'l iVont, passes al>ove the eyes, and continues behind
the occiput. A large black line springs from the
eye, and taking a tinge of green and then of brown,
forms a border to the white line and circumscribes
it. Throat, breast, and all the upper part of the
body pure white ; a very large, whitish, demicollar,
waved with light brown and very light chestnut, oc-
cupies the upper part of the mantle and is bordered
with black ; the back, coverts of the wings, rump,
upper part of the tail and wings, are uniform
bluish green ; primaries brown and blue on their
external edges, secondary lapped with brown ; tarsi
black.
1352. — The Bdbckg-biru
{Ceyx Menintinc)). The Burung-biru, or Menin-
ting watu of the Javanese : Alcedo Biru, Hors-
field.
The genus Ceyx has only two feeble anterior toes
and a hind-toe ; the bill is straight and sharp. The
tail very short.
Dr. Horsfield describes the Burung-biru as by no
means uncommon in .Java. He observed it chiefly
in the interior in low situations, but it was also found
in the maritime districts. Its habits and manners
were those of the European kingfisher. It darts in
short, rapid flights along the surface, over rivulets
and lakes, emitting as it moves shrill sounds in a
high key. These sounds are so strong and acute,
that when the bird is near they strike the ear in an
unpleasant manner. It is not unfrequently observed
perched on trees on the banks of rivulets, and its
food consists of small fishes and aquatic insects.
This species is found also in New Guinea.
1353. — The LugON Cetx
{Ceyx tridactyla? Alcedo tridactyla, Latham).
This species, which inlwbits the Isle of Lu9on, is
described by Sonnerat as about one-third less than
the European kingfisher, and as one of the most
brilliant of birds. The upper surface is of a deep
lilac ; the wings deep g!o:-sy indigo blue, with a
border of shining light blue round each feather.
Under parts white ; bill of a pale carmine red; feet
red. (Colonel Sykes notices the Ceyx tridactyla
among the birds of the Dukhun.
1354. — The Great Senegal Kingfisher
(Tspida gigantea). This large species, a repre-
sentative of the subgenus Ispida of Swainson, is a
native of Senegal ; above it is cinereous spotted
with white ; chin and cheeks white : breast with a
broad rufous band; head above black, crested be-
hind.
Of the manners of this species, excepting that
they generally resemble those of the common king-
fisher, and other species of the genus Alcedo,
nothing is definitely known.
1355. — The New Hoi.i..\nd Kingfishib
{Alcyone Australis). The genus Alcyone diflers
from Alcedo only in the feet, having three toes,
two before. In its habits and manners this beau-
tiful bird resembles our British species, having the
same rapid arrow-like flight and the same mode of
darting on its prey. It haunts streams and rivers,
perching on the branches of dead trees, and from
its post of observation plunges into the water be-
neath, seldom missing its finny victim. The body
above and the sides of the head and neck are
shining mazarine blue, under parts rufous ; throat
whitish ; wings dusky black. It is described and
figured by Mr. Swainson (' Zool. Illus.,' Ist series)
under the title of Alcedo azurea.
1356. — The Tersate Kingfisher
{Tanysiptera Dea) ; Alcedo Dea, Linn.; Martin-
pScheur de Ternate, Buffon. In the genus Tany-
siptera the bill is rather short and thick, straight
and acute; the tail is graduated; the two middle
tail-feathers the longest. This beautifully-coloured
bird is a native of the Moluccas, and it mostly
happens that the specimens brought to Europe are
destitute of the wings and legs. According to Mr.
Vigore, this bird links the true kingfishers to the
Jacamars (Galbula) (approaching most nearly to
the Paradise Jacamar), and resembling those birds
in its habits, which, however, are not very fully
ascertained.
This species is intense black-azure above, white
beneath ; head and wing-coverts coerulean blue ;
tail-feathers white, margined with coerulean ; the
two middle ones coerulean, running out narrow, and
ending spatulate, the web of the terminal portion
being white.
1357. — The Broad-Billed Lamprotila
(Lamprutila plalyrln/ncha). Mr. Swainson, who
founded the genus Lamprotila, gives the following
characters : — Plumage metallic green and gold ;
I bill very broad, and dilated ridge curved; nostrils
membranaceous, protected by feathers; the wings
in form approaching those of the jacamars; the
third and hith quill-feathers equal.
This bird, the plumage of which elitters with
changeable metallic hues of burnished green and
gold, appears to resemble the jacamars in its habits,
darting Irom its perch at insects as they pass, and
returning to its post of observation. We have yet
much to learn respecting its economy.
1358,— The Paradise Jacamar
(Galbula paradisea) ; the Swallow-tailed King-
fisher of Edwards. The genus Galbula is distin-
guished by its metallic plumage ; by the bill being
very long, perfectly straight, and greatly com-
pressed; wings short; tail lengthened and gra-
duated ; toes in jmirs (zygodactylous), or the hind-
toe wanting: nostrils with a few strong bristles.
Cuvier, who places the jacamars in the Scansorial'
order, observes that in either points they approach
the kingfishers; and both Mr. Vigors and Mr
Swainson, as well as Mr. G. Gray, assign them to
the family of the latter. The jacamars are recluse
birds, tenanting extensive woods ; " they generally
sit on low naked branches in the forest paths
whence they dart upon butterflies, spearing them
with their long bill ; their haunts, indeed, may fre-
quently be known by the ground being strewed with
the beautiful wings of their victims, the body of
which alone they devour." All the species are
American. The Paradise Jacamar is a native of
Surinam : its size somewhat exceeds that of a lark •
the general colour is golden green; the throat'
neck, and lesser wing-coverts are white ; the head
violaceous brown; the bill and feet, the latter of
which are feathered to the toes, black ; the two
central tail-feathers are the longest.
1359. — The Mexican Motmot
(Prionites Mexicanus). Generic character : Both
mandibles slightly curved and compressed ; the
margins with strong denticulations. Tongue 'long,
slender; the sides ciliated. Wings short, rounded!
Tail lengthened, cuneated. Feet gressorial, as iii
Merops. (Sw.)
Mr. Swainson (' Classification of Birds ') remarks
that every writer since the days of Linnaeus (who at
first actually classed them in the same genus) has
placed the motmots (Prionites) and the toucans
(Ramphastos) close together, not only from the
similarity of their habits, but from the structure of
the tongue, which in both is long, and so much
ciliated at its sides as to resemble a feather; so far,
therefore, he observes, the resemblance is unques-
tionable, "But," continues Mr Swainson, "the
feet of the motmot are totally different from the
toucan ; they are not scansorial, but of that parti-
cular structure so common among the Fissirostres.
The toucans we know, from pei-sonal observation, to
be gregarious, living in flocks, and seeking their
food from the tops of lofty trees : the motmot is
solitary, hiding in the deep shades of the forests,
and, like other air-feeding birds, is always found
sitting nearly motionless. Here, then, is a very
obvious departure from the structure and habits of
the toucan. The question then is, to what does it
lead ? If to the hornbills (which has been inferred
from the structure of the feet), we should have no
diminution in the size of the bill, which in both the
hornbills and toucans is equally large, but in the
motmot of an ordinary and proportionate size : we
should further expect a bird which was gregarious,
since both these groups are so. Yet there is nothing
in the motmot, beyond its feet, which will at all
assimilate it to the perchers; while its fissirostral
habit of catching its food upon the wing, and the
discovery of the broad-billed species, Prionites pla-
tyrhynchus, seems to us a conclusive aigument for
placing this genus in the fissirostral order, as more
intimately connected to the jacamars (Galbula) than
to any other known genus.
Mr. Swainson (' Zool. Illus,') stales that the mot-
mots or momots, " so named from their monotonous
note, live only in the tropical forests of the New
World, preferring those deep recesses of perpetual
shade where a high canopy of matted foliage nearly
excludes the rays of a vertical sun. They appear
even more solitary in their disposition than the
trogons ; their note may be heard, morning and
evening, from the depths of the forests, but ihe bird
is never seen, unless the hunter comes unexpectedly
upon its retreat. This we have generally found to
be a low withered branch completely shaded and
just at the edge of such paths as are made by the
Cavies or the Indians. The jacamars and the tro-
gons both love these shady nooks, where they sit
nearly motionless, watching for i)assing insects, on
which they dart. Such is, no doubt, tlie manner in
which the motmot feeds ; but his strong conforma-
tion enables him to capture larger game. Travellers
assert that he also devours the eggs and young of
Bee-eaters.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
299
other birds, like the toucans; this we beheve, as
both have the same long and feather-like tongue."
The present species is green above, paler be-
neath ; thf ear-coverts are black, varied, and tipped
with bright blue.
Family MEROPID^ (BEE-EATERS).
Mr. Swainson {• Classificalion of Birds,' vol. ii.) is
of opinion that the Meropidse, or Bee-eaters, suc-
ceed the swallows, and says of the Merops Apiaster,
that it annually visits Italy in flocks of twenty or
thirty, and may be seen skimming over the vine-
yards and oiive plantations with a flight niiich re-
sembling the swallow, though more direct and less
rapid. He observes that their bill is indeed consi-
derably longer and more slender, but remarks that
this ditfercnce is softened down by the intervention
of the genus Eurystomus, containing the swallow-
rollers of India, Alrica, and Australia.' which have
this organ very short. To ihese, he thinks, succeed [
the true rollers, Coracins (Linn.), which arrive in j
Italy at the same time with the bee-eaters, and ;
associate also in small flocks. " These two genera
of rollers," continues Mr. Swainson, "are so indis- '
solubly united, that nothing but the strongest pre-
judice in favour of a preconceived theory could ever
have induced certain naturalists (whose labours in
other re^.pects have been of much advantage to
science) to have placed them in two different
orders. The whole structure of the Rollers, their
lengthened pointed wings, and their firm and often
forked tail, at once induces the idea that they feed
upon the wing ; while their very short legs, scarcely
longer than their hind-toe, might have shown their
incapacity to alight and walk, like the crows, upon
the ground ; but this question is at once decided
by a knowledge of their economy, which, from per-
sonal observation, we have every reason to believe
is much like that of the Bee-eaters. The interven-
tion of the Rollers at once lessens the abrupt transi-
ition, which would otherwise be apparent, from the
perfect-footed Swallows to the zygodactyle Bee-
eaters ; and we are thus prepared for all those birds
whose toes, as it were, are soldered together like
those of the Meropid-je. Here perhaps we may
notice that most beautiful and rare genus Nycti-
omis, or Night-feeder, as being in all probability
: that particular link by which Nature connects this
family with the Trogons.
1360.— The Bee-eater
\(Merops apiaster). Bill very long and slender;
•lightly curved, compressed, sharp at the tip ; wings
' long and pointed ; outer and middle toes connected
: as far as the first joint (zygodactylous).
This brilliant species, which occasionally wanders
tas far westward as the British Isles, is a summer
visitant to the southern and ea.slern provinces of
Europe ; it is common in Sicily, Italy, Spain, Greece,
Turkey, Sec, whence it retires into Africa on the
approach of winter. In Spain, which it enters by
way of Gibraltar, it appears during the first week in
April, in flocks of forty or fifty, sometimes at consi-
derable elevation, at other times skimming low, and
uttering a shrill whistle heard at a considerable dis-
tance. They thus give chase to various insects,
bees, wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, and butterflies,
catching them on the wing with great address. Bee-
eaters liaunt rivers and streams, and may be seen
coursing up and down in pursuit of their prey, and
glittering in the sun with metallic effulgence.
They abound on the rivers Don, Volga, and Yaik, in
Southern Russia, and are common in Syria and
Arabia. In their habits these birds much resemble
the kingfisher: they breed in holes, which they
burrow in steep banks overhanging the river, at the
extremity of which, in a nest, according to Selby,
composed of moss, &c., the eggs are laid : these are
of a pure white, and from five to seven in number.
It is observed also that, like the kingfisher, which
recasts the bones and scales of fishes, these birds
disgorge the wing-cases and other indigestible parts
of their insect food rolled up in the shape of small
pellets.
From the earliest times the bee-eater has been
notorious for thinning the hive of its industrious in-
habitants. Aristotle notices this circumstance ; and
Virgil directs that the beehives must be secured
from the lizard, the swallow, and the bee-eater : —
" Abiint pt picti flqiialentia terga lacerti
PingiiihDt a stahulU ; Mtroptt'iue alia-que volucres,
Vx mnnibiis Progne pectus si^nata crui-ntis;
Omni;i nam Utev.tstint: ipsa.qiie volantea
Ore ferunt, dulcem nidia immitiboa escam ■**
Geijrg.t lib. ir.
According to Latham this bird is called in Egypt
Melino-orghi, or Bees enemy. It is there eaten for
food, as Ray states it is in Italy, where he saw it
sold in the markets. The bee-eater isnot only found
in Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa; it is also a
native of the Cape of Good Hope. The colouring
of this bird is as follows : — Forehead yellowish
white, merging into bluish green ; back of the neck
and upper part of the back rich chestnut, passmg
into brownish amber yellow, Kar-coverts black;
wings greenish, with an olive tinge, and a large
band of brown across the middle. Q,iill-feathers
fine greenish blue, ending in black. Throat bright
yellow, bounded by a line of black. The under
parts generally glossy greenish blue. Irides red.
Length, eleven inches.
13G1. — The Red-breasted Night-feeder
{Nyctiornis amictus). Bill considerably curved and
very long; the ridge with a parallel groove on each
side ; tarsi very short. The night-feeder is a native
of India ; but we have no account of its habits, ex-
cept that it feeds on insects, and, as its name de-
notes, is crepuscular or nocturnal. The genernl
plumage is green ; the crown in adults is lilac ; the
front of the throat and breast bright red. Total
length, thirteen inches.
13G2.— The Roller
{Coracias garrula). Bill' moderate, straight, the
sides broad, but much compi essed ; tip of the upper
mandible bent over that of the lower ; nostrils basal,
oblique, linear ; gape very wide, with the edges
bristled ; tarsi short ; toes cleft to their base.
The roller is only an accidental visitor to England,
where, however, it has been several times killed ;
but there is some reason to think that formerly,
when our island ottered extensive forests for its
shelter, that it was not uncommon, tor it has a
name, " y Rholydd," in the ancient British language.
It is the Pica Marina and Pica Merdaria of the
Italians; Rollier of the French ; Birk-Heher, Blaue-
Racke, and Mandelkrahe of the Germans ; Spransk
Kraka, Blakiaka, and Allekraka of the Swedes ;
Ellekrage of Bnmnich.
On the continent this bird has a very extensive
range. In Europe, it is found in Denmark, Sweden
(where it arrives with the cuckoo), and the southern
provinces of Russia; is more common in Germany
than Fiance, where, however, it has been found in
Provence ; and it has been taken at Gibraltar. In
Italy, according to Prince C. L. Bonaparte, it is
rather common, arriving in the spring and depart-
ing in September. In Malta and Sicily it is exposed
for sale in the shops of poulterers, and is said to
have the taste of a turtle-dove. In the Morea it is
considered a delicacy in the autumn, when it is fat
with its summer food. It has been captured at
Aleppo, and at Trehizond and Erzeroum. It visits
the countries between the Black and the Caspian
Seas ; and Dr. von Siebold and M. Burger include
it among the birds of Japan. In North Africa it is
found from Morocco to Egypt ; flocks were seen by
Adanson at Senegal, and he concluded that they
passed the winter there Dr. Andrew Smith records
it among the birds of South Africa.
The roller is wild, shy, restless, and fierce, fre-
quenting, by way of preference, deep forests of oak
and birch, where its harsh cry may be olten heard.
In the ' Annals of Natural History ' for 1839, it is
stated by a traveller in Asia Minor, that the roller,
which was most common throughout the south and
west parts of the country wherever the magpie was
not found (for it was not seen in the same district
with that bird), was observed to fall through the air
like a tumbler pigeon, Temniinck states that it
makes its nests in the holes of trees, where it lays
from four to seven eggs of a lustrous white, M.
Vieillot states that in Malta, where trees are scarce,
the bird builds on the ground. In Barbary it has
been observed to form its nest on the banks of the
Sheliff, Booberak, and other rivers ; and Pennant
remarks that where trees are wanting, it makes it in
clayey banks. These last modes of niditicafion
bring it very close to the bee-eaters and kingfishers,
whose eggs quite resemble those of the roller in
colour and shape, and only vary in size. The male
takes his turn to sit. The food is very varied,
according to Temminck, who enumerates moles,
crickets, cockchafers, grasshoppers, millipedes, and
other insects, slugs, and worms, Gould states that
it feeds on worms, slugs, and insects generally.
Yarrell informs us that the food consists of worms,
slugs, insects in their various stages, and berries.
The colouring of this .species is as follows: — Bill
black towards the point, becoming brown at the
base with a few bristles ; irides of two circles yel-
low and brown ; head, neck, breast, and belly
various shades of verditer blue changing to pale
green ; shoulders azure blue, back reddish brown,
rump purple, wing-primaries dark bluish black,
edged lighter, tail-feathers pale greenish blue, the
outer ones tipped with black, those in the middle
also much darker in colour ; legp eddish brown ; in
old males the outer tail-feathers are somewhat
elongated.
Adult females differ but little from the males;
young birds do not attain their brilliant colour till
the second year. Length, about thirteen inches.
1363, — The Abyssinian Roller
(Coracias Abyssinica). This species of Roller is a
native of Abyssinia, and in general habits resembles
the preceding, tenanting woods and forests. The
colouring is as follows :— White round the bill ; body
aquamarine green ; back and wing-coveiis cinna-
mon colour ; shoulders, rump, and quills, blue ; tail
green, the two middle feathers blue ; two long loose
processes terminating the two external quilL.
]364. — The Oriental Swallow-Rollke
{Eurystomus Orkntalis). This genus is closely
allied to Coracias, but the bill is shorter and wider,
and the wings longer than in that form. The Ori-
ental Swallow-Roller is a native of Java, the south
of New Holland, and all the Polynesian Islands. It
is the Naytay-kin of the natives of. the neighbour^
hood of Sidney, Dollar-bird of the colonists, and;
Tiong-ba-tu of the inhabitants of Sumatra ; Coracias.,
Orientalis, Linn. It is a bird of rapid and vigorous
flight, and feeds upon various kinds of insects. • Its
general colour is aquamarine green; the throat and
point of the wing are azure ; the quill-feathers
black, with a while bar ; tail black. ,
1365. — ^The Green Leptosome
(Leptosomus viridis). From its zygodactyle feet
(two toes before and two behind), this bird, with
others of the genus, has been placed, by most
wi iters on ornithology, in the family of the Cuckoos .
(Cuculidae). Mr. Swainson, however, regards it as
one of ihe forms of the Meropidse, and thus charac-
tciises it: — Bill about the length of the head,,
robust. The upper mandible curved and notched
near the tip. Nostrils oblong, oblique ; the mar-
gins elevated, naked, and placed towards the middle
of the upper mandible. Feet short. Toes in pairs,
as in Tamatia. Wings lengthened, pointed ; the
first and second quills longest. Tail moderate,
even. (Sw.)
The present bird is a native of Africa, and is
found in Caffiaria and on the coast of Zanzebar. It
inhabits the forests, feeding on insects, and also, as
is stated, upon fruits ; but we know little of its-
habits.
Family TROGONID/E (TROGONS).
The Trogons constitute a family of birds, the mem-
bei-s of which are peculiar to the hotter regions of
America and of India, and its adjacent islands,
Ceylon, Java, Borneo, Sumatra, &c., one species
only having as yet been discovered in Africa.
Among the most conspicuous of the feathered
tribes for beauty and brilliancy of plumage, the
Trigons stand confessedly pre-eminent. The me-
tallic golden green of some species is of dazzling
eifulgence ; in others less gorgeous: the delicate
pencilhiigs of the plumage, and the contrasted hues
of deep scarlet, black, green, and brown, produce a
rich and beautiful eftect.
It is difficult to convey the idea of a bird, or
indeed of any natural object, by description solely;
the pictorial specimens, however, in the group
Fig. 13f)6, will render the details connected with
the family features of the present group easily in-
telligible.
The Trogons are zygodactyle, that is, they have
their toes in pairs, two before and two behind, like
parrots and woodpeckers ; the tarsi are short and
feeble, the beak is stout, and the gape wide ; the
general contour of the body is full and round, and
the head large ; the plumage is dense, soft, and
deep ; the wings are short Out pointed, the quill-
feathers being rigid ; the tail is long, ample, and
graduated, its outer feathers decreasing in length ;
in some species the tail-coverts are elongated, so as
to form a pendent plumage of loose feathers.
Of solitary habits, the Trogons (or Couroucous)
frequent the most secluded portions of dense forests,
remote from the abodes of man. For hours toge-
ther they sit motionless on some branch, uttering
occasionally a plaintive melancholy cry, especially
while the female is brooding on her eggs. Indif-
ferent during the day to every obect, listless or
slumbering on their perch, they take no notice of
the presence of an intruder, and may indeed be
often so closely approached as to be knocked down
by a stick; tlie bright glare of the sun obscures
their sight, and they wait for evening, the dusk of
twilight being their season of activity.
Fruits, insects and their larvae, constitute their
food. Formed, most of them at least, for rapid tjut
not protracted flight, they watch from their perch
the insects flitting by, and dart after them with
surprising velocity, returning after their short chase
to the same point of observation. Some, however,
are almost exclusively frugivoious. Many species
are certainly migratory. M. Natterer observes, re-
specting the Pavonine Trogon (Trogon pavoninus,
Spix), which inhabits, during a certain season of the
year, the high woods along the upper part of the
Amazon and Rio Negro, that he found the contents
2Q2
-^..y^rl^S^ ^-^^
^^fes..»aa»<^«*^
13C8.— Nariiui Trogona.
DM.— Onnp o< Tmgou,
1385,^43iecn Lep^osome.
""ja^ia^i:^^
13S3.-AV!ip4«i«n nailer.
1J61.— Red'Urauted Night Fmdn.
136T.— Reinw^nlt's Trogon.
300
1374.-P»n-t.i:«i Flyeatclier.
U7S — «, Spotted Flytatehn; I, Pied Fiyralcher.
301
302
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[TUOGOXS.
of iU stomach to contist principally of the fruit of
a certain species of palm, and that it arrives in
those districts when its favourite food is ripe, but
that when the trees no longer yield an adequate
supply it retires to other districts.
Like the parrots and woodpeckers, the Trosons
breed in the hollows of decayed trees, the e^gs
Ijeing deposited on a bed of wood-dust, the work of
insects ; they are three or four in number, and white.
The young, when first hatched, are totally destitute
of feathi^ra, which do not begin to make their ap-
pearance for two or three d8)s ; and their head and
beak appear to be disproportionately large. They
are said to rear two broods in the year.
Axara, speaking of the Surucua Trogon, a native
of Paraguay and the Brazils, informs us that it is
seen only m the largest woods, and that it "gene-
rally remains on the upper portions of the trees,
without descending to the lower branches or to the
earth ; it sits a long time motionless, watching for
insects which may pass within its reach, and which
it seizes with adroitness; it is not gregarious, but
dwells either in solitude or in pairs; its flight,
which is rapid and performed in vertical undula-
tions, is not prolonged. These birds are so tame as
to admit of a near approach ; I have seen them
killed with a stick. They do not migmte, and are
never heard except in the breeding season ; their
note then consists of the frequent repetition of the
syllables pee-o, in a strong, sonorous, and melan-
choly voice ; the male and female answer each
other. They form their nest on the trees, by digging
into the lower part of the nest of a species of ant,
known by the name of cupiy, until they have made
a cavity sufficiently large, in which the female de-
posits her eggs, of a white colour, and two, or as
some asseil four, in number. I have seen the male
clinging to a tree after the manner of woodpeckers,
occupied in digging a nest with his beak, while
the female remained tranquil on a neighbouring
tree."
The American Trogons have their beak of mo-
derate size, with serrated (or saw-like) edges, and
furnished at its base with bristles; the upper sur-
face (of the males at least) is of a rich metallic
green, the under parts being more or less universally
scarlet or rich yellow. The outer tail-feathers in
the majority of the species are more or less barred
with black and white.
In the Indian Trogons" the beak is larger and
stouter, with smooth edges, having a tooth near the
tip of the upper mandible. The eyes are encircled
by a large bare space of richly-coloured skin ; the
upper surface is brown, the lower more or less
scarlet, and the outer tail-feathers exhibit no ten-
dency towards a barred style of marking, excepting
in one species, Diard's Trogon (Trogon Diardii), in
which the three outer tail-feathers are finely pow-
dered with black.
The African species (Trogon Narina, Le Vaifl.)
closely approximates to its American relatives ; but
its three outer tail-feathers are unbarred. This spe-
cies inhabits the dense forests of CafTraria; during
the day it sits motionless on a low dead branch, and
it is only in the morning and evening that it displays
activity. Locusts and other insects are its principal
food.
Of all the Trogons none are so magnificent as the
Trogon resplendens. This bird, as stated by Mr.
Gould, " is to be found only in the dense and
gloomy forests of the southern states of Mexico."
Little known to Europeans, except within the last
few years, the brilliant plumes which fall over the
tail (and which, as is the whole of the upper sur-
face of the body of this bird, are of the richest
metallic golden green) were made use of by the
ancient Mexicans as ornaments on their head-
dresses ; and gorgeous must a head-dress be, com-
posed of such feathers — soft, flowing, of dazzling
lustre, and three feet in length. In later times
they have occasionally been transmitted as curio-
sities to Europe. Mr. Gould observes that M.
Temminck is the first who figured the present
species ; but that celebrated naturalist confounded
it with the Trogon pavonius of Dr. Spix. a Brazil-
ian species to whiah it is neariy allied, but from
vthich it differs in having a soft silky crest, of long
full feathers, and the plumes of the tail coverts
extremely long, whereas in the Pavonine Trogon
there is no crest, and the tail-coverts do not
extend above an inch or two at most beyond the
tail.
1366. — A Gbocp op Teogoks.
On the topmost branch are perched a pair, male
and female, of the Trogon resplendens. The middle
bird towards the left hand is the Trogon pavonius.
The lower figure on the left hand is the Trogon
Diardii; and that on the right, the Trogon tem-
nuriis.
The Trogons are divided into several subgenera,
founded upon tangible characters, doubtless involv-
ing a difference, more or less decided, of habits and
nianner>. Mr. Gould remarks, for example, that the
species of the subgeneric group Calurus, distin-
guished by a redundancy of flowing plumage, are
. not, as may be expected, so well fitted for flight, or
; for taking their prey on the wing, as are the more
I closely-plumed species to which the generic name
Trogon is now restricted; accordingly Mr. Natteier
informed Mr. Gould that the gorgeous birds of the
former group tenant the topmost branches of the
loftiest forest-trees, clinging beneath them like par-
rots, and feeding more exclusively on Iriiits and
berries. On the other hand, Mr. W. S. Mac Leay
states that the singular Trogon inhabiting Cuba
(Trogon temnurus, the only example of the sub-
genus Temnuius ; Priotelus. G. R. Gray), which
approximates to the woodpeckers in the more
lengthened form of the bill, in the rigid character
of the outer tail-feathers, and in the spotting of
the wings, approaches those birds also in its habits,
giving a preference to thelioles of trees rather than
to the branches, and procuring from the bark the
larvse and various insects which constitute its
food.
The habits of the Old World "species are much
less known than those of the American Trogons;
but from the more robust form of their bill and
their wide gape, Mr. Gould is inclined to suspect
that they feed even still more exclusively on insects
than on fruits : independently, however, of the
greater strength of the bill, the non-serration of the
edges of the mandibles and the half-denuded face,
they may, Mr. Gould remarks, at all times be dis-
tinguished by the rich brown colouring of the backs
of the males, and by the entire absence of bars
across the outer tail-feathers. With re-spect to the
brown colouring of the plumage, there are, he adds,
it is true, one or two exceptions from the rule, but
none to the absence of the barring of the tail-fea-
thers when accompanied by the former characters.
1367. — Reinwabdt's Trogou
(Trogon Reinwardtii). This species is an example
of the subgenus Apalodeima, and is a native of
Java and Sumatra, where, however, it is rare ; or
perhaps a tenant of the remoter solitudes of the
forests, and therefore escapes observation. Our
pictorial specimens are an adult male and (the
lower figure) a young bird.
Bill bright reddish orange ; top of the liead, back,
and upper tail-coverts dark green ; six middle fail-
feathers black, with green reflexions; the bases of
the three outer feathers on each side the same co-
lour as the middle ones, the remaining portions
being white ; centre of the wings and shoulders
green transversely rayed with fine lines of yellow;
primaries black, with the exception of the outer-
most web, which is white ; throat yellow ; ear-
coverts, sides of the neck, and chest olive brown ;
belly and under surface yellow, becoming rich
orange on the sides; tarsi yellow; bare skin round
the eye blue. Total length, from twelve inches and
a half to thirteen inches and a half; tail seven
inches and a half; wing five inches and a half.
Young : — Similar to the adult, particularly in the
colours of the back and tail, a circumstance, ob-
serves Mr. Gould, which rarely occurs in the family,
as in all the Trogons where the plumage of the
female differs much from that of the male, the
young birds generally resemble the former; while,
as in the present case, where the sexes are nearly
alike, the young partake of the adult colouring,
difl'ering only in the markings of the wings and the
rufous brown tint of the breast. (Gould.)
1368. — The Narina Trogon
{Trogon [Apaloderma] Narina). This is the only
African species, and is a native of Caffraria ; Narina,
whose name it bears, was a Gonaqua Hottentot
girl, whose charms and manners appear to have
produced a great impression on Le Vaillant (the
discoverer of the bird), as he devotes some pages to
her in his 'Travels.'
According to this account of the naturalist, the )
haunts of the Narina Trogon are the thickest parts
of theforest; and there it sits nearly motionless, on
a low dead branch during mid-day : in the morning
and evening it captures its food, consisting chiefly
of locusts, beetles, and other winged insects, with
the addition of caterpillars. Its flight is short and
rapid ; and it darts trom its chosen perch on every
passing insect, returning to the station which it had
left, or settling near it. During the pairing season
the male, which is at other times mute, utters fre-
quently a melancholy cry. The eggs, four in num-
ber, nearly round, and of a rosy white hue, are laid
in a nest in the hole of a tree, and the female sits
for twenty days. Our pictorial specimens are a
male and female.
Male : — Bill yellow, with a tinge of blue ; whole
of the head, throat, chest, shoulders, back, and
upper tail-coverts resplendent green ; breast and
under surface bright blood-red ; the wings brown,
the greater coverts and secondaries powdered with
greyish white, the outer edge of each feather having
a tinge of metallic gicen ; two centre feathers of ihc
j tail dark purplish green, two next on each side dark
olive-green; the three outer on each side dark
green at their base, largely tipped with while ; feet
light brownish yellow.
Female:— Upper surface and tail closely resem-
bling those of ilie male; round the eye and throat
mlbus brown, becoming paler on the chest, which
is slightly tinted with rosy pink ; lower part of the
abdomen and tail-coverts deep rose-red. Total
length eleven inches and a quarter: bill one inch
and an eighth ; wing five inches and a quarter ; tail
six inches and a half; tarsi three-quarters of an
inch. (Gould.)
1369.— The Mexican Trogon
{Trogon Mezicamis). Old Male: — Beak bright
yellow ; throat and ear-coverts black, gradually
blending with the green that covers the chest and
the whole of the upper surface. Two middle tail-
feathers green with black tips, the two next on each
side wholly black ; the three outer on each side
black, with white tips; wings black, the whole of
which, with the exception of the primaries, is finely
dotted with grey ; a crescent of white encircles the
chest; breast, belly, and under tail-coverts fine
scariet ; feet brown. Total length eleven to twelve
inches; wing five inches and three-quarters; tail
seven inches and three-quarters. Fig. 1370 repre-
sents (upper figure) a young male and (lower figure)
a female.
Young Male :— Distinguished from the adult by
the grey freckles on the wings being rather stronger,
and more inclined to brown on the secondaries ; by
the extreme outer edge of the primaries being
white ; and by the tail being regularly barred with
black and white, which character is most conspicu-
ous on the outer edges.
Female:— Top of the head, throat, chest, and
back dark brown, inclining to olive on the upper
surface, and to rufous on the chest ; across the chest
an obscure band of light grey, the lower parts scar-
let; wings black, slightly freckled with brown on
the outer edges of the secondaries and shoulders ;
the outer edges of the primaries Iringedwith white;
two middle tail-leatherechesnut-brown, tipped with
black ; the two next on each side wholly black ;
the remainder strongly barred with black and while
for nearly their whole length j bill yellow, clouded
with brown. (GouJd.)
Locality.— North of Mexico.
1371. — The Resplendent Tbogon
{Trogon [Calarus] resplendens). Male and Female.
Male :— Beak gamboge-yellow; head coveied
with long filamentous plumes, forming a rounded
crest ; irom the shoulders spring a number of lance-
shaped feathers, which hang gracefully over the
wings ; from the rump are thrown off several pairs
of narrow flowing plumes, the longest of which in
fine adults measure Irom three feet to three feet lour
inches ; the others gradually diminishing in length
towards the rump, where they again assume the
form of the feathers of the back— these plumes,
together with the whole of the upper surface,
throal, and chest, are of a most resplendent golden
green ; the breast and under parts are of a rich
crimson scarlet ; the middle leathers of the tail
black; the six outer ones white for neariy their
whole length, their bases being black ; feet brown.
Total length from the bill to the end of the tail,
twelve to fourteen inches ; wing, eight to nine ;
tarsi, one ; length of the longest plume, about three
feet.
Female or Young of the year :— These have only
rudimenls of the long plumes, seldom reaching
more than an inch beyond the tip of the tail ; the
feathers of the crest more rounded and not fila-
mentous : feathers of the shoulders but slightly
lanceolate; outer tail-feathers white barred with
black, the centre ones black; whole of the chest,
throat, and head obscure preen, remainder of the
upper surface bright green ; breast and belly grey-
ish brown ; under tail-coverts fine scarlet ; bill
black. (Gould.)
It was of the brilliant feathers of these and other
Trogons that the ancient Mexicans made their
famous mosaic pictures. They were probably kept
in one of the two houses which formed the Royal
Menagerie of ancient Mexico, one of these houses
being aprpopriated to birds which did not live by
prey ; the other to birds of prey, quadrupeds, and
reptiles. Three hundred men, according to Cortes,
were employed to take care of these birds, besides
their physicians, who watched their diseases and
applied timely remedies. Of the three hundred
attendants, some procured their food, others dis-
tributed it, othei-s took care of the eggs at the time
of incubation; whilst others, at certain seasons,
picked their plumage— lor the king not only de-
lighted in the sight of so many species, but was
Flycatchess.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
303
very careful of their feathers for the sake of the works
in the labrication of which they were used.
Family MUSCICAPIDiE (FLYCATCHERS).
The Flycatchers approximate in many points to
the ToJies ; the latter indeed are placed by Mr.
Svvainson within the pale of this family, but not by
Mr. Vigors, who regards them as distinct. It is to
the dentirostral tribe that the Flycatchers belong.
They are characterized by a depressed beak, bioad
at the base, and garnished with vibrissce. The wings
are more or less rounded. The smaller species live
exclusively on insects, which they take on the wmg,
launching from a branch, or other post of observa-
tion, and, having etf'ected then- capture, wheeling
abruptly round, and again settling on the same spot.
Our spotted flycatcher may be regarded as typic<il of
the family.
1372, 1373 (a). — The Spotted Fltcatcheb
(Muscicapa grisola, Linn.). This is the Gobe-
mouche proprement dit of Button ; Gobemouche
gris of Temrainck ; Fliegenfanger and Getieckter
Fliegenfanger of the Germans ; Stoparola of Aldro-
vandus and Ray ; y Gvvybedog of the ancient British ;
Spotted Flycatcher and (provincial) Beam-bird,
Rafter, Post-bird, &c., of the modern British.
This pretty little bird is one of our summer visi-
tors. On the Continent it is very extensively spread,
advancing northwards even to the borders of the
arctic regions. In our island it arrives in May, and
departs at the close of September, or beginning of
October, rearing, as far as we have been able to
ascertain, only a single brood.
The flycatcher is retired in its habits, frequenting
embowered retreats, shady gardens, orchards, and
groves, where the foliage affords it concealment ;
not indeed that it is timid, for if not rudely disturbed,
it will allow itself to be closely watched during the
performance of its aerial evolutions in the pursuit of
its insect food. It generally chooses for its perch
and observatory the liough of a fruit-tree, or one of
the lower branches of the elm, or other tree of tall
growth ; whence it takes short abrupt circling
flights, returning to the same, or an adjacent twig.
We have often observed these birds thuS engaged,
darting in chace of their prey at almost regular inter-
vals, for half an hour together, and returning after
each flight to the same post of observation.
The note of the flycatcher is a weak chirp, which
is seldom uttered after the production of its young.
The nest of this bird is built in diflerent situations,
as convenience may dictate ; we have very fre-
quently seen it between the branch of a tiained
Imit-tree and the wall, or in holes of the wall hid-
den by foliage. It will build also in the holes of
aged gnarled trees, upon the ends of beams in out-
houses, and in other appropriate places of conceal-
ment. The eggs are five in number, of a greyish
white, marked with pale orange-brown spots. When
the young are able to fly, the parents lead them to
some branch, and supply them with food ; but they
soon learn to chase their own prey, and become
expert and quick in the pursuit. Pennant and other
writers state that the flycatcher is partial to cherries
and other fruit ; but this is unquestionably a mis-
take : we have had the opportunity of well investi-
gating the habits of this bird, and soft insects, as far
as our observations warrant, are its only food. We
have, however, had several times to plead in its
favour, for gardeners seem to think that all birds
devour fruit, and frequent the garden principally for
that purpose.
Tlie spotted flycatcher is about the size of the
redbreast. The crown of the head is brownish, ob-
scurely spotted with adeeper tint; all the upper parts
of the body are ash-brown or mouse-colour ; the
wings and tail more dusky. The whole of the under
surface is white, the throat, chest, and sides being
marked with narrow dashes of reddish brown.
1373 (6). — The Pied Flycatcher
{Mttscicapa luctuosa). This is a rare British species,
and though it has been supposed by some to be
indigenous, is certainly a bird of passage ; and Mr.
Selby is inclined to consider the few individuals met
with during the summer as birds driven out of the
track of their polar migration, and he adduces the
following tact in corroboration of his opinion:—" In
May, 1822, after a very severe storm of wind and
rain from the south-east, several of these birds made
their appearance in Northumberland, and I procured
specimens of both sexes, the males being in diflerent
states of progress towards the summer's plumage.
As the weather continued cold for some days sub-
sequent to their appearance, they were obliged to
resort to dunghills and other warm situations for a
supply of their natural food. After remaining for
about a fortnight to recruit their strength, for at
tiist they exliil)iled great weakness, they all disap-
peaied, nor could I a.scertain that a single pair re-
mained in that neighbourhood during the season of
incubation." Notwithstanding this, we believe this
species purposely visits our island, though it is rare,
and restricted to certain localilies, principally in
the midland counties. We once saw a pair in
Cheshire. Colonel Montagu remarks that great
numbers may be seen at Lowther Castle, Westmore-
land, where it has bred for many years. They are
said to arrive here about the middle of April. " The
males, soon after their arrival, should the weather
be favourable, will frequently sit for a considerable
period on the decayed branch of a tree, constantly
repeating their short, little varied, though far from
unpleasant song, every now and then interrupted by
the pursuit and capture of some passing insect.
Their alarm note is not very unlike the word ' chuck,'
which they commonly repeat two or three times
when approached, and which leads to their detec-
tion."
According to Temminck, this species is very
abundant in the southern provinces of Europe and
along the coasts of the Mediterranean ; it is found
in the central parts of France and Germany, and
also in Italy. In its manners it resembles the spotted
flycatcher, and breeds in the holes of decayed trees,
forming a nest of leaves, bark, and hay, lined with
hair and feathers. The eggs are five in number, of
a pale greenish blue. The moult of this bird is
double, occurring in autumn and again in spring.
In autumn the male assumes a livery like that of
the female, but in spring he puts on a brighter
dress ; the forehead, and a band across each wing,
occupying the greater coverts, are pure white, as is
the under surface of the body ; general plumage
above, black. In the female (and male, in winter)
the forehead is of a dull dirty white, and the upper
parts are blackish grey. Length, five inches. This
is the Gobemouche-becfigue of the French ; and in
October numbers are killed in the south of Europe
for the table, together with an allied species, the
Muscicapa albicollis.
1374. — The Fan-tailed Flycatcher
{RMpidura flaMlifera). Muscicapa flabellifera,
Gmelin. This beautiful species is a native of New
Holland, where it is very common. Mr. Caley says
that it abounds about Paramatta, where he conjec-
tures it to remain stationary throughout the year.
It is insectivorous, and in its habits much resembles
our spotted flycatcher. It frequents, says Mr.
Caley, the small trees and bushes, from which it
darts suddenly at its prey, spreading out its tail like
a fan, and to appearance turning over like a tumbler
pigeon, and then immediately returning to the same
twig or bough from which it sprang. These actions
it continues to repeat for a long time together. He
adds that the skin is very tender, and that when
taken oft' the body it is difficult to restore it to any-
thing like proper form.
The general colour of this bird is brownish black ;
a stripe above the eye and a spot behind are white,
as are the throat and points of the wing-coverts ;
the tail is long, ample, and rounded, and the lateral
feathers composing it are more or less white, there
being some degree of variation in the extent to
which this colour pervades them. Under parts, fer-
ruginous white. It is principally in the form of the
tail and the lengthof the wings that the ditt'erence be-
tween the genera Rhipidura and Muscicapa consist.s.
1375. — The Nest or A species of Flycatciiee.
This woven nest is figured by Le Vaillant in. his
'Birds of Africa:' — " It is, I believe," he writes, "the
nest of the Tchitrec (Muscicapa crihtata, Latham) ;
for though I have never captured the bird of this
species on the nest, and am not therefore certain of
the fact, my good Klass, a faithful, if not a pro-
found observer, assured me that it was. In one of
our journeys through a wood of mimosas, in the
country of the Caftres, he discovered and brought
me this nest, having seen, he said, and particularly
observed a male and female tchitrec occupied in
constructing it. It is remarkable for its peculiar
form, bearing a strong resemblance to a small horn
suspended with the point downwards, between two
branches. Its greatest diameter was two inches,
whence it gradually diminished." It was composed
of a close and laboriously woven tissue of slender
threads, taken from the bark of certain shrubs ; the
depth of the cavity for containing the eggs was not
more than three inches ; and beyond this extended
the conical mass of felt.
To the group of flycatchers belongs the Kingbird
of America ( Tyranmis intrepidm), so celebrated for
its spirit, and its daring attacks upon eagles, hawks,
crows, &c., during the time of breeding, while the
patient female is brooding over her eggs. We may
also enumerate the genus Pha;nicornis, by some con-
sidered, and perhaps correctly, as belonging to the
next family ; as is also Tyrannus.
Family LANIADiE (SHRIKES).
This family comprises a numerous and widely-dis-
persed a>scmblage of birds, all of insectivorous
habits, and many of even carnivorous appetite ;
attacking small birds and quadrupeds, and display-
ing unexpected ferocity of disposition. The beak
is strong, decidedly toothed, compressed laterally,
and often hooked at the tip. The claws are fine
and sharp. These birds take their prey, like the
flycatchers, by darting suddenly upon it from some
post of observation, and in other respects approach
the Muscicapidae, of which some of the groups, viz.,
Tyrannus and Phienicornis, &c., are by many natu-
ralists placed within the pale of the Laniadae, as we
have already stated. Fig. 1376 represents the Head
and Foot of the Lanius Excubitor, or Butcher-Bird,
one of the typical species. Fig. 1377 represents
the Head of one of the Drongo Shrikes (Tephrodornis
superciliosus) ; and 1378 the Head of one of the
genus Telophonus.
1376. — The Bdtcheh-Bibd
{Lanius Excubitor). This is the Castrica palombina
and Averla maggiore of the Italians ; the Pie
Grieche grise and Pie grisatre of the French ; Torn-
Skade of the Danes; Warfogel of the Swedes; Kla-
vert of the Norwegians ; the Berg-Aelster, Gro.ssere
Neuntoder, and Gemeine Wiirger of the Germans ;
Greater Butcher-Bird or Mattagess of Willughby;
Mountain Magpie, Murdering Pie, Great Grey
Shrike, Shreek, and Shrike of the modern British,
and Cigydd Mawr of the ancient British.
This bird is only an occasional visitor to the
British Islands. Mr. Selby observes, that by most
Brili.sh ornithologists it has been mentioned as arriv-
ing in spring, and departing in autumn, which
would imply that it breeds in this country, and is a
regular periodical visitant : — " from this view of its
habits I must be permitted to dissent; all the speci-
mens that have come under my observation having
been killed in the months of November, December,
and January." We know not how to reconcile
this with the following passage (by J. Rennie, Esq.,
A.M.) in the ' Library of Entertaining Know-
ledge—Architecture of Birds,' p. 3 : — " A gentle-
man, who was fond of reading Bufibn, and similar
works on natural history, but who seldom looked
into the great book of nature itself, expressed to us
his doubts of the account originally given by Heck-
welder of the Butcher-bird sticking insects on the
point of a thorn, as a bait to allure small birds
within its reach. He never thought, however, of
disproving or ascertaining the circumstance, and
was surprised beyond measure to be intbrmed that
at least one species of the Butcher-bird (Lanius
Collurio) was as common in his immediate neigh-
bourhood as the song-thrush, and therefore oppor-
tunities of observing its manners could not be want-
ing. To satisfy ourselves, as well as to settle the
doubts of our friend, we undertook to watch the
proceedings of the species just named, as also of
the great Butcher-bird (Lanius Excubitor), both
of which are so common that we found half a dozen
of the nests of each within five miles of Lee, in
Kent. We discovered that near those nests large
insects, such as humble bees, and also that the un-
fledged nesthngs of small birds, were stuck upon the
thorns." Fig. 1380 represents the nest. For our-
selves we have never seen the Lanius Excubitor in
a state of nature, nor indeed were we aware that it
was anywhere common in England, or that it bred
here. In Fiance and the middle and southern dis-
tricts of Europe it is tolerably abundant, and does
not appear to be a bird of true migratory habits.
The butcher-bird feeds upon mice, shrews, small
birds, frogs, lizards, and large insects. Its larger
victims it kills by striking them on the head with
its beak, and then either holding them in its sharp
claws and pulling them to pieces, in the manner
of hawks, or, as is most usual, fixing them on a
thorn; it does the same with insects, not however
to allure birds but to secure its prey. Mr. Selby
says, "I had the gratification of witnessing this ope
ration of the Shrike upon a hedge-sparrow (A(!centor
modularis) which it had just killed, and the skin of
which, still attached to the thorn, is now in my pos-
session. In this instance, after killing the bird, it
hovered with the prey on its bill, a short time over
the hedge, apparently occupied in selecting a thorn
fit for its purpose. Upon disturbing it and advanc-
ing to the spot, I found the Accentor firmly fixed
by the tendons of the wing to the selected twig."
When kept in a cage the butcher acts in a similar
manner, and twists his victim in the wires, so as to
secure it while he tears it to pieces. We have seen
the New Holland butcher-bird (Vanga destructor)
in captivity act in the same manner, and after
strangling a mouse, or crushing its skull, double
it through the wires of its cage, and with every de-
monstration of savage triumph proceed to tear it
limb from limb, and devour it. By way of digres-
sion we may here observe that this bird had the
talent of imitation, and had learned to sing several
bars ot airs witli a lull-toned musical voice. It exe-
cuted the first part of ' Over the Water to Charlie '
with a spirit that would have gone to the heart of an
old Jacobite.
I3(ia.-^mt or Batcber-IM.
1382 SpotMd Biub-i'teUo.
la»lf~Vttlfm Buk«lirnie;
IS'TS.— Bm of Tdophonra lencogrammicus.
1377. —Head of Dningo ShiBc*.
1N4.— Cnnningbnn'i-BiahfSlinhe,
13;6.— Head and Foot of Batcha^4>ird.
,v . '^ -^
)J79.— Butclier-Mrd.
1385.— Ilaliau,
304
1386.— Scaled Fruit-Crow.
^^^)
1387.— Bald Fruit-Crow.
138IJ.— Bare-necked Fruit-Crow.
^W'7i^
1391.— Peruvian Cock of the Rock.
1394.— Cedar- Bird.
1390.— Cock of the Rock.
No
.39.
I3SI3.— Bohemian Chatterer.
lS89^Umbrella.Bird.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
/qy^ ^
/'J^ ,-*; \\ 0
1392.— Green Calyptomena.
805
306
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Chatterers.
The term excubitor, or sentinel, W8» (jiven to the
butcher-bird by Linnseu*. from it« vigilance in
watchint; against hawks and other bird* of that
tribe, whose approach it i« ever the first to perceive,
uttering at the same time a auenilous chattering, in-
dicative no doubt of fear and dislilce. Hence on the
Continent it is used by persons engaged in the cap-
ture of the Peregrine falcon. The mode is thus
stated by Sir John Sebright, in his ' Observations
upon Hawking:" — The slight or Peregrine falcons,
he says, which are brought to this country in the
tpring, to be used in flying herons, are caught in
tne preceding autumn and winter on the heaths
near Falconsweard, as they pass towards the south
and east. These hawks are taken, he tells us, by
placing in a favourable situation a small bow net,
to arranged as to be drawn over <]uickly by a long
string that is attached to it. A pigeon of a light
colour is tied on the ground as a bait ; and the fal-
coner is concealed, at a convenient distance, in a
hut made of turf, to which the string reaches. A
butcher-bird (I.anius Excubitor), that is, the Warder
butcher-bird, from the look-out that he keeps for
the falcon, is tied on the ground near the hut ; and
two pieces of turf are so set up as to serve him as
well for a place of shelter from the weather as of
retreat from the falcon. The falconer employs him-
self in some sedentary occupation, relying upon the
vigilance of the butcher-bird to warn him of the
approach of a hawk. This he never fails to do, by
screaming loudly when he perceives his enemy at a
distance, and by running under the turf when the
haw!< draws near. The falconer is thus prepared
to pull the net the moment that the falcon has
pounced upon the pigeon.
The nest is generally built on trees, and is framed
of grass-stalks, roots, and moss, with a lining of
down or wool. The eggs, from four to six, or,
according to Temminck, from five to seven, are
bluish or greyish-white, spotted on the larger end
with light brown and ash.
The colouring of the adult male is as follows : —
Head, nape, and back fine bright ash ; a large
black band passing beneath the eyes and covering
the orifices of the ears ; lower part pure white ;
wings short, black ; origin ofthe quills and extremity
of the secondaries pure white ; two external tail-
feathers white ; the third black towards the centre,
the fourth terminated by a great white space, and
the fifth by a less extensive space ; the two middle
ones entirely black ; bill and feet deep black.
Length nine or ten inches.
The young male resembles the female.
Female : — Upper parts less bright ash ; lower
parts whitish, each breast-feather terminated by a
crescent of bright ash ; less white at the extremity
of the secondaries, and more black on the origin of
the tail-feathers.
Total length, nine inches.
1381. — ViGORs's Busr-Shrikb
{ThamnophUus Vigorsii). The birds of this genus
are natives of South America, and tenant wooded
districts, lurking and prying among thick bushes
and underwood, in quest of reptiles, nestlings, small
birds, and mammalia; the beak is strong, and the
upper mandible curved at the tip ; the tarsi are
long ; and in one division of the genus the tail is
• produced to a considerable extent beyond the wings.
To this belongs the Thamnophilus Vigorsii — a
species of large size and predatory habits. The
rounded wing and long tarsi indicate its adaptation
to the localities it frequents, while its robust and
hooked and compressed bill announces the nature
of its food. This species is about thirteen inches in
length : in the male, the back, wings, and tail are
black, broadly banded with fulvous, and the under
part ofthe body is of a dirty whitish brown ; on the
head is a rufous crest tinged with black at the
apex ; in the female the bands are whitish, the
crest blackish, and the under parts ash-colour.
1382. — The Spotted Bush-Shrikb
{Thamnophilus ruevius). This species is an example
of the division characterized by a comparatively
short and rounded tail. The general colour of the
spotted bush-shrike is black ; the back being ash-
coloured with dashes of white anteriorly ; the wings
are variegated also with white. The under parts
of the body are ash-coloured. The habits of this
bird much resemble those of the common butcher-
bird ; insects and small quadrupeds, &c. being its
prey.
1383.— The Cayenne Shrike
(Psarii, Cayanensis). Lanius Cayanus, Gmelin ;
Pie-gneche grise de Cayenne of Buffon. Bill large,
thick, subcylindrical ; tip abruptly bent, and notched.
Head large, and depressed ; wings long. The
examples of the genus Psaris (Cuvier) are all South
American ; the present species is common in Ca-
yenne, and, according to Cuvier, its manners are
those of our European butcher-bird. (Jeneral colour,
fine ashy-grey ; head, wings, and tail black.
1384. — Cunningham's Shrikb
(^Gubemeles Cunninghami, VigoraV The manners
of this shrike resemble those of the preceding
species ; its flight is quick, and it preys upon large
insects. Mr. Vigors observes that this bird, which
he named after Colonel Cunningham of Rio Janeiro,
appears to have a considerable affinity to the genus
Psaris of Cuvier in the str\icture of its bill and wings,
but that it differs from it by other such essential
characters as to have induced hiui to place it in a
separate genus.
General colour ash-grey, longitudinally lineated
with brown ; throat and rump white ; a pectoral
lunulate band of purplish-brown ; wings and tail
brownish-black. Quill feathers longitudinally banded
with ferruginous.
1385.— The Common Piaha"
{Quenita nihricoOis). Mr. Swainson observes that
by some cf the Linnaean writers this remarkable bird
is classed as a Muscicapa ; while by others, even
among the moderns, it is considered an Ampelis ;
and he thinks that both of these opinions may be
reconciled, by viewing it — as it stands in his arrange-
ment— as the connecting link between these fami-
lies. He remarks that all the other flycatchers,
according to his system, so far as we yet know, feed
entirely upon insects ; but there is unquestionable
testimony that this species lives also upon fruits, thus
uniting in itself the characteristic of the two families
which it connects. In the bill, he adds, there is
much ofthe form and strength of that of Psaris, but
it is wide and more depressed ; whilst the stiff
bristles at the rictus betray its insectivorous habit :
the feet are remarkably short for the size of the
bird, and are calculated only, like those of the Am-
pelidae, for perching. All these characters, in the
opinion of Mr. Swainson, not only point out this
genus as the fissirostral type, but perfect the union
of the families of Muscieapidae and Ampelidae.
Looking at its affinity to Psaris, we venture to
place it, but with doubt, within the border-line of
the Laniadse. The Piahau, so called from its cry,
is a native of America, living in troops, in the
woods, and feeding on insects and fruits. Its gene-
ral colour is black, with a purple throat. It is the
Muscicapa rubricollis of Gmelin.
Family CORACINID^.
The birds of this family, termed Fruit-Crows by
Mr. Swainson, are regarded by that naturalist as
constituting a subfamily of the Corvidae (Crows).
Lesson and others place the birds in question among
the Chatterers (Ampelidae) ; and Cuvier, who places
them before the Ampelidae, or, as he calls them,
Cotingas, observes that they have certain links of
affinity to some of the Flycatchers.
In their habits they appear to be arboreal, feeding
upon berries : the beak is depressed and smooth,
angular above ; slightly curved at the point, which
is minutely toothed; the lower mandible a little
flattened below.
1386. The Scaled Fruit-Crow
(Coracina scutata). This beautiful bird is a native
of the forests of Brazil ; its general plumage is
glossy black, with the exception of the throat and
chest, which are of a fine rose-red. We have no
particular details of its habits.
1387.— The Bald Fruit-Crow
(Gt/mnocephalus calvus); Corvus calvus, Latham;
Capuchin Bald-head; Oiseau mon Pfire of the
Creoles of Cayenne. This singular species, which
constitutes the type of the genus Gymnocephalus,
equals a crow in size ; it is of the colour of Spanish
snufF, or as some term it, a Capuchin colour,
whence the Creole name Oiseau mon Pere. The
quills and the tail-feathers are black. The whole
anterior part of the head is destitute of feathers;
and from this circumstance and the size of the beak,
the expression of the face, if the word face be
aL'owed, is very remarkable. BothLe Vaillant and
Vieillot assert that it is not until the bird is adult
that the feathers of the head are lost, and that pre-
viously to this stage the whole is well covered,
whence the latter author, noticing that on this
account it has been compared to the rook, which
loses the feathers around the base of its bill, adds
that the comparison is just ; for, like the rook, it has
no part of the head naked until it has arrived at
complete maturity. Lesson, however, seems to
doubt the assertion of Vieillot, and states that he
saw twenty specimens at Rochefort, all of which
had the face bare of feathers ; but it may be ob-
served that in all probability the birds were adult,
a point which Lesson seems to have disregarded.
Locality, Guiana.
1388.— The Bark-necked Fruit-Crow \
(Gtfmnodenis fxtidus) ; Col-nu, BiifFon ; Corvus
nudus, Latham ; Gracula nudicollis, Shaw ; Gracula
foetida, Linn. In size this bird equals a jackdaw, |
but the body is thick and fleshy ; the sides of the
neck are entirely naked, presenting only a few
traces of down. The upper part of the head, the
back of the neck and throat, are covered with small
close-set feathers, producing the appearance of
black velvet. The wing-coverts and edges of the
middle quill-fealheni are of a bluish-grey ; the rest
of the plumage is black in the male, brownish-
black in the female. Native regions, Br>'il and
Guiana.
1389.— The Umbrella-Bird
{CKphalopterua omatvs). This rare and beautiful
bird is distinguished by a crest of full outspreading
plumes which tower above its head and fall over
the beak, reminding us of the crest of a Grecian
helmet. From the upper part of the chest depends
a sort of pelerine or apron of square-edged feathers ;
the tail is graduated ; the bill is strong and robust ;
the whole of the plumage is jet-black, with rich
violet reflexions, especially on the crest and chest
plumes. The umbrella-bird equals a jay in size,
but of its manners and habits nothing is known. It
is a native of Brazil, and the borders ofthe Amazon
and its tributary rivers. Lesson, indeed, in refer-
ence to the specimen in the Paris Museum, states
that though the belief was that it came from Bi-azil,
a well-informed Portuguese told him that it was
brought from Goa (Malabar). We hesitate not to
affirm that there is in this statement some mistake :
if brought from Goa, it was first taken there, and
thence to Lisbon, whence it was forwarded to M.
GeofFroy St. Hilaire.
Family AMPELID^ (CHATTERERS).
Bill stout, variable in length ; feet strong, the outer
toe united to the middle toe as far or beyond the
first joint. Food, chiefly berries.
1390.— The Cock of the Rock
(liupicola auraniia) ; Rupicola Cayana, Swainson ;
Rupicola elcgans, Stephens; Rupicola crocea;
Rock Manakin. In the genus Rupicola the bill is
moderate, robust, and vaulted above ; the nostrils
are oval, but hidden by an elevated fan-like crest,
which covers the top of the head ; the wings are
moderate and rounded ; the tail short and square.
The Cock ofthe Rock is a native of South Ame-
rica, tenanting the rocky districts along the rivers of
Cayenne, Surinam, &c., and is probably to be found
along the river Amazon and most of its tributaiy
branches. Latham states that it is nowhere so fre-
quent as on the mountain Luca, near the river Oya-
pok, in Guiana, and on the mountain Courouraye,
near the river Aprouack, where it builds in ca-
vernous hollows and dark recesses : the nest is
made of twigs and dry herbage, and the eggs are J
two in number, of a white colour, and are equal in i
size to those of a pigeon.
In its habits and manners this beautiful bird is
shy and recluse, resorting to silent glens and rocky
ravines, where it appears to pass an undisturbed
existence. Its flight is rapid ; its food consists of
berries and the smaller wild plants. Waterton in-
forms us that it is found in the woody mountains ol
Macousia, a tract on the Apourapoura — one of the
tributaries of the Essequibo from the south — and
inhabited by the Macoushi (or Macusi) Indians,
celebrated for their skill in preparing the urari, or
deadly vegetable poison with which they smear the
points of their arrows. This bird, he says, retires to
hide in the daytime amongst the darkest rocks, and
comes out to feed only just before sunrise and at
the hour of sunset. Its disposition is gloomy and
unsocial, and it never joins company with other
birds ofthe forest. The Cock of the Rock is about
the size of a pigeon ; the general plumage is of a
bright orange yellow or rich saffron; a compressed
crest, like that of a Greek helmet, surmounts the
head, and is varied along the summit with brown
and yellow. The secondary quill-feathers and the
tail-coverts are square, as if cut at the ends with a
pair of scissors. The feathers of the back and the
wing-coverts are elongated into loose flowing
plumes ; the tail is brown, tipped with yellow ; the
bill and tarsi rosy-white. The female is ratlier
smaller than the male, with a less elevated crest,
and of a uniform bistre brown. No living specimen,
as far as we are aware, has ever been brought to
Europe.
1391.- ThePeruvian Cock of the Rock
(Rupicola Penivimia) ; Chiachia lacca of the Mex-
icans. This bird appears to be a native of the inte-
rior of Pern and Mexico, and specimens have been
brought to Europe from Lima. For some time this
species was regarded as a variety of the Rupicola
aurantia, from which however it is perfectly dis-
tinct, being a larger bird, with a longer tail in pro-
portion. Its crest is not compressed, nor are the
feathers ofthe back and wing-coverts plumose and
filiform, as in the former species. If differs also m
colouring. The general tint is bright orange, but
Chatterers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
307
I
the quill and tail feathers are deep black, and the
middle wing coverts are bright ash-grey. The
crest is of a uniform tint, wanting the deeper-
coloured semicircular line edging the helmet-like
crest of the preceding. Of its habits and manners
nothing is known, but we may safely infer that they
resemble those of the Rupicofa aurantia.
1392. — The Green Calyptomena
(Calt/ptomena viridis). In the genus Calyptomena
the bill is depressed and wide at the base, curved
or hooked at the point, and nearly hidden by the
feathers of the crest, which is erect and com-
pressed ; the wings are ample ; the tail is short ; the
middle and outer toes are connected as far as the
second joint.
This beautiful and richly-coloured bird is about
the size of a thrush, measuring about six inches and
a hall' in length; it is a native of Singapore and
the interior of Sumatra. We learn from Sir Stam-
ford Raffies that it shrouds itself in the mc<sf retired
parts of the forests, where it perches on the highest
branches, and that from this circumstance and the
blending of its emerald-green tints with those of
the leaves, it is not to be easily discerned and pro-
cured. In the specimens which he examined the
stomach contained nothing but vegetable sub-
stances, chiefly wild grains. It is termed Burong
Tampo Pinang by the Malays. "The general
colour of this bird is a brilliant metallic green. The
head is rather large, and its feathers are directed
forwards from each side, in such a manner as nearly
to conceal the bill, giving the face a very peculiar
appearance. A little above and before the eyes the
feathers are of a deep velvet-black at their base,
and only tipped with green, but crossed on the
coverts by three velvet-black bands ; the primary
feathers, as well as the whole under-side of the
wings, are dusky, approaching to black ; with the
exception of the outer margins of some which are
edged with green. The tail is short, rounded, com-
posed of ten feathers, which are green above and
bluish-black below. The whole of the under parts
are green : this colour is lightest on the sides of the
neck and round the eyes. The bill is short, wide,
much depressed at the base, deeply cleft, and
hooked at the point. Nostrils oval at the base of
the bill, and concealed by the iiliforra feathers that
project over them. The eyes are rather large ; the
irides bluish. Legs bluish-black ; a few feathers
come down over the upper part of the tarsi. Feet
gressorial ; outer toe not much shorter than the
middle one, with which it is united as far as the
last joint. The female does not differ in appear-
ance from the male." (Raffles.)
1393.— The Bohemian Chatterer
(Bombi/ciUa Sohemicd). This elegant species, which
is known by the English name of the Waxen Chat-
terer, the Bohemian Wax-wing, and Silk-tail, is Le
Jaseur de Boheme (Buffon, &c.), Grand jaseur
(Temminck), and Geay de Boheme of the French ;
Garrulo di Boemia of the Italians ; Rothlicherauer
Seidenschwantz (Meyer), Europaischer Seiden-
schwanz and Der Gemeine Seidenschwanz (Bech-
stein) of the Germans; Garrulus Bohemicus of
Gesner ; Bombycilla, Schwenck ; Ampelis, Aldro-
vand ; Bombycilla of Brisson; Ampelis garrulus of
Linnaeus ; Bombyciphora garrula, Brehm ; Bomby-
ciphora poliocaelia of Meyer; Bombycivora garrula
of Temminck ; and Bombycilla garrula of Vieillot.
In addition to the nomenclature above given, the
bird is said to be named by the Italians in some
localities Becco-Frisone, in others Galletto del
bosco, and by the bird-catchers of Bologna, Uccello
del mondo novo; by the Germans, Zinzerelle, Wip-
ifertz, Schnee-vogel, and Schnee-Leschke ; and by
those in the neighbourhood of Nuremberg, Bee-
merle and Behemle ; by the Swedes, Siden-swantz ;
by the Bohemians, Brkoslaw; and by the Poles,
Jcbwabniczka and Jemiolucha.
The Bohemian Chatterer, or Wax-wing, is a rare
and accidental visitor to our island, and that only
during severe winters, when sometimes considerable
flocks make their appearance and feed upon the
hips of the dog-rose, the haws of the thorn, ttie
berries of the mountain-ash, &c. These migratory
visits to our island are, however, irregular ; but on
the Continent, in Norway and Russia, great num-
bers are seen every winter; and in northern Asia
and the adjacent parts of Europe their migrations
are regular. Numerous flocks pass through Scania
in November, taking a southern direction, and
return northwards through the same region in
•pring. In Germany and Bohemia, according to
Bechstein, flocks are found along the skirts of the
extensive forests. In France the Wax-wing is very
rare, and also in Italy ; though occasionally in the
latter country large flights have made their appear-
ance, and, according to popular superstition, a
fatality attended their movements.
The Bohemian chatterer is not confined to
Europe and Asia (where it extends from the
western limits of the former to Japan) ; it is a
native also of the northern regions of the American
continent. It is common on the Athabasca river
near the Rocky Mountains, and has been killed
there in the spring, both by the Prince of Canino
and Mr. Drummond, and Dr. Richardson observed
it in the same season at Great Bear Lake, in lat.
65°, where a male, of which he gives a description,
was shot on the 24th May of that year. " Speci-
mens," writes Dr. Richardson, " procured at the
former place, and transmitted to England by the
servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, were com-
municated by Mr. Leadbeater to the Prince of
Musignano, who has introduced the species into his
great work on the birds of the United States. In
its autumn migration southwards, this bird must
cross the territory of the United States, if it does
not actually winter within it ; but I have not heard
of its having been hitherto seen in America to the
southward of the fifty-fifth parallel of latitude.
" The mountainous nature of the country skirting
the Northern Pacific Ocean, being congenial to the
habits of this species, it is probably more generally
diffused in New Caledonia and the Russian-Ame-
rican territories, than to the eastward of the Rocky
Mountain chain. It appears in flocks at Great
Bear Lake about the 2-lth of May, wheii the spring
thaw has exposed the berries of the Alpine arbutus,
marsh vaccinium, &c., that have been frozen and
covered during winter. It stays only a few days,
and none of the Indians of that quarter with whom
I conversed had seen its nests ; but I have reason
to believe that it retires in the breeding-season to
the rugged and secluded mountain limestone dis-
tricts, in the sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth parallels,
when it feeds on the fruit of the common juniper,
which abounds in these places." Dr. Richardson
adds, that he observed a large flock of at least three
or four hundred on the banks of the Saskatchewan,
at Carlton House, early in May, 1827. They
alighted in a grove of poplars, settling all on one or
two trees, and making a loud twittering noise.
They stayed only about an hour in the morning,
and were too shy to allow him to approach within
gunshot.
With respect to the summer breeding-places of
the Waxen Chatterer in Europe and Asia, nothing
is known. Temminck says that it is supposed to
resort to the high northern latitudes, the regions
within the Arctic Circle, but the Prince of Canino
suggests that the extensive and elevated table-
land of Central Asia is its principal rendezvous,
whence it makes irregular excursions east and west,
extending its journey according to the season or
other causes. According to the same author, the
Wax-wing in a state of nature is very social with
its companions, the individuals of a flock exhibit-
ing much kindness to each other, and caressing
and supplying each other with food ; their flight is
rapid ; they usually alight on trees, and when on
the ground hop along very awkwardly. Bechstein
reports that in captivity the Wax-wing is stupid,
indolent, and voracious, refusing nothing eatable,
such as potatoes, cabbage, bread, and fruit of
all sorts, and that it is easily tamed. " Its song
consists only of a weak uncertain whistling, a little
resembling that of the thrush, but not so loud ;
while singing it moves the crest, but scarcely the
throat ; when angry, its strikes the feeding-trough
violently with its beak." It may be taken in nooses,
or in nets and traps baited witii berries. Its flesh
is said to be excellent.
The Bohemian Chatterer is about eight inches
in length, and in contour approaches the starling.
The general plumage is dull vinous ash, tinted with
ferruginous red on the plumage and cheeks ; the
feathers of the head are prolonged into a beautiful
crest ; the throat, the feathers around the nostrils,
and a stripe which passes from the beak to the
back of the neck, are black. The primary quill-
feathers are brownish black, each feather having a
yellow line on its inner margin near the tip. The
secondaries are tipped with white, each having the
shaft prolonged and furnished with a small horny
scarlet appendage, like a little flattish oval bead of
red sealing-wax, whence the name " wax-wing."
The tail is black, tipped with a yellow band.
Beak and tarsi black. Irides reddish. The female
is generally similar to the male, but the yellow of
the wings is not so bright, nor are the wax-like
appendages so large or so numerous.
1394, 1395.— The Cedar-Bird
{Bomhycilla Carolinensis). This species is the
Ampelis garrulus, var. /3, of the ' Systema Naturae ;'
Garrulus Carolinensis, Le Jaseur de Caroline, the
Chatterer of Catesby ; Turdus garrulus Carolinensis
of Klein ; Coquantototl of Hernandez ; Avis Ame-
ricana cristata, XomotI dicta of Seba ; Chatterer of
Carolina of Edwards ; Cedar-bird, Ampelis Ame-
ricana, of Wilson ; Recollect of the Canadian
Voyageurs ; Bombycilla Carolinensis of Brisson,
Bonaparte, Audubon, and others. It is said to be
found in the whole extent between Mexico and
Canada, and parties are said occasionally to roam
as far south as the forests of Guiana. In the United
States it is a resident during the whole year, the
northern and middle states being its more usual
quarters in the summer, and the southern in the
winter sea.son. It is stated that the bird has been
found on the north-west coast of America, but its
northern boundary appears to fall short of that of
Bombycilla Bohemica. Say saw it near Winnipeg
river in latitude 50°, and Dr. Richardson states his
belief that it has not been hitherto observed to the
northward of the fifty fourth parallel. He says
that Mr. Drummond saw several small flocks on
the south branch of the Saskatchewan on the 27th
June, and gives a description of a male killed there
in lat. 52^° on that day, 1827. He adds, that it
frequents the northern shores of La^es Huron and
Superior in summer.
The cedar-birds utter a feeble lisping sound, and
" fly," says Wilson, " in compact bodies of from
twenty to fifty ; and usually alight so close together
on the same tree, that one-half are frequently shot
down at a time. In the months of July and August,
they collect together in flocks, and retire to the
hilly parts of the state, the Blue Mountains, and
other collateral ridges of the Alleghany, to enjoy
the fruit of the Vaccinium uliginosum, whortle-
berries, which grow there in great abundance,
whole mountains for many miles being almost
entirely covered with them ; and where, in the month
of August, I have myself found the cedar-birds
numerous. In October they descend to the lower
cultivated parts of the country, to feed on the
berries of the sour gum and red cedar, of which
last they are immoderately fond ; and thirty or
forty may sometimes be seen fluttering among the
branches of one small cedar-tree, plucking off' the
berries In the tall, and beginning of summer,
when they become very fat, they are in considerable
esteem for the table ; and great numbers are
brought to the market of Philadelphia, where they
are sold at from twelve to twenty-five cents, per
dozen. During the whole winter and spring they
are occasionally seen ; and about the 25th of May
appear in numerous parties making great havoc
among the early cherries, selecting the .best and
ripest of the fruit." Audubon says that they reach
Louisiana about the beginning of November, and
retire towards the middle districts in the beginning
of March. " The holly," writes the author last
quoted, " the vines, the persimon, the pride of
China, and various other trees, supply them with
plenty of berries and fruits, on which' they fatten,
and become so tender and juicy as to be sought by
every epicure for the table."
In June, while cherries and strawberries abound,
they become extremely fat, and about the 10th or
12th of that month disperse over the country in
pairs to breed ; sometimes fixing on the cedar
(Juniperus Virginiana), but generally choosing the
orchard for that purpose. The nest is large for the
size of the bird, and is fixed in the forked or
horizontal branch of an apple-tree, ten or twelve
feet from the ground ; and sometimes several nests
are to be seen in the same vicinity.
Externally the nest is composed of fibres and
coarse dry stalks of grass ; the inside is lined
entirely with very fine stalks of the same material.
The eggs are three or four, of a dingy bluish white,
thick at the great end, tapering suddenly, and be-
coming very narrow at the other, marked with small
roundish spots, of black of various sizes and shades :
and the great end is of a pale dull purple tinge,
marked likewise with touches of various shades of
purple and black. About the last week in June the
young are hatched, and are at firet fed on insects
and their larvae ; but as they advance in growth, on
berries of variouskinds. " The female," says Wilson,
from whose personal observation the foregoing facts
are given, "if disturbed, darts from the nest in
silence to a considerable distance ; no notes of
wailing or lamentation are heard from either parent,
nor are they even seen, notwithstanding you are in
the tree examining the nest and young. . . . The
season of love, which makes almost every other
small bird musical, has no such effect on them;
for they continue at that interesting period as silent
as before."
Audubon states that these birds are " excellent
fly-catchers, spending much of their time in the
pursuit of winged insects, but yet without much
vivacity or energy of action. They start from the
branches and give chace to the insects, ascending
after them for a few yards or moving horizontally
toward them, perhaps rather farther than when
ascending, and as soon as the prey is secured they
return to tlie spot, where they continue watching
with slow motions of the head. Towards evening
this amusement is carried on for half an hour or an
hour at a time, and is continued longer at the
approach of autumn, the berries then becoming
scarcer.''
2 R2
y-^r-
.v^.
^ ^%S
l«Ot.— Dkmond-BinL
13»«.— B«<1 ibA BUck Manakin.
UOl.— Ctnted Manakin.
1400.— <3alMt«d Haaakin.
139t.— Japanese Chatterer.
isa5.— Cedai-Biid.
p|;^"f^
U«7.— Scarlet Cotinga.
M03.— Yellow cliKked Titmoate.
1398.— Swallow Fiuit-eater.
308
UOS.— BUck-cap Titmoiis*.
1408.— £ggor Blue TitmouM.
1407 — Long-tailed Titmice and Nest.
I40e.— Long-tilled Titmice.
U04.-Oroup of Britiili Titmice.
309
810
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Titmice.
The cedar-bird is about «ix inches and a half lonf( ;
its plumage is soft and silky, and its head is orna-
mented with an erectile crest. General colour
yellowi«h or fawn brown, fading into yellow on the
abdomen, and yellowish white under the tail.
Back and winit-coveils prreyish brown. Throat
and a band passing from the forehead to the occ-iput
black, the latter narrowly marpned with white,
(juill-feathers brownish black, some of the secon-
daries having the scarlet waxen appendages ; tail
brownish black, tipped with a band of pale yellow.
The female is rather smaller than the male, and
with paler colouring.
1396. — Thk Asiatic or Japanese Chattkrkr
(Bombycilla phemicoplera). This newly discovered
species differs from the Bohemian and the cedar-
bird in the nakedness of the nostrils, in the leni>:th
of the crest, partially composed of black plumes,
and in the entire absence of the wax-like append-
ages with which in the other two species the
secondaries are tipped.
The Japanese islands, as far as we know, appear
to be native territories of this bird, which is found
more particularly in the neighbourhood of Nan-
gasaki. Of its habits we have no definite details,
length six inches and a half. The base of the bill
is bordered by a black band, which passes to the
back of the head, surrounding the eye iu its way,
and terminates in the lower crest-feathers, which
are of the same colour throughout ; the chin and
throat are black ; the crest is long, composed above
of feathers of an ashy-reddish colour with an inferior
layer of the black plumes already alluded to ; the
breast, upper parts, and wing-coverts are of a
brownish-ash. and a red band traverses the wing
about the middle of it ; all the quills are of an ashy-
black, the greater quills terminated with black and
tipped with white ; the tail is of an ashy-black,
tipped with vivid red ; the middle of the belly is of
a whitish-yellow ; and the lower tail-coverts chest-
nut ; feet black.
Family PIPRID^E (COTINGAS and MANA-
KINS).
Mr. Swainson regards the Pipridae, or, as he calls
them, Piprinse, as a subfamily of the Ampelidee,
from which they differ in the slenderness of the
feet, shortness of the beak, and curvature of the
upper mandible ; most are of small size, and clothed
in plumage of the richest tints of crimson, orange,
yellow, blue, green, and black. The warmer
regions of America are their strongholds, but not
their exclusive habitat. According to Mr. Swain-
son the manakins " chiefly occur in the deep virgin
forests of the tropics, but are much more social than
the Cotingas. They live in little bands, are con-
tinually in motion, and feed almost entirely on
the large soft berries of the different species of
Melastoma: the nest of one species, Pipra pareola,
is often built in the fork of a shrub, in such an
exposed manner that the female can look all round,
and watch the approach of danger ; we found one in
such a situation in the forest of Pitanga, a single
leaf of a large pepper-plant (Piper) forming a kind
of umbrella shade over the female, which was
sitting, and did not rise from her nest as we passed
onwards."
1397. — The Scarlet Cotinoa
(Phemicireus Camifex). Ampelis Carnifex, Linn.
In this genus the bill is rather weak ; the wings
are short and rounded ; the feet are short, the
middle and outer toes united, and the tarsi feathered
on their inner side. The scarlet cotinga equals the
wax-wing in size, and is a native of Brazil, Guiana,
and Surinam. It tenants the deepest recesses of
the forest, and is solitary in its habits, uttering from
time to time a monotonous whistle which sounds
jike the syllable " quet." Waterton states that it
is found throughout the year in Demerara, and is
fond of the seeds of the hilea-tree, and of those of
the siloabali, which ripen in December, and continue
on the trees for above two months. Nothing, how-
ever, is known of the incubation of this splendid
bird, and the Indians all agree in stating that they
have never seen its nest. The Caraibs term it
Arara and Apira.
The general colour of this species is fire-red,
with a bright flaming-red cap ; the back is reddish-
brown, the breast blood-red ; the tail feathers are
purple terminated by ruddy black. The female
IS paler, and the tints more dusky and obscure.
1398. — The Swallow Fruit-eatbr
{Procnias ventralis). This beautiful species is a
native of Bahia, and more particularly of the
southern proviiices of Brazil, where it frequents
the woods, feeding on berries and wild fruits. The
genus Procnias, of which it is an example, is cha-
racterized by the breadth of the beak, which has the
sides inflected and the tip straight, the gape being
remarkable for width, exceeding that even of the
swallow tribe, and enabling the birds to swallow the
large berries of the Melastoma and of other tropical
shrubs with the greatest ease. Cuvier, speaking of
these birds, says, " ils se nourissent d'insectes," out
incorrectly, for fruits are their only food. Perhaps
this genus rather belongs to the Ampelidse than the
PipndsB.
The Swallow fruit-eater is about five inches and a
half in length : the male is blue, with the anterior
part of the head and the throat black ; the sides are
transversely striated with dusky black ; and the
centre of the abdomen is white. The female is
green, with the forehead and throat grey ; and the
under parts yellowish, transversely stiiated with
dusky green. To this genus belongs the Bell-bird,
or Canipanero, of South America, remarkable for its
note, which sounds like that of a bell through the
depths of the forests, recalling to the weary traveller
the remembrance of a IHr-ofi' land, and suggesting
to his mind the beautiful words of Shakspere : —
*' Traa la It Uiat we have «een b«tt«r dayi.
And liara with holy ball been knoU'd to chureh."
A Yim Ulu It.
till, carried away by his thoughts, he almost starts to
find himself in the gloom of an American forest.
" The campaneio," says Waterton, " is about the
size of the jay; his plumage is as white as snow;
on his forehead rises a spiral tube nearly three inches
long; it is jet black, dotted all over with white
feathers, and has a communication with the palate,
and when filled with air looks like a spire ; when
empty it becomes pendulous. His note is loud and
clear, like the sound of a bell, and may be heard at
the distance of three miles. In the midst of these
extensive wilds, generally on the dried top of an
aged mora, almost out of gun-reach, you will see
the campanero. No sound or song from any of the
winged inhabitants of the forest, not even the clearly
pronounced 'Whip-poor-Will' from the goatsucker,
cause such astonishment as the toll of the campa-
nero. With many of the feathered race, he pays
the common tribute of a morning and evening song ;
and even when the meridian sun has shut in silence
the mouths of almost the whole of animated nature,
the campanero still cheers the forest ; you hear his
toll, and then a pause for a minute — then another
toll, and then a pause again — and then a toll, and
again a pause — then he is silent for six or eight
minutes, and then another toll, and so on." Strange
to the ear, and not less welcome, must be the bell-
like tone of the snow-white campanero.
1399.— The Red and Black Manakin
(Pipra aureola). The true manakins are very nu-
merous, and all of minute size and beautifully co-
loured : they associate in small flocks; frequenting
fruit-bearing trees in the woods, and are very active
and alert. The bill is small and weak ; the wings
rounded ; the tail short. The present species is of a
rich red, with the exception of the back, wings, and
tail, which are black, and of the throat, which is
yellow. Locality, Guiana.
1400.— The Galeatkd Manakin
(Metopia galeata. Swains.) ; Pipra galeata, Licht.
In this species the tail is broad and lengthened, and
the wings ample ; a frontal crest projects over the
beak. The general colour is black ; the whole of
the head and back of the neck being of a rich crim-
son. It is a native of Brazil.
1401 — The Crested Manakin
{Calyptura ciistata). Bill short, strong, robust, and
with the upper mandible deeply notched. Wings
short and rounded; tail almost concealed; tai-si
lengthened.
The general colour of this species on the upper
surface is brownish-green or olive; the crown is
red ; the rump yellow ; the throat and breast yel-
lowish, this becoming brighter and more decided on
the abdomen ; tarsi black. Native country, Brazil.
1402.— The Diamond-Bird
(Pardalotus ptmctatiis). In the subgenus Pardalo-
tus the beak is stout, and notched as in Calyptura,
but the wings are long and pointed. The feet are
strong-, and the lateral toe is free.
This pretty little bird is a native of Australia,
where it inhabits the forest and brush-lands, but is
not very abundant. The general colour above is
grey, undulated with yellow ; the head and wings
are black dotted with white ; a white streak runs
above the eye ; the lower part of the back is fire-
red ; the throat is yellow; the under parts whitish.
The female has the head dotted with yellow points.
It is from the spots on the wings that the settlers
have given to this species the name of diamond-
bird.
Family PARID^ (TITS, or TITMICE).
The birds of this family, of which our British
species the Parus major and the Parus cseruleus
may be regarded as typical species, are remarkable
for their activity among the branches of frees, which
they traverse with the utmost address, creeping
around them, and clinging in all positions while they
examine buds, bark, flowers, ana fruits, in quest of
insetjts and their larvae, prying info every recess and
crevice. Who has not observed their restlessness—
their ever-changing attitudes — their quickness,
their abrupt movements, their promptness ana
celerity ? fhey frequent gardens, orchards, farm-
yards, hedge-ruws, and copses, and are bold and
familiar. In addition to insects, they feed upon
hard seeds and grain, and some will even attack the
young of small birds, killing them by blows upon
the skull with their short sharp-puinted beak. The
colours of the titmice are lively and well contrasted,
and the plumage is full and soft.
In the restricted genus Parus the bill is strong,
short, subconical, slightly compressed, hard, and
pointed. The nostrils are basal and round, covered
with reflected bristly feathci-s. The outer and
middle toes are not united ; the hind-toe is strong,
and armed with a long and hooked claw. Wings
rounded. This form is almost universally spread.
1403. — The Yellow-Cheeked Titmouse
(Parus Xanthogenys). This species, which is a na-
tive ofthe Himalaya Mountains, was first described
and figured by Mr. Gould in his ' Century of Birds,
&c.' It is closely related to our Parus major, which
it is said to resemble also in its habits and manners.
The head is ornamented with a crest of black
feathers, covering the whole of the top ; a stripe
above the eye; the cheeks are yellow; the eai-
coverts black; the back is olive'; the wings and
tail black, the former being spotted and the latter
tipped with white ; a broad black mark passes down
the throat and chest ; the sides of the chest and
flanks are pale yellow. Bill and feet black.
1404. — A Group of British Titmice.
In this pictorial group we have specimens of the
following :— a, the Greater Tit (Parus major); b,
the Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) ; c, the Cole-Tit
(Parus ater) ; d, the Marsh-Tit (Pams palustiis).
1404 (a).— The Greater Tit
(Parus major) ; M&ange charbonnidre, Temm. ;
Great Titmouse or Ox-eye, ' British Zool.' This beau-
tiful bird frequents gardens, orchards, and copses,
where in spring may be frequently heard its harsh
note, aptly compared to the sound produced on
sharpening the teeth of a saw by the file. This
note is only heard during the pairing season,
and ceases vthen the bird has a nest. Its ordi-
nary cry is a loud chirp followed by a harsh clatter,
remarkably strong for so small a bird, as it may be
heard at a considerable distance. It uses, however,
a great variety of calls, or notes, of which one re-
sembles the call-note of the chaffinch, sounding like
the word pink.
The Greater Titmouse feeds upon insects and their
larvae, which it digs out of crevices in the bark of
trees, or extricates from buds in which they have
made a lodgment. In autumn and during winter
it subsists upon grain and seeds, preferring such as
are of an oily quality. It will also pick bones, and
is partial both to the flesh and tat, which it greedily
devours. It will also disarrange the thatch of out
houses and other buildings in quest of torpid insects.
" The Great Titmouse (s-ays Gilbert White;, driven by
stress of weather, much frequents houses ; and in
deep snows I have seen this bird, while it hung with
its back downwards, to my no small delight and ad-
miration, draw straws lengthwise from llie eaves of
thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that
were concealed between them, and that in such
numbers that they quite defaced the thatch, and
gave it a ragged appearance." It is capable of
piercing the shells oi nuts, of the kernels of which
it is lond. Mr. Slaney says, "We had often in
winter heard a humming noise, which appeared to be
caused by this bird, and throwing a stone sniaitly at
him, he dropped something, which proved to be a
hazel-nut, a little perloiated at the smaller end by
repeated strokes of his bill. We often afterwards
watched him at work, and found under his workshop
many shells from which the nuts had been extri-
cated, and some split into halves. It is said that if
a nut be suspended at the end of a string, the tit-
mouse will fix himself on this nut, and follow all its
oscillations without ceasing to hack it with his
bill."
Mr. Rennie observes that this species, when
going to sleep, rolls itself into a round ball, erecting
every feather so as not to separate its point Irom
the adjoining ones. The quantity of non-conducting
surface is by this means increased to the depth of
neariy half an inch more than it is when the feathers
are laid flat and smooth ; and as the feathers of the
belly are at the same time spread over the feet,
the little creature is admirably protected from the
cold."
The Greater Titmouse breeds in the holes of ruins
Titmice.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
311
walls and buildings, or in the holes of decayed
trees, which it either makes or enlarges with its
hard pointed bill, and rapidly accomplishes its task.
The nest is placed in an enlarged space at the bottom,
and is composed of moss, hair, and feathers. The
esgs are six or eight in number, of a white colour
spotted with reddish brown.
The colours of this beautiful species are well con-
trasted. The head, throat, and lower part of the
neck are black ; the cheeks and ear-coverts white.
On the nape of the neck is a spot of white ; back
olive-green, passing at the lower part into bluish-
grey. Wing-coverts bluish-grey tipped with white.
Quill-feathers greenish-grey, as are those of the
tail. Under parts sulphur yellow, with a black cen-
tral stripe continued from the throat. Bill black ;
legs bluish-grey. In the female the tints are less
rich. Length about six inches.
1404 (6).— The Blue Titmousb
{Pans cceruleus). Provincial, Tomtit, Nun, Blue-
cap, Hickwall, Billy-biter; Le Mesange a tete
bleue, Cuvier ; Blaumeise, Bechstein. This beau-
tiful little species is very common, and too well
known to need a detailed description. It frequents
gardens and orchards, and while engaged in its
search for insects assumes among the twigs and
sprays the most amusingly varied attitudes. It is
verv fond of flesh, fat, and suet, and we have known
it a' regular visitor to pigsties. Gilbert White says
that when a boy he has known twenty of these birds
caught in a morning, by means of snap mousetraps
baited with suet ; we have ourselves often captured
it in a common brick trap baited with bits of meat
and bread and butter. It is partial to oleaginous
seeds, and will feed on those of the sunflower, and
also, as White asserts, pick holes in apples left on the
ground. Like the preceding species, it will disturb
the thatch of buildings in quest of insects, and will
even attack other small birds. In winter the Blue
Titmouse resorts to stack-yards, where it finds both
food and shelter, nestling at night in holes about
the sides or under the thatching of hay or corn
stacks, and, as we can personally testify, puffing up
its feathers so as to resemble a ball of down. This
species lives in hole^ of trees or walls, and forms
its nest of mosses lined with feathers and hair ; its
eggs, from six to eight in number, are white spotted
with brown, especially at the larger end (Fig. 1408).
These birds resolutely defend their nest against in-
truders, and if an attempt be made upon it, bite with
great severity, rufiling up their soft full plumage,
and hissmg like a snake or angry kitten, thereby
often deterring the schoolboy from carrying his in-
tentions into effect. The call-notes of the Blue
Titmouse are confined to a weak chirp and kind of
harsh chatter.
1404 (c).— Thb Cole-Tit
( Pantt a/«r, Colemouse) ; La Petite Charbonniere,
Buifon ; Tannemeise, Bechstein. The Cole-tit is
spread over Europe, particularly where pine-forests
abound ; in England it is comparatively rare, but
in Scotland is very common, frequenting the exten-
sive woods and plantations of pine, fir, &c., which
seem everywhere to be its favourite >jf not exclu-
sive habitat. In these woods it findsa secure re-
treat, and abundance of food, consisting of aphides
and the larvae of insects, as well as of seeds and
berries. In its quick abrupt movements, its rest-
lessness, and its ever-changing attitudes, this bird
resembles the Blue Titmouse ; and it seeks for its
food among the branches with the same address.
Its call-note in the spring, which resembles that of
the greater titmouse, excepting that it is shriller,
may be heard incessantly through the solitudes of
the woods till the labour of nidification com-
mences ; the biid is then silent. The nest is built
in the hollow of some decayed tree, and is neatly
formed of moss and wool with a lining of hair. Mr.
Selby states that he has sometimes found it on the
ground in the entrance of a mouse or mole-hole.
The eggs are from six to eight in number, of a white
colour spotted with reddish-brown. The Cole-tit is
very similar to the blue titmouse in form, but is
even less in size, being about four inches in length ;
the bill is black, as are the crown and nape of the
neck, the latter having a white central spot ; the
throat and under part of the neck are also black ;
the back is greenish-grey, passing on the lower part
into yellowish-grey ; the wings and tail are grey ;
under parts greyish-white ; legs bluish-grey.
1404 (d).-THE Marsh-Tit
(Partis palustris) ; Mfisange nonnette. Temminck ;
Sumpfmeise, Bechstein. The Marsh-tit is very like
the (^le-tit in form and colouring, but is larger,
and has no white mark on the nape of the neck. It
IS common jn the northern parts of England, but is
seldom s«.n in Scotland above Fifeshire, and
•carcely ever so far south as London. Although it
may be sometimes met with in the woods of dry
dutricts, it is more freqvently to bo met with among
the reeds in low marshy tracts, wnere it makes its
nest, generally choosing some decayed willow for a
foundation. Its food is chiefly insects, but in winter
it feeds on seeds, and is often tempted to visit the
farm-yard for pieces of meat, which it eats with
much avidity ; indeed its appetite is so great, that
it has been known to consume more than half its
own weight of food per day. The Marsh-tit is also
known provmcially as the smaller Ox-eye, Willow-
biter, Joe Bent, &c. When their haunts can be ap-
proached so as to witness their movements (which
is not always an easy matter, as they generally
select some long tract of marshy country on the
banks of rivers, &c.), the observer will be repaid by
a very interesting sight. They dwell together in
considerable numbers, and are perpetually in motion,
going in and out of their nests, feeding their young,
flying oif in search of food, or seeking for it in the
crevices of the neighbouring trees. It is truly gra-
tifying to witness their sprightly gambols, and the
entertaining positions into which, as it were in very
exuberance of spirit, they are continually throwing 1
themselves. '
This bird is very common in Holland. The nest
is composed of moss, mixed with the seed-down of
the willow, and lined with a warm coating of the :
! same material. The eggs, six or eight in number,
are spotted with reddish brown, particularly at the
larger end.
Head, nape of neck, and throat ink black ; upper-
parts yellowish-grey, wings and tail bluish-grey
edged paler ; cheeks yellowish white ; breast and
under parts white, tinged with pale yellowish-brown ;
legs bluish-grey.
The tits we have hitherto described are very ge-
nerally to be found in England ; but the Crested Tit
(P. cristatus), which we now proceed to notice, is a
bird but seldom seen in this country, and very rare
throughout Europe. It is distinguishable from ths
other tits by its crest, formed by its occipital feathers
being elongated, pointed, and slightly recurved. It
is in length about four inches and a half, of a dusky
colour, with a black band round the neck ; breast
pinkish-white ; feet of a leaden colour ; and fore-
head black. It is common in the woods in the
northern part of the middle division of Scotland,
but in the other parts of Great Britain it is, as we
have said, very rare. In North America, however,
it is more frequently found. It is very solitary, very
courageous in defending itself and its nest, and is
very difiBcult to tame. Though not strictly migra-
tory, it often shifts its quarters, and in severe winters
visits the more southern parts of the kingdom.
1405. — The Black-Cap Titmouse of America
(Parus atricapillus) ; Mesange a tSte noire de
Canada, BufFon. Many ornithologists, and among
them Temminck, have considered this bird to be
identical with the Marsh-titmouse of Europe. It is
now, however, universally agreed that the two birds,
though nearly allied, are distinct species.
The Black-cap Titmouse is termed Peechehkees-
ksBshees by the Cree Indians, and, according to
Nuttall, Chicadee by the European colonists. It
ranges through the whole width of the American
continent from latitude 65° to the southern districts
of the United States, being stationary throughout
the year. It is one of the most common birds in
the (ur-countries, a small family inhabiting every
thicket. In the United States it is universally dis-
tributed.
" In these countries," says Nuttall (' Man. of
Omith. of United States and of Canada'), "families
of Chicadees are seen chattering and roving through
the woods, busily engaged in gleaning their multi-
farious food, along with the Parus bicolor, nut-
hatches, and creepers, the whole forming a busy,
active, and noisy group, whose manners, food, and
habits bring them together in a common pursuit.
Their diet varies with the season ; in the month
of September they leave the woods and assemble
familiarly in our orchards and gardens, and even
enter the thronging cities in quest of that support
which their native forests now deny them. Large
seeds of many kinds, particularly those which are oily,
as the sun-flower, and pine, and spruce-kernels, are
now sought after. These seeds, in the usual manner
of the genus, are seized in the claws and held against
the branch until picked open by the bill to obtain
their contents. Fat of various kinds is also greedily
eaten, and they regularly watch the retreat of the
hog-killers, in the country, to glean up the fragments
of meat which adhere to the places where the carcasses
have been suspended. At times they feed upon the
wax of the candle-berry myrtle (Myrica cerifera) ;
they likewise pick up crumbs near the houses, and
search the weather-boards and even the window-sills
familiarly for their luiking prey, and are particularly
fond of spiders and the eggs of destructive moths,
especially those of the canker-worm, which they
greedily destroy in all its stages of existence. It is
said that they sometimes attack their own species
when the individual is sickly, and aim their blows
at the skull with a view to eat the brain ; but this
barbarity I have never witnessed. In winter, when
satisfied, they will descend to the snow-bank be-
neath, and quench their thirst by swallowing small
pieces ; in this way their various and frugal meal
is always easily supplied ; and hardy, and warmly
clad in light and very downy feathers, they suffer
very little inconvenience from the inclemency of
the seasons. Indeed in the winter, or about the
close of October, they at times appear so enlivened
as already to show their attachments, the male ap-
proaching his mate with fluttering and vibrating
wings; and in the spring season the males have
obstinate engagements, darting after each other
with great velocity and anger. Their roost, I sus-
pect, is in the hollows of decayed trees, where they
also breed, laying their eggs merely in the dry-
rotten wood, without any attempt at a nest ; these
are from six to twelve in number, white with specks
of brown-red. They begin to lay about the middle
or close of April, and though they commonly make
use of natural or deserted holes of the woodjiecker,
yet at times they are said to excavate a cavity for
themselves with much labour. The first brood
take wing about the 7th or 10th of June, and they
have sometimes a second towards the end of July.
The young, as soon as fledged, have all the external
marks of the adult ; the head is equally black, and
they chatter and skip about with all the agility and
self-possession of their parents, who appear, never-
theless, very solicitous for their safety. From this
time the whole family continue to associate to-
gether through the autumn and winter.
The colouring of the black-cap tit is as follows : —
Top of the head, back of the neck, and the throat
velvet black, a white line from the nostrils through
the eye spreads out on the side of the neck ; back
lead-coloured, glossed with yellowish-grey ; quill
and tail-feathers blackish-grey edged with greyish-
white ; under plumage brownish-white ; bill black ;
legs bluish. Total length five inches and a half.
1406, 1407 — The Long-tailed Titmouse
C Ch-ites caudata, Moehr) ; Mechistura caudata. Leach ;
Parus caudatus, Ray. This species is the Pendo-
lino, Paronzino, Codibugnolo, and Paglia in culo of
the Italians ; M6sange a la longue queue and Perd
sa queue of the French ; Lanschwiinzige Meise,
Schwanzmeise, and Belzmeise Pfannenstiel of the
Germans ; Staartmees of the Netherlanders ; Alhtita
of the Swedes ; Jenga of the Japanese ; Bottle
Tit, Bottle Tom, Long-tailed Farmer, Long-tail
Mag, Long-tail Pie, Poke-Pudding, Huckmuck, and
Mum-ruffin of the modern British ; and Y Benloyn
gnyffonhir of the ancient British.
The Long-tailed Titmouse is distributed through
the whole of Europe and the middle districts of
Asia to Japan. It inhabits the British Islands. The
food of this pretty bird consists of insects, their
eggs and larvae, for which it is in constant search
among the branches, displaying the greatest alert-
ness and address, hanging in every attitude from
the ends of the twigs, and creeping mouse-like
round the thicker branches. It is not often that
this bird is seen in the immediate vicinity of houses ;
and this circumstance did not escape the notice of
Gilbert White, who states that it never retreats for
succour in the severest seasons to houses and their
neighbourhood. This does not arise from any pecu-
liar shyness ; and though it may not resort, like the
Blue Titmouse, to the haunts of man for food and
shelter in winter, it does not positively avoid them
in summer. A writer in the ' Penny Cyclopaedia'
says—" We have seen in a nursery-garden in Mid-
dlesex a whole family of them within a few yards of
the nurseryman's cottage, and close to his green-
house, which visitors were constantly entering ; and
we have found its exquisitely-wrought nest in a
silver-fir about eight feet high, in a pleasure-
ground in the same county, little more than a hun-
dred yards from the house." Pennant well describes
its appearance in flight when, after stating that the
young follow the parents the whole winter, he says,
" From the slimness of their bodies and great length
of tail, they appear while flying like so many darts
cutting the air. They are often seen passing
through our gardens, going progressively from tree
to tree, as if on their road to some other place,
never making any halt." This progression is re-
markable. We have ourselves followed a troop
pretty closely, completely round the tall hedge-row
of a large field, admiring their quickness and evolu-
tions among the twigs and branches.
The nest of the long-tailed titmouse is a most
beautiful and elaborate piece of workmanship,
" combining beauty of appearance with security and
warmth. In shape it is nearly oval, with one small
hole in the upper part of the side, by which the bird
enters. I have never seen more than one hole. The
outside of this nest sparkles with silver-coloured
lichens adhering to a firm texture of moss and wool,
the inside profusely lined with soft feathers. The
nest is generally placed in the middle of a thick bush,
UIH—BUek Titmice.
1411 .— Bonded Titmice.
312
1414.— GnHip o( Biitiih WuMen.
1409.— Nettol Long tailed Titmonte.
1410.— Nnt of Long-tailed Titmoute.
Iitmice and Nest.
liZO Ganlea Wairbkr.
Wi.-EfK of Black-caf .
1423.— Manntain Short-wingl.
1481.— Whinchata.
14n.— Whert-ean.
^^.
141S.— Nightingale.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
U23».— Blue-biid.
314
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Titmice.
and »o firmly fixed Utat it is mostly found necessai^
to cut out the portion o( the bush containing it, if
desirous of preservine the natural appearance and
form of the nest. The female is the nest-maker,
and is known to have been occupied for a fortnight
to three weeks in completing her habitation. In
this she deposits from ten to twelve eg^s ; but a
larger number are occasionally found : they are small
and white, with a few pale red specks, frequently
quite plain. The young family of the year keep
company with the parent birds during their first
autumn and winter, and generally crowd close toge-
ther on the same branch at roosting-lime, looking,
when thus huddled up, like a shapeless lump of fea-
thers only. These birds have several notes, on
the sound of which they assemble and keep to-
gether: one of these call-notes is soft and scarcely
audible ; a second is a louder chirp or twitter ; and
a third is of a hoarser kind." Figs. 1409 and 1410
represent the nest.
The colouring of this species is as follows : — Head,
neck, throat, and breast pure white ; the back and
the six middle tail-leathers deep black ; scapulars
reddish ; belly, sides, and abdomen reddish-white ;
quills black ; greater wing-coverfs bordered with
pure white ; lateral tail-feathers white on their
external barbs and at their end ; tail very long and
vredge-shaped. Length five inches seven or eight
lines.
141 1. — The Beardko Titmouse
(Calamophilus biarmicus). Parus biarmicus. This
is the M6sange Barbue ou Moustache of the
French ; Bartmeise of the Germans ; Least Butcher-
Bird of Edwards; Reed Pheasant (provincial) of
the modern British ; and Y Barfog of the Welsh.
M. Temminck remarks that the Zahnschablige
Bartmeise of Brehm is a species or subspecies
founded only on individuals which have been long
caged, such as may be seen in the Dutch markets,
where numbers are sold. Some of these captives
come to London, where they may be bought for
some four or five shillings a pair. The iris and bill
in the living bird are of a delicate orange-colour.
The bearded titmouse is a native of most parts of
Europe ; having, however, a partial distribution,
from the circumstance of its affecting reed-beds
and marshes. Hence it is abundant in Holland,
and in the marshes of Ostia, Italy. It occurs along
the shores of the Caspian Sea. In our island it
has been found in reed-beds in Surrey, Sussex,
Essex, Kent, along the banks of the Thames
between London and Oxford, and in the fens of
Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Sufiblk, and Norfolk.
The food of this bird consists of insects, the seeds
of various grasses, and especially of small fresh-
water shelled snails ; and it is remarkable that the
sides of the stomach in this bird are thick and
muscular, and formed into a gizzard, which is not
the case in the true Tits, whence is afforded the
power of breaking down the shells of the testaceous
mollusks, Succinea amphibia and Pupa muscorum,
which are greedily devoured.
According to Mr. Hoy the bearded tit begins
building towards the end of April, and the nest
is composed on the outside of dead leaves of
the reed and sedge, intermixed with a few pieces
of grass, and lined with the top of the reed. He
describes it as generally placed in a tuft of coarse
grass or rushes near the ground, on the margin of
the dikes, in the fens ; and sometimes is fixed
among the reeds that are broken down, but never
suspended between the stems. Their food, he says,
is principally the seed of the reed ; and so intent
were they on their search for it, that he had taken
them with a bird-limed twig attached to a fishing-
rod. When alarmed by any sudden noise, or the
passing of a hawk, they uttered their shrill musical
notes, and concealed themselves among the thick
bottoms of the reeds, but they soon resumed their
station, climbing the upright stems with the greatest
facility.
Mr. Dykes had an opportunity of examining three
specimens, and he found their crops completely
filled with the Succinea amphibia in a perfect state,
the shells unbroken and singularly closely packed
together. The crop of one, not larger than a hazel-
nut, contained twenty Succinese, some of them of a
good size, and four Pupae muscorum, with the shells
also entire. The stomach was full of small frag-
ments of shell, in a greater or less degree of decom-
position. Numerous sharp angular fragments of
quartz which had been swallowed had, with the
action of the stomach, effected the comminution of
the shells.
Two nests obtained by Mr. Yarrell from the parish
of Horsey were sustained only an inch or two above
the ground by the strength of the stems of the
coarse grass on which they were fixed. Each was
composed entirely of dried bents, the finer ones
forming the lining ; others increasing in substance
made up the exterior. Mr. Yarrell states the num-
ber of eggs at from four to six, rather smaller than
those of the great titmouse and less pointed ; eight
lines and a half long by six lines and a half in
breadth ; white, and sparingly marked with pale red
lines or scratches. (' British Birds.')
Description.— Male. — Black between the bill and
the eye, and these black feathere are very long and
prolonged on each side on the lateral part of the
neck ; head and occiput bluiiih-ash ; throat and
front of the neck pure white, which blends on the
breast and the middle of the belly into a rosy hue ;
nape, back, rump, feathers of the middle of the tail
and sides fine rust-colour ; great coverts of the
wings deep black, bordered with deep rusty on the
external barb, and reddish-white on the internal
barb ; quills bordered with white ; feathers of the
under part of the tail deep black ; lateral tail-
feathers bordered and terminated with grey ; tail
long, much graduated ; bill and iris fine yellow.
Length, six inches and two or three lines.
Female.— No black moustaches ; throat and front
of the neck tarnished white ; upper parts of the
head and body rusty, shaded with brown ; on the
middle of the back some longitudinal black spots ;
under tail-coverts bright rusty.
Young at their leaving the nest, and before their
first moult, with nearly the whole of the plumage of
very bright reddish ; a good deal of black on th? ex-
ternal barbs of the quills and tail-feathers ; on the
middle of the back a very large space of deep black.
After the first moult nothing of the deep black of
the back remains but some longitudinal spots.
1412.— The Penduline Titmouse
(^githahis pendulinm). Panis pendulinus ; Re-
miz or Mesange de Pologne of the French ; Bentel-
meise of the Germans. This bird is principally
confined to the southern and eastern provinces of
Europe ; Poland, Hungary, the south of France,
Italy, &c. It breeds along the Danube. The
Penduline Titmouse, both in habits and in the choice
of its food, has many points in common with the
species above described. Like the bearded tit, the
Penduline titmouse haunts the reedy banks of
rivers, or the margins of " wide-watered " shores, and
its food consists not only of the seeds of the reeds,
but of aquatic insects and mollusks. It derives its
name from its pensile purse-like or flask-like nest,
generally suspended at the end of some willow twig
or other flexible branch of an aquatic tree. This
skilfully-wrought cradle is woven from the cotton-
like wool or down of the willow or poplar, with an
opening in the side for the ingress and egress of the
artificers and their young, and mostly overhangs the
water ; sometimes, however, it is interwoven among
the reed stems. The eggs are six in number, and of
a pure white marked with spots of red.
In the male the colouring is as follows: — Bill
black, straight, a little elongated, and pointed ; tail
short ; top of the head and nape pure ash-colour ;
forehead, space between the eye and the bill, region
of the eyes, and feathers of the orifices of the ears
deep black ; back and scapulars reddish-grey : rump
ash-colour ; throat white, the other lower parts
whitish, with rosy tints ; coverts of the wings chest-
nut, bordered and terminated with whitish-rusty
and white ; wings and tail blackish, bordered with
whitish-rusty ; tail-feathers terminated with white ;
iris yellow. Length, four inches three or four lines.
The female is rather smaller, and has the tints less
decided.
1413. — The Black Titmouse
(Parus niffer). Parus leucopterus, Swainson. This
species is abundant in the Caffre country, South
Africa, and has been received also from Senegal.
In general form and size it approaches the Parus
major of Europe, but the bill is shorter and more
arched above ; the feet are smaller, and the claws
shorter, broader, and more curved. According to
Le Vaillant, the note of the Black Titmouse, or
Mesange noire, is the same as that of our Greater
Titmouse ; and the nest, he says, is made in the
hoUow trunks of trees, where the bird also roosts.
The eggs are from six to eight in number, and of a
pure white. The general colour of this species is a
deep uniform glossy black with a slight bluish re-
flexion in certain lights ; the lesser and greater
wing-coverts and base of the quill-feathers are of
a snowy white, in admirable contrast with the black.
Total length, nearly six inches.
Family SYLVIAD^ (WARBLERS).
Fig. 1414 is a group of pictorial specimens of British
SylviadsB :— a, the Nigntingale ; b, the Black-cap ;
c, the Wren ; rf, the Redbreast ; e, the Sedge-
Warbler;/, the Whitethroat.
The family designated Sylviadae, or Warblers,
comprehends a very numerous assemblage of birds,
all of small size and delicate structure, many being
noted for their powers of song. In all the bill is
more or less slender, with the upper mandible
notched ; not a few are migratory in their habits,
and rank among our summer visitants. For the
most part they are woodland in their habits, fre-
quenting groves, hedgerows, plantations, and copses,
where their mingled voices resound during the
months of May and June, making a wild chorus, as
morning dawns, grateful to the ear, and combining
with the hues of the renewed foliage, the perfume
of early flowers, and the tranquillity of the hour, to
impress the mind with pleasing sensations, and fix
in it a train of associations as delightful as perma-
nent. The groups of the Sylviadae are spread over
all quarters of the globe, and are destined with
others to thin the innumerable hosts of insects
which teem in the localities they tenant. Such as
are migratory arrive in their summer-quarters at
the time when their natural food begins to abound,
and retire southwards when the supply begins to di-
minish, upon the first fall of the leaf, and the cooler
breeze of an autumnal evening. As diftercnt lo-
calities are assigned to different tribes of insects, so,
though most are woodland, is a diversity of haunts
assigned to the various groups of these birds. Some
confine themselves to the higher branches of the
trees, some frequent dense humid thickets, some
hedgerows, some tall reed-beds, some grassy lawns,
pasture lands, and wide commons ; and in each
place do they find the insects most suitable to their
appetite. A few feed during the summer months
on ripe berries, as well as on insects; and visit
gardens and shrubberies.
The Sylviadae are thrown by naturalists into se-
veral minor groups or subfamilies, as Saxicolinae,
Stonechats; Philomelina;, Nightingales, &c. : but as
our object is rather to illustrate the general outline
of ornithology than enter into minutiae, we shall re-
strict our observations to the pictorial specimens
before us, which embody the principal forms of the
present family.
1414 (a), 1415, 1416.— The Nightingale
(Philomela Luscinia). aifiuiv of the ancient Greeks,
Luscinia and Philomela of the Latins. Rossignuolo,
Rusignuolo, and Usignuolo of the modern Italians;
Rossignol of the French ; Ruisenor of the Spanish ;
Nachtigall of the Germans ; Nachtergahl of the
'Fauna Suecica ;' Nattergale of Brunnich ; and
Eos of the ancient British. It is the Luscinia of
Gesiier, Aldrovandus, Willughby, Ray, and Brehm ;
Motacilla Luscinia of Linnaeus ; Sylvia Luscinia oif
Latham and others; Curruca Luscinia of Fleming;
Philomela Luscinia of Selby, Gould, and Swainson ;
and the Luscinia Philomela of Bonaparte.
This deservedly celebrated songster is a summer
visitor to our island and the European continent,
migrating in winter into Egypt and Syria, and the
northern districts of Africa. On the Continent it
extends its range as far northwards as Sweden ; but
in our island, strange to say, its distribution is li-
mited. It is stated to be tolerably common about
Doncaster, in Yorkshire ; but though this may be
the case, it is certainly of rare occurrence in Lan-
cashire, Cheshire, and Derbyshire. It does not visit
Cornwall or the western parts of Devonshire, nor
(though Dyer, in his ' Grongar Hill,' makes this
bird the companion of his Muse in the Vale of
Towey) is it heard in Wales, excepting perhaps on
the border-line of South Wales, and that very rarely.
It never visits Ireland ; nor is it known in the Chan-
nel Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, &c. In the south-
eastern counties it is abundant ; and especially in
Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Essex,
Middlesex, Berkshire, &c. The causes of this par-
tial distribution have not hitherto been satisfactorily
explained. On the Continent it is nowhere more
abundant than in Portugal, Spain, and Italy, where,
however, as in England, it is migratoiy, leaving
those countries on the setting in of winter. The
islands of the Greek Archipelago are visited by this
bird ; it is found also in Judea, and Mr. Strickland
observed it at Smyrna on the 5th of April. Mr.
Gould states that he has " received specimens from
Northern Africa, but never obtained any from the
central or southern parts of that portion of the
globe ; it would appear therefore that its distribu-
tion over that vast continent is very limited."
The nightingale haunts close shrubberies, copses,
and dense coverts, in low humid situations, and, as
it has been observed, more especially where the
cowslip grows plentifully. To these favourite spots
the males, which precede by about fen days the fe-
males, on their visit to our shores, immediately
make their way, and begin their rich strains of invi-
tation, striving, as it would seem, to excel each
other in the fulness of their notes and the luxuri-
ance of their modulations. This bird, as its name
implies, sings at night, and its strains, heard by
calm moonlight when all is silent around, are very
pleasing ; but it is not only at night that this song-
ster pours out his melody ; he sings also during the
day, but his strain, mingled with the voices of other
biros, is less effective, less captivating than when
uttered during the moonlit hour, and listened to
amidst the shadowy stillness of its embowered re-
treat.
Warblers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
315
It is only prior to the work of incubation, and tlie
labours of rearing tine youna: brood, that the notes
of the nightingale are poured forth in their fullest
melody ; and at the latter end of the season, before
leaving our shores, the voice of song is exchanged
for a hoarse kind of croak.
The nightingale breeds in the thickest coverts,
and so artfully constr^icted and so well concealed is
the nest, that it is not to be discovered without great
difBculty. It is generally placed low in a thick
bush, or on the ground amongst intertangled stems.
The outside is composed of withered leaves, or
grass, or of the skeleton leaves which accumulate
under hedges and thickets ; internally it is lined
with fine fibres of roots and hair. The eggs are
five in number, and of an olive-brownT The young
are fed with soft caterpillars, which, with insects
and berries, constitute the diet of the adults.
The nightingale measures about teven inches in
length : its general plumage above is of a rich
brown, the lower part of the back and tail having a
reddish tinge ; the under parts are ash-colour.
Closely allied to the nightingale are three species
peculiar to the Continent : the Curruca Philomela
(Philomela Turdoides, Blyth) ; C. Sericea ; and C.
Orphea. (See Gould ; and Temminck's ' Manuel
d'Ornithologie.')- The song of the first is loud, but far
inferior to that of the nightingale.
1414 (6), 1417, 1418.— The Black-cap
{Curruca atiicapilta). This species, scarcely in-
ferior to the nightingale in its musical powers, ar-
rives in our island about the middle of April, and
leaves at the end of September. It is the Fauvette
-d tSte noire of the French; der Mdnch of the Ger-
mans ; the Caponera gentile, or, from its fondness
for ivy-berries, Caponera dedera of the Italians,
who class it under the birds called Becafico, so
prized for the table. The black-cap is very shy and
retired, concealing itself amidst the foliage of trees,
while it pours forth at intervals its varied flute-like
tones, which, like the nightingale, it continues " when
eventide is ended." Not only has it its own pecu-
liar strain, but it has also the power of imitating
the voices of various other birds, and so admirably
as to deceive the listener.
"When the black-cap," says Mr. Sweet, "first
arrives in this country, its chief food is the early
ripened berries of the ivy, and where those are,
there the black-caps are first to be heard sing-
ing their melodious and varied song. By the time
the ivy-berries are over, the little green larviE of the
small moths will be getting plentiful, rolled up in
the young shoots and leaves ; then is this their chief
food until the strawberries and cherries become ripe :
after that there is no want of fruit or berries till
their return, and there is no sort of fruit or berry
that is eatable or wholesome that they will refuse.
After they have cleared the elder-berries in autumn,
they immediately leave us."
Woods, thickets, and orchards are the favourite
haunts of this species ; and there, among dense
bushes and brambles, it builds its nest, which is com-
posed of dried stalks of goose-grass, a little moss or
wool, and lined with fibrous roots and a few hairs.
The eggs are five in number, of a reddish brown,
with spots of a darker tint, intermixed with others of
an ashy grey. Fig. 1419 represents the egg of the
present bird. The male black-cap measures nearly
six inches in length ; crown and occiput black ; neck
and breast grey. Upper parts grey tinged with oil-
green ; under parts ashy grey. In the female, which
exceeds the male in size, the crown of the head is
umber brown ; and the general tints of the plumage
are darker and more decidedly washed with green.
The black-cap is widely dispersed as a summer
visitant through the northern parts of Europe, ex-
tending as high as Lapland. Temminck says that
it is rare beyond the Apennines and Pyrenees. In
Madeira it is a common and a permanent resident,
as it is also in the environs of Rome, and southern
Italy. The Sylvia melanocephala, Latham, a native
of the South of Spain, and the S. sarda of Marmora,
are allied but distinct species.
1420. — The Greater Pettichaps, or Garden
Warbler
{Curruca liortenm). This bird is the Beccafico, or
Fig-eater of the Italians; theBecfigue of the French;
Ficedula of the Latins ; SukoAIs of the Greeks ; but
this name Fig-eater, as is well observed by Prince
C. L. Bonaparte, in his 'Specchio Comparativo,' is
applied to different kinds of Sylvan Warblers, when-
ever they are fat and in a good state for the table.
These are generally fruit-eaters in the season. The
true Beccafico, however, with its " came squisita,"
is, according to the Prince, this species, the Sylvia
(Curruca) hortensis.
This bird, vNhich in many districts is far from
being rare, was first described as a British species
by Latham: it arrives in April and departs early in
September ; and, according to Selby, extends its
range not only throughout most parts of England,
but the greater part of Scotland, particularly where
lakes and rivers are bordered by wooded extent of
country. It is abundant over the south of Europe.
The Greater Pettichaps is little inferior to the night-
ingale in song, and sometimes utters its varied notes
after sunset. Some of the notes are peculiarly
mellow, and closely approach those of the black-
bird, while others are quick, shrill, and lively. During
the performance of its strain the bird is seldom seen,
for, like the rest of its tribe, it is shy and recluse,
lurking in the shadiest coverts, amidst the foliage
of some close thicket ; but sometimes may be ob-
served warbling from the upper light branches of a
tree. Lewin says that it makes its nest for the
most part with fibres and wool, sometimes with the
addition of green moss, often in the neighbourhood
of gardens, which it frequents, with the white-throat
and black-cap, for the sake of currants and other
fruits. Montagu, who has recorded this habit,
which we can personally verify, states also that it
inhabits thick hedges, where it makes a nest near
the ground, composed of goose-grass (Galium Apa-
rine, Linn.) and other fibrous plants, flitnsily put to-
gether, like that of the common white-throat, with
the addition sometimes of a little green moss exter-
nally. Selby gives much the same description. It
lays four, sometimes five eggs, about the size of a
hedge-sparrow's or hedge-warbler's, of a dirty white,
blotched with light brown (Selby says wood-brown),
the blotches being most numerous at the larger end.
Its alarm-call, according to Selby, is very similar to
that of the white-throat ; and C. Bonaparte notes it
as common near Rome in the autumn.
Total length, about six inches.
The whole of the upper parts oil-green, with a
shade of ash-grey. On each side of the lower part
of the neck is a patch of ash-grey. Breast and flanks
yellowish grey, inclining to wood-brown. Throat
and under parts greyish white. Orbits of the eyes
white ; irides brown ; bill Vfood-brown. Legs and
claws bluish grey.
The female is similar in plumage to the male
bird.
1414 (/).— The White-Throat
(Curruca cinerea). Fauvette grise, or Grisette, of the
French ; Fahle Grasmiicke of Bechstein.
This, like the two former species, is a migratory
bird, visiting our island and the middle and northern
districts of the European continent during the sum-
mer. It frequents tall hedgerows and copses, and
possesses a pleasing but hurried and feeble song,
which it frequently utters upon the wing as it sud-
denly rises from the spray upon which it had been
perched, to a considerable height in the air, and
then slowly descends to the same spot whence it had
taken its departure. In executing t'nis movement
its flight is peculiarly quivering, and cannot have
been unobserved by those who are accustomed to
observe the habits of birds in a state of nature.
Besides insects and their larvae, the white-throat
feeds on currants, and other garden fruit which
ripens during the summer.
The nest of this species is built among brushwood,
nettles, or brambles, and is composed of the withered
stems of goose-grass intermixed with hair. The
eggs are five in number ; of a greyish white speckled
with wood- brown and grey.
The white-throat is about five inches and a half
in length : the general colour above is brown ; the
top of the head being tinged with soot-black. The
quill-feathers and coverts are blackish brown mar-
gined with light reddish brown ; the flanks and
chest are ash-grey tinged with red ; the throat and
middle of the abdomen are white. An allied, but
smaller and darker coloured species, the Lesser
White-throat (Curruca garrula), is not uncommon
in some districts (we have seen it round London,
and have specimens killed in the fields about Ham-
mersmith) ; but from its extremely recluse habits,
tenanting the thickest hedges, it escapes ordinary
observation.
1421. — The Whinchat
(Saxicola Rubetra). Grand Traquet, Traquet,
Groulard, Tarier, Thyon, Semel (in Lorraine), of the
French; Grosser Fliegenfanger, Gestettenschlager,
and Braunkchliger-Steinsraiitzer of the Germans ;
Salta-bastone con la gola bianca and Stiaccino of
the Italians; Furze-chat, provincial English; and
Clocher yr eithin of the antient British. This bird
is dispersed during summer throughout Europe,
from the Mediterranean to Norway, Sweden, and
temperate Russia ; it passes the winter in Northern
Africa, and has been observed during that season in
Smyrna. It arrives in our island in April, and de-
parts at the latter end of autumn. Commons, wide
open fields, and heaths are its favourite places of
residence. In some counties it is very abundant,
and its well-known cry, u-tick, u-tick, may be heard
as the bird flits from bush to bush, perching on the
topmost twigs. It utters this cry with a singular
jerk of the tail, repeating the last syllable two or
three times in succession, and immediately flits off
to the next bush, repeating its cry as before. Small
shelled snails, slugs, and coleopterous insects con-
stitute its food, and we have seen it take insects on
the wing, darting at them from its perch, and pass-
ing onwards after seizing them. The nest is
usually placed under the shelter of furze or brush-
wood on the ground, and is formed of dry stalks of
grass lined with finer bents and fibres ; the eggs are
five in number, of a bluish green with a few small
reddish brown specks. The song of this active
sprightly bird is a trifling but not unpleasant warble,
and is sometimes uttered late in the evening. Mr.
Sweet states that when caught young it may be
taught any tune, and will learn the song of any bird
it hears.
The whole of the upper surface of the male
whinchat is of a yellowish brown, each feather hav-
ing a central dash of brownish black ; a large spot
of white occupies the centre of each wing. A broad
stripe of white passes above the eyes, while the
cheeks and ear-coverts are black. The throat, the
sides of the neck, and the basal half of all the tail-
feathers, except the two middle, are also white, the
rest of the tail being black ; the chest is fine light
rufous. The female, our upper figure, wants the
black on the cheeks and the white on the wing;
and the general colours of the plumage are much
less distinct and pure.
1422.— The Wheat-ear
{Saxicola CEnartthe). Moteux, Vitrec, and Cul-blanc
of the French ; Codo bianco, Fornarola, Petragnola,
Culbianco, and Codetta d'estate of the Italians ;
Steinschwatzer, Steinschnapperl, Grauruckiger,
Steinschmatzer, and Weissehwanz of the Germans ;
Tapuit of the Netherlanders ; Stenguetta of the
Swedes ; Steendolf, Steensguette, and Steengylpe
of the Norwegians; Fallow-finch, Fallow-chat,
White-tail, Stone-chacker, &c., provincial English ;
Tinwyn y cerrig of the antient British.
The wheat-ear is a bird of passage, widely spread
during the spring and summer over the whole of
Europe, from the shores of the Mediterranean to
Lapland, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. Every-
where it resorts to wide open downs, sheep-pastures,
and commons, scattering in pairs over the country,
for the purpose of breeding, and collecting in vast
flocks during the autumn, which gradually migrate
southwards. In our island it makes its appearance
early in March, and the numerous specimens which
we have seen killed during that month around
London had their stomachs filled with the frag-
ments of coleopterous insects, and were so loaded
with fat, that in many instances the plumage was
spoiled by its oozing from the perforations made by
the shot.
The wheat-ear trips along over the grass with
great alertness, and its flight, which is low, is
smooth and rapid : the male has a soft sweet
warble, which is often uttered while on the wing.
According to Mr. Sweet, the wheat-ear confined in
an aviary sings by night as well as by day, and in
winter as well as through the summer months, the
notes being at that season the most varied.
The nest of this species is composed of dried
roots, grasses, feathers, and fur, and is concealed
with great care, so as not to be easily detected ; it
is sometimes placed under the shelter of a turf or
stone, among the fissures of old walls or stone-
quarries, in the deep crevices of rocks, or in deserted
rabbit-burrows. The eggs, five or six in number,
are of a pure bluish green. On visiting the down
and open lands of Kent and Sussex in the months
of August and September, we cannot fail to observe
the vast numbers of these birds which are drawn
thither and collected from all the more northern
districts of our island, previously to their departure ;
day after day brings a fresh influx. At this season
multitudes are caught for the table, their flesh
being esteemed a great delicacy.
In the male the top of the head and the upper
part of the back are of a fine grey, a white line
passes from the beak above the eye, succeeded by a
black band which surrounds the eye, and spreads
over the ear-coverts. The lower part of the back
and basal half of the tail-leathers (the two middle
excepted) are white, the rest black. The wings
are black ; the chest is of a delicate fawn colour
fading into white. The female wants the white
superciliary stripe, and the black band is exchanged
for one of a dull brown : the general plumage is
less pure and bright ; the wings are brownish ; and
the chest reddish passing into white below. The
lower figure represents the male.
1423. — The Mountain Short-wino
{Brachypteryx montaim). This bird, the Kelck of
the Javanese, the Mountaineer Warbler of Latham,
is in many points allied to the Saxicolse. It is a
native of Java.
Dr. Horsfieid met with this species in one situa
tion only, viz.. Mount Prahu, at an elevation of
2S2
l«!9.- Pied Wagtails.
316
1433.— Female Tellow-throat and Cow-Buntiiig.
1441 — Not ofSfdje-WuUer.
1436 Kentucky Warbler.
1440. -No* of YeUow Wren.
1438.— N€3t of Pinc-pinc.
1439. — Nest of Pinc-pinc.
1442.— Nest of Sedge- Warbler.
^
1439.— Funiliu Creeper.
I. -Not attribated to Reed-Bnnting.
1437.— Neat of Capocier.
1444.— Nart of Tulot-Bird.
317
318
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Warblers
about leven thousand feet above the level of the
Kea, but thinks it probable that it may be found on
all the peaks of Java, which are covered with thick
forests accommodated to its peculiar habits. The
recurrence, he observes, of several quadrupeds and
birds, at a certain elevation, is as regular in that
island as that of many plants and insects. Un
Mount Prahu, which, he says, in the luxuriance of
its vegetation and gloomy thickets is probably not
surpassed in any portion of the globe, this bird is
ver)- numerous. In his daily excursions Dr. Hors-
field uniformly observed and occasionally sur-
prised it in its short sallies among the openings
of the forest. It was chiefly found on the lowest
branches of trees or on the ground. As the short-
ness of its wings incapacitates it for elevated or
distant flights, its motions are low, short, and made
with great exertion. It lives in the thickest coverts,
feeding on the larvc of insects, worms, &c., and
there it forms its nest on the ground. " It utters,
almost without interruption, a varied song. Its
common note is a quickly reiterated babbling, re-
sembling that of the Curnica garrula of Brisson,
and other birds of this family : it also has a pro-
tracted plaintive note, but it sometimes rises to
higher and melodious warblings, which, in the
general silence of these elevated regions, afford an
inexpressible sensation of delight to the mind of the
solitary traveller."
In the male the head and neck are of a dark
indigo blue, variegated with darker and lighter
shades ; above the eyes a white mark ; body gene-
rally ferruginous ; wings and tail black ; lower part
of breast and abdomen whit i.''h ; plumage lax and
silky. Length, nearly ten inches.
In the female the dark blue tint, which in the
male covers the head and neck, extends over the
body generally, and also marks the exterior vanes
of the quills. The throat and neck underneath
have a dark greyish tint. The abdomen is greyish
white. The covering of the abdomen and thighs
is long, delicate, silky, and pendulous. The lower
figure represents the male.
1414 (d). — The Redbreast
(Erythaca Rvbeculd). Rouge-gorge of the French ;
Rothburstiger Sanger of Meyer. This familiar and
beautiful little bird is a permanent resident in our
island, but in Norway and other northern districts
of continental Europe it is migratory, passing
southwards on the approach of winter. Every-
where this species is a favourite, and has in most
countries received appellations indicative of attach-
ment : thus in Sweden it is called Tomi Liden ; in
Norway, Peter Ronsmad ; in Germany, Thomas
Gierdet ; and in England, Robin Redbreast. In
the spring the redbreast leaves the immediate
vicinity of our habitations, for the wood, copse, or
shady garden, where, in conjunction with his mate,
he builds a nest, shrouding it amidst dense foliage,
on a bank, among the roots of trees, or in the
crevice of an old ivy-shadowed wall or crok. The
eggs are of a pale yellowish grey, with numerous
reddish-brown spots.
When the chillness of autumn proclaims the ap-
proach of winter, the redbreast leaves the woods
and thickets, and, seeking for food and shelter
around the precints of our dwellings, "pays to
trusted man its annual visit ; " and utters its clear
notes while perched upon the twig of a leafless tree.
The song of the redbreast near the window is the
presage of the autumn.
This species is bold and spirited, and will not
admit the approach of any small bird near its nest,
nor the presence of a rival within the precincts it
has selected for its walk through the winter ; two
males, indeed, seldom meet at any time without a
conflict. We will not enter into the descriptive
details of a bird with which all are acquainted.
1423*, 1424.— The Blue-Bied
(Erilhica sialis). Sialis Wilsoni, Swainson. Like
our redbreast, this harbinger of spring to the Ame-
ricans "is known to almost every child, and shows,"
says Wilson, " as much confidence in man by as-
sociating with him in summer, as the other by his
familiarity in winter."
"So cariy as the middle of February, if the
weather be open, he usually makes his appearance
about his old naunts, the bam, orchard, and fence -
posts. Storms and deep snows sometimes succeed-
ing, he disappears for a time ; but about the middle
of March is again seen accompanied by his mate,
visiting the box in the garden, or the hole in the
old apple-tree, the cradle of some generations of
his ancestors."
It is interesting, says a curious and correct ob-
server, " to behold his courtship, his solicitude to
please and to secure the favour of his beloved
female. He uses the tenderest expressions, sits
close by her, caresses and sings to her his most
endearing warblings. When seated together, if he
espies an insect delicious to her taste, he takes it
up, flies with it to her, spreads his wing over her,
and puts it in her mouth.
The food of the blue-bird consists principally
of insects, particularly large beetles and other
culeoptera, frequently of spiders, and sometimes of
fruits and seeds.
The nest is built in holes in trees and similar situa-
tions. The eggs, which are of a pale blue colour,
are five in number; two and sometimes three
broods are produced in a season.
Its song is cheerful, continuing with little in-
terruption from March to October, but is most fre-
quently heard in the serene days of the spring.
With regard to its geographical distribution,
Catesby says, "These birds are common in most
parts of North America, for I have seen them in
Carolina. Virginia, Maryland, and the Bermuda
Islands." Wilson gives the United States, the
Bahamas, Mexico, Brazil, 'and Guiana, as its lo-
calities. About November it takes its departure
from the United States. The whole upper part of
the bird, which is about seven inches and a half
long, is of a rich sky-blue shot with purple. The
bill and legs are black. Shafts of the wing and
tail-feathers black. Throat, neck, breast, and sides,
partially under the wings, reddish chestnut. Wings
dusky black at the tips. Under parts white. The
female is duller in its colours.
1425. — The Blue-throated Redstart
iPlutnicura Suecica). Gorge-bleue of the French;
Blankehlein of the Germans ; Petto Turchino of the
Italians.
This beautiful bird is only an accidental visitor
to our island, and is even rare in France and
Holland. According to Bonaparte, it appears about
the neighbourhood of Rome only in severe weather.
Bechstein assures us that it is far from being un-
common in Germany, and that if in the first fort-
night of April, up to the 20th, cold and snow return,
plenty may be found by merely following the
streams, rivers, and ponds, especially in the neigh-
bourhood of a wood. The nest is said to be built
in bushes and in the holes of trees. General colour
above ashy-brown ; a reddish white line passes
above the eyes ; cheeks dark brown spotted with
rust red ; throat and upper part of chest of a rich
azure blue, bounded by a narrow gorget of black,
succeeded by another of reddish brown or orange,
a central spot of the purest white on the larynx
contrasting with the surrounding azure. Under
parts dusky white. Tarsi one inch in length. Total
length of bird, five inches and a half.
1426. — The Grey-backed Warbler
{Sylvicola plumbed). The various species of this
genus feed on insects, which they often take in the
manner of the flycatchers ; they are lively and
active, continually hunting after sedentary insects,
and pursuing such as fly from bough to bough : all
are American. The grey-backed warbler is of a fine
blue grey above, golden yellow beneath ; back
olive ; wing-coverts tipped with white. Native
country, Brazil.
1414 (e). — The Sedge- Warbler
(Salicaria Phragmitis, Selby). This species, which
is one of our summer visitors, resorts to marshes,
and the banks of lakes or rivers, wherever extensive
reed or osier beds aftbrd it shelter. In such situa-
tions it may be heard, while concealed from view,
uttering its varied song, which is continued through
the greater part of the night. Amongst its notes
may be distinguished imitations of those of the
swallow, lark, sparrow, and linnet, mingled with
guttural intonations, the whole delivered confusedly
and with great rapidity. Several may be often
heard in chorus.
This species generally attaches its nest to the
stems of three or four reeds growing close together,
or to twigs of osiers. It is composed of grasses and
a little, moss, with a lining of hair and fine dried
grass. The eggs are of a pale brown with darker
spots. This species is abundant on the Continent ;
it is allied to the Reed Wren (Salicaria arundinacea,
Selby), but is smaller, and is distinguished by a
yellowish-white streak above the eye. The general
colour above is brown or yellowish brown ; the
feathers of the head and upper part of the back
being washed in the centre with dusky black.
Under parts generally pale yellowish white.
1427. — The Garrulous Synallaxis
{Synallaxis garruhts). Mr. Swainson has given a
good figure of this bird under the name of Malurus
garrulus, in the first series of his Zoological Illus-
trations. It is remarkable, he observes, for its very
singular nest, which is so large as to form a feature
in the woodland scenery of Bahia, the only part of
Brazil where he observed it. He describes the nest
as built in low trees, formed externally of dried
sticks, without any neatness, usually three or four
feet long, and resembling at a distance a thick {
twist of bean-stalks thrown in the branches by acci-
dent. Sometimes, he says, two of these nests ap-
pear as if joined together, and there is an opening
on the side, besides one at the top. He further
states that the sexes are generally seen near the
nest, uttering a shrill, incessant, monotonous chirp,
particularly in the morning and evening ; adding
that he never could bring himself to tear one of
these nests to pieces merely for the purpose of
seeing its construction. Fig. 1428 represents the
nest.
General colour of this species brown, beneath
whitish, feathers on the front of the head rigid,
pointed, and rufous ; lines before and behind the
eye whitish ; tail moderate, rounded.
1429.— The Pikd Wagtail
{M. Yarrellii, Gould). Motacilla alba of authors.
The birds composing the genus Motacilla, and sub-
genus Budytes, are confined to the Old World only.
They are an active and graceful race, tripping along
smooth grass-plots and commons, around the edges
of ponds or rivulets, and sandy river-shores, in
search of their insect food, their long tail incessantly
vibrating, and particularly after each short flight
made in pursuit of some passing insect, for they
take their prey both on the wing and on the
ground. They are subject to a double moult, in
autumn and in spring, the latter of which changes
the colour of the neck, and in some species of the
head also.
Mr. Gould was, we believe, the first to discover
that the Pied Wagtail of England is a distinct
species from the Pied or White Wagtail so common
in France and other parts of the Continent, and
which is perhaps the true M. alba of Linnaeus ; cer-
tainly of the modern Continental ornithologists.
Mr. Gould states, besides the British Islands, Nor-
way and Sweden are the only parts of Europe
where he has been able to procure specimens
identical with our British bird, whence he con-
cludes that its range is very limited. He then
goes on to observe that the Pied Wagtail of Eng-
land is somewhat more robust in form than the
Continental bird, and when in full summer dress
has the whole of the head, chest, and back of a
I deep black ; while in the White Wagtail of France,
at the same season, the throat and head alone are of
this colour, the upper surface being light ash-grey.
In winter the two species more nearly assimilate in
their colouring, and this circumstance is more pro-
bably the cause of their having hitherto been con-
sidered identical ; the black back of M. Yarrellii
being grey at this season, although never so light
as in M. alba.
The British Pied Wagtail is incessantly in motion,
running about in quest of prey, and ever and anon
moving from place to place by short undulating
flights, uttering a lively note, and, on gracefully
alighting, rapidly vibrating its tail,' which seems as
if hung on tremulous springs. It frequents grass-
plots, commons, and the borders of sheets of water,
and will wade in search of aquatic insects ; nor are
even small fishes safe from its attacks. W. Rayner,
Esq., in a letter to Mr. Yarrell, quoted in his
' History of British Birds,' states that in the summer
and autumn of 1837 he had in his aviary several
wagtails, the pied and yellow, "both of which were
very expert in catching and feeding on minnows
which were in a fountain in the centre of the aviary.
These birds hover over the water, and catch the
minnow as it approaches the top, in the most
dexterous manner. I was also much surprised at
the wariness and cunning of some blackbirds and
thrushes in watching the wagtails catch the
minnows, and immediately seizing the prize for
their own dinner." The nest of the British Pied
Wagtail is composed of fibres of roots, withered
grass, and moss, lined with hair and a few feathers :
it is generally placed near water, on a bank, or in
the hole of a wall, or crevice between stones, among
logs of woods, or in the thatch of an outbuilding
or cart-shed. The eggs are white spotted with
ash-colour. This species may be often seen run-
ning about close to cows reposing in their pasture-
land, busily engaged in collecting the flies that
settle on the sides or limbs of the placid ruminants,
or flit about them.
1430. — The White Waotaii of the Continent
(Motacilla alba). LaBergeronette griseand Lavan-
diireofthe French; Cotremolo, Codetta, Codetta
di Pecore, Ballarina, Monachina, and Cultretola of
the Italians ; Die Weisse Bachstelze and Weisse
und Schwartze Bachstelze of the Germans. This
species is common throughout the continent of
Europe, and inhabits the highlands of India, ex-
tending also into Africa : its habits are similar to
those of our British Pied Wagtail.
1431. — The White-winged Wagtail
{Motacilla lugubris). This species is a native of
eastern Europe, seldom advancing farther west than
Warblers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
319
the central parts. It is found in southern Siberia,
Hunsrarv, Egypt, the Crimea, and Asia Minor : it
is very common in Japan, frequenting the streams
of valleys among the mountains. The upper figure
represents the bird in its winter dress ; the lower, in
its summer plumage.
1432.— The Java Forktail
{MotaciUa speciosa, Horsf.) ; Enicurus speciosus,
Temm. ; Chenginging or Kins^king of the Javanese.
In habits and manners this bird resembles the Pied
Wagtail, and is found in Java near small rivulets,
more especially such as have a rocky or gravelly
bed ; it is there seen running about with alacrity,
incessantly moving its tail and picking up worms
and insects. It is almost entirely confined to the
southern coast of Java, which abounds in streamlets
descending rapidly from the southern hills and
shaded by luxuriant shrubs. (Horsfleld's ' Zoolo-
gical Researches.')
1433. — The Female Maryland Yellow-throat
(Sylvia Marylandica, Wilson) feeding the young
of the Cow-Bunting (Molothrus Pecoris). The Mary-
land Yellow-throat is a pretty little warbler, inha-
biting the deep humid thickets of the United States
of America, where it prys about the stems, leaves,
and roots in quest of insects, peeping into every
crevice, and occasionally uttering a simple twitter.
Its nest is placed on the ground among dried leaves,
in the depth of a thicket of briars, arched over, and
a small hole left for entrance. It is in the nest of
this species and in those of three or four others that
the Cow-Bunting drops her eggs, one in each nest ;
this is hatched by the foster parent, who rears the
young one, which, as it would seem, is excluded
from the egg before the young of the Yellow-throat,
and as the intruder demands care and food, the
other eggs are neglected, and the chicks which they
contain necessarily perish. As the young Cow-
Bunting grows up, its foster-parents provide for it
with great assiduity, and manifest all the anxiety
respecting it which they would do were their own
offspring under their charge. In this strange pro-
ceeding we are reminded of the cuckoo, which lays
an egg in the nest of the hedge-sparrow or titlark ;
but in the latter case the young cuckoo is not ex-
cluded from the egg before the rest, but, exceeding
them in size and strength, is enabled in a short time
to jostle them all out of the nest, that he may have
room enough for himself, and receive undivided
attention. Fig. 1434 represents the nest of the hedge-
sparrow (Accentor raodularis), with a young cuckoo
clamorous for the food which the foster-parent is
bringing, and of which its own young are to be de-
prived. That Shakspere was well acquainted with
the habits of the cuckoo and the nursing of its
young by a foster-parent, " which," as Mr. Selby
says, "has within these late years been fully sub-
stantiated," is very evident from the words he puts
in AVorcester"s mouth : —
" And being fed by as, yon used us so
As thst ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
Useth the sparrow ; did oppress our nest.
Grew by our feeding to so great a bulk.
That even our love durst not come near your s^ght."
Ki»g Henry IK, Part I., Act v., Scene 1.
1435. — The Familiar Creeper
(Priniafamiliaris). Prinya of the Javanese. Mr.
Bwainson, in his 'Classification of Birds,' thinks that
Prinia may be a subgenus of Drymoica, a group of
the Sylviadae. The Priniae, he observes, have all
the activity and familiarity of the wrens, so much
resemble them in general appearance, in their short
sweet song, and the habit of throwing up the tail,
that it is not very surprising they should be classed
with the scansorial creepers. The present species
is a native of Java, frequenting gardens, among the
shrubs and trees of which it builds its nest : it is
sprightly, and sports in short and rapid flights
amidst the branches.
General colour above, dark brown, with a tinge
of orange ; throat white ; breast sulphur yellow ;
wings crossed by two white bands ; tail-feathers,
except the two middle, marked near the end with
black ish-brown ; tarsi yellowish.
1436. — The Kentucky Warbler
(Sylvia formosa. Wilson). This beautiful bird is
particularly numerous in Kentucky and Tennessee,
frequenting low damp woods, and building its nest
sometimes in the fork of a low bush and sometimes
on the ground. The materials are loose grass mixed
with the light pith of weeds, and lined with hair.
The eggs are white, sprinkled with reddish. Its
notes are loud and monotonous. The Kentucky
Warbler is active and sprightly, but at the same
time restless and quarrelsome, fighting with its own
species or with others, at least during the breeding
season. It migrates southward on the approach of
winter.
Length, five inches and a half. Upper parts
olive-green ; line over the eyes and all the under
parts brilliant yellow ; head slightly crested ; crown
deep black, back of head mottled ; a large spot
below the eye black; legs flesh-colour.
Among our pictorial specimens we have several
interesting nests belonging to different species of
the Sylviadae, and illustrative of their varied modes
of building.
1437- — ^The Nest of the Capocier
(Sylvia macroura, Latham). The Capocier is a
South African bird, which builds, in the fork of a
tree, a large felted nest of flax, cotton, and moss,
having an oval chamber within and a lateral orifice.
Externally it is very irregular, but the walls of the
interior are neatly worked, the texture being as fine
as woven cloth. A pair of these birds, which Le
Vaillant watched while building this structure, were
seven days in completing it : it was about nine
inches in height externally, and as white as snow,
and enveloped the contiguous branches, which, as
it were, pierced the sides without deranging the
circular cavity of the interior : the quantity of
material used was astonishing. It is perhaps to
this species that Thunberg alludes when he says
that a bird called the Kapoch forms its nest, which
is as curious as beautitiil, and is of the thickness of
a coarse worsted stocking, from the down of the
rosemary-tree.
1438, 1439. — Nests of the Pinc-pinc
(Cisticola textrix, Swainson). Fig. 1438 is from
Le Vaillant ; Fig. 1439, from Sonnerat, whose figure
is too formal, but it can scarcely be doubted that
it is meant to represent the nest of the same species
as that given by Le Vaillant.
In many points the nest of the Pinc-pinc resem-
bles that of the Capocier ; it is usually placed, says
the latter writer, " among prickly shrubs, particu-
larly the mimosas, but sometimes on the extreme
branches of trees. It is commonly very large,
though some are larger than others, but the differ-
ence is only in the external appearance ; in the in-
terior they are almost of the same dimensions,
namely, between three and four inches in diameter,
while the circumference of the exterior is often
more than a foot. As the nest is wholly composed
of the down of plants, it is either of a snowy white-
ness or of a brownish colour, according to the
quality of the down which is produced by the neigh-
bouring shrubs. On the outside it appears to be
constructed in an irregular and clumsy manner,
according to the situation of the branches in which
it is built, and to which it is so firmly attached,
part of them passing through its texture, that it is
impossible to remove it without leaving one-half
behind. If, however, the nest have the appearance,
on the outside of being badly made, we shall be the
more surprised on looking into the interior that so
small a bird, without other instrument than its bill,
its wings, and tail, could have felted vegetable down
in such a manner as to render it as united and of as
fine a texture as cloth, even of good quality. The
nest in question is of a rounded form, with a narrow
neck made on its upper part, through which the
bird glides into the interior. At the base of this
tubularneckthere isaniche, or shelf-like appendage,
like a small nest resting against the large one, and
which, as was observed by Le Vaillant, serves as a
momentary resting place, by means of which the
Pinc-pinc may pass more easily into the nest, which,
without such a contrivance, it might find some diffi-
culty in accomplishing, as it could not move through
so small an entrance on the wing ; and the outside
of the nest being slightly formed, the bird would
injure it were it constantly to rest on it, whilst this
little appendage is as firmly felted as the interior of
the nest. Sometimes there are two or three of these
perches.
The Pinc-pinc is familiar in its manners, and in
districts where it is not molested will pass in and
out of its nest, though a person be closely watching
it.
1440. — ^Thb Nest of the Yellow Wren, or
Haybird
(Sylvia Trochilus). The Yellow Wren (Willow
Wren of Bewick) is a delicate little warbler, which
visits our island in summer, tenanting copses and
groves. It usually selects some dry bank, the side
of a ditch, or the tangled roots of a bush as the site
of its nest, which is a domed structure, composed of
the interwoven stems of dried grasses, a little moss
and a few leaves, and loosely lined with feathers.
The entrance is in front, under the arched dome.
The eggs are six or seven in number, of a white
colour, spotted with reddish-brown, especially at the
larger end.
1441, 1442.— The Nest of the Sedge Warbler
{Salicaria Phragmitis, Selby). We have stated
that this bird usually suspends its nest between
three or four adjacent reed-stems. Mr. Selby has
found it also in willow and low birchen bushes.
The specimen. Fig. 1442, was built among the
branches of lucerne (Medicago sativa), and was
almost composed of hay, a few tufts of willow-down
and elm-blossoms, with a few hairs within. It is
altogether a very different structure from the nest
attributed by Bolton to this species (Fig. 1441),
which was bound round with stout woollen yarn:
we suspect Bolton to have been mistaken.
1443. — A Nest attributed to the Reed-Buntino
(Emberiza schcmiclus), from a specimen in the
British Museum. There can be but little doubt
that this nest is really that of the Reed-Wren (Sali-
caria arundinacea, Selby^, for the nest of the former
bird is built in a low bush or tuft of grass, and never
suspended between the stems of r'eeds ; whereas the
nest of the Reed-Wren, which we have often exa-
mined, is very deep, almost entirely concealing the
bird while sitting, constructed of long grass, and
suspended between a few adjoining reeds. Mon-
tagu observes that he has seen this bird sitting on
her nest when the wind blew hard, and that every
gust forced it almost to the surface of the water.
The great Sedge-Warbler of Holland and other
parts of the Continent (Salicaria turdo'ides) builds a
similar nest. Suspended as the nest of the Reed-
Wren is, and swinging in the breeze, its depth is
necessary to prevent the eggs or young from being
thrown out when the supporting reeds are bowed
by the force of the wind. The Reed-Wren is one
of our summer warblers, and is closely related to
the Sedge-Warbler ; it is, however, larger, and not
so extensively diffused over our island, though it is
common on the reed-beds of our southern and
eastern counties. It is abundant in Holland. We
have specimens killed in the neighbourhood of
London.
1444. — Nest of the Tailor-Bird
{Sylvia Sutoria, Latham). Of the nests of this
species we have had the opportunity of minutely
examining excellent specimens. Dwelling in India,
where tree-snakes are abundant, this little bird
makes a leaf, at the extremity of a slender twig, its
cradle. If the leaf be large enough, it draws the
edges together, so as to form a pouch, the end of
which is drawn up so as to assist in supporting the
bed within ; if the leaf be not sufficiently large, an-
other growing by it, or sometimes a dead one, is
sewed to it, in order to form a convenient recep-
tacle. The material it sews with is composed of
vegetable fibres twisted into a thread. The nest
itself within this leafy case consists of fine down in-
termixed with fibres and a few feathers. An excel-
lent specimen is in the Museum of the Zoological
Society.
1445. — A Nest from Lady Clive's Collection of
Drawings.
This nest is attributed to a species of Tailor-Bird,
called by Latham Merops minimus (Query, a
species of Cinnyris?). Forbes, in his Oriental
Memoirs,' says the Tailor-Bird resembles some of
the humming-birds at the Brazils in shape and
colour. The hen is clothed in brown, but the
plumage of the male displays the varied tints of
azure, purple, green, and gold, so common in those
American beauties. Often, he adds, " have I
watched the progress of an industrious pair of
Tailor-Birds from their first choice of a plant to the
completion of a nest and the enlargement of the
young."
Latham notices among the drawings of Sir J.
Anstruther the figure of a nest composed of several
leaves, like those of the' hazel, sewed together and
united to a living leaf on the tree ; the inner nest
consisting of dry bents, fibres, and hair. The bird,
however, was not identified.
1446. — The Nest of the Golden-crested Wren
(Regulus cristatus). To the nidification of this
species we shall hereafter have occasion to refer
more fully ; we may, however, here observe, that in
general it is suspended at the extremity of a sweep-
ing branch of pine or larch, attached to the under
side of the foliage and secured with great art to the
twigs, while a profusion of " tassels" hang over it,
securing it from rain and shrouding it from observa-
tion. Sometimes it is built amidst embowering ivy
covering the trunk of a tree.
1447. — The Nest of the Redbreast
(Erythica Rubecula). We have previously noticed
the nidification of this well-known bird :—
" Humble is nis home
Ann uell concealed ; sometimes within the sound
Of heartsome mill-rlack, where the spacious door
White dusted tells him plenty reigns nround,
Close at the root of brier-bush that o'erhangs
Tlie narrow stream.
Oft near some single cottage he prefers
To rear his little home."
Birds ofScothnd,
•^%5
1441.— Mcwloir K^ht.
1««9.— Tree FJpIl.
144L— Nostof GoldeS'Crested Wren.
J 447 — Kest of Redbmut.
1445.— Fenale Tailcn^Biid and NeM.
14S0.— Oionp ofBritiih BWs.
'^^f<^ r
-=^5S^S
1454.— Yellow-crowned Warbler.
U^.— White-fronted Ephtliianura.
U'*^.— N«rt of Son^-Tlsrusli.
AV>^
14^2.— Rwlituti.
No. 41.
Wf^O.— (7, FieWfalc : 6, Redwing.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
%2\
322
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Warblers.
1448, 1450 (a).— Tu« Mkauow-Pumt
(Anthm pralensis). The pipiU, often termed tit-
larks, I'orm a small yet well-characterised (froiip ol"
Sylviadm, having the pluraaee and long hind claws
of the true larks, but the sFender bills of the wag-
tails ; they have only a remote affinity to the larks
which belong to the conirostral tribe; for though,
as Mr Swainson observes, they are the analogues of
the latter in the dentirostral tribe, we are not pre-
pared to admit that this analogy becomes trans-
muted into positive relationship.
The meadow-pipit may be regarded as the re-
presentative of the skylark (Fig. 1450, e, Skylarks
and Nest), and like that bird it pours out its song
at a great elevation in the air, rising on tremulous
wings, and then descending smoothly to the ground,
or to the top of some low bush, to its mate, for
whose gratification its strains were uttered. Some-
times the meadow-pipit sings on the earth, but gene-
rally utters its soft musical notes in the air. This
bird is very extensively distributed over Europe, and
is common in the British Islands, remaining with us
throughout the year. It freauents hilly districts,
open commons, meadows, and even marsh lands ;
and runs over the grassy turf with great celerity ;
when on a clod or stone, it frequently vibrates the
fail, in the manner of the wagtail, and likewise gives
chace to insects, on which it feeds, as well as on
slugs and worms. In September and October, after
the general moult, these birds associate in small
flocks, resorting to turnip-fields ; and in severe
weather to the shelter of hedge-banks and low pas-
tures.
The nest is made on the ground under the covert
of a tuft of grass, and is composed of dried bents
and fibres, with a lining of finer materials and
hairs. The eggs, five or six in number, are of a
reddish brown, spotted with darker markings.
The meadow-pipit is about six inches in length.
The hind claw (Fig. 1448, a) is long and slender.
The general colour of the plumage is dark oil-green,
with the centre of every feather brownish black ;
under parts yellow ash white, spotted with dark
brown on the sides of the neck and breast, and
.streaked with the same on the flanks.
1449.— The Tbie-Pipit
■(Anthus arboreus). This species, which may be re-
garded as the analogue of the woodlark, Alauda
.arborea (Fig. 1450,6), differs from the meadow-
pipit in being rather larger ; with the beak stouter,
the spots on the breast fewer and longer, and the
claw of the hind toe much shorter and thicker (see
foot, Fig. 1440, a). Its habits are also different. It
is only a summer visitor to our island, arriving
towards the end of April, and taking up its abode in
• copses, and well-wooded enclosures. The male then
commences his song of invitation, which is superior
to that of the meadow-pipit in compass, variety, and
sweetness. This he utters either perched on the top
-of a tree, or in the air; in the latter case he rises on
.quivering wings to an elevation about as high again
as the tree whence he started ; and then, at this
altitude, poises his wings, spreads and elevates his
tail, and slowly descends, singing all the while, to
the station from which he had previously arisen.
During his ascent he never sings, but sometimes
utters a chirp. Rarely does this species alight upon
the ground without previously perching on a tree :
and after leaving the ground, it wings its way to a
tree before commencing a more lengthened flight.
The nest is placed on the ground, and is formed of
moss, fibres, and withered grass, lined with bents
and hairs. The eggs are generally of a greyish
white, clouded and spotted with purple-brown or
purple-red, but their colour is variable.
The winter quarters of the tree-pipit are probably
the northern and western portions of Africa ; it is
found in Madeira, and also in Japan, having a wider
range of habitat.
1451. — The Stobechat
(Saxicofa rubicda). Traquet rubicole of the French.
Saltabastone, Zomya-cardi, and Saltinpalo of the
Italians. Schwarzkehliger Steinschmalzer of the
Germans, Clochder y cerrig of the ancient British,
Stonechatter, Stonesmith, Moor-titling, &c., provin-
cial English.
Selby states that, unlike the whinchat and the
wheatear, the stonechat is stationary in our country
throughout the year ; but this is not quite correct ;
for though some few individuals may remain through
the winter months, the general body quit the British
islands in autumn, and return in spring. Moorlands,
wide commons, and open tracts are their favourite
haunts ; and they flit from stone to stone, or bush to
bush, without intermission, giving chace to insects,
and continually uttering a clicking note, compared
by Buffon to the word " Ouisfrata." The male sings
a short but agreeable strain, generally while on the
wing, hovenng over the furze or brambles. The
nest, which is of large size, is placed under the
covert of a bush or tuft of herbage ; and is composed
of moss and grass, lined with bents, hairs, and fea-
thers. The eggs are of a pale blue, with a slightly
grey tint, and finely dotted at the large end with pale
reddish brown.
This species is spread over the whole of tempe-
rate Europe, and is found also in India and Africa.
The male nas the head anil throat black; the sides
of the neck, the upper part of the wings, and rump
white ; breast orange-brown ; the rest of the under
surface white tinged with yellow : the back black,
the feathers edged with yellowish brown ; winp
brownish black, the feathers with paler edges; bill
and legs black. In winter the black feathers of the
head and throat are edged with yellowish brown,
which disappears as the spring advances.
The lower figure is a male, the upper a female.
1452. — The Rkdstart
(Phanicura ruticilla). This is the Corossolo, Co-
drisso, and Culorosso of the Italians: Rossignol de
murailles of the French; Schwarzkehliger sanger of
the Germans ; Gekraagde Roodstart of the Nether-
landers ; Rodstjert of the Swedes ; Roedstiert of the
Danes ; Blodfugl of the Norwegians ; Rhonell goch
of the ancient British.
This bird, which is generally dispersed over Eu-
rope, is one of our summer visitors, arriving in our
island about the middle of April, and leaving early
in September.
The redstart is sprightly in its movements, and
beautiful in its form and colouring, the black, white,
grey, and flame colours which ornament its plumage
being conjoined with a graceful contour. It darts
at passing insects with great address, accompanying
every action with a vibrating motion of the tail,
which is continued for several seconds on alighting.
In its habits it is by no means recluse or shy ; it
frequents gardens, orchards, and groves, building in
a hole of the wall, between the branch of a fruit-
tree and the wall, under the cover of luxuriant ivy
in a tool-shed, or other outbuilding. The nest con-
sists of moss, lined with hairs and feathers ; the eggs
are greenish blue. The male utters a soft sweet
warble, while sitting on some low branch or other
perch, his tail vibrating at the same time ; and nei-
ther this vibration nor his song ceases as he flits
off to a more attractive station. In captivity the
redstart is said to become very tame.
The colouring of the male is as follows : — Fore-
head pure white, a small band on the root of the
bill ; space between that and the eye, the throat, and
upper part of the neck, deep black ; head and upper
part of the back bluish ash ; quill-feathers blackish ;
the breast, sides, rump, and lateral tail-feathers
brilliant ruddy or flame-red; two middle tail-fea-
thers brown ; abdomen whitish. The female is of
a uniform greyish brown, with the exception of the
tail, which is dull rufous. Lower figure, a male ;
upper, a female.
1453. — The Daetford Waebler
{Mdizophilus provincialis, Leach). Pette-chou de
Provence of the French ; Magnanini of Cavi ; and
Provenser sanger of Meyer.
This warbler is found in the countries of Europe
bordering the Mediterranean. It is comparatively
rare in Germany and Holland. In England it is a
permanent resident, but not generjilly ditt'used.
It is frequent in the neighbourhood of London ;
and occurs in Berkshire, Cornwall, and Devonshire.
It was first noticed as a British bird by Dr. Latham
in the year 1773, who procured a pair from Bexley
Heath, near Dartford in Kent, whence its trivial
English name.
The Dartford Warbler is scarcely larger than a
wren in the bulk of its body, but appears superioi
in size from the great length of its tail. In its habits
and mannei-s it is extremely shy and recluse, con-
cealing itself in thick furze-brakes and tangled
heath ; and well does it know every labyrinth and
every hiding-place of each bush or bed of furze on
the breezy common where it takes up its abode.
Mr. Gould observes that its form closely allies it
to the superb warblers (Malurus) of New Holland,
while its relationship to the common white-throat is
strikingly apparent. With reference to its secluded
habits, the same author observes that in the spring
it becomes more lively and frequently visible, rising
on quivering wing above the tops of the furze, and
uttering a hurried babbling song much after the
manner of the white-throat ; at these times it erects
the feathers of the head into a crest, and distends
the throat, exhibiting many attitudes and gesticula-
tions.
Its nest, which is concealed in the very heart of a
thick furze-bush not far from the ground, consists of
grass, fibres, and fine roots ; the eggs are greenish
white, with brown speckles and greyish spots.
All the upper parts of the plumage are fine deep
grey ; tail blackish brown, the outer feathers tipped
with white ; throat, breast, and sides, of the colour
of red-wine-iees ; abdomen white. Quill-feathers
ash-coloured externally, but with the inner barbs
black. Length five inches. The tints of the female
are duller than those of the male, and the throat is
much more spotted. The lower figure a male, the
upper a female.
1454.— The Yellow-crowned Warbler,
OB Myrtle Bied
(St/lvicola coronata). This species is one of the mi-
gratory warblers of North America, arriving in the
middle and northern states of the Union from the
south about the end of April, and passing north-
wards to breed ; in August it returns and stays till
November, when if moves southwards. At this
season myrtle-wax berries (Myrica cerifera) and
those of the Virginian juniper, with a few insects, are
its chief food. In the southern states considtrable
numbers congregate, frequenting during the cold
season the swamps and sheltered groves of the
sea coast. In fine weather, and the early part of
October, they are often seen collecting moths and
grasshoppei-s in the meadows, or darting from a
perch alter insects, in the manner of fly-catchers ;
they are ever in motion, hovering amidst the cedars
ancl myrtles, and only rest when satisfied with food.
Their ordinary note is a feeble chirp, but during the
spring the male utters at short intervals in the
morning a sweet varied and rather plaintive warble,
resembling the autumnal strain of our redbreast.
At this season they frequent groves, orchards, and
gardens, and feed upon insects and caterpillars, for
which they search with unwearied industry. The
length of this species is about six inches. The
plumage in summer is of a dark slate-colour streaked
with black, beneath white; breast spotted with
black ; the top of the head, the sides, and the rump
yellow ; wings with two white bars ; tail black, the
three lateral tail-feathers spotted with white. In
winter the feathers are edged with brownish olive,
and the yellow on the crown is partly concealed by
a margin of this tint.
1455. — The White-eeonted Ephthianuka
(Uphthianura aWifrons, Gould). This is an example
of the Australian warblers: it is found at Swan
River and in New South Wales, as well as on the
small islands in Bass's Straits, where it was observed
by Mr. Gould, who informs us that it is very sprightly
and active, particularly, he adds, " the male, whose
white throat and banded chest render him much
more conspicuous than the sombre-coloured female.
As the structure of its toes and lengthened tertiaries
would lead us to expect, its natural province is the
ground, to which it habitually resorts, and decidedly
evinces a preference to spots of a sterile and barreu
character. The male, like many of the saxicoline
birds, frequently perches either on the summit of a
stone, or on the extremity of a dead and leafless
branch. It is rather shy in its'disposition, and when
disturbed flies off with considerable rapidity to the
distance of two or three hundred yards before it
alights again. I observed it in small companies on
the plains near Adelaide, over the hard clayey sur-
face of which it tripped with amazing quickness,
with a motion that can neither be described as a hop
or a run, but something between the two, with a
bobbing action of the tail." Of its nidification no-
thing is known.
Family MERULIDiE (THRUSHES).
This family contains many genera, which accord-
ing to their mutual afiinities may be arranged in
minor groups, or subfamilies, according to the
views of the naturalist who analyses them.
In placing under this title, Merulidie, the Thrushes
and Blackbirds, or Ouzels, the Pettae and others, we
follow the arrangement of Mr. Vigors, aware at the
same time that some naturalists have collected the
thrushes under a distinct family head, but we think
on questionable grounds. We will not, however,
discuss the point, but direct at once attention to our
pictorial examples.
1450 (c).— Tub Song-Thbusu
(Turdus imisiais). Grive and Petite Grive of the
French ; Tordo and Tordo Botaccio of the Italians ;
Sing-drossel and Weiss-drossel of the Germans ;
Throstle or Mavis, provincial English ; Aderyn Bron-
fraith of the ancient British.
This splendid songster is common over the greater
portion of Europe, being migratory in Norway,
Sweden, and the northern districts, but stationary
in our island, and in France, Italy, and other parts
of the south. As the winter ad'vances, flights of
thrushes arrive in Great Britain with a north or
north-east wind, and, after staying a few days to re-
cruit, move southwards.
The thrush is a hardy bird, and begins to enliven
the woods and glens with his rich-toned notes even
as early as the month of January if the season be
temperate ; and pairs, and commences the work of
nidification in March. The nest is generally in a
thick bush, amidst clustering ivy, or closely-tangled
Thrlshes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
32J
bowers of doff-roses, iti woods, or in full ever-
greens, as the Portugal laurel or holly. Externally
it is composed of bent twi<rs, moss, and grass closely
interwoven, being plastered within with a very thin
smooth layer of rotten wood, cemented by glutinous
saliva, and laid as a coating, or fine cement, upon a
thick layer of cow-dung, scarcely carried so high
as the brim of the nest. This lining is waterproof
and tough, and well calculated for protecting the
eggs or young from the keen winds of early spring.
Fig. 1456 represents the nest of the song-thrush.
Two broods are produced yearly. It may perhaps
be fancy, but we think that we have heard a great
difference in the power, variety, and richness of the
notes of diiferent individuals of this species : the
notes of those that frequent the wooded rocks bor-
dering the Bakewell Road near Buxton have always
appeared to excel those of any others (o which we
ever listened ; but perhaps this superiority was owing
in some measure to the nature of their locality, the
rocks reverberating the sound.
Worms, snails, slugs, insects, and berries consti-
tute the food of the thrush. The common garden-
snail (Helix hortensis) and the wood-snail (Helix
nemoralis) are greedily devoured, the bird beating
the shell against a stone till it is completely broken
and the contents are disengaged.
1457, 1458. — The Wood-Thhush
{Tardus mustelinus, Grael.); Tawny Thrush, Pen-
nant ; Turdus melodus, Wilson.
In the woods of North America, this species re-
presents our British songster ; it is of shy, retiring
habits, preferring the most secluded places, where
the foliage of lofty trees overhangs murmuring
streamlets, and forms a dense shade. Its song, though
composed of but few notes, is powerful, distinct,
clear, and mellow, and is continued after sunset,
various rivals endeavouring, as it would seem, to
excel each other.
The nest of this species is usually placed in a low
horizontal branch of the dogwood tree, and accord-
ing to Audubon is composed externally of dry leaves,
to which succeeds a layer of intertwined grasses, then
a layer of mud, lined internally with fine fibrous
roots. Description: — general colour above bright
cinnamon brown, inclining to olive on the rump and
tail ; beneath, whitish, thickly marked with pencil-
shaped dusky spots. Length eight inches.
1459. — The Red-breasted Thklsh
{Turdus erijthrogaster). This species is a native
of the Himalaya Mountains, and is figured by Mr.
Gould in his ■ Century of Birds.' Of its habits we
have no account.
The male is bluish grey above ; with the cheeks,
sides of the neck, and quill-feathers, black ; the
breast, under parts, and rump red.
The female differs in being of a bluish brown
above, and having the under parts reddish white
marked with transverse undulations of brown. The
lower figure represents the female.
1460 (a).— The FiELDrARE
{Turdus pilaris). La Litorne, Buffon ; Merle
Litorne,Temminck; Wachholder-drossel, Bechstein.
This species is a native of the cold regions of
Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and other northern
countries, whence as winter sets in it migrates south-
wards. It seldom visits our island before the latter
part of November, and departs again northwards
late in May. It breeds in pine or fir trees, and the
eggs are bluish green spotted with reddish brown.
During its winter sojourn with us the fieldfare as-
sociates in flocks, which, as long as the weather is
open, frequent meadows and pasture-grounds, feed-
ing u{)on worms, slugs, and the larvae of insects,
but resorting in severe frosts to hedges, copses, and
plantations for the sake of the berries of the haw-
thorn, the holly, and the mountain-ash. The field-
fare is shy and wary, and not easily approached
within gun-range, and consequently gives some
trouble to the sportsmen, unless when, pressed by
hunger, it be too much engaged in satisfying its
appetite to attend to what passes around it.
This species is about ten inches long. The head
and hmd part of the neck are of a greyish colour,
the former spotted with black; the bill is yellowish
black at the point ; the back and lesser wing-coverts
chestnut ; the breast and sides reddish yellow ; tail
blackish ; legs black.
1460(6).— The Redwino
(Turdus iliacus). Merle mauvis, Teniminck; Roth-
drossel, Bechstein. Like the fieldfare, this species
is a native of Norway, Sweden, &c., and visits our
island about the latter part of October, associating
in flocks, which, with those of the fieldfare, should
the weather be severe, continue their migration still
farther southwards. Yet it often happens that,
during deep snows, numbers both of this species
and of the fieldfare perish from hunger and cold.
The redwing is very similar to the throstle or
common thrush, with which it is often seen among
the hawthorn-trees and ivy-bushes, or roaming over
the meadows in search of food ; but it is less in size,
and has a white streak over the eye, which in that
bird is wanting. It is about 8i inches in length,
and of the average weight of :Ji ounces.
The bill is of a dusky colour, except at the base
of the upper mandible, which partakes of a yellowish
hue ; the back and upper parts are brown, the
lower part of the breast is white, marked with dusky
lines, the body under the wings reddish orange, and
the legs pale brown. There is also to be noticed
the whitish streak over the eye mentioned above.
The song of the redwing, when heard in its native
woods, has such a charming effect, heightened by
the rough character of most of the other woodland
sounds of the northern country, that the bird has been
called the nightingale of Norway. With us, how-
ever, it does not appear to exert its vocal powers
with such effect. Its common note is rather a harsh
scream, though it has been compared by Mr. Slaney
to " a sort of inward deep-drawn sigh, like an
attempt at ventriloquism."' In fine weather, how-
ever, we may often hear them, while perched high
on the trees, singing with a subdued voice in a very
pleasing manner.
The redwing is known in different parts of England
by the names of the red-sided thrush, the wind-
thrush, and the swine-pipe.
1461. — ^The Nest of the Missel-Theush
{Tardus viscivorus). This species, which is common
on the continent of Europe, is the largest of our
British thrushes, but is not so abundant as the song-
thrush, and more locally distributed. It frequents
the outskirts of woods, large old orchards, and
groves ; and its song, uttered from the highest
branch of some tall tree, is often heard in the month
of January. The notes are loud, but the strain has
little variety or richness. The nest is placed on the
fork of a tree, very frequently of an apple tree of
larger growth, and covered with moss or lichens. It
consists of a basket-work of fine straws and grass,
interwoven with moss and lichens. Within this
structure is a layer of clay, the lining being of fine
grass and fibres. The eggs are of a greenish white,
spotted with chestnut and clove-brown.
During the breeding season the missel thrush is
very pugnacious, driving away all other birds from
its nest, and defending itself and eggs with success
against the magpie ; while engaged in combat it
utters a harsh scream. Its food resembles that of
the song-thrush ; in the winter it feeds much on the
berries of the misseltoe, of which the seeds passing
uninjured through the alimentary canal often ger-
minate in suitable situations, and thus the parasitic
shrub is propagated. It greedily devours cherries,
raspberries, and other garden fruit.
1462. — The Ground-sceaping Theush
{Turdus strepitam). This species is a native of
South Africa, where it was observed by Dr. A.
Smith, who states that, immediately upon reaching
Kuricliane, this thrush began to appear in the
thickets, and that he continued to acquire occa-
sionally a specimen even in the vicinity of the tropic.
It seeks, he says, its food upon the ground, and when
so occupied its resort is readily discovered by the
natives from the noise it makes in scratching the
ground, or in displacing rubbish and decayed leaves
which conceal the insects it is seeking. The name
by which it is known in the country it inhabits is,
he informs us, characteristic of the vigour with
which it employs its feet, and the nearest translation
he can give is 'Ground-Scraper.'
Dr. Smith further remarks that the form of its
bill, particularly towards the base, the length of its
legs, and the shortness of its tail, are all characters
which remove it from the more typical species of
i the genus Turdus ; but yet there is in its structure
and habits what necessarily constitutes it a true
thrush. ('Illustrations of the Zoology of South
Africa.')
Description.— Front and top of head brownish
grey ; occiput, upper aspect of neck, interscapulars,
scapulars, and shoulders deep yellowish grey, faintly
shaded with brown; back, rump, and upper-taif-
coverts dirty ash-grey. Under parts white, tinted
in places with ochre-yellow ; sides of the neck,
whole of the breast, flanks, and belly variegated
with blackish brown pyriform spots, one on each
feather, the large end reaching nearly to its point.
Sides of the head white, slightly tinted with ochre-
yellow, variegated below the eyes with three blackish
brown bands. Primary wing-coverts and primary
quill-feathers deep brownish red, the latter tipped
and edged externally with yellowish white ; the first
two-thirds at least of the inner vanes of these feathers
are of a clear buff-colour, darkest towards the shafts ;
secondary wing coverts and secondary and tertiary
quill feathers dark greyish brown, the outer vanes
lightest, all margined externally and tipped with
dirty white. Eyes reddish brown ; length ^ inches.
1450 {d). — The Blackbird
{Merala vulgaris). Merle noir, Temminck ;
Schwartz-drossel, Bechstein; Turdus Merula, Linn.
This beautiful songster, with yellow bill and jet-black
plumage, is too well known to need minute descrip-
tion. It is a shy bird, frequenting hedgerows,
thickets, shrubberies, and large garden.s, and when
disturbed or surprised escapes into the covert of
dense foliage, uttering a loud sharp cry of alarm.
Its song is clear and melodious, but not so varied .as
that of the thrush. Like that bird it feeds upon
slugs, shelled snails, and insects, and also upon
currants, cherries, peas, &c., often making miich
havoc in the garden, as indeed does the thrush ; but
they both compensate for this by the destruction of
snails and slugs, and by their melody.
Early in spring the blackbird begins its nest; a
thickset hedgerow, an insulated bush of some dense
evergreen, or a bower of ivy, are all favourite places
The outer frame-work of the nest consists of moss
small sticks, grasses, and fibres, with an inner coat
of mud plaster, over which is a lining of fine drv
grass (see Fig. 1463, the nest of the blackbird). The-
eggs are four or five in number, of a bluish green,,
variegated with darker markings. Fig. 1464. Two.
or even three broods are hatched and reared during ■
the spring and summer.
The female of this species is brownish black above,
the breast being pale umber brown, the margin of
each feather passing into greyish white. Bit! and
legs blackish brown. The young are similar to the
females, and the males do not acquire their glossy
black and orange yellow bill till after the second
moult. White, and cream-white varieties, albinos ,
in fact, are sometimes met with.
1465. — The Risg-Ouzel
{Merala torguata). Merle si plastron, Temminck ;
Merulo alpesto of the Italians : Ring-drossel of the
Germans; Rock-Ouzel and Tor Ouzel, provincial
English. This bird is one of our summer visitors,
arriving in our islands in the spring, and resorting
to the mountain districts to breed. The mountains '
of Wales, Dartmoor in Devonshire, the rocky dis-
tricts of Cornwall, the Peak of Derbyshire, the
mountains of Scotland and the north of England,
and those of Ireland, are annually visited. They
haunt the wildest and most rocky parts of glens and
ravines, and make their nest, which in form and
texture resembles that of the blackbird, on some steep
bank, under the covert of grass or heath, or on some
shelf amidst mosses, which, the outside being made
of the same materials, entirely conceal it from
view ; sometimes it is built in the fissure of a rock.
The male uttei-s his song, consisting of a few clear •
notes while perched on the top of some stone, or ■
the summit of a rock ; the song is not unlike that
of the missel-thrush, which bird the ring-ouzel
resembles in disposition during the breeding season,-
driving away other species, even flying round dogs-
and other animals, striking at them and utter-
ing loud outcries. The food of the ring-ouzel con-
sists of insects and their larvae, snails, slugs, &c.
In October it leaves the kingdom, passing south-
wards ; during the summer it is common in Sweden,
France and Germany, but is very rare in Holland.
Latham says this species is met with in the warmer
and colder regions, as well as in Africa and Asia,
but it does not inhabit either Russia or Siberia,
though it is seen in Persia about the Caspian Sea.
The ring-blackbird, or ring-ouzel, is larger than
the common blackbird. Length, including the
tail, about ten inches and a half. Bill blackish
brown or raven grey, about an inch long, and •
yellowish at the base of the lower mandible ; the
irides chestnut-brown, and the legs dark brown.
The following is Selby's description of the plumage :
" Upper parts of the body black, the feathers being
margined with blackish grey. On the upper part
of the breast is a large crescent-shaped gorget
of pure white ; the rest of the under parts black,,
margined with grey, greater wing-coverts deeply
marginated with ash grey. Tail black.
" The plumage of the female bird is more clouded
with grey, and the pectoral gorget is much smaller,
and clouded with reddish brown and grey. In the
young females this gorget is not visible ; and in the
young males it is of a reddish white.
"Varieties are sometimes found similar to those
of the blackbird."
1466. — The Hermit-Thrush
(Turdus solitarius, Wilson). The hermit-thrush
is a native of the Southern States of North America,
especially those of the Mississippi, where it resides
during the winter. In Kentucky, Indiana, and
Tennessee it is observed during the summer.
It prefers swampy and secluded cane-brakes and
dark retreats, and flits low over the ground, gliding
on rapid wings when disturbed, to the deepest
coverts. There these birds breed, placing their nest
on the low branch of some overshadowing tree, about
2T2
1461.— Nr« of .MiMtl-liirMh.
H58.— V'ood-Tbliuh.
14U.— N<tt of B:ac-kl)ira.
iiili^ytaoi-Tbntk.
U«4.— EgK of Blaekbiid.
14S(.— Redbreuted Thrashes.
NSi.— Rinc-Oazel.
^mm^^
146e.— Rermit-Thnith.
824
U6a.— Oronnd-scnping Thmili.
I-16S.— Nest of Go'.den Oriole.
1473. — Qiestnat-capped Timalia.
1«7U— Mocking-Bird.
1470.— Mocking-Biid.
14S9,-Mockir!;.l!ir<l.
I-(T5,— Sca-sfTcen Piroll.
147'.'.— Moi-Mug-Bird.
1475.— King-Tliniih.
325
326
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Thrushes.
seven or eight feet from the ground, or even lower.
The nest U destitute of any layer ol" mud, but is
compact, consisting of dry weeds, leaves, and long
grasses firmly intertwined : the inside is lined with
slender fibres of grass arranged in a circular manner,
and laid very smoothly and neatly. The eggs, from
four to six, are of a light-blue colour sprinkled with
dark dots about the large end. Two broods are reared
during the summer. The male is altogether de-
stitute of musical powers, and utters only a low
plaintive cry, scarcely audible at the distance of
thirty yards. The food of this species consists
almost wholly of wild fruits and berries, which at
all seasons abound in its native woods, such as
thoie of the holly, myrtle, gall-bush (a species of
vaccinium), the yapon shrub, &c. In the winter,
when the swampy retreats which it affects during
summer are flooded, the hermit-thrush retires to the
nearest hills, and there, mixing with the wood-
thrush and other species, remains till the spring.
The length of the hermit-thrush is seven inches.
The general colour of the upper parts is yellowish
brown, changing on the rump and tail into dull-
yellowish red; quill-feathers dusky, margined ex-
ternally with yellowish brown ; under parts greyish
white; the neck and breast spotted with dark
brown.
A bird called the Solitaiy Thrush has been de-
scribed by Col. Montagu, Air. Knapp, and Bewick
as a native of our island. The former writer says
it frequents mountainous situations, and is always
seen alone, except in the breeding season, preparing
its nest like the starling in old ruined edifices,
church-towers, and other similar places, but no two
nests are ever found in the same place ; the young,
he adds, are easily brought up, and repay the trouble
by their sweet native song. The bird is described
as being of a pale yellowish brown, mottled with a
darker shade.
Mr. Knapp, writing in Gloucestershire, says, " It
is not an uncommon bird with us, breeding in holes
and hollows of trees, and hatching early." This
bird is undoubtedly not the hermit-thrush of America,
an opinion which some, strange to say, have enter-
tained ; we believe it to be a mere variety of the
common starling, and no thrush at all. Selby
asserts that it is the young of the starling in its
first dress, previous to the autumnal moult ; but if,
as asserted, it breeds, this cannot be the case; a
variety, however, it may be. We have never seen it.
The' anterior figure at 1466 represents this misnamed
bird ; it is copied from Montagu's delineation, and
the form of the beak and outline of the head are
sufficient to prove its true character. The figure
behind it is the hermit-thrush of America.
1467. — The Goldex Okiole
{Oriolus gatt)ula). This is supposed by Bclon and
others to be the x^"?^"" oi the Greeks : Galgulus,
Vireo, and Oriolus, Lat., and the Picus of which
Pliny (book x., c. 33) speaks as suspending its nest
on a twig of the topmost branches of a tree, after the
manner of a cup. It is the Becquafiga, Brusola,
Galbedro, Garbella, Giallone, and Gravolo gentile
of the modern Italians ; and Rigogolo commune of
the ' Stor. degl. Ucc' ; Turiol of the Spanish ; Loriot,
Compere Loriot, and Orio of the French; Gelbe
Rache, Gelber Pirol, der Pyrold, Wiedewal, &c.,
of the Germans and Netherlanders ; Goutmerle of
the Low Dutch; Witwall of Willughby and Ray;
and y Fwyalchen felen of the ancient British.
In the genus Oriolus the beak is broad at the
base, notched and somewhat bent at the tip. Wings
rather long ; tarsi short. The species are all natives
of the Old World, where they tenant the recesses
of woods in pairs, building most artful nests.
The Golden Oriole, which may be regarded as
the type of the genus, is only an occasional visitor
to our islands, making its appearance in April ; it
has been found in Hampshire, Devonshire, Corn-
wall ; near Manchester, near Lancaster ; near Walton
in Surrey, and near Godalming; at Cheshunt (Herts) ;
near Saxmundham in Suffolk ; in Norfolk ; at Tyne-
mouth in Durham ; and in South Wales. It has
been seen, though rarely, in Ireland, but never, as
far as we can learn, in Scotland.
On the Continent it advances as high northwards
as Sweden, where it occasionally breeds ; it also
visits some of the districts of Russia, and is found
in Germany and Holland, but more plentifully in
France, Spain, and Italy, everywhere being a bird
of passage. The Prince of Canino says that it
arrives near Rome in the spring and departs in au-
tumn. It is found in Malta and Greece, and along
the whole of the northern line of Africa. An allied,
but distinct species is common in India.
The Golden Oriole is a shy and suspicious bird,
haunting lonely groves and thickets on the skirts of
woods, excepting in the fruit season, when it always
frequents orchards, to the no small loss of the owner.
It is difficult to get near these birds, though they are
sometimes approached by the sportsman, under the
deception of nis imitative whistle ; but it requires
great accuracy both of lips and ear to perform this
fraud, for the least mistake, or one false note, will
send the bird otf at once. The food consists of
insects and their larvae, berries, and fruits, among
which figs, grapes, and cherries are favourites. The
whistle of the oriole is loud but flute-like, and
Bechstein expresses the sound by the word puhlo.
The cup or rather saucer shaped nest is formed of
wool and slender grass-stems, and placed in the
fork of a tall branch, usually towards its extremity.
The eggs are generally four or five, purplish
white with a few ash-grey and claret spots, and the
female watches over tnem with such maternal care,
that it is said she will suffer herself to be taken
rather than abandon them. In this country nests
have been taken in Suffolk and Norfolk. Fig. 1468
represents the nest of this species.
The Golden Oriole gets very fat after its summer
feed of fruits. Willughby saw many of them in the
pouhcrers' shops at Naples, and says that "it hath
very delicate flesh, and yields wholesome nourish-
ment."
Description. — Male : — Golden yellow, a blackish-
brown spot between the eye and the bill ; wings
and tail black ; a yellow spot on the quills, not far
from the middle of the wing when closed ; and the
tail-feathers terminated with yellow ; bill reddish
maroon ; iris red ; feet bluish grey. Length, rather
more than ten inches. Mr. Hoy agrees with Mr.
Yarrell that the male does not obtain its brilliant
yellow and black fill the third year.
Female : — Greenish-olive above ; greyish-white
with a yellowish tint below, where the plumage is
marked by somewhat distant greyish-brown short
stripes or dashes disposed longitudinally ; wings
brown, bordered with olivaceous grey ; tail oliva-
ceous tinged with black ; yellowish beneath with a
brownish black mark somewhat in the form of an
irregular Y ; no dark streak behind the bill and the
eye.
The young of the year resemble the female ; but
the longitudinal stripes of the lower parts are more
numerous and deeper in colour ; bill blackish grey
and iris brown. The upper figure represents the
female, the lower the male.
1469, 1470, 1471, 1472.— The Mocki.ng-Bird, oe
PoiAGLOT Thrush
{Orpheus Polyglottus). Turdus Polyglottus, Wil-
son.
We have several pictorial specimens of this cele-
brated bird, which if it be not overpraised, stands
unrivalled in powers of song ; it is a native of the
New World, and, according to Wilson, whose his-
tory we follow, it inhabits a very considerable ex-
tent of both North and South America, having
been traced from the States of New England to
Brazil, and also among many of the adjacent islands.
They are, however, much more numerous in those
States south than those north of the river Delaware,
being generally migratory in the latter, and resi-
dent (at least many of them) in the former. A
warm climate, and low country not far from the
sea, seem most congenial to their nature ; the spe-
cies is accordingly found to be less numerous to
the west than east of the great range of Alleghany,
in the same parallels of latitude. In these regions
the berries of the red cedar, myrtle, holly, many
species of smilax, together with gum berries, gall
berries, and a profuse variety of others, abound,
and furnish them with a perpetual feast. Winded
insects also, of which they are very fond, and which
they are very expert in catching, are there plenti-
ful even in the winter season.
The precise time at which the mocking-bird
begins to build his nest varies according to the
latitude in which he resides, from the beginning of
April to the middle of May. There are particular
situations to which he gives the preference. A
solitary thorn-bush, an almost impenetrable thicket,
an orange-tree, cedar, or holly-bush, are favourite
spots and frequently selected. It is no great ob-
jection to the bird that a farm or mansion-house
happens to be near; always ready to defend, but
never over-anxious to conceal, his nest, he very
often builds within a small distance of the house,
and not unfrequently in a pear or apple tree, rarely
at a greater height than six or seven feet from the
ground. The nest varies a little according to the
conveniency of collecting suitable materials. Gene-
rally it is composed of, first, a quantity of dry
twigs and sticks, then withered tops of weeds of the
preceding year, intermixed with fine straw, hay,
pieces of wood and tow ; and lastly, a thick layer
of fine fibrous roots, of a light brown colour, lines
the whole. The female sits fourteen days, and
generally produces two broods in the season, unless
robbed of her eggs, in which case she will even
build and lay the third time. She is, however,
very jealous of her nest, and very apt to forsake it
if much disturbed.
During the period of incubation, neither cat, dog,
animal, nor man can approach the nest without
being attacked. The cats, in particular, are per-
secuted whenever they make their appearance, till
obliged to retreat. But his whole vengeance is
more particularly directed against that mortal
enemy of his eggs and young, the black snake.
Whenever its insidious approaches are discovered,
the male darts upon the reptile with the rapidity
of an arrow, dexterously eluding its bite, and
striking it violently and incessantly about the
head, where it is very vulnerable. The snake soon
becomes sensible of its danger, and seeks to escape ;
but the intrepid defender of his young redoubles
his exertions, and, unless his antagonist be of great
magnitude, often succeeds in destroying him. All
his pretended powers of fascination avail it nothing
against the vengeance of this noble bird. As the
snake's strength begins to flag, the mocking-bird
seizes and lifts it up partly from the ground, beat-
ing it with its wings, and when the business is com-
pleted, he returns to the nest of his young, mounts
the summit of the bush, and poui-s forth a torrent of
song in token of victory.
The plumage of the mocking-bird is soberly
coloured, but the figure of the bird is very graceful
and well proportioned. The ease, elegance, and
rapidity of his movements, the animation of his
eye, and the intelligence which he displays in
listening and laying up lessons from almost every
species of the feathered race within his hearing,
are really surprising, and mark the peculiarity of
his genius. To these qualities may be added that
of a voice full, strong, and musical, and capable of
almost every modulation, from the c!ear mellow
tones of the wood-thrush to the savage scream of
the bald eagle. In measure and accent he faith-
fully follows his originals ; in force and sweetness of
expression he greatly improves upon them. In his
native groves, mounted on the top^of a tall bush or
half-grown tree, in the dawn of the morning, while
the woods are already vocal with a multitude of
warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over
every competitor. The ear ean listen to his music
alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere
accompaniment. Neither is his strain altogether
imitative. His own native notes are bold and fuU,
and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They con-
sist of short expressions of two, three, or, at the
most, five or six syllables, generally interepersed
with imitations, and all of them uttered with great
emphasis and rapidity, and continued with undi-
minished ardour for half an hour or an hour at a
time. His expanded wings and tail glistening
with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action,
arresting the eye as his song most irrisistibly does
the ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy,
and mounts and descends as his song swells or dies
away. While thus exerting himself, a bystander
destitute of sight would suppose that the whole
feathered tribes had assembled together on a trial
of skill, each striving to produce his utmost effect.
He often deceives the sportsman, and sends him in
search of birds that are not, perhaps, within miles
of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates : even
birds themselves are frequently imposed upon by
this admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the
fancied calls of their mates, or dive with precipita-
tion into the depth of thickets at the scream of
what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk.
The mocking-bird loses little of the power and
energy of his song by confinement. In his domes-
ticated state, when he commences his career of
song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He
whistles for the dog ; Caesar starts up, wags his tail,
and runs to meet his master. He squeaks out like
a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about with
hanging wings and bristled feathers, chuckling to
protect its injured brood. The barking of the dog,
the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing
wheelbarrow, are followed with great truth and rapi-
dity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master,
though of considerable length, fully and faithfully ;
he runs over the quaverings of the canary, and the
clear whistlings of the Virginian nightingale, or red-
bird, with such superior execution and effect, that
the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority, and
become altogether silent, while he seems to triumph
in their defeat by redoubling his exertions.
This excessive fondness for variety, however, in
the opinion of some injures his song. His elevated
imitations of the brown thrush are frequently inter-
rupted by the crowing of cocks ; and the warblings
of the blue-bird, which he exquisitely manages, are
mingled with the screaming of swallows or the
cackling of hens. Amidst the simple melody of
the robin, one is suddenly surprised by the shrill
reiterations of the whip-poor-will, while the notes
of the kildeer, blue jay, martin, baltimore, and
twenty others, succeed, with such imposing reality,
that the auditors look round for the originals, and
with astonishment discover that the sole performer
in this singular concert is the admirable bird now
before us. During this exhibition of his powers,
he spreads his wings, expands his tail, and throws
Thrushes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
327
himself around the cage in all the ecstasy of enthu-
siasm, seeming not only to sing but to dance, keep-
ing time to the measure of his own music. Both
in his native and domesticated state, during the
stillness of the night, as soon as the moon rises, he
begins his delightful solo, making the whole neigh-
bourhood resound with his inimitable medley.
The mocking-bird is frequently taken m trap-
cages, and, by proper management, may be made
sufficiently tame to sing. The usual price of a sing-
ing-bird is from seven to fifteen, and even twenty
dollars. Mr. Wilson has known fifty dollars paid
for a remarkably fine singer ; and one instance
where one hundred dollars were refused for a still
more extraordinary one. Attempts have been made
to induce these charming birds to pair and rear their
young in a state of confinement, and the result has
been such as to prove it, by proper management,
perfectly practicable.
The mocking-bird is about nine inches and a half
long. The general colour of all the upper parts is
a dark-brownish ash. The quill-feathers and coverts
are brownish-black, the former white at their base,
and covered there by the white feathers of the
spurious wing, which have a black spot at the tips ;
the latter slightly tipped with white. The two
middle tail-feathers dusky black, the rest more or
less extensively white on their inner vane, except
the outermost on each side, which is wholly white ;
under parts generally pale-greyish brown : iris-yel-
low, inclining to a pale gold-colour. Bill and legs
black. The plumage of the female is duller than
that of the male.
The genus Orpheus approaches closely to Merula,
but the bill is more curved, the notch obsolete, the
wings rounded, and the tail lengthened and gra-
duated.
1473. — The Chestnut-capped Timalia.
( Timalia pileala). In the genus Timalia the bill is
strong, deep, and compressed ; the wings are short
and rounded ; the tail elongated and graduated ;
the feet large and robust ; the hind claw much
developed.
Dr. Horsfield states that a peculiar character is
exhibited to both the species of Timalia recorded
by him in the structure of the plumes, which cover
the back and the upper parts of the neck, as well
as the breast, belly, and thighs. He remarks that
the separate filaments ( radii of Illiger), which con-
stitute the vanes or webs of those plumes, are not
in close contact, as is generally the case, but being
inserted into the shaft at a small distance from each
other, they diverge with perfect regularity. " The
parts which they cover," says Dr. Horsfield in con-
tinuation, "are accordingly marked with delicate
parallel lines, and wherever several plumes lie over
each other, they form a beautiful reticulation. On
the posterior part of the abdomen and the thighs,
the plumes have a similar structure ; but the fila-
ments are greatly elongated and pendulous, so as
to envelop those parts with a lax plumose cover-
ing, which, on near inspection, appears covered
with delicate hairs. This appearance is produced
by a series of very minute parallel villi, on each of
the separate filaments, arranged with great regu-
larity and beauty."
We learn from the same authority that the chest-
nut-capped Timalia is not unfrequent in the groves
and small woods which abound throughout Java.
It often approaches villages and plantations, con-
structing its nest in the hedges, and he speaks of
it as one of the social birds that delight to dwell in
the vicinity of cultivation. In large forests he did
not notice it. He describes its flight as low and
interrupted, and adds that wherever it resides it is
a welcome neighbour, in consequence of the pecu-
liarity and pleasantness of its note, which consists
of a slow repetition of the five tones of the diatonic
scale (c, D, i:, f, g), which it chants with perfect
regularity, several times in succession, and at small
intervals of time. Dr. Horsfield further remarked
that the sixth tone was sometimes added ; but as
this required apparently an extraordinary effort, it
was by no means so agreeable to a musical ear as
a simple repetition of the five notes, which ap-
peared to be the natural compass of the bird's
orwns. (' Zoological Researches in Java.')
This bird is rather stoutly made. General colour
above, brown with an olivaceous tint ; underneath,
testaceous inclining to grey. Head capped with
saturated chestnut. Throat and cheeks white.
Breast white, inclining to grey, marked with in-
tensely black stripes by the shafts of the plumes.
A narrow white band commences at the forehead,
near the base of the bill, passes backward, encircles
the eye, and unites with the white plumes of the
cheeks. Bill black ; feet brown.
1474.— Thk Giant Brkve
(Pitta Grigas). Under the name of Myiotherae, Illi-
ger and Cuvier have united several genera com-
posing the Breves of Buffon, and the Ant-Thrushes
properly so called. These breves are remarkable
for the vivid and strongly-contrasted hues of their
plumage, for the length of the legs, and the short-
ness of the semi-erect tail. They are only found
in India and the adjacent islands, and Australia,
whilst the ant-thrushes belong to the New World
as well as the Old. The breves have the gradually-
curved bill of the true thrushes, but much stronger :
the wings are short, and the powers of flight feeble.
The predominant colour is metallic green, variegated
with azure-blue, scarlet, and black ; and some spe-
cies with a hood of the latter tint appear to be
confined to Australia, and the neighbouring islands
of the Indian seas. To the breves is allied the genus
termed Chlorosoma of Swainson (called by some
writers by the barbarous and unmeaning name of
Kitta), notwithstanding the greater comparative
length of the tail, and its graduated form. The-ant
thrushes, principally confined to tropical America,
represent the breves in that portion of the world,
but diff"er from those splendid birds in having an
abruptly-hooked and strongly-toothed bill, and so-
berly-coloured plumage.
The utility of the ant-thrushes in their native re-
gions is thus commented upon by Mr. Swainson : — •
" Of all the tribes of insecis which swarm in the
tropics, the ants are the most numerous ; they are
the univei-sal devastators, and in the dry and over-
grown forests of the interior the traveller can scarcely
proceed five paces without treading upon their nests.
To keep these myriads within due limits, a wise Pro-
vidence has called into existence the ant-thrushes,
and has given to thera this particular food. Both
are proportionate in their geographic range, for
beyond the tropical latitudes the ants suddenly
decrease, and their enemies, the Myiotherte, totally
disappear.- As a general distinction by which this |
family may be known from the bush-shrikes, we may
mention the difference in the feet, — the structure of
one being adapted for walking, while that of the
other is more suited for perching. The ant-thrushes
are very locally distributed ; for, although the group j
is tropical, we frequently found that a particular j
species, very common in one forest, was replaced in i
another by a second ; while a third locality in the
same district would present us with still another
kind, different from those we had previously found.
Cayenne and Surinam, in like' manner, furnish us
with many species totally unknown in the forests of
Brazil."
To return to Pitta. We select, as an example,
Pitta Gigas, Breve Geant, or Giant Pitta.
This species in size is equal to a magpie, but the
tail is short and squared, and the wings cover it en-
tirely. A very brilliant azure blue covers the back,
the scapulars, the rump and tail ; a less vivid tint is
spread over the wings, the quills of which are black,
coloured with azure towards the tips : summit of the
head, nape, and demi-collar of the lower part of the
neck black ; feathers of the front and eyebrows
ashy brown ; throat whitish : an ashy-brown tint is
spread over all the lower parts ; the feet are very
long and of a horny ash-colour. Total length nine
inches.
Locality— Sumatra. (Temm.)
1475. — The Sea-green Piroll
[Chlorosoma thalassinurn). Kitta thalassina, Piroll
thalassina of Temminck. This gorgeous bird is a
native of Java and Sumatra. The greater part of the
plumage is very brilliant celadon-green ; a velvety
black band springs at the angle of the bill, passes
backwards so as to include the eye, and surrounds
the occiput ; tail deep tarnished green ; wings red-
dish, but the three or four secondary feathers nearest
the body are opaline bluish ash ; iris, bill, and feet
very bright vermilion red. Total length, eleven
inches two or three fines. The male and female
have nearly the same livery.
The young of the year differ in the colour of their
bill and feet, which are black ; in that of the wings,
which is a tarnished rusty red ; and in the very clear
blue, which is nearly whitish, of all the rest of the
plumage. This blue tint is more vivid in middle
age, and passes by degrees from bright azure blue
to celadon-green. Individuals during moult have
the plumage varied, with these two tints very vivid
and pure.
1476.— The King-Thrush
(Grallarin Sex). Roi des Fourmilliers, Buffon;
Turdus Rex Gmelin. This species is a native of
Guiana and Brazil, and is about the size of a quail ;
its legs are extremely long, and the tail abbreviated
to the utmost. It lives alone, prying about under
bushes and in thickets for its food. The general
colour is brown, with a tinge of red, prettily varie-
gated ; the back of the head is lead-colour; the
under parts are paler than the upper.
1477.— The Water-Ouzel
{Cinclus aquaticus). Leilichirollo and Merlo
acquatico of the Italians ; Torda de Agua of the
Spaniards ; Merle d'Eau, Aguasiere a gorge blanche
of the French ; Watnstare of the Swedes ; Fosse-
fald, Fosse-kald, Quaern-kald Stroem-staer, and
Baekke Engl of the Norwegians ; Wasser-amsel
and Der Hochkopfige mittlere und Nordische Was-
serschwiitzer of the Germans ; Waterspreecud of the
Netherlands ; Mwyalchen y divir of the ancient
British; Water-piet, Dipper, and Bessy-ducker
provincial English.
This species is spread over the greater portion of
Europe, but is more rare in the northern regions
than in our islands and the south. Specimens have
been received from India and Japan. It is amidst
romantic and picturesque scenery, where mountain
streams and rivulets, winding through glens and
rock-girt dales, sparkle over a rocky bed, that this
elegant and active bird is to be sought for. It is
common in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and the
hilly parts of England. We have seen it in abund-
ance in Derbyshire, along the course of the Wye
between Buxton and Bakewell, on the Dove, on the
Derwent at Matlock, and in various other places,
where "we have watched its singular habits. It is
active, restless, and full of animation : its movements
are all quick and alert, and it flits from stone to
stone, flying low and rapidly over the bubbling water.
Often may it be seen perched on a portion of rock
jutting out of the water in the centre of the stream;
and there, conspicuous by its snowy breast, con-
trasted with the deep russet brown of the rest of
its plumage, it will remain for a short time dipping
its head and jerking its tail in an odd sort of manner,
reminding us of the wren. In an instant it will dis-
appear, diving beneath the water, and, emerging at
a considerable distance, again settle on some stone
or crag, and utter a low but very sweet and pleasing
strain. Again it will dive or fly off to another
resting-place, jerk its tail, and sing, dipping and
moving its head, and again start off to a more at-
tractive pedestal. We have heard its song in bright
mornings during winter, as well as in the spring and
summer; and it exhibits equal animation, entering
the water, and flitting from stone to stone, in the
cold and in the warmer months. How this bird
manages to keep itself submerged and proceed at
the bottom of the stream, is not very well under-
stood. Mr. Thomson says, " On the '2(ith of Sep-
tember, a pair of water-ouzels at the upper pond of
Wolfhill (near Belfast) plunged several times into
the water, which was some feet deep, and remained
moving about in it, with only their heads above the
surface ; twice one of them disappeared altogether
for a few seconds, they then pursued each other
round the pond and alighted, when one of them
sang, and they repeated over again several times all
these manoeuvres." In these aquatic habits we are
reminded of the water-rail.
The food of the water-ouzel consists of insects,
aquatic larvie, minute fresh-water shelled snails,
and the fry of fishes.
The nest of this bird is most artfully concealed ;
we have seen it in the fissure of a low jutting crag
overhanging the rushing and bubbling current ; and
also between the green damp stones of a rude
bridge. The structure itself is composed of inter-
twined mosses, and is of large size, and domed, with
a small lateral aperture leading to the interior
chamber, which is lined wth a few dried leaves.
Sometimes it is so placed that the sheet of water
falling from an elevated rock and forming a cas-
cade completely screens it ; but wherever situated
it blends with the rest of the moss and lichen,
which fills up every chink, and spreads over the
face of the humid rocks in great luxuriance, and,
unless the bird be watched to its retreat, would
never be detected. Fig. 1478 represents the nest
of the water-ouzel. The eggs, five in number, are
white. As soon as the young are fledged they ac-
company their parents, following them in all their
movements, playfully sporting, diving, flitting from
stone to stone, and performing the most amusing
evolutions. On the Continent the water-ouzel is
very common in Switzerland and in the rocky parts
of Italy. Several pairs are always observable about
the fall of Velino near Terni.
The genus Cinclus is characterized by the beak
being straight and somewhat turned up, compressed
laterally, and blunt at the tip ; the wings rounded ;
the tarsi long ; the feet large. Besides the Euro-
pean species there arc two Indian, and one a native
of America. The water-ouael is about seven inches
in length ; the upper parts are of a deep brown ;
the throat and chest white, the under parts rusty ;
iris pearl grey ; bill black ; legs horn-coloured. In
the young bird the plumage above is clouded with
blackish undulations, and the white feathers of the
chest are finely varied with brown and ash-colour.
The lower figure (Fig. 1477) is that of a young bird.
Family MENURID^.
This family is suggested from the Lyre-bird of
Australia and several allied groups, as Stipiturus,
Amytis, Dasyornis, Psophodes, &c., which in struc-
I<"9.— L^-re-Biri.
1481.— Tail-feathers of Lyre-BW.
1478.— Nest of WatBt-Olud.
14(0.— Lyre-Biidi.
1477.— Water-Oiaeli.
826
1482 — E^'i; of Lark.
^... wM.ik
1488.— Siskin and Nest.
1490.— Canarv- Finch and Nest.
0. 42.
I4S3 Group of Banting
; [THE MUSEUMOF ANIMATED NATUEE.l
329
380
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Lyre-Birds.
ture, if not in size, closely approximate to the Me-
nura superba, most erroneously regarded by some
ornithoiopsti as one of the Gallinaceous order. It
is a song-bird of the Insessorial order, and is related
in some respects to certain forms of the Thrush
tribe, in other respects to some of the Wren.
1479, 1480.— The Lybe-Bird
(Menura superba). It is to that eminent orni-
thologist Mr. Gould that we owe our knowledge of
the liabits of this species, which he himself dili-
gently investigated in its native country ; and we
shall therefore proceed, with his permission, to
transcribe his valuable observations.
" Perhaps no bird has more divided the opinion
of ornithologists, as to the situation it should oc-
cupy in the natural system, than the Menura ; and
although more than fifty years have now elapsed
since the bird was discovered, little or no informa-
tion has been hitherto published respecting its
economy and habits, as ornithologists have had
only its external structure to guide them in their
opinions. Aware of this fact, I paid considerable
attention to the subject while in Australia, and alter
anfmute observation of the bird in a state of nature,
1 am decidedly of opinion that it has not, as has
been very generally considered, the most remote
relationship to the Gallinacese ; but that it forms,
with the American genera Pteroptochos, Scytalopus,
and their allied group, a family of the lusessorial
order, to which Troglodytes, Amytis, Stipiturus,
^lalurus, Dasyomis, and Psophodes closely assi-
milate in their habits, and of which they will in all
probability be hereafter found to form a part. Not-
withstanding the great size of the Menura and the
extraordinary form of its tail, in almost every other
point it presents a striking resemblance to its minute
congeners: like them it possesses the bristles at
the base of the bill, but to a less extent, the same
unusual mass of loose, flowing hair-like feathers on
the back and rump, the same extraordinary power of
running and the like feebleness of flight; all which
will, I trust, render it evident that there are suffi-
cient grounds for the opinion I have here expressed.
Many intei-vening genera will, doubtless yet be dis-
covered to complete the series of affinities ; at all
events, if, as I am informed is the case, the young
of Menura are helpless and blind when hatched, it
cannot with propriety be placed with the Galli-
nacero.
" In the structure of its feet, in its lengthened
claws, and in its whole contour, the lyre-bird pre-
sents the greatest similarity to the Pteroptochos
megapodius of Kittlitz. Another singular circum-
stance, by which their alliance is rendered still more
evident, is the fact that Pteroptochos differs from
the other families of the Insessorial order in having
fourteen feathere in its tail, and that Menura also
differs in the same particular in possessing sixteen.
The immense feet and claws of these two birds
admirably adapt them for the peculiar localities
they are destined to inhabit, and the same beautiful
modification of structure is observable in the other
genera, equally adapting them for the situations
they are intended to fulfil. Thus the Menura
passes with ease over the loose stones and the sides
of rocky gullies and ravines, while the Maluri trip
over the more open and even ground, and the Da-
syorni with equal facility thread the dense shrubs
and reed-beds.
" The great stronghold of the lyre-bird is the co-
lony of New South Wales, and, from what I could
learn, its range does not extend so far to the east-
ward as Moreton Bay ; neither have I been able to
trace it to the westward of Port Philip, on the
southern coast ; but further research can alone
determine these points. It inhabits equally the
brushes 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
lllawarra ; 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 a denizen.
" Of all the birds I have ever met with, the Me-
nura 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
sidea 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 suffi-
cient to alarm it ; and none but those who have tra-
versed these rugged, hot, and suffociiting brushes,
can fully understand the excessive labour attendant
on the pursuit of the Menura. Independently of
climbing over rocks and fallen trunks of trees, the
sportsman has to creep and crawl beneath and
among the branches with the utmost caution, taking
care only to advance when the bird's attention is
occupied in singing, or in scratching up the leaves
in search of food ; to watch its action it is neces-
sary to remain perfectly motionless, not venturing
to move even in the slightest degree, or it vanishes
from sight ns if by magic. Although I have said ;
so much on the cautiousness of the Menura, it is
nut always so alert; in some of the more accessible
brushes through which roads have been cut, it may
frequently be seen, and on horseback even closely '
approached, the bird evincing less fear of those
animals than of man. i
" At lllawarra it is sometimes successfully pur- j
sued by dogs trained to rush suddenly upon it, |
when it immediately leaps upon the branch ol 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 wear-
ing a tail of a full-plumaged male in the hat, keep-
ing it constantly in motion, and concealing the per-
son 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 bv surrounding objects, any unusual sound, 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 circumstance im-
mediately, or the next moment it may be half way
down the gully. The Menura seldom, if ever, at-
tempts to escape by flight, but easily eludes pursuit
by its extraordinary power of running. None are
so efficient 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 lyre-bird is of a wandering disposition, and
although it probably keeps to the same brush, it is
constantly engaged in traversini; it from one end to
the other, from the mountain base to the top of the
gullies, whose steep and rugged sides present no
obstacle to its long legs and jiowerful muscular
thighs; it is also capable of perlbrmins extraordinary
leaps, and I have heard it stated that it will spring
ten feet perpendicularly from the ground. Among
its many curious habits, the only one at all ap-
proaching to those of the Gallinacese is that of
forming small round hillocks, which are constantly
visited during the day, and upon which the male is
continually tramping, at the same time erecting
and spreading out its tail in the most graceful
manner and uttering its various cries, sometimes
pouring forth it natural notes, at other mocking
those of other birds, and even the howling of the
native dog (Dingo). The early morning and the
evening are the periods when it is most animated
and active.
" It may truly be said that the beauty of this bird
lies in the plumage of his tail, the new feathers of
which appear in February and March, but do not
attain their full beauty until June : during this and the
four succeeding months, it is in its finest state ; after
this the feathers are gradually shed, to be resumed
again at the period above stated. Upon reference
to my journal I find the following notes upon the
subject: — ' March 14, Liverpool range. — Several Me-
nuras killed to-day : their tails not so fine as they
will be. October 25. — I find this bird is now losing
its tail feathers, and judging from appearance, they
will be all shed in a fortnight.*
" Although upon one occasion I forced this bird to
take wing, it was merely for the purpose of descend-
ing a gully, and I am led to believe that it seldom
exerts this power unless under similar circumstances.
It is particularly paitial to traversing the trunks of
fallen trees, and frequently attains a considerable
altitilde, by leaping from branch to branch. Inde-
pendently of a loud full note, which may be heard
reverberating over the gullies for at leitst a quarter
of a mile, it has also an inward warbling song, the
lower notes of which can only be heard within about
fifteen yards. It remains stationary while singing,
fully occupied in pouring forth its animated strain.
This it frequently discontinues abruptly and again
commences with a low, inward, snapping noise
ending with an imitation of the loud and lull note
of the satin-bird, and always accompanied by a
tremulous motion of the tail.
'• The food of the Menura appears to consist princi-
pally of insects, particularly centipedes and coleo-
ptera ; I also found the remains of shelled snails in
the gizzard, which is very strong and muscular.
" I regret that circumstances did not admit of my
acquiring a perfect knowledge of the nidification of
this very singular bird ; I never found the nest but
once, and this unfortunately was after the breed-
ing season was over; but all those of whom I made
inquiries respecting it agreed in assuring me that it
is either placed on the ledge of a projecting rock, at
the base of a tree, or on the top of a stump, but
always near the ground ; and a cedar-cutter whom
I met in the brushes informed me that he had once
found a nest, which was built like that of a magpie,
adding that it contained but one egg. The natives
state that the eggs are two in number, of a light
colour, freckled with spots of red. The nest seen
by myself, and to which my attention was drawn by
ray black companion Natty, was placed on the pro-
minent point of a rock, in a situation quite secluded
from observation behind, but affording the bird a
commanding view and an easy retreat in front ; it
was deep and shaped like a basin, and had the ap-
pearance of having been roofed ; was of a large
size, formed outwardly of sticks, and lined with the
inner bark of trees and fibrous roots."
The Menura equals a common pheasant in size,
but its limbs are longer in proportion, and its feet
much larger ; the toes are armed with large arched
blunt claws ; the hind-toe is as long as are the fore-
toes (the length of these being nearly equal), but its
claw is larger than that of any of the others; the
scales of the tarsi and toes are large bold plates, and
their colour is glossy black ; the head is small, the
beak, as Cuvier has described it, is triangular at the
base, pointed and compressed at the tip ; in the
male the feathers of the head are elongated into a
crest : the wings are short, concave, and rounded,
and the quill-feathers are lax and feeble ; the general
plumage is full, deep, soft, and downy. The tail is
modified into a beautiful long plume-like ornament,
representing, when erect and expanded, the figure
of a lyre, whence the name of lyre-bird. This orna-
mental tail is, however, confined to the male. In
the female the tail is long and graduated, and the
feathers are perfectly webbed on both sides of the
shaft, although their texture is soft and flowing. In
the male the tail consists of sixteen feathers ; of these
(see Fig. 1481 )the outer one on each side is broadly
but loosely webbed within, its outer web being
narrow ; as it proceeds it curves outwards, bends in,
and again turns boldly outwards and downwards,
both together resembling the framework of an
ancient lyre, of which the intermediate feathers are
the strings ; these feathers, except the two central,
which are truly but narrowly webbed on the outer
side, consist each of a slender shaft, with long fila-
mentous barbules, at a distance from each other, and
spring out alternately. The appearance of these
feathers, the length of which is about two feet, is
peculiarly graceful ; their colour is umber-brown,
but the two outer tail-feathers are grey tipped with
black, edged with rufous, and transversely marked
on the inner web with transparent triangular bars.
The general plumage of the Menura is umber-brown
above, tinged with olive, and merging into rufous on
the wings, and also on the throat." The under parts
are ashy grey.
Family FRINGILLID^ (FINCHES).
The Finches compose a very numerous assem-
blage of conirostral birds, which may be subdivided
into various minor groups, as Larks, Buntings, Lin-
nets, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, Weaver-Birds, &c. ; each
group consisting of several genera, more or less im-
mediately related to each other. None of the Frin-
gillidae are of large size. They tenant fields, groves,
hedge-rows, and woodlands ; and many are noted for
their powers of song : hence they are often called
hard-billed warblers, in contradistinction to the Syl-
viadac, which, from the slenderness of their beaks,
are sometimes, though not very correctly, termed
soft-billed warblers.
Varying in length and strength, the beaks of the
Fringillidae are all more or less conical, and are well
adapted lor a harder diet than that of the Sylviadae
generally : unless when nestlings, insects in fact
form only part of their food, grain of various kinds,
as wheat, oats, rice, together with the seeds of
plants, as of the thistle, the broom, the pea, ice,
constituting their chief support; from this circum-
stance, and their general hardiness, few or none of
our British Fringillidae are migratory, though they
are so in more northern latitudes, and it is well
known how in severe winters our flocks of native
laiks are increased in numbers by multitudinous
arrivals from the north. It is in the winter that
the siskin and redpole seek a temporary retreat in
our island. Most of the Fringillidae associate in
flocks during the winter, assiduously searching for
food, and sometimes joined by othei-s of a different
species.
1450 (e).— The Skylark
{Alauda arvensis). Alouette des Champs, Tem-
minck ; Feld Lerche, Bechstein. This delightful
songster is spread generally over Europe, seve-
ral parts of Asia, and the north of Africa. Its fa-
vourite localities are exten.sive arable lands and
open meadows, but, according to Mr. Thompson, in
Ireland the wild mountain pasture is equally its
Finches.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
331
abode. Occasionally the lark sings while resting
on a clod of earth, but generally while in the air ;
rising spirally on quivering wings, it trills forth its
animated and varied lay, mounting higher and
higher, till it seems a mere speck in the clear blue
sky. Its descent is oblique, and at first gradual, till
within twenty or thirty yards of the ground, when
ceasing its strain, it sweeps down suddenly to join
its mate. The lark breeds in April or early in May,
constructing a nest of vesretable stalks and dried
grasses, lined with fine fibres, upon the ground,
amongst corn or other herbage : the eggs are of a
greenish-white spotted with brown : two broods are
reared annually, the latter in July or August. The
ordinary flight of the lark is easy and undulating,
and on the ground it trips along with great facility,
its feet, and especially the elongated slender hind-
claw, expressly adapting it for the giassy surface
of the field, "its food consists of insects, worms,
grain and other seeds, the leaves of the clover, &c.
On the approach of winter, larks begin to collect
in immense flocks, increased as the severity of the
weather sets in by foreign arrivals : they frequent
stubble-fields, turnip-fields, and similar situations,
and being accounted a delicacy for the table, mul-
titudes are captured at this season by means of nets
and sent to the London market. Great numbers
are taken in the neighbourhood of Dunstable, and
more are imported from Holland.
The lark is too well known to need a minute
desciiption. With respect to the genus Alauda, we
may observe that it is characterized by a subconical
beak and an elongated and nearly straight hinder
claw. (Fig. 1482, the egg of the lark.)
1450 (&). — The Woodlark
{Alavda wlorea). Le Lulu, I'Alouette desBois, or le
Cujelier of the French ; Bauralerche or Waldlerche
of the Germans. This species is found over every
part of Europe, as high northwards as Sweden ; in
the colder countries it is migratory, but not in
the more temperate. In our island it is most abun-
dant in the midland and southern districts, fre-
quenting well-cultivated and woody scenery ; its
song is very sweet, though less thrilling and varied
than that of the skylark. It is generally uttered on
the wing, and is often continued for an hour with-
out intermission, the bird describing all the time
a series; of widely extended circles. Sometimes it
pours out its strains while perched on the branch of
a decayed tree. It breeds in April : its nest, placed
under the shelter of a low shrub or tuft of herbage,
is formed of dried stalks and grass, lined with fibres
and hair ; the eggs are of a pale wood-brown, marked
with blotches of grey and dark brown. The wood-
lark does not associate in flocks during the winter,
like the skylark, but merely in small families of
five or seven individuals, which separate on the
approach of spring or soon after Christmas, when,
if the weather be mild, the males begin to utter
their song. The woodlark needs no detailed descrip-
tion.
1483 (n). — The Commox Bunting
(£mheriza miliaria). Bruant proyer, Temminck ;
der Grauammer, Bechstein. In the genus Embe-
riza the bill is conical, hard, sharp-pointed, and
compressed at the tip ; the roof of the upper man-
dible is furnished with a hard-rounded protuberance.
The Common Bunting is spread over the greater
portion of Europe, and is abundant in our island,
especially in the arable districts, collecting in large
flocks in the autumn, which frequent hedges, barn-
yards, and the precincts of farm-houses : and their
flesh being esteemed, they are often shot or netted
in considerable numbers. In the spring they sepa-
rate, and dispersing themselves through the country
in pairs, breed in corn-fields, or in ditch-banks run
wild with briars and brambles, making the nest,
which is placed near the ground, of dried grasses
lined with fibres and hair; the eggs are of a pale-
greyish yellow tint, with spots and veins of reddish
brown. During the spring, and while the female is
engaged in the task of incubation, the male may be
often seen perched conspicuously on the highest
twig of a tall hedge, uttering a succession of singular
and irregular notes. Grain is the favourite food of
this species, whence it is often termed Corn-Bunting.
This bird is too well known to need a description.
1483 (b,c). — The Yellow-Hammzr (Male and
Female)
(Emberiza citrinella). Bruant jaune, Temminck;
Goldammer, Bechstein. Few of our native birds
are more delicately and beautifully coloured than
the Yellow-IIammer or Yellow-Bunting, but being
very abundant it is less noticed, excepting as an
intruder with other granivorous birds into the stack-
yard, than it deserves. During the winter it collects
in small flocks, or associates with flocks of the com-
mon bunting; and pairs in spring, during which
season the male may be often observed on the top-
most twig of a hedge-row uttering a monotonous
chirp ; if approached, it flies ofi', keeping along the
hedge, and settles at a little distance : if followed,
it repeats its flight again and again.
The yellow-hammer builds on the ground, in low
bushes, in beds of nettles or other herbage, and its
nest is formed of dried grasses with a lining of hair ;
the eggs are of a pale purplish white, with streaks
and waving marks of chocolate colour. This spe-
cies is to be met with throughout the greater part
of Europe. Fig. 1484 represents its nest.
1483 (d).— The Reed-Buntikg
{Emberiza schcEnichis) ; Reed Sparrow ; Black-
headed Bunting Le Coqueluche, Buffon ; Bruant
de Roseau, Temminck ; der Rohrammer, Bech-
stein.
Wherever marshy spots and swamps, abounding
with weeds, willows, and aquatic herbage, off'er a
suitable abode, from Italy to Sweden, and in the
British Islands, the reed-bunting will be found, in-
habiting the same places as the reed-warblers (Sali-
-caria). Its nest and those of the latter birds have
been often confounded, but the reed-bunting never
suspends its nest between the stems of reeds,
although it frequents them ; on the contrary^ it is
built in a low bush or tuft of grass : we have seen
it under the covert of rushes and in young ozier-
beds : it consists of dried grass and moss lined with
hair. The eggs are pale pinky-grey, spotted and
veined with reddish brown. The reed-bunting has
no song, but that of the sedge-warbler has been by
some authors attributed to it — a mistake first cor-
rected by Montagu, and which arose from the two
species frequenting the same localities. The food
of this species of bunting consists of the seeds of
reeds and other aquatic plants, insects and their
larvae ; in severe winters it seeks the farmyard as
a place of supply and shelter. In Holland it is
very abundant. The general colour of this bird is
pale brown, the male having the head, throat, and
centre of the chest black ; a patch of white, begin-
ning below the angle of the bill, spreads round the
neck, and extends down the sides of the breast and
over the under surface : quills brown ; rump bluish
grey.
1485. — The Ortolan
{Emberiza hortulana). L'Ortolan, BufFon ; Ortolano
of the Italians ; Garten-aramer of the Germans-
The native districts of this bird may be regarded as
the southern provinces of Europe ; it is common in
Tuscany and some parts of France, and occasionally
it is found as far north as Holland and Sweden.
Several instances of its having been killed in Eng-
land are recorded by Selby and other writers. It
is the Emberiza Tunstalli of Latham ; the green-
headed Bunting of Brown and of Bewick ; suppo-
sitious species founded on specimens captured in
I our island. It would appear that North .-\frica is
the winter residence of the ortolan, and on its pas-
sage it visits Gibraltar every spring and autumn.
Mr. Strickland saw it at Smyrna in April, and
Colonel Sykes enumerates it among the birds of the
Dukhun (in India). Millet and other grains, with
insects in spring, constitute its diet. It builds on
the ground in corn-fields, or in the covert of hedges
or bushes, constructing a nest of fibres and leaves,
lined with fine grass and hair. The eggs are
reddish grey streaked with brown, or bluish white
spotted with black. ItSi manners much resemble
those of the yellow-hammer.
When properly fed, for which purpose there are
large establishments in the south of Europe, where
they are placed after having been trapped and fur-
nished with plenty of millet-seed and other grain,
these birds become very fat and are delicious. In
the male, the throat, the circle round the eyes, and
a narrow band springing from the angle of the bill,
are yellow, these two yellow spaces being sepa-
rated by a blackish grey dash : head and neck
grey, tinged with olive, and spotted with brown ;
feathers of the upper parts blackish in the middle
and reddish on their edges, under parts reddish
bay ; tail blackish, the external feather with white
on the outer vanes : bill and legs flesh-colour.
Length six inches and a quarter. The female is
smaller, and less decidedly and brightly coloured.
1486. — The Scarlet Tanaqer
{Tanagra rt(bra,Vi\\%OTC) ; Pyranga rubra, Vieillot.
The Tanagers are characterized by a conical bill,
triangular at its base, slightly arched along the
ridge, and notched towards the end. The wings
are stiort, the colours brilliant. Country, America.
The Scarlet Tanager, or Summer Red-bird, is one
of the most beautiful of its race ; the male in full
plumage being scarlet-red, with the wings and tail
black. The female, and the male in autumn, are
dull green, inclining to yellow, with the wings and
tail dusky: length about six inches and a half. It
; is in August that the male moults and exchanges
1 his scarlet for the greenish-yellow dress. "This
j splendid and transient resident," says Nuttall, "ac-
companying fine weather in all its wanderings,
arrives Irom his winter station in tropical America
from the beginning to the middle of May, and ex-
tends his migrations probably to Nova Scotia as
well as Canada. With the shy, unsocial, and sus-
picious habits of his gaudy fraternity, he takes up
his abode in the deepest recesses of the forest,
where, timidly flitting from observation, he darts
from tree to tree like a flashing meteor. A gaudy
sylph, conscious of his brilliance, and the exposure
to which it subjects him, he seems to avoid remark,
and is only solicitous to be known to his humble
mate, and hid from all beside. He therefore rarely
approaches the habitations of men, unless perhaps
the skirts of the orchard, where he sometimes, how-
ever, builds his nest, and takes a taste of the early
and inviting, though forbidden, cherries. Among
the thick foliage of the tree in which he seeks sup-
port and shelter, from the lofty branches, at times,
we hear his almost monotonous tsliip-witee, tship-
idee, or tshuhadee, tshukadee, repealed at short in-
tervals, and in a pensive under-tone, heightened by
the solitude in which he delights to dwell. The
same note is also uttered by the female when the
retreat of herself and young is approached ; and the
male occasionally utters, in recognition to his mate,
as they perambulate the branches, a low whispering
'tait,\n a tone of caution and tenderness. But be-
sides these calls on the female, he has also, during
the period of his incubation, and for a considerable
time after, a more musical strain, resembling some-
what, in the mellowness of its tones, the song of the
piping baltimore. The syllables to which I have
hearkened appear like 'ishoove 'wait 'wait, 'vehowit
tvait, and 'wait, 'vehowit vca wait, with other addi-
tions of harmony, for which no words are adequate.
This pleasing and highly musical meandering ditty
is delivered for hours, in a contemplative mood, in
the same tree with his busy consort. If surprised,
they flit together, but soon return to their favourite
station in the spreading boughs of the shady oak or
hickory. This song has some resemblance to that
of the red-eyed vireo in its compass and strain,
though much superior, the 'wait 'wait being
whistled very sweetly in several tones, and with
emphasis ; so that, upon the whole, our Pyranga
may be considered as duly entitled to various excel-
lences, being harmless to the farmer, brilliant in
plumage, and harmonious in voice."
The same author describes the nest (which is
built about the middle of May, on the horizontal
branch of some shady forest-tree, commonly an
oak, but sometimes in an orchard-tree) as but
slightly put together, and usually framed of broken
rigid stalks of dry weeds or slender fir-twigs, loosely
interlaced and partly tied with narrow" strips of
Indian hemp (Apocynum), some slender grass-
leaves, and pea-vine runners (Amphicaipa), or
other frail materials ; the interior being some-
times lined with the slender, wiry, brown stalks of
the Canadian cistus (Helianthemum), or with slen-
der pine-leaves ; the whole so thinly platted as to
admit the light through the interstices. The three
or four eggs are dull blue, spotted with two or
three shades of brown or purple, most numerous
towards the larger end. As soon as their single
brood, which is fledged eariy in July, is reared, they
leave for the south, generally about the middle or
the end of August.
" The female," says this interesting author in con-
tinuation, "shows great solicitude for the safety of
her only brood; and, on an approach to the nest,
appears to be in great distress and apprehen-sion.
When they are released from her more immediate
protection, the male, at first cautious and distant,
now attends and feeds them with activity, being al-
together indifferent to that concealment which his
gaudy dress seems to require from his natural ene-
mies. So attached to his now interesting brood is
the Scarlet Tanager, that he has been known, at all
hazards, to follow for-half a mile one of his young,
submitting to feed it attentively through the bars of
a cage, and, with a devotion which despair could not
damp, roost by it in the branches of the same tree
with its prison."
The food of this species consists mostly of winged
insects, such as wasps, hornets, and wild bees, the
smaller kind of beetle, and other Coleoptera. Seeds
are supposed to be sometimes resorted to, and they
are veiy fond of whortle and other berries.
1487.— The Snow-Bird
(Struthits hiemalis, Bonaparte). Fringilla hiemalis,
Liniiifius.
This species, which is a true finch, must not be
confounded with the Snow Bunting (Plectrophanes
nivalis) of the artic regions of the old and new
world, of which it is also a native, migrating in flocks
southwards on the approach of winter. InAraerica
they spread at this season over the United States to
the shores of Mexico. About the 20th of October,
says Wilson, "they make their first appearance in
those parts of Pennsylvania east of the Alleghany
2U a''
' '•ftSEs:
U>S.^Xeit of Book Sjamm.
1497 Ai»b:«n BoUBnches.
'^
,'os-.j' «?'A/ --r'v .',otC/'^~' - --:-'Jr'.-!;'_-r '5-_ ijv:!-,
V-- ;- >:'^^£^)^
1 v^^.''
U6«.— Gronpof Finches.
1494.— Neat of Chaffinch.
KBS^Sonjf-Spmrow.
I
1491.— Nest of Goldfinch.
332
ZiOZ— Fannicle of the Kioe-pUot.
:^vi
1498.— Thick-bnied Bunfinclies.
J503.— Nest of Greennndi.
1495.— BuUHnch.
^'*%
1501. — Java Sparrows.
liOO.— Whidah Bit.'.a.
1499.— Blue BuUflncll.
1505.— Crojsbills.
333
S34
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Finches.
Mountains. At first they are most generally seen
on the borders of woods, among: the falling and de-
cayed leaves, in loose flocks of 30 or 40 tosether,
always takine to the trees when disturbed. As the
weather sets in colder, they aijproach nearer the
farmhouses and villajres, assembling in larger flocks,
and doubly diligent in searching for lu^l. When
deep snow covers the ground, ihey become almost
half domesticated. Tliey collect about the barns,
stables, and other outhouses, and even round the
steps of the door, not only in the country and vil-
lages, but in towns, crowding around the threshold
early in the morning, gleaning up the crumbs, and
appearing lively and familiar." They retire north-
wards in Apri! : breeding in the high latitudes, and
making a nest on the ground. The snow-bird is
about six inches long; the general colour is slate
grev, deeper and purer in winter : the lower part of
the'breast, the under parts, the edges of the prima-
ries, and the two outer tail-feathers being white.
Audubon states that in fine weather these birds
roost in tlie evergreen foliage of the holly, the cedar,
and the pine; but in cold weather, in holes in stacks
and other snug retreats. They are accounted delica-
cies for the table.
Cuvier says that this species occurs in the highest
region of the Alps, descending to the lower moun-
tains only during the severity of the winter. It oc-
curs in Norway-", Sweden, and other northern dis-
tricts of Europe ; but has never, we believe, been
seen in our island.
1488, 1489 (e,/).— The Siskin, or Abeedevi.ne
(Cmmielis spimts). Le Tarin, Buffon. Norway,
Sweden, and the North of Germany are the native
regions of this pretty little bird, whence in severe
winters it migrates southwards, occasionally visiting
our islands in immense flocks, which resort to birch
and pine woods, and alders along the margin of
streams, often in company with the lesser red[iole.
Temminck informs us that this bird builds in the
highest branches of the pine, and that its eggs are of
a bluish white speckled with purplish red.
Though the siskin must be regarded rather as a
winter visitor than a permanent resident in the Bri-
tish Islands, still there are not wanting examples of
its breeding within our shores. Mr. Selby assures
us that it is ascertained to breed in some of the pine-
woods in the Highlands of Scotland. " Near Kil-
lin," he adds, "these birds were obsei-ved by Sir W.
Jardine and myself to be in pairs in the month of
June, inhabiting a wood of very old and lofty pines,
but we were unable to procure the nests from the
height and inaccessible nature of the trees. In
captivity the siskin, judging by one which we kept
for a length of time, soon becomes familiar ; its song
is a trifling though not unpleasing twitter; it is
said to pair readily with the canary-finch; but in
this particular our endeavours to procure a mule
breed altogether failed.
The male in our possession was coloured as fol-
lows : Top of the head black ; ear-coverts dusky ;
a line above the eye, sides of neck, throat, and
chest, lemon-yellow ; back and shoulders dark olive-
green with obscure dusky dashes ; quills brown,
with an oblique yellow bar, and another above, pro-
duced by the yellow edging of the greater coverts.
Flanks dusky with a few brown dashes ; rump yel-
low, slightly washed with green ; two middle tail-
feathers dark brown ; the rest yellow tipped with
brown, the outermost having the external vane of
this colour also. Bill and legs horn-colour. Length
four inches and three quarters ; tail short and forked.
The female is less brightly and decidedly marked.
1490.— The Canary Finch
(Fringilla [Cartluelis'] Canaria). Of this well-
known songster, of which a caged breed has spread
over Europe, we shall say nothing excepting that it
is a native of the Canary Islands and Madoria, and,
according to Bechstein, was first introduced into
Europe in the beginning of the sixteenth century :
Italy being the firet country in which broods were
reared. Its colour in a wild state is greenish grey,
■darker on the back, and olive-green on the cheat.
1489 (c, d). — The Goldfinch
■{Carduelis elegans). Le Chardonneret, Buffon ;
Distel Zeisig, Bechstein.
Among our native finches none exceeds the gold-
finch in beauty and docility; hence it is frequently
kept in cages, and taught to draw up a little bucket
•of water when thirsty, and other tricks, which neither
^ood taste nor proper feeling would sanction. The
song of this species is a twitter, soft and pleasing,
but of no power.
In its natural state the goldfinch breeds in or-
chards, large gardens, plantations, &c., often select-
ing some dense evergreen as the site of its nest,
which is an elegant piece of workmanship, being
formed externally of moss, lichens, dry grass, and
wool, and lined with hair and seed-down of the
collsioot or the down of the willow. The eggs are
of a bluish white, marked at the larger end with
orange-brown spots
The food of this species consists of the seeds of
various plants among which we may mention those
of the thistle, dandelion, groundsel, burdock. &c.
In winter it associates in small flocks of 10 or 12
in number, which flit about the hedges or old or-
chards in quest of food. The goldfinch is spread
through Europe generally, and two allied species
are natives of the Iliraalayan Mountains. Fig. 1421
represents the nest of the common goldfinch.
1489 (a, i).— The Co.vmox Linnet
(Linaria caimablna). Greater Redpole, Grey Linnet,
Brown Linnet, of authors. La Linotte ordinaire,
Buffon ; Bluthan-fling, Bechstein.
Owing to the difference between the winter and
summer plumage of this bird, naturalists have mul-
tiplied its synonyms, regarding it under the head of
two distinct species— an error which was first pointed
out by Montagu, whose opinion has been confirmed
by Selby and other ornithologists. It would appear,
from the observations of the latter author, that birds
captured in full summer plumage with the top and
breast of a fine carmine- red, after losing that dress at
the period of the autumnal moult, never acquire it
while caged, but retain their plain brown livery ; this
accounts for the assertion of some observers, that the
grey linnet remains the same in its plumage at all
seasons.
The linnet is found over Europe generally, and is
common throughout the British Islands, extending
as far as the Orkneys. The song is very sweet,
whence it is often kept in cages, and sometimes
paired with the hen canary. Rough commons and
neglected pasture lands are its favourite localities,
where various plants furnish it with food ; it is very
partial to the seed of the flax, thistle, dandelion and
of cruciform plants.
The nest of the linnet is generally built in some
low bush, the thick spiny furze being preferred ; it
is composed of raoss, stalks of grass, and wool, lined
with hair and feathers ; the eggs are of a bluish
white speckled with purplish red.
In the winter these birds congregate in large
flocks, and visit the rocky shores of the sea, where
they flit about active and industrious in the search of
food, ever and anon uttering a lively call. In the
spring they separate, and pair and revisit their up-
land haunts.
Allied to the common linnet are the Twite (Lina-
ria montana), found in the hilly districts of ourisland
and abundant in Norway and Sweden, and the
lesser Redpole (Linaria minor), resident throughout
the year in Scotland and the northern counties of
England, but a winter visitor to the southern coun-
ties, together with many continental species.
1492. — The Song-Spakbow
(Zonotrichiamelodia, Boiiap.). Fringilla ferruginea,
Linnaeus; Fringilla melodia, Wilson.
The species is a representative of the song-finches
of the United States of America, and is partially mi-
gratory, moving southwards in the month of Novem-
ber : though many individuals remain behind the
great body, and continue permanent in their old
quarters.
" This finch," says Wilson, " is the first singing
bird in spring, and is heard during the whole sum-
mer and autumn ; its notes are short, but very sweet,
and are uttered generally from the branches of a
bush or small tree, where it will sit singing for an
hour together. It frequents the borders of rivers
swamps, and marshy places, and when wounded and
unable to fly will readily take to the water and swim
with considerable rapidity. In winter it haunts in
multitudes the great cypress swamps of the southern
states, associating with other species. This bird
builds its nest on the ground among the roots of tall
grasses, and also, strange to say, in cedar trees five
or six feet from the ground. The eggs are white
or bluish white, thickly speckled with reddish
browB."
The male and female closely resemble each other
in colouring. Upper part of the head reddish brown
mottled with dark brown, with a broad line of bluish
grey down the middle ; back grey streaked with
reddish brown and dusky ; rump bluish grey, as also
the sides of the head ; a broad line of brown from
the eye backwards, and another from the angle of
the mouth. Under parts white, tinged on the sides
with grey, and posteriorly with reddish brown : neck
and breast spotted with dark brown ; wings and tail
brown. Length six inches.
The circumstance of this bird choosing two dif-
ferent localities for the site of its nest calls to our
mind the nidification of our common house-sparrow
(Pyrgita domestica). This bird builds in the niches
of masonry; in the fissures and crevices of walls,
barns, or houses ; in ivy or other foliage against the
side of a house, and also in trees. The nest con-
sists of hay, straw, feathers, and other materials, and
in snug crevices and under the eaves of houses is
loosely put together, its shape varying according to
that of the site, but it is usually' domed ; in trees
it is large, firmly constructed of well-intertwined
materials, and completely domed, with a lateral
aperture, and lined with feathers and other soft
materials. It is, however, a shapeless and inartifi-
cial structure, destitute of that trimness and compact-
ness so remarkable in the nests of our finches gene-
rally, as the goldfinch and the chaffinch. A speci-
men of the nest of the house-sparrow in a tree is
represented at Fig. 1493.
1494. — The Nest of trb Chaffinch
{Fringilla Calebs). This is a most artful and
beautiful structure, composed externally of moss,
fine wool, lichen, the scales of bark, and often
spiders'-webs, all neatly felted together, and pre-
senting a smooth and carefully-finished exterior;
internally it is delicately lined with wool and hairs.
It is securely attached to the supporting stems by
bands of moss, felted with wool, which are twined
round them and worked into the mass of materials
composing the nest. The elm, oak, hawthorn, and
thick tall bushes are generally selected. We have
seen the nest in a dense holly, and also on old apple-
frees overgrown with moss and lichens; sometimes
it is shrouded among the luxuriant ivy encircling
the trunks of elms or other trees. The eggs are
bluish white, tinged with pink, and marked with
streaks of purplish red. The chaffinch is too well
known to need a minute description.
1495. — The Bullfinch
(Pyrrhula vulgaris). Bouvreuil of the French ;
Fringuello morino, Ciufolotto, Sufi'uleno, Mona-
chino, of the Italians; Dom-pape of the Danes and
Norwegians ; Dom-herre of the ' Fauna Suecica ; '
Bulfinck, Rothburstiger Gimpel, and der Gimpel
of the Germans ; de Goudvink of the Netherlanders ;
y Chwybanydd and Rhawn-goch of the ancient
British.
In the Bulfinches the bill is short, hard, conico-
convex, thick, swollen at the sides, compressed at
the point, with the ridge of the upper mandible
advancing on the forehead, and arched. Tarsi
short.
The common bulfinch is a native of the northern
parts of Europe, and is only known in the more
southern provinces as a bird of passage ; in our
island it is stationary. In the mountain forests of
Germany it is very common.
This beautiful bird tenants the wooded district";,
and is retiring in its habits ; during the winter it
associates in families of five or six individuals, the
brood of the year, which separate in spring ; when
they pair, and commence nidification.
The native song of this bird is low, soft, and pleas-
ing, but inaudible at a short distance ; it has. how-
ever, the imitative faculty in great perfection, and
can be taught to whistle musical airs with great
accuracy. In Germany considerable attention is paid
to the instruction of these birds, which require nine
months of continued and regular teaching before
they can execute an air with firmness and precision ;
which should be delivered in a flute-like tone.
Birds well instructed sell at a high price, and are as
interesting from their docility and affectionate dis-
position as from their voice, The common call-note
of the wild bullfinch is a plaintive whistle.
Its food during summer and autumn consists of
various seeds, but in the winter and spring it sub-
sists chiefly on the buds of various trees and shrubs,
as the thorn, larch, birch, the plum and other fniit-
trees, and is frequently from this cause very injurious
in gardens ; the buds are not swallowed whole, but
minced to pieces by the edges of the powerful man-
dibles of the bill.
The bullfinch builds in 'low thick bushes or
underwood, or on the flat foliage of a spruce pine or
silver fir. It consists of a foundation of birch-twigs
or other slender sticks, upon which is intertwined a
basket of flexible fibrous roots, the w hole forming a
shallow nest. The eggs, four or five in number, are
of a bluish white spotted with pale orange-brown.
Fig. 1496 is the nest of this species. Caged birds
often liecome quite black, an effect resulting from
their being fed too profusely with hemp-seed. We
knew a black bullfinch, which, on its spring moult,
recovered its natural dress.
The male bullfinch has the head, wings and tail
velvet black, with a tinge of purple ; the back of
the neck, and back, fine bluish grey ; rump white ;
cheeks, throat, chest and sides, roseate ; the
greater wing-coverts margined with pinkish white.
The female is much duller in plumage, and the chest
has only a faint tinge of the roseate hue. An allied
species (P. erythrocephala) is _ a native of the
Himalaya Mountains.
1497. — The Arabian Bullfinch
(Pyrrimla S>/noica). This species was found by
Mr. Hemprich near Mount Sinai in Arabia; and
appears also to extend into Egypt. It was one of
Finches. J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
335
the discoveries of the travellers sent some time since
by the King of Prussia into that country with a view
of obtaining specimens oi natural history.
The male is ornamented round the base of the bill
with a circle of rich red, going off in spots upon the
cheeks. The front is covered with small silvery
white feathers, slightly edged with red ; the rump
and all the lower parts fine rose-colour; upper parts
ash-colom-ed, lightly tinged with rose ; wings and
tail brown.
The female is of a light brown colour above, each
feather having a deeper-coloured centre. The lower
parts pale tawny brown, with streaks of a darker
tint. Length, about five inches and a half.
Of the manners and habits of this species we have
no detailed account.
1-198.— The Thick-billed Bullfinch
{Pyrrhula Gigathinca). This species is a native
of Egypt and Nubia, and most probably other parts
of N orthern Africa. It is characterised by a very
thick bill, and a slightly notched tail. The colours
of the sexes do not vary greatly. In the male a
greyish colour tinted with bright rose covers all the
lower parts of the body, the throat and the circle
round the bill ; this tint is palest on the throat. The
crown of the head is pure ash-colour, and an ashy
brown is spread over the nape, the back, and the
wing coverts. A faint rose-colour tinges the
plumage of the rump and the edges of the quills and
tail-feathers, all of which are bordered towards the
end with whitish upon a black ground. The two
middle quills are the shortest. The wings reach to
the extremity of the tail-feathers ; and the bill is of
a fine red. Length, four inches six lines.
The female has no rosy tint except on the edges
of the quills and tail-feathers, and on the rump,
where it is very faint. The upper parts are of an
Isabella brown, and the wings edged with a brighter
tint of the same. The circle round the bill and the
throat are ash-coloured ; the lower parts of a pure
Isabella-colour; and the middle of the belly white.
Bill same as in the male.
1499. — The Blue Bullfinch
(^Pyrrhtda cinered). This species is one of the Ame-
rican i-epresentatives of the present form, and is a
native of Brazil, where it is not; uncommon. The
head, cheeks, back, and scapulars are ashy-bluish ;
wings and tail darker, but all the feathers of those
parts are bordered with ash-colour. There is a small
white spot on the wing, formed by the white towards
the base of the quills, beginning with the fourth ;
the three first have no white. All the lower parts
are white with the exception of the flanks, which
are clouded with ash-colour. Bill coral-red, very
strong, large, and as it were swollen (bombe). Feet
ash-coloured. Length four inches and a half.
1500 (a). — The Paradise Whidah-Bird
( Vidua Paradtsea, Cuv.). These birds, also termed
Widow-birds, les Veuves of the French, constitute a
small but interesting group of the finches, remark-
able for the development of long caudal plumes in
the males, characteristic of the breeding season,
and subsequently lost. With respect to the name
Widow(Veuve, Vidua), the author of the 'Gardens and
Menagerie Delineated ' informs us that " Edwards,
the first modern writer by whom this interesting
bird (the present species) was figured and described,
having happened to say that the Portuguese called
it the Widow from its colour and long train ; Brisson
took the hint, and gave it the name of Veuve in
French, Vidua in Latin. The French naturalist
had, however, overlooked the fact that Edwards had
himself corrected the mistake, for such it was, in the
following terms : — ' In my description of this bird I
have said that it is called the Widow by the Portu-
guese ; but I am since betterinformed that it is called
the Whidah-bird, because it is brought frequently to
Lisbon from the kingdom of Whidah, on the coast
of Africa.' The name thus accidentally given has
now, however, been universally adopted both in
popular and scientific language."
The present species is a native of Western Africa,
from Senegal to Angola, and in all its habits is a
true finch. " In captivity, which these birds endure
without much appearance of constraint, they are
lively and active, jumping from perch to perch, and
alternately raising and depressing their long tails
with great vivacity. They are usually fed upon
grain, with the occasional addition of green herbs,
and are fond of bathing in the water which is placed
in their cage. Twice a year they are subject to
changes of plumage, which alter the appearance of
the male especially, to such an extent that it would
be difficult to recognise in him the same bird. The
long feathers which are his peculiar attribute fall
off towards the end of autumn, and, with the other
changes that take place in its plumage, leave him
little to distinguish him during the winter months
from his plainer mate. But in spring he recovers
his long feathers, his more brilliant hues, and his
sharp but agreeable and varied note ; the change
being usually completed by the beginning of June.
It is said they live for twelve or fifteen years." The
colour of the male in full plumage is of a bright
black, with the exception of an orange rufous band
round the neck, spreading over the chest, and gra-
dually fading into dull white on the under parts.
The tail is, as usual, composed of twelve feathers, of
which the four middle are elongated and vertical ;
two being flowing and pendent, and two (the middle)
broad, with a shaft projecting like a slender fila-
ment beyond the end. Size, that of a sparrow.
After the autumnal moult the colours are rusty
brown and white.
1500 (6). — The Red-billed Wiiid.4.h-Bird
(Vidua erythrorhyr.cha). This species inhabits the
same regions as the preceding, but is of less size.
Of the four middle and greatly elongated tail-feathers
two are convex, and two (one within the other) con-
cave, so that when all four are closed they form a sort
of cylinder, and but for their extremities appear at
first sight as one.
The general colour of the male in full plumage is
glossy blue-black, with a white collar and white wing-
coverts and scapularies, of which hue are also the
lower part of the back, the throat, the chest, and
under parts. In habits it agrees with the other
species.
1501. — The Java Spakrow
(Fringilla onjzivura). Rice-bird; Paddy-bird.
Boorong Peepee of the Sumatrans ; Glate of the
Javanese.
This bird is well known, being so frequently
brought over to this country from India and kept in
aviaries and cages lor the sake of its elegant figure
and pleasing colours. In its native regions it is
notorious for the ravages which it commits in the
rice-fields, on which flocks descend, clearing the
pannicles of the ripe grains, and leaving nothing
but the empty husks. (See Fig. 1502 : a, a pan-
nicle of the rice-plant with ripe grains ; b, a single
grain envelop,ed in its husk, and awned.)
The colour of the Java sparrow is a delicate leaden
grey, with a sort of bloom over the whole plumage,
like that visible on plums; the bill is red; the head
and tail black, the under parts with a slight roseate
tinge ; in the male the cheeks are snowy white ; legs
flesh-coloured: the size of the beak is remarkable.
1503. — ^The Greenfinch
(Coccothraustes chloris). Nest of. Our pictorial
specimen of the nest of this common bird, which
is spread over the greater part of Europe, is repre-
sented as shrouded by the foliage of the holly. It
consists externally of a rough basket-work of roots
interwoven with moss loosely put together, but in-
creasing in compactness as the structure advances :
and when a layer of finer roots has been worked as
a middle wall, a thick compact texture of hair is
added as a lining. The eggs are four or five in
number, of a bluish white, speckled at the larger
end with light orange-brown.
1504. — The Hawfinch
(Coccothraustes vulgaris). In the genus Cocco-
thraustes the bill is very stout at the base, whence
it tapers rapidly to a point, the lower mandible
being nearly as thick as the upper ; the wings are
long, the tail short, the tarsi short. The present
species is the Haw Grosbeak and Grosbeak of the
modern British ; GylfinbrafF of the ancient British ;
le Grosbek and Pinson Royal of the French ;
Frogione, Froccione, Frosone, Frisone, Friggione, of
the Italians ; Kernbeisser, Kirsch Kernbeisser,
Kerschfink, Nusbeisser of the Germans ; Appel-
vink of the Netherlanders ; Loxia Coccothraustes of
Linnseus ; Fringilla Coccothraustes of Temminck ;
Coccothraustes vulgaris of Brisson.
The Hawfinch is plentiful in some districts of ii
France ; permanent and not uncommon in Italy ;
common in Germany, Sweden, and part of Russia.
In Mr. Selby's ' Illustrations,' and indeed in most
other English works, the hawfinch is noticed as an
occasional visitant. Dr. Latham says that " the haw-
finch visits us chiefly in winter, but one was shot in
the summer months [near Dartford in Kent." He
goes on to remark that White records another in-
stance at the same season, and says that it had the
kernels of damsons in its stomach. " These," con-
tinues Dr. Latham, " might possibly have bred here,
though we have no authority for its ever being the
case." This authority now exists in the observa-
tions of Mr. Doubleday. "The hawfinch," says
Mr. Doubleday, " is not migratory, but remains with
us during the whole of the year." This observer
sufficiently accounts for the rarity of its appearance
— " Its shy and retiring habits leading it to choose
the most secluded places of the thickest and more
remote parts of woods, and when disturbed it inva-
riably perches on the tallest tree of the neighbour-
hood."
Hard seeds and kernels form the principal food
of the hawfinch, but it feeds also on the berries of
the hawthorn (whence its name) ; so that it is pro-
bable that the soft part of fruits is not disagreeable
to it, although the bill is evidently formed for crack-
ing the stony kernel. Willughby states that it
breaks the stones of cherries and even of olives
with expedition. The stomach of one which he
dissected in the month ot December was full of
the stones of holly-berries. The majority of orni-
thologists give the hawfinch credit for forming a
nest beautifully constructed of lichens and vegetable
fibres, with a lining of feathers and other soft mate-
rials. But according to Mr. Doubleday, who has
thrown much light on the history of this bird, and
discovered it breeding in Epping Forest in May
and June, the nest, which is made in some instances
in bushy trees at the height of five or six feet, and
in others near the top of firs at an elevation of
twenty or thirty feet, is remarkably shallow and
carelessly put together, being scarcely deeper than
that of the dove. In materials it resembles that of
the bullfinch, but is not to be compared with it in
neatness and compactness of construction. Eggs,
from four to six in number, of a pale greenish white,
varying in intensity, spotted and streaked with
greenish grey and brown. Mr. Gould states that
he has known the bird to breed near Windsor, and
a few other places ; but certainly nowhere so abun-
dantly as on the estate of W. Wells, Esq., at Redleaf,
near Penshuist, Kent. This gentleman informed
Mr. Gould that he had, with the aid of a small tele-
scope, counted at one time eighteen on his lawn.
Mr. Selby remarks that in the pairing season it
probably utters a superior song, as Montagu says
that even in winter, during mild weather, he has
heard it sing sweetly in low and plaintive notes.
The colours of the plumage are as follows : — rump,
head and cheeks red-brown; edging round the bill,
space between that and the eye, a line beyond the
eye and throat, deep black ; a large ash-coloured
collar just below the nape ; back and greater part
of the wings deep brown, but there is an oblique
white stripe upon the wing, and bejond it a con-
siderable space of a light whitish colour going off
into chestnut ; secondary quills as if cut off square
at the ends, or, as Edwards says, with justice, like
the figures of some of the ancient battle-axes,
glossed with rich blue, less conspicuous in the fe-
male ; tail feathers white within, of a blackish brown
on the external barbs ; lower parts of the bird vinous
red ; iris pale red (according to Temminck) ; feet
and bill greyish brown. Length seven inches.
The female resembles the male, but the colours,,
are much less brilliant.
1505, 1506. — The Ceossbill
{Loxia curvirostra). In the genus Loxia we find
the beak compressed and elongated, with the man--
dibles bent in contrary directions, so that their points -
cross each other (see Head of Crossbill, Fig. 1507),
while the tongue is furnished at its top with a horny
scoop. The tarsi are short and the feet are formed
for grasping tightly, as tlie birds cling in various
positions to the twigs while procuring food. The
use of this singular bill will be easily deduced from
the following observations : — The seed of the cones
of the pine is the jji-incipal food of the crossbill, and
to obtain this the bird fixes itself across the cone,,
and then brings the point of each mandible toge-
ther; and in this position it is enabled to insert
them under the scales of the cone ; this done, the
beak is opened, not in the usual way, but by the
lower mandible being drawn sideways (a peculiar
arrangement of muscles effecting the action), and
the scale is consequently raised up, the tongue is at
the same time brought forward, and its scoop di-
rected beneath the seed, which is dislodged and
carried to the mouth. At Fig. 1508 is shown the
skull of the crossbill dissected, so as to illustrate its
structure, the arrangement of the muscles, and the
peculiarity of the tongue: — a. Skull of crossbill,
side view : a, temporal muscle ; b, great pyramidal
muscle. B, Head viewed from below : b, great
pyramidal muscle ; c, c, pterygoid muscles ; d, d,
graciles muscles, c, Head viewed from the side :
a, pterygoid process ; b, os omoideum ; c, os qua-
dratum ; d, d, os jugale. d, Head viewed from be-
hind: a, right temporal muscle; b, great pyramidal
muscle. E, Lower jaw, side view : a, cavity for
articulation ; b, b, coronoid processes, f. Tongue
seen from above : a, horny scoop ; b, b, extensor
muscles, c, Tongue, side view : a, horny scoop ;
h, extensor muscles ; c, flexor muscle. (Yarrell,
'Zool, Journ.,' vol. iv.).
The common crossbill is the Becco incroce, Cro-
cione, and Crosiero of the Italians ; Bee crois6 of
the French ; Fichten Kreuzschnabel of the Ger-
mans; Kruisvink of the Netherlanders; Mindre
Korsnab of the Scandinavians ; and Gylfingroes of
the ancient British. This species certainly breeds
in the British Islands, and we may specify the Holt
Forest in Surrey, and various fir or larch plantations
IMS.— NesUof Sodtble 'n'over-Budi.
1510.— Netts of Pensile Weaver-Bitdj.
1J13.— Ne>t> of Sociable WeaTe^Bir(U.
386
.^f^
Wi^—TtXkiiKitmei Wnver-Bird.
[THE MUSEUM OP ANIMATED NATURE.]
338
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Weaver-Birds. .
in Gloucestershire, as dcterminetl localities. (See !|
' Mag. Nat. Hist^ May, 1830, p. 236, and June,
1830, pp. 310, 311, for interesting communications
on the subject by Messrs. Brown and Long.) It
appears that they breed in April, commencing their
nest in March. This is placed on the topmost
boughs of the fir or pine, and consists of slender j
twigs of <ir, then a layer of coarse grass, lined with |
finer grass and a few long hairs. The eegs are of j
a slightly bluish-white, sparingly speckled with red.
The male has an agreeable song. It is, however,
in the vast pine-forests of Norway, Sweden, Ger- |
many, &c., that this crossbill is the most abundant. ^
In those gloomy solitudes it finds a congenial resi-
dence and food in abundance. While at work [
upon the fir-cones, extricating the seeds, or while ]
climbing in flocks of ten or twenty among the
branches, using, like a parrot, their beaks and feet,
these birds utter a continuous eentle twitter, dif-
ferent from the song of the male, which is poured
out piiucipally during the breeding season. At
various times vast flocks from the Continent visit
different parts of our island in the winter, evidently
driven southwards by the severity of the season ;
they seek the shelter of fir-woods, and some perhaps
remain altogether.
Besides the seeds of the fir, hemp-seed, and the
seeds of apples are eagerly devoured, and they are
said to divide with ease an apple in halves, in order
to procure the kernels.* Crossed as their bill is,
these binis can pick up the smallest seeds and shell
or husk them ; they can also open the shell of an
almond, fii^t picking a hole in it, and then inserting
the bill and wrenching off pieces by the lateral mo-
tion of the under mandible. The following narra-
tive of the habits of the crossbill in confinement is
verv interesting:— "My friend Mr. Morgan," says
Mr' Yarrell, "kept apair of these birds for some time,
and had opportunities for observing their curious
habits. They were impatient under confinement,
and restless, climbing over the wires of their cages,
by the use of their beak and claws, like parrots,
One of their principal occupations was twisting out
the ends of the wires of their prison, which they ac-
complished with equal ease and dexterity. Ashort,
flat-headed nail that confined some strong net-work
was a favourite object on which they tried their
strength ; and the male, who was usually pioneer in
every new exploit, succeeded by long-continued ef-
forts in drawing the nail out of the wood, though
not without breaking off the point of his beak in the
experiment. Their unceasing destruction of cages
at length brought upon them sentence of banish-
ment. During the period of their captivity a com-
plete'change took place in the colour of their plu-
mage, without the shedding of a single feather."
The permanent colour of the plumage of this spe-
cies is spotted olive-gieen, but the male of the year
acquires in the autumn a general roseate tint.
Mr. Gould (' Birds of Europe') observes that in the
minds of many naturalists some doubts still exist,
and that they existed still recently in his own, a to
whether the rich rosy-red colouring assumed by this
bird is characteristic of the breeding season, or the
permanent livery of the adult male. He states that
during his recent visit to Vienna he had an opportu-
nity of observing both sexes in every stage, an ex-
amination of which afforded him abundant proofs
(hat the red plumage is acquired during the first
autumn, for he saw many lately fledged that had
their plumage thickly spotted ; others that had par-
tially lost their spotted appearance, and had partly
assumed the red colouring ; and others that had their
feathers entirely tinted of this colour; while the
adults, as most ornithologists have stated, were cha-
racterised by a plumage of olive-green, which ap-
pears to be permanent.
The same naturalist saw crossbills, 8\|ailow8, mar-
tins, and various small birds exposed for sale in the
markets, for the purpose of the table.
Besides the present species, the parrot-crossbill is
found in Eastern Europe, and tne white-winged
crossbill occasionally occura in the North ; the latter,
and a species nearly resembling the common cross-
bill (L. Americana,) are natives of North America.
Amone the Fringillida: is a singular group of birds,
termed Weaver-birds, les Tisserins of the French
(Ploceus, Cuvicr), intermediate between the Finches
and the Sturnidse ; and which construct the most
singular and extraordinary nests, some pendent from
thetwigs of tall trees overhanging the water ; others
supported on the stronger branches, generally in
clusters ; some compacted together, so as to form
one large dense mass of interwoven grasses. In
these birds the bill is conical, and more or less elon-
gated ; the ridge of the upper mandible slightly bent,
the tip without any notch ; the claws are large :
they are divided in various subgenera, but are all
peculiar to the old world, Africa and India. It
• A Unje flock of thew. birds, which visited the sonth of Ireland at
the commcncemeiit of the present century, in the autumn, did much
damage in the apple-orcharUs. In general, however, they aeek the
piii*.wo9di.
would appear that their mode of building their ]
nests is, under the direction of instinct, designed to
secure the youni and eggs against the attacks of
tree-snakes, which abound in the localities they oc-
cupy. Of these the Boomslange (Bucephalus Ca-
pensis) in Southern Africa is one of the most for-
midable.
1309, 1,">10.— Nksts of the Pensile Weaveb-Bibb.
Barrow, in his ' Travels in Africa,' notices clusters of
suspended nests, attached to slender twigs, fabri-
cated by a species of Loxia, which unfortunately he
neither names nor describes. These nests usually
overhans a river or pool of water, and are shaped
like a chemist's retort, with a body and long neck,
at the end of which is the aperture, close over the
surface of the water; the neck leads to a snug cham-
ber, in which the young are reared ; the structure is
composed of intervvovcn grass. Though not capable
of identifyins the species, we suspect it to be the
Nelicourvi, Loxia (Ploceus) pensilis of Sonnerat.
We have seen nests of a similar form, constructed
of wiry elastic grass, and attached to the leaves of
palms, brought from Ceylon and the continent of
India,— perhaps the work of the Ploceus (Euplectes)
Philippensis. Colonel Sykes observes that this
weaver-bird "is very common in Dukhun, and there
are few wells overhung by a tree where their nests
are not seen pendent ; they live in small coinmu-
nities. and are verv noisy in their labours." Pringle
describes the South African nest as woven of a kind
of toueh grass, the cylindrical passage being twelve
or fifteen inches in length; and twenty or more
often hang from a single tree,
is a native of the districts bordering on the south-
east coast of Africa ; but, according to Dr. Smith, is
not found to the west of Cafi'reland. It is rare, and
frequents the banks of rivers, suspending its nest,
which is of a kidney shape and composed of closely
interwoven grass, from the branch of a tree over-
hansing the water. The eggs are three or four, of '
a delicate greenish blue. The length of the bird is j
about seven inches. i
1511.— The Sociable Weaveb-Bibd
(Ploceus socius, Cuvier). Phila;terus lepidus, Smith ;
Euplectes lepidus, Swainson; Loxia socia, Latham ;
Ploceus Patersonii, Lesson.
According to Dr. Smith, the banks of the Orange
River constitute the southern limits of the range of
this species, which was only obtained in great abun-
dance in the districts around Latakoo far from water.
The most striking peculiarity, adds Dr. Smith, "ob-
sei-ved in this species is the extraordinary manner
in which a number of individuals associate and
build their nests under a common roof. When a
nesting-place has been selected, and the operation
ofbuildineis to be commenced «& iniVw, the com-
munity proceed conjointly to construct the general
covering which interests them all : that being ac- ,
complished, each pair begin to form their own nest,
which, like the roof, they construct of coarse grass ;
these are placed side by side against the under sur-
face of the general covering, and by the time they
are all cornpleted the lower surface of the mass
exhibits the appearance of an even horizontal sur-
face, freely perforated by small circular openings.
They never use the same nests a second time,
though they continue for many years attached to
the same roof. With the return of the breeding
season fresh nests are formed upon the lower sur-
face of those of the preceding year, which then
form an addition to the general covering. In this
manner they proceed year after year, till at last the
weight often becomes such as to cause the destruc-
tion of its support, upon which a new building is
commenced. They appear to prefer constructing
these nests upon :large and lofty trees ; but where
such do not occur, they will even condescend to
foim them upon the leaves of the Arborescent Aloe
(Aloe arborescens), as occasionally happens towards
the Orange River. The commencement of the roof
is firmly interwoven with the branches of the trees
to which it is intended [to be suspended, and often
a great part of the principal branch is actually in-
cluded within its surface. Each female lays from
three to four eggs, of a' bluish-white colour, freely
mottled towards 'the large end with small brown
dots." Paterson and Le Vaillant give a somewhat
similar account of these nests, some of which they
saw of enormous size ; the latter traveller mentions
one which had three hundred and twenty inhabited
cells, each cell being the property of a pair of birds.
The grass used is a wiry kind, called Boschman's
grass. Thus, then, do these weaver-birds found a
republic, and cluster together under one roof their
separate homesteads ; the labour of each busy arti-
ficer contributing to the general good. Fig. 1512
shows the nests of this bird apparently just finished,
or but little added to ; while Figs. 1513 and 1514
represent a structure of long standing, with the ad-
ditions of several years, and completely covering
the branches. The general colour of the sociable
weaver-bird is brown, varying in its shades; the
feathers of the back edged with pale buff, which is
the general tint of the under parts. Total length
about five inches.
1515.— The Ybllow-crowned Weaver-Bibd
(Ploceus spilonotus). P. flaviceps. Swains. ; P.
stictonotus, A. Smith. This species, of which the
male has the plumage varied with yellow and brown,
1510. — The Yellow-headed Weaveb-Bird
(Ploceus icterocephalus). Nests of. These kidney-
shaped nests attached to long pendent twi.gs are the
work of a South African Weaver-bird, closely allied
to, if not identical with, the preceding. They are
composed of strong interlaced grass, and lined with
the heads or panicles of the same, forming a smooth,
soft, and cool bed. The opening is lateral, near the
top, the dome above protecting the inside from
rain.
1517.— The Taha Weaver-Bird
(Euplectes Taha. Smith). According to its orii:i:v 1
describer, Dr. Smith, this species is a native oi
Africa, but does not extend its range south of 20'.
In districts north of this degree it was common, and
large flocks were often observed among the trees
near the banks of rivers; but, according to informa-
tion gained from the natives, the birds leave the
trees at the commencement of the breeding-season
for the reeds which skirt the rivers, and from which
they suspend their nests. These and other allied
species are very destructive to gardens and corn-
lands, and the natives are obliged to watch the crops
to prevent the grain from being devoured. The
plumage of the male (upper figure) is mingled yel-
low, grey, and brownish-black ; in winter yellowish-
brown above, dashed with brownish-black ; under
parts greyish-white, tinged sienna yellow on the
chest. The female (lower figure) resembles the
male in his winter dress.
1518. — The Mahali Weaveb-Bibd
(Pliopasser Mahali, Smith). This bird was seen for
the first time by Dr. Smith upon a tree on the bank
of one of the tributaries to the Orange River ; but he
met with small and occasionally large flocks as far
north as the tropic of Capricorn, the species being
disposed to congregate. Twenty or thirty nests
were to be seen on one tree. Insects and seeds are
the food of this species, and in search of these the
bird passes much time upon the ground. If dis-
turbed while feeding, the whole flock take wing, and
settle in a neighbouring tree, where they remain till
they see the way clear for their return.
The nests, observes Dr. Smith, in figure and tex-
ture, had many of the characters of those of Ploceus,
but resembled those of some of the South African
Pyrgitse (sparrows) in the manner in which they
were armed. The walls of each nest were entirely
, composed of stalks of grass, the thickest ends of
i which were so placed as to protrude externally for
several inches beyond the compact structure des*
fined to contain the eggs. Thus each nest appeared
armed with numerous projecting spines, and bore
considerable resemblance to the body of a porcu-
pine with its spines partially erected. The design
is to oppose an obstacle to the advance of snakes
towards the eggs and young. The plumage is
varied with different tints of brown, and with white,
the chest and under pails being cream-yellow;
the throat and under tail-coverts white. Length
six inches and a half.
Fig. 1519 represents the clustered nests of this
species.
1520.— The Red-billed Weaver-Bird
{Textor erythrorhynchus, Smith). This species
inhabits Southern Africa, north of the '25lh degree
of latitude ; and, as Dr. Smith states, is never seen
where herds of buff"aloes are scarce. Whenever dis-
covered, it was always in attendance upon these
animals, flying over them or perched on their back,
busily employed in collecting insects from the hide,
and passing rapidly from one part to another, ihe
huge beast paying no attention to its movements.
Sometimes numbers of these birds were seen
associated with the buffaloes, and sometimes only
one or two. 'i'heir food consists of parasitic insectSr
at least in part, such having been found by Dr.
Smith in the stomachs of those specimens which he
examined.
This bird, besides being of service to its bulky
associates by ritlding them of the parasitic insects
which isfest their hides, performs for them another
important service. On observing any unusual ap-
pearance, the attention of the bird is immediately
directed to it, and if it sees anything to excite
alarm, the bird flies up, whereupon all the buffaloes
instantly raise their heads, and endeavour to dis-
cover the cause which led to the sudden departure
of their sentinel. Iftheir apprehension is confirmed,
they take to flight in a body, accompanied by theii
i
Starungs.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
339
winged and serviceable friends, which, as soon as
the herd halts to feed, return to their avocation.
Dr. Smith never observed this bird attaching
itself to any quadruped but the buffalo ; while two
species of Buphaga visit the rhinoceros. The gene-
ral colour of the Red-billed Weaver-bird is blackish-
brown ; the primaries are marked largely with
white ; bill yellowish red, with a purplisli tinge on
the sides.
1521. — Nest of Baya Sparrow, or Toddy-Bikd.
" The Baya, or Bottle-nested Sparrow, is remark-
able for its pendent nest, brilliant plumage, and un-
common sagacity. These birds are found in most
parts of Hindostan; in shape they resemble the
sparrow, as also in the brown feathers of the back
and wings : they are of a bright yellow, and in the
rays of a tropical sun have a splendid- appearance
when thousands are flying in the same grove. They
rnake a chirping noise, but have no song : they asso-
ciate in large communities, and cover extensive
clumps of Palmyras, acacias, and date-trees with
their nests. These are formed in a very ingenious
manner, by long grass woven together in the shape
of a bottle, and suspended by the other end to the
extremity of a flexible branch, the more effectually
to secure the eggs and young brood from serpents,
monkeys, squirrels, and birds of prey. The nests
contain several apartments, appropriated to differ-
ent purposes : in one the hen performs the office of
incubation ; another, consisting of a little vault
covering a perch without a bottom, is occupied by
the male, who with his chirping note cheers the
female during her maternal duties." (Forbes,
' Orient. Mem.')
Fig. 1522 represents the nests of the Sociable
Weaver-bird, previously described (from Le Vail-
lant).
Family STURNID^ (STARLINGS).
In this family the beak is elongated and conical,
running to a sharp point from a stout base. In some
genera the ridge of the upper mandible is carried
up the forehead : in others the beak is depressed at
its extremity. The diet is of a mixed character.
Many species associate in flocks, and many build
artful pendent nests like those of the weaver-birds,
to which group they in many respects closely ap-
proximate.
1323.— The Rice-Troopial
'. (DoUchomjx orizivorm, Swains._). Bob-o-Link,
Rice-bird, Reed-bird. Rice-bunting of authors. This
is a well-known bird throughout the whole of
North America, from the Saskatchewan river to
-Mexico ; flocks arriving in March from their winter-
quarters, the West India Islands,and scattering them-
selves over the savannahs and meadows, and newly-
ploughed lands, feeding on insects and their larvae,
as well as on the tender wheat and early barley!
They associate in large flocks, the males uttering a
rapid voluble strain in chorus, all simultaneously
ceasing at the same instant.
About the middle of May these birds reach the
state of New York, and pair and prepare their nests.
At this season the males pour forth their songs in the
air, rising and falling in successive jerks. The nest
is placed amongst the grass, or in a field of wheat
or barley, on the ground, and is composed of dry
grasses and leaves, lined with finer materials ; the
eges, five in number, are dull bluish-white, spotted
with blackish.
In .July, when the young are reared, these rice-
troopials assemble in incredible multitudes, and
begin their devastations. They plunder the fields
of grain, they swarm about reed-beds, alighting
in thousands, bearing down the stems with their
weight, and feeding on the ripe seeds. Their pro-
gress IS towards the Southern States, and in Septem-
ber they appear in Carolina in countless numbers
spreading over the rice-fields and devouring the
grain while yet soft and milky ; thus they often ruin
acres of this produce. From the time of their con-
gregating in July to September, the gun thins their
numbers; thousands are killed for the markets,
their flesh being exquisite. Towards the close of
October, before the rice-crop is gathered in, the
troops have made their appearance in Cuba and
Jamaica, where they feed on the seeds of the
Guinea-grass, and where the birds, being very fat
are in high esteem for the table. '
The rice-troopial is subject to a double annual
moult and change of colouring. The male in his
spring dress has the head, fore part of the back,
shoulders, wings, and tail, together with the whole
of the under plumage, black, passing on the middle
of the back into greyish; scapulars, rump, and
upper tail-coverts white; back of the neck ochre-
yellow. Bill bluish-black, but in the autumn pale
flesh-colour, as in the female and young male. The
feathers of the tail are sharp at the end, as in the
woodpecker.
The female, whose plumage the adult male
assumes after the breeding-season, has the back
streaked with brownish black, and the whole of the
under parts of a dirty yellow.
1524.— The Baltimore Oriole
{Icterus Baltimorus). In the genus Icterus the beak
IS long and conical, and a narrow slip of horn, fiom
the upper mandible, runs up the forehead.
The Baltimore Oriole (Baltimore-bird, and Balti-
more Slarhng) derives its name, as Catesby infoims
us, from its colours, which are brilliant orange and
black, being those of the arms or livery of Lord
Baltimore, formerly proprietor of Maryland.
This species is a summer visitor to the United
States, arriving from more southern regions (in
which it passes the winter) about the beginning of
May, and departing at the close of August. Its
range extends throughout North America, from
Canada to Mexico, and, according to Wilson, it is
even found as far south as Brazil. Not only does
it frequent woods and trees surrounding farm-houses,
but even ventures into towns and villages. " Since
the streets of our cities," says Wilson, " have been
planted with that beautiful and statelv tree the
Lombardy poplar, these birds are our constant visi-
tors during the early part of the summer ; and amid
the noise and tumult of coaches, drays, and wheel-
barrows, and the din of the multitude, they are heard
chanting their native wood-notes wild." The strain
is a clear mellow whistle, repeated at short intervals,
and with a degree of wild plaintiveness in it, render-
ing it extremely interesting. The ordinary call of
this bird is a reiterated chirrup, which becomes
louder, and is uttered in an angry tone whenever
any enemy approaches, or upon the appearance of
a cat or dog near its nest.
Almost the whole genus of Orioles (Icterus), says
Wilson, belong to America, and, with few exceptions,
build pensile nests. " Few of them, however, equal
the Baltimore in the construction of these recep- I
tacles for their young, and in giving them such con- ]
veuience, warmth, and security. For these purposes
he generally fixes on the high bending extremities
of the branches, fastening long strings of hemp or
flax round two forked twigs, co'rresponding with the
intended width of the nest ; with the same materials,
mixed with quantities of loose tow, he interweaves
or fabricates a strong firm kind of cloth, not unlike
the substance of a hat in its raw state, forming it
into a pouch of six or seven inches in depth, lining
it substantially with various soft substances, well
interwoven with the outward netting, and lastly
finishes with a layer of horsehair, the whole bein''-
shaded from the sun and rain by a natural canopy
of leaves." As much difference, adds Wilson, will
be found in the style, neatness, and finishing of the
nests of the Baltimores, as there is in their voices.
Audubon describes the nest of one of these birds
found in the state of Louisiana, as composed of the
long filaments of a kind of moss known there by the
name of Spanish-beard, and destitute of the warm
lining with which, had the individual built in
Pennsylvania or New York, it would have been fur-
nished ; but in Louisiana the intense heat of the
summer renders such a provision unnecessary.
The position chosen by the Baltimore for its pen-
sile nest is no doubt suggested by instinct as a means
of security against the attacks of enemies, espe-
cially the black snake, which climbs trees with
facility, and which destroys young broods by whole-
sale, though it is often compelled by the parent birds
to retreat. Fig. 1525 represents a'contest between
the Baltimore oriole and this subtle foe.
The Baltimore oriole clings about the branches in
search of insects, and glides as it were along the
slender twigs, displaying much grace in its move-
ments : its flight is rapid and continuous.
Besides insects, it greedily feeds on cherries,
strawberries, mulberries, figs and other sweet fruits.
The male does not acquire his full plumage till
the third year ; it is then glowing and brilliant. The
head, throat, upper part of the back and wings, are
glossy black ; the lower part of the back and\vhole
under parts rich orange, deepening into vermilion
on the breast. A band of orange. divides the black
on the shoulders ; edges of the wing-coverts, second-
aries, and in part of the primaries, white. The tail
is orange and black. Length seven inches and
three-quarters. The female has the orange much
duller than the male, and the back is clouded with
olive.
1526.— The Pit-Pit
(Dncnig Cayana). The Pit-pit, as it is termed by
Buffon, 13 a beautiful little bird found in Mexico,
resembling the Ictcri and Xanthorni in the form of
its beak, which is sharp and conical. According to
Cuvier, it allies the latter to the gold-crests (Recu-
lus), ' Les Figuiers." "
The Mexican name of this species is Elototl.
Hernandez says that it lives about the trees in the
Tetzeocan Mountains, and is eatable ; but that being
destitute of a song, it is not kept in the houses of
the inhabitants. The general colour is cerulean
blue ; the forehead, shoulders, wings, and tail black.
1527.— PjiNsiLE Nests.
These nests, hanging to the extremity of the leaves
of a palm, are regarded as the productions of a species
of Icterus, which we greatly doubt ; they appear to
be Indian, and are most probably the workmanship
of a species of weaver bird (Ploceus), but which we
will not attempt to identify. The Icteri do not build,
like the weaver-birds, in societies; the pairs keep
themselves apart during the breeding-season, but
most, if not all, the weaver-birds form colonies,
and hang their nests in clusters from the twigs
ol trees and long leaves of different kinds of
palms.
1528.— The Cow-Troopial
{Molotlmts Pecoris). Icterus Pecoiis, Temminck ;
Kmbciiza Pecoris, Wilson; Cowpen-bird, Cow-
Blackbird, and Cow-Bunting of the Americans.
We have previously alluded to this bird, which, like
our cuckoo, prepares no nest, but selects those of
other birds, distributing an egg to each, and leaving
It to be hatched and the nestling to be reared by
foster-parents.
The birds whose nests it chiefly selects appear to
be those of the red-eyed and white-eyed flycatchers
and the Maryland yellow-throat; but those of the
blue-bird, the indigo-bird, the chipping sparrow, the
blue-eyed yellow warbler, the blue-grey flycatcher
the golden-crowned thrush, and Wilson's thrush
are also used for this purpose. According to Nut-
fall, "When the female is disposed to lay, she ap-
pears restless and dejected, and separates from the
uniegarding flock. Stealing through woods and
thickets, she pries into the bushes and brambles for
the nest that suits her, into which she darts in the
absence of its owner, and in a few minutes is seen
to rise on the wing, cheerful and relieved from the
anxiety that oppressed her, and proceeds back to
the flock she had so reluctantly forsaken. If the
egg be deposited in the nest alone, it is unilormly
forsaken ; but if the nursing parent have any of her
own, she immediately begins to sit. The red-eyed
flycatcher, in whose beautiful basket-like nests I
have observed these eggs, proves a very aff'ectionate
and assiduous nurse to the uncouth foundling."
The same author, in 1831, saw a hen red-eyed
flycatcher sitting on two eggs and one of the cow-
bird ; and he adds that this species, Vireo olivaceus
and (more lately) Vireosylva olivacea of Bonaparte!
Muscicapa olivacea, Linn., appears to be its most
usual nurse. He has known this Vireo begin her
incubation with only an eg^ of each kind, whilst in
other nests he has observed as many as three be-
longing to the Vireo, as well as that of the intruder •
and he suggests that, from the largeness of the
egg, the nest probably immediately feels full to the
incubating bird, so as to induce her to sit directly
when the larger egg, being brought nearer to the'
body of the nurse than her own, is first hatched
generally, as he believes, on the twelfth or thii-I
teenth day. The legitimate eggs are hatched about
a day later, and the young are often stifled by the
superior size of the stranger, which is affectionately
nursed by the poor dupe of a dam ; when the young
are dead, they are conveyed to a distance by the pa-
rent and dropped ; but they are never found imme-
diately below the nest, as would be the case if they
were ejected by the young cow-bird, as is done by the
young cuckoo. "Indeed," continues Mr. Nuttall,
•' as far as I have had opportunity of observing the
foundling shows no hostility to the natural brood of
his nurses ; but he nearly absorbs their whole atten-
tion, and early displays his characteristic cunning
and self-pobsession. When fully fledged, they
quickly desert their foster-parent, and skulk about
in the woods, until at length they instinctively join
company with those of the same feather; and now
becoming more bold, are seen in parties of five or
SIX in the fields and lanes gleaning their accus-
j tomed subsistence. They still, however, appear
shy and watchful, and seem too selfish to study
anything more than their own security and advan-
tage."
The cow-bird is but a poor songster. It is a
migratory species, appearing in the middle and
northern States of the Union at the beginning of
April, and retiring southwards on the approach of
winter. The male has the head and neck blackish-
brown, the rest of the plumage glossy black, with
greenish reflections on the upper parts, and a violet
lustre on the breast. The female is sooty-brown
above and pale beneath, as are also the youni', with
the breast spotted. The foremost of the%pner
figures is the male, the other the female ; the lower
a young bird.
An allied species (Le Troupiale Commun of
Azara), seen by Darwin in large flocks near Mal-
donado, is said to have the same habit with regard
to its eggs as the Moiothrus Pecoris.
2X2
.••<v
IM».— Btlttmoi* Ori»le ud B^k Siuki.
IM4.— Ualtimore Oriole and Nett.
.i \
1129.— liiaii an'l Foot of S:.uiing.
J5»7.— Peniile KcrtJ.
11S6.- Con-Troopiali.
340
f
P.
1532.— Java Mino-Biid.
Io30.— Eed-Villtd Plqne-Bauf.
1533.— Piping Crow.
-^^-M"
1535 Satin-Bird.
IMI.— YeUow-bOled Myophonc.
153e.— Head and Foot of Raven,
1537, — Royiton Crow.
USS.— Head and Foot of Hook.
342
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Crows
1529.— Thb Starling
(Stumus vulgaris). Head and Foot. Stare,
English; I'Etourneau commun of the French;
Gemeiner Star, Bechstein.
The genus Sturniw is the typical form of the
E resent family. The bill is depressed from the
ase as far as the tip, which is slightly inflected
and notched. The lateral toes are equal; the
middle as long as the tarsus; wings lengthened
and pointed.
The starling is generally spread over Europe, and
also inhabits China, the Himalaya, the Cape of
Good Hope, and the northern region of Africa. It
is common in our islands, and is often kept in con-
finement, becoming very familiar, and learning to
utter tunes, words, and even sentences. Its natural
song is a low sweet warble.
During the breeding-season the starling lives only
in pairs, constructing its nest in the crevices of
towers, steeples, old ruins, the cliifs of rocks, and
even the deserted nests of the crow. The eggs are
pale blue.
At the conclusion of the breeding-season starlings
congregate in immense flocks, which, often inter-
mingled with rooks, scatter themselves over the
fields in search of food, and mix fearlessly among
the grazing cattle, attracted by the insects settling
on their hides or creeping about on the ground.
On the approach of dusk the scattered multitudes
collect into one vast phalanx, wheeling and sweep-
ing through the air, and performing the most beau-
tiful aerial evolutions, as if obeying definite signals
of command, while the assemblage beai-s on to
some place of repose. This is generally a thick
coppice or extensive reed-bed, and over it the mass
wheels in varying figures, now sinking, now rising,
now suddenly turning, till at length the horde
settles for the night, long keeping up a noisy chat-
tering concert.
In Ireland, according to Mr. W. Thompson, the
starling is migratory, their southward movement
commencing towards the end of September. In
our island this bird is certainly partially migratory,
quitting one part of the country for another : and
we may readily conclude that many flocks leave
our shores for a more southern residence.
The starling undergoes several changes of plu-
mage before acquiring the permanent dress. The
young during the first autumn are of a uniform
ashy brown. In October they assume a plumage
of black, with bronze, violet, and g.'een reflections
on each feather, except the quill and tail feathers,
being tipped with a spot of yellowish white. This
condition of plumage lasts till the third year, when
the bill becomes yellow, and the throat and chest
covered with loose lanceolate feathers, of a rich
black with purple and golden-green reflections.
The head and under parts are of this hue also. The
back is greenish-black, with small triangular spots
of reddish vfhite. This is the permanent style of
plumage.
Family BUPHAGID^ (PIQUE-BCEUFS).
This family, the affinities of which are not very
clear, though in some points we trace a similarity
to the SturnidsE, contains only one genus, embracing
a limited number of species. The bill is strong,
large, obtuse, and nearly quadrangular; the lower
mandible is stronger than the upper, and both are
swollen towards the point. The wings are mode-
rate ; the toes are furnished with hooked com-
pressed claws. We believe that only two species
are known, both natives of Africa, including Mada-
gascar.
These birds live on the parasitic insects infesting
the hides of quadrupeds, and on the larvae hatched
under the skin of the larger ruminants, as camels,
oxen, and the heavy antelopes. Fixed on their
back by means of " his cramp-irons of claws," the
Pique-boeuf digs and squeezes out by his forceps of
a beak the larvae that lil beneath the festering skin,
to the patient's real, benefit, who patiently submits
to the operation.
The Buphaga Africana is distributed through
Southern Africa, and found also at Senegal.
1530. — The Rkd-billed PiQOK-BCErF
(Buphar/a erythrorhyncha). This species is a native
of Northern Africa, and has been brought also from
Madagascar. The upper parts, neck, and throat
are ash-brown glazed with bluish; the lower parts
are of a yellowish rust-colour ; the bill is coral-red.
Length seven inches : about a third less than the
B. Africana.
Family CORVIDiE (CROWS).
This family contains an extensive series of birds,
characterized by a strong conical bill more or less
compressed at the sides, and often with llie ridge
of the upper mandible arched. The nostrils are
covered with stiff or bristly feathers directed for-
wards, and sometimes with a close velvet-like tuft.
The CorvidtB are to a great extent omnivorous;
they are bold, cunning, and inquisitive, and are
easily tamed : some are proverbial for their imita-
tive faculties and habits of pilfering. The instinct
of acquisitiveness, whatever the organ may be, is
greatly developed; all are acquainted with the
thievish propensities of the magpie and its fondness
for glittering objects.
There are, however, placed provisionally by
many naturalists within the pale of this family,
several genera, which, it must be acknowledged,
have but a remote affinity to the true Corvidse, and
ought perhap rather to be collected in one or more
distinct family groups, than assigned to any yet
established. We allude to the genera Eulabes
(Mino-birds), Barita (Piping Crows), Myophonus,
Ptilonorhynchus, &c., of which we have pictorial
examples.
1531.— Thb Ming-Bird
{Eulabes Tndlais, Cuvier). Gracula religiosa, Lin-
naeus. The genus Eulabes is distinguished by a
stout compressed beak, deep at the base. The
nostrils are round ; the head is ornamented with
two loose hanging folds of naked skin. In habits
and manners these birds resemble the starlings,
frequenting temples and buildings. According to
Cuvier, they have some alliance with the Rollers ;
but we think, with Mr. G. R. Cray, that they form
a group within the circle of the Corvidae.
The Mino-bird, Boo and Mencho of the Javanese,
Teeong of the Sumatrans, is a native of India and
the Indian Islands, where it is highly valued
for its powers of imitation, easily learning to re-
peat not only words, but whole phrases, and that
with surprising distinctness. Marsden indeed says
that it has the faculty of imitating human speech
in greater perfection than any other of the feathered
tribe : and Bontius, who calls it Pica seu Sturnus
Indicus, celebrates it in the following Latin lines —
" Psittacus, Eois qiiamvis tibi missus ab oris
Jussa loquar ; vincit me Sturnus garrulus Indus."
In captivity this bird is lively, confident, and
docile, and bears our climate well. Its colour is a
deep velvety black, with a white mark on the base
of the quill-feathers. The bill and feet are yellow,
the occipital wattles and a naked space below each
eye bright orange-colour. The feathers of the
forehead and around the base of the beak are short
and velvety. Size that of a thrush : insects and
fruits constitute its food.
1532. — The Java Mino-Bird
(Eulabes Javanvs, Cuv.). In general form and
habits this species agrees with the preceding, but
is destitute of the white bar on the wing, and has
the beak more crooked at the tip, without the trace
of a notch ; the naked space on the cheeks is more
contracted, and runs into the occipital wattles.
1533.— The Piping Crow
(Barita Tihicen). The genus Barita, assigned by
Cuvier to the Shrikes, but regarded by Vigors as
one of the Corvidae, has the bill hard, long, and
powerful, convex above, slightly hooked at the tip,
near which both mandibles are notched. Nostrils
lateral ; legs stout. The birds of this genus may
be appropriately termed Shrike-Crows: they form
the genus Cracticusof Vieillot.
The Piping Crow is common in New South Wales,
inhabiting the Blue Mountains in small flocks, and
as Caley informs us, on the authority of the natives,
building in trees, its nest consisting of sticks lined
with grass. It is said to make a loud whistling
noise when perched high on the trees early in the
morning, and not to be migratory. In captivity it
is very amusing, from its powers of mimicry ; it
imitates the voices of men and animals, and easily
learns to whistle tunes, its notes being clear and
powerful.
This species is less than the common crow in
size ; tVie back of the neck, the back and shoulders ,
and the bases of the wing-coverts are greyish-white ;
there is some pure white at the base of the tail ;
the rest of the plumage is deep black ; legs dusky ;
bill bluish at the base and black at the tip.
1534. — The Yellow-Billeo Myophone
{Myophonus flavirostris). The birds of this genus
are all Oriental. They are characterized by a large
strong bill, furnished at the gape with some bristles
and feathers turned forwards; the wings are rounded ;
the nasal depression is membianous and suboval ;
the tail rounded. It is very questionable whether
this genus really belongs to the Corvidae.
Mr. Gould, who has figured and described two
species in his 'Century,' viz., M. Horsfieldii and
M. Temminckii, observes that with respect to their
habits little can be said with any certainty, but
from their lengthened tarsi and general stiiicture
they apparently depend in a great measure for their
subsistence upon worms, insects, and larvae ; the
manners of M. Temminckii on the ground are said
to resemble those of our common blackbird.
The Yellow-billed Myophone is a native of Java :
its plumage is of a deep blue-black with a splendid
metallic lustre ; the bill is of a rich yellow ; the
feet are black.
1535.— The Satis-Bird
(Ptilonorhynchus sericeus, Kuhl, Gould. See.). Satin
Grakle of Latham ; Kitta holosericea, Temminck.
This splendid bird must be enumerated among
those of which the true situation in the natural
arrangement of birds is doubtful. The bill is short,'
thick, convex, compressed on the sides, with the
nostrils, by the silky feathers of the forehead, and a
row of small bristles ; the wings are pointed ; the
legs and feet robust.
The male is of a rich brilliant-blackish blue ; the
quills aud tail-feathers dead-black ; a double row of
silky and velvety bluish-black feathers at the base of
the beak: length thirteen inches. In the female the
upper parts are of an olive-green ; the quills and
tail-feathers of a red-brown ; the wing-coverts varied
with brown and dusky olive ; the under parts green-
ish, barred with black ; the front of the neck marked
with whitish horizontal spots bordered with black
dashes.
The Satin-bird frequents the cedar-brushes and
dense thickets of New South Wales, to which dis-
trict it appears to be confined: in its habits it is shy
and recluse, and few males are to be seen in their
brilliant plumage, which is not attained until the
third year; flocks of young birds, however, resem-
bling the female in plumage, are occasionally to be
seen on the skirts of the brush, but the adult birds
are not to be observed without care and .persever-
ance. This is one of the bower-building birds, con-
structing a bower, or run, by means of two short
parallel hedges composed of twigs interlaced toge-
ther, so artfully arranged that the inner aspect of each
artificial hedge is smooth, offering no impediment to
the passage of the birds, while the outside is rough
with the projecting ends and bifurcations of the twigs.
The floor of this run, or short avenue, consists of
sticks strewn with shells and bones, and the bower
itself is ornamented with the brilliant feathers of
various parrakeets. Here the birds play, and sport-
ively pursue each other, perpetually traversing the
avenue. This, however, is not their nest, which is
so artfully concealed that it has not been discovered
even by the sharp-eyed natives.
The Satin-bird utters two difterent strains ; one of
rich and melodious notes, the other a harsh cry in-
dicative of alarm or anger. See Gould's ' Birds of
Australia,' in which the habits of this bird and an
allied species (Chlamydera nuchalis) are fully de-
tailed.
1536.— The Raven
(CoTvus'Corax, Linn.), Head and Foot. Le Corbeau
of the French; Kolkrabe of the Germans. The
genus Corvus, containing the r.aven, rook, crow, jack-
daw, &c., presents us with the typical forms of the
present family ; and is widely spread, some of the
species being found in every quarter of the globe.
The bill is strong, conical, oultrated, straight at the
base, but bending slightly at the tip ; the nostrils
are covered by stiff reflected bristly feathers.
The raven is common over the whole of Europe
and a great portion of Asia : few birds have ob-
tained a greater share of notoriety. Among the
Romans it was a bird of augury, and its flight, its
hoarse croak, and actions, were regarded as the
presages of good or evil. It was the military
standard of the Danes, an omen indeed of approach-
ing desolation ; and adopted, perhaps, in compli-
ance with popular superstition, which rendered the
bird itself an object of dread — the forehoder of ca-
lamity, disease, and death. Thus in ' Macbeth,'
*' Tlie raven himself is hoarse
Tliat croaks the fetal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements."
The raven is a bold, hardy, powerful bird, of omni-
vorous habits, feeding on carrion, and attacking
ducks, chickens, and small quadrupeds, which its
strong pointed beak enables it to despatch with a
few strokes. It even assaults young lambs and
sickly sheep, picking out their eyes, and leaving
them to a miserable lingering death. In addition
to these, eggs, grain, grubs, reptiles, and shelled
mollusks are among the articles of its bill of fare.
It sometimes visits the seashore in search of putrid
fish and animal exuviae.
The favourite resorts of this bird are bold moun-
tain precipices, where, in some inaccessible ledge —
or, as we have seen, on the branches of some
stunted yew-tree, starting as it were out of the rifts
of the tremendous precipice — it builds its nest,
occupying the same spot for a long succession of
years. In districts where the character of the
scenei-y is different, it makes its nest in tall trees,
which it annually visits for the same purpose. The
nest is composed of sticks and lined with wool.
The eggs, from five to seven in number, are of a
Crows.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
343
dark Rreen, blotched with black. Ravens are ge-
nerally seen, like the crow, in pairs, but sometimes
during the winter in small companies of eight or
ten ; their flight is high, and they often wheel and
tumble in the air. This bird, arrayed in glossy
blue-black plumage, is often kept tame, and soon
becomes very familiar ; often indeed mischievously
so, from its propensity to secrete glittering articles,
as keys, glass, silver, and the like ; nor are eggs or
the poultry of the yard quite secure from its incur-
sions. It is very daring in self-defence. Mr.
Thompson states that one which lived in the yard
attached to the chief inn at Antrim for about fif-
teen years, had occasional encounters with game-
cocks, brought thither to engage it ; and bets were
pending on the issue. The raven in every instance
proved the victor ; it avoided the blows of the
cock, and acted only on the defensive until it could
manage to lay hold of the cock's head, which was
in an instant crushed in its powerful beak, its anta-
gonist falling lifeless on the ground. The length of
the raven is twenty-six inches.
1537. — The Rotstos Chow
{Corviis Coniix); Hooded Crow ; Grey Crow. It is
the Corneille mantelee of the French ; Kraka of
the Swedes ; Grau Knihe of the Germans ; Mulac-
chia, Cornacchia, and Corvo palumbino of the Ita-
lians. This species is widely spread over Europe,
being migratory, except in Italy, according to the
Prince of Canino ; and in Ireland, as Mr. Thompson
assures us, and the western and northern parts of
Scotland. It was found at Smyrna by Mr. Strick-
land, and it inhabits the Grecian Archipelago, the
countries between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Latham states that it is common in some parts of
India.
In the southern parts of England the hooded crow
is a winter visitor, departing northwards in April ;
though there are instances of its remaining during
the summer to breed. In the north and west of
Scotland, and in the Hebrides, Orkney, and Shet-
land Isles, it is very common ; and also in Ireland,
frequenting the seashore and the banks of tidal
rivers; but it is also to be seen far inland. It
builds on rocks, as well as in tall trees, the beech or
pine being usually selected. Mollusks, crabs, and
the dead animal matters left by the retiring tide
are its common articles of diet ; and it has been
often observed to soar aloft, and drop a shell-fish on '<
the rocks from its elevation, in order, as is asserted, |
to obtain the included delicacy. During the !
breeding-season it is very destructive, according to j
Mr. Selby, to the eggs and young of the red grouse, I
and, like the raven, will frequently attack lambs and |
weakly sheep. It is generally seen in paire but I
sometimes in small flocks. The plumage of this j
species is of a fine ash-grey, excepting the head,
throat, wings, and tail, which are black, with blue \
and green reflexions. Length twenty-two inches, j
1538.— The Rook }
(Comis frugilegvs), Head and Foot. Graye,
Grolle, Freux, and Frayonne of the French ;
Schwartze Kriihe of the Germans ; Roka of the
Swedes ; Cornacchia nera and Comacchione of the
Italians : Ydfran of the ancient British.
The rook is spread over the greater portion of |
Europe, wherever suitable districts invite its coloniza-
tion. Wooded and cultivated tracts of country are
its favourite haunts, and in our island it is particu-
larly abundant- In its habits it is eminently gre-
garious, associating in flocks, which scatter them-
selves over fields and corn-lands in quest of food.
They follow the track of the plough or the harrow,
clearing the soil of grubs, the laivse of the chaffer-
beetle (Melolantha vulgaris) and of the Harry-
long-legs (Tipula oleracea), which are particularly
destructive to the roots of grain and clover. The
service they render the farmer in this respect is
very great, and far counterbalances the mischief
they may do in fields where the young blades of
wheat are just starting above the ground, or by
picking up the newly-planted "cuttings" of pota-
toes, to the detriment of the crop. The rook docs
not in fact deserve the name of corn-eater or corn- ,
gatherer (frugilegus), and Mr. Selby asserts that i
wherever its extirpation has been effected, the most j
serious injury to the corn and other crops has !
invariably followed, from the unchecked devasta-
tions of the grub and caterpillar. In orchards and
gardens the rook occasionally does mischief, from
Its partiality to ripe cherries, pears, and walnuts,
soon stripping the trees of their produce. But all
the injury which this bird commits may be easily
obviated by attentive watching at the proper time,
and its services thus secured unalloyed. While en-
gaged on their foraging expeditions, these birds
display much cunning and precaution ; they have
•entinels scattered around the main body, upon
whose cry of alarm they all rise upon the wing and
sail away. The very sight of a gun is sufficient to
disturb them, and hence it is often said that "rooks
smell powder." As evening approaches, long strings
of these birds, at a considerable elevation, may be
seen wending their way to their roosting-place. In
the early spring, the rooks are all on the alert, busy
in their rookery, repairing the old nests and con-
structing new ones ; all is noise and bustle, and
many are the squabbles about the right of sticks
and vvool,till the nests are all ultimately completed.
When the females begin to lay, they are fed by the
males, and, as Gilbert White says, receive their
bounty with a fond tremulous voice and fluttering
wings, and all the little blandishments that are ex-
pressed by the young in a helpless state. This
gallant deportment of the males is continued during
the whole season of incubation. Fig. 1539 repre-
sents a rookery. The partiality of these birds to
their accustomed breeding-places is notorious, so
that though their trees, once in the fields, become
in process of time encircled by buildings, they still
remain inhabited by the colony. There were
formerly rookeries in different parts of the metro-
polis : one is on record ashavingbeenlongfrequented
in the Temple Gardens. There was another ex-
tensive establishment in the Gardens of Carlton
Palace, which, when the trees were cut down in the
spring of 1827, was removed to the trees behind
New Street, Spring Gardens ; and there is one on
the trees near Fife House, at the back of White-
hall. The trees in St. Dunstan's Churchyard, not
far from the Tower, and those in the College Gar-
den behind the Ecclesiastical Court in Doctors'
Commons, were formerly tenanted by rooks. At
Newcastle a rookery, according to Bingley, existed
at no great distance from the Exchange ; and it is
said that a pair of rooks, after an Ousuccessful at-
tempt to establish themselves in it, took refuge on
the Exchange spire, and succeeded in building a
nest on the fop of the vane, frequenting the same
spot every year till 1793, soon after which the spire
was taken down. (See Fig. 1540.)
Around the base of the rook's bill is a space
denuded of feathers, which does not appear till the
bird is adult, and which is by some attributed to
the habit of the bird in thrusting its beak into the
earth in quest of grubs and worms, and by which
means the feathers are worn away. Whether it
results from this cause, or is a specific character
(for it occurs in other birds) and indicative of ma-
turity, is a question not settled. For ourselves we
cannot see how the digging is to produce it, and
that too to the same extent in every individual.
1541. — The Philippine Crow
{Corapica Sinensis, Lesson). This species, with
another, the Kitta thalassina of Temminck, consti-
tutes the genus Corapica of Lesson, the situation of
which is by no means clear. Lesson, though he allows
that the genus exhibits the forms of the Rollers and
Crows, thinks it would be better placed among the
dentirostral group. The true Rollers, we conceive,
have little alliance with the Corvid®.
In this genus the bill is robust, the point is re-
curved, and slightly notched, with the nostrils fur-
nished with short bristles.
The present species is a native of the Philippine
Islands : it is about eleven inches in length : the
bill is red, the legs reddish. The head is crested '
with loose feathers. General colour of plumage i
above pale green, clouded with a yellowish-green |
tint ; a black band encloses the eye and runs round I
the back of the neck ; throat of a yellowish-green ; j
lesser wing-coverts brown ; quill-feathers olive on
their external edge ; the secondaries terminated
with greenish-white. Of his habits we have no
details.
1542.— The Amebican Blue Jay
(Gairulus cristatus). Cyanocorax cristatus, Boie.
Our European .Jay, with which all are familiar, is a
very beautiful bird, but not to be compared with
the Blue Jay of America. This elegant species,
.arrayed in blue varied with purple and white, and
barred on the wings and tail with black, is a native
of the woods of North America, and is remarkable
for its noisy chattering, its variety of tones, its
screams, cries, and squalling. It is a shy recluse
liird, tenanting the recesses of the forest with its
male, but in the months of September and October
uniting into flocks of forty or fift)-, which straggle
irregularly through the woods in search of food,
acorns and berries.
During this season they lose part of their shyness,
and keep chattering to each other in a variety of
strange and querulous notes.
The blue jay builds a large nest, frequently in the
cedar, sometimes in an apple-tree, and lines it with
dry fibrous roots. The eggs, five in number, are of
a dull olive, spotted with brown. " The male is
particularly careful of not being heard near the
place, making his visits as silently and secretly as
possible. His favourite food is chestnuts, acorns,
and Indian corn ; he occasionally feeds on the cater-
pillars, and sometimes pays a plundering visit to the
orchard, cherry-row, and potato patch." He also
plunders the nests of small birds of their eggs and
young, tearing the callow brood by piecemeal, and
spreading alarm and sorrow around him. Sometimes
he will assault and kill full-grown birds, as warblers
and finches, and devour them.
To owls and hawks the blue jay manifests the most
inveterate antipathy, and joins with others to make
a train of persecutoi-s, which daringly annoy and tor-
ment the common enemy, till the hawk, singling out
the foremost, darts at it, and bears it off in triumph,
when in confusion and terror the crowd take flight
in different directions.
In captivity the blue jay soon becomes familiar,
and readily learns to utter words and sentences;
but, like all its race, it pilfers everything it can
carry away, hiding the stolen efi"efcts in various holes
and corners.
The common jay of Europe, too well known to
need a detailed description,displays very closely the
same habits and manners as its American relative,
and is equally noted for its variety of tones and
harsh cries, for its plundering propensities, and par-
tiality for acorns, beech-mast, &c., as well as for
cherries and peas. It breeds in the thickest coverts.
The nest consists of a cap-shaped basket of matted
roots, externally defended by an outer case of inter-
twined twigs, which also form a sort of platform,
secured to the fork of the branch on which the
structure re.sts.
The eggs are pale blue, thatched with yellowish
brown. Fig. 1543 represents the nest of the Euro-
pean jay (Garrulus glandarius). ,
1 544. — Cbypsirina,
Bill of. Crypsirina is the generic title given by
M.Vieillottoa group of birds termed, by LeVaillant,
Temia, and from which the genus Phrenotrix of
Dr. Horsfield can scarcely be separated. M. Tem-
minck ranges them under the title of Glaucopis.
Cuvier remarks, that these birds have the carriage
and tail of the Magpies, an elevated bill with the
upper mandible convex, and the base furnished with
velvety feathers, nearly as in the Birds of Paradise.
The species most anciently known is, he observes,
the Corvus varians of Latham, which is of a bronzed
green colour, and found in India and Africa.
Mr. Svvainson thus characterises Crypsirina : —
Bill shorter than the head, much compressed ; the
culmen considerably arched, and curved from the
base. Nostrils small, basal, concealed by incum-
bent feathers, which are either soft or setaceous.
Wings short, much rounded ; the primaries hardly
longer than the secondaries. Tail-feathers broad
and obtuse. Feet moderate, arboreal. The middle
toe and claw short, but as long as the tarsus.
1545. — The Wandering Pie
{Crypsirina vagahimdd). Pica vagabunda, Wag-
ler ; Dendrocitta vagabunda, Gould. This bird,
which is a native of the Himalaya Mountains,
is thus described by Gould, in his ' Century : ' —
" The specific denomination of this bird is be-
stowed upon it in consequence of its peculiar habit
of life. The Pica vagabunda, or Wandering Pie,
unlike the typical Pies, who remain constantly sta-
tionary in one neighbourhood, seeking for their food
in its vicinity, wanders from place to place, travel-
ling over a large space of ground, and not evincing
a partiality for any particular situation. The shorter
tarsus of this bird, indeed, and its more elongated
tail, are indicative of trees being its most usual
resort, where fruits and berries ofter a supply of its
natural food ; whereas in the more typical Picte the
longer tarsus and more elongated beak fit them for
digging in the ground, in which they almost solely
seek for subsistence. This species is more widely
distributed than any of its congeners, being found
in considerable abundance all over India. The
head, neck, and crest are of a smoke colour
or a blackish grey ; the back light cinnamon ; the
centre of the wings grey; the quills black; tail
grey, each feather being tipped largely with black ;
the under surface is pale-tawny ; the beak and tarsi
black. Length sixteen inches and a half; beak one
and a quarter ; tarsi one and a quarter ; tail ten
inches."
1546. — The Benteot
{Crypsirina Temia). Phrenotrix Temia, Horsfield.
Dr. Horsfield, who gives Corvus varians as the
synonym of his Phrenotrix Temia (the Chekifut or
Benteot of the Javanese), states that although not a
rare bird in Java, his Phrenotrix is by no means
familiar, and never approaches the villages and
habitations, like many others. " It can only be
observed near solitary hamlets situated in tracts
recently cleared for cultivation, where its food is
abundantly supplied by the insects contained in the
rich mould, and by the wild fruit-trees about the
skirts. In consequence of the shortness of the wings,
its motions are slow ; it is chiefly seen about noon
sailing heavily through the air in a right line
15-17.— Trimmeil Tio.
IMO.— Rookery on NevcuUe Exchange Spire.
344
5i46.— BfllUot.
1543.— Neit of European Jay.
0.44.
I5j3,— TliO Inomparalile.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATUKE.]
16S0.— P»nder'« Podoces.
34d
S46
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Crows.
towards the trees surrounding the openin(^ in the |
torest. The streni^th of the bill and of the claws
shows its adaptation to feed on fruit and insects."
( ' Zoological Researches in Java.') General colour
•ooty green, with bronzed reflexions.
1547.— Thk Trimmeb-Pm
(Cryptiraa temnura, Swainson). Glaucopis tem-
nura, Forster : Uala>as temnura, Vieillot. This bird,
which is a native of Cochin-China, is about twelve
inches in length. It is remarkable for a tail of gra-
duated feathers, each appearing as if cut and
trimmed at the tip with a pair of scissors. The
whole of the plumage is black, a little lustrous on
the wings and tail. Of its habits little is known.
1548. — ^Th« Nkst of the Magpie
{Pica caudata, Ray). Pica melanoleuca, Vieillot ;
Corvus Pica, Linngeus. The magpie is a native of
Europe generally, and is common in our island,
where it is noted for its destructiveness among
the young broods of feathered game, as pheasants,
partridges, &c. Nothing, in fact, comes amiss to
its voracious appetite — eggs, carrion, frogs, mice,
insects, fruits, and grain, are all acceptable : and it
is hated alike by the farmer and the gamekeeper.
It must, however, be confessed that, plunderer as it
is, it is an interesting bird. It is active, daring,
animated, and intelligent ; it is the first to give
shrill warning of the approach of the skulking fox,
the cat, the hawk, and the owl, and no bird harasses
the intruder with greater pertinacity. Resolutely
does it defend its nest, but it is too ready to attack
those of other species, which it mercilessly despoils ;
sometimes, however, meeting with a signal defeat.
The magpie is generally seen in pairs, but very
early in the spring, as we have often witnessed,
several assemble together, and in some retired field,
or on the skirts of a wood or coppice, appear to
hold a sort of conference, during which they utter
a clamorous chattering. On being suddenly dis-
turbed, they take to flight in different directions.
The nest of this bird is a substantial edifice,
generally placed in the top of a tall tree, or amidst
the dense branches of an elevated old hawthorn.
It consists of an external basket-work of sticks,
mostly thorns, well united together, those forming
the foundation beingmixed with turf and clay. The
inside of this basket-work, which is in the form of a
circular cup, is lined with a thick layer of well-
wrought clay, over which is arranged an inner layer
of pliable roots and fibres neatly interwoven. The
whole is then covered with an elevated dome
composed of entertwined sticks of the thorn or the
blackthorn ; this is evidently intended as a frame-
work of defence : an aperture is left in the side for
the ingress and egress of the bird. The whole mass
is of large size, and on the open-topped elm or ash
near the farm or cottage of the labourer the dark
ball is a conspicuous object. The eggs are of a
greenish-white mottled with brown. In captivity
the magpie is very amusing from its archness and
cunning ; it is fond of stealing slily behind people
and suddenly pecking their heels and then rapidly
hopping away. Glittering things attract its curiosity
and excite its cupidity, and many a lost article is
often recovered from the hiding-place to which it is
in the habit of carrying its plunder, and which by
watching its movements may be detected.
1549. — ^The Notcbackkr
(Nucifagra cart/ocaiactes). Corvus caryocatactess,
Linnaeus ; Casse-noix of the French ; Nocciolaja
of the Italians : Kurz und Langschnabliger Nuss-
knacker of Brehm : Tanner Heher (Fine Jay) or
TUrkischer Hobzschreyer of Frisch : Notwecka,
Notkraka, of the Swedes ; Noddekrige of the Nor-
wegians ; Aderyn y Crau of the ancient British,
Among the birds which prove how difiicult it is
to frame a system illustrative of natural affinities
may be enumerated the present. The nutcracker
in its general habits and manners resembles the jay,
but in many particulars it approximates to the
woodpeckers ; it climbs about the branches, using
its tail as a support, the feathers of which are often
much worn ; it bores the bark in search of insects,
and it nestles in the hollow of trees. Ornithologists
have, however, almost universally referred it to the
CorvidfiB, between which and the woodpeckers it
forms a link of union.
This species is of rare occurrence in our island,
being only a casual visitor, but is abundant in the
mountain forests of Norway, Sweden, and parts of
Germany, and in some districts is a bird of passage.
It is found also abundantly in Russia and Northern
Asia. The food of the nutcracker consists of the
seeds of the pine, berries, and nuts, which latter it
breaks by repeated strokes of the bill ; it also devours
insects and their larvae, in quest of which it climbs
about the trunk and branches, tapping the bark
with its bill, and inserting it into the crevices. It
is mostly seen in flocks, which allow of a near
approach, especially while busily engaged with the
cones of the pine-trees. The holes of decayed
trees are the places selected by this bird for nid ifica-
tion, and frequently enlarges the cavity with its
bill. The eggs are of a yellowish-grey colour, with
a few spots of bright grey-brown. Temminck states
that the nutcracker sometimes devours young birds
and eggs, like the jay.
In size the nutcracker equals a jackdaw, but the
tail is longer and the form more slender. The
plumage is reddish umber-brown ; the body, with
the exception of the head and rump, being dappled
with large white spots, which occupy the centre of
each feather ; wings and tail blackish shot with
green, the feathers of the latter, except the two
middle ones, tipped with white ; the plumage of
the female is less lively, the bill is longer than the
head, and conical ; the nostrils are concealed by
hairs directed forwards ; and of the anterior toes the
two outer ones are united at their base.
An allied species, Nucifraga hemispila, is a native
of the forests of the Himalaya range (see Gould's
• Century'). The Prince of Canino refei-s the Corvus
Columbianus of Wilson (a native of the western
parts of North America) to the genus Nucifraga.
1550.— Pandeb's Podoces
(Podoces Panderi). The genus Podoces was founded
by M. Fischer for a bird discovered by Dr. Pander
in the country of the Kirguis, beyond Oreniburg, and
of which the habits of life are analogous to those of
the crows, and to the Corvidse he consequently refers
it. He gives the following as generic characters: —
Bill moderate, bending down at its point, without a
notch, and slightly angular: the under mandible
shorter than the lower, receiving and covering the
edges of it ; nostrils large and covered with setaceous
overhanging feathers ; feet robust and long ; claws
triangular, very pointed and but little curved. The
Podoces Panderi is said to fly badly, but walk well ;
it lives in flocks. The general colour is greenish-
glaucous above ; line above the eyes white ; legs
greenish ; bill and claws black.
1551. — Thk Bai.d-headed Cbow
(Picatharles gymnocephalus, Lesson). This extra-
ordinary species (Corvus gymnocephalus of Tem-
minck), the native country of which is unknown,
constitutes the type of Lesson's genus Picathaites.
In some respects it reminds one of the vultures of
the genus Cathartes, but of its habits we are entirely
ignorant, nor are we thoroughly satisfied that it
belongs to the Corvidse. The bill is moderate, the
base without hairs, and furnished with a cere ;
nostrils in the middle of the bill, oval and open ;
head naked ; tarsi long ; claws feeble ; wings short
and rounded ; tail long and graduated.
The following is Temminck's description of the
species: — "The naked parts of the head offer a
particular character. "The whole of the auditory
meatus is completely destitute of feathers, and even
of hairs. A small border, or rudiment of membrane,
forms, below the orifice of the ear, a sort of external
concha, but little apparent, it is true, in the stuffed
specimen, but the extent of which must be remark-
able in the living bird. All this part of the organ
of hearing, as well as a part of each side of the occiput,
is covered by a black skin with a slightly projecting
orbicular border, and forming a rounded plaque.
The cere which envelops the base of the bill is
also black. All the rest of the naked parts of the
head, the mesial line of the occiput, which separates
the black plaques of the temples, and the upper
part of the top of the neck, appear to me to ha.ve
been red or rosy in the living subject ; a slight tint
of rosy-yellow covers these parts in those before us.
The whole of the nape is covered, clearly, by a
whitish and veiy short down. The front of the neck
and all the other parts are white ; the back, well
covered with thick-set feathers, is of an ashy-black ;
all the rest of the plumage is bistre-brown ; the feet
are yellow, and the bill is black. Length fifteen
inches." (Temm.)
The only specimen known was in the possession
of Mr. Leadbeater of London, and was conjectured
to have been brought from Guinea. Whether it
still remains in that gentleman's possession we have
not been able to ascertain.
1552. — The Paradise Gbakle
(Chalybaus paradiseus). Paradisea viridis of
Gmelin; le Chalybfi de la Nouvelle Guinde,
BufFon ; le grand Chalybe of Le Vaillant ; Oiseau de
Paradis vert of Sonnerat ; Chalvbseus paradisseus,
Cuvier (1829).
This brilliant species was by Gmelin referred to
the Birds of Paradise, and by Cuvier, in his last
edition of the ' Regne Animal,' to a position near the
Cassicans (Barita, Cuv.; Cracticus, Vieill.). It will
probably be found to constitute one of the links
between the Corvidae and Paradiseidte.
The Paradise Grakle lives solitary in the forests of
New Guinea, where it perches on the tallest trees,
feeding upon fruits and berries. According to
Lesion, its manners have a great analogy to those of
the crows. It is termed Mansineme in the Papuan
language. The length of this bird is nearly sixteen
inches. The beak is large and strong, as are also
the legs and toes. The plumage is iridescent
metallic green varying with tints of violet, burnished
on the neck and chest with gold and silver on a
steel-blue ground. Its history is yet to be ascer-
tained.
Family PARADISEin.^ (BIRDS OF PARA-
DISE).
Among the feathered glories of creation the Birds
of Paradise take the first rank. Nature has lavished
on them the most attractive graces of plumage and
the most effulgent tints. When first brought to
Europe, they were regarded with the utmost admira-
tion, and romantic credulity threw an additional air
of interest around them. They were regarded as
aerial sylphs, whose home was the bright expanse
of sky, where all the functions of life were carried on,
their only mode of rest being that of suspending
themselves occasionally from the branches by the
filamentous feathers of the tail ; legs they had none,
and they never touched the earth ; their food was
the morning's dew. This tissue of fiction did not,
however, originate with the traveller who first
introduced, as is supposed, the Bird of Paradise (P.
apoda) into Europe, viz., Antonio Pigafetta, who
accompanied Magalhaens in his expedition, and
returned to Seville in 1522. This voyage distinctly
notes the fact of the legs, which arestrong and large,
being cut off by the natives previously to their
selling the skins. Marcgrave, John de La'el, Clusius
Wormius, and Bontius attested to the same fact.
Yet the celebrated Aldrovandus, having only seen
mutilated specimens, accused Pigafelta of falsehood.
Scaliger believed the bird to be footless, as did
Jonston (1657) ; and, last, Count de Buffon, who
adorning errors in the graces of polished diction,
paintsthemasbird9>"qui ne marchent ni nenagent,
et ne peuvent prendre de mouvement qu'en volant."
This fable Linnaeus has commemorated in the
appropriation of the term Apoda to one of the most
remarkable species.
The Birds of Paradise are natives of New Guinea
and the adjoining islands.
Previously, however, to introducing the true Birds
of Paradise to attention, we must refer to a magnifi-
cent denizen of New Guinea, for which Vieillot has
founded the genus Astrapia, and which he placed ^
near those birds, though it approximates in somoj
points to the thrushes, in which family group Cuvietf^
arranges it, under the name of Merle de la Guinea
It is the following :
1553. — The Incomparable
{Astrapia gularis). Pie de Paradis. This bird"!
distinguished by a tail three times longer than tha
body, a double crest on the head, and by income
parable magnificence of plumaire," which glitters I
blaze of iridescence. It is a native of New Guinea
hut is by no means common, and we know nothin
respecting its habits. The female is not crested
and her colours are less brilliant than those of he
gorgeous mate.
Of the true Birds of Paradise we may direct
tention to the following species :
1554, 1555. — The King Bird or Paradisb
{Cincinnurus regi'us). Paradisea regia, Linn.; It
Manucode of Buff'on. This rare specie-s, one of thd
smallest of the group, is a native of the Molucc
It is about the size of a sparrow. Its upper plumag
is intense purplish chestnut : a zone of golden greefl
extends across the chest ; from each side under thfl
shoulder springs a fan-like plume of six or seven
dusky feathers, tipped with the richest golden green j
from the tail-coverts spring two long slender shaltl
each elegantly terminating in a broad emerald web
rising from one side only of the shaft, and disj)ose<
into a flat curl ; under parts of body white. In it
habits this species is said to be solitary, feeding od
fruits and berries.
1550. — ^Thk Superb Bibd of Paradise
{Lophorina superha). Paradisea supevba, Linn,
le Superbe, Buffon. In this species the scapula
feathers form a long spreading plume capable 6t
being elevated at pleasure, and there are two pointeO
lappets on the chest ; with the exception of thear
latter, which are of the most brilliant burnishei
steel-green, the colour of the plumage is velvet*!
black, iridescent with green and Violet. Length
nine inches.
1557. — The Golden Bird or Paradise
{Parotia sexsetacea). Paradisea aurea, Linn. ; la
Sifilet, Buft'on. The general colour of this specie^
is velvety-black ; the top of the head is clothe
with a greyish crest, and each side of the occiput i
ornamented with three long slender shafts, ending
in a small oval vane; back of the neck changeable
Birds of Paradise.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
347
golden green; flanks covered with black loose Ions;
feathers, covering the wings and hiding the tail, and
capable of being raised up obliquely. Feathers of
the throat large and scale-shaped, bordered with
iridescent green and <:o!d ; tail-feathers velvety,
with some long floating filaments. Length about
eleven inches.
1558. — The MAGxincKST Bird of Paeadisk
(^Samnlia magnified). Paradisea magnifiea, Linn. ;
le Magnifique of Biiffon. This beauurul bird is of
an orange-chestnut above, deeper on the top of the
head and back, and sometimes inclining to purple ;
the tips of the wings and the tail are brown; the
throat is blackish, with a purple gloss ; the breast
and under parts aie covered with scale-shajied
feathers of a deep changeable golden green, with a
blue reflection down the breast. From. the back of
the neck springs a double rufi', composed of slen-
der plumes, with slightly dilated extremities ; the
first series are short and orange-coloured, with a
black spot at the end of each feather; the others
are longer and pale yellow. The wing-coverts are
orange-coloured, with transverse blackish crescents ;
from the tail-coveits spring two long slender shafts
of golden green.
1559, li560, 1561. — Emerald Bird of Paradise
(^Paradisea apoda). Body above, breast, and abdo-
men, marroonbrown ; front covered with close-set
feathers of a velvety-black, shot with emerald-green ;
top of the head and upper part of the neck citron-
yellow ; upper part of the throat golden green ; front
of the neck violet-brown ; flanks adorned with
bundles of very long plumes, with loose barbules of a
yellowish-white, slightly spotted towards the ex-
tremity with purpled-red : these plumes extend far
beyond the tail-feathers. Two long horny shafts,
furnished with stiff hairs, take their rise on each side
of the rump, and extend somewhat circularly to
a length of nearly two feet. Beak horn-colour; feet ,
lead-colour; length from the end of the beak to the
extremity of the tail-feathers, thirteen inches.
Female. — Front and fore part of the neck of a
deep marroon-biown ; head, neck, and back red-
dish-yellow; wings and tail of a deep and brilliant
marroon-colour ; bellyand breast white ; no floating
plumes. (Fig. 1561.)
This species, which is not so common as the little
emerald fParadisea Papuensis, Latham), inhabits
the islands of Arou, Tidor, and Wagiou, as well as
New Guinea.
We owe the most modern account of these birds
in a state of nature to M. Lesson> who, though he
deeply laments his short stay at New Guinea (only
thirteen days), appears to have made the best use of
his time.
"The Birds of Paradise," says M. Lesson, "or at
least the emerald (Paradisea apoda, Linn.), the only
species concerning which we possess authentic in-
telligence, live in troops in the vast forests of the
country of the Papuans, a group of islands situated
nnder the equator, and which is composed of the
islands Arou, Wagiou, and the great island called
New Guinea. They are birds of passage, changing
their quarters according to the monsoons. The fe-
males congregate in troops, assemble upon the tops
of the highest trees in the forests, and all cry
together to call the males. These last are always
alone in the midst of some fifteen females, which
compose their seraglio, after the manner of the gal-
linaceous birds.
"The Manucode presented itself twice in our
•hooting excursions, and we killed the male and fe-
male. This species would seem to be monogamous,
or perhaps it is only separated into pairs at the pe-
riod of laying. In the woods this bird has no bril-
liancy; its fine-coloured plumage is not discovered,
and the tints of the female are dull. It loves to
take its station on the teak-trees, whose ample
foliage shelters it, and whose small fruit forms its
nourishment. Its irides are brown, and the feet are
of a delicate azure. The Papuans call it Saya.
" Soon after our arrival on this land of promise
(New Guinea) for the naturalist, I was on a shoot-
ing excursion. Scarcely had I walked some hun-
dred paces in those ancient forests, the daughters of
time, whose sombre depth was perhaps the most
magnificent and stately sight that I had ever seen,
when a Bird of Paradise struck my view : it flew
gracefully and in undulations ; the feathers of its
sides formed an elegant and aijrial plume, which,
without exaggeration, bore no remote resemblance
lo a brilliant meteor. Surprised, astounded, enjoy-
ing an inexpressible gratification, I devoured this
fplendid bird with my eyes ; but my emotion was
80 great that I forgot to shoot at it, and did not re-
collect that I had a gun in my hand till it was far
away.
" One can scarcely have a just idea of the Para-
dise-birds from the skins which the Papuans sell to
the Malays, and which come to us in Europe. These
people formerly hunted the birds to decorate the
turbans of their chiefs. They call them Mambfi-
fore in their tongue, and kill them during the night
by climbing the trees where they perch, and shoot-
ing them with arrows made for the purpose, and
very short, which they make with the stem of the
leaves of a palm (latanier). The Campongs or vil-
lages of Mappia and of Emberbakene are celebrated
for the quantity of birds which they prepare, and all
the art of their inhabitants is directed to taking off'
the feet, skinning, thrusting a little stick through
the body, and drying it in the smoke. Some, more
adroit, at the solicitation of the Chinese merchants,
dry them with the leet on. The price of a Bird of
Paradise among the Papuans of the coast is a piastre
at least. We killed, during our stay at New
Guinea, a score of these birds, which I prepared for
the most part. ,
" The emerald, when alive, is of the size of the com-
mon jay : its feet and beak are bluish ; the irides
are of a brilliant yellow ; its motions are lively and
agile ; and in general, it never perches except upon
the summit of the most lofty trees. When it de-
scends, it is for the purpose of eating the fruits of
the lesser trees, or when the sun in full power com-
pels it to seek the shade. It has a fancy for certain
trees, and makes the neighbourhood re-echo with its
piercing voice. This cry indicated to us the move-
ments of these birds. We were on the watch for
them, and it was thus that we came to kill them ;
for when a male Bird of Paradise has perched, and
hears a rustling in the stillness of the forest, he is
silent and does not move. His call is voike, voike,
votke, voiko, strongly articulated. The cry of the
female is the same, but she raises it much more
feebly. The latter, deprived of the brilliant plumage
of the male, is clad in sombre attire. We met with
them assembled in scores, on every tree, while the
males, always solitary, appeared but rarely.
" It is at the rising and setting of the sun that the
Bird of Paradise goes to seek its food. In the
middle of the day it remains hidden under the ample
foliage of the teak-tree, and comes not forth. It
seems to dread the scorching rays of the sun, and to
be unwilling to expose itself to the attacks of a
rival
"In order to shoot Birds of Paradise, travellers
who visit New Guinea should remember that it is
necessary to leave the ship early in the morning, to
arrive at the foot of a teak-tree or fig-tree, which
these birds frequent for the sake of the fruit —
(our stay was fiom the 26th of July to the 9th of
Ausrust)— before half-past four, and to remain mo-
tionless till some of the males, urged by hunger,
light upon the branches within range. It is indis-
pensably requisite to have a gun which will carry
very far with effect, and that the grains of shot
should be large ; for it is very difficult to kill an
emerald outright, and if he be only wounded it is
vei-y seldom that he is not lost in thickets so dense
that there is no finding the way without a compass.
" The little emerald Paradise-bird (Paradisea Pa-
puensis) feeds, without doubt, on many substances
in a state of liberty. I can affirm that it lives on
the seeds of the teak-tree, and on a fruit called ami-
hou, of a rosy white, insipid and mucilaginous, of
the size of a small European fig, and which belongs
to a tree of the genus Ficus."
M. Lesson then goes on to state that he saw two
Birds of Paradise which had been kept in a cage for
more than six months by the principal Chinese
merchant at Amboyna. They were always in mo-
tion, and were fed with boiled rice, but they had a
special fondness for cockroaches (biattae).
Bennett, in his 'Wanderings,' gives the following
account of a Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda)
which he found in Mr. Beale"s aviary at Macao,
where it had been confined nine years, exhibiting
no appearance of age : — ■
"This elegant creature has a light, playful, and
graceful manner, with an arch look ; dances about
when a visitor approaches the cage, and seems
delighted at being made an object of admira-
tion ; its notes are very peculiar, resembling the
cawing of the raven, but its tones are by lar
more varied. During four months of the year, from
May to August, it moults. It washes itself regu-
larly twice daily, and, after having performed its
ablutions, throws its delicate feathers up nearly over
the head, the quills of which feathers have a pecu-
liar structure, so as to enable the bird to effect this
object. Its food during confinement is boiled rice,
mixed up with soft egg, together with plantains,
and living insects of the grasshopper tribe ; these
insects, wlien thrown to him, the bird contrives to
catch in his beak with great celerity : it will eat in-
sects in a living state, but will not touch them when
dead.
" I observed the bird, previously to eating a grass-
hopper given him in an entire or unmutilated state,
place the insect upon the perch, keep it firmly fixed
with the claws, and divesting it of the legs, wings,
&c., devour it, with the head always placed first.
The servant who attends upon him to clean the
cage, give him food, &c., strips off the legs, wings,
&c., of the insects when alive, giving them to the
bird as fast as he can devour them. It rarely alights
upon the ground, and so proud is the creature of its
elegant dress, that it never permits a soil to remain
upon it, and it may frequently be seen spreading
out its wings and feathers, and regarding its splendid
self in every direction, to observe whether the whole
of its plumage is in an unsullied condition. It does
not suffer from the cold weather during the winter
season at Macao, though exposing the elegant bird
to the bleak northerly wind is always very particu-
larly avoided
'•The sounds uttered by this bird are very pecu-
liar ; that which appears to be a note of congratula-
tion resembles somewhat the cawing of a raven, but
changes to a varied scale of musical gradations, as
he. Id, ho, haw, repeated rapidly and frequently, as
lively and playfully he hops round and along his
perch, descending to the second perch to be ad-
mired, and congratulate the stranger who has made
a visit to inspect him ; he frequently raises his voice,
sending forth notes of such power as to be heard at
a long distance, and as it could scarcely be supposed
so delicate a bird could utter ; these notes are tchock,
whock, whoch, whock, uttered in a barking tone, the
last being given in a low tone as a conclusion.
"A diawing of the bird, of the natural size, was
made by a Chinese artist. The bird advanced stead-
fastly towards the picture, uttering at the same time
its cawing congratulatory notes; it did not appear
excited by rage, but pecked gently at the repre-
sentation, jumping about the perch, knocking its
mandibles together with a clattering noise, and
cleaning them against the perch, as if welcoming
the arrival of a companion. After the trial of the
picture, a looking-glass was brought, to see what
effect it would produce upon the bird, and the re-
sult was nearly the same; he regarded the reflec-
tion of himself most steadfastly in the mirror, never
quitting it during the time it remained before him.
When the glass was removed to the lower from the
upper perch he instantly followed, but would not
descend upon the floor of the cage when it was
placed so low
" One of the best opportunities of seeing this
splendid bird in all its beauty of action, as well as
display of plumage, is early in the morning, when
he makes his toilet ; the beautiful subalar plumage
is then thrown out, and cleaned from any spot that
may sully its purity by being passed gently through
the bill ; the short chocolate-coloured wings are ex-
tended to the utmost, and as he keeps them in a
steady, flapping motion, as if in imitation of their
use in flight, at the same time raising up the deli-
cate long feathers over the back, which are spread
in a chaste and elegant manner, floating like films
in the ambient air
" I never yet beheld a soil on its feathers. After
expanding the wings, it would bring them together
so as to conceal the head, then bending it gracefully,
it would inspect the state of its plumage under-
neath. This action it repeats in quick succession,
uttering at the time its croaking notes; it then
pecks and cleans its plumage in every part within
reach, and throwing out the elegant and delicate
tuft of feathers underneath the wings, seemingly
with much care, and with not a little pride, they
are cleaned in succession, if required, by throwing
them abroad, elevating them, and passing them in
succession through the bill. Then turning its back
to the spectator, the actions above mentioned are
repeated, but not in so careful a manner : elevating
its tail and long shaft feathers, it raises the delicate
plumage of a similar character to the subalar, form-
ing a beautiful dorsal crest, and, throwing its feathers
up with much grace, appears as proud as a lady
dressed in her full ball-dress. Having completed
the toilet, he utters the usual cawing notes, at the
same time looking archly at the spectators, as if
ready to receive all the admiration that it considers
its elegant form and display of plumage demands ;
it then takes exercise by hopping, in a rapid but
graceful manner, from one end of the upper perch
to the other, and descends suddenly upon the second
perch, close to the bars of the cage, looking out for
the grasshoppers which it is accustomed to receive
at the time
" His prehensile power in the feet is very strong,
and, still retaining his hold, the bird will turn him-
self round upon the perch. He delights to be shel-
tered from the glare of the sun, as that luminary is a
great source of annoyance to him if permitted to
dart its fervant rays directly upon the cage. The
iris, frequently expanding and contracting, adds to
the arch look of this animated bird, as he throws
the head on one side to glance at visitors, uttering
the cawing notes or barking loud. . • . Hav-
ing concluded, he jumps down to the lower perch
in search of donations of living grasshoppers.
"The bird is not at all ravenous in its habits of
feeding, but it eats rice leisurely, almost grain by
grain. Should any of the insects thrown into his
■y^ S IMV-Emenld Bird of I>>nidiie.
■'■" 348
'^ ur.2.— lirJaol ParadUc.
^^%
m^.)-
15«3 — Clulian FUnKuUer.
4^ M^
15li8.— lU-Bil or Fire-cn-jtiJ Tocraco.
lji;0 — Vatin;«t«lfTi>tw<r*.
1561.— Ileiid oi' Seaeij.il To'ii-^o,...
1571.~II«aa and Foot of XlhiiiocRoa HocnbiU.
1S64.— Senegal Coly.
1565.— Senegal Touricij.
1570.— Violet rUiitain-e-itPr.
!5 iT.— Kiucro^lfil To:
349
350
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[TOURACOS.
cage fall upon the floor, he will not descend to thena,
appearins; to be fearful that in so doing he should
soil his delicate plumage ; he therefore seldom or
never descends, except to perform his ablutions in
the pan of water placed at the bottom of the cage
expressly for his use."
In the ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc," 1340, p. 13, will be
found an account of the same individual by Mr. G.
T. Lay, which embodies the same facts as those
detailed by Mr. Bennett, exceptinc: that he explains
more clearly the song or "serenade" of the bird,
the note* of which are repeated in harmonic pro-
gression, thus : —
S=:te
DtrJt
3?
1
"The first four notes are very exactly intonated,
very clear, and very sweet ; the last three are re-
peated in a kind of caw, a very high refinement of
the voice of a daw or a crow, yet possessing a strik-
ing resemblance ; and this susrgests a lively affinity
between the crows and the Paradise-birds; while
this serenade is uttered, the black pupil, encircled
by a golden iris, waxes or wanes as the creature
wishes to contemplate more distinct or nearer ob-
jects."
Fig. 1562 represents a group of Birds of Paradise :
a, the Emerald ; b, the Golden ; c, the Incompa-
rable ; d, the Cloudy ; e, the Superb.
Family PHYTOTGMID.B (PI>ANT-CUTTERS).
Some ornithologists place the Plant-Cutters, the
Colies, the Touracos, and Plantain-eaters under
one family head, of which they constitute so many
distinct tribes ; we are inclined, however, to regard
them as the types of distinct forms, that is, consti-
tuting so many family sections ; and this appears to
be the opinion of Mr. G. Gray, excepting that he
considers the Plant-cutters to be one of the tribes
composing the extensive family of the Fringillidoe.
Mr. Swainson characterizes the Plant-cutters as
having the bill serrated, but not swollen, and the
feet with two or with three anterior toes, and one
backward. In the genus Hireus the toes are only
three. In size and aspect he compares these birds
to the bullfinches. The species are limited in num-
ber.
1563. — ^The Chilian Plant-Cutteb
{Phytotcma rara). It is to Molina that we are prin-
cipally indebted for our knowledge of the habits of
tins bird, which, from the depredations it commits,
is subject to incessant persecution. It feeds on
plants of the most tender nature, cutting them off
close to the root ; and, not content with merely satis-
fying its appetite, it has the destructive habit of
cropping close a quantity of them without touching
them further ; thus injuring the fields of rising
grain while the blade is peeping above the sur-
face.
The Chilian Plant-cutter builds its nest on the
most lofty trees, in obscure and but little frequented
spots, and, consequently, generally rears its brood in
safety, notwithstanding the reward which Molina
says is (or in his time was) given to children and
other persons who destroy the eggs.
The same writer states that its numbers were in
his time considerably diminished, and adds, " I do
not know whether this circumstance is because a
price is set on its head, or on account of its naturally
small degree of fecundity."
In size this bird nearly equals a thrush ; its bill is
rather large, straight, conical, and with the edges
serrated ; the tail is moderate and rounded. The
colour is dusky-grey upon the back, rather clearer
on the under surface ; the points of the quills and
the tail are black. Its voice is a hoarse, interrupted
note.
Family COLIAD^ (THE COLIES).
These birds, the Oiseaux-Souris, or Mouse-Birds, of
Le Vaillant, so called from their sombre colours,
soft and silky plumage, and mode of creeping about
the branches, are natives of Africa and India. They
are gregarious in their habits, and infest gardens and
cultivated spots for the sake of fruits, upon which
they subsist. It is seldom that they are seen upon
the ground ; like titmice, they climb about the
branches, clinging in every attitude, and assisting
themselves with the beak in the manner of parra-
keets. They build their nests, which are spacious
and round, in little groups, and, as Le Vaillant
•tates, sleep suspended with their heads downwards,
and that when it is cold, they are found so be-
numbed in the morning that they may be taken one
after the other. Their flesh is delicate. The
females lay five or six eggs.
1564. — The Senegal Coly
(Colius Senegalengii, Latham). Bill short, conical,
slightly compressed, with the upper mandible some-
what arched, and the edges of both serrated ; wings ]
long: tail very long and graduated; feet well
formed lor clinging; the eye is surrounded by a !
naked reddish skin ; the general plumage is pearl- ll
grey with greenish reflexions, excepting the i
Ibrehead, which is yellow, and the abdomen, which
IS ruddy. !
Family MUSOPHAGID^ (PLANTAIN-
E.ATEltS).
This family contains the genera Corythaix, Chizae- 1
rhis, and Musophaga. In these genera the bill is '
serrated, and the outer of the anterior toes capable
of being directed obliquely backwards. |
The genus Coiythaix is' thus characterized :— Bill j
short, high and greatly compressed, with the ridge
arched ; head crested, the frontal feathers reposing
over the nostrils; wing4_short and rounded; tail \
long, broad, and rounded; feet strong : claws short;
plumage lustrous and silky. The Touracos are
most beautiful birds ; and leed principally on soft
fruits, disj)laying great address among the branches
of the trees. They are natives of Africa, and tenant
the forests, perching on the highest branches, often
out of the reach of gunshot : tlieir voice is sonorous.
They breed, like Toucans, in hollow trees. In
captivity, judging from the individuals we have per-
sonally seen, they are very gentle and soon become
familiar. Their size exceeds that of our common
jay ; the prevailing colour of the plumage is green,
diversified with violet, purple, and red. In the
' Proceeds. Zool. Soc.,' 1834, p. 3, will be found an
account of the anatomy ot the Coiythaix porphyreo-
lopha, by Professor Owen, and in the 'Proceeds.'
for 1836, p. 32, our account of the dissection of
the Corythaix Buttbnii.
1565. — The Senegal Tocbaco
(^Corythaix Seneyalensis). In this species the crest
consists of long silky feathers which sweep back-
wards over the top of the head ; when, however, the
bird is excited, the crest is elevated, and assumes a
compressed subconical shape, giving to the head a
helraeted appearance. Fig. 1566 represents the
head of this species, and well displays the form of
the beak, the extent of naked skin around the eye,
and the arrangement of the plumes of the crest.
1567. — The Fibe-cbested Touraco
{Corylhnix erythroloplms). C. igniceps, Lesson;
Alusophaga Paulina, Temminck. In this sjjecies
the silky crest is erect, compressed, and of a red
colour ; the sides of the head and throat are white ;
the general plumage is green, inclining to bluish on
the under parts ; the (|mll-feathers are rich purple-
violet; the bill is yellow; the feet dusky; eyes
large, red, and brilliant. Fig. 1568 represents the
head, which may be compared with that of the
Senegal Touraco,
In the 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc,' June 14, 1831, is the
description of the C. porphyreolopha. Vigors; and
in the ' Proceeds.' for 1839, p. 34, the description
of a new species, the C. macrorhynchus, Fraser.
It was in pursuit, we believe, of the Corythaix
Buffonii that Le Vaillant met with an accident that
might have terminated the enthusiastic traveller's
adventures. Having succeeded in bringing a touraco
to the ground from its lofty perch, he could not
immediately find it, and stamping in his vexation at
the loss, little aware of what was beneath him,
broke through into one of the covered pits which
the Hottentots dig for the purpose of catching
buffaloes, elephants, &c.
1569. — The V.\bieoated Toubaco
(Chizcerltis variegata). Touraco huppe^col of Le
Vaillant ; Phasianus Africanus, Latham ; Muso-
phaga vaiiegata, Vieillot.
The genus Chizaerhis differs from Corythaix in
the greater size and sharpness of the bill, in the
lengthened form of the wings, and in the nostrils
being unobscured by feathers ; habits, those of the
Touracos in general. The present bird is a native
of Africa. Its colour is light grey above, a blackish
stripe down each feather : top of the head and
throat as far as the breast chestnut-brown; under
plumage beyond the breast white, each feather
having a dark central stripe ; quill-feathers blackish,
I with a spot of pure white, varying in size at the
ji middle of the inner webs ; tertiaries and middle tail-
ji feathers grey, tipped with black; lateral feathers
I black ; bill yellow ; legs grey ; crest placed on the
back of the head. Total length twenty inches.
1570. — The Violet Pi.a>taix-Eatee
{Musopliaga violacea). In this genus the bill
resembles that of Chizaerhis, but the base enormously
dilated so as to spread like a casque or helmet over
the fore part of the head as far as the crown, where
its thickened sides form a semicircle ; nostrils naked,
oval, open, and pierced in the middle of the bill;
wings, feet, and tail, as in Coiythaix.
This richly-coloured and magnificent bird is a
native of the Gold Coast and Senegal. lis descrip-
tion is as follows: — Bill rich yellow passing into
crimson orbits and crimson ; feathers of the crown
close and fine, and of a rich crimson ; a white mark
beginning below the eye extends above the car;
secondary and part of the primary quills carmine,
with lilac reflexions margined and tipped with
blackish violet, which is the general colour of the
plumage, only that it changes to a very deep green
on the under parts, and is very rich on the tail ;
legs strong and black.
Family BUCERID^ (HORNBILLS).
These strange-looking birds, characterizd by the
enormous development of the beak, are natives of
India and Africa. Not only is the beak of immense
magnitude, but the upper mandible is furnished
with projecting appendages, adding greatly to its
entire dimensions, and in some species encroaching
over the top of the head. These appendages in-
crease with age ; in young birds they are very small,
and their figure is undefined, and it is gradually
that they acquire their enormous dimensions. The
immense beak, thus furnished, seems to be heavier
than it is (and it is by no means light), for the
additional appendage is cellular internally ; the
edges of both mandibles are roughly notched. The
structure of the toes and the shortness of the tarsi
of the Hornbilis indicate arboreal habits. The
middle and outer toes are united as far as the second
1 joint, and the under surface of the whole is flat and
I palm-like in order to give a firm close hold upon
: the branch (see Fig. 1571, the head and foot of
Buceros Rhinoceros ; and Fig. 157'i, a section of the
skull). In their food these birds appear to be om-
nivorous, fruits, eggs, young birds, reptiles, and
even carrion forming their diet. Of the fruit of tiie
Ficus Indica and of the Banyan, they are said to be
very fond, and also, according to Bontius, of nut-
megs, which impart an aromatic flavour to the flesh,
which is delicate : this account applies more ex-
clusively to the Buceros Hydrocorax, Linnaeus; for
respecting the Buceros Rhinoceros he says, " It
lives on the carcasses and intestines of animals, and
waits upon the hunters who kill wild cattle, boars,
and stags, to gorge itself with the entrails of the
slain beasts."
M. Lesson sums up the habits of the Hornbilis
thus : — Those of Africa live on carrion : those of the
East Indies seek lor fruits, especially nutmegs, and
their flesh thence acquires a delicious flavour.
Their flight is performed by repeated strokes of the
wings, and the air which they displace, joined to
the clattering of their mandibles, occasions a great
and very disquieting noise in the forests, when the
cause is unknown. This noise, capable of inspiring
terror, does not ill resemble those flaws of rough
and sudden winds ("grains de vent brusques et
subits") which arise so unexpectedly between the
tropics, and blow so violently. The Europeans
established at the Moluccas think that the lurrows
which are seen on the bill of the Hornbil.ls are the
result of age, and that each furrow signifies a year;
whence the name of Jerarvogel, which they give to
these birds. Mr. Swainson remarks that tl'ie Horn-
bills are gregarious noisy birds, generally of a very
large size, and are restricted to the Old World ; that
they are omnivorous, feeding both on animals and
vegetables ; that some, however, seem only to par-
take of the latter food ; while others, upon the
authority of Le Vaillant, feed upon carrion. The
Buceros cavatus dissected by Mr. Owen was observed
to be more attached to animal than to vegetable
food, and would quit any other substance if a dead
mouse was oft'ered to it. This it would swallow
entire, after squeezing it twice or thrice with the
bill ; and no castinirs were noticed. Mr. Owen,
however, adds that Petiver has borne testimony to
its regurgitating habits.
The progressive motion of these birds on the
ground is by hopping or jumping along. Major-
General Hardwicke expresses surprise at this, and
at their perching with such security, as their feet
are formed for walking, and better suited to the
ground than the trees ; an error which a considera-
tion of the form and shortness of the tarsi, the
structure of the toes, and the general contour of
the birds might, one would think, have prevented.
Active and alert, notwithstanding the magnitude
of their beaks, these birds lightly traverse the
branches of the forest, and leap from one to an-
other till the highest is attained : they then often
stop and utter a loud roaring sound, which may be
heard at a considerable distance, and is alarming to
those who do not know whence it proceeds. The
noise thus uttered, and which is most probably
their call-note, throws a light upon the design of
the hollow protuberance surmounting the bill ; it
acts as a sounding-board, increasing the reverbera-
tion of the air. With regard to the huge beak
itself, many conjectures have been entertained as
Hoopoes.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
351
to its peculiar uses. It has been suggested as a
reason for its development, that it perhaps con-
stitutes a necessary weapon of defence against mon-
keys, and other animals which may seek to assail
its nest: while some have supposed that it might
be employed in dragging snakes and lizards fiom
their lurking-places, or young birds and eggs from
the recesses of the trunks of aged trees. The
tongue is short, triangular, and smooth. For an
account of the anatomy of the hornbill, see ' Pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1833, p. 102, et
seq.
1573. — The Rhinoceros Hornbill
I
(Buceros Rhinoceros). This species is a native of
India and the Indian Islands, and is to be seen in
most museums, specimens being often brought to
Europe. Though there may be some variety from
age and circumstances, the bill will be generally
found to be about ten inches long and of a yel-
lowish-white ; the upper mandible red at the base,
the lower black. The horn, or casque, varied with
black and white. The body black, of a dirty white
below and posteriorly; tail about twelve inches,
the feathere white at the base and tip, black in the
middle ; feet and claws obscure grey. The feathers
of the cheeks and back of the neck are loose and
hair-iike.
1574. — The Concave Hornbill
{Buceros cavatiis). This large species is a native
of India, the Himalaya range, Java, and most of
the islands in the Indian Archipelago. It is figured
in the ' Century ' by Mr. Gould, who thus describes I
it : — "Throat, ear-coverts, circle round the eye, and
a narrow band at the occipital edge of the protu- .
berance of the beak, black ; neck dirty straw- |
colour, the feathers of the back of the neck elon- i
irated ; the body and wings black, greater coverts i
and quill-feathers tipped with white ; thighs, upper
and under tail-coverts, white, as is the tail also, ;
with the exception of a broad black band about
three inches from the tip ; beak yellowish, inclining \\
to scarlet at the tip; under mandible black at the j
base ; tarsi black. The food of the Buceros cava- '•
tus, like that of other hornbills, consists of fruits, j
berries, flesh, and even carrion ; in short, it may be'
considered as strictly omnivorous." (Gould.) il
We may add that this and the other species have '
the habit of throwing their food up in the air with
a jerk, and dexterously catching if, when they
swallow it at once.
Family UPUPID^ (HOOPOES).
This limited family group has been a sort of stum-
bling-block to ornithologists, who have differed
vvidely as to its aflSnities, and consequently its
situation in a natural arrangement. Linnaeus placed
the Hoopoe near the Bee-eaters ; Meyer, between the
Orioles and Cuckoos ; Vieil lot. Vigors, and S wainson,
in the same group with the Promerops ; the Prince'
of Canino assigns it a place between the Kingfisher
and Humming-birds. For ourselves we are strongly
inclined to believe that the Hoopoe is very nearly
allied to the great birds just noticed, viz., the I
Hornbills, and such, we believe, is the opinion of I
Mr. Gould. There is much in form, food, and
habits in which they agree; the beak in the Hoopoe,
it is true, is slender and elongated, arched, triangular,
and destitute of appendages, but it is used in the
same manner and for the same purposes as that of
the Hornbill, namely, for seizing food, as insects,
squeezing them to death, and throwing them with a
jerk into the throat. The bill, moreover, is short and
nearly straight, with a cylindrical point in the young,
and gradually acquires its full development, which
is in fact that of horn continued in extension far
beyond the true osseous mandibles. (See Fig. 1575,
Head of Hoopoe.) The tongue is short and triquel
tral , the feet, from the increased length of the hind
toe and size of the nail, are better adapted for ter-
restrial progression, but the middle and outer toes
are united as far as the first joint. In the general
contour, and in the arrangement of the markings of
the plumage, we may defect a resemblance to the
Hornbills, as also in their mode of nidification
namely, in the hollows of decayed trees. Without'
however, insisting on this point, or entering into a
disquisition foreign to our present design, let us at
once proceed to give some account of the economy
of the Hoopoes, of which three species are recog-
nised—one African, another Indian, a third almost
universally spread, being found in Europe, India,
China, and other parts of Asia, and in Africa,
1576, 1577, 1578. -Thk Hoopob
{Upupa Epops, Linn.). This is the t-rra^], (Epops) of
the Greeks (Aristot., 'Hist. Anira.,' i. 1; ix. 11 ; ix.
15, 49 ; Aristoph., ' Birds,' 228. et seq. ; Pausanias,
X. 4) ; Upupa and Epops of the ancient Italians
(Plmy, 'Nat. Hist.,' x. 29; xxx. C ; Ovid.'Metam.,
VI.). It IS the Buba, Upega, Gallo del Paradiso,
Galleto de magio, Pubula, Bubbola, Pupifa, and
Upupa of the modern Italians ; Hupe, Huppe, Put-
put, Huput, and Lupoge of the French; el Abubilla
of the Spanish ; Wiedehopf of the Germans ; de
Hoppe of the Netherlanders; Hazfogel of the
Swedes ; Her-fugl of the Danes ; Smerda Kaura of
Scopoli; Dung-bird and Hoopoe of the modern
British : y Goppog of the ancient British.
The Hoopoe is a bird of migratory habits, extend-
ing as far north in the summer as Denmark, Sweden,
and Russia. It is common in many parts of
Germany, Holland, France, and Spain ; but is, com-
paratively speaking, a rare visitor to our island,
though instances have been known of its having
bred in this country, and more undoubtedly would
occur, did not the appearance of a pair of these
birds call up incessant attempts at their destruction.
Gilbert White, in his ' History of Selborne" (letter xi.),
instances a pair of Hoopoes which one summer
visiled his premises, frequenting for some weeks an
ornamented piece of ground adjoining the garden.
" They used to march about in a stately manner,
feeding in the walks many times in the day, and
seemed disposed to breed in my outlet, but were
frightened and persecuted by idle boys, who would
never let them be at rest." The Hoopoe affects
moist and low situations, in the neighbourhood of
woods and thickets, where it finds suitable food.
Pliny has noticed this species as " obscana
pastu avis ;" and Pennant, after stating that it breeds
in hollow trees, and feeds on insects, adds that the
ancients believed that it made its nest of the most
disgusting materials ; so far is certain, that its hole
IS excessively foetid from the tainted food it brings
to its young. °
In the ' Magazine of Natural History ' it is stated
that on the Bordeaux side of the Garonne and near
the city are large spaces of marshy ground inter-
sected by broad ditches and creeks terminating in
the river, where poplars and willows are planted
for the sake of their twigs used for tying the vines.
These trees being topped become very stout, and as
they decay at the centre in a few years, they are
j attacked by numerous insects, particularly the
Formica fuliginosa. Here the Hoopoes are fre-
quently seen examining the rotten wood, and feed-
ing on the insects which abound therein. It is
further remarked, that the Hoopoe flies low, and
seldom, unless disturbed, its food being so abundant
as to require but little search, and that it breeds in
a hollow willow about the end of May, the youne
coming out in June.
Indeed they breed, generally, in hollow trees,
and, notwithstanding the accounts of the disgust-
ing materials which they were said to use, noticed
by Aristotle and other writers, form a nest of a
few dried grass-stalks and feathers, laying eggs
varying from four to seven in number, of a pale
lavender-grey, about an inch and a half long and
about eight lines broad.
In a state of nature the Hoopoe is much upon
the ground during the day, generally in moist situa-
tions, where it may meet with its insect food.
Bechstein gives the following interesting account,
written by M. von Schauroth, in his ' Cage-Birds :'
" With great care and attention I was able last
summer to rear two young hoopoes, taken from a
nest which was placed at the top of an oak-tree.
These little birds followed me everywhere, and
when they heard me at a distance, showed their joy
by a particular chirping, jumped into the air, or as
soon as I was seated, climbed upon my clothes
particularly when giving them their food from a
pan of milk, the cream of which they swallowed
greedily; thev climbed higher and higher, till at
last they perched on my shoulders, and sometimes
on my head, care.ssing me very affectionately : not-
withstanding this, I had only to speak a word to rid
myself of their company; they would then immedi-
ately retire to the stove. Generally, they would
observe my eyes to discover what my temper might
be, that they might act accordingly. I fed them
like the nightingales, or with the universal paste,
to which I sometimes added insects: they would
never touch earth-worms, but were very fond of
beetles and May-bugs: these they first killed, and
then beat them with their beak into a kind of
oblong ball ; when this was done, they threw it
into the air, that they might catch it and swallow
It lengthwise ; if it fell across the throat, they were
obliged to begin again. Instead of bathing, they
roll in the sand. I took them one day into a neigh-
bouring field, that they might catch insects for
themselves, and had then an opportunity of re-
marking their innate fear of birds of prey, and their
instinct under it. As soon as they perceived a
raven, or even a pigeon, they were on their bellies
m the twinkling of an eye, their wings stretched
out by the side of their head, so that the large
quill-ieathers touched ; they were thus surrounded
bjr a sort of crown, formed by the feathers of the
tail and wings, the head leaning on the back with
the bill pointing upwards ; in this curious posture
they might be taken for an old rag. As soon as the
bird which frightened them was gone, they jumped
up immediately, uttering cries of joy. They w-ere
very fond of lying in the sun ; they showed their
content by repeating in a quivering tone, vec, vec
vec; when angry, their notes are harsh, and the
male, which is knoivn by its colour being redder
cries hoop, hoop. The female had the trick of
dragging its tood about the room : by this means it
was covered with small feathers and other rubbish
which by degrees formed into an indigestible ball
in Its stomach, about the size of a nut, of which it
died The male lived through the winter ; but not
quitting the heated stove, its beak became so dry
ttiat the two parts separated, and remained more
than an inch apart: thus it died miserably."
Mr. larrell has recorded the manners of a Hoo-
poe in the possession of Mr. Baitlett, the preserver
of birds, in Museum Street. "This bird," says Mr
Yarrell, " ,s quite tame, and, when unexcited, the
high crest falls flat over the top of the head and co-
vers the occiput; it takes a meal-worm from the
hand very readily, nibbles and pinches it between
the ends of the mandibles, then putting it on the
ground, strikes it several blows with the point of thn
beak ; when the insect is apparently dead, or dis-
fi^ Vi"u^*i" V^!'''" "P' '^"'^ ^y ^ particular mo-
tion of the head, which is thrown backward, and the
peak open, the meal-worm drops into the gape of
the mouth and is swallowed. The call for Inother
is a sharp note ; but it also utters at times a sound
closely resembling the word hoop, hoop, hoop, but
breathed out so softly, yet rapidly, as to remind the
hearer of the note of the dove. This bird constantly
rubs himself in the sand with which the bottom of
his large cage is supplied, dusting himself like the
iarks, but takes great care to shake off any sand or
gravel that may adhere to his food, which is raw
meat chopped, and boiled egg. He hides superflu-
ous food, and resorts to his hoard when hunc^rv
When allowed to come out of his cage, he takes
short flights about the room ; but would not be con-
quered a bird of great power upon the wing ; yet the
Bishop of Norwich has recorded that 'one ap-
proached a vessel in the middle of the Atlantic, and
kept company with it a good way,' but did not
settle on board, which it probably would have done
had it been tired.'
"At the moment of settling on the floor of the
room, Mr. Bartletfs bird bends the head downwards
till the point of the beak touches the floor, after
which, as well as occasionally at other times, the
long feathers forming the crest are alternately ele-
vated and depressed in a slow and graceful manner,
the bird assuming an appearance of great vivacity,'
running on the ground with a very quick step, m'
Necker, in his ' Memoir on the Birds of Geneva,'
says hoopoes fight desperately, and leave the ground
covered with their feathers." (' British Birds.')
The country-people of Sweden look on the ap-
pearance of this bird as a presage of war —
•' Facies armata videtur :'*
and formerly the vulgar in our country esteemed it
a forerunner of some calamity. . . The Turks call it
Tir Chaous, or the messenger-bird, from the resem-
blance its crest has to the plumes worn by the
Chaous, or Turkish couriers.
The male Hoopoe in full plumage may be thus
j described :— Head beautifully crested ; two parallel
: rows of long feathers form an arched crest, extend-
j ing from the base of the beak to the occiput ; these
! feathers are of a ruddy buft' colour, terminated with
black: head, neck, and breast vinous buff; upper
part of the back vinous grey ; on the back a large
transversal band; wings and tail black; on the
j wings are five transversal bands of yellowish-white,
1 and on the tail is a very large white band, about the'
middle of the feathers ; at about three-fourths of the
length of the quills is a large white band ; abdomen
white, with some longitudinal spots on the thighs ;
bill flesh-colour at its base and black towards the'
point; feet and iris brown. Length twelve inches
and a half. Tail-feathers only ten in number.
Female less than the male, her crest shorter, and
the tints of her plumage less vivid.
The young when they leave the nest have the bill
short, nearly straight, and slightly cylindrical to-
wards the point ; the feathers of the crest short and
often terminated with black, without the white
spot which is immediately below it in the adult •
the white band of the tail nearer to the rump ; the
plumage washed, as it were, with ash-colour ;' the
bands on the wings less distinct and more yellowish
and a greater quantity of longitudinal spots upon
the belly and thighs.
• Ovid well desrrilws the hoopoe, into which, accordinK to the faW»
Tereos was transformed (Metam., lib. vi.) .— '
„ ., ■ , "Tereus
Vertilur in volmrem ; cm slant in vertice crist® ;
Prominet immodiciim pro lonffa cuspide rostrum.
Nomen Epops volucri : facies armata videtur."
n7Sr— Uhiuocetos Ilomki.i.
UTJ.— ConcaTB IloraljUl.
l&76.-^Hoopoe.
ISTS.-Sectlori of HeaAdT lUiinoswos HoraU'.l.
liTi — Head of Hoopoc.
4ii^ ^«
352
1978,— Hoopon.
U7T.— Boapoe.
1580<— HeadofTomsn.
1583.— Internal Stn«tiiR of Beak and Head of Toucan.
ISIS.— Head and Tongue oFToncw.
litC-rootofToiwan.
0. 45.
1 581.— Headi of Book and Crow.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
353
354
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Toucans and Aracahi&
ORDER SCANSORES.
The order Scansores (les Grimpeuri, Cuvier) com
prebends, in most systems of arrangement, all those
birds which have the foes in pairs, two directed
forwards, and two backwards, the outermost of the
three anterior being altered as to its position, and
brought to assist the true hind toe in its action.
Consequently the Trogons and the Parrots are usually
included in Itiis order, but we conceive the former,
notwithstanding their zygodactyle feet, to belong
to the fissirostral birds, and the latter to compose
an order per u. Mr. G. R. Gray, in his ' System
of Birds,* regards the order Scansores as consisting
of the Toucans, the Parrots, the Woodpeckers, and
the Cuckoos ; four families difTering essentially from
each other in habits and manners. To ourselves
it appears that the order is altogether artificial ; it
is founded only on one character, irrespective of
general form, food, and economy of life- We may
add that this character (zygodactyle toes) is fal-
lacious, for the foot of the woodpecker is utterly
different in its structure both from that of the parrot
and of the cuckoo.
If we compare the order Scansores, as at present
established, with the order Natatores (swimming-
birds), we shall at once perceive that the latter is
natural, that the groups it contains are bound
together by links of afSnity more or less immediate ;
while in the Scansores we shall find groups that
have nothing in common as respects structure and
modes of existence, and hence do we feel that their
collocation is hot truly natural. If the parrots, as
is undoubtedly the case, constitute an order per se,
on the same grounds do the woodpeckers, and
perhaps also the cuckoos. As, however, the settle-
ment of questions such as these is not the object of
our work, we shall at once proceed to the investi-
tion of our pictorial specimens.
Family RAMPHASTIDiE (TOUCANS AND
ARACARIS).
These richly-coloured birds are at once remarkable
for the magnitude and figure of the bill, which was
known in Europe before the birds themselves.
Belon (a.d. 1555), in the 28th chapter of the third
book ' De la nature des Oyseaux vivants le long des
rivieres ayant le pied plat, nommez en Latin Pal-
mipedes aves,' gives a figure of the bill of the Toco
Toucan, which he describes as belonging to a bird
of the new world (terras neufues), and as being
half a foot in length ; pointed and black at the tip ;
white elsewhere ; slightly notched along the edges ;
hollow within ; and so finely delicate that it is thin
and transparent as parchment ; its beauty, he ob-
serves, has caused it to be kept in the cabinets of
the curious. He further observes that he has not
seen the bird itself, but suspects it to be one of those
" de pied plat," and therefore places it among the
river-birds. The same writer, in the ' Portraits
d'Oyseaux,' again figures the bill as belonging to a
water-bird with this description: " Bee d'un oyseau
aquatique, apport^ des terres neufues." Belon 's error
may be readily pardoned : such a beak as that of the
Toucan, seen for the jirst time when ornithology was
not a science, would puzzle any naturalist.
For upwards of a century after the date of Belon's
works it does not appear that the birds themselves
had found their way to England ; the beak, how-
ever, of one species was in the collection of John
Tradescant, and was described in the ' Museum
Tradescantium' as that of the Ara^ari of Brazil
(a.d. 1656), and it is probable that Tradescant had
acquired correct information concerning the nature
of the bird to which it belonged, if indeed he had
not seen a specimen. Petiver (1702) gives a figure
of the Toucan, which though rude, as were all the
engravings of objects of natural history at that day,
is substantially correct, even to the arrangement of
the toes.
Willughby figures the Toucan (Rhamphastos
Toco ?) under the name of the Brazilian Pie of
Aldrovandus, the Toucan of Marcgrave and others,
the Xochitenacatl of the Mexicans. In this figure
the toes are incorrect, owing to a mistake of the
artist, for Willughby was evidently aware of their
zygodactyle character.
The beak of the Toucan (Figs. 1579 and 1580) is,
as Belon well observed, of large size, with serrated
xargins, but of light structure, being cancellous
within. Its proportionate size to the head may be
appreciated by comparing it wi^h the beaks of other
birds which have this organ well developed, as the
rook and crow (Fig. 1581).
The osseous portions of the mandibles, observes
Professor Owen, are disposed in a manner adapted
to combine with the great bulk of those parts a due
degree of strength, and remarkable lightness; con-
sequently the bony structure is of the most beautiful
aud delicate kind. " The external parietes are
extremely thin, especially in the upper mandible ;
they are elastic, and yield in a slight degree to
moderate pressure, but present considerable resist-
ance if a force is applied for the purpose of crush-
ing the back. At tne points of the mandibles the
outer walls are nearly a line in thickness, at other
parts in the upper mandible they are much thinner,
varj-ing from one-thirtieth to one-fiftieth of an inch
in thickness ; in the lower they are from one-
twentieth to one-thirtieth of an inch in thickness.
On making a longitudinal section of the upper
mandible, its base is seen to include a conical cavity
about two inches in length and one inch in diameter,
with the apex directed forwards. The walls of this
cone consist of a most beautiful osseous network
intercepting irregular angular spaces, varying in
diameter from half a line to two lines. From the
parietes of this cone a network of bony fibres is
continued to the outward parietes of the mandible,
the fibres which immediately support the latter
being almost invariably implanted at right angles
to the part in which they are inserted. The whole
of the mandible anterior to the cone is occupied
with a similar network, the meshes of which are
largest in the centre of the beak, in consequence of
the union which takes place between different
small fibres as they pass from the circumference
inwards. It is remarkable that the principle of the
cylinder is introduced into this elaborate structure ;
the smallest of the supporting pillars of the nla.n-
dibles are seen to be hollow or tubular when ex-
amined with the microscope. The structure is the
same in the lower mandible, but the fibres com-
posing the network are in general stronger than
those of the upper mandible." The nostrils are
situated at the base of the upper mandible, where
it rises above the level of the skull, and conse-
quently they have a backward aspect, and are
secured from any injury. The tongue is long,
slender, flat, and horny, and furnished on each side
with a series of short processes like the barbs of a
feather. It is soft at its base.
Figure 1.582 represents the structure of the head
and beak of the Toucan, as investigated by Professor
Owen : a, Section of the upper mandible of Ram-
Ehastos Toco, a, The cancellated structure of the
eak ; b, the cavity at the base ; c, branches of the
fifth pair of nerves ; d d, external orifices of the
nostrils ; e, osseous parietes of the nasal passages ;
/, osseous tubes protecting the olfactory nerves ; g,
pituitary membrane exposed, and branches of the
olfactory nerves radiating from it ; h, superior semi-
circular canals of the internal ear ; t, i, hemispheres
of the cerebrum ; k, the cerebellum, b. Ver-
tical longitudinal section of the head. The same
letters indicate the same parts as in the upper
figure : /, the tongue ; m, the glottis ; 7i, the in-
ternal aperture to the nostrils ; o, the os hyoides ;
p, the trachea ; g, the oesophagus ; r, the beginning
of the spinal cord ; s, articulating surface of oc-
cipital bone ; t, the nasal septum or partition ; u,
the air-cell anterior to the orbit, from which the
air passes into the mandible; v, the cancellated
structure of the lower jaw.
Figure 1583 shows the upper surface of the
tongue : /, the fringed or feathered portion ; m, the
orifice of the larynx ; n, the orifice of the pharynx ;
o, cornua of os hyoides ; p, trachea or windpipe ;
g, gullet. (Owen.)
Fig. 1 584 conveys a clear idea of the zygodactylous
arrangement of the toes in the birds of the present
family.
Those who wish to enter minutely into the
anatomy of the Toucan, we refer to Professor Owens
elaborate paper, in Mr. Gould's ' Rhamphastidee.'
The Ramphastidse are all natives of tropical
America, where they live retired in the deep forests,
mostly in small companies ; their flight is straight
but laborious, and while on the wing the beak is
raised and directed forwards so as to offer as little
resistance as possible to the air. Among the branches
of the trees their movements are easy and active,
they appear to glide from branch to branch, and in
this manner ascend to the very summits. D'Azara
states that the toucans are to a certain extent
omnivorous, living a great part of the year on fruits,
but during the breeding season attacking the smaller
birds in their nests, and devouring their eggs or
their young. Even the eggs and young of the ma-
caws and other large birds often fall victims to their
carnivorous propensities.
Mr. Swainson, who had seen the toucans in their
native forests, was led to suspect the same fact, and
informed Mr. Broderip that ne had frequently ob-
served them perched on the tops of lofty trees, evi-
dently watching the departure of birds from their
nests, besides which, the remains of food found in
the stomachs of such as were shot proved that eggs
and young birds, as well as fruit, constituted their
diet. He never, however, observed them in the act
of destruction.
Dr. Such stated that he had seen these birds in
Brazil feeding on the toucan-berry, and had fre-
quently observed them engaged in quarrels with the
monkeys, and that he was certain that the toucans
fed also on eggs and nestlings. Mr. Gould in his
' Monograph of the Ramphastidse,' divides them into
two great sections: 1. Ramphastos, with the bill
smooth, the nostrils concealed and placed at the
edge of the thickened frontlet of the bill ; the wings
short and rounded ; the tail square ; the general
ground-colour black, the throat, chest, and tail-
coverts being of a hvely or brilliant hue— red or
yellow. (See 1579 and 1580, Head of Toucan.)
2. Pteroglossus (Ara9aris), with the bill more con-
tracted in its dimensions, more solid, with the
edges more decidedly serrated, the nostrils vertical,
naked, and round upon the upper edge of tlie front-
let of the beak ; the tail long and graduated ; the
predominent colour olive-green, varied with red,
yellow, &c. In both groups the skin round the
eyes is naked and richly tinted. (See 1593, Head
of Ara^ari.)
1585. — A Group of Ramphastid.e.
a. The Arafari (Pteroglossus Ara9ari); 6, fhe
Red-billed Toucan (Ramphastos erythrorhynchus) ^
c, the Toco Toucan (R. Toco) ; d, the Black and
Yellow Toucan (R. discolorus).
We may here appropriately introduce the descrip-
tion by Mr. Broderip of the habits and manners ol^
toucan in captivity ; the species was the R. erythro-
rhynchus : —
On the 23rd of November, 1824, the late Mr.
Vigors had spoken at the Zoological Club of a living
toucan, which was then exhibited in St. Martin's
Lane. Mr. Vigors stated that the bird had been fed
on a vegetable diet ; but that the proprietor had
told him that on the occasion of a young Canary,
bird having escaped and gone near to the toucan,
the latter appeared more than usually excited, that
thereupon the barrier between them was removed,
and that the toucan instantly seized and devoured
the Canary-bird. On the next day Mr. Broderip
went to the place where the toucan was exhibitec^
and thus describes what he saw;— "After looking at
the bird which was the object of my visit, and which
was apparently in the highest state of health, I asked
the proprietor to bring up a little bird, that I might
see how the toucan would be affected by its appear-
ance. He soon returned, bringing with him a gold-
finch, a last year's bird. The instant he introduced
his hand with the goldfinch into the cage of the
toucan, the latter, which was on a perch, snatched
it with his bill. The poor little bird had only time
to utter a short weak cry ; for within a second it
was dead, killed by compression on the sternum and
abdomen, and that so powerful that the bowels were
protruded after a very few squeezes of the toucans
bill. As soon as the goldfinch was dead, the toucan
hopped with it, still in his bill, to another perch,
and placing it with his bill between his right foot
and the perch, began to strip off the feathers with
his bill. When he had plucked away most of them,
he broke the bones of the wings and legs (still hold-
ing the little bird in the same position) with his
bill, taking the limbs therein, and giving at the
same time a strong lateral wrench. He continued
this work with great dexterity till he had almost re-
duced the bird to a shapeless mass ; and ever and
anon he would take his prey from the perch in his
bill, and hop from perch to perch, making at the
same time a peculiar hollow clattering noise ; at which
times I observed that his bill and wings were
affected with a vibratory or shivering motion, though
the latter were not expanded. He would then re-
turn the bird to the perch with his bill, and set his
foot on it. He first ate the viscera, and continued
pulling off and swallowing piece after piece, till the
head, neck, and part of the back of the sternum,
with their soft parts, were alone left : these, after a
little more wrenching, while they were held on the
Eerch, and mastication, as it were, while they were
eld in the bill, he at last swallowed, not even leav-
ing the beak or legs of his prey. The last part
gave him the most trouble ; but it was clear that he
felt great enjoyment; for whenever he raised his
prey from the perch he appeared to exult, now mas-
ticating the morsel with his toothed bill and apply,
ing his tongue to it, now attempting to gorge it,
and now making the peculiar clattering noise ac
companied by the shivering motion above mentioned
The whole operation from the time of seizing his
prey to that of devouring the last morsel lasted
about a quarter of an hour. He then cleansed his
bill from the feathers by rubbing it against the
perches and bars of his cage. While on this part
of the subject it may be as well to mention another
fact, which appears to me not unworthy of notice.
I have more than once seen him return his food
some time after he had taken it to his crop, and,
after masticating the morsel for awhile in his bill,
again swallow it ; the whole operation, particularly
the return of the food to the bill, bearing a strong
resemblance to the analogous action in ruminating
animals. The food on which I saw hie so em-
ployed was a piece of beef, which had evidently
been macerated some time in the crop. While
masticating it, he made the same hollow clattering
Toucans and Aracaris.J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
355
noise as he made over the remains of the goldfinch.
Previous to this operation he had examined his
feeding-trough, in which there was nothing but
bread, which I saw him take up and reject ; and it
appeared to me that he was thus reduced from ne-
cessity to the above mode of solacing his palate
with animal food. His food consists of bread,
boiled vegetables, eggs, and flesh, to which a little
bird is now added aljout every second or third day.
He shows a decided preference for animal food,
picking out all morsels of that description, and not
resorting to the vegetable diet till all the former is
exhausted.
"It is said that the nerves are very much expanded
within the internal surface of the bill in these birds ;
and independently of the sensual enjoyment which
the toucan above mentioned appeared to derive
from palating his prey, I have observed him fre-
quently scratching his bill with his foot, which may
be considered as "furnishing additional evidence of
the sensibility of this organ. While taking his prey
he never used his foot for the purpose of conveying
it either to his bill or elsewhere. The bill was the
sole vehicle and the organ actively employed; the
foot merely coniined the prey on the perch.
" But there is yet another of the peculiarities of
this bird which cannot be passed over in silence.
When he settles himself to roost, he sits a short
time with his tail retroverted, so as to make an acute
angle with the line of his back; he then turns his
bill over his right shoulder, nestling it in the soft
plumage of the back (on which last the under man-
dible rests), till the bill is so entirely covered that
no trace of it is visible. When disturbed, he did
not drop his tail, but almost immediately returned
his bill to the comfortable nidus from which on
being disturbed he had withdrawn it. He broke a
short time ago some of his tail-feathers, and the
proprietor inlortaed me that before that accident
the bird when at roost retroverted his tail so en-
tirely that the upper surface of the tail-feathers
lay over and came in contact with the plumage of
the back ; so that the bird had the appearance of a
ball of feathers, to which indeed when I saw him he
bore a very considerable resemblance. The pro-
prietor informs me that he always roosts in the
game way." (' Zool. Journ.' vol. i.).
In a subsequent volume (ii.) Mr. Vigors gives
the following interesting account of a toucan, Ram-
phastos Ariel (Vig.), which he kept in a state of
domestication for many years : —
" With respect to the manners of my bird, I can
add but little to the very accurate and interesting
account of those of a species nearly allied to it,
which has appeared in a preceding number of this
Journal.* I have not allowed it to be indulged in
that disposition to animal food which so strikingly
belongs to this family. I find in fact that it thrives
sufficiently well upon a vegetable diet ; and I fear
that if it should once be allowed any other, it
would be difficult to restrain its inclination for it
within moderate limits. Eggs are the only animal
food with which it has been supplied since it came
into my possession. Of these it is particularly fond,
and they are generally mixed up in his ordinary
food, which consists of bread, rice, potatoes, Ger-
man paste, and similar substances. He delights in
fruits of all kinds. During the period when these
were fresh, he fed almost exclusively on them; and
even in the present winter months he exhibits great
gratification in being offered pieces of apples,
oranges, or preserved fruits of any description.
These he generally holds for a short time at the ex-
tremity of his bill, touching them with apparent
delight with his slender and feathered tongue, and
then conveying them by a sudden upward jerk to
his throat, where they are caught and instantly
swallowed. His natural projiensity to preying upon
animals, although not indulged, is still strongly con-
spicuous. When another bird approaches his cage,
or even a skin or preserved specimen is presented
to him, he exhibits considerable excitement. He
raises himself up, erects his feathers, and utters that
' hollow clattering sound * noticed by Mr. Broderip,
which seems to be the usual expression of delight
in these birds ; the irides of his eyes at the same
time expand, and he seems ready to dart upon his
prey, if the bars of his cage permitted his approach.
On one occasion, when a small bird was placed
by chance over his cage at night, he showed great
restlessness, as if aware of the neighbourhood of
the bird ; and he would not be composed until the
cause of his anxiety was discovered and removed.
"When in his cage, he is peculiarly gentle and
tractable, suffers himself to be played with, and
feeds from the hand. Out of his cage he is wild
and timid. In general he is active and lively ; and,
contrary to what might be expected, from the ap-
parent disproportion of the bill and the seemingly
clumsy shape of the birds of this genus, as they are
usually set up or represented in figures, his appear-
ance is not only graceful, but his movements, as he
* Mr. Broderip's account, above given.
glides from perch to perch, are lig^it and sylph-
like ; so much so as to have suggested to an intel-
ligent friend who witnessed them the specific name
which I have ventured to assign him. He keeps
himself in beautiful plumage, his lighter colours
being strikingly vivid, and the deep black of his
upper body in particular being always bright and
glossy. For this fine condition he seems to be
much indebted to his fondness for bathing. Every
day he immerses himself in cold water with ap-
parent pleasure, even in this severe weather ; and
in no respect indeed does he appear to suffer by the
transition from his own warm climate to our uncon-
genial atmosphere.
" Besides the ' hollow clattering noise,' as my friend
Mr. Broderip so expressively terms the usual sounds
of these birds, he utters at times a hoarse and some-
what discordant cry when he happens to be hungry,
and to see his food about to be presented to him.
On such occasions he stands erect, raising his head
in the air, and half opening his bill as he emits this
cry. These are the only sounds I have heard him
utter ; and in neither can I say that I have detected
any similarity, or even approach, to the word Tou-
can, as has sometimes been asserted, and from
whence the trivial name of the genus has been sup-
posed to originate. Neither have I been able to
verify another observation which has been advanced
respecting these birds, that the bill is compressible
between the fingers in the living bird. The bill,
notwithstanding the lightness of its substance, is firm,
and capable of grasping an object with much
strength. The mode in which Mr. Broderip de-
scribes his toucan as having broken the limbs of the
bird which he was about to devour, by ' a strong la-
teral wrench,' sufficiently shows that the bill is not
deficient in power. Indeed I generally observe that
my bird takes what is offered him rather by the sides
than by the point of his bill ; and, I suspect that
much of the powers of that member are centred in
this lateral motion. The serration of the edges also
may be supposed to tend to these peculiar powers.
The manner in which he composes himself to rest is
represented in the accompanying plates. Since the
cold weather has commencecl, he has been brought
into a room with a fire, and the unusual light seems
to have interfered with his general habits ; he does
not go to rest as early or as regularly as was his cus-
tom ; and he sometimes even feeds at a late hour.
During the warmer months, however, when he was
more free from interruption, his habits were singu-
larly regular. As the dusk of the evening approached,
he finished his last meal for the day ; took a few
turns, as if for exercise after his meal, round the
perches of his cage ; and then settled on the highest
perch, disposing himself, almost at the moment he
alighted on it, in the posture represented, his head
drawn in between his shoulders, and his tail turned
vertically over his back. (Fig. 1586 represents the
bird in this attitude.)
" In this posture he generally remained about two
hours, in a state between sleeping and waking, his
eyes for the most part closed, but opening on the
slightest interruption. At such times he would al-
low himself to be handled, and would even take any
favourite food that was offered him without altering
his posture further than by a gentle turn of the
head. He would also suffer his tail to be replaced
by the hand in its natural downward posture, and
would then immediately return it again to its verti-
cal position. In these movements the tail seemed
to turn as if on a hinge that was operated upon by
a spring. At the end of about two hours he began
gradually to turn his bill over his right shoulder and
to nestle it among the feathers of his back, some-
times concealing it completely within the plumage,
at other times having a slight portion of the culmen
exposed. At the same time he drooped the feathers
of his wings and those of the thigh-coverts, so as to
encompass the legs and feet ; and thus nearly as-
suming the appearance of an oval ball of feathers,
he secured himself against all exposure to cold,"
(See Fig. 1587.)
1588.— The Toco Toucan
(Ramphastos Toco). This species is the most com-
mon in museums, and appears to have been the first
with which European naturalists became acquainted.
It is one of the largest of its family, measuring twenty
seven inches total length, of which the bill is seven
inches and a half, and the tail seven : it is at once
distinguished by the black oval mark at the tip of the
beak. This bird is distributed throughout the whole
of wooded districts from the river Plata to Guiana.
1589.— Cuvier's Toucan
(Ramphastos Cuvieri, Gould). This rare species,
of which only two or three specimens are extant in
Europe, is a native of the wooded borders of the
Amazon. The beak is brownish black on the sides,
with a large basal belt and culrainal line of greenish
yellow, the basal belt being bounded behind by a
narrow line of black, and before by a broader one
of deep black, which is only apparent in certain
lights ; the top of the head and the whole of the
upper surface black; with the exception of the upper
tail-coverts, which are bright orange yellow ; cheeks,
throat, and chest white, with a tinge of greenish
yellow, terminated by a band of scarlet ; under sur-
face black; under tail-coverts scarlet. Total length
24 inches; bill 7i, wings 9, tail 6J, tarsi 2.
(Gould.)
1590. — ^The Curl-crested Aracari
(Pieroglossits ulocomus, Gould). This rare species,
one of the most beautiful of its tribe, was first figured
and described by Mr. Gould, in his monograph of
the present family. Two examples formed part of
a collections of birds brought to this country from
Rio de Janeiro. Of. these Mr. Gould was so fortu-
nate as to obtain the finest, apparently a male, now
in the museum of the Zoological Society ; the other
is in the British Museum. The native country ol
this species is probably the dense forest-belt along
the river Amazon, but we have no details respecting
its history. The beak of this aracari is lengthened,
both mandibles being edged with thickly-set white
serratures ; the upper has the, culmen of an orange
colour, bordered by a longitudinal stripe of dull
blue extending nearly to the tip, below which the
sides of the mandible are fine orange red ; a white
line surrounds the apertures of the nostrils; the
under mandible is straw-colour, becoming orange at
the tip ; a narrow band of rich chestnut encircles
both mandibles at their base. The crown of the
head is covered with a crest of curled metal-hke
feathers without barbs and of an intense glossy
black ; as they approach the occiput these singular
feathers lose their curled character and become
straight, narrow, and spatulate. It is, as Mr. Gould
observes, impossible for the pencil to do justice to
the brilliancy of these curiously curled appendages,
the structure of which appears to consist in a dila-
tation of the shaft of each feather, or perhaps an
agglutination of the web into one mass. The fea-
thers on the cheeks have the same form as those on
the occiput, but are more decidedly spatulate, being
of a yellowish white colour, tipped at the extremity
with black. The occiput and upper tail-coverts are
of a deep blood-red ; the chest is delicate yellow,
with slight crescent-shaped bars of red ; the back,
tail and thighs are olive-green; the quills brown,
the tarsi lead-coloured. iTotal length 18 inches ;
bill 4, tail 7i.
1591. — The Many-banded Aracari
(Pteroglossus pluricinctits). This beautiful bird is
a native of Brazil. In the male (lower figure) a
broad band of black advances from the nostrils along
the whole of the culmen, and forms a narrow belt
down the sides of the upper mandible at its base ;
the elevated basal margin of the bill is yellow ; the
sides of the upper mandible beautiful orange yellow,
fading into yellowish white towards the tip ; under
mandible wholly black with a yellow basal ridge ;
head, neck, and chest, black; whole of the upper
surface, except the rump, which is scarlet, dark
olive-green ; breast marked with two broad bands
of black, the upper separated from the throat by an
intervening space of yellow dashed with red ; a si-
milar but broader space separates the two bands of
black, the lower of which is bounded by scarlet, ad-
vancing as far as the thighs, which are brownish
olive ; under the tail coverts light yellow ; naked
space round the eyes, tarsi, and feet dark lead-
colour.
The female differs from the male in having the
ear-coverts brown, and a narrow belt of scarlet bor-
dering the black of the throat.
Total length 20 inches ; bill 4i, wings 6i, tail SJ.
(Gould.)
1592. — Humboldt's Aracari
(Pteroglossus Humboldlii, Gou\i). This species is a
native of Brazil, probably nearthe Amazon. Itis de--
scribed as follows by Mr. Gould : — Bill large in pro-
portion to the body ; a band of black occupies the
culmen from the base to the tip ; the remainder of the
upper mandible of a dull yellowish orange, with the
exception of an indefinite mark of black which
springs from each serrature, and a fine line of the
same colour surrounding it near the base ; lower
mandible black, with the exception of the base, which
is surrounded with pale yellowish orange ; the head,
back of the neck, throat, and chest black ; all the
upper surface, except a spot of scarlet on the rump,
of a dull olive ; primaries blackish brown ; under
surface pale straw-yellow with a slight tinge of green ;
thighs chestnut; naked space round the eyes and
tarsi lead-colqur. Total length about 16 to 17
inches: bill 4, wing 5i, tail 61, tarsi Ig.
Mr. Gould's elegant figure of a male is taken
from a specimen, supposed to be unique, in the
Cabinet of Natural History at Munich.
We shall conclude our sketch of the present
family with a few general observations.
2Z2
liS<.— Toucmn >t Ihxjat : Fint SUgc.
336
; 1 ■■'':
[593 —Head of Aratari.
Ijul.—aianj -banded Ara^aris;
1589.— Cuvier's Toucan.
1592.— Humboldfs Ar»5ari.
159r.— Yoinif Co«l««iiiHed||e-Sp»rrow'»-Nest.
mi,— Cuckno.
U7
35S
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Cuckoos.
The omnivorous appetite of these birds afford*
us a clue to the reasons why the beak is so greatly
developed, and yet so light from the delicacy of its
structure ; it is at once an organ of prehension and
a feeler. The toucan plunges it into the fissures
and holes of trees, where various birds habitually
nidify, and there feels for eggs or nestlings, and
draws them forth ; it can penetrate the basket-work
of nests suspended from the branches, or the more
solid structure of such as are composed of strong
materials. At the same time it can use this organ
in the acquisition of fruits, which, being plucked
one by one, it jerks up before swallowing. In its
mode of feeding, its long elastic feathery tongue
is of great use, enabling the bird to turn the morsel
about, and co-operating with the movements of the
mandibles.
The toucsns and ara(;aris breed in the hollows of
decayed trees, which they enlarge, and render com-
modious by means of the beak, as Faber and
Oviedus were assured ; and it would appear that
from this habit the Spaniards have applied the
name of Carpentero to these birds, which the Bra-
xilians call Tacataca, in imitation of the sound made
by chipping the decayed wood. Oviedus, in his
'History of the West Indies,' observes that no bird
better defends her young against the attacks of the
monkeys, so dangerous to nestlings, than the toucan ;
for when she perceives the approach of these
enemies, she so settles herself in her nest, as to put
her bill out at the hole, and gives the monkeys
such a reception with its sharp point, that they in-
stantly retreat, glad to escape.
The toucans differ from the araij'aris not only in
the points we have already enumerated, but also in
the circumstance that the females resemble the
males in the colour of the plumage, but are rather
less in all their proportions, while in many of the
ara^aris there is considerable difference in the
colouring of the two sexes. The young of both
genera assume at an early age the permanent tints,
But their bills are not tully developed for a con-
siderable period : during life the colouring of the
bills is generally very vivid, but after death the
bright hues fade and become sometimes almost
obsolete — a fact which should be borne in mind
by those who examine specimens in cabinets or
museums.
Family CUCULID^ (CUCKOOS).
This family is very extensive, and has been divided
into several sections or subfamilies by various
naturalists, not without reason, for these minor
groups, with great modification of form, exhibit
very different habits and manners. Of this nume-
rous family one species visits our island, the well-
known cuckoo, herald of the spring ; but instances
are on record of the Yellow-billed American Cuckoo
(Erythrophrys Americanus) having appeared both
in England and Ireland ; these visits were only
accidental, the birds having most probably been
driven out of their course, when migrating from
the northern latitudes of America to the south. In
every instance, we believe, it was in autumn that
these birds were seen and killed, and that too in the
western districts of our island and in Ireland : viz.
twice in the latter island, once in Wales, and once
in Cornwall.
Mr. Swainson, speaking of the Cucnlidae as a
family, of which he gives the following definition,
" feet not strictly scansOrial, very short, nostrils
naked, tail-coverts remarkably long," adds, " So
faintly is the scansorial structure indicated in these
birds, that but for their natural habits, joined to the
.position of their toes, we should not suspect they
were connected with the more typical groups of the
tribe, as they undoubtedly are. They neither use
their bill for climbing like parrots, or for making
holes in the trees like woodpeckers, neither can
they mount the perpendicular stems like the Cer-
thiadse, or creepers ; yet they decidedly climb,
though in a manner peculiar to themselves. Hav-
ing frequently seen different species of the Brazilian
cuckoos (forming part of the genus Coccyzus) in
their native forests, I may safely affirm tliat they
climb in all other directions than that of the per-
pendicular. Their flight is so feeble from the ex-
treme shortness of their wings" (this does not apply
to our species and many others), " that it is evidently
performed with difficulty, and it is never exercised
but to convey them from one tree to another, and
these flights in the thickly-wooded tracts of tropical
America are of course very short ; they alight upon
the highest boughs, and immediately begin to ex-
plore the horizontal and slanting ramifications with
the greatest assiduity, threading the most tangled
mazes, and leaving none unexamined. All soft
insects, inhabiting such situations lying in their
route, become their prey, and the quantities that are
thus destroyed must be very great. In passing
from one bough to another they simply hop without
using their wings, and their motions are so quick
that an unpractised observer, even if placed im-
mediately beneath the tree, would soon lose sight of
the bird. The Brazilian hunters give their cuckoos
the general name of cat's-tails ; nor is the epithet
inappropriate, for their long hanging tails, no less
than their mode of climbing the branches, give
them some distant resemblance to that quadruped.
I have no doubt that the great length of tail
possessed by nearly all the cuckoos is given them
as a sort of balance, just as a rope-dancer with such
an instrument in his hands preserves his footing
when otherwise he would assuredly fall." This use
of the fail, we may observe, is not peculiar to cuckoos
only ; nor do we agree with Mr. Swainson in his
views generally, w-hile we fully appreciate the
giaphic description he has given of the Brazilian
cuckoos, the habits of which he had ample oppor-
tunity of studying.
Warm and temperate regions are the favourite
abodes of the Cuculidae ; milny of them are migratory,
passing the winter in the tropical regions, where
they lind a congenial asylum. Insects and their
larvce, together with soft fruits, constitute their diet.
Some species make no nest, but deposit their
eggs in the nests of other birds, by whom the young
cuckoos are reared to the destruction of their own
brood. With certain exceptions the Cuculidae are
distinguished for great powers of flight, and have
long and pointed wings.
1594, 1595, 1596.— -The Cuckoo
(Cumins canonis). This species is an example of
the typical group of the Cuculidae. The bill is
somewhat curved and compressed, with a wide
gape, and round naked nostrils at the base of the
upper mandible ; the wings are pointed ; the tail
somewhat wedge-shaped; the tarsi short and fea-
thered a little way beneath the upper joint.
The cuckoo is the xUxul of the Greeks ; Cuculus
and Coccyx of the Latins ; Cucculo, Cucco, Cuco,
Cucho, Cuccii, of the modern Italians ; Cocou,
Coucou, Cocqu, of the French ; Kukuk and Kuckuck
of the Germans ; Gjok of the Fauna Suecica ; Gjoeg
of the Danes ; Gouk of the Norwegians ; Cog of the
ancient British ; Gowk, Provincial English.
This well-known bird arrives in our islands early
in spring : in White's ' Naturalist's Calendar' it is
noted as being first heard April the 7th ; and in
Markwick's April the 15th, and last heard June the
28th. By the first of July it has generally taken its
departure for Northern Africa. In Ireland, accord-
ing to Mr. Thompson, the cuckoo is usually heard
from the 16th to the 20th of April, anddeparts at the
end of June, bi\t he adds that in the year 1838 the
stay of the cuckoo was remarkably prolonged, and
the period of its arrival later than ordinary, and
that one was heard at the Falls near Belfast on the
7th of July. " The young birds of the year gene-
rally remain till towards the end of August, so late
as the 27lh of which month they have been observed
in Antrim." The Bishop of Norwich, in his ' Fa-
miliar History of Birds,' records an instance of
about forty cuckoos being congregated in a garden
in the county of Down, from the 18th to the 22nd
of July, and, with the exception of two which were
smaller than the rest, taking their departure at that
time. These were no doubt all young birds of the
year, and it is probable that the two smallest were
never able to follow the others, but remained to
perish. Of such a character were the benumbed
denuded birds which have been occasionally found
in hollow trees or the thickest part of furze-bushes,
whither they had crept for shelter, and which have
been noticed by Willughby, Bewick, and others.
The cuckoo is insectivorous in its diet, and will
sometimes feed upon the wing. Gilbert White says,
" In July I saw several cuckoos skimming over a
large pond, and found, after some observation, that
they were feeding on the Libellulae, or dragon-flies,
some of which they caught as they settled on the
weeds, and some as they were on the wing."
The favourite food of this bird, however, are the
hairy caterpillars of some of the lepidopterous order ;
these it kills by passing them through the sharp
edges of its mandibles, it then nips off the hinder
end of the caterpillar, and with a jerk or two clears
the body of the alimentary canal, and immediately
swallows it whole. With the hairs of these cater-
pillars the stomach is often completely coated. In
a communication by Mr. Thompson to the Zoolo-
gical Society in 1834, he states that in three cuckoos,
examined in 1833, the stomach, with the exception
of some small sharp gravel, was entirely empty and
coated closely over with hair.
" Attention was called to this, that the hair with
which it is lined might be observed. From its close
adhesion to the inner surface of the stomach, and
from the regularity with which it is arranged, Mr.
Thompson was at first disposed to consider this hair
as of spontaneous growth ; but part of the stomach
being subjected to maceration in water, and after-
wards viewed through a microscope of high power,
the hairs proved, to the entire satisfaction of Mr.
Owen and himself, to be altogether borrowed from
the larva; of the tiger-moth (Arctia caja), the only
species found in the stomach of several cuckoos,
from different parts of the north of Ireland, which
were examined by Mr. Thompson in the months of
May and June, 1833, and whose stomachs were simi-
larly coated." (' Proceeds. Zool, Soc.' 1839, p. 29.)
The well-known notes of the cuckoo are confined
only to the male, the female making only a cliatter-
ingnoise.
The singular habit of the cuckoo in depositing its
eggs in the nests of other birds is too well substan-
tiated to admit of a doubt ; the nests usually chosen
are those of the Hedge-sparrow, Titlark, White-
throat, Wagtail, &c. The egg is very small in com-
parison with the size of the cuckoo, scarcely ex-
ceeding that of the common chafiinch : when the
young cuckoo is hatched, and acquired a little
strength, guided by the instinct of self-preservation,
it dislodges all its weaker companions by insinuating
itself under them, and with a sort of jerk forcing
them overboard. Thus it secures to itself the exclu-
sive attention of its dupes of foster-parents. Gilbert
White mentions a young cuckoo found in the nest
of a titlark, which he describes as being very fierce
and pugnacious, pursuing his finger as he teased it
for many feet from the nest, and sparring and buft'et-
ing with its wings like a game-cock ; and Selby al-
ludes to the same bold and pugnacious disposition.
Many attempts have been made to keep the
cuckoo alive in captivity, and several have lived
with care to the middle of winter, when they have
died. Mr. Thompson, however, instances two ex-
ceptions : one of these lived for more than a year at
Cranmore, near Belfast, the residence of John Tem-
pleton, Esq. ; it was procured on the 26th of July,
1820, and died in consequence of an accident, Jan-
uary the 10th, 1822. It was originally taken from a
titlark's nest. Its engaging manners, says Mr. Tem-
pleton, were the delight of the whole familv and the
admiration of strangers. " It was generally fed on
hard-boiled eggs, and occasionally with caterpillars;
it would sometimes eat forty or fifty at a time of
those of the Papilio Brassidao ; it, however, showed a
decided preference for rough ones, as those of the
Papilio Urticae : a seeming treat was a little mouse
about one quarter grown, which it would hold in its
bill and beat against the ground, or anything hard,
until the animal became soft, when it exhibited
great powers of extending its throat and swallow-
ing. What, however, was most extraordinary, it
was never known to drink ; though when presented
with a drop of water at the end of a finger or straw
it would sip it, and it seemed to delight, when seated
on its mistress's or other person's hand, to put its bill
into their mouths and sip saliva. It delighted very
much in heat and sitting in the sunshine, and its
feathers were so much broken by its striking them
against the furniture, that it could fly but very im-
perfectly, and was apparently very thankful to any
person who would help it upon the first sash of the
window. At other times it sat upon the fender,
turning itself in various directions, and spreading its
wings and feathers to receive the heat, of which it
could bear a temperature equal to 100 degrees,
for a considerable time, with seeming satisfaction.
During cold weather it slept at its mistress's bed-
side, covered with a piece of flannel, which was well
warmed previous to its going to rest. With this at-
tention itgenerally remained quiescent till morning;
but on feeling cold, sometimes presumed so far as to
creep under the bed-clothes. It was only to those
from whom it had received some hurt or persecution
that it expressed dislike or fear, which it did by
raising its neck-feathers and putting itself in an at-
titude of defence. It never uttered the cry of the
male, cuckoo, but sometimes when persons were in
the room laughing it would apparently join and
emit a noise somewhat like the barking of a little
dog. At other times the only sound it made was
a kind of low chattering expressive of pleasure \vhen
it got into a warm place, or on seeing its mistress
after she had been absent some hours. It received
the unlucky tramp which finally killed it, from
having lost too much the apprehension of injury."
(' Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 1842, p. 223.)
Fig. 1597 represents a young cuckoo in the nest
of the hedge-sparrow.
The young cuckoo (Fig. 1595) differs greatly in
colouring from the adult, and is of more rufous tint,
transversely barred with dusky black. In length
the adult male is about 14 inches ; weight about 4^
ounces. Bill black, yellowish at the base of the up-
per mandible : inside of mouth red. Irides yellow.
Head and whole upper part of the bird dark ash-
colour. Throat, under side of the neck, and upper
part of the breast jiale ash, the latter sometimes in-
clining to rufous brown ; lower part of the breast
and belly white with transverse undulating black
lines. Quills, dusky, inner webs barred with white
oval spots. Tail-feathers ten, of unequal length;
two middle ones black, dashed with ash and tipped
with white, the rest black, with white spots on each
side of the shaft. The lateral feathers in some have
Cuckoos.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
359
white spots only on the interior webs, but all are
tipped with white.
1598. — Le Vaillant's Cdckoo
{Oxylophus Levaillantii, Swains.). Mr. Swainson
thus characters the genus Oxylophus, which he has
established, taking this species as the type : —
Bill slender, considerably compressed nearly its
whole length ; upper mandible entire ; nostrils
ovately round; head crested; wings moderate,
pointed, shorter than the tail-coverts, the fourth quill
longest ; tarsi moderate, naked ; upper tail-coverts
long, but not rigid. Inhabits the Old World : para-
sitic.
Le Vaillant's cuckoo has the head crested with
pointed feathers; plumage above, black glossed
with green ; band at the base of the quills, end of
the tail, and other parts of the body, white ; throat
striped with black. Wings long, but rounded ; fifth
quill longest. Total length fifteen inches. Mr.
Swainson, whose description we have given, says
that, unlike the true cuckoos, these birds rear and
provide for their young in the ordinary manner. It
IS a native of Senegal and the Western Coast of
Africa.
1599.— TuE Yellow-billed Cuckoo
(Erythrophrys Ame.ricanus, Swains.). Cuculus Ca-
rolinensis, Wilson ; Coccyzus Americanus, Prince of
Musignano ; Carolina Cuckoo, Latham.
According to Audubon, the flight of the bird is
rapid, silent, and horizontal, as it moves from one
tree to another, or across a field or river, and is ge-
nerally continued amongst the branches of the trees
in our woods. When making its way among the
branches, it occasionally inclines the body to either
side, so as alternately to show its whole upper or
under parts. During its southward migration, it
flies high in the air, and in such loose flocks that
the birds might seem to follow each other, instead
of their keeping company together. On the other I
hand, early in March the greater number enter our
southern boundaries singly, the males arriving first,
and the females a few weeks after. They do not
fly in a continued Une, but in a broad front, as,
while travelling with great rapidity in a steani-tjoat,
so as to include a range of a hundred miles in one
day, I have observed this cuckoo crossing the Mis-
sissippi at many different points on the same day.
At this season they resort to the deepest shades of
the forests, and intimate their presence by the fre-
quent repetition of their dull and unmusical notes,
which are not unlike those of the young bull-frog.
These notes may be represented by the word cow,
cow, repeated eight or ten times with increasing ra-
pidity. In fact, from the resemblance of its notes
to that word, this cuckoo is named cow-bird in
nearly every part of the Union. The Dutch farmers
of Pennsylvania know it better by the name of
Rain crow, and in Louisiana the French settlers
call it Coucou. It robs smaller birds of their eggs,
which it sucks on all occasions, and is cowardly and
shy, without being vigilant. On this latter account
it often falls a prey to several species of hawks, of
which the pigeon-hawk (Falco columbarius) may be
considered as its most dangerous enemy. It pre-
fers the southern states for its residence, and w'hen
very mild winters occur in Louisiana some indi-
viduals remain there, not finding it necessary to go
farther south. This bird is not abundant anywhere,
and yet is found very far north. I have met with it
in all the low grounds and damp places in Massa-
chusetts, along the line of Upper Canada, pretty
high on the Mississippi and Arkansas, and in every
state between these boundary-lines. Its appearance
in the state of New York seldom takes place before
the beginning of May, and at Green Bay not until
the middle of that month. A pair here and there
seem to appropriate certain tracts to themselves,
where they rear their young in peace and plenty.
They feed on insects, such as caterpillars and but-
terflies, as well as on berries of many kinds, evincing
a special predilection for the mulberry. In autumn
they eat many grapes, and I have seen them sup-
porting themselves by a momentary motion of their
wings opposite a bunch, as if selecting the ripest,
when they would seize it and return to a branch, re-
peating their visits in this manner until satiated.
They now and then descend to the ground to pick
up a wood snail or a beetle. They are extremely
awkward at walking, and move in an ambling man-
ner, or leap along sidewise, for which the shortness
of their legs is ample excuse. They are seldom seen
perched conspicuously on a twig, but, on the con-
trary, are generally to be found amongst the thickest
boughs and foliage, where they emit their notes
until late in autumn, at which time they discon-
tinue them. The nest is simple, flat, composed of
a few dry sticks and grass, formed much like that of
the common dove, and, like it, fastened to a hori-
zontal branch, often within the reach of man, who
seldom disturbs it. It makes no particular selection
ei to situation or the nature of the tree, but settles
anywhere indiscriminately. The eggs are four or
five, of a rather elongated oval form, and bright
green colour. They rear only one brood in a sea-
son, unless the eggs are removed or destroyed. The
young are principally fed with insects during the
first weeks. Towards autumn they beconie very
fat, and are fit for being eaten, although few persons,
except the Creoles of Louisiana, shoot them for the
table.
That accurate observer of nature Mr. Wilson, the
American ornithologist, to his account of this bird,
adds the following interesting observations : — " In
examining this bird by dissection, the inner mem-
brane of the gizzard, which in many other species
is so hard and muscular, in this is extremely lax
and soft, and capable of great distension ; and what
is remarkable, is covered with a growth of fine
down or hair, of a light fawn-colour. It is difficult
to ascertain the particular purpose which nature
intends by this excrescence ; perhaps it may serve
to shield the tender parts from the irritating effects
produced by the hairs of certain caterpillars, some
of which are said to be almost equal to the sting of
a nettle."
We have already described the hairy lining of the
stomach of our British cuckoo, which from its regu-
larity and closeness Mr. Thompson was at first
inclined to believe of natural growth, but which
proved to be the hair of the caterpillar of the tiger-
moth. Now we have little or no hesitation in say-
ing that the hairs which Wilson found in the stomach
of the present species, and which he too believed to
be of spontaneous growth, were also those of some
caterpillar on which the bird abundantly feeds.
We are not aware that this observation of Wilson's
has attracted the notice of naturalists, to whose
attention we would point it out.
16C0. — ^The Gilded Cuckoo
(Chalcites aurattis, Swainson). Cuculus auratus of
authors. This brilliant little Cuckoo, the Didric of
Le Vaillant (so called from its cry), is abundant in
Caifraria and Namaqua-land. In manners, as in
form, it closely approximates to our European
cuckoo ; the female deposits its eggs in the nests of
other birds, and, as Le Vaillant's observations seem
to prove, she conveys them in her beak, or rather
throat, to the nest selected.
The following observations from Le Vaillant's
narrative may not be uninteresting : — Speaking
of its numbers he states that his Hottentot ser-
vant Klaas shot two hundred and ten males, one
hundred and thirty females, and one hundred and
three young ones — in all four hundred and forty-
three, and that numbers more might easily have
been procured ; beside which he found eighty-three
of their eggs in as many nests of insectivorous birds.
He then proceeds : — " Although this bird be so com-
mon if not in the immediate environs, yet about
one hundred leagues from Cape Town, it was scarcely
known in Europe before my voyages, and in France
there was only one mutilated and badly preserved
specimen of it to be seen in the Royal Museum at
Paris. I myself brought over one hundred and
fifty males and females, as well as young birds,
which are now exhibited in the chief cabinets of
Europe. To this beautiful species I am indebted
for my chief knowledge of the cuckoo family. From
the facility I had of leisurely and successfully ob-
serving its manners, I always entertained the hope
that I should one day surprise a female Didric in the
act of depositing its egg in the nest of another bird,
but having been disappointed in this respect, I began
to imagine that my ignorance on this point would
never be removed, when one day havmg killed a
female of this species, and wishing to introduce a
plug of hemp into his throat according to my custom
after bringing down a bird, in order to prevent the
, blood from staining its plumage, I was not a little
' surprised, on opening its bill for this purpose, to find
I in its throat an entire egg, which I knew immedi-
I ately from its form, size, and beautiful whiteness, to
' belong to the Didric. Delighted at length, after so
I many useless efforts, at having obtained a confir-
mation of my suspicions, I loudly called my faithful
Klaas, who was only a few paces distant from me,
to whom I imparted my discovery with much plea-
I sure, as he had used his best exertions to second my
I views. Klaas, on seeing the egg in the bird's gullet,
told me that after killing female cuokoos, he had
,; frequently observed a newly broken egg lying upon
the ground near where they had fallen, which he
supposed they had dropped in their fall, being at
[ that moment ready to lay. I recollect very well
II that when this good Hottentot brought me the fruits
I of his sports, he frequently remarked, as he pointed
j to the cuckoo, ' This one laid her egg as she fell from
I the tree.' Although I was convinced from this cir-
i cumstance that the female cuckoo deposits her egg in
j the nests of other birds by conveying it in her beak, I
j was desirous 1o collect what facts I could on the sub-
ject ; Klaas and I, therefore, began to shoot as many
cuckoos as we could meet with, which accounts for
the great number of this species we procured.
However, among all the specimens there occurred
only one instance similar to that I have just men-
tioned, namely, that of a second female, which was
transporting her egg in her mouth, like the
former."
In length this species is about seven inches : the
plumage above is rich glossy green with golden re-
flexions ; the head is marked with stripes of white,
with which the secondary quills and many of the
wing-coverts are tipped ; under parts white. In the
female the general colour is reddish gold or bronzy
hue, with all the markings more obscure.
1601. — The Eastern Black Cuckoo
{Eudynamys Orientalis). Cuculus Orientalis, Linn.
The generic characters of Eudynamys are as fol-
lows : — Bill strong, thick, the under mandible not
curved, and angulated beneath ; upper mandible
entire ; wings pointed, the fourth quill longest ;
tarsi much shorter than the longest toe ; the upper
part plumed ; rump and tail-coverts soft. Inhabits
the Old World.
We know little of the habits of the Black Cuckoo,
excepting that berries most probably form a consi-
derable part of its diet, as those of the Cassytha
were found in the stomach of a specimen procured
by Mr. Caley at Mindanao, where it appears to be
an accidental visitor. The male and female differ
greatly in colour. Plumage of male, black with
metallic lustre ; bill yellow. Female : — Above shin-
ing greenish brown spotted with white ; tail-feathers
banded with white ; whitish beneath, transversely
undulated with greenish brown. Synonyms — Cuculus
Mindanensis, Linn. Coucou tachet6 de Mindanao
' Enl.' 277; Mindanao Cuckoo, Lath.
1602.— The Ani
(^Crotophaga Ani). This singular bird with zygo-
dactyle feet occupies a double position. Mr.
Swainson places it within the pale of the Cuculidas ;
but perhaps it really forms the type of a separate
family. The bill is short, very much compressed,
arched, elevated, and surmounted by a vertical tren-
chant crest ; nostrils basal, open ; fourth and fifth
quills the longest ; tail long and rounded. Lo-
cality, the tropical regions of the New World and
the West Indian Islands. This species is the
Razor-billed Blackbird of Jamaica of Catesby, the
Savannah Blackbird of the English colonists, and
the Great Blackbird of Sloane.
In Guiana, these birds are named Ani, and Anno
in Paraguay. In Mexico they are named, accord-
ing to Hernandez, Cacalototl ; and in the Antilles
Bouts de Petun, Amangoua, Diables de Savannes,
and Perroquets noirs. In Cayenne their common
name is Bouilleur de Canari. Their general colour
is black, with more or less metallic reflexions.
In size they equal a common turtle-dove. The
Anis lives in flocks, and are so far from timid, that
when they see their companions fall before the gun,
the survivors fly but a short way, and then again
pitch. Bushes, the skirts of woods, and the borders
of flooded savannahs are their favourite haunts.
Their food consists of small lizards, insects, and
seeds. Many pairs are said to use the same nest,
built on the branches of trees, and of large dimen-
sions when considered in relation to the number of
couples occupying it, where they lay and hatch
their young in concert.
According to Brown (' Hist. Jamaica ') they live
chiefly upon ticks and other small vermin, and may
frequently be seen jumping about all the cows and
oxen in the fields ; nay, they are often observed to
fly on their backs, unless they lie down for them,
which, if much troubled with ticks, they generally
do when they see the birds about them ; but if the
beast be heedless, they hop once or twice round it,
looking it very earnestly in the face every time they
pass, as if they seemed to know that it was only re-
quisite to be seen to be indulged. They are very
noisy birds, and one of the most common sorts in all
the pastures of Jamaica. Their flight is low and
short.
The Ani is easily tamed, and may be taught to
utter words. Its flesh is said to be extremely dis-
agreeable.
In c-;osing our sketch of the cuckoos, we may
advert to some other groups of birds usually associ-
ated with them, as the Honey-Guides (Indicator) of
Africa ; the Coucals, or lark-heeled Cuckoos
(Centropus) ; and the Malcohas (Fhoenicophaus),
which must be regarded as barely coming within
the family section.
The genus Indicator is characterised by the beak
being short, high, and almost conical, like that of a
sparrow, and by the form of the tail, which consists
of twelve feathers, and is at the same time a little
graduated and a little forked. The skin is very
tough, so as to resist the stings of the bees whose
nests the birds despoil. The celebrated Honey-
Guide of South Africa (Indicator Vaillantii) is an
example. The Coucais (Centropus) have a long
IMS.— Le VaiUtiit'i Caokoo.
1601. — ^Eafltem Black Cockoo.
leoo.— Gilded
I5»<— Yonng Cuelcoa.
U9G."Ciickooand Nest.
1>99. Yellow-billed Cackoo.
160>.— Anl.
360
1600.— Palate of llhi- Jtiow.
1(109.— lUmk of Siiovellor Dnck.
ICT4.— Group of r,:rro:s.
No. 46.
)»07.— Teeth orPwrakeet.
'606.— Teeth of Blue Ma.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
361
362
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Parrots
■lightly curved beak, and the claw of the inner of
the two hind-toes in long, straight, and pointed, re-
minding us of that of the lark. These birds appear
to be of solitary and recluse habits ; they feed on
insects, and even small reptiles, and breed in the
holes of treea, and are said to perch lengthwise, not
acrosa the branch. The Egyptian Coucal (Centropus
.Agyptius) is an example. I'hey are all peculiar to
the hotter portions of the Old World. The Malcohas
(Phoenicophaus) seem to be confined to India and
the adjacent islands. The bill is stout. longer than
the head, and gently curved from the base; the side
of the head, for a large space round the eye, is desti-
tute of feathers, exhibiting a naked granulated skin.
The wings are very short ; the tail long and gradu-
ated. The Red-headed Malcoha of Ceylon (Phoeni-
cophaus pyrrhoceplialus) is an example.
Family PSITTACID^ (PARROTS).
Mr. Vigors, Mr. Swainson, and other naturalists, re-
gard the parrots as constituting a family of the
Scansorial order ; but if structure and modes of life
are to be taken as the grounds of arrangement, then
the parrots will form as clear and distinct an order
as the raptorial birds, or as the Natatores (swimming
birds). Nor are we alone in this opinion. The
Prince of Canino, in his ' Specchio generale,' places
them in the order Psittaci, the first of his subclass
Insessores ; and M. de Blainville makes them the
first order of birds, under the well-chosen title of
Prehensores, belonging to the anomalous subclass.
Even those ornithologists who, proceeding upon that
most artificial of methods styled the natural, qui-
nary, or trinary, have formed the parrots into a
family group of the Scansores, have felt the dilemma
in which they stood. Mr. Vigors declares it as his
opinion that the Psittacidee afford more difficulties
to the inquirer into affinities than any other group
in the known class ; he remarks that in manners
and general structure, as well as in the mode of
using their feet and bill, the parrots hold nearly an
insulated situation among birds, and that they may
perhaps be pronounced to be the only group among
them which is completely sui generis. Yet because
the parrots and the woodpeckers are climbers, par
excellence — ditfering, however, as he states, as to
the mode in which they climb — he associates them
together, and considers the Barbets (Pogonias) to
be the link of union between them. The difierence
in the external characters of the head of the parrot,
with its curved mandibles and fleshy tongue, and
that of the woodpecker with its long beak and
slender extensile tongue, may be seen in Fig. 1603.
Mr. Ssvainson is of opinion that the parrots consti-
tute the subtypical division of the Scansores, in
which the powers of climbing are less developed.
If, says that writer, " any group in nature be isolated,
it is this. Possessing in themselves the strongest
characteristics, there is no bird yet discovered which
presents any point of connection to them ; approxi-
mations are certainly made by the tooth-billed bar-
bets, but still there is a gap which no genus disco-
vered is calculated to fill up." If such a group, then,
does not constitute an order, what does r
The order Prehensores, then, for so we would
term it, or the Psittacidse of authors, is divided by
different naturalists into genera so numerous, thai a
mere list of them and their synonyms is enough to
startle the student, who would find himself be-
wildered in a labyrinth of names, tending to con-
fuse him more and more at every step : avoiding
them altogether, we may observe that the parrots
may be arranged in the following groups or sec-
tions : — 1, Cockatoos ; 2, Macaws ; 3, Parrakeets,
including the Psittacaras, the true Parrakeets, the
Loriets or broad tailed Parrakeets, the Lorikets or
filamentous-tongued Parrakeets, the Ground Parra-
keets, and the Psittacules; 4, the True Parrots; 5,
the Lories.
1604. — A Groitp op Parrots.
This group of parrots is illustrative of some of the
forms which these birds offer to the contemplation
of the naturalist. Of the cockatoos, are, a, the
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (PlyctolophusSulphureus,
Vieillot) ; 6, the Banksian Cockatoo (Calyptorhyn-
chus Banksii, Vigors) : and c, the Goliah Cockatoo
(Probosciger Goliath, Kuhl) with naked cheeks. Of
the macaws, is d, the great Red and Blue Macaw
(Macrocercus Macao). Of the parrakeets, e, the Ca-
rolina Parrakeet (Conurus Carolinensis, Kuhl ; f, the
Scaled Parrakeet : g, the Black-winged Psittacule
(Psiltacula melanoptera) ; h, the Philippine Psitta-
cule (Psittacula Philippensis). Of the parrots, i, the
Accipitrine Parrot (Psiftacus accipitrinus), and k,
the White-headed Parrot (Psittacus leucocephalus).
In the parrot tribe, the modification of the bill is
very remarkable. Jn many birds the upper man-
dible is more or less moveable at its junction with the
forehead, for where there is no trace of a suture, the
bone is often slightly elastic* In tbe parrots, how-
• In the Rook, Hoopoe, ITctoii, Stork, Woodpecker, Shoveller^lock,
Sacred lliit, &c. the upper mandible ii firm and immoveable, as also
In the Albatna. Ilomtiill, and otheis.
ever, this mobility is carried out to its fullest extent,
I a sort of hinge uniting the upper mandible to the fore-
' head (see Fig. 1605), while the slender bones con-
necting the upper mandible to the base of the skull
yield to every movement. Across the homy palate
of the beak is a sort of notch (see Fig. 160C), against
which the front margin of the lower beak works, and
this margin, chisel-like, is sharp and thin ; while the
articulation of the lower mandible is as loose as
possible. Hence, aided by the thick fleshy tongue,
a parrot, as we have often seen, will by means of its
beak clear the inside of a fresh pea from the outer
skin, rejecting the latter: and perform the whole
process not only with facility but with the greatest
delicacy of manipulation, if this term be allowable.
In all birds, as a rule, the margin of the orbit is in-
complete. In the parrot the bony ring varying in
breadth is complete, and below it runs the slender
bone connecting the upper mandible with the os
quadratum (see Fig. 1605). The lower mandible is
light, thin and deep. The tongue is thick, muscular,
and in co is ant requisition ; it is covered with papil-
lae, is moist fued with saliva, and possesses both taste
and great mobility. In the lorikets (Trichoglossus)
however, which feed on the nectar of the flowers of
the Eucalypti in Australia, it is furnished with a
brush of delicate close-set filaments.
We need not say that birds have no teeth, yet
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in his 'Theory of Analogues,'
says, that though it may be considered a piece of
pleasantry to assert that fowls have teeth, he finds
proofs that such is the fact, notwithstanding the
weight of authority against him. To this opinion
he was led in the first instance by examining the
beaks of two chicks of the ring parrakeet (Palaeornis
torquatus), which, though matured, had not been able
to break through the egg-shell, in the beaks of
these younglings he observed a regular set of tooth-
like projections, or, as he states, teeth, represented
at Fig. 1607. a, a lateral view of both mandibles
showing the teeth : 6 and c, the upper and under man-
dible viewed, the first from beneath, the latter from
above ; d, the serrations or teeth on the beak of the
blue macaw, which M. GeoftVoy St. Hilaire subse-
quently observed, and which are more fully repre-
sented at Fig. 1608 : a, the upper mandible ; b, the
lower insection to show the teeth ; c, a portion of the
beak, showing the serrations worn down by use.
In the instanceof the parrakeet chicks M. Geofi'roy St.
Hilaire could trace nerves and blood-vessels running
towards each toothlet ; but in the adult macaw, the
tube in which these had apparently lain while the
bird was a nestling was filled with a cartilaginous
substance. The fact is that these are not real teeth,
but only indications of a structure much more
amply developed in the beak of the duck tribe,
which is furnished with a series of horny laminae
acting as strainers, and perhaps as feelers, and which
are part and parcel of the horny sheath of the os-
seous mandible (see Fig. 1609). a, the upper man-
dible of the shoveller-duck (Rynchapsis clypeata) :
i, the lower mandible of the common duck. These
appendages in the duck are rather the analogues
of the baleen plates of the whale, than of teeth ;
and in the parrot, as from examination we can tes-
tify, they seem rather to indicate the progressive
growth of the horny beak in the upper mandible,
and evidence the passage of nerves and blood-vessels
to the edge of the lower. We have before us the
skulls of several macaws and parrots, adult, of
which the lower mandible has its horny edge very
clearly marked ; while the hooked palatal part of
the upper, anterior to the notch, is marked with
lines obliquely running from a central line, like
arrow-heads repeated, the apex of each pointing
backwards, thus— r^^|^»- The nostrils in the
parrots are seated in a membranous cere at the
base of the upper mandible.
Often, as in the macaws (see Fig. 1610), the
cheeks are covered with naked skin.
The foot of the parrot is completely zygodactyle
and prehensile (see Fig. 1611) ; the tarsus is short,
but stout, and the limb muscular; the toes are long
and furnished with strong claws, and are formed ex-
pressly for holding or grasping any object which
they can enclose. In climbing, the parrot uses its
hooked beak, as well as its feet, and in feeding, it
rests on one foot, holding the food to its beak with
the other. Compare the foot of the parrot with that
of the fowl, and of the water-bird (Fig. 1612), and
the difference will be at once appreciated. The
plumage of the parrots is in general richly tinted,
and some species are superb ; in all, and particu-
larly in the cockatoos, the skin throws off a mealy
powder, which saturates the feathers, and commu-
nicates to them somewhat of a greasy feel ; this is
the case with other birds also, as eagles and herons.
The parrots are a noisy race, associating together in
flocks, and feeding upon fruits, buds, seeds, &c. ;
they sleep crowded together, and are fond of prun-
ing each other's plumage ; they are monogamous,
the pairs forming lasting associations; and they
breed in the hollows of trees. With respect to
powers of flight, they vary considerably ; some fly
slowly, but others wing their way with the greatest
rapidity, and for a long continuance. It is to the
warmer climates more particularly that these birds
are confined ; and they are abundant in the inter-
tropics. In the southern hemisphere, however, they
occur in temperate latitudes, while in the northern
hemisphere they are rare beyond the tropic of Can-
cer ; the Carolina parrot, in America, and some of
the genus Palseornis in India, however, are ex-
tratropical. On the contrary, parrots occur in the
southern extremity of America, throughout New
Holland, Van Dieinen's Land, New Zealand, and
even in Macquarrie Island, in the fil^y-second degree
of south latitude.
Of all birds, parrots are the most susceptible of
being rendered tame and familiar ; and towards
their protectors they often manifest great attach-
ment, courting their notice and caresses ; they are
decidedly the most intelligent of the feathered race ;
and are quick in learning to repeat words, sentences,
and tunes : they mimic the voices of other animals,
the barking of dogs, the mewing of cats, and the
crowing of poultry ; their memory is retentive, and
their ear is accurate. Individuals, however, differ
in their qualifications, and some species are superior
to others in the facility with which they learn their
lessons, the grey parrot of Africa (Psittacus erytha-
cus) being pie-eminent.
In the classical writings of antiquity we have several
references to these birds, which appear to have been
great favourites and in general request. Aristotle
well described their tongue as resembling that of
man, whence, as he conjectured, arose the facility
with which they pronounced words or sentences. The
Greeks were the first of European nations who be-
came acquainted with birds of the parrot tribe, viz.
some of the species of the Indian genus Palseornis
(parrakeets) ; these from all accounts were intro-
duced into Europe from India at the time of the
Macedonian conquest ; and having been once brought
into Greece, the great demand for them, and the
high prices for which they sold, rendered the impor-
tation of them a profitable speculation. Aristotle
calls the parrot 'irStKyhy ipveov, or Indian bird.
From Greece the parrot soon found its way to
Rome, and became extravagantly admired. It was
kept in cages of the most costly materials, nor was
any price, however inordinate, deemed beyond its
value. Until the time of Nero, the Romans were
not acquainted with the parrots of Africa ; but as
that country became more known, these birds with
other natural productions were sent to Italy ; and
most probably it was from that quarter that the
numbers of the parrot race were imported which at
a subsequent period supplied the luxury of Helio-
gabalus. Among other articles in the bill of fare
detailed by .^lian as entering into the feasts of this
emperor, are the combs of fowls, the tonguesof pea-
cocks and nightingales, the brains of flamingoes and
thrushes, the heads of parrots and pheasants, and it
is reported that with the bodies of the two latter he
fed his beasts of prey.
In captivity the parrot lives long; instances are on
record of individuals attaining the age of eighty
or one hundred years. We know a green South
American parrot said to have been ninety years in
the family, and is still in good health.
From these general remarks we shall at once pro-
ceed to our pictorial specimens.
1613.— Thk Blue and Yellow Macaw
(Maaocercus Ararauna). — The macaws are natives
of the warmer regions of South America, and are
among the largest of the parrot race. They are
easily domesticated, and become very gentle and
familiar, but in their powera of imitation they fall
very short of the true parrots and parrakeets ; their
natural cries are harsh, discordant, and piercing, and
the few words they are occasionally taught to utter
are pronounced in a disagreeable tone. The beak
is of enormous size and strength ; the cheeks are to
a greater or less extent bare ; the nostrils are con-
cealed; the under mandible is very deep. The
plumage is remarkable for gaudy colouring. The
blue and yellow macaw is a native of Brazil,
Guiana, and Surinam, tenanting the swampy forests
along the banks of rivers, and generally living in
pairs, though sometimes they assemble in large
flocks. The food of this species consists principally
of the fruit of a kind of palm abundant in humid or
marshy places. On the wing the blue and yellow
macaw is rapid, displaying great address and ease
in its aerial movements, and is often seen skimming
over the tops of the loftiest trees, the highest
branches of which it selects for its roosting-place.
Like the parrots generally, this macaw lays two
white eggs in the hollow of a decayed tree ; both
sexes attend to the duty of incubation, and to the
labour of rearing the young. Two broods are said
to be produced annually.
The colouring of this species is as follows : — Bill
Parrots]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
363
black, cheeks naked, white, with three narrow lines
of black velvety feathers passing obliquely across.
Beneath the under mandible is a broad black band,
extending some distance under the naked cheeks.
General colour above rich blue, passing into green
on the forehead, some of the wing-coverts, and
rump. Greater quills and tail nearly violet ; wings
and tail beneath, yellow ; under parts generally of a
rich satfron tint ; irisyellowi.sh ; legs dusky. Length
about thirty-nine inches, of which the long graduated
tail measures about twenty-four inches.
1614. — ^The Red-Fronted Parrakeet- Macaw
(Psitlacara Leptorhynchd). Between the Macaws
and Parrakeets comes the genus Psittacara of
Vigors, allied to the former in the shape and size
of the beak, but to the latter in the cheeks being
clothed with feathers, a naked ring only encircling
the eye, and in the form of the tall. From their
intermediate situation, the birds of this genus have
received the familiar name of Parrakeet-Macaws
in our language, and that of Perruchearas, which
has the same meaning, in the French. Like the
macaws, these birds are exclusively natives of the
New World ; they are formed for rapid flight, and
live in flocks, tenanting the forest. The present
species is green, space round the eye white, a
frontal band stretching from eye to eye red, tail
cinnamon red.
An allied species, the Carolina Pairot (Psittacara
Carolinensis), Conurus Carolinensis, Kuhl, is a
native of the southern districts of the United States,
frequenting the low alluvial lands along the Ohio
and Mississippi, where the cockle-bur (Xanthium
strumarium) grows in abundance, on the fruit of
which it feeds, extricating the seeds from the prickly
shells ; it adds however grain, fruits, apples, mul-
berries, grapes, &c. to the bill of fare ; and as it asso-
ciates in flocks, the farmer often suffers from its
depredations. It must not be supposed that these
flocks commit their ravages with impunity ; the gun
thins their numbers ; and as the living birds sweep
screaming around their dead and wounded com-
panions, and settle again in the place of danger,
the whole flock is sometimes almost entirely ex-
tirpated. The flight of this species is rapid, grace-
ful, and direct ; and a general cry is kept up by the
whole party while on the wing. The movements of
these birds on the ground are slow and embarrassed,
but on trees or tall strong plants they are very
active, climbing about, and hanging in every attitude.
They roost in hollow trees, and incubate in similar
cavities, many females, as Mr. Audubon assures us,
depositing their eggs together. From the same
observer we learn that these birds are fond of saline
earth, and visit the different salt-licks interspersed
through the woods ; they delight also in rolling
themselves in the sand, for which purpose they
often alight in flocks along the gravelly banks of
rivers and creeks, and in other situations. It would
appear that the adult plumage is not assumed until
after the second year.
1615. — The Alexakdbinb Parrakeet
(PaitBomis Altxandri). The genus Palaeomis,
containing a number of beautiful and interesting
species, is confined, or nearly so, to India and its
islands : Australiabeing just within the geographical
range of the group. It was with some of the Indian
species of this group that the ancients, as already
noticed, became iirst acquainted. Mr. Vigors
('Zool. Journal.' vol. ii.), who observes that the
ancient writers unanimously affirm that the parrots
known in their times came exclusively from India,
adds : — " It is not easy to decide, although we may
form a tolerable conjecture on the subject, how
many and which of the species of Palaeomis were
known to the ancients. jKlian (De Nat. Anim.
xvi. 2) tells us that they were acquainted with three
species : but as some of the more common species
approach each other most closely in their specific
characters, it is not improbable that the differences
between them might have been passed over by
observers who were so little accustomed and had so
little occasion to pay attention to minute distinc-
tions, and that four or five species at least were
familiar to antiquity. The birds that came from the
remoter Indian islands, P. Papuensis, Malaccensis,
and Xanthosoraus in particular, are in all likelihood
among the number of those that have been known
only m recent times: to these we may add the
newly characterized species from New Holland, the
P. Barrabandi. The beautiful blossom-headed
species also, P. erythrocephalus, and P. Bengalensis,
which are even now more rarely met with than the
neighbouring species, most probably did not come
under the observations of the ancients, for it is im-
possible that they should have passed over without
notice the lovely and changeable roseate colour of
the hoad, which casts into the shade even the collar
round the neck (so frequently alluded to by them),
if either of '.hese birds had been before them. The
poeu at least would have seized upon a character
which involved so truly poetic an image, and Ovid
or Statins would have woven it up among the most
conspicuous wreaths of their beautiful elegiac gar-
lands. The species which we can imagine to have
been best known to former times are the P. Pon-
dicerianus and Flavitorquis, which are diffused over
the whole of the Indian continent, the former
species more particularly, which is now found dis-
persed over a great extent of the Eastern archipelago.
P. Alexandii appears to have been the bird sent
from Ceylon to the Macedonian warrior from whom
it derives its specific name ; Ceylon, or the ancient
Taprobana, being the principal resort, even down
to the present moment, of that species. It is pro-
bable also that the Romans, particularly in later
times, received a great number of the same species
from that island. If to these birds we add the
P. torqualus, which is the species that agrees most
intimately with the descriptions of Pliny, and after
him of Apuleius, which is generally scattered over
the Indian, as well as the African continent on the
eastern side, we shall probably have before us all
the species known to the ancients of this classical
group." The Alexandrine Parrakeet is a beautiful
bird ; its general plumage is green, a vermilion
collar adorns the neck, the throat and a band
between the eyes are black, a mark of purple red
ornaments the shoulders.
1616, 1617. — The Rosk-ringed Parrakeet
(Palaomis torquatus). This beautiful species is
probably that described by Solinus as "colore
viridi, torque puniceo ;" its colour is green, with a
roseate collar, and the bill deep ruby. Besides
being found in India, it is said to be abundant on
the coast of Senegal. In captivity it is a gentle
engaging bird, and soon learns to utter sentences
with considerable distinctness.
In the genus Palaeomis the bill is rather thick,
the wings are moderate and pointed ; the tail is
slender and very graduated, the two middle feathers
far exceeding the rest in length ; the tai-si are short
and feeble ; the general contour is slim and grace-
ful.
1618.— The Tabuan Loriet
(Platycerms scapulatus). King's-Ground Parrakeet,
Grand Perruche i collier et croupion bleues, Le
Vaillant.
In the genus Platycercus the bill is rather short,
the upper mandible rounded and dilated, the lower
one short, deeply emarginate, with the apex squared.
Wings moderate and rounded ; the tail broad, and
subgraduate, the tarsi elevated ; the toes slender
and elongated ; and the claws long and but little
hooked. In their habits and manners the birds of
this genus differ from the exclusively arboreal
species; they run nimbly on the ground, with singu-
lar address, but their powers of flight are limited,
and the os furcatum,or merry-thought, is either very
feeble or wanting. While on the wing, however, their
course is tolerably rapid, but is not long sustained.
They breed in the holes of trees, and the females lay
several eggs, from seven to ten or a dozen. Grass-
seeds, grain, and hard fruits constitute their food ;
all are richly coloured, and, as they soon become
familiar, are interesting ornaments in an aviary.
The present species, when adult, is green, with
the head, neck, and under parts, scarlet : back of
the neck and rump lazuline ; longitudinal .scapular
line pale green cerulean ; tail-feathers black, with
brilliant green reflections. (Male).
We have frequently noticed the King's-Ground
Parrakeet or Taijuan Loriet, in captivity. In a large
cage, it may be seen rapidly traversing the sanded
floor, and occasionally uttering a soft whistling note ;
like the rest of the genus, it is fond of the bath, and
will saturate its plumage with water, which, from
a mistaken idea of its being injurious, persons too
often deny to their captives of the parrot tribe.
This beautiful species is a native of New Hol-
land, associating in flocks, which, when the Indian
corn is ripe, visit the fields, and occasion no little
mischief. Mr. Caley considers these flocks as con-
sisting of young birds almost exclusively, as it is
rare to see a bright red bird among them. Accord-
ing to information gained from the natives, he adds
that this bird breeds chiefly in a white gum-tree
(one of the Eucalypti), making its nest in a hollow,
of a little grass, and lining it with feathers, The
eggs are as many as twelve, and are of a dirty white,
with black specks. The natives easily detect the
breeding-place of this bird ; for as it enlarges the
entrance, in order to creep in and out of the hole
more readily, the surrounding part acquires a reddish
tint in consequence of the operation, and contrasts
very strongly with the whiteness of the rest of the
tree. The species of the genus Platycercirs are nu-
merous; as the P. pacificiis, Stanleyi, Pennantii,
semitorquatus, Baueri, Barnardi, &c. Of the P. semi-
torquatus, Mr. Gould states that it begins breeding
in the latter part of September or commencement
of October, making no nest, but depositing its eggs
in a hole in either a gum or mahogany tree, on the
soft black dust collected at the bottom ; they are
from seven to nine in number, of a pure white.
This species is dispersed over the greater part of
Western Australia, " where it inhabits every variety
of situation; sometimes searching for its food on
the ground, like the rest of its congeners, at other
times on the trees ; its chief food being either grass-
seeds or the hard-stoned fruits and seeds peculiar to
the trees of the country in which it lives." From
its note uttered while on the wing, it has acquired
from the colonists the name of the Twenty-eight
Parrakeet. (See Gould's ' Birds of Australia.')
1619. — The New Holland Nymphicus
{Ntjmphiais Novce HollandicB). In the genus Nym-
phicus the bill is notched ; the culmen slightly
carinated ; the nostrils thick, tumid, and naked ;
the wings long ; the tail broad and graduated, the
two middle tail feathers being much longer than the
next, and pointed. We have had opportunities of
observing the habits of the New Holland Nymphi-
cus in captivity, one being in the possession of
Mr. Gould, and we believe the only one ever
brought alive to England. It is surprisingly active,
and trips over the floor of its cage with great
celerity, continually erecting its beautiful crest of
pointed and graduated feathers; its mannei-s, in
fact, much resemble those of the Platycerci, but
have more of sprightliness and vivacity. It is ex-
tremely gentle and familiar, and is fond of being
noticed. This species is common in the interior of
New Holland, associating in vast troops ; and in
some parts so great are their numbers, that, as
Mr. Gould assures us, his brother-in-law, Stephen
Coxen, Esq., procured upwards of two hundred
examples during a single excursion in the interior.
In the male, the ;forehead, crest, and cheeks are
lemon-yellow ; the ear-coverts, rich reddish orange ;
the back of the neck, the two central tail-feathers,
and the external margins of the primaries brownish
grey ; back, shoulders, and all the under surface and
outer tail-feathers greyish chocolate brown, the
shoulders and flanks being the darkest. A white
mark extends from the shoulders lengthwise down
the centre of the wing ; bill and bare space round
the eye brownish grey ; feet blackish brown. The
female diffei-s from the male in the colour of the
face and crest, being of a dull olive yellow, the
latter becoming still darker at its extremity ; in
having the throat greyish brown, and the bax;k
lighter than in the male ; the lower part of the ab-
domen, upper tail-coverts, and tail-feathers yellow,
except the four middle ones, which are grey ; the
whole transversely and irregularly barred with lines
of brown. Total length twelve inches. (Gould).
1620. — The Undulated Euphemia.
(^Eupliemia undidata). The genus Euphemia of
Wagler (Nanodes, Vigors) has the bill short, with
the culmen rounded, and the upper mandible deep ; ■
the wings of moderate length, and pointed ; the
tarsi and toes rather 'slender ; the tail graduated ;
the two middle feathers being long and slender.
The undulated Euphemia is a native of the in-
terior of New South Wales, where it was discovered
in great abundance by Captain Sturt, who informed
Mr. Gould that he met with it in immense flocks on
the extensive plains bordering the Morumbidgee,
feeding upon the seeds and berries of the low
stunted bushes collectively named the 'scrub.'
Several specimens were received by Mr. Gould
from Mr. Coxen, which had been procured by the
latter north of Hunter's River. These beautiful little
birds are quick and active, tripping along nimbly
on the ground, and also flying with considerable
rapidity ; during flight the tail is spread, and the
yellow mark is very conspicuous, as we have seen
in Mr. Gould's living specimen, which is occasion-
ally allowed the liberty of the drawing-room. This
specimen is very familiar and observant, and while
on its perch often breaks forth into a very sweet
natural warble, occasionally interrupted by a shrill
chirp. Its manners and beauty render it a most
engaging creature; and it seems to bear our climate
without any inconvenience.
In the male the crown of the head and throat are
pale yellow, the latter ornamented on each side
with several rich blue spots ; a row of which, but of
a darker tint, crosses the throat in the form of a
crescent ; sides and back of the head, back of the
neck, upper part of the back, scapulars, and wing-
coverts olive brown, each feather having a crescent-
shaped mark of black near its extremity, and a mar-
gin of yellow ; primaries green on their outer
edges, the tip and internal web brown ; seconda-
ries crossed by a broad band of yellow, which is
continued, but much narrower, acmss some of the
primaries, breast and all the under surface, lower
part of the back and tail-coverts of a tine pale
green ; the two centre tail-feathers deep blue at the
base, passing into deep green at the tip ; the re-
mainder of the tail-feathers bright yellow, tipped
3 A2
HM^SkullorMwaw.
MM.— Se^ftonted Pantiitct Hacav.
HIS.— Foot of lluToi and of »'«t»r.b'r<l.
,\ '.V
IfiTS. — Uhie mil Yellow Macaw.
'. '■)'./ ■'^■
-1-3 \
! (IQ.— Head or M traw
.1 ;. .ULVkt'T
toil.— Foot or Micur.
ISM.-HMds it \Vocdi:«ek« and r»iTol
Itia.— Tabovi Loriet.
1811. — Alexandrine Panak^
1616.— Rnae-rln^ ParTake«t.
864
1617, — Rose-ringed ParnKeet.
1620. — Umlnlared Eiiphemia.
:65j.— Tamnta Psittacule.
t«t9^-Ncw Hfdlnid KTinphiei
1623.— Great Sulphnr-creited Cockatoo.
J622. — Purple capped Lory.
lfi24.— Loii-'-billed Parrot.
ieSl,^-.Dhie-Mountain Lo;ikeet.
365
366
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[PAUROXa
with dark j^reen ; bill horn-colour at the base, pa«»- |
in? into pale yellow at the tip ; feet flesh-colour.
The female is lest brilliant than the male, with
more obscure markins:8, and the spots on the throat
less defined. Total length seven inches and a half.
(Gould, ' Birds of Australia.')
1621.— The Bluk-Mountain Lorikekt
(TrichogUutuM httmatodiu). Blue-mountain Parrot.
The Lorikeets (Trichoglossi) are natives of Austra-
lia, and are principally characterized by the tongue
being furnished at iU apex with a pencil or brush
of strong hairs, rendering it an efficient agent in
procuring food. This consists of the nectar of
various species-of Eucalypti, some of which are al-
ways in flower, thus furnishing the flocks with an
abundant supply ; were it not for this succession of
blooms, the lorikeets would be straitened for food.
Among the pendent blossoms of these trees may the
lorikeets be observed clinging in every attitude, and
busily engaged in absorbing with their pencil-tufted
tongues (and so licking up) the honey from the
cups of the newly-expanded blossoms which they
have compressed and nibbled with their beaks. To
auchan excess, says Mr. Gould, do these birds satiate
themselves with their liquid food, that on suspending
a fresh-shot specimen by the toes, a large tea-spoon-
ful, at least, of honey will flow from the mouth : and
he adds, " When we know this to be the natural food
of this group, how can it be expected that the species
can exist in captivity upon the hard seed or farina-
ceousdiet so generallygiven as a substitute ?" And we
agree with him in thinking that if honey or liquid sac-
charine matter were afforded them, they might be
kept in our cages and aviaries ; and when it is consi-
dered that they are among the most elegant and
beautiful of their race, that it is desirable for those
who have the opportunity of making aseries of trials.
According to Mr. 'Caley, the Blue-mountain
Lorikeet, or Blue-mountain Parrot (War'rin of the
natives), is remarkable for its docility and attach-
ment to some people, whilst it is a perfect scold to
others who may have teased or offended it. " Flocks
of these birds," says this accurate observer, "maybe
seen in the Eucalypti trees, when in flower, in dif-
ferent parts of the country, but in the greatest num-
ber near their breeding-places. It does not eat
any kind of grain, even when in a domesticated state.
It is much subject to fits, which generally prove
fatal ; and it is rare to find an individual kept alive
above a couple of years. One that I kept, on being
shown a figure of a coloured plant, used to put its
tongue to the flowers, as if with the intent of suck-
ing them ; and I have seen it make the same attempt
with a piece of cotton furniture. The flesh of this
bird is very good eating." Again, speaking of the
Crimson fronted Parrakeet, Coolich of the natives
(Trichoglossus concinnus), Mr. Caley states that it
may be observed in large flocks sucking the
Eucalypti flowers. He adds that, like the Blue-
mountain Parrot, it is subject to fits which generally
Erove fatal, that it is seldom kept alive, and that its
reath or some part about its head emits a very
sweet odour. The natives told him that this species
breeds in the hollow boughs of trees, scraping out
the decayed mould, and making its nest of it.
The eggs, he informs us, are green, without spots,
and the number of young two. Of the small
Parrakeet, Jerryang of the natives (Trichoglossus
pusillus), he observes that this, like the Coolich, is
seen in very large flocks in the Eucalypti trees when
in blossom. "The natives," says he,, "now and then
bring in the young ones, but they seldom live long.
I had three young ones for some time, which used
to huddle together and give out a very pleasing
note. They all died strongly convulsed, and nearly
at the same time ; the limbs were as stiff the mo-
ment life was extinct as if the body had become
cold. The natives tell me that it builds in the
hollow limbs of trees, making no other nest than of
the decayed wood. It has four young ones. The
eggs are white, and without spot."
The Blue-mountain Lorikeet is generally green ;
the head, the middle of the body, and bands on the
sides being azure blue ; and the throat, breast, and
flanks orange crimson.
1622. — The Purpi.e-capped Lobv.
{Lorius Domicella). The Lories are natives of the
Moluccas, New Guinea, and other astern islands,
and are characterized by a weak bill, and a brush-
tipped tongue, as in Trichoglossus. It is however
doubtful whether nectar constitutes their sole food,
for they exist in captivity upon sopped bread and
milk, appearing to be in health and vigour. Pro-
bably soft fruits form part of their natural diet.
The plumage of these Ijirds is extremely rich and
gorjreous ; the tail is broad and rounded ; the wings
moderate ; the beak elongated and weak. In dis-
Dosition the Lories are gentle and docile, and easily
learn to articulate words or sentences. Among the
most beautiful of the splendid group ig this Purple-
capped I ory ; it is of an intense scarlet, with a
yellow collar on the upper part of the breast: the
top of the head is deep purple passing on the occiput
into violet ; the upper surface of the wings is green,
becoming violet blue at the bend and margin ; under
surface of the wings violet blue, thighs azure, bill
orange yellow. Length nearly twelve inches.
1C23. — The Great Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.
(Plyctolophus galeritua. Vigors and Horsfield).
Cacatua galerita, Vieillot ; Crested Cockatoo, White.
In the Cockatoos the bill is strong, short, broad,
with the upper mandible much curved ; the head is
ornamented with a folding crest ; base of the under
mandible frequently concealed by feathers. Wings
long, tail even. Locality, Australia and the Indian
Islands. These birds inhabit the woods, feeding on
fruits and breeding in hollow trees; their cry is
harsh, loud, and disagreeable, but they are readily
tamed, and though not celebrated for their powers
of imitation, are engaging from their gentleness
and affectionate disposition. Their plumage is
very powdery. They live long in captivity. An
authenticated instance some time since came within
our knowledge of a great sulphur-crested Cockatoo
which attained to the age of 120 years. Mr. Gould,
who, in his ' Birds of Australia,' has given a magnifi-
cent figure of the Cacatua galeritaof Vieillot,observes
that if we regard the white cockatoo of Van Diemen's
Land and that of New Guinea as mere varieties of
each other, this species has a more extensive range
than most other birds. It is an inhabitant of all the
Australian Colonies, both on the southern and
northern coasts, but has not yet been seen on the
western. " On a close examination of the speci-
mens from the three countries above mentioned, a
decided difference is observable in the structure of
the bill, or rather perhaps a modification of the organ
for the peculiar kind of food afforded by the respec-
tive countries. The Van Diemen's Land bird is the
largest in every respect, and has the bill, particularly
the upper mandible, less abruptly curved ; the bill of
the New Guinea bird is much rounder, and is in
fact fitted to perform a totally different office from
that of the white cockatoo of Van Diemen's Land,
which I have ascertained by dissection feeds princi-
pally on the small bulbs of the terrestrial orchidaceae,
for procuring which its lengthened upper mandible
is admirably adapted, while it is more than pro-
bable that no food of this kind is to be obtained by
the New Guinea bird, the structure of whose bill
indicates that hard seeds and nuts constitute the
principal part of its diet. The crops and stomachs
of those killed in Van Diemen's Land were very
muscular, and contained seeds, grain, native bread
(a species of fungus), small tuberose and bulbous
roots, and in most instances large stones.
" As may be readily imagined, this bird is not
upon favourable terms with the agriculturist, upon
whose fields of newly sown grain and ripening
maize it commits the greatest devastation ; it is
consequently hunted and shot down wherever it is
found, a circumstance which tends much to lessen
its numbers. It is still however very abundant,
moving about in flocks varying from a hundred to a
thousand in number, and evinces a decided prefer-
ence to the open plains and cleared lands, rather than
to the dense brushes near the coast. Except when
feeding or reposing on the trees after a repast, the
presence of a flock, if not seen, is certain to be in-
dicated by their horrid screaming notes, the dis-
cordance of which may be slightly conceived by
those who have heard the peculiarly loud, piercing,
grating scream of the bird in captivity, always re-
membering the immense increase of the din occa-
sioned by the large number of the birds uttering
their disagreeable notes at the same moment : still
I ever considered this annoyance amply compensated
for by their sprightly actions and the life their
snowy forms imparted to the dense and never-
varying green ol^ the Australian forest; a feeling
participated in by Sir Thomas Mitchell, who says
that amidst the umbrageous foliage forming dense
masses of shade the white cockatoos sported like
spirits of light."
This bird builds in hollow trees and the crevices
of rocks; the eggs are two, and of a white colour.
The aborigines of New South Wales term this
bird Car'away and Cur'riang ; the Papuans of New
Guinea, Mangarape.
General plumage white ; occipital crest sulphur-
yellow ; ear coverts, under surface of wings, and
basal portion of the inner we'bs of the tail-feathers,
very pale sulphur-yellow. Length about eighteen
inches.
1624. — The Lono-billed Parrot.
(Nestor productus, Gould). The generic character
of thh singular bird consists chiefly in the elonga-
tion of the upper mandible of the beak, which is
formed for digging in the earth ; the wings are long
and ample, the tail moderate, with the shafts of each
feather projecting beyond the webs. The species is
a native of Norfolk' Island and the most eastern
portions of New South Wales. " Like all the other
members of this extensive family," says Mr.Gould, in
his splendid work on the ' Birds of Australia,' speak-
ing of this species, " it bears captivity remarkably
well, readily becoming cheerful and contented; at
least such is the case with an individual in the
possession of Sir J. P. Millbank, Bart. ; and as might
nave been reasonably expected, the variation in the
form of the mandibles, which renders these birds so
conspicuous, is accompanied by a markad difference
in the nature of their food, the powerful lulls of the
other members of the family enabling them to feed
upon hard seeds and stony fruits, while, from the
elongated form of this organ in the present birds,
this power is denied to them, and we find that they
give a decided preference to the leaves of succulent
plants and the softer kinds of fruit. Sir J. P. Mill-
bank informed me that the bird in his possession
evinced a strong partiality to the leavei of the
common lettuce and other soft vegetables, and
that it was also very fond of the juice of fruits,
of cream, and butter. Its voice was hoarse and
inharmonious, frequently resembling the barking
of a dog ; and in Yates's ' New Zealand ' we are in-
formed that the Nestor hypopolius, known there by
the name of Kaka, is ' capable of learning to imitate
the human voice to a remarkable degree
The cry of this bird when ranging at large in the
woods is harsh and disagreeable in the extreme.'
Although I cannot assert it for a certainty, I have
every reason to believe that both these birds fre-
quently descend to the ground and grub up with
their lengthened bills the bulbous and other roots
which form a portion of their food, particularly as I
have found earth still adhering to the mandibles of
the specimens I have examined ; besides which, I
have been informed by Captain Sturt that a parrot
inhabiting Australia, having a similar bill, but be-
longing to another group, is frequently in the habit
of so doing. General colour of the upper surface
brown ; beak elongated ; head and back of the neck
tinged with grey ; the feathers of these parts, as well
as of the back, margined with a deeper tint ; rump,
belly, and under tail-coverts, deep red ; cheeks,
throat, and chest yellow, the former tinged with red ;
shoulders on their inner surface yellow, tinged with
rufous olive ; tail feathers banded at the base with
orange-yellow and brown, the inner web of the quill-
feathers at the base beneath with dusky red and
brown ; bill brown ; feet blackish brown. Total
length fifteen inches." (Gould, ' Birds of Australia.')
1625. — ^The Taranta Psittacule.
(Psittactda Taranta). The Psittacules. and Love-
Birds (Psittacula and Agapornis) form a group of
most beautiful little parrakeets, the most diminutive
of their race, with short rounded tails. They are
natives of the torrid zone. The common love-bird
from Guinea is well known, being often kept in cages
in pairs; it is very interesting to witness the attention
which a pair of these birds pay to each other, caress-
ing each other, arranging each other's plumage, and
by numberless little acts of kindness evidencing
their mutual attachment. They usually sleep sus-
pended with the head downwards, clinging by one
foot alone. The colour of th6 love-bird (agapornis
EuUaria) is green, the outer webs of the quill-ieathers
eing blue, and the tail banded with a bar of lilac.
The Taranta Psittacule is a native of Abyssinia,
and was noticed by Salt about the Pass of Taranta,
whence it takes its name. The bill is crimson ; the
forehead scarlet ; the plumage green, lighter be-
neath ; down the centre of the wing a broad black
patch glossed with blue ; quills dusky, fringed with
green ; two centre tail-feathers tipped with black,
the rest crossed near the tip with the same.
Family CERTHIAD^ (CREEPERS). '
Cuvier places the creepers (les Grimperaux) among
the Tenuirostral section of the Passerine order, as
does also the Prince of Canino, while Mr. Vigors
and Mr. Swainson refei-s this family to the Scansores;
the former ornithologist regarding it as a link
between the woodpeckers (Picidso) and the Tenuiros-
tral group, viz., honey-suckers, honey-eaters, sun-
birds, humming-birds, &c.
The creepers are birds structurally adapted by
means of their large feet and strong claws for cli nibing
about the ti-unks of trees, or the precipitous face of
rocks, or steep banks, in quest of insect food : in
general the beak is elongated, but in some it is mode-
rate and strong; the toes are not zygodactyle. A
reference to our pictorial specimens will at oiue lead
us to an appreciation of the characters of the family.
1626, 1627.— The Creeper.
{Certhia familiaris) . Common Creeper, Tree-
creeper, TVee-climber ; probably the KtpSioc of Aris-
totle ; le Grimpereau of the French ; Piccliio pic-
colo, Pichietto, and Rampichino of the Ifaliaas ;
Baumlaiifer, Kleinere Grau-specht, and Kleinste
Baum-hacker of the Germans; Krypareofthe 'Fauna
Suecica ;' and y Grepianog of the ancient British.
Creepers.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
367
The creeper is very common in our island, and
appears to have a wide range through the Old
World : an allied species (Certhia Americana, Bona-
parte), till recently considered as identical with the
European, is found in the western and northern re-
l^ions of America. The creeper is a fearless little
bird, common in groves and orchards, where it may
be observed spirally running up the stems of trees
like a mouse, and using the sharp shafts of its tail-
feathers as a prop or aid in its ascent ; it is search-
ing for food, and if closely watched may be seen
probing with its slender bill the various chinks and
crevices of the bark, whence it extracts the lurking
insect. Having finished its examination of the
stem of one tree, the upper part of which it has
rapidly attained, it does not attempt to descend, but
flits away to the next, and clinging to the bark,
re-commences its scrutiny and spiral ascent. The
note of this bird is weak and monotonous, and is
frequently repeated, especially during flight from
tree to tree, or while stationary. This interesting
little bird, one of the smallest of our native feathered
race, breeds early in the spring ; its nest is placed
m the hole of some decayed tree, and is composed
of dried grass and fibres of bark, lined with feathers ;
the eggs are from seven to nine in number, ash-
coloured with dusky spots. The creeper has the
shafts of the tail-feathers prolonged and stifl"; and
this character is still more developed in the Ameri-
can genus Dendrocolaptes, but is lost in the genus
Tichodroraa.
1628.— The Wall-Creeper
(Tichodroma phcmicoptera, Temm.) T. muraria,
Bonap. ; Certhia muraria, Linn. ; Grimpereau de
muraille, and Pic de muraille, Ternier, and Esche-
lette of the French ; Picchio muraiolo and Picchio
di muro of the Italians ; Mauer Baum-laufer of the
Germans.
This elegant bird is a native of the mountain dis-
tricts of middle and southern Europe, but is not
indigenous in our island. It frequents the bold
precipitous rocks of the Alps, the Apennines, and
Pyrenees; and, according to the Prince of Canino,
it may sometimes be seen creeping on the walls of
St. Peter's at Rome : the hoary ruins of castles and
other buildings which top the frowning heights of
alpine scenery are attractive localities ; there it flits
from crag to crag, from crevice to crevice, not
creeping mouse like, as does our little certhia, up
the bark of trees, but taking short flights from point
to point ; assiduous in quest of insects, and espe-
cially spiders and their eggs, which are stated to be
a favourite food. From the difference in habits
between this bird and our creeper we can at once
account for the absence of stifl' springy shafts in the
feathers of the tail. This bird is rather a dinger
than a climber; it flits from projection to projec-
tion, securing itself by its claws, which are remark-
ably large and powerful ; Temminck says that what
the creeper does on trees, this bird does against the
precipitous faces of rocks, where it firmly fixes
itself, but without mounting or descending by creep-
ing.
The wall-creeper breeds in the cliffs of inac-
cessible rocks, or in the crevices of ruins which
beetle above the tremendous precipice.
The general colour of this bird is delicate grey ;
the shoulders and larger wing-coverts being lively
crimson, as are also the inner edges of the secondary
quill-feathers ; the rest of the quill-feathers are
black, as is the tail, which is marked at the ex-
tremity with white. In the male the throat during
the sprmg acquires a deep black colour, lost at the
autumnal moult. The beak is long, gently arched,
and pointed ; the wings are rounded. Length six
inches and a half,
1629. — The Curve-billed Creeper
(^ Dendrocolaptes prucurvus, Temm.) This bird, as
the character of the claws and the stiff pointed shalts
of the tail-feathers sufficiently indicate, is a decided
climber. It is a native of the forests of Brazil.
The bill is about an inch and three-quarters long,
rather strong, and considerably curved ; the claws
are hooked and channelled ; the tongue is short and
cartilaginous. In size this creeper equals a common
blackbird. The general colour is cinnamon-brown,
with a tinge of grey about the head, which, as well
as the neck, is spotted with white. Of its habits we
have no explicit details. It now forms the type of
the genus Xiphorhynchus.
1630, 1631.— The Nuthatch
(Sitla Europaea). This is in all probability the
Sitte (SiVt-i)) of the Greeks, and Sitta of the Latins.
It is the Ziolo, Picchio grigio, Raparino, and
Picchio formicajo of the Italians; Muratore of
Savi ; Torchepot and Pic-ma<;on of the French ;
Kleiber and Blauspecht of the Germans ; Notwacka
and Notpackaof the Swedes; Spoett-meise of the
Danes ; Nat-Bake of Brunnich ; Klener, Nusszhacker,
of Kramer ; and Delor y cnau of the ancient British.
The genus Sitta is characterised as follows : — Bill
straight, cylindrical, slightly compressed, subulated,
acuminated. Tongue short, horny, and armed at
the point. Nostrils basal and rounded, partly
hidden by reflected bristles. Feet with three toes
before and one behind, the outer toe being joined
at its base to the middle ; one hind toe of the same
length as or longer than the middle one, with a long
and hooked claw. Tail of twelve feathers. Wings
rather short ; the first quill very short, the third and
fourth the longest. (Gould.)
The nuthaich is found throughout Europe gene-
rally, and in the central wooded countries it is
tolerably abundant ; it inhabits many parts of our
island, but, according to Selby, is not seen farther
north than the banks of the Wear and Tyne : Mon-
tagu observes that it is not to be met with in
Cornwall. In a note in his paper ' On the Birds of
Ireland,' Mr. Thompson says that "this species is
not known ever to have visited the island." (' Ann.
and Mag. Nat. Hist.,' March, 1842, p. 501.)
The habits of the nuthatch are partly those of the
creeper, and partly of the woodpeckers, yet differing
in several particulars. The tail affords no support
to this bird, yet it climbs well, not only ascending
and winding round the trunks of trees, but descending
with the utmost facility head foremost, which neither
the creeper nor the woodpecker attempts ; and on
flying from tree to tree, it usually alights with the
head downwards, and in that position works at the
shell of the nut it is endeavouring to break. We had
once an opportunity of observing a small colony of
these interesting birds, in a limited wood (if it
deserved the name) of very old trees, near Maccles-
field in Cheshire ; the underwood consisted of wild
raspberries and hazel. These birds were constantly
in motion, flying from tree to tree, and travelling
round the thick tjranches, or about the gnarled and
prominent bark surrounding holes formed by decay,
ever and anon uttering a clear whistling note ; we
observed them take insects, and search for them in
the fissures of the bark ; but neither saw nor heard
them hammering at nuts, for these, the season being
'spring or the early part of summer, were not
matured. Nuts, however, form a portion of their
diet, and the strokes made by the bird while en-
deavouring to extract the kernel may be heard at
a considerrble distance. It fixes them in some
chink or cleft, and splits the shell wiih repeated
blows. Mr. Selby says that " in autumn many of
these broken nul-shells may be seen in the open
bark of old trees, in places where these birds abound,
as they return repeatedly to the same spot for this
purpose."
The nuthatch breeds in the holes of time-worn
trees, and occasionally selects the deserted habita-
tion of a woodpecker. According to Colonel Mon-
tagu and other observers, if the hole be too large,
the bird plasters up a part with mud, so as to
reduce the aperture to the needful size, thus pre-
venting the intrusion of larger birds, or perhaps, as
a writer has suggested, forming a sort of guard, so
as to hinder the impatient nestlings from falling
out, and being killed on the spot. This habit of
plastering is alluded to in one of the French names
for the nuthatch, viz., Pic-ma9on. The female
makes a nest of a few dry leaves, and lays from
five to seven eggs of a grey white, spotted with
reddish brown ; she defends her young charge with
determined courage, hissing, and striking violently
with her bill.
The nuthatch is a bold bird, of almost untameable
disposition, and will not endure confinement. An
instance of its perseverance and spirit is recorded in
the ' Magazine of Natural History :" — One of these
birds, which had been winged by a sportsman, was
put into a small cage, made of oak and wire. During
a night and day he never ceased from his eft'orts to
escape, except to devour food, which he did vora-
ciously, regarding those about with fearless famili-
arity. No sooner was his meal finished than he
recommenced his hammering, which is described as
having been peculiarly laborious, for he did not
peck as other birds do, but taking a firm grasp with
his great feet, he turned upon them as upon a pivot,
striking with his whole weight, and thus assuming
with his body the appearance of the head of a
hammer in motion. This unfortunate bird sank at
the close of the second day under the combined
effects of his vexation, assiduity, and voracity. The
Rev. T. L. Bree mentions one which he caught in a
common brick trap : when the bird was found, the
bill appeared to be truncated, and he inferred that
it hacl been fairly ground down to about two-thirds
of its original length by the pecking of the bird at
the bricks in its eft'orts to escape.
The plumage of the nuthatch above is of a fine
blue grey. The quills and base of tail-feathers,
except the two middle ones, black, the outer tail-
feather on each side with a black spot near the tip.
A black band passes from the bill through the eye
down the sides of the neck, ending abruptly near
the shoulders ; throat whitish ; rest of plumage
below rufous brown blending into chestnut on the
flanks: bill and feet black ; iris hazel. Sexes alike.
1632.— The Oven-Bied
(^Fumarius rufus). The genus Furnarius includes
several species, which have a doubtful place among
the Certhiadae. Mr. Darwin, in his notice of the
' Birds of Bahia Blanca,' says with respect to the
genus in question, that " it contains several species,
small birds living on the ground, and inhabiting
open dry countries. In structure they cannot be
compared to any European form ; ornithologists
have generally included them among the creepers,
although opposed to that family in every habit.
The best known species is the common Oven-bird
of La Plata, the Casara or House-maker of the
Spaniards, and Furnarius rufus of Vieillot. The
nest, whence it takes its name, is placed in the most
exposed situations, as the top of a post, a bare rock,
or a cactus : it is composed of mud and bits of straw,
and has strong thick walls ; in shape it precisely
resembles an oven or depressed bee-hive ; the
opening is large and arched and directly in front ;
within the nest there is a partition which reaches
nearly to the roof, thus forming a passage or ante-
chamber to the true nest." Mr. Darwin notices
another species of Furnarius called Casarita, or
Little House-builder, which constructs its nest at
the bottom of a narrow cylindrical hole, which is
said to extend horizontally underground to the
extent of six feet, and which the bird itself exca-
vates in low banks of firm sandy soil by the side of
a road or stream. Another species, the Furnarius
fuliginosus of Lesson, is described as living upon the
beach of the Malouine Islands, and as being very
fearless. Pernetty says, " This bird is so tame that
it will almost fly upon the finger ; in less than half
an hour I killed ten with a small switch, and almost
without changing my position. It scratches in the
seaweed which the waves throw on the beach, feed-
ing on worms and small shrimps. ... Its flight
is short : its habits are solitary."
Mr. Darwin observed a small dusky Furnarius
distinct from the last, common in Chonos Archi-
pelago. He says, " It is remarkable for its quiet,
tame habits. It lives entirely on the sea-beach,
and there, as well as sometimes on the floating
kelp, picks up small sea-shells and crabs, thus sup-
plying the place of a sandpiper." The birds of
this genus apparently form the type of a distinct
family.
1633. — The Climacteris
(Climacteris Picummts). This genus holds also a
doubtful place among the Certhiadae. It is thus
characterised by Temminck : — Bill short, weak, very
much compressed throughout its length, but little
curved, oval shaped ; mandibles equal, pointed ;
nostrils basal, lateral, covered by anaked membrane.
Feet robust : tarsi of the length of the middle toe,
which, as 'Well as the hallux, are extraordinarily
long ; claws large and curved, channelled on the
sides, subulate, very much hooked ; external toe
united up to the second articulation, the internal
toe as far as the first ; lateral toes very unequal.
Wings moderate ; first quill short, second shorter
than the third, which last and the fourth are the
longest.
Of this genus two species were known, C. Picum-
nus and C. scandens, and Mr. Gould has recently
added two new ones. All are natives of Australia.
They are excellent climbers, traversing the hollow
limbs, or spouts, as they are usually termed, of aged
Eucalypti, and the rugged bark of decayed trees,
in quest of insects, on which they prey. 'They incu-
bate in the holes of trees, and the eggs are white.
For an account of the species we refer to Mr. Gould's
magnificent work on the Birds of Australia, now in
the course of publication.
The Climacteris Picumnus is a native of the
north coast of Australia, Timor, and the Celebes.
Its colouring is as follows : — Summit of the head
deep grey ; nape and neck bright grey. Wings
and two middle feathers of the tail brown ; a
large nankeen-coloured band passes nearly through
the middle of the quills. Tail-feathers black, ex-
cept at their origin and extremity. Throat and
cheeks dirty white. Breast grey. Feathers of the
lower parts white in the middle, bordered with
brown. Lower coverts of the tail Isabella-colour,
marked with transverse brown spots. Length six
inches six lines. (Temm.)
1634. — The Spine-tailed Obthonyx
(Ortkonyx spinicaudatm, Temm.). Orthonyx Tein-
minckii, "Vigors, 'Linn. Trans.' The Orlhonyx ap-
pears to be closely related to Climacteris ; but
though its tail be spine-tipped (the stifl' shafts pass-
ing beyond the broad part of the feathers), it is far
less arboreal in its habits than that species ; its
claws, indeed, though large and strong, are but
slightly curved, and tlierelore but little adapted,
upon the principle of grappling-irons, for clinging.
:(3t.— Orra-Blnl.
KM.— CorrefaiUed CmpCT.
10S8.— W«ll-Creeper.
1633.— CUmarterb.
1630.— Nuthatch.
1 <3)^-Nuth«tdi.
I6:>4. — lli;.4'.t\ lJi&iU;;1
1 640.— B«k o{ Gieat Black Woodpecker.
1634.— Spine tailed Oithonyx.— Upper flgnie, female; lower, male.
1639.— Foot of Woodpecker.
IMlx- Bead of Wood|iecker.
163e.— Latham s Dstbet.
1037.— Gtcat-ljillfd I'qfTBiril.
Ko. 47.
[THE MUSETJM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
369
370
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Woodpeckers.
tenaciously to the bark of trees. The orlhonyx is
in fact a 8;round-climber : it frequents rough banks,
broken plots of ground, and similar localities, which
it explores, traveling the irregularitiesof the ground,
and the mouldering trunks of fallen trees, in quest
of coleopterous insects, which appear to Ibrm its
chief food. In its progress it is greatly assisted by
its tail, which is generally found to be considerably
worn, as in the specimens Mr. Gould has kindly
permitted us to examine. This bird is a native of
Australia, and, according to M. Lesson, of New
Zealand ; but Mr. Gould has proved, by dissection,
that traveller to be wrong respecting the sexes :
M. Lesson says that the throat of the male is orange-
coloured, that of the female white ; the reverse is
the case.
The general colour is a rusty brown above, line-
ated with black ; the les«er wing-coverts are grev
streaked with brown ; the tail is dusky brown, with
the stiff shafts prolonged beyond the webs. In the
male the throat and upper part of the breast is
white : in the female rufous orange. The bill is
short and stout, compressed at the sides : the wings
are rounded ; the feet large and strong ; the tarsi
elevated, in accordance with terrestrial habits; the
feathers of the top of the head are capable of being
elevated and depressed at pleasure. Size that of a
lark. Of the two iigures, the lower is the male, the
upper the female.
Family PICID^ (WOODPECKERS, &c.)
The birds of this family are essentially scansorial ;
their feet are adapted for clinging to the bark of
trees, and they ascend the stems and branches with
the greatest facility. Their food, for the most part,
consists of insects, which they search for in the
crevices and underneath the bark of unsound trees,
or in the very wood of such as exhibit symptoms of
decay; fruits, however, are not altogether excluded.
The first group of this' family to which we shall
direct our attention is that of the Barbels. The
barbets are distinguished by the beak being large,
conical, swollen at the sides of its base, and garnished
with five tufts of long bristles, one on each side
over the nostrils, one at the angle of the gape on
each side, and one under the lower mandible. The
wings are short, the general proportions heavy, and
the flight low. They live on insects and fruits, and
breed in the holes of trees. They are indigenous in
both continents, and associate for the most part in
small flocks, which separate during the breeding-
season into pairs. Many of the barbets are richly
coloured ; such as the Bucco grandis, a native of
China and the range of the Himalayan Mountains.
This group of scansorial birds is divided into various
genera, as Pogonias, Bucco, and Taraatia.
1635. — The Bristly Barbkt
{Pogonias hirsutus). The genus Pogonias is cha-
racterised by the beak being furnished with one or
two strong teeth on each side of the upper mandible ;
the bristles of the beak are very strong. The spe-
cies are found in India and Africa; and, according
to Cuvier, subsist more exclusively on fruits than do
the other barbets.
The bristly barbet is a native of Africa, and is re-
markable for a bunch of bristle-like feathers on the
chest. The throat, head, and neck are deep black,
passing on the upper surface of the body, the wings,
and tail into dark brown ; the general plumage
being spotted and marked with sulphur-yellow.
The under parts are greenish sulphur, thickly spotted
with dusky black. Length seven inches.
1636. — Latham's Barbet
(Bucco Lathami). The Buff-faced Barbet. This
species is an example of the genus Bucco, in which
the bill is conical, slightly compressed, and a little
elevated in the middle. The species are found in
Asia and Africa. The buff-faced or Latham's bar-
bet is of a dark olive-green, paler beneath, with the
forehead and sides of the head round the eyes of a
full buff-colour. Length six inches.
1637. — The GREAT-BitLED Puff Bird
{Tamntia macrorhyttehos). In the genus Tamatia
(Capito, Temminck) the beak is more elongated
than in the preceding genera, and more compressed,
with the upper mandible curved downwards at its
tip. The large head, the short tail, and ^reat beak
of these puff-birds give them, says Cuvier, an air
of stupidity. In their habits they are melancholy
and secluded. All the recorded species are Ame-
rican, and are said to live exclusively on insects.
(See Cuvier, ' Rigne An.')
The Great-billed Puff-bird is a native of Brazil,
and is considered by Swainson to be identical with
the greater Pied Barbet of Latham. This bird in
its habits much reminds us of the flycatchers (Mus-
cicapidae). Mr. Swainson (' Zoological Illustra-
tions') gives the following interesting account of
the manners and disposition of these birds, which
he had an opportunity of studying in their native
regions : " There is something very grotesque in
the appearance of all the puff-birds; and their
habits, in a state of nature, are no less singular.
They frequent open cultivated spots near habita-
tions, always perching on the withered branches of
a low free ; where they will sit nearly motionless
for hours, unless, indeed, they descry some luckless
insect passing near them, at which they immedi-
ately dart, returning again to the identical twig
they had just left, and which they will sometimes
frequent for months. At such times the dispropor-
tionate size of the head is rendered more conspicuous
by the bird raising its feathers so as to appear not
unlike a puff-ball: hence the general name they
have received from the English residents in Brazil,
of which vast country all the species, I believe, are
natives. When frightened, this form is suddenly
changed by the feathers lying quite flat. They are
very confiding, and will often take their station
within a few jards of the window. The two sexes
are generally near each other, and often on the same
tree."
The length of this species is about eight inches.
Plumage black and white, except the belly and
vent, which are tinged with buft".
Leaving the Barbets, we come to the true Wodd-
peckers, birds pre-eminently scansorial, and formed
for traversing the trunks and branches of trees.
The woodpeckers are widely distributed, being
found alike in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America,
each region having its peculiar species ; they do
not, however, exist in Australia. If we look at the
skeleton of the woodpecker (Fig. 1638) we shall at
a glance perceive the adaptation of the whole of
the osseous structure to the habits of the living
animal : the shape of the head and bill, the arched
form of the neck, and the sudden angle which the
cervical vertebrae make with the dorsal, remind us
of a hammer with a long handle fixed to a sort of
hinge on which the machine works, and we no
longer wonder at the force which the bird displays
as it shivers the bark with repeated blows. The
breast-bone, merrythought, and wing-bones are
small and feeble. The woodpecker is not a bird of
vast powers of flight ; but look at the bones of the
legs ; mark their strength, their length, and the
acute angles they make with each other as the
bird rests in its natural attitude. To say that the
muscles acting on these bones have great power
and are voluminous, is what they themselves de-
clare ; the limb is indeed constructed for tenacity
of grasp and rapidity of action. In the woodpecker
the spiny tail is of great importance. We find the
pelvic portion of the skeleton developed, the caudal
vertebrae large, the last bone particularly so ; and
the whole bends downwards in such a manner, that
the points of the tail-feathers are pressed against
the surface over which the bird is proceeding, The
structure of the toes and claws is worth especial at-
tention (Fig. 1639). The feet are zygodactyle ; and
the toes exceeding the tarsus in length, are strong,
robust, and armed with sharp curved claws ; the
outermost (that is, the longest) of the two hind-toes
is directed rather obliquely than completely back-
wards, and the two anterior toes diverge consider-
ably, so as to spread over an area as extensive as
possible in order that their grasp may be the more
effectual and secure, — a point of great importance
to the bird while ascending the trunk or limbs of
trees, but still more so while, exerting all its force,
it is hammering at the bark, or scooping out a hole
for its nest.
From the feet we proceed to the beak (Fig,
1640). This ill the more typical forms, as the Great
Black Woodpecker, is one of the most efficient in-
struments possible for splitting and chipping bark
or decayed wood. It is immensely strong and thick
at its base, whence it narrows to a hard compressed
tip, which is abruptly squared off, and sharp like
a minute chisel. Nor must the structure of the
tongue be omitted ; it is a flexible probe and feeler,
and an organ of prehension ; its length is very ex-
traordinary, unless, with Blumenbach, we regard the
horny apex only as the true tongue ; and it is capable
of being protruded and retracted with singular
rapidity. It is lubricated with a viscid saliva,
and its tip (the true tongue of Blumenbach) is
homy, firm, and barbed on each side with a series
of spines directed backwards. This instrument it
launches forth with a rapid .motion, inserting it into
crevices where the insects lodge, and into their
cells or mazy retreats which it has laid open with
its beak, and there catching them on the barbed
point, which is moreover covered with an adhe-
sive secretion, it draws them instantaneously into
the mouth. "The mechanism by which the pro-
trusion and retraction of the tongue are effected is
very beautiful, and well worth attention. Figs. 1641,
1642, 1643, show the head of the woodpecker in dif-
ferent stages of dissection. Fig. 1643 is the most
complete, and is thus described by Sir Charles Bell :
" a is the barbed tongue : b two slender elastic liga-
mentous cartilages of a very peculiar- nature and use ;
at one extremity they are attached fo the bone which
supports the upper mandible, from this we trace
them over the skull, down upon the sides of the
neck, and with a large sweep turning under the
lower mandible, and so continued into the tongue,
not terminating till they reach the horny point, ccc,
a long muscle which follows these hgamenfous
cartilages, upon their concave side, arising from
the bone of the lower mandible, and so sweeping
round with the cartilages and over the skull to have
another fixed point at the upper mandible : these
protrude the tongue. Two muscles are seen to
arise from the sides of the larynx (windpipe), which
are the opponents of the last and retract the tongue.
Leaving the other parts of the anatomy, let us
direct our attention to the action of the muscle cc c,
which presents one of fho->e curious instances ob-
served in comparative anatomy, of a mechanism
adapted fo a particular purpose. The tongue is
not only thrust out far by this apparatus, but is shot
with great rapidity in correspondence with its
barbed point. This effect is produced by the two
extremities of the muscles being fixed points, and
the fibres of the muscle itself running on the con-
cave side of the cartilaginous bow so as to form a
smaller circle. We require no mathematical de-
monstration to prove that the tongue must be thrust
out to a greater distance than the measure of con-
traction of the muscle.
" Lotus tie up the line of the fishing-rod to its
slender top, and pull upon it at the butt ; the mo-
tion of the top will be very extensive when only an
inch of the line is drawn through the rings. This
is a pretty accurate representation of what takes
place by the contiaction of this protruding muscle.
We have noticed that the upper end of this arch is
fixed, the whole motion, therefore, must be given to
the loose extremity in the tongue ; and we cannot
but observe that this peculiar arch and muscular
ring are adapted for the rapid protrusion of the
tongue ; whilst its retraction is produced by a com-
mon muscle, that is, a muscle running in a straight
course. Another curious part of this apparatus is,
that a very large gland, which pours out a glutinous
matter, is embraced and compressed by the action
of the circular muscle ; this viscid secretion, be-
dewing the tongue, furnishes additional means for
the bird to pick up insects, such as ants, without the
necessity of sticking each with its arrow. Nothing
can be more mechanical or more happily adapted
to its purpose, than the whole of this structure ;
indeed it is not inferior to the means employed for
giving rapidity to the membrana nictitans of the
eye of the bird."
In Fig. 16>42, a represents the tongue ; b one of
the protruding muscles ; and c its accompanying
elastic spring : which is in fact a continuation of the
OS hyoides modified for a particular purpose.
It has been said by some, that the woodpecker
transfixes insects upon its barbed tongue ; such, as
far as our observations go, is not the case ; they
adhere to it by means of the glutinous saliva, and
are prevented from becoming disengaged by means
of the barbs which act like those of the burr (calyx
of the burdock, arctium lappa).
Buffon has condemned the whole group of wood-
peckers as degraded, miserable beings. According
to him the narrow circumference of a tree circum-
scribes their dull round of life, and on this they are
constrained to drag out an insipid existence in boring
the bark and hard fibres, in order to extract their
prey; and thus they lead a mean and gloomy life :
nor is their appetite ever softened by delicacy of
taste. When Buffon wrote this he must have been
thinking of the bond-slaves, or serfs of France under
the old regime ; it is very inapplicable to the
active, restless, noisy, animated woodpeckers, ever
on the alert, flitting from tree to tree, and busy on
their appointed labours. The Picidae or Wood-
peckers are sub-divided into numerous genera or
sub-genera, as indeed, in the present day, are most
groups of birds ; so much so, indeed, that the study
of ornithology (we may say zoology) is merging into
a study of barbarous nomenclature : we shall soon
have a distinct genus for every species ; and this is
called science.
1G44. — The Great Black Woodpecker
(Picvs martius). Dryocopus martius, Boie ; Le Pic
noir, Buffon. This fine bird is the largest of its
European congeners, being in length about seven-
teen inches. In England it is a bird of very rare
occurrence, barely claiming a place in the catalogue
of our British Fauna. Its native regions are the
northern and eastern parts of Europe, as far as
Siberia. In the forests of Russia and some parts of
Germany it is common. It breeds, like the rest of
its race, in the deep holes of trees, which are hewed
out by the power of its bill, sometimes even in the
solid undecayed wood. The eggs are three or four in
number, and white. The whole of the plumage is
glossy black, with the exception of the crown, which
in the male is rich vermilion. The female is duller,
WOODPECKERS.J
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
and luis either no vermilion on the head or only a
small patch. •'
1645.— The-Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
(Picus principalis). Campephilus principalis, G. R.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is a native of North
America; Wiison says that in strength and mag- I
nitude It stands at the head of the whole class of
woodpeckers hitherto discovered : but he was not
aware when he wrote, of the existence of a species
in California which " as far exceeds the ivory-billed
woodpecker of the United States as the latter does
trie great black woodpecker of Europe." This
bird IS described by Mr. Gould, in the 'Proceeds.
Zool. Soc. 1832, pp. 139, 140, under the term of
l^icus imperialis : it is two feet in length ; while
the ivory-billed woodpecker does not exceed 20 or
21 inches.
It is in the swampy forests of the southern dis-
tricts of the United States that the ivory-billed wood-
pecker IS to be found ; in the middle districts there
are no woods suitable to its remarkable habits
'Descending the Ohio," says Audubon, " we meet
with this splendid bird for the first time near the
confluence of that beautiful river and the Missis-
sippi ; after which, following the windings of the
latter, either downwards towards the sea or upwards
in the direction of the Missouri, we frequently ob-
serve It. On the Atlantic coast, North Carolina may
be taken as the limits of its distribution, although
now and then an individual of the species may be
accidentally seen in Maryland. To the westward
of the Mississippi, it is found in all the dense forests
bordering the streams which empty their waters
into that majestic river, from the very declivitiw of
the Rocky Mountains. The lower parts of the Caro-
linas Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi,
are, however, the most favourite resorts of this biid •
and in those states it constantly resides, breeds, and
passes a life of peaceful enjoyment, finding a pro-
fusion of food on all the deep, dark, and gloom v
swamps dispersed throughout them •' = '
Beetles, larvae, and large grubs constitute the
Chief diet of this species, and for these it attacks the
bark and wood of decayed trees, its strokes resound-
ing far through the gloomy wilds. " Wherever he
frequents, says Wilson, " he leaves numerous monu-
ments of his industry behind hirii ; we there see
enormous pine-trees with cart-loads of bark lying
around their roots, and chips of the trunk itselt" in
such quantities as to suggest the idea that half a
dozeri axe-men had been at work there for the whole
morning The body of the tree is also disfigured
with such numerous and so large excavations? that
one can hardly conceive it possible for the whole to
be the work of a woodpecker." Audubon says he
has seen it detach pieces of bark seven or eight
inches in length at a single blow, busy in quest of
insects, a I the while sounding its loud notes as if
highly delighted. Sound and healthy trees, how-
ever, are never thus attacked excepting for the pur-
pose of nidification. The tree selected for this pur-
pose IS either an ash, or a hagberry ; and at a great
elevation, the pair, relieving each other by turns, be-
gin their operations. They generally select a spot
under the junction of a large branch with the trunk
as a defence against rain : they first excavate hori-
zontally for a few inches, and then downwards, the
extent of the cavity varying from a foot to three
feet downwards into the core of the tree; the dia-
meter IS about seven inches, but the aperture will
only just admit the bird. The eggs, generally six
are white. Two broods are usu^aJl^reared ^each
summer. Besides insects, this woodpecker devours
wild grapes, persimons, and hagberries. The flight
of this species is very graceful, though, as Audubon
says, seldom prolonged to more than a few hundred
yards at a time, unless when it has to cross a laree
nver, which it does in deep undulations; but the
transit from tree to tree is performed by a single
sweep. It seldom utters any sound while on the
371
wing, but as soon as it alights its voice is heard the
notes resounding to a considerable distance, 'and
may be represented by the monosyllable pait. pait
^^•u'"u°"f ''•'^ ^^^ '■'''''<' ^''Kh note of a clarionet. '
Ihe head and bill of this species are held in great
esteem, a« a sort of charm or amulet, by many of the
tribes of Amenca, who ornament their belts with
them ; and Europeans purchase them as beautiful
curio,.iities. When wounded, this bird generally
ascends the nearest tree in a spiral direction, till it
attains the top branches, where it hides ; but if in-
tercepted and laid hold of, it defends itself both
with Its beak and ciaws, inflicting severe lacerations.
The general colour of the plumage of the present
species IS black with violet reflexions; the head is
ornamented with a crest of long slender feathers
capable of being raised or depressed, and in the
male ot a rich carmine ; a stripe of white passes down
each side of the neck, and terminates on the scapu-
ars; the primary quills, except the five first, are
tipped with white, and the secondaries are wholly
white; the bill is ivory-white. The female re-
sembles the male, except in the colour of the crest,
which IS black.
1646.— The Red-head Woodpecker
(Picus eri/throcephalus). This beautiful, active, and
lively bird is also a native of the United States of
America, and IS a migratory species, retirin- fo
southern latitudes on the approach of winter, though
New^Yo,t""!, p""«^ i''^* '''^°^ '" 'he states of
New York and Pennsylvania, and especially Caro-
wnn,i i '""','""■ 'h'" ^P*^"*^" abounds in the
woods, and even close to the precincts of towns and
' Wh ""'r 1??' '° ^^ ''"' "ttle afraid of man
1 1m 'f^^"^ °" ^ '■'^""^ ^'^1^'= by the road oTfn
a field, and one approaches them (says Audubon)
they gradually move sideways out of sight, peepTng
now and then to discover your intention; ^n^d when
you are quite close and opposite, lie still until you
are passed, when they hop to the top of the stake
and rattle upon it with th!eir bill, as?f to congratu:
late hemselves on the success of their cunning
Should you approach within arm's length, whic-h
T/^lT^'fy be done, the woodpecker flies to
the first stake or the second from you, bends his
head to peep, and rattles again, as if to provoke you
HP »r K."^"'^' u^ what seems to him excellent sport.
Satt fh ' ?" '¥ '°°^ °^ "'e house, hops along it
beats the shingles, utters a cry, and dives into your
garden to pick the finest strawberries he can dfsco-
ver. No birds are more destructive in gardens-
they devour fruit of all kinds as it ripens, completely'
aX'"? '\''''V '^'^ "^''y "^^^^y *° their?etrea^
apples, peaches, cherries, strawberries, &c. ; and as
hey visit the garden in scores, or even hundreds
they soon clear it. They attack the Indian-corn
while in Its succulent milky state ; and also rob the
nets of small birds of their eggs. To this luxurious
bill of fare may be added insects, for which they
search with singular dexterity and intelligenc/
drawing them from their retreat! in the crevices of
old trees and beneath the mouldering bark "No
sooner have they satisfied their hunger, than small
parties of them assemble on the top! and branSTe
of decayed trees, from which they chase different
insects that are passing through the air, launching
after them for eight orten yards, attimes performing
the most singular manoeuvres; and on securing
their victim return to the tree, where immediately
after a continued cry of exultation is uttered.
Ihey pursue each other on wing in a very amicable
manner m long beautifully curved sweeps, during
w^ich the remarkable variety of their plumage be?
comes conspicuous, and is highly pleasing to the
Zm When passing from one tree to anoth"er their
flight resembles the motion of a great swing and
IS performed by a single opening ff the S d"
whil'".S "-^ ^''^' •''"'' "^'"S '°^^fds the sp? on
which they are going to alight, with ease and in the
most graceful manner."
„»n'''^/''^ [f i 2*" 'h's tribe, the Red-head, as it is
generally called, breeds in the holes of trees wh ch
It has worked out, and to which the pair resort year
after year, making it only a little deeper. It is not
however, m hard living trees that this species of"en
attempts to make its breeding-chamber.^ Audubon
says he does not remember even a single instance of
such an occurrence. '»i""«.e oi
Wilson observes, that terrible enemy of the
rCohiZ """1 '". ^r\^ ^"'"'<=^' 'he black snake
V?u" u ^°ns'n'=tor). destroys numbers of the young
of this bird. '-It glides up the trunk of theTee
and like a sku king savage, enters the woodpeckers^
peaceab e apartment, devours the eggs or hebless
young, in spite of the cries or flulterings of^the
paren s, and, if the place be large enough coils
himself up in the spot they occupi«i, where he w
sometimes remain for several days." The plumage
The hl^'^^ "frolicsome bird" is very beautiful.
1 he head and neck are bright crimson ; back, wing-
coverts, primaries, and tail-feathers black, with bile
' of tlfi"?";. """TP ^nd secondaries white, the shafts
of the latter bfack ; breast and under parts white
ban^d om ^vlT'^ "T" ' *" irregular transverse
band of black between the crimson of the neck and
the white of the breast. Length nine inches.
1647.— The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
(Picus varius). This species extends in America
from Cayenne to Hudson's Bay : during the summer
It enants the depths of the forests Wofef™"
villages or settlements, where it breeds and rears its
young: in the month of October it quits the forest
and approaches the farms and villages, frequent ng
^:fp,rn/' "k* t'^u' ^"■'^ °f '■^"''' but of inlec^ i^
quest of which It bores the trunks of apple-trees
In general habits it resembles the rest of its trib''
buMs much more shy than the red-head.
dPtPif ,? °;i""^ °*" "''^ ''■'^K*"' woodpecker is thus
detailed - he crown of the head a rich deep scarlet
bordered with black on each side, the feathers of
the occiput forming a sligW crest, which the bird
often erects J from the nostrils, which are thick y
covered with recumbent hairs, a narrow strio of
white runs downwards, curving round the breast
and mixing with the yellowish white on the lower
part of the breast; throat the same deep sea, etL
the crown, bordered with black proceeding from fh^
ower mandible on each side, and spreading aTroad
rounding patch on the breast. This black in bTrds
of the first and second year is dusky grey, the feathers
being only crossed with circular touches of black a
he' fi sf ;''' "1^ ''''''^" ^"°^her of black, proce'ed
fmm K K T.u ^"^ "PP" P^^ of the eye, tL other
from behind he eye, and lose themselves on the
neck and back. Back dusky yellow, sprinkled and
elegantly waved with black ; wings bkck^ith a
F ""i""/ 'P°' °^ "hite; the primaries tinned
bltk?°b nt tn "bite .; rump whiL bordered^wl h
Dack, belly yellow; sides undei-the wings more
backM: °bl Tt^ r"*^ '°"^ arrow-h^adTof
DJack tail black with white markings ; legs green-
'!b blue. Length nine inches and k hflf.^ The
1648.— The Hairy Woodpecker
•ppropiiaies a hollow ,l,„d, „ ,d? „'ii ""f'
the receplioh of the em 'inlh,' f... ^ °°' "
Sir fi ssa:.s^'S7s.sH2;
3rtTh:^r?i-siiti~^
5?s?ri'..^rser,"fd-'i
.ngl. of the ™„th ti . broK M„rL "efSe
i:rdS"L75,'7h'rsThSrHt
ff^^:iric.Tr.h^o%^ift
characteristic of the adult male? ^ ' '*
1649.— Thb Downy Wqodpkcker
(Picus pubescms). In general habits, manners and
colouring this species resembles the ha"ry wood
Fn.h ' ''h"' If ,'?."'-■';' ^'"'^"'^'■' measuring abo.Tsix
inches and a half i„ length. It is a native of North
hZ nr'r"^T^'"^ "^'^bards and the neighbour-
hood of farm-houses, and is sfationary throughout
he year. About the middle of May, says Sn
the male and female look out for a suitable place'
for the reception of their eggs and young An
sSftSoiLrarstsSij-s* Ej
the female, both parties working with the most in^
defatigable diligence. The direction of the holV"f
made in,the body of the tree, is generally downward
iSh'L^=;h:rh;",;v:.=Ir~s.
.r^So'ftsfS'Vsar-t
eguariy carry out the chips, often strewing then a^
time 'r' '".P^e/ent suspic^ion. This operatfon some
times occupies the chief part of a week. BeforeThe
begins to lay, the female often visits the place exa
mines every part both of the exterior and interior
w, h great attention, and at length takes complete
possession. The eggs are generally six, of a pu e
white, and laid on the smooth bottom of the cavity
Ihe male occa.sionally supplies the female with food
while she IS sitting, and about Ihe last week in June
the young are perceived making their way up he
tree climbing with considerable dexterity "
the note of this active, familiar, little bird is a
single chink frequently repeated, "'of all our wood!
peckers, says the admirable writer already ,rted
'none rid the apple-trees of so many v^e.min as
this ; digging off the moss which the negligence of
he proprietor had suftered to accumulate and
probing every crevice. In fact the orchard is 1^
iavourite resort in all seasons, and his industry n
cessant. In the fall, he is particulariy J^d o
3B2
ir4S.— Una «r woodpecker, diiMctcd.
1649, -I>owny Woodprcl er.
Ifi^s. — Iroi^'-bil'cd Wootlpccker.
1li44.— Great RUcl; Wooilpeck'r
lS4«.-B«l-1itad Woodpecker.
;<47.— Yellow bellied Woodpeoka
)(HH. . Hairy Woodpecker.
372
Ml'ti. -OiwTi \Voo<lp«r«-kPrt.
1653.— Scalecl WooilpecUer.
373
374
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Woodpeckers.
borinir the apple-trees for ingecls, dieeing a circular
hole through the bark, just sufficient to adroit his
bill ; afler'that, a second and a third, and so on, in
pretty regular horizontal circles round the body of
Uie tree: these parallel circles of holes are ollen
not more than an inch or an inch and a half apart,
and sometimes so close together that I have covered
eight or ten of them at once with a dollar. From
nearly the surface of the ground up to the first fork,
and sometimes far beyond it, the whole bark of
many apple-trees is perlbrated in this manner, so as
to appear as if made by successive discharges of
buck-khot ; and this little woodpecker is the perpe-
trator of this supposed mischief. I say supposed,
for, so far from the.«e perforations of the bark being
ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I have good
reason to believe, really beneficial to the health and
fertility of the tree. In more than fifty orchards
which 1 examined myself, those trees which were
marked by the woodpecker (for some trees they
never touch, because perhaps not penetrated by in-
sects) were uniformly the most thriving, and seem-
ingly the most productive. Many of these were
upwards of sixty years old, their trunks completely
covered with holes, while the branches were broad,
luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of decayed trees
more than three-fourths were imtouched by the
woodpecker. It is principally during the autumn
and winter months that this species thus bores in
quest of the larvae of insects, which, if suffered to
remain unmolested, would ultimately destroy the
tree ; one check to their increase, appointed by na-
ture, is the little downy woodpecker.
1650. — The Gbbat Spotted Woodpecker.
(Picus major). Le Pic vari6, and Pic Epeiche,
Buffon ; Die Bunt-specht, Becht, Bechstein.
This species is one of our British birds, and, though
not very abundant, is found in all our wooded dis-
tricts. In Ireland it is rare. On the continent it is
widely diffused, and in the northern latitudes is
most probably migratory. Mr. Selby says that in
Northumberland there is an influx of these birds, as
he suspects, from Norway and Sweden ; they arrive
with the woodcock, generally after stormy weather
from the north or north-east. In its habits the
great spotted woodpecker resembles the rest of his
race, feeding on insects, berries, and fruits ; it rarely
descends to the ground, but traverses the trunks
and branches of trees with the greatest address, and
excavates a deep hole for the purpose of incubation.
During the spring and throughout the breeding-sea-
son this bird utters a jarring noise, the call both of
the males and females to each other.
The colouring is as follows :— Forehead greyish
white ; crown of the head black ; ocjciput fine crim-
son ; cheeks and ear-coverts white ; general colour
of the upper surface black, proceeding from a streak
running from each corner of the lower mandible,
and arching forwards on the chest, inclosing a patch
of white on each side of the back of the neck ; sca-
pulars and part of the adjoining wing-coverts white ;
quills barred with white; the four middle tail-
feathers black, the rest more or less white, and
spotted near the tip with black; under surface
white. The female wants the red occipital band.
The young on quitting the nest have the crown of
the head red and the occiput black, in which state,
as Mr. Selby states, they have been mistaken for
the Picus medius, a species not found in England.
1651. — The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
{Picus minor). Le Petit Epeiche, Buffon: Pic
Epeichette,Temminck ; Grass-pecht, Bechstein.
In all its habits and manners this beautiful little
species is a true woodpecker. It is generally dif-
fused through Europe, and in Germany gives pre-
ference to the forests of fir-trees. In our island it is
partially distributed, being in some places very
common, but in the northern counties it is rare.
" In England," says Mr. Gould, " it is far more
abundant than is generally supposed: we have seldom
sought for it in vain wherever large trees, particularly
the elm, grow in sufficient numbers to invite its
alx>de : its security from sight is to be attributed
more to its habit of frequenting the topmost branches
than to its rarity. Near London it is very common,
and may be seen by an attentive observer in Ken-
sington Gardens, and in any of the parks in the
neighbourhood. Like many other birds whose
habits are of an arboreal character, the lesser spotted
woodpecker appears to perform a certain daily round,
traversing a given extent of district, and returning
to the same spot whence it began its route. Besides
the elm, to which it is especially partial, it not un-
frequently visits orchard-trees of large growth,
running over their moss-grown branches in quest of
the larvae ofinsects, which abound in such situations.
In its actions it is very lively and alert. Unlike the
large woodpecker, which prefers the trunks of
trees, it naturally frequents the smaller and more
elevated branches, which it traverses with the ut-
most ease and celerity : should it perceive itself
noticed, it becomes shy, and retires from observation
by concealing itself behind the branch on which it
rests ; if, however, earnestly engaged in the extrac-
tion of its food, its attention appears to be so absorbed
that it will allow itself to be closely approached
without suspending its operations. When spring
commences, it l>ecomes clamorous and noisy, its call
being an oft-repeated note, so closely resembling
that of the wryneck as to be scarcely distinguishable
from it. At other times of the vear it is mute, and
its presence is only betrayed by the reiterated strokes
which it makes agunst the bark of trees." (' Birds
of Europe.')
The forehead is greyish white ; the crown of the
head is rosy red : streak over the eye, occiput, and
na|)e of the neck black ; cheeks and sides of the
neck white ; from the comers of the lower mandible
a black streak proceeds downwards towards the
shoulder; upper part of the. back and lesser wing-
coverts glossy black ; middle of the back and sca-
pulars white barred with black ; quills black spotted
with white; tail-coverts and four middle tail-fea-
thers black ; UDon the rest the black decreases Jo
the outer featfier, which is white, except a black
spot near the tip ; under parts greyish white, with a
few dusky spots upon the sides of the breast. In
the female the crown of the head is white. (Selby.)
1652. — The Greek Woodpecker
{Picus viridis). Gecinus viridus, Boid : le Pic
vert, Buffon ; Grunspecht, Bechstein ; Woodspite,
Rain-bird, Hew-hole, Yappingall, Yaffer, Popinjay,
Provincial English.
Of our limited number of British woodpeckers
this is certainly the most common ; it is, however,
very doubtful whether it extends to Ireland. On
the continent of Europe it is widely spread, inhabit-
ing forests and wooded districts, where its loud cry
may be often heard, the bird itself unseen. This
cry, when frequently uttered, is commonly supposed
to foretell the approach of rainy weather ; hence
one of its English provincial names. In some of
its habits this species differs from the woodpeckers
generally, especially in often leaving the trunks of
the trees for the ground, where it searches for ants'-
nests, being extremely partial to these insects and
their larvae, which it picks up very dexterously by
means of its long tongue. In this respect it agrees
with the golden-winged woodpecker of America
(Colaptes auratus), a most beautiful and interesting
species, regarded by Mr. Vigors as the type of the
ground woodpeckers. It must not be supposed
however, that the green woodpecker seeks its food
only on the ground ; it searches for insects on the
bark of trees, or in the decaying wood, which it
shivers easily by blows with its strong wedge-shaped
bill. It scales the trunks with great rapidity, as-
cending either straight up or in a spiral manner ;
it also readily descends, not, however, head-fore-
most, but tail foremost, moving as it were back-
wards. Its flight is rapid and undulating, the wings
being opened and shut at every stroke ; and in fly-
ing from trunk to trunk, if the trees are not very far
apart, it takes only a single sweep.
The green woodpecker works out a deep excava-
tion either in a tree undergoing the process of decay
or in one of the softer kinds of wood, carrying it
often to a considerable depth. The aspen, according
to Mr. Selby, is often selected. When engaged at
its laborious task, the strokes are so rapid and re-
peated with such velocity, that the head appears in
an incessant vibration, while the strokes resound to
a considerable distance. The eggs, five in number,
are of a bluish white.
In the spring this species utters a jarring sound,
which appears to be the call of the sexes to each
other. The feathers round the base of the bill and
round the eyes black ; crown of the head and a
moustache mark from the root of the bill blood-red,
the base of the feathers being bluish grey : upper
surface generally green, passing on the rump into
gamboge-yellow ; under parts yellowish grey with
a tinge of green ; quills barred with dusky black
and yellewish grey; tail blackish brown barred with
green. In the female the red on the head is less
conspicuous, and the moustaches are mostly black.
1653. — The Scaled Woodpecker
{Picus squamaltis. Vigors). This species is a native
of the Himalayan Mountains, and is figured in Mr.
Gould's ' Century.' It was first described in the
' Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1831, p. 8. Above green,
the rump yellowish ; throat greenish grey ; top of
the,head scarlet ; a stripe above and below the eye
greenish white, bounded, the first above and the
latter below, by a large dash of black ; under parts
greenish scaled with black ; quills and tail-feathers
brownish black barred with white. We have no
account of its habits.
We have described the woodpeckers as zygodac-
tyle, that is, as having two anterior and two posterior
toes ; but there is a group in which the innermost
of the hinder toes is wanting, the total number of
the toes being only three. These tridacfyle wood-
peckers, termed Picoides by Lacgpede, Aptcrnus
by Swainson, have the bill remarkably broad and
flattened ; and, sometimes at least, the tarsi are
partially covered with feathers. The speciesof this
group are not confined to one quarter of the globe ;•
there are Indian, European, and American exam-
ples. Of the former we may mention the Picus
Tiga of Horsfield, to which the following is closely
allied. '
1654. — Shore's Woodpecker.
(Apterma Shorii). Picus Shorii, Vigors. This
species, a native of the forests of the Himalaya
Mountains, and figured by Mr. Gould, in his
' CentuiT,' was first characterized in the ' Pro-
ceeds. Zool. Soc' 1831, p. 175. Of its habits we
have no details. It is named after its discoverer the
Hori. F. J. Shore, of the East India Company's
Civil Service. General colour orange green ; the
head with a scarlet crest; back scarlet; a stripe
behind each eye, and another from the angle of the
lower mandible, black ; under parts white ; the back
of the neck, the quills, and tail-feathers black ; the
top of the breast greyish brown ; the breasit and
abdomen marked with black scale-like spots.
Length, twelve inches.
1655. — ^The Three-toed Woodpecker
(Aptemus tridactylus, Swainson). Picoides tri-
dactylus, Lacdp6de. In Bonaparte's ' Comparative
List of the Birds of Europe and N. America' are dis-
tinguished three species of three-toed woodpeckers:
one (A. tridactylus j, a native of Northern and Central
Europe; and two (A. hirsutus and A. arcticus),
natives of the northern parts of America. Of these
latter, the A. arcticus has till lately been regarded
as identical with the European species. An allied
species, viz., the A. undulatus, is a native of
Guiana. In habits and manners these tridactyle
species resemble the ordinary woodpeckers, climb-
ing the bark with the greatest facility, and feeding
upon insects.
The three-toed woodpecker inhabits the forests
of the northern and eai>tern portions of Europe as
well as those of Asia. It is very abundant in Nor-
way, Russia, and Siberia, and is common also in the
Swiss Alps; but rare in France, and even Germany,
and never seen in Holland. It is not known in our
island. According to Temminck, in the Alpine
regions it never passes an elevation of 4000 feet
above the level of the sea, its range there being
restricted to the forests at the base of the moun-
tains, and to the wooded valleys. With respect to
its North American representative (A. arcticus), it
exists, according to Dr. Richardson, in all the forests
of spruce-fir lying between Lake Superior and the
Arctic Sea : and ttiat north of the Great Slave Lake
it is the most common species of woodpecker. He
also states that it much resembles the hairy wood-
pecker in its habits, except that it seeks its food
principally on the decaying trees of the pine-tribe,
in which it frequently makes holes of considerable
size and depth. It does not migrate. According
to M. Temminck, the American bird differs from
the European in being of a' less size, and more
vividly coloured. The three-toed woodpecker is
about ten inchesin length ; the ground-colour of the
plumage of the upper parts is black, barred and
spotted with white ; the under parts are white, with
transverse markings along the sides. The top of the
head in the male is of a fine golden tint with an
inclination to orange.
Among the less typical forms of the woodpeckers,
but which have truly zygodactyle feet, we may
notice the Picus Chilensis (Garm. ' Zool. de la
Coquille,' pi. 32) a,nd the Picus (Trachyphonus)
Cater.
1656. — ^The Chilian Woodpecker
(P. Chilensis). In this species the legs and feet
are more slender than in the ordinary examples of
this tribe, and the tail, instead of being graduated
and wedge-shaped, with the stiff feathers so ar-
ranged as to support and strengthen each other
(as is well seen in our pictorial specimen of the
scaled woodpecker. Fig. 1653), consists of somewhat
softer feathers, which, instead of being graduated, are
nearly of equal length, so that the tail is but slightly
rounded at its termination. In the ordinary wood-
peckers the rigid tail-feathers are all bent inwards,
especially at their points, in order to catch the bark
and support the birds while clinging to the stems
of trees. In this species the feathers are straight.
We see in fact a departure from the scansorial
model, as presented by the more typical forms of
the Picidee. The present species is found in the
woods of the province of Concepcion in Chile.
M. Lesson killed many individuals upon the penin-
sula of Talcaguano.
The Chilians call this bird Carpentero, a name
generally applied by the Spaniards to the wood-
peckers, both in Europe and America.
'fVoODPlCCKERS.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
375
Lesson describes it as being of a sombre tint with
little bars of brown and whitish, except on the lower
part of the back and rump, where a single colour
predominates, forming a large patch of pure white ;
bill black ; a grey hood, pencilled with very bright
grev, covers the head; cheeks rusty, and throat
whi'tish ; all the upper part of the body, wings, and
even the great quills, rusty brown barred with small
whitish bands ; shafts of the quills golden yellow,
and their internal part fulvous brown, with a white
border or a single spot of the same colour towards
lire middle ; breast, abdomen, and flanks whitish,
doited with brown; colourof each feather yellowish
white, while the middle is occupied by a circle of
brown deepest upon the breast. Tail-feathers stiff
:ind wedge-shaped, brown above, with a slight ful-
vous tint brightest below ; the two external and the
two internal ones are pencilled with whitish sinuous
bands upon their edges. Colour of the tarsi green-
ish, that of the clavvs approaching reddish. Total
length more than eleven inches. (Lesson.)
1657. — The Caffke Woodpecker
{Tracliyphonus Cafer, G. II. Gray). Le Prome'pic
of Le Vaillant.
In this bird we are presented with a still further
departure from the model : the tarsi are elevated ; the
tail soft and rounded, with the feathers broad at
their apex : the beak arched ; and the general con-
tour remote from that so palpably characteristic of
Ihe habits of the woodpeckers, and which a glance
is sufficient to appreciate.
Mr. G. R. Gray, we beheve, places this species in
his subfamily Bucconinae (Barbets), and Cuvier
discovers in its arched beak an approach to the
Cuckoos. In some respects it appears to us to ap-
proach the Wryneck. The Caffre woodpecker seeks
Its food on the ground, in the crevices of the bark
and under the moss of decayed trees and moulder-
ing loes. The colouring of this species is as follows :
— head, belly, and rump yellow; upper coverts of
the tail orange ; forehead black ; two black scanty
pointed aigrettes ; a large black collar variegated
with white", bordered above with a small narrow
white edging varied a little with brown below ; back
of the neck and back brown, each feather termi-
nated with white. Tail rounded, brown, striped
with greyish white ; bill black at the point.
This is the Promepic of Le Vaillant; Trachypho-
nusVaillantii,Ranz; Micropogansulphuratus, Latr.;
and Polysticte quopopa, Smith. Native country,
Caffraria.
1G58.— The Wry.neck
( Yunx Torquilla). Le Torcol, Buffbn : Die Wende-
hals, Beclistein ; Long-tongue, Emmet-hunter,
Snake-bird, and Cuckoo's-mate, Provincial English.
The Wryneck is one of our summer visitors, and,
though common in the southern and eastern coun-
ties of our island, is very scarce in the north and
west. In Ireland, we believe, it is never seen. It
arrives in April, a few days before the appearance of
the cuckoo, and its loud cry oi peep, peep, peep,
monotonously repeated, is first heard when the elm-
tree leaves are as large as a silver sixpence.
Groves, orchards, and woods are the resorts of this
elegant bird, and also the lines of tall beech-trees
.^Iong hedgerows. Ants are its favourite food, and
in quest of them it traverses the trunks of trees,
thorigh its tail is not used as an assistant in climbing,
examining every crevice, and picking them up by
means of its long vermiform tongue covered with a
glutinous secretion. It also visits the ground for
the same purpose, where it hops and walks with con-
siderable facility, searching for the nests of these
insects, and it is astonishing to see with what
rapidity it devours them, launching its long tongue
at them, and withdrawing it so rapidly that the eye
can scarcely follow the motion. This tongue is
evidently endowed with a high degree of sensibility,
and perhaps of laste; we have frequently seen the
wryneck in captivity launch it forth, when any sub-
stance has been presented as food, and touch the
morsel with it, keeping it at the time in a state of
quivering vibration : it reminded us of the tongue of
the Dasypus Peba. In Fig. ]6.")9 the head and
tongue of the Wryneck are well delineated. White
('Nat. Hist. Selborne') says, " These birds appear on
the grass-plots and walks ; they walk alittle, as well
as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest,
I conclude, of ants, which are their food : while they
hold their bills on the grass, they draw out their
prey with their tongues which are so long as to be
coiled round their heads." Colonel Montagu informs
us that having captured a female, which he confined
for some days in a cage, he was enabled to watch
its manners very minutely. " A quantity of mould,
with emmets and their eggs, was given it ; and it
was curious to observe the tongue darted forth and
retracted with such velocity and such unerring aim
that it never returned without an ant or an egg
adhering to it, not transfixed by the horny points, as
some have imagined, but retained by a peculiar
tenacious moisture provided for that purpose.
While feeding, the body is motionless, the head only
is turned to every side, and the motion of the tongue
is so rapid that an ant's egg, which is of a light
colour and more conspicuous than the tongue, has
somewhat the appearance of moving to the mouth
by attraction as a needle flies to a magnet. The
bill is rarely used except to remove the mould in
order to get more readily at these insects ; where
the earth is hollow, the tongue is thrust into all the
cavities to rouse the ants, and for this purpose
the horny appendage is extremely serviceable as a
guide to the tongue. We have seen the green
woodpecker take its food in a similar manner."
The wryneck breeds in the holes of decayed trees,
but does not excavate a chamber, like the wood-
pecker, the strength of the beak being inadequate
for that purpose. The eggs, nine or ten in number,
and of a pure transparent white, are laid upon the
bare wood. When surprised upon her eggs, the
wryneck defends herself with great spirit, erecting
the feathers of the top of the head, and hissing like
a snake. The young if molested also hiss, and turn
their heads in various directions. The name wry-
neck is indeed given to this bird from its singular
habit of twisting and wrything its neck with odd
contortions when alarmed or irritated.
The wryneck leaves our island early in autumn,
retiring southwards, and most probably passing the
winter in Africa; specimens, indeed, have been
received from that continent and from India. In
Europe the wryneck is very generally spread during
summer, being found even as far north as Sweden ;
but, according to Temminck, it is rare in Holland.
Though the colours of this bird are not gaudy, they
are scarcely to be exceeded for simple beauty and
propriety of arrangement. The upper parts are
brown and grey exquisitely doited, and chequered
with spots, dashes, zigzag bars, and lines of black
and rufous, difiicult to describe and difficult for the
artist to copy. The throat is yellowish white, with
transverse black bars ; the breast and under parts
are white, with arrow-head spots of black. Length
seven inches.
The charactei-s of the genus may be summed up
as follows : — bill short, straight, conical and de-
f)ressed, the ridge rounded, mandible sharp ; tongue
ong, vermiform, armed at the tip with a horny
but unbarbed point; feet zygodactylei the two ante-
rior toes united together at their base ; tail-feathers
ten, soft, and flexible ; wings moderate. The spe-
cies are limited in number.
Family TROCHILID^E (HUMMING-BIRDS).
IGGO, 1661.— Examples of Humming-Bikds
The humming-birds are among the least and most
brilliant of the feathered race. Winged gems,
they glance with dazzling effulgence as they dart
along or hover over the fragrant flowers draining
the nectary of its liquid sweets. No birds excel
them in powers of flight; their long and narrow
wings are admirably adapted for aerial progression.
The quill-feathers are stiff, firm, and elastic, and
furnished with rigid shafts, in some instances sin-
gularly developed. The tail is variable. The plu-
mage is close and compact, and resembles an
arrangement of fishes' scales, glittering, in the males,
with metallic lustre. The tarsi are very small and
short : and the toes, three before and one behind,
are very delicate. The ground is never their resting-
place ; they perch on slender twigs, but are mostly
seen on the wing. If we look at the tiny skeleton
of one of these birds (Fig. 1662), we shall be struck
by the great depth and extent of the keel of the
breast-bone, the length of the scapulae, and the com-
parative insignificance of the legs. The whole mus-
cular force is, in fact, concentrated upon the organs
of flight; the pectoral muscles, in comparison with
the size of the bird, exceed in volume perhaps those
of any other of the feathered race ; and all the other
muscles for working the wings are in justaccordance.
Looking at the skeleton alone, the comparative
anatomist would say the greatest portion of the
life of these birds, all their active existence, is
passed on the wing. The primary quill-feather is
always the longest. The beak is long and slender,
but very variable in its form, being straight, curved,
and in some species even turned up. The tongue is
long, bifid, or split into two filaments, tubular, and
capable of being darted out to a considerable dis-
tance. As in the woodpeckers, it is the principal
instrument by means of which they obtain their
food, viz., insects of various kinds and the nectar of
flowers ; and it is protruded by the same arrange-
ment of the cartilaginous continuation of the os
hyoideg winding round the skull to the forehead, which
we have explained in those birds. With respect to
the tongue itself. Lesson describes it as composed of
two musculo-fibrous cylinders, soldered to each
other so as to resemble in some degree a double-
barrelled gun : but these tubes towards the tip be-
come separated and enlarged, each presenting a
little blade, which is concave within and convex
externally. " In order that this tubular tongue may
be projected upon the aliments which its termina-
tions are appointed to seize and retain, the os hyoides
which supports it is formed of two bony plates or
straps, which separate, pass below the cranium, re-
ascend over the bones of the occiput, and proceed
to form a point of resistance or fulcrum by their re-
union on the forehead. The result of this disposi-
tion, when brought into play by the muscles of the
tongue, is a great power over the muscular tubes
which compose the organ of taste. The two small
blades of elongated spoon-like termination seize
the insects or lick up the honied exudations, which
are on the instant carried to the aperture of the
oesophagus by the elasticity and contractility of the
two tubes, and forthwith swallov»ed. The long and
slender bill comes in admirably in aid to insert the
tongue in the nectary of flowers." Sir W. Jardine
(' Nat. Libr. Ornithol.,' vol. i.) confirms this account
given by Lesson, as does also Brisson, as far as he
was enabled to discover by an examination of the
parts moistened with water, after having been dried ;
but he adds, that it appeared to him, on investigat-
ing the structure of the tongue of the Trochilus mos-
cliatus thus relaxed, that its tip presented a fim-
briated opening, having the exterior margin of each
fork set with recurved, sharp-pointed, pliable spines,
as if to assist its viscidity in securing any substance
seized by them. Fig. 1663 represents the bill and
tongue of the Humming-bird, after Lesson: a, the
head profile, the tongue protruded from the bill,
and showing its bifurcation ; the two branches of
the OS hyoides seen surrounding the cranium ; b, the
same seen from above, the two branches of the os
hyoides uniting at a pointed angle in front ; c, the
same seen from below ; d, the tongue much magni-
fied, with some of the soft parts dissected away, but
adhering to the os hyoides and its branches, as well as
to the larynx seen from above ; e, the same seen
from below, with the os hyoides only, and the two
laraallse of its point separated; /, portion of the
tongue, very much magnified, seen from above, so
as to convey the idea of the manner in which the
cylinders that form it are united ; g, the lower side
of the same. The senses of sight and hearing are
highly acute in the hummingbirds; and so, from
the structure of the tongue and its.ofiice, we may
conclude that of taste to be.
These gorgeous birds are all natives of America,
" and, according to our best information, that great
archipelago of islands between Florida and the
mouth of the Orinoco, together with the mainland
of the southern continent until it passes the tropic
of Capricorn, literally swarms with them ; in the
wild and uncultivated parts they inhabit those forests
of magnificent timber overhung with lianas and
the superb tribe of Bignonaceae, the huge trunks
clothed with a rich drapery of parasites whose blos-
soms vie in tints, if not in brilliancy, with their
winged riflers ; in the cultivated parts they abound
in the gardens, and 'seem to delight in society, be-
coming very familiar ; feeling confidence in their
own powers, they will even hover about one side of
a shrub while flowers or fruits are plucked from the
opposite. As we recede from the tropics on either
side, the numbers decrease, though some species are
found in Mexico, and others in Peru, which do not
appear to exist elsewhere. Thus Mr. Bullock dis-
covered several species at a high elevation, and
consequently low temperature, on the lofty table-
lands of Mexico, and in the woods in the vicinity of
the snowy mountains of Orizaba ; while Captain
King, in his survey of the southern coasts, met with
numerous members of this diminutive family flying
about in a snow-storm near the Straits of Magellan,
and discovered two species in the remote island of
Juan Fernandez. Two species only spread far into
the northern continent of America : the one, the
RufF-necked Humming-bird, which was discovered
by Captain Cook in Nootka Sound, and has been
traced by Kotzebue to 61° along the western shores;
the other, the Northern or Ruby-throated Humming-
bird, so beautifully described by Wilson. This
species has been obtained from the plains of the
Saskatchewan, and was found breeding, by Mr.
Drummond, near the sources of the Elk river. It is
known to reach as far north as the fifty-seventh
parallel."
The velocity with which the humming-birds
glance through the air is extraordinary, and so
rapid is the vibration of their wings, that the action
eludes the sight ; when hovering before a flower,
they seem suspended as if by some magic power,
rather than by the vigorous movement of their
rigid pinions, which, however, produce a constant
murmur or buzzing sound, whence the English title
by which we designate these birds, and the Creole
epithets in Cayenne and the Antilles, viz., Mur-
mures, Bourdons, and Frou-frous.
It has been frequently and justly observed, that
in their mode of flight the humming-birds closely
resemble the sphinx-moths, or the dragon-flies.
\n
b c
nn
"W^':^ ^^-■: -Til J
1H58— WrvnedtB.
1C63.— BUI and Ton^neof Haxmnmg'blrtl, di«eeted.
n
16-;2.— Skeleton of Hummnf-biid.
16}l>.— Head and Ton^juc of Wryneck.
1855.— Thitu'Uxid Woodpecker.
3:6
1G69.— Rubytbioated Humming-bird.
1670. — Kuby-throated Humming-bird and Nest.
1 664.— Nest of Humming-bird.
1671(-J>oable<iwted HMnmingbird,
16T4y— Dar-tailed Hamming-bird.
No. 48.
166X— K«st of Hnmming-Urd.
1673. — Sickle^winged Humming-bird.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
1666.— Nest of Amethyst Hanilni«g-H>a.
1 672. —Cora Humming-bird.
377
378
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
rHUMHINO-BlROS.
Mr. Darwin, in his admirable ' Journal,' rtates, that
while at Bahia, he started early one morning and
walked to the top of the Gavia, or Topsail Mountain.
" The air was deliRhtfully cool and fragrant, and
the drops of dew still glittered on the leaves of the
large liliaceous plants which shaded the streamlets
of clear water. Sitting down on a rock of granite.
It was delightful to watch the various insects and
birds as they flew past. The humming-birds seem
particularly fond of such shady retired spots; when-
ever I saw these little creatures buzzing round a
flower with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to
be scarcely visible, I was reminded of tne sphinx-
moths; their movements and habits are indeed in
many respects very similar." (p. 36.) Bullock and
Wilson both'notice the surprising rapidity of the
vibrations of their wings ; the former, speaking of
specimens cngcd, says, that in a space barely sufli-
cicnt for them to move their wings, they will keep
their bodies in the air apparently motionless for hours
together. There are, however, exceptions to this
rule ; Mr. Darwin, describing the Trochilus gigas,
which, as he observed, had arrived in the neigh-
bourhood of Valparaiso in numbers a little before
the vernal equinox, adds : — " It comes from the
parched deserts of the north, probably for the
purpose of breeding in Chile. When on the wing
the appearance of this bird is singular. Like the
others of the genus, it moves from place to place
with a rapidity which may be compared to a syrphus
amongst dipterous insects and a sphinx amongst
the moths; but whilst hovering over a flower, it
flaps Its wings with a slow and very powerful move-
ment, totally different from that vibratory one,
common to most of the species, which produces
the humming noise. I never saw any other bird
the force of whose wings appeared so powerful in
proportion to the weight of its body. When hover-
ing by a flower, its tail is constantly expanded and
shut like a fan, the body being kept in a nearly
vertical position. This action appears to steady
and support the bird between the slow movements
of its wings. Although flying from flower to flower
in search of food, its stomach generally contained
abundant remains of insects, which, I suspect, are
much more the object of its search than honey is.
The note of this species, like that of nearly the
whole family, is extremely shrill." These brilliant
creatures are an intrepid daring race, and extremely
pugnacious, and cannot endure the approach of one
even of their own species, still less of any other
bird near their breeding-places. Of one minute
but beautiful species, the M<exican Star, Mr. Bullock
says : — " When attending their young they attack
any bird indiscriminately that approaches the nest.
Their motions, while under the influence of anger
or fear, are very violent, and their flight rapid as
an arrow ; the eye cannot follow them, but the
shrill piercing shriek which thej[ utter on the wing
may be heard when the bird is invisible. They
attack the eyes of the larger birds, and their sharp
needle-like bill is a truly formidable weapon in this
kind of warfare. Nothing can exceed their fierce-
ness when one of their own species invades their
territory during the breeding-season; under the
influence of jealousy they become perfect furies,
their throats swell, their crests, tails, and wings
expand, they fight in the air, uttering a shrill noise,
till one falls exhausted to the ground."
With respect to the voice of the humming-birds,
we have reason to believe that it consists only of a
shrill cry ; such is Lesson's assertion, who remarks,
that it IS uttered chiefly on the wing, or under the
excitement of anger, &c., and that they are most
frequently mute ; others, however, assert that they
utter a song, which statement, if at all correct, is
only applicable to a few species. Bullock speaks of
a minute species in Jamaica, to which he listened,
in the Botanical Garden of that island, as it poured
forth its "slight querulous note."
Pgre Labat, in 1547, and Rochfort, in 1658, de-
scribe spiders in the "Bermudez" and Antilles
■which make webs strong enough to entangle small
birds. Madame Merian, in her work, figures a
gigantic round spider, which makes no net, of the
genus Mygale, in the act of devouring a humming-
bird, thus deceiving later naturalists, and even
Linnoius, who termed the species Aranea avicularia.
Mr. Macleay informs us that there are in the West-
Indies huge spiders belonging to the genus Nepliila
(as N. clavipes, or Epeiraclavipesof Latreille), com-
mon, like our own Epeira diadema, in gardens,
which make a mathematical net strong enough in-
deed to embarrass small birds, but which, he states,
do not attempt to catch birds, and never molest
them : and in a note he adds, when M. Langsdorff
asked the people of Brazil if the Caranquexeira,
for such is the spider's name in that country, fed
upon humming-birds, they answered him, with
bursts of laughter, that it only gratified its maw
■with large flies, ants, bees, wasps, beetles, &c., an
answer which the traveller found the truth of by
personal experience. ('Trans. Zool. Soc.,' vol. i.)
It would appear, from Mr. Bullock's statement,
that humming-birds often avail themselves of the
insects caught in spiders' webs, not, however, with-
out the spiders endeavouring not to devour, but
drive them away. "The house," he writes, " I re-
sided .in at Xalappa for several weeks on my return
to Vera Cruz, i^ only one story high, inclosing,
like most of the Spanish houses, a small garden in
the centre, the roof projecting six or seven feet
from the walls, covering a walk all round, and
leaving a small space only between the tiles and
trees which grew in the centre. From the edge of
these tiles to the branches of the trees in the garden
the spiders had spread their innumerable webs, so
closely and compactly that they resembled a net: I
have frequently watched with much amusement
the cautious peregrination of the humming-bird,
who advancing beneath the web, entered the
various labyrinths and cells in search of entangled
flies; but as the larger spiders did not tamely sur-
render their booty, the invader was often compelled
to retreat. Being within a few feet, I could observe
all their evolutions with great precision : the active
little bird generally passed once or twice round the
court, as if to reconnoitre his ground, and com-
menced his attack by going carefully under the nets
of the wily insect, and seizing by surprise the
smallest entangled flies or those that were most
feeble. In ascending the angular traps of the spider,
great care and skill were required ; sometimes
he had scarcely room for his little wings to per-
form their ofSce, and the least deviation would have
entangled him in the complex machinery of the
web, and involved him in ruin. It was only the
works of the smaller spiders that he durst attack,
as the largest rose in defence of their citadels, when
the besieger would shoot off like a sunbeam, and
could only be traced by the luminous glow of his
refulgent colours. The bird generally spent about
ten minutes in this predatory excursion, and then
alighted on a branch of an avocata to rest and re-
fresh himself, placing his crimson star-like breast to
the sun, which then presented all the glowing fire
of the ruby, and surpassed in lustre the diadem of
monarchs." The species referred to is the Mexican
Star. In sleeping, according to the same authority,
these beautiful birds frequently suspend themselves
by the feet, with the head downwards.
The nests of the humming-birds are most beauti-
ful compact structures, with exquisite finish and
nicety of arrangement. We have seen one com-
posed of the finest silky down, or cotton, of a deli-
cate straw-yellow, soft, light, and compact, attached
to the end of a twig, and concealed by leaves. In
some cases the outside is formed of fine moss, lichens,
&c., investing a compact bed of the down of plants,
cotton, and even spiders' webs.
Figs. 1664 and 1665 are the nests of Humming-
birds (from Lesson). These are covered on the out-
side with bits of lichen, leaves, moss, &c. One con-
tains two white eggs (the usual number and colour
of the eggs of these birds), of an elongated form.
Fig. 1666 represents the Nest of the Brazilian Ame-
thyst Humming-bird (Ornismya Amethistoides,
Less.) : a, the egg.
In the 'Zoological Journal,' vol. v., is an interest-
ing account of the nidification of a species of hum-
ming-bird, by the late Captain Lyon, R.N. : the
nest, it appears, was not completed till after the
young were hatched. (Figs. 1667 and 1668.)
Writing from Gongo Soco, Brazil, March 17th, 1829,
he says : — " I am too closely confined here, and too
constantly occupied, to attend much to natural
history or anything except the mines, but it may
interest you to have an account of some young
humming-birds whose hatching and education I
studiously attended, as the nest was made in a little
orange-bush by the side of a frequented walk in my
garden. It was composed of the silky down of a
plant, and covered with small flat pieces of yellow
lichen. The first egg was laid January 26tn, the
second on the 28th, and two little creatures like
bees made their appearance on the morning of
February 14th. As the young increased in size, the
mother Duilt her nest higher, so that, from having
at first the form of Fig. 1667, it became ultimately
like Fig. 1668.
"The old bird sat very close during a continuance
of the heavy rain for several days and nights. The
young remained blind until February 28th, and flew
on the morning of March 7th, without previous
practice, as strong and swiftly as the mother, taking
their first dart from the nest to a tree about twenty
yards distant."
It must not be supposed that this plan of adding
to the structure after the hatching of the eggs is
the ordinary plan. In this instance perhaps the
bird had been driven from a nest previously made,
aud had not time to finish the new one before de-
positing the eggs, and was thus subsequently com-
pelled to add to it.
In some districts, undoubtedly, the humming-
birds are migratory, such as the northern or ruby-
throated species. Mr. Darwin (' Journal '), after
adverting to two species common in Chile, and a
' third found on the Cordilleras at an elevation of
about ten thousand feet, proceeds to observe : " In
Central Chile these birds are migratory; they make
their appearance there in autumn, ana in the latter
end of the month corresponding to our October
j they are very common. In the spring they begin
to disappear, and on the 12th of what would cor-
respond to our March I saw only one individual.
I As this species migrates to the southward, it is
I replaced by the arrival of a larger kind (the Tro-
, chilus gigas). I do not believe the small kinds
1 breed in Chile, for during the summer their nests
' were common to the south of that country. The
migration of the humming-birds, both on the east
and west coast of North America, corresponds to
'; what takes place in this southern continent. In
j both cases they move towards the tropic during the
! colder parts of the year, and retreat before the
returning heat. Some, however, remain during the
i whole year in Tierra del Fuego ; and in Northern
, California (which in the northern hemisphere has
'' the same relative position which Tierra del Fuego
has in the southern) some, according to Captain
Beechey, likewise remain." (p. 331.)
1669, 1670.— Thk Ruby-throatkd Humming-Bird
(Trochilus Colubris). Audubon describes and
figures four species of humming-birds as North Ame-
rican, viz. the T. Colubris, the T. Anna, the Lam-
prornis Mango, and the- Calliphlox rufa (T. rufus,
Gmel.) : but it must be observed that upwards of
two hundred species are known ; in the cabinet of
Mr. G. Loddiges, of Hackney, there are one hundred
and ninety-six species, if not more — a gorgeous dis-
play of dazzling brilliants.
'The Ruby-throated Humming-bird usually arrive*
in Pennsylvania about the 25th of April, but in
Louisiana it has been observed as early as the 10th
of March. It has all the manners of its race ; it
hovers around the blossoms of trees and shrubs,
giving preference to tubular flowers, not so much
for the sake perhaps of the honey, as of the insects
which crowd the nectary to feed upon its sweets.
That insects, and those too of the coleopterous
order, constitute a great portion of the food of this
species, has been proved by dissection. " I have
seen," says Wilson, "the humming-bird, for half
an hour at a time, darting at those little groups of
insects that dance in the air on a fine summer even-
ing, retiring to an adjoining twig to rest, and re-
newing the attack with a dexterity that sets all our
other flycatchers at defiance. I have opened from
time to time great numbers of these birds, have ex-
amined the contents of the stomach with suitable
glasses, and in three cases out of four have found
these to consist of broken fragments of insects. In
many subjects, entire insects of the coleopterous
; order, but very small, were found unbroken."
The general colour of the upper parts of this spe-
cies, including the two central tail-feathers, is green
with gold reflexions. The whole of the throat and
fore part of the neck is of a deep fiery ruby tint in
some lights; in others, of a burnished crimson or
orange glow ; in others, velvet-black : under parts
greyish white mixed with green. Quills and tail
purplish brown. The female is destitute of the ruby
throat, which is white, as are the under parts ge-
nerally. Length three inches and a half. Fig. l&O
represents the Female and Nest.
1671. — ^Thk Double-crested Humming-Bibo
{Ornismya Chrysolopha, Lesson). Trochilus bi-
lophus, Temm. This is a most gorgeous species-
Two flattened fan-shaped crests, each composed of
six small feathers, part from the forehead on a level
with the eyes. The brilliancy of these crests sur-
passes description, glistening as they do with the
hues of polished gold and red copper, changing
into the gemmy tints of the ruby and emerald, now
fire-coloured, anon the purest green, and presently
the brightest yellow. "The scaly feathers of the
forehead between the two crests sparkle with
metallic uniform green, changing to steel or
sapphire blue. A carnail of dark changeable
violet extends from the throat behind the eyes, and
descends along the sides of the neck to terminate
in a point of long feathers before the breast. This
uncertain violet, graduating into a non-metallic blue,
with its velvety very dark tint, is sharply defined
on the milk-white of the breast, which extends to
the lower part of the neck, so as to form a rather
large white collar. The lower part of the belly is
white ; but the middle of the abdomen and the
flanks are, like the back, golden green, with which
is mingled a little of the greyish colour of the base
of the feathers. Back and sides of the head behind,
back, and feathers of the rump, metallic golden
green. Quills brown ; tail long, narrow, and much
graduated. Length four inches and a half, includ-
ing the long tail and bill.
I
Sun-Birds.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
379
1672. — The Cora. Humming-Bird
COmismya Cora, Less.) This species is a native of
Peru, and especially the plains of Lima. The bill
is slender, the tarsi feeble and short, the tail
graduated with the two middle feathers greatly
prolonsjed ; the wings are purpled brown : the
general plumage above bright golden green; the
throat and front of the neck sparkle with the violet
tint of the amethyst, and a white gorget marks the
limits of the scaly feathers ; flanks and under parts
golden green ; lateral tail-feathers brown with white
borders ; two central white with black tips. Total
length nearly six inches, of which the tail measures
three inches and a half.
1673. — The Sickle-winged Humming-Bird
(Campt/loptems fakatus). This species is a native
of the Spanish Main. Its colours are dazzling : the
Erevailing tint is refulgent green; the throat and
reast shining blue; the tail rufous cinnamon. The
outer quills of the wings are singularly curved, and-
have strong dilated shafts, giving additional powers
to the wing, which is of a sabre-shape and admirably
adapted for rapid flight.
1674. — The Bar-tailed Humming-Bird
(Omismya Sappho, Lesson). Trochilus sparganurus,
Shaw ; T. chrysochloris, Vieill. This brilliant species,
a native of Eastern Peru, is at once to be distin-
guished by the shape of its tail, which is forked to
the base, and thus consists of two diverging portions,
each containing five feathers, graduating in length
one beyond another. Their colour is of the richest
flame or bright orange red, with a dazzling metallic
lustre, and a broad mark of black at the tip. The
•upper surface is fine golden green ; the rump dull
red ; the under surface" bright emerald-green.
1675. — Gould's Humming-Bird
{Omismya Gmddli, Lesson). The native district
of this splendid species is unknown. The forehead,
throat, and upper part of the breast are of the most
brilliant green, the feathers being of a scaly form.
From the crown springs a pyramidal crest of bright
chestnut colour, and capable of being raised up or
depressed at pleasure. The back and upper parts
are golden green, crossed upon the rump with a
whitish band. The wings and tail are brownish
purple, the latter having the centre feathers tinged
with green. The sides of the neck are adorned with
tufts, producing a chaste but brilliant effect; these
tufts consist of narrow feathers, arranged so as to
form a fan, which are of snowy whiteness, each hav-
ing at its tip a spot of bright emerald-green sur-
rounded by a darker border.
1676. — ^The Recurved-bill Humming Bird
{Trochilus recurvirostris). In this species, which
appears to be a native of Peru, the bill is singularly
turned up at the point, in order, it has been sug-
gested, to enable the bird to reach the nectaries of
the Bigoniae, whose corolla are long and generally
bent in the tube. The general colour is golden
green ; the throat shining emerald-green ; middle of
the breast and of the under surface black ; lateral
tail-feathers beneath topaz.
Many instances are on record of humming-birds
being kept in confinement in their native country.
Mr. Bullock, when in Mexico, had nearly seventy in
cages, and declares that could he have devoted his
attention to them, he had no doubt of the possibility
of bringing them alive to Europe : nor do we question
it for a moment. In proof, indeed, of the possibility,
we may observe, that a gentleman, a few days before
he sailed from Jamaica, having found a female Mango
humming-bird sitting on her nest and eggs, cut off
the twig and brought the whole on board. The bird
became so tame as to suff'er herself to be fed on
honey and water during the passage, and hatched
two young ones. The mother did not long survive,
but the young were brought to England, and con-
tinued some time in the possession of Lady Ham-
mond, from whose lips they took honey ; and though
one did not live long, the other survived for at least
two months from the time of their arrival.
Family CINNYRID^ (SUN-BIRDS).
Fio. 1677 represents the forms observable in the
bills of the birds of the present family, and also of
the Honeysuckers (Nectariniadae, vigors), which
Mr. Swainson considers as forming one of the groups
of the CinnyridsB. a, bill of Melithreptes ; b, bill of
Cinnyris; c, bill of Anthreptes; d, Nectarinia; e,
Dicseiim.
The Sun birds are exclusively natives of the warm
cliiiiiites of the Old World, viz. India and Africa,
anil ajiproach the humming-birds in manners, as they
almost rival them in brilliancy of plumage. Unlike
the creepers, which travel mouse-like along the
branches, or the honeysuckers (Nectariniadae),
which flit from twig to twig and flower to flower,
resting while they explore the nectary with their
beak, these glossy birds usually hover on quivering
wings, poised in the air, while they bury their long
slender bills in the corolla. Their plumage glitters
with metallic effulgence, but the colours are not
changeable in varied lights like the burning hues
of the humming-birds ; the feathers are not in fact
scale-like, or of that texture producing innumerable
facets, each facet reflecting the rays of light at ever-
changing angles : they are simply burnished.*
Insects of various kinds constitute the diet of the
sun-birds, together with honey : their bill is more
or less curved ; the tongue is long, retractile,
pencilled, or simply forked at the tip.
The sun-birds are animated, rapid, and graceful
in their movements; their disposition is lively, and
their song agreeable. For an account of several
species recently introduced to science, see Colonel
Sykes's ' Catalogue of the Birds of Dukhun ' (' Zool.
Proceeds.' 1832, pp. 98, 99). It will be observed that
insects of various kinds were mostly found in the
stomachs of those examined, and that it is stated
" they hover before flowers and suck honey on the
wing."
1678. — ^The Collared Sun-Bird
(Cinnyris chalybeia). Lesser Collared Creeper of
Swainson. In the restricted genus Cinnyris the
bill is long and slender, and the margins are minutely
denticulated; the tongue retractile and simply
forked ; the third quill-feather the longest.
The Collared Sun-bird (Soui-manga a Collier of
Vieillot) is a native of Africa. Its general colour is
golden green, with brownish wings and tail , and a nar-
row red band across the breast, bordered above by
another of steel-blue ; upper tail-coverts blue.
1679. — The Javanese Sun-Bird
{Anthreptes Javanica). Nectarinia Javanica, Hors-
tield. The genus Anthreptes is characterized by
Mr. Swainson as having the bill moderate, rather
strong, slightly curved ; wings, feet, and tail as in
Cinnyris.
The Javanese Sun-Bird is of a glossy metallic
purple above ; olive-yellow beneath ; the scapulars,
the rump, and a broad stripe curving from the base
of the beak to the breast glossy violet ; throat chest-
nut ; tail black. Native country, Java.
Family NECTARINIAD^ (HONEYSUCKERS).
The NectariniadsE of Vigors are peculiar to South
America, where, amidst the most luxuriant foliage
and the wildest profusion of flowers, they flit and hop
from twig to twig, from blossom to blossom, in quest
of small insects and honey, probing the nectaries
with their bill. The bill and feet are stronger than
in the sun-birds, and the powers of wing more
limited. Their plumage is brilliant.
1C80. — The Blue-Headbd Honeysucker
(Nectarinia cyanocephala'). Cayenne Warbler,
Blue-headed Warbler, and Blue-headed Creeper,
Latham ; Le Petit Verd, Brisson. The male of this
species is of a changeable blue ; the throat, back,
tail, and wings black ; the quills edged with blue.
The female is green, with the head, cheeks, and
scapulars bluish ; and the throat grey.
Mr. Swainson, who observed this bird in its native
country, after stating that its habits are precisely
those of the other Nectariniadae, says, "It is one of the
commonest birds of Brazil, and appears spread over
the whole extent of that country. It frequents the
same trees as the humming-birds, hopping from
flower to flower, and extracting the nectar from
each ; but this is not done on the wing, because its
formation is obviously different from the humming-
birds, which, on the contrary, poise themselves in the
air during feeding." The young males have the
colours of the females. The upper figure is that of
a female ; the lower, that of a male.
Family MELIPHAGIDyE (HONEYEATERS).
In this family we also find the suctorial structure of
the tongue, but the bill and legs are stronger than
those even of the Nectariniadae. The hind-toe is par-
ticularly large, and furnished with a powerful claw ;
and the tarsi are robust. The species are natives of
Australia and various islands adjacent. Though
the tongue is suctorial and tipped with a pencil of
delicate filaments, it is not nearly so extensible as
* ah the scaly feathers, in fact, observes Lesson, which simulate
velvet, the emerald, or the ruby, and which one sees on the head ami
the throat ot the Epimachi, the Faradise-birds, and the Hummintj-
birds, resemble each other in the uniformity of their structure ; are all
composed of cylindrical barbies, bordered with other analogous regular
Ijarbles. wtiicti in their tuin support other small ones, and all of them
are hollowed in the centre with a deep furrow, so that when the lijjht,
as Audebert first remarked, f^lides in a vertical direction over the
scaly leathers, the result i^, that all the luminous ra\s are absorbed in
traversing them, and the perception of black is produced. But it is no
longer the same when the li^ht is rellected from these feathers (each of
which performs the office of a reflector) : then it is that the aspect of
the emerald, the ruby, &c. , varying with the utmost diversity under
the incidences of the rays wjiich strike them, is given out by the mole-
cular arrnngemeat of the barbies. As an examole of the diversity of
tints which spring from such scaly f^-athers, M. Lesson cites the eme-
rald " crMv.at 'of many species, which takes all the hues of green, and
then the brightest and most uniformly golden tints, down to intense
velvet black ; or that of ruby, which darts forth pencils of light, or
passes from reddish orange to a crimsoned red black.
in the humming-birds, nor, according to Mr. Swain-
son, do the branches of the os hyoides wind round
the skull. Insects and the honey of flowers consti-
tute the food of these birds, to which some species
add fruits or berries.
Lewin, who drew and described these birds in their
native region, has figured the tongue of the warty-
faced honeysucker (Meliphaga Phrygia) ('Birds of
New Holland,' pi. 4), and describes the bird as some-
times to be seen "in great numbers, constantly fly-
ing from tree to tree (particularly the blue gum),
feeding among the blossoms by extracing the honey
with their long tongues from every flower as they
passed." The same observer, speaking of the blue-
faced honeysucker, describes it as being " fond of
picking transverse holes in the bark, between which
and the wood it inserts its long tongue in search of
small insects, which it. draws out with great dex-
terity.
According to Lewin, the yellow-eared honey-
sucker in the winter season feeds on the sweet
berries of the white cedar.
1681. — The New Holland Honeysucker
(Meliphaga Novm Hollandiee). As its name im-
plies, this bird is a native of New Holland, and, as
Mr. Caley states, is " most frequently met with in
the trees growing in scrubs, where the different
species of Banksia are found, the flowers of which,
I have reason to think, afford it a sustenance during
winter. In the summer I have shot it when sucking
the flowers of Leptospermum flavescens. In the
scrubs about Paramatta it is very common.''
1682.— The Poe' Bird
(Prosthemadera Novce Seelandice), This splendid
bird, which equals a pigeon in size, is a native of
the woods of New Zealand, which resound with its
■ tuneful notes : it is stated not only to be a delight-
ful songster, but to be capable of imitating the
voices of other birds. It is remarkable for two
plumes of snowy white, hanging one on each side of .
the throat. In the Wattled Honeyeater of Van
Diemen's Land (Anthochaera corunculata) two
fleshy wattles hang in the same manner ; and in the
Meliphaga pencillata, Gould, a native of New South
Wales, a small white tuft passes behind the eai
coverts. In the genus Tropidorhynchus, one of this
family, we find the head more or less denuded of
feathers: and in one species, the Knob-fronted Honey-
eater (T. corniculatus), there is a fleshy excrescence
rising up at the base of the upper mandible.
The plumage of the Poe-bird may be thus
described : — Head, neck, chest, and greater wing-
coverts, and outer edges of the secondaries, dark
metallic green, with bronzed reflexions : the feathers
of the back of the neck are long and pointed, and have
a narrow white line down the centre of each. From
the angle of each lower jaw depends a curled tuft of
soft white feathers, spreading at their apex, narrow
at their base ; back glossy bronzed brown, a patch
of pure white on the shoulders ; rump glossy steel-
blue ; tail brown, glossed above with steel-blue ;
quills brown, more or less glossed on their edges
with blue ; under parts blackish brown, with a wash
of rufous. Total length upwards of twelve inches.
I Family PROMEROPID^ (PROMEROPES).
The Promeropidae (from which we have excluded
the hoopoes) are birds of extremely brilliant plumage,
with long slender bills capable of penetrating into the
nectary of flowers. Cuvier says the tongue is ex-
tensible, and bifid at the tip, enabling them to live
on the honey of flowers, like the sun-birds and hum-
ming-birds ; but no doubt insects, and perhaps soft
fruits, constitute the greater portion of their diet.
The tail is extremely long ; the legs small ; the
general contour slender.
1683. — The Red-billed Promerops
(Promerops erythrorynchus). Le Promerops mo-
queur of the French. This brilliant bird is a native
of the interior of Southern Africa, where it lives in
troops, which make when disturbed a loud chatter-
ing. The whole of the plumage is varied with me-
tallic blue and green; the bill is coral-red. The
tail is greatly prolonged, and the feathers are gra-
duated.
1684. — The Superb Epimachus
(Epimachus maijmis). In the genus Epimachus
•he bill closely resembles that of Promerops, but the
nostrils are partially hidden by velvety feathers as in
the Birds of Paradise ; the plumage of the Epima-
chi glows with the same effulgence as in the latter,
andlhey are natives of the same regions. In the
males the feathers of the sides are more or less pro-
longed and enlarged.
" There does not perhaps exist," says Sonnerat, " a
more extraordinary bird than the grand Promerops of
New Guinea. It is four feet in length from the ex-
tremity of the bill to that the tail. Its body is deli-
cate, slender, and, although it is of an elongated form,
3C2
mx— GonUTi Hamming-bitil.
16M.— FoeBud.
1617.— BU> of Snn-Urda.
167« -lEeeuireiUll Uuminiiig-bltd.
1 679. — Javanese San-biid.
Hdbiul Huaenaebn.
isrs.— CoUawd San-bird.
I«n.— ked-billad Piomorop*.
t68a— Blue.beadad Hnneynicken.
1684.— Saperb Epimaebni.
S80
VIM.— Oold-Crestj.
:C85.— Common Wood-Swallow.
281
382
ftppean »hort and excessively small in comparison
with the tail. Toadd to the sinciularifyofthis bird na-
ture has placed above and below its winps feathers of
an extraordinary form, and such as one does not see
in other birds : she seems, moreover, to have pleased
hereelf in painting this being, already so singular,
with her most brilliant colours. The head, the neck,
and the belly are plittering green; the feathers
which cover these parts have the lustre and softness
of velvet to the eye and to the touch ; the back is
changeable violet ; the wings are of the same colour,
and appear, according to the lights in which they
are held, blue, violet, or deep black, always, how-
ever, imitating velvet. The tail is comiiosed of
twelve feathers ; the two middle are the longest, and
the lateral ones gradually diminish: it is violet
or changeable blue above, and black beneath.
The feathers which compose it are as wide in I
proportion as they are long, and shine both above
and below with the brilliancy of polished metal.
Above the wings, the scapulars are very long and
singularly formed; their barbs are very short on
one side and very long on the other. These feathers
are of the colour of polished steel, changing into
blue, terminated by a large spot of brilliant green,
and forming a species of tuft or appendage at the
origin of the wings. Below the wings spring long
curved feathers directed upwards : these are black
on the inside, and brilliant green on the outside.
The bill and feet are black." (' Voy. ^ la Nouvelle
Guinfie.') Lesson states that he procured several
individuals of this gorgeous species on the coasts of
New Guinea, where it appears to be common. We
are not aware that the structure of the tongue is
known, and its present situation is provisional.
We shall here pass from the Tenuirostral families,
and revert to some forms in other sections of the
Insessorial order, which we have as yet omitted to
notice ; and first we invite attention to a group or
genus of the Fissirostral tribe, termed by Vieillot,
Artamus {Upra^s, butcher), and by Cuvier, more
appropriately, Ocyplerus (swift-wing). The former
name, however, has the right of priority. These
birds, says Cuvier, have the beak conical, rounded,
without a ridge, and very slightly arched at the tip,
which is sharp ; the upper mandible presents merely
the -trace of a notch on each side ; the tarsi are
short ; the wings even pass beyond the tail, and
they have the same rapidity of flight as the
swallows, but to it they add "the courage of the
shrikes, and fear not even to attack the raven.
They are natives of Australia, India, and the isles of
the Indian Seas. They are continually on the wing
in chase of insects.
The French terras given by Cuvier are " Les
Langrayens, ou Pies-grieches-Hirondelles." Mr.
Swainson calls them Swift-Shrikes. By the colonists
of Australia they are designated wood-swallows.
Cuvier and most naturalists have placed these birds
with the shrikes; but we think that Mr. Gould's
observations on their habits will corroborate our
opinion respecting their situation among the Fissi-
rostres ; indeed Sonnerat's account of the Indian
wood-swallow (Artamus leucorhynchos, Pie-grieche-
Dominiquaine des Philippines) is a sufficient testi-
mony. He states that this bird flies with rapidity,
poising itself in the air like the swallows, and is,
moreover, an inveterate enemy to the crow, which,
in spite of the superiority of size possessed by that
antagonist, it not only dares to oppose, but to pro-
voke.
Of the Australian species Mr. Gould has described
and figured six in his splendid work on the birds of
that portion of the globe.
1685. — ^Thb Commos Wood-Swailow
(Artamus sordidus). The Sordid Thrush, Turdus
sordidus, Latham ; Ocypterusalbovittatus of Cuvier; i
Artamus lineatus, Vieillot ; Artamus albovittatus, '
Vigors and Horsfield ; Leptopteryx albovittata,
Wagler ; Be-wo-wen of the aborigines of the low-
land and mountain districts of Western Australia;
and Worle of the aborigines of King George's
Sound. According to Mr. Gould, whose history of
these birds we follow, the present species has an
extensive range from east to west on the continent
of Australia, and is spread over the southern por-
tion, being also found in Van Diemen's Land. Its
northern range is not accurately known, but no
specimens have been received from the north coast.
In Van Diemen's Land it is as migratory as our
swallows in England, arriving in October, the begin-
ning of the Australian summer, and after rearing
two broods departing northwards, that is, towards
warmer latitudes. Oh the continent of Australia it
is only partially migratory, for though the great
body leave their summer haunts, still m favourable
districts where insect food is abundant some remain
stationary throughout the year. The birds bred in
Van Diemen's land, according to Mr. Gould, are
larger than those either of the Swan River district,
. of South Australia, or of New South Wales ; and
this difference he attributes to a superab'indance of
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
food in that humid island. May not the species be
distinct ?
In the situation of its nest this bird is not bound
by any definite rule, varying the site accordingly to
circumstances. Mr. Gould saw one in a thickly-
leaved bough near the ground, some in naked forks,
others on the side of the bole of a tree, in niches
formed by a portion of the bark being separated
from the trunk. The nest (Fig. 1686) is rather
shallow, of a rounded form, composed of fine twigs
neatly lined with fibrous roots. The eggs, which
are generally four in number, difi'er in the disposi-
tion of their markings. The ground-colour is dull
white, spotted and dashed with dark umber brown ;
in some a second series of greyish spots were ob-
served, as if on the inner surface, and showing
themselves through the shell. The nests of the
Van Diemen's Land variety were found to be larger,
more compact, and more neatly formed than those
on the continent of Australia.
Mr. Gould thus details the remarkable habits of
these birds, in the work to which we have already
alluded : —
" This wood-swallow, besides being the com-
monest species of the genus, must, I think, be ren-
dered a general favourite with the Australians, not
only from its singular and pleasing actions, but by
its often taking up its abode and incubating near
the houses, particularly such as are surrounded by
paddocks and open pasture-lands skirted by large
trees. It was in such situations as these in Van
Diemen's Land, at the commencement of spring,
that I first had an opportunity of observing this
species ; it was then very numerous on all the
cleared estates on the north side of the Derwent,
about eight or ten being seen on a single tree, and
half as many crowding one against another on the
same dead branch, but never in such numbers as to
deserve the appellation of flocks : each bird ap-
peared to act independently of the other ; each, as
the desire for food prompted it, sallying forth from
the branch to capture a passing insect, or to soar
round the tree and return again to the same spot ;
on alighting, it repeatedly throws up and closes one
wing at a time, and spreads the tail obliquely prior
to settling. At other times a few were seen perched
on the fence surrounding the paddock, on which
they frequently descended, like starlings, in search
of coleoptera and other insects. It is not, however,
in this state of comparative quiescence that this
graceful bird is seen to the best advantage ; neither
is it that kind of existence for which its form is es-
pecially adapted ; for although its structure is more
equally suited for terrestrial, arboreal, and aerial
habits than that of any other species I have ex-
amined, the form of its wing at once points out the
air as its peculiar province ; hence it is that, when
engaged in pursuit of the insects which the serene
and warm weather has enticed from their lurking-
places among the foliage to sport in higher regions,
this beautiful species in these aerial flights displays
its greatest beauty, while soaring above in a variety
of easy positions, with its white-tipped tail widely
spread. Another very extraordinary and singular
habit of this bird is that of clustering like bees on
the dead branch of a tree : this feature was not seen
by me, but by my assistant, Mr. Gilbert, during his
residence at Swan River; and I have here given
his account in his own words : — ' The greatest
peculiarity in the habits of this bird is its manner
of suspending itself in perfect clusters, like a swarm
of bees ; a few birds suspending themselves on the
under side of a dead branch, while' others of the
flock attach themselves one to the other, in such
numbers that they have been observed nearly of the
size of a bushel measure.' It was veiy numerous in
the town of Perth until about the middle of April,
when I missed it suddenly, nor did I observe it
again until near the end of May, when I saw it in
countless numbers flying, in company with the
common swallows and partins, over a lake about
ten miles north of the {own ; so numerous in fact
were they, that they darkened the water as they
flew over it. Its voice greatly resembles that of
the common swallow in character, but is much
harsher."
Fig. 1687 represents a swarm of these birds
clustering like bees.
The general colour of this species is black ; belly
and upper parts of the rump white ; tail-feathers,
except the two middle, tipped with white ; bill
greyish ; legs black.
1688. — The Cinereous Wood-Swallow
(Artamtis cinereus). The range of this species ex-
ceeds even that of the preceding. It is a native
of Timor, and occurs both on the eastern and west-
ern coast of Australia, in which latter locality it
was obsen'ed by Mr. Gilbert. It is the largest of
the Australian Artami. In Western Australia, ac-
cording to Mr. Gould, this bird, though rather local
in its distribution, is by no means uncommon, par-
ticularly at. Swan River, where it inhabits the lime-
[Promeropes.
stone hills near the coast, and the Clear Hills of the
interior, assembling in small families, and feeding
not only upon insects, which it fakes like the rest of
the genus, but also upon the seeds of the Xan-
thorhcea: such indeed is the eagerness with whixih
they devour the seeds of this grass-tree, that several
may be often seen at a time crowded together on
the perpendicular seed-stalks of the plant, busily
engagea in extracting them. Among the lime-
stone hills, however, where grass-trees, and indeed
trees in general, are few, these birds visit the broken
rocky ground in quest of insects and their larvae.
The present species breeds in October and No-
vember, making a deeper and more cup-shaped
nest than the other members of the group. It is
composed sometimes of fibrous roots lined with
hair-like grasses, and sometimes of grass-stems and
other herbage. It is placed either in a scrubby
bush or amongst the leaves of the Xanthorhoea.
The usual colour of the eggs is bluish white blotched
with lively reddish brown, intermixed with obscure
spots and purplish grey dashes, the markings most
numerous towards the larger end ; there is, how-
ever, great variety both in colour and in the cha-
racter of the markings. The next subject to which
we would advert is the genus Troglodytes.
This genus, which comprises the true Wrens, is
placed by Mr. Selby in the family Certhiadse (or
Creepers), and this we believe to be its tnie
situation.
1689.— The Common Wren
{Troglodytes Europams). This is the Troglodyte,
Roytelet, Beuf de Dieu, Berichot, and Roy Bertaud
of the French; Reillo, Regillo, Rectino, Reatin,
Fiorracino, Sericciolo, Re d'Uccelli, and Sbucca-
fi-atte of the Italians ; Nelle Konge of Brunnich ;
Schneekonig, Konickerl, and Zaunschlupfrel of
Kramer ; Zaun Sanger of Meyer ; Haus und Wald-
zaunkonig of Brehm; Katy or Kitty Wren, and
Kitty, provincial English; Dryw of the ancient
British.
This well-known bird is spread over the whole of
Europe, and is everywhere noted for its familiarity
and its sprightly habits. In our island it is very
common, and braves the severity of our winter,
flitting from spray to spray, and traversing the
hedge-rows with restless activity. Its actions are
very smart, it takes short flights, alights on a twig,
towards the bottom of the hedge, flirts up its short
tail, utters a cry like chit-chit, and disappears in
the maze of branches like a mouse, passes out on
the other side, and repeats its flight. In the depth
of wititer it frequents farm-yards, cow-sheds, and
similar places, both for the sake of shelter and food.
The song of this bird is varied and pleasing, and
small as the warbler is, its notes are loud and clear.
We have often seen it on a sunshiny day, even in
the middle of winter, perched on a naked twig,
singing with great vivacity, evidently cheered by
the transient gleam.
Throughout the greater part or whole of Europe
the wren is King of Birds, Little King, King of Cold,
Snow-King, &c. (Te degli Uccelli, Roitelet, Roi de
Froidure, Schnee-Konig, &c.) ; but what has given
rise to this title, which is as old as Aristotle, who
says it is called Upeafim <cal BotriAtw, Elder and King,
it is impossible to conjecture.
The wren breeds early, and begins to prepare its
nest in March ; and various are the places chosen as
a site, sometimes under the thatched covering of an
outhouse, sometimes in a niche or cavity between
the branches of a tree, often amidst the ivy cover-
ing aged trees or old walls, or the side of a hay-
rick. It is a domed structure with a small lateral
aperture ; generally it consists externally of green
moss, but it varies the material according to situa-
tion and the colour of the objects around; on
a stump or rock, for example, grey lichens and
withered grass compose its outer coating: internally
it is lined with hair, feathers, wool, and other soft
materials. We have seen nests of this composed of
fine dried grasses or hay, mixed with bits of leaves,
moss, and lichens.
The eggs are usually from six to eight in number,
of a yellowish white, sprinkled, especially at the
larger end, with reddish brown. It is a curious
circumstance that the wren often makes several
nests, deserting them when they are finished or
nearly so ; these it is asserted are the work of the
male exclusively, during the incubation of the
female, who labours, as it has been said, for the
sake of doing something, but never lines them with
feathers. Are they not rather structures which
some circumstances have prevented the pair from
finishing ? Fig. 1690 is the nest of the Wren.
Other species besides the present have had the
name of wren applied to them ; of these we may
notice the Gold-crest (Regulus auricapillus), olun
termed the Golden-crested Wren.
1691.— The Gold-Crest
(Kegulus auricapillus). The genus Regulus enters
into the family Sylviadee, and, according to Mr.
Pigeons.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
383
Selby and other naturalists, approximates to that of
the tits (Parus).
This species, the smallest of our mdigenous birds,
is spread through the whole of Europe to the Arctic
Circle. It is a lively active bird, and may be
watched flittering from twig to twig along the
hedges, and in copses and plantations, especially of
fir. On the Continent it abounds in the pine forests
of the north, whence on the approach of winter it
migrates southwards, and flocks have occasionally,
as in October, 1822, been driven out to sea by stress
of weather, and blown in an exhausted state on our
shores. The nest of this diminutive bird is remark-
able for its neat and compact structure ; it is usually
suspended at the extremity of a sweeping branch
of fir, attached to the under side of the foliage, and
secured with great art to the twigs, so that it is
covered by- the leaves, which form a sort of shelter,
as well as a concealment. It is built of well-com-
pacted moss, lichens, &c., and lined with downy
leathers, and, compared with the size of the archi-
tect, is a large substantial mass. The eggs are froni
seven to ten in number. The song of this beautiful
little bird is pleasing, but weak. It feeds on insects.
General plumage olive-green, a flame-coloured
patch of silky leathers occupying the top of the
head, bordered on each side by a hne of black.
1692.— The Wood- Wren
(Sylvia Sylvicola). Sylvia sibilatrix, Bechstein and
Selby. This species, with the willow-wren, or
yellow wren (Sylvia Trochilus), and the lesser
Eettychaps, least willow-wren, or chiff-chaff (Sylvia
ippolais), are the three British examples of
the restricted genus Sylvia: they are not truly
virrens. These birds are summer visitors to our
island, feeding on insects, haunting shrubberies and
wooded places, and building a domed nest on or
near the ground. They utter a few trifling notes,
scarcely to be called a song. The present species is
distinguished from its congeners by the broad
streak over the eye, the sulphur-yellow of the ear-
coverts, the pure green of the upper parts of the
body, and the delicate unsullied white of the belly
and under tail-coverts. It may be often observed
perched on a lofty tree in a hedge-row, uttering its
notes, which are accompanied by a vibratory action
of the wings.
Family COLUMBID^ (PIGEONS).
ORDER GYRATORES.
In the ' Specchio Generale del Sistema Omitologo,'
the Prince of Canino regards the pigeon tribe as
an order, under this title — "Order 4, Columbae;"
but in his ' Comparative List of the Birds of Europe'
he places these birds in the third section of his
Passeres, under the title Gyrantes. In Mr. G. R.
Gray's arrangement they constitute the fourth order,
termed Columbae. Cuvier places them at the end
of the Gallinaceous order ; and Mr. Vigors con-
sidered them to be an aberrant family of the same
order. On the contrary, Meyer regarded them as
a distinct order ; Temminck arranged them as his
ninth order ; and De Blainville has also thrown
them into an order, which he calls Sponsores, ou
les Columbins, and which he places between the
Passeres (Insessores) and the pheasants and par-
tridges (Rasores).
That these birds constitute a distinct order there
can be no doubt ; certainly they do not belong to
the Insessorial order, nor yet to the Rasorial. The
Rasorial birds are mostly polygamous ; the females
lay many eggs; the young are not fed by the
parents, but in a few hours after exclusion from the
egg, run about and pick up their food for them-
selves; moreover the hind-toe is articulated high
on the tarsus, instead of on the same plane as the
anterior toes. On the other hand, the pigeons mate
and form permanent attachments ; the females lay
only two eggs, often in nests on the branches of trees ;
the young are long incapable of leaving the nest, and
are at first fed with a milky secretion produced by
certain glands arranged on the inner surface of the
crop of both parents, and which soon passes in a
curdled state ; about the third or fourth day grain
moi-stened and warmed in the crop of the parents
begins to be added ; the hind-toe is on the same
level as the others, though the feet are not firm
gra.spers ; and, to conclude, the habits, manners,
instincts, and voices of these birds are peculiar to
themselves. The name of the order here adopted
is a modification of the word Gyrantes, used by the
Prince ot Canino — and thus altered for the sake of
uniformity, as Raptores, Incessores, Grallatores,
Scansores, — Gyratores. It alludes to the ordinary
mode of flight displayed by the birds in question.
If rigidly analysed, this order would be found to
contain three or four families; but into these ques-
tions we must not wander; we shall, therefore, fol-
low the usual routine.
This family is divided into numerous genera — as
Ptilinopus, Peiistera, Chamsepelia, Ectopistes, &c. ;
in all, however, the bill is moderate, and covered at
the base of the upper mandible with a soft elevated
skin, in which the nostrils are situated; the tip is
more or less curved down. No family of birds is
more extensively distributed — except, indeed, in the
frigid zones, it is spread universally ; but the species
are most numerous in Southern Asia and in the In-
dian Archipelago.
Some groups of the Columbidae are essentially
terrestrial in their habits, others are decidedly arbo-
real, and make their nests in trees ; these nests are
little more than flat platforms of twigs laid cross-
ways over each other, the lower layer consisting of
larger twigs, the uppermost smaller and finer ; and
on this platform, which varies in thickness, the eggs
are laid. Fig. 1693 represents the Nest of the
Turtle-dove as an example in point. Other species,
as the rock-dove (Columba livia), the origin of our
domestic race, breed in the holes and on the shelves
of precipitous rocks, making a bed of a few sticks
and twigs.
We have already stated that the young pigeons,
after exclusion from the egg, are at first fed exclu-
sively with a secretion analogous to milk and
which curdles in the same manner, and that after-
wards grain macerated in the crop is added, and
gradually increased. Fig. 1694 presents us with
two views of the crop, turned inside outwards and
distended with spirits :— a, the crop of a pigeon when
it had no young: b, the crop of a male pigeon dur-
ing the time of rearing the young ; a, the inner sur-
face of the gullet or oesophagus ; b, the portion of
oesophagus leading from the crop to the gizzard,
with the glands for secreting gastric juice ; c, the
inner surface of the crop, which in b displays the
glandular structure, as developed during the breed-
ing season, the glands at that time assuming a new
character and otfice, and secreting the milky fluid in
great abundance. The analogy between these
glands, their temporary development for a given
purpose, and the mammary glands of quadrupeds,
need not be insisted on.
1695. — A Group of Pigeons,
a, the Pouter ; b, the Carrier ; c, the Jacobin i
rf, the Ringdove, or Cushat; e, the Rockdove (the
origin of our domestic birds) ; /, the Fan-tailed
Pigeon ; g, the Nun ; h, the Tumbler.
1696. — The Carrier Pigeon.
One of the domestic varieties of Columba livia.
1697. — Pigeon-Towers in Persia.
At what period man added the pigeon to his list
of domestic retainers of the feathered race is not
very clear, but it was evidently at a remote period.
We find abundant references to it in the classical
writers, and we know that it was among the clean
animals according to the law of Moses. In the
East the dove or pigeon has always been regarded
with favour, and has been employed time immemo-
rial as a carrier of letters or written messages ; its
rapidity of flight, its almost unerring instinct in
flnding its way home, and the eagerness with which
it returns to its dwelling, recommeuding it for such
a use. In Persia and other parts of the East pigeons
are kept in multitudes for the sake of the manure
produced :* towers are built on the outskirts of the
towns for them, and vast clouds of these birds may
be seen issuing from them, returning to them, or
wheeling in the air around their pinnacles. The
passage in Isaiah (Ix. 8), " Who are these that
fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows,"
is, as Mr. Morier has observed, illustrated by re-
ference to those pigeon-towers which he noticed
around the outskirts of Ispahan. With respect to
the extraordinary flights of these birds, he says,
" Their numbers, and the compactness of their mass,
literally looked like a cloud at a distance, and ob-
scured the sun in their passage." It is probable
that the Jews, requiring pigeons as they did for of-
ferings at the Temple (Fig. 1698), built similar
towers : the Egyptians certainly did, as is proved by
ancient paintings and the mosaic pavement at Prae-
neste, where pigeon-towers similar to those of Ispa-
han are represented, but without the conical crowns.
Of all our domestic pigeons none equal the car-
rier in rapidity of wing and powers of endurance.
It was originally brought to Europe from the East,
and Lithgow, the traveller, tells us that one of them
will carry a letter from Babylon to Aleppo, which is
thirty days' journey, in forty-eight houi-s. It is re-
corded that a gentleman of Cologne, having busi-
• Mr. Morier states that " the dun^ of rlovog is the dearest manure
which the Persians use, and as tliey apply it almost entirely to the
rearing of melons, it is probably on that account tlie melons of
Ispahan are so much finer than those of other cities. The revenue of
a piifeon-house is about a hundred (omauns per annum, and the great
value of this dung, which rears a fruit that is indispensable to the ex-
istence of the natives during the great heals of summer, will probably
throw some light on that passage in Scripture in 2 Kngs vi. 25.
ness to transact in Paris, took with him two carrier-
pigeons which had young' at the time, and on ar-
riving in Paris at ten o'clock in the morning, he tied
a letter to each of his pigeons, and despatched them
at eleven precisely. One of them arrived in Co-
logne at five minutes past one o'clock, the other
nine minutes later ; and consequently they had per-
formed nearly one hundred and fifty miles in an
hour, reckoning their flight to have been in a direct
line, i'he ordinary flight of this bird is about a
mile a minute. We need not say that it is to its
home, from which it is purposely taken, that the
pigeon makes its way. It is evident to all conver-
sant with this bird, that it has the strongest affec-
tion for its own home — an instinctive nostalgia,
which in old birds can scarcely be eradicated by
time ; confined for weeks or "months — on gaining
their liberty, off they fiy to the "old familiar spot,"
and if taken away again, still return on the first op-
portunity. Young birds are much more easily re-
conciled to a change of tenement, and soon learn to
regard the new place as their own. It is this de-
sire— this longing for home, which impels the pigeon
carried to a distant spot and turned loose, to attempt
to regain it ; and regain it the bird does, at least m
general, but the query arises — how does it know
in what direction its home lies ? how does it know
which way to direct its rapid course ? If the distance
be short, we can easily conceive that the bird making
wide circles at a grtat elevation may at one part
of the circle discern some known object, which will
at once indicate the direction to be followed. A
circle of three or four miles would give the bird the
command of a very wide extent of country; and a
tall object, as a spire, previously visited voluntarily,
or seen from its abode, would afford the desired
clue. This perhaps may account, in ordinary cases,
for the return of the pigeon to its home ; but it will
not account for the return of the bird from great dis-
tances. We hear of pigeons being brought from
towns on the Continent, as Brussels, &c., and set at
liberty in London ; and of their return in a compa-
ratively short space of time, few of the number fail-
ing to find their way. Trials of this kind have been
often repeated ; and, unless the weather proves
misty or fogs hang over the sea, the -birds cross the
Channel safely and regain their home. That they
are sometimes dispersed and lost in foggy weather
proves that they use their sight in pursuing their
homeward course : but still the difiiculty remains —
how is that course determined ? The same difficulty
meets us in the migration of the swallow. Its winter
abode is Western Africa. It finds its way to the
African shores, and returns again to Europe : but
what is more, the same pair will steer not only for
England, but for the very chimney or barn which
they habitually tenant as their summer breeding-
place ; and it is probable that they visit a determi-
nate spot in Africa. It is one of the facts in natural
history which we must be content to leave unex-
plained.
It is from the rock -dove, says Selby, " that most of
our curious varieties of pigeon have arisen ; for some
later ones may have been derived from crosses with
other species." What these other species are we are
not informed.
In Europe and the British Isles we have the fol-
lowing wild species of the genus Columba: — The
Ringdove, Cushat or Qyest (Columba Palumbus);
the Stockdove (Col. aenas) ; the Rockdove (C. livia) ;
and the Turtle-dove (C. turtur).
The Ringdove is the largest of our wild pigeons,
and is common in the wooded districts of our island,
as well as of the greater portion of Europe. In the
winter it assembles in numerous flocks, which resort
to the stubble-:lands in quest of food. It devours all
kinds of grain, peas, beech- mast, acorns, berries, and
the green leaves of the turnip. During this season
of the year its numbers are often increased by the
arrival of flocks from the more northern parts of
Europe ; but in our island, and in Fiance and the
southern countries, it is not migratory. No natu-
ralist has regarded the ringdove as identical with the
domestic pigeon. Its mode of building its nest, a
flat platform of twigs laid crossways on the fork of a
branch— its size— its refusal when in captivity to
breed with the pigeon — and the failure of every at-
tempt to reduce it to a state of domestication— are
of themselves, setting aside colouring, sufficient
proofs of specific distinctness.
Still more remote from the common pigeon is the
Turtle-dove, a bird of passage, and one of the spring
visitors to our shores.
The Stockdove derives its name from being, as
was presumed, but erroneously, the stock to which
the common pigeon is referable. This error arose,
no doubt, from our early ornithologists having con-
founded the stockdove with the rockdove, and so
mixed up the history of both. Montagu, in his
' Dictionary of Ornithology,' confounds these birds
together, deeming the Columba livia and the C.
aenas to be identical. His description, however,
refers to the C. livia (Rockdove) ; and it would
ITlt.— 3Iaiiasopc ligeon.
1704.— Collared Turtle.
170S.— Tauengisr-Pigeon.
No. 49.
noi. — Double-crested Pigeon.
[THE MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.]
.'>v-.'At.4r*-i
ItOO.— Chestnut-shouldered 1
1703.- Collared Turtle.
■1. — Tiirtle-Vo\'e.
1708.— r««»cngrr-Pige«n.
385
386
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Pigeons.
teem that he nas unacquainted with the true C.
aenas.
White, in his ' History of Sclbome,' well distin-
guishes the stockdove and the "small blue rock-
pil^eon," observing, that " unless the stockdove in
winter greatly varies from itself in summer, no
species seems more unlikely to be domesticated and
to make a house-dove. We very rarely see the
latter settle on trees at all, nor does it ever haunt the
woods : but the former, as long as it stays with us,
from November perhaps to February, lives the same
wild life with the ringdove : frequents coppices and
groves, supports itself chiefly by mast, and delights
to roost in the tallest beeches. Could it be known
in what manner the stockdoves build, the doubt
would be settled with me at once, provided they
construct their nests on trees, like the ringdove, as 1
much suspect they do."
From this it appears that White had only a par-
tial degree of information respecting the stockdove.
This bird is indigenous in our island, breeding in the
woods; but its localities are circumscribed. In
winter the flocks are increased by accessions from
the northern provinces of Europe ; but these visit-
ants depart in spring.
In our island the stockdove limits its range al-
most exclusively to the midland counties, and is
common in Hertfordshire. It is rarely seen in the
southern or western counties, and still more rarely
in the northern. This bird makes a nest of twigs,
in the holes of decayed and timeworn trees, and
in cavities on the top of pollards, but never places
it on the forked or spreading branches of a tree.
As is the case with all the dove tribe, its eggs are
two in number.
The stockdove is not only found in Europe, but in
the northern provinces ot Africa, and in various
parts of Asia. We have seen specimens from the
neighbourhood of Trebizond and Erzerum, where it
is said to be common.
Selby thus details the colours of the stockdove :
" Head and throat deep bluish grey ; sides of the
neck glossed, with different shades of green and
purple; the feathers shorter and more distinct than
those of the rockdove ; lower parts of the neck and
breast pale lavender-purple ; belly, thighs, and under
tail-coverts bluish grey, with a slight purplish
tinge ; back deep bluish grey ; wing-coverts paler,
and some of the greater ones spotted and barred
with black, but not forming any defined bar as in
the above-mentioned species. Quills blackish
grey, the outer webs near the base of the feathers
passing into bluish grey: lower part of the back
and tail-coverts bluish grey ; tail bluish grey, with a
broad black bar at the end, and having the outer-
most feathers margined with white ; iris brownish
red ; legs and toes bright cochineal-red."
As we have already stated, the stockdove has been
confounded with the rockdove, and the characters
of the latter have been consequently given as those
of the former. The rockdove, however, is a totally
distinct species, and its habits are unlike those of
any other of our Columbae. As its name imports,
it frequents rocks and precipices, especially along
the sea-coast, and is far from being uncommon. It is
partial to deep caverns, in which it breeds. It haunts
the caves in the cliff at St. Abb's Head, on the Ber-
wickshire coast: those in the Isle of Bass; of Caldy
Island, South Wales ; and of the wild precipices ot
the Orkneys. We have seen it frequenting the
steeples of churches near the coast, and have re-
marked numbers inhabiting the holes and crevices |
in the higher parts of Canterbury Cathedral. In the
latter instances it may be said that the birds are
merely the emancipated descendants of our domes-
tic breed. If so, with their freedom they have re-
gained their genuine colours in most instances.
We have seen many specimens from Northern
Africa and Western Asia. Selby states that it is
numerous in the rocky islands of the Mediterranean,
where it lives and breeds in caverns on the shore ;
in the island of Teneritfe it is met with in incredible
numbers.
The rockdove is more slender than the stockdove,
and is astonishingly rapid in flight. It may at once
be distinguished from the latter by the white colour
of the lower part of the back, and the two distinct
bands of leaden black across the wings. These dis-
tinctive marks are found in our ordinary dovecote
pigeons ; and when in the fancy kinds they become,
by the breeder's art, imperceptible, they are ever
ready to return, and hence one of the difficulties of
keeping up a particular fancy stock. It is, then, to
the rockdove, a species almost universally spread in
its wild state throughout the Old World, that the
domestic pigeon and its varieties must be referred.
All these varieties breed with each other, and with
the wild rockdove ; and without due care, all soon
degenerate, as it is termed, and acquire the original
form and colouring.
The habits and manners of the domestic pigeon
are too well known to require detailing, nor need we
enter into their numerous varieties.
1699.— Th« Rock-Dovb
(Columba livia). Le Bisset, and Le Rocheraye,
Coulon, Colombe, and Pigeon of the French ; Pa-
lorabella, Piccione di Torre, Piccione di Kocca of the
Italians ; Feldtaube, Ilaustaube, Hohltaube, Blau-
taube, and Holtztaube of the Germans; Kock-
Pigeon, English ; Colommen, ancient British.
We have already, in our notice of the domestic
pigeon, entered into the history of (his species, which
IS spread over a great portion of Europe, Asia, and
Northern Africa, abounding in the rocky islands
of the Mediterranean, and in the Orkneys and He-
brides of our northern sea.
1700. — Th« Chist.nut-shodloerko Pigsoit
(Columba tpadicea). This beautiful bird, which ap-
pears to resemble our ringdove or cushat in habits,
IS a native of New Zealand, and is very abundant in
the woods near the Bay of Islands, where Lesson
killed numbers. Their Hesh is excellent.
The colouring is as follows: — All the upper parts
and the throat are of a changeable hue, in which are
mingled rosy-copper reflexions running into brilliant
iridescent tints ; the quills are of a more sombre
tone. The tail above is brown slightly tinged with
greenish, below it is brown ; breast and under parts
white : bill and tarsi carmine : a bright red skin
surrounds the eye. Total length about nineteen
inches.
1701. — ^The Double-crested Pigeon
{Columba dilophd). New Holland and Java are
the native localities of this species, which is closely
allied to the preceding and equally formed for ar-
boreal habits. The head is ornamented with a frontal
crest composed of long recurved lax feathers, ad-
vancing even on the bill, and of a bluish grey colour
tinged with rufous ; behind this on the back of the
head is a second crest of rich rufous, and composed
of long decumbent feathera with open barbules, and
bounded by a black streak running back ijom each
eye ; bill rich orange ; sides and front of the neck,
together with the breast, pale grey, the base of the
feathere being black, at their end they assume a
trifid form ; back scapulars and wing-coverts deep
bluish grey ; quills and secondaries bluish black ;
under plumage grey ; tail square, black at the base,
and a narrow bar being of a pale grey with a reddish
tinge : legs crimson. Total length about seventeen
inches.
1702.— The Tubtlk-Dovb
{Turtur auritus, Ray; Columba Turlur, Linn.).
Tourterelle of the French; Tortora of the Italians ;
Turteltaube of the Germans ; Colommen fair of the
ancient British.
Among our summer visitors must be enumerated
this interesting bird, which arrives in our island
about the beginning of May. It is when nature is
clad in her freshest robes of beauty, when the wild
flowers garnish our hedgerows, and the thickets re-
sound with the notes of warblers, that the voice of
the turtle is heard in our land. In all ages and in
all countries visited by it has the turtle been a fa-
vourite ; its innocence, its beauty, its attachment to
its mate, its plaintive voice, and the time of its ap-
pearance, combine to give it interest ; it is the em-
blem of peace and tranquillity ; and in the strains
of poetry its presence is associated with quiet rural
life and undisturbed happiness.
" Hinc altfi sub rape canet frondator ad auras,
Nee tamen, interea, raucte, tua cura. palumbes.
Nee gemere aerifi cessabit turtur ab ulmo."
ViBOlL.
The winter residence of the turtle appears to be
in Africa : in summer it is spread over southern and
temperate Europe, and various parts of Asia. In
Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy it is very common.
Mr. Strickland observed it at Smyrna, in April, 1836.
In our island it is much more abundant in the
southern and eastern counties than in those farther
north : we have seen it in numbers both in Essex,
Kent, and Surrey. Thick copses, wooded parks,
dense hedgerows, where bushy pollard oaks rise up
at intervals, are its favourite places of resort ; and
in secluded retreats, several pairs are often found to
form a sort of colony, building their nests in adja-
cent trees. The nest, as previously noticed, is a
platform of twigs, and is placed in the forked branch
of an oak or fir tree, among the ivy-laden boughs of
the elm, near the stem, or in thick pollards; we
once saw the nest of a pair of turtles in a stunted
pollard oak, close to the gate of a farmyard in Essex,
and watched the birds playfully chasing each other
in the air ar6und the tree. Early in the morning the
turtle wings its way from the copse or park to the
fields in quest of food, and it repeats its visit in the
afternoon, returning home on the approach of dusk.
Various kinds of grain, as wheat, not yet mature,
together with peas, rape, mustard-seed, hemp-.seed,
&c., constitute its diet. On the approach of autumn
the turtle congregates in small flocks of ten or
twelve, which scour the fields during the day, and
return to their roosting-place in the evening. Early
in September this bird leaves our island for its winter
abode ; sometimes however it lingers till the close
of the month before taking its departure.
The turtle is about eleven inches in length. The
upper part of the head and neck is ashy grey,
with a pearly tinge : the back is brown ; the wing-
coverts are dusky brown in the centre, with a border
on each feather of reddish brown inclining to
rufous; quills brown; tail-feathers dusky brown,
and all, with the exception of the two middle, lipped
with white. The sides of the neck present a patch
of small stiff' black feathers with white margins;
front of the neck and breast light vinous ; abdomen
white. The young birds are destitute of the peculiar
patch of feathers on the sides of the neck.
1703, 1704.— The Collared Turtle
(Turlw ruorius). Columba risoria. This beauti-
ful bird is often kept in aviaries, where it freely
breeds. It is widely spread, being dispersed through-
out the whole of Africa, India, and other parts of
Asia. Colonel Sykes found it in Dukhun. The
collared turtle was well known to the ancients,
and is still common in Egypt and the neighbouring
countries. It has been suggested that this species
is the turtle of the Scriptures ; we are not however so
sure of it, for it does not appear that this is a migra-
tory bird, which that decidedly was. In its natural
stale the collared turtle frequents the woods, and
its habits closely agree with those of the common
species. The general colour is pale lawn, with a
black crescent-shaped mark on the back of the neck.
Length about eleven inches.
1705, 170G.— The P.\ssenger-Pigeox
(Ectnpistes migratoria). Were not the testimony of
Wilson, Audubon, and others who have described
the habits of this bird above suspicion, one might
be tempted to think that their accounts were some-
what overcoloured ; such however is not the case :
they narrate, graphically, scenes of which they were
themselves eye-witnesses. The passenger-pigeon is
a native of America (where it is generally termed
the wild pigeon), and is celebrated for inundating
in flocks of thousands various districts to which the
hordes are attracted by food, their visits being irre-
gular and uncertain. The passenger-pigeon is a
bird of extremely rapid flight, propelling itself by
quickly repeated flaps of the wings, as it passes
along in a straight course over the country. During
the pairing season however it often flies in circles,
occasionally clashing its wings in the manner of the
domestic pigeon, which in its manners it generally
resembles. Speaking of the rapidity of the present
species, Mr. Audubon states that "Pigeons have
been killed in the neighbourhood of New York
with their crops full of rice, which they must have
collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these
districts being the nearest in which they could pos-
sibly have procured a supply of this kind of food.
As their power of digestion is so great that they will
decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must
in this case have travelled between three hundred
and four hundred miles in six hours, which shows
their speed to be at an average about one mile in a
minute.
" This great power of flight is seconded by as
great a power of vision, which enables them as they
travel at that swift rate to inspect the country below,
discover their food, and thus attain the object for
which their journey was undertaken.
"The multitudes" (says Audubon, whose account
we follow) " of wild pigeons in our woods are as-
tonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so
often and under so many circumstances, I even now
feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I
am going to relate is fact : — In the autumn of
1813 I lelt my house at Henderson on the banks of
the Ohio on my way to Louisville. In passing over
the Barrens a few miles beyond Hardensburgh I ob-
served the pigeons flying from north-east to south-
west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever
seen them before ; and feeling an inclination to count
the flocks that might pass within the reach of my
eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an
eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making
a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time
finding the task I had undertaken impracticable, as
the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose,
and, counting the dots then put down, found that one
hundred and sixty-three had been made in twenty-
one minutes. 1 travelled on and still met more the
farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled
with pigeons ; the light of noon-day was obscured
as by an eclipse, and the continued buzz of wings
had a tendency to lull me to repose.
" Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from
Hardensburgh filty-five miles ; the pigeons were
still passing in undiminished numbers, and con-
tinued to do so for three days in succession. The
people were all in arms. .The banks of the Ohio
were crowded with men and boys incessantly shoot-
I
Pigeons.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
387
ing at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they
passed the river. Multitudes were destroyed. For
a week or more the population fed on no other
flesh than that of pigeons, and talked of nothing
but pigeons. The atmosphere during this time was
strongly impregnated with the peculiar odour which
emanates from the species." After these details
Mr. Audubon proceeds to reckon the number of
individuals in a single flock, and that not a large
one, extending one mile in breadth and one hundred
and eighty miles in length, allowing two pigeons to
each square yard. The product is one billion one
hundred and fifteen millions one hundred and
thirty-six thousand. The flock takes three hours
in passing any given spot. What must be the
quantity of food required for such a legion ! " As
every pigeon daily consumes fully half a pint of
food, the quantity necessary for supplying this vast
multitude must be eight millions seven hundred
and twelve thousand bushels per day."
Where food, such as beech-mast, is abundant,
strewing the ground, these flocks wheel round and
alight, and the woods are filled with their numbers.
About the middle of the day, after their repast is
finished, they settle on the trees to enjoy rest and
digest their food. "As the sun begins to sink
beneath the horizon they depart en masse for the
roosting place, which not unfrequently is hundreds
of miles distant, as has been ascertained by persons
who have kept an account of their arrivals and
departures.
" One of these curious roosting-places on the
banks of the Green River in Kentucky I repeatedly
visited. It was, as is always the case, a portion of
the forest where the trees are of great magnitude,
and where there was little underwood. I rode
through it upwards of forty miles, and found its
average breadth to be rather more than three miles.
My first view of it was about a fortnight subsequent
to the period when they had made choice of it,
and I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset.
Few pigeons were then to be seen, but a great
number of persons with horses and waggons, guns
and ammunition, had already established encamp-
ments on the borders. Two farmers, from the
vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a hundred
miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to
be fattened on the pigeons that were to be slaugh-
tered. Here and there the people employed in
plucking and salting what had already been procured
were seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these
birds. Many trees two feet in diameter I observed
were broken off at no great distance from the
ground ; and the branches of many of the largest
and tallest had given way as if the forest had been
swept by a tornado. Everything proved to me that
the number of birds resorting to this part of the
forest must be immense beyond conception. As
the period of their arrival approached, their foes
anxiously prepared to receive them; some were
furnished with iron pots containing sulphur — others
with torches of pine-knots — many with poles, and
the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view,
yet not a pigeon had arrived. Everything was
ready, and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky
which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees.
Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of ' Here
they come.' The noise which they made, though
yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea,
passing through the rigging of a close reefed vessel.
As the birds arrived and passed over me I felt a
current of air that surprised me. Thousands were
soon knocked down by the pole-men; the birds
continued to pour in ; the fires were lighted, and a
most magnificent as well as wonderful and almost
terrifying sight presented itself. The pigeons
arriving by thousands alighted everywhere, one
above another, until solid masses as large as hogs-
heads were formed on the branches all round. Here
and there the perches gave way with a crash, and
falling on the ground destroyed hundreds of the birds
beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which
every stick was loaded. It was a scene of uproar
and confusion ; no one dared venture within the
line of devastation: the hogs had been penned up
in due lime, the picking up of the dead and wounded
being left for next morning's employment. The
pigeons were constantly coming, and it was past
midnight before I perceived a decrease in the
number of those that arrived. Towards the ap-
proach of day the noise in some measure subsided ;
long before objects were distinguishable the pigeons
began to move off in a direction quite different
from that in which they had arrived the evening
before, and at sunrise all that were able to fly had
disappeared. The bowlings of the wolves now
reached our ears, and the'loxes, lynxes, cougars,
bears, racoons, and opossums were seen sneaking
off, whilst eagles and hawks of difterent species, ac-
companied by a crowd of vuHures, came to supplant
fhem, and enjoy their share of the spoil." The
breeding places of these pigeons are even more
extensive than their temporary roosting places;
fifty miles in length of forest by four or five in
breadth being colonised by them, and every tree
crowded with nests, varying from fifty to a hundred
in number. The breeding time, according to
Audubon, is not much influenced by season, but
the territory selected is where food is most plentiful
and most easily attainable, and where water is at
a convenient distance. The nests are composed
of a few dry twigs supported on the forks of the
branches. The eggs are two in number, and, as
is the case with our common domestic pigeon, the
brood consists in general of a male and female.
When the young are fully grown, but have not yet
lelt the nests, a scene similar to that described
as occurring in their roosting place commences.
Parties from the surrounding country throng to the
onslaught. Trees are cut down, and thousands of
the young or " squabs " are taken. While the axe-
men are at work, the forest presents " a perpetual
tumult of crowding and fluttering pigeons, their
j wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the fre-
quent crash of falling timber." By the Indians, as
Wilson says, a pigeon-roost or breeding place is
considered an important source of national profit,
and dependence for the season ; and all their active
ingenuity is exercised on the occasion.
We have seen several pairs of the migratory
pigeon in captivity ; it breeds freely in a suitable
aviary, and is as contented and tame as our ordinary
domestic race.
The migratory pigeon has the head small ; the
neck slender; the legs short; and the tail, which is
composed of twelve feathers, graduated and taper-
ing. Bill black ; iris bright red ; feet carmine
purple ; claws blackish ; head above and on the
sides light blue ; throat, fore-neck, breast, and
sides brownish red ; lower part and sides of the
neck reflecting metallic tints of gold, emerald,
green, and rich crimson ; the general colour of the
upper parts is greyish blue ; some of the wing-
coverts marked with a black spot ; quills and larger
wing-coverts blackish ; the primary quills bluish on
the outer web ; the larger coverts whitish at the
tip ; the two middle feathers of the tail black, the
rest pale blue becoming white towards the end ;
under parts white. Length sixteen inches and a
half. The female is somewhat smaller than the
male, and the colours of the plumage are duller,
though their distribution is the same. Length
fifteen inches.
1707. — The Manasops Pigeon
(Ptilinopus ci/ano-virens). Lesson found this elegant
pigeon in the deep forests of New Guinea, and in
the neighbourhood of the harbour of Dorery pro-
cured numerous individuals. Their low cooing, he
says, was frequently heard from the large trees, and
everything proved that they were common. In
the Papuan tongue the bird is termed Manasope.
Lesson's description is as follows : — Total length,
from the end of the bill to the extremity of the tail,
eight inches six lines (French); bill delicate and
black ; iris of a red brown ; tarsi short, and almost
entirely feathered ; toes with a membranous border,
and of a lively orange colour ; head, rump, upper
part of the body, wings, and tail, of an agreeable
grass green ; a large hood of a beautiful indigo-blue
covers the occiput ; elongated blue spots occupy
the centre of the subular feathers, which are bordered
with a straight yellow line ; the internal and hidden
part of the same feathei-s is brown ; the quills are
entirely brown, and bordered at the external edge
with a line of canary-yellow ; the tail is square and
rectilinear ; the feathers which compose it are four-
teen in number, brown, their extremities white
below, and of a green similar to that of the back
above, passing into black in the middle, and each
terminating within with a white spot ; the two ex-
terior ones are brown, bordered with yellow exter-
nally, as are the two or three next : the shaft is
brown ; the throat to half-way down the neck is
ash grey; the breast is greyish green: the belly
and the flanks are at first green mingled with some
yellow borderings, and then comes a large patch of
yellowish white extending on each side so as to
form a kind of girdle ; the feathers of the thighs are
green ; those of the vent, white and pale yellow ;
the lower tail-coverts are yellow mingled with
green.
1708. — The Aromatic Vinago
(Vtnoffo aromatica). This example of the arboreal
pigeons of intertropical Asia and Africa is a native
of the continent of India, Java, and the adjacent
islands. It is said to climb the trees with great
address, and to frequent the banyan, on the small
red fig of which it feeds ; whilst its colour so blends
with that of the foliage that it is diflicult, even
when a flock is among the branches, to distinguish
the birds, unless they flutter about. In the breeding
season the pairs retire into the recesses of the forest,
and re-assemble into flocks after the young are
reared. The nest is a slight platform of sticks and
twigs; the eggs, as usual,. two.
The bird is thus described :— The base or softer
part of the bill is a blackish grey ; the tip yellowish
white, strong, much hooked, and bulging on the
side ; the forehead is of a bright siskin green ; the
crown greenish grey ; the chin and throat gamboge-
vellovv ; the remainder of the neck, the breast, belly,
lower back, and rump, yellowish green ; the upper
backer mantle, and a part of the lesser wing-coverts
are of a rich brownish red, and exhibit a purplish
tinge in certain lights ; the greater wing-coverts and
secondary quills are greenish black, with a deep
and well defined edging of gamboge-yellow through-
out their length ; the tail has the two middle feathers
wholly green, and slightly exceeding the rest in
length ; these are of a dark bluish grey, with a dark
central band; the under tail-coverts are yellowish
white, barred with green ; the legs and toes are red,
the claws pale grey, strong, sharp, and semicircular.
(Selby.)
1709.— The Phasianella
(Columba Carpophaga Phasianella). This beau-
tiful species is lound in Australia, the Philippine
and Molucca Islands, and Java, &c., where it in-
habits the woods, feeding on pimento and various
other aromatic berries. Its flesh is dark-coloured,
but of excellent flavour. The total length of this
species is about sixteen inches. The wings are
short; the tail long and graduated. The upper
plumage is deep reddish brown with bronze re-
flexions. The head, sides, and front of the neck,
and whole of the under plumage, are orange brown.
The hinder part of the neck changeable violet,
purple, and brilliant gold. Legs reddish brown.
1710.— The Oceanic Fruit-Pigeon
{Carpophaga oceanica). The small island of Oualan
in the midst of the Caroline Archipelago, the Pelew
Islands, and possibly some of the Philippines, are
the native localities of this species, which is closely
allied to the Nutmeg Pigeon of New Guinea. It is
described by Lesson as follows : — Total length four-
teen inches (French), including the tail, which
measures five ; the bill, an inch long, is black,
strong, and surmounted at its base by a rounded
and veiy black caruncle ; the feet are very strong
and of a bright orange colour ; the tarsi are feathered
nearly down to the toes, which have a well-de-
veloped border ; the wings are pointed, and only
one inch shorter than the tail, which is almost rec-
tilinear. The feathers of the forehead, cheeks, and
throat are whitish mixed with grey ; the head and
the back of the neck are of a deep slaty grey ;
the back, rump, wing-coverts, quills, and tail-
feathers, are of a uniform metallic green, passing
into brown on the interior of the great feathers ; the
breast and upper part of the belly are grey, with a
tint of rust colour ; the lower part of the belly, the
vent, the thighs, and the lower tail-coverts, are a
deep ferruginous red ; the tail-feathers on the under
side are a bright reddish green (vert rougeStre clair).
(Lesson.)
Mr. Selby, in reference to the pigeons of the pre-
sent group, Carpophaga, observes that "their bill is
considerably depressed at the base, the membrane
in which the nostrils are placed but little prominent
or swollen, the tip compressed and moderately
arched, the tomia slightly sinuated. The forehead
is low, and the feathers advance considerably upon
the soft portion of the bill. In many of them a
caruncle, or gristly knob, varying in size and shape
according to the species, grows upon the basal part
of the upper mandible during the breeding season.
This is supposed to be common to both sexes, as the
female is described with it in Duperrey's ' Voyage.'
After this epoch it is rapidly absorbed, and its situ-
ation scarcely to be observed upon the surface of
the bill. The feet are powerful, and formed for
grasping, the soles being flat and greatly extended.
As in the other members of this group, the hind-toe
is fully developed and long, and the exterior longer
than the inner toe. They inhabit the forests of
India, the Moluccas, Celebes, Australia, and the
Pacific Isles. Their food consists of fruits and ber-
ries. That of the precious nutmeg, or rather its soft
covering, known to us by the name of mace, at cer-
tain seasons aftbrds a favourite repast to some
species, and upon this luxurious diet they become
so loaded with fat as frequently, when shot, to burst
asunder when they fall to the ground. And here
we may reflect on the remarkable provision Nature
has made for the propagation as well as the dis-
semination of this valuable spice, for the nutmeg
itself, which is generally swallowed with the whole
of its pulpy covering, passes uninjured through the
digestive organs of the bird, and is thus dispersed
throughout the group of the Moluccas and other
islands of the East. Indeed, from repeated experi-
ments, it appears that an artificial preparation, ana-
logous to that which it undergoes in its passage
through the bird, is necessary to ensure the growth
and fertility of the nut; and it was not till after
many unsuccessful at'empts had been made that
3D2
ITll.-Bnmzi-Klngi'U llgi^ou.
171 I. -Nico'mr Piyon.
1710 — Oc»iiic Frult-llgeon.
^
IJlI.-Talpicoti.
tniy— Braw»«Mlnd l-Klatrra.
nr)». - Aronm'.ic Viiiar*
388
1V25.— Ilatcliing Kggs in Dung.
l1Zi.-E,^i\- -..•:■. i u >'
^l. — Urouijd-plau of Kgg-0\ xii.
i72u.— I'.'gyi'iiau Kgg-Oveit.
1727— Anificiiil Jlotliir.
1723 — Kg>'ptian K^T-Oven.
11M#*-S8g-Fnime.
1719.^rer»ian Cock.
nw — HAtcblns-room at pBiii.
389
390
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Pigeons.
a lixivium of lime, in which the nufi were steeped
for a certain time, was found to have the wi«hed-for
effect, and to induce the germinating tendency.
The fruit of the banyan fficu* religiosa), the sacred
tree of the Hindoosi, is also a favourite repast of all
the pigeons of this group, as well as of the stronger-
billed Vinago."
1711. — Thb Bronze-winmd Pioeok
(PAqM duUcoptera). We now approach a series
of species more or less terrestrial in their habits,
whence they have by some naturalists been called
partridge pigeons: their flight is usually low, and
seldom long sustained.
The present beautiful species is a native of
Australia, and is common near Sidney from Sep-
tember till Februarj-. It fre(|uents dry sandy situ-
ation!*, and is generally seen either on the ground,
or j)erched on low branches or decayed stumps
of trees; it is usually seen in pairs; and their
voice is loud and sonorous. The nest is placed
either in the hole of a mouldering tree or on a
stump. The ecgs are two, and white. We have
seen several pairs of these birds in captivity, but
are not aware that they have bred in this country.
This and an allied species are beautifully figured by
Mr. Gould, in his ' Birds of Australia.' The wing-
coverts are remarkable for a large ovate spot of
metallic lustre, changing in different lights.
1712.— The Taipicoti
(Chameepdia Taipicoti). Brazil, Paraguay, and
other portions of South America are the native
countries of this little pigeon. It frequents the
bordeis of woods, associating in families of four or
six. but never in large flocks: these perch on low
bushes and under^vood, at a little distance from the
ground, to which indeed they constantly resort ;
they are often to be seen near houses in the country
and farmyards, and, when capturetl, speedily become
reconciled to the limits of an aviary, and breed freely.
Their nest is mostly placed in some bush ; never on
the branches of tall trees. Berries and grain con-
stitute their food. Length six inches and a quarter.
Top of head and back of neck grey ; cheeks and
throat pinkish white ; plumage above brownish
orange, with black marks on some of the wing-
coverts ; under plumage deep vivacious red ; tail
brownish black, the Iwo middle feathers being
brownish orange.
1713. — The B-rownbacked Peristera
{Peristera tympanlstrid). This species is a native
of Southern Africa, where it is said to frequent
woods ; but little appears to be known respecting it.
The plumage above is brown, slightly tinged with
grey on the neck ; three or four of the greater wing-
coverts have large spots of shining green ; forehead,
a streak over each eye, and all the under parts white ;
middle tail-feathers brown, the two exteiior on each
side grey, with a broad black bar near the tip ;
under surface of wings and sides pale orange-brown ;
under tail-coverts brown ; bill and legs grey, the
latter tinged with reddish ; length nine inches.
1714. — The Wattled Ground-Pigbon
(Geopliilus caruncuiatus). To the group to which
this bird belongs Le Vaillant has given the title of
Col urabi-gal lines, in allusion to its approach in many
particulars to the gallinaceous birds (the fowl tribe).
It would appear that these birds are almost entirely,
iT not altogether, terrestrial ; the tarsi are long ; the
tail is short ; the wings concave and rounded ; the
body thick and heavy. Instead of laying only two
eggs, the females are reported to lay eight or ten,
which are incubated in the ground ; and the young,
like those of the partridge, almost immediately fol-
low the parent, who broods over them, and gathers
them beneath her wings. They walk and run with
great rapidity ; and roost on bushes or the lower
branches of trees.
The present species is a native of South Africa,
and was discovered by Le Vaillant in the Naniaqua
country. We learn from him that the nest is com-
posed of twigs and the dried stems of grasses, and
placed in some slight hollow of the ground, and
there the female lays six or eight reddish-white eegs,
which are incubated by both the parents. The
young are hatched clothed with down of a reddish
grc^^, run immediately, and follow their parents,
which keep them together by a peculiar off-repeated
cry, and brood over them with their wings. Their
first food consists of the larvae of ants, dead insects,
and worms, which the parents point out to them.
When strong enough to find their own food, they
live on grain of different sorts, berries, insects, Ssc.,
and keep together in coveys like the partridge and
other Tetraonidae till the p.iiring-time. Size about
that of the Common Turtle, but with the body
stouter and more rounded. Base of the bill and
forehead covered with a naked red wattle ; another
wattle of the same hue depends from the chin, and
branches of it extend upwards towards the ears.
Plumage of head, cheeks, neck, and breast purplish
crey ; l>ack, scapulars, and wing-coverts pale grey ;
feathers bordered with white. Belly, upper and
under tail-coverts, flanks, and under wing-coverts
white. Tail short, rounded, deep ruddy brown, ex-
cept the outer feather on each side ; these have the
outer web white. Lees covered with hexagonal
scales, purplish red. Iris with a double circle, yel-
low and red. The female has no wattle, and her
colours are less pure. (Le Vaillant.)
1715. — The Nicodar Pigeon
(Goiira Nicolxirica, Temm.). Tliis splendid bird,
of which we have seen living specimens in the
Gardens of the Zoological Society, is a native of
Java, Nicobar, Suniati-a, and many of the Moluccas.
It is, as far as we have been enabled to determine,
terrestrial in its habits. Its plumage is very reful-
gent ; the head is of a dull j-laie colour, with a tinge
of purple ; the neck is ornamented with long flowing
pointed feathers like the hackles of the domestic
cock, of a rich green with coppery reflexions : the
coverts of the wings are also pointed. The whole
of the upper surface is burnished with bronze and
steel-blue reflexions on glossy green ; the under
surface is the same, but not quite so brilliant ; the
tail, which is very short and square, is pure white.
A fleshy tubercle rises on the base of the upper
mandible in the breeding season. Length about
fourteen inches.
1716, 1717.— TuE Crowned Pioeox
{Lophyms coronatus). This remarkable bird is
decidedly the type of a distinct group among the
pigeons, to which family one would hardly at first
sight conceive it to belong. Its limbs are like those
of a fowl, and so are the wings, and the head is sur-
mounted by a flat fan-like crest of slender feathers
with loose barbs. In size it exceeds a large fowl,
measuring in total lernrth twenty-eight inches. It
is a native of Java, Banda, New Guinea, and the
Moluccas. Of this magnificent species living spe-
cimens have been kept in the menagerie of the
Zoological Society. In its manners it resembles
poultry, and walks about with firm and stately steps,
and with its beautiful crest expanded. In India and
the islands it is sometimes kept tame in the court-
yards among other poultry; and Sir George Staunton,
in his • Embassy to China,' notices it under the title
of Crown Bird, and slates that it is very familiar.
Its voice, though plaintive, is loud and sonorous,
and the cooing of the male is said to be accompa-
nied by a noise somewhat like the " gobble" of a
turkey-cock.
This heavy terrestrial bird is stated to build a nest
in trees, the eggs being two in number. Its food
consists of grain and berries, and its flesh is reported
to be excellent. General colour deep slate blue,
with a patch of maroon and white on the wing ;
quills and tail blackish ash, the latter paler at the
tip. Mr. Selby regards the Crowned Pigeon as re-
lated to the Curassows.
ORDER RASORES.
The characters of this order are very clear and defi-
nite, and at once separate between it and every
other into which the feathered race is divided.
The birds composing it are all granivorous, feed-
ing upon the produce of the various cerealia, grasses,
&c., to which may be added roots, berries, and also
insects and their larvae ; the limbs are formed for
terrestrial habits, and the hind-toe, as a rule, is
placed higher upon the tarsus than the plane of the
anterior toes. 'Hie wings are mostly rounded, con-
cave, and unfit for rapid or long continued flight,
though to this rule some few species afford exceptions.
Formed for the ground, these birds walk well, and
run with considerable rapidity ; the limbs are mus-
cular ; the body is stout and heavy ; the beak strong
and horny, and at its base there is a touffh mem-
brane, in which the nostrils are situated. Most are
polygamous, and the females lay several eggs. The
young are hatched in a state of considerable for-
wardness, and follow the mother, who broods over
them with her wings, and leads them in search of
food (grains and insects), which they themseives
pick up. Many roost in trees : others on the ground
exclusively. It is to this order that most of our
domestic birds, the feathered tenants of the farm-
yard, belong: and also most of those unreclaimed
by man, celebrated for the excellency of their flesh, ,
as the grouse, partridge, quail, and pheasant. The [:
breast -bone is very narrow, with a deep short keel, p
and at each side posteriorly is a deep and extensive
notch, or indenture, besides which are two extensive
lateral processes. The merrythought is feeble.
1718. — A Group OF Domestic Poultry
or Rasorial birds (Gallinaceous), constituting the
family Phasianidic of Vigors.— a, the Peacock;
b, the Turkey ; c. Cock and Hen of the Dorking
breed ; d. Guinea-fowl ; e. Cock of the Hamburg
breed ; /, Game Cock and Hen ; g, Bantam Cock
and Hen.
Of this group we shall commence with the com-
mon fowl (Gallus domesticus, Ray). Of all . our
domestic birds, the common fowl appears to have
been the longest reclaimed, and is the most exten-
sively spread. It has ramified into numerous va-
rieties, a circumstance which attests not only the
antiquity, but the completeness of its subjuiiation
This bird is of Indian orijin ; the wild stock whence
it has descended is, probably, the Bankiva jungle-
fowl, which interbreeds freely with the common
domestic race, and has been crossed with some of
the game breeds for the purpose of keeping up the
spirit and vicour of the stock.
The circumstances attendant upon the primeval
domestication and spread of the common fowl are
buried in obscurity, nor know we at what period it
became naturalized in our island. Its introduction,
however, must have been at a remote epoch, as we
find it among the things prohibited by the Druids as
food. Allusions to the common fowl are abundant
in the earliest writings, and we know that the
ancient Greeks, on whose medals its figure is often
seen, valued it for its pugnacious disposition and
its prowess. Cock-fighting was one of their diver-
sions, and the breeds most in repute were those of
Rhodes and Tanagia in Boeotia. Distinguished
breeds were found also in Eubcea, Media, and Persia,
as well as in Egypt.
The Romans, whose taste for sanguinary spec-
tacles is notorious, were extremely partial to the
amusement of cock-fighting, and trained birds for
the purpose. Indeed the taste for this cruel sport
seems to be very general : the Mussulman natives
of India are greatly addicted to it, and one species
of jungle-fowl, called Sonnerat's jungle-fowl (Gallus
Sonneratii), is in high request ; this bird, though
smaller than the domestic breed, is superior in spirit
and endurance, and usually proves victorious in the
combat. The Chinese are devoted to the sport ; and
the natives of Sumatra enter into it with so much
ardour, that instances, as it is said, have occurred
of men staking not only their goods and money,
but even their children on the issue of a battle.
In England the same taste long prevailed, but
happily the practice, more honoured in the breach
than the observance, is now greatly on the decline,
if not obsolete ; it is indeed incompatible with the
diffusion of knowledge, the tendency of which is to
humanise mankind, and lead the mind from sordid
and debasing pursuits to sources of intellectual en-
joyment. The common fowl is a hardy bird, and
capable of enduring considerable severity of cold •
hence its extensive distribution in a domestic state.
The warmer and temperate latitudes, however, are
most congenial to it ; in the high northern regions
it cannot be kept without difficulty, and therefore
is not general in the bleak realms of Siberia;
indeed it is found not to breed.
Besides the game race, which approaches the
nearest in character to the wild stock, several va-
rieties exist in our island. One, the Friesland, has
the feathers curled back, the plumage having a
ruffled and by no means agreeable appearance.
Another breed, the Rumpless, or Persian, Fig. 1719
if destitute not only of tail-feathers, but also of the
tail itself. Some breeds have the comb greatly
developed, in others it is small, and its place is
usurped by a tuft of feathers. Dorking is cele-
brated for a large and delicately flavoured variety,
distinguished by having five toes on each leg, the
hind-toe being double<l. The Poland (of which
there are the gold and silver spangled), the black
Spanish, and the Hamburg breeds are also excellent.
A small breed of fowls, termed the Bantam, (origi-
nally from Java), is very beautiful. The old Ban-
tam fovrls, which are not much larger than a par-
tridge, are feathered to the toes, the tarsi having
long stiff feathers down them ; there is a small
variety, however, with clean legs and an (flegantly
spangled plumage, much in request. It was brought
to perfection by Sir John Sebright. The tail of the
cock is simply folded like that of the hen, without
the usual recurved drooping feathers. This beauti-
ful bird is very spirited.
Besides these is the silk fowl from Japan and
China, which is white, with the feathers decomposed
and silky to the sight and touch. The comb and
wattles are purple-lake, and the periosteum (thin
membrane covering the bones) is dark. There is in
India a small variety (Gallus Morio, Temm.) which
has also the periosteum black, and the comb, wattles,
and skin dull purple. A gentleman who had this
breed near London presented us with a chicken for
the table ; its flesh was excellent.
One of the most remarkable of the domestic breeds
is that known in India by the name of the Kulm
fowl, of which the malts stand upwards of twenty-
six inches in height. Some are inclined to regard
this as specifically distinct from the ordinaiy race ,
Domestic Poultry.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
391
it is the Galkis giganteus of Temminck, In India :
it is known only as a domestic bird, but Colonel
Sykes states that he has reasons' for believing it to
have been introduced there by the Mussulmans from
Sumatra or Java. The iris of the real game bird
should be whitish or straw-yellow. Colonel Sykes
landed two cocks and a hen in England in June, ;
1831 : they bore the winter well ; the hen laid freely,
and has reared fwo broods of chickens. The cock has ;
not the shrill clear crow of the ordinary breed. The i
hen is a third smaller than the male. The cock has :
a method of resting, when tired, on the whole of the
tarsus laid flat on the ground, and very ungainly the
mode appears. See ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1832, p.
151. The comb of this bird is compressed, thick, i
but little elevated, and with a smooth instead of a j
serrated ridge ; the wattles are small, and the throat [
is naked. !
All have heard of the Eccaleobion, or apparatus 1
for hatching chickens by the heat of steam, lately ex- ^
hibited in London. The practice of hatching broods
by the application of artificial heat is not novel ; it
has been in operation in Egypt from a very early
period. The eggs are placed by hundreds in
ovens, or rather small chambers, the temperature of ,
which is regulated with great nicety at a decree of i
about ninety-six Fahrenheit. At the time of hatch-
ing people come from all quarters to purchase the
young chickens, which require but little trouble in
rearing. We extract the following account from
the 'Library of Entertaining Knowledge— Habits
of Birds :' —
" Modern travellers, who mention the art as prac-
tised in Egypt, are very deficient in their details ;
but we ought to wonder the less at this when Father
Sicard ini^orms us that it is kept a secret even in
Egypt, and is only known to the inhabitants of
the village of Berme, and a few adjoining places in
the Delta, who leave it as an heirloom to their
children, forbidding them to impart it to strangers.
When the beginning of autumn, the season most fa-
vourable for hatching, approaches, the people of
this village disperse themselves over the country,
each taking the management of a number of eggs
intrusted to his care by those acquainted with the
art.
" According to the best descriptions of the Egyp-
tian mamal, or hatching oven, it is a brick structure
about nine feet high. The middle is formed into a
gallery about three feet wide and eight feet high,
extending from one end of the building to the other.
This gallery forms the entrance to the oven, and
commands its whole extent, facilitating the various
operations indispensable for keeping the eggs at the
firoper degree of warmth. On each side of this gal-
ery there is a double row of rooms, every room on
the ground-floor having one over it of precisely the
same dimensions, namely, three feet in height, four
or five in breadth, and twelve or fifteen in length.
These have a round hole for an entrance of about a
foot and a half in diameter, wide enough for a man
to creep through; and into each are put four or five
thousand eggs. The number of rooms in one mamal
varies from three to twelve ; and the building is
adapted, of course, for hatching from forty to eighty
thousand eggs, which are not laid on the bare brick
floor of the oven, but upon a mat, or bed of flax, or
other non-conducting material.
" In each of the upper rooms is a fire-place for
warming the lower room, the heat being communi-
cated through a large hole in the centre. The fire-
place is a sort of gutter, two inches deep and six
wide, on the edge of the floor, sometimes all round,
but for the most part only on two of its sides. As
wood or charcoal would make too quick a fire, they
burn the dung of cows or camels, mixed with straw,
formed into cakes and dried. The doors which open
into the gallery serve for chimneys to let out the
smoke, which finally escapes through openings in
the arch of the gallery itself. The fire in the gutters
is only kept up, according to some, for an hour in
the morning and an hour at night, which they call
the dinner and supper of the chickens ; while others
say it is lighted four times a-day. The diff"erence
probably depends on the temperature of the weather.
AYhen the smoke of the fires has subsided, the open-
ings into the gallery from the several rooms are
carefully stuffed with bundles of coarse tow, by
which the heat is more efl'ectually confined than it
could be by a wooden door.
"When the fires have been continued for an in-
definite number of days — eight, ten, or twelve, ac-
cording to the weather — they are discontinued, the
heat acquired by the ovens being then sufficient to
finish the hatching, which requires in all twenty-one
days, the same time as when eggs are naturally
hatched by a hen. About the middle of this period
a number of the eggs in the lower are moved into
the upper rooms, in order to give the embryos greater
facility in making their exit from the shell, than
they would have if a number of eggs were piled up
above them.
" The number of ovens dispersed in the several dis-
tricts of Egypt has been estimated at 386; and this
number can never be either increased or diminished
without the circumstance being known, as it is indis-
pensable for each mamal to be managed by a Ber-
mean, none of whom are permitted to practise their
art without a certified licence from the Aga of Berme,
who receives ten crowns for each licence. If then
we take into account that six or eight broods are
annually hatched in each oven, and that each brood
consists of from forty thousand to eighty thousand,
we may conclude that the gross number of chickens
which are every year hatched in Egypt amounts to
nearly one hundredmillions. They lay their account
with losing about a third of all the eggs put into the
ovens. Ttie Bermean, indeed, guarantees only two-
thirds of the eggs with which he is intrusted by the
undertaker, so that out of forty-five thousand eggs
he IS obliged to return no more than thirty thousand
chickens. If he succeeds in hatching these, the
overplus becomes his perquisite, which he adds to
the sum of thirty or forty crowns, besides his board,
that is paid him for his six months' work."
Fig. 1720 represents an Egyptian egg-oven. Fig.
1721, the ground-plan of the same. Fig. 1722, trans-
verse section and elevation. Fig. 1723, transverse
section and perspective elevation.
Reaumur tried many experiments on the arti-
ficial modes of hatching eggs; he first attempted
to bring the chicks to maturity by placing the eggs
in hotbeds' of manure — but the attempt failed. He
then put the eggs into a sort of frame (Fig. 1724)
composed of a series of open boxes, and put them
into a stable heated by manure, but without success ;
the vapour evidently destroyed their vitality — they
became moist as if they had been dipped into noi-
some water; and putrefaction ensued. He next en-
closed the eggs in casks, sunk in the bed of manure ;
but raised about three inches above the surface of
the bed, as seen at Fig. 1725, and to the delight of
himself and his gardener, who took great interest in
the proceedings, was eminently successful.
In consequence of these results, the rector of St.
Sulpice felt a desire to extend the practice, and ap-
plied to M. Reaumur for instructions, but instead of
recommending hotbeds of manure, the naturalist
imagined that he might take advantage of the heat
of the bread-ovens belonging to the extensive bene-
volent Institution called L'Enfant J6sus. "After
several trials to ascertain the heat of a room which
was situated over this bake-house, and such arrange-
ments as were necessary for ensuring uniformity, it
was determined to place the eggs in order upon the
shelves of a small cupboard placed there, and intrus#
the care of them to the nuns of the establishment.
In one of the first experiments made here the charge
of keeping a single box containing a hundred eggs
was intrusted to a very ingenious nun who was
quite enthusiastic in the business. Above half of
these eggs proved abortive, but it was worthy of re-
mark that about twenty were hatched about one
day sooner than they would have been under a hen.
When the first of them appeared, the nun was trans-
ported with joy, and directly ran to tell the news
to everybody she could find."
Fig. 1726 shows the hatching-room over the
bake-house of the Priory of L'Enfant Jesus at Paris.
In the case of artificial hatching it is evident that
under ordinary circumstances some plan must be
adopted to supply the place of the careful fostering
hen. It is to the backs of chickens that the warmth
of the hen is chiefly applied, as they huddle under
her body and wings ; keeping this fact in view, M.
Reaumur constructed what he termed artificial mo-
thers, of which the most simple is merely a box
lined with sheepskin with the wool on it, of a square
form with the top sloped like a writing-desk, in order
to accommodate chickens of various sizes (Fig.
1727) ; this was open at each end, and placed in an
enclosure ofwire or netting. Fig. 1728 shows an im-
provement on the preceding, in which the fostering
place is continued from a cage for exercise and feed-
ing, and furnished with moveable covers, capable of
being regulated according to the growth of the
chickens, but always so low as to prevent them from
climbing over each other. Fig. 1729 represents a
still more ingenious apparatus, consisting of a stove,
with an apartment round it for the young brood,
and a network both to prevent their escape and too
near approach to the stove. Of the heat of this
stove M. Rjaumur took advantage to hatch fresh
broods by hanging eggs in baskets over it, nicely
adjusting the temperature. A similar apparatus
(Fig. 1730) he applied to water-fowls, as ducks, &c.,
surrounding it with green turf, and adding a small
pond to the feeding-room.
With respect to the habits of our domestic fowls
nothing need be said. The crow of the cock, the
cackle of the hen, the care of chanticleer over his
harem, his attention and spirit, the cluck with which
he calls the females to some acceptable food, their
mode of dusting their feathers, their habit of swal-
lowing gravel and small pebbles, to assist in the
trituration of grain, subjected to the action of the
muscular gizzard, these and many other points in
their economy are known to all. From the domestic
fowl we shall advance to some of the wild breeds.
1731. — The Bankiva Jungi-k-Fowl
(Gallus Banhiia, Temm.). The Javan cock of
Latham; Ayam utan of the Malays.
This beautiful species is a native of Java, and,
though smaller in size, closely resembles the black-
breasted red game breed of our own country. It
tenants the jungles, and in some districts is very
abundant. We have seen many specirapiis in the
Gardens of the Zoological Society. A larger variety
or perhaps a distinct species is found on the conti-
nent of India. The plumage of the male is as
follows: — the hackles of the neck and rump are
long, and of a fine rich orange -red ; the upper part
of the back below the hackles bluish black ; the
shoulders bright chestnut red ; the greater coverts
and secondaries deep steel-blue ; the quills brownish
black, edged with pale reddish yellow; tail black,
with green and steel-blue reflexions ; breast and
under parts black ; the comb, which is upright and
deeply indented, the naked space round the eyes,
and the wattles scarlet. The hen closely resembles
a brown game hen, of the same breed as the black-
breasted red, or duck-winged game cock.
That this wild fowl, or the larger continental
species allied to it, is the origin of our domestic
race (and especially the game breed referred to) we
have no doubt. It is at the same time very probable
that other species are commingled with it, our
domestic breed being of mixed origin, the game
race the purest. Should such be the case, the theory
of the non-fertility of the produce of two distinct
species, as a strict rule, falls to the ground. The
Javan jungle-fowl, and we believe Sonnerat's jungle-
fowl, will breed with the ordinary race, and the
progeny rapidly multiplies. Besides the present
species, we may notice the Bronzed Jungle-fowl
(Gallus jEneus), and the Fork-tailed Jungle-fowl
(Gallus furcatus, Temminck), as natives of Java
and Sumatra. The former, which was discovered in
the interior of Sumatra by M. Diard, is larger than
the Bankiva cock ; the edge of the comb is smooth ;
and the feathers of the neck and rump, though
elongated, are not true hackles. The latter, a native
of Java, has also the comb entire, and is destitute ot
true hackles, but instead of double wattles it has
only one, of large size, pendent from the middle line
of the throat.
1732, 1733, 1734. — Sonnerat's Junglk-Fowl (male
and female)
{Gallus Sonneratii). Jungle-fowl of the sportsmen
in India; Rahn Komrah of the Mahrattas.
This splendid bird, of which many specimens have
lived long in the menagerie of the Zool. Soc, is
celebrated for its high courage and prowess, and is
in great request among the cock-fighters of Hindos-
tan, who consider it more than a match for a larger
bird of the ordinary breed. Its port is erect and
stately, and its form is admirable. In size this
species is nearly equal to the domestic fowl, but
is lighter and more graceful. The comb is only
slightly indented ; the wattles are large and double ;
the hackles (though they scarcely -come under this
term) of the neck, of the wing and tail-coverts dark
greyish, with bright golden orange shafts dilating
in the centre and towards the tip info a flat horny
plate. In some of these feathers the shaft takes an
elliptical or oar-like shape ; in others it puts on the
appearance of a long inverted cone, from the centre
of the base of which a battledore-like process arises.
The substance and appearance of these plates
have been not inaptly compared with the wax-like
plates which ornament the wings and tail of the
Bohemian Chatterer. The effect produced by this
modification of the shafts is singular and beautiful.
Feathers of the middle of the back, breast, belly,
and thighs deep rich grey, with paler shafts and
edges ; tail generally rich deep green ; the feathers
which immediately succeed the hackles are rich
purple, with a pale yellow edge ; those next in suc-
cession are golden-green, with grey edges, and all
are glossed with brilliant metallic reflexions ; bill,
legs, and feet yellow. The living bird presents
ahogether a rich and striking object, especially
when the sun shines on the plumage.
Female less than the cock by about a third, with-
out comb or wattles, but a trace of nakedness round
the eye. The plumage (generally) is without the
horny structure which distinguishes that of the male.
Upper parts uniform brown ; neck feathers with
dark edges, those of the back and wing-coverts with
a pale streak along the shaft, and those of the wings,
tail-coverts, and tail waved and mottled with darker
pencillings; throat and front of the neck white;
feathers of the rest of the lower parts greyish white,
edged with dark brown ; legs and feet bluish grey.
1735, 173C. — The J'ire-dacked Jungle-Fowl
{Euplocamus iynitiis, Temra.). Fire-backed Phea-
sant ; Macartney cock ; Phasianus ignitus.
i;a>.-Be*<nDur'f Sunt and Uttcking-FIoor.
i:JJ.--ttaunm'< Jnnglc-Fovl. Hale
1731.— Baokiva Jungle-FowL
U3J.—Soniicrat'8 Jungle-Fowl. Female.
it2S.— Improved ArtiRc-al Mother.
1736.— Fire-backeU Juaglo-Fowl. Kemalo.
173: (Jruup of Chinese Pheasants.
I T3j.— Fire-hacked Jungle-Fowl. Male.
392
742. — Hastings" Horned Pheasant. Male.
>Va ^-^yp
1*43. — Hastings' Homed Pheasant. Female.
^1^^
1"3».— Impeyaa Pheaiant. Female.
]738. — Impeyan Pheasant. Male.
No. 50.
1734.— Jungle-Fowl of India.
l"4ll. — Ileiul of Impov.in Plieasant.
::^\.
^ -^
1741.— Temminck'g Horned Pheasant.
[THE MUSEUM OP ANIMATED NATURE.]
393
394
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[Pheasants.
The noble specie* which is intermediate between
the true jungle-lowl* and the pheasant* i» larger
than the domestic game breed, and stands pecuharly
Inch on the lejrs, which are sironp, and in the male
armed with sharp spurs; there are no long hackle-
feathers on the neck ; and the head, adorned with a
crest of naked shat^ed feathers expanded at their
tips into slender spreading barbs, is destitute both
ot comb and wattles. The sides of the head, Irom
the base of the beak to the occiput, are covered with
a naked purplish skin, encircling the e;,e8: the
general plumage is black, shot with gleaming steel-
blue; the lower part of the back is rich orange red
or flame-colour, and this colour extends zone-like
round the body, but becomes obscure on the abdo-
men ; tiil-coverts broad, of a rich glossy bluish green,
with a paler bar at the tip; the four middle tail-
feathers and the two central bending ones (which
are really developed tail-coveits in the males of the
fowl tribe), are white, the rest black with green
reflexions.
The female, Fig. 173G, has her plumage of a rich
cinnamon brown, the leathers of the upper parts
being s'.isrhtly mottled with black ; the throat is
white, .Hnd the feathers of the under parts, which
are paler than those of the back, are edged with
white ; head crested ; tail folded as in the fowl.
This species is a native of Sumatra, and was first
intro-.luced to science by Sir Georsce Staunton, in the
narrative of liis ' Embassy to China.' His host at
Batavia, among other interesting specimens of natu-
ral history, possessed one of this bird, which was pre-
sented to Sir G. Staunton; it was sent to England
and described by Shaw. As its tail was mutilated,
tl'.efigure (No. 13, Atlas to the work of SirG. Staun-
ton) is so managed as to leave the form of the tail
undetermined. Fine specimens are in the Museum
of the Zool. Soc. The bending feathers of the tail
are shorter and much broader than those of the
jungle-cocks G. Bankiva and G. Sonneratii, or cf
the ordinary domestic cock.
Advancing to the true pheasants, we may observe
that they diifer in many points from the jungle-fowls
(Gallus). The head is destitute of a comb, the tail
is Ions, more or less drooping, and composed of long
gently arching feathers, of which the middle exceed
the rest; the legs of the male are armed with spurs.
The pheasant has little in his port of the upii'j;lit
gallant bearing of the jungle-cock, or game cock ;
his attitude is more crouching, and the whole figure
lower and more elongated. The common pheasant
(Phasianus Colchicus) is too well known to require
description. It is naturalized in our country and
throughout a great portion of the European conti-
nent,^but is originally from Mingrelia and Georgia,
anciently Colchis. It is said to be common in Tar-
tary and some parts of China. Its introduction
into Europe was ascribed by the ancients to Jason,
who conducted the Argonautic expedition to Colchis
(B.C. 937, Newton ; ii.c. 1203, Blair). Be this as it
may, the Greek name of the bird <pa<riayi! (Latinized
PhaManus), and the origin of its modern European
names, indicates the banks of the river Phasis (the
present Faz or Rion) as the locality whence the
Greeks first derived it. Pliny calls these birds Pha-
tianie avcs — biros of the Ph?.sis.
Besides the common pheasant we have a variety,
by some regarded as a distinct species, called the
Ring-necked pheasant, distinguished chiefly by a
white ring round the neck. It intermingles with
the common syrt.
The pheasant breeds in April, the young being
hatched at the latter end of May, or the beginning
of June. The nest is a rude structure placed on the
ground under the covert of fern ; the eggs are from
ten to fourteen in number.
The food of lliis bird is very miscellaneous ; Je-
rusalem artichokes, potatoes, buckwheat, licans,
peas, barley, and wheat, are favourite articles of
diet ; so also are bulbous roots, as those of the tulip,
the buttercup, &c. For these the bird diss with its
bill and feet. To this list must be added wild ber-
ries, sloes, haws. &c., and also insects, the larva; of
ants, &c. Hybrids between the pheasant and barn-
door fowl are not uncommon. These hybrids, though
thoy will not, as it would appear, breed together,
will breed either with the pheasant or common fowl.
(See 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 183G, p. 84.)
Female pheasants, and also common fowls, occa-
sionally assume the plumaee and voice of the male.
In these instances a peculiar disease renders the
birds unproductive. To enter minutely into the ha-
bits and manners of the pheasant is not necessary.
Fie;. 1737 represents a group of three pheasants
^remarkable lor their beauty, natives of China.
1737, c— Rkeves' Pheasant
<(St/nn!itiais veneralm, Waaler). Phasianus vene-
jatus, Tcmniinck ; Ph. Reevesii, Hardwick. This
«plendi(l bird is a native of the north of China, and
the snowy mountains of Snrinagiir ; but no living
example ever reached Europe uniilthe one l)rought
over by J. Reeves, Es<j., of Canton, in 1831, and
presented to the Zoological Society. In 1834 a
second specimen was procured by the same gentle-
man, and sent to ihe Society's menagerie, 'i'his
species is remarkable for the length of its tail, and
especially of the two middle tail-feathers, which
when fully grown measure six or seven feet in
length; they arc beautil'ully barred with curved
bands of dark brown on a grey ground, the bands
passing into pale chestnut at the edges. In size the
bird exceeds the common pheasant. Fine speci-
mens of the i)resenl species are in the British
Museum. In its manners the Reeves' pheasant
closely resembles the common jiheasant, as far as
can be judged bv the actions of the living speci-
mens alluded to, and we doubt not it might become
naturalized in our countrv. Upper surface gene-
rally golden yellow, each feather having a distinct
margin of black; the head white, naked space
lound the eye scarlet ; and a- black streak passes
over the ear-coverls to the back of the head ; throat
white, bounded bv a gori^et of black ; the leathers
of the sides white in the centre, with barb-shaped
marks of black, and a deep ved-brown border;
under parts black.
1737, 6.— TiiK Golden Pheasant
(Thaumalea picta, Wagler). Phasianus pictus, Linn.
This richly coloured species is common in aviaries,
where it breeds freely ; it is a native of China, where,
according to Latham, ii is called Kenki, or Kenkee,
which signifies gold-flower fowl ; and is a great
favourite, as may be readily supposed, from its
beauty. The head is ornamented with a silky crest
of fine amber yellow. The leathers of the back of
the head and neck are square, disposed in scales, and
of a rich orange red. edi;ed with a line of black, and
capable of being raised up at will ; lower down, so
as to encroach upon the top of the back, is a space
of dark glossy greenish feathers with rounded edge,
disposed scale-like ; the back is rich yellow, as are
the upper tail-coverts, with a crimson border; the
tail-feathers are mottled with chestnut and black ;
the wings are deep blue at their base ; quills and
secondaries brown with chestnut bars ; the whole ot
the under surlace intense scarlet. The female is of
a uniform rusty brown, with darker marks and spots,
and the tail is comparatively short. We have seen
admirable Chinese paintings of this bird.
1737, a.— The Silver Pheasant
{Gemumis nycthemervs, Wagler). Phasianus nyc-
thcmeiiis, Liiin. This is a IJirger and hardier bud
than the golden pheasant, and, though less E;orgeous,
quite as beautiful from the chasteness of the colour-
ing and delicacy of the pencillings. It is a native
of the north of China, and in our island thrives so
well that its naturalization can be a work of no great
difficulty. It is as tame in continement as a barn-
door fowl, and has more the habits and manners of
the fowl than of the pheasant. The cheeks are
covered with a naked skin of intense scarlet ; a crest
of black feathei-s ornaments the top of the head ; the
upper surface generally is of a pure white, travei-sed
with the greatest regularity by finely pencilled lines
of black across the feathers ; the chest and under sur-
face are purplish black. In the female the plumage
of the upper surface is rusty brown ; ot the under
parts dinsy white, banded with blackish, and irre-
gularly clouded with brown.
17aS, 173D.— The Impeyan Pheasant
(Lophoplioriis Impeyanvi). Lophophorus retr.lgens,
Teniminck. The genus Luphophoius is characterized
as follows :— Head surmounted by a plume orieathers
having long tlender shalts, and spreading into a
spatulate form at the extiemities; the cheeks are
only paitially clothed with feathers; the tail is
broad and rounded at the termination ; the tatti in
the male are armed with spurs ; the tipof the uiiper
mandible of the beak is prolonged and dilated lor
scooping: the plumase of the male is of metallic
brilliancy. Fig. 1740 represents the head of the
male. The Impeyan pheasant is a native of the
Himalava' Mountains, and is never found on the
plains ; 'hence it exists in a temperature even below
that olmoderate. The form is robust, and its food con-
sists to a gnat extent of bulbous roots, which it rakes
up with its bill out of the ground, for which pur-
iiose, as well as for detaching the concentric layers
composing this substance, the upper mandible is
well adapted. In the male the head and throat
glisten wiih metallic green: the feathers of the
lower part of the neck and top of the back are
lancet-shaped, and of an intense metallic purple.
The wings and general plumage are steel blue, with
! a white' band across the lower pait of the back;
' the tail is rufous brown. As is the rule among the
\ gallinaceous birds generally, and especially the
pheasant tribe, the pta-fowls, and turkeys, the fe-
male (Fig. 173i)) is not only smaller than her mate,
but difleis greatly in colour, being of a dull brown,
dashed with grey and yellowish, and having a
while throat. The crest is compaiatively tiifiing.
Cuvier considers the present genus as allied in som
degree to the pea-;owls.
1741. — Tkmminck's Hornbd Pheasant
{Traijojxin Tanminckii, Gray). To this bird we
shallallude in our observations on the next species.
1742, 1743. — Hastings' Hok.ved Pheasant
('I'rayoj.an Ilasliiiysii). The species composing
the genus Tragopan of Cuvier, which seem to otter
an intermediate Jink between the genuine pheasants
and turkeys, are ea-ily distinguishable from all the
lest of the Phasinnidie (at least as far as regards the
male birds) by the presence of huge throal-v.attles,
or naked carunculated flaps of skin (resembling
those of the turkey), which extend liom the naked
cheeks, spread over the throat, and proceed down
each side of the neck, while from behind each eye
rises a soft fleshy horn. The whole of these ap-
pendages are capable of being contracted and
dilated at pleasure, or in accordance with the
emotions of anger, fear, &c., as we see in the male
turkey: the tints of the horns and wattles are rich
purple, mingled with scarlet, and are most pro-
bably changeable from one hue to another. The
tail is broad and rounded, and the plumage is dotted
with round spots of white on a brown or red ground,
the effect of wliicli is very pleasing.
Of the three species that are known at present, two
have been but recently introduced to science, nor,
indeed, is our acquaintance with the one first de-
scribed of distant date. The first species is the
horned pheasant of Nepal (Tragopan satyrus). It
was first descril)ed and figured by Edwards, in the
third volume of his' Natural History of Birds,' p. 116,
partly liom a drawing sent liom India to Dr.
Mead, and partly from a head of the bird preserved
in spirits which accompanied the drawing. Ed-
wards' third volume is dated 1750, and his plate
was etched in 1741), as appears by the date inscribed
in the corner. The alliance of this bird to the
turkey was not unobserved by this writer, who in
his catalogue places it among that group, h hile in
his account of it he observes that it is, " for shape of
body and proportion of parts, pretty much like a
turkey, and may be ranged with fowls of the poultry
kind." Dr. Latham, in his ' General History of
Birds,' states that these biuls, though by no means
common, " are not unliequent in drawings done in
India ; and are particularly well figured in those of
IMr. ]\Iiddleton and Lady Impey In the
drawings of Sir J. Anstruther, it is said to inhabit
the snowy regions of Thibet." Its size is between
that of a fowl and turkey. It is beautifully figured
in Gould's ' Century of Birds.'
The second species is Irora Thibet and the Chinese
borders, and was first described and figured in the
' Indian Zoology,' by Mr. Gray, under the title of
Tragopan Temminckii. Of this species, rare as it is
beautiful, a living specimen, presented by J. R.
Reeves, Esq., was living, in 1830, in the Gardens of
the Zoological Society, and, as lar as we are aware,
was the first example of one of the present group
having reached our shores alive and in health. It
was procured in China. (Fig. 1741.)
The third species is from the northern range of
the Himalaya, and wasfirst illustrated in Mr. Gould's
' Century,' under the name of Tragopan Hastingsii ;
the figures are those of an adult and young male,
and adult female. In size this species rather ex-
ceeds the Tragopan satyrus, its total length being
twenty-three inches. The head of the adult male
is covered with a pendent crest of feathers, which,
together with Ihe ear-coverts and the throat, are
black ; the neck and shoulders are rich maroon ;
the chest fine orange red ; the naked skin round
the eyes is scarlet ; "the wattles and hoins purple,
tinted here and there with scarlet. The upper
parts exhibit a mixture of zigzag lines, and maiks
of dark and light brown, forming a ground on which
are scattered numerous distinct spots of while. The
feathers of the under surface are maroon, bordered
with black, and having each a large central spot of
white. The young male is less biilliant, and the
wattles are but little developed.
The plumage of the female consists of a uniform
brown, mottled, barred, and dashed irregularly with
dark brown and dull fawn colour : the cheeks are
clothed with feathers, and the head is slightly
crested : there are neither horns nor pendent wattles.
Of the habits and mannei-s of these noble birds in
a state of nature little is accurately known.
1744. — TftE Akgi s Pheasant
(Artjus giijanteus, Teniminck). The genus Argus
is thus characterized :— Bill compressed, straight
except at the extremity, where it is curved and
vaulted: nostrils in the middle of the upper man-
dible. Sides of head and throat naked ; tarsi long
andspurless. Tail long, graduated ; the two middle
tail-feathers liir exceeding the rest. Fig. 1745 re-
presents the head. The Argus pheasant is a native
of Sumatra, Malacca, and the south-east of Asia.
Peacocks]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
395
It is a bird of recluse habits, frequenting wooded
hills remote from luui'.an abodes. It has never been
brought alive to Europe, and is said to pine in cap-
tivity. Its voice is reported to be rather plaintive.
In size this mas^nificent bird is little inferior to a
peacock. .\ short hair-liUe crest rises up on the
occiput. The middle tail-feathers on the male often
exceed four feet in lenslh. The secondary quill-
leathers -Mf remarkable for their elongation and
breadth, spreading boldly out at their extremities,
and tormina-, wlien the wings are opened, a sweeping
fan-like plume. Eacli of tl-.ese feathers is beau-
tifully ornamented with a row of eyes down the web
on the outer side of the shaft, and the rest of this
web is filled up with linear and oval marks of a
deep brown on a yellowish grey ground. The inner
web is white at its edge, but has the remainder
filled up with oval spots, as on Ihe outer web. The
primary quills aie of a fine yellowish grey, with
oval dusky spots and blue shafts. The tail-feathers
are of a rich brown, thickly dotted with small s^iots
of white. The upper part of the back and the shoul-
ders are pale brown, thickly dotted with round spots
of deep brownish black. The lower half of the back
and tail-coverts pale buff, thinly spotted with black.
The top of the head is ornamented with a cres; of
short, black, velvety feathers, and the back of tlie
neck with thin, long, liair-like feathers. The female is
much less than the male ; the back and under surfnce
are brown, with ziffzaf;; narrow bars : the lower part
of the neck and chcst are ferrui;nious brown, as are
also the primary quill -feat hers. The secondaries
are only slightly elongated, exceeding the prima-
ries by about two inches; they are mottled with
l)uff on a daik brown ground. Tail blackish brown.
Top of the head and back of the neck furnished
with slender hair-like feathers. No long feathers in
the tail, which folds like 1hnt of a common hen.
Fig. 1746 gives a faint idea of one of the second-
ary quill-feathers of the male, which are tliree times
longer than the primaries.
1747. — The Crested Peacock-Pheasant
{Pohjplectron Emphanum). Eperonnier a toupef,
Temminck. Teniminck established the genus Poly-
plectron for the present and a few allied species,
remarkable for the splendid ocellations of their
plumage. Linnwi-.s and Cuvier referred the species
known to the genus Pavo. Generic characters as
follows: — Bill moderate, slender, straight, com-
pressed, the base covered with leathers, convix
above, where it is rather thick ; orbits and part of
the cheeks naked ; nostrils lateral, placed towards
the middle of the bill, and half closed by a mem-
brane. Tarsi long and slender, with two spurs ;
liind-toe not touching the ground ; tail-feathers long
and rounded.
The crested peacock-pheasant appears to be a
native of Sunda and the Molucca Isles. Of its
habits we know nothing. The male is about nine-
teen inches in length. Forehead and crown orna-
mented with a crest of long, narrow, loose feathers,
which, together with the ])himau:e of llie neck and
breast, are rich bluish black with metallic reflex-
ions ; above the eyes a large pure white shining
stripe, and a patch of the same colour upon the
ear-feathers; back and rump brown, with iiregular
paler waved bands ; belly and vent deep black ; wing-
coverts and secondaries brilliant blue, each feather
tipped with velvety black. Tail rather lonsr, much
rounded, brown, thickly spotted with ochraceous
white, and distinguished by large ocellated oval spots
of a brilliant metallic green; towards the end of
each leather there is a blackish bar : this beautiful
and ample tail is supposed not to be erectile, but to
be capable of very wide expansion.
1748. — The Thibet Pkacock-Pheasant
( Polt/plectron Tliihetanvm). Pavo Thibetanus,
Hiisson ; Chinguis, Buffon ; Peacock-pheasant,
Edwards; Eperonnier Chinguis, Temminck.
The native region of this species is supposed 1o
be the mountain region whicli separates llindostan
from Thibet. Living specimens are often kept in
the aviaries of the Chinese, and we have seen an
excellent Chinese painting of the bird, evidently
copied from the life. Mr. Bennett saw two "pea-
cock-phea.sanls" in Mr. Beale's aviary at Macao,
brought, as he status, from Cochin-Cluna. An
individual lived for five or six years in an aviary at
Ihe Hague, and from that specimen M. Temminck's
figurewas taken. These birds are said to be very
hardy, and, there is but little doubt, might be natu-
ralized in this country. The male is about twenty-
two inches in length ; there is no crest, but the small
grejish brown plumes on the crown of the head are
turned forwards, and appear as if ruffled ; head,
necW, breast, and belly brown, with transverse waved
band of blackish brown; throat whitish; back,
rump, and tail-co<eits clear brown, spotted and
waved transversely wiih greyish white; quills
brown, marked with greyish; wings, generally,
yellowish grey sprinkled with small blackish brown
bands, each feather having at its extremity a large
round, ocellated, brilliant tilue spot shot with purple
and opaline hues; a circle of deep black, which is,
in its turn, set in a ring of yellowish v^'liite, surrounds
each of these iridescent spots ; tail-feathers dull
brown, sprinkled with small ochraccous spots. Upon
each of the twenty-two true tail-leathers, at about
an inch and a half from the tip,, as well as on those
of what has been called the upper range, at about
an inch from the tip, two oval spots with purple
and blue reflexions with double circles of black
and white, like those of the wing, but hardly so
brilliant, are separated by the shaft only.
The female differs from the male in having the
ocellated spots less brilliant, a sh.orter tail, and no
spurs.
Besides the present species, the P. chalcnrum
may be noticed : it is of a more sombre hue than
the two preceding. Mr. Gray describes two other
species, P. Hardwickii and P. liueatum, from Gene-
ral Hardwicke's drawings.
1718, a. — The Peacock
{Pavo cristatus). Tadrs or Tail' of the Greeks ; Pavo
of the Latins; Paon, French; Pavon and Pavone,
Italian ; Pfau, German.
This gorgeous bird, which is too well known in
its domesticated state to need description, is a native
of India. It is common in many districts, and
abounds in the jungles along the banks of the
Ganges, in the forests of the Jungleterry and Bau-
ffhulpore distiicts, and in the dense woods of the
Ghauts. When taken young, it is easily domesti-
cated, and many Hindoo temples in the Dukhnn
have considerable flocks attached to them. The
pea-fowl was known to the ancients. We find it
noticed in the Scriptures as being one of the im-
portations from India in the time of Solomon, and
a forcible allusion to the splendour of its plumes is
made in the Bool; of Job.
It is generally believed that Alexander the Great
obtained this bird during his Indian expedition, and
introduced it into Greece, whence it has spread
through the greater portion of Europe. But there
is good reason to believe that it was well known in
Greece at an earlier period ; and a talented writer
has well observed that it is mentioned in two plays
of Aristophanes (ihird year of 88th Olympiad and
second year of 91st, respectively ; whereas Alexander
was not born till the second year of the 98th
Olympiad); and observes it was not improbably in-
troduced before the time of Pericles.
To the Romans it was very familiar; and indeed
must have been common in Italy at an early period.
Admired as the peacock was, its beauty did not
protect it from slaughter, lor it was killed to add to
the delicacies of the tables of the great and luxu-
rious ; and its '.irain, together with the tongues of
flamingoes, entered into the composition of a fa-
vourite dish of the Emperor Viteilius.
]| In our country, a roasted pea-fowl, served up with
u the plumes attached to it, swelled thaiude pomp of
a baron's entertainment.
I! The pea fowl is restless and wandering in its
habits, and cannot well be kept in a small space ;
I it perches or roosts by preference on the loi)raost
[ branches of trees, and indeed is fond of any elevated
j situation. It seeks its fo^d, however, and also con-
! structs its nest, on the ground. In its wild state it
I chooses a retired spot, among close bru>hwood, as
the place of incubation, nialiing an inartificial nest
of sticks, twigs, and leaves : the eggs are from
twelve to fifteen in number. In domesticaiion its
habits are the same ; indeed domestication has ef-
lecled but little alteration in these points; nor has
it degenerated into numerous varieties. White pea-
cocks, it is true, are sometimes to be seen, and im-
perfectly coloured biids are not uncommon, but
here the changes terminate.
The beautiful plumes of this bird are usually
called its tail, and by many are supposed to be so ;
this, however, is not the ease : the iilumes of the
peacock, which are not developed till the tliird
year, are its tail-coverts; they overhang and con-
ceal the true tail-feathers, which are short, but
v\'hi(:h may be easily seen when the plumes are
elevated.
The .Javanese peacock (Pavo Javanicus, Hors-
field ; Pavo .laponensis, Aldrovand : Japan Pea-
cock, Latham ; l^avo spiciferus, Vieillot ; Pavo Al-
drovandi, WiLson) is a distinct species. It is a
native of Java, Sumatra, Malacca, and, as it is said,
of Japan.
1749, 1750.— The Turkey
(Melearjris Gallopavo). Coq d'Inde and Dindon
(Dinde, fem.), f>ench ; Gallo d'India, Gallinaccio
(Gallina d'lndia, fem.) of the Italians; Indianisclie
Hahn of the Germans.
Our pictorial specimens are those of wild indi-
viduals ; the domestic bird figures in the Group of
Poultry (Fig. 1718, b).
This noble bird, crie of the ornaments of our
poultry-yard, is a native of America, whence it
appears to have been imported into Europe in the
early part of the sixteenth century. But it must be
confessed that nothing very tangible or definite
respecting its introduction has been recorded. So
involved in obscurity is the early history of the
turkey, and so ignorant do the writers of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries appear to have
been about it, that they have regarded it as a bird
known to the ancients under the title of" Mcleagris,"
namely, the guinea-fowl, or Pintado, a mistake
which was not cleared up till about the middle of the
eiffhteenth century; but the name, originally ap-
plied in error, has been since continued rather for
the sake of convenience than because of its propriety.
The appellation of " Turkey," which the bird bears
in our country, aiose, according to Willughby, from
a supposition that it came originally from the country
so called, and Mr. Bennett observes that such an
erroneous opinion may possibly have aiisen from
that confusion which appears to have at first existed
between these birds and guinea-fowls, the iatt er being
commonly obtained from the Levant, and being also
in the sixteenth century exceedingly rare in England.
Oviedo, in his ' Natural Histor/of the Indies,' the
title then given to the newly discovered regions of
America, speaks of it as a kind of peacock abounding
in New Spain, which had already (15-26) been trans-
ported in a domestic state to the islands and the
Spanish Main, where it was kept by the Christian
colonists. Mexico was first discovered by Grijalva
in 1518. In the fifteenth year of Henry VIII. , 1524,
turkeys are reported to have been introduced into
England, and in 1541 we find these birds among the
dainties of the table. Archbishop Cranmer (.Leiand's
' Collectanea') ordered that of cranes, swans, and tur-
key-cocks there should be at festivals only one dish.
In 1573, Tusser, in his ' Five Hundred Points of Good
Husbandry,' notices these birds as among the fanner's
fare at Christmas. At the present day the domestic
turkey is spread over the greater portion of Europe,
and is too well known to need description.
The habits of the wild turkey are admirably de-
failed by Audubon and the Prince of Canino, whose
accounts we shall follow. The native country of
this species extends from the north-western territory
of the United States to the Isthmus of Panama,
south of whicn it is not to be Ibund. It was lormerly
common in many parts of Canada, as well as in dis-
tricts within the States, whence it has been driven by
the advance of colonization, and must now be sought
for in remoter localitiet. The unsettled parts of the
slates of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana, an
immense country to the north-west of these distiicts,
and the vast regions drained by these rivers, from
their confluence to Louisiana, including the wooded
parts of Arkansas, according to Audubon, are the
most abundantly supjilied with this magnificent bird.
The wild fuikey is to a certain decree migratory in
its habits, and associates in flocks dufing the autumn
and winter months. About the beginning of October,
wlien the fruits and seeds are about to fall from the
trees, these birds collect together and gradually
move towards the rich bottom-lands of the Ohio and
Mississippi. The males, or •' gobblers," associate in
parties varying from ten to a hundred, and search
for food apart from the females; the latter, with
their young broods, usually join each other, forming
paitiesof seventy or eighty, and assiduously avoid
the old males, which evince a disposition to attack
and destroy the young till they are fully grown.
The flocks of the district all move in the same
direction, seldom taking wing unless to escape the
hunter's dog, or cross a river, which latter feat is not
perlormed till after some delay, during which they
ascend the highest eminences, and strut about and
gobble as if to raise their courage to a pitch befitting
the emergency. Even the females and young assume
at this juncture a (jonipous demeanour, spread out
their tails, and "pur "loudly. When the weather
is settled, and they themselves prepared, they take
to flight lor the opposite shore ; the old and robust
easily cross a river of the breadth of a mile, but the
young and meagre birds often find their strength
fail, and fall into the water, not, however, to be
drowned, as might be imagined. They bring their
wings close to the body, spread out their tail, stretch
forward their neck, strike out vigorously with their
legs, and rapidly make way to the shore. It is
remarkable tliat after landing on the opposite banks
of a large stream, the flocks ramble about for some
time as if bewildered, and many fall a prey to
ferocious beasts or the hunter. When they have
arrived in their land of abundance, they disper.se in
small flocks, composed of individuals of both sexes
and all ages intermingled ; this occurs about the
middle of November. The mast, or fruit of the
beech, has now lallen in abundance ; but beside*
this, maize, the peccannut, and tiie acorn are aisi,-
relished, and they devour beetles, grusv:hoppers,
tadpoles, young frogs, and small lizards. At this
season they often venture near farm-yaids and barns,
and numbers are killed for sale.
3E2
^^:/r"
1 -il.—Ctelti PncoHc-nmamit.
1746. — SecontUzy (juiU-Featber of Argtis Fhcuint.
IT4«.-Thibet Peacock Plieunit.
1744. — Armi< Plieajianf.
1741).— Willi Turkeys.
1*51.— Oinard of Ttaika;.
396
17.'j3. — Head of Guinea-Fowl.
ITJ?. — TIond::ras Turkey.
1750.— Wild Turkey and Young.
1 755. — Capercaill ie.
1757.— Black Grouse. Male.
<^H-
^^^^mr
1754.— Crested Guinea-Fowl,
1758.— Black Grouse. Female.
307
S98
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
[TuilKEYS
Early in March they begin to pwr, the female* ,
havin:; previoH^ly assumed a solitary .node of hfe, ;
leedir.i; and roosting apart by lhem»elves; when
they call, the males re.pond, and the woods some-
times resound for miles with the clamour. Kival
males ollen ensage in mortal combat. As soon as ;
the lemales begin to lay, they relinquish the society
of their mates, and soon attend exclusively to the I
duty of incubation ; the nest, which consists ot a lew
leaves is artl'uUy concealed in some brake or under
the covert of a dense tliicket, and the female both
leaves and visits her nest with the greatest caution,
lest the male should discover it, in which case he
would ferociously crush the ejiRs in a moment. The
crow, the polecat, and the snake are also dreaded ;
and it olten happens that several hens associate
tosether for mutual safety, rearing their broods in one
united nest, which is always watched by one or more,
so that no crow, raven, or polecat dares approach it.
Whin the young are hatched, the female leads ihem
abroad, keeping an anxious and incessant watch lest
hawks iind other enemies, including the turkey-cock,
should attack them ; the troop moves onwards, keep-
ing to the higher grouniis, lor the young are only
covered with down, and it wetted in this stage of
their existence seldom survive. At the expiration
of about a fortnight they are able to raise themselves
from the ground, on which they have hitherto reposed
at ni<;ht,'and follow their mother to a perch on the
low arm of a tree, where they nestle under her
broadly curved wings. The brood varies in number
from ten to fifteen or eighteen. The sfiowth of the
young is rapid. In August, though still led by their
re.speitive parents, several broods associate together,
and the young display almost as much alertness in
securing their safety as do the adults.
In colour the wild turkey closely resembles the
bronzed black varieties of the domestic race,
b;ii th? plumace is more brilliant, gleaming with
violet, -rreen, and gold according to the incidence
\ of the hglit. The long pectoral tassel of liair, and |
the naked, changeable, carunculaled skin of the
head and throat, are the same in the wild as in the
domesticated race. Fig. 1751 represents the Gizzard
of the Turkey.
17.")2. — Thk Honduras Tukcky
{Melenqris oceWila). Beautiful as is the common
wild turkey of North America, it is far surpassed by
the lloiuluias turkey, which rivals the peacock in its
gorgeous dress, effulgent with golden bronze, steel
blue, emerald green, and velvet black. A specimen
of this rare bird, once in Bullock's museum, is now
in that of Paris. Of the habits of the species, which
appears to inhabit the vast forests of Honduras, no-
thing is known. The specimen in question was one
of three seen by a crew employed in cuttini: wood,
and captured alive. It died alter its arrival in the
Thames, in consequence of an accident.
1718, (/.—The Guinea-Fowl
{Numida Meleagris). Fig. 1753 shows the Head of
this >pecies, which is the Gailina di Numidia of the
Italians, Piutade of the French, Pintado of the
Spanish, Perl Huhn of the Germans.
The guinea-fowl, or Pintado, as its name indicates,
is originally from Africa. It was known to the an-
cient Greeks and Romans, and received from the
former the name of Meleagris. According to the
ancient fable, the sisters of Meleager, mourning the
death of iheir brother, were turned into birds called
Meleagrides (in the singular Meleagris), having their
feathers sprinkled with tear-drops. The term Me-
leagris, however, strange to say, has been transferred
by Belo;i, Gesner, Aldrovandus, and others to the
turkey, a native of America, and of which the an-
cients liad no information.
The guinea-fowl is noticed by Aristotle, by Pliny,
byVanoC'De He Husticd'), and by Columella, a
Writer on husbandry in the reign of Claudius Caesar,
and by others. According to AtheuBBUs, the M\o-
lians first introilnced this bird into Greece ; but
Ihouirh it must have been naturalized there, it does
not appear to have spread very widely. In the
middle ages we lose all trace of if ; no writers of those
times appear to notice if, nor can we distinctly point
out the period of its introduction into the British
Isles. This, however, must be comparatively recent ;
its name does not occur in the list of birds in the
famous feast of Archbishop Nevill, in the reign
of Edward IV. ; nor does it appear in the Duke of
Northumberland's Household Book, 1512; nor yet
in the Household-Book of Henry VIII. Yet, in
all these lists, the peion, or peacock, makes a con-
spicuous figure.
In the early part of the eighteenth century the
guinea-fowl was tolerably common in England, and
is now completely naturalized.
Aiianson, Dampier, Le Vaillant, and other travel-
lers in Africa, have observed the wild guinea-fowl
in different parts of that continent; but, as about
six species are known, we cannot be certain which
of them is intended.
The common guinea-fowl (Numida Meleagris) |,
appears to be disperaed through an extensive range
of .Africa, frequenting low humid situations, and the t
banks of rivei-s and marshes. It is eminently gre-
garious, assembling in huge flocks, which wander
about during the day in seaich of food; as evening I
approaches, they seek the branches of trees, and roost
crowded together. In its rapid mode of running,
and in its short flight when tbrced to take wing, we
are reminded of the partridge, which it also some-
what resi-mbles in the contour of its body.
A wild race of these birds is found in St. Domingo
and others of the West India islands ; this race is
said to have been imported from Guinea.
In a domestic condition, the guinea-fowl retains
almost unaltered its original habits ; if is restless,
addicted to wandering, and impatient of restraint.
It will stray for miles from the larm to which it be-
longs, and it otten happens that a long-missed
female will make her appearance with a young
brood attending her. In close confinement the
female rarely hatches her eggs, the want of freedom
interfering with her instincts; few birds indeed are
more recluse and shy during the time of incubation,
or more cautious in concealing their nests. It is
generally made among dense brushwood or in simi-
lar retreats. The number of eggs varies from twelve
to twenty. They are smaller ihan those of the fowl,
of a pale yellowish red, minutely dotted with darker
points. Both the eggs and flesh of the guinea-fowl ;
are excellent. Cream-coloured guinea-fowls are
sometimes to be seen ; in these the white spots are
still to be distinguished. Another variety has a
white breast, and the general colouring destitute of
1 the lichness which renders the wild and the uiide-
i generate domestic race so attractive. The shrill
I querulous notes of this bird, which it perpetually
1 repeats, are very disagreeable. The guinea-fowl
\ has not yet reached tlie colder latitudes of Europe ;
j it is not mentioned by I.inna'us in his Swedish
' Fauna; and it is said that neither Denmark, Nor-
: way, nor Norlhern Russia possesses it.
|i 1754. — The Crested Guinea-Fowl, or Pintado
{Numida cn'staki). This si)ecies is less than the
common guinea-fowl : its head is crested wi.h hair-
like feathers ; the general plumage is bluish biack
spotted with grey. Quills yellowish brown ; edges
of the secondaries pure white.
Family TETRAONID.E (GROUSE).
Undkr this family title most naturalists include
not only the true Grouse, but the Parliidges, Quails,
Francolins, &c., which, however, by some modern
naturalists are regarded as a subfamily, under the
name ol PeidiciiiBe.
With regard to the true grouse, it is of the moor-
land and heath, the wild plain or mountain, the
barren rock and the dense pine-forest, that they are
respectively the tenants. Linnajus comprehended
them all, together with the Partridges and Quails,
in one genus, Tetrao ; modern naturalists, however,
have subdivided this genus into many, often on
superficial grounds. A better estimate of the cl.a-
racters of these birds will be formed from a. consi-
deration of our pictorial specimens than from verbal
definitions.
1755, 1756. — The Capercaillik, Capkkcau,
or CAPtKCAlLZIE
(Tetrao Uiof/allus). Cock of the Wood ; Cock of
the Mountain. Coq de Bruyure of Button ; Kjader
of the ' Fauna Suecica ;' Tjader-hona of Hasselquist ;
Auer-Hahn of Fiisch ; Auerwaldhuhn of Bech-
stein : Cciliog Coed of the ancient British.
That this noble bird was once indigenous in the
British islands, and till lately lingered in the High-
lands of Scotland and some districts of Ireland (viz.
in the county of Tipperary, 17C0), has been clearly
proved ; but the forests whicli once sheltered it
have been thinned or cut down, and from this cause
and others it appears to have been entirely extir-
pated; we say ''to have been," because for some
years past various attempts have been made to in-
troduce the species again into the woods of the
Highlands, and, we believe, with considerable suc-
ces-i.
The CapercailHe is abundant in Norway, Sweden,
Russia towards Siberia, the north of Asia, and some
parts of Germany and Hungary, wherever pine-
Ibrests of sufficient extent aitbrd it a home. It is
found in several parts of the Alps. The male is
equal in size to a turkey, weighing from eight to
twelve pounds or even more : some have exceeded
fifteen. The leraale is considerably smaller. The
breeding-season commences early in the spring,
before the snow is oft' the ground ; at this period the
cock stations liimself on a pine, and commences his
call to the females or "play" as it is termed in
Sweden. This, says Mr. Lloyd, " is usually from the
first dawn of day to sunrise, or from a little after
sunset until it is quite dark. The time, however,
more or less depends upon the mildness of (he wea-
ther and the advanced state of the season.
" During his play, the neck of the capercali is
stretched out, his tail is raised and spread like a fan,
his wings droop, his feathers are ruffled up, and, in
short, he much resembles in appearance an angry
turkey-cock. He begins his play with a call some-
thing rvscmblmg peller, peller, peller ; these sounds
he repeats at first at some little intervals, but as
he proceeds they increase in rapidity, until at last,
and alter perhaps the lapse of a minute or so, he
makes a sort of gulp in his throat and finishes with
sucking in, as it were, his breath.
"Duiing the continuance of this latter process,
which only lasts a few seconds, the head of the ca-
percali is thrown up, his eyes arc partially closed,
and his whole appearance would denote that he is
worked up into an agony of passion. At this time
his faculties are much absorbed, and it is not diffi-
cult to approach him : many, indeed, and among
the rest Mr. Nilsson, assert that the capercali can
then neither see nor hear, and that he is not aware
of the report or flash of a gun, even ff fired imme-
diately near to him. To this assertion I cannot
agree, for though it is true that, if the capercali has
not been much disturbed previously, he is not easily
frightened during the last notes of his play, yet,
should the contrary be the case, he is coiislanlly
on the watch, and I have reason to know that,
even at that time, if noise be made, or that a per-
son exposes himself incautiously, he takes alarm and ,
immediately tties.
"The play of the capercali is not loud, and,
should there be wind stirring in the trees at the
time, it cannot be heard at any considerable dis-
tance. Indeed, during the calmest and most fa-
vourable weather it is not audible at more than two
or three hundred paces.
"On hearing the call of the cock, the hens, whose
cry in some degree resembles the croak of the raven,
or rather, perhaps, the sounds ijoc/t, gcch, guch, as-
semble Irom all parts of the surrounding forest.
The male bird now descends from the eminence on
which he was perched to the ground, where he and
his female friends join in company. The capercali
does not play indiscriminately over the forest, but
he has his certain stations (Tjador-lek, which may
perhaps be rendered his playing-giounds). The.-e,
however, are often of some little extent. Here,
unless very much persecuted, the song of these
birds may be heard in the spiing for years together.
The capercali does not during his play confine him-
seU to any particular tree, as Mr. Nilsson asserts to
be the case, for, on the contrary, it is seldom he is
to be met with exactly on the same spot for two
days in succession."
The female makes her nest upon the ground, and
lays from six to twelve eggs; her brood keep with
her till the approach of winter, but the cocks sepa-
rate from the mother before the hens. The food of
this bird consists of the leaves of the Scotch fir, of
juniper-berries, cranberries, blueberries, and occa-
sionally in winter of the buds of the birch. The
young are sustained at tiist on insects, and especially
ihe larvae of ants. In the male the windpipe makes
a loose fold of two curves before it enters the chest,
gaming l)y this contiivaiu-e grtat increase of length.
Tiie tarsi are hairy; the loes are rough beneath,
with horny points, enabling the bird to rest securely
on the sniUDlli or slippery branches. The general
colour of the males on the upper part is chestnut
brown irregularly marked with blackish lines ; the
breast glossy gieenish black, passing into black on
the under surface ; elongated leathers of the throat
black ; tail biack. In the female the head, neck,
and back are marked with transverse bare of red
and black ; the under surface is pale orange-yellow
barred with black. Professor Nilsson as.«ures us
that the capercaillie is uiten reared up in a domestic
state in Sweden, and is bold and disposed to attack
persons, like the turkey-cock; and both this natu-
ralist and Mr. Lloyd affirm that these birds will
breed, with due care, in confinement; in fact, they
give several instances by way of proof.
In the early part of the spring the London market
is supplied with the capercaillie in abundance from
Norway, and, owing to the rapidity of steam navi-
gation, the birds are almost as fresh as if just shot,
keeping well for many days ; the flesh of the fe-
males is excellent. To those who wish to enter
info the exciting details of wood-grouse shooting,
we recommend Mr. Lloyd's work on 'Northern
Field-Sports.'
We may here allude to the Tetrao medius, or Ra-
kelhan, which by many has been considered a hybrid
between the male capercaillie and the female black
grouse, but which is, we believe, undoubtedly a jaire
species, but very rare. Locality, Norway and
Sweden.
17.57, 1758.— The Bl.^^ck Grouse, or Black Cock
(Ttitrao Tctrix). Female, Grey Heri. Lyrurus Tetrix,
Swainson. Cuq de Bois
of the French ; Gallo <li
GnorsE.]
MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.
399
Monte, Gallo selvatico, Gallo cedrone, olthe Italians,
tier Birk-liahn ot the Germans; Orrl'ulgl of the
Norwesjians.
" The bonny black-cock '" is still a native of the
wilder districts of the British Isles. It is common
in the Hiijhlands of Scotland, in Northumberland,
some parts of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, in North
Wales, in Surre)', Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Devon-
shire, wherever wild heaths and pine-woods favour
its increase. On the Continent it is found in France
.ind Germany, and is abundant inDenmark, Sweden,
Norway, and Russia. In its sjeneral habits and
manners this fine species and the precedinir closely
iiirree, but the black-cock is not so strictly a forest
bird ; for tlmua;h it freipients pine-woods, and the
glens and ravines amonn; mountain scenery, where
the birch and alder overtop an oozy bed teeming
with Ions; rank herbasie, it is 'often seen on the sides
of the heathy hill, or amidst the furze, heath, and
willows covering a wide extent of bog-land inter-
vening between the jiine-woods and the cultivated
country. During winter the males associate in
flocks, but separate early in the spring, each choos-
ing its own station, of which it is sole master, and
for wl'.ich it has often to ens;age in desperate con-
tests with its rivals. It now begins its loud call-note
of invitation, uttered chiefly in the mornnig, while
it displays a variety of attitudes ; and mating with
several females, it soon establishes its seraglio. At
this season the plumage of the male assumes the
richest lustre, and the naked skin over the eye be-
comes of the deepest scarlet. The female breeds
in May. making a rude nest under the shelter of
intertangled herbage or brushwood, and depositing
from six to ten eggs of a yellowish grey tinge,
spotted with light brown. The young of both sexes
have at first the same garb, that of the female ; but
the young males assume their own dress in the au-
tumn, and form a distinct society from that of the
females, which is dissolved on the approach of
spring. The shoots of heath, various moorland
berries, the buds of the birch and alder, the young
shoots of the fir tribe, and grain of various kinds,
constitute the food of this species. The young feed
abundantly on insects and tlieir larvae.
The black grouse is shy and wary, especially the
old male, and the sportsman who has killed several
brace of poults, or young birds, may perhaps have
not seen above one or two full-plumaged cocks
during the whole day's sport. The adult male,
which exceeds the female in size, weighs about four
pounds. The colour is deep black, with a white
band across each wing. The upper surface glitters
with brilliant blue and purple reflexions. Under
tail-eoverts white. The tail is forked, and each
part curls outwardly in consequence of the form
of the four outer feathers, which are square at their
ends, with a semicircular sweep laterally, the outer-
most on each side being the longest and most curled.
The female weighs about two pounds. Above
orange brown, speckled, barred with black ; the
greater wing-coverts tipped with white ; breast
chestnut-brown barred with black. Tail slightly
forked, ferruginous, spotted with black ; under tail-
coverts white, streaked with black.
For an account of a hybrid bird between the
cock-pheasant and grey-hen, see ' Zool. Proceeds.'
1835, p. 62.
1759. — Thb Dusky Grouse
(Teirao obscurus). In the north-western regions of
America, where the mountain-chain separates the
waters of the Mississippi from those which flow
towards the Pacific, the dusky grouse may be re-
srarded as taking the station of the black grouse of
Europe. " The dusky grouse,' says Bonaparte, " is
eminently distinguished from all other known spe-
cies by having the tail slightly rounded, and com-
posed of twenty broad rounded feathei-s. This pe-
culiarity of the extraordinary number of tail-feathers
is only found besides in the cock of the plains, in
which, however, they are not rounded, but very
slender, tapering, and acute." Like the rest of the
species of the genus Tctrao 'and subgenus Bonasia),
the present bird is tyrannically polygamous, and
the males soon desert the females, inditt'ercnt alike
to them and to their progeny.
The male of this species is entirely dusky black,
and exceeds the female in size. The general plu-
mage of the latter is dusky brown, variegated with
ochre-yellow.
17(;0. — ^The Pinnated Grouse
(Tetr/io Cvpiilo). This species, celebrated for the
exquisite flavour of its flesh, is strictly confined to
certain portions of North America; open dry plains
interspersed with trees or partially overgrown with
shrub-oak being its favourite haunts. '■ Accord-
ingly," says Wilson, " we find these birds on the
grouse-plains of New Jersey, in Burlington county.
as well as on the bushy plains of Long Island;
among the pines and shrub-oaks of Pocamo in
Northampton county, over the whole extent of the
Barrens of Kentucky ; on the luxuriant plains and
prairies of the Indiana territory, and on the vast
and remote plains of the Columbia river." In the
bushy thickets of these localities they find food and
shelter. The male is remarkable for a naked sac-
culated appendage on each si<le of the neck, which
at ordinary times hangs wrinkled and flaccid, but
which during the pairing season is distended with
air, and much resembles in size and colour a large
orange. With this ajipendage is evidently con-
nected the strange noises which the bird utters at
that season, like the subdued blowing of a hoiii or
conch, consisting of three notes, each stronglyac-
cented. '■ While uttering these tones the bird hx-
hibils all the ostentatious gesticulations of a turkey-
cock, erecting and fluttering his neck-wings (or
pointed frills), and passing before the female, and
close before his fellows as if in defiance." Now
and then are heard some cackling notes, chiefly
utteied by the males while engaged in fight, on
which occasion " they leap up against each other
exactly in the manner of turkeys, but seemingly
with more malice than efl'ect." The males begin
their call before daybreak, and conlinue it till eight
or nine in the morning, when the parties separate
to seek for food.
In severe weather these birds approach hams and
farm-houses, mix with the poultry to glean up the
scattered grains of Indian com, and seem almost
domesticated. Many are at this time taken in
traps, and the gun thins their numbers. The nest
of this species is placed under brushwood on a
tussock of long grass, and formed with little art ;
the eggs are about fifteen in number, and of a
brovvnisii white. The young form coveys or packs,
which si^paiate on the approach of spring.
The male of the pinnated grouse weighs about
three pounds and a half. The neck is furnished
with a sort of winglet above each sac, composed of
eighteen feathers, ofwhichfive are black, and the rest,
which are shorter, black streaked with brown. The
head slightly crested, and over each eye is a semi-
circular comb of rich orange.
The general plumage is variegated with trans-
verse markings of black, reddish brown, and white.
The tail is very short and of a dusky brown. 15retist
and under parts brown, transversely marked with
white; throat marked with touches of reddish
brown, white, and black ; under the eye a dark
streak of brown. The female is considerably less
than the male, of a lighter colour, destitute of the
neck-wings, of the naked sacculated appendages,
and the semicircular comb over the eye. Green
lichen, various moorland berries, clover-leave.s, the
buds of the pine, grain, and insects, constitute the
food of the pinnated grouse. The legislature of
the States inflicts a penalty of two dollars and a half,
with costs, on any person who kills one of these birds,
called in popular language heath-hens, within the
counties of Suffolk or Queen's, between the 1st of
April and the 5th of October ; but unlbrtunately, the
law operates very little towards their preservation.
17G1, 1762.— The Ruffed Grouse
(Tetrao vmbelhis). Bonasia umbellus, Bonaparte.
This species, the partridge of the Eastern Slates,
and the pheasant of Pennsylvania and the Southern
States, inhabits an extensive range of country. "It
is common at Moose Fort, on Hudson's Bay, in lat.
50° ; frequent in the upper parts of Georgia ; is very
abundant in Kentucky and the Indian territory, and
was found by Captains Lewis and Clarke in crossing
the great range of mountains that divides the wateis
of the Columbia and Missouri, more than 3U00
miles by admeasurement from the inou'h of the
latter. Its favourite places of resort are high moun-
tains covered with the balsam pine, hemlock, and
other evergreens. Unlike the pinnated grouse,
it always prefers the woods, is seldom or never
found in open plains, but loves the pine-sheltered
declivities of mountains near streams of water."
This bird is solitary in its habits, being usually
found singly or in pairs, and seldom in coveys of
more than four or five together.
The male is remarkable for producing a drum-
ming noise, principally during the spring, but occa-
sionally at other seasons; it is the call of the cock
to his mate, and when heard in the solitudes of the
woods has a singular efl'ect. This noise is not the
voice of the bird, but is occasioned by smart strokes
of the wings. "The bird, standing on an old pros-
trate log, generally in a retired and sheltered situa-
tion, lowers his wings, erects his expanded tail, con-
tracts his throat, elevates the two tufts of feathers
on the neck, and inflates his whole body somewhat
in the manner of a turkey-cock, strutting and wheel-
ing about with great stateliness. After a few ma-
ncenvres of this kind he begins to strike with his
slitfened wings in short and quick strokes, which
become more and more rapid until they run into
each other," producing a hollow drumm'ing noise,
which may be heard at a considerable distance.
This is mo.st commonly performed in the morning
and evening, but is repeated at intervals during the
day, and guides the gunner to the retreat of the
bird, which is easily shot.
The female breeds in May, artfully concealing her
nest, which contains from nine to filteeii eggs. .She
carefully attends her brood, and, like the partridge of
Europe, puts various manoeuvres into )iiaclice, in
order to decoy intruders from the place of their con
cealraent.
The ruffed grouse flics with great vigour, and with
a loud whirring noise, and when sprung sweeps to a
considerable distance through the wool before
alighting. Great numbers are killed for the table,
and. according to Wilson, the biids are in the best
condition in September and October, during which
n«)nths ihey feed chiefly on whortle-berries and the
little red aromatic partridge-berry.
The general colour of the male is chestnut-brown,
mottled and undulated with blackish brown and
grey ; tail grey, undulated and barred with blackish
brown ; shoulder-tufts velvet-black with green re-
flexions, and covering a large space of the neck
destitute of feathers. The female is paler tinted
than the .male ; the shoulder-tufts are orange-brown.
1703. — The Cock of the Plains
{Tetrao Urophasianus). Centrocercus Urophasianus,
Swainson.
This species, which is a native of the barren arid
plains along the river Columbia and the interior of
North California, appears to have been first recorded
by Lewis and Clarke, and has been described by Mr.
Douglas, who found it among the Rocky Mountains.
li From the slender form of the quill-feathers of the
j| wings, and those of the t.iil, the flight of this sjiecies
ij is slow, unsteady, and accompanied by a whirring
I sound. " When startled," says Mr. Douglas, " the
j voice, cuck, aick, cuch, is like that of the common
li pheasant. They pair in March and April. Small
jj eminences on tlie banks of streams are the places
usually selected for celebrating the weddings ; the
time generally about sunrise. 'J he wings of the
male are loivered, buzzing on the ground ; the
tail spread like a fan, somewhat erect ; the bare
yello'.v oesophagus is inflated to a prodigious size —
iully half as large as his body — in marked con-
trast wiih the scale-like feathers below it on
the breast, and the flexile silky feathei's on the neck,
which on these occasions stand erect. In this gro-
tesque form he displays in the presence of his
intended mate a variety of attitudes. His love-song
is a confused, grating, but not olfensively disagree-
able tone. — sometliing that we can imitate, but have
a difficulty in expressing — Hurr liun-hitrr-r-r-v-
!ioo, ending in a deep hollow tone, not unlike the
sound produced by blowing into a large reed. Nest
on the ground, under the shade of Piirshia and
Aiteinisia. or near streams, among Phalaris arundi-
nacea, carefully constructed of dry grass and slender
twigs. Eggs, irom thirteen to seventeen, about the
size of those of the common fowl, of a wood-brown
colour, vvilli irregular chocolate blotches on the thick
end. Period of incubation twenty-one to twenty-two
days. The young leave the nest a fev/ hours after
they are hatched. In the summer and autumn
months these birds are seen in small troops, and in
winter and spring in flocks of several hundreds."
The flesh is dark coloured, but not particularly
good in point of flavour. The sacculation of the
oesophagus, to which allusion has been made, is
double, and the skin covering it deep orange-yellow.
The male is about twenty-two inches in length, and
weighs from six to eight pounds. The general
colour of the upper parts is light brown, mottled
and variegated with dark umber-brown and yellow-
ish white. Shalts of all the feathers of the breast
black and rigid ; the feathers of the sides are white
and scale-like : throat and head varied with blackish
on a white ground ; on each side of the protube-
rances, and higher up on the neck, is a tuft of
feathers, having the shafts greatly elongated, naked,
gently curved, and tipped with a pencil of black
barbs. In the female these filamentous feathers are
wanting; her size is much less than that of the
male, and there are no scale-like feathers on the
chest and sides.
1764. — A Group of G.vme.
a, the Capercailzie ; h, the Pheasant ; r, the Quail ;
(/, the Red-legged Partridge : e. the Red Grouse ;
f, the Black Grouse ; o, the Ptarmigan ; h. the
Common Pail ridge
END OF VOLUME I.
[ 1763.— Cock ot the Plkint.
1764.— Group of Game.
'^:~}^-
17^6. — Capercaillie.
1762.— Kuffed (jrouse.
1761.— Hured Grouse.
403
/,r
Rare
Book.
Room
,
^^ifH^a^^^^mKum^rk
^y
wimim.
Will
«%.
tfimiii
iijmm.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11