Synopsis
Saga: Secrets of Nature
A precursor short film to the Secrets of Nature shorts.
The Life Story of the Cuckoo
A precursor short film to the Secrets of Nature shorts.
The Life Story of the Caddis Worm
A precursor short film to the Secrets of Nature shorts.
The Life Story of the Garden Spider
A Secrets of Nature short, shot in a Zoo.
Hand Versus Feet
The film shows a cuckoo caught in the act of laying an egg in the nest of two titlarks. The egg is hatched by the foster-mother, and she and her mate feed and tend the young cuckoo, even to the detriment of their own chicks.
The Cuckoo's Secret
A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the life-cycle of the Barn Owl.
The White Owl
A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the conflict between two colonies of wood ants joined by a piece of tiber laid across a moat at a zoological garden.
The Battle of the Ants
The pictures show how the ailanthus silkmoth and the red admiral spin silk and weave a cocoon, and the way in which the change from caterpillar to moth is affected.
Skilled Insect Artisans
Beneath the waves are mountains, plains and valleys full of life: here the conger, the octopus, and the wrasse hunt for food; shrimps and prawns act as scavengers; sea anemones and starfish decorate the seafloor, and the spider crab assumes protective colouring by covering its back with pebbles.
Fathoms Deep Beneath the Sea
Captivating slow-motion and quadrupeds aplenty in this fascinating look at animal movement.
Studies in Animal Motion
A study of the insect, from caterpillar to butterfly. Part of the “Secrets of Nature” series.
The Comma Butterfly
A sign of approaching winter - the frost catches the leaves which begin to fall.
Winter
Nature adapts the limbs of animals to the works they will be required to do. This principle is illustrated by the Lion, the Tiger, Leopard, Giant Ant-Eater, Armadillo, Camel, Reindeer, Gazelle, Fowl, Chameleon, Otter, Beaver, Penguin, Fruit-Bat, Spider Monkey and Gibbon.
Paws and Claws
High speed photography used to show the seed dispersal methods of various plants.
Seed Time
These pictures show the marvellous industry of the Bee, the ingenuity it exercises in making its home, and the ordered programme of life that it appears to follow.
Busy Bees
Short documentary film using innovative filming techniques to show how moulds grow and germinate.
The Plants of the Pantry
How science and nature combine to purify water in a reservoir. Micro-cinematography shows the bacteria present in the water.
The Story of a Glass of Water
Micro-cinematography is used to show how plants transform their secretions into other substances.
Plant Magic
A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the sexual elements of pollenation in Dandelion, Globe thistle, Daisy, Cornflower, Carline thistle and Everlastings.
Floral Co-operative Societies
A Secrets of Nature short film about a the cuckoo.
The Home Wrecker
A life history of the Frog. Released in a silent (1929) and sound (1930) version.
The Frog
Time lapse photography of the broad bean flower unfurling. Released in a silent (1929) and sound (1930) version.
Scarlet Runner & Co
A Secrets of Nature short.
Playtime at The Zoo
A Secrets of Nature short.
Special Messengers
A Secrets of Nature short.
Mighty Atoms
The world of fungi captured by micro-cinematography and time-lapse photography.
Plants of the Underworld
The film shows the birth, life and reproduction of sweet peas, a familiar and well loved plant of British gardeners.
Peas and Cues
The Strangler shows the life history of dodder, from its earliest stage as a seedling, to its parasitic stage feeding off its host.
The Strangler
The life cycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum Roseus).
The Aphis
A Secrets of Nature short.
Friendly Flies
A Secrets of Nature short.
The Light Of Love
A Secrets of Nature short.
In All His Glory
A Secrets of Nature short.
War in The Trees
Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.
Magic Myxies
Short documentary showing infusoria in a wine-glass.
The World in a Wine-Glass
The poppy flower in its psychedelic glory.
Dream Flowers
The breeding cycle of the bittern, the cryptically plumaged relative of the herons.
The Bittern
A Secrets of Nature short.
Water Folk
A Secrets of Nature short.
The Two Pounder
A Secrets of Nature short.
Great Crested Grebe
A Secrets of Nature short.
The Raiders of The Fens
A Secrets of Nature short.
The Froth Blower
A Secrets of Nature short film.
Short Eared Owl
A Secrets of Nature short film.
Springtime In The Scillies
A Secrets of Nature short.
Orphans of The Wood
The nightingale and its song, its habitat, nest eggs and young.
The Nightingale
Mary Field edits the time-lapse photography of F. Percy Smith to show the life cycle of ferns and related plants.
Nature's Double Lifters
Short, anthropomorphically-inclined documentary showing the life-cycle of the common newt.
Romance in a Pond
A short documentary study of hops, barley and yeast, and how they interact.
Brewster's Magic
The penultimate Secrets of Nature short.
