422 



FARMERS' REGISTER— NATURAL HISTORY. 



lively, so as to administer a teat to each? Perhaps 

 she opens different places for that purpose, adjust- 

 in"; them again wlien the business is over : but she 

 could not possibly be contained herself in the ball 

 with her young, which, moreover, would be daily 

 increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cra- 

 dle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, 

 Avas found in a wheat field suspended in the head of 

 a thistle. 



As to the small mice, I have farther to remark, 

 that though they hang their nests for breeding up 

 amidst the straws of the standing corn, above the 

 ground, yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow 

 deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass ; 

 but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn 

 ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A 

 neighbor housed an oat rick lately, under the thatch 

 of which were assembled near a hundred, most of 

 which were taken, and some I saw. 1 measured 

 them, and found that, from nose to tail, they were 

 just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just 

 two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weigh- 

 ed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about 

 the third of an ounce avoirdupois; so that I sup- 

 pose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. 

 A full grown mus medius domesiicus weighs, I 

 find, one ounce, lumping weight, which is more 

 than six times as much as the mouse above, and 

 measures from nose to rump four inches and a 

 quarter, and the same in its tail.* 



The. Viper. 

 Providence has been so indulgent to us as to al- 

 low of but one venemous reptile of the serpent 

 kind in these kingdoms, and that is the viper. As 

 you propose the good of mankind to be an object 

 of your publications, you will not omit to mention 

 common salad oil as a sovereign remedy against 

 the bite of the viper. As to the blind worm (an- 

 guis fragilis, so called because it snaps in sunder 

 Avith a small blovy,) \ have found, on examination, 

 that it is perfiectly Innoccous.f 



Noxious Insects. 



A full history of noxious insects, hurtful in the 

 field, garden and house, suggesting all the known 

 and likely means of destroying tiiem, would be al- 

 lowed by the public to be a most useful and im- 

 portant work. What knowledge there is of this 

 sort lies scattered, and wants to be collected ; great 

 improvement would soon follow of course. A 

 knowledge of the properties, economy, propaga- 

 tion, and in short, of the life and conversation of 

 these animals, is a necessary step to lead us to some 

 method of preventing their depredations. 



As far as I am a judge, nothing would recom- 

 mend entomology more than some neat plates that 

 should well express the generic distinction of in- 

 sects according to Linn«us ; for I am well as- 

 sured, that many people would study insects, could 

 they set out with a more adequate notion of those 

 distinctions than can be conveyed at first by words 

 alone. 



♦ This must be a different and larger animal than the 

 domestic mouse of Virginia ; one which seemed to be 

 fully grown, and of common size, measured 3 inches 

 from nose to tail, and 3t of tail— weighed 9 dwts. 21 

 grains. 



j Is the blind-worm the jointed-snake of Virginia ? 



Fern- Owl. 



On the 12th of July, I had a fair opportunity of 

 contemplating the motions of the caprimulgvs* or 

 fern-owl, as it was playing round a large oak that 

 swarmed with scarabcei solstitiales, or fernchafers. 

 JVote. — We find the following additional infor- 

 mation regarding the goat-sucker, in Mr. White's 

 Miscellaneous Observations : — " The country peo- 

 ple have a notion that the fern-owl, or churn-owl, 

 or eve-jar, which they also call a puckeridge, is 

 very injurious to weaning calves, by inflicting, as 

 it strikes at them, a fatal distemper, known to cow- 

 leeches by the name puckeridge. Thus does this 

 harmless, ill-fated bird, fall under a double impu- 

 tation, Avhich it by no means deserves, — in Italy, 

 of sucking the teats of goats, whence it is called 

 caprimulgvs ; and Avith us, of communicating a 

 deadly disorder to cattle. The least observation 

 and attention Avould convince men, that these birds 

 neither injure the goat-herd nor the grazier, but 

 are perfectly harmless, and subsist alone, being 

 night-birds, on night-insects, such as scarabcei and 

 phalceence, and through the month of July on sca- 

 rabosus solstitialis, Avhich in many districts abounds 

 at that season. Those that we have opened have 

 always had their claws stuffed Avith large night 

 moths and their eggs, and pieces of chafers ; nor 

 does it anywise appear, how they can, Aveak and 

 unarmed as they seem, inflict any harm uponkine, 

 unless they possess the powers of animal magnet- 

 ism, and can affect them by fluttering over them. 

 A fern-owl, this evening, (August 27,) showed off 

 in a very unusual and entertaining manner, by 

 hawking round the circumference of my great 

 spreading oak, forlAventy times following, keeping 

 mostly close to the grass, but occasionally glancing 

 up amongst the boughs of the tree. This amu- 

 sing bird was then in pursuit of a brood of some 

 particular pAaZffi»a belonging to the oak, and ex- 

 hibited on the occasion a command of Aving supe- 

 rior, I think, to the swallow itself. 



When a person approaches the haunts of fern- 

 owls in an evening, they continue flying round the 

 head of the obtruder, and by striking their Avings 

 together above their backs, in the manner that 

 pigeons, called twisters, are known to do, make a 

 smart snap.t Perhaps at that time they are jeal- 

 ous for their young, and their noise and gesture are 

 intended by way of menace. Fern-owls have at- 

 tachment to oaks, no doubt on account of food ; for 

 the next evening Ave saw one again several times 

 among the boughs of the same tree ; but it did not 

 skim round its stem over the grass, as on the even- 

 ing befere. In May, these birds find the scarabceus 

 melalontha on the oak, and the scaraboeus solstitia- 

 lis of midsummer. These peculiar birds can only 

 be Avatched and observed for two hours in the 

 twenty four, and then in a dubious twilight, an 

 hour after sunset and an hour before sunrise. 



The powers of its wings Avere wonderful, ex- 

 ceeding, if possible, the various evolutions, and 

 quick turns of the SAvallow genus. But the cir- 

 cumstance that pleased me most was, that I saw it 

 distinctly more than once put out its short leg 

 while on the wing, and, by a bend of the head, de- 

 liver someAvhat into its mouth. If it takes any 

 part of its prey Avith its foot, as I have noAV the 



[* JXight-Hawk — vulgarly, the large Bat] 

 1 1 believe this is also done by the bill, in the manner 

 of owls when disturbed. — W. J. 



