ANIMAL LIFE IN THE PRAIRIES OF THE OLD WORLD:--BIRDS AND REPTILES.
The savannahs and marshes of the ancient continent are frequented by
birds of great stature: Cursores, Raptores, and Palmipeds. The colossus
of the feathered world, the _Ostrich_, which has been aptly surnamed
the Camel-Bird (_Struthio camelus_), inhabits the arid plains of the
African interior, and frequently penetrates into the Sahara. The male is
of a glossy black, with white on the wings and tail; the female wears an
uniformly dusky livery. It is the loose flexible plumes of the male
which are so prized for a lady's toilette, and which figure in the crest
of the prince of Wales. The female's feathers are of inferior value, and
improperly designated in commerce, "vulture-feathers."
The Ostrich lives with his fellows in flocks of some number. He feeds
voraciously on grass, grain, young twigs, and will swallow pieces of
wood, leather, metal, or any hard substance. In his apparent want of
taste he is probably guided by instinct, for these objects are probably
useful in promoting the work of digestion. Some travellers have
represented him as a stupid animal; but this is an error, for he
displays both vigilance and shrewdness in avoiding the attacks of his
enemies. The chase of this bird is exceedingly laborious, for though he
does not fly he skims the ground, and his wings impel him forward with a
velocity which distances the swiftest horse. But neither his speed nor
his strength avails against the stratagems of man. The Arab horsemen
surround the flock in a circle, which they gradually contract as they
advance, until the poor birds are confined in a very narrow area, and
dashing madly against one another, fall exhausted with fatigue. They are
then slain by a few blows from a stick.
The female lays from ten to twelve eggs in a hole in the sand; she
broods over them during the night, occasionally leaving them in the
hottest part of the day. In procuring the eggs, which weigh about three
pounds each, and are reputed a great delicacy, the natives are very
careful not to touch any with their hands, as the parent birds would be
sure to discover it on their return, and not only discontinue laying any
more in the same place, but trample to pieces all those which have not
been removed. A long stick is accordingly made use of to push them from
the nest.
Another gigantic bird, whose wings are but partially developed, and
whose legs are long and robust, the _galeated_ or _helmeted Cassowary_
(_Casuarius_), is a native of Java and the adjacent islands of the
Indian Archipelago. His head is surmounted by a sort of osseous crest or
horny helmet. In size he is much inferior to the ostrich, not exceeding
five feet when erect; but he is robustly built, and of exceeding
strength. His plumage is very poorly supplied with feathers, so as to
resemble at a little distance, it is said, a coat of coarse or hanging
hair. He is a swift runner, like the ostrich; is equally voracious, and
not more dainty in his food.
[Illustration: OSTRICHES (_Struthio camelus_).]
At that season of the year when the coming winter in our Northern
hemisphere already "casts its shadows before," legions of migratory
birds swarm towards the tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Storks and
cranes, and aquatic birds, descend upon those vast and genial southern
prairies, where they obtain in abundance the precious food denied them
in less favoured climes.
A beautiful crane, of ashen plumage, with a shapely ebon-black neck,
and her head adorned with two white tufts of plumes, the "Lady of
Numidia," selects for her dwelling-place the eastern and western shores
of the African Continent.
The Stork (_Ciconia_) is a cosmopolitan bird which alternately favours
with his presence the North of Europe and the Torrid Zone, everywhere
discharging with fidelity his useful sanitary mission by destroying
myriads of noxious vermin. To kill them was considered by the ancients a
foul crime, which could only be fitly punished by death, and the
Egyptians included the Stork with the Ibis in their allegorical and
mysterious worship. In his migrations he avoids the two extremes of heat
and cold, never going farther north than Russia, nor, in winter, further
south than the land of the Nile. The White Stork (_Ciconia alba_) is
upwards of three feet six inches long. One species, popularly known as
the _Marabout_, never quits Africa and the Indies. The name is also
applied to the light silken feathers which embellish the wings of the
species--one of the ugliest, let me add, created by Nature, with his
bald head and neck, his huge beak, and absurdly meditative postures.
* * * * *
The chief of the birds of the shore and river-bank, the Flamingo
(_Phoenicopterus_), may merit admiration on account of his dazzling
scarlet plumage and handsome bearing. Owing to the great length of his
legs and neck he stands nearly five feet high, and measures six feet
from the point of the beak to the tip of the claws. The small round head
is furnished with a bill nearly seven inches long, which is higher than
it is wide, light and hollow, having a membrane at the base, and
suddenly curving downwards from the middle. The legs and thighs are
singularly delicate and slender. The Flamingoes are timid and suspicious
birds; they keep together when feeding, drawn up in artificial array
like the lines of a battalion of British infantry, with some of their
number planted as sentinels to give notice of the approach of danger.
Their voice has a peculiarly deep trumpet-like sound. At the note of
alarm they all take to flight, swooping through the air in the form of a
triangle.
They are skilful fishers. They wade deep into the water, where their
long necks enable them to seize their prey with ease. Their food
consists of spawn, insects, and molluscous animals. Owing to their
peculiar structure they are both waders and swimmers.
[Illustration: ROSE FLAMINGOES (_Phoenicopterus antiquorum_).]
Several of the African Grallatores wage a murderous war against reptiles
in the marshes and the meads; a war which claims the gratitude of man,
who could never defend himself against their prolific increase and
pertinacious attacks. I have already referred to the Stork; it is
needful I should also mention the Ibis, once an object of worship on the
banks of the Nile; the Jacana, his long claws armed with sharpened nails
that transfix his prey; the formidable-billed Baléniceps, which devours
the young crocodiles; and the famous Serpent-Bird of the Cape, belonging
to the Grallatores by his legs, to the Raptores by the talons and
crooked beak with which he is provided, as well as by the structure of
his internal organs. These birds are the allies and protectors of man,
as Michelet has shown with characteristic eloquence in his rhapsodical
prose poem, "_L'Oiseau_;" yet even these, in their combined efforts,
are insufficient against the prolific races of aquatic and terrestrial
reptiles, some formidable by their size and strength, some by their
subtlety and venom. The narratives of the adventurous men who have not
feared to incur
"The moving accidents of flood and field,"
in traversing the wild regions of the Ancient World, are full of
striking accounts of encounters with these monsters, and of the miseries
they inflict upon the countries cursed with their presence.
"In Afric's sunny clime," flood, and river, and lake are haunted by the
loathsome and dangerous Crocodile (_Lacerta crocodilus_), one of the
most powerful species of the Saurian race. Though he preys chiefly on
fish, his capacious jaws will devour any animal that comes within their
reach; and when one reflects that he often attains the length of twenty
to thirty feet, that the upper part of his body is clothed with an
almost impenetrable scaly armour, that his long, oar-like tail is of
immense strength, one can readily comprehend the vast amount of
destruction such a monster can effect. Happily his movements on land are
impeded by the unwieldiness of his body, which prevents him from turning
except with great difficulty, and enables his intended victims to effect
their escape. In the water, however, he glides along with great
rapidity.
The female deposits her eggs, which are not much larger than those of a
goose, in the sand or mud near the banks of the rivers or streams which
she frequents. By a beneficent provision of Nature, the young are
largely devoured by birds, ichneumons, and other animals, preventing
their otherwise rapid increase. The colour of a full-grown crocodile is
a blackish-brown above and yellowish-white beneath, the upper parts of
the legs and sides being relieved by shades of deep yellow, and in some
places tinged with green. The mouth is of vast width, and both jaws
bristle with a terrible array of sharp-pointed teeth.
The African species all belong to the same genus, of which the Crocodile
of the Nile is the type.
At the Gaboon, the negroes hunt their enemies either with muskets or a
kind of harpoon. Their vulnerable points are the attachment of the
anterior limbs, and, of course, the eyes. It is here that their
assailants endeavour to mark them. They are killed every day without
their number appearing to be sensibly diminished, and, what is singular
enough, without their seeming to grow mistrustful. During the heat of
the noon, they retire among the reeds and rushes for repose, but never
remain long in any one place. At evening and at morning they sally forth
in quest of prey. They swim without making any noise, scarcely
disturbing the water, which they cleave like dogs; they will also remain
motionless on its surface, glancing around them with cruel, dull,
sinister eyes. The negro does not feel towards them so great an horror
as Europeans experience, who are powerfully affected by their exceeding
hideousness. They eat their flesh, with which their huge bony skeleton
is scantily furnished, and, according to Du Chaillu, can never obtain
enough of the much-prized delicacy.[127]
The Indian Crocodile, the _Gavial_ or _Garial_ (_Crocodilus
Gangeticus_), is of the same size as his African congener, but easily
distinguished by the peculiar conformation of his mouth; the jaws being
remarkably straight, long, and narrow. The sides of the head are
straight and perpendicular, the upper surface quadrilateral; and the
mandible, instead of sloping gradually from the forehead, sinks suddenly
to follow a straight and almost horizontal direction. The teeth are
nearly double in number those of the Nilotic monster, but he is far less
dangerous, and feeds only on fish. There are two species: the Gavial of
the Ganges, found in all the great rivers of Southern Asia; and the
Gavial of Schlegel, belonging exclusively to the island of Borneo.
Serpents of every size, venomous and non-venomous, multiply in the
jungles, marshes, and woods of all tropical countries. Africa and Asia
are abundantly provided with them. In Senegal they are all, or mostly
all, inoffensive, and the objects of devout worship on the part of the
negroes of Dahomey; but naturalists have not yet determined their
respective genera. It is certain, however, that they do not all belong
to the same species. In size, says the French traveller, Dr. Répin, they
vary from three to ten feet. Their head is large, flattened, and
triangular; the neck not quite so large as the remainder of the body; in
these respects resembling the entire host of _Ophidia_. They vary in
colour from a bright yellow to a yellowish-green, according perhaps to
their age. Most of them are marked upon the back, for their whole
length, with two brown lines, while a few are irregularly spotted. The
long and prehensile tail, and the facility with which some of them
climb, would refer them probably to the genus _Leptophis_ of Duméril and
Bibron. At Whydah, these divinities are lodged in a temple shaded by
lofty and beautiful trees. This curious edifice is described as a kind
of rotunda, from thirty to forty feet in diameter, and from twenty-two
to twenty-five feet high. Its walls, constructed of sunburnt clay, are
pierced, like those of the Dahomean houses, by two opposite gates,
affording free ingress and egress to the deities of the place. The roof,
formed of branches curiously interlaced and covered with a layer of
dried grass, is constantly tapestried with a myriad serpents. Some climb
or descend by writhing round the trunks of trees arranged for this
purpose along the walls; others, suspended by the tail, balance
themselves indifferently in the air; others, again, lie coiled up in
spiral folds on the ground or among the grasses of the temple roof. They
never want for nourishment; the devout supply them with constant
renewals of food, and in such abundance, that the priests, who,
moreover, exercise the double profession of sorcerers and doctors, are
in no greater peril of starvation than their gods!
The spotted serpents of which Dr. Répin speaks may possibly be no other
than _Pythons_, those gigantic Ophidians of the tropical regions of the
Old World which are found in Africa, in India, in the Indian
Archipelago, and even in Australia. It should be noted, however, that
their size generally exceeds that of the largest serpents which Dr.
Répin saw at Whydah. Their length is from fifteen to twenty-five
feet--specimens have been met with measuring thirty--and their maximum
diameter ranges from ten to twelve inches. Their back is variegated
with large spots, whose form, colour, and disposition differ according
to their species. The tail is short, and not prehensile. Their favourite
haunt is the low marshy ground, rank with moist herbage, where they prey
upon birds and small animals, swallowing them whole--swallowing them
even alive--after having seized them in the invincible folds of their
long sinuous bodies, and always commencing with their hinder parts. So
greedy a repast must necessarily be followed by a slow and difficult
digestion, and cannot be renewed at any very brief interval. They eat in
effect but once a month, or once in two months. During the lethargic and
semi-somnolent condition which invariably follows their debauch, they
fall easy victims to the attacks of their enemies. The principal African
species of this genus are, the Python of Seba, of Central Africa, and
the Royal Python of Senegambia.
The species peculiar to Asiatic climes is the Python Molure, a native of
the Indian Peninsula, and of the islands of Java and Sumatra. The Python
of the Sunda Islands, called by the natives _Ular-Sawa_, attains the
length of fully thirty feet. It has a large flat head, of a bluish-gray
colour, a thick yellowish muzzle, and cylindrical neck. Its body is
marked with deep-blue spots, with a yellow or tawny border; its yellow
tail with blue rings. Its ordinary habitat is the rivers; it feeds on
rats and birds, but also pursues, when ashore, the largest animals.
We are indebted to Dr. Livingstone for much curious information
respecting the serpents of South Africa, and especially in reference to
the _Striking Echidna_, a singularly formidable viper, which the negroes
designate _Picakolou_. He tells us that he killed one day a reptile of
this species, which was of a deep brown colour, verging on black, and
measured seven feet and a half in length.[128] These reptiles possess so
abundant and deadly a venom, that when one of them is attacked by a band
of dogs, the first dog bitten dies immediately; the second, five minutes
afterwards; the third, at the end of an hour; and the fourth, after a
more or less lengthened agony. A great number of beasts is annually
destroyed by the Picakolous; the fangs of an individual killed at
Kolobeng distilled poison for several hours after its head had been
severed from its body. It is probably this plentiful secretion which the
natives call "the serpent's spittle," and which leads them to suppose
that the Picakolou is endowed with a power of injecting it into its
enemies' eyes when the wind is favourable.
[Illustration:
Python Molure. Echidna, or _Picakolou_. Fennec (_Megalotis_).]
Other venomous species exist in this part of Africa, of which several
are vipers, and among others the Puff-Adder (_Vipera inflata_). The
natives have named it _Noga-Poutsane_, or the Goats' Serpent, because it
makes at night a bleating exactly resembling that animal. There were
certainly no goats, says Livingstone, in the place where I happened to
hear it. The natives suppose that by this bleating it hopes to deceive
the traveller, and draw him within its reach. Some species emit, when
they are frightened, a peculiar odour, strong enough to indicate their
presence when they have found their way into the huts. There are also
several varieties of Cobras (the _Naja-Haje_ of Dr. Smith). When they
are attacked, they raise their head a foot from the ground, extend their
neck in a threatening manner, dart their tongue to and fro with extreme
rapidity, while rage glares in their fixed and glassy eyes.
Different serpents of the genus _Dendrophis_, as, for example, the Green
Climber (_Bucephalus viridis_), scale the trees in search of birds and
their eggs, to which they are curiously partial. The Bucephalus is armed
with fangs; nevertheless it is not venomous, and these fangs, which turn
inwards, are only of use in preventing the retrogression of their prey,
only one part of which is enclosed between its jaws.
The Cobra or Naja (_Vipera naja_), the "Hooded Snake" and "Spectacle
Snake" of the English, the "Cobra de Capella" of the Portuguese, must be
classed among those serpents which are the most dangerous through their
violence, and the subtle character of their venom. It is easily
recognized by its faculty of dilating the back and sides of the neck,
under the influence of fear or rage, to which it owes its popular
appellation; the elevated skin of the back of the neck presenting much
the appearance of a hood (_capella_). It is usually three or four feet
in length; of a pale reddish-brown colour above, and bluish or
yellowish-white below; with a characteristic mark on the back of the
neck closely resembling the figure of an old-fashioned pair of
spectacles. It is a sluggish creature, and easily killed, but its poison
is of the most fatal quality, causing death within two hours. It
frequents the purlieus of human residences in India, and occasionally
penetrates into the very houses, attracted apparently by the domestic
poultry, and by the humidity of the wells and drainage. In Ceylon, the
natives, if journeying abroad by night, carry a small stick with a loose
iron ring, whose strange metallic sound, as they strike it on the earth,
frightens the cobra from their path. The poison is harmless if taken
internally. It is secreted in a large gland in the serpent's head, and
flows, when the animal compresses its mouth on any object, through a
cavity of the tooth into the wound.[129]
The Indian species plays a conspicuous part in the displays of the Hindu
jugglers, who exercise a strange power over them by the tones of their
voice and the sounds of various musical instruments, compelling them to
rise partially from the ground and go through a succession of fantastic
movements. Something of this power is also due to the fascination of the
juggler's eye. Serpent-charming is of remote antiquity in Egypt and in
most Oriental nations, where the profession would seem to be hereditary.
Several allusions to it occur in Holy Writ.[130]