KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



115 



ers* Chronicle; but the following Extracts 

 will come with much freshness. We trust 

 our young friends, in pcirticular, will closely 

 mark the providential provision made for 

 animals to escape their natural enemies. 

 This is shown by their colors assimilating 

 with the haunts they frequent : — 



The color of animals always answers some 

 wise purpose. The ebony skin of the African 

 is well adapted to protect him from the effects 

 of a tropical sun. I met with a good illustra- 

 tion of this a short time since : I was walking in 

 the fields with a farmer in Essex, and I observed 

 to him that all his pigs were black; he told me 

 that he preferred this color, as " they did better 

 in the fields, the skin of the white pigs being 

 liable to crack in hot weather." On inquiry, 

 I find the correctness of this opinion confirmed 

 by others. 



Concealment appears to be another object; 

 the animal often being screened from its enemies 

 by its color corresponding with the surrounding 

 surface ; thus in the north of Europe, where the 

 ground is so often covered with snow, many 

 animals are white, which here are dark: the 

 grouse, partridge, hare, and fox, may be men- 

 tioned as examples; the ermine, in this country, 

 which is a reddish brown in summer, becomes 

 white in winter, as does also the male of the 

 snow-bunting. The young of these birds, the 

 gulls (which are white) are of a lightish ash 

 color, dotted with black, so that it is almost im- 

 possible to distinguish them from the shingle on 

 which they sit. Again, the eggs of all ground 

 birds are of a dark color, whilst many of those 

 whose nests are more elevated, are white. The 

 only ground-birds' eggs which approach the 

 nearest to this color (that I know of) are the eggs 

 of the duck, pheasant, and partridge; but the 

 duck and the English partridge cover their eggs 

 so that they cannot be seen. The pheasant does so 

 occasionally, and the French partridge (the eggs 

 of which are much darker) never, or very rarely. 

 It is probable that the color of the eggs of the 

 common hen has been changed by domestication. 



How admirably also the color serves to enable 

 some animals to take their prey; how like is 

 the lion's skin to the sandy desert — the stripes 

 of the tiger to the long grass in which he is 

 concealed — the spots of the leopard and tiger- 

 cat to the trees they frequent — the lizard to 

 the green foliage, or sandy bank. This alligator, 

 how perfect is the resemblance of his hide to the 

 slimy mud ! How great, often, is the correspond- 

 ence between the color of another class of rep- 

 tiles, the ophidians, and the ground on which 

 they move ! A friend of mine saw this serpent 

 ( trigonocephaly) in Trinidad, lying across his 

 path, and as you may readily suppose, from 

 its color, took it for the dead branch of a tree, 

 until its motion arrested his footsteps. Its poison 

 is most deadly. 



The coverings of animals, again, are wonder- 

 fully adapted to the climates and elements which 

 they inhabit: thus we have a warm thick fur in 

 the northern regions; a thin hairy coat in the 

 tropics — in the air the light and beautiful feather 

 — in the water the crust or scale. What 

 armourer could make a coat of mail to equal that 



in which this armadillo is enveloped ? How well 

 it protects him from the weapons of his assail- 

 ants, and from the falling trees and branches in 

 his path ! 



Many of the inferior animals not only possess 

 the five senses, but some of them are more 

 perfect than in man ; more especially the sense 

 of smell: the dog can scent his master in a crowd 

 of a thousand persons. Those long-snouted 

 animals, the pig, ant-eater, mole, coatimondi, 

 badger, as well as the long-billed birds, have 

 both the senses of smell and touch to a high 

 degree, to enable them to obtain their food in 

 the dry or wet earth. But the sense of smell is 

 probably more exquisite in birds than in other 

 animals. I have several times visited a decoy 

 for taking wild fowl, and those who enter are 

 compelled to carry burning turf near their 

 mouths, in order that the birds may not detect 

 their approach, and take flight. I once, after a 

 day's hare-shooting, took some retrievers to look 

 for the wounded game that had escaped, and 

 afterwards died. The carrion -crows, however, 

 that had found the dead hares, were the best 

 guides : these birds had not been observed in the 

 neighborhood for some time before. It has long 

 been a disputed point, as to whether the carrion 

 birds find their food by scent or by sight; but I 

 think Waterton's experiment is conclusive; he 

 placed the carcass of a pig (in the night) in a 

 ditch, and so covered it with bushes, that it 

 could not be seen; early in the morning, there 

 were plenty of vultures near the spot, although 

 before this they were not visible. "VVaterton 

 afterwards stuffed the dried skin of a deer, and 

 exposed it in the middle of a field, but not a 

 vulture came near it. 



We also direct attention to the lecturer's 

 remarks on the Economy of Insects, and 

 the sagacity of the Dog— all very pleasing, 

 and all very instructive. 



THINGS WONBEEFUL AND TKTJE. 



With a very near approach to truth, the 

 human family inhabiting the earth has been 

 estimated at 700,000,000 ; the annual loss by 

 death is 18,000,000. Now, the weight of the 

 animal matter of this immense body cast 

 into the grave is no less than 624,400 

 tons ; and by its decomposition produces 

 9,000,000,000",000 cubic feet of gaseous mat- 

 ter. The vegetable productions of the earth 

 clear away from the atmosphere the gases 

 thus generated, decomposing and assimilat- 

 ing them for their oavu increase. 



This cycle of changes has been going on 

 ever since man became an occupier of the 

 earth. He feeds on the lower animals and 

 on the seeds of plants, which in due time, 

 become a part of himself. The lower ani- 

 mals feed upon the herbs and grasses, which, 

 in their turn, become the animal ; then, by 

 its death, again pass into the atmosphere, 

 and are ready once more to be assimilated 

 by plants, the earthy or bony substance 



