NATURE'S MURDERERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1602, 5 August 1882, Page 27

NATURE'S MURDERERS.

In Professor Newman's letter to the newspapers, he says that ' If we give up the cruelty of mangling birds with the gun and leave the little hawks to kill them with divine dexterity, they will remain as numerous as now.' Surely imagination is at work here more tenderly than keenly. Anyone who has spent quiet days on the lonely moors must have seen a sparrowhawk chasing a lark. We cannot tell what the lark's private opinions may be, but to all_ outward appearance it never appreciates ' divine dexterity.' The chase often lasts from twenty minutes to half an hour. Sometimes the lark gets clean away ; sometimes it takes refuge at the feet of a man ; but more often the poor creature's flight grows feeble, and the savage enemy stoops and brings it down. When the captive and captor reach the ground the divine dexterity makes itself manifest in a most butcherly process of tearing and rending. Partridges and grouse, which are pursued by the larger hawks, seem also to suffer terrible agony during their flight. In fact, from all observation, I incline to believe that, if the birds could be got to deliver an impartial opinion, they would declare in favour of the swift oblivion given by the gun rather than in favour of the long terror of flight, and the cruel rending of beak and talons. Professor Newman may have means of accurately gauging ornithological opinion ; but we, the most part of us, can only form judgments from common observation. Those who favour the Professor's view of Nature's operations should try to spend one long day in some wild place. They would find that a cycle of murder. Supposing that the place is by the sea, lie down, first of all by the side of some deep break in the rocks and watch what goes on as the tide flows in. The goby lurks behind the wavy weeds and dashes out now and again on his prey ; the dogcrab slides along and watches his chances : the black eel winds sinuously about, with his villanous eye and his snaky coils making him look tho very genius of murder. By the time the gap is completely filled the observer sees one great battle of species against species ; and he knows that the same fight is going on in every bay down the coast. Inland, . the same kind of wild work may be seen by dexterous watching. A rabbit stumbles hopelessly among the tussocks. It seems dazed and fordone. A few yards behind comes a tiny brown creature, with white breast and vicious littlo teeth ; and the poor rabbit knows that there is no escape from this deadly pursuer. Unless you care to deliver the rabbit from divine dexterity, you will see how Nature's butchers work. The chased beast begins to run in halting circles ; then it stops and screams ; then there is a brown flash, and the weasel is fixed like an ujjly parasite behind the poor victim's ears ; then there is silence. Half an hour after you see the rabbit abandoned with a gaping wound in its neck, If your terrier accompanies you, then the rabbit is saved, and the would-be murderer is murdered. The weasel turns on the dog and squeaks with a thin sound thab sets the teeth on edge ; he also emits an abominable stench, which stays long in the air. The terrier knows that divine dcx- 1 terity mijsfc be exercised (not so much for the purpose of sparing the weasel pain as for preventing that lively creature from getting a hold on his jugular), so he poises for a moment before striking. Then he catches the soft little brute by the middle ; there is a swift flapping sound as tho dog shakes his head, and then the weasel flies four feet into the air. Evolution and training have made this butcher efficient. Watch amongst the sloe-bushes of some deep ravine. I)own in the hollow there is a red gleam as Reynard works his way among the sedges. He comes into the open, and you actually see him curl his lips into a queer kind of Mephistophelian smile. He glances over his shoulder, and advances with a wary gait. The innocent water-hen goes on nodding her jieacj. and making little noises, without being in the least aware of the groody eyes and the b,are teeth that are flashing so close behind her. The fox makes his dart ; there is a gurgling scream, and divine dexterity is once more made manifest. How many more sights and sounds of death meet eye and ear in the course of day and night there is no need to say. Professor Newman should go and sco; nnd he might learn that man is not, after all, tho cruellest of animal*. — St. James' Gazette.

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