52 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Maech 1, 18C7. 



from London, was, so far as the inhabitants were 

 concerned, ten times that distance, I became fully 

 initiated into all the popular superstitions arising 

 from various natural phenomena, so prevalent in 

 agricultural districts, and among them was duly im- 

 pressed with the belief that the ticking noise heard in 

 the house, in the still evening, was a portent of some 

 domestic calamity ; and further, that the said ticking 

 was produced by the little creature to which the fates 

 (and Leach) have applied the name of Atropos. We 

 all know how difficult it is to shake off an impression 

 deeply rooted in childhood, and it was not until I 

 came to reflect upon the structure of the creature, 

 that I for a moment doubted the power of Atropos 

 to send the country folk sighing at the trouble 

 which its supposed ticking was sure to foretell. 

 Mature consideration has forced me to the convic- 

 tion that it is not in the power of Atropos to pro- 

 duce any sensible sound. The integuments of the 

 creature are so soft that the fine wetted point of a 

 camel's hair brush is sufficient to rupture them, and 

 nowhere, not even in the thickened femora, is there a 

 surface which, being sharply applied to a sonorous 

 opposing one, coudl occasion an audible sound ; even 

 Anobium, encased as it is almost in a coat of mail, 

 can only cause a little more than perceptible noise. 

 I cannot imagine, therefore, how Atropos can possibly 

 be the culprit. In the house in which I am now 

 writing, I have far too many of Atropos in my insect- 

 room ; yet during ten years I have never heard the 

 " death-watch" there, whereas in my bed-room it is 

 sometimes so loud and constant as to become a 

 positive nuisance, its frequence in the latter room 

 being pointed to significantly by the numerous drill- 

 ings of Anobium in an old-fashioned bedstead. My 

 credulity in astonishing freaks of Nature is pretty 

 considerable ; even, on ocular evidence, I will 

 believe in the protracted existence of ancient toads 

 in blocks of compact stone; but, as before said, 

 until I see Atropos making certain movements, and 

 a sound proceeding from the spot, and keeping time 

 with the movements, I elect to discard what I now 

 consider a deeply-rooted superstition. It seems to 

 me possible that in the case of both Mr. Derham's 

 and Mr. Chaney's observations an Anobium has been 

 concealed in the same spot with the Atropos, but 

 was not discovered. I ask your readers to take any 

 substance of the same consistence as the head of 

 Atropos, and try if by any means they can produce a 

 ticking as loud as that of a watch, or any ticking at 

 all, by striking it against a sonorous surface. 



"With one other remark I conclude. Owing to 

 the whole of my remarks in the "Ent. Month. Mag." 

 not having been extracted, it is made to appear that 

 I have arbitrarily changed the familiar specific name 

 pulsatoria to that of divinatoria (0. E. M filler in 

 " Zoologicae Danica; Prodromus," 1776). This is not 

 so. 1 have reluctantly dropped the Linnsean name, 

 because a glauce at his description of Termes pul- 



satorius will suffice to show that the insect intended 

 is an allied creature, described by Westwood as 

 Clothilla studiosa, with similar habits and general 

 appearance, but differing, inter alia, in the possession, 

 when mature, of small, rounded, coriaceous, readily 

 deciduous wing-scales. Our common Atropos is 

 most probably the Termes fatidicus of Linnaeus, but 

 the description, probably by a slip of the pen, in- 

 dicates a very much larger creature. 

 Forest Hill. R. McLachlan. 



THE DODO. 



TE you, Mr. Editor, or your readers, care to pursue 

 ■** the subject of the Dodo further, the subjoined 

 quaint description of this extinct bird, from a copy 

 in my possession of the "Travels into divers parts 

 of Africa and Asia the Great," of Sir Thomas 

 Herbert, Bart., may be acceptable. The passage is 

 taken verbatim from the earliest edition, published 

 in 1638. 



" Here [Mauritius] and in Bygarrois (and no 

 where else that ever I could see or heare of) is 

 generated the Dodo (a Portuguize name it is, and 

 has reference to her simpleness) a Bird which for 

 shape and rareness might be call'd a Phoenix (wer't 

 in Arabia :) her body is round and extrame fat, her 

 slow pace begets that corpulencie; few of them 

 weigh lesse than fifty pound : better to the eye 

 than stomack : greasie appetites may perhaps 

 commend them, but to the indifferently curious 

 nourishment, but prove offensive. Let's take her 

 picture : her visage darts forth melancholy, as 

 sensible of Natures injurie in framing so great and 

 massie a body to be directed by such small and 

 complementall wings, as are unable to hoise her 

 from the ground, serving only to prove her a Bird, 

 which otherwise might be doubted of : her head is 

 variously drest, the one half hooded with downy 

 blackish feathers ; the other perfectly naked ; of a 

 whitish hue, as if a transparent Lawnehad covered it : 

 her bill is very howked and bends downwards, the 

 thrill or breathing place is in the midst of it ; from 

 which part to the end the colour is a light greeue 

 mixt with a pale yellow ; her eyes be round and 

 small, and bright as Diamonds ; her cloathing is of 

 finest Downe, such as you see in Goslins : her trayne 

 is (like a China beard) of three or foure short 

 feathers ; her legs thick and black, and strong ; her 

 tallons or pounces sharp, her stomack fiery hot, so 

 as stones are easily digested in it ; in that and 

 shajje not a little resembling the Africk CBstriches •. 

 but so much, as for their more certain difference I 

 dare to give thee (with two others) her representa- 

 tion."— Eolio. London, 1638. P. 347. 



As a later edition contains some emendations, the 

 following extract is given from the "Fourth Im- 

 pression," to which " are added (by the Author now 



