288 



M O R U S M O T H. 



tusks of this animal supplied the materials, though 

 probably also the tooth of the narwhal which, 

 though now rare as well as the morse, was perhaps 

 more abundant in former times may have, in part 

 at least, supplied materials for the same purpose. 



The general colour of the morse is brown, pretty 

 much like that of the common seal ; and indeed 

 there arc many coincidences in the characters of the 

 two animals, though' the seal is, generally speaking, 

 the more numerous, the more widely distributed, and 

 the more discursive of the two ranging over a wide 

 extent of sea, while the morse generally keeps near 

 its northern shores. 



Both animals are, however, very similar in their 

 habits. They are social, resorting in great numbers 

 to favourite places of the coast, lying on the rocks or 

 the ice-bergs, basking in the sun, until hunger com- 

 pels them to resort to the water for a supply of food. 

 The female brings forth her young early in the season, 

 and suckles it in the same manner as the female seal 

 does. As the morse is a much more unwieldy animal 

 than the common seal, or indeed than any of the 

 seals, it is probable that it does not fish in the same 

 bold and dashing style. The seal, though, probably 

 from its more landward form, not so swift a swimmer 

 as the porpoise, is yet able to follow the swift fishes, 

 and seize them in the currents. The morse is also 

 less active on land than the seal, but it is more expert 

 as a bank animal, as its tusks enable it to climb to 

 heights which the seal cannot possibly reach. These 

 differences in the conformation of two animals of the 

 same family, living in the same places, present a good 

 instance of that judicious adaptation in nature which 

 jrevents any one animal from coming exactly on the 

 'round of another, but provides, that the one shall 

 ake that which, in its kind, or the mode of taking it, 

 ic other must leave. 



Many accounts have been given of the morses, and 

 Iso of the mode of capturing them, but we shall 

 ontent ourselves with a short extract from Zorg- 

 rager. '.' The seals and morses,'' says he, " come 

 uring the heat of summer into the seas near the Bay 

 f Horisant and that of Klock in troops of eighty, a 

 lundred, and even two hundred, especially the 

 morses, which remain there many days, until hunger 

 brces them back into the main ocean. Many morses 

 ire seen towards Spitzberg. On land they are killed 

 vith lances. They are hunted for their tusks and 

 at. Their oil is nearly as much esteemed as that of 

 he whale ; their tusks are also very valuable. The 

 fiterior of these teeth is considered more valuable 

 han ivory, and is of a substance harder and more 

 Ompact in the larger than in the smaller teeth. A 

 orse will furnish half a ton of oil. When one 'of 

 l^ese animals is encountered on the ice, or in the 

 AJater, the hunters strike him with a strong harpoon, 

 nade expressly for the purpose, which will often 

 $de harmlessly over his thick and hard skin. When 

 itpenetrates, the animal is drawn towards the vessel 

 wth a cable, and then killed with a lance peculiarly 

 famed. He is then drawn to the nearest land or flat 

 icberg. They then flay him, throw away the skin, 

 sdarate the two tusks from the head, or simply cut 

 th( head off, cut out the fat, and carry it to the 

 vebel." 



[he seals consist of many species, and are scattered 

 ovr almost all seas, sometimes iti numbers which 

 det all counting ; and those which inhabit parts of 

 theworld remote from each other, generally have 



corresponding differences of appearance. The morses 

 on the other hand, are limited to a single species, and 

 confined to the polar regions of the north. Honor 

 we are led to conclude, thut the use of them is very 

 limited, as compared with that of the seals. Nor run 

 we fail in being struck with another remarkable 1'ael 

 which presents itself, with regard to the mammalia of 

 the Arctic Polar Sea. The great black whale of 

 Greenland, which is the whale by way of eminence, 

 though in powers of locomotion it is vastly superior 

 to the morse, is yet confined, not only in its locality, 

 but to very nearly the same locality as that anim;i). 

 The morse is the largest animal of its group, and its 

 mouth is armed in a very peculiar manner ; and the 

 Greenland whale is also the largest animal ofits group, 

 that is of the toothless whales, and it also has the 

 mouth peculiarly armed, by having the baleen or 

 whalebone much more developed and perfect than 

 any of the rest. This is a curious coincidence, and 

 one which is well worthy the attention of inquirers. 



MORUS (Linnaeus). A genus of deciduous trees 

 and shrubs, natives of Asia and Europe, a majority 

 of which are cultivated. Class and order Montvcin 

 Tetrandria, and natural order Urticece. The M. nigra, 

 common mulberry, is well known. The mild acidity 

 of this fruit is exceedingly grateful, especially to per- 

 sons labouring under fever. It is slightly 'laxative, 

 and, like the raspberry and strawberry, is said not to 

 undergo the acetous fermentation in the stomach ; 

 and hence it may more safely be eaten by gouty 

 patients than many other fruits which have not the 

 same anti-fermentative properties. 



The white mulberry is chiefly cultivated for the 

 value of its leaves, its fruit being insipid ami very 

 inferior to that of the common species, the leaves of 

 which are equally good with those of the white, and 

 in some parts of Spain and Persia preferred to them 

 as the food of silk-worms. It is likewise a more 

 hardy tree, having, according to the fable, become 

 callous when it changed the colour of its fruit from 

 white to dark red, on absorbing the blood of Pyramus 

 and Thisbe self-slain beneath its shade. 



Mulberry trees are easily propagated by layers, or 

 large truncheons of the branches. The story of a 

 gate-post, made of a mulberry trunk, becoming and 

 now remaining a fruitful tree is well authenticated. 



MOTACILLA, the generic name of the wagtails. 

 See WAGTAIL. 



MOTH. The ordinary English name given to 

 the lepidopterous insects comprising the Linmean 

 genera Sphinx and Phafona, the remaining insects of 

 that order being diurnal, and known by the name of 

 butterflies (Papilio, Linnseus). Moths are at once 

 distinguished not only by their being seldom observed 

 on the wing during the day, but also by their antennae 

 not being terminated by a club, as in the butterflies. 

 There is very great diversity in the structure of these 

 insects, of which a vast number of species are in- 

 habitants of moderate climates. In this country we 

 possess nearly 1800 species, and many more are known 

 on the continent. It is true, that of the exotic species 

 our knowledge is but slight, there being very few 

 entomologists indeed who attempt to make collections 

 of the tropical or extra-European species ; the conse- 

 quence whereof is, that the classification of these 

 insects has been very greatly neglected by most 

 authors, and little beyond the establishing certain 

 great typical forms effected. Indeed, it is perhaps a 

 natural consequence of the peculiarities of our climate 



