which and the anus lay the crop, or craw, and immediately behind that
the bowels against the backbone.
It must be allowed, as this anatomist observes, that the crop placed
just upon the bowels must, especially when full, be in a very uneasy
situation during the business of incubation; yet the test will be to
examine whether birds that are actually known to sit for certain are
not formed in a similar manner. This inquiry I proposed to myself to
make with a fern-owl, or goat-sucker, as soon as opportunity offered:
because, if their information proves the same, the reason for
incapacity in the cuckoo will be allowed to have been taken up somewhat
hastily.
Not long after a fern-owl was procured, which, from its habit and
shape, we suspected might resemble the cuckoo in its internal
construction. Nor were our suspicions ill-grounded; for, upon the
dissection, the crop, or craw, also lay behind the sternum, immediately
on the viscera, between them and the skin of the belly. It was bulky,
and stuffed hard with large phalaenae, moths of several sorts, and
their eggs, which no doubt had been forced out of those insects by the
action of swallowing.
Now as it appears that this bird, which is so well known to practice
incubation, is formed in a similar manner with cuckoos, Monsieur
Herissant’s conjecture, that cuckoos are incapable of incubation from
the disposition of their intestines, seems to fall to the ground: and
we are still at a loss for the cause of that strange and singular
peculiarity in the instance of the cuculus canorus.
We found the case to be the same with the ring-tail hawk, in respect to
formation; and, as far as I can recollect, with the swift; and probably
it is so with many more sorts of birds that are not granivorous.
I am, etc.
Letter XXXI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, April 29, 1776.
Dear Sir,
On August the 4th, 1775, we surprised a large viper, which seemed very
heavy and bloated, as it lay in the grass basking in the sun. When we
came to cut it up, we found that the abdomen was crowded with young,
fifteen in number; the shortest of which measured full seven inches,
and were about the size of full-grown earthworms. This little fry
issued into the world with the true viper-spirit about them, showing
great alertness as soon as disengaged from the belly of the dam: they
twisted and wriggled about, and set themselves up, and gaped very wide
when touched with a stick, showing manifest tokens of menace and
defiance, though as yet they had no manner of fangs that we could find,
even with the help of our glasses.
To a thinking mind nothing is more wonderful than that early instinct
which impresses young animals with the notion of the situation of their
natural weapons, and of using them properly in their own defence, even
before those weapons subsist or are formed. Thus a young cock will spar
at his adversary before his spurs are grown; and a calf or a lamb will
push with their heads before their horns are sprouted. In the same
manner did these young adders attempt to bite before their fangs were
in being. The dam however was furnished with very formidable ones,
which we lifted up (for they fold down when not used) and cut them off
with the point of our scissors.
There was little room to suppose that this brood had ever been in the
open air before; and that they were taken in for refuge, at the mouth
of the dam, when she perceived that danger was approaching; because
then probably we should have found them somewhere in the neck, and not
in the abdomen.
Letter XXXII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Castration has a strange effect: it emasculates both man, beast, and
bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex. Thus
eunuchs have smooth unmuscular arms, thighs, and legs; and broad hips,
and beardless chins, and squeaking voices. Gelt-stags and bucks have
hornless heads, like hinds and does. Thus wethers have small horns,
like ewes; and oxen large bent horns, and hoarse voices when they low,
like cows: for bulls have short straight horns; and though they mutter
and grumble in a deep tremendous tone, yet they low in a shrill high
key. Capons have small combs and gills, and look pallid about the head,
like pullets; they also walk without any parade, and hover chickens
like hens. Barrow-hogs have also small tusks like sows.
Thus far it is plain that the deprivation of masculine vigour puts a
stop to the growth of those parts or appendages that are looked upon as
its insignia. But the ingenious Mr. Lisle, in his book on husbandry,
carries it much farther; for he says that the loss of those insignia
alone has sometimes a strange effect on the ability itself: he had a
boar so fierce and venereous, that, to prevent mischief, orders were
given for his tusks to be broken off. No sooner had the beast suffered
this injury then his powers forsook him, and he neglected those females
to whom before he was passionately attached, and from whom no fences
could restrain him.
Letter XXXIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
The natural term of an hog’s life is little known, and the reason is
plain — because it is neither profitable nor convenient to keep that
turbulent animal to the full extent of its time: however, my neighbour,
a man of substance, who had no occasion to study every little advantage
to a nicety, kept an half-bred Bantam sow, who was as thick as she was
long, and whose belly swept on the ground, till she was advanced to her
seventeenth year; at which period she showed some tokens of age by the
decay of her teeth and the decline of her fertility.
For about ten years this prolific mother produced two litters in the
year of about ten at a time, and once above twenty at a litter; but, as
there were near double the number of pigs to that of teats, many died.
From long experience in the world this female was grown very sagacious
and artful:-when she found occasion to converse with a boar she used to
open all the intervening gates, and march, by herself, up to a distant
farm where one was kept; and when her purpose was served would return
by the same means. At the age of about fifteen her litters began to be
reduced to four or five; and such a litter she exhibited when in her
fatting-pen. She proved, when fat, good bacon, juicy, and tender; the
rind, or sward, was remarkably thin. At a moderate computation she was
allowed to have been the fruitful parent of three hundred pigs: a
prodigious instance of fecundity in so large a quadruped! She was
killed in spring 1775.
I am, etc.
Letter XXXIV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, May 9, 1776.
Dear Sir,
… admorunt ubera tigres.
We have remarked in a former letter how much incongruous animals, in a
lonely state, may be attached to each other from a spirit of sociality;
in this it may not be amiss to recount a different motive which has
been known to create as strange a fondness.
My friend had a little helpless leveret brought to him, which the
servants fed with milk in a spoon, and about the same time his cat
kittened and the young were dispatched and buried. The hare was soon
lost, and supposed to be gone the way of most foundlings, to be killed
by some dog or cat. However, in about a fortnight, as the master was
sitting in his garden in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat,
with tail erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short
inward notes of complacency, such as they use towards their kittens,
and something gamboling after, which proved to be the leveret that the
cat had supported with her milk, and continued to support with great
affection.
Thus was a graminivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous and
predaceous one!
Why so cruel and sanguinary a beast as a cat, of the ferocious genus of
Feles, the murium leo, as Linnaeus calls it, should be affected with
any tenderness towards an animal which is its natural prey, is not so
easy to determine.
This strange affection probably was occasioned by that desiderium,
those tender maternal feelings, which the loss of her kittens had
awakened in her breast; and by the complacency and ease she derived to
herself from the procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much
distended with milk, till, from habit, she became as much delighted
with this foundling as if it had been her real offspring.
This incident is no bad solution of that strange circumstance which
grave historians as well as the poets assert, of exposed children being
sometimes nurtured by female wild beasts that probably had lost their
young. For it is not one whit more marvellous that Romulus and Remus,
in their infant state, should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor
little sucking leveret should be fostered and cherished by a bloody
grimalkin.
… viridi fœtam Mavortis in antro
Procubuisse lupam: geminos huic ubera circum
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem
Impavidos: illam tereti cervice reflexam
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua.
Letter XXXV
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, May 20, 1777.
Dear Sir,
Lands that are subject to frequent inundations are always poor; and
probably the reason may be because the worms are drowned. The most
insignificant insects and reptiles are of much more consequence, and
have much more influence in the Economy nature, than the incurious are
aware of; and are mighty in their effect, from their minuteness, which
renders them less an object of attention; and from their numbers and
fecundity. Earth-worms, though in appearance a small and despicable
link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable
chasm. For, to say nothing of half the birds, and some quadrupeds,
which are almost entirely supported by them, worms seem to be the great
promoters of vegetation, which would proceed but lamely without them,
by boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it
pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing straws and
stalks of leaves and twigs into it; and, most of all, by throwing up
such infinite numbers of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being
their excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. Worms probably
provide new soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth
away; and they affect slopes, probably to avoid being flooded.
Gardeners and farmers express their detestation of worms; the former
because they render their walks unsightly, and make them much work: and
the latter because, as they think, worms eat their green corn. But
these men would find that the earth without worms would soon become
cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation; and consequently sterile:
and besides, in favour of worms, it should be hinted that green corn,
plants, and flowers, are not so much injured by them as by many species
of coleoptera (scarabs), and tipulae (long-legs), in their larva, or
grub-state; and by unnoticed myriads of small shell-less snails, called
slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make amazing havoc in the field
and garden.*
* Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says that this spring (1777) about four
acres of his wheat in one field was entirely destroyed by slugs, which
swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast as it sprang.
These hints we think proper to throw out in order to set the
inquisitive and discerning to work.
A good monography of worms would afford much entertainment and
information at the same time, and would open a large and new field in
natural history. Worms work most in the spring; but by no means lie
torpid in the dead months; are out every mild night in the winter, as
any person may be convinced that will take the pains to examine his
grass-plots with a candle; are hermaphrodites, and much addicted to
venery, and consequently very prolific.
I am, etc.
Letter XXXVI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Nov. 22, 1777.
Dear Sir,
You cannot but remember that the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh of
last March were very hot days; so sultry that everybody complained and
were restless under those sensations to which they had not been
reconciled by gradual approaches.
This sudden summer-like heat was attended by many summer coincidences;
for on those two days the thermometer rose to sixty-six in the shade;
many species of insects revived and came forth; some bees swarmed in
this neighbourhood; the old tortoise, near Lewes in Sussex, awakened
and came forth out of its dormitory; and, what is most to my present
purpose, many house-swallows appeared and were very alert in many
places, and particularly at Cobham, in Surrey.
But as that short warm period was succeeded as well as preceded by
harsh severe weather, with frequent frosts and ice, and cutting winds,
the insects withdrew, the tortoise retired again into the ground, and
the swallows were seen no more until the tenth of April, when, the
rigour of the spring abating, a softer season began to prevail.
Again; it appears by my journals for many years past, that
house-martins retire, to a bird, about the beginning of October; so
that a person not very observant of such matters would conclude that
they had taken their last farewell: but then it may be seen in my
diaries also that considerable flocks have discovered themselves again
in the first week of November, and often on the fourth day of that
month only for one day; and that not as if they were in actual
migration, but playing about at their leisure and feeding calmly, as if
no enterprise of moment at all agitated their spirits. And this was the
case in the beginning of this very month; for, on the fourth of
November, more than twenty house-martins, which, in appearance, had all
departed about the seventh of October, were seen again, for that one
morning only, sporting between my fields and the Hanger, and feasting
on insects which swarmed in that sheltered district. The preceding day
was wet and blustering, but the fourth was dark and mild, and soft, the
wind at south-west, and the thermometer at 58 1/2 ; a pitch not common
at that season of the year. Moreover, it may not be amiss to add in
this place, that whenever the thermometer is above 50 the bat comes
flitting out in every autumnal and winter month.
From all these circumstances laid together, it is obvious that torpid
insects, reptiles, and quadrupeds, are awakened from their profoundest
slumbers by a little untimely warmth; and therefore that nothing so
much promotes this death-like stupor as a defect of heat. And farther,
it is reasonable to suppose that two whole species, or at least many
individuals of those two species, of British hirundines, do never leave
this island at all, but partake of the same benumbed state: for we
cannot suppose that, after a month’s absence, house-martins can return
from southern regions to appear for one morning in November, or that
house-swallows should leave the districts of Africa to enjoy, in March,
the transient summer of a couple of days.
I am, etc.
Letter XXXVII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Jan. 8, 1778.
Dear Sir,
There was in this village several years ago a miserable pauper, who,
from his birth, was addicted with a leprosy, as far as we are aware of
a singular kind, since it affected only the palms of his hands and the
soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually broke out twice in the
year, at the spring and fall; and, by peeling away, left the skin so
thin and tender that neither his hands or feet were able to perform
their functions; so that the poor object was half his time on crutches,
incapable of employ, and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence
and inactivity. His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad
plight he dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and his
parish, which was obliged to support him till he was relieved by death
at more than thirty years of age.
The good women, who love to account for every defect in children by the
doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a violent propensity for
oysters, which she was unable to gratify; and that the black rough
scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that fish. We knew his
parents, neither of which were lepers; his father in particular lived
to be far advanced in years.
In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among mankind. The
Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with it from the most
remote times; as appears from the peculiar and repeated injunctions
given them in the Levitical law.* Nor was the rancour of this foul
disorder much abated in the last period of their commonwealth, as may
be seen in many passages of the New Testament.
* See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv.
Some centuries ago this horrible distemper prevailed all Europe over;
and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears by the large
provision made for objects labouring under this calamity. There was an
hospital for female lepers in the diocese of Lincoln, a noble one near
Durham, three in London and Southwark, and perhaps many more in or near
our great towns and cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, and other
wealthy and charitable personages, bequeathed large legacies to such
poor people as languished under this hopeless infirmity.
It must therefore, in these days, be, to an humane and thinking person,
a matter of equal wonder and satisfaction, when he contemplates how
nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a leper now is a rare
sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in such a train of thought,
naturally inquire for the reason. This happy change perhaps may have
originated and been continued from the much smaller quantity of salted
meat and fish now eaten in these kingdoms; from the use of linen next
the skin; from the plenty of better bread; and from the profusion of
fruits, roots, legumes, and greens, so common in every family. Three or
four centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown-grasses,
field-turnips, or field-carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown
fat in summer, and were not killed for winter-use, were turned out soon
after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; so
that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence the
marvellous account of the vast stores of salted flesh found in the
larder of the eldest Spencer** t in the days of Edward the Second, even
so late in the spring as the third of May. It was from magazines like
these that the turbulent barons supported in idleness their riotous
swarms of retainers ready for any disorder or mischief. But agriculture
is now arrived at such a pitch of perfection, that our best and fattest
meats are killed in the winter; and no man need eat salted flesh,
unless he prefers it, that has money to buy fresh.
** Viz. Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and six hundred
muttons.
One cause of this distemper might be, no doubt, the quantity of
wretched fresh and salt fish consumed by the commonalty at all seasons
as well as in Lent; which our poor now would hardly be persuaded to
touch.
The use of linen changes, shirts or shifts, in the room of sordid and
filthy woollen, long worn next the skin, is a matter of neatness
comparatively modern; but must prove a great means of preventing
cutaneous ails. At this very time woollen instead of linen prevails
among the poorer Welch, who are subject to foul eruptions.
The plenty of good wheaten bread that now is found among all ranks of
people in the south, instead of that miserable sort which used in old
days to be made of barley or beans, may contribute not a little to the
sweetening their blood and correcting their juices; for the inhabitants
of mountainous districts, to this day, are still liable to the itch and
other cutaneous disorders, from a wretchedness and poverty of diet.
As to the produce of a garden, every middle-aged person of observation
may perceive, within his own memory, both in town and country, how
vastly the consumption of vegetables is increased. Green-stalls in
cities now support multitudes in a comfortable state, while gardeners
get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half
his support, as well as his delight; and common farmers provide plenty
of beans, peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon;
and those few that do not are despised for their sordid parsimony, and
looked upon as regardless of the welfare of their dependents. Potatoes
have prevailed in this little district, by means of premiums, within
these twenty years only; and are much esteemed here now by the poor,
who would scarce have ventured to taste them in the last reign.
Our Saxon ancestors certainly had some sort of cabbage, because they
call the month of February sprout-cale; but, long after their days, the
cultivation of gardens was little attended to. The religious, being men
of leisure, and keeping up a constant correspondence with Italy, were
the first people among us that had gardens and fruit-trees in any
perfection, within the walls of their abbies* and priories. The barons
neglected every pursuit that did not lead to war or tend to the
pleasure of the chase.
* ‘In monasteries the lamp of knowledge continued to burn, however
dimly. In them men of business were formed for the state: the art of
writing was cultivated by the monks; they were the only proficients in
mechanics, gardening, and architecture.’ — See Dalrymple’s Annals of
Scotland.
It was not till gentlemen took up the study of horticulture themselves
that the knowledge of gardening made such hasty advances. Lord Cobham,
Lord Ila, and Mr. Waller of Beaconsfield, were some of the first people
of rank that promoted the elegant science of ornamenting without
despising the superintendence of the kitchen quarters and fruit walls.
A remark made by the excellent Mr. Ray in his Tour of Europe at once
surprises us, and corroborates what has been advanced above; for we
find him observing, so late as his days, that ‘the Italians use several
herbs for sallets, which are not yet or have not been but lately used
in England, viz., selleri (celery), which is nothing else but the sweet
smallage; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the
root cut off, they eat raw with oil and pepper.’ And further he adds
‘curled endive blanched is much used beyond seas; and, for a raw
sallet, seemed to excel lettuce itself.’ Now this journey was
undertaken no longer ago than in the year 1663.
I am, etc.
Letter XXXVIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Fortè puer, comitum seductus ab agmine fido,
Dixerat, ecquis adest ? et, adest, responderat echo.
Hic stupet; utque aciem partes divisit in omnes;
Voce, veni, clamat magna. Vocat illa vocantem.
Selborne, Feb. 12, 1778.
Dear Sir,
In a district so diversified as this, so full of hollow vales, and
hanging woods, it is no wonder that echoes should abound. Many we have
discovered that return the cry of a pack of dogs, the notes of a
hunting-horn, a tunable ring of bells, or the melody of birds, very
agreeably: but we were still at a loss for a polysyllabical, articulate
echo, till a young gentleman, who had parted from his company in a
summer evening walk, and was calling after them, stumbled upon a very
curious one in a spot where it might least be expected. At first he was
much surprised, and could not be persuaded but that he was mocked by
some boy; but, repeating his trials in several languages, and finding
his respondent to be a very adroit polyglot, he then discerned the
deception.
This echo in an evening, before rural noises cease, would repeat ten
syllables most articulately and distinctly, especially if quick dactyls
were chosen. The last syllables of
Tityre, tu patulæ recubans …
were as audibly and intelligibly returned as the first: and there is no
doubt, could trial have been made, but that at midnight, when the air
is very elastic, and a dead stillness prevails, one or two syllables
more might have been obtained; but the distance rendered so late an
experiment very inconvenient.
Quick dactyls, we observed, succeeded best; for when we came to try its
powers in slow, heavy, embarrassed spondees of the same number of
syllables,
Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens …
we could perceive a return but of four or five.