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the most elegantly and delicately marked of our native small moths. There are several species which mine the leaves of the oak in the way described, but they all belong to the genus Lithocolletis (fig. 177).

When the month of October is well advanced and the leaves of the oak are fast turning brown, one very small mining larva will sometimes produce a very singular effect. It commences a very narrow slender gallery close to the midrib, and then, after proceeding a short distance in one direction, turns sharp round, so as to form the continuation of its mine in close proximity to the part already mined;

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Fig. 178. Mined Oak Leaf, and Larva of Nepticula subbimaculella, enlarged.

larva is mining continues green; and by these green blotches on the leaves we often readily detect the presence of the larva, which is of a very pale green, with a pale brown head. When full-fed, it quits the

leaf, and descends to the surface of the ground, and spins its small silken cocoon, in which it changes to the pupa state; and in the following month of June, the little moth emerges from the cocoon, and may be found sitting on the trunks of oak-trees. It is barely a quarter of an inch in the expanse of the wings; the fore wings are black, with two nearly opposite triangular whitish spots in the middle. This we call Nepticula subbimaculella (fig. 178).

In the months of May and June, we often find large brown blotches on the leaves of hawthorn; and, on holding one of these leaves up to the light, we see that the entire green portion of the leaf has been eaten away, nothing being left but the upper and lower cuticles of the leaf; where these brown

Fig. 179. Mined Hawthorn Leaf, and Larva of Coleophora nigricella, natural size, and magnified.

blotches are, moreover, we see in the lower cuticle a small round hole. On some leaves we may find attached a small brown cylindrical object, about half an inch long; this is the portable habitation, or case, formed by the larva which has mined the hawthorn leaf, and its mode of proceeding is as follows: it fastens its case to the underside of a leaf, and bites the round hole in the lower skin of the leaf, and then proceeds to devour the fleshy green portion of the leaf. By degrees it eats the green portion of the leaf away all round the spot where its case is fastened, but carefully leaves the skins of the leaf unbroken; and as it comes further and further out of its case as the mined space becomes larger, and as it has to reach to a great distance for some of the green substance of the leaf, it will frequently happen that it comes entirely out of its case into the leaf; but if in any way alarmed, it retreats quickly to its case, which in due time it transports to another leaf, and repeats a similar process. When full-fed, it generally fastens its case to the upper side of a leaf, and then assumes the pupa state. In two or three weeks the moth makes its appearance, and may be seen sitting on hawthorn leaves with its antennæ

stretched straight out before it; the expansion of the wings is nearly half an inch, and the forewings are unicolorous-blackish. This we call Coleophora nigricella (fig. 179).

It will thus be seen that the leaf-mining larvæ do not all work after the same fashion, but that each sort of larvæ has its special work to do, which it does after its kind. We have in this country several hundred leaf-mining larvæ of the order Lepidoptera, and possibly, when all the orders are considered which furnish examples of leaf-mining larvæ, they may without exaggeration be numbered by thousands.

IF

THE UNITY OF MANKIND.

Mr. Milton had taken the trouble to read my essay carefully before he attempted to criticise it, he would have done himself no harm and me less injustice. He asserts that in my essay I allude to Prichard and Knox, Pickering and Laurence, as likely to perplex the student instead of aiding him. I say nothing so ridiculous, but simply advise him. to avoid those writers who abound in arbitrary and endless classifications. I, of course, do not in the least discourage the study of the religion, language, and customs of every race in order to discover from them its origin and affinities; but I maintain that while this process is going on, some such memoria technica as this arbitrary division according to colour would afford, is wanted to do what the Linnæan system has done for Botany, i.e., to keep together the various elements of the science until its natural laws and divisions have been ascertained with some degree of accuracy. The division of mankind by colour is, after all, no novelty, but sanctioned by some of the highest authorities extant; and in proof of this I may refer to that very learned work on "The Geographical Distribution of Mammals," by Mr. Andrew Murray, which has recently appeared, and in which a system very similar to the one which I advised is adopted. Of course Mr. Milton will be able to adduce many exceptions to such a theory. There are doubtless races which cannot be strictly characterised as black, white, or brown; but those who have studied the subject will, I think, agree with me when I say that, according to our present knowledge, the classification I have adopted is the only one capable of any extended application.

I do not for a moment believe that heat alone produces a dark skin; but heat, an unhealthy climate, and prolonged isolation will, I think it is impossible to doubt, produce and perpetuate the most marked and extraordinary peculiarities. The vast desert of the Sahara was, geologists tell us, once the bed of an inland sea which completely severed Africa from the rest of the old world and

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the Himalayas, performing the same office for Hindustan. We have, I believe, in this fact the secret of the marked idiosyncracy of the two races. Mr. Milton's argument, deducible from the different hues of the races inhabiting the African coast-line, does not appear to me to be worth much; for we know that the Kaffirs, Gallas, and other races of comparatively light colour, have permeated every part of South and Central Africa. The display of negrophilism contained in Mr. Milton's essay argues, I think, strongly against his theory; for if so imitative and numerous a race, which has been so petted and pampered for the last half-century, can produce nothing better than the few mediocrities cited, how greatly inferior must it be to the European and Asiatic nations, who have made every single discovery and invention which has been of the slightest benefit to man! The remarks upon the colour of the Esquimaux are incidentally answered below.

In an interesting paper recently read before the Ethnological Society by the chairman, Mr. Crawfurd, entitled, "The Skin, the Hair, and the Eyes, as tests of the Races of Men," the very views which I advanced are ably contested; but the essay is wholly destructive, and Mr. Crawfurd is forced to admit that dark-skinned races do usually inhabit hot countries. Now, if this is merely a coincidence, it is surely a very singular and suggestive one! One argument which he employs appears at first sight to carry some weight, and I will therefore briefly advert to it. He argues that the vulgar theory which attributes darkness of complexion to the influence of the sun cannot be correct, because the Esquimaux, who inhabit arctic countries, are brown, or at any rate dark, in colour, whilst the Scandinavian nations, who live in a far milder climate, are much lighter in hue. But it must be recollected that Sir John Richardson thought the Esquimaux white, also that they belong to the Mongolian race, which is almost invariably darker than the Circassian, to which the Scandinavians belong. Until Mr. Crawfurd can clearly prove that the Arctic climate darkens the complexion, we are quite at liberty to attribute the dark colour of the Esquimaux to their southern origin, all trace of which the climate of the Arctic regions has not yet eradicated. The fact that ethnologists now acknowledge the existence, in remote times, throughout the whole of Europe, Asia (perhaps even of North America), of a race akin to the Esquimaux, proves their southern origin, and their comparatively recent banishment to northern fastnesses by successive immigrations of Celts, Teutons, Sarmatians, Red Indians, and other warlike tribes.

Which is the primitive nation? What an interesting train of thoughts is opened up by this question! It is noteworthy that the red races of mankind-the Etruscans, Trojans, Egyptians, and

Toltecs-were all diminutive in stature, peaceful in their habits, and of great intellectual capacity. The Phenicians and Babylonians were probably of a somewhat different hue, but their physical and mental characteristics are so similar to those of the red races that one cannot doubt their consanguinity. The Hindus also, who must once have been very light in colour, show in their ancient classics a minute acquaintance with the geography and ethnology of Eastern Africa; whilst their buildings and customs are almost identical with those of Ancient Egypt. All these nations were of Shemitic origin, and in all of them commercial and mechanical talent was developed to the highest degree, forming, in this respect, a remarkable contrast to the Greeks and other Japhetic races who ultimately superseded them in the empire of the world, who were characterized by an herculean physique, and a passionate love of liberty and of war.* It seems highly probable to my mind, that the Chinese justly claim to be descended from Noah (Fohi). The resemblances between the civilization of the Chinese and Hindus are too numerous to be accidental; indeed, we know that the religious system of Boodh prevailed in both countries. Anyone who will carefully compare the religious and social systems of the eight primitive races which I have mentioned, will, I think, be firmly persuaded of their identity, and will have gained a good idea of the characteristics of that earlier Shemitic civilization which preceded the dispersion, and subsequent conquests, of the Japhetic (Aryan?) races, and probably embodied the attainments of the Antediluvians. It will be recollected that immediately after the flood, a great architectural work was commenced. Whence could the skill requisite for the undertaking have been obtained but from the traditions of the antediluvian earth, handed down by the sons of Noah ? That the Antediluvians had attained to a considerable degree of refinement appears highly probable from this consideration, and we must remember the advantages which they enjoyed of a vastly lengthened existence; a denser population (in new countries populations always spread fastest), and probably of a balmier atmosphere, favoured the spread of knowledge and the completion of great undertakings. It is difficult to see how the degree of wickedness which provoked their overthrow could have been reached in a savage or pastoral community. The complex sins and vices of civilization alone will explain the enigma.

The early civilization of the Shemitic race, which discovered letters, and attained such architectural and commercial successes, appears to have been extinguished, slowly but surely, by the same

* Although these Shemites generally lived under despotisms, the theocratic or republican form prevailed in Etruria and in Toltec America.

agency. The Greeks conquered Troy and Tyre; the Romans, Etruria, Carthage, and Egypt; the Persians, Babylon; the American Indians, the Toltecan Empire. The Chinese and Hindoos, being to the eastward of the great westerly emigration of the Japhetic races, escaped conquest, it is true, but were completely isolated, and their valuable secrets had to be re-discovered in the middle ages. This theory explains, I think satisfactorily, the co-existence of an effete and decaying eastern, and a vigorous and progressive western, civilization. In every case in which the primitive races were conquered, the victors became in time leavened with the civilization of the vanquished, and so far recognised its superiority, as to partially adopt the religious and social systems of their predecessors. Thus arose the Aztec and Peruvian empires on the ruins of that of the Toltecs; the Roman empire out of the Etruscan; the dynasty of the Ptolemies out of the Egyptian. In each of these cases this second civilization was obviously and confessedly inferior to the one from which it was copied; just as the Saxons were far surpassed in refinement by the Romanized Britons whom they displaced. These remarks cannot be carried further in the present essay, but will be suggestive, I doubt not, to those who take an interest in the early history of mankind.

The southern origin of the Gael of Scotland is curiously shown by the reverence which this people pay in all their rites and ceremonies to the south. They preserve, as was stated some time back in Good Words, the Druidic custom of carrying the dead round the churchyard the southern way, following the course of the sun; also of sending the bottle round the table in the same way. The Celts all seem to highly respect the south, for they call the right hand "Deus" (i.e., the south hand), the same word signifying "being ready," "being expert," and "being handsome."

The existence of two distinct races of men in the

archipelagos of Polynesia, the Negrittos (Papuans), and Malay-Polynesians, has often puzzled ethnologists. I think, however, there can be no doubt, if we investigate the legends and traditions of the natives, as to which is the aboriginal race. It will be found that whilst the Malay-Polynesians invariably recount their arrival by sea at their present homes, the Fijians (the most cultivated of the Papuans) claim to have been created upon the soil. This fact, taken in connexion with the argument deducible from the fact that the Papuans appear to inhabit the interior of the larger islands, and those groups of volcanic, and therefore older, formations, such as Papua, Fiji, &c., while the Malay-Polynesians inhabit the coral islands of more recent origin, such as Tongatabu, and the shores of the larger islands, argues strongly in favour of the hypothesis that the Papuans represent an old and

widely extended race, which once inhabited a continent stretching from Australia or Malaya to South America; whilst the Malay-Polynesians are allied to the Hindus or Burmans, and have come to the South Seas by conquest only. The close resemblance observable between two races so widely severed as the Maories of New Zealand and the Hindus, is very remarkable; with some curious and interesting details of this likeness, I must close my remarks.

In Knight's work upon the "Hindoos," p. 370, the following occurs:-"The Hindoos, especially the Nairs of Travancore, a vigorous and athletic race, drink by pouring water, from vessels with spouts, in a stream into their mouths, it being considered indelicate to touch the lips with a vessel. Thus when the Portuguese, under Vasco-de-Gama, reached India, and were handsomely entertained by the Zamorin at Calicut, having been informed that this was etiquette, they strove to conform, and by choking themselves, and deluging their clothes or the table, threw the court into roars of laughter." Curiously enough in the same series, in the volume entitled "The New Zealanders," p. 133, a picture is copied from Rutherford's work on the natives, in which an aboriginal is represented, drinking from a calabash, held at some distance from his mouth, and this is stated to be a national custom!

The missionary, Taylor, also states that the native name of the New Zealanders, “Maori," is closely allied to our word "Moor," i.e., a "dusky person." He states also that the figures in the renowned caves of Elephanta (Bombay) much resemble the Maories. The resemblance between the caste" of the Hindus, and the "tabu" of the Malay-Polynesians is too obvious to need remark. F. A. A.

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BITTEN BY A VIPER.

IT appears still to be a disputed question as to

whether any one has been poisoned by a viper, and the poison has directly proved fatal. I say directly, for it no doubt may be, and has been, an indirect cause of death; as, for instance, where a person has been bitten in the neck, and the swelling has produced suffocation. But in such a case we should not say the man was fatally poisoned by the creature, although the poison caused his death indirectly similar consequences have been known to result from the sting of a wasp :-A man was once drinking from a vessel into which a wasp had fallen, and the insect stung him on the tongue, which swelled to such an extent that he was suffocated. We are as yet without any well authenticated instance of the poison of Pelias Berus proving fatal from its own nature. Yet almost every country churchyard has its grave pointed out to children

and strangers as a caution against meddling with snakes and adders; I remember in particular a churchyard in one of the lonely villages of Norfolk, in which was a tombstone, ornamented with the sculpture of a snake with its tail in its mouth, forming a ring. Doubtless it was meant as an emblem of eternity, but there it was looked upon as proof positive of the mode of the man's death, and we children used to look at it with awe, while one of our elders related the story of the man gathering wood, when an adder stung him, &c. As there is, no doubt, some residuum of truth, even in the wildest legends, we may believe that death from the bite of a viper is not an utterly unknown circumstance. The physical constitution of the victim, the state of his health at the time, the heat of the weather, will no doubt affect the case. Very likely a person of feeble constitution, whose blood was in an impure state, and who chanced to get bitten in the sultry days of July and August, might succumb to the venomous bite; otherwise I should say not. Any instances brought forward on either side of the question must necessarily be interesting. From one or two accounts I have read, and from the following, for which I can vouch, it would appear that the venom does not always act in the same way. Mr. Wood mentions a case in which there was intense pain and fever; in the following instance there was little of either.

I was out entomologising a few days ago when I saw a very beautiful specimen of Pelias Berus, about half grown. Meeting a brother of the net a few minutes afterwards, I mentioned it to him. "Of course you killed it ?" said he. "No, I did not; I very seldom do." "Perhaps you were never bitten by one? or else you always would." No, I had not. I had kept them in confinement, and I am always shy of killing any creature that I have watched and studied. Upon which he told me that he had, and the circumstances and consequences were as follow:-He was out butterfly hunting, and caught a viper in his net as it was gliding over the ground: not knowing then the difference between vipers and snakes, he was not at all afraid of it, but handled it repeatedly, and when he reached home, placed it on the table to watch its movements. He took it up several times, till at last it turned its head sharply round, and bit him on the forefinger of the right hand. Still he took no notice, and continued handling it as before; though he was careful now to lay hold of it closer to the head. Shortly, however, he felt a curious drowsy sensation stealing over him, and told his friends of it, but they attributed it to fancy. But it was not long before he became seriously ill, his mind wandered, they put him in bed, and sent for a medical man. No olive oil was applied, and the principal thing given him was neat brandy in occasional doses. The object of this was to cause a re-action from the great weakness

which ensued; he felt utterly prostrated, and needed all that could be given him to restore his physical strength. He lay in bed a fortnight, no fever ensued, and more curiously no pain, nothing but excessive weakness, and, immediately after the bite, insensibility and delirium. The hand, arm, and side as low as the hip were immensely swollen, and almost black; the two former were frequently bathed in hot water.

Having gone through this little experience, he always made it a rule to kill a viper when he had the opportunity; not because there was any danger of its attacking anybody, he knew it was a very timid creature, but then "you might tread on one." I cannot agree with him, though I can make every allowance for his feelings: vipers, like all other created beings, have their allotted work to perform, and they are neither sufficiently numerous nor wantonly aggressive, to warrant our endeavours to exterminate them.

I mentioned olive oil to him, and also sucking out the poison, but, as he remarked, and with great plausibility too, one pulsation-the very first— carries the poison into the system, and unless it can be followed up there by some antidote, in the same way that some one has lately been advising nitrate of silver in the case of hydrophobia, I do not see how its ill effects can possibly be stopped. Probably death may be prevented, and pain or fever assuaged by applying remedies in this manner; but a certain amount of suffering, more or less severe, must ensue. Since writing the above I have had a conversation with a gentleman, in which he mentioned that sportsmen's dogs are occasionally killed by vipers; he had lost two very valuable ones himself. Young ones generally die, but occasionally recover; old ones seldom fall victims. One that he had had some years had been bitten twice when young, but as it grew older it became an adept in killing its foes: it used to spring upon them, all four feet coming down at once, and then with its head up in the air, trample them to death.

HENRY ULLYETT.

NIGHTINGALE FREAK. I found last week a whole nest of canaries disappear in about three days. I could not account for them, as they hung against a wall, being too young to get out of the nest. A few days after, another nest hatched, and next morning we found the hen canary and a nightingale in fierce combat, but the nightingale took the young bird, and then commenced a regular chase with the nightingales (of which there were three) to get [the youngster, which of course they soon killed, and before I could get it away, the head was half gone. Do nightingales usually eat young birds ?-Charles Rudd.

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