Part 32
I know not any definition of what we term “animal instinct” more comprehensive and accordant with truth than the following, given in the Elements of Etymology by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. “Without pretending to give a logical definition of it, (instinct,) which, while we are ignorant of the essence of reason, is impossible, we may call the instincts of animals those unknown faculties implanted in their constitutions by the Creator, by which, independent of instruction, observation, or experience, and without a knowledge of the end in view, they are impelled to the performance of certain actions tending to the well-being of the individual, and preservation of the species.”
Footnote 52:
See note W, appendix.
Footnote 53:
See note X, appendix.
Footnote 54:
The crow in the spring, when food is difficult of attainment, will kill young pigeons; and the magpie having young ones, captures the new hatches of our domestic poultry: but these are cases of necessity rather than habit. The raven has a decided inclination for the eyes of creatures, and finding lambs in a weak state, immediately plucks them out, and when the animal is recently dead, commences his depredations upon these parts.
Footnote 55:
Substance of a paper read before the Royal Society, Nov. 27, 1824. See Zoological Magazine, vol. i.
Footnote 56:
See note Y, appendix.
Footnote 57:
See note Z, appendix.
Footnote 58:
See note AA, appendix.
Footnote 59:
The Night-Hawk.
Footnote 60:
See note BB, appendix.
Footnote 61:
See note CC, appendix.
Footnote 62:
Multitudes of words are retained in our language derived from very ancient dialects, and possibly the name “clock,” as given to this beetle, conveying no meaning to our present comprehensions, is a corruption of some syllable in former use. Its subterranean residence might have been signified by the old word “cloax,” a vault, a creature from below. Or, burrowing in filth and ordure, as it does, the epithet “clocca,” the offspring of a common shore, or jakes, would not have been insignificant of its origin and habits. Fancy, too, playing with trifles, amuses itself in bandying about even its more general appellative, dorr. In old times a “dorr” was a stupid, blundering fellow; and “to dorr,” was to din, or trouble with noise, both meanings applicable to the heedless flight, and loud noise, made in all the transits of this dung beetle.
Footnote 63:
See note DD, appendix.
Footnote 64:
See note EE, appendix.
Footnote 65:
The hornet is a very pugnacious animal. They will fight desperately with each other at times, when they meet in pursuit of prey, biting each other’s body, and trying to get their mandibles under the head of their opponents, to snip it off. I one day confined under a glass two of these creatures, which had been fighting. One had evidently the mastery; but both had been so injured in the contest that they soon died; and it is most probable that they fall victims to each other’s voracity, in the cold, damp season that usually terminates the autumn of our year.
Footnote 66:
That bees are attracted by the hiving-pan is generally considered as fallacious, and the practice useless.
Footnote 67:
See note FF, appendix.
Footnote 68:
This creature was first observed, I am told, about the year 1819, in the nursery garden of Messrs. Miller and Sweet near Bristol, introduced, as is supposed, on some imported plant. It increases readily in our climate. The white moss rose (rosa muscosa, var. alba): this beautiful variety was first produced about the year 1808, in the garden of Gabriel Goldney, Esq., at Clifton, near Bristol; a branch of the common red moss rose, becoming diseased, produced its flowers white. A neighboring nurseryman, being employed by that gentleman’s gardener to lay down the branch, from cuttings propagated the variety, and shortly after dispersed many plants.
Footnote 69:
See note GG, appendix.
Footnote 70:
See note HH, appendix.
Footnote 71:
See note II, appendix.
Footnote 72:
This agaric is, I believe, unnoticed. I have called it Agaricus surrectus.
Pileus—convex, expanding, covered with a pile of short, white hair; centre depressed; faintly tinted with yellow; from one to three inches in diameter.
Laminæ—loose, irregular, generally four in a set, rather numerous broad, white, changing to buff, and then pink.
Footnote 73:
See note JJ, appendix.
Stipes—solid, tapering upwards, rather thick immediately below the pileus, three inches high, thick as a reed, white, and often downy, wrapper at the base.
Many of this species of singular plant I found in October, 1819, springing from a confluent mass of a. caseus. Bolton’s a. pulvinatus is something like our plant; but he describes his under side as perfectly flat, and represents a singularity in the termination of his laminæ, which is not observable in our a. surrectus.
Footnote 74:
See note KK, appendix.
Footnote 75:
The ash, generally speaking, will arrive at a very serviceable age, in sixty years, producing at a low rate twenty-eight feet of timber, which, at 2_s._ 3_d._ the foot, its present value, would produce a sum equivalent to 3_l._ 3_s._, a silent unheeded profit of above a shilling a year. A hundred such might have been felled annually from many farms had they not been topped, which, in consequence of this practice have produced nothing.
Footnote 76:
See note LL, appendix.
Footnote 77:
“Mr. Caldcleugh sent home two tubers, which being well manured, even the first season produced numerous potatoes, and an abundance of leaves.” _Hort. Transactions_, Vol. V. p. 249. See Humboldt’s interesting discussion on this plant, which it appears was unknown in Mexico, in _Political Essay on New Spain_, book IV. chapter IX.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
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22 owing was, by reason of its growing was, by reason of its tardy growth, and the dryness of tardy growth, and the dryness of the the
243 prays, covered with a cottony sprays, covered with a cottony web. The other hedge web. The other hedge
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