THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



of its tribe, and remarkable for the great developtacnt of its tail, the two centre 

 feathers of which are frequently three feet in length. It inhabits South America and 

 the tropical parts of North America. Om- figure is taken from a splendid specimen 

 in the Edinburgh University Royal Museum. The Mexicans celebrated this bird in 

 their mythology; they considered it as sacred to the deity Vitzliputsli, and they 

 adorned the brows of their priests with the elegant feathers of its tail. This idol 

 Vitzliputsh was represented, as in the annexed wood-cut, crowned with a helmet in 

 the form of a Golden Couroucoui, composed of feathers of vai'ious colours, excepting 

 the beak and crest, which were of gold. 



IMost nations have some legends regarding the foundation of their capital cities ; and 

 the site of Mexico was said to have been fixed by this bird. The Mexican fable was 

 as follows: — 



The Navatelcas were savages residing in forests and mountains, without laws or 

 government; they worshipped the sun, and sacrificed these birds to his honour. Mexi 

 the great captain and legislator appeai-ed, and conducted by Vitzliputsh, the god of 

 their nation, he led the savages in search of distant lands. Aided by their deity, 

 his arms were irresistible, and his empire soon became extensive. Being in doubt 

 where to establish his capital, a priest announced that it should be built on the spot r»liere 

 a Couroucoui was seen perched on a tree, the roots of which were inserted on a solid 

 rock. The spot pointed out was the present site of Mexico. Thus did a barbarous 

 people account, by an idle prodigy, for the situation of a city on an island in the 

 centre of a lake — a spot evidently pointed out by nature as the most secure situation 

 for the capital of a mighty empire. 



Fig. 2 Reinwardt's Couroucoui (T. ReinwardiiiJ, is a native of Java. The 



plumage of this species is more compact than that of its American congeners; and 

 also differs from them in having its general form and bill more slender, while the tooth- 

 ing of the edges of the bill is less marked. 



Fig. 3. — The Black-neeked Couroucoui (T. AtricoUisJ, is a native of Cayenne; and 

 one of the most timid of its kind. 



Fig. 4. — The IMexican Couroucoui ("T. Mexicanus), is a recently discovered species, 

 and a bird of great beauty. There ai-e several fine specimens in the Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity Royal Museum, from one of which we figured our subject, by permission of Pro- 

 fessor Jameson. 



Fig. 5. — The Flower Couroucoui, male (T. NaHni), and Fig. 6., the female. This 

 species is more nearly allied to the Asiatic bird than to those of South America. It 

 inhabits Southern Africa. 



It will be seen that this genus is ^videly distributed, being found in Asia and Africa, 

 as well as on the continent of America; but it is in the last situation that the species 

 are most numerous. 



POPULAR ERROUS REGARDING THE TORPIDITY OF SWALLOWS. 

 It has long been, and continues to be, a popular opinion in this country, and in other 

 parts of Europe, that swallows of a certain species pass the winter at the bottoms of 

 deep lakes and wells. Buffon entertained this idea, and Goldsmith makes the follow- 

 ing observations on this theory: — He says, " There is a circumstance attending the 

 migration of swallows, which wraps this subject in gi-eat obscurity. It is agreed 

 on all hands, that they are seen migrating into warmer chmates, and in amazing 

 numbers, at the approach of the Em-opean winter. Their return into Europe is also 

 well attested about the beginning of summer ; but, we have another account, which 

 serves to prove, that numbers of them continue torpid here during tlie winter ; and, 

 hke bats, make their retreat into old walls, the hollows of trees, or even sink into the 

 deepest lakes, and find security for the winter season by remaining there in clusters at 

 the bottom." 



The analogy between birds of passage, and animals which remain in a state of tor- 

 pidity during the winter, is most inaccurately di*awn by Goldsmith; and we offer the 

 following objections to the supposed constitutional connection. 



Those quadi-upeds, birds, reptiles, and insects, which pass the winter in a state of 

 insensibility, may be recalled to sensation and action at pleasure, by the application of 

 a gentle degree of heat. Naturalists have been induced, from this constitutional 

 singularity of these animals, to conclude, that the return of spring rouses them from 

 their lethargic state to enjoy the pleasures of sensation and locomotion. The animals 

 in question take up their abodes a little below the surface of the soil; some in the 

 crevices of walls, or interstices of rocks ; while others, such as frogs, toads, and water- 

 newts, bury themselves in the mud of shallow ponds. In the first of these retreats, 

 they are only covered by a thin layer of earth and moss, or leaves ; and in the last, 

 by the addition of a shallow sheet of water; consequently they ai"e re-animated in due 

 season, by the genial rays of the sun, after he has entered the northern half of the 

 ecliptic. 



The temperature of places, situate at great depths below the surface of the land and 

 water, is a sufficient objection to the assertion that birds remain in a torpid state, 

 during the winter, in deep and solitary caverns, or at the bottom of deep lakes. Dr 

 Hale has proved, by experimental facts, that the bulb of a thermometer, buried six- 

 teen inches below the earth's surface, stood at 25° of his scale in September, at 16° 

 in October, and at 10° in November, during a severe frost; from which point it 

 ascended again slowly, and reached 23° in the beginning of April. Now the end of 

 September and beginning of October is the season when the hedgehog, shrew, bat, 

 toad, and frog, disappear; and, about the middle of April, these animals re-appear: 

 this agrees very well with the variations of temperature of the preceding theory. 



It is a well-established fact, that all places situate eighty feet below the surface of 

 the eai-th are constantly of the same temperature. Mr Boyle kept a thermometer for 

 a year under a roof of earth, -eighty feet in thickness, and found that the fluid in the 

 instrument remained stationary all the time. Dr Withering made a similar experi- 

 ment on a well eighty-four feet deep, and found that it remained at 49° for the entire 

 year. Surely, then, this invai'iable temperature is inconsistent with the theory of 

 birds remaining in a state of torpidity in deep lakes, or solitary caverns, where the sun 

 has no influence ; for what would call forth their dormant organs into action, the sun 

 having no influen(;e in places so situate? It is but reasonable to conclude, that the 

 cold, which kept them benumbed by its soporific influence, would perpetuate their 

 slumber. 



The state of torpor to which h3'bernating animals are annually subjected, is obviously 

 analogous to sleep, but it differs from sleep in being occasioned solely by temperature. 

 Hybernating animals always assume this torpid condition, whenever the thermometer 

 sinks to a certain point. Man, and almost all animals, seem to be susceptible of this 

 state, at least to a certain extent ; for the apparent death produced by cold is pro- 

 bably nothing else but a species of torpor, out of which the animal, in most cases, 

 might be roused if the requisite precautions in applying heat were attended to; for 

 death, in most cases, seems to be produced, not by the cold, but by the incautious and 

 sudden application of heat, which bursts the blood-vessels in some particular part of 

 the body, before the heat has had the power of stimulating the heart, and setting the 

 blood in motion through the whole animal frame; and this bursting of the blood-ves- 

 sels destroys the texture of the body. It is well known that if any part of the body 

 be frost-bitten, an incautious application of heat infallibly produces mortification, and 

 destroys the part. 



In the 2Sth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, there is a remarkable ex- 

 ample recorded of a woman, almost naked, lying buried for six days under the snow, 

 and yet recovering. In this case it is scarcely possible to avoid supposing that the 

 woman must have been in a state of torpor, otherwise she would have endeavoured to 

 find her way home. 



That a few stragglers of the swallow tribe do remain in this country long after 

 their fellows have departed, there can be no doubt; and even some have been known 

 to sojourn during the whole winter: but, it is equally true that the uniform habit of 

 these birds is, to quit the north on the approach of winter, and to seek chmates more 

 congenial to their mode of existence, which is entirely maintained by insect food. 



The Rev. Gilbert "UTiite, in his interesting Natural History of Selbome, remarks, 

 " I cannot agree with those persons who assert that the swallow kind disappear some 

 and some, gradually, as they come, for the bulk of them seem to withdraw at once; 

 only some stragglers stay behind a long while, and do never, there is gi-eat reason 

 to believe, leave this island. Swallows seem to lay themselves up, and to come forth 

 in a warm day, after they have disappeared for weeks. For a very respectable 

 gentleman assured me, that as he was walking with some friends under Merton-wall, 

 on a remarkably hot noon, either in the last week of December or the first week in 

 January, he espied three or foiu' swallows huddled together on the moulding of one of 

 the windows of that college. I have frequently remarked that swallows are seen later 

 at Oxford than elsewhere. Is it owing to the vast massy buildings of that place, to 

 the mai'-y waters round it, or to what else ?" He also mentions that a friend of his saw 

 a marten on the 26'th November, in a sheltered bottom; the sun shone warm, and the 

 bird was hawkin"' brisklv after files. l\Ir Sweet mentions the circumstance of a house 

 swallow having taken up its residence, late in the autumn, within St Mai-y's church 

 at V/arwick ; it was regulai'ly observed there by the congregation until Christmas- 

 eve; after which, it disappeared and was seen no more. 



Heifer, which YiELnzn Milk. — i\Ir Joseph Jlarshall of Edrington, by Berwick, 

 in June 1830, had a heifer which yielded milk. At that time he possessed two heifers 

 aged two years, one of which he observed for several months to suck the other. 

 On this account he judged it necessary to separate them; and, on milldng the nurse, 

 she gave a full English quart of genuine milk, which, on being kept for thirty bom's, 

 threw up a good coat of cream. The cream was churned in a bottle, and produced as 

 much and as good butter as any other cream would have done under similar manage- 

 ment. 



Adders. — Two addors, upwards of two feet long, were noticed on the moss of 

 Ashvore, IMonedie parish, Jlethven, on the 3d week of June 1835. This place has 

 long been noted as the haunt of adders. 



Insects in India. — During the rainy season in India, the houses are so infected 

 with insects, that it is necessary to have little covers (usually of silver) for tumblers 

 and tea cups. The aii' is so still and stagnant, that persons are compelled to keep their 

 doors wide open ; and, consequently, the tables are thickly covered with a variety of the 

 most (hsgusting vermin. These,' mingling with the blood-thirsty musquitoes, are tor- 

 menting in the extreme. At this season, also, the white ants are extremely numer- 

 ous and destructive. In one night, they have been known to spread themselves over 

 a lai-ge apartment, and to devour the whole matting. They frequently take possession of 

 the beams that support the roofs of the houses, and destroy them in a few weeks. 

 Nothin-T is secure against the depredations of these mischievous little creatures. 

 Tents, carriages, beds, carpets, and clothes of all descriptions, are subject to their vo- 

 racious appetites. 



