blood. And the same may be better made out, if (as some relate) their feathers on that part are sometimes observed to be red and tinctured with blood.9 CHAPTER II. Of the Picture of Dolphins. THAT dolphins are crooked, is not only affirmed by the hand of the painter, but commonly conceived their natural and proper figure, which is not only the opinion of our times, but seems the belief of elder times before us. For, beside the expressions of Ovid and Pliny, the portraits in some ancient coins are framed in this figure, as will appear in some thereof in Gesner, others in Goltsius, and Lævinus Hulsius in his description of coins from Julius Cæsar unto Rodolphus the second. Notwithstanding, to speak strictly, in their natural figure they are straight, nor have their spine convexed, or more considerably embowed, than sharks, porpoises,1 whales, and other cetaceous animals, as Scaliger plainly affirmeth; Corpus habet non magis curvum quàm reliqui pisces. As ocular enquiry informeth; and as, unto such as have not had the opportunity to behold them, their proper portraits will dis ed by the dean, is probably the common dolphin,-Delphinus Delphis; but the porpoise is a different animal, Delphis Phocana, now constituted a distinct ge nus. Ray, however, says, that the porpoise is the dolphin of the ancients. The following passage from his Philosophical Letters, p. 46, corroborates the dean's proposed etymology. It occurs in a letter to Dr. Martin Lister, May 7, 1669. "Totam corpus copiosâ et densâ pinguedine, (piscatores blubber vocant) duorum plus minus digitorum crassitie undique integebatur, immediate sub cute, et supra carnem musculosam sita, ut in porcis; ob quam rationem, et quod porcorum grunnitum quadantenus imitetur, porpesse,-i. e. porcum piscem, dictum eum existimo." 2 cover in Rondeletius, Gesner, and Aldrovandus. And as indeed is deducible from pictures themselves; for though they be drawn repandous, or convexedly crooked in one piece, yet the dolphin that carrieth Arion is concavously inverted, and hath its spine depressed in another. And answerably hereunto may we behold them differently bowed in medals, and the dolphins of Tarus and Fulius do make another flexure from that of Commodus and Agrippa. And therefore what is delivered of their incurvity, must either be taken emphatically, that is, not really, but in appearance; which happeneth when they leap above water and suddenly shoot down again: which is a fallacy in vision, whereby straight bodies in a sudden motion protruded obliquely downward, appear unto the eye crooked; and this is the construction of Bellonius: or, if it be taken really, it must not universally and perpetually; that is, not when they swim and remain in their proper figures, but only when they leap, or impetuously whirl their bodies any way; and this is the opinion of Gesnerus. Or lastly, it may be taken neither really nor emphatically, but only emblematically; for being the hieroglyphick of celerity, and swifter than other animals, men best expressed their velocity by incurvity, and under some figure of a bow; and in this sense probably do heralds 4 being no fish else that loves the company of men." "Some authors, more especially the ancients, have asserted that dolphins have a lively and natural affection towards the human species, with which they are easily led to familiarize. They have recounted many marvellous stories on this subject. All that is known with certainty is, that when they perceive a ship at sea, they rush in a crowd before it, surround it, and express their confidence by rapid, varied, and repeated evolutions, sometimes bounding, leaping, and manoeuvering in all manner of ways; sometimes performing complicated circumvolutions, and exhibiting a degree of grace, agility, dexterity, and strength, which is perfectly astonishing. Perhaps however they follow the track of vessels with no other view than the hopes of preying on something that may fall from them".-Cuvier, by Griffiths. also receive it, when, from a dolphin extended, they distinguish a dolphin embowed. And thus also must that picture be taken of a dolphin clasping an anchor; that is, not really, as is by most conceived out of affection unto man, conveying the anchor unto the ground; but emblematically, according as Pierius hath expressed it, the swiftest animal conjoined with that heavy body, implying that common moral, festina lentè: and that celerity should always be contempered with cunctation. CHAPTER III. Of the Picture of a Grasshopper. THERE is also among us a common description and picture of a grasshopper, as may be observed in the pictures of emblematists, in the coats of several families, and as the word cicada is usually translated in dictionaries. Wherein to speak strictly, if by this word grasshopper, we understand that animal which is implied by rerr with the Greeks, and by cicada with the Latins, we may with safety affirm the picture is widely mistaken, and that for aught enquiry can inform, there is no such insect in England. Which how paradoxical soever, upon a strict enquiry, will prove undeniable truth. 5 a dolphin clasping an anchor.] The device of the family of Manutius, celebrated as learned printers at Venice and Rome. See Alciati Emblem. cxliv. 6 no such insect in England.] It is perfectly true that, till recently, no species of the true Linnæan Cicadæ, (Tettigonia, Fab.) had been discovered in Great Britain. About twenty years since, I had the pleasure of adding this classical and most interesting genus to the British Fauna. Having, about that time, engaged Mr. Daniel Bydder, (a weaver in Spitalfields, and a very enthusiastic entomologist,) to collect for me in the New Forest, Hampshire, I received from him thence many valuable insects from time to time, and at length, to my surprise and great satisfaction, a pair of CICADE! Mr. John Curtis (since de- For first, that animal which the French term sauterelle, we a grasshopper, and which under this name is commonly described by us, is named "Azgıç by the Greeks, by the Latins locusta, and by ourselves in proper speech a locust; as in the diet of John Baptist, and in our translation, "the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands."* Again, between the cicada and that we call a grasshopper, the differences are very many, as may be observed in themselves, or their descriptions in Matthiolus, Aldrovandus, and Muffetus. For first, they are differently cucullated or capuched upon the head and back, and in the cicada the eyes are more prominent: the locusts have antennæ or long horns before, with a long falcation or forcipated tail behind: and being ordained for saltation, their hinder legs do far exceed the other. The locust or our grasshopper hath teeth, the cicada none at all; nor any mouth, according unto Aristotle. The cicada is most upon trees; and lastly, the frittinnitus, or proper note thereof, is far more shrill than that of the locust, and its life so short in summer, that for provision it needs not have recourse unto the providence of the pismire in winter. And therefore where the cicada must be understood, the pictures of heralds and emblematists are not exact, nor is it safe to adhere unto the interpretation of dictionaries, and we must with candour make out our own translations; for in the plague of Egypt, Exodus x, the word "Angis is translated a locust, but in the same sense and subject, Wisdom xvi, it is translated a grasshopper; "for them the bitings of grasshoppers and flies killed;" whereas we have declared before the cicada hath no teeth, but is conceived to live upon dew, Proverbs xxx. in so high terms of his account of its original discovery. I cannot understand why he has thus dryly noticed it: "C. Anglica was first discovered in the New Forest, about twenty years ago." I should have supposed that it might have given him some pleasure to attach to his narrative the name of an old friend, from whom he had received early and valuable assistance, and to whom he was indebted for his acquaintance with the art he has so long and so successfully pursued. At all events he ought to have recorded the name of the poor man by whose industry and perseverance the discovery was effected. 7 The locust, &c.] Both the locusta and cicade are furnished with teeth-if by that term we are to understand mandibule and maxilla. But in cicada they are not so obvious; being enclosed in the labium. This conformation probably led Aristotle to say they had no mouth. and the possibility of its subsistence is disputed by Licetus. Hereof I perceive Muffetus hath taken notice, dissenting from Langius and Lycosthenes, while they deliver the cicada destroyed the fruits in Germany, where that insect is not found, and therefore concludeth, Tam ipsos quàm alios deceptos fuisse autumo, dum locustas cicadas esse vulgari errore crederent. And hereby there may be some mistake in the due dispensation of medicines desumed from this animal, particularly of diatettigon, commended by Etius, in the affections of the kidnies. It must be likewise understood with some restriction what hath been affirmed by Isidore, and yet delivered by many, that cicades are bred out of cuckoo-spittle or woodsear, that is, that spumous frothy dew or exudation, or both, found upon plants, especially about the joints of lavender and rosemary, observable with us about the latter end of May. For here the true cicada is not bred; but certain it is, that out of this, some kind of locust doth proceed, for herein may be discovered a little insect of a festucine or pale green, resembling in all parts a locust, or what we call a grasshopper. Lastly, the word itself is improper, and the term grasshopper not appliable unto the cicada; for therein the organs of motion are not contrived for saltation, nor have the hinder legs of such extension, as is observable in salient animals, and such as move by leaping. Whereto the locust is very well conformed, for therein the legs behind are longer than all the body, and make at the second joint acute angles, at a considerable advancement above their backs. The mistake therefore with us might have its original from a defect in our language, for having not the insect with us, we have not fallen upon its proper name, and so make use of a term common unto it and the locust; whereas other countries have proper expressions for it. So the Italian calls it 8 cicades are bred, &c.] Here is another error. The froth spoken of is always found to contain the larva of a little skipping insect, frequently mis-called a cicada, but properly cercopis; allied in form to cicada, and of the same order, viz. homoptera, but very distinct in generic character, and especially without the power of sound. It has no great resemblance to locusta, which belong to a distinct order, viz. orthoptera. |
