EARLY NATURAL HISTORY

Evening Star, Issue 21077, 14 April 1932, Page 4

EARLY NATURAL HISTORY

SOME REMARKABLE BELIEFS Birds in particular, the most beautiful of living things, have always interested man, writes J. Devaney in the ‘ Melbourne Argus Supplement. Ine earliest of all written references .to birds will be found in the Bible, where there is repeated mention of the hawk, eagle, peacock, dove, crane, stork, raven, pelican, ostrich, and owl. Until 100 years ago the migration of birds was an unsolved mystery; yet Jeremiah wrote: “ The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle (dove) and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming. Solomon sang: “For 10, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the tune of the singing birds is come, and the voice of the turtle (dove) is heard in our land.” . ~ Aristotle, who lived 400 n.c., was the pioneer of natural history as a separate subject, and a good deal of what he wrote may stand to-day. But he believed that the cuckoo was a “ changed hawk,” that it laid three eggs, hatched only two of them, and reared but one chick. He regarded the malo_ and female lion as two different species of animals, and insisted that horses would drink no water that was not muddy. Of bees he wrote; “They bring the material for wax from the droppings of trees, but the honey falls from the air, principally about the rising of the stars’ and when a rainbow rests upon the earth. . . . When the wind is strong they carry a stone with them for balance.” Pliny, although he lived much later and was a contemporary of Christ, was far less accurate and much more credulous than Aristotle. A tremendous worker, he produced a ‘ History of the World ’ which alone fills a shelf; and Yol. X. of this deals exclusively with birds. It is the fruit of long years of collecting evidence, not of personal field work. He tells of eagles which have teeth, and of some which always kept a certain medicinal stone in their nests capable of curing numerous diseases. If an eagle’s wing quills be put into a box with other feathers, he tells us, they will “ devour ” those of the lesser birds. He describes how the osprey forced all its young to stare full at the sun, and how it destroyed any one of them which could not do so without winking. He believed that the screech of the owl “ prognosticates some fearful misfortune’’—but this superstition is by no means confined to the ancients. SWALLOWS IN MUD.

Tho migration of birds has led to many quaint theories. Many writers maintained that birds became torpid in winter and hibernated like reptiles. Some asserted that larger birds such as herons carried smaller ones away on their backs across the seas to warmer climates. In 1741 one writer seriously argued that swallows migrated each winter to the moon.

in America “ proofs" were given that swallows spent the, cold months of the year in the mud under streams. On one occasion a German academy determined to examine thoroughly all the evidence in favour of this popular theory about bird hibernation, which was supported by considerable authorities, such as Linnseus, Buffon, and Cuvier. The authorities announced a prize of their weight in silver for all live swallows brought out of water, but the prize was never claimed. Yet the great naturalist, Glaus Magnus, related how fishermen caught swallows in their nets in grfeat numbers, all muddy and frozen until exposed to the heat of a stove, a "ter which they took gaily to the wing, again. The learned abbe, Spallanzami, tried to make swallows hibernate in an icehouse, but they all died. Even Gilbert White in his immortal ‘ Natural History of Solbourne,’ is not quite sure of the river-bottom theory. But bluff old Sam Johnson is positive as usual:~“ Swallows certainly sleep all the winter. A number of them conglobulato together by flying round and round, and then, all in a heap, throw themselves under water and lie in the bed of a river.” Australia’s own first bird book was a little work of eighteen pages with eighteen plates by J. W. Lewiu, called ‘ Birds of New South Wales.’ It was printed in Sydney in 1813. Lewin was our first ornithologist and bird artist. Early bush lore in this country made it “ the land of contradictions,” “ the fossil continent,” and “ the land of living fossils.” There were many amusing guesses and dogmatic assertions. Tho boobook owl was a nocturnal cuckoo. The male moundbuilders laid the eggs, and the pelican carried its young in tho great bill pouch. Wheelwright, in his ‘ Wanderings of a Bush Naturalist ’ (1865), wrote: “As to tho idea of tho platypus laying eggs, that has long exploded; they are clearly animals, for the female has teats,” Later, in ‘ Snakes. Marsupials, and Birds,’ Nicol wrote: “ The natives in various parts of the country have exhibited their ignorance of tho platypus by asserting that the young are produced from eggs.” 'Byrne says in his ‘Twelve Years in tho British Colonies’ (1848): “Tho adder may be included in _ the list of noxious reptiles, although it is not of tho snake tribe; its great peculiarity is its deafness, which is so extreme that it is apparently unconscious of any sound whatever. Its sting is contained within the point of tho tail.” In ‘ Australia As It Is ’ (181)4) we read that “ the cuckoo is only heard at night.” Tho notorious He llougemout T-

saw “flocks of wombats flying over the tree tops.” And so the list goes on. CUTTLEFISH LARGER THAN WHALES. There is every excuse for the bewildered pioneers who found themselves exiles in the strangest land in the world, where everything was topsy-turvy. Their errors were no worse than those of the scientific pioneers of old. Did not Buffon himself describe cuttlefish many times larger than whales, with bodies covered with marine vegetation so that they were mistaken for islands? Did not old Aldrovandus record how certain salt-water ducks were produced from the fruits of trees? The mandrake was believed for centuries to possess a human voice, and sea serpents used to crush whole ships in their jaws. In Australia to-day many picturesque errors are still popular. Many people think that snakes slime their prey before swallowing; that they “ fascinate ” their prey, and that they swallow their young far protection in times of danger. Numerous birds are cited as reliable forecasters of weather, and all sorts of silver and gold treasures are supposed to be picked up on the playgrounds of bower-birds. _ The butcher bird is credited with keeping a veritable “butcher’s shop,” and the kookaburra seems to be constantly doing wonderful things with snakes.