Abridged from the _Magazine of Natural History_.
[Illustration: (The Fern Owl, showing the greater length of the middle
claw, and its provision for the peculiar posture of the bird.)]
_Habits of the Fern Owl, by Rusticus_.--Beyond Godalming, on the Liphook
road, is a great tract of barren heathy land: it stretches wide in every
direction, and includes immense peat-bogs, and several large ponds. One
particular district, called the Pudmores, is the favourite resort of
the fern owl. In the daytime, while walking across the moor, you will
every now and then put up one of these singular birds; their flight is
perfectly without noise, and seldom far at a time: but of an evening it
is far different; about twenty minutes after sunset, the whole moor is
ringing with their cry, and you see them wheeling round you in all
directions. They look like spectres; and, often coming close over you,
assume an unnatural appearance of size against a clear evening sky. I
believe its very peculiar note is uttered sitting, and never on the
wing. I have seen it on a stack of turf with its throat nearly touching
the turf, and its tail elevated, and have heard it in this situation
utter its call, which resembles the birr of the mole-cricket, an insect
very abundant in this neighbourhood. I have almost been induced to think
this noise serves as a decoy to the male mole-cricket, this being
occasionally found in the craw of these birds when shot. Those who may
not be acquainted with the cry of the bird or the insect, may imagine
the noise of an auger boring oak, or any hard wood, continued, and not
broken off, as is the noise of the auger, from the constant changing of
the hands. The eggs of the fern owl have frequently been brought me by
boys: they are only two in number, greyish white, clouded and blotched
with deeper shades of the same colour; the hen lays them on the soil,
which is either peat, or a fine soft blue sand, in which she merely
makes a slight concavity, but no nest whatever. The first cry of the
fern owl is the signal for the night-flying moths to appear on the wing,
or rather the signal for the entomologist expecting them.
The migratory periods of this bird are not well ascertained; but I have
known one shot Nov. 27th, 1821, and they had arrived April 28th, 1830.
As there is scarcely a British bird of which so little is known, the
following notes may be interesting:--It has been seen perched on the
bar of a gate, not across, but according to its length, with the tail
elevated; uttering its peculiar sounds; but when perching, as it often
does, on the summit of a twig of oaken copse, it fixes upright, with
the feet grasping the twig, and not sitting; just as the swift perches
against a wall. One was killed in broad daylight, perched on the upper
side of a sloping branch of considerable size; the head was uppermost,
and it rested on the feet and tarsi, the latter being bare on the under
surface for that purpose. Its attitude in this situation much resembled
that of a woodpecker. One that was kept alive with its wing broken sat
across the finger, like another bird. When about to take flight it makes
a cracking noise, as if the wings smote together, after the manner of
a pigeon.
_Harbingers of Spring._--One of the earliest intimations of approaching
spring is the appearance of the _Phalaena primaria_, and of one or two
other moths, floating with expanded wings on the surface of ponds and
still water. A butterfly, _Caltha palustris_, is commonly drawn forth
from its winter quarters by one of the first warm and sunny days that
happen to occur in the month of March: hence it has been termed _fallax
veris indicium_, (the deceitful token of spring.) In the Isle of Wight
it has been seen on the wing the 8th of January, 1805.--_Rev. W.T.
Bree._
_Ravages of the Beetle_.--Mr. Bree describes the _Scarabaeus
horticola_ as "exceedingly destructive in gardens. Being on a visit
in Staffordshire, in the month of June, I observed whole beds of
strawberries (not hautboys) likely to prove nearly barren, though they
had flowered copiously, and the season, was favourable for a crop. I was
informed that the failure was owing to the fernshaws (the provincial
name for the beetle), which are accused of eating the anthers and
interior parts of the blossom. In the same garden my attention was also
called to the ravages committed by this depredator on the apples, by
gnawing holes in the young fruit; which consequently dies and falls of,
or at least becomes much blemished. I was assured that the fernshaws had
been detected in the fact; and I am rather disposed to think that the
charge in both instances is well founded. I had long been aware of
the insect's partiality for rosebuds and blossoms, which it greedily
devours. In the north of England, where it is much used as a killing
bait for trout, the insect is commonly known by the name of
'bracken-clock,' a name of the same import with the Staffordshire term
'fernshaw,' each signifying 'fern-beetle.'" Another correspondent
says--_Scarabaeus horticola_, called "the chovy" in Norfolk, is
there deemed very injurious to apple-trees, and other trees and plants,
as it feeds both on leaves and all the parts of the flower. Chovies were
abundant at Thetford, Norfolk, about ten years ago; but, as far as my
experience has reached, always rare about Bury St. Edmunds. On the 9th
of June, 1829, I saw one in the botanic garden of the last-named town,
flitting about a flowering bush of the Provence rose.
_Ink of the Cuttle-fish._--[By way of _addenda_ if not _corrigenda_ to
our description of the Cuttle-fish, at page 104 of the present volume,
we quote the following observations.]
"When in danger, cuttle-fish are said to eject a copious black liquor
through their funnel or excrementary canal, as a means of obscuring the
circumfluent water, and concealing themselves from all foes:--
"Long as the craftie cuttle lieth sure
In the blacke cloud of his thicke vomiture."[15]
This inky fluid is a very remarkable secretion, produced in a bag
that lies near the liver, and sometimes even embosomed in it, and
communicating with the funnel by means of its own excretory duct. The
interior of the bag is not a simple cavity; it is filled with a soft
cellular or spongy substance in which the ink is diffused. This has no
relation or analogy with bile, as Munro believed; but it is a peculiar
secretion, somewhat glutinous, readily miscible with water, and variable
in point of shade, according to the species of cephalopode from which it
comes; so that, as Dr. Grant remarks, a more intimate acquaintance with
this character might be useful in tracing relations among the different
species. The colour of the ink in Loligo sagittata[16] is a deep brown,
approaching to yellowish brown when much diluted, and corresponds
remarkably with the coloured spots on the skin of that species; but
in Octopus ventricosus the colour of the ink is pure black, and it is
blackish grey when diluted on paper. "The ink (_Edin. Phil. Journ._ vol.
xvi. p. 316.) brought in a solid state from China has the same pure
black colour as in the Octopus ventricosus, and differs entirely in its
shade, when diluted, from that of the Loligo sagittata, as may be seen
from specimens of these three colours on drawing paper. Swammerdam
suspected the China ink to be made from that of the Sepia; Cuvier found
it more like that of the Octopus and Loligo; but different kinds of that
substance are brought from China, probably made from different genera of
these animals, where they abound of gigantic size." At the present day,
according to Cuvier, an ink is prepared from the liquor of these animals
in Italy, which differs from the genuine China ink only in being a
little less black. (_Mem._, vol. i. p. 4.) Davy found it to be "a
carbonaceous substance mixed with gelatine;" but on a more careful
analysis, Signor Bizio procured from it a substance _sui generis_
[peculiar in kind], which he calls melania. "The melania is a tasteless,
black powder, insoluble in alcohol, ether, and water, while cold, but
soluble in hot water: the solution is black. Caustic alkalies form with
it a solution even in the cold, from which the mineral acids precipitate
it unchanged. It contains much azote: it dissolves in, and decomposes,
sulphuric acid: it easily kindles at the flame of a candle: it has been
found to succeed, as a pigment, in some respects better than China ink."
(_Edin. Phil. Journ._, vol. xiv. p. 376.)
[15] "The ink secreted in this bag has been said to be thrown out
to conceal the animal from its pursuers; but, in a future
lecture, I shall endeavour to show that this secretion is to
answer a purpose in the animal economy connected with the
functions of the intestines." (Hume's _Comp. Anat._ vol. i.
p. 376.) Dr. Coldstream, in a letter to the author, detailing
the manners of Octopus ventricosus in captivity, says, "I have
never seen the ink ejected, however much the animal may have
been irritated." I have, however, been told by our fishermen,
that they have seen this species eject the black liquid, with
considerable force, on being just taken from the sea.
[16] Sir B. Sibbald says that the Loligo, or hose-fish, besides
its ink has another purple juice. (_Scot. Illust._ vol. ii.
lib. 3. p. 26.) I find no mention of this in any other author.
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