"The bat, the bee, the butterfly,The cuckoo and the swallow,The corn-crake and the wheat-ear,They all sleep in the hollow."
"The bat, the bee, the butterfly,The cuckoo and the swallow,The corn-crake and the wheat-ear,They all sleep in the hollow."
Local variations—what we may calllectiones variæ—exist; for example, in the south-east of our island, the third line runs,
"The corn-crake and thenightingale."
"The corn-crake and thenightingale."
In the north of Europe an opinion has long prevailed that the Swallows not only hybernate in a state of torpidity, but, like the frogs and toads, retire to the bottoms of pools to spend that dreary season. In Berger's "Calendar of Flora," published in theAmœnitates Academicæ, vol. iv., he puts down as the phenomenon proper to the 22d of September, "Hirundo submergitur," talking, as Gilbert White remarks, as familiarly of the Swallows going under water, as he would of his poultry going to roost at sunset. Klein, and even Linnæus himself, adopted this strange opinion, which was considered to rest upon good testimony, and that not only of the illiterate and unobservant. Etmuller, who was Professor of Anatomy and Botany at Leipsig in the middle of the seventeenth century, says, "I remember to have found more than a bushel would hold of Swallows closely clustered among the reeds of a fish-pond under the ice, all of them to appearance dead, but with the heart still pulsating." And Derham, the acute author of "Physico-theology," citing this statement, adds, "We had at a meeting of the Royal Society, February 12, 1713, a further confirmation of Swallows retiring under water in the winter from Dr Colas, a person very curious in these matters, who, speaking of their way of fishing in the northern parts by breaking holes and drawing their nets under the ice, saith, that he saw sixteenSwallows so drawn out of the Lake of Lamrodt, and about thirty out of the king's great pond in Rosneilen; and that at Schlehitten, near a house of the Earl of Dohna, he saw two Swallows just come out of the waters, that could, scarcely stand, being very wet and weak, with their wings hanging on the ground; and that he observed the Swallows to be often weak for some days after their appearance."[113]
The Academy of Upsal received the winter submersion of the Swallows as an undoubted fact, and even Cuvier admits as "well authenticated, that they fall into a lethargic state during winter, and even that they pass that season at the bottom of marshy waters."[114]One would think that a zoological statement which Linnæus and Cuvier accepted, must be fact; yet it remains utterly improbable. In Germany, a reward of an equal weight in silver was publicly offered to any one who should produce Swallows found under water, but we are assured that no one was found to claim the money.
We may safely dismiss the notion of submersion till better authenticated; but that of torpidity is still open to examination. Statements to the effect that quantities of Swallows in a death-like condition have been found in hollow trees, holes in cliffs, banks, &c., are even more common than those of their submersion; and they seem to obtain credence in all the temperate or cold regions where the Swallows are found. It is hard to think that a persuasion so widely diffused can be wholly groundless.
Peter Collinson, the friend and correspondent of Linnæus, communicated to the Royal Society the following statement by M. Achard:—"In the latter end of March I took my passage down the Rhine to Rotterdam. A little below Basel, the south bank of the river was very high and steep, of a sandy soil, sixty or eighty feet above the water.
"I was surprised at seeing, near the top of the cliff, some boys tied to ropes, hanging down doing something. The singularity of these adventurous boys, and the business they so daringly attempted, made us stop our navigation, to inquire into the meaning of it. The waterman told us they were reaching the holes in the cliffs for Swallows or Martins, which took refuge in them, and remained there all the winter, until warm weather, and then they came abroad.
"The boys being let down by their comrades to the holes, put in a long rammer, with a screw at the end, such as is used to unload guns, and, twisting it about, drew out the birds. For a trifle I procured some of them. When I first had them, they seemed stiff and lifeless; I put one of them in my bosom, between my skin and shirt, and laid another on a board, the sun shining full and warm upon it; and one or two of my companions did the like. That in my bosom revived in about a quarter of an hour; feeling it move, I took it out to look at it; but perceiving it not sufficiently come to itself, I put it in again; in about another quarter, feeling it flutter pretty briskly, I took it out, and admired it. Being now perfectly recovered, before I was aware, it took its flight; the covering of the boat prevented me from seeing where it went. The bird on the board, though exposed to a full sun, yet, I presume from a chilliness of the air, did not revive so as to be able to fly."[115]
On this account I may observe that Collinson would hardly have been the medium of this communication, unless he had been satisfied of the probity of his correspondent. The time was "the latter end of March," a fortnight at least before the arrival of the Sand Martin—the earliest of our migrants; and the whole enterprise of the boys, and the familiarity of the waterman with the circumstance, as well as their assertions, shew that they, at least, had no doubt about this being a case of hybernation. Yet the repeated exploration of the Sand Martin's burrows in this country, in winter, has produced no birds.
White of Selborne, who was very much interested in the solution of this question, mentions two instances—both, however, on hearsay evidence. A clergyman assured him that, when he was a boy, some workmen, in pulling down the battlements of a tower, early in spring, found two or three Swiftsamong the rubbish, which appeared dead, but revived in the warmth. The other account was that of the fall of a portion of the cliff near Brighton in winter, when many persons found Swallows among the rubbish; but here even White's informant did not see the birds, but was merely told of them.[116]
Bishop Stanley, in his "Familiar History of Birds," hascollected some stories which appear circumstantial enough, if we could be quite sure they were authentic; on which point the good bishop seems to give the weight of his own character, since he observes that they are "cases which have come to our knowledge, on the most respectable authority."
"On the 16th of November 1826, a gentleman residing near Loch Awe, in Scotland, having occasion to examine an out-house, used as a cart-shed, saw an unusual appearance upon one of the rafters which crossed and supported the thatched roof. Upon mounting a ladder, he found to his astonishment that this was a group of Chimney-swallows (Hirundo rustica) which had taken up their winter quarters in this exposed situation. The group consisted of five, completely torpid: and none of the tribe to which they belonged had been seen for five or six weeks previously: he took them in his hand, as they lay closely and coldly huddled together, and conveyed them to his house, in order to exhibit them as objects of curiosity to the other members of his family. For some time they remained to all appearance lifeless; but the temperature of the apartment into which they were carried being considerably raised by a good turf fire, they gradually evinced symptoms of reanimation; and in less than a quarter of an hour, finding that they were rather rudely handled, all of them recovered, so as to fly impatiently round the room, in search of some opening by which they might escape. The window was thrown up, and they soon found their way into the fields, and were never seenagain. A similar circumstance, though, from the place of its discovery it must refer probably to Sand Martins, was related by a gentleman who found two Swallows in a sand-bank at Newton, near Stirling, quite dormant.
"Again, about half-a-dozen Swallows were found a few years ago, in a torpid state, in the trunk of a hollow tree, by a countryman, who brought them to a respectable person, by whom they were deposited in a desk, where they remained forgotten till the following spring, when, one morning, on hearing a noise, he opened the desk, and found one of them fluttering about: the others also began to shew signs of life, and upon being placed out of doors in the sun, speedily arranged their plumage, took wing, and disappeared.
"On the 2d of November 1829, at Loch Ransa, in the island of Arran, a man, while digging in a place where a pond had been lately drained off, discovered two Swallows in a state of torpor; on placing them near the fire, they recovered. One unfortunately escaped, but the other was kept by the man, for the purpose of shewing it to some scientific persons."
In North America there is a curious species of Swift, (Acanthylis pelasgia,) which associates in immense flocks to roost in chimneys and hollow trees. It is the popular belief that these birds spend the winter in a torpid condition in their roosting trees. Williams, in his "History of Vermont," speaks of a large hollow elm which had been for many years appropriated to this purpose. A farmer resident close to the tree was persuaded that it was thewinter dwelling-place of the Swifts, and avoided felling it on that account. About the 1st of May, he always saw them come out of it in large numbers, about the middle of the day, and in a short time return. Then, as the weather grew warmer, they came forth in increased multitudes in the morning, and did not return till night. A similar account was given of another tree: the first appearance of the Swifts in spring was always their emergence from its hollow trunk, and their last, in September, was their ingress. Yet Wilson, the great ornithologist of America, argues, not without some heat, yet with considerable force, that such a belief is erroneous. Erroneous, certainly, the supposition that the whole body of the Chimney-swifts so hybernate; but whether a few do or do not, his arguments do not quite conclude.
The rustic quatrain, quoted in the outset of this disquisition, mentions the Corncrake, as associated with the Swallow in this winter-sleep,—"in the hollow." It is curious that two modern instances are on record of hybernating Corncrakes, though this is certainly as migratory a species with us as theHirundinidæ. A farmer at Aikerness in Orkney, about midwinter, in demolishing a mud-wall, found a Corncrake in the midst of it. It was apparently lifeless; but being fresh to the feel and smell, it was placed in the warmth. In a short time it began to move, and in a few hours was able to walk about, and lived for two days in the kitchen; when refusing all food, or rather, none that suited it being then obtainable, it died.[117]
"The second case occurred at Monaghan, in Ireland, where a gentleman, having directed his labourers, in winter, to remove a large heap of manure, that had remained undisturbed for a great length of time, perceived a hole, which was supposed to have been made by rats; it penetrated to a great depth, but at its termination, instead of rats, three Corncrakes were discovered, as if placed there with the greatest care, not a feather being out of its place, and apparently lifeless. The birds on examination were, however, considered to be in a torpid state, and were placed near a fire in a warm room. In the course of a short time a tremulous motion was observed in one of their legs, and soon after a similar motion was noticed in the legs and wings of the whole, which at length extended itself to their whole bodies, and finally the birds were enabled to run and fly about the room."[118]
Daines Barrington, the correspondent of Gilbert White and of Pennant, was a firm believer in the winter sleep of Swallows with us. He mentions, on the authority of Lord Belhaven, that numbers of Swallows had been found in old dry walls and in sandhills near his lordship's seat in East-Lothian; not once only,but from year to year, and that when they were exposed to the warmth, they revived. He says, however, he cannot determine the particular species.[119]
The same naturalist mentions many other instances in which they have been reported to be found, but he cannot give his personal voucher for the truth of the statements.
"As first in a decayed hollow tree, that was cut down near Dolgelly, in Merionethshire; secondly, in a cliff near Whitby, in Yorkshire, where, in digging out a fox, whole bushels of Swallows were found in a torpid condition; thirdly, the Rev. Mr Conway, of Lychton, Flintshire, a few years ago, between All Saints' and Christmas, on looking down an old lead mine in that county, observed numbers of Swallows clinging to the timbers of the shaft, seemingly asleep, and on flinging some gravel on them they just moved, but never attempted to fly or to change their place."[120]
In some communications to theZoologistfor 1845, by the late Mr F. Holme, of Oxford, I find the following statement:—"On the hybernation of this species (the House-swallow) I was told many years since, by old Wall, then keeper of the Kildare Street Museum, in Dublin, ... that after a heavy snow, in the winter of 1825-26, on going into themansardeto see whether the snow had melted through, he found four Chimney-swallows perched close together on a cross-beam, with their heads under their wings; but on approaching his hand to them they flew off, and escaped into the open air."[121]
Again, Mr J. B. Ellman of Battel, says, "There is a farmer named Waters, residing at Catsfield, (adjoining parish,) who informs me he has frequently (some years ago) dug Swallows out of banks in winter, while widening the ditches in the brooks," &c.[122]
It is unfortunate that most of these and similar discoveries were "some years ago;" and that, instead of increasing in frequency with the increase of scientific research and communication, they strangely become more rare. The same remark applies to the following statement: it is minute enough, and circumstantially precise; but, unfortunately, it was "fifteen years ago." The communicator is Edward Brown Fitton, Hastings, under date September 8, 1849:—
"A labourer named William Joyce, who is now employed in excavating part of the East Hill for the foundation of a house, told me yesterday, that, in the month of December, about fifteen years ago, while he was working for Mr William Ranger, who had the contract for cutting away the 'White Rock,' which used to stand between this place and St Leonard's, the men found an immense quantity of Swallows in a cleft of the rock. The birds were clinging together in large 'clots,' and appeared to be dead, but were not frozen together, the weather being rather warm for the season, nor were they at all putrid or decayed. The men carried out at leastthree railway-barrowsfull of birds, which were buried with the mould and rubbish from the cliff as it was wheeled away. Some people from the town carried away a few of the birds to 'make experiments with,' but Joyce never heard any more of them. He mentioned the names of four persons now in Hastings, who were then his fellow-labourers, and says, that forty or fifty of Mr Ranger's men were on thespot when the birds were found, and can confirm what he says, both as to the finding and the very great quantity of the birds. There are many crevices in the seaward surface of the cliffs about here, which apparently penetrate the cliff for several yards. The birds were found about ten feet from the surface of the rock facing the sea, and not very high up."[123]
There is yet another class of facts to be adduced, which has an important bearing on the subject. At first sight, these facts appear less conclusive than the asserted discoveries of the birds, because less direct; but I am inclined to attach more value to them, because they are attested by so many and so unexceptionable witnesses. I mean the sight of Swallows at large in these islands during the winter months. Let us see some examples.
White of Selborne records several cases: thus, in 1773, twenty or thirty House-martins were playing in the air all day on the 3d of November,[124]after having disappeared from the 22d of October. In 1772, he saw three House-swallows gliding by on the sea-shore at Newhaven, on the 4th of November.[125]On another occasion, (the year not being recorded,) he saw, on a sunny morning, a House-martin flying, at Oxford, on the 20th of November.[126]On the 26th of November 1768, one of his neighbours saw a Martin hawking briskly after flies.[127]And a very respectable gentleman assured him that on a remarkably hot day, either in the last week in December or the first week in January, he espied three or four Swallows in the moulding of a window of Merton College, Oxford.[128]
Colonel Montagu remarks that "there are a variety of instances of the Swallow and Martin having been seen flying in the months of November and December, roused probably from a state of torpidity by an unusual warmth of the air;"[129]and Captain H. W. Hadfield, commenting on this, affirms that he has "more than once had ocular proof of their presence during the winter months."[130]Yarrell gives examples of the late appearance of the Swift. One was seen by Mr Blackwall on the 20th of October 1815; a second in Perthshire on the 8th of November 1834; and a third in Devonshire, by the Rev. Mr Cornish, on the 27th November 1835.[131]In considering these cases, it is needful to bear in mind that the Swift migrates from this country annually from the 1st to the 15th of August.
Mr C. R. Bree mentions the following case, which I record, not because it was particularly late, but because the state of the season, and some other circumstances which he remarks on are interesting:—"On the 25th of October 1848, some workmen being engaged on the roof of my house, I was surprised by the appearance of three Swallows flying about the men. I had not seen one since the beginning of the month. By the side of the edge of the gable-end of the house the plaster was broken away, forming a hole, which led under the roof. While watching the birds, which came occasionally quite close to my face, I saw first one, then another, alight upon the ledge of the gable-end, near the hole. Now, I thought, I am to settle the question of hybernation: but I was disappointed. Though I watched them for several hours—though I sent the workmen to another part of the house, yet, although they frequently settled about the hole, they never entered it. They were evidently young birds, and had been disturbed. One of them rested upon the chimney, and appeared weak and dull. I lost sight of them during the day; but the following morning, the weather being warm, I saw several flying about high up in the air. There is some mystery about these things. Why have these late appearances been more remarked this year than other years? How did the birds obtain food during the three weeks of bitter cold weather when they were not seen in October?"[132]
On the 10th of December 1843, a specimen of the Swallow,an adult bird, not a young of the season, (an important circumstance,) in full plumage and good condition, was shot at Goole, in the West Riding, and was sent to Mr R. J. Bell, of Derby, a good ornithologist,[133]who records the fact. In 1852, that excellent naturalist, Mr Hewitson, of Oatlands, saw two Chimney-swallows at Eshar on the 18th of November, and on the 21st had four martins about his house.[134]In 1855, Mr E. Vernon Harcourt reports the occurrence of several Martins skimming aboutat Uckfield on the 23d of November; and on the 6th of December several Chimney-swallows about the house at Hastings.[135]In the same season flocks of Martins were hawking vigorously, in the vicinity of Penzance, to the 28th of November, as witnessed by Mr E. H. Rodd.[136]Captain Hadfield again, writing in 1856, gives extracts from his journals, whereby he records having seen Swallows and Martins as late as November 3, 1841, December 2, 1842, November 13, 1852, November 22, 1853, November (about the middle) 1854, and November 24 (Swallows) and December 2 (Martins) 1855. Of the last-mentioned occurrence he gives the following interesting note:—"Dec. 2, 4P.M.Observed eight Martins flying round the garden, and occasionally alighting on the perpendicular face of the wall of a house near my garden gate, to which they would cling for a few seconds, and then, dropping off, whirl round, returning to the same spot, seemingly quite unconscious of my presence and that of several others: they seemed bent on effecting an entrance under the eaves of the house, by a small opening they had discovered near a water-pipe that had been carried through the wall: they were, I believe, all young birds of the season, as they appeared small, their tails being also shorter than in the adults; they were weak on the wing, but that may have arisen from their being benumbed by the cold, the thermometer standing at 44° only at the above hour. There had been a bright sun during the greater part ofthe day, but I had observed a white frost in the morning. I conclude that these late birds were merely seeking a roosting-place for the night, and not a place of concealment for the winter, although I might have been excused, according to Cuvier, White, &c., had I thought they were taking up their winter quarters; but I have not sufficient faith in the theory to induce me to unslate a part of the roof to seek for them, which might be done, however, at a trifling cost, provided permission were obtained."[137]
It is rather a pity that the observer had not confidence enough to induce him to make the investigation which he suggests.
Mr William Bree mentions as many as fifteen or twenty Martins and Swallows sporting in the air near Temple Balsall on the 18th November 1846, adding that he has frequently seen individuals much later, but never recollects to have seen so great a number together at that late period. And, finally, Mr J. Johnston, jun., reports that he saw, in the afternoon of 18th January 1837, three Swallows dipping and hawking as in summer, near Wakefield.[138]
There is less evidence of the appearance of these birds before the ordinary time of arrival of the migrants. But White, when a boy, observed a Swallow for a whole day together on a sunny warm Shrove Tuesday, which day could not fall out later than the middle of March, and often happened early in February.[139]And Mr Samuel Gurney, jun., together with several other persons, saweither a Martin or Swallow, on the 27th of March 1844.[140]
If this last occurrence had stood alone, it would have been of slight importance; for Yarrell mentions a single Swallow as having been seen by a fisherman near the Eddystone as early as the 4th of April; and Sand-martins, even as far north as Carlisle, before the end of March. It is just possible that these may have been stragglers of the great army of migrants, arriving some ten or fifteen days before their time; but considering the whole great array of evidence, I rather believe that these too were hybernants, who had been prematurely awakened from torpidity by unusually warm days.
The accounts ofHirundineshaving been found in a somnolent state in winter may or may not be true; though the great number of such statements in various and distant countries makes the indiscriminate rejection of them even more difficult than the acceptance. But still there remains the undeniable fact that it is quite an ordinary thing for birds of this family, including all our four common species, to be seen with us through November and December, and occasionally in January;—that is, for two or three months after the great body of migrants have left the country. No one, I suppose, pretends that migration of Swallows takes place in December or January; therefore it is manifest that a certain number—more or fewer—remain. What becomes of them? We certainlysee them only occasionally: where are they on the days on which they do not appear,—days extending to several consecutive weeks? If they had not been torpid during those weeks, if the more active functions of life had not been suspended, would they not certainly have been starved? But the specimen shot on the 10th December, and examined by Mr Bell, was in good condition, which is consistent with but one alternative; either it had been well fed throughout the preceding six weeks, or it had been hybernating. But the former supposition implies that it had been habitually on the wing during that period, as Swallows feed only on the wing; which could not have been the case without its being noticed and recorded.
It is common to say that these occasional winter Swallows are the later broods of young, which, being too infantile to migrate, are compelled to linger in the country of their nativity, and becoming lethargic from the advancing cold, at length die before the spring. But when this hypothesis is looked at, it seems hardly tenable. In many of the instances recorded, the specimens seen even late into the winter, are represented as gaily and vigorously hawking for flies, or sweeping over the water as in summer. This does not look like poor deserted orphans starved with the cold, retiring to die; but birds in health, temporarily awakened from normal slumber by an unusual temperature, and instantly ready for a full use of their faculties. However, to settle the point by fact, Mr Belldistinctly states that his specimen of December 10th was "an adult bird,nota young bird of the season."
If it should be asked why they do not appear in January or February, as well as November and December, the answer is obvious. The winter's lethargy of hybernating warm-blooded vertebrates is much more readily interrupted in the earlier part of the season than in the middle and latter part. And this is natural; for the more intense cold of January benumbs and suspends the vital functions far more completely, and thecomaso superinduced is sufficiently deep to resist the counteracting influence of a few warm days, even though the temperature should be as high as on those earlier days that awakened them, or even higher.
The aggregate evidence, then, seems to leave no room for reasonable doubt, that a certain number of ourHirundinidæ,—few, indeed, as compared with the vast migrant population, but still considerable, looked atper se,—for some reason or other, evade the task of a southward flight, and remain, becoming torpid, occasionally betrayed into a temporary activity, and resuming their active life, about the same time, or occasionally a littlebeforethe time, of the arrival of their congeners from abroad. It is, however, desirable for the absolute settlement of the question, that specimens, actually discovered in a lethargic condition, should come under the observation of competent scientific naturalists,open to conviction, who would leave themin situ, keeping an eye on them from time to time till the return of warmweather in spring. It is not enough to take them into a warm room, and to shew that they revive in such circumstances: we want to know positively whether they will be resuscitated normally and naturally by the vernal warmth, and come forth spontaneously to sport, and wheel, and skim, and soar, and stoop, and hawk, and twitter,—among their travelled fellows. Who will undertake to decide the point in this manner? He will have achieved a name in science.
About the middle of the last century there existed in Amsterdam a Museum of natural history, which, though accumulated by the zeal and industry of a private individual, far exceeded in extent and magnificence any collection then in the world. It had been gathered by Albert Seba, a wealthy apothecary in the Dutch East India Company's service, who fortunately published an elaborate description of its contents. This great work, "Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri accurata Descriptio,"—in four volumes folio, published from 1734 to 1765,—is even now remarkable for the accuracy and beauty of its copious engravings, which still are referred to as authorities, though the descriptions are devoid of scientific value. Many of these figures and descriptions, about whose reality no shadow of doubt exists, are those of creatures which are altogether unknown to modern science, and some of them are highly curious.
Serpents seem to have been a special hobby of Seba's; and he has delineated a vast number of species. Among them are two[141]about which a singular interest hangs. They are of rather small size; the one pale yellow, markedwith oval reddish spots, the other reddish, with five green transverse bands. The head in each case has a horny-pointed muzzle, and the cheeks are furnished with depending wattles of a coral-red hue.
From the expressions of wonder with which Seba introduces his descriptions of these animals, it is evident that they were no ordinary forms. He does not know whether to call them Eels or Serpents, the critical characters, which in our day would instantly determine this point, being then scarcely heeded. He calls them "marine," but whether on any other evidence than the pendent processes of the cheeks, which he calls "fins," does not appear. But no fish known to naturalists will answer to these representations. The pointed head, indeed, resembles in some respects that ofMurœna, but this genus of fishes is altogether destitute of pectoral fins, while the vertically-flattened tail, and the long dorsal and anal fins confluent around the extremity of the body inMurœna, are totally unlike these figures. These and all similar fishes are, moreover, destitute of visible scales; but in these the scaling is decidedly serpentine, and the second, in particular, has large symmetrical plates across the belly, while the head in both is shielded with broad plates like a Colubrine Snake. The tail is drawn out to a long conical point, without the slightest appearance of compression or of bordering fins. In one figure there is seen a little projecting point at the edge of the lower belly, which at first sight suggests the idea of the anal hook of aBoa, but which, by comparison with otherfigures, we discover to be intended to represent the projection of the pre-anal scale. The very minuteness of this character makes it valuable: its value was doubtless unheeded by the artist, who merely drew what he saw; it is, however, a very decisive mark of distinction between a serpent and a fish.
Seba records that he had received these Serpents from the Island of St Domingo. This was at that time a flourishing French colony, and its natural productions were far better known to Europe than they now are. When I visited the neighbouring island of Jamaica in 1845-46, I heard accounts of a wonderful animal occasionally seen in the eastern districts of the island, which was reported as a Snake with a cock's comb and wattles, and which crowed like a cock. A good deal of mystery attached to this strange Serpent.
It was appropriated to a very remarkable and peculiar character of scenery:—A wild mountain-region, formed of white limestone, abounding in narrow glens, bounded by abrupt precipices, and permeated by whispering streams that frequently pour in slender cascades over the rocks. The limestone rock rises in abrupt terraces, wall above wall, and its entire surface is most singularly honeycombed, "as if wrought by a graving tool into rough diamond-points," alternating with smooth and rounded holes of various sizes, from that of a hazel-nut upward. In many of these hollows lie the small land-shells of the country, bleached perfectly white, like the stone itself, of the generaHelix,Cyclostoma,Helicina,Cylindrella,Achatina, &c., many of them perfect, but many more in fragments. They exactly resemble fossil shellsin situ, but the species are absolutely identical with those that crawl over the shrubs and trees in the same region. In very many cases the dead shells accurately fit the hollows in the rock, whose interior is impressed with the form and sculpturing of the shell inintaglio:—a most curious and interesting fact, as it points to the very recent formation of the region, the stone bearing evident tokens of having been in a plastic condition when the shells were enveloped in it. Out of the hollows of the rock, their roots fast grasping the sharp-edged projections and tooth-like points of stone, and twining through the tortuous cavities, and insinuating their fibrils into every minute hollow where water may lodge, grow many tall trees of various kinds, interlaced with climbers, and hung with festoons oflianes, that resemble long and twisted cords, thrown from one to another, or depending from the branches towards the ground. The noble Agave, or what we in England call the American Aloe, here throws out its broad, fleshy, spine-edged leaves, and lifts its tall flower-stalk loaded with the candelabra-like branches of bloom; and numerous thickCacti, some erect and massive, others whip-like, long and trailing, give a peculiar aspect to the vegetation. Great tufts ofOrchideœ,—the lovelyBroughtonia, with its thick ovate leaves, and racemes of elegant crimson flowers, theBrasavola, with long leaves resembling porcupine-quills in form, and blossoms of virgin white, theOncidium, with its yellow and red flowers, likea score of painted butterflies dancing in every breath, and many others,—crowd the forks or droop from the twisted boughs of the trees.
This formation of honeycombed limestone is full of caverns, many of which lead into one another in chains, and which have invested the region with a sort of superstitious mystery. Runaway slaves and outlaws have availed themselves of the facilities which its ravines and inaccessible fastnesses afford, to defy capture; and during the rebellion of the Maroons, it attained a considerable notoriety. There is one estate about eight miles from Kingston, in the immediate vicinity of which the famous hero, Three-fingered Jack, made his head-quarters. It is a district of wild torrents and waterfalls of the most romantic character; "the imagination of no painter of theatrical spectacles can surpass the wild wonders of the mountain-hold of therealThree-fingered Jack. Part of the road by which you ascend the falls is a subterranean passage; and caverns are entered by simple crevices which seem mere chinks in the irregular surface of the rock, all which natural peculiarities account for the mysterious disappearances which the mountain hero was enabled to enact from his pursuers."
It was at this spot I first heard reliable tidings of the strange Crested Snake. A medical gentleman of reputation informed me that he had seen, in 1829, a serpent of about four feet in length, but of unwonted thickness, dull ochry in colour with well-defined dark spots, having on its head a sort of pyramidal helmet, somewhat lobed atthe summit, of a pale red hue. The animal, however, was dead, and decomposition was already setting in. He informed me that the negroes of the district were well acquainted with it; and that they represented it as making a noise, not unlike the crowing of a cock, and as being addicted to preying on poultry.
Nor is it in Jamaica alone that the Crested Snake is known. In the island of St Domingo, whence Seba received his curious specimens, my friend Mr Hill heard reports of it. A Spanish gentleman whom he was visiting in Hayti, told him that he had seen it, and begged him to note it among the remarkable things of the country. It was in that far east of the island, known as the ancient Caciquedom of Higuey, where the Indians were of a more warlike disposition than their meek brethren of the centre and west, and where the cruelties perpetrated upon them by their Spanish invaders reached such a superhuman pitch of diabolism, that even Las Casas says he almost feared to repeat them. The limestone mountains are here of exactly the same description as those in Jamaica, and the scenery assumes exactly the same romantic character. My friend's Spanish informant had seen the serpent with mandibles like a bird, with a cock's crest, with scarlet lobes or wattles; and he described its habits,—perhaps rather from common fame than from personal observation,—as a frequenter of hen-roosts, into which it would thrust its head, and deceive the young chickens by its imitative physiognomy, and by its attempts to crow, like their own Chanticleer."Il canta como un Gallo;" was the report in Hayti, just as in Jamaica.
I was much interested in this mysterious reptile, and mentioned in the public papers my wish to possess a specimen. A gentleman of the vicinity, Mr Jasper Cargill, was so desirous to oblige me that he offered a sovereign for one; but though several persons were prompt to promise the capture, no example was forthcoming.
After my return from Jamaica, the occurrence of two specimens found came under the notice of my friend, but neither of them was preserved. Mr Cargill had informed him that some years before, when visiting Skibo, in St George's, an estate of his father's, in descending the mountain-road, his attention was drawn to a snake of a dark hue, that erected itself from amid some fragments of limestone-rock that lay about. It was aboutfour feet long, and unusuallythick-bodied. His surprise was greatly increased on perceiving that it wascrested, and that from the side of the cheeks depended somered-coloured flaps, like gills or wattles. After gazing at him intently some time, with its head well erect, it drew itself in, and disappeared among the fragmentary rocks.
The son of this gentleman met with another specimen under the following circumstances, as detailed to me by my friend:—"It was, I think, on Easter Eve, the 30th of March last, [1850,] that some youngsters of the town came running to tell me of a curious snake, unlike any snake they had ever seen before, which young Cargill had shot, when out for a day's sport among the woodlands ofa neighbouring penn. They described it as in all respects a serpent, but with a very curious shaped head, and with wattles on each side of its jaws. After taking it in hand and looking at it, they placed it in a hollow tree, intending to return for it when they should be coming home, but they had strolled from the place so far that it was inconvenient to retrace their steps when wearied with rambling; but they had lost no time in relating the adventure to me, knowing it would interest me much, particularly as young Cargill's father had thought it a snake similar to the one he had seen at Skibo, in St George's, or to the crested serpent for a specimen of which, when in St Thomas's in the East, he had offered the sum of twenty shillings. The youth that shot the snake fell ill on the following morning with fever, and could not go back to the woodlands to seek it, but he sent his younger brother who had been with him; but although he thought he rediscovered the tree in which his brother had placed it, he could not find the snake. He conjectured that the rats had devoured it in the night. When this adventure was related to me, another youth, Ulick Ramsay, a godson of mine, who came with the young Cargills to tell me of their discovery, informed me that not long previously, he had seen in the hand of the barrack-master-serjeant at the barracks in Spanish Town, a curious snake, which he, too, had shot among the rocks of a little line of eminences near the railway, about two miles out, called Craigallechie. It was a serpent with a curious shaped head, and projections on each side, which he likened to the fins of an eel,but said they were close up to the jaws. Here are, unquestionably, two of the same snakes with those of Seba's Thesaurus, taken near Spanish Town, and both about the honeycombed rocks that protrude through the plain of St Catherine's in detached ridges and cones and hummocks, being points of the greater lines of limestone, which have been covered by the detritus of the plains, leaving masses of the under-rocks here and there uncovered. These are the spots frequented, too, by theCyclura; and are continuations of our Red Hills—a country that so much resembles the terraced cliffs and red-soil glens of Higuey.
It is remarkable that I have heard nothing more of this serpent of renown, this true Basilisk, from that time till now; though I have no doubt my Jamaica friends, who had become much interested in the matter, would have communicated the specimen to me if any one had been obtained. There is, however, sufficient evidence to assume the existence of such a form in the greater Antilles, whether Seba's figures be identical with it or not.
A very curious and unaccountable habit is attributed to some Reptiles, which, though asserted by many witnesses, at different times and in distant countries, has not yet received the general assent of men of science. White of Selborne, in one of his charming letters to Pennant, has the following note:—"Several intelligent folks assure me that they have seen the Viper open her mouth and admit her helpless young down her throat on sudden surprises, just as the female Opossum does her brood into the pouch under her belly, upon the like emergencies. Yet the London viper-catchers insist on it, to Mr Barrington, that no such thing ever happens."[142]
The evidence of the London viper-catchers goes for no more than it is worth; those whom Mr Barrington applied to,—how many and of what experience I know not,—had not met with such a case. But negative evidence is of little weight against positive. At the same time, others of the same fraternity affirm the fact. There is, as Mr Martin observes, no physiological reason against the possibility of the young maintaining life for a brief period within the stomach of the parent. A swallowed frog hasbeen heard, by Mr Bell, to cry several minutes after it had been swallowed by a snake; and the same excellent authority has seen another frog leap out of the mouth of a snake which had swallowed it, taking advantage of the fact that the latter gaped, as they frequently do, immediately after taking food.
Mr Martin says he has conversed with several who had been assured by gamekeepers and gardeners that the swallowing of the young by vipers had been witnessed by them.[143]And Mr Blyth, a zoologist of established reputation, observes,—"I have been informed of this by so many credible eye-witnesses, that I cannot hesitate in yielding implicit credence to the fact. One man particularly, on whose word I fully rely, tells me that he has himself seen as many as thirteen young vipers thus enter the mouth of the parent, which he afterwards killed and opened for the purpose of counting them."[144]
Mr E. Percival, writing to theZoologist, under date "64 Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, Oct. 17, 1848," narrates the following facts:—"When in Scotland, last autumn, I saw what at the time satisfied me that vipers really possessed this faculty, though the evidence was scarcely as conclusive as might have been wished. Walking along a sunny road, I saw a viper lying on the parapet. She had apparently just been killed by a blow from a stick. Five or six young ones, about four inches long, were wriggling about their murdered parent, and one was making its wayout of her mouth, at the time when I approached. Whether this was the first time the young ones had seen the light, or whether they were only leaving a place of temporary refuge, I leave to more experienced observers than myself to determine."[145]
This communication brought out the following from the late Mr John Wolley:—"Mr Percival's interesting note (Zool., 2305) on this subject reminds me of a very similar anecdote, told me several years ago by a gentleman who is an accurate observer, and who has had long experience in all kinds of sports. He one day shot a viper, and almost immediately afterwards it was surrounded by young ones, in what appeared to him the most mysterious manner. But here the grand link was wanting which Mr Percival has supplied,—the young ones were not seen to come out of their mother's mouth. I may be allowed to mention an anecdote, told me in 1842, by an illiterate shepherd of Hougham, near Dover: he met me catching vipers, and, on my entering into conversation with him, he volunteered—without any allusion of mine—to tell this curious story. One day his father came suddenly upon a viper surrounded by her young, she opened her mouth and they all ran down her throat; he killed her, and leaving her on the ground, propped her mouth open between two pieces of stick; presently the young ones crawled out: on the slightest alarm they retreated back again,—and this they did repeatedly for several days, during which time many people came to see it.[146]The young which Whiteof Selborne cut out of the old female, and which immediately threw themselves into attitudes of defiance, had probably not then seen the daylight for the first time. Mr Bell, in a note in Bennett's edition of White's 'Selborne,' mentions the wide-spread belief in this alleged habit of the viper; but appears to consider the fact not proved. Accounts of similar habits in foreign viviparous snakes, common report, and, above all, Mr Percival's observation, leave no doubt on my mind about the matter."
The most recent case on record that I have met with, is the following, communicated to theZoologist[147]for last December, by the Rev. Henry Bond, of South Petherton:—
"Walking in an orchard near Tyneham House, in Dorsetshire, I came upon an old adder basking in the sun, with her young around her; she was lying on some grass that had been long cut, and had become smooth and bleached by exposure to the weather. Alarmed by my approach, I distinctly saw the young ones run down their mother's throat. At that time I had never heard of the controversy respecting the fact, otherwise I should have been more anxious to have killed the adder, to prove the case. As it was, she escaped while I was more interested in the circumstance I witnessed than in her destruction."
Exactly the same thing is told of the North American Rattlesnake. Hunter says, that when alarmed, the young ones, which are eight or ten in number, retreat into themouth of the parent, and reappear on its giving a contractile muscular token that the danger is past.[148]
M. Palisot de Beauvois asserts that he saw a large rattlesnake which he had disturbed in his walks immediately coil itself up and open its jaws, when in an instant five small ones that were lying by it rushed into its open mouth. He concealed himself, and watched the snake, and in a quarter of an hour saw her discharge them. He then approached a second time, when the young ones rushed into the parent's mouth more quickly than before, and the animal immediately moved off, and escaped. The phenomenon is said to have been observed in regard to some of the venomous snakes of India, but I cannot now refer to details.
Confirmation of a reported fact is sometimes derived from collateral evidence, and such is not wanting in the present case. The phenomenon is not confined to serpents; it has been observed in their near relatives, the lizards. Mr Edward Newman, while guarding the subject with a philosophical caveat, furnishes his readers with the following highly interesting and germane statement:—"1st, My late lamented friend, William Christy, jun., found a fine specimen of the common scaly lizard with two young ones. Taking an interest in everything relating to Natural History, he put them into a small pocket vasculum to bring home; but when he next opened the vasculum the young ones had disappeared, and the belly of the parent was greatly distended; he concluded she had devoured her ownoffspring; at night the vasculum was laid on a table, and the lizard was therefore at rest: in the morning the young ones had reappeared, and the mother was as lean as at first. 2d, Mr Henry Doubleday, of Epping, supplies the following information:—A person whose name is English, a good observer, and one, as it were, brought up in Natural History, under Mr Doubleday's tuition, once happened to set his foot on a lizard in the forest, and while the lizard was thus held down by his foot, he distinctly saw three young ones run out of her mouth. Struck by such a phenomenon, he killed and opened the old one, and found two other young ones in her stomach, which had been injured when he trod upon her. In both these instances the narrators are of that class who do know what to observe, and how to observe it; and the facts, whatever explanation they may admit, are not to be dismissed as the result of imagination or mistaken observation."[149]
It is remarkable that all the serpents to which the phenomenon is attributed are ovo-viviparous. Our common lizard, to which the facts just narrated doubtless belong (Zootoca vivipara), has the same property, which, however, appears to be by no means common among the Saurian races. This coincidence, while it would afford a handle to the deniers of the stated facts, in the assumption that the emergence of the living young from the abdomen, or their presence within it, has given rise to the notion—may have an essential significance and connexion with the phenomenon itself, on the hypothesis of its truth.That endowment, whatever it be, which enables the young to live and breathe in the abdominal cavity of the mother before birth, may render it easier for them than for others not so endowed to survive a temporary incarceration within the stomach after birth. Mr Newman does not know how to believe that a young and tender animal can remain in the strongly digestive stomach of a viper and receive no injury; but he has forgotten to take into the account the well-ascertained power that living tissues have the power of resisting the action of chemical re-agents that would instantly take effect upon them when dead. The walls of the stomach itself are not corroded by the gastric-juice which is rapidly dissolving the piece of meat within it. If the young animals can do without air for a while in their snug retreat, I do not think they would need fear the digestive operation. Air, I should suppose,mustbe excluded from the stomach, unless the parent have the power of swallowing air voluntarily, for the emergency; but perhaps a cold-blooded animal like a reptile, with a sluggish circulation and respiration, might do with very much less fresh air than a mammal under similar conditions.
The proposedrationaleof those who reject these statements,—that female vipers in the last stage of pregnancy have been opened, and have given freedom to living and active young, and that careless and unscientific observers have leaped to the conclusion that their young must have entered by the mouth,—will not stand before the testimony distinctly given by witnesses, who have actually seen the young retreat into the mouth, and have then foundthem within the body. No doubt the subject needs further investigation by careful and unprejudiced naturalists; but the positive evidence already adduced on the testimony of so many deponents, warrants our accepting the phenomenon as a normal habit of certain species of Saurians and Ophidians, though it may be somewhat rarely resorted to, and that whatever physical difficulties may seem to stand in the way of itsà prioriprobability—difficulties which perhaps depend on our ignorance, and which will disappear before the light of advancing knowledge.
The entomologists have fallen most ungallantly foul of Madame Merian, a lady who resided in Surinam nearly two hundred years ago, and devoted her attention to the native entomology, painting insects in a very admirable manner. She is set down as a thorough heretic, not at all to be believed, a manufacturer of unsound natural history, an inventor of false facts in science.
Among other things, she speaks of a large hemipterous fly, which has in consequence of her reports been namedFulgora lanternaria. This insect has the head produced into a large inflated proboscis more than an inch in length, which is said to carry an intense luminosity within its transparent walls, as a candle is carried within a lantern. The fair observer says that the first discovery which she made of this property caused her no small alarm. The Indians had brought her several of these insects, which by daylight exhibited no extraordinary appearance, andshe enclosed them in a box until she should have an opportunity of drawing them, placing it upon a table in her lodging-room. In the middle of the night the confined insects made such a noise as to awake her, and she opened the box, the inside of which, to her great astonishment, appeared all in a blaze; and in her fright letting it fall, she was not less surprised to see each of the insects apparently on fire. She soon, however, divined the cause of this unexpected phenomenon, and re-enclosed her brilliant guests in their place of confinement. She adds that the light of one of these Fulgoræ is sufficiently bright to read a newspaper by: and though the tale of her having drawn one of these insects by its own light is without foundation, she doubtless might have done so if she had chosen.
This circumstantial and apparently truthful statement has brought no small odium on the fair narrator. Other naturalists who have had opportunities of seeing the insect in its native regions strongly deny its luminosity. The inhabitants of Cayenne, according to the French Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, aver that it does not shine at all; and this is confirmed by M. Richard, a naturalist, who reared the species. The learned and accurate Count Hoffmansegg states that his insect collector Herr Sieber, a practised entomologist of thirty years' experience, who during a sojourn of several years in Brazil took many specimens of theFulgora lanternaria, never saw a single one which was in the slightest degree luminous. There is a kindred species in China,F. candelaria, very common inthose glazed boxes of insects which the Chinese sell to mariners; this also has been supposed to emit light, but Dr Cantor assures us that he has never observed the least luminosity in this species.
Thus it would seem that the obloquy which has fallen upon the ingenious lady is not altogether undeserved, and that for the sake of a telling story, she has been indeed "telling a story." But we may imagine her offended ghost looking round and saying, "All these gentlemen merely say they havenotseen the light; now I say I have: is there no one who will verify my statement?"
M. Lacordaire,—an authority on South American insects second to none, says that he himself indeed never saw a luminousFulgoraall the time he was collecting in Brazil and Cayenne, and that most of the inhabitants of the latter country, when questioned on the subject, denied the fact, yetthat others of the natives as distinctly affirmed that it is luminous. He asks whether it is not possible that the light may be confined to one sex, and thus the conflicting testimony be reconciled; and gives it as his opinion that the point is rather one which requires more careful observation, than one which we can consider absolutely decided.[150]
Again, the Marquis Spinola, in an elaborate paper on this tribe, published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of France,[151]strenuously contends that the remarkable development of the frontal portion of the head in the whole race is luminous. And finally, a friend ofMr Wesmael assured him that he had himself seen the AmericanFulgoraluminous while alive.[152]
It may help to sustain our faith in the veracity of Madame Merian, to know that there is some reason for attributing occasional luminosity to well-known English insects, of which hundreds, and even thousands, have been taken without manifesting a trace of the phenomenon. Mr Spence, in his interesting Letter on Luminous Insects,[153]adduces the following evidence:—Insects "may be luminous which have not hitherto been suspected of being so. This seems proved by the following fact: A learned friend has informed me, that when he was curate of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, in 1780, a farmer of that place, of the name of Simpringham, brought to him a mole-cricket (Gryllotalpa vulgaris, Latr.), and told him that one of his people seeing aJack-o'-lantern, pursued it, and knocked it down, when it proved to be this insect, and the identical specimen shewn to him.
"This singular fact, while it renders it probable that some insects are luminous which no one has imagined to be so, seems to afford a clue to the, at least, partial explanation of the very obscure subject ofignes fatui, and to shew that there is considerable ground for the opinion long ago maintained by Ray and Willughby, that the majority of these supposed meteors are no other than luminous insects. That the large varying lambent flames mentioned by Beccaria to be very common in some partsof Italy, and the luminous globes seen by Dr Shaw cannot be thus explained, is obvious. These were probably electrical phenomena; certainly not explosions of phosphuretted hydrogen, as has been suggested by some, which must necessarily have been momentary. But that theignis fatuusmentioned by Derham as having been seen by himself, and which he describes as flitting about a thistle, was, though he seems of a different opinion, no other than some luminous insect, I have little doubt. Mr Sheppard informs me that, travelling one night between Stamford and Grantham on the top of the stage, he observed for more than ten minutes a very largeignis fatuusin the low marshy grounds, which had every appearance of being an insect. The wind was very high: consequently, had it been a vapour it must have been carried forward in a direct line; but this was not the case. It had the same motion as aTipula, flying upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, sometimes appearing as settled, and sometimes as hovering in the air. Whatever be the true nature of these meteors, of which so much is said and so little known, it is singular how few modern instances of their having been observed are on record. Dr Darwin declares, that though in the course of a long life he had been out in the night, and in the places where they are said to appear, times without number, he had never seen anything of the kind; and from the silence of other philosophers of our own times, it should seem that their experience is similar."
A paper by Mr R Chambers on the subject adduces theadditional testimony of facts observed by good naturalists, as Dickson and Curtis the eminent botanists, and Stothard the painter and entomologist, by his own father Mr A. Chambers, and by Joseph Simpson, a fisherman living near Boston, all of which strongly corroborate the probability that some, at least, of theignes fatuiare produced by luminous insects.[154]Mr Main narrates the case of a farmer who stated that he had pursued a Will-o'-the-wisp, and coming up with it had knocked it down, when it proved to be an insect "exactly like a Maggy-long-legs"—that is, the common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea), the very insect with which Mr Sheppard had compared the motions of the luminous flame observed by him.[155]Mr Spence argues that while gaseous emanations may be a cause of stationaryignes fatui, the same cause will not explain those which flit along from place to place; and that these are probably luminous insects, however rarely they may have come under the notice of entomologists. "A very strong argument for the possibility of some flying insects being occasionally luminous (in England) is afforded by the facts ... of luminous caterpillars having been within these few years observed for the first time since entomology has been attended to, and that by observers every way competent. If caterpillars so very common as those ofMamestra oleraceamay sometimes, though so rarely, be luminous, and if, as Dr Boisduval suggests, and is very probable, this appearance was caused by disease, it is obvious that flying insects may be alsooccasionally (though seldom) luminous from disease—a supposition which will at once explain the rarity of the occurrence, and the circumstance that insects of such different genera, and even orders, are said to have exhibited this phenomenon."[156]
These highly curious facts should make observers cautious in strongly denying statements made by others of phenomena, when they themselves have not been so fortunate as to witness them, even though they may think their opportunities to have been as favourable as those of thesoi-disantobserver.[157]
But we have not yet dismissed Madame Merian. If acquitted of falsehood here, she stands arraigned on a second charge of similar character.
In most tropical countries there are found hideous hairy spiders of monstrous size and most repulsive appearance; short-legged, sombre-hued, ferocious marauders of the night, that by day lurk in obscure retreats under stones, or in burrows in the earth.
Guiana produces a formidable species of this sort (Mygale avicularia), which measures three inches in length, and whose feet—though the genus is, as I have said, comparatively short-limbed—cover an area someeight or ten inches in diameter. Madame Merian has exquisitely figured the tragical end of a tiny humming-bird, surprised by one of these monsters on her eggs; the petite bird overthrown under the fangs of the sprawling spider, one of whose feet is in the nest. It was on the authority of this lady that Linnæus gave the name ofaviculariato the species. Later naturalists have scouted the whole story. Mr MacLeay, who resided in Cuba, says that there are indeed there huge spiders, allied to our garden spider, which make a geometric net, strong enough to embarrass small birds; but that these do not attempt to catch such prey, and never molest birds at all. On the other hand, he avers that the CubanMygale, an allied species to that of Guiana, makes no web, and has no power of injuring birds. He put this to the test of experiment; for having maimed a humming-bird, he thrust it into theMygale'shole, which, instead of seizing the victim, retreated as in fear out of his den. This Mr MacLeay supposes to be conclusive; but a moment's reflection will shew how equivocal is the evidence. The spider may not have been hungry; or he may have been taken aback by the sudden intrusion; or he might not choose to take prey that he had not stolen upon and slaughteredsuo more; or he may have muttered in the Arachnidan language,—