eagle, is traditional in Germany, France, Ireland and other countries.
It seems that the birds all met together one day, and settled among
themselves that which ever of them could fly the highest was to be king
of them all. As they were starting, the wren, unknown to the eagle,
perched himself on his tail. Away flew the birds, and the eagle soared
far above the others, until, tired, he perched himself on a rock, and
declared that he had gained the victory. "Not so fast," cried the wren,
getting off the tail and springing above the eagle; "you have lost your
chance, and I am king of the birds." The eagle, angry at the trick
played upon him, gave the wren, as he came down, a smart stroke with
his wing, from which time the wren has never been able to fly higher
than a hawthorn bush.
The story is told with a different conclusion in Germany. According to
the German version, the tricky wren was imprisoned in a mouse-hole, and
the owl was set to watch before it, whilst the other birds were
deliberating upon the punishment to be inflicted upon the offender. The
owl fell asleep, and the prisoner escaped. The owl was so ashamed that
he has never ventured to show himself by daylight.
In the Ojibua legend the gray linnet is the tricky bird, and the verdict
was rendered in favor of the eagle, for he not only flew nearest to the
sun, but carried the linnet with him.
In France the wren is called _roitelet_ (little king), and also
_poulette au bon Dieu_, "God's little hen." To kill it or to rob its
nest would bring down lightning on the culprit's head. Robert Chambers,
in "Popular Rhymes," says—
"Malisons, malisons, mair than ten
That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen."
At Carcasonne the wren was carried about on a staff adorned with a
garland of olive, oak and mistletoe. In the Isle of Man the wren is
believed to be a transformed fairy.
_White-breasted Birds._
In Devonshire the appearance of a white-breasted bird has long been
considered an omen of death. This belief has been traced to a
circumstance which happened to the Oxenham family in that county, and
related by Howell, in his "Familiar Letters," wherein is the following
monumental inscription: "Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in
whose chamber, as he was struggling with the pangs of death, a bird with
a white breast was seen fluttering about his bed, and so vanished." The
same circumstance is related of his sister Mary, and two or three others
of the family.
_The Penguin's Solitary Egg._
The female penguin of Patagonia does not commit her offspring to any
kind of nest. She constantly carries her solitary egg in a pouch formed
by a fold in the skin of the abdomen, and it is held so fast in this
that she leaps or sometimes rolls from rock to rock without letting it
fall. It is well for her she does so, for should such a mishap befall
her the male bird chastises her without pity.
_The Crocodile Plover._
One of the best friends of the crocodile is a little bird of the plover
species. The mouth of the reptile is infested with painful parasites,
and the bird fearlessly flies into the open jaws and picks out the
insects. The crocodile appears to be conscious of this kindly office,
for it never offers to hurt its little feathered friend.
_Peacocks' Crests._
In ancient times peacocks' crests were among the ornaments of the kings
of England. Ernald de Aclent (Acland) "paid a fine to King John in a
hundred and forty palfries, with sackbuts, gilt spurs and peacocks'
crests, such as would be for his credit."
_Worshipful Cranes._
Tame cranes, kept in the Middle Ages, are said to have stood before the
table at dinner, and kneeled and bowed the head when a bishop
pronounced the benediction. But how they knelt is as fairly open to
inquiry as how Dives could take his seat in torment, as he did,
according to an old carol, "all on a serpent's knee."
_The Great Auk._
Pennant says that this bird never wanders beyond soundings, by which
sailors are assured that land is not very remote. Aristophanes tells us
that the Greek mariners, more than two thousand years ago, made note of
the habits and movements of birds.
"From birds, in sailing, men instructions take,
Now lie in port, now sail and profit make."
_The Kingfisher._
Sir Thomas Brown, in his "Vulgar Errors," says: "A kingfisher hanged by
the bill sheweth what quarter the wind is, by an occult and secret
property, converting the breast to that part of the horizon from whence
the wind doth blow. This is a received opinion, and very strange,
introducing natural weathercocks and extending magnetical positions as
far as animal natures, a conceit supported chiefly by present practice,
yet not made out by reason nor experience." The ancients believed that
so long as the female kingfishers sat on their eggs, no storm or tempest
disturbed the ocean. In Wild's "Iter Boreale," we read—
"The peaceful kingfishers are met together
About the decks, and prophesy calm weather."
Gmelin, in his "Voyage en Sibérie," says that "the Tartars believe that
if they touch a woman, or even her clothes, with a feather from a
kingfisher, she must fall in love with them. The Ostiacs take the skin,
the bill and the claws of this bird, shut them up in a purse, and so
long as they preserve this sort of amulet they believe they have no ill
to fear. The person who told me of this means of living happily could
not forbear shedding tears, for the loss of a kingfisher's skin had
caused him to lose both his wife and his goods."
_The Albatross._
The albatross is remarkable for its migrations; indeed, it may almost be
said to pass from pole to pole, and is seen at a greater distance from
land than any other bird. Hence sailors regard this companion of their
voyage with superstitious fondness. Coleridge speaks of the albatross in
his "Ancient Mariner"—
And all averr'd I had killed the bird
That made the breezes to blow;
"A wretch," said they, "the bird to slay,
That made the breezes to blow."
_The Stork._
A feeling of attachment, not devoid of superstition, procures the stork
an unmolested life in all Moslem countries. The Dutch regard them as
birds of good omen, and a wagon-wheel is often laid upon the house-top
for the stork to build his nest on, during which time the house is safe
from fire. It is sometimes called by them the "fire-fowl" and
"baby-bringer."
In North Germany, the first time in the year that a girl hears the
stork, if it clatter with its bill, she will break something; if it be
flying, she will be a bride before the year is out; if it be standing,
she will be asked to stand godmother.
Storks are "fabled" to be very attentive to their aged parents,
carrying them from place to place and feeding them if they are blind.
Aristophanes says—
"'Tis an ancient law
Among the birds, on the storks' tables writ,
Soon as the father stork hath nourished all
His brood, and made them fit for flight, in turn
The younglings should support their aged sire."
_Cocks and Hens._
Schweinfurth, in his "Heart of Africa," gives the following curious
auguries from cocks and hens, common to various negro tribes: "An oily
fluid, concocted from a red wood called 'Bengye,' is administered to a
hen. If the bird dies, there will be misfortune in war; if it survives,
there will be victory. Another mode of trying their fortune consists in
seizing a cock and ducking its head repeatedly under water, until the
creature is stiff and senseless. They then leave it to itself. If it
should rally, they draw an omen that is favorable to their design: if it
should succumb, they look for an adverse issue."
A curious notion respecting fowls existed in various parts of England.
On the morning of St. Valentine's day, the girls, before opening the
outer door, would look into the yard through the key-hole. If they saw a
cock and hen in company, it was taken for granted that the person most
interested would be married before the year was out.
In Hooker's "Tour in Morocco," recently published, he mentions that in a
storm in the heights of the Atlas, one of his attendants cut the throat
of a cock he carried, to appease the wrath of the demons of the
mountains.
Mr. Dalyell, in his "Darker Superstitions of Scotland," observes that
during the prevalence of infectious diseases in the East, a cock was
killed over the bed of the invalid, sprinkling him with the blood. A
red cock was dedicated by sick persons in Ceylon to a malignant
divinity, and afterwards offered as a sacrifice in the event of
recovery.
In "Credulities Past and Present," it is stated that "in Durham there is
a superstition that if any person was bewitched, the author of the evil
might be discovered by the following means: To _steal_ a black hen, take
out the heart, stick it full of pins, and roast it at midnight. The
'double' of the witch would come and nearly pull the door down. If the
'double' was not seen, any one of the neighbors who had passed a
remarkably bad night was fixed upon!"
_Led by a Gander._
In Germany an aged blind woman was led to church every Sunday by a
gander, which dragged her along, holding her gown in his beak. As soon
as the old woman was seated in her pew the gander retired to the
church-yard to feed upon the grass, and when the service was ended he
conducted his mistress to her home.—_Menault._
_Crows Lost in a Fog._
The Hartford Times tells a curious story of a flock of crows in that
vicinity who recently lost their way in a fog. They lost their bearings
at a point directly above the South Green, in Hartford. For a good while
they hovered there, coming low down, circling and diving aimlessly
about, like a blindfolded person in "blind man's buff," and keeping up a
hoarse cawing and general racket beyond description. It was plain enough
that of the entire company each individual crow was not only puzzled and
bothered, but highly indignant, and inclined to utter "cuss words" in
his frantic attempts to be heard above the general din, and tell the
others which way to go. Once or twice the whole flock swept down to a
distance of not more than one hundred feet above the street. Finally,
after going around for many times, they sailed away in a southerly
direction, evidently having got some clue to the way out of the fog, or
desperately resolved to go _somewhere_ till they could see daylight.
_The Peacock at Home._
Peacocks are found in almost all parts of India and Siam, and the
multitudes in which they occur in some districts is wonderful. Colonel
Williamson, in his "Oriental Field Sports," says: "About the passes in
the Jungletery district whole woods were covered with the beautiful
plumage, to which a rising sun imparted additional brilliancy. I speak
within bounds when I assert that there could not have been less than
1200 or 1500 pea-fowls, of various sizes, within sight of the spot where
I stood." Sir James Emerson Tennent says, in his work on Ceylon, "that
in some of the unfrequented portions of the eastern province, to which
Europeans rarely resort, and where the pea-fowl are unmolested by the
natives, their number is so extraordinary that, regarded as game, it
ceased to be sport to destroy them; and their cries at early morning are
so tumultuous and incessant as to banish sleep, and amount to an actual
inconvenience."
_Story of the Dodo._
This extinct bird was a native of Mauritius, in the Indo-African Ocean,
and was first described by Van Neck, a Dutchman, in 1598, in which year
a living specimen was embarked for Holland, but died on its way. This
specimen is supposed to have been preserved at Leyden; and one of the
feet is believed to be that in the British Museum. Several successive
voyagers mention the bird, down to Canche, in 1638, in which year a
living dodo was brought to England by Sir Hamon l'Estrange, who
describes the back as of "dunn or deare colour." It was exhibited for
money in London, in a house which bore a figure of the bird represented
on canvas. This specimen has been traced to Tradescant's Museum at
Lambeth, whence it was conveyed, in 1682, to Oxford by Ashmole. The body
and a leg were destroyed by vermin before 1775, but the other leg and
the head are preserved to this day in the Ashmolean Museum, in which
place there also is a large drawing of a dodo, taken from nature, by
John Savery. It was not related to the ostrich or the vulture, as many
have supposed, but was closely allied to the pigeons and the solitaire
bird seen by Leguat in the Island of Rodrigeux in 1691.—_Wells._
_An Old Gander._
Willoughby states, in his work on Ornithology, that a friend of his
possessed a gander eighty years of age, which in the end became so
ferocious that they were forced to kill it, in consequence of the havoc
it committed in the barn-yard. He also mentions a swan three centuries
old and several parrots that attained the age of one hundred and fifty
years.
_Chaffinch Contest._
At the town of Armentières, in France, there is a _fete du pays_, in
which the chaffinch and its fellows are the chief actors and objects of
attraction. Numbers of these birds are trained with the greatest care
and no small share of cruelty, for they are frequently blinded by their
owners, that their song may not be interrupted by the sight of any
external object. The point upon which the amusement, the honor and the
emolument rests is the number of times a bird will repeat his song in a
given time.
A day being fixed, the amateurs repair to the appointed place, each with
his bird in a cage. The prize is then displayed, and the birds are
placed in a row. A bird-fancier notes how many times each bird sings,
and another verifies his notes. In the year 1812, a chaffinch repeated
his song seven hundred times in one hour. Emulated by the songs of each
other, they strain their little plumed throats, as if conscious that
honor was to result from their exertions.
_The Fabulous Roc._
The roc, the huge bird that gave Sindbad the sailor his ride through the
air, is not to be compared with some of those mentioned in the Talmud.
Some mariners saw one of those large birds standing up to the lower
joint of the leg in a river, and thinking the water could not be deep,
they were hastening to bathe, when a voice from heaven said: "Step not
in there; seven years ago a carpenter dropped his axe there, and it hath
not yet reached the bottom."
_Fable of the Pelican._
The pelicans are said to carry water to their young, as well as food, in
their pouch. During the night the pelican sits with its bill resting on
its breast. The nail or hook which terminates the bill is red, and Mr.
Broderip supposes that the ancient fable of the pelican feeding its
young with blood from its own breast originated from its habit of
pressing the bill upon the breast in order the more easily to empty the
pouch, when the red tip might be mistaken for blood.
_Night Owls._
It is worthy of remark that in all owls that fly by night the exterior
edges and sides of the wing-quills are slightly recurved, and end in
fine hairs or points, by means of which the bird can pass through the
air with the greatest silence—a provision necessary to enable it the
better to surprise its prey.—_Adam White._
_Imprisoned During Incubation._
In his work on "The Birds of India," M. Jerdon details the curious
domestic arrangements of some species of the genus Homrain of French
naturalists, the males of which, at the time of laying, imprison the
female in her nest. They close the entrance to it by means of a thick
wall of mud, leaving only a small hole by which the hen breathes and
through which she protrudes her beak to receive food, which is brought
by her spouse. Though barbarous enough to imprison her, he is not cruel
enough to starve her. This forced retirement only ceases with the
termination of the hatching, when the pair break the prison door.
_Love-Birds._
These birds receive their name from the affection which they manifest
towards one another. Anatomically, this genus is remarkable in the
parrot tribe for having no furcula, or merry-thought bone.
_Penguin Breeding Grounds._
These birds often occupy acres for their breeding ground, which is laid
out and leveled and divided into squares, as nicely as if done by a
surveyor. They march between the compartments as accurately as soldiers
on parade, and somewhat resembling them from a distance, or, according
to another similitude which has been used, looking like bands of little
children in white aprons. Bennett describes one breeding ground on
Macquarie Island as covering thirty or forty acres, and, to give some
notion of the multitudes, speaks of 30,000 or 40,000 birds as
continually landing, and as many putting to sea.
_The Ear of Birds not to be Deceived._
A bird-catcher, wishing to increase his stock of bullfinches, took out
his caged bird and his limed twigs and placed them in such a situation
of hedge and bush as he judged favorable to his success. It so happened
that his own bird was an educated one, such as is usually termed a
piping bullfinch. In the first instance a few accidentally thrown out
natural notes or calls had attracted three or four of his kindred
feather, which had taken their station not far distant from the cage.
There they stood in doubt and curiosity, and, presently, moving inch by
inch and hop by hop toward him and the fatal twigs, they again became
stationary and attentive. It was in this eager and suspended moment that
the piping bullfinch set up the old country dance-tune of "Nancy
Dawson." Away flew every astonished bullfinch as fast as wings could
move, in confusion and alarm.
_A Bird Hammock._
In his voyage to India, Sonnerat speaks of a Cape titmouse, the nest of
which is made of cotton and is shaped like a bottle. While the female is
hatching inside, the male, a most watchful sentinel, remains outside in
a pouch or hammock, fixed to one side of the neck of the nest. When his
mate moves off and he wishes to follow her, he beats the opening of the
nest violently with his wing until he closes it, in order to protect
the young from enemies.
_Sagacity of a Bird._
In the museum of Brown University, Providence, R. I., is a curiosity in
the shape of a bird's nest. Aside from its ingenious construction as a
swinging nest, partly suspended by strings and cords carefully woven
into it and around the slender branch which holds it, another evidence
of the builder's sagacity is given. As the young birds grew, and the
nest daily became heavier, the mother saw that the slender twig, about
the thickness of a pipe-stem, to which it was attached, could not
support it much longer, so she made it secure by fastening a stout cord
about it and passing the end around a strong limb above, which steadied
it and made it safe.
_Change of Sight in Birds._
Birds destined to move in the medium of a very rare atmosphere and which
has but little tendency to refract the rays of the sun, have a great
quantity of aqueous humor, in order that the light, strongly refracted
in entering their eyes, may bring distinct images. Thus birds at heights
where they appear to us only as points, perceive the smallest reptile
concealed in the grass. But, as presbyte birds do not distinguish
objects when brought near, nature has provided for this difficulty,
which occurs when they descend from the heights of the air to seize
their prey. To provide for this emergency, they have a membrane, by
means of which they remove the crystalline lens from the retina; and
thus changing the power of the eye by changing the focal distance of
objects, as we do with spectacles, they never lose sight of their prey,
whether in the air or on the ground.
_Nest of the Flamingo._
The flamingo arranges its nest in a peculiar way, as its long legs would
not adapt themselves to the ordinary style of nest-building. The nests
are placed upon the ground, are built solely of coarsely-tempered mud,
and are very curiously shaped, being like narrow, lengthened cones. They
are twenty inches in height, and their truncated summit presents a
concavity, at the bottom of which the female deposits her eggs. In order
to hatch them she places her abdomen over them, and allows her legs to
hang down on both sides of the raised nest.
_Barking of Dogs._
The Australian dog never barks; indeed, Gardiner, in his "Music of
Nature," states "that dogs in a state of nature never bark; they simply
whine, howl and growl; the explosive noise is only heard among those
which are domesticated." Sonnini speaks of the shepherd dogs in the
wilds of Egypt as not having this faculty; and Columbus found the dogs
which he had previously carried to America to have lost their propensity
for barking.
_Superstitions about Eggs._
Thiers, in his "Traité des Superstitions," observes that he has known
people who preserved all the year such eggs as are laid on Good Friday,
as they think them good to extinguish fires when thrown on them.
People in the northern parts of Germany, remarks William Jones, say that
to cross one's face with the first new-laid egg of a chicken that has
been hatched in spring and begins to lay shortly before Christmas of the
same year, is considered the means of improving and beautifying the
complexion.
Camden, in his "Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish," says that if
the owners of horses eat eggs, they must take care to eat an even
number, otherwise some mischief will betide the horses. Grooms are not
allowed eggs, and the riders are obliged to wash their hands after
eating eggs.
In Derbyshire it is considered a bad omen to gather eggs and bring them
into the house after dark. Eggs ought not to be brought in on Sunday,
and no hen must be set on that day. The number of eggs for a setting
must be either eleven or thirteen; the number must be odd, and if twelve
eggs are sat upon, the hen will scarcely succeed in hatching them; or,
if hatched, the chickens will do no good.
In some parts of England it is believed that the first egg laid by a
white pullet, placed under the pillow at night, will bring dreams of
those you wish to marry.
In some parts of Java, at a wedding, the bride, as a sign of her
subjection, kneels and washes the feet of the bridegroom, after he has
trodden upon raw eggs.
In Ireland, at Hallow E'en, among other curious customs, the women take
the yolks from some eggs boiled hard, fill the cavity with salt, and eat
egg, shell and salt. They are careful not to quench their thirst until
morning. If at night they dream that their lovers are at hand with
water, they believe they will be jilted.
_The Camel as a Scape-Goat._
A very singular account of the use to which a camel is sometimes put is
given by the traveler Bruce. He tells us that he saw one employed to
appease a quarrel between two parties, somewhat in the same way as the
scape-goat was used in the religious sacrifices of the Jewish people.
The camel being brought out, was accused of all the injuries, real or
fancied, which belonged to each. All the mischief that had been done
they accused this camel of doing. They upbraided it with being the cause
of all the trouble that had separated friends, called it by every
opprobious epithet, finally killed it, and then declared themselves
reconciled over its body.
_The Mark of the Cross on the Ass._
It is a common superstition that the dark marks across the shoulders of
the ass, and which bear some resemblance to a cross, were given as
memorials of our Saviour having entered Jerusalem riding on one of that
humble species. In the north of England, however, a tradition prevails
that the dark streaks are a memento of Balaam's having thrice smitten
one of the family, which carried him, and, as the Bible states, reproved
him for wilful disobedience of the Divine command.
_White Elephants._
White elephants are reverenced throughout the East, and the Chinese pay
them a certain kind of worship. The Burmese monarch is called "The King
of the White Elephants," and is regarded under that title with more than
ordinary veneration, which oriental despotism extracts from its abject
dependants.
_Tenacity of Life in an Elephant._