86 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



3\Iacduff Carfrae, bird-preserver in Edinburgh, who came out to pay me a visit, saw 

 the same birds hopping among the branches of some elder trees, about the distance 

 of a quarter of a mile from the place where they were hatched," 



Rare Birds recentlt found in Britain. — In the last number of the Maga- 

 zine of Zoology and Botany, it is stated, on the authority of P. W. Maclagan, that 

 a Hoopoe, Upupa Epops, was shot near Coylton in Ayrshire, on the 16th of October 

 1836. In the same journal, Mr Albany Hancock gives intimation of the occurrence 

 of the following species : Falco rufipes ; a male, shot on the Durham coast, between 

 South Shields and Jlarsden Rocks, in the middle of last October. Motacilla ney' 

 lecta ; a male, shot a little to the west of Newcastle, on the 1st of May last. } Larus 

 minutus ; a specimen in first plumage ; killed at the mouth of the river Tyne, in Sep- 

 tember last. 



Rare Birds recently found in Ireland. — In the same periodical is an account, 

 by William Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, of two specimens of Sterna stolida ; which 

 ■were killed in 1830, between the Tusker light-house, off the coast of Wexford, and 

 Dublin bay : also of a specimen of Larus SabiTiii, in the plumage of the first year; 

 shot in Belfast bay, on the 18th September 1S22, by the late John Montgomery, 

 Esq., of Locust Lodge: and of two others; one shot in Dublin bay, the other in 

 Belfast bay, in September 1834. It appears from the statement given by Mr 

 Thompson, that Bewick's Swan is of more frequent occurrence in Ireland than the 

 common wild Swan ; whereas the reverse is the case in England, 



Shower of Frogs. — M. Pontus, professor at Cahors, recently addressed to the 

 Academie des Sciences a communication relative to a shower of Frogs. In August 

 1S04, he was travelling in the diligence from Albi to Toulouse, the weather being 

 fine, and the sky without clouds. About four in the afternoon the vehicle stopped a 

 few minutes at La Conseillere, three leagues from Toulouse, to change horses. Just 

 as it was about to set off again, a_^very thick cloud suddenly covered the horizon, and 

 thunder was heard. The cloud must have been at a very small height, for the drops 

 of rain that fell were very large. It broke upon the road at the distance of a hundred 

 and twenty yards from where they vrere. Two horsemen, who were coming from 

 Toulouse, and had been exposed to the storm, were obliged to wrap themselves in 

 their cloaks; but were much surprised, and even frightened, at finding themselves 

 assailed by a shower of Frogs. They hastened onwards, and on meeting the dihgence, 

 gave an account of their adventure to the passengers. M. Pontus saw that there were 

 still some small Frogs on their cloaks, which they shook off in their presence. The 

 diligence soon reached the place where the cloud had burst, when the passengers be- 

 came witnesses of the extraordinary phenomenon : the road, and all the fields on both 

 sides of it, were strewn with Frogs, of which the smallest were of the size of at least 

 a cubic inch, the largest nearly two inches, so that they must have been upwards of 

 a month or two old: there were as many as three or four layers of them, and many 

 thousands were crushed by the wheels and the horses' feet. Some of the passengei's 

 would have closed the coach-windows to prevent their entering, as they suspected, 

 from their leaps, that they would. The vehicle proceeded for at least a quarter of 

 an hour over this mass of living creatures, the horses trotting all the while. 



GuACHARO OF THE Cavern OF Caripe.' — -The Guacharo is a bird which flies 

 abroad in the twilight, and remains concealed by day in some obscure retreat, and 

 in particular, inhabits in great numbers a very deep cave in the Valley of Caripe, in 

 the province of Cumana. Humboldt, who visited this cave in 1799, first made 

 known this remarkable bird, to which he gave the name of Steatornis Caripensis, 

 on account of the fat which abounds in it when young, and which the natives apply 

 to the same uses as oil and butter. M. Humboldt's collections having been lost by 

 shipwreck on the coast of Africa, no specimens existed in Europe until 1834, when 

 the Academie des Sciences received from M. Lherminier, a physician at Guadaloupe, 

 a Guacharo preserved in spirits, with a paper relative to its habits and zoological re- 

 lations. Mess, de Blainville and GeofFroy-Saint-Hilaire drew up a report, which 

 was read on the 6th October 1834, and of which a condensed account is here pre- 

 sented. The body of the Guacharo is not larger than that of a pigeon, its head 

 broad, its mouth very wide, and furnished with long stiff hairs, its bill pretty strong, 

 the upper mandible hooked, with a well-marked tooth on its margin, the lower 

 truncated at the extremity. The nostrils are oval, the eyes of moderate size, the 

 ears rather small, the tongue arrow-shaped and adherent. The wings are very 

 lai'ge, the legs short and robust, the toes short, with strong, arched, rather pointed 

 claws, that of the middle toe not toothed as in the Goat-suckers. The tail-feathers 

 are ten. The colour is chestnut red, mixed with brown, and glossed with green, 

 banded and dotted with black, and marked with white spots. M. Lherminier adds, 

 that the sternum is like that of the Goat-suckers, and that, as in them, there is no 

 crop, but only a proventri cuius and a gizzard of moderate strength, with two lon^ish 

 coeca at the end of a rather wide and short intestine. He was led to suppose, that 

 as it resembles the Goat-suckers in its nocturnal habits, its form, and the distribu- 

 tion of its colours, it was also similar in its mode of feeding; although Humboldt 

 asserted that the adults are not seen to pursue insects, and that the gizzard of the 

 young is often found filled with nuts. To ascertain this alleged fact, he endeavoured 

 to procure specimens, and at length succeeded in obtaining many young birds, and 

 two old individuals, one of which has been sent stuffed to the Academie, to be depo- 

 sited in the Museum. The young Guacharos are of the same colour as the old. In 

 most of the individuals examined, the stomach was empty, but in some it contained 

 kernels of fruits, and in none were there any remains of insects ; so that Humboldt's 

 opinion has been confirmed by direct observation. M, Bauperthuy, who procured the 

 specimens for M. Lherminier, states that, of ten young birds which he attempted to 

 rear, eight died in the course of the second month, and only two lived to the end of 

 the third. The food which seemed to agree best with them was the fruit of the 

 banana cut into small pieces; but although at first they digested it very well, it at 

 length ceased to afford nutriment to them. In captivity the young birds are dull, 

 and constantly keep their tail raised, and their bill on the ground. When approached 

 they retreat in this position, and present somewhat of the appearance of a toad. 

 When touched, they emit a sharp and very disagreeable cry. During the day, they 

 seek the darkest places and remain quiet, but towards evening they seem to emerge 

 from their usual apathy, and traverse their prison, cryhig and shaking their wings. 



The flesh of the old birds is lean and tough, but that of the young fat, tender, and 

 nearly the same in taste as that of a young pigeon. The fat which covers the abdo- 

 men is exceeduigly abundant, and so fluid that it transudes when handled. When 

 melted over a gentle fire, slightly salted, and then put into a calebash, and well closed, 

 it remained clear and without smell for three months. In taste it is like sheep's fat, 

 but rather more deUcate. The seeds found in the gizzards of young birds taken 

 from the nest belonged to various plants, but particularly to one named in the coun- 

 try Mataca. They are round, of the size of a nutmeg, with an aromatic smell, and 

 are rejected entire when they have been deprived of their pericarp, or the fleshy part 

 of the fruit. The Indians who accompanied M. Bauperthuy told him, that the Cave 

 of Caripe is not the only asylum of the Guacharos, but that they are also found in 

 other caverns situated towards the north-east. 



The Tarantula. — In a very interesting paper on the Tarantula, Lycosa Taren- 

 tula, by M. Leon Dufour, published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, and of 

 which a translation is given in the number for February 1837 of Loudon's Magazine, 

 are the following particulars relative to its habits : — The Tarantula inhabits dry, 

 barren, uncultivated places, exposed to the sun. It hides itself in burrow? of a cy- 

 lindrical form, often an inch in diameter, sunk more than a foot in the soil, for four 

 or five inches vertical, then horizontal, and again perpendicular. The orifice is ordi- 

 narily surmounted by a funnel, sometimes two inches in diameter, rising about an 

 inch above the surface of the soil, composed of fragments of dry wood united by a 

 little clay, and lined with a kind of tapestry, formed of the threads of the animal 

 itself. This funnel not only protects its intrenchment from inundations, and fortifies 

 it against the falling of external bodies, which, swept by the winds, would be likely 

 to close it up, but it also serves as an ambush, by offering to flies and other insects 

 an enticing resting-place. The months of May and Jime are the most favorable 

 season for seeking it. After various fruitless attempts to procure specimens, M. Du- 

 four succeeded in the following manner : — It occurred to him to take, by way of bait, 

 a stalk surmounted by a spikelet, and to shake it and rub it gently agamst the opening 

 of the hole. He was not long in perceiving that the attention and desire of the Ta- 

 rantula were awakened. Tempted by this lure, he advanced, with a slow and irre- 

 solute step, towards the spikelet ; and on its being drawn back a little, frequently 

 used to throw himself, at one spring, out of his dwelling, the entrance of which was 

 instantly closed. It sometimes happened that, suspecting the snare, or perhaps less 

 pressed by hunger, he held back, immovable, at a little distance from his door, which he 

 did not judge it advisable to pass. When this occurred, M. Dufour, after having observed 

 the direction of the hole, and the position of the spider, drove in the blade of his knife, 

 so as to surprise the creature behind, and cut off his retreat. By employing this mode 

 of capture, he sometimes took so many as fifteen in an hour. We shall conclude our 

 extract with an account of a combat between two Tarantulas. — " In the month of 

 June, one day when I had been successful in the search after the Tarantulas, I chose 

 two full-grown and very vigorous males, which I put together into a large vase, that 

 I might witness the spectacle of a mortal combat. After having many times made 

 the circuit of their arena, in the endeavour to shun each other, they hastened, as at 

 a given signal, to set themselves in a warlike attitude. I saw them, with surprise, 

 taking their distance, and gravely rising upon their hind legs, so as to present to each 

 other the buckler formed by their chests. After looking each other in the face for 

 about two minutes, and, without doubt, provoking each other by glances which I 

 could not discern, I saw them throw themselves upon one another, entwine their legs, 

 and endeavour, in an obstinate struggle, to wound each other with the hooks of their 

 mandibles. Either from fatigue, or by mutual consent, the combat was for awhile 

 suspended : there was a truce for some seconds ; and each wrestler, retiring to a 

 little distance, resumed his menacing posture. This circumstance reminded me that, 

 in the singular encounters of cats, there were also suspensions of arms. But the 

 stru"-gle was not long in recommencing, with more fury than before, between our two 

 Tarantulas. One of them, after victory had been along time doubtful, was at length 

 overthrow" n, and mortally wounded in the head : he became the prey of the vanquisher, 

 who tore open his skull, and devoured him." 



Mode of taking Quails in the Island of Cerigo. — The following notice 

 is extracted from a very interesting account of the Natural History and Statistics of 

 the Island of Cerigo, published in the Edinhiirgh New Philosophical Journal, by 

 the late Robert Jameson, Esq., Assistant Surgeon, 10th Regiment of Foot. The 

 flocks of Quails which appear here in spring and autumn are considerably reduced 

 by various destructive means of the inhabitants ; but the most singular is that of 

 findino- them by dogs, something similar to a lurcher, and then catching them with 

 hand-nets. Two, or a party of three, go sporting in this way ; each net has a mouth 

 somewhat oval, stiffened by a rim of wood two or three feet long, attached to which 

 is a net of a proportionate bulk ; to this border is fastened at one end a pole, ten to 

 fourteen feet long ; and with such a weapon, a pai-ty of these will secure twenty or 

 thirty couples during the day in the following manner: — When the dog makes a 

 point, the party comes up towards the spot in different directions, holding their nets, 

 by the ends of the poles ; and if the Quails lie so close, as they do in bushes, as to 

 allow the party to touch each other's nets, then the dog is driven in to put them up. 

 On rising, each man strikes at a bird wnth his extended oval-mouthed net, twisting 

 it in the air to entangle his game, and, when expert, seldom misses. — On their first 

 arrival, the Quails are often so much fatigued as to be taken by the hand, or nets of 

 the simplest construction. In spring they are thin, and scarcely w^orth the trouble 

 of procuring, while in autumn they are fat, and much prized as delicacies. Great 

 numbers are preserved and fattened for the table, but unless great care is taken, they 

 die quickly. Several experiments have been made here in autumn by private indivi- 

 duals, of several hundreds at a time, but they always died off before the cold weather 

 had fairly commenced. 



The Itch Insect, Acarus scahiei. — M. A. Gras, an tltve interne of the Hos- 

 pital of St Louis, has recently made the following observations on this minute 

 insect : — 



The Acarus scahiei, oi Sarcoptes hominiSj generally exists on all persons affected 

 with itch who have not commenced a course of medicine. It is almost entirely confined 



