[Note 1] p. 38.—Dense masses of fish.

I have consulted a Scandinavian pisciculturist, who, while not corroborating the occurrence of such vast multitudes, admitted the periodic appearance of dense local swarms, such as are sometimes seen in the lochs in the west of Scotland.

[Note 2] p. 45.—The female eider-duck plucking the male.

The popular story of the male eider being made to furnish down for the nest, after the mother-bird’s supply is exhausted, must, we fear, be regarded as a misstatement. See Newton’s Dictionary of Birds (London, 1893), and other authoritative works on ornithology. Perhaps the story has some basis in the fact that for a short time after the breeding season the males undergo a change of plumage, becoming less decorative and more like the females.

[Note 3] p. 48.—Economic value of eider-down.

According to Stejneger, each nest yields about an ounce and a third. From Greenland and Iceland alone, six thousand pounds, or the contents of seventy-two thousand nests, are yearly exported. Nordenskiöld notes that the quantity of eider-down brought from the polar lands to Tromsöe amounted in 1868 to 540 kilogrammes, in 1869 to 963, in 1870 to 882, in 1871 to 630, in 1872 to 306, and that the total annual yield may be probably estimated at three times as much.

[Note 4] p. 57.—Auks.

A graphic description of the King-auks (Alle alle), which breed in Spitzbergen, is given by Nordenskiöld in the work above mentioned.

The name auk is oftenest applied only to the razor-bills, but is also used collectively for other members of the family Alcidæ, such as guillemots and puffins.

[Note 5] p. 59.—Altrices and Præcoces.

Altrices or nidicolæ are those birds which are more or less helpless when hatched. They are often blind and naked, and unable to leave the nest. The food-yolk has been mostly or wholly used up before birth, and the young depend on what their parents bring them. Examples are doves, hawks, and passerine birds.

Præcoces or nidifugæ are those birds which are more or less able to run about when hatched. They are born with their eyes open, with a covering of down, and with much of their yolk still unused. Examples are running birds, fowl, gulls, and ducks.

[Note 6] pp. 63 and 71.—The Tundra.

[Note 7] pp. 63 and 71.—The Tundra.

With Brehm’s picture of the Tundra, it is interesting to compare that given by Mr. Seebohm in his address to the Geographical Section of the British Association at Nottingham, 1893. (Scottish Geogr. Magazine, ix. (1893), pp. 505-23, with map.)

“In exposed situations, especially in the higher latitudes, the tundra does really merit its American name of Barren Ground, being little else than gravel beds interspersed with bare patches of peat or clay, and with scarcely a rush or a sedge to break the monotony. In Siberia, at least, this is very exceptional. By far the greater part of the tundra, both east and west of the Ural Mountains, is a gently undulating plain, full of lakes, rivers, swamps, and bogs. The lakes are diversified with patches of green water plants, amongst which ducks and swans float and dive; the little rivers flow between banks of rush and sedge; the swamps are masses of tall rushes and sedges of various species, where phalaropes and ruffs breed, and the bogs are brilliant with the white fluffy seeds of the cotton-grass. The groundwork of all this variegated scenery is more beautiful and varied still—lichens and moss of almost every conceivable colour, from the cream-coloured reindeer-moss to the scarlet-cupped trumpet-moss, interspersed with a brilliant alpine flora, gentians, anemones, saxifrages, and hundreds of plants, each a picture in itself, the tall aconites, both the blue and yellow species, the beautiful cloudberry, with its gay white blossom and amber fruit, the flagrant Ledum palustre and the delicate pink Andromeda polifolia. In the sheltered valleys and deep water-courses a few stunted birches, and sometimes large patches of willow scrub, survive the long severe winter, and serve as cover for willow-grouse or ptarmigan. The Lapland bunting and red-throated pipit are everywhere to be seen, and certain favoured places are the breeding grounds of plovers and sandpipers of many species. So far from meriting the name of Barren Ground, the tundra is for the most part a veritable paradise in summer. But it has one almost fatal drawback—it swarms with millions of mosquitoes.”

[Note 8] p. 72.—The Mammoth.

The Mammoth (Elephas primigenius) was a near relative of the Indian elephant, if not indeed a variety of the same species. One of its characteristics was a woolly covering of brownish hair, rudimentary traces of which have been found in the Indian species.

It was abundant in Europe before the glacial epoch, and seems to have been especially common in Siberia. Lydekker’s Royal Natural History gives a good account of the finding of the mammoth, and the striking fact is noticed that the imports of fossil ivory into England prove that, within a period of twenty years, over 20,000 mammoths must have been discovered.

As Brehm describes, the carcasses are found frozen in the soil, to all appearance just as the animals died, but the explanation of this is obscure. The particular case to which he alludes was one of the earliest finds—by Adams in 1806. Before Adams reached the carcass, which had been known for some years, the dogs of the yakuts had eaten most of the flesh.

See also Vogt’s Natural History of Mammals.

[Note 9] p. 73.—Colour of the Arctic Fox.

On the interesting question of the winter colour-change, Mr. Poulton’s Colours of Animals and Mr. Beddard’s Animal Coloration should be consulted.

[Note 10] p. 75.—Reindeer devouring Lemming.

With reference to Brehm’s statement as to reindeer eating lemming, I may note a report on creditable authority that in the hard winter 1894-5 stags in Aberdeenshire were known to have eaten rabbits.

[Note 11] p. 76.—Migration of the Lemming.

A careful discussion of the strange migratory instinct of the lemming will be found in the late Mr. Romanes’s Mental Evolution in Animals.

[Note 12] p. 77.—Food of the Reindeer.

Though the reindeer may eat grasses and aquatic plants, its great resource is the so-called reindeer-moss, which is really a lichen, common on the mountain heights of the interior where the herds pass the winter.

[Note 13] p. 80.—The Phalarope.

Of the Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) and the Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus), both occurring in Britain, Professor Newton says: “A more entrancing sight to the ornithologist can hardly be presented than by either of these species. Their graceful form, their lively coloration, and the confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breeding-quarters, can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delightful sight to watch the birds gathering their food in the high—running surf, or, when that is done, peacefully floating outside the breakers.” See also Collett’s Bird Life in Arctic Norway.

[Note 14] p. 84.—Sense of smell and touch.

The somewhat mysterious reference which Brehm makes to a sense between smell and touch is thoroughly justifiable. To the senses of many of the lower animals—and even of fishes—it is exceedingly difficult to apply our fairly definite human conceptions of smell, taste, touch, &c.

[Note 15] p. 85.—Mosquitoes.

This general term covers a large number of species belonging to the gnat genus (Culex). They are very various in size, and are widely distributed from the Tropics to the Poles. Their larvæ are aquatic, and for their abundance the tundra obviously offers every opportunity.

[Note 16] p. 91.—Flora of the steppe.

According to Seebohm (op. cit.), “The cause of the treeless condition of the steppes or prairies has given rise to much controversy. My own experience in Siberia convinced me that the forests were rocky, and the steppes covered with a deep layer of loose earth, and I came to the conclusion that on the rocky ground the roots of the trees were able to establish themselves firmly, so as to defy the strongest gales, which tore them up when they were planted in loose soil. Other travellers have formed other opinions. Some suppose that the prairies were once covered with trees, which have been gradually destroyed by fires. Others suggest that the earth on the treeless plains contains too much salt or too little organic matter to be favourable to the growth of trees. No one, so far as I know, has suggested a climatic explanation of the circumstances. Want of drainage may produce a swamp, and the deficiency of rainfall may cause a desert, both conditions being fatal to forest growth, but no one can mistake either of these treeless districts for a steppe or a prairie.” See also for general description of steppe vegetation Kerner’s Plant Life and Wiesner’s Biologic der Pflanzen.

[Note 17] p. 97.—The Quagga.

The true quagga (Equus quagga), intermediate between zebras and asses, is no longer known to exist, though it was described by Sir Cornwallis Harris in 1839 as occurring in immense herds. The name quagga is given by the Boers to Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchelli).

The same sad fact of approaching extermination must be noted in regard to not a few noble animals, e.g. rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and giraffe.

Selous writes in 1893: “To the best of my belief, the great white or square-mouthed rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus), the largest of modern terrestrial mammals after the elephant, will, in the course of the next few years, become absolutely extinct. Yet, twenty years ago, it was a common animal over an enormous extent of country in Central South Africa.

“Never again will the traveller be able to stand upon his wagon-box, and, like Burchell, Andrew Smith, Cornwallis Harris, and Gordon Cumming, scan plains literally darkened by thousands upon thousands of wildebeests, quaggas, Burchell’s zebras, blesboks, hartebeests, and spring-boks.”

[Note 18] p. 97.—The Buffalo.

The American bison or buffalo (Bos americanus) is now practically exterminated.

Two sentences from An Introduction to the Study of Mammals, by Sir W. H. Flower and Mr. R. Lydekker (London, 1891), put the case in a nutshell.

“The multitudes in which the American bison formerly existed are almost incredible; the prairies being absolutely black with them as far as the eye could reach, the numbers in the herds being reckoned by millions.”

With the completion of the Kansas Branch of the Pacific Railway in 1871, the extraordinarily careless and ruthless slaughter began. In less than ten years bison-shooting ceased to be profitable.

And now, “A herd of some two hundred wild individuals derived from the northern herd is preserved in the Yellowstone National Park; and it is believed that some five hundred of the race, known as Wood-Bison, exist in British territory; but with these exceptions this magnificent species is exterminated”.

A vivid account of the buffalo’s habits and of its rapid tragic extermination will be found in Mr. Grinell’s essay “In Buffalo Days” in American Big-Game Hunting (Boone and Crockett Club), edited by Th. Roosevelt and G. B. Grinell, Edinburgh, 1893.

See also Hornaday, The Extirpation of the American Bison, 1889, and a monograph by J. A. Allen, “The American Bisons, Living and Extinct”: Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, vol. iv., 1876.

[Note 19] p. 102.—Fighting-ruffs.

The ruff (Machetes pugnax) is in many ways a most interesting bird. Thus, there is the rapid change of plumage, as the result of which the male acquires his characteristic frill or ruff before the breeding season. The indefatigable pugnacity of the males, the efficacy of their shield, their assiduous polygamous courtship, their subsequent carelessness as to the fate of the reeve and her young, and their extraordinary “polymorphism”, are very remarkable. While the individual peculiarities of plumage are very marked, each ruff is true season after season to its own idiosyncrasy. Visitors to the National Museum of Natural History in London will remember a beautiful case of ruffs in the Entrance Hall.

[Note 20] p. 103.—Sky-goat.

Bleating of snipe. There has been much discussion as to the origin of the peculiar drumming or bleating sound made by the snipe, to which it owes its Scotch name of “heather-bleater”, but many at least agree with Brehm.

[Note 21] p. 106.—Sand-grouse.

Sand-grouse (Pterocles and Syrrhaptes), a group of birds quite distinct from the grouse. One species, Syrrhaptes paradoxus, “ranging from Northern China across Central Asia to the confines of Europe”, has shown a tendency to extensive migration, visiting Britain, for instance, in 1859, 1863, 1872, 1876, and abundantly in 1888. For a concise account of these irregular invasions see Newton’s Dictionary of Birds.

[Note 22] p. 107.—Yurt.

According to Radloff “jurte” or “yurt” is a general name for a more or less transportable rough hut made of stakes, felt, bark, and the like, varying slightly in construction in different districts. The ring to which Brehm here refers is probably that through which the upper ends of the converging stakes are thrust.

[Note 23] p. 109.—The Jerboa.

The rodent here referred to is the Kirghiz jerboa (Alactaga decumana). What Brehm says as to its eating eggs and young birds is confirmed by others.

[Note 24] p. 115.—The Sand-grouse or Steppe-grouse.

Pallas’s Sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus), see note 21.

[Note 25] p. 115—Ancestry of the horse.

See Sir W. H. Flower’s little book on The Horse (Modern Science Series). The kulan or kiang is rather a wild ass than a wild horse, and the balance of evidence in favour of regarding the Tarpan as in the line of ancestry is greater than Brehm indicates. Flower suggests that Przewalski’s horse, discovered some years ago in Central Asia, and looked upon as a distinct species, may be a hybrid between the kiang and the tarpan.

[Note 26] p. 116.—Ancestors of the cat and the goat.

It is very generally believed that our domestic cat is descended from the sacred Egyptian or Caffre cat (Felis caffra). See St. George Mivart’s monograph on the cat. Similarly, the breeds of domestic goat are often referred to the Pasang or Capra ægagrus, found in Crete, Asia Minor, Persia, &c. See a vivid essay by Buxton in his Short Stalks, entitled “The Father of all the Goats”.

[Note 27] p. 116.—Wild camels.

An interesting note on wild camels in Spain—a strayed herd—is to be found in Wild Spain by Chapman and Buck. St. George Littledale has recently discussed (Proc. Zoological Society, 1894) the question whether the camels of Lob-nor, on the slope of Altyn Tag, are remains of a wild stock or strayed. No wild dromedaries are known, and the same is probably true of camels.

[Note 28] p. 123.—The Life of the Forest.

With Brehm’s description of this minor forest, the reader should compare that which Stanley gives of “The Great Central African Forest” (chap. xxiii. of 2nd vol. of In Darkest Africa). He computes the size of the main mass at 321,057 square miles. A few sentences from his description may be quoted.

“Imagine the whole of France and the Iberian peninsula closely packed with trees varying from 20 to 180 feet high, whose crowns of foliage interlace and prevent any view of sky and sun, and each tree from a few inches to four feet in diameter. Then from tree to tree run cables from two inches to fifteen inches in diameter, up and down in loops and festoons and W’s and badly-formed M’s; fold them round the trees in great tight coils, until they have run up the entire height like endless anacondas; let them flower and leaf luxuriantly, and mix up above with the foliage of the trees to hide the sun, then from the highest branches let fall the ends of the cables reaching near to the ground by hundreds with frayed extremities, for these represent the air roots of the epiphytes; let slender cords hang down also in tassels with open threadwork at the ends. Work others through and through as confusedly as possible, and pendent from branch to branch—with absolute disregard of material, and at every fork and on every horizontal branch plant cabbage-like lichens of the largest kind, and broad spear-leaved plants—these would represent the elephant-eared plant—and orchids and clusters of vegetable marvels, and a drapery of delicate ferns which abound. Now cover tree, branch, twig, and creeper with a thick moss like a green fur.”

He goes on to describe the rush of life to fill up each gap—the struggle for existence—the crowding, crushing, and strangling—the death and disease.

“To complete the mental picture of this ruthless forest, the ground should be strewn thickly with half-formed humus of rotting twigs, leaves, branches; every few yards there should be a prostrate giant, a reeking compost of rotten fibres, and departed generations of insects, and colonies of ants, half veiled with masses of vines and shrouded by the leafage of a multitude of baby saplings, lengthy briars and calamus in many fathom lengths, and every mile or so there should be muddy streams, stagnant creeks, and shallow pools, green with duckweed, leaves of lotus and lilies, and a greasy green scum composed of millions of finite growths.”

[Note 29] p. 126.—Appearance of Decay in the Forests.

A closely similar picture is given by Mr. E. N. Buxton in recounting a journey in the Rocky Mountains. He says: “This bane of pack-trains is caused by forest fires, which have burnt out the life of the trees, leaving only gaunt stems and blackened ground, followed by tempests which have whirled these tottering giants in heaps to the ground. In places the stems lie parallel to one another, and piled to the height of many feet as though they had been laid in sheaves. Elsewhere, while some have stood the shock and are still erect, their neighbours lie prone at every conceivable angle to one another, and their branches pierce the air as weathered snags. This ghastly waste, whether brought about by natural causes, or the recklessness of man, will have to be paid for some day, for are we not within measurable distance of the inevitable world-wide timber-famine” (E. N. Buxton, Short Stalks, 1893).

See also Rodway’s In the Guiana Forest (London, 1895), and article “Death in the Forest” (Natural Science, Sept., 1892).

[Note 30] p. 129.—Taiga.

“A strip of Alpine region, 100-150 miles in breadth, consisting of separate mountain-chains whose peaks rise from 4800-6500 feet above sea-level, and beyond the limits of forest vegetation.” According to Radloff, the name taiga is also generally applied by the Kalmucks to wooded and rocky mountain-land.

[Note 31] p. 135.—Extermination of the Beaver.

Mr. Martin, in his eulogy of the beaver (Castorologia, 1892), describes the rapid diminution of numbers in Canada, largely as the result of careless greed, but also through the spread of colonisation. He believes that by the end of the century, none will be found except in museums. Their rarity in Europe is well known.

[Note 32] p. 136.—Export of skins.

Radloff notes, in 1884, that the yearly sale of furs at the Irbitsch fair amounts to between three and four millions of roubles.

[Note 33] p. 144.—Velvet of antlers.

An account of the various ways in which pounded antlers and the vascular velvet were once used in medicine will be found in Prof. W. Marshall’s recent Arzenei-Kästlein, Leipzig, 1894.

[Note 34] p. 147.—The Elk.

The elk (Alces machlis) is the largest of the land animals of Europe, and is the same as the “moose” of Canada.

[Note 35] p. 150.—Rouble.

This varies from 3s. 8d. to 3s. 10d., but is usually reckoned as 4s. Of the kopeks, afterwards referred to, a hundred go to the rouble.

[Note 36] p. 161.—Brick Tea.

Broken or powdered tea-leaves mixed with the blood of the sheep or ox, and formed into cakes. Other fragrant leaves are sometimes added.

[Note 37] p. 165.—The Bear rearing her cubs.

I have been unable to find any corroboration of this story as to the she-bear employing her children of a former year as nurses.

[Note 38] p. 170.—Heat in the Desert.

50° Celsius, or Centigrade = 122° Fahrenheit. Temperatures of 121°, 122°, 133° Fahr., and so on, have been repeatedly recorded in the desert. Solymos, in his Desert Life, notes 115° Fahr. in the shade as the maximum for his year. He also calls attention to the frost and ice! “Duveyrier registered frost twenty-six times between December and March in the plains of the Central Sahara.” His picture of the desert-well is much less optimistic than Brehm’s.

[Note 39] p. 173.—The Termites.

Termites or “white ants” are very characteristic, wood-eating insects of tropical Africa and other warm countries. Though not related to the true ants, they have somewhat similar social organizations.

The reader will be rewarded who turns to Prof. Henry Drummond’s Tropical Africa, where there is not only a graphic description of the ways of the termites, but an interesting theory of their possible agricultural importance. As they avoid the light, and travel on the trees only under cover of their tunnels of finely-comminuted and cemented earth, they must be continually pulverizing the soil. When rain-storms come this fine dust is washed from the trees, and some of it may go to swell the alluvium of distant valleys. Hence the termite may be, like the earthworm, a soil-maker of considerable importance. Mr. H. A. Bryden, in his Gun and Camera in Southern Africa (London, 1893), writes as follows of the termites: “Our cases, portmanteaus, &c., were arranged round, but not touching the walls. Every article reposed on glass bottles, as the only known protection against the depredations of white ants.... They will eat large holes in a thick tweed coat in one night, and anything softer than metal left to their tender mercies for a night or two is irretrievably ruined.... If the huts are inspected every few days, the tunnels of self-made mortar can be swept away, and the depredator kept at all events to the flooring.... Most housewives have, at least once a year, to institute a crusade against the marauders, dig up the flooring, and attempt to find the queen. If the queen-ant can be successfully located and dug up, the nuisance is ended; the rest of the ants, bereft of their sovereign, at once quit the building, and for a season trouble no more.... In the forests to the north and west the mischief done by these insects is enormous. The tree is attacked, the tunnels are run up along the bole, the wood is pierced and riddled, and the work of destruction is soon completed.”

There is, however, a lack of precise observation as to the extent to which termites attack trees which are altogether sound and living. In great measure they merely hasten and complete a destruction for whose initiation they are not responsible.

[Note 40] p. 173.—Summer Sleep.

Summer-sleep in torrid regions, affecting a few fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, is a phenomenon analogous to hibernation elsewhere, but its physiological explanation is even more obscure.

[Note 41] p. 174.—The Karroo.

Karroo, a general name for the highland steppes of South Africa. See H. A. Bryden’s Kloof and Karroo (1889).

[Note 42] p. 178.—Cerastes (Vipera hasselquistii).

The horned viper is the most common viper of Northern Africa. It is extremely poisonous. It is of a brownish-white colour with darker markings, and has a scaly spine or horn over each eye. This species is usually supposed to have been Cleopatra’s asp.

[Note 43] p. 182. See Note 39.

[Note 44] p. 183.—The mud-fish.

This remarkable animal (Protopterus) is one of the Double-breathers or Dipnoi, a member of a small class between Fishes and Amphibians, represented by three genera—Ceratodus in Queensland, Lepidosiren in Brazil, and this Protopterus in Africa. They differ in many ways from other fishes, being physiologically intermediate between Fishes and Amphibians. Hundreds of specimens have been brought within their ‘nests’ from Africa to Europe. Brehm speaks of the complete enclosure of the capsule, but this is now known to communicate with the outer world by a tubular passage through the mud. At the foot of this tube the mud-fish keeps his nostrils. The lung is a specialization of the swim-bladder which is present in most fishes.

[Note 45] p. 184.—The Royal Aspis or Uräus.

The Uräus snake or Aspis is the well-known Egyptian jugglers’ snake (Naja haje). It may be over six feet in length, and is very deadly.

[Note 46] p. 185.—Spitting poison.

The poison of a snake is contained in the secretion of a specialized salivary gland. The compression of this venom gland propels the fluid along a duct which leads to the groove or canal of the fang. Infection with the venom only occurs when, by more or less of a bite, the poison is injected into the victim. No spitting of poison is known, nor would it have effect without a wound.

[Note 47] p. 186.—The Gecko.

Figures and a brief description of the gecko’s clinging foot will be found in Semper’s well-known Animal Life (International Science Series, 1881). The clinging power is due to numerous long bristle-like hairs on the sole of the foot. These appear to be modifications of the “casting-hairs” which are used in “skin-casting”.

[Note 48] p. 191.—Dance of Ostrich.

A vivid picture of the Ostrich dance will be found in Prof. Lloyd Morgan’s Animal Sketches (1892).

[Note 49] p. 192.—Ostrich.

Prof. Newton, in his Dictionary of Birds, notes that Ostriches, though sometimes assembling in troops of 30-50, commonly live in companies of four or five—one cock and the rest hens. This is especially true at the breeding season. All the hens lay together; the cock broods during the night; the hens take turns during the day, more, it would seem, to guard their common treasure from jackals and small beasts of prey than directly to forward the process of hatching, for that is often left wholly to the sun. Some thirty eggs are laid in the nest, and round it are scattered perhaps as many more, which are said to be used as food for the newly-hatched chicks.

Compare works cited in that article: M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Reise im südlichen Africa (Berlin, 1812); Fursch and Hartlaub, Vögel Ost Afrikas; De Mosenthal and Harting, Ostrich and Ostrich Farming; also, Mrs. Martin, Home Life on an Ostrich Farm.

[Note 50] p. 193.—Primaries and Secondaries.

Primary feathers are the longer quill-feathers of the wing, and are borne by the ‘hand’ of the bird; the secondaries are the quill-feathers higher up, borne by the ulna of the arm.

[Note 51] p. 220.—Hornbills.

Members of the family Bucerotidæ, including some 60 species whose generic arrangement is uncertain. Of their habits Prof. Newton says: “They breed in holes of trees, laying large white eggs, and when the hen begins to sit, the cock plasters up the entrance with mud or clay, leaving only a small window, through which she receives the food he brings her during her voluntary imprisonment”. He notes Mr. Bartlett’s discovery, confirmed by others, that the hornbills cast out at intervals the lining of their gizzard in the form of a bag, which is filled with the fruit that the bird has been eating, and asks whether “these castings are really intended to form the hen-bird’s food during her confinement”.

[Note 52] p. 221.—Umber- or Umbre-bird.

This bird, whose name refers to the earthy-brown colour, is the Hammer-head or Scopus umbretta of ornithologists. Of the nest, Prof. Newton says that “it is occasionally some six feet in diameter, a mass of sticks, roots, grass, and rushes compactly piled together, with a flat-topped roof, the interior being neatly lined with clay, and a hole of entrance and exit”. It may be of interest to compare its nest with that of the South American Oven-birds (Furnarius, &c.).

[Note 53] p. 221.—Doves beside falcons.

Those interested in the facts of nature which suggest the danger of exaggerating the Darwinian idea of the struggle for existence should consult two articles by Kropotkine, entitled “Mutual Aid Among Animals”, in the Nineteenth Century, 1889. Kropotkine cites from Dr. Coues, an American ornithologist, an observation in regard to some little cliff swallows which nested quite near the home of a prairie falcon. “The little peaceful birds had no fear of their rapacious neighbour; they did not let it even approach to their colony. They immediately surrounded it and chased it, so that it had to make off at once.”

[Note 54] p. 223.—And they know that this is so.

Brehm suggests here and elsewhere what it would be difficult to prove, that animals which have unconsciously acquired protective colouring, and which instinctively crouch or lie still instead of trying to escape by flight, are aware of their adaptation to concealment. There seem to be but few cases which give countenance to this supposition.

[Note 55] p. 227.—Crocodile Bird.

This is usually regarded as Pluvianus or Hyas ægyptius—one of the “plovers” in the wide sense. Professor Newton observes, however, in a note to the article “Plover” in his Dictionary of Birds that there is not perfect unanimity on the matter, as some have supposed that the “crocodile bird” was a lapwing—Hoplopterus spinosus. But the elder Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Brehm, who both saw the bird enter the reptile’s mouth, regarded it as Pluvianus ægyptius.

Dr. Leith Adams notes (1870) that the crocodile is now rarely seen below Beni Hassan, and is evidently receding everywhere below the second cataract. Both Herodotus and Strabo speak of its domestication, and it is tamed at the present day by certain religious sects in India. On the lower Nile it is shy and difficult even to shoot.

“A sail, or the smoke and noise of a steamboat, suffice to warn the crocodiles basking on the sand-banks, or their common companions, the black-headed and spur-winged plovers (Pluvianus ægyptius and Hoplopterus spinosus), which are frequently seen perched on their backs, and always prepared to give timely warning of approaching danger, just as the Father of History noticed them 2300 years ago, and, strange to say, his well-known story is current among the modern Egyptians, who, as usual, have put a tail to the narrative. They say, that in addition to its office of leech-catcher to the crocodile, it occasionally does happen that the zic-zac—so called from its note of alarm—in searching for the leeches, finds its way into the reptile’s mouth when the latter is basking on a sand-bank, where it lies generally with the jaws wide apart. Now this is possible and likely enough, but the captain of our boat added, that occasionally the crocodile falls asleep, when the jaws suddenly fall, and the zic-zac is shut up in the mouth, when it immediately prods the crocodile with its horny spurs, as if refreshing the memory of his reptilian majesty, who opens his jaws and sets his favourite leech-catcher at liberty” (Leith Adams).

[Note 56] p. 237.—Rats.

The brown rat (Mus decumanus) is much stronger than the black rat (Mus rattus), and gains an easy victory. The rivalry between the two species is one of the examples Darwin gives of his generalization that the struggle for existence is most severe between allied forms, and there seems no doubt that the brown rat has often ousted and will even devour the black rat. The latter is now rare in Britain. It should be noted, however, (1) that the two species are said sometimes to live together on board ship, (2) that cases have been recorded where the black rat returned and defeated its conquerors, and (3) that the black rat keeps more about houses, stables, and barns, is therefore more readily exterminated by man, whose efforts were doubtless increased when a second species appeared on the scene. The case is of some importance in connection with the generalization referred to above.

[Note 57] p. 240.—Migrations of Reindeer.

Of the reindeer in Spitzbergen, Nordenskiöld writes:—“During the summer it betakes itself to the grassy plains in the ice-free valleys of the island; in the late autumn it withdraws—according to the walrus-hunter’s statements—to the sea-coast, in order to eat the seaweed that is thrown up on the beach. In winter it goes back to the lichen-clad mountain heights in the interior of the country, where it appears to thrive exceedingly well, though the cold during winter must be excessively severe; for when the reindeer in spring return to the coast they are still very fat, but some weeks afterwards, when the snow has frozen on the surface, and a crust of ice makes it difficult for them to get at the mountain sides, they become so poor as to be scarcely eatable. In summer, however, they speedily eat themselves back into condition, and in autumn they are so fat that they would certainly take prizes at an exhibition of fat cattle.”

Wrangel describes migrations of thousands of reindeer in Eastern Siberia moving from the mountains to the forests, where they winter. He mentions his guide’s assertion that each body is led by a female of large size.

Perhaps we may take the liberty of quoting, with a tribute of admiration, Mr. F. Marion Crawford’s eloquent description of a wild rush of reindeer from the inland country to the shore. We confess to incredulity in regard to the reindeer’s longing to drink of the Polar Sea, but the splendid vividness of the description may excuse some slight inaccuracy.

“In the distant northern plains, a hundred miles from the sea, in the midst of the Laplander’s village, a young reindeer raises his broad muzzle to the north wind, and stares at the limitless distance while a man may count a hundred. He grows restless from that moment, but he is yet alone. The next day a dozen of the herd look up from the cropping of the moss, sniffing the breeze. Then the Laps nod to one another and the camp grows daily more unquiet. At times the whole herd of young deer stand at gaze, as it were, breathing hard through wide nostrils, then jostling each other and stamping the soft ground. They grow unruly, and it is hard to harness them in the light sledge. As the days pass, the Laps watch them more and more closely, well knowing what will happen sooner or later, and then at last, in the northern twilight, the great herd begins to move. The impulse is simultaneous, irresistible, their heads are all turned in one direction. They move slowly at first, biting still, here and there, at the rich moss. Presently the slow step becomes a trot, they crowd closely together, while the Laps hasten to gather up their last unpacked possessions—their cooking utensils and their wooden gods. The great herd break together from a trot to a gallop, from a gallop to a breakneck race, the distant thunder of their united tread reaches the camp during a few minutes, and they are gone to drink of the Polar Sea. The Laps follow after them, dragging painfully their laden sledges in the broad track left by the thousands of galloping beasts—a day’s journey, and they are yet far from the sea, and the trail is yet broad. On the second day it grows narrower, and there are stains of blood to be seen; far on the distant plain before them their sharp eyes distinguish in the direct line a dark motionless object, another, and another. The race has grown more desperate and more wild as the stampede neared the sea. The weaker reindeer have been thrown down and trampled to death by their stronger fellows. A thousand sharp hoofs have crushed and cut through hide and flesh and bone. Ever swifter and more terrible in their motion, the ruthless herd has raced onward, careless of the slain, careless of food, careless of any drink but the sharp salt water ahead of them. And when at last the Laplanders reach the shore their deer are once more quietly grazing, once more tame and docile, once more ready to drag the sledge whithersoever they are guided. Once in his life the reindeer must taste of the sea in one long, satisfying draught, and if he is hindered he perishes. Neither man nor beast dare stand before him in the hundred miles of his arrow-like path.”—A Cigarette-Maker’s Romance, vol. ii. pp. 23-25.