The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 38

"In every sh.e.l.l that I opened," he continues, "I found a perfect sea-fowl; the little bill like that of a goose; the eyes marked; the head, neck, breast, wing, tail, and feet formed; the feathers everywhere perfectly shaped, and blackish coloured; and the feet like those of other water-fowl, to my best remembrance."

It is not to be supposed, however, that there were none who doubted this marvellous story, or who took steps to refute it. Belon, so long ago as 1551, and others after him, treated it with ridicule, and a refutation may be found in Willughby's "Ornithology," which was edited by Ray in 1678. An excellent account of the Barnacle was published by Mr. Thompson in the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1835, while the latest and most complete treatise on the subject is Mr. Darwin's "Monograph of the Cirrhipedia," published by the Ray Society.

What, then, is the marine production from which the Barnacle Goose was thought to be engendered? Merely certain sh.e.l.l-covered cirrhipedous creatures, called Barnacles (_Lepas anatifera_--Linn.), which are to be found adhering in cl.u.s.ters to floating logs of wood, the timbers of wrecked vessels, the sides of rocks, and other objects which afford a secure attachment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARNACLES. _From nature._]

Each individual consists of a body enclosed in a sh.e.l.l, not unlike that of a mussel in figure, and of a fleshy worm-like stem or peduncle, the extremity of which is fixed to the object upon which the animal is stationed. This stem is tubular, tolerably firm, and has a fleshy feel; it is composed exteriorly of a fine coriaceous outer membrane, bedewed with a watery fluid, and beneath this, of an inner membrane of considerable density, apparently consisting of muscular fibres, running for the most part in parallel longitudinal lines. That these fibres are muscular we may conclude from the animal having the power of contracting the stem, or of twisting it in various directions. Within the tube there is a fluid secretion.

The sh.e.l.l is composed of five pieces, four of which are lateral, two on each side; while between the valves down the back is interposed a single narrow slip uniting them together. Their colour is white, more or less tinged with purplish blue. Along the anterior margin the valves are but partially connected by a membrane, leaving a large fissure, through which emerge the plumose and jointed arms or cirrhi.

The food of the Barnacles consists of small crustacea and mollusca.

These are entangled by the many-jointed plumose cirrhi, which are perpetually thrown out and folded again, so as to serve the purpose of a casting-net, and drag the prey to the mouth, where it is seized and crushed.

With regard to the reproduction of these creatures, the eggs are seen enclosed at certain times within the hollow of the peduncle, where they appear of a blue colour, and render the pedicle opaque; from this they pa.s.s through a minute conduit into the cavity of the mantle, where they are arranged like two leaflets, attached to the septum between the body and the peduncle. They are enclosed in a film, out of which they fall when ready to hatch.

It is a remarkable fact, as we learn from Mr. Thompson[147], that the young barnacles and other cirrhipeda on emerging from the egg are quite free, and very different from their parents. "They possess locomotive organs, consisting of a large anterior pair of limbs, provided with a sucker, and hooks for the purpose of mooring themselves at pleasure to various objects--and also of six pairs of swimming-limbs, acting in concert like oars. Besides these, they have a tail bent under the body, consisting of two joints and terminating in four bristles: this is an additional locomotive organ. Thus endowed, they swim along in a series of bounds, the oars and tail giving in measured time successive impulses. They have, moreover, large lateral eyes set on peduncles, and the body is covered with a sort of sh.e.l.l, as in certain crustacea (_e.g._ _Cyclops_), which they closely resemble," and for which Mr.

Thompson at first mistook them.

In due time a metamorphosis takes place; the sh.e.l.l is thrown off, the eyes disappear, the limbs become transformed to cirrhi, the regular valves develop themselves, the peduncle shoots forth, and the animal becomes permanently fixed.

Believing these little creatures to be the larvae of some crustaceous animal, some of them, says Mr. Thompson, were collected in the spring, and in order to see what changes they might undergo, were kept in a gla.s.s vessel, covered by such a depth of sea-water, that they could be examined at any time by means of a common magnifying-gla.s.s. They were taken May 1st, and on the night of the 8th the author had the satisfaction to find that two of them had thrown off their exuviae, and, wonderful to say, were firmly adhering to the bottom of the vessel, and changed to young barnacles. In this stage the sutures between the valves of the sh.e.l.l and of the operculum were visible, and the movements of the arms of the animal within, although these last were not completely developed: the eyes also were still perceptible, although the princ.i.p.al part of the colouring-matter appeared to have been thrown off with the exuviae. On the 10th another individual was seen in the act of throwing off its sh.e.l.l, and attaching itself as the others to the bottom of the gla.s.s. It only remains to add, that as the secretion of the calcareous matter goes on in the compartments destined for the valves of the sh.e.l.ly covering, the eyes gradually disappear, from the increasing opacity thence produced, and the visual ray is extinguished for the remainder of the animal's life; the arms at the same time acquire their usual ciliated appearance. Thus, then, an animal originally natatory and locomotive, and provided with a distinct organ of sight, becomes permanently and immovably fixed, and its optic apparatus obliterated; and furnishes not only a new and important physiological fact, but is the only instance in nature of so extraordinary a metamorphosis.

We have been thus led to dilate upon barnacles in connection with Shakespeare's allusion to them, at somewhat greater length than we should otherwise have done, on account of the interest which attaches to the old story, handed down through so many centuries, and because we have looked into many books in vain for a plain account of its origin, and a modern description of the cirrhiped devoid of scientific technicalities.

With this apology, then, to the reader, we return to the birds.

[Sidenote: WILD-FOWL.]

The following dialogue between Malvolio and the Clown, in _Twelfth Night_, concerning wild-fowl, has reference to the theory of Pythagoras on the subject of the transmigration of souls, and is quite as applicable to birds in general as to wild-fowl in particular:--

"_Clo._ What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild-fowl?

_Mal._ That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

_Clo._ What thinkest thou of his opinion?

_Mal._ I think n.o.bly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.

_Clo._ Fare thee well: remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits; and fear to kill a woodc.o.c.k, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well."--_Twelfth Night_, Act iv. Sc. 2.[148]

Amongst the wild-fowl may be cla.s.sed the various species of divers and grebes which frequent our sh.o.r.es and harbours, especially in winter, and which afford good sport to the gunner, by their wonderful power of diving long distances in their efforts to escape.

[Sidenote: THE LOON.]

The provincial name of "loon" (_Macbeth_, Act v. Sc. 3) is applied both to a diver and to a grebe. On many parts of the coast the red-throated diver (_Colymbus septentrionalis_) is known as the "loon," "speckled loon," and "sprat loon." In Norfolk, the name is applied to the great-crested grebe (_Podiceps cristatus_).

Shakespeare employs the term "loon" as synonymous with "coward;" and if we call to mind the habits of the two birds to which the same name has been applied, it is certainly not ill bestowed upon one who lacks courage to face an enemy.

Another species of grebe is referred to by Shakespeare in his _Venus and Adonis_:--

"Like a _dive-dapper_ peering through a wave, Who, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in."

This is the little grebe, or dabchick (_Podiceps minor_). In some parts of the country we have heard it called "di' dapper," but it was not until we had met with the pa.s.sage above quoted that the meaning of the word became apparent.

On the subject of "loons," the Rev. H. Jones has some appropriate remarks in a volume of essays ent.i.tled "Holiday Papers" (p. 65). "The great-crested grebe, or loon," he says, "is a giant compared to our little friend the dabchick, and altogether makes a more respectable appearance, both in picture and pond. The habits and figure of the two birds, though, are much the same. There are numbers of loons on the 'broads' of Norfolk. Indeed it is in East Anglia that I have most especially watched the dabchick. These loons, like the lesser grebes, incubate and leave their eggs in the wet, and meet with the same ridiculous failure when they attempt to walk. Like them, they are capital divers, and begin from the egg."

[Sidenote: THE CORMORANT.]

Close to the divers in the natural system of birds come the cormorants, whose powers of swimming are in no way inferior to those of the species we have just named. They swim so low in the water that nothing but the head, neck, and top of the back appear above the surface. The tail, composed of stiff elastic feathers, is submerged and used as a rudder, and the wings as oars. The address with which they dive, and the rapidity of their movements, are wonderful; no less so than the pertinacity with which they pursue their prey. Voracious in the extreme,--

"Insatiate cormorant."

_Richard II._ Act ii. Sc. 1;

they are unwearied and active fishers, following their prey under water like the otter, only coming to the surface occasionally for breath.

[Sidenote: FISHING WITH CORMORANTS.]

Indeed the voracity of this bird, which, doubtless, suggested the name _cormora.n.u.s_, has become so proverbial, that a man of large appet.i.te is often likened to a cormorant.

In this sense Shakespeare has frequently employed the word as an adjective, and we find such expressions as--

"The cormorant belly."

_Coriola.n.u.s_, Act i. Sc. 1.

"This cormorant war."

_Troilus and Cressida_, Act ii. Sc. 2.

And--

"Cormorant devouring time."

_Love's Labour's Lost_, Act i. Sc. 1.

[Sidenote: THE KING'S CORMORANTS.]

Ravenous as the cormorant is, it is easily tamed, and becomes very attached and familiar. The use of trained cormorants for fishing is very ancient, and is believed to have originated with the Chinese.[149] The practice has been known in England, however, for many centuries. Ogleby, who went on an emba.s.sy to China in the time of James I., and who published an account of his travels on his return, describes the way in which the Chinese take fish with cormorants. James himself, who was a great sportsman, kept trained cormorants for many years, and was accustomed to travel about the country with them, fishing as he went.

We have seen a curious MS. diary[150] in the British Museum, written in old French, by Hans Jacob Wurmser v. Vendenheym, who accompanied Lewis Frederick, Duke of Wurtemberg, in his diplomatic mission to England in 1610, from which it appears that the Duke, proceeding by Ware, Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, arrived at Thetford on the 7th of May,[151]

where King James the First was then amusing himself with hunting, hawking, and fishing with cormorants.

The entry with reference to the cormorants is as follows:--

Lundy 7.