THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2211, 16 July 1896, Page 48

THE NATURALIST.

SOME INTERESTING" ttLIMPSES OF

WILD LXIfT.

_" It has been a privilege to make available to English readers a book which shows a great naturalist; at his best— a book that presents the reader with a eories of vivid pictures of wild life and scenery, painted from aotual observation and with all the truth and accuraoy that belong to the artist and man of science combined." So runs a prefatory note to the English translation, by Margaret R. Thomson, of the lectures of the late 'Alfred Edmund Brehrri — a book of singular interest, just published by Messrs B'.ackie and Son. Brehm may be said to have been born ,a naturalist. . His father was an accomplished ornithologist, and the son, while still in bis teens, accompanied Baron John Wilhelm yon Muller, a keeu sportsman •and lover of birds,, on a aatural history expedition to Africa, where be remained for •five years. On his return he went to Lapland, and in 1862 be acted as scientific guide in an excursion to Abyssinia. He was for a time director of the Zoological Gardens at Hamburg, and later he established the famous Berlin Aquarium. His experiences, therefore) were in some respects unique, and the present volume is made up of papers or articles originally read as public lectures, and afterwards published in bock form in Germany. Breh'm had the faculty of making the subjects he handled thoroughly attractive, and his writings and utterances in his own country have been exceedingly popular. English readers will, we are sure, be glad to have the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the work of such an. authority. The translation has been admirably done ; there is an introductory essay by the editor, who also contributes a number of notes; and the book is fully illustrated.

FBATHEBBD LIFJBS IN THE FAR NORTH.

The first lecture is devoted to the fiirdbergs of Lapland, and in it we get a vivid picture of feathered life amid the rocks of the far north. Here is a fact which may not be generally known :—

It is a deeply affecting trait in the life of all true sea birds that only two causes cau movo them to visit the land : the joyous spriugtime sejse of a new awakening love, and the mournful foreboding of approaching death. Not even wiDter, with its long nights, its cold, and its Btormp, cau drive them to land Bat when, with the sun's first brightness, love stirs in their breasts, all— old and young alike — though (hey tuny have to swim and fly thousands of miles, strive to reach the place where they them«elyes first *aw the light of day. And if, in midwinter month*, after the breeding places have been left desolate, a sea bird feels death in bis heart, ho hastens, M long »a

his strength holds out, that he may, if possible, die in the place where he was cradled.

How wonderful it is that this latter characteristic, so often noticed in the human species, should also be a marked feature of the birds of tbe wave ! HOW SOME BIRDS WEATHER THE STORMS.

When wanrleriog through the priinrval forests of Central Afrioa, Br6hm bad an opportunity of observing birds whose brooding surprised and fascinated him greatly. The; birds .were email-sized swiita, nearly related to our own ewifts. He noticed that' theue' birds frequently repaired between the leaves, aud then he saw, on tho grooves of the leaf 'stalk?, light point?, which turned out to be the nests : —

Bach nest, made cLitfly of cotton, wa3 plaj. tered iknoly in the angle between the sta'k aud the leaf, oemented by salivaiy secretion, after the metbod mually followed by swifts. Bat tbe hollow of the nest appeared to me so flat that I wondered how tho two eggs could lemain lying when the leaf was shaken, by the storms whith often rnged there. Carefully I rs&ched cub toy hand to take out the eggs ; then I b&w with astonishment that the mother bad glued them firmly to tho nest. And asI examined the newly-hatched, tiny, helpleFs young birds I saw, with increasing astoiiif-h-mont, that they tco were attached to ihomat iv tho same way, and were thus secured irom falling out.

Another bird which attracted the traveller's attentien vsas the wood ibis, tbe song of wbicli is a lamentation of the most pitiful kind. "It sounds as if a little child were being painfully tortured, perbap3 slowly roasted, over a small fire, and wore cryir g out its anguish."

THE ADVENT OF THE BUOWN BAT.

Iv a chapter on the migrations of mammals, we have an account of the arrival in Europe of tbe brown mt. Till t be beginning of the firet baif of the last oentury the black rat was the only rat with which the inhabitants of the Western world wore familiar. Then its enemy appeared, and its star began to wane :— " .

In 1727 awftrms of brown rati, wlicb. teem lo have come' from Iddia either direoMy or by way of Persia, wero seen to awim the Vol.;a, nnd wo soon learned what awaited Europe. lMlowiog canals and rivevs, tbe b:osvu rtvfc reached villages and towns, entered, iv sp;fce of mou and cats, the lower storeys of our dwellings filled vaults and cellarp, ascended gradually to the gairets, oußtcd its relative at'tir locg and inexorable wnifme, made itself master in our hoiMCF, and ahowed us iv a thousand ways Al ->«t at th'

what a lat can do. ... tnoBC a ac s&me time as it swam over the Volrfa it reached Europe by another route, coming from the Bust Indies to Eng'aod oq board tliip. The black ra^, although now rare, i 3 not, however, extinct in Great Biitaic. "'TIS LOVE. LOVE. LOVfil"

The words of the poot who, referring to the " Nightingale's lay," wrote, "fis only in love's boy-day That we hear its minstrels sing,

are according to Biehm literally ttu.?. The song of the nightingale and those of all other birds begin, ho says, " with the first Btiiricga of love, and como to an end when the intoxication is past and other emotions and oares have taken its pkca " :—

Whcever maintains, as has really been maint&ined, that a bird stag's withe at any personal ff eling whatever, that it sitgs at a given time simply because it mu^t, and at another ticce ib could not if ib would, has n'.ver understood or sought to understand the so»g of bird*, but has simply given petulant expiesiion to his own prejudice. ... If tha viow referred .to were correct, each bud would sing exactly like every other of the same species ; it would pour forth its appointed, lay as mechanically as a musioal box emits the tuues plugged up in its rotating cylinder ; none could change or improve his song, or strive to surpass his follows. Our own view is exactly the opposite, for we are convinced tbat a bird siug3 with perfect cousciousnfs.*, that. in his rong he lays bare his .soul. . He is a poet -who, within his ovto limits, invent*, creates, and struggles for utteraccs, and the motive throughout is love for tho opposite S«X. The wedlock of birds, we are alao told, is happy and blameless. "If the birds united for life grow old themselves tnoir love does not grow old with them, but remains for ever young, and every springtime fresh oil is poured upon the flame; their mntual tenderness does not diminish during the longest wedded life." THE FEATHERED WIBOWS. There are, of coune, polygamous birds, and among some species mourning for a lost mate is often a matter of very short duration :— A pair of magpies in our garden were to be killed. ... At 7 o'clock in the morniug the male bird was shot, and bard/ two hours later the female had taken another inata ; in an hour he, too, fell a victim ; by 11 o'clock the fern a', c bad contracted a third alliance. ... One spring my father 6hot a cock partridge ; the hen flow up, but soon a'ighted, and was immediately wooed by another cock, whom she accepted without more ado. Tchusi-Schmidt- I hofen took away no fewer than 20 males from the nesb of a black redstart within eight days, and only then left the 20 times widowed and just as often consoled bir.l to the undisturbed enjoyincut of her connubial Ills?.. With many of the male bird* it is different. A male will mourn for a lost, mate a long time, and sometimes "literally pine away until released by death." A GRACEFUL CHIMPANZEE. Of the intelligence of members of the monkey order Brebm had a high opinion. He tells of meeting one herd in bis travels which not only conducted their defence on a definite plan, bat acted in co-operation, '

striving for a common end, and exerting all' their united strength to attain It. ' "On© off, our number saw one monkey drag a stone up a tree that he might hurl it down with mors eflxefc. I myself aaw two combining their strength to set a heavy stone a-rolliog." But those manifestations of intelligence pnla before the story B.ebm tells of a chimpanzee which he had kept and educated. It whs taken IU with inflammation of the longs', accompanied by suppuration oE the lymphatio. glands of the neck. Surgical treatment of tho glands was found necessary; —

Two surgeons, friends of mine, who were on good terms with the ohimpanzee, undertook to open the tumour on the neck, the more readily that the monkey believed that to be the causa of hi? suffering, and continually guided tho surgeon's hand towards it. Bat how was lha necessary operation in auoli a dangerous spot to be performed without imperilling the monkey's life ? Auanthetioß were out; of the question because of tho lung disease, and tbe attempt to have the eh ; mpat>z:c held dovrn by several strong men had to be abandoned because of' his intense excitement and the strenuous rejist* • anca he offered. But where force failed per* suasion succeeded. When .the monkey was quieted and reinsured by tbo coaxing and endearments of h's keeper, he allowed a further eximinMion of the swelling, and even submitted, withoiittwitcLingnu eyelid or offering a comphiut, to the use of the knife find other painful treatment, including tho emptjing of the oponed tumour. When this was done the distressingly laboured breathing became instcnkly. less oppressive, an uamfstak*ble 'expression of relief passod over the sufferer's face, and hOjgtttkfuliy held cub hin hand to both lih< siciAns, find embraced hid keeper, without having been asked to do either.

Oar readers will regret that the removal of the one trouble did not succeed in saving the animal's life. The mck wound healed, but the inflammation of the lurgs increased and killed him. — Westminster Gozstte.