AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
59 
engine is used in factories, the lime-stone water is very 
troublesome, for their boilers are soon clogged by masses 
of the carbonate of lime precipitating in them. The tem- 
perature of the well water in the village varies from 50° 
to 56° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. The coldest spring 
is just under my study window; but unfortunately it is 
highly charged with the lime-stone, and is thus rendered 
very unpleasant to me as a drink. Persons, however, 
brought up in these lime-stone regions become very fond 
of the water, and even complain when they are obliged to 
use a purer liquid found in other districts. It has been 
thought by many, that those horrid tumors, called goitres, 
which are so common among the peasantry of Switzer- 
land, are occasioned by the calcareous matter in the wa- 
ter which they drink. I have never seen a case of this ma- 
lady with us, but I have been informed that instances of it 
have been noticed; particularly when the country was 
first settled. 
Curious Instinct of the Common Hog. — (Sus Scrofa — 
Lin.) 
It is customary with farmers who reside in the thinly 
settled tracts of the United States, to suffer their hogs to 
run at large. These animals feed upon acorns, which are 
very abundant in our extensive forests, and in this situation 
they often become wild and ferocious. A gentleman of 
my acquaintance, while travelling some years ago, through 
our unfrequented district, perceived at a little distance 
before him a herd of swine, and his attention was arrested 
by the agitation they exhibited. Fie quickly perceived a 
number of young pigs in the centre of the herd, and that 
the hogs were arranged about them in a conical figure, hav- 
ing their heads all turned outwards. At the apex of this 
singular cone, a huge boar had placed himself, who, from 
his size, seemed to be the master of the herd. The travel- 
ler now observed that a famished wolf was attempting by 
various manoeuvres to seize one of the pigs in the middle; 
but wherever he made an attack, the huge boar at the apex 
of the cone presented himself — the hogs dexterously ar- 
ranging themselves on each side of him, so as to preserve 
the position of defence just mentioned. The attention of 
the traveller was for a moment withdrawn, and, upon 
turning to view the combatants, he was surprised to find 
the herd of swine dispersed, and the wolf no longer to be 
seen. On riding up to the spot, the wolf was discovered 
dead on the ground, a rent being made in his side, more 
than a foot in length — the boar having, no doubt, seized a 
favourable opportunity, and with a sudden plunge despatch- 
ed his adversary with his formidable tusks. 
It is a little remarkable that the ancient Romans, among 
the various methods they devised for drawing up their 
armies in battle, had one exactly resembling the position 
assumed by the swine above mentioned. This mode of 
attack they called the Cuneus, or Caput porcinum. 
Blue-Yellow Bird. — (Fringilla tristis.) 
To those but little acquainted with Natural History, 
the assertion that a white black-bird, (oriolus Phoeniceus,) 
and a black swan, (Anas Atrata) are animals really in exist- 
ence, appears too paradoxical for belief. Black swans, 
however, are found in New-Holland and some other places, 
possessing all the graceful attitudes of the European spe- 
cies; and white black-birds, or albinos, are of no very 
uncommon occurrence. 
I have observed another anomaly among the feathered 
tribes no less striking. A bird of precisely the same size, 
habits, and general appearance as our common Yellow- 
bird, (Fringilla tristis,) associating with it, and differing 
only in colour; this bird was of a dark indigo in the places 
where the male (F. tristis) is yellow; the black bands on 
the wings, and the spot on the head, were the same in 
both. 
The following hints are offered by way of theory to ex- 
plain these anomalies: — 
If there be any truth in the opinion entertained by 
many, that the imagination of the parent, or that cer- 
tain casualties during gestation, have an influence on the 
offspring of the class Mamalia — why may not the like 
circumstances affect the embryo in the egg of birds? Again, 
we know that when the eye becomes fatigued with be- 
holding the glare of one colour, it is relieved by changing 
the colour; or if a colour be viewed for some time, the 
opposite will be painted on the retina. Thus when we 
look on the bright light thrown by a burning-glass on any 
object, a black spot is produced in the eye; and if we look 
steadfastly on a black spot made with ink on a white sheet 
of paper, on moving the eye a little, a luminous spot will 
be seen on the paper, much brighter than the surrounding 
part.* Will not these two particulars, taken together, ac- 
count for the above anomalies ? 
The causes which have produced the varieties in the 
human species, are but little understood. Too much is 
perhaps attributed to the influence of climate. There are 
many reasons to satisfy an unprejudiced mind, besides the 
unerring testimony of the Bible, that the whole race of 
man has sprung from one and the same stock. The five 
principal varieties mentioned bjr Blumenbach, the Cauca- 
* If we gaze long upon a bright yellow spot, a blue colour will be painted 
on the retina. Many curious particulars on this subject may be found in 
the first volume of Darwin’s Zoonomia. 
