134 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY 



fecundity, that they are frequently seen sitting on eggs long before the former brood 

 is able to leave the nest, so that the parent bird has at the same time young birds and 

 eof"-s to take care of. Mr Smith, of the same country, has also transmitted us speci- 

 mens, and states that in Fetlar they are seen in large flocks in the winter and spring 

 months, when they frequent barn-yards, especially should the ground be covered with 

 snow. The crops of Mr Smith's specimens were completely filled up to the mouth : 

 that of one with a mixture of barley and oats, together with a considerable number 

 of eggs of snails, and some fragments of the pods of charlock ; that of another, with 

 oats, a few seeds of polygona, and fragments of charlock ; and that of the third with 

 oats alone. The number of oat seeds in the crop of the second amounted to 1000 

 and odds, and the barley seeds in that of a specimen sent by Mr Barclay were 510. 

 From these facts it may be imagined what a quantity of seeds is annually devoured by 

 all the Pigeons, wild and tame, in Britain. 



After a long continuance of snow, these birds become extremely emaciated, for they 

 scarcely find any thing to eat on the shores, and they do not appear to betake them- 

 selves to turnip fields, like the Wood Pigeons. Indeed, in most of the districts in 

 which they abound, turnips are very rarely cultivated. From ten to twenty have 

 sometimes been killed at a shot, when they base settled on corn-stacks, and it is not 

 uncommon to obtain as many as four or five even on stubble or newly sown fields, 

 for they often move very close together. The Peregrine Falcon and the Spar- 

 rowhawk seem to be the only feathered enemies of this species, whose power of 

 flio-ht, however, is such as to render it little liable to persecution even from them, 

 while its rocky haunts exempt it from the attacks of rapacious quadrupeds. It is 

 easily tamed when procured from the nest, and readily breeds with the Domestic 

 Pio'eon. On the other hand, individuals of the latter often fly off to the rocks, and 

 either form colonies apart, or mingle with the Wild Pigeons. In its truly wild state, 

 the Rock Dove presents no remarkable variations of colour, and the variously colour- 

 ed individuals sometimes seen among the rocks are emancipated slaves, or their de- 

 scendants. 



Another British species, the Stock Dove, is very similar to the present, but differs 

 in having no white on the rump, and in its habits and distribution, it being entirely 

 unknown in the northern parts of the country; but ot this and the Turtle Dove, we 

 shall present the principal characters on another occasion. 



Ornithology of Australia. — Mr Gould, whose splendid illustrations of the 

 birds of Europe, and other ornithological works, have gained him a well merited ce- 

 lebrity, intends to leave England, this spring, for New Holland, w^here he proposes 

 to remain two years, for the purpose of studying the habits of the numerous species 

 of birds occurring in that country. Having already commenced a work on them, he 

 will carry out with him the materials necessary for continuing its publication. The 

 outhnes will be drawn by himself, and the lithography will be executed, as formerly, 

 by Mrs Gould, who will accompany him for that purpose. 



Longevity of Birds. — Dr Weissenborn gives an account, in the last number of 

 the Magazine of Natural History, of a Nightingale which had been caught in its adult 

 state, and had lived in captivity nearly thirty years. He also states that a German 

 paper, the Niirnberger Correspondent, (October 1837,) mentions that an Amsterdam 

 merchant has been in possession of a grey Parrot for the last thirty-two years, after 

 a relation had had the same bird forty-one years, so that its age is now seventy-three 

 years, besides the time it may have lived previously to its transportation to Europe. 

 It is now in a state of marasmus, and its powers of vision and memory are gone. 

 Till sixty, it regularly moulted once a year, and the last time, the red feathers in its 

 tail were exchanged for yellow ones. 



Diseases of Birds. — The pathology of birds has hitherto received little atten- 

 tion. Domesticated individuals, as might be supposed, seem to be subject to more 

 diseases than those in a state of freedom. We recently examined a parrot, of which 

 the lungs were in a state of atrophy, and had moreover undergone a change similar to 

 that exhibited in the human species when affected with melanosis. The internal or 

 cuticular lining of the gizzard, which, in its natural state, is hard and dense, resem- 

 bling the skin of the heel, was enormously thickened, and presented the appearance 

 of a mass of transparent jelly. 



Mr, Shaw's Experiments on the Development of the Fry of the Sal- 

 510N. At a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Mr John Shaw pre- 

 sented a very interesting account of experiments on the development of the young of the 

 Salmon, which has been published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, and 

 of which the following is an abstract. Mr Shaw had formerly stated his opinion that 

 the Parr is the young of the Salmon, but it had been objected to his observations, that 

 they were made upon ova taken from the bed of the Nith, which might have belonged 

 to another species. The ponds in which these recent experiments have been made 

 are three in number, two feet deep, thickly imbedded with gravel, and supplied by a 

 «mall stream in which larvee of insects abound. The waste water from them is con- 

 ducted by wooden pipes secured by grating, and any accidental overflow is prevented 

 by embankments two feet high. 



With a bag-net extended on an iron hoop five feet in diameter, he caught, on the 

 4th January 1837, two Salmon, a male and a female, which were engaged in deposit- 

 ing their spawn ; and having drawn them ashore, placed them successively in a trench 

 on the beach made for the purpose, pressed out a quantity of the ova and melt, allow- 

 in<r the latter to pass down the stream, so as to be mingled with the former, and then 

 transferred the spawn to a basin, and deposited it in a stream connected with a pond 

 previously formed for its reception. The temperature of this stream was 39°, of the 

 river Nith, from which the Salmon were taken, 33"*, and of the atmosphere 36"*. On 

 the 23d February, fifty days after impregnation, the embryo fish was distinctly visible 

 to the naked eye, and moved feebly in the egg. The temperature of the stream was 

 36"* and of the atmosphere 38"*. On the 28th April, a hundred and fourteen days 

 after impregnation, the young were excluded from the eggs. At this period the little 

 fish has a very peculiar aspect ; the head is large, the entire length is five-eighths of an 

 ini-h and the colour pale blue or pink ; the bag attached to the abdomen conical, and 

 of a beautiful transparent red, so as to be easily distinguishable at the bottom of the 

 water, even when the fish itself can with difficulty be observed. A slightly indented 



fringe extends from the dorsal and anal fins, to the termination of the tail. On the 

 24th May, twenty-seven days after being hatched, the young fish had consumed the 

 yolk ; but in a few days afterwards, the whole of this family, with the exception of one 

 individual, was found dead at the bottom of the pond, a circumstance which, having 

 more than once occurred before, IMr Shaw attributes to a deposition of mud. 



To show the effect of increased temperature in hastening the development of the 

 infant fish, he relates an experiment made upon a few of the same ova. On the 20th ■ 

 April, a hundred and six days after impregnation, finding these ova unhatched, and th^ 

 temperature of the stream being 41**, he took four of thera and placed them in a turn* 

 bier of water, covering the bottom with fine gravel, in which he imbedded the ova 

 He then suspended the tumbler from the top of his bed-room window, above which 

 he placed a large jar, from which a stream uf pure water was directed into the tum- 

 bier, the overflowings of which were carried out at the window along a wooden chan- ■ 

 nel. The average temperature of the room was 47"*, that of the water 45"* ; but dur 

 ing the night it was considerably increased, and the young fish in the tumbler were 

 hatched in thirty-six hours, whereas those remaining in the stream did not hatch till 

 the 28th of April, a difference of nearly seven days. 



At this stage they are so very transparent, that their viscera are distinctly visible. 

 Their pectoral fin is continually in rapid motion, even when they are otherwise in 

 a state of perfect repose. On the 24th May, thirty-nine days after their birth, the 

 fish in the tumbler were completely divested of the yolk, and the characteristic bars 

 of the Parr had become visible. At this time they measured nearly one inch in 

 length. They were returned to the pond, where they perished with the rest of the 

 family. 



In another experiment, the ova were procured in the same manner, and deposited 

 in the stream entering a pond, on the 27th January 1837, the temperature of the 

 stream being 40"*, and that of the river 36^. On the 21st March, fifty-four days 

 after impregnation, the embryo fish was visible to the naked eye. On the 7th May, 

 a hundred and one days after impregnation, the little fish had burst the shell, and were 

 to be found amongst the shingle of the stream. The temperature of the water was 

 4^j^, of the atmosphere 45"*. When two months old, the fry presents in miniature 

 tho proportions of a mature fish ; at the age of four months, the characteristic marks 

 of the Parr are distinctly visible; when six months old, it is only three inches and a 

 (Quarter in length, but its approximation to the features of the parent fish is more strik- 

 ing, and on comparing it with the Parr in the river, no marked difference can be ob- 

 served. The whole of this family, as well as another family in a separate pond, were 

 in December in perfect health, and fed freely on worms and larvae, with which they 

 had been supplied during the summer. 



On comparing the Parr taken from the river at a corresponding period with those 

 taken from the pond, they were found to be uniformly of a darker colour, which Mr 

 Shaw attributes to the more impure or muddy quality of the river water. 



In the course of Mr Shaw's visits to the experimental pond, he had often observed, 

 that, while the little fish remained stationary in any particular part, they were always 

 found to be of a colour corresponding to that of the bottom, and when they removed 

 to any part of a different colour, that, after resting on it for a few minutes, they gra- 

 dually assumed a corresponding hue. Wishing, therefore, to prove the fact of this 

 assimilation by actual experiment, he procured two earthenware basins, one nearly 

 white inside, the other nearly black, placed a living fish in each, and kept up in them 

 a constant supply of fresh water. The fishes, which at first were of their natural 

 colour, had not remained in the basins more than four minutes till each had gradually 

 assumed a colour nearly approaching to that of the respective basins. He next took 

 the fish out of the white basin and placed it in the black one, and the fish which was 

 in the black basin he placed in the white, and the results were the same. He next 

 placed both fishes in one basin, vihen the contrast for a short time was exceedingly 

 striking. Exclusion of the light by means of a mat produced a dark colour, which 

 gradually disappeared when the mat was removed. 



Mr Shaw, in conclusion, considers that he has now succeeded in establishing the 

 fact, that the young Salmon does not proceed to the sea the same year in which it is 

 hatched, and hopes that his experiments will therefore be admitted as beneficial both 

 in a scientific and economic point of view. The belief that the Salmon migrates the 

 same year it is hatched, he observes, has created an indiscriminate slaughter of that 

 fish, at an age when it especially requires the protection of the legislature. There 

 being no fish in our rivers that takes the fly more readily, the destruction of the fry 

 by juvenile anglers is incalculably great. 



Although the author of these experiments may not have succeeded in convincing 

 naturalists that the Parr and the fry of the Salmon are identical, he is persuaded that 

 they are so. But the apparent maturity of the sexual organs of the male, and the 

 immaturity of those of the female Parr, are perplexing circumstances, which cannot be 

 reconciled with any of the proposed theories respecting that fish. He suggests the 

 hypothesis of an analogy between the female Salmon and thf queen Bee, and imagines 

 that the former like the latter may have the aid of a plurality of males in propagating 

 her species. At the same time these male Parrs attend the female partly for the pur- 

 pose of devouring the ova which descend with the stream. 



In conclusion, Mr Shaw, m our opinion unnecessarily, disclaims all pretension to 

 scientific attainments, washes to be considered only as an honest inquirer after truth, 

 possessing facilities of observation peculiarly advantageous, and states that he intends 

 to continue his investigations. If all the naturalists who have so confidently spoken 

 on this interesting and important subject, had bestowed as much care upon it as Mr 

 Shaw has done, their observations might have proved useful in place of being so con- 

 tradictory and vague that no reliance whatever can be placed upon them. 



The Bernacle Shell. — The animal represented by the accompanying figure 

 belono-s to the Pedunculate Cirripeda, which, agreeably to Lamarck's definition, are 

 characterized by having their body supported by a tubular coriaceous contractile pe- 

 duncle, of which the base is fixed to marine bodies. The plurivalve shell of these 

 animals is considered by the author just mentioned as analogous to the operculum of 

 the sessile cirripeda, of which the external crust or calcareous envelope does not exist 

 in the pedunculate species. The genus Anatifa, to which our animal belongs, is de- 

 fined as havin<^ the body covered by a shell, placed upon a tubular, flexible, tendmous, 



