diminution of creatures, I may be pardoned for noting the predominant
increase of sex in some years. The most remarkable instance, that I
remember of late, was in 1825. How far it extended I do not know, but
for many miles round us we had in that year scarcely any female calves
born. Dairies of forty or fifty cows produced not more than five or
six, those of inferior numbers, in the same proportion, and the price
of female calves for rearing was greatly augmented. In the wild state,
an event like this would have considerable influence upon the usual
product of some future herd. In the ensuing spring, we had in the
village an extraordinary instance of fecundity in the sheep afforded
us, one farmer having an increase of sixteen lambs from five ewes,
four of which produced three each, and one brought forth four;
however, only a small portion of these little creatures lived to
maturity.
Footnote 41:
See note S, appendix.
Footnote 42:
See note T, appendix.
Footnote 43:
See Ray’s Synopsis.
Footnote 44:
he organ, which inflicts the pain, or sting, when we incautiously
handle the nettle, is well known to be connected with a little vessel
containing an acrid fluid, which being compressed, rushes up the tube
of the organ, and is thus conveyed into the wound; and it is rather
singular, that the larvæ of the admirable butterfly, which feeds upon
the large hedge nettle, has the spines which arise from its body
branched, and each collateral hair arises from a little bulb, similar
to that of the plant on which it is chiefly found.
Footnote 45:
See note U, appendix.
Footnote 46:
Linnean Transactions, vol. vii.
Footnote 47:
See note V, appendix.
Footnote 48:
I remember no bird that seems to suffer so frequently from the
peculiar construction of its nest, and by reason of our common
observance of its sufferings obtains more of our pity, than the house-
marten. The rook will at times have its nest torn from its airy site,
or have its eggs shaken from it by the gales of spring; but the poor
marten, which places its earthy shed beneath the eave of the barn, the
roof of the house, or in the corner of the window, is more generally
injured. July and August are the months in which these birds usually
bring out their young; but one rainy day at this period, attended with
wind, will often moisten the earth that composes the nest; the cement
then fails, and all the unfledged young ones are dashed upon the
ground; and there are some places to which these poor birds are
unfortunately partial, though their nests are annually washed down.
The projecting thatch of the old farm-house appears to be their safest
asylum. The parent birds at times seem aware of the misfortune that
awaits them; as, before the calamity is completed, we may observe them
with great anxiety hovering about their nests.
Footnote 49:
Petrels have been carried, by a storm, as far inland as the interior
of Pennsylvania.—ED.
Footnote 50:
See note W, appendix.
Footnote 51:
I know not any definition of what we term “animal instinct” more
comprehensive and accordant with truth than the following, given in
the Elements of Etymology by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. “Without
pretending to give a logical definition of it, (instinct,) which,
while we are ignorant of the essence of reason, is impossible, we may
call the instincts of animals those unknown faculties implanted in
their constitutions by the Creator, by which, independent of
instruction, observation, or experience, and without a knowledge of
the end in view, they are impelled to the performance of certain
actions tending to the well-being of the individual, and preservation
of the species.”
Footnote 52:
See note W, appendix.
Footnote 53:
See note X, appendix.
Footnote 54:
The crow in the spring, when food is difficult of attainment, will
kill young pigeons; and the magpie having young ones, captures the new
hatches of our domestic poultry: but these are cases of necessity
rather than habit. The raven has a decided inclination for the eyes of
creatures, and finding lambs in a weak state, immediately plucks them
out, and when the animal is recently dead, commences his depredations
upon these parts.
Footnote 55:
Substance of a paper read before the Royal Society, Nov. 27, 1824. See
Zoological Magazine, vol. i.
Footnote 56:
See note Y, appendix.
Footnote 57:
See note Z, appendix.
Footnote 58:
See note AA, appendix.
Footnote 59:
The Night-Hawk.
Footnote 60:
See note BB, appendix.
Footnote 61:
See note CC, appendix.
Footnote 62:
Multitudes of words are retained in our language derived from very
ancient dialects, and possibly the name “clock,” as given to this
beetle, conveying no meaning to our present comprehensions, is a
corruption of some syllable in former use. Its subterranean residence
might have been signified by the old word “cloax,” a vault, a creature
from below. Or, burrowing in filth and ordure, as it does, the epithet
“clocca,” the offspring of a common shore, or jakes, would not have
been insignificant of its origin and habits. Fancy, too, playing with
trifles, amuses itself in bandying about even its more general
appellative, dorr. In old times a “dorr” was a stupid, blundering
fellow; and “to dorr,” was to din, or trouble with noise, both
meanings applicable to the heedless flight, and loud noise, made in
all the transits of this dung beetle.
Footnote 63:
See note DD, appendix.
Footnote 64:
See note EE, appendix.
Footnote 65:
The hornet is a very pugnacious animal. They will fight desperately
with each other at times, when they meet in pursuit of prey, biting
each other’s body, and trying to get their mandibles under the head of
their opponents, to snip it off. I one day confined under a glass two
of these creatures, which had been fighting. One had evidently the
mastery; but both had been so injured in the contest that they soon
died; and it is most probable that they fall victims to each other’s
voracity, in the cold, damp season that usually terminates the autumn
of our year.
Footnote 66:
That bees are attracted by the hiving-pan is generally considered as
fallacious, and the practice useless.
Footnote 67:
See note FF, appendix.
Footnote 68:
This creature was first observed, I am told, about the year 1819, in
the nursery garden of Messrs. Miller and Sweet near Bristol,
introduced, as is supposed, on some imported plant. It increases
readily in our climate. The white moss rose (rosa muscosa, var. alba):
this beautiful variety was first produced about the year 1808, in the
garden of Gabriel Goldney, Esq., at Clifton, near Bristol; a branch of
the common red moss rose, becoming diseased, produced its flowers
white. A neighboring nurseryman, being employed by that gentleman’s
gardener to lay down the branch, from cuttings propagated the variety,
and shortly after dispersed many plants.
Footnote 69:
See note GG, appendix.
Footnote 70:
See note HH, appendix.
Footnote 71:
See note II, appendix.
Footnote 72:
This agaric is, I believe, unnoticed. I have called it Agaricus
surrectus.
Pileus—convex, expanding, covered with a pile of short, white hair;
centre depressed; faintly tinted with yellow; from one to three inches
in diameter.
Laminæ—loose, irregular, generally four in a set, rather numerous
broad, white, changing to buff, and then pink.
Footnote 73:
See note JJ, appendix.
Stipes—solid, tapering upwards, rather thick immediately below the
pileus, three inches high, thick as a reed, white, and often downy,
wrapper at the base.
Many of this species of singular plant I found in October, 1819,
springing from a confluent mass of a. caseus. Bolton’s a. pulvinatus
is something like our plant; but he describes his under side as
perfectly flat, and represents a singularity in the termination of his
laminæ, which is not observable in our a. surrectus.
Footnote 74:
See note KK, appendix.
Footnote 75:
The ash, generally speaking, will arrive at a very serviceable age, in
sixty years, producing at a low rate twenty-eight feet of timber,
which, at 2_s._ 3_d._ the foot, its present value, would produce a sum
equivalent to 3_l._ 3_s._, a silent unheeded profit of above a
shilling a year. A hundred such might have been felled annually from
many farms had they not been topped, which, in consequence of this
practice have produced nothing.
Footnote 76:
See note LL, appendix.
Footnote 77:
“Mr. Caldcleugh sent home two tubers, which being well manured, even
the first season produced numerous potatoes, and an abundance of
leaves.” _Hort. Transactions_, Vol. V. p. 249. See Humboldt’s
interesting discussion on this plant, which it appears was unknown in
Mexico, in _Political Essay on New Spain_, book IV. chapter IX.
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22 owing was, by reason of its growing was, by reason of its
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