Secrets of Nature

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.

A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the life-cycle of the Barn 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 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.

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.

A sign of approaching winter - the frost catches the leaves which begin to fall.

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.

Short documentary film using innovative filming techniques to show how moulds grow and germinate.

A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring the sexual elements of pollenation in Dandelion, Globe thistle, Daisy, Cornflower, Carline thistle and Everlastings.

Time lapse photography of the broad bean flower unfurling. Released in a silent (1929) and sound (1930) version.

The film shows the birth, life and reproduction of sweet peas, a familiar and well loved plant of British gardeners.

The world of fungi captured by micro-cinematography and time-lapse photography.

The Strangler shows the life history of dodder, from its earliest stage as a seedling, to its parasitic stage feeding off its host.

The life cycle of the rose aphid (Macrosiphum Roseus).

Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.

Short documentary showing infusoria in a wine-glass.

The poppy flower in its psychedelic glory.

The breeding cycle of the bittern, the cryptically plumaged relative of the herons.

The nightingale and its song, its habitat, nest eggs and young.

Short, anthropomorphically-inclined documentary showing the life-cycle of the common newt.

A short documentary study of hops, barley and yeast, and how they interact.

Mosses are seen on walls, old roofs and in hedgerows.