Edmund Selous

“ In this case, whilst a constant volley of blows falls on the whale’s devoted back, the sword-fish dive beneath his belly and stab upwards with their much more formidable sword or lance. As against the thresher, the whale’s best resource is to dive, but this brings no relief from the attacks of the other, and on his rising to breathe again, the flagellation is renewed. It is no wonder that, weakened with loss of blood, and covered with deep stabs, some of which, perhaps, may be mortal, the whale has at last to succumb. ”

“ The cock-of-the-rock offers another striking example of the importance of courtship amongst birds. The male of this species is, from beak to tail, of a deep orange, or, more beautiful still, of a brilliant blood-red colour. From the beak one may well say, for this, to the very tip, as well as the head itself, is covered with, or rather buried in, a magnificent crescent-shaped crest, which, by obscuring the usual contour of that region, gives a touch of bizarrerie to a tout ensemble sufficiently splendid. ”

“ Lying sunk in the mud, and of the colour of mud themselves, they may well be mistaken for a log or drifted tree-trunk, for they make no movement, and seem to be quite inanimate. Only their eye, if one happens to catch it, proclaims that they draw the breath of life. A wild pig, or some other animal fond of rooting in the mud, sees the long, black, shapeless object, and bestows upon it, at first, a scrutinising glance. ”

“ The real wonder is that the sea-serpent should have been disbelieved in for such a very long time. Now, a great many people do believe in it, even including some of the more learned ones, who tell us so in solemn, pompous strains, as if what they thought about a thing was almost as important as the thing itself—or, indeed, quite, if not more so. There are scientists, in fact, who seem really to fancy that by giving their adherence to anything, they allow it to be, and so, as it were, create it; nothing else, surely, can explain the sense of awful responsibility under which they seem to labour. ”

“ This he does by sinking beneath some unfortunate porpoise or dolphin—perhaps even a shark or a whale—and striking violent lateral blows at its belly; not spearing it with the keen, clean thrust of the sword-fish, but ripping it from side to side. In this way it tears out the entrails of its victim, and then greedily devours them as they float in the water. A more horrible thing can hardly be imagined. There is only this to be said, that the creatures thus cruelly used are as cruel themselves in pursuing and devouring their own prey—or, at least, they are as cruel as they can be. ”

“ For here is the tropic sea, blue as a sapphire, gleaming like a diamond, glancing and throbbing with such jewels of light that it looks as though thousands of silver fishes were jumping in the meshes of a golden net, flung down by the sun from the sky. All at once, from amidst these myriads of sparkles a number flash higher, leap into the air, and fly, like bright arrows, towards you. Onwards they come, and from being light only, they pass into form and substance, begin to live, to move with sense and volition, and, all at once, they are fishes, flying with wings over their home of the sea. ”

“ Animals, it is well known, enjoy doing what they do with ease and mastery. If they have an art, they like to practise it—they do not seek to hide their light under a bushel. Why, then, should not a fish that can fly, fly, sometimes, for its own amusement? That it should do so would be in accordance with all analogy; so, as it is no more than an assumption to hold that it does not, I shall hold that it does. One reads, often, about the gaping jaws of a dolphin, or albacore, appearing above the water, just as the flying-fish is about to descend into it—and no doubt this may frequently occur. ”

“ She returned to find him dead, and there, from his very jaws, from the protruded tongue that would never be passed over her in kindness and affection again, lay that thin dark line upon the snow, that connected him visibly with death. Never, in all her earthly pilgrimage, hereafter, will she forget that lumps of meat, though seeming to lie loose upon the ground, may yet make part of a trap, full twenty-five or thirty yards away, and that to touch them, whilst they do make part of it, means swift and certain death. ”

“ Indeed the wolverine’s presence is much more often felt than seen. One ill deed after another comes to light, and is surely traced to his door, but their author remains, for long periods, invisible. With a cunning that seems human, [307] he devises, plans, and executes, and with equal astuteness he chooses his time. When he does happen to meet a man, how does he act? He sits up on his haunches, like a dog begging, and holding one of his big, flat fore paws just above his eyes, so as to shade them from the light, looks long and earnestly at the intruder—for as such he considers him. ”

“ The secondary quill feathers of the male are immensely developed, and very beautifully and æsthetically ornamented with a row of circular spots, so finely shaded that they stand out in perspective, like a real ball, as though drawn by a clever artist. Under ordinary circumstances these lovely ornaments are hidden, but when the wings are expanded they make, together, a great circular shield, which is thickly studded with them; and this starry firmament the male, when he wishes to make an impression, offers suddenly and with empressement to the gaze of the female. ”

“ People hardly ever went to their breeding islands then. It is pleasanter to think of these strange, fierce battles raging amidst ice and snow, in the far-off lonely regions of the north, without anyone to see or interfere with them, than amidst human surroundings of not at all a pleasant character—for the men who skin the seals alive for ladies are amongst the most brutal and debased of mankind. There is always more of the romance of natural history when animals are not interfered with.
The fur-bearing seal is only one of many species belonging to the family. ”

“ Could the caterpillar know that the being which so remorselessly preyed upon its tissues and juices had a similar parasite within its own body, doing it to death in the same horrid way, how relieved and almost happy it might feel! But Nature, though she often brings in her revenges, seldom grants to her suffering children the proverbial sweetness of revenge. Caterpillars, however, do not always submit to the machinations of the ichneumon-fly without a struggle, and in some cases they may be successful—how often it is not easy to say—in guarding themselves against their attacks. ”

“ The front filament of all, bends forward and seems to dangle from its end, in front of the angler’s huge mouth, a little silvery tuft, or piece, of something, so that the whole has a wonderful resemblance to a fishing-rod and line, with a baited hook at the end of it. The owner of this curious arrangement lies along the bottom of the sea, near the shore, almost hidden in the sand, and when a small fish, attracted by the shining appendage, comes to nibble at it, makes a rush and engulfs, rather than seizes, it in its cavernous jaws. ”

“ It is difficult to imagine a more secure and delightful way of going about, and of all sea-fish, the remora, as it seems to me, must have the easiest and safest time. To all but him the fierce and greedy monsters of the deep—the sword-fish and saw-fish, the threshers, the sharks, and the killers—are a terror and a menace. But what can any of them do against a little sucking thing that sticks tight against them, in a place they cannot possibly get at. ”

“ What is most wonderful is that as the tintings of the true grasses change with the season, so do those of the false ones that cling to them. From the bright, vivid green of the fresh spring crops, through the later darker greens, and the golds and reds of autumn, all is mimicked, the one change keeps pace with the other, but whether it is a sequence of different imitative creatures—like the rotation of crops—or whether it is not the species, but only their colours, which change, does not appear to be certain, though, probably, it is the latter. ”

“ We may imagine one—the more favoured suitor—sitting on the ground, his back, as is usual, against the trunk of a tree, and his arm flung carelessly about the object of his regard; the great fingers of the wonderfully human hand burying themselves in her fur. All at once the peaceful nature of the scene is rudely disturbed by the frowning presence of another male, whilst the silence is as suddenly broken by a terrific barking cry, passing into a long, loud, sullen, reverberating roar. ”

“ In this position matters remained for a considerable time, during the latter part of which the peccaries stood much more still, as though resolved to maintain a dogged siege, yet filling the air continually with their fierce squealing grunts, which mingled in a horrid manner with the no less savage growlings of the jaguar. The whole, we are assured, made a never-to-be-forgotten scene, and produced a corresponding effect upon the interested observers, who for some reason—perhaps because they were not naturalists—were content, on this occasion, to watch nature without interfering with her. ”

“ For one blow—which may or may not be fatal—the lion has time, but, almost as he makes it, twenty or thirty assegais meet in his body, as, with a tremendous yell, the rest rush down upon him, each striving to be first to shield the comrade, who has thus so splendidly performed his part. In the mêlée which ensues many of the men may be more or less badly mauled, whilst some may lose their lives, but when it is all over—and it does not last many minutes—the lion lies stretched on the ground, with hardly an inch of skin, in his whole body, not cut by the blade of an assegai. ”

“ The ill-fated animal’s companions rush up, excited and irritated, and vengefully surround the tree. The jaguar, however, within the ample domain of a large forest tree—for such he will have chosen—is entirely at home, and being, moreover, hardly discernible amidst the foliage and creepers, has seldom to stand a long siege. The restless little pigs, tired of inactivity and not having their anger whetted by the sight, and near proximity, of their enemy, soon go off, leaving their dead companion where it was slain; upon which the jaguar descends, and feasts upon it at his leisure. ”

“ Moreover, one ant can always tell, by some means which we do not yet quite understand, whether another one belongs to its own community or not, and if it does not there is generally a fight between them, unless one of the two runs away. It would seem, therefore, as if, for its disguise to be of much use to the spider, it would have to keep not only with one species, but with one special community of ants, and even then it ought to be found out, unless it lives with them as a parasite in their nest, as some insects and other creatures do. ”

“ The greater number of men and women are, unfortunately, quite callous in regard to what is done to wild animals. They do not see that it is a crime to rob a being of its life—only a human being; though the distinction, nowadays, is one without a difference. To read, first, of what the beavers do, and then of what we do to them, ought to upset one more than the fall of a ministry, or people in one’s pew—but it doesn’t.
Besides his lodge, or hut, the beaver has his burrow, and there are some beavers which only use their burrows to live in, and do not make a hut at all. ”

“ Then, after another long flight, when just about to enter the water, the gaping jaws of a dolphin gave it pause and it rose again, returning, almost directly, upon its former course. This procedure is so common that it is a marvel it has not been more widely noticed. A flying-fish of mature size can fly a thousand yards. It does not flap its fins as a bird, but they vibrate like the wings of an insect, with a distinct hum. ”

“ But the jaguar was never seen again—only the wild tide of pigs, straining and struggling against each other, each eager to become a personal agent in the common act of death, the outer ones leaping on the backs of their companions in their anxiety to get within striking distance, whilst, ever and anon, one would appear struggling up from the confused tumbling mass at the centre of action, as though to avoid suffocation or urged by unbearable pain. ”

“ It used to be thought that the great whales—the cachalot, the rorqual, and the Greenland whale—were the largest of ocean’s dwellers, but if evidence is of any value whatever, there is one marine creature that is larger even than they—indeed, so much larger and more powerful that he is able to make them his prey, conquering them—even the mighty sperm-whale himself—by main strength put forth in single combat. This portentous monster is, of course, the great sea-serpent, which has been seen, at intervals, probably from time immemorial, and recorded also from, at least, as far back as 1734. ”

“ For the most part this is of a dazzling white, but in the king and emperor penguins the white passes upon the chest into a light but very lustrous yellow, which, intensifying as it mounts upwards, shines, at last, like the very sun itself. It is like a pale gold sunrise over pure white virgin snow, and as the beams rise higher they get more golden by degrees. ”

“ But cunning as are these arctic foxes, there is one animal which seems to outdo even them in its instinct, as one may almost call it, for avoiding all danger, and especially snares, traps, or pitfalls of any and every description. This is the celebrated glutton or wolverine, an animal which, as it is not only never to be taken itself, but enjoys nothing so much as destroying all traps that it finds set for other animals, is the very despair of the trapper. ”

“ Its principal enemy is the jaguar, the largest, and, perhaps, the most destructive, of the cat tribe, after the lion and tiger of the Old World; feared by every animal that scours the plains, or glides through, or sports amongst, the trees of the great forests, in which it is equally at home with the monkeys; feared, too, by man himself. Except the puma and the great grizzly bear of the north, all living things whose size makes them worthy its attention stand in dread of this ferocious and destructive beast. ”

“ How, or for how long, such a combat would be likely to proceed, what might be its result, whether the provoker of it—the bashful young gorillaress—would be unconcerned during its continuance or stand regarding it with an anxious eye from her retreat amidst the undergrowth of the forest, whether, too, by manifesting a choice she would become an active agent in the life’s happiness, or otherwise, of the two grim pretendants to her favours, or go off passively with either one or the other, as mere spoils of the victor, it is not in our power to say, nor will we here further consider. ”