"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 compellingthem 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 trueniggers, 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 followsthe 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 pupæ 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 larvæ, take the pupæ 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]
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 seenbelonged. 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 unobstructedview, 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 theship 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."
Æpyornis,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.Fleasad 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.Káureke,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.Medusæ, 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.Orchideæ, 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—medusæ,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.