Samuel Lockwood

“ A stomach, too, is now built up, and the labial fingers are provided. And that tiny, true heart appears, to the music of whose beating the little creature begins in earnest its lifework, as a perfect oyster, although hardly yet larger than the head of a pin. When a month old, it equals a large pea in size; at six months, it is an inch or more in length; at four years, it is large and amply ready for market, or even at three years, if the conditions of growth have been favorable. ”

“ To witness the merry high time of these juveniles, it would seem that they both have eyes and are bound to use them, too, in seeing something of the world; for, as if eviction entailed neither disgrace nor inconvenience—as with certain bipedal juveniles under pupilage—off they go in the wildest glee imaginable. But the gay frolic is soon over. A few settle down, like the old folks, to a sober life. ”

“ He will course low in air like a base-born buzzard, and will dog about a small area like a hound after a rabbit, backward and forward, round and round, crossing and recrossing his course, literally scouring a patch of shrub or bush, or perhaps tall reeds or dank meadow, and harrowing the poor occupant so vulture-like, and so utterly unlike the decisiveness of action and brilliancy of dash of the genuine falcon that, with the whir of a rifle-shot, swoops from its observatory in the sky. ”

“ WITH one's eyes kept open, how very much there is to excite interest in a summer stroll beside the sea! Marine life—the creatures that represent the life-zone that belts or fringes the great murmuring world of waters—is so peculiar, some exquisitely beautiful, as the sea anemones, others droll and grotesque, as the great class known as the Crustacea. ”

“ The upper part of the stem is so closely surrounded with the compact flowers, that it is literally a purple raceme or wand. Cultivated in mass, in a dry soil, this aster would glow like a sheet of purple flame.
And why is the very common, yet very stately, gentian over-looked? This plant is positively unique in character. A single stem set amid green leaves, with cerulean gems, is a thyrsus worthy of a god. But there is a quaint, coyish modesty about it—its singular flowers seem to be always in bud, as if too coy to blossom outright. ”

“ And, what no loom of human invention has ever done, this lowly weaver makes the fabric as it progresses take on the most quaintly little flounces with the most delicate frilled edges imaginable; and all arranged in such charming grace and ease—not in parallel circles, like hoops on a barrel, but in tasteful, easy-flowing curves. In the configuration of the innumerable forms of structure, Nature, as she ascends in the grade of her work, almost abandons her parallels in the outlining and ornamentation of her constituted things. ”

“ Here is a fat little hermit-crab, whose domicile, like a strait-jacket, has become decidedly uncomfortable, and he is somewhat distracted about it. He is out a house-hunting—that is a literal fact. See, he has found an empty shell. It is not so handsome as the one he now occupies, but it is a little larger. Look, how he almost lifts it up among his ten feet, every one of which is an interested inspector, as each must bear its part in sustaining the establishment. ”

“ So we set ourselves to find out, if possible. One day we were watching this anemone as it was gliding on the glass. Of course, the entire base was moving. But—no that is just where we at first were in error, for there was a little speck of its base that would not go along with the rest. There that little bit of the sucking-base stuck and held its place stubbornly. The great base kept at it—pulling, as it seemed, until a mere thread-like shred of matter connected the main mass and this little stubborn, speck-like remnant. And that connecting shred stretched like a thread of India-rubber. ”

“ There's nothing on the land what isn't in the sea; and I've even seen ships in the sky!" Here, then, although not a little empirical, in our fisherman's philosophy was a splendid generalization. And how broad it was! It covered every province possible for human experience, in his conception—the earth, the sea, and the air.
And empiricism begotten of a spirit in no wise nobler, abounded in the elder science. Thence have come down to us those heated controversies on the supposed vegetable nature of the polyps that build the corals, and other similar structures in the great deep. ”

“ And so each in its own way, as disposition or convenience prompted, enjoyed life. Some preferred the banks of the great rivers, others the grassy meads of the green valleys, and others the sides of the densely-wooded hills. And the timid rodents hid themselves in their burrows at the roar of the carnivores, while both were startled by the beastly bellowing of the great terrestrial behemoths. ”

“ But this pretty flower had never been seen by the botanists; and so, forsooth, the thing was absolutely ignored—treated as a pretty fable, a bit of art extravagance. Art, like history, may have its anachronisms, but the real artist, though he err, cannot lie. So thoroughly was that Nymphæa lutea snubbed, that it would have been as much as a poor mortal's reputation was worth to have mentioned credence in the thing in the hearing of sober Science. One might look in vain in any botany of the South for Audubon's yellow water-lily. ”

“ The lace-like structure of the Euplectella is so aerial a fabric, and so quaintly graceful, and, as one might say, so deftly done in the putting together, that any embroidery would seem in the comparison bungling. Enflounced in its own tiny, crispy frills, there is an air of improvised beauty. ”

“ And yet, strange to say, this charming naturalist and artist, this, so to speak, consecrated student of Nature in her own haunts, whom so long every one, both at home and abroad, lauded for his fidelity to Nature, has of late been under a cloud. Yes, the truthfulness of even Audubon stands under attaint of both ornithologists and botanists. ”

“ As this swaying of the great fiddle-like claw seems to start and direct or animate the retreat, it is ludicrously suggestive of a musical conductor beating time by swaying a bass-viol instead of his bâton, the effect of his eccentricity being to cause a stampede of all the fiddlers. This crab excavates holes in the earth, a male and a female occupying one hole. ”

“ The showy scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea) is a common sea-coast weed in some of the extreme Southern States. In the North it has deservedly become a favorite; and culture has placed it within the reach of every one, even the poorest. The brilliant, deep-red cardinal-flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is highly esteemed abroad as a garden-plant; and yet, to dwellers in our cities, this plant is almost unknown, although it is one of our common wild-flowers, lavishing its bewitching beauty in numberless places, both North and South. ”

“ With such surroundings, so much of beauty, with a spice of Nature's humor, just enough to make this beauty true and pure, on the principle that a person is known by the company he keeps, the oyster might be set down as an individual of refined tastes. ”

“ To the epicure, the soft-shell crab, when fried, is a great dainty. It is eaten entirely, like boned turkey; and, as a luxury, might be compared to a boneless fish. That it is an entirely unobjectionable food, is far from certain. It does not agree with every one, that is sure. It is a great business in New Jersey. Almost any morning, in summer, the sight may be seen at the Port Monmouth dock of unloading them from the cars on to the steamboat. They are shipped to market in boxes, each containing about six dozen of these soft-shell crabs, and covered on the top with wet sea-weed. ”

“ Looking now at Fig. 10, the Canada owl (Surnia ulula, Bonap.) , how easily, upon a casual glance, might one mistake it for a hawk! Like some of the falcons, it will watch from the top of a tree, and will swoop thence upon its prey. It is also arboreal in its nesting, and, with its mate, is splendidly courageous when the safety of person, or home, or young, is in danger. There is not much of the owlish face in our Surnia. The facial disk, so prominent an owlish trait, is by no means marked. Still, for all his looks and ways, this same Surnia is a true owl. ”

“ Nothing is more curious than to see, under the microscope, these little mollusks travel in a drop of water, in vast numbers, mutually avoiding one another, crossing each other's track in every direction, with a wonderful rapidity, never touching, and never meeting. ”

“ Americans, I believe, are the only people who eat the so-called soft-shell crabs; that is, crabs at the time of having cast the skin. It is not at all probable that, at such a time, the animal is wholesome food. And so with oysters, during the spawning-season, it is wiser to abstain, for the reason that one is not sure that the oysters we are eating then are not in a spawning state. In its normal condition the oyster is excellent food; and, if we assign it its rank among the shell-fish, it will be, without dispute, the queen of the bivalves. ”

“ He took up the study of this mollusk in earnest, and learned many important facts concerning its nature. He even went to the Neapolitan oyster-park, and observed how the fishermen there saved the young ones. He then appealed to the government, which put means in his way for experimenting, and, in a short time, he had a successful oyster-plantation under way. It is in France as elsewhere, "seeing is believing," and "there is nothing that succeeds like success." Under the wise direction of this learned naturalist the new industry, oyster-planting, became a furor in France. ”

“ At the portal of this little crypt the occupant, when hungry, presents itself, and retires at its pleasure. When it does show itself, with tentacles spread, some idea of its individual beauty may be got by looking at the magnified tufts, like floral crowns, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. When an entire community, or even a considerable part, is out airing, could one but see it, the sight would be very fine, for the smallest fragment in the microscope looks like a bed of daisies. The oyster is often literally embowered in a substance that looks like diminutive trees. ”

“ Herein appears one of Nature's economic processes; for the pad is absorbed, literally consumed, and the baby-oyster in this way gets a start that secures it a rapid growth—for it should be borne in mind that this is a critical period in the life of this diminutive thing. It is just now that it has to draw so largely on its small capital of vital resources, by directing the growth-force to the one object—a sure anchorage. ”

“ The monkeys of the Old World have their nostrils so nearly terminal, and so near to each other, and their teeth in sort and number so much like those of man, as to give them traits more human-like than those of the New World. They have also cheek-pouches, but none of them have prehensile tails. The New-World monkeys have their nostrils wide, lateral, and sprawling; they have more teeth than man has; they have no cheek-pouches; and with many the tail is prehensile. But does this law of geographical distribution, whatever it may be, affect "mice, and such small deer?" ”

“ But its gorgeously-colored flowers, so intensely orange, and so densely massed in heavy umbels, present a gorgeous richness which is incomparable. There is an African species, with flowers of a similar color, which is carefully cultivated in conservatories; but, when contrasted with our native plant, on every count, the foreigner becomes tame, and mean, if not insignificant, in the comparison. As to the Pickerel-weed, it is of easy culture; and in the margin of garden-ponds, or fountain-basins, it might be pronounced as gracefully genteel. ”

“ And what a change must earth have undergone, that Australia should be isolated from its once-continental alliance, and these noble eucalypts, the tallest Titans that the world has known, should be thus put upon their limits! The sequoias promise little, and seem doomed ere long to pass away. Beyond their beauty and scientific interest, their virtues are few. Not so with the eucalypts. Give them a fair showing of place and climate, and they will thrive and enrich their environment. ”

“ As when some beneficent art, once enjoyed by a former people, has been lost, and, long known only in tradition, has been rediscovered and revived, and men are again enlivened with hope, so is the possession by the modern world of this ancient tree. ”

“ They have also not unlike appetencies of food. They are plantigrade carnivora, and have in common a striking habit which removes them from the pure or digitigrade carnivora, namely, that of raising their food with the paws toward the mouth, and bowing the head to meet it half-way. The coati and raccoon will tear the food into fragments, and sticking into it the claws, like an improvised fork, will thus convey it to the mouth. Who ever saw a dog or cat raise its food from the ground, except by its mouth? Our Nasua, then, has elements of ursine structure, aspect, and habit. ”

“ Wood says the European barn-owl lives in trees and crevices of old buildings, laying its white, rough-surfaced eggs upon a soft layer of its own castings. So intensely pungent is the odor of the nest that it is with difficulty the hand can be washed free of it after meddling with the eggs. The young are described as curious little puffs of white down. The European species is often found feeding a brood of young, while it is hatching another set of eggs. The bird is often tamed, and sometimes makes a really intelligent pet. The American species is not common in the Middle States. ”

“ What a wonderful, yea, fascinating thing, then, is this lovely glass-sponge! It is amazing that a creature so simple, that it has been called structureless, should surpass all other organisms in its capacity of rearing exquisite fabrics. ”

“ If we examine a snail, or conch, as typical of the univalve mollusks, or shell-fish, we shall find the organs of sense, mouth, tentacles, and eyes, so arranged together as to entitle the object to be known as a cephalate mollusk, that is, one which has a head. The bivalves are not so highly organized, and are acephalate, or headless. It is a curious fact, however, that in the larval state many of these bivalves have eyes, though they lose them as growth proceeds. Although we think it probable, it has not yet been proved, that the larval oyster has eyes. ”

“ If we take an oyster in the hand, it will be observed that, of the two valves or shells, one is much deeper and heavier than the other. This is the bottom or lower valve, because, when lying undisturbed on the bed of the water, it is the under side. The upper valve is often a mere thin plate of shell. It is observable, too, that generally the lower valve is, on the outside, quite convex, while the upper one is usually either flat or a little concave. Let it now be remembered that, anatomically, an oyster has also two sides, and that while living its normal position is to lie on its left side. ”

“ Euplectella is chiefly got from the Philippine Islands. The natives have their own notions, it seems, about this marvellous object. They will tell you that this beautiful sponge is found in pairs, and that they are the work of little crabs, who, they believe, build these houses while living inside them. It is a remarkable fact that generally in these glass cornucopias, as if they were cages, a pair of little crabs dwell together. How they ever got inside nobody knows. Can it be that they are silly enough to wall themselves up in this limbo of silica? ”

“ There is one that says that the star-fish puts its fingers or rays into the oyster's shell, and helps itself. From every point of consideration the thing is ridiculously impossible. A more sober judgment is that given by some naturalists, namely, that the sea-star protrudes its great sac-like stomach, and envelops to a great extent the oyster therein, and so leisurely digests the mollusk out of its unopened shell, much as a codfish does the shells it swallows. ”

“ That any New-World species had done aught of this sort was to naturalists unknown. A late friend of ours had a domestic mouse—"a singer, that is," as the old man said—"not much, but it would whistle a little—chirrup, you know." Now, it happened that, one day, our friend caught two wood-mice, real natives delicate, white-footed things, that looked too innocent to do any thing else than step mincingly around in their delicate white-satin slippers. So they were put into the cage with the singing-mouse. ”