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The perpendicular height of the precipice, in general, is twenty-
three yards; the length of the lapse, or slip, as seen from the fields
below, one hundred and eighty-one; and a partial fall, concealed in
the coppice, extends seventy yards more: so that the total length of
this fragment that fell was two hundred and fifty-one yards. About
fifty acres of land suffered from this violent convulsion; two
houses were entirely destroyed; one end of a new barn was left in
ruins, the walls being cracked through the very stones that
composed them; a hanging coppice was changed to a naked rock;
and some grass grounds and an arable field so broken and rifted by
the chasms as to be rendered, for a time, neither fit for the plough
or safe for pasturage, till considerable labour and expense had been
bestowed in levelling the surface and filling in the gaping fissures.
Letter XLVI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne.
... resonant arbusta ...
There is a steep abrupt pasture field interspersed with furze close
to the back of this village, well known by the name of the Short
Lithe, consisting of a rocky dry soil, and inclining to the afternoon
sun. This spot abounds with the gryllus campestris, or field-cricket;
which, though frequent in these parts, is by no means a common
insect in many other counties.
As their cheerful summer cry cannot but draw the attention of a
naturalist, I have often gone down to examine the oeconomy of
these grylli, and study their mode of life: but they are so shy and
cautious that it is no easy matter to get a sight of them; for, feeling
a person's footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of
their song, and retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where
they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over.
At first we attempted to dig them out with a spade, but without any
great success; for either we could not get to the bottom of the hole,
which often terminated under a great stone; or else, in breaking up
the ground, we inadvertently squeezed the poor insect to death. Out
of one so bruised we took a multitude of eggs, which were long
and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin.
By this accident we learned to distinguish the male from the
female; the former of which is shining black, with a golden stripe
across his shoulders; the latter is more dusky, more capacious
about the abdomen, and carries a long sword-shaped weapon at her
tail, which probably is the instrument with which she deposits her
eggs in crannies and safe receptacles.
Where violent methods will not avail, more gentle means will often
succeed; and so it proved in the present case; for, though a spade
be too boisterous and rough an implement, a pliant stalk of grass,
gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the
bottom, and quickly bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane
inquirer may gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it. It
is remarkable that, though these insects are furnished with long
legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers; yet
when driven from their holes they show no activity, but crawl
along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken: and again,
though provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never
exert them when there seems to be the greatest occasion. The
males only make that shrilling noise perhaps out of rivalry and
emulation, as is the case with many animals which exert some
sprightly note during their breeding time: it is raised by a brisk
friction of one wing against the other. They are solitary beings,
living singly male or female, each as it may happen: hut there must
be a time when the sexes have some intercourse, and then the
wings may be useful perhaps during the hours of night. When the
males meet they will fight fiercely, as I found by some which I put
into the crevices of a dry stone wall, where I should have been glad
to have made them settle. For though they seemed distressed by
being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession
of the chinks would seize upon any that were obtruded upon them
with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed
like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round their
curious regular cells, having no fore-claws to dig, like the mole-
cricket. When taken in hand I could not but wonder that they never
offered to defend themselves, though armed with such formidable
weapons. Of such herbs as grow before the mouths of their burrows
they eat indiscriminately; and on a little platform, which they make
just by, they drop their dung; and never, in the day-time, seem to
stir more than two or three inches from home. Sitting in the
entrance of their caverns they chirp all night as well as day from
the middle of the month of May to the middle of July; and in hot
weather, when they are most vigorous, they make the hills echo;
and, in the stiller hours of darkness, may be heard to a considerable
distance. In the beginning of the season, their notes are more faint
and inward; but become louder as the summer advances, and so die
away again by degrees.
Sounds do not always give us pleasure according to their sweetness
and melody; nor do harsh sounds always displease. We are more
apt to be captivated or disgusted with the associations which they
promote, than with the notes themselves. Thus the shrilling of the
field-cricket, though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights
some hearers, filling their minds with a train of summer ideas of
everything that is rural, verdurous, and joyous.
About the tenth of March the crickets appear at the mouths of their
cells, which they then open and bore, and shape very elegantly. All
that ever I have seen at that season were in their pupa state, and
had only the rudiments of wings, lying under a skin or coat, which
must be cast before the insect can arrive at its perfect state;* from
whence I should suppose that the old ones of last year do not
always survive the winter. In August their holes begin to be
obliterated, and the insects are seen no more till spring.
(* We have observed that they cast these skins in April, which are
then seen lying at the mouths of their holes.)
Not many summers ago I endeavoured to transplant a colony to the
terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The
new inhabitants stayed some time, and fed and sung; but wandered
away by degrees, and were heard at a farther distance every
morning; so that it appears that on this emergency they made use of
their wings in attempting to return to the spot from which they
were taken.
One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage and set in the
sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed and
thrive, and become so merry and loud as to be irksome in the same
room where a person is sitting: if the plants are not wetted it will
die.
Letter XLVII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne.
Far from all resort of mirth
Save the cricket on the hearth.
MILTON'S Il Penseroso.
Dear Sir,
While many other insects must be sought after in fields and woods,
and waters, the gryllus domesticus, or house-cricket, resides
altogether within our dwellings, intruding itself upon our notice
whether we will or no. This species delights in new-built houses,
being, like the spider, pleased with the moisture of the walls; and
besides, the softness of the mortar enables them to burrow and
mine between the joints of the bricks or stones, and to open
communications from one room to another. They are particularly
fond of kitchens and bakers' ovens, on account of their perpetual
warmth.
Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short period of
one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable months
in profound slumbers; but these, residing as it were in a torrid zone,
are always alert and merry: a good Christmas fire is to them like
the heats of the dog-days. Though they are frequently heard by day,
yet is their natural time of motion only in the night. As soon as it
grows dusk, the chirping increases, and they come running forth,
and are from the size of a flea to that of their full stature. As one
should suppose, from the burning atmosphere which they inhabit,
they are a thirsty race, and show a great propensity for liquids,
being found frequently drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, or
the like. Whatever is moist they affect; and therefore often gnaw
holes in wet woollen stockings and aprons that are hung to the fire:
they are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will
rain; and are prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of in or good luck;
of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover.
By being the constant companions of her solitary hours they
naturally become the objects of her superstition. These crickets are
not only very thirsty, but very voracious; for they will eat the
scummings of pots, and yeast, salt, and crumbs of bread; and any
kitchen offal or sweepings. In the summer we have observed them
to fly, when it became dusk, out of the windows, and over the
neighbouring roofs. This feat of activity accounts for the sudden
manner in which they often leave their haunts, as it does for the
method by which they come to houses where they were not known
before. It is remarkable, that many sorts of insects seem never to
use their wings but when they have a mind to shift their quarters
and settle new colonies. When in the air they move ' volatu
undoso,' in waves or curves, like wood-packers, opening and
shutting their wings at every stroke, and so are always rising or
sinking.
When they increase to a great degree, as they did once in the house
where I am now writing, they became noisome pests, flying into
the candles, and dashing into people's faces; but may be blasted
and destroyed by gunpowder discharged into their crevices and
crannies. In families, at such times, they are, like Pharaoh's plague
of frogs, ' in their bed-chambers, and upon their beds, and in their
ovens, and in their kneading-troughs.' * Their shrilling noise is
occasioned by a brisk attrition of their wings. Cats catch hearth-
crickets, and, playing with them as they do with mice, devour
them. Crickets may be destroyed, like wasps, by phials half fined
with beer, or any liquid, and set in their haunts; for, being always
eager to drink, they will crowd in till the bottles are full.
(* Exod. viii. 3.)
Letter XLVIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne.
How diversified are the modes of life not only of incongruous but
even of congenerous animals; and yet their specific distinctions are
not more various than their propensities. Thus, while the field-
cricket delights in sunny dry banks, and the house-cricket rejoices
amidst the glowing heat of the kitchen hearth or oven, the gryllus
gryllotalpa (the mole-cricket) haunts moist meadows, and frequents
the sides of ponds and banks of streams, performing all its
functions in a swampy wet soil. With a pair of fore-feet, curiously
adapted to the purpose, it burrows and works under ground like the
mole, raising a ridge as it proceeds, but seldom throwing up
hillocks.
As mole-crickets often infest gardens by the sides of canals, they
are unwelcome guests to the gardener, raising up ridges in their
subterraneous progress, and rendering the walks unsightly. If they
take to the kitchen quarters, they occasion great damage among the
plants and roots, by destroying whole beds of cabbages, young
legumes, and flowers. When dug out they seem very slow and
helpless, and make no use of their wings by day; but at night they
come abroad, and make long excursions, as I have been convinced
by finding stragglers, in a morning, in improbable places. In fine
weather, about the middle of April, and just at the close of day,
they begin to solace themselves with a low, dull, jarring note,
continued for a long time without interruption, and not unlike the
chattering of the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, but more inward.
About the beginning of May they lay their eggs, as I was once an
eye-witness: for a gardener at an house, where I was on a visit,
happening to be mowing, on the 6th of that month, by the side of a
canal, his scythe struck too deep, pared off a large piece of turf,
and laid open to view a curious scene of domestic oeconomy:
... ingentem lato dedit ore fenestram:
Apparet domus intus, et atria longa patescunt:
Apparent ... penetralia.
There were many caverns and winding passages leading to a kind
of chamber, neatly smoothed and rounded, and about the size of a
moderate snuff-box. Within this secret nursery were deposited near
an hundred eggs of a dirty yellow colour, and enveloped in a tough
skin, but too lately excluded to contain any rudiments of young,
being full of a viscous substance. The eggs lay but shallow, and
within the influence of the sun, just under a little heap of fresh-
moved mould, like that which is raised by ants.
When mole-crickets fly they move 'cursu undoso,' rising and falling
in curves, like the other species mentioned before. In different
parts of this kingdom people call them fen-crickets, churr-worms,
and eve-churrs, all very apposite names.
Anatomists, who have examined the intestines of these insects,
astonish me with their accounts; for they say that, from the
structure, position, and number of their stomachs, or maws, there
seems to be good reason to suppose that this and the two former
species ruminate or chew the cud like many quadrupeds!
Letter XLIX
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, May 7, 1779.
It is now more than forty years that I have paid some attention to
the ornithology of this district, without being able to exhaust the
subject: new occurrences still arise as long as any inquiries are kept
alive.
In the last week of last month five of those most rare birds, too
uncommon to have obtained an English name, but known to
naturalists by the terms of himantopus, or loripes, and charadrius
himantopus, were shot upon the verge of Frinsham-pond, a large
lake belonging to the bishop of Winchester, and lying between
Wolmer-forest, and the town of Farnham, in the county of Surrey.
The pond keeper says there were three brace in the flock; but that,
after he had satisfied his curiosity, he suffered the sixth to remain
unmolested. One of these specimens I procured, and found the
length of the legs to be so extraordinary, that, at first sight, one
might have supposed the shanks had been fastened on to impose on
the credulity of the beholder: they were legs in caricature; and had
we seen such proportions on a Chinese or Japan screen we should
have made large allowances for the fancy of the draughtsman.
These birds are of the plover family, and might with propriety be
called the stilt plovers. Brisson, under that idea, gives them the
apposite name of l'echasse. My specimen, when drawn and stuffed
with pepper, weighed only four ounces and a quarter, though the
naked part of the thigh measured three inches and an half, and the
legs four inches and an half. Hence we may safely assert that these
birds exhibit, weight for inches, incomparably the greatest length
of legs of any known bird. The flamingo, for instance, is one of the
most long legged birds, and yet it bears no manner of proportion to
the himantopus; for a cock flamingo weighs, at an average, about
four pounds avoirdupois; and his legs and thighs measure usually
about twenty inches. But four pounds are fifteen times and a
fraction more than four ounces and one quarter; and if four ounces
and a quarter have eight inches of legs, four pounds must have one
hundred and twenty inches and a fraction of legs; viz., somewhat
more than ten feet; such a monstrous proportion as the world never
saw! If you should try the experiment in still larger birds the
disparity would still increase. It must be matter of great curiosity to
see the stilt plover move; to observe how it can wield such a length
of lever with such feeble muscles as the thighs seem to be
furnished with. At best one should expect it to be but a bad walker:
but what adds to the wonder is that it has no back toe. Now without
that steady prop support its steps it must be liable, in speculation,
to perpetual vacillations, and seldom able to preserve the true
centre of gravity.
The old name of himantopus is taken from Pliny; and, by an
awkward metaphor, implies that the legs are as slender and pliant
as if cut out of a thong of leather. Neither Willughby nor Ray, in all
their curious researches either at home or abroad, ever saw this
bird. Mr. Pennant never met with it in all Great Britain, but
observed it often in the cabinets of the curious at Paris. Hasselquist
says that it migrates to Egypt in the autumn: and a most accurate
observer of nature has assured me that he has found it on the banks
of the streams in Andalusia.
Our writers record it to have been found only twice in Great
Britain. From all these relations it plainly appears that these long-
legged plovers are birds of South Europe, and rarely visit our
island; and when they do are wanderers and stragglers, and
impelled to make so distant and northern an excursion from
motives or accidents for which we are not able to account. One
thing may fairly be deduced, that these birds come over to us from
the continent, since nobody can suppose that a species not noticed
once in an age, and of such a remarkable make, can constantly
breed unobserved in this kingdom.
Letter L
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, April 21, 1780.
Dear Sir,
The old Sussex tortoise, that I have mentioned to you so often, is
become my property. I dug it out of its winter dormitory in March
last, when it was enough awakened to express its resentments by
hissing; and, packing it in a box with earth, carried it eighty miles
in post-chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so perfectly
roused it that, when I turned it out on a border, it walked twice
down to the bottom of my garden; however, in the evening, the
weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and
continues still concealed.
As it will be under my eye, I shall now have an opportunity of
enlarging my observations on its mode of life, and propensities;
and perceive already that, towards the time of coming forth, it
opens a breathing place in the ground near its head, requiring, I
conclude, a freer respiration, as it becomes more alive. This
creature not only goes under the earth from the middle of
November to the middle of April, but sleeps great part of the
summer; for it goes to bed in the longest days at four in the
afternoon, and often does not stir in the morning till late. Besides,
it retires to rest for every shower; and does not move at all in wet
days.
When one reflects on the state of this strange being, it is a matter of
wonder to find that Providence should bestow such a profusion of
days, such a seeming waste of longevity, on a reptile that appears
to relish it so little as to squander more than two-thirds of its
existence in a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for months
together in the profoundest of slumbers.
While I was writing this letter, a moist and warm afternoon, with
the thermometer at 50, brought forth troupe of shell-snails; and, at
the same juncture, the tortoise heaved up the mould and put out its
head; and the next morning came forth, as it were raised from the
dead; and walked about till four in the afternoon. This was a
curious coincidence! a very amusing occurrence! to see such a
similarity of feelings between the two phereoikoi (in Greek) for so
the Greeks call both the shell-snail and the tortoise.
Summer birds are, this cold and backward spring, unusually late: I
have seen but one swallow yet. This conformity with the weather
convinces me more and more that they sleep in the winter.
Letter LI
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Sept. 3, 1781.
I have now read your miscellanies through with much care and
satisfaction: and am to return you my best thanks for the
honourable mention made in them of me as a naturalist, which I
wish I may deserve.
In some former letters I expressed my suspicions that many of the
house-martins do not depart in the winter far from this village. I
therefore determined to make some search about the south-east end
of the hill, where I imagined they might slumber out the
uncomfortable months of winter. But supposing that the
examination would be made to the best advantage in the spring,
and observing that no martins had appeared by the 11th of April
last, on that day I employed some men to explore the shrubs and
cavities of the suspected spot. The persons took pains, but without
any success: however, a remarkable incident occurred in the midst
of our pursuit-while the labourers were at work a house-martin, the
first that had been seen this year, came down the village in the
sight of several people, and went at once into a nest, where it
stayed a short time, and then flew over the houses; for some days
after no martins were observed, not till the 16th of April, and then
only a pair. Martins in general were remarkably late this year.
Letter LII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Sept. 9, 1781.
I have just met with a circumstance respecting swifts, which
furnishes an exception to the whole tenor of my observations ever
since I have bestowed any attention on that species of hirundines.
Our swifts, in general, withdrew this year about the first day of
August, all save one pair, which in two or three days was reduced
to a single bird. The perseverance of this individual made me
suspect that the strongest of motives, that of an attachment to her
young, could alone occasion so late a stay. I watched therefore till
the twenty-fourth of August, and then discovered that, under the
eaves of the church, she attended upon two young, which were
fledged, and now put out their white chins from a crevice. These
remained till the twenty-seventh, looking more alert every day, and
seeming to long to be on the wing. After this day they were missing
at once; nor could I ever observe them with their dam coursing
round the church in the act of learning to fly, as the first broods
evidently do. On the thirty-first I caused the eaves to be searched,
but we found in the nest only two callow, dead, stinking swifts, on
which a second nest had been formed. This double nest was full of
the black shining cases of the hippoboscae hirundinis.
The following remarks on this unusual incident are obvious. The
first is, that though it may be disagreeable to swifts to remain
beyond the beginning of August, yet that they can subsist longer is
undeniable. The second is, that this uncommon event, as it was
owing to the loss of the first brood, so it corroborates my former
remark, that swifts breed regularly but once; since, was the
contrary the case, the occurrence above could neither be new nor
rare.
P.S. One swift was seen at Lyndon, in the county of Rutland, in
1782, so late as the third of September.
Letter LIII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several
kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort which
I little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had often
observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the walls of
my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust-like
appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly; and that the shoots and
leaves thus affected did not thrive; nor did the fruit ripen. To this
substance I applied my glasses; but could not discover that it had
anything to do with animal life, as I at first expected: but, upon a
closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were surprised to
find that they were coated over with husky shells, from whose sides
proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a multitude of eggs.
This curious and uncommon production put me upon recollecting
what I have heard and read concerning the coccus vitis viniferae of
Linnaeus, which, in the South of Europe, infests many vines, and is
an horrid and loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the
accounts given of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my
vine; and did not appear to be at all checked by the preceding
winter, which had been uncommonly severe.
Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with England,
I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar among the
many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I had formerly
received from thence; and especially as the vine infested grew
immediately under my study-window, where I usually kept my
specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from thence for
some years: but as insects, we know, are conveyed from one
country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a
wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a
nidus proper for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect
still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all
the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has
written me word that he once, and but once, saw these insects on a
vine at Weymouth in Dorsetshire; which, it is here to be observed,
is a seaport town to which the coccus might be conveyed by
shipping.
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