42 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the ground ploughed up to the extent of lOO feet in 

 circumference by one nest of white ants. Again, they 

 will climb trees, carrying building materials with 

 them, and erecting a small archway (resembling what 

 carpenters call an inch bead) over them for protec- , 

 lion against their sworn enemy the black and brown 

 ant, and on the loftiest branches they will construct 

 their nest. My introduction to the cupim, or white 

 ant, was in the house of our former consul, ex-Go- j 

 vernor Kent. A box of books sent out by the 

 American Tract Society was placed in a lower room, 

 and the next morning it was announced to me that 

 the cupimjhad entered my property. I hastened to 

 the room, and, turning over the box, beheld a little 

 black hole at the bottom, and white, gelatinous-look- 

 ing ants pouring out as though very much disturbed , 

 in^'their occupation. I opened the box, and found 

 that a colony of cupim had eaten through the pine- ; 

 wood, and then had pierced through ' Baxter's Call, [ 

 'Doddridge's Rise and Progress,' until they had 

 reached the place where Bunyan's Pilgrim lay, when 

 they were rudely deranged in their literary pursuits, j 

 On another occasion, I saw a Brussels carpet, under ^ 

 which cupim had insinuated themselves, and had 

 eaten out nearly all the canvas before the proprietor 

 made the sad discovery. The writer, at Campinas, j 

 witnessed the depredations of the white ants in the 

 taipa* houses. They insinuate themselves into the ' 

 mud walls, and destroy the entire side of a house by j 

 perforations. Anon, they commence working in the | 

 soil, and extend their operations beneath the founda- ; 

 tions of houses, and undermine them. The people dig ': 

 large pits in various places, with the intent of exter- 

 minating tribes of ants which have been discovered on 

 their march of destruction. Mr. Southy states, on 

 the authority of Manoel Felix, that some of these in- 

 sects at one time devoured the cloth of the altar in 

 the convent of St. Antonio, at Maranham, and also 

 brought up into the church pieces of shrouds from the 

 graves beneath its floor ; whereupon the friars prose- 

 cuted them according to due form of ecclesiastical 

 law. What the sentence was in this case we are 

 unable to learn. The white and other ants have, 

 however, enemies far more tangible than bulls of ex- 

 communication in the Mynnecophaga, or the great 

 ant-eater, the Tamajidua, and the little ant-eater, of 

 which the last two have a prehensile tail. The great 

 ant-eater is a most curious animal, but well adapted 

 to the purposes for which it was designed by the 

 Creator. Its short legs and long claws (the latter 

 doubled up when in motion) do not hinder it_ from 

 ninningat a good pace ; and when the Indians wish to 

 catch it, they make a pattering noise upon the leaves 

 as if the rain were falling ; upon which the Myrme- 

 cophaga cocks his huge bushy tail over his body, and, 

 standing perfectly still, soon falls a prey. In the 

 northern part of Minas-Geraes, a naturalist once came 

 suddenly upon the great ant-eater, and, knowing the 

 harmless nature of its mouth, seized it by the long 

 snout, by which he tried to hold it, when it imme- 

 diately rose upon its hind legs, and clasping him 

 around the middle with its powerful forepaws, would 

 not release its hold till a pistol-ball was lodged in its 

 breast. When the great ant-eater sleeps, it lies on 

 one side, rolls itself up so that its snout rests on its 

 breast, places all its feet together, and covers itself 

 with its bushy tail. In this way it may be easily 

 taken for a heap of hay. The Indians of the Upper 

 Amazon poshively assert that the great ant-eater 

 sometimes kills the jaguar by tightly embracing the 

 latter, and thrusting its enonnous claws into the 



Clay house. 



jaguar's sides. The aborigines also declare that 

 these animals are all females, and believe that the 

 male is the ' curupira ' or demon of the forest. The 

 peculiar organization of this animal has probably led 

 to this error."— y. W. Mce. 



Our American Cousin the Robin {Tardus 

 mi^mtorius). — The Englishman when he settles in 

 either Upper or Lower Canada, hearing his 

 neighbours speaking about the robin, is apt to 

 imagine that none other but the far-famed Robin 

 Redbreast of nursery folk-lore is referred to : he could 

 not, however, make a greater mistake, and sooner or 

 later, with much sorrow, he learns a far different bird 

 is called Robin by the backwoodsman than he knew 

 in his English home. Now for the reason : doubtless 

 the Pilgrim Fathers, when they went over the Atlantic 

 in the Mavflo-ocr, to form a settlement where they 

 could worship God with a freedom denied to them in 

 their native land, were short of one thing. _ A great 

 number of objects would crowd around their every- 

 day life of bustle and activity, to remind them of home, 

 because in many points similar ; but when winter came 

 on, with its snow and frost, to some extent compelling 

 them to a forced idleness for a time, they would then 

 think more of homely associations, especially in 

 walking abroad they would, methinks, long to see 

 the homely familiar birds, so welcome in the far- 

 off Fatherland. They would not have to search far 

 before finding the robin, a bird, too, so like in general 

 appearance the " redbreast" that it could not be long 

 without a name, and was at once hailed as the robin ; 

 ■ but mark, dear reader, it was not called, after all, 

 I Robin Redbreast. As before stated, in many points 

 it is similar to our Redbreast, but it is much larger, 

 being about the size of the starling ; it has a chocolate- 

 coloured dress, tinged with bright red over the breast. 

 \ Its song does not resemble our robin in the slightest, 

 being much louder and more flute-like ; in one point, 

 as our brothers in the New World are very loud in its 

 ' praises, it is not pugnacious. We have been honoured 

 i by having a little red-breasted companion every win- 

 I ter for several years as a constant visitor at our homely 

 ' cottage in Cheshire, but we do not thank him, for 

 he will have no rival near : every sparrow dreads 

 his approach, and as all the family take a pleasure in 

 attending to the wants of a very large flock of feathered 

 friends in severe weather, we often feel grieved when 

 witnessing a contest betwixt the robin and some 

 other little bird. This is not the case with the American 

 robin— he becomes very familar and tame, and is 

 friendly with all the neighbouring songsters. Miss 

 : Cooper in her book, so full of interesting country 

 scenes and observations, often mentions the appear- 

 ance of the friendly robin ; in fact, this alone adds a 

 ; thorough charm to the volume. A few years since 

 a communication was read before the Boston Natural- 

 ists' Society, by Prof. Tredwell, giving the results of 

 many carefully conducted experiments and observa- 

 tions, to show how many worms or other insects were 

 destroyed by the robin alone. He stated that on one 

 day, the fourteenth day after birth, it ate sixty-eight 

 earthworms, or 41 per cent, more than its own weight. 

 . The length of these worms if laid end to end would 

 i be about 14 feet, or ten times the length of the 

 intestines. Do we not owe much to the labours of 

 our feathered tribes, and does not Providence induce 

 us to protect, or rather cherish, such birds as the 

 homely red-breast, by throwing them a few crumbs 

 during wintry weather, thus preserving life, to keep up 

 the balance in nature ? — Apis. 



Friendly Spiders.— " Spiders are unamiable, 

 quarrelsome, spiteful creatures, even to their own kin,'' 



