Ralph Carr-Ellison, Esq., on Stores of Moisture. 387 



Tyneside before the 10th of June, after a few sunny days, 

 and soon became visible in plenty as the brightness increased. 

 It is sufficiently mucilaginous to resist very heavy rain ; and 

 yet so aqueous as to be unaffected by our greatest heat and 

 brightest sunshine. 



Probably not only young gallinaceous birds, but crakes 

 and young plovers are much indebted to this secretion, not- 

 withstanding that the latter birds feed greatly on moist food, 

 such as slugs and earthworms, and that the old birds may 

 possibly sometimes convey and regurgitate water, though 

 partridges, pheasants, grouse, &c, certainly do not. 



Very probably field-mice may find liquid in this froth, be- 

 sides that obtained from eating succulent vegetables. But as 

 yet the positive evidence requisite for certitude is wanting. 

 The movements of a brood of young chickens or turkeys in a 

 meadow ought to be watched. If they are seen to swallow 

 the cuckoo-froth, we may be sure that young game-birds do 

 the same. 



It is probably also this that enables young wild-ducks to 

 wander to such considerable distances from water as they 

 sometimes do. 



The abundance and ubiquity of this liquid manna is quite 

 marvellous. I had often speculated, where the skylarks that 

 haunt our dryest and grassyest fields, might quench their 

 thirst in rainless and dewless weather. Very rarely are they 

 seen to resort to a field-pond or to a streamlet to drink. In 

 many places there is not a stream for miles. The mystery 

 seems now to be near its solution to me ; and I am lost in 

 wonder at the resources of creative wisdom, and at the blind- 

 ness of human observation, which seems unconscious that this 

 bounteous diffusion of snowy spume amidstour vernal herbage, 

 is of any importance in the economy of animated beings in 

 this our climate. Yet possibly the mere extinction of one 

 small insect might carry with it the loss to man of various 

 creatures which he has learnt to value and could ill spare. 



Nature is full of the most direct evidences of design ; of 

 the creative workings of boundless wisdom, evincing endless 

 resources and variety of means, yet always proceeding within 

 determinate rules and inter-relative analogies. 



That there are other and no less unexpected supplies of 

 liquid than through insect-secretion, may be perceived by 

 examining the young barren stems and filaments of the 



