SOME FACTS ^LV> FICTIONS OF ZOOLOGY. 73 



to be told of animals that people will not believe the tale. 

 Whilst, curiously enough, when they are told of veritable 

 facts of animal life, heads begin to shake and doubts to be 

 expressed, until the zoologist despairs of educating people 

 into distinguishing fact from fiction, and truth from theories 

 and unsupported beliefs. The story told of the old lady, 

 whose .youthful acquaintance of seafaring habits entertained 

 her with tales of the wonders he had seen, finds, after all, 

 a close application in the world at large. The dame listened 

 with delight, appreciation, and belief, to accounts of moun- 

 tains of sugar and rivers of rum, and to tales of lands where 

 gold and silver and precious stones were more than plenti- 

 ful. But when the narrator descended to tell of fishes that 

 were able to raise themselves out of the water in flight, the 

 old lady's credulity began to fancy itself imposed upon ; 

 for she indignantly repressed what she considered the lad's 

 tendency to exaggeration, saying, "Sugar mountains may 

 be, and rivers of rum may be, but fish that flee ne'er can 

 be !" Many popular beliefs concerning animals partake of 

 the character of the old lady's opinions regarding the real 

 and the fabulous ; and the circumstance tells powerfully in 

 favour of the opinion that a knowledge of our surroundings 

 in the world, and an intelligent conception of animal and 

 plant life, should form part of the school-training of every 

 boy and girl, as the most effective antidote to superstitions 

 and myths of every kind. 



The tracing of myths and fables is a very interesting task, 

 and it may, therefore, form a curious study, if we endeavour 

 to investigate very briefly a few of the popular and erroneous 

 beliefs regarding lower animals. The belief regarding the 

 origin of the hair-worms is both widely spread and ancient, 

 Shakespeare tells us that 



" Much is breeding, 



Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life, 

 And not a serpent's poison." 



The hair-worms certainly present the appearance of long, 

 delicate black hairs, which move about with great activity 



