89 XI. as winter approaches, covers the aperture of its shell LETTER with a calcareous lid, as if to keep itself from the cold. The Solon not only moves its shell into the sand, and raises it by a dexterous use of its powers at its will, but also gives a striking instance of its persisting determination to avoid a danger it has experienced."0 Among the Zoophytes, the Sponge absorbs and rejects water from its small mouths;91 and its Tormentosa species, stings and raises blisters on the hand that meddles with it." The Tubularia Fabrica, has not the power to protrude its body from its coral tube, but it expands its cirri beyond it when the tide covers it; "3 and its Stellaris species, whenever the water is in the least degree agitated, retracts its fine white cirri within its tube.94 The Coral architects rival the Bee, in skill, perseverance, and exactness. 93 Among the INFUSORIA, the Urceolaris B. that 89 Turt. Linn. 513. The Slug, in order to descend safely to the ground, from the branch of a tree, causes a flow of viscous secretion towards its tail; it forms this into a thread, which it lengthens to the necessity, at the rate of an inch in three minutes. Bingley, An. Biog. v. 4. p. 282. ... 90 This Razor Fish, to sink into the sand, makes its tongue into a little shovel, to form a hole, and then into a hook to sink that deeper, till it has buried itself, sometimes two feet. When it chooses to regain the surface, it shapes its tongue into a ball, and pushes up its shell. Ib. 65. . . . When a little salt is thrown into its cell, it rises up immediately from it; and will, on this excitation, come to the surface as often as it is applied; but if it be once seized by the hand, and afterwards allowed to retire into its hole, the salt will be strewed in vain, for it will never make its appearance again. Ib. 314. 91 Turt. Linn. 656. 92 Ib. 659. 93 Ib. 668. 94 Ib. 669. The Madrepore animals, when undisturbed, protrude themselves from their cases, and oscillate from left to right, with an extremely quick motion. On any alarm, they immediately withdraw inwards, and nothing is to be seen but the naked stem and branches.'-Bingl. 338. XI. 95 LETTER seems but a small white speck, has a double rotatory organ, which it protrudes or conceals at its own. pleasure. So the Vorticella Convallaria, tho only a white point to the naked eye, can suddenly contract its stem in a spiral manner, and in a moment expand itself again, as the Inclinans species occasionally contracts itself to half its length.96 The Bomba Trichoda moves with volocity, and assumes various shapes."7 The Vibrios, from paste and blighted wheat, are like little eels, and very prolific.98 The petty Volvox even enter into personal combat, like two angry quadrupeds." Many of the other Infusoria change frequently the shape of their minute bodies; all apparently the actions of spontaneous volition. As far as the movements of all these classes of petty animals can be understood, they seem to be those of a vital principle, of the same kind with that which insects, fish, and the other brute animals, possess. The more they are studied, the greater this analogy appears to be.100 95 Turt. Linn. 693. It is frequently found on the stalks of Duckweed. 96 Ib. 697, 698. 97 Ib. 703. So the Vermicularis dilates and contracts itself. 705. 99 In the latter part of the year they are oviparous; at other seasons they produce live offspring. Their most gigantic individuals are seldom one-tenth of an inch long. If grains of blighted wheat be soaked for a few hours, they appear in great numbers, even when the wheat has been kept dry for years. Bingl. 353. 99 Le Martiniere detached two from the rest: Like two strong and active wrestlers they immediately rushed together, and attacked each other on every side. Sometimes one would dive, leaving its adversary on the surface of the water: one would describe a circular movement while the other remained at rest in the water. Their motions at length became so rapid, as no longer to allow me to distinguish the one from the other.' La Martin. Ap. Bingl. 356. 100 Ehrenberg has lately made important discoveries on these petty animalcules. By feeding Infusoria with very pure coloured sub stances, Several of these three Orders of marine beings can live without additional nutriment, as many fish seem also to do.101 Their external configurations greatly differ from those of the rest of animated nature; but it is a pleasing proof that one Creator has made the whole, and upon one grand general system of construction, altho this has been surprisingly diversified in its specific details, that the more exactly these inferior Orders are studied, the greater analogy is found to prevail between them and the rest of the sentient kingdoms.102 stances, as indigo and carmine, he has traced the existence of mouths, stomachs and intestines. They are bi-sexual, and multiply by offsets or buds, and by eggs. Mr. Bell, in stating these facts to the Royal Institution, expressed his opinion that the respiration of the Infusoria, in one class at least, was carried on by means of the ciliary rotatory organs. Lit. Gaz. Ap. 1832, p. 233. 101 Even the Slugs can exist for a great length of time, for several months successively, without food. Bing. An. Biog. 4. p. 281..... Sea Anemonies lived about twelve months without any other food than the sea-water, tho they would swallow pieces of a mussel offered to them. Ib. 293..... When the Pholas pierces the marble, and lodges in it, growing too large to get out by its hole, it is sufficiently nourished by the sea-water overflowing upon it. Ib. 310. 102 M. G. Cuvier observes of the Cephalopodes division of the Mollusca, that they have a brain inclosed in a distinct cavity; eyes; ears in the form of two mandibules; a tongue, salivary glands, an esophagus, a throat, a second stomach, an intestinal canal, a liver, heart, arteries, veins, nerves, and the reproductive organs, in common with other vertebrated animals; but all differently disposed, and mostly organized in a different manner.' Bull. Un. 1830, p. 310. M. le Baron de Ferussac is publishing his Histoire Naturelle des Mollusques, under the Orders of the Cephalopodes, Pteropodes, and Gasteropodes. XI. XII. LETTER XII. THE BIRD CREATION-THEIR PLUMAGE AND SONG-POWER LETTER A NEW system of exterior figure, and a new species of beauty, in the three main sources of the Beautiful in material things, and to the surveying eye-Form, Motion and Colour-arose to visible existence in the Feathered Creation. From the same causes of agreeable emotions, the Fish excite pleasurable sensations in those, who gaze upon their placid activity in the calm and clear Ocean. And these feelings arise also within us, as we handle the Shells of the Testacea, which are always so neat in figure, polish, hues, and completeness, and often impressively interesting in their most lovely tints and more elegant shapes; all announcing the refined taste and minute execution of their invisible Designer. But the BIRDS eminently surpass all the Marine classes, in their appeals to our sense of beauty in their attractive appearance. Form, motion, finish and colour, are the elements of what is beauteous in both Orders of being: but the lovely and the pleasing emane to us from the sprightly tenants of the trees and air, with more interesting effect than from the inhabitants of the seas. They produce this impression by so very different a modification of bodily configuration, that unless we had experienced it, we should not, beforehand, have thought that XII. such total contrasts of external form could have been LETTER each made to produce such a similarity, tho not equality, of gratifying result.' It is in His kingdoms of animated Nature that the magnificent and munificent Creator has shown us that Beauty has as many forms and varieties as He chuses to display it in; that our intellectual faculty is trainable to an equal sensitivity of discerning and appreciating it; that His power of imagining and producing it, is inexhaustible; and that He has purposely so arranged the material particles of our World, that this magical quality is perpetually appearing to our senses, with an exuberant and everrenewing profusion. Nor is it confined to living form. It appears likewse in every department of earthy and inorganic nature. All our knowlege and love of it arises from what has been created to affect us by its presence. Beauty is, indeed, every where about us; and every mind may be sensible of it, that will itself observe it where it exists. For our own sakes, we ought to cherish a taste for it; for, such are its soothing effects, that it cannot be any where seen and felt without a sensible pleasure accompanying the perception. It is therefore an easy and universal source of enjoyment to observe it, from which every 'There is great truth in the following sentiments: The main province, the very Paradise of Nature, is THE BIRDS. The gracefulness of their forms; the exquisite delicacy of their covering; the inimitable brilliancy of their colours; the light and life-giving transparency of the element in which they live; the singular variety of their habits; the delightful melody of their songs, and the remarkable fact, that with organs apparently more unfitted for articulation than many quadrupeds, they are the only animals that can imitate man in the wonders of voice, and rival him in the intricacy of music....These qualities make the study of Birds the favourite study of every elegant mind.' Jerdan's Lit. Gaz. No.672. p. 790. |