Part 31

A third plan for taking eels is by what is termed bobbing, which is best managed in a boat. This is done by taking a quantity of well-scoured lobworms; have a long needle, with three lengths of worsted slightly twisted together; put the needle lengthways through the worms, and draw them down on the worsted. When there is two yards thus prepared, then fold them up in links, and tie them to about two yards of good twine, and make a knot on it eight inches from the worms; and slipping a piece of lead, with a hole in it (weighing from a quarter to three quarters of a pound, according to the current fished in), down the line to the knot; fasten the line to a manageable pole, and let the lead lie on the bottom in thick, muddy water, when the tide runs up strong, or near the mouth of some river. When the eels nibble at the bait, they can be felt; give some little time before it is pulled up, which must be gently until near the surface, and then hoist out quickly. The worsted sticking in the eels’ teeth, prevents their loosening themselves until the line is slackened by throwing them into the boat, or on the ground. So soon as they are disentangled, throw the bait in again. Frequently great quantities are thus caught, especially of grigs. Eels are also to be snared in the same way as the pike, and in the fens numbers are speared by an instrument with three or four forks, or jagged teeth, which is struck at random into the mud.

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The most extraordinary peculiarity in the natural history of the eel, is its double migration, one up and one down rivers, one from and the other to the sea; the first in spring and summer, and the second in autumn or early in winter. The first, of very small eels, which are sometimes not more than two or two and a half inches long; the second, of large eels, which sometimes are three or four feet long, and weigh from ten to fifteen, or even twenty pounds. There is great reason to believe, that all eels found in fresh water are the results of the first migration. They appear in millions, in April and May, and sometimes continue to rise as late even as July and the beginning of August. I remember this was the case in Ireland, in 1823. It had been a cold backward summer, and when I was at Ballyshannon, about the end of July, the mouth of the river, which had been in flood all this month, under the fall, was blackened by millions of little eels, about as long as the finger, which were constantly urging their way up the moist rocks by the side of the fall. Thousands died, but their bodies remaining moist, served as the ladder for others to make their way; and I saw some ascending even perpendicular stones, making their road through wet moss, or adhering to some eels that had died in the attempt. Such is the energy of these little animals, that they continue to find their way, in immense numbers, to Loch Erne. The same thing happens at the fall of the Bann, and Loch Neagh is thus peopled by them: even the mighty Fall of Schaffhausen does not prevent them from making their way to the Lake of Constance, where I have seen many very large eels.

There are eels in the Lake of Neufchatel, which communicates, by a stream, with the Rhine; but there are none in the Leman Lake, because the Rhone makes a subterraneous fall below Geneva; and though small eels can pass by moss or mount rocks, they cannot penetrate limestone, or move against a rapid descending course of water, passing, as it were, through a pipe. Again: no eels mount the Danube from the Black Sea; and there are none found in the great extent of lakes, swamps, and rivers, communicating with the Danube, though some of these lakes and morasses are wonderfully fitted for them, and though they are found abundantly in the same countries, in lakes and rivers connected with the ocean and Mediterranean. Yet, when brought into confined water in the Danube, they fatten and thrive there. As to the instinct which leads young eels to seek fresh water, it is difficult to reason; probably they prefer warmth, and, swimming at the surface in the early summer, find the lighter water warmer, and likewise containing more insects, and so pursue the courses of fresh water, as the waters from the land, at this season, become warmer than those of the sea.

Mr. J. Couch, (_Lin. Trans._ t. xiv. p. 70) says, that the little eels, according to his observation, are produced within reach of the tide, and climb round falls to reach fresh water from the sea. I have sometimes seen them, in spring, swimming in immense shoals in the Atlantic, in Mount Bay, making their way to the mouth of small brooks and rivers. When the cold water from the autumnal floods begins to swell the rivers, this fish tries to return to the sea; but numbers of the smaller ones hide themselves during the winter in the mud, and many of them form, as it were, in masses together. Various authors have recorded the migration of eels in a singular way,—such as Dr. Plot, who, in his History of Staffordshire, says, that they pass in the night, across meadows, from one pond to another: and Mr. Arderon, (in _Trans. Royal Soc._) gives a distinct account of small eels rising up the flood-gates and posts of the water works of the city of Norwich; and they made their way to the water above, though the boards were smooth planed, and five or six feet perpendicular. He says, when they first rose out of the water upon the dry board, they rested a little—which seemed to be till their slime was thrown out, and sufficiently glutinous—and then they rose up the perpendicular ascent with the same facility as if they had been moving on a plane surface.—(_Trans. Abr._ vol. ix. p. 311.) There can, I think, be no doubt, that they are assisted by their small scales, which, placed like those of serpents, must facilitate their progressive motion: these scales have been microscopically observed by Leuwenhoek.—(_Phil. Trans._ vol. iv.) Eels migrate from the salt-water of different sizes, but I believe never when they are above a foot long—and the great mass of them are only from two and a half to four inches. They feed, grow, and fatten in fresh water. In small rivers they are seldom very large; but in large deep lakes they become as thick as a man’s arm, or even leg; and all those of a considerable size attempt to run to the sea in October or November, probably when they experience the cold of the first autumnal rains. Those that are not of the largest size, as I said before, pass the winter in the deepest parts of the mud of rivers and lakes, and do not seem to eat much, and remain, I believe, almost torpid. Their increase is not certainly known in any given time, but must depend upon the quantity of their food; but it is probable they do not become of the largest size from the smallest in one or even two seasons: but this, as well as many other particulars, can only be ascertained by new observations and experiments. Block states, that they grow slowly, and mentions, that some had been kept in the same pond for fifteen years.

As very large eels, after having migrated, never return to the river again, they must (for it cannot be supposed they all die immediately in the sea) remain in salt water; and there is great probability, that they are then confounded with the conger, which is found of different colours and sizes, from the smallest to the largest, from a few ounces to one hundred pounds in weight. The colour of the conger is generally paler than that of the eel; but, in the Atlantic, it is said, that pale congers are found on one side of the Wolf Rock, and dark ones on the other. The conger has breathing tubes, which are said not to be found in the other eel; but to determine this, would require a more minute examination than has yet been made. Both the conger and common eel have fringes along the air-bladder, which are probably the ovaria; and Sir E. Home thinks them hermaphrodite, and that the seminal vessels are close to the kidneys. I hope this great comparative anatomist will be able to confirm his views by new dissections, and some chemical researches upon the nature of the fringes and the supposed melt. If viviparous, and the fringes contain the ova, one mother must produce tens of thousands, the ova being remarkably small; but it appears more probable, that they are oviparous, and that they deposit their ova in parts of the sea near deep basins, which remain warm in winter. This might be ascertained by experiment, particularly on the coast of the Mediterranean. I cannot find that they haunt the Arctic Ocean, which is probably of too low a temperature to suit their feelings or habits; and the Caspian and Black Sea are probably without them, from their not being found in the Volga or Danube; these being shallow seas, are perhaps too cold for them in winter. From the time (April) that small eels begin to migrate, it is probable that they are generated in winter, and the pregnant eels should be looked for in November, December, and January. I opened one in December, in which the fringes were abundant, but I did not examine them under the microscope, or chemically. I trust this curious problem will not remain much longer unsolved.

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An amazing number of eels are bred in the two large ponds in Richmond Park, which is sufficiently evident from the very great quantity of young ones which migrate from those ponds every year. The late respectable head-keeper of that park assured me, that, at nearly the same day in the month of May, vast numbers of young eels, about two inches in length, contrived to get through the pen-stock of the upper pond, and then through the channel which led into the lower pond, from whence they got through another pen-stock into a water-course which led them eventually into the River Thames. They migrated in one connected shoal, and in such prodigious numbers, that no guess could be given as to their probable amount.

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The winter retreat of eels is very curious. They not only get deep into the mud, but in Bushy Park, where the mud in the ponds is not very deep, and what there is is of a sandy nature, the eels make their way under the banks of the ponds, and have been found knotted together in a large mass.

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Eel-weirs are common in almost all the rivers in Ireland. There are some large ones at, or near Enniskillen, where great quantities of these fish are caught; they are not natives of the lake, but come from the sea when very young, and are intercepted in their return; they never take a bait, nor are ever known to eat any kind of food. Lord Belmore has kept some in boxes for a year, and found this to be the case.

The country people catch them by extending across the water a band of hay, in which the eels get so entangled, as not to be able to disengage themselves, and by these means are easily taken.

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There is a very singular eel found in the river Barrow near Carlow. It is like the gillaroo, has a gizzard. This eel is said to be particularly delicious when introduced to table.

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The common eel will grow to a large size, sometimes to weigh twenty pounds, but that is extremely rare; in 1799 one was taken out of the Kennet, near Newbury, which weighed fifteen pounds. As to instances brought by Dale and others, of these fish increasing to a superior magnitude, there is much reason to suspect them to have been congers; since the enormous eels they describe, have all been taken at the mouth of the Thames or Medway.

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The following curious fact is recorded by Mr. Swallow, some years since the British Consul-General in Russia:—Having occasion to go from Petersburgh to Moscow, where eels are a great rarity, he ordered some, to carry as a present; upon being taken out of the water, they were thrown upon the ground to be frozen, and soon appeared quite dead, and almost a piece of ice; they were then packed in snow, and when arrived at Moscow, which was four days after, the eels being put into cold water, and so thawed, discovered gradually signs of life, and soon perfectly recovered!

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The eel was anciently said to possess the power of enforcing sobriety upon the most devoted subject of the jolly god. “If you would some notorious drunkard and common swil-bowle to loth and abhorre his beastlie vice, and for ever after to hate the drinking of wine, put an eele alyue into some wyde mouthed potte with a couer, hauing in it suche a quantitie of wine as may suffice of itselfe to suffocate and strangle the eele to death; which doone, take out the dead eele, and let the partie, whom you would have reclaymed from his bibacitie, not knowing hereof, drinke of that wine onely, euen as much as he listeth.”—_Jesse_—_Daniel_—_Sir H. Davy_, _&c._

EFT, _s._ A newt, an evet, a small lizard.

EGG, _s._ That which is laid by feathered animals, from which their young is produced; the spawn or sperm of creatures.

_Eggs of Birds._—By experiment it appears that birds do not instinctively know the necessary time of incubation.

Those who suppose a bird capable of producing eggs at will, or that any bird is excited to lay more eggs than usual by daily robbing their nest, are certainly mistaken. In a domesticated fowl it is probable the desire of incubation may be prolonged by leaving little or nothing in the nest to sit on. It will therefore lay the number allotted by nature, which is determined before the first egg is produced.

It is but few birds, if any, that would produce a second lot of eggs in the same season if unmolested; but if their nests are destroyed, it is probable three or four separate lots may be produced.

The growth of an egg after impregnation is exceedingly rapid; the yolk only is formed in the _ovarium_, where it remains till within twenty-four hours of its being produced; when that part is fully matured, it separates and falls down the _oviduct_ into the _uterus_, where the egg is perfectly formed; first, the _vitellus_ or yolk is surrounded by the _albumen_ or white; and lastly is covered with a calcareous shell. The very expeditious growth of these last appear to be an extraordinary exertion of nature. The calcareous covering of an egg is concreted and formed in a most expeditious manner; a few hours only seem necessary for this work. Only one _vitellus_ separates from the _ovarium_ at a time, (except as we shall hereafter mention,) till the exclusion of which no other succeeds. But this is a daily production, with few exceptions, there is no more time allowed for perfecting the _albumen_ and shell than twenty-four hours.

_Colours of Eggs._—It was a notion of Darwin’s that the variety in the colours of eggs, as well as in the colours of many animals, is adapted to the purposes of concealment from their natural enemies. Thus, he remarks, that the eggs of the hedge-chanter (_Accentor modularis_) are greenish blue, as are those of magpies and crows, which are seen from beneath in wicker nests, between the eye and the blue of the firmament. M. Glöger, a German naturalist, has followed up this singular theory into some detail, and considers it to be a remarkable provision of nature, that birds whose nests are most exposed, and whose eggs are most open to the view of their enemies, lay eggs of which the colour is the least distinguishable from that of surrounding objects, so as to deceive the eye of birds, or other plundering animals; while birds, the eggs of which have a bright decided colour, and are consequently very conspicuous, either conceal their nests in hollows, or only quit their eggs during the night, or begin to sit immediately. It is also to be remarked that in the species of which the nest is open, and the female brings up the brood without the assistance of the male, these females are generally of a different colour from the male, less conspicuous, and more in harmony with the objects around.

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_Eggs of Game._—Taking or wilfully destroying the eggs of game, subjects the offender to the following penalties for each egg:—

Pheasant, partridge, swan £1 0 0 Any wild-fowl, crane, bustard (and one year’s imprisonment for the offence) 0 1 8 Bittern, heron, shoveller 0 0 8

_Rennie_—_Montagu_, _&c._

EGRET (_Ardea garzetta_, LINN.; _Egretta_, BUFF.), _s._ A fowl of the heron kind.

The egret is one of the smallest, as well as the most elegant of the heron tribe: its shape is delicate, and its plumage as white as snow; but what constitute its principal beauty are the soft, silky, flowing plumes on the head, breast, and shoulders: they consist of single slender shafts, thinly set with pairs of fine soft threads, which float on the slightest breath of air. Those which arise from the shoulders are extended over the back, and flow beyond the tail. These plumes were formerly used to decorate the helmets of warriors: they are now applied to a gentler and better purpose, in ornamenting the headdresses of the European ladies, and the turbans of the Persians and Turks.

The egret seldom exceeds a pound and a half in weight, and rarely a foot and a half in length. A bare green skin is extended from the beak to the eyes, the irides of which are pale yellow: the bill and legs are black. Like the common heron, they perch and build their nests on trees, and live on the same kinds of food.

This species is found in almost every temperate and warm climate, and must formerly have been plentiful in Great Britain, if it be the same bird as that mentioned by Leland in the list or bill-of-fare prepared for the famous feast of Archbishop Nevil, in which one thousand of these birds were served up. No wonder the species has become nearly extinct in this country.—_Bewick._

EGYPTIACUM, _s._ Liniment of verdigris. It is useful in diseases of the frog and heel, and is formed by boiling five ounces of powdered verdigris, one pound of honey, and seven ounces of vinegar, until they are incorporated.

EIDER DUCK, ST. CUTHBERT’S DUCK, or GREAT BLACK AND WHITE DUCK (_Anas mollissima_, LINN.; _L’Eider_, BUFF.), _s._

This wild but valuable species is of a size between the goose and the domestic duck, and appears to be one of the graduated links of the chain which connects the two kinds. The full-grown old males generally measure about two feet two inches in length, and two feet eight in breadth, and weigh from six to above seven pounds. The head is large; the middle of the neck small, with the lower part of it spread out very broad, so as to form a hollow between the shoulders, which while the bird is sitting at ease, seems as if fitted to receive its reclining head. The bill is of a dirty yellowish horn colour, darkish in the middle, and measures, from the tip to the corners of the mouth, two inches and a half: the upper mandible is forked in a singular manner towards each eye, and is covered with white feathers on the sides, as far forward as the nostrils. The upper part of the head is of a soft velvet black, divided behind by a dull white stroke pointing downwards: the feathers from the nape of the neck to the throat, are long, or puffed out, overhanging the upper part of the neck, and look as if they had been clipped off at the lower ends; they have the appearance of pale pea-green velvet shag, with a white line dropping downward from the auriculars on each side. The cheeks, chin, upper part of the neck, back, and lesser wing coverts, are white; the scapulars, and secondary quills, next the body, dirty white: bastard wings, and primary quills, brown; the secondaries and greater coverts are the same, but much darker: the lower broad part of the neck, on the front, to the breast, is of a buff colour; but in some specimens tinged with rusty red: the breast, belly, vent, rump, and tail coverts, are of a deep sooty black: tail feathers hoary brown: legs short and yellow: webs and nails dusky. The female is nearly of the same shape, though less than the male, weighing only between five and six pounds; but her plumage is quite different, the ground colour being of a reddish brown, prettily crossed with waved black lines: and in some specimens the neck, breast, and belly, are tinged with ash: the wings are crossed with two bars of white: quills dark: the neck is marked with longitudinal dusky streaks, and the belly is deep brown, spotted obscurely with black.

The eider duck lays from three to five large, smooth, pale olive-coloured eggs; these she deposits and conceals in a nest, or bed, made of a great quantity of the soft, warm elastic down, plucked from her own breast, and sometimes from that of her mate. The groundwork or foundation of the nest is formed of bent grass, sea weeds, or such like coarse materials, and it is placed in as sheltered a spot as the bleak and solitary place can afford.

In Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lapland, and some parts of the coast of Norway, the eiders flock together, in particular breeding places, in such numbers, and their nests are so close together, that a person in walking along can hardly avoid treading upon them. The natives of these cold climates eagerly watch the time when the first hatchings of the eggs are laid: of these they rob the nest, and also of the more important article, the down with which it is lined, which they carefully gather and carry off. These birds will afterwards strip themselves of their remaining down, and lay a second hatching, of which also they are sometimes robbed; but, it is said, that when this cruel treatment is too often repeated, they leave the place, and return to it no more.

The eider birds build their nests on little islands, not far from the shore, and sometimes even near the dwellings of the natives, who treat them with such kindness and circumspection as to make them quite tame. In the beginning of June they lay five or six eggs, and it is not unusual to find from ten to sixteen eggs in one nest, with two females, who agree remarkably well together. The whole time of laying continues six or seven weeks, during which time the natives visit the nest, for the purpose of taking the down and eggs, at least once a week. They first carefully remove the female, and then take away the down and part of the eggs; after which she lays afresh, covering her eggs with new down plucked from her breast; this being taken away, the male comes to her assistance, and covers the eggs with his down, which is left till the young are hatched. One female, during the whole time of laying, generally gives half a pound of down. The down from the dead birds is accounted of little worth, having lost its elasticity. There are generally exported fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds of down on the company’s account, exclusive of what is privately sold.—The young ones quit the nest soon after they are hatched, and follow the female, who leads them to the water, where, having taken them on her back, she swims with them a few yards, and then dives, and leaves them floating on the water: in this situation they soon learn to take care of themselves, and are seldom afterwards seen on the land, but live among the rocks, and feed on insects and sea-weed.

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