been taken from the nest of the yellow bunting, at a short distance from
this town, and the boy who got the egg gave the following account,
which, I think, may be relied on. When bird-nesting the previous
Saturday, he found a nest of the gold spink (a local name for the yellow
bunting) with the young birds just hatched. On visiting the nest the
following day, he flushed the old bird, having seen her sitting on it,
but the young birds were all excluded, and were lying dead near; and to
his surprise, a single egg--the one he brought to me--occupied the place
of the callow brood. He took away the egg (which is now in my
possession) so that it is impossible to corroborate the statement in any
degree. The above circumstance was first named to me by Tom Green, a
well-known character and naturalist in this town, whom I have always
found to be accurate in his observations on birds, and by him I was
referred to the boy. On my objecting to Green that the accident appeared
incredible, because unnatural, and contrary to strong parental instinct,
he replied, "Ay, sir, but little birds are mightily ta'en up with a
cuckoo; they'll awmost dee out for them;" and he related the following
fact which came under his own observation. When out with his gun,
collecting birds to stuff, (animal-preserving being one of his many
trades), he shot at and wounded a cuckoo, which, after flying some
distance, fell upon a hedge with its wings outstretched: the attendant
bird, which in this case was one of the pipits, continued in the flight
of its patron after the shot, and when Green approached, he found it
sitting on the body of the dead cuckoo.[235]
"It has been supposed by some, that small birds follow the cuckoo for
the sake of annoyance, mistaking it for a sparrow-hawk, to give public
notice of a pirate abroad, and to warn all peaceful subjects of the air
against a common danger. But this is clearly not so, for the flight and
cries clearly distinguish the feelings in the two cases. The attendance
on the cuckoo is at a distance, silent and respectful; but in the other
we have a sort of hue and cry raised, as it were, against a felon, and
which is kept up from place to place, if not to the shame, at least to
the discomfiture of the culprit.
"The cuckoo is certainly a favourite with them; as Green says, 'they,
(the lesser birds,) are mightily ta'en up with it;' but to what it owes
its influence with its parasites I leave to you and other philosophical
naturalists to determine: I am content to relate, in simple terms, an
interesting fact."
There is so much analogy with these cuckoo-proceedings in the habits of
Ants, that, although these cannot correctly be designated as parasites,
the details of their manners will not be wholly out of place, in winding
up this chapter. I refer to the propensity manifested by certain species
of ants to make slaves of the workers of another species, leading them
into captivity and compelling them to labour for the benefit of the
marauders. Strangely enough, the parallel between the human and the
formican slave-trade holds to this further extent that, so far as we
know, the kidnappers are red or pale-coloured ants, and the slaves, like
true _niggers_, are black.
The slave-hunting expeditions are planned and executed with the utmost
skill and courage. "When the red ants are about to sally forth on a
marauding expedition, they send scouts to ascertain the exact position
in which a colony of negroes may be found; these scouts, having
discovered the object of their search, return to the nest, and report
their success. Shortly afterwards the army of red ants marches forth,
headed by a vanguard which is perpetually changing; the individuals
which constitute it, when they have advanced a little before the main
body, halting, falling into the rear, and being replaced by others: this
vanguard consists of eight or ten ants only.
"When they have arrived near the negro colony, they disperse, wandering
through the herbage and hunting about, as if aware of the propinquity of
the object of their search, yet ignorant of its exact position. At last
they discover the settlement, and the foremost of the invaders rushing
impetuously to the attack, are met, grappled with, and frequently killed
by the negroes on guard; the alarm is quickly communicated to the
interior of the nest; the negroes sally forth by thousands, and the red
ants rushing to the rescue, a desperate conflict ensues, which, however,
always terminates in the defeat of the negroes, who retire to the inmost
recesses of their habitation. Now follows the scene of pillage; the red
ants, with their powerful mandibles, tear open the sides of the negro
ant-hill, and rush into the heart of the citadel. In a few minutes each
of the invaders emerges, carrying in its mouth the pupa of a worker
negro, which it has obtained in spite of the vigilance and valour of its
natural guardians. The red ants return in perfect order to their nest,
bearing with them their living burdens. On reaching the nest the pupae
appear to be treated precisely as their own, and the workers, when they
emerge, perform the various duties of the community with the greatest
energy and apparent good will; they repair the nest, excavate passages,
collect food, feed the larvae, take the pupae into the sun-shine, and
perform every office which the welfare of the colony seems to require;
in fact, they conduct themselves entirely as if fulfilling their
original destination."[236]
[228] Reinwardt.
[229] Tennent's _Ceylon_, i. 104.
[230] "Affinities of the Stylopites," in _Zool._, 1792.
[231] Wiegmann's _Archiv._, 1860, _Bericht_, p. 169.
[232] _Ann. Nat. Hist._ for April, 1861.
[233] _Zool._, 204.
[234] _Ibid._, 205.
[235] _Zool._, 2589.
[236] Newman, _Hist. of Insects_, 50.
APPENDIX.
ON THE SEA-SERPENT.
Since the publication of my former volume, which concluded with an
examination of the evidence for the existence of this unrecognised
animal, two other important testimonies have been brought under my
notice. The first of these is that of an officer of high literary
reputation, the Consular representative of Great Britain lately residing
at Boston, in the United States, who thus gives his personal testimony
and that of his lady to the appearance of the monster:--
"On a Sunday afternoon in the middle of August, above a hundred persons,
at that time in and about the hotel, were called on to observe an
extraordinary appearance in the sea, at no great distance from the
shore. Large shoals of small fish were rushing landwards in great
commotion, leaping from the water, crowding on each other, and shewing
all the common symptoms of flight from the pursuit of some wicked enemy.
I had already more than once remarked this appearance from the rocks,
but in a minor degree; and on these occasions I could always distinguish
the shark, whose ravages among the "manhaidens" was the cause of such
alarm. But the particular case in question was far different from those.
The pursuer of the fugitive shoals soon became visible; and that it was
a huge marine monster, stretching to a length quite beyond the
dimensions of an ordinary fish, was evident to all the observers. No
one, in short, had any doubt as to its being the sea-serpent, or one of
the species to which the animal or animals so frequently before seen
belonged. The distance at which this one was, for ten minutes or a
quarter of an hour, visible, made it impossible to give a description of
its apparent dimensions so accurate as to carry conviction to the
sceptical. For us who witnessed it, it was enough to be convinced that
the thing was a reality. But one of the spectators, Dr Amos Binney, a
gentleman of scientific attainments, drew up a minute account of it,
which is deposited in the archives of one of the Philosophical Societies
of Boston. I was and am quite satisfied that on this occasion I had a
partial and indistinct but positive view of this celebrated nondescript.
But had the least doubt rested on my mind, it would have been entirely
removed by the event of the day following the one just recorded. On that
day, a little before noon, my wife was sitting, as was her wont, reading
on the upper piazza of the hotel. She was alone. The gentlemen,
including myself and my son, were, as usual, absent at Boston, and the
ladies were scattered about in various directions. She was startled by a
cry from the house of "The sea-serpent! The sea-serpent!" But this had
been so frequent, by the way of joke, since the event of the preceding
day, and was so like "The wolf, the wolf!" of the fable, that it did not
attract her particular attention for a moment or two, until she observed
two women belonging to the family of the hotel-keeper running along the
piazza towards the corner nearest the sea, with wonder in their eyes,
and the cry of "The serpent, the serpent! He is turning, he is turning!"
spontaneously bursting from their lips. Then my wife did fix her looks
in the direction they ran; and sure enough she saw, apparently quite
close beyond the line formed by the rising ground above the rocks, a
huge serpent, gliding gracefully through the waves, having evidently
performed the action of turning round. In an instant it was in a
straight line, moving rapidly on; and after coasting for a couple of
minutes the north-west front of the hotel, and (as accurately as the
astonished observer could calculate) looking as it stretched at full
length in the water about the length of the piazza, that is to say,
about ninety feet; it sank quietly beneath the surface, and was seen no
more.
"The person who was thus so lucky as to get this unobstructed view, is
one so little liable to be led astray by any imaginary impulse, that I
reckon on her statement with entirely as much confidence as if my own
eyes had demonstrated its truth."--_Grattan's Civilised America_, p. 39.
* * * * *
The second testimony is contained in the following communication with
which I have been favoured by Mr Cave:--
35, WILTON PLACE, _April 29, 1861_.
SIR,--On reading your interesting "Romance of Natural History" it
occurred to me that I could supply some corroborative evidence of the
existence of the sea serpent. On looking up my old journals, I found it
was slighter than I imagined; but, such as it is, I give it almost
verbatim from my diary.
I was in Jamaica the year after you were, and have often regretted that
we were not there together, as I might have shewn you parts of the
island which you missed, and have been, perhaps, the cause of a few more
pages to your very pleasant journal of a naturalist there.--Believe me,
faithfully, yours,
STEPHEN CAVE,
M.P. for Shoreham.
Philip H. Gosse, Esq.
_Extract from a Journal written during a Voyage to the West Indies in
1846._
_Thursday, Dec. 10._--Off Madeira, on board R.M.S. "Thames."--"Made
acquaintance with a Captain Christmas of the Danish navy, a proprietor
in Santa Cruz, and holding some office about the Danish Court. He told
me he once saw a sea-serpent between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. He
was lying-to in a gale of wind, in a frigate of which he had the
command, when an immense shoal of porpoises rushed by the ship, as if
pursued; and, lo and behold! a creature with a neck moving like that of
a swan, about the thickness of a man's waist, with a head like a horse,
raised itself slowly and gracefully from the deep, and seeing the ship
it immediately disappeared again, head foremost, like a duck diving. He
only saw it for a few seconds; the part above the water seemed about 18
feet in length. He is a singularly intelligent man, and by no means one
to allow his imagination to run away with him."
THE END.
INDEX.
AEpyornis, 38.
America, early condition of, 8, 32.
Ant-eaters, 9.
Antidotes to poison, 268, 272, 276, 298, 300.
Ants, slave-hunting, 384.
Apteryx, egg of, 38.
Argus pheasant, 323.
Auk, great, 82.
Australia, early condition of, 12.
Aye-aye, 78.
Bamboo, elegance of, 340.
Bananas in Tahiti, 342.
Barbadoes Pride, 353.
Bats, immured, 183, 185.
Bear, black, 70.
Bear, cave, 15, 69.
Beauty, Divine appreciation of, 302
--in quadrupeds, 304
--in birds, 306
--in beetles, 329
--in butterflies, 331
--in plants, 338
--in flowers, 344.
Beaver in Britain, 72.
Beetles, splendour of, 329, 337.
Birds, colossal, of Australia, 13, 34.
Bison of Europe, 68.
Blood rain, 98, 102
--waters, 99, 103
--snow, 100.
Bois Immortel, 354.
Britain, early condition of, 13, 44.
Butterflies, splendour of, 331.
Bruce on serpent-charming, 266, 277.
Cave in Skye, 134.
Changeable colours, 315.
Climbers of tropical forests, 368.
Climbing perch, 123.
Cock of the rock, 307.
Corals, parasitic, 380.
Corncrake, torpidity of, 198.
Cowpen bird, 381.
Crabs, parasitic habits of, 379.
Crane-fly, luminous, 231.
Creation progressive, 89.
Cuckoo, habits of, 381.
Deer, elegance of, 304.
Deposition, rate of geologic, 47.
Dinothere, 5, 14.
Dodo, 74.
Drift, remains in, 44.
Eagle fascinates rabbit, 259.
Eel, wanderings of, 122.
Eggs, fossil, 37, 38.
Elephant of Siberia, 6, 20.
Elk, Irish, 14, 49-57, 61.
Entozoic worms, 360.
Europe, early condition of, 3.
Extinction of species, 1, 81, 88.
Fascination in serpents, 242
--in lizards, 255
--in scorpion, 256
--in stoats, 257
--in fox, 258
--in eagle, 259.
Fig-trees, parasitic, 364.
Fire attracts insects, 260
--birds, 261
--toads, 262.
Fishes, showers of, 109-117
--torpidity of, 118
--travelling, 121
--parasitic, 376.
Flamboyant, 353.
Fleas _ad infinitum_, 359.
Flints, fossil, 44.
Fox of Falkland, 86
--fascinating poultry, 258.
Frogs, showers of, 108.
Galeodes, account of, 237.
Goatsuckers, 307.
Grouse, 95.
Guiana, scenery in, 346.
Hand-tree of Mexico, 87.
Hasselquist on serpent charming, 279.
Hedgehog, immunity of, 277.
Hyena, cave, 16.
Humming birds, elegance of, 312
--mango, 313
--long-tail, 314
--fiery topaz, 317
--comet, 318, 321.
Ibis, scarlet, 306.
Ichneumon-flies, 369.
Impeyan, scaly, 323.
Ireland, animals of, 57.
Kangaroo, giant, 13.
Kaureke, 42.
Lantern-fly, 227.
Lepidosiren, 119.
Lightning-tree of Madagascar, 352.
Lizard swallowing its young, 224
--fascinates butterfly, 255.
London-pride, microscopic beauty of, 356.
Luminosity of fulgora, 227
--of mole-cricket, 230
--of crane-fly, 231
--of caterpillars, 232.
Machairode, 15.
Macrauchen, 11, 33.
Mammoth, 6, 14, 20.
Man, fossil relics of, 44.
Mangouste and snake, 275.
Manu-mea, 79.
Marvels, vulgar love of, 96.
Mastodon, 7, 14, 26, 30.
Medusae, parasites of, 374
--parasitic, 374.
Megathere, 9, 33.
Mermaids, 125
--zoological necessity of, 126
--exhibitions of, 129
--Norse legends of, 132
--narratives of, 136, 139, 141, 142.
Moa, 34.
Mole-cricket luminous, 230.
Music, power of, on Serpents, 284.
Musk-ox, 86.
Mylodon, 9, 32.
Nestor Parrot, 80.
Nile valley, geology of, 46.
Norfolk Island, parrot of, 80.
Notornis, capture of, 41.
Oil-beetle, habits of, 373.
Orchideae, beauty of, 344
--parasitic habits of, 363.
Ostrich, American, 381.
Oxen, ancient, of Ireland, 63
--of Britain, 65, 67
--of Scania, 66.
Paradise-birds, 326.
Parasitic vegetation, 361
--insects, 369
--medusae, 374
--fish, 376
--crabs, 379
--polype, 380
--birds, 381.
Parrakeet, Carolina, 306.
Parrot, long-beaked, 80.
Peacock, 325.
Perch, climbing, 123.
Pheasants, 322.
Plants, alexipharmic, 268, 272, 276, 298, 300.
Plume-birds, 309.
Polyplectrons, 324.
Potosi, scenery of, 319.
Psylli, 265.
Rhinoceros of Siberia, 6, 19.
Rhododendrons of India, 349
--of Borneo, 351.
Rifle-bird, 308.
Rio Negro, scenery of, 316.
Saltwort, beauty of, 355.
Scelidothere, 9, 32.
Scenery, remarkable, in Jamaica, 213.
Scorpion fascinates fly, 256.
Sea-serpent, Mr Grattan's evidence, 387
--Mr Cave's evidence, 389.
Serpent-charming, 263-294.
Serpent, crested, 211
--fascinating powers of, 242.
Serpents of Peru, 270.
Showers of blood, 98
--snails, 106
--frogs, 107
--fishes, 109.
Sivathere, 5.
Snails, showers of, 106.
Snake-stones, 294.
Snow, red, 100.
Species, extinction of, 1.
Spiders, bird-eating, 233
--webs of, 236, 238
--beauty of, 336.
Spoonbill, 306.
Star-fish, parasite of, 376.
Stelleria, 78.
Stoats fascinating rabbits, 257.
Strepsiptera, 371.
Stylops, habits of, 371.
Sun-birds, 311.
Swallows, torpidity of, 191-202
--submersion of, 192
--winter appearance of, 202-209.
Tahiti, scenery in, 342.
Tartary, scenery in, 355.
Tertiary geography, 3, 12, 14.
Tiger, beauty of, 305.
Toads, showers of, 107
--in stones, 146, 190
--in trees, 148, 153
--in mortar, 161, 178, 179
--experiments on, 165, 179
--attracted by fire, 262.
Tortoise, colossal, 6, 17.
Toxodon, 12, 32.
Travelling fishes, 121.
Trogon, resplendent, 308.
Urus, 64.
Venom of serpents, experiments on, 249.
Viper swallowing its young, 220.
Wasps, sleep of, 180.
Wolf, 71.
Zebra, beauty of, 305.
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