Part 12 (2/2)
So various is the appet.i.te of animals, that there is scarcely any plant which is not chosen by some, and left untouched by others. Thus the horse refuses the water hemlock, which the goat will eat: the goat will not feed on monkshood, but the horse eats it with avidity. The long-leafed water hemlock is avoided by the bullock; yet the sheep is fond of it. The spurge is poisonous to man; but the caterpillar finds it a wholesome nourishment.
Some animals live on the leaves of certain plants, others on the stalks, and others still on the rind, or even the roots of the same vegetable.
It should seem from hence, that no plant is absolutely poisonous, but only relatively so: that is, there is no plant but what is wholesome food to some animal or other. Thus divine wisdom has a.s.signed an use for all its productions.
The care of Providence is further evident in giving to each animal an instinctive knowledge of its proper aliment; but that delicacy of taste and smell, by which they accurately distinguish the wholesome from the pernicious, is not so evident in domestic animals as in those which are in a state of nature.
All birds of the goose kind pa.s.s great part of their lives in water, feeding on water-insects, fishes, and their eggs. It is evident that they are calculated for this mode of existence; their beaks, their necks, their feet, and their feathers, are formed for it. All other birds are as aptly fitted for their manner of life as these.
The sea-swallow is said to get his food in a very singular way. Fish are his support, but he is not capable of diving in order to catch them like other aquatic birds; the sea-gull, therefore, is his caterer: when this last has gorged himself, he is pursued by the former, who buffets him till he casts up a part of his prey, which the other catches before it reaches the water; but in those seasons when the fishes hide themselves in deep water, the merganser supplies even the gull himself with food, being capable of plunging deeper into the sea.
Small birds are generally supposed to live princ.i.p.ally upon the berries of ivy and hawthorn; but modern naturalists contradict this, and affirm that their winter food is the knot-gra.s.s, which bears heavy seeds, like those of the black bind-weed. This is a very common plant, not easily destroyed; it grows in great abundance by the sides of roads, and trampling on it will not kill it; it is extremely plentiful in corn-fields after harvest, and gives a reddish hue to them by the mult.i.tude of its seeds. Wherever the husbandman ploughs, this plant will grow, nor can all his art prevent it: thus a part of his labours are necessarily destined for the propagation of a plant which our heavenly Father has designed immediately for the support of the ”fowls of the air;” for though ”they sow not, neither gather into barns,” yet are they fed by him.
Some birds who live on insects, migrate every year to foreign regions, in order to seek food in a milder climate; while all the northern countries, where they live well in summer, are covered with snow. Some naturalists reckon the different species of the Hirundo, or swallow, among the birds of pa.s.sage; while others affirm that they do not migrate, but, at the approach of winter, seek an asylum from the cold in the clefts of rocks, with which our island is surrounded, or take refuge in the bottom of pools and lakes, among the reeds and rushes; others still, who have made their observations with more attention and patience than either of the former, allow that the old swallows with their early brood do migrate; but that the latter hatches, which are incapable of distant flight, lay themselves up, and become torpid during the winter; and at the approach of spring, by the wonderful appointment of Nature, they come forth again with renewed life and activity. In these, and all other animals which become torpid in the winter, the peristaltic motion of the bowels ceases while they are dormant, so that they do not suffer by hunger. Dr. Lister remarks, concerning this cla.s.s of animals, that their blood, when poured into a vessel, does not coagulate, like that of all other animals; and therefore is no less fit for circulation when they revive, than before.
The birds called moor-fowl, during great snows, work out paths for themselves under its surface, where they live in safety, and get their food. They moult in summer, so that about the latter end of August they cannot fly, and are therefore obliged to run in the woods; but then the blackberries and bilberries are ripe, from whence they are abundantly supplied with food: but the young do not moult the first year, and therefore, though they cannot run so well, are enabled to escape danger by flight.
The migration of birds is not only a fact, but, as it relates to many kinds of them, is an useful fact to mankind. This remark applies to such of them as feed on insects, the number of which is so great, that if these birds did not destroy them, it would be almost impossible for us to live.
Of the various kinds of water-fowl that are known in Europe, there is hardly any but what, in the spring, are found to repair to Lapland. This is a country of lakes, rivers, swamps, and mountains, covered with thick and gloomy forests, that afford shelter during summer to these birds.
In these arctic regions, by reason of the thickness of the woods, the ground remains moist and penetrable, and the waters contain the larvae of the gnat in innumerable quant.i.ties. The days there are long, and the beautiful and splendid meteors of the night indulge them with every opportunity of collecting so minute a food; at the same time, men are very sparingly scattered over that vast northern waste. Yet, Linnaeus, that great explorer of nature, in his excursion to Lapland, was astonished at the myriads of water-fowl that migrated with him out of that country, which exceeded in mult.i.tude the army of Xerxes, covering, for eight whole days and nights, the surface of the river Calix! The surprise of Linnaeus was occasioned by his supposing their support to be furnished chiefly by the vegetable kingdom, almost denied to the Lapland waters; not knowing that the all-bountiful Creator had plenteously provided insect food for them in that dreary wilderness.
Certain beasts, also, as well as birds, become torpid, or at least inactive, when they are, by the rigour of the season, excluded from the necessaries of life. Thus the bear, at the end of autumn, collects a quant.i.ty of moss, into which he creeps, and there lies all the winter, subsisting upon no other nourishment than his fat, collected during the summer in the cellulous membrane, and which, without doubt, during his fast, circulates through his vessels, and supplies the place of food.
The hedge-hog, badger, and some kinds of mice, fill their winter quarters with vegetables, which they eat during mild weather in the winter, and sleep during the frosts. The bat seems cold and quite dead, but revives in the spring: while most of the amphibious animals get into dens, or the bottom of lakes and pools.
Among other instances of the preservation of animals, we ought to mention that of the pole-cat of America, commonly called the squash or skink. This is a small animal of the weasel kind, which some of the planters of that country keep about their premises to perform the office of a cat. This creature has always a very strong and disagreeable smell, but when affrighted or enraged, it emits so horrible a stench, as to prevent any other creature from approaching it: even dogs in pursuit of it, when they find this extraordinary mode of defence made use of, will instantly turn, and leave him undisputed master of the field; nor can any attempts ever bring them to rally again. Kalm, as quoted by Buffon, says, ”One of these animals came near the farm where I lived in the year 1749. It was in the winter season, during the night; and the dogs that were upon the watch, pursued it for some time, until it discharged against them. Although I was in bed a good way off, I thought I should have been suffocated; and the cows and oxen themselves, by their lowings, shewed how much they were affected by the stench.”
Nor is even the serpent, in its various kinds, dest.i.tute of the care of the common Father of nature. This reptile, which has neither wings to fly, nor the power to run with much speed, would not have the means to take its prey, were it not endowed with superior cunning to most other creatures.
In favour of the serpent, also, there is a terror attending its appearance, which operates with such power upon birds and other small animals, as often to cause them to fall an easy prey to it. Hence, probably, has arisen the fiction of the power of fascination, which has been confidently ascribed to the rattlesnake and some other serpents.
On the DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS.
In considering the destruction of animals, we may observe that Nature is continually operating: she produces, preserves for a time, and then destroys all her productions. Man himself is subject to this general order; for he also, like other creatures, returns to the dust from whence he was taken.
This process of nature is marked even in the vicissitudes of the seasons.
Spring, like the jovial, playful infancy of all living creatures, represents childhood and youth; for then plants spread forth their flowers, fishes play in the waters, birds sing, and universal nature rejoices. Summer, like middle age, exhibits plants and trees full clothed in green; fruits ripen; and every thing is full of life. But autumn is comparatively gloomy; for then the leaves fall from the trees, and plants begin to wither, insects grow torpid, and many animals retire to their winter quarters.
The day proceeds with steps similar to the year. In the morning every thing is fresh and playful; at noon all is energy and action; evening follows, and every thing is inert and sluggish.
Thus the age of man begins from the cradle; pleasing childhood succeeds; then sprightly youth; afterwards manhood, firm, severe, and intent on self-preservation; lastly, old age creeps on, debilitates, and, at length, totally destroys our tottering bodies.
But we must consider the destruction of animals more at large. We have before observed, that all animals do not live on vegetables, but there are some which feed on animalcula; others on insects. Nay, some there are which subsist only by rapine, and daily destroy some or other of the peaceable kind.
The destruction of animals by each other, is generally in progression,--the strong prevailing against the weak. Thus, the tree-louse lives on plants; the fly called musca amphidivora, lives on the tree-louse; the hornet and wasp-fly, on the musca amphidivora; the dragon-fly, on the hornet and wasp-fly; the larger spider, on the dragon-fly; small birds feed on the spider; and lastly, the hawk kind on the small birds.
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