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NOTES AND QUERIES FOR
NATURALISTS.

NOTES.

SNAKES IN TASMANIA.

THE quantity of snakes which were destroyed at Spring Vale during this summer was truly alarming. Scarcely a day passed without Mr. Meredith's telling me, on his return home, that one, two, or more had been killed by himself or the men. One day he had gone out rabbit shooting there with Dr. Alexander (28th Regiment), then visiting us, accompanied by our old pointer and a favourite spaniel. The latter, whilst hunting busily about, suddenly uttered a short yelp, as if slightly hurt, and the next moment Dr. A. shot a large black snake, which, it was found, had bitten her in the nose, so that excision of the part was impossible. The poor little creature went on hunting for a few minutes, when she seemed to grow dizzy, and reeled about; then lay down, trying several times to get up and hunt; but very soon she became violently convulsed and sick, then foamed at the mouth, and died in twenty-five

minutes from the time she was bitten.

A short time previously to this, was on the jury at an inquest held on a poor sh pherd, servant to a settler in the neighbourhood, who, whilst out one day with some of his employer's family, saw a large black snake raising itself to attack him, and made a blow at it with a rotten stick, which broke off short; and the snake, enraged, but not hurt, bit his wrist. No remedies were attempted; but the poor fellow continued his occupation, till, feeling too ill to proceed, he went to a hut in the neighbourhood, where one of his fellow-servants lived who was married. These good people did all that their kind feeling suggested or their means allowed, for his comfort. They laid him in their only bed, and sat up tending him all night but he became rapidly worse and insensible, and early in the morning died.

Such terrible evidence of the black snake's mortal venom was not calculated to diminish my horror of the whole fearful tribe; and often, in walking through long tussock grass, or low scrub, I have shrunk aghast, as my foot fell on some round stick, or a rustling in the dead leaves came, with a boding sound, upon my ear.

One day as I sat at home, sewing, with my eldest child playing about on the floor, our favourite cat jumped in through an open window, and began pawing and tossing something under a chair. Little George immediately went towards her, and seemed highly diverted, crawling nearer and nearer, and trying, with his baby-talk, to attract

my attention to his play-fellow. Looking down, I saw what I supposed to be a lizard, and being vexed with the cat for hurting the harmless little thing, drove her away; when, to my horror, there lay a snake, writhing and curling most actively. So, holding the child and the cat both away, I ordered the unwelcome guest to be very summarily despatched.

So many

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narrow escapes

" from snakes are

related here, that the comparative rarity of serious
accidents is, perhaps, the most remarkable. Whilst
at Cambria, my nurse-maid, a free girl from Lon-
don, who had never seen a snake, was one day
crossing the court-yard, with the child in her
arms, when she saw what she fancied was a large
eel, gliding along; and, calling to the cook that
one of his fish had got away, was on the point of
seizing it in her hand, when the man screamed
out to her that it was a snake; and so, indeed, it
was a very large one. They are apparently fond
of lurking in quiet, sly corners near the house,
perhaps for the purpose of catching mice; and to
their other unpleasant propensities, I must add
a penchant for quail. Mr. Meredith, in walking to
Spring Vale one day, was passing quickly through
some long tussock grass, and saw a large black
snake, swiftly and silently gliding along, with its
glittering eyes fixed on some low object, which it
seemed eagerly pursuing, without heeding his
approach. The next moment he saw a brace of
quail run out from the spot, and take wing; but
the snake had vanished before he could pick up a
stick to destroy it. I heard, the other day, from
good authority, of a snake which was killed having
four parrots, quite entire, and scarcely ruffled in
plumage, taken from its stomach; the parrots in
question being, it should be added, each about
the size of a thrush.

LOCUSTS IN RUSSIA.
THE news from Russia gives a gloomy account
of the harvest. Heavy rains and high floods have
damaged the crops in all parts of the empire,
while, in the southern provinces, the woods and
cornfields have been devastated by locusts. This
scourge made its appearance in Bessarabia. The
whole population was called out as against an in-
vading army. Twenty thousand men surrounded
the district in which the insects had appeared.
At first they succeeded in confining their depreda-
tions to a limited area, but in spite of all precau-
tions, they suddenly crossed the cordon drawn
around them, and made their appearance in other
districts, where they have eaten up every blade of
corn. They have crossed the Dneister, and ex-
tended over an area of forty miles in length by
fifteen in breadth. The ultimate extent of the evil
cannot be anticipated.-London Review.

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

lesson has been drawn by one who says:-"Wh we see birds, at the approach of rain, anointin their plumage with oil, to shield off the drop should it not remind us, when the storms of co tention threaten us, to apply the oil of forbearan and thus prevent the chilling drops from enteria cur hearts ?"

PHENOMENA ON THE REPULSION OF WATER FROM THE FEATHERS OF WATER-FOWL AND THE LEAVESOF PLANTS (p. 233).-Dr. Buist, of Bombay, has communicated to the Royal Society a paper on the above subject. Concerning the leaves of lilies and of the lotus, particularly of the latter, growing abundantly in tanks near his residence, the Doctor A BIRD CLOCK (p. 233).-As botanists have com remarks" When the lotus-leaf is placed under structed a flower-clock, so (we read in the foreig water, it reflects light like a mirror, so that the journals) a German woodsman has recently i image of any object, if presented to it at the proper vented an ornithological clock, by marking th angle, is seen by the spectator as if the surface hour of the waking and the first notes of the litt were one of polished metal. When water is thrown singers The signal is given by the chaffinch, th on the surface of a floating leaf, it flows off like a earliest riser among all the feathery tribes. I pool of quicksilver." This, however, is the fact as song precedes the dawn, and is heard in summ regards the upper surface only. It has long been from half-past one to two o'clock, a.m. Ne familiar to the natives, who poetically liken the from two to half-past three o'clock, comes th virtuous man among the wicked to the lotus-leaf | blackcap, whose warblings would equal those "in the water, yet unwet by the water." the nightingale if they were not so very shor From half-past two to three the quail is heard From three to half-past three the hedge-sparrow Then, from half-past three to four, we have the blackbird, the mocking-bird of our climates which imi ates all tunes so well, that M. Dureau de la Malle made all the blackbirds of a French eauton sing the Marseillaise hymn, by letting loose a blackbird which had been taught that tune. From four to ha'f-past four o'clock the lark pours forth its melodies; from half-past four to five o'clock the black-headed titmouse is heard. Lastly, from four to five o'clock, the sparrow, the min of the skies, awakes and begins to chirp. MANAGEMENT OF PARROTS (p. 233).—In "Bech stein's Handbook of Chamber and Cage Birds," edited by H. G. Adams, and published by Ward and Lock, will be found directions for the management of birds of the parrot family. Our querist had better obtain this elegant and useful book, the price of which is 2s. 6d. It is copiously illus trated, and contains a fuud of reliable information on its own peculiar subject.

"On examining carefully into the causes of this," continues the Doctor, "I found the lotusleaf covered with short microscopic papillo, which entangle the air, and e-tablish an air-plate over the whole surface, with which, in reality, the water never comes in contact at all. Another peculiarity connected, but not necessarily so, so far as I can discover, with this, was the singular respiratory pores of the lotus. The leaves, when full-sized, are from 12 to 16 inches in diameter; on cutting off a leaf 6 inches broad, the stalk of which was less than a third of an inch in diameter, I was enabled to collect 33 cubic inches of air in ang hour, when the vital energies of the plant must have been injured by its mutilation. At this rate, a bank covered with lotus-leaves would produce daily an atmosphere four feet in depth throughout its whole surface." The Doctor believes that the same phenomenon as exhibited by the water-fowl is not due to the presence of grease or oil, but to the presence of an air-plate, so that the water never comes in contact with the feathers at all. The trimming process, so carefully performed by water-fowl, is probably an application of oil or grease, with the object of separating or dressing the little fibres of the feathers, so as to produce an arrangement fitted to entangle the air.Chambers' Journal, No. 191.

It has been hitherto supposed that the gland situated near the tail, which most water-birds have, is for the purpose of secreting grease for application to the feathers, that they may be able to resist the moisture to which they are constantly exposed. The above statement seems to throw some doubt on this theory, which, however, requires some more conclusive testimony to overthrow it. Until this arrives, we shall still hold to the established belief, from which a practical

QUERIES.

Animal and Vegetable Life.-Has the boun dary line between the animal and vegetable king doms been anywhere clearly defined? What rules can one apply in forming a judgment on this subject?- -HKNRY.

Sight or Smelt.-By the exercise of which of the above senses are birds of prey directed to their food? What do naturalists say on this subject? -A STUDENT OF NATURE.

Experience in animals.-Can you furnish me with some instances which plainly prove that animals are guided by experience, as this wond go far to prove that they do possess, to a certain extent, reasoning faculties ?-ARTHUR B. which goes by the above name: can you furnish The Agoute.-There is, I believe, a little animal me with a description of it?-JAMES Ï. S.

FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES.

A WANT of prudence in the use of money, at the beginning, may become confirmed into habits that will mar a man's fortunes for life; but a want of due caution in regard to our associates is fraught with consequences far more direful. The effects of the first error are felt mainly in the inconveniences and disabilities of natural life; but the effects of the latter reach far deeper, and impress themselves upon man's spiritual and substantial part.

men-either from feeling the dangers attendant upon associations with others, or from a natural disinclination for societyseclude themselves, and take for companions books and their own thoughts, becoming hermits in the very midst of society. This is an error that effectually prevents a healthy development of character. One of the first laws of our being is the law of association, and whoever disregards it, disregards not only his own, but the common good. Society is a man in a larger form, and we are all members, and must act in concert with the rest, and do our duty to the whole, or we shall find ourselves-like a hand that lies inactively appropriating the life-blood that flows into it, without doing anything for the whole body-gradually losing our power, and withering away into mental impotency.

The laws of association are governed by mental and moral-or, to speak more correctly, spiritual affinities, and are based upon the qualities of mind and heart. The good are attracted toward each other, and the same thing occurs with the evil, when reciprocal interchanges of thoughts and feelings take place. Now, in every society It is known that no two men are precisely of either the good or the evil there is a alike in appearance, disposition, or ability; sphere of the quality of that society per-tat no two men are able to do the same vading the whole; and all who come into it, and voluntarily remain there, are more or less strongly affected by this sphere, and think and feel with the rest. Let a man, who has a respect for order and obedience to the laws, go into a mob, and voluntarily remain there for a time, and he will be surprised to find his liveliest sympathies on the side of mob law; and the reason of it is, he feels the sphere of the quality of that mob's affections-he is in it, and breathes it, and feels an impulse to act from it.

thing with equal skill; and it is also known that there is some one thing in which every particular man can excel his fellow, if he will but direct to that thing all the powers of both his mind and body. One man comes into the province of the head, and his chief delight and activities consist in a regard to things of government, either in the affairs of the nation, as a whole, or in some one of its thousand subdivisions into lesser associations. He sees ends, causes, and effects far more clearly than his neighbour, who may be, perhaps, in the province of the hand, and ever ready to execute what others plan. The one is a man of thought, the other of execution, and they act in harmony in the attainment of the general good; one is not more honourable than another, except so far as he does his appro

From this may clearly be seen the great importance of choosing with care our associates. If we mingle with those who make light of both human and divine laws, we shall be led into the same error, and sink, instead of rising, in the scale of moral excellence. But if we choose more wisely our companions, we shall not only be ele-priate work more faithfully. It would be vated ourselves, but help to elevate others. Keeping this in view-the whole subject of his duties and his danger-every young man may see how much depends upon his choice of associates. If he mingle with those who are governed by right principles, his own good purposes will be strengthened, and he will strengthen others in return. But if he mingle with those who make light of virtue, and revel in selfish and sensual indulgences, he will find his own respect for virtue growing weaker, and he will gradually become more and more in love with the grosser enjoyments of sense that drag a man downward, instead of lifting him upward, and throw a mist of obscurity over all his moral perceptions.

It not unfrequently happens that young

an interesting task to trace here the corre-pondence between the attributes and functions of common society, and those of the individual man; but a mere declaration of the fact, with the simple and apparent iliustration of it that we have given, will cause it to strike almost every one as true, and enable every one to trace out this correspondence for himself. But if there are any who cannot comprehend what has been assumed in regard to society being a man in a larger form, let them consider this plain proposition. Society is an aggregate of individual men, and must, therefore, be the complex of those qualities, attributes, wants, and abilities, which appertain to individual men, consequently society is a greater man, and must be sustained in

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health by an observance of the laws which turned, and the ladies are safely locked up preserve the individual.

The conclusion arrived at in the last sen

again. The Effendi is, generally speaking, an early riser, and seldom sits up till a late tence is what we are particularly desirous hour at night. On issuing from his harem, of impressing upon the minds of such of our he is waited upon by half a dozen slaves, who readers as feel inclined to separate them- assist in his ablutions: one holds the ewer, selves from society, and live in selfish another the soap, a third the towel, and the seclusion. All the members of the body act fourth and fifth assist him with his clean in harmony: the eye sees not for itself; the apparel. Having washed and dressed, he ear hears not for itself; the hand works not goes through his morning devotions at the for itself; but all labour for the common nearest mosque. Returning home, his ser good, while each part is sustained from the vants serve him with his cup of bitter coffee whole. If any part ceases to perform its and pipe of real gibili, by which time it is functions, that part at once begins to suffer about seven A.M., the fashionable hour for decay; its muscles shrink, its veins and a Turkish gentleman to call and receive arteries decrease in volume, the blood cir-visits. Acquaintances and friends saunter culates feebly through it; it becomes weak in, and salute the host, who salutes them. and helpless, and affects the whole body Beyond this, there is little conversation, for with disease more or less serious, as the Turks hate talking, and still less joking, for part approaches or is more remote from the they detest laughing. They inquire, like a seat of life. Just such will be the effect parcel of doctors, after each other's health, produced in every case where a man deli- and after the general salubrity of their re berately withdraws himself from the uses of spective houses, for no one ever dreams of society; and the more serious will be the asking how his friend's wife is that would result, the higher the function he is quali- be considered the grossest breach of decorum. fied to fill. The duty of social intercourse Draught-boards and pipes and coffee are inis not so imperative as the duty of perform- troduced. Some play, others look on; and, ing faithfully the work of our office in life, save the rattling of the dice, very little heard to interrupt the silence of the room. Let every young man, then, seek for The Effendi's clerk comes in occasionally,

be it what it may.

ingly careful how he makes his selection. Almost everything depends upon its being done with prudence.

LIFE IN TURKEY.

AN ANTIOCH GENTLEMAN.

in his hands, and whispers mysteriously to the Effendi, who either goes off into a violent fit of rage, or nods his consent in approval of the letters are pleasing or the reverse. Most what has been done, just as the contents of of these letters are from the overseers or the labourers in the Effendi's silk-gardens or THE life of the Turkish Effendi, or gentlere olive plantations; some few from people man, at Antioch, is rather of a monotonous payment of loans of money; for though character. He lives in his own, or rather in but few of the Efendis on Antioch, though two houses; for the harem, though part of the all rolling in riches, that are not indebted to same house, is entirely partitioned off, and some person or other for cash loans, as, suer no one but himself and his slaves know where is their strange avarice, that though they it is, or how to get in or out of it. He always possess (to use an Oriental expression) tome keeps the door-key in his pocket, and when full of money, they are loth to

extract one

the ladies want anything, they rap, like so farthing from their treasures for their daily many woodpeckers, at a kind of revolving expenditure. About ten A.M. the Effendi

wall.

Through this cupboard, at which bearer, who is equally well mounted, takes neither party can see the other, the lady a sedate ride in the environs of the town. fetch or buy for her at the bazaars; and the the bath, but in either case he is pretty speaks to the servant, and tells him what to On Saturdays, in lieu of riding, he goes to article is brought and placed in the cupboard, punctual as to the hour of his return. On which is reeled round by the lady inside, so reaching home, more pipes and coffee are that she may take it out. When they are produced, and he affixes his seal (for a Turk to the bath, the key is delivered into the ness letters that his secretary has prepared desirous of walking in the garden, or going never signs his name) to the various busisees nothing more of it till the party has re- I minaret now warns him that it is the hour

charge of some old duenna,

and the Effendi ready for dispatching. The

cry

from the

shall be lifted to everlasting honour! The clay has laughed to scorn the skill of the potter; the creature, offspring of yesterday, has defied his Creator, whose being is eternity!

Go to, thou boaster! make ready! for the God of Nature accepts the challenge, and demands the trial. No space is left whereon to build another universe; but the eye is a little and familiar thing, which an inch will more than span. Upon this "inch" let the wager be laid, and all earth shall stand umpire, while our hopes of a final resurrection and a blessed immortality we plight against the bold adventure.

Build first the walls of defence, the socket, the cheek, and the nasal bones, and the projecting arch above, which shall guard the eye from external violence. Plant the eyebrows in just proportion and arrangement, like tiles so overlapping, and of such exact form and length, as that the acrid perspiration which distils from the brows shall be turned upon the open temples; dye them with some dark pigment; and for those who dwell under the vertical rays of a tropical sun, give a darker hue. Attach a muscle of curious workmanship in mould and fixture, as that at your bidding its thousand fibres shall contract and depress the overhanging thatch.

for mid-day prayer. Washing his hands, face, and feet, he proceeds to the sami (mosque), where he remains till it is time to breakfast; and when the breakfast is served, he goes through the forms of ablution again. After his meals he is required to wash once more. I may here remark, for the guidance of strangers, that there is nothing a Turk considers more degrading than the want of this scrupulous cleanliness in Europeans; and considering the climate, and the wisdom of doing in Rome as Rome does (apart from all other arguments), travellers, although seldom obliged to use their fingers as Turks do at their meals, ought strictly to adhere to this custom whilst among Orientals. The Effendi, after his breakfast, which is generally a very good one, and is prepared by the careful hands of the fair ladies of the harem, retires into his seraglio for a couple of hours' siesta during the heat of the day. In this interval, if a Pasha, or a bosomfriend, or the devil himself were to appear, and ask of the servants to see their master immediately, they would reply that he was asleep in the harem, and that it was as much as their heads were worth to disturb him. At about two P.M. the Effendi is again visible. He then occupies his time in playing draughts, or reading a Turkish newspaper. At four he goes once more to the mosque, and thence proceeds to the secluded garden on the banks of the Orontes. Here several other Effendis are sure to meet him, for it is their usual evening rendezvous. Carpets are spread; baskets of cucumbers and bottles of spirit produced; and they drink brandy and nibble cucumbers till nigh upon sundown. Sometimes cachouks, or dancing boys, dressed up in gaudy tinsel-work, and musicians are introduced, for the entertainment of the party. By nightfall every in- Dig a fountain above the outer angle of dividual has finished his two-some more- the lids, where, fed by perennial streams, it bottles of strong aqua vita, and they return shall overflow and wash the adjacent plain. homewards, and dine-and dine heartily. From the fountain draw ten thousand secret Coffee is then introduced, but nothing wires to the surface of the eye, so watchful stronger, as they never drink spirit or wine and obedient as that, when touched by the after their evening meals. The nine o'clock smallest mote, they shall suddenly spring summons to prayer resounds from the mina- the tearful gates, and bear off the offending ret, and nine minutes after that the Effendi particle. Let it also be to the mind a safetyis fast asleep, and nothing under an earth-valve, to be lifted when pleasure or pain quake would bring him forth from the harem again till he rises simultaneously with the sun next day.

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Work now the lids, of materials soft and pliant; adapt them accurately each to the other, and to the smooth convexity of the eye. Place also the cords which, moved by the intellectual actor behind, shall enable him to raise the curtains, and, looking forth, read in the face of his auditors applause or censure; to be again dropped when the performer needs repose, or when the last great drama is wound up.

moves the soul to excess; the closure of which, when the passions are in hot ebullition, shall produce disorganization and permanent derangement of the brain.

Excavate at the inner angle a shelving lake, and throw up from its base a rocky islet, well covered with brambles and an oily exudation, designed, when the waters are agitated and cast upon its shores by the action of the lids, to catch and retain such

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