situated over a cyst of venom, which, by a channel through the spur, inflicts wounds on those, in whom its spur sticks. It is oviparous: but it belongs properly neither to the class of birds, beasts, nor fishes. It is, also, worthy of observation, that while the dog of New Holland is unknown in Van Dieman's Land, the panther of Van Dieman's Land is unknown in New Holland, Van Dieman's Land, too, has the black-wood, the Huon-pine, and a peculiar species of yew: while New Holland has the cedar, the rosewood, and the mahogany, Electrical eels are found only (or principally) in the rivers of Surinam, in Guiana; and in the rivers of Senegal, on the opposite continent. Electrical eels have no scales; but in their combats with the horses and mules, which the South American Indians make use of to catch them, they attack them at the heart, intestines, and the plexus cæliacus of the abdominal nerves. Eels, which have given the shock repeatedly, require a considerable time to regain their loss of galvanic force; and much nourishment. When roused by the horses' feet from the mud, they swim upon the surface of the water, and attack the horses' bellies with repeated discharges of their electric batteries. They are of a fine olive green, and appear like large aquatic serpents, The under part of the head is yellow, tinged with red; and from the head to the end of the tail, along the back, are rows of small yellow spots. Each spot, says Humboldt, contains an excretory aperture, whence issues a mucous matter, which Mons. Tolta has proved to have the power of conducting electricity, thirty times better than pure water, XVIII. If there are some animals attached to peculiar countries, there are others, known in many latitudes. One species of antelope emigrates from one end of Africa to another, as food presents itself; wild mules and horses do the same in Asia; and the pacos in South America. Some birds, as the charadrius morinellus, apricarius, and pluvialis, fly from country to country, in a direct latitudinal line, as insects abound: keeping for ever on the wing. Other birds visit latitudes so high north as Lapland and Sweden, solely for the purpose of living upon insects, which Linnæus paradoxically calls the "calamitas felicissima" of Lapland. The chimney swallow is known from Norway to the Cape; from Kamschatka to Japan and India; in North America, and the West Indian islands. It is remarkable that, in the South Sea islands, few migratory birds have been observed; and those almost entirely confined to aquatic species. In latitude 42° 30′ north of the line, Cook found even fewer of these, than in the same latitude south; owing, he supposed, to a scarcity of restingplaces'. It was observed by Barentz2, when he and his forlorn The progress of marine birds emigration may, in some measure, be calculated by the following fact.-The captain of the Conway caught a booby, which had a piece of leather tied to one of its legs, on which was written Henry de Nantes. He took this off, and tied a piece of silver round, with the name of his own ship inscribed upon it. Upon arriving at Rio Janeiro, he found the ship, Henry de Nantes, loading for France; and comparing the latitudes and longitudes of each ship, it appeared from the log-book, that the bird had traversed 600 miles of ocean between the times of being caught. 2 Three voyages made by the Dutch into the Northern Seas. Philip, Ed. 1609. companions passed the winter, on the western side of Ice-haven, that when the sun left them, the bears left them too; and were succeeded by white foxes: and that when the sun reappeared, the foxes fled, and the bears returned. XIX. The Scythian antelope migrates, every autumn, from the northern to the southern deserts; and returns in the spring. The springer antelope migrates in small herds, from the interior of Africa to the neighbourhood of the Cape. There they remain for about two months: when they return in bodies to the amount of many thousands. When rain has not fallen for two or three years, they travel through Caffraria, and destroy chief of the vegetation: but lions, hyænas, and panthers, destroy them in return. Lapland marmots travel, once or twice in twenty years, from the mountainous parts of Lapland and Norway, in large bodies; destroying all the grain and vegetables in their way; and, being deterred neither by water nor by fire, travel with their young either in their mouths, or upon their backs, till ruin overtakes them. None ever return; for they are either drowned, killed by the inhabitants of the districts, through which they migrate, or eaten by foxes, lynxes, ermines, and other animals. Wild asses, also, collect in autumn to the east and north of the lake of Aral, in thousands; and thence effect a gradual retreat into the northern parts of Persia and India. milar migrations are observed in land crabs, locusts, and various species of birds and fishes. In 1758 so large a number of fishes assembled on the coast of Goree, that Lindsay says, he saw the fishermen take, in two hours, Si as many as would satisfy a thousand men1; some exceedingly good, and others remarkably beautiful. Such a number of porpoises and sword fishes, too, entered Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope 2, that it seemed, as if a person could walk upon their backs from one horn of the bay to the other. Writers of credit inform us, that, during the eruptions of Vesuvius, fish pour into the bay of Naples so abundantly, that the market is glutted with them. Fishes emigrate in the greatest numbers, and to the greatest distance: nor is it less remarkable, that while most birds emigrate to warmer climates, to pass the winter, and not to breed; most fishes do so, only to deposit spawn. Their winter rendezvous is the arctic circle. Birds emigrate when the winter begins; fishes after it has ceased. CHAPTER XVII. MEN, in all civilized countries, offer rewards for the destruction of wild beasts. They are, indeed, outlaws in every country. In Wales the tribute to the English kings was paid in the heads of wolves. At the Cape of Good Hope sixteen rix-dollars were given for a lion; and ten gilders for a tiger. In the Orkneys every person, who kills a golden eagle, is entitled to the best hen from every house of the parish, in which it is destroyed. In Asiatic Turkey, 'Keppel's Voy. to Coast of Africa, 4to. p. 57. Ed. 1759. however, the nobles have succeeded in taming leopards, as the Chinese have tigers. They ride upon them, as we do upon horses. It is curious, that in Lapland and Sweden wolves have, of late years, very much increased. Sixty years since they were scarce. Now the forests are in fested with them. But discretion must be used in the destruction of rapacious animals; lest in ridding ourselves of one evil, we entail upon ourselves a greater. Rooks, for many years, were regarded as nuisances to farmers;-they are now esteemed beneficial from the grubs, which they destroy. The Pennsylvanian blackbird' feeding on maize, the farmers destroyed them in great numbers. The worms, on which they fed, multiplied, in consequence, so abundantly, that they became immeasurably more destructive, than the birds. The birds, therefore, soon returned into favour. All animals, that cannot be tamed for human use, will one day be extinct. The eagerness, with which they fly from the progress of man, is fully instanced in the back settlements of America. The Ohio country, not many years since, contained only a few savages, and a multitude of wild animals. Now (1818) it has upwards of 500,000 inhabitants; and, as a natural consequence, few wild animals are to be seen. II. It is curious, that in tropical islands (except those in the immediate neighbourhood of continents), there are neither lions, leopards, tigers, nor elephants. Lions were more frequent in ancient than in modern times: and they infested countries, to which they are now totally strangers. 1 Quiscula. |