EARLY NATURAL HISTORY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4046, 26 April 1932, Page 7

EARLY NATURAL HISTORY

SOME REMARKABLE BELIEFS Birds m particular, the most beautiful of living things, have always interested man, writes J. Devaney in the ‘ Melbourne Argus Supplement.' The earliest of all written references to birds will he found in the Bible, where there is repeated mention of the hawk, eagle, peacock, dove, crane, stork, raven, pelican, ostrich, and owl. Intil 100 years ago the migration of birds was an unsolved mystery; yet Jeremiah wrote: “The stork in the heaven know - eth 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 time of the singing birds is come, and the voice of the turtle (dove) is heard in our land.” Aristotle, who lived 400 8.c., was the pioneer of natural history as a separate subject, ami 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 male and female lion as two different species ol 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 Vol. N. 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 he put into a box with other feathers, lie 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” —hut this, superstition is by no means confined to the ancients. SWALLOWS IN MUD. The migration of birds lias led lo 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 hacks across the seas to warmer climates. In 1711 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 Linnaeus, Button, 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, Olaus Magnus, related how fishermen caught swallows in their nets in great numbers, all muddy and frozen until exposed to the heat of a stove, v ter which they took gaily to the wing again. The learned abbe, Spallanzami, tried to make swallows hibernate in an icehouse, hut they all died. Even Gilbert White in his immortal ‘ Natural History of Selbourue,' 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 eonglobulate 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. Lewin, called ‘ Birds of New South Wales.’ It was printed in Sydney in 1813. Lewin was our first ornithologist and bird artist. Farly hush 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. The hoohook owl was u nocturnal cuckoo. The male moundhuilders laid the eggs, and the pelican carried its young in the great bill pouch. Wheelwright, in his ‘Wanderings of a Bush Naturalist ’ (18C5), wrote: “As to the idea of the 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 the platypus by asserting that the young arc produced from (?o^ r S. '' Byrue says in his ‘ Twelve Years in the British Colonies ’ (1848) ; “The adder may he included in the list of noxious reptiles, although it i> not of the snake tribe : its great peculiarity is its deafness, wliich is so extreme tiiat it i.s apparently unconscious of any sound whatever, its sting is contained within the point of the tail.” hi ‘ Australia As It Is ' (1894) we read that “ the cuckoo is only heard at night.” The notorious De Rongemont saw “ flocks of wombats flying over the tree tops.” And so the list goes oft. 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 Button himself describe cuttlefish many times larger than whales, with bodies covered with marine vegetation so that they were mistaken for islands r 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 arc still popular. Many people think that snakes slime their prey before swallowing; that they “ fascinate their prey, and that they swallow then vmmg for protect ion in times of danger. Numerous turds are cited as reliable forecaster- of weather, and all -,on- (if silver and gold treasures are -ii|,|,o-ed lo be picked up ell tile playground- of bower-bird-. The butcher bird j-, credited wiiii keeping a veritable “ butcher's -hop. and iho kookaburra seeia- to lie constantly doing wonderful things with snakes.