The Swan And Her Crew Part 20

Meredith looked at them with keen interest, and resolved that he would do all in his power to turn out of his workshop (as he called it) three good specimens of G.o.d's handiwork and his own, and as far as in him lay he kept his vow.

Sat.u.r.day was a whole holiday, and as the boys met at the boat-house to be ready for anything which might turn up, Bell came to them and said, that while cutting the hay in a small meadow which he rented, he had come upon a landrail or corncrake, sitting on her eggs, and so close did she sit that he had cut off her head with his scythe. The boys went to see the nest and found eleven eggs in it, like those of the water-rail but larger. They were hard sat, which accounted for the old bird remaining on her nest until the last; but the boys knew how to blow hard-sat eggs, and took possession of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LANDRAIL OR CORNCRAKE.]

Pa.s.sing by Mrs. Brett's cottage they saw the old lady beckoning to them.

When they went to her she explained that she wanted them to aid her swallows. A pair of house-martins were flying about their nest in the eaves, uttering cries of distress.

"What is the matter? Have the sparrows taken possession of it?" said Frank.

"No, dear, but it seems breaking away from the wall. There are young ones in it, and I suppose the old birds did not make it strong enough to hold their weight. I am afraid it will fall down every minute."

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOUSE-MARTIN.]

The boys undertook to put matters right, and with the aid of a ladder they climbed up to the nest, and with a hammer and nails they nailed up the nest in a broad piece of flannel. While they were engaged in doing this, the martins ceased their cries, as if they knew that a friendly act was being done for them; and when the boys left the nest the birds returned to it, and by their busy twitterings and short excited flights seemed to wish to express their grat.i.tude.

Leaving the cottage, they went for a long aimless ramble through the fields and woods, trespa.s.sing with impunity, for they were well known everywhere, and visiting every hedgerow and copse on the look-out for nests.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SISKIN.]

They came to a field round which there were hedges unusually high and thick for Norfolk, which is a county of trim hedges and clean farming.

Almost the first nest they came to was that of a siskin. The old birds to which it belonged were hopping about the hedge. They were pretty lemon-coloured birds with a black patch on their heads and black on their wings. The boys watched them for some time, in order to make sure that they were indeed the siskin, for they are so very rare, especially during the breeding season, that very few nests have been found.

"Well, there can be no doubt about that," said Frank. "They are siskins sure enough. What a very lucky find! Now let us have a look at the nest."

Both nest and eggs were like those of a goldfinch, but the latter were much smaller than a goldfinch's eggs. The eggs were hard sat, but they took three of them and blew them safely; and as they were still doubting the reality of their good luck, when they went home they consulted their books, and Mr. Meredith, and all came to the conclusion that there could be no mistake about the birds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRYSALIS. PEAc.o.c.k b.u.t.tERFLY. CATERPILLAR.]

They found many more nests in that hedge. Most of them had young ones, for the season was now very far advanced.

d.i.c.k soon found something after his own heart, and this was a large bed of nettles. Every stem was covered with large, black, hairy caterpillars. These were the caterpillars of the peac.o.c.k b.u.t.terfly,--that splendid insect, which with its crimson and black, and the gorgeous peac.o.c.k eyes which adorn its wings, is so conspicuous an object in the country in the summer. It is a great pleasure to me to see it as it sits on its favourite perch, the top of a nettle or a bramble, and opens and shuts its wings with the fanning motion peculiar to its tribe. d.i.c.k marked this spot, and in a short time he came to gather the gilded chrysalides which on every plant shone brightly in the sunshine.

These he gathered and put in a safe place, and during the summer it was a great pleasure to him to watch the outcoming of these resplendent insects. Just before they were ready to emerge, the colours of their wings could be seen through the thin case which covered them, and with this warning he was often able to catch the insect at the instant of their appearance. Not long afterwards he found a colony of the caterpillars of the red admiral b.u.t.terfly, a large black insect with crimson bands round its wings, and the under surface marbled with the most delicate tracery of brown and grey. As far as size and beauty go, these two b.u.t.terflies may be said to be the gems of the entomologist's cabinet. They are common enough in the south, and the young entomologist may look forward to catching or breeding them his first year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RED ADMIRAL b.u.t.tERFLY.]

The afternoon was exceedingly hot, and the sun blazed from a cloudless sky, and birds'-nesting and b.u.t.terfly-hunting was tiring work. The scent of the hay made the air fragrant, and the sharp whisk of the scythes of the mowers in those meadows which were not yet cut, was the only sound which disturbed the evening stillness.

Crossing one of the commons which are to be met with everywhere in the enclosed districts of Norfolk, they saw a little brown bird fly out of a hole in a low hedge bank. Very cleverly hidden there, in a hole covered with a clump of primrose flowers, was a winchat's nest. It contained five blue eggs spotted with rusty red at the large end. Taking two of these they went on their way, and presently entered a thick and tangled wood, where the underwood was so close that they could with difficulty make their way through it. The brambles and briars were breast high, and the ground was ankle deep in half rotten leaves of the previous year.

In a bush through which Jimmy was trying to force his way he saw a nest, which he took to be a thrush's or blackbird's. He put in his hand just to see if there were any eggs in, and to his surprise he felt something cold and slimy. Before he could withdraw his hand he felt a sharp blow and a p.r.i.c.k on his finger, and he drew back with a cry of dismay as he saw a viper uncoiling itself from the nest and wriggle down to the ground, where it was soon lost in the thick vegetation. Frank and d.i.c.k hurried up to him, and he held out his finger, in which were two small blue punctures.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINCHAT AND EGG.]

"An adder has bitten me," he said, with blanched cheeks.

Frank at once whipped out his penknife, and seizing Jimmy's hand, he made a deep cross cut over the bites, and as the blood began to flow, he put the finger to his mouth and tried to suck the poison out with all the force of his strong young lungs, only just waiting to say to d.i.c.k--

"Go at once to the village and get a bottle of olive-oil at the chemist's, and come back to the cottage at the edge of the wood. Be as quick as you can."

d.i.c.k burst out of the wood and set off for the village, which was a mile away as the crow flies. As straight as an arrow and as fleet as a deer, d.i.c.k sped on his friendly errand, and in six minutes he had reached the chemist's. The chemist gave him what he asked for, saying, that if rubbed in before the fire it was the best remedy.

"Are snake-bites fatal?" said d.i.c.k.

"No, sir, not in England, unless the person bitten is very delicate; but they are very painful, and I should advise you to be quick back."

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIPER.]

d.i.c.k was off again at the top of his speed, and reached the cottage a quarter of an hour after he had left Frank and Jimmy.

"Well done, d.i.c.k!" said Frank; "but go outside and face the wind a bit.

You are dead beat."

Jimmy was pale, but collected. His arm had swelled up to a great size already, and was very painful. Frank held his hand as near the fire as he could bear it, and rubbed the olive-oil in for half an hour; and then d.i.c.k and Frank walked him home between them. Mrs. Brett was naturally much alarmed, but Frank soothed her fears, and Jimmy was put to bed.

"Thank you, Frank," he said, "I am awfully much obliged to you."

"Then prove it by going quietly to sleep if you can. You will be all right in a day or two."

"How did you know about the olive-oil being a cure, Frank?"

"I was reading about it not a week ago, and as we were walking along this afternoon I was, strange to say, thinking about it, and imagining that I was bitten and curing myself, like one does make up pictures and rehea.r.s.e scenes to oneself, when one has nothing better to do. It was a very strange coincidence."[1]

[1] The best remedy for viper-bite is the injection of ammonia into the veins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMON RINGED SNAKE.]

Frank went home with d.i.c.k, and they took a short cut through the copse.

d.i.c.k was looking about him very suspiciously, seeing the coils of an adder in every twisted root. Suddenly his eye caught sight of a snake lying across the path.

"There is another viper!" he exclaimed.

"No, it is only a snake," said Frank, coolly stooping down and taking the snake in his hand, while it coiled about his arm. d.i.c.k looked horrified.

"Won't it bite?" he said.

"No, d.i.c.k. Don't you know the difference between a snake and a viper?

Then I'll tell you. The viper is ash-brown in colour. Its neck is narrower and its head broader in proportion. The viper has a couple of fangs, or long hollow teeth, which lie flat along the back of its mouth, but when it is angry it opens its mouth, erects its teeth and strikes with them. They are hollow, and down through the tubes the poison comes from a bag at their roots. The snake has no such teeth, and it is harmless, for it cannot sting, as many country people think it can, with its long forked tongue which it is now shooting out. Then the snake lays eggs. I dare say if we were to dig in the manure-heaps in the farm-yard, we should find a lot of white eggs covered with a tough, soft skin and joined together with a sort of glue. The viper's eggs are hatched inside it, and the young ones are born alive."

"I have read that the young ones of the viper will run down their parent's throat when alarmed for safety. Is that true?"

"It seems so strange that I can scarcely think it to be true, but so many respectable people say they have seen it that one does not like to say that it is not so; and it is, of course, difficult to prove a negative. I suppose the question will be settled some day."

The snake Frank held in his hand was a large and handsome one. It was olive-grey in colour, with rows of black spots on its back and sides, and greenish-yellow beneath, tinged with black. The snake changes its skin just like a caterpillar, but the skin preserves the shape of the snake, and is a very pretty object. Often have I seen a sunny corner in a quiet wood covered with many of these cast-off skins all glittering in the sunlight; and they are so very like real snakes as easily to deceive the casual observer.

During the winter both vipers and snakes hybernate in holes, or under tree-roots, and require no food.

The slow-worm or blind-worm is often mistaken for the snake. It is about twelve inches long, with a smooth skin, and is dull brown in colour. It possesses a curious faculty of parting with its tail when it chooses.

If it is seized by the hand or otherwise annoyed, the tail separates from the body and commences a series of war-dances on its own account.

While you are occupied in observing this, the body quietly and expeditiously moves away out of danger. Snakes and vipers live on frogs, small birds, &c., when they can catch them. The slow-worm lives almost entirely upon the white garden-slug.