Part 43

Note 10: p. 75.--Reindeer devouring Lemming.

With reference to Brehm’s statement as to reindeer eating lemming, I may note a report on creditable authority that in the hard winter 1894-5 stags in Aberdeenshire were known to have eaten rabbits.

Note 11: p. 76.--Migration of the Lemming.

A careful discussion of the strange migratory instinct of the lemming will be found in the late Mr. Romanes’s Mental Evolution in Animals.

Note 12: p. 77.--Food of the Reindeer.

Though the reindeer may eat grasses and aquatic plants, its great resource is the so-called reindeer-moss, which is really a lichen, common on the mountain heights of the interior where the herds pass the winter.

Note 13: p. 80.--The Phalarope.

Of the Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) and the Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus hyperboreus), both occurring in Britain, Professor Newton says: “A more entrancing sight to the ornithologist can hardly be presented than by either of these species. Their graceful form, their lively coloration, and the confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their breeding-quarters, can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delightful sight to watch the birds gathering their food in the high--running surf, or, when that is done, peacefully floating outside the breakers.” See also Collett’s Bird Life in Arctic Norway.

Note 14: p. 84.--Sense of smell and touch.

The somewhat mysterious reference which Brehm makes to a sense between smell and touch is thoroughly justifiable. To the senses of many of the lower animals--and even of fishes--it is exceedingly difficult to apply our fairly definite human conceptions of smell, taste, touch, &c.

Note 15: p. 85.--Mosquitoes.

This general term covers a large number of species belonging to the gnat genus (Culex). They are very various in size, and are widely distributed from the Tropics to the Poles. Their larvæ are aquatic, and for their abundance the tundra obviously offers every opportunity.

THE ASIATIC STEPPES AND THEIR FAUNA.

See--

Bovalet, G. Through the Heart of Asia (trans. by C. B. Pitman, 2 vols, London, 1889).

Jackson, F. G. The Great Frozen Land, cited above.

Note 16: p. 91.--Flora of the steppe.

According to Seebohm (op. cit.), “The cause of the treeless condition of the steppes or prairies has given rise to much controversy. My own experience in Siberia convinced me that the forests were rocky, and the steppes covered with a deep layer of loose earth, and I came to the conclusion that on the rocky ground the roots of the trees were able to establish themselves firmly, so as to defy the strongest gales, which tore them up when they were planted in loose soil. Other travellers have formed other opinions. Some suppose that the prairies were once covered with trees, which have been gradually destroyed by fires. Others suggest that the earth on the treeless plains contains too much salt or too little organic matter to be favourable to the growth of trees. No one, so far as I know, has suggested a climatic explanation of the circumstances. Want of drainage may produce a swamp, and the deficiency of rainfall may cause a desert, both conditions being fatal to forest growth, but no one can mistake either of these treeless districts for a steppe or a prairie.” See also for general description of steppe vegetation Kerner’s Plant Life and Wiesner’s Biologic der Pflanzen.

Note 17: p. 97.--The Quagga.

The true quagga (Equus quagga), intermediate between zebras and asses, is no longer known to exist, though it was described by Sir Cornwallis Harris in 1839 as occurring in immense herds. The name quagga is given by the Boers to Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchelli).

The same sad fact of approaching extermination must be noted in regard to not a few noble animals, e.g. rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and giraffe.

Selous writes in 1893: “To the best of my belief, the great white or square-mouthed rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus), the largest of modern terrestrial mammals after the elephant, will, in the course of the next few years, become absolutely extinct. Yet, twenty years ago, it was a common animal over an enormous extent of country in Central South Africa.

“Never again will the traveller be able to stand upon his wagon-box, and, like Burchell, Andrew Smith, Cornwallis Harris, and Gordon Cumming, scan plains literally darkened by thousands upon thousands of wildebeests, quaggas, Burchell’s zebras, blesboks, hartebeests, and spring-boks.”

Note 18: p. 97.--The Buffalo.

The American bison or buffalo (Bos americanus) is now practically exterminated.

Two sentences from An Introduction to the Study of Mammals, by Sir W. H. Flower and Mr. R. Lydekker (London, 1891), put the case in a nutshell.

“The multitudes in which the American bison formerly existed are almost incredible; the prairies being absolutely black with them as far as the eye could reach, the numbers in the herds being reckoned by millions.”

With the completion of the Kansas Branch of the Pacific Railway in 1871, the extraordinarily careless and ruthless slaughter began. In less than ten years bison-shooting ceased to be profitable.