your age; all of whom, at that period, gained their livelihood in the gardens without complaining. "No person has been appointed to go to Botany Bay in your stead. The man who is going, by my recommendation, is the son of a market-gardener, and knows nothing of botany: he has no appointment or salary; and means to settle there, with a wife, as a farmer and market-gardener. "How you can be useful to your employers as a botanical traveller, to send home seeds and plants from thence, till you have made yourself acquainted with those already in England, I do not know. We have now several hundreds of such : and to send them again would be idle and useless. You might discover some drug valuable in dyeing or medicine, for your own advantage; but, unless you are able to benefit your employers as well as yourself, how can you expect employment? "You are certainly, however, eminently capable of searching the woods with diligence and advantage for dyeing drugs, and other matters likely to be advantageous to manufacturers and trade and that many such things remain unknown in the unexplored wilds of a country larger than all Europe, is a matter of infinite probability. If the gentlemen of Manchester will make a subscription to maintain you in that employment, on such terms as shall be agreed upon between you and them, I will readily become a subscriber, and use my best influence with Government to send you out at the public expense, in which I have no doubt of being successful. I am, Sir, your very humble servant, Jos. BANKS." The humble individual on whom the Right Hon. Baronet had thus bestowed the best advice soon found his situation, even among his quondam associates, little less mortifying than when the fancied prisoner of a royal garden. The plan of sending him out by subscription met with no success: and even the indomitable spirit of Caley was compelled, in a degree, to succumb to the more ordinary course of events. Not less dark and drear than the season in which the good tidings arrived was the state of Caley's mind, when, in the midst of doubts and perplexities, towards the end of November, 1798, his true friend, Sir Joseph, hastily summoned him to London, in expectation of immediately despatching him to the terra incognita he had so ardently longed to explore. During this expedition, it was agreed that he should have a sufficient maintenance; that his primary duties were to be the collecting of specimens of plants for his worthy patron, and seeds for the garden at Kew, with the use of duplicates for his own advantage. Caley was quickly on his passage over the trackless ocean : and rarely has the tedium of a protracted voyage been more effectually or advantageously dispelled than by the varied studies which he, during the whole progress, unweariedly pursued. . We have seen the lone wanderer irresistibly impelled, by the contemplation of Nature in her grandest yet most savage form, to penetrate the parched deserts of Africa; and, in search of all-captivating novelty, discarding the primary instinct of the mind, to approach even the ruthless tiger's lair, as though unconscious of danger: but our Caley was destined to less hazardous shores; it was his fate to be wafted to more temperate climes; and, while exploring the flowery prairies surrounding Botany Bay, instead of encountering the Mauritanian lion, he felt no fear but that of scaring away the timid kangaroo. Thus did this extraordinary man attain the summit of his ambition: yet what could have been more adverse than such a birth, than such a parentage, and, we might almost add, than such an education! But true genius, if accompanied with discretion, surmounts all impediments. How satisfactorily Mr. Caley justified the confidence placed in him is well known. Indeed, it appears by his letters from Paramatta, Sydney, and other stations in the colony of New South Wales, that, as the illimitable field of Nature expanded before his enraptured gaze, proportionally did his powers of observation become enlarged. No branch of natural history seems to have been neglected: and the extensive collection of quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, in 1818 purchased by the Linnean Society, and still constituting the most splendid portion of that museum, will remain a lasting monument of his successful efforts. But having already, in some degree, fulfilled the intention proposed, and being reluctant further to trespass on your valuable pages, I conclude by subscribing myself, Sir, yours, very respectfully, WILLIAM WITHERING. Wick House, Feb. 10. 1830. ART. III. On the Habits of the Chameleon. By HENRY SLIGHT, Esq. M.R.C.S., Honorary Librarian to the Portsmouth Philosophical Institution. Sir, IN In your last Number (p. 188.), your ingenious correspondent J. H. Davies gives a short description of the chameleon. Now, the animal thus spoken of was sent with a smaller one from Malaga, as a present to me, by Colonel Craig: they arrived by the Duke of York steam-packet, on the return of the staff of the troops from Portugal, and were kept in my drawingroom for months. The larger one was of a lightish sap-green colour; the smaller one, much darker. They were kept on a wicker basket in the bow-window, not confined; and slept many hours in the day, lying on a projecting ridge of the wickerwork. During the sunshine, the animals rendered themselves flat, with a view to expose themselves as much as possible to the influence of the warmth; and they were at these times often of a greenish stone colour, and pale. If, however, disturbed, they contracted the abdomen, expanding the ribs, and often became instantaneously of a dark green or even indigo green colour. Sometimes only one side changed colour. The larger one was apparently vigorous, and in health: when awake, its eye (of a dark colour, and very lustrous) was constantly directed in every possible direction, the motions being by a kind of jerk, and very rapid, as if in search of food; of which, however, it partook sparingly. I was accustomed to put the common cockroach, in number about six or seven, in a shallow tin vessel, and to place the chameleon on the edge, its head projecting over the brim, to which its forceps were generally so firmly attached that it was often difficult to remove them. After making a circuit round some portion of the circle, the animal would distend the pouch beneath the jaws, expanding them two or three times in a trifling degree; and, stretching forward its body on the fore legs, it would suddenly dart out its tongue with such force as to make a very sensible ring or noise on the opposite side of the tin; would catch the beetle or roach on the trumpet-shaped extremity of the tongue, which was retracted as quick as lightning, and mastication and deglutition followed. In this manner it would take three or four of the insects from the vessel; but I could never induce it to take them from my hand, nor would it eat them when the mouth was opened, and the roach introduced with the fingers: a mode I was obliged to have recourse to with a view to feed the smaller one, which appeared languid, and died about two months after its arrival. It would, however, swallow the large flesh fly, if introduced into its mouth, although there was some difficulty in opening the jaws contrary to the will of the animal. They slept generally on the top of the basket, the heads projecting over the edge, and the tails curled round one of the small divisions of wickerwork; and it was curious to observe the firm attachment they had by this means. On going into the room with a candle, the creatures always appeared of a pale ashy stone colour, or VOL. III. No. 13. R a spectral blue, precisely similar in hue to the colour produced on the hand when held before a blue glass, as seen in the windows of chemists. Their motions were exceedingly slow, and they always firmly attached one leg to whatever substance they could reach, before they let go with the other. The creatures did not feed more than once in three or four days; and they would never catch any of the beetles with a hard covering, many species of which I collected in my walks, and exposed to them in the tin vessel. Several times I lost them, and was afraid to step about the room, lest, from their variety of colour, I should tread on them; but I generally found them in the folds of the curtains, always on the blue lining, and not on the chintz pattern. During the long time I kept them, they had alvine secretions, of a pale yellow colour, and in rounded conjoined lumps, not more than four times. I have often seen one side of the creatures, more especially the larger one, nearly stone colour, and the other a black green; and the changes of hue were always very rapid, and accompanied with either elevation or depression of the ribs. The skin of the creatures I should resemble to an infinite number of facets of a certain determinate figure; and I think the changes of colour depended on the power of the animals to elevate, alter, and depress the faces or angles of these facets (I am not much of a philosopher, and I scarcely know if I have rendered myself intelligible in this last sentence), and the consequent difference of angle at which the light was received. At the request of Lieut. Davies I gave them to him, with a view to his continuing observations on their habits and economy; and, therefore, it is probable that that gentleman, in whose possession they were for several weeks, will favour you with his remarks. Soon after Lieut. Davies's departure for Ireland, the animals died from the effect of cold, and are now in the museum of the Institution here. I am, Sir, &c. 110. High Street, Portsmouth, March 18. 1830. HENRY SLIght. ART. IV. Trait in the Habits of the Weasel, with Notes on the THE following story is told in Selkirkshire: "A group of haymakers, while busy at their work on Chapelhope meadow, at the upper end of St. Mary's Loch (or rather of the Loch of the Lowes, which is separated from it by a narrow neck of land), saw an eagle rising above the steep mountains that enclose the narrow valley. The eagle himself was, indeed, no unusual sight; but there is something so imposing and majestic in the flight of this noble bird, while he soars upwards in spiral circles, that it fascinates the attention of most people. But the spectators were soon aware of something peculiar in the flight of the bird they were observing. He used his wings violently; and the strokes were often repeated, as if he had been alarmed and hurried by unusual agitation; and they noticed, at the same time, that he wheeled in circles that seemed constantly decreasing, while his ascent was proportionally rapid. The now idle haymakers drew together in close consultation on the singular case, and continued to keep their eyes on the seemingly distressed eagle, until he was nearly out of sight, rising still higher and higher into the air. In a short while, however, they were all convinced that he was again seeking the earth, evidently not as he ascended, in spiral curves; it was like something falling, and with great rapidity. But, as he approached the ground, they clearly saw he was tumbling in his fall like a shot bird; the convulsive fluttering of his powerful wings stopping the descent but very little, until he fell at a small distance from the men and boys of the party, who had naturally run forward, highly excited by the strange occurrence. A large black-tailed weasel or stoat ran from the body as they came near, turned with the usual nonchalance and impudence of the tribe, stood up upon its hind legs, crossed its fore paws over its nose, and surveyed its enemies a moment or two (as they often do when no dog is near), and bounded into a saugh bush. The king of the air was dead; and, what was more surprising, he was covered with his own blood; and, upon further examination, they found his throat cut, and the stoat has been suspected as the regicide unto this day." This singular story I always looked upon as too good to be true, until lately a friend mentioned the following fact that came under his own observation :-A light snow covered the ground; and he, having walked out to an adjoining hill to meet with one of his shepherds, fell in with the track of one of these weasels, which is easily to be distinguished from that of the smaller species, by the larger footprint and length of the spring, among the snow. He followed the track for some time, for his amusement, along the side of the hill, until he came to the marks where a pair of grouse had been sitting, In general, the motion of his wings is hardly perceptible: an impetus is given, but the stroke is far between, and he seems impelled by some invisible power. |