224 



KNOWLEDGE 



October 2, 1899. 



Like the fieldfare and other birds they are very sociable, 

 and if one nest is found several others will be discovered 

 in neighbouring trees. All the nests we saw were built in 

 small pine trees, and were made of a silvery flower inter- 

 woven with twigs of pine, the inside being lined with red 

 cows' hair — a beautiful nest for a beautiful bird. 



It would weary the reader to be told of all the charming 

 and interesting birds that we saw in this wonderful country, 

 but I cannot refrain from telling of an eagle and its nest. 



We were riding home after a hard days work, when we 

 spied a large black bird sitting near the top of a cork tree 

 some distance off. The keepers proclaimed it a cuerho or 

 raven, but a glance through our binoculars told ug it was 

 something better. Accordingly, we made a wide circuit 

 until we had placed the tree between ourselves and the 

 bird. Then we dismounted and crept as quietly as possible 

 through the cover until we were under the tree. Here an 

 unforeseen difficulty presented itself. The tree was so 

 thick that we could not at first see the bird. At length 

 we caught sight of it sitting all unconscious above our 

 heads. We fired, and down it dropped, not to ground but 

 into a great nest which we had not seen just below it. 



It did not take us many seconds to reach that nest. It was 

 just a flat platform, some six feet across, and was made of 

 green boughs. In it was the great bird we had shot lying 

 stone dead — a Spanish Imperial eagle — while near the 

 old bird were two young ones clad in soft white down, and 

 a little distance from them a great round dirty-white egg. 

 There was room in the nest for a couple of sheep, but the 

 eagle's larder contained nothing more than a few rabbits 

 and the legs of a coot. 



A good idea of the wild character of the country may be 

 gathered from the fact that this nest was within a mile of 

 the house in which we were staying, and yet the keepers 

 had no suspicion that one of the most deadly game 

 destroyers had taken up its quarters there. 



THE KARKINOKOSM, OR WORLD OF 

 CRUSTACEA.-XI. 



By the Eev. Thomas R. E. Stebbing, m.a., f.k.s., f.l.s., 

 F.Z.S., Author of 'M Historij of Crustacea," "The 

 Naturalist of Cumbrae," " Re/iort on tlie Amphipoda 

 collected bij H.M.S, ' Challencjer,'" etc. 



TA8TE AND TEY. 



A BOY gathering limpets on the shore in Devonshire, 

 being questioned about them, remarked that they 

 were " very good raw, but better boiled." That 

 is a maxim which will not fit all the mollusca in 

 either of its alternatives, and only fits the Crustacea 

 in one of them. For while unsophisticated aquatic 

 animals find crustaceans very good raw, human beings 

 exhibit a quite unwonted unanimity in fancying them 

 better boiled. 



The unanimity of mankind seldom runs to excess. 

 Foreign nations often presume to have customs different 

 from ours. They have the temerity, for example, to use 

 for food many species from the karkinokosm which are 

 quite unknown to the English public. As, however, one 

 object of these papers has been to inform and widen the 

 taste for a neglected class, some mention ought to be made 

 of the species deemed palatable in other climes. 



The Thyrostraca, or Cirripedes, discussed in a previous 

 chapter, might seem a group as unlikely as any to supply 

 specimens to tempt the appetite of mankind. Notwith- 

 standing their extreme abundance on and about our own 

 coasts, there are no purveyors of them for the home 



market. Yet Balanus psittacus, Molina, is eaten and relished 

 in South America. It is an acorn barnacle, not unlike the 

 sorts common with us, only monstrously big by comparison. 

 But then the rule with crustaceans for table is, the bigger 

 the better, you can't have too much of a good thing. At 

 any rate we are told that from Peru to Patagonia people 

 eat the big Balmms and find it delicious, when cooked. 

 Those, therefore, among ourselves who are in search of a 

 new sensation or a new flavour have an encouraging pre- 

 cedent for trying what is to be got out of boiled barnacles. 



There are few records which speak in favour of Ento- 

 mostraca as comestibles. Curiosity has tasted them, and 

 perceived in them a fairly acceptable reminiscence of 

 shrimps. But, like the child who thought the making of 

 flies must be fiddling work, the consumers of Copepoda 

 appear to find them fiddling food. It takes many to make 

 a mouthful. Some of them are excessively oily. We may 

 be content to let them fatten our herrings and other 

 useful fishes, we ourselves in this way more conveniently 

 devouring them at second hand, like those august oriental 

 potentates who drink the kava prepared by the mouths of 

 their menials. 



For more substantial banquets we must have recourse 

 to the Malacostraca. Still among these what may be called 

 the lower orders, the sessile-eyed groups, enter very little 

 into an Englishman's calculation of food supply. The 

 Isopoda may be said to be quite out of it, although wood- 

 lice, such as the Slaters (Pon-eUio) and the Pill-Mille- 

 peds {Aniiaililli(lii(i>t),'were once of much repute in medicine. 

 In the latter genus the animal faces danger by rolling 

 itself up into a ball. Here, then, was a little shining pill, 

 evidently moulded by Nature for curative purposes. 

 Modern human prejudice rejects the useless remedy with 

 disgust, whereas the better informed barndoor fowl eats 

 this small game with avidity, not as a medicine, but as a 

 substitute for the unattainable lobster. The Amphipoda 

 have won rather more appreciation as food for man. Thus 

 Eisso, in 182G, describing the curious Phrosina scmilunata, 

 remarks of it that the flesh is tender and well-tasted, and 

 that it might well supply a dish to those who dwell on the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, where it occurs in abundance. 

 Eisso does not say that either he himself or any one else 

 ever had such a dish, but, for all that, an English author 

 subsequently cites him as affirming that " these Crustacea 

 are eaten as a luxury, and, moreover, serve as an article of 

 food to the inhabitants on the shores of the Mediterranean." 

 It would be a tempting improvement to declare that those 

 inhabitants never eat anything else. It is more to the 

 purpose to repeat the Prince of Monaco's recommendation 

 to the shipwrecked, not to neglect the species of Hyperia, 

 which may be obtained from jelly fishes in the open sea. 

 That the great amphipods, which abound in Arctic waters, 

 would pleasantly satisfy man's appetite on an emergency 

 can scarcely be doubted. The indiscriminating seal swallows 

 them whole, as we know by specimens recovered in good 

 condition from the seal's stomach. The amphipods, in 

 revenge, if they meet with a dead seal, make short work 

 of its carcase — a devouring crowd compelled by the nature 

 of their jaws to savour and enjoy every morsel of the much- 

 divided feast. 



Passing on to the stalk-eyed group, we find a general 

 recognition of the culinary merit contained within it, 

 though few know how great is the number of extremely 

 different species over which that merit is diffused. In 

 Great Britain we never get a chance of tasting any of the 

 SquillidsB. To an uneducated eye, a dish of them might 

 look rather repellent, and an uneducated ear might be 

 horrified at an invitation to eat Stomatopoda. That order 

 comprises the single family of the Squillidre. One at least of 



