Marking (zoology)

“ Male with the plumage silky, splendent, the head and neck deep purplish-blue, the back, breast, and sides deep blue, passing into green behind, the rump bronzed black; the wings and tail black, glossed with green, the abdomen, lower tail-coverts, and tibial feathers, plain black. Female much smaller, with the tail shorter, the plumage unglossed beneath, and but slightly glossy above, the upper parts dusky, with slight tints of green and blue; the head and neck dull brown; the lower parts light yellowish-brown, the tibial feathers and lower tail-coverts dusky. ”

“ Whatever species we are able to obtain should be examined under the microscope. Their feet are always interesting, being furnished with powerful claws beautifully adapted to grasping the hairy coats of their hosts. Their mouth parts are quite unlike those of insects, and are always furnished with a number of backwardly directed teeth, which are useful for tearing flesh sufficiently to draw blood on which they feed. ”

“ The young when fledged have the bill and claws black, the cere and feet dull yellow; the upper parts brownish-grey, the scapulars and quills tipped with white, the former also margined, with yellowish-brown; the primary and secondary coverts are also tipped with white; the smaller wing-coverts are brownish-black; the outer webs of all the tail-feathers are more or less brownish-grey toward the end. The lower parts are white, the feathers on the breast tinged with brownish-yellow at the end, and with the shaft yellowish-brown. The lower wing-coverts are all white. ”

“ When first hatched the larva is more advanced than in the Sprat, a buoyant egg-form. The larval Herring has a biggish head, attenuated colourless body, and the gut passes to proximal tail-end; a broad fin-membrane extends posteriorly from yolk-sac uniformly over back and belly. In the early post-larval stages growth is lengthwise, thickening of body not increasing in the same ratio. ”

“ The plainer and grayer markings of the female and immature birds may differ very considerably from the more pronounced black and white, orange-red and salmon-colored blotches of the adult male, but never so strikingly manifesting themselves in the markings of the tail which in either case may appear to the casual observer as quite similar. ”

“ Test of adult female oval, nearly circular, black in colour, divided into hexagonal and pentagonal segments which are not conspicuous, and of which the median series forms a very slightly elevated ridge somewhat lighter in colour. ”

“ In shrinking, all the seams open, more or less; the eyelids draw away a trifle from the glass eye; usually the lips open somewhat; and in ruminants the inner skin of the ear often draws straight across the inside.
Cleaning Up a Specimen.—In finishing a specimen, the first thing is to dig the clay and tow out of all open seams, cracks, and small holes, preparatory to filling them with papier-maché. ”

“ In some insects the decoration of the body is very marked, as in our small dragon-flies, the Agrions. In one species, for example, A. Puella, the male is pale blue banded with black, and the female bronze black, with a blue band on the segment, bearing the sexual organ; the ovipositors are also separately decorated. The male generative organs are peculiar, in that the fertilizing fluid is conveyed from one segment to a reservoir at the other end of the abdomen. Both the segments bearing these organs are marked by special decoration. ”

“ This subdivision of the animal kingdom, containing articulated or jointed animals and insects, exceeds every other in the number and diversity of the species. The articulation may belong to their bodies, limbs, or outer covering. The tough shells of some, formed by a secretion of a hard, horn-like substance, have numerous segments, or rings, either closely joined and firmly cemented, as those about the head and thorax, or loosely cemented, as those which encompass the abdomen. ”

“ The naturalist whose inclinations lead him towards the study of animal life will find plenty to occupy his time and his microscope. All kinds of eggs of small creatures may be watched as they develop. Frogs’ eggs are of interest in this respect, so too are tadpoles which hatch from them. The whole blood circulation in a young tadpole may easily be studied under the microscope, the structure of the external gills, the gradual change to internal gills, the development of legs, the absorption of the tail. ”

“ The larva without legs, a distinct head being often absent. The pupa inactive, the limbs of the imago firmly attached to the body, but plainly visible. Among the majority of species included in this Order the larval skin is not cast away, but envelopes the insect in a hard shell; the true pupa is consequently only visible on the removal of this covering, when it is found to closely resemble those in which no such arrangement occurs. ”

“ A coloured eye-speck is visible on the surface, destined to be absorbed; the tail is beginning to disappear (in some cases it is separated by a spontaneous constriction at its junction with the body, in others it appears to be gradually absorbed) ; one or more warts are seen budding from the opposite extremity of the body. These last secrete a cement by which the animal is finally attached to its support, shell, stone, or sea-weed, either growing out into creeping and adherent root-threads, or enlarging into a broad base, from which the body begins to grow upward. ”

“ When verging on half an inch long the body broadens, the eye has got well towards the right, the dorsal fin has advanced to its hinder border, the lateral line looms up, and brown pigment is diffused throughout the upper or right surface of the fish. ”

“ The male scales differ in form from the female; the adult male is winged, and is rarely seen. The female lays her eggs beneath the scaly covering, from which hatch out little active six-legged larvae, which wander about and soon begin to form a new scale. ”

“ They walk quickly and in stately fashion, limping and jerking the tail; at night they roost on trees. The resonant, melancholy wail is varied by a clucking note, or by an angry cry when breeding. The shallows of streams or marshes are diligently searched for molluscs, which the formation of the beak enables the bird easily to open or break, but small reptiles, insects, and worms are also eaten. The flat nest of herbage, placed among reeds, contains from ten to twelve white eggs, as large as those of a Turkey, clouded with pale brown and purple. [175] ”

“ Mammalia. The axial decoration of the mammalia is very definite, and nearly all species have a dorsal tract marked with colour. The dark bands on the back of the horse, ox, and ass, are cases in point. In nearly every case the dorsal is darker than the ventral surface.
If we take highly decorated species, that is, animals marked by alternate dark and light bands, or spots, such as the zebra, some deer, or the carnivora, we find, first, that the region of the spinal column is marked by a dark stripe (Figs. 9 & 16) ; secondly, that the regions of the appendages, or limbs, are differently marked ”

“ The earth thrown up is as if pulverized, and as soon as the animal has finished his labors, which are for no other purpose than to convey him securely from one spot to another, he closes the aperture, which is sometimes on the top, though more usually on the side towards the sun, leaving a kind of ring nearly one inch in breadth, and about the diameter of the body of the animal. ”

“ The larvæ which hatch from the eggs we must examine under our microscope and also in the water—they may easily be kept in a small jar of pond water. If we study their habits carefully, we shall observe that they float almost at right angles to the surface of the water and that, while doing so, the tip of a little peg-like outgrowth on the tail end of their bodies is thrust out of the water. The little peg is the breathing organ of the gnat larva and the flaps which open and close at its tip are worth examination. ”

“ Modern zoology recognises not merely the four types of Cuvier, but seventeen different styles, “phyla,” or groups of forms, to derive one of which from another is hopeless. And what is true of the whole is true also of the subdivisions within each phylum; e.g., within the vertebrate phylum with its fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. No bridge leads from one to the other. This is proved particularly by the very instance which is the favourite illustration in support of the Theory of Descent—the fin of fishes and its relation to the five-fingered hand of vertebrates. ”

“ On the front edge of the hind wings the microscope will show us a row of minute hooks. When the bee makes a flight, it hooks its hind wings to a ridge on the hinder edge of the fore wings, so that for flying purposes it has, to all intents, two wings instead of four.
Having examined all the wings we can find for the time being, we may turn our attention to mouths. The mouth parts of insects are not only interesting but important; one of the first things an economic entomologist does with a new specimen is to examine its mouth parts. ”

“ In some classes the change from the larva is not so remarkable, the worm having much of the appearance, and many of the distinctive marks of the perfect fly, as for example the bee; in these the metamorphose is [290] said to be imperfect. The eyes of insects are either compound, composed of numerous lenses, amounting in certain butterflies to thirty thousand, or simple, called stemmata, the latter alone being found in the larvæ, although in some of the beetles the larvæ have eyes in the head and tail both. They are often long in maturing ”

“ These beds are not of any considerable thickness, but are very persistent, and of great interest, inasmuch as they yield the remains of the oldest known mammal (Microlestes) , a small insect-feeder. They are composed of limestones, shales and marls (i.e. limey clays) , and are best studied in Somersetshire and Dorsetshire. The "landscape marble" belongs to this formation, which also contains a bone bed, or thin layer made up of the bones and teeth, etc., of fish. Shells are not numerous, though the casts of one species (Avicula contorta) is plentiful. ”

“ For this reason the student should be prepared to examine the lingual ribbons of molluscs with the aid of a compound microscope as occasion requires. As a rule the ribbon is easily stripped away from the floor of the mouth; and, if placed in a drop of water and covered with a cover-glass, the teeth are readily observed. Until a little experience has been gained the observations may be confined to some of the larger species, in which the ribbon is both large and easily obtained. In the common whelk, for example, it often measures more than an inch in length. ”

“ The white markings observed on the old birds of this species, during the period of courtship, incubation, and rearing of the young until they are able to fly, and which extends to two months and a half, begin to disappear from the moment incubation has fairly begun, and at the time when the young leave the nest scarcely any remain, unless on the sides of the head. ”

“ They inhabit marshes, stagnant ponds, lakes, and even small rivers whose course is gentle; feeding on small water-animals, such as frogs and newts, the young of web-footed fowl, fresh-water snails, and insects; nor does the flesh of larger creatures drowned in the lakes, or bogged in the marshes, come amiss to them. The eggs are rounded, with a hard, white, calcareous shell; they are deposited in shallow cavities scraped in the soft earth on the margins of the waters in which they reside, whence the young, hatched by the heat of the sun, readily find their way into their proper element. ”

“ Some spiders, but the eyes of all; the oniscus or wood-louse, julus, and scolopendra.
The feathers of peacocks, and many other birds, have a grand effect when viewed in the opake microscope, as have also some species of ferns, mosses, and wood cut transversely. Madrepores, millepores, sponges, corallines, &c. exhibit wonderful appearances not discernible to the naked eye. Parts of echini or sea eggs, spines of ditto; these may also be cut transversely to shew their construction. Minute shells dissected, skin of many species of fish, particularly the lump-sucker, see Plate XVIII. Fig. ”

“ They have usually two pairs of laterally moving mandibles, or jaws, and in their development undergo several metamorphoses. We see the egg, the larva, or grub, in different stages of its growth, the chrysalis, and the imago, [21] or complete beetle. Entomologists have spent much time and labor in making collections, and classifying them according to their peculiarities of form or habits. If many are repulsive, and most plain in form and color, some are beautiful, and worthy of our admiration. ”