Blr'/h 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



74 



367. BIRD ATTACKED FOR UNUSU- 

 AL COLOR A Stranger to Its Kind. An- 

 other instance of misdirected anger in na- 

 ture, not quite so familiar as that of the 

 bull and red rag, is used as an illustration 

 by one of the prophets : " My heritage is 

 unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round 

 about are against it " [ Jer. xii, 9] . I have 

 frequently seen the birds of a thicket gather 

 round some singularly marked accidental 

 visitor, and finally drive him with great 

 anger from the neighborhood. Possibly as- 

 sociation comes in a little here, since any 

 bird, even a small one, strikingly colored or 

 marked, might be looked on as a bird of 

 prey. HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 

 12, p. 167. (C. & H., 1895.) 



368. BIRDS IN SUDDEN MULTI- 

 TUDES -How Explained Unseen Hosts Ever 

 Passing. On the pampas, whenever grass- 

 hoppers, mice, frogs, or crickets become ex- 

 cessively abundant we confidently look for 

 the appearance of multitudes of the birds 

 that prey on them. . . . It is plain that 

 these birds have been drawn from over an 

 immense area to one spot ; and the question 

 is how have they been drawn? Many large 

 birds possessing great powers of flight are, 

 when not occupied with the business of 

 propagation, incessantly wandering from 

 place to place in search of food. They are 

 not, as a rule, regular migrants, for their 

 wanderings begin and end irrespective of 

 seasons, and where they find abundance they 

 remain the whole year. They fly at a very 

 great height, and traverse immense dis- 

 tances. When the favorite food of any one 

 of these species is plentiful in any particu- 

 lar region all the individuals that discover 

 it remain, and attract to them all of their 

 kind passing overhead. This happens on 

 the pampas with the stork, the short-eared 

 owl, the hooded gull, and the dominican or 

 black-backed gull the leading species 

 among the feathered nomads: a few first 

 appear like harbingers; these are presently 

 joined by newcomers in considerable num- 

 bers, and before long they are in myriads. 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 3, p. 64. 

 (C. & H., 1895.) 



369. BIRDS KILLED BY SPIDER 



The Gigantic Spider (Mygale) of Brazil- 

 Confirmation of Early Narratives Lower 

 Life Preying on Higher. At Cameta 

 chanced to verify a fact relating to the 

 habits of a large hairy spider of the genus 

 Mygale in a manner worth recording. The 

 species was M. avicularia, or one very close- 

 ly allied to it; the individual was nearly 

 two inches in length of body, but the legs 

 expanded seven inches, and the entire body 

 and legs were covered with coarse gray and 

 reddish hairs. I was attracted by a move- 

 ment of the monster on a tree- trunk; it 

 was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, 

 across which was stretched a dense white 

 web. The lower part of the web was broken, 



and two small birds, finches, were entangled 

 in the pieces; they were about the size of 

 the English siskin, and I judged the two to 

 be male and female. One of them was quite 

 dead; the other lay under the body of the 

 spider not quite dead, and was smeared 

 with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded by 

 the monster. I drove away the spider and 

 took the birds, but the second one soon died. 

 The fact of species of Mygale sallying forth 

 at night, mounting trees and sucking the 

 eggs and young of humming-birds, has been 

 recorded long ago by Madame Merian and 

 Palisot de Beauvois; but, in the absence of 

 any confirmation, it has come to be dis- 

 credited. From the way the fact has been 

 related it would appear that it had been 

 merely derived from the report of natives, 

 and had not been witnessed by the narra- 

 tors. Count Langsdorff, in his " Expedition 

 into the Interior of Brazil," states that he 

 totally disbelieved the story. I found the 

 circumstances to be quite a novelty to the 

 residents hereabout. The mygales are quite 

 common insects; some species make their 

 cells under stones, others form artistic tun- 

 nels in the earth, and some build their dens 

 in the thatch of houses. The natives call 

 them Aranhas carangueijeiras, or crab- 

 spiders. The hairs with which they are 

 clothed come off when touched, and cause a 

 peculiar and almost maddening irritation. 

 The first specimen that I killed and pre- 

 pared was handled incautiously, and I suf- 

 fered terribly for three days afterward. I 

 think this is not owing to any poisonous 

 quality residing in the hairs, but to their 

 being short and hard, and thus getting into 

 the fine creases of the skin. Some mygales 

 are of immense size. One day I saw the 

 children belonging to an Indian family, who 

 collected for me, with one of these monsters 

 secured by a cord round its waist, by which 

 they were leading it about the house as 

 they would a dog. BATES Naturalist on the 

 River Amazon, ch. 4, p. 655. (Hum., 1880.) 



370. BIRDS LOST IN WASTE OF 



AIR Fatal Fascination of Lighthouse. It is 

 when fogs and storms obscure the view that 

 birds lose their way. Then they fly much 

 lower, perhaps seeking some landmark, and, 

 should a lighthouse lie in their path, they 

 are often attracted to it in countless num- 

 bers. Thousands of birds perish annually 

 by striking these lights during stormy fall 

 weather. In the spring the weather is more 

 settled and fewer birds are killed. CHAP- 

 MAN Bird-Life, ch. 4, p. 56. (A., 1900.) 



371. BIRDS, MIGRATION OF An Al- 

 most Universal Law Mystery in Familiar 

 Things. The least observant person who 

 walks even a short distance beyond the 

 range of bricks and mortar cannot fail to 

 notice that in early spring a strange uneasy 

 movement seems to pervade every living 

 thing. . . . But what betokens the ar- 

 rival of spring even more than the crawling 





