LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



from the ship cast great lumps of walrus-flesh, 

 which still remained, to them. These the old 

 bear fetched away one by one, laying every lump 

 before her cubs, dividing it into shares, and re- 

 serving only a small portion for herself. As the 

 unsuspecting mother was fetching away the last 

 piece, the men levelled their muskets at the cubs 

 and shot them both dead. They then wounded 

 the dam, but not mortally. The rest must be 

 told in the words of the relater : 



It would have drawn tears of pity from any but 

 unfeeling minds, to have marked the affectionate 

 concern expressed by this poor beast in the dying 

 moments of her expiring young. Though she was 

 sorely wounded, and could but just crawl to the 

 place where they lay, she carried the lump of flesh 

 she had fetched away, as she had done others be- 

 fore, tore it in pieces and laid it down before them ; 

 and when she saw that they refused to eat, she laid 

 her paws first upon one, and then upon the other, 

 and endeavored to raise them up ; all this while it 

 was pitiful to hear her moan. When she found she 

 could not stir them, she went off, and when she 

 had got at some distance, looked back and moaned ; 

 and that not availing her to entice them away, she 

 returned, and, smelling round them, began to lick 

 their wounds. She went off a second time as be- 

 fore ; and having crawled a few paces, looked 

 again behind her, and for some time stood moaning. 

 But still her cubs not rising to follow her, she 

 returned to them again, and with signs of inexpres- 

 sible fondness went round one, and round the other, 

 pawing them and moaning. Finding at last that they 

 were cold and lifeless, she raised her head towards 

 the ship and growled a curse upon the murderers, 

 which they returned with a volley of musket-balls. 

 She fell between her cubs, and died licking their 

 wounds.* 



Birds, at other times the most timid of creatures, 

 will boldly attack the spoiler of their nests and 

 young. Thrushes, and even smaller birds, have 

 been known to do battle with magpies, jays, crows, 

 hawks, nest-robbing school-boys, and even men. 

 The common hen will show fight to kites, dogs, 

 cats, and unfeathered bipeds, if they come near their 

 chickens with sinister intentions, or even if they 

 approach too closely. White, in his delightful 

 book, mentions an instance of the- fury with which 

 some plundered hens wreaked their vengeance 

 upon a reiver, when, afier repeated predatory acts, 

 they had him in their power. He relates that a 

 neighboring gentleman, one summer, had lost 

 most of his chickens by a sparrow-hawk, that 

 came gliding down between a fagot-pile and the 

 end of his house to the place where the coops 

 stood. The owner, vexed to see his flock dimin- 

 ishing, hung a setting net adroitly between the 

 pile and the house, into which the caitiff dashed 

 and was caught : 



Resentment (continues the historian of Selborne) 

 suggested the law of retaliation ; he therefore clip- 

 ped the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, and, fixing 

 a cork on his bill, threw him down among the 

 brood-hens. Imagination cannot paint the scene 

 that ensued ; the expressions that fear, rage and 

 revenge inspired were new, or at least such as had 

 * Annual Register, 1775, signed "Marinus." 



been unnoticed before. The exasperated matron* 

 upbraided, they execrated, they insulted, they 

 triumphed. In a word, they never desisted from 

 buffeting their adversary till they had torn him in. 

 a hundred pieces. 



Ready and willing, however, as the parents are 

 to defend their young against fearful odds, that 

 modification of reason, which I have observed fre- 

 quently to accompany mere instinct, operates oc- 

 casionally to induce them to acquiesce patiently 

 when help is required and given. 



Every one has heard of partridges falling into 

 cracks ; and many have looked upon these " acci- 

 dents" as inventions of John to account for the 

 absence of eggs and birds which have found their 

 way to distant parts per rail. But that such mis- 

 fortunes do really happen there can be no doubt. 



In a clayey country, in Somersetshire, where 

 the cracks, one hot summer, had become danger- 

 ous, even for dogs, two old birds were seen one 

 fine morning in June, " in great trouble." Upon 

 looking about near the spot where they had been 

 disturbed, a huge crack was seen to yawn, which, 

 though not quite so big as the gulf into which 

 Vathek tumbled the fair boys whom he offered to 

 the insatiate Giaour, was all-sufficient for the pur- 

 pose of swallowing up young partridges. The old 

 birds had been scratching about the edge of the 

 crack, where " they had done more harm than 

 good." Upon looking in, a dozen young one* 

 were seen down in the crack. They were hooked 

 out, one by one, with a stick, and the parents 

 stood, " not more than a pole off," anxiously 

 watching the operation, and receiving each of their 

 offspring as it ran from the edge. 



A hen, which was most pugnacious, flying 

 fiercely at every one who came near her chickens, 

 had wandered with her brood near a fagot-pilo r 

 into which they had scrambled, and had contrived 

 so to entangle themselves that they could not get 

 out. The piercing cries of the bewildered chick* 

 were equalled by the fidgety clucks and gestures 

 of the mother. But when assistance came, in- 

 stead of buffeting the helper, she stood patiently 

 waiting till, after taking off some of the fagots, 

 he caught her chickens and restored them to her. 



A mare brought forth a foal some eight or ten 

 days before its time. The foal was attacked with 

 spasms in the stomach and bowels, and, as it gen- 

 erally happens in cases of premature birth among 

 horses, died. Every aid that could be thought of 

 was given ; medicines were administered, and the 

 mare stood quietly watching the helpers, as if 

 conscious of the need of its offspring, as long a 

 the foal was in her sight ; but the moment it was- 

 removed she became violent. 



White mentions the case of an old hunting- 

 mare, which ran on the common, and which, 

 being taken very ill, came down into the village, 

 as it were to implore the help of men, and died 

 the night following in the street. 



It is a common and not very considerate prac- 

 tice to put duck's eggs under a broody hen : and 

 it must be confessed that, generally speaking, a 



