ERASMUS AS A NATURALIST. 285 



the grass or furze on the roadside. One large specimen, fully 

 twenty inches in length, showed fight, and I gave it severe blows 

 on the head and back. It stretched out, apparently stiffened and 

 " dead." But it was not dead, for in a few minutes it recovered, 

 and tried to escape, when another blow or two finished it off. I 

 am inclined to think that the " stiffening " was due to muscular 

 action produced by the stunning, not killing, blows. 



Bird References by Erasmus. 

 These are scattered profusely throughout all his works, and 

 are invariably free from myth or poetic fable, so beautifully 

 employed by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other great writers 

 of the " Spacious Age of Great Gloriana of the West." Erasmus's 

 references, in fact, are mainly those of a field-naturalist. No 

 doubt, apart from his intuitive love of wild life,faunal and floral, 

 his habits afforded him great scope for very varied observations. 

 Erasmus was a great traveller, and he wandered leisurely on 

 horseback in many lands near and far. In his day, too (1467 ?— 

 1536), animal life (Feres natures), even in this country, was 

 exuberant, man's ingenious theories about " regulating the 

 balance of nature " not having arisen, nor, indeed, for many 

 years afterwards. Here are some of the bird references, taken 

 almost " at random," from his great works, and even private 

 letters to friends : — 



" What place is for us where so many jackdaws cawing, and mag- 

 pies chattering." 



" Just like a bird in a cage ; and yet, ask if it would be freed from 

 it, I believe it will say, no. And what's the reason of that ? Because 

 it is bound by its own consent." 



"Why, sir, are you not ashamed of it? No; no more than a 

 Cuckoo is of his singing." 



" Are you not ashamed, you sleepy sot, to lye-a-bed till this time 

 of day ? Good servants rise as soon as it is Day, and take care to get 

 everything in order before their Master rises. How loth this drone is to 

 leave his warm nest ; he is a whole hour a scratching, and stretching, 

 and yawning." 



This passage stands in need of explanation. In Bailey's 

 translation he, strange to say, uses the word " drone," whereas 

 in the original colloquy it is " Cuckoo." The Rev. E. Johnson, 



