Vol. VIL JANUARY, 1900. BN ast No, §.
The beautiful is as ueeful as the useful. —Mider Huge.

\

_

a
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4

AND ALL

i CONTENTS. Page.
4 ANUARY [Poem] e = : “ “ “ u e é I
i HE OLD YEAR AND YOUNG YEAR [Poem] (Nora Perry) .- ° . J

THE VIRGINIA RAIL [Illustration] ; 2 . ° ° e ° 2-3
COTTON FABRICS (W.E. Watt, A.M.) . 9 eh OORT eg e 5
THE WISE LITTLE BIRD [Poem] . - Pa ia, 7
GRASSHOPPER SPIDER (Charles Cristadoro) wf 0S. 2 thr we 8
BLUE WINGED TEAL _ [Illustration] ow oe) : : e an, “MQ I0-15

THE GRAY STUMP (Nell Kimberly McElhone} “- . ° ° Pid Sir: Yop ¥-
REMEMBERED SONGS [Poem] 4 . ‘ . ° ‘ Wines
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD _[Iflustration]} ° - 1 ° ° 14-17
WITH OPEN EYES (Olive Schreiner) BM ilerete «| ‘ ie ° we of 18
BIRD NOTES (Anne Wakely Jackson) ; és EF on | en Ce te 19
SOUTHWARD BOUND (EllaF.Mosby) .- Sane TRE Lo te 20

THE BLACK SQUIRREL [Illustration] . ° ° Ree er ent Tile « 22-23

THE ROBIN’S MISTAKE (L. Whitney Watkins < ft . . 24

THE DOVE. NOAH’S MESSENGER (Granville Osborne) . ‘ a * 25

THE WEASEL [Illustration] ® 4 ~ <4 . 4 26

i BIRDS AND THE WEATHER : : . < 29
STRANGE ILLUMINATIONS (P.W.H.) . . 3 ! a 3 30

THE PINK HOUSE IN THE APPLE TREE (Nelly Hart Woodworth) . ‘ 31

THE QUINCE (Dr. Albert Schneider) [Illustration] - u ° p 34-35
DIAMONDS AND GOLD 5 z é f - 5 ‘ 36

{ LIQUID AIR J S 5 4 : A 4 = : 37

j COMMON MINERALS AND VALUABLE ORES (Theo. F. Brookins, B.S.)

} {Iffustration) . : ; ‘ i d ° ° ° 38-39

THE DANGER FROM THE IMPORTATION OF ANIMALS. . ° 43
THE AMERICAN BISON : 42

THE TURTLE DOVE [Poem (Granville Osborne} 2s he a dae 44

THE SORROWFUL TREE : 44
MARKED WITH BLEEDING HEARTS i i S é ‘ 44
LILY OF THE VALLEY (Prof. W.K. Higiey) [Illustration] . j i 45-47
MUSHROOMS ON BENCHES : : u Q d : ‘ v 48

EpiItep By C. C. MARBLE.
ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

a Sere ry

oe

PAU RYA

Copyright 1900 by Nature Study Pub. Co.

BIRDS AND

IMustrated by Golor Photography.
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NEW YORK | Principal, Graham School, Chicago.

OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF MACBETH.

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Partial Contents for December, 1899. TEACHERS’ FoRUM: REVIEW OF CuR-
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COLORE

PICTURES, (Natural Colors) in monthly sets of ten, for 1897, each set 15 cents, or 12 sets

$1.50. For 1898, each monthly set of eight 12 cents, or 12 sets for $1.25. 1899 picturesin monthly sets of eight

each 12 cents, orentire year’s collection, 10 months, $1.
order received for less than 20 pictures.

JANUARY, 1897.
1 Nonpareil.
2 Resplendent Trogon.
3 Mandarin Duck.
4 Golden Pheasant.
5 Australian Parrakeet.
6 Cock of the Rock.
7 Red Bird of Paradise.
8 Yellow-throated Toucan.
9 Red-rumped Tanager.
10 Golden Oriole.

FEBRUARY, 1897.
11 American Blue Jay.
12 Swallow-tailed Indian Roller.
13 Red-headed Woodpecker.
14 Mexican Mot Mot.
15 King Parrot.
16 American Robin.
17 American Kingfisher.
18 Blue-mountain Lory.
19 Red-winged Black Bird.
20 Cardinal, or Red Bird.

MARCH, 1897.
21 Blue Bird.
22 Barn Swallow.
23 Brown Thrasher.
24 Japan Pheasant.
25 Bobolink
26 American Crow.
27 Flicker.
28 Black Tern.
29 Meadow Lark.
30 Great Horned Owl.

APRIL, 1897.
31 Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
32 Canada Jay.
33 Purple Gallinule.
34 Smith’s Longspur.
35 American Red Crossbills.
36 California Woodpecker.
37 Pied-billed Grebe.
38 Bohemian Wax Wing.
39 Long-billed Marsh Wren.
40 Arizona Jay.

MAY, 1897.
41 Screech Owl.
42 Orchard Oriole.
43 Marsh Hawk.
44 Scissor-tailed Fiycatcher.
45 Black-capped Chickadee.
46 Prothonotary Warbler.
47 Indigo Bird.
48 Night Hawk.
49 Wood Thrush.
50 Cat Bird.

JUNE, 1897.
51 Yellow-throated Vireo.
52 American Mocking Bird.
53 Black-crowned Night Heron
54 Ring-billed Gull.
55 Logger-head Shrike.
56 Baltimore Oriole.
57 Snowy Owl.
58 Scarlet Tanager.
59 Ruffed Grouse.
60 Black and White Creeping
Warbler.

JULY, 1897.
61 American Kald Eagle.
62 Ring Plover.
63 Mallard Duck.
64 American Avocet.
65 Canvas-back Duck.
66 Wood Duck
67 Anhinga, or Snake Bird.
68 American Woodcock,
69 White-winged Scoter.
70 Snowy Heron, or Little Egret.

AUGUST, 1897.
71 Osprey.
72 Sora Rail.
73 Kentucky Warbler.
74 Red-breasted Merganser
75 Yellow Legs.
76 Skylark.
77 Wilson’s Phalarope.
78 Evening Grosbeak.
79 Turkey Vulture,
80 Gambel’s Partridge.

SEPTEMBER, 1897.

81 Summer Yellow Bird.

2 Hermit Thrush.

83 Song Sparrow.

84 Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

85 Ruby - throated Humming-
Bird.

86 House Wren.

7 Phoebe.

88 Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

89 Mourning Dove.

90 White-breasted Nuthatch.

OCTOBER, 1897.
91 Blackburnian Warbler.
92 Gold Finch.
93 Chimney Swift.
94 Horned Lark.
95 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
96 Warbling Vireo
97 Wood Pewee.
98 Snow Bunting.
99 Junco.
100 King Bird.
NOVEMBER, 1897.
101 Summer Tanager.
102 White-fronted Goose.
103 Turnstone.
104 Belted Piping Plover.
105 Wild Turkey.
106 Cerulean Warbler.
107 Yellow-billed Tropic Bird.
108 European Kingfisher.
109 Vermilion Flycatcher.
110 Lazuli Bunting.
DECEMBER, 1897.
111 Mountain Blue Bird.
112 English Sparrow.
113 Allen’s Humming-Bird.
114 Green-winged Teal.
115 Black Grouse.
116 Flamingo.
117 Verdin.
118 Bronzed Grackle.
119 Ring-necked Pheasant.
120 Yellow-breasted Chat.

Pictures assorted as desired, 2 cents each. No
Special Offer—The complete list of pictures—312—for only $3.12

JANUARY, 1898.
121 Crowned Pigeon.
122 Red-eyed Vireo.
123 Fox Sparrow.
124 Bob White.
125 Passenger Pigeon.
126 Short-eared Owl.
127 Rose Cockatoo.
128 Mountain Partridge.

FEBRUARY, 1898.
129 Least Bittern.
130 Bald Pate Duck.
131 Purple Finch.
132 Red-bellied Woodpecker.
133 Sawwhet Owl.
134 Black Swan.
135 Snowy Plover.
136 Lesser Prairie Hen.

MARCH, 1898.
137 Black Duck.
138 Wilson’s Petrel.
139 Blue-Gray Gnat-Catcher
140 American Coot.
141 Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
142 American Sparrow Hawk
143 Silver Pheasant.
144 Scaled Partridge.

APRIL, 1898.
145 Ovenbird.
146 American Three-toed Wood-
pecker. 5
147 Bartramian Sandpiper.
148 Nightingale.
149 Roseate Spoonbill.
150 Dickcissel.
151 Dusky Grouse.
152 Eggs, First Series.

MAY, 1898.
153 South American Rhea.
154 Baybreasted Warbler.
155 Black-necked Stilt.
156 Pintail Duck.
157 Double Yellow-headed Par-

rot.
158 Magnolia Warbler.
159 Great Blue Heron.
160 Eggs, Second Series.

JUNE, 1898.
161 Brunnich’s Murre.
162 Canada Goose,
163 Brown Creeper.
164 Downy Woodpecker.
165 Old Squaw Duck.
166 White-faced Glossy Ibis.
167 Arkansas King Bird.
168 Eggs, Third Series.

JULY, 1898.
169 Wilson’s Snipe.
170 Black Wolf.
171 Red Squirrel.
172 Prairie Hen.
173 Butterflies, First Series
174 Gray Rabbit.
175 American Ocelot.
176 Apple Blossom.

A. W. MUMFORD, Publisher, 203 Michigan Ave., Chicago.

2

177

BIRDS AND ALL NATURE.—Continued.

AUGUST, 1898.
Wilson’s Tern.

JANUARY, 1899,
217 Chimpanzee.

JUNE, 1899.
257 A Feather Changing from

178 Coyote. 218 Puma. Green to Yellow.

179 Fox Squirrel. 219 Lemon. 258 Western Yellow+Throat

180 Loon. 220 American Mistletoe. 259 Myrtle Warbler.

181 Butterflies, Second Series. 221 Nuts. 260 Blue-winged Yellow Warbler.
182 American Red Fox. £ 222 Whippur-will. 261 Golden-winged Warbler.

183 Least Sandpiper. 223 Snapping. Turtle. 262 Mourning Warbler.

184

Mountain Sheep.
SEPTEMBER, 1898.

224 Sandhill Crane.
FEBRUARY, 1899.

263 Chestnut-side Warbler.
264 Black-throated BlueWarbler.
SEPTEMBER, 1899.

185 American Herring Gull. 220 Ginger. 265 Pointer Dog.
186 Raccoon. . 226 Crab-eating Opossum. 266 Shells. iS

187 Pigmy Antelope. 227 Geographic Turtle. 267 Marbles.

188 Red-shouldered Hawk. 228 White Ibis. 268 Ores.

189 Butterflies, Third Series. 229 Iris. 269 Minerals.

199 American Gray Fox. 230 Duck-billed Platypus. 270 Water Lilies.

191
192

Gray Squirrel.
Pectoral Sandpiper.

OCTOBER, 1898.

231 Cape May Warbler.
232 The Cocoanut.

MARCH, 1899.

271 Yellow Perch.
272 Beetles,

OCTOBER, 1899.
273 Forests.

; ; i 233 Tufted Titmouse. =
ie Se of Paradise. 234 Northern Hare. 274 Grand Canon.
195 Bottle-nosed Dolphin. 235 Pineapple. 275 Terraced Rocks, Yellowstone
196 Tufted Puffin. 236 Hooded Merganser. Park. ae
197 Butterflies, Fourth Series. 237 Cloves. 276 Hodster an ert
198 Armadillo. 238 Common Ground Hog. 277 Oil Well.
199 Red-headed Duck. 239 Common Mole. DE BIS NOS
200 Golden Rod. 240 Azalea. es ese as
280 Niagara Falls.
ees 1898. APRIL, 1899. NOVEMBER, 1899.
201 P Eatile Sharp-tail Grouse 241 Nutmeg. 281 Lady-Slipper.
202 Brown and Red Bat. 242 American Barn Owl. 282 Tea.
203 American Otter. 243 Kangaroo. 283 Towhee.
204 American Golden Plover 244 Hoary Bat. 284 Canary. ;
205 Moths. 245 Nashville Warbler. 285 South Carolina Paroquet.
206 Canadian Porcupine. 246 English Grapes. 286 Chipmunk.
207 Caspian Tern. 247 Swift Fox. 287 Peach. f
208 Flowering Almond. 248 Hyacinth. 288 Conon Aiinerals and Valu-
able ;
DECEMBER, 1898. MAY, 1899. DECEMBER, 1899.
209 African Lion. 249 Cedar Waxwing. 289 Narcissus.
210 Cacti. 250 Hyrax. 290 Coca. —
211 Flying Squirrel. 251 Coffee. 291 Red-tailed Hawk.
212 Humming-Birds. 252 Bonaparte’s Gull. 292 Maryland Yellow-Throat.
213 Silkworm. 253 Common Baboon. 293 Lyre Bird.
214 California Vulture. 254 Grinnell’s Water Thrush. 294 Cow Bird.
215 American Goldeneye. 255 Hairy-Tailed Mole. 295 Wild Cat.
216 Skunk. 256 Cineraria. 296 European Squirrel.
JANUARY, 1900. x FEBRUARY, 1900.
297 Virginia Rail. 305 Killdeer.
298 Blue-winged Teal. 306 Cinnamon Teal.
299 Yellow-headed Blackbird. 307 Clapper Rail.
300 Black Squirrel. 308 Gopher.
301 Weasel (Ermine). 309 Mink.
302 Quince. 310 Carbons.
303 Quartz. 311 Licorice.
304 Lily of the Valley. 312 Yellow Lady-Slipper and Painted Cup.
PREMIUMS—We will send free with each yearly subscription either of the following colored
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tion you may order bound volumes, magazines or colored pictures from this circular at 33% per cent
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pictures at one cent each in monthly sets, or 67 assorted for $1.00.
The greatest paper coming to my library is BIRD’ AND ALL NATURE. Neves discontinue it.
Stoning ton, Me., Nov. 14, 1899. B. Ll. Novgs, M.D.

I very, gladly pay these bills whenever they may fall due, as my boys have gotten an immense
amount of Satisfaction and, I believe, real good, from your periodical.
Bloomington, Ind., Nov. 10, 1899. Mrs. GustaF E, KARSTEN.

BiIrDsS AND ALL iy eer is the most unique magazine of the century of popular text.
Wilson, Minn., Dec. 5, 1899. Miss Lange ToeERcH.

I have always been an admirer of Brrps AND ALL NaTorg, and have looked forward to its
coming, and probably always will. I wish you success. JoHN KIMBALL Brown.
Morgan Park, I11., Oct. 24, 1899.

Having seen a copy of BrrDSs AND ALL NATURE, we at once concluded to subscribe forsame. This
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LITERATURE GAME, by A. W. Mumford.
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GAME OF INDUSTRIES.
and answers on the great industries of

Price, 25 cents,

400 questions

our country.
Price, 25 cents.
GAME OF BIRDS.
birds in colors, true to nature, on 52

Of

“/2

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BIRDS AND ALL NATURE.

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

Vor Vike

JANUARY, 1Igoo.

JANUARY.

Then came old January, wrapped well

In many weeds to keep the cold away;

Yet did he quake and quiver like to
quell,

And blow his nayles to warm, them if
he may;

For they were numb’d with holding all
the day

An hatchet keene, with which he felled
wood,

And from the trees did lop the need-
lesse spray;

Upon a huge great earth-pot steane he
stood,

From whose wide mouth there flowed
forth the Romane flood.

— Spenser.

No. 1
Announced by all the trumpets of the
sky,
Arrives the snow; and, driving o’er
the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight; the whited
air

Hides hills and woods, the river, and
the heaven,

And veils the farm-house at the gar-
den’s end.

The sled and traveler stopp’d, the
courier’s feet

Delay’d, all friends shut out, the house-
mates sit

Around the radiant fire-place, inclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm

—Emerson.

OLD YEAR AND YOUNG YEAR.

I.

Said the year that was old:
‘sLam-cold: bam cold:

And my’breath hurries fast
On the wild winter blast

Of this thankless December;
Ah, who will remember

As I, shivering, go,

The warmth and the glow
That arose like a flame
When I came, when I came?
For I brought in my hands,
From Utopian lands,

Golden gifts, and the schemes
That were fairer than dreams.
Ah, never a king

Of a twelvemonth, will bring
Such a splendor of treasure
Without stint or measure,
As I brought on that day,
Triumphant and gay.

But, alas, and alas,

Who will think as I pass, |
I was once gay and bold?”
Said the year that was old.

Il,

Said the year that was young—

And his light laughter rung—

‘“Come, bid me good cheer,

For I bring with me here

Such gifts as the earth

Never saw till my birth;

All the largess of life,

Right royally rife

With the plans and the schemes

Of the world’s highest dreams.

Then—hope’s chalice filled up

To the brim of the cup,

Let us drink to the past,

The poor pitiful past,”

Sang the year that was young,

While his light laughter rung.
—Nora Perry.

THE VIRGINIA RAIL.

(Rallus virginianus. )

HIS miniature of Radlus elegans
or king rail, is found through-
out the whole of temperate
North America as far as the

British Provinces, south to Guatema a
and Cuba, and winters almost to the
northern limit of its range. A speci-
men was sent by Major Bendire to the
National Museum from Walla Walla,
Wash., which was taken Jan. 16, 1879,
when the snow was more than a foot
deep. Other names of the species are:
Lesser clapper rail, little red rail, and
fresh-water mud hen. The male and
female are like small king rails, are
streaked with dark-brown and yellow-
ish olive above, have reddish chestnut
wing coverts, are plain brown on top
of head and back of neck, have a white
eyebrow, white throat, breast and sides
bright rufous; the flanks, wing linings
and under tail coverts are broadly
barred with dark brown and white;
eyes red.

The name of this rail is not as appro-
priate to-day as it was when Virginia
included nearly all of the territory east
.of the Mississippi. It is not a local
bird, but nests from New York, Ohio,
and Illinois northward. Short of wing,
with a feeble, fluttering flight when
flushed from the marsh, into which it
quickly drops again, as if incapable of
going farther, it is said this small bird
, can nevertheless migrate immense dis-
tances. One small straggler from a
flock going southward, according to
Neltje Blanchan, fell exhausted on the
deck of a vessel off the Long Island
coast nearly a hundred miles at sea.

The rail frequents marshes and boggy
swamps. The nest is built in a tuft of
weeds or grasses close to the water, is
compact and slightly hollowed. The
eggs arecream or buff, sparsely spotted
with reddish-brown and obscure lilac,
from 1.20 to 1.28 inches long to .go to
.93 broad. The number in a set varies
from six to twelve. The eggs are
hatched in June.

The Virginia rail is almost exclu-
sively a fresh-water bird. It is not
averse to salt water, but even near the
sea it is likely to find out those spots
in the bay where tresh-water springs

N

bubble up rather than the brackish.
These springs particularly abound in
Hempstead and Great South Bay on
the south coast of Long Island. Brew-
ster says the voice of the Virginia fail
when heard at a distance of only a few
yards, hasa vibrating, almost unearthly
quality, and seems to issue from the
ground directly beneath the feet. The
temale, when anxious about her eggs
or young, calls £72 kz-ki in low tones
and zu, much like a flicker. The young
of both sexes in autumn give, when
startled, a short, explosive sep or kik,
closely similar to that of the Carolina
rail.

There is said to be more of individ-
ual variation in this species than in
any of the larger, scarcely two exam-
ples being closely alike. The chin and
throat may be distinctly white, or the
cinnamon may extend forward entirely
to the bill. This species is found in
almost any place where it can find suit-
able food. Nelson says: ‘‘I have often
flushed it in thickets when looking for
woodcock, as well as from the midst
of large marshes. It arrives the first
of May and departs in October; nests
along the borders of prairie sloughs
and marshes, depositing from eight to
fourteen eggs. The nest may often be
discovered at a distance by the appear-
ance of the surrounding grass, the
blades of which are in many cases in-
terwoven over the nest, apparently to
shield the bird from the fierce rays of
the sun, which are felt with redoubled
force on the marshes. The nests are
sometimes built on a solitary tussock
of grass, growing in the water, but not
often. The usual position is in the
soft, dense grass growing close to the
edge of the slough, and rarely in grass
over eight inches high. The nest is
a thick, matted platform of marsh
grasses, with a medium-sized depres-
sion for the eggs.”

Some of the rails have such poor
wings that it has been believed by some
unthinking people that they turn to
frogs in the fall instead of migrating—
a theory parallel with that which for-
merly held that swallows hibernate in
the mud of shallow ponds.

FROM COL. F KAEMPFER VIRGINIA RAIL. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY

f T P co., Cc Gi

A.W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO. 5 Life-size NATURE STUDY us cO., CHICAGO
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COTTON FABRICS.

W. E. WATT, A.M.

T is a remarkable thing in the his-
| tory of the United States that,
when the iron shackles were about
to fall from the bondman, he was
caught by a cotton fiber and held for
nearly a century longer. We were
about to emancipate the slaves a cen-
tury ago when Eli Whitney invented
the cotton gin, multiplied cotton pro-
duction by two hundred, and made
slavery profitable throughout the
South. The South Carolina legislature
gave Whitney $50,000 and cotton be-
came king and controlled our com-
merce and politics.

Eight bags of cotton went out of
Charleston for Liverpool in 1784.
Now about six million bales go an-
nually, and we keep three million bales
for our own use. So two-thirds of our
cotton goes to England. The cotton
we ship sells for more than all our
flour. Cotton is still king.

In our civil war we came very near
being thrown into conflict with
England by an entanglement of the
same fiber which caught the black man.
One of the greatest industries of
England in 1861-5 was cotton manu-
facture, and when we, by our blockade
system, closed the southern ports so
cotton could not be carried out, we
nearly shut down all the works in that
country where cotton was made up.
That meant hard times to many towns
and suffering to many families. That
is why so many Englishmen said we
ought to be satisfied to cut our country
in two and let the people of the Con-
federacy have their way.

Cotton is a world-wide product. It
grows in all warm countries every-
where, sometimes as a tree and some-
times asa shrub. It is usually spoken
of asa plant. There wascotton grown
in Chicago last year. Not in a hot
house, but in a back yard with very
little attention. A little girl got some
seed, planted it, and had some fine
bolls in the fall. It is a pretty plant,
and was cultivated in China nearly a
thousand years ago as a garden plant.

Herodotus tells us that the clothing

on

worn by the men in Xerxes’ army was
made of cotton. Their cotton goods
attracted wide attention wherever they
marched. Columbus found the natives
of the West Indies clothed in cotton.
Cotton goods is not only wide spread,
but very ancient. Cloth was made
from this plant in China twenty-one
hundred years ago. At the coronation
of the emperor, 502 A.D., the robe of
state which he wore was made of cot- ~
ton, and all China wondered at the
glory of his apparel.

More capital is used and more labor
employed in the manufacture and dis-
tribution of cotton than of any other
manufactured product. There is one
industry in Chicago which out-ranks
cotton, It is the live-stock business.
More money is spent for meat and
live-stock products than for cotton,
taking the whole country together.
But cotton ranks first as a manufacture.

We spend more for meat than for
cotton goods, and more for cotton
goods than for wheat and flour. The
hog and cotton seed have a peculiar
commercial relation to each other.
The oils produced from them are so.
nearly alike that lard makers use cot-
ton seed oil to cheapen their output.
A large part of what is sold as pure
leaf lard comes from the cotton plant.

A hundred years ago a good spinner
used to make four miles of thread in a
day. This was cut into eight skeins.
Now one man can do the work of a
thousand spinners because of machin-
ery. One gin does to-day what it took
a thousand workers to dothen. Five
men are employed in the running of
one gin, so the gin alone makes one
man equal totwo hundred. Because one
workman cleans two hundred times as
much cotton since Whitney’s time as
before, cotton-raising has become a
broad industry. The reason more cot-
ton was not raised in the olden times
is that it could not be used. Now we
can use aS much cotton as we can pos-
sibly raise.

At first there was strong opposition
to these improvements in machinery

because the workmen felt their occupa-
tion would be taken away. But the
cotton workers are to be congratulated,
for there are four times as many men
working in the cotton industries as
there were a hundred years ago, and
yarn thread is produced at less than
one-tenth the cost while the workmen
are all better paid for their labor.

James Hargreaves invented the spin-
ning jenny in 1767. He was an illiter-
ate man, and yet his machinery has
not been materially improved upon.
The poor fellow was mobbed by the
infuriated workmen who saw that their
labor was apparently to be taken from
them by machinery. He was nearly
killed. He sold out his invention and
died in poverty. He received nothing
from the government nor from the
business world for his great invention.
But after his death his daughter re-
ceived a bounty.

Two years after the jenny, in 1769,
Richard Arkwright invented the spin-
ning frame. He was a barber by trade,
but through the appreciation of crazy
old George III., he was struck upon
the shoulder with a sword and rose
Sir Richard Arkwright. He amassed
a great fortune from his invention.
His spinning frame and Hargreaves’
spinning jenny each needed the other
to perfect its work. The jenny made
yarn which was not smooth and hard.
So it was used only for woof, and could
not be stretched for warping. The re-
sult of the two inventions wasastrong,
even thread which was better for all
purposes than any which had been
made before.

Parliament imposed a fine of $2,500
for sending American cotton cloth to
England, and another for exporting
machinery to America. Massachusetts
at once gave a bonus of $2,500, and
afterwards $10,000 to encourage the in-
troduction of cotton machinery.
Francis Cabot Lowell was an American
inventor. He brought the business of
weaving cotton cloth to this country.
There had been some small attempts
before his time, but he introduced it
extensively and profitably. He estab-
lished a cotton factory in Massachu-
setts in 1810, and was very successful.
In that year he was in England, deal-

ing with makers of cotton goods. The
idea occurred to him that it would be
more profitable to make the goods on
his side of the water where the cotton
was raised. He acted promptly.
Lowell, Massachusetts, is named after
him, and stands as a monument to his
good judgment and inventive genius.

Three years after he had established
the manufacture of cotton goods in
this country, he invented the famous
power loom. That was a great step in
advance. It has done more for the in-
dustry than anything since the days of
Hargreaves and Arkwright. By the
use of power these looms set the spin-
dles running at a remarkable rate of
speed. Twenty years ago the world
wondered at the velocity of our spin-
dles, 5,000 revolutions in one minute.
But it has kept on wondering ever
since, and the speed of spindles has
constantly increased as if there could
be no limit. 15,000 revolutions are now
common.

In Great Britain there are 45,000,000
spindles running at a wondrous rate,
and 17,000,000 are running in America.
With cheaper labor and more extended
experience, they are doing more of it
across the water than we. For our
consumption we make all the coarse
grades, but all the fine cottons are im-
ported. They get large quantities of
cotton now in India. Egypt also isa
great cotton country, producing the
best cotton grown with the one excep-
tion of our famous sea island cotton.
Her crop is worth $48,000,000 annually.
England has hunted the world over for
cotton and good cotton ground, and
while we were engaged in war she was
increasing her endeavors in this direc-
tion with much earnestness.

If you will notice the contents of a
boll of cotton you will be surprised to
find that the fiber is not the main thing
there. The seed is far heavier than
the fiber, and it really occupies more
space when the two are crowded into
their closest possible limits. You can
press the cotton down upon the seed
till the whole is but little larger than
the seed.

The fiber clings to the seed with
great firmness, and you find it difficult
to tear them from each other. There

is no wonder it was such a slow pro-
cess to separate them in the good old
days. The Yankee, Eli Whitney, went
to Georgia to teach school, but by the
time he arrived there the school was
taken by another, and he was out of
employment. That was a happy mis-
fortune for him and for the country.

He was a nailer, a cane maker, and a
worker in wood and metal. A Yankee
nailer cannot be idle in a strange land.
The expression, ‘‘as busy as a nailer,”
is a good one. Whitney looked about
him to see what was the popular de-
mand in his line. He found the great-
est difficulty the southern people had
to contend with was the separating of
cotton fromits seed. He went at the
business of inventing a machine to do
the work for them.

He placed a saw in a slit in a table
so that cotton could be pushed against
tis) Lecthuas iterevolved. Liewwtecth
caught into the fiber and pulled it
away from the seeds. As the seeds
were too large to pass through the slit
in the table they flew away as the fiber
let go its hold upon them, and Whitney
soon found he had solved the problem.

This is the first step in what may be
called the manufacture of cotton
tabrics. In another article we shall
examine all the various sorts of tex-
tiles that are made from this interest-
ing fiber, and speak of their manufac-
ture, treatment, sale, and use.

Under Whitney’s gin the bulky seeds
soon began to pile up astonishingly,
and it became customary to remove
the gins as the piles of this useless
seed accumulated. It was left to rot
upon the ground in these heaps just as
it fell fromthe gin. Another ingenious
-Yankee saw there was a great deal of

material going to waste in these piles,
and he experimented to see what could
be done with the seed.

It was found to be very good for use
on ground that had become poor by ex-
haustive farming. An excellent fer-
tilizer is made from it. The cake is
used for feed for cattle to great advan-
tage. Dairymen regulate the quality
and color of the milk they get from
their cows by varying the amount of
oil cake given in their food. The oil
extracted from this seed is used in the
arts. It is not equal to linseed oil for
painters’ use, but it is a great substance
for use in mixing in with better oils to
make them go farther. In other words,
it is largely used for the purposes of
adulterating other oils. Not only is it
used in making lard, but it is now sold
on its own merits for cooking purposes.

Two days out of New York we
sighted the black smoke of a great
steamer. At sea everybody is on the
lookout for vessels and much inter-
ested in the passengers that may be on
the craft casually met. So we kept
watch of the horizon and were glad to
see that a big one was coming our way.
She was headed so nearly towards us
that we hoped to get a good view of
the many passengers that might be ex-
pected on so large a ship. When she
was near enough to show some of her
side, she looked rusty and ill kept. We
wondered what the fare must be for a
ride across the water on such a cheap-
looking monster. As she came nearer
we saw there were no passengers.
“What is she?” ‘What does she
carry?” The first mate told us she
was a tank steamer, running between
the United States and Belgium, carry-
ing 4,200 tons of cotton-seed oil atatrip.

hE] WISE LITTLE BIRD:

A little cock sparrow sat on a limb
And shivered and shook and whined;

And his little mate went and sat by him
And asked what was on his mind.

‘““The snow comes down and the north
wind blows,”
The little cock sparrow said.
‘And the cold, cold world is so full of
woes
That I wish that I were dead.”

So his little mate chirped, ‘‘Come, fly
with me,”
And they left that frosty limb,
And they fluttered about from tree to
Biee
And she gayly chattered to him.

And the little cock sparrow forgot the
snow
And the chilling wind that blew,
Nor thought again of his weight of woe;
He had something else to do.

-I

THE GRASSHOPPER SPIDER.

CHARLES CRISTADORO.

UT in the garden where the west-

ern sun flooded the nasturtiums

O along the garden wall, a large

yellow and black-bodied spider

made his lair. The driving rain of the

night before had so torn and disar-

ranged his web that he had set about

building himself a new one lower down.

Already he had spun and placed the

spokes or bars of his gigantic web and

was now making the circles to com-
plete his geometric diagram.

From his tail he exuded a white,
sticky substance, which, whenstretched,
instantly became dry. As he stepped
from one spoke to another he would
spin out his web and, stretching the
spoke towards the preceding one, bring
the fresh-spun web in contact with it
and then exude upon the jointure an
atom of fresh web, which immediately
cemented the two parts, when the
spoke settled back into place, pulling
the cross web straight and _ taut.
The process of house-building contin-
ued uninterruptedly, every movement
of the spider producing some result.
No useless steps were taken, and as
the work progressed the uniformity of
the work was simply amazing; every
square, every cross piece, was placed ex-
actly in the same relative position as
to distance, etc. A micrometer seem-
ingly would not have shown the devia-
tion of .ooooo! of an inch between any
two of the squares.

When the web was three-fourths
finished a lusty grasshopper went blun-
dering up against one of the yet un-
covered spokes of the web and escaped.
The spider noticed this and visibly in-
creased his efforts and sped from spoke
to spoke, trailing his never ending film
of silky web behind him. At last the
trap was set and, hastening to the
center, he quickly covered the point
with web after web, until he had a
smooth, solid floor with an opening
that allowed the tenant to occupy

either side of the house at will. The
spot was well selected, the hoppers in
the heat of the day finding the heavy
shade of the broad nasturtium leaves
particularly grateful.

Our friend the spider had not long
to wait for his breakfast, for presto!—a
great, brown-winged hopper flew right
into the net. Before he could, with
his strong wings and powerful legs,
tear the silken gossamer asunder and
free himself, like lightning our spider
was upon him. In the flash of an eye
the grasshopper was actually en-
shrouded in a sheet of white film of
web, and with the utmost rapidity was
rolled over and over by the spider,
which used its long legs with the utmost
dexterity. Wound in his graveyard
suit of white silk, the grasshopper be-
came absolutely helpless. His broad
wings and sinewy legs were now use-
less. The spider retreated to the
center of the web and watched the
throes of his prey. By much effort
the hopper loosed one leg and was
bidding fair to kick the net to shreds
when the spider made another sally
and, putting a fresh coating of sticky
web around him, rolled him over once
or twice more and left him.

In a few moments, when all was over,
the spider attacked his prey and began
his breakfast. Before his meal was
well under way, a second hopper flew
into the parlor of the spider and, leav-
ing his meal, the agile creature soon
had hopper number two securely and
safely ensnared. No experienced foot-
ball tackle ever downed his opponent
with any such skill or celerity as the
spider displayed as he rolled over and
bundled up into a helpless web-covered
roll the foolish and careless hopper.

“The spiders touch, how exquisitely
fine !
Feels at each thread, and lives along
the lines”

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THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL.

(Anas discors.)

> to this duck that much con-
fusion exists in the minds of
many as to which to distinguish
it by. A few of them are blue-winged;
white-face, or white-faced teal; sum-
mer teal, and cerceta comun (Mexico.)
It inhabits North America in general,
but chiefly the eastern provinces; north
to Alaska, south in winter throughout
West Indies, Central America, and
northern South America as far as Ecua-
dor. It is accidental in Europe.

The blue-winged teal is stated to be
probably the most numerous of our
smaller ducks, and, though by far the
larger number occur only during the
migrations, individuals may be found
at all times of the year under favorable
circumstances of locality and weather.
The bulk of the species, says Ridgway,
winters in the Gulf states and south-
ward, while the breeding-range is diffi-
cult to make out, owing to the fact that
it is not gregarious during the nesting-
season, but occurs scatteringly in iso-
lated localities where it is most likely
to escape observation.

The flight of this duck, according to
“Water Birds of North America,’ is
fully as swift as that of the passenger
pigeon. “When advancing against a
stiff breeze it shows alternately its up-
per and lower surface. During its
flight it utters a soft, lisping note,
which it also emits when apprehensive
of danger. It swims buoyantly, and
when in a flock so closely together that
the individuals nearly touch each other.
In consequence of this habit hunters
are able to make a frightful havoc
among these birds on their first ap-
pearance in the fall, when they are
easily approached. Audubon saw as
many as eighty-four killed by.a sin-
gle discharge of a double-barreled
gun.

“Tt may readily be kept in confine-
ment, soon becomes very docile, feeds
readily on coarse corn meal, and might
easily be domesticated. Prof. Kum-
lein, however, has made several unsuc-
cessful attempts to raise this duck by
placing its eggs under a domestic hen.

O many names have been applied

11

He informs me that this species is the
latest duck to arrive in the spring.” It
nests on the ground among the reeds
and coarse herbage, generally near the
water, but its nest has been met with at
least half a mile from the nearest water,
though always on low land. The nest
is merely an accumulation of reeds and
rushes lined in the middle with down
and feathers. This duck prefers the
dryer marshes near streams. The nests
are generally well lined with down, and
when the female leaves the nest she
always covers her eggs with down, and
draws the grass, of which the outside
of the nest is composed, over the top.
Prof. Kumlein does not think that she
ever lays more than twelve eggs. These
are of a clear ivory white. They range
from 1.80 to 1.95 inches in length and

1,25 to 1.35 in breadth.

The male whistles and the female
“quacks.”

The food of the blue-wing is chiefly
vegetable matter, and its flesh is ten-
der and excellent. It may be known by
its small size, blue wings, and narrow
bill.

Mr. Fred Mather, for many years
superintendent of the State Fish Hatch-
ery of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Is!-
and, domesticated the mallard and
black duck, bred wood ducks, green
and blue-winged teal, pin-tails, and
other wild fowl.
tion between breeding and domestica-
tion. He does not believe that blue-
winged teal can be domesticated as the
mallard and black duck can, z. é., to be
allowed their liberty to go and come
like domestic ducks.

The hind toe of this family of ducks
is without a flap or lobe, and the front
of the foot is furnished with transverse
scales, which are the two features of
these birds which have led scientists to
separate them into a distinct sub-fam-
ily. They do not dive for their tood,
but nibble at the aquatic plants they
live among; or, with head immersed
and tail in air, “probe the bottom of
shallow waters for small mollusks, crus-
taceans, and roots of plants.” The
bill acts as a sieve.

He made a distinc- .

THE GRAY STUMP.

NELL KIMBERLY MC ELHONE.

BEG your pardon, my dear,” said
Mr. Flicker, ‘“‘but you are quite

|

mistaken. That is mot a tree
stump.”
“Excuse me,” said Mrs. Flicker

gently, ‘but I still believe it is.”

Now if they had been the sparrows,
or the robins, or the red-winged
black-birds, they would have gone on
chattering and contradicting until they
came to using claws and bills, and
many feathers would have been shed;
but they were the quiet, well-bred
Flickers, and so they stopped just
here, and once more critically regarded
the object in question.

“Whoever heard of a stump, oldand
gray and moss-covered, appearing in
one night?” said Mr. Flicker, after a
pause. ‘I haveseen more of the world
than you. have, my dear, and I do as-
sure you it would take centuries to
make a stump like that.” Let it be
here recorded that in this Mr. Flicker
was perfectly correct.

‘Well, then,” reasoned Mrs. Flicker,
“if it is not a stump, what zs it?”

Mr. Flicker looked very wise. He
turned his head first to one side and
then the other—flashing his beautiful
scarlet crescent in the sunlight. Then
he sidled nearer to his wife and darting
his head down to her, whispered, “It
is a person.”

The timid Mrs. Flicker drew back
into the nest in horror, and it was some
moments before she felt like putting
her head out of the door again. In
the meantime she had quieted down
to the thoughtful little flicker she
really was, and had gathered together
her reasoning powers. So out came
the pretty fawn-colored head and
again the argument began.

Though still quivering a little from
the fright, Mrs. Flicker said, in the
firm tones of conviction, ‘““No, Mr.
Flicker, ¢ka¢ is nota person. Persons
move about with awkward motions.
Persons make terrible sounds with
their bills. Persons have straight, ugly

12

wings without feathers—not made to
fly with, but just to carry burdens
instead of carrying them in their bills.
Persons wear colors that nature disap-
proves. Persons point things at us
that make a horrible sound and some-
times kill. Persons cannot keep still.
That is not a person.”

Mr. Flicker was greatly impressed,
and stood like a statue, gazing at what
his wife called a gray stump. She
went back to ponder the matter over
her eggs.

The sprightly little warblers and
goldfinches flashed in and out through
the bushes that grew thickly together
on a small island opposite Mr. Flicker’s
nest; the orioles called to one another
in the orchard back of him; the cat-
birds performed their ever-varying
tricks in the cherry tree near by; Mr.
Water Wagtail came and_ splashed
about on the shore of the creek, and
Mr. Kingfisher perched ona stump in
the water, watching for a dainty morsel,
and still Mr. Flicker sat regarding
his new puzzle. He paid no attention
to any of his neighbors—but for that
matter he seldom did, for the flickers
are aristocratic bird-folk, and mingle
very little with their kind. But on
this day he was particularly oblivious,
so greatly occupied was he with the
gray stump.

Once or twice he had detected a
slight motion on the part of the stump;
a rustle, a change of position, a faint
sign of life—just enough to make his
little bird-heart thump, but not enough
to warrant flight in so discreet a bird.
But at last there began a quiet bend-
ing, bending of the stump; it was very
slow, but none the less certain, and
Mr. Flicker waited with throbbing
heart, till he saw two large, round,
glassy eyes pointed full at him, then,
with a quick note of warning for his
little wife, he rose in the air with a
whirr, and the golden wings shimmered
away in the sunlight overhead. —

Mrs. Flicker peeped cautiously forth,

and, with her unerring bird instinct,
sought first of all the gray stump
which, alas, was not quite a stump
after all, and was indeed the cause of
the danger. She saw the terrible in-
strument still pointed at her husband,
and her heart fluttered wildly; but
there was no report, and she watched
him till she could only see the oc-
casional flash of the gold-lined wings
and the white spot on his back; and
then behold, the stump was once more
a stump, and Mrs, Flicker returned to
her eggs.

When Mr. Flicker came back, he
flew past his house without once swerv-
ing, and disappeared ina pine tree on
the edge of the orchard, and a con-
clave of cedar waxwings in the next
tree discussed his tactics enthusiasti-
cally. The cedar waxwings were also
interested in the gray stump—but afraid
of it? Oh no, not they! Care sits
lightly on the cedar waxwing’s top-
knot, and he never takes his dangers
seriously.

A series of deceiving and circuitous
flights finally landed Mr. Flicker at
his own door, and he perched himself
in his hiding-place of leaves and
watched the gray stump with an air of
settled gloom.

However, a bird is a bird, even
though it be a serious flicker, and be-
fore many minutes he and his wife
were chatting happily again. Mrs.
Flicker even asserted boldly that if
she had not her eggs to look after, she
would certainly investigate this thing;
and then Mr. Flicker began to preen

his feathers as if in preparation for the
undertaking, but really to gain time
and get up his courage, when, ‘‘ Take
care! Take care!” came notes of warn-
ing from the catbirds; and the stump
suddenly lengthened itself like a tele-
scope and walked away, with its two-
eyed instrument under its arm. Mr.
and Mrs. Flicker watched it gather a
spray of late apple blossoms, saw it
climb the fence and disappear down
the road.

“IT beg your pardon,” said polite
little Mrs. Flicker to her husband. “J
was wrong; it is not a stump. But,”
she added coaxingly, “it really is more
like a stump than a person, now isn’t it?
And I should not be afraid of it again.”

When Miss Melissa Moore, school
teacher, returned to Manhattan after
her summer vacation, she confided to
a fellow-teacher that she had made
seventy new acquaintances, and that
she loved them all. Now Miss Melissa
Moore, in her wildest dreams, never
thought of herself as being beautiful,
being a plain, honest person; she even
knew that her bird-hunting costume—
the short gray skirt and gray flannel
shirt-waist and gray felt hat, whose
brim hung disconsolately over her
glasses, with no color at all to brighten
her—was nof becoming, but if she had
dreamed that Mrs. Flicker had called
her an old gray moss-covered stump,
she would, being only human, have cut
her once and forever, and her list of
new acquaintances would have num-
bered sixty-nine.

REMEMBERED SONGS.

I walked an autumn lane, and ne’er a
tune
Besieged mine ear from hedge or
ground or tree;
The summer minstrels all had fared
from me
Far southward, since the snows must
flock so soon.
And yet the air seemed vibrant with
the croon
Of unseen birds and words of May-
tide glee;
The very silence was a melody

Sown thick with memoried cadences of
June.

Shall we not hold that when our little
day
-Is done, and we are of men no more,
We still live on in some such subtle
way,
To make some silence vocal by some
shore
Of Recollection, or to only play
Soft songs on hearts that loved us long

before? —Richard Burton.

THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD.

(Nanthocephalus xanthocephalus.)

HE geographical distribution of
this member of the blackbird
family is western North
America to the Pacific Ocean,

east to Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, and
Texas. The bird is accidental in the
Atlantic states. It is found generally
distributed on the prairies in all favor-
able localities from Texas to Illinois.
It isa common bird in the West, col-
lecting in colonies to breed in marshy
places anywhere in its general range,
often in company with the red-winged
blackbird. The nests are usually
placed in the midst of large marshes,
attached to the tall flags and grasses.
Davie says they are generally large,
light, but thick-brimmed, made of in-
terwoven grasses and sedges impacted
together. The eggs are from two to
six in number, but the usual number is
four Their csround: tcolor as dull
grayish-white, in some grayish-green,
profusely covered with small blotches
and specks of drab, purplish-brown
and umber. The average size is
aR: <a

Mr. Nelson says that the yellow-
headed blackbird is a very common
resident of Cook County, IIl., in large
marshes. It arrives the first of May
and commences nesting the last of that
month. Owing to the restricted local-
ities inhabited by it, it is but slightly
known among farmers; even those liv-
ing near the marshes think it an un-
common bird. The only difference in
the habits of the male and female is
the slightly greater shyness of the
former. Colonies nest in rushes in the
Calumet marshes, are bold and inter-
esting, and adults are sometimes seen
on the ground along country roads
some distance from water.

The food of these birds during the

nesting season is worms and _ grubs,
which are fed each day to the young
birds by the hundreds. In this way
they help protect the crops of the
farmer. In the autumn, when the
young can fly as well as their parents,
they collect in large flocks and start
on their southern journey. At this
time young and old travel together.
Many of them are killed by hawks,
which often follow a flock for days,
dashing into their midst whenever
they see a chance to capture one.

The blackbirds are alike in general
characteristics. They all walk and get
most of their food on the ground. In
spring, when large flocks are roaming

-in all directions, one may easily be

14

confused by them. Miss Merriam says
that with a little care they will easily
be distinguished. The crow blackbirds
may be known by their large size and
long tails. The male cowbird may be
told at a glance, she says, by his
chocolate-colored head, the red-wing
by his epaulettes, and, we may add, the
yellow-headed by the brilliant yellow
of his whole head and neck, ‘‘as if he
had plunged up to his shoulders in a
keg of yellow paint, while the rest of
his attire is shining black.” He utters
a loud, shrill whistle, quite unlike any
sound produced by his kinsmen.

How sweet the harmonies of afternoon,
The blackbird sings along the sunny
breeze
His ancient song of leaves and summer
boon;
Rich breath of hayfields streams thro’
the whispering trees,
And birds of morning trim their bus-
tling wings,
And listen fondly, while the black-
bird sings.
—Frederick Tennyson.

eROM COL F. NUSSBAUMER

5 SON

YELLOW-HEADED BLACK BIRD. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY

2 Flea ty NATURE STUDY PU 5 C,
4 Life-size. JRE DY PUB. CO., CHICAGO

A.W. MUMFCRv, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO

299

1 Re

THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD.

E.

HE little readers of Birds and All

| Nature will not have much re-

spect for me, I am afraid, after

reading what Mr. Wood Thrush

said of my family in the last number
of the magazine.

Probably you don’t recollect. it.
Well, he said that my cousin, Mr. Red-
Winged Blackbird, was often found in
the company of Mr. Cowbird, and that
Mr. Cowbird was a very disreputable
creature, being no better than an out-
cast and a tramp.

Humph! Just as though birds, like
boys and girls, are to be judged by the
company they keep. Why, / associate
with Mr. Cowbird, too; he is a distant
relative of mine, and certainly nobody
who looks at my picture can call.me
disreputable. See what a glesev black
coat I wear and what a fine yellow col-
lar and hat. We are only free in our
manners, that is all, helping ourselves
liberally to the grain planted by our
dear friend, Mr. Farmer.

I am not lazy, either, like my rela-
tive, Mr. Cowbird, for I build a new
house every spring, locating it among
the tall flags and grasses in a nice
damp piece of marshland.

Though I am a blackbird, I’m not
found from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
as Mr. Red-Wing is and others of our
tribe. For that reason you can’t call
me common, you know. But, then,
our manners and customs are about
the same. We do not hop like other
birds, but walk very much as you do,

LS

M.

putting one foot before the other, a
bit awkwardly, perhaps, but I am sure
with considerable dignity. Indeed, my
mate says but for cocking my head on
one side when strutting on the ground
one might take me for a bishop—in
feathers—I have such a solemn, serious
air, as though burdened with a sense
of my own importance.

Like the generality of birds, I find a
warm climate in winter conducive to
my health, so in November I leave the
north and hie me to the south, return-
ing about the first of May, not so early
as my cousin, Mr. Red-Wing, and the
other common members of the black-
bird family. They, like some visitors,
welcome or unwelcome, usually come
early and stay late.

It strikes me, for that reason, the
blackbird family should be considered
of some importance, even if they do
associate with Mr.Cowbird, tramp that
he is, for when the first flocks of black-
birds are seen sailing overhead, like
leaves blown by the wind against the
sky, you know that spring is near, no
matter how cold or chill the weather
may be. Crowds and crowds of us are
then seen circling and wheeling above
our last year’s nesting-place, talking
and laughing like little children and
making just as much noise.

Con-cur-ee is the only song we know,
but we utter that in different tones,
so that our mates consider it very
pleasing, and so may you.

WITH OPEN EYES.

OLIVE SCHREINER.

Se. ol a AE) DOW Wweeciirns ULO
nature. All these years we have lived
beside her, and we have never seen her;
now we open our eyes and look at her.

17

The rocks have been to us a blur of
brown; we bend over them, and the
disorganized masses dissolve into a
many-colored, many-shaped, carefully-

arranged form of existence. Here
masses of rainbow-tinted crystals,
half-fused together; there bands of

smooth gray methodically overlying
each other. This rock here is cov-
ered with a delicate silvery tracery
in some mineral, resembling leaves and
branches; there on the flat stone, on
which we so often have sat to weep and
pray, we look down, and see it covered
with the fossil footprints of great birds,
and the beautiful skeleton of a fish.
We have often tried to picture in our
mind what the fossilized remains of
creatures must be like, and all the whiie
we sat on them. We have been so
blinded by thinking and feeling that we
have never seen the world.

The flat plain has been to us a reach
of monotonous red. We look at it, and
every handful of sand starts into life.
That wonderful people, the ants, we
learn to know; see them make war and
peace, play and work, and build their
huge palaces. And that smaller people
we make acquaintance with, who live in
the flowers. The citto flower had been
for us a mere blur of yellow; we find
its heart composed of a hundred perfect
flowers, the homes of the tiny black
people with red stripes, who moved in
and out in that little yellow city. Ev-
ery bluebell has its inhabitant. Every
day the karroo (plain) shows up a new
wonder sleeping in its teeming bosom.
On our way we pause and stand to see
the ground-spider make its trap, bury
itself in the sand, and then wait for the
falling in of its enemy. Farther on
walks a horned beetle, and near him
starts open the door of a spider, who
peeps out carefully, and quickly puts it
down again. Ona karroo-bush a green
fly is laying her silver eggs. We carry
them home, and see the shells pierced,
the spotted grub come out. turn to a
green fly, and flit away. We are not
satisfied with what nature shows us, and
will see something for ourselves. Un-
der the white hen we put a dozen eggs,
and break one daily to see the white
spot wax into the chicken. Weare not
excited or enthusiastic about it; but a
man is not to lay his throat open, he
must think of something. So we plant

seeds in rows on our dam-wall, and pull
one up daily to see how it goes with
them. Alladeen buried her wonderful
stone, and a golden palace sprang up
at her feet. We do far more. We put
a brown seed in the earth, and a living
thing starts out, starts upward—why,
no more than Alladeen can we say—
starts upward, and does not desist till
it is higher than our heads, sparkling
with dew in the early morning, glitter-
ing with yellow blossoms, shaking
brown seeds with little embryo souls on
tothe ground. We look at it solemnly,
from the time it consists of two leaves
peeping above the ground and a soft
white root, till we have to raise our
faces to look at it; but we find no rea-
son for that upward starting.

A fow! drowns itself in ourdam. We
take it out, and open it on the bank,
and kneel, looking at it. Above are
the organs divided by delicate tissues;
below are the intestines artistically
curved in a spiral form, and each tier
covered by a delicate network of blood-
vessels standing out red against the
faint blue background. Each branch
of the blood-vessels is comprised of a
trunk, bifurcating into the most deli-
cate hair-like threads, symmetrically
arranged Of that same ex-
act shape and outline is our thorn-tree
seen against the sky in mid-winter; of
that shape also is delicate metallic
tracery between our rocks; in that exact
path does our water flow when without
a furrow we lead it from the dam; so
shaped are the antlers of the horned
beetle. How are these things related
that such deep union should exist
between them all? Is it chance? Or,
are they not all the fine branches of one
trunk, whose sap flows through us all?
ape And so it comes to pass,
in time, that the earth ceases for us to -
be a weltering chaos. We walk in the
great hall of life, looking up and around
reverentially. Nothing is despicable—
all is meaning—full; nothing is small—
all is part of a whole, whose beginning
and end we know not. The life that
throbs in us is a pulsation from it; too
mighty for our comprehension, not too
small.—Story of an African Farm.

BIRD NOTES.

ANNE WAKELY JACKSON.

URING the late autumn days,

8. when the summer chorus has

dispersed, and only a few win-

ter soloists remain to cheer us,

one is more than ever impressed by

the wonderful carrying power of bird

notes. Many of these notes are not at

all loud; and yet we hear them very

distinctly at a comparatively long dis-
tance from their source.

The ear that is trained to listen will
distinguish a bird’s note above a great
variety of loud and distracting noises.
This is due, not to the loudness of the
note, but to the quality of its tone.

We all know by experience, though
few of us, alas, profit by it that when
we wish to make ourselves heard, it is
not always necessary to raise our
voices, but only to use a different
quality of tone.

Thus, some singers, when you hear
them in a small room, seem to com-
pletely fill it with sound, while if they
sing in a large hall, they can scarcely
be heard at all beyond a certain dis-
tance. Their voices lack carrying
power, and their notes apparently
escape almost directly after leaving
their mouths.

It is this carrying quality, which can
be cultivated to a large extent in the
human voice, that we find in bird notes.
They produce their notes in a perfectly
natural way. They do not, like us,
have to be trained and taught to sing
naturally.

I believe that nearly every human
voice has some sweet or agreeable
quality init. If the owner would but
use that part, instead of inflicting the
harsh or strident or shrill part upon
the unfortunate listener, what a musical
world we should live in! No discord-
ant voices! Think of it!

To go back to the birds. Here is an
example of the penetrating quality of
tone they possess. One morning I
was busily engaged in the back part of
the house, when my ear caught the
sound of a bird’s note, and I deter-
mined to follow it up.

It led me to the front part of the
house, out of the front door, down the

walk, across the street, and into a
neighbor's yard where I found my
‘caller,’ a white-breasted nut-hatch,
carefully searching the bark of a tall
soft maple. His note did not sound
particularly loud when I stood there
near him. Yet I had heard it with per-
fect distinctness inthe rear of the house.

What a penetrating quality there is
in the high, faint “skreeking” of the
brown creeper, and in the metallic
“pip” of the hairy woodpecker.

The birds could teach us many a
lesson on ‘‘voice production,” if we
would but listen to them.

The person who has never learned to
listen, misses much of the beauty of
life. For him “that hath ears to hear,”
when he goes abroad, the air is full of
subtle music. Not merely the music
of the birds, but other voices of nature
as well; the wind in the trees, the
rustle of leaves.

The unthinking person walks along
the street, seeing nothing, hearing
nothing. What does he miss? Many
things. He misses yon talltree, which
suggests such strength, such enduring
majesty. He misses the beautiful leaf
that lies in his path, a marvel of ex-
quisitely blended coloring. He misses
the delicate tracery of slender twigs
and branches, with their background
of blue sky or gray cloud. He misses
the voices of his feathered friends who
would gladly cheer him on his way.
If he thinks of nature at all, he is apt
to think her beauties have departed
with the summer. Not so. If you
love nature, she will never withhold
some part of her beauty from you, no
matter how cold or windy or rainy the
day may be. If you see no beauty it
is not because it is entirely lacking,
but because you are blind to it.

The love of nature is a great gift, a
gift that is within the reach of all of
us. Let us, then, cultivate this gift,
and we shall find beauty and harmony
and peace, such as we never dreamed
of before. Our lives will become
better and nobler for the contact with
nature, and we shall be brought into a
closer understanding of nature’s God.

SOUTHWARD BOUND.

A FALL EXPERIENCE.

ELLA EF. MOSBY:

T was October 8, and many birds
| ‘had gone on their long journey to
tropical lands. The fog hung thick
like a white blanket between the
trees, and obscured all distant ob-
jects, such as mountain ranges or wind-
ing rivers, from view. My home was
in Lynchburg, on the James River, and
consequently in the line of the “‘birds’
highway,” and I was standing beside
the window on the lookout for migrants,
when,to mysurprise, there alightedin the
tree beside me a female scarlet tanager
in olive-green and dusky yellow, with
her soft, innocent eyes looking with
gentle confidence around her. In a
few minutes the trees around her were
ringing with chip cheer! chip cheer!
from a large flock of tanagers that had
evidently lost their way in the fog, and
descended near the ground to make ob-
servations. During the morning three
different waves of migrating tanagers
passed, flying slowly and so low that it
was easy to see and recognize them.
The next day it was again thickly
foggy. As I glanced out atthe window!
saw another tanager, sitting motionless
ona bough. From ten to three wave
after wave, in even greater numbers
than the day before, passed. Fre-
quently there were from three to nine
tanagers perched in full view, occa-
sionally calling chzp cheer! but usually
quietly resting or eating insects, of
which the trees were full. I heard one
crunching a hard-shelled bit in his
strong beak. The scarlet of summer
was not to be seen in the fall plumage
of green and yellow, but the books are
misleading when they speak of the
male as ‘dull,’ or “like the female.”
It is true he is green above and yellow
underneath, but where her wings are
darker or ‘“‘fuscous,” his wings and tail
are a glossy, velvety black, and instead
of her dull yellow, his breast is a shin-
ning and vivid lemon-yellow, so that
he is almost as beautiful as in his black
and scarlet. In such large flocks I saw

every phase of varying yellow or green
in the immature males and females, one
of the latter seeming a soft olive all
over, slightly greener aboveand slightly
more yellow below. Eveninthe spring,
when our woods ring with the joyous
calls and songs of both varieties, I have
never seen half the number of tanagers
together.

I was interested in noticing how
many of our migrating birds gathered
in unusually large flocks. The oven
birds and the mocking-birds were seen
in large numbers before they left, for
many, if not most of the latter, do go
farther South incold weather. I heard
one of the mocking-birds singing the
most exquisite song, but softened al-
most to a whisper, as if singing in a
dream a farewell to the trees he knew
so well. He sang in this way for quite
a long while, the rest of the flock flying
excitedly to and fro. I also saw a large
flock of chebecs instead of the one or
two scattered migrants I was accus-
tomed to see in the fall. The gay-
colored sapsuckers came to usin large
flocks—they spend the winter with us—
filling the trees around us.

For the first time, too, I had an expe-
rience of the caprices of migrating
warblers. The blackpolls and pine-
warblers, so numerous last year, had
evidently chosen another route to the
tropics, nor were the magnolia and the
chestnut-sided to be seen. But the
Cape May warblers, usually rare, were
very numerous, and remained long—
from September 20 to October 18. This
might probably be explained by the
abundant supply of food, for the un-
usual warmth of the season had not
only awakened the fruit trees and lilacs,
the kalmia and other wild flowers, to a
second period of blooming, but had
filled the air with immense swarms of
tiny insects. Everywhere glittered and
danced myriads of winged creatures,
and the trees offered a plentiful table
for our insect-loving warblers.

FROM COL F, NUSSBAUMER & SON. BLACK SQUIRREL. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY

A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO

200) 513 Life-size
SOK

THE BLACK SQUIRREL.

(Sczurus niger.)

Mrs Black Squirrel sat in the top of a tree;

‘“‘T believe in the habit of saving,” said she;

“ Tf it were not for that, in the cold winter weather

I should starve, and my young ones, I know, altogether;
But I’m teaching my children to run and lay up
Every acorn as soon as it drops from the cup,

And to get out the corn from the shocks in the field—
There’s a nice hollow tree where I keep it concealed.
We have laid up some wheat and some barley and rye,
And some very nice pumpkin seeds I have put by;
Best of all, we have gathered, in all that we could

Of beechnuts and butternuts grown in the wood;

For cold days and hard times winter surely will bring,
And a habit of saving’s an excellent thing.

“ But my children—you know how young squirrels like play—
‘We have plenty, great plenty, already,’ they'll say.

‘We are tired of bringing in food for our store;

Let us all have a frolic and gather no more!’

But I tell them it’s pleasant when winter is rough,

If we feel both to use and to give we’ve enough;

And they'll find ere the butternuts bloom in the spring

That a habit of saving’s an excellent thing.”

The squirrels are found in all parts
of the globe except Australia, where,
however, there is a far worse pest of
the agriculturist, the abundant rabbit.
All the varieties, according to the au-
thorities, correspond so closely in form,
structure, habits and character that it
is sufficient to describe the common
squirrel and its habits, in order to gain
sufficient knowledge of the whole tribe.
The body of the true squirrel is elongated,
tail long, and its fur evenly parted
lengthwise along the upper surface.
The eyes are large and prominent, the
ears may be either small or large, scan-
tily covered with hair or are furnished
with tufts. The fore-legs are shorter
thanthe rear. The fore-paws have four
toes and one thumb, the hind-paws
have five toes.

The time to see the squirrels is in the
early morning when they come to the
ground to feed, and in the woods large
numbers may be seen frisking about on
the branches or chasing up and down
the trunks. If alarmed the squirrel
springs up a tree with extraordinary ac-
tivity and hides behind a branch. This

23

trick often enables it to escape its en-
emy the hawk, and by constantly slip-
ping behind the large branches fre-
quently tires it out. The daring and
activity of the little animal is remark-
able. When pursued it leaps from
branch to branch, or from tree to'tree.
altering its direction while in the air by
means of its tail, which acts as a rudder.

It is easily domesticated and is very
amusing in its habits when suffered to
go at large in a room or kept in a spa-
cious cage, but when confined in a little
box, especially in one of the cruel wheel
cages, its energies and playfulness are
quite lost. The ancient Greeks were
fully aware of its attractive qualities,
and we are indebted to them for its
scientific name. That name signifies
‘the who is under the shadow of his
tail,” and everyone who knows the
meaning of the Greek word sciurus
“must involuntarily think of the lively
little creature as it sits on the loftiest
branches of the trees.”

The favorite haunts of the squirrel
are dry, shady forests. When fruits
and nuts are ripe it visits the village

gardens. Where there are many pine
cones it makes its permanent home,
building one or more, usually in old
nests of.crows which it improves. If
it does not intend to remain long it
uses the nests of magpies, crows, or
birds of prey, but the nest which it in-
tends to serve as a permanent sleeping-
place, a shelter against bad weather, or
a nursery, is newly built. It is said
that every squirrel has at least four
nests; but nothing has been definitely
proven on thisscore. Brehm says they
also build in hollow trees; that the open-
air nests usually lie in a fork close to
the main trunk of the tree; the bottom
is built like one of the larger bird nests
while above there is a flat, conical
roof after the manner of magpies’ nests,
close enough to be impenetrable to the
rain. The main entrance is placed side-
ways, usually facing the east; a slightly
smaller loop-hole for escape from its
many enemies is found close to the
trunk.

According to the season it eats fruit
or seeds, buds, twigs, shells, berries,
grain and mushrooms. The seeds,
buds and young shoots of fir and
pine, trees probably form its principal
food.

As soon as the animal is provided with
food in abundance it lays by stores for
later and less plenteous times, carrying
to its storerooms nuts, grains and ker-
nels, sometimes from a great distance.
In the forests of southeastern Siberia
the squirrels also store away mush-
rooms, and that in a very peculiar
manner.

“They are so unselfish,” says Radde,
“that they do not think of hiding their
supply of mushrooms, but pin them on
the pine needles or in larch woods on
the small twigs. There they leave the
mushrooms to dry, and in times of

. scarcity of food these stores are of good

service to some roaming individual of
their kind.”

THE ROBIN’S MISTAKE.

L. WHITNEY WATKINS.

The scene was the bank of a crystal brook

Where a saucy young robin had paused to look,

As the morning sun had gilded the waves

Which sparkled and sang thro’ the autumn days.

He glanced at the leaves, that had copied his breast,
The leaves that in springtime had shielded his nest;
Then turning his head with a bird like grace,

He searched in the stream for his mirrored face.

Not his mottled coat of rusty brown

He saw in the brook-bed sloping down,

But a touch of gray with an amber dab—

The reflected form of a brooklet crab.

He gazed in surprise at the specter-like thing,

Then chirping aloud and raising each wing,

In terror he turned from the ghost-haunted place
And met on the bank the real crab face to face.
Young Robins, like “others,” are inclined to be “gay,”
And our hero’s misfortune occurred in this way:

He considered a moment; his foe seemed quite weak,
And he ventured a peck with his slim, shiny beak.

A flutter, a scream—up the bank Robin came;

Hc found two could play at the same little game,
And the waves as they fled, with a smile and a gieam,
Carried crab and brown feathers adown with the stream.

THE DOVE. NOAH’S MESSENGER.

GRANVILLE OSBORNE,

MONG the beautiful incidents of
r scripture none has become more

familiar to old and young alike

than that which relates how
Noah “sent forth a dove from him to
see if the waters were abated from off
the face of the ground.” We can im-
agine the timid messenger sent forth
by Noah’s hand from the open window
of the ark. Over the vast surface of
the waters it flew, in obedience to
natural instincts, seeking a place of
rest, but, as the narrative relates, ‘the
dove found no rest for the sole of her
foot, and she returned unto him into
the ark, for the waters were on the face
of the whole earth.”” With what an un-
erring flight the dove had returned to
the only safe refuge, and how gently
did Noah ‘put forth his hand” and
dtaweher in unto him)’ after the
weary quest was over and the tired
wings had only brought back a mes-
sage Of defeated hopes. After seven
days had gone by Noah sent forth the
dove again with longing expectancy
that the flood might be receding. With
swift flight the dove disappeared from
view, and, high in air, sought amid the
waste of waters, with its marvelous
powers of sight, for any sign which told
of safety andrest. At lengthit reached
a refuge, the spot it sovght, where
the valleys once more began to show
themselves above the depths. And in
the evening, as Noah watched and
waited at the open window of the ark,
he saw afar off the glint of snowy wings
against the golden sky, and ‘lo, the
dove returned, bearing in her mouth
an olive leaf plucked off,so Noah knew
that the waters were abated from off
the earth.” The olive branch was a
token that even the trees in the valleys
were uncovered, and has been the type
in all after agesof peace andrest. The
Hebrew word “yonah”’ is the general
name for the many varieties of doves
and pigeons found in Bible lands. It
is frequently used by the prophetic
writers as a symbol of comparison.
Both Isaiah and Ezekiel speak of doves

25

that “fly asa cloud.” In many of the
wild valleys of Palestine the cliffs are
full of caves, and there the wild pig-
eons build their nests and fly in flocks
that truly are “like the clouds”’ in
number. Again the same prophets
speak of the ‘‘ doves of the valleys, all
of them mourning.” This is peculiarly
applicable to the turtle dove. Its low,
sad plaint may be heard all day long
at certain seasons in the olive groves
and in the solitary and shady valleys
amongst the mountains. These birds
can never be tamed. Confined in a
cage, they languish and die, but no
sooner are they set at liberty than they
“flee as a bird” to their mountains.
David refers to their habits in this re-
spect when his heart was sad within
him: ‘‘O that I had wings like a dove,
for then would I fly away and be at
rest.” Nahum alludes to a striking
habit of the dove when he says: ‘‘ And
the maids of Hazzab shall lead her as
with the voice of doves, tabering upon
their breasts.”

Hazzab was the queen of Nineveh,
who was to be led by her maidens into
captivity, mourning as doves do, and
‘“tabering,” or striking on their breasts,
a common practice in that country.

David, in beautiful imagery, comforts
those who mourn, saying: “Though ye
have lain among the pots, ye shall be
as the wings of a dove covered with
silver and her feathers with yellow
gold.” A dove of Damascus is referred
to whose feathers have the metallic
luster of silver and the gleam of gold.
They are small and kept in cages.
Their note is very sad and the cooing
kept up by night as well as by day.

To the millions who devoutly sing of
the ‘Heavenly Dove” no other sym-
bol either in or out of the Bible sug-
gests so much precious instruction and
spiritual comfort as this innocent bird—
pure, gentle, meek, loving, faithful, the
appropriate emblem of that ‘“ Holy
Spirit ” that descended from the open
heavens upon our Lord at his bap-
tism.

THE WEASEL.

(Putorius vulgaris.)

HIS is the smallest beast of prey,
but so agile and courageous
that it is regarded as a model of

Carnivorous animals. It dwells
in fields, gardens, burrows, clefts of
rock, under stones or wood piles, and
roams around by day as well as by
night. Its slender and attenuated shape
enables it to enter and explore the hab-
itations of the smallest animals, and,
as it is a destroyer of rats, mice, and
other noxious animals, it is useful and
deserves protection. It is, however,
hunted by many who do not appreciate
its value.

The weasel attains a length of eight
inches, including the tail. The body
appears to be longer than it really
is because the neck and head are
of about the same circumference as
the body. It is of the same thickness
from head to tail.

This animal is found throughout Eu-
rope, Canada, and the northern por-
tions of the United States. Plains,
mountains, forests, populous districts,
as well as the wilderness, are 1ts home.
It adapts itself to circumstances, and
can find a suitable dwelling-place in
any locality. It is found in barns, cel-
lars, garrets, and similar retreats.

An observer says one who noise-
lessly approaches the hiding-place of
a weasel may easily secure the pleas-
ure of watching it. He may then hear
a slight rustle of leaves and seeasmall,
brown creature gliding along. As soon
as it catches sight of a human being it
stands on its hind legs to obtain a bet-
ter view. ‘The idea of flight seldom
enters this dwarf-like creature’s head,
but it looks at the world with a pair of
bold eyes and assumes an attitude of
defiance.” Men have been attacked
by it. A naturalist once saw a large
bird swoop down ona field, pick up a
small animal and fly upward with it.
Suddenly the bird staggered in its
flight, and then dropped to the ground
dead. A weasel tripped merrily away.
It had severed its enemy’s neck with
its teeth and thus escaped.

26

The weasel preys upon mice, house
rats and water rats, moles, hares, rab-
bits, chickens, birds, lizards, snakes,
frogs, fish, and crabs.

A litter of weasels numbers eight.
The mother is very fond of the little
blind creatures and nourishes them
until long after they can see.

Buffon said this little animal was not
capable of domestication, but as a mat-
ter of fact, when accustomed to people
from childhood, it becomes very tame
and attractive.

A lady tells the following anecdote

‘of her pet weasel:

“Tf | pour some milk into my, hand
my tame weasel will drink a good deal,
but if I do not pay it this compliment
it will scarcely take a drop. When
satisfied it generally goestosleep. My
chamber is the place of its residence
and I have found a method of dispel-
ling its strong odor by perfumes. By
day it sleeps in a quilt, into which it
gets by an unsewn place which it has
discovered on the edge; during the
night it is kept in a wired box or cage,
which it always enters with reluctance
and leaves with pleasure. If it be set
at liberty before my time of rising,
after a thousand playful little tricks, it
gets into my bed and goes to sleep be-
side me. If Iam up first it spends a
full half-hour in caressing me, playing
with my fingers like a little dog, jump-
ing on my head and my neck with a
lightness and elegance which I have
never found in other animals. If I
present my hands at the distance of
three feet it jumps into them without
ever missing. It exhibits great address
and cunning to compass its ends, and
seems to disobey certain prohibitions
merely through caprice. In the midst
of twenty people it distinguishes my
voice, seeks me out and springs over
all the others to come at me.”

The weasel probably lives from eight
to twelve years. It is easily caught in
a trap, with bait of an egg,a small bird,
or a mouse. No other animal is so
fitly endowed for hunting mice.

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In the attempt to check the rabbit
pest in New Zealand, recourse has been
had to the importation of natural ene-
mies, such as ferrets, stoats, and wea-
sels. In the Wairarapa district some
600 ferrets, 300 stoats and weasels, and
300 cats had been turned out previous
to 1887. Between January, 1887, and
June, 1888, contracts were made by the
government for nearly 22,000 ferrets,
and several thousand had previously
been liberated on crown and private
lands. Large numbers of stoats and
weasels have also been liberated during
the last fifteen years.

This host of predatory animals speed-

ily brought about a decrease in the
number of rabbits, but their work was
not confined to rabbits, and soon game
birds and other species were found to
be diminishing. The stoat and the wea-
sel are much more bloodthirsty than
the ferret, and the widespread destruc-
tion is attributed to them rather than
to the latter animal. Now that some
of the native birds are threatened with
extermination, it has been suggested
to set aside an island along the New
Zealand coast, where the more inter-
esting indigenous species can be kept
safe from their enemies and saved from
complete extinction.

BIRDS AND THE WEATHER.

IRDS are dependent on the ele-

B ments as well as is man, and in

the want of materials and the

requirements in nest-building

the birds are comparable to the lords
of creation.

It is not a rare thing for a pair of
robins to be badly handicapped in
ngsting-time by a lack of rain, for in
May, and even in the showery month
of April, there is occasionally a dry
run of weather lasting for more thana
week.

I have seen a pair of robins start a
nest, and the dry weather would come
on and stop operations, and the dis-
consolate pair would wait for the rain
so that they could make mortar for
their nest. Robins must have mud to
use in the construction of their little
home, and all the dry materials will
avail them nothing unless there is a
good stock of mortar on hand to
cement the grass, rags, and other mate-
rials together.

On one occasion we supplied a pair
of redbreasts with plenty of mortar
by letting the hydrant run on the
ground. The delighted robins imme-
diately accepted the situation and
gathered materials for the partially
finished home, which was quickly com-
pleted and the four beautifnl eggs de-

posited. We broke the law by letting
the water run, but then we can excuse
ourselves in behalf of the faithful
birds by saying that “ necessity knows
no law.”

The eave-swallows also require mor-
tar for the construction of their nests,
and they select quarters not very far
removed from lakes, ponds, or streams.
There is a neighborhood where the
swallows used to build in great num-
bers, and the barns were well patron-
ized by these little insect-feeders, rows
of the gourd-shaped nests being seen
beneath the eaves.

At last the pond inthe section was
drained, and all the swallows deserted
that neighborhood. There are very
few birds which are not more or less
affected by civilization, and a study of
this subject is most interesting.

Years ago the chimney swifts were
in the habit of building their stick
nests in the hollows of big. trees, and
even at the present day we may find
nests in these old-time situations. As
time passed the swifts found that the
chimneys of men’s houses offered
better situations for nests, and so the
reasoning birds adopted our city and
village chimneys to the abandonment
of the primitive habit of nesting in
hollow trees.—Humane Alhance.

STRANGE ILLUMINATIONS.

BIRDS THAT CARRY LIGHTS.

7: IGHTNING BUGS” and other
| insects that carry lights are
familiar in many parts of the
country, but who ever heard of
birds that carry lights? A strange
story is told of the heron’s powder
patch which makes a two-candle light,
which discloses a new idea in bird lore.
A belated sportsman returning from a
day’s sport found himself late in the
evening on the edge of a flat or marsh
which bordered the path. The moon
had not risen, and the darkness was so
intense that he was obliged to move
slowly and carefully. As he walked
along, gun on shoulder, he thought he
saw a number of lights. some moving,
others stationary. As they were in the
river bed, he knew that they could not
be lanterns, and for some time he was
puzzled; but, being of an inquisitive
mind, he walked down to the water to
investigate.

As the stream was a slow-running,
shallow one, he had no difficulty in
wading in, and soon convinced himself
that the lights were not carried by men,
and were either ignes fatui or from
some cause unknown. To settle the
apparent mystery he crept as close as
he could, took careful aim and fired.
At the discharge the lights disappeared,
but, keeping his eye on the spot where
they had been, he walked quickly to it
and found, to his amazement, a night
heron, upon whose breast gleamed the
mysterious light.

“The sportsman told me of this inci-
dent,” says a friend who knew him well,
“and, while I had often heard of the
light on the heron’s breast, I never be-
fore could find anyone who had person-
ally witnessed the phenomenon, conse-
quently I propounded numerous ques-
tions. The observer saw the light dis-
tinctly; first at a distance of at least
fifty yards, or one hundred and fifty
feet. There were three lights upon
each bird—one upon each side between
the hips and tail, and one upon the
breast.

“He saw the lights of at least four in-
dividuals, and was so interested that he
observed them all carefully and, as to
their intensity, stated to me that each
light was the equivalent of two candles,
so that when he aimed he could see
the gun-sight against it.

“As to whether the bird had control
of the light, he believed he did, as he saw
the lights open and shut several times
as he crawled toward the birds and he
stopped when the light disappeared and
crept on when it cameagain. The light
did not endure long atter the bird was
shot, fading away almost immediately.
In color the light was white and re-
minded the sportsman of phosphores-
cent wood.

“Stories of luminous birds have been
related by sportsmen occasionally, but,
so far as I know, exact facts and data
have never before been obtained on this
most interesting and somewhat sensa-
tional subject. A friend in Florida
told we that he had distinctly seen a
light moving about in a flock of cranes
at night and became satisfied that the
light was the breast of the bird. An-
other friend informed me that on en-
tering a heron rookery at night he had
distinctly observed lights moving about
among the birds.”

That herons have a peculiar possi-
ble light-producing apparatus is well
known. Theseare called powder-down
patches, and can be found by turning
up the long feathers on the heron’s
breast, where will be found a patch of
yellow, greasy material that sometimes
drops off or fills the feathers in the
form of a yellow powder. This pow-
der is produced by the evident de-
composition of the small feathers, pro-
ducing just such a substance as one
might expect would become phospho-
rescent, as there is little doubt that it
does.

The cranes and herons are not the
only birds having these oily lamps, if so
we may term them. A Madagascar
bird, called kirumbo, has a large patch

on each side of therump. The bitterns
have two pairs of patches; the true her-
ons three, while the curious boat-bills
have eight, which, if at times all lumi-
nous; would give the bird a most con-
spicuous, not to say spectral appearance
at night.

Some years ago a party of explorers
entered a large cave on the island of
Trinidad that had hitherto been con-
sidered inaccessible. To their astonish-
ment they found it filled with birds
which darted about in the dark in such
numbers that they struck the explorers
and rendered their passage not only
disagreeable, but dangerous. The birds
proved to be night hawks, known as
oil birds, and in great demand for the
oil they contain, and it is barely possi-
ble that these birds are also light-giv-
ers. The powder-down patches of the
oil bird are upon each side of the rump.

As to the use of such lights to a bird
there has been much conjecture; but it
is thought that it may be a lure to at-
tract fishes. It it is well known that
fishes and various marine animals are
attracted by light, and a heron stand-
ing motionless in the water, the light
from its breast, if equal to two candles,
would be plainly seen fora considerable

distance by various kinds of fishes, which
would undoubtedly approach within
reach of the eagle eye and sharp bill of
the heron and so fall victims to their
curiosity. If this is a true solving of
the mystery it is one of the most re-
markable provisions of nature.

There is hardly a group of animals
that does not include some light-givers
of great beauty; but it is not generally
known that some of the higher animals
also produce light at times. Renninger,
the naturalist, whose studies and obser-
vations of Paraguay are well known,
tells a most remarkable story of his ex-
perience with the monkey known as
Nyctipithithecus trivigatus. He was in
complete darkness when he observed
the phenomenon, which was a_ phos-
phorescent light gleaming from the
eyes of the animal; not the light which
appears in the eye of the cat, but shafts
of phosphorescent light which were not
only distinctly visible, but illumined
objects a distance of six inches from
the animal’s eyes.

The subject is an interesting one and
research among the various phenomena
disclosed by naturalists may discover
many other animals capable of strange
illuminations.

HE PINK HOUSE IN- THE APPLE tren.

WOODWORTH.

NELLY HART

OT the least interesting of my

N summer neighbors is a Quaker

family named Chebec, the least
fly-catchers.

Whey are little people, else they
would not be least fly-catchers, plainly
dressed, with olive shoulder- capes lined
with yellow, wings finely barred with
black and white and heads dark and
mousy. The large eyes, circled with
white, are as full of expression as a
thrush’s.

Waat is lacking insong is made up in
an energy decidedly muscular, the
originality of the note chedec, uttered
with a jerk of the head ora launch into
the air after some passing insect, never
being confused with other bird voices.

It is not Chebec himself that com-
mands my special admiration, but

“Petite,” his winsome little lady, with
her rare gentleness and confidence.
Our intimacy began when she was liv-
ing on a long maple branch that nearly
touched my chamber window, and she
was dancing attendance upon four pure-
white eggs when I became conscious
of her neighborly intentions. She soon
settled down into the most demure lit-
tle matron, a regular stay-at-home,
really grudging the time necessary
for taking her meals. Later, when I
‘peeked in” at the nestlings, Petite
only hugged them‘closer, nor did she
leave until my hand was laid on her
shoulder. We were soon fast friends.
The most tempting morsels the neigh-
borhood afforded were brought to her
door, and, though she was unwearied
in the family service, my efforts were

gratefully received, even anticipated.
The following spring her choice of
residence was a bough that hung over
the door, coming to the end of the
branch whenever I appeared in an
effort to express her approval. For,
you see, I had given her a quantity of
strings and lace and cotton for her
nest, and she was truly grateful!

Excess of splendor is always peril-
ous. The work of art was no sooner
completed than Robin Redbreast grew
envious, rushed over and pulled out the
finest strings, leaving the nest in so
shaky a condition that the wind soon
finished it.

Petite’s feelings were deeply injured
—she could not be induced to rebuild
near her malicious neighbor.

To help her forget her troubles I
gave her some yellow ravelings, much
handsomer than those Robin had
stolen.

Thoroughly consoled, she worked as
fast as she possibly could until the last
ray of light had faded. Knowing that
Robin’s impudence had delayed her
spring’s work, I did my best to supply
her needs.

Altogether her patience was extreme.
Occasionally she hinted gently that
her time was precious or that I was
keeping her waiting, as she hovered
about my face or rested briefly upon my
shoe, keeping a sharp lookout mean-
while upon the cloth I was raveling.

How she scampered off when it was
ready, snatching it from my hand be-
fore it reached the ground!

The next day saw the new house
completed—no ordinary affair, but a
magnificent dwelling, yellow from foun-
dation to rafter, with a long, fantastic
fringe of the same floating from its’ rim
and waving gracefully in every breeze.

Petite now became my attentive com-
panion in my garden work, talking in
subdued tones from the nearest branch
as if she felt the seriousness of the
occasion, circling in the air and alight-
ing on the same bough in pretended
alarm when I tried to touch her soft,
delicate feathers.

May 3d of this present year she
called softly from the orchard that she
had arrived. For a few days she had
little to say, wearied with the long

journey and being broken of her rest,
as must have been the case. She was
not quite herself, either—really put on
airs and kept ata distance; but when
she began to think of housekeeping she
was the same trusting darling that won
my heart and gave me willing hands
in her service.

We talked matters over on the piazza
while she fluttered about my head,
touched my hat with dainty feet, or

‘ poised before me to say in her own

32

pretty way that it was quite time to be
thinking of sitting. ‘‘What do you
propose to do for me “is year? How
much help can I rely upon from you?”
she asked as plainly as if she spoke
English.

“ Ah, Petite,” I answered, ‘‘you must
not demand foo much. It is quite time
the sweet peas were planted!” But
words were useless; she coaxed, en-
ticed, pleaded, until mine was a full
and unconditioned surrender. ‘‘ You
deserve it, Petite, for your persever-
ance! You shall have the finest house
that was ever seen in this section,” I
said, and with that promise we parted.

I found a quantity of jeweler’s cot-
ton, pink as a rosebud, soft and fluffy
and light enough to satisfy the most
fastidious bird architect. Small pieces
were placed upon lawn and _ tree
trunks, where Petite soon spied them;
her first impulse was one of approval.

Not meaning to be rash in her judg-
ment, her head was cocked cunningly
on one side as she poised, eyeing them
closely, until I feared that, dissatisfied,
she would accuse me of breaking my
promise.

When she seized one, cautiously, in
her beak and sailed away with it trail-
ing after her in the air my fears were
over. As no harm attended its trans-
fer to the orchard, where it was ad-
justed to her taste, her admiring mate
left his fly-catching to help in the
work, the cotton disappearing so rap-
idly there were signs of a corner in the
market.

The nest, strengthened with a few
strings, grew rapidly toward comple-
tion. “Lo all-appearance, its unique
beauty was a matter of congratulation,
the builders regarding it from all sides
with intense satisfaction.

9 |
FROM KCEHLER'S MEDICINAL-PFLANZEN. QUINCE. CHICAGO:
A. W. MUMFORD PUBLISHER,

3uU2

THE QUINCE.

(Cydonia vulgaris, Pers., or Pyrus Cydonia, L.)

BY DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER,
Northwestern University School of Pharmacy.

Of ripened quinces such the mellow hue.
—Congreve Translation, of Ovid’s Art of Love.

HE quince is the pear-like fruit
of a bush or small tree resem-
plincrtihe pear (tree. The
branches are spreading and of a

grayish green or brownish green color.
The leaves are simple, entire, ovate,
with short petioles and distinct stipules.
The lower surface of leaves and stipules
as well as the young twigs and the
sepals are densely covered with hair-
cells producing a woolly appearance.
The flowers develop in May and June
and are usually solitary upon terminal
branches. Calyx green with five foli-
aceous, serrate, reflexed lobes. Corolla
of five separate ovate, rather large, pink
petals. Stamens yellow, numerous (20);
five styles anda five-celled ovary. The
matured fruit is apome. That is, the
greater bulk consists of the thickened
calyx enclosing the ovary. The form, size
and color of the ripe fruit are shown in
the illustration. Each cell of the ovary
bears from six to fifteen seeds which
resemble apple seeds very closely as to
form and color.

The name Cydonia is derived from
the name of the Greek city Cydon, now
Canea, of Crete. The Cydonian apple
of the Greeks was emblematic of for-
tune, love and fertility, and was dedi-
cated to the goddess Aphrodite ( Venus).
It is a question whether Crete was the
original home of the quince. Some au-
thorities maintain that it found its way
into Greece from upper Asia, Persia,
or India. Wherever its first home may
have been this plant was known in
Greece 700 years B.C. From Greece
the tree was introduced into Italy and
Spain, from which countries it finally
spread over central Europe. Charle-
magne, Karl der. Grosse — 812, was
largely instrumental in spreading the
quince in Germany.

The ancient Greeks made extensive
medicinal use of the fruit. On account
of its astringency it has been used in

dysentery, hemorrhage, and other con-
ditions requiring an astringent sub-
stance. At present it is little used, the
seeds excepted.

The pulp is fibrous and tough; it is
not edible in the raw state on account
of its, acrid, \astringents taste) Asa
whole it is a discouraging and disagree-
able fruit in spite of its beautiful yellow
color and pleasantly aromatic odor.
Mixed with apples it makes excellent
pies and tarts. A marmalade is made
from the pulp, also a delicious jelly. It
is stated that the word marmalade is
derived from marmelo, the Portuguese
name for quince.

The seeds are extensively used on ac-
count of the mucilage of the outer sur-
face (epidermal cells). A decoction
commonly known as mucilage of quince
seed is much used as a demulcent in
certain diseases—in erysipelas, inflam-
matory conditions of the eyes and in
other affections where mucilaginous
applications are found useful. The
Mohammedans of India value the
seeds very highly as a restorative and
demulcent tonic. European physicians
have used them with much success in
dysentery. The mucilage is also one
of the substances used by hair-dressers
under the name of dandoline.

Chemically the mucilage is simply a
modification of cellulose. Pereira con-
sidered it a special chemical substance
which he designated cydonin. The seed,
about 20 per cent. of which is muci-
lage, will make a sticky emulsion with
forcy times its weight of water. As to
its physical properties it closely resem-
bles gum arabic and agar. There are,
however, simple tests by means of which
it is possible to distinguish them. The
seeds rubbed or crushed emit an odor
resembling almonds, due to the pres-
ence of hydrocyanic acid.

Most of the quince seed of the mar-
ket comes from southern Russia, south-

ern France and the Cape of Good Hope.
It is cultivated in various temperate
and subtropical countries.

The quince must not be confounded
with the Indian “bael” fruit which is
known in India as the Bengal quince.
The Chinese quince is a species of pear.
The Japanese quince is also a species of
pear resembling the Chinese quince. It
is a great garden favorite on account of
its large scarlet or crimson flowers. The
fruit, which is not edible in the raw

state, resembles a small apple and is
sometimes used for making a jelly.
The Portugal quince differs from the
ordinary variety by its more delicate
coloring. It is, however, less produc-
tive than the common varieties.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE.—A, flowering
twig; &, fruit; 1, stipules; 2, flower in
section; 3, stamen; 4, pollen; 5, style;
6, stigma; 7 and 8, fruit in sections; 9
and 10, seeds of one cell of the ovary;
II, seeds; 12, seed in sections.

THE YOUNG NATURALIST.

DIAMONDS AND GOLD.

foolish there will be no diminu-

tion in the demand for dia-
monds.” He ought to know, for he is
called the ‘Diamond King.”

Thirty years ago John O'Reilly found
some children at a farm house in South
Africa playing in the evening with
some beautiful stones that had peculiar
forms and brilliancy. He took the
finest to town with him and found it
was worth $500.

People swarmed into the country
where little children had rough dia-
monds for playthings, and over $400,-
000,000 worthof these crystals has been
taken from Africa.

While the diamond excitement was
still raging the people were inflamed at
finding there was gold about them in
great quantities. The diamond hunt-
ers in many instances became gold
diggers, because there was even more
money to be made in gold digging than

in hunting for diamonds.

' Last year nearly $75,000,000 worth
of gold was produced in that country.
That is more than we produced in the
great gold fields of the United States
all taken together. We crushed from
the rocks and dug out of the dirt about
$65,000,000 in gold. The famous gold
fields of Australia yielded about the
same amount as our Own country.

ECIL RHODES :says:: “So-lone
as women are vain and men

So much wealth in Africa has em-
bittered the people. The Dutch farm-
ers, called boers, occupy the heart of
the best country. They are not pro-
gressive, the English say. Perhaps
they mean that the boers do not move
away fast enough to suit the English.
They have made trek after trek to get
out of the way of the English. Trek
means journey. But when they real-
ized how much wealth there was about
them in the country which they had
thought was so poor, they decided not
to make any more treks to let the
British in.

These Dutch farmers withstood the
English at Majuba Hill, Jan. 28, 1881,
and killed off nearly all the British
forces sent against them. In this fight
they lost but fourteen men in killed
and wounded, while wiping out their
enemies. They celebrate this day as
we do the Fourth of July. It is their
day of independence, and they do not
wish to give up the advantage it gave
them. Sixty years ago less than five
hundred boers under Andries Pretorius
defeated twelve thousand Zulus, killing
three thousand of them.

As the Dutch have such a good rea-
son for trusting to their weapons there
is little wonder that the gold and the
diamonds of the country brought them
into a war with England.

LIQUID AIR.

ANY substances have three

M forms—solid, liquid, and gas-

eous. It takes cold to changea

gas to a liquid, and more cold

to reduce the liquid toasolid. Steam,
water, and ice are good examples.

Air is a substance that requires so
much cold to reduce it even to a liquid
state that we know nothing of it asa
solid. Our Smithsonian Institution
gave Professor Dewar of the Royal In-
stitute of London a gold medal for his
discovery in regard to reducing it toa
liquid.

No artificial cold is intense enough
to affect air except when it is confined
under great pressure. When a gas is
compressed and made cold it tends to
liquefy. But it takes enormous press-
ure and intense cold to make liquid air.

It is a grayish substance that may be
carried about like water. It has a ten-
dency to steam up, and when its vapor
comes into contact with flesh a cooling
- sensation is produced. But living flesh
cannot long remain in contact with
the liquid itself. It produces a wound
much like a burn.

By careful use of liquid air in sur-
gery, the flesh may be so put to sleep
that the surgeon’s knife is not felt by
the patient as he watches the cutting.
A cancer has been cut out by liquid
air in a sort of burning process that
needed no knife. Cremation has been
accomplished by its use.

Cremation is burning. Burning is
the union of oxygen with the substance
consumed. Liquid air left exposed to
common air evaporates and sends out
its nitrogen so that almost pure liquid
oxyeen is left ain? ithe vessel.’ This
placed in contact with the body to be
consumed soon sends all except its
mineral parts flying away in the
atmosphere in a vapor thinner than
smoke.

It is the coldest substance known.
It takes an intense cold to produce it,
and it has to remain cold much as ice

is cold, only very much more so, as
long as it is liquid air. For this reason
it is carried about in vessels con-
structed so as to exclude the heat.
Mercury dropped into it becomes a
solid biock, and meat quickly freezes
so hard that it is brittle as.giass and
may be broken into a thousand pieces.

The liquid oxygen left after expos-
ure of liquid air may be placed in a
hollow in a cake of ice. Dip into it a
watch spring and touch a lighted
match to it and you will see the steel
spring burn as if it were full of pitch.

Kight hundred gallons of common
air are compressed into one gallon of
the liquid. The liquid is unattractive
and very common-looking. You would
not suspect its great powers by merely
looking at it in a dish. But when it
expands into common air it has tre-
mendous energy. A few drops con-
fined in a closed iron pipe will explode
and blow the metal to atoms.

When first produced it was so ex-
pensive a product that its value was
above that of rubies. Now it is cheap
and becoming more so. We expect it~
to become an ordinary article of com-
merce. One company is capitalized at
$10,000,000 to push its use in place of
steam and electricity.

Probably some of the companies ad-
vertising shares to sell are putting its
powers far too high. One company’s
agents are representing that a very
little of it in a cup will keep an icebox
cold all day, and that a pound of it
will reduce the heat in a large house
on a warm summer day so that it may
be kept cool at very small expense.

These extravagant claims are prob-
ably made for the purpose of deceiving
people so they will buy shares. The
facts seem to show that a pint of liquid
air will not cool an ice box much more
than will a pound of ice. The effect
of a gallon of it in a large house would
scarcely be felt in July, except fora
shert time in one or two rooms.

COMMON MINERALS AND VALUABLE ORES.

IL—QUARTZ AND THE SILICATES.

SLE Oeaks

BROOKINS, B.S.

Principal Au Sable Academy, N. Y.

associate the gem opal, with its

brilliant internal colored reflec-

tions, with that material form-
ing so large a part of the soil, sand.
Yet the two are almost identical in
composition. The mineral constituent
of sand and of opal is quartz, though
the latter often contains in addition
some water.

Quartz is composed of the two
elements occurring the most abun-
dantly in the earth’s crust, silicon and
oxygen, both non-metals. As already
indicated, the most common represen-
tative of the mineral substance is the
sand of the soil. The sand grains are
generally so eroded by the atmosphere
and surface waters as to show little of
the true quartz structure. A typical
specimen of quartz, commonly known
as ‘“‘rock crystal,” clear, transparent
and approximately perfect in form, is
not difficult to obtain for study. If
not occurring in the particular locality
it may be obtained from a dealer in
minerals at slight expense. As studied
by means of the rock crystal, quartz is
remarkable for its transparency, its
regular crystal form, and its great de-
gree of hardness. Its transparency is
such that printing may be read through
the crystal. Its crystalline form
affords an unfailing means to the
mineralogist of recognizing the sub-
stance as quartz. If our specimen be
large and perfect, we note that it is
bounded by planes in such manner
that we have a hexagonal prism termi-
nated at either end by a hexagonal
pyramid. With convenient apparatus
for measurement, we learn the all-
important fact to the mineralogist, that
the angle between any prism face and
an adjacent pyramid face is 141° 47’.
The mineralogist obtains his accurate
measurements by means of an instru-
ment known as the goniometer. We
may obtain cruder results by bending

Ce PARATIVELY few persons

38

a readily flexible wire over the two
faces, perpendicular to the edge of
their. intersection, until it is tight
against either face. Then placing one
arm of the bent wire along the base of
a protractor, the point of flexure at the
center of the base, the number of de-
grees between the two arms may be
read, thus giving roughly the angle be-
tween the prism and pyramid faces of
the quartz crystal. The great hard-
ness of quartzis apparent in that it can-
not be scratched with the point of a
knife and that it will cut glass. Often
clear parts of quartz crystals occur
studding the surface of arock structure,
in the form known as a crystal aggre-
gate. One property of quartz rock
(any sandstone or quartzite) we must
not fail to notice is the irregular frac-
ture. This is recognized in the state-
ment that quartz has no cleavage.

The study of the rock crystal should
not lead us into the false conclusion
that quartz is commonly transparent.
Instead it occurs in various shades and
colors from smoky white through yel-
low, red, purple, and brown to black.
The cause of the abundance of sand on
the soil surface is also liable to misin-
terpretation. While sand is naturally
of great abundance, yet its common-
ness at the surface of the soil is due
largely to its great resistant powers to
the agencies of weathering.

Quartz has an economic value di-
rectly in glass sand and of course as a
soil constituent. In the latter capacity,
it is taken up by many plants, and is
the silica that studs the saw edges of
the blades of sedges and grasses. The
precious stones, agate, amethyst, and
jasper are varieties of quartz.

The silicon that is so important a
constituent of quartz, composes with
aluminum a large part of various
minerals comprised under the name
feldspar. This substance is slightly
less hard than quartz and has many

FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. QUARTZ AND SILICATES. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY

A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO 3 sc NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.
. 34 Life-size.

303

oVUD

1—Asbestus. 2—Feldspar. 3—Quartz Crystal. 4—Small Garnetsin rock. 5—Garnet. 6—Opal. 7—Smoky Quartz

variations in color; but, unlike quartz,
shows regular cleavage faces. Feld-
spar is always crystalline, but good
crystals are not common. It is very
difficultly soluble, yet readily yields to
the influence of weathering. A feld-
spathic rock hence readily crumbles.
During the process of disintegration,
the feldspar may change from a clear,
hard, glassy mineral to a dull, opaque
substance. This product of disintegra-
tion is our common white clay. With
quartz, then, feldspar is of great im-
portance in the forming of soil.

Allied to the feldspar group of
minerals as regards cleavage, and yet
of far different special characteristics
is the class of substances known as
mica. How many of us ever think of
‘the so-called isinglass of our stove
doors as a mineral substance? Yet
transparent mica, muscovite, is the
source of that household convenience.
A study of the specimens of mica in
our stove door will provide abundant
ideas of the nature of mica. We have
often noticed how, under the influence
of excessive heat, the isinglass splits
into thin sheets, thus showing the
cleavage of the mineral. These plates
of mica are of especial value in giving

cleavage to rocks which would other-
wise fracture irregularly. The cleavage
of slates and ot the common shale
rocks is due to the presence of mica
particles which have, at some period in
the history of the earth’s crust, through
the action of heat and pressure, been
arranged along definite planes. Isin-
glass represents the transparent variety
of mica. Other varieties are brown
and even black, owing to the presence
of traces of potassium, magnesium,
iron, etc., in varying degree. Some
micas do not easily decay, and so we
frequently see glittering particles
among the fine grains of soil and the
sands of beaches.

The minerals already mentioned,
quartz, feldspar, and mica, are the com-
ponents of a large part of our granites.
In the case of the red Scotch granite,
another silicate, hornblende, replaces
the mica. Various silicates of economic
value are asbestos, a variety of horn-
blende, and augite, which are silicates
of magnesium and iron or calcium;
and talc, which is a silicate of magne-
sium containing water. A great number
of gems are found among the silicates,
including tourmaline, garnet, topaz,
beryl, and chrysolite.

THE DANGER FROM THE IMPORTATION OF ANIMALS.

N abstract of J. S. Palmer’s essay
ay on “The Danger of Introducing
Noxious Animals and Birds”
appears in Our Animal Friends.

There are several societies in this coun-
try for the express purpose of purchas-
ing and importing European birds.
One society in Cincinnati has con-
tributed $9,000 to this object, and other
cities have raised considerable sums.
Our contemporary thinks it would be
well that all such experiments should
be made under the sanction of govern-
ment experts of the Department or
Agriculture. In addition to voluntary
importations, it often happens that
animals are unintentionally brought
into the country, as trading-vessels
have carried the European house
mouse all over the globe, and the intro-
duction of rabbits into Australia is
perhaps the most striking example of
the dangers of unconsidered importa-

41

tions. They were introduced for pur-
poses of sport, and were liberated near
Melbourne in 1864. Within twelve
years they had spread over the country
and become a veritable plague, and
millions of dollars have been spent for
bounties, poisons, and other methods
of destruction. Thousands of miles of
rabbit-proof fences have been built,
and in 1887 no less than 19,182,539 rab-
bits were destroyed in New South
Wales alone, and the rabbits seem to
be on the increase. The little Indian
mongoose was imported into Jamaica
to cope with a plague of rats and
proved most effective, but after it had
destroyed the rats it turned its atten-
tion to the domestic animals and poul-
try,so that the islanders would now be
glad if they could get rid of the pests.
Such area few examples of the danger
of disturbing nature’s balance.

THE AMERICAN BISON.

REMARKAS LE! article re-
a cently appeared in the Sczentzfic

American, written by Prof. Chas.

F. Holder, entitled, ‘‘A Crime
of a Century,” in which is described the
extermination, the wiping out of the
American bison.

‘In 1870, and later,” said an army
officer, ‘‘the plains were alive with
bison, and in crossing at places I had
difficulty in avoiding them, so vast
were the herds. If anyone had told
me then that in twenty or thirty years
they would have become almost en-
tirely extinct I should have regarded
the statement as that of an insane
person.”

We are able to corroborate this state-
ment. In August, 1869, while crossing
the Kansas plains in a stagecoach we
had the privilege, as we regard it now,
. of seeing one of the largest herds of
buffalo then remaining. When first
seen, at a distance of from three to five
miles, we could distinctly hear the
roaring of the animals, who had been
stampeded, perhaps by hunters, who
were at that time wantonly destroying
the grand creatures for their robes.
That so many of these animals could
have been killed in mere wantonness,
says Prof. Holder, seems incredible
when their vast numbers are realized.
We first hear of the bison from Cortez
and his followers in 1521. Montezuma
had one in a zodlogical garden, the
specimen, in all probability, having
been caught in Coahuila. In 1530 Ca-
beza saw them in Texas, and in 1542
Coronado found a herd in what is now
the Indian Territory, one of his officers
describing them as horrible beasts that
demoralized the horses. In 1612 Sir
Samuel Argall observed herds of bison
near the national capital, and, it is
said, two hundred and eighty-seven
years ago herds of bison grazed on the
site of the capitol building at Wash-
ington. In 1678 Father Hennepin ob-
served them in what is now northern
Illinois, and in October, 1729, Col. W.
Bird saw herds in North Carolina and
Virginia. It is known, in fact, that the

bison formerly ranged in millions from
the Atiantic seaboard to the Gulf of
Mexico, from Texas to the Great Slave
Lake, and as far west as central Ne-
vada. ‘‘ As to their numbers, they were
like the sands of the seashore, and the
accounts given by those who hunted
them twenty or thirty years ago to-day
seem like vagaries of a disordered im-
agination.”’ Colonel Dodge, in his me-
moirs, states that on one occasion he
rode twenty-five miles in Arkansas,
always being in a herd of buffaloes, or
many small herds, with but a small
separating strip between them. The
animals paid but little attention to him,
merely moving slowly out of the way
or advancing, bringing the whole herd
of thousands down on him with the
roar of an avalanche. This he met by
standing fast and firing when they
came within short range, the shot caus-
ing them to divide. This he did as a
protection, otherwise they would have
run him down and crushed man, horses,
and wagon. This herd was later found
to be fifty miles wide and to occupy
five days in passing a given point on
its way north. It was estimated that
the herd comprised half a millon buffa-
loes. A train on the Kansas Pacific
road in that state in 1868 passed be-
tween the towns of Ellsworth and Sher-
idan—one hundred and twenty miles—
through a continuous herd of buffa-
loes. They were packed so that the
earth was black, and more than once
the train was stopped, the surging mass
becoming a menace to human safety.
This is the same herd first seen by us
in August, 1869, and again in 1871 and
1872. Anarmy officer relates that he
was at that time on duty in the pay
department, which made it necessary
for him to travel on the Atchison, To-
peka & Santa Fe railroad. One day
the train entered a large herd, which
scattered and seemed to go wild at the
shrieking of the whistle and the ring-
ing of the bell. As the train went on
the thicker they became, until the very
earth appeared to be a rolling mass of
humps as far as the eye could see.

4

Suddenly some of the animals nearest
turned and charged; others fell in be-
hind, and down upon the train they
came like an avalanche. The engineer
stopped the engine, let off steam and
whistled to stop them, while the pas-
sengers fired from the platforms and
windows with rifles and revolvers, but
it was like trying to stay a tidal wave.
On they came, the earth trembling, and
plunged head down into the train.
Some were wedged in between the
cars, others beneath; and so great was
the crush that they toppled three cars
over and actually scrambled over them,
one buffalo becoming bogged by hav-
ing his legs caught in the window.
The question of interest to-day is
how was it possible to destroy so many

_ animals in so short a time and what

methods were employed? Many were
destroyed by stampeding over preci-
pices. In 1867 two thousand buffaloes
became entangled in the quicksands of
trewt latte river. At another time a
herd was lost by breaking through the
iceyot ac Out Parle. in) Minnesota.
The cold winters of the north killed
many. But man was their greatest foe.
He soon found that the buffaloes had
avalue. The Indians slaughtered them
for their skins, bone and for food. The
white man, however, killed for sport,
for the hides and heads, and to pro-
vide the gangs of railroad men with
meat. The animal at this time had a
value estimated at $5, which was sufh-
cient to attract an army of destroyers.
One firm in New York between 1876
and 1884 paid for hides alone nearly
$1,000,000. The government never in-
terfered. The real extermination of
the buffalo, in the opinion of Prof.
Holder, was caused by the demands of
trade, aided and abetted by sportsmen,
Indians, and others; but the blame
really lies with the government that in
all these years permitted a few igno-
rant congressmen to block legislation
in favor of the protection of the bison,
so that all the efforts of humanitarians
were defeated and the bills when passed
pigeon holed.

The still hunter was the most insid-

ious enemy of the buffalo, a single man,
by sneaking upon a herd, having been
known to kill one thousand in a single
season. Capt. Jack Bridges, of Kan-
sas, killed 1,142 buffaloes in six weeks.
In the different states there were regu-
lar killing outfits that cost, in rifles,
horses, carts, etc., from $2,000 to $5,000.
Such methods developed some famous
characters. Buffalo Bill (Col. W. F.
Cody) was one. He contracted with
the Kansas Pacific railroad to furnish
them with all the buffalo the men could
eat as the road was built; and, accord-
ing to Mr. Cody’s statement, they ate
4.280 buffaloes in eighteen months, for
which he received $500 per month, “the
price he paid for his title.”

There were living at the last govern-
ment census, made in 189gI, 256 pure-
blooded buffaloes in captivity, the last
of the race.

A buffalo robe is now a scarce arti-
cle and a well-preserved specimen
brings a high price. Massive heads of
old bull buffaloes are preserved in many
museums and are valued at from $150
to $250.

Mark Twain once said that the most
wonderful scene he had ever looked
upon was an enormous herd of buffa-
loes in Colorado.

Mr. John D. Dunham, formerly
United States land commissioner in
Wyoming, and later connected with
the Yellowstone Park commission, re-
cently stated that there were between
120 and 140 buffaloes left in the United
States last autumn, and the mortality
among the surviving beasts was greater
last winter than ever before during
their captivity. Despite the severe
penalty for killing the big animals in
the National Park, a dozen or more
buffaloes have been slain there every
year. Last year a form of influenza
destroyed some of them, and there are
probably no more than fifty of the vet-
erans of the plains left. Baker, in his
“Wild Beasts and Their Ways,” says:
‘The bison is a grand looking crea-
ture, and in my opinion it is the most
striking of all wild animals.”

THE. TURTLE DOVE:

GRANVILLE OSBORNE

In and out the leafy shade

Of the peaceful glen and glade,
Where the brook goes rippling by,
Through the cowslip meadow nigh;
When the soft and odorous breeze
Whispers gently ’mongst the trees,
Lovingly, I hear them woo—

‘Coo goo-vo0-0-0, Co0-go0-ro0-0-0.”
Bows and bridles proudly he,
Coyly shy and modest she;
Hither, yon, in ceaseless quest,
Till they build a cozy nest;

Full of watchful care is he,

When there comes maternity;
Never lover’s song so true

‘‘ Co0--go0-v00-0-0, C00-g00-r00-0-0.”

Now so proud he tabers low,

To his loving mate below;

Never lover so in love,

As this billing, cooing dove.

Back and forth he quickly flies

With his generous supplies,

Then he nods, ‘There, that will do—
‘‘Co0-go00-r00-0-0, C00-g00-¥00-0-0.”
Beautiful, the little brood

Blesses faithful motherhood,

And the lessons they impart,

Doves and nestlings, reach my heart.
What the wisdom from the dove?
That the best of life is “love.”

So I listen while they coo—
‘‘Co0-goo-ro0-0-0, C00-go0-v00-0-0,”

THE SORROWFUL TREE.

is given. Perhaps because it
blooms only in the evening.
When the first star appears in the
heavens, the first bud of the Sorrowful
Tree opens, and as the shades of night
advance and the stars thickly stud the
sky, the buds continue gradually open-
ing until the whole tree looks like one
immense white flower. On the ap-
proach of dawn, when the brilliancy of
the stars gradually fades away in the
light of day, the Sorrowful Tree closes
its flowers, and ere the sun is fully
risen not a single blossom is visible.

HERE is a tree in Paris to which
the name “The Sorrowful Tree”

snow, covers the ground around the
foot of the tree, which seems blighted
and withered during the day, while,
however, it is actively preparing for
the next nocturnal festival. The fra-
grance of the blossom is like that of
the evening primrose.

If the tree is cut down close to the
roots a new plant shoots upand attains
maturity in an incredibly short time.

In the vicinity of this singular tree
there usually grows another, which is
almost an exact counterpart of the
Sorrowful Tree, but less beautiful, and,
strange to say, it blooms only in the
daytime.

MARKED WITH BLEEDING ‘HEARTS.

A sheet of flower dust, as white as

N one of the cages at Lincoln Park

| are two pigeons or doves most pe-

culiarly marked. They belong to

the variety known as the “Bleed-
ing Heart.”

Their backs and wings are of a bluish
slate color, while their breasts are white,
save for a spot of vivid crimson in the
center,’ This spot, as" precisely like
the stain which would be produced by a
wound. It is about an inch in length,

44

and the color fades out at the edges
softly in little streaks.

One can scarcely believe the little
creatures are not victims of some cruel
thrust, and the park employes say that
lovesick people are wont to lean for
hours on the railing opposite the cage,
and, fixing their sad eyes on the birds,
will moan in sympathy while they shed
bitter tears.

COPYRIGHT 1900, BY

NATURE STUDY PUB. CO,., CHICAGO.

THE LIEY ‘OF THE VALLEY:

PROF. W. K. HIGLEY,
Secretary Chicago Academy of Sciences.

Fair flower, that, lapt in lowly glade,

Dost hide beneath the greenwood shade,
Than whom the vernal gale

None fairer wakes, on bank or spray

Our England’s lily, of the May,

Our lily of the vale!

Of thy twin-leaves the embowered screen,

Which wraps thee in thy shroud of green;
Thy Eden-breathing smell;

Thy arch’d and purple-vested stem,

Whence pendant many a pearly gem,

Displays a milk-white bell.

HE lily of the valley is one of

| the most delicate and beautiful

of the lily family (Lilacee).

With the exception of the or-

chid family probably no group of

plants furnishes a larger variety of

popular forms noted alike for their
beauty and delicacy.

It has been truly said of the lily
family that “the flowers of most
are beautiful, of many brilliant, and
of some truly splendid.” This family
contains about one hundred and fifty
genera and over thirteen hundred
species. They are world-wide in their
distribution, excepting the Arctic zone,
though they are more common in the
temperate and subtropical regions.

Among the species sought by the
lover of cultivated flowers none is more
noteworthy than the tulip, a native of
Persia. It is claimed that there are
more than seven hundred forms of the
tulip known to the florist—all varia-
tions of a single species.

The type of the family is the lily.
The lily is the Persian personifi-
cation of night, 4/2 or U“lleh being
essentially the words used to designate
evening. It is the Indo-Iranian ana-
logue of the rose, which in countries
speaking the romance languages, as
well as in China, stands for a symbol of
secrecy and was planted over graves as
an emblem of immortality.

To this family also belong the day-
lily, the tuberose, the hvacinth, the
yucca, and the _ star-of Bethlehem.
Yere also is classed the useful though
much-abused onion, the flowers of

—Bishop Mant.

which, though small, form a most
graceful group at the top of the stem,
especially in the wild species.

Asparagus is usually placed in this
family and many species, such as
squills and the varieties of aloes, are
highly valued in medicine. In fact it
may be said that the family ‘‘abounds
in a bitter, stimulant principle and also
in mucilage.” It is of interest that
some of the species of this family were
prized by the Greeks and Romans for
their medicinal value. The name for
aloes in both languages refers to the
bitter principle, and no name could be
more appropriate, as the extract is in-
tensely bitter.

The lily of the valley (Convallaria
majalts, L.) is a native of the moun-
tainous regions of Virginia and south-
ward through Georgia. It is identical
with the cultivated form which was
brought from Europe.

The generic name Convallaria is from
two Latin words meaning “with” and
“valley,” having reference to its habit of
growing on mountain sides. This
sweet-scented plant has an_ under-
ground stem which sends up a
stalk that bears, chiefly on one side,
numerous nodding white flowers. The
oblong leaves, usually two .in number,
rise from the base of the flower-stalk,
which is sheathed by their stems.

The pure white of the flowers as
well as their symmetrical form has
led writers to speak of them as the
symbol of purity, and no flower, per-
haps, is in greater demand for the dec-
oration of the church and home.

Ee

MUSHROOMS ON BENCHES.

RICHARD

MAXWELL.

Othe amateur grower mush-
rooms are ordinarily an uncer-
tain quantity. This crop is as
fickle and finincky as the pro-

verbial old maid—although, for my
part, I would far rather tackle the mush-
rooms.

The amateur mushroom grower, in
the usual order of things, generally has
“troubles of his own,” troubles in which
even the old expert shares at times,
and often for a reason that is inexplica-
ble, or for a cause that is not even
apparent.

Some time ago I became interested
in a rather novel scheme in ’room pro-
duction: It is that of growing the
‘rooms on top of the benches as one
would his regular crops of lettuce, rad-
dishes, etc., instead of under the
benche; and in cellars in especially
prepared beds for that purpose. With
this new method the’rooms are grown at
the same time as and among the usual
crops. In view uf the experience |
fee] justified in saying that a profitable
crop of rooms may be grown with more
certainty by this method than by the
one ordinarily practiced. I an not
aware of a single instance where a
grower of ordinary intelligence has
ever failed to secure a satisfactory crop
in this way.

The soil used is much the same as
the ordinary compost as generally put
up by the average hothouse operator.
In combination with the usual mixture
of rotted sod and horse manure the ad-
dition of cow dung, at the ratio of
about one to ten, may be advanta-
geously made.

Should the cow dung be used it is
best to have that which is at least one
year old and ina fine, pulverized condi-
tion, being.careful to have the cow
dung well incorporated with the com-
post.

After the soil is placed in the
benches the bed may be immediately
spawned; no waiting for temperature
to goup or down. This work is done
just as in spawning an old-fashioned
bed, except that the spawn should be

buried somewhat deeper, to guard
against the surface drying of the soil
during a hard day’s sun on the glass.

Since the operation of a hothouse is
a hard business proposition to the gen-
eral grower, involving the question of
the greatest production on the space
at hand, it is advisable to get a crop
growing on the benches as quickly as
possible after the bed is spawned. —

If, some crop that will rapidly
cover the surface of the bed is not
planted immediately after spawning
it is advisable to furnish some sort
of a mulch to protect the soil from the
direct rays of the sun. It is all the
better to provide such a mulch even
with the planted crop, filling in the un-
protected spaces. Partially decayed
leaves, fine salt hay, or any light, fluffy
material will serve the purpose. Pro-
viding this mulch does not become
soggy or heavy there is no necessity
for removing it during the bearing
season of the mushroom.

Should the regular bench crop, let-
tuce, for instance, be depended upon
to furnish shade, some more or less ac-
curate calculation should be made on
having such crop on the beds so that
it will protect the mushrooms when
they first make their appearance.

There is one other condition upon -
which success is contigent, and that is
in the proper watering of the soil or
secondary crops. Water should be ap-
plied lightly and frequently with a
spray nozzle, the object being to main-
tain sufficient moisture in the soil to
supply the needs of the surface crop
without soaking or flooding the soil to
such a degree that it becomes unduly
heavy or soggy.

In cultivating the surface crop the
operator should not stir the soil toa
greater depth than two inches, that the
spawn may not be disturbed.

When the crops are cleared from the
benches in the spring it is well to allow
a dense mat of weeds to grow up to
protect the mushrooms from the sun,
which, otherwise, would “burn” or
brown them.—American Gardening.

THE PERRY PIGTURE

1500 SUBJECTS.

4 to 8 times this size.

For School
and Home.
For
Picture Study,
Literature,
History,
Geography
and for
Sunday
Schools,
Art Clubs
and the
Home.

BABY STUART.

THE DAYS WE CELEBRATE.

Sent for a 2-cent Stamp. A list of subjects of pic.
tures for each month in the year. For example, under Feb_
ruary: Washington, Lincoln, Longfellow, Lowell, Dickens.

112 Washington. 113 Martha Washington. 1409 Mount
Vernon. 1410 Capitol. 1411 White House. 1412 Washington
Elm. 1413 Washington Monument. 1414 Washington Cross-
ing the Delaware. 1415 Washington at Trenton. 1416 Wash-
ington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon. 1416B Washington‘s
Headquarters at Newburgh, N.Y. 1416C Washington Re-
signing His Commission. 1416D Washington Equestrian
Statue, Boston.

45 Lowell. 46 His Home. 47 His Study.

96 Charles Dickens. (Feb. 7, 1812-June 9, 1870.) 98 His
Home. 99 Old Curiosity Shop.

15 Longfellow. 16 His Birthplace. 17 His Home, Port=
land. 18 His Home, Cambridge. 19 His Daughters. 20 His
Armchair, 21 His Statue: Portland. 22 Wayside Inn.
23 Evangeline.

125 Lincoln. 1419 His Home. 1420 His Statue, Boston.
1421 His Statue, Chicago. 1423 First Reading of Emancipa-
tion Proclamation.

Do not wait until February, but order these pictures at
once.

THE PERRY PICTURES, Small Size.

On paper about 33% inches. For note book use, etc.

Price: One-half cent each for 50 or more, assorted as
desired. No orders for less than 50 of these pictures.

110 Subjects. The list of subjects is grven in the Catalog.

GREAT ARTISTS.

Twelve booklets, each containing a sketch of the artist’s
life and work by Miss Irene Weir or Mr. James Frederick
Hopkins, and from ten to sixteen pictures: Burne-Jones,
Landseer, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Corot, Millet, Bonheur,
Durer, Botticelli, Raphael, Giotto and His Followers.
Drawings by Italian Masters. Price, 35 cents each; three in
one package for $1.00.

One Cent Each

For25ormore. Postpaid

BEWARE OF IMITATIONS.

MASTERPIECES IN ART—ELSON PRINTS.
Beautiful Photogravures on paper ox12 inches.

Price, 10 cents each. A set of ten subjects in a portfolio,
with description for $1.00. Send $1.00 for‘the set entitled
**Here Shakespeare Lived.”’ I{ contains: Bust of
Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s House, Room in which Shake-
speare was Born, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Stratford-on-
Avon, Memorial Theatre, Mary Arden’s Cottage, Interior
of Trinity Church, Garden of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage,
Grammar School and Guild Chapel.

Or send 30 cents -for any three of them. 40 OTHER
SUBJECTS.

THE PERRY MAGAZINE,
Three Months for twenty-five cents.

We have decided to receive subscriptions until Febru-
BLY, ye subscribers only, for three months for a quarter
of a dollar.

Your school—your home—you—should have this maga-
zine. Beautifully illustrated. Articles by Dr. G. Stanley
Hall, Sarah Louise Arnold, Irene Weir, James F. Hopkins,
HOury T. Bailey, and others. Send to-day. Tell your
riends.

The success of The Perry Pictures has
CAUTION. led to their imitation by others. All who
wish to obtain by far the best pictures are cautioned against
purchasing other pictures, advertised as being as good as
The Perry Pictures, with the thought that they are getting
The Perry Pictures. Be sure that the name is upon
every picture. Do not be deceived by catalogs and order
sheets resembling ours, and copied largely therefrom.

CATALOGS. Send 2-cent stamp for Catalog, order

sheet, return envelope, sample picture,
list of Elson prints, etc., or 10 cents for illustrated Catalog
containing ten full-size pictures and these five pictures
besides, on paper 5% by 8 inches: Washington, Lincoln,
Longfellow, Lowell, Dickens.

THE PERRY PICTURES, Extra Size.

On paper 10x12 inches. 45 Subjects. Price, five
for 25 cents; additional pictures 5 cents each. No orders
for less than five of these pictures.

Ex 1 William Cullen Bryant Ex 23 By the River

Ex 2 Longfellow

Ex 8 Virgin, Infant Jesus
and St. John

Ex 4 Sistine Madonna, Com-

plete
Ex 5 Madonna of the Chair
Ex 6 Madonna Granduca
Ex 7 Madonna di Tempi
Ex 8 Madonna of the Har-
pies
Ex 9 Holy Night
Ex 10 Aurora
Ex 11 Mater Dolorosa
Ex 12 Four Kittens
Ex 13 Oxen Going to Work
Ex 14 Angelus
Ex 15 The Gleaners
Ex16 The Man with the

Hoe
Ex 17 Shepherdess Knitting
Ex 18 Feeding Her Birds
Ex 19 Horse Fair
Ex 20 Song of the Lark
Ex 21 Madonna and Child
Ex 22 The Shepherdess

Ex 24 Arrival of the Shep-
herds

Ex 25 Baby Stuart

Ex 26 St. Anthony of Padua

Ex 27 Queen Louise

Ex 28 The Christ

Ex 29 aa and the Doc-

rs

ors

Ex 30 Jesus Blessing Little
Children

Ex 3L The Good Shepherd

Ex 32 Angel Heads

Ex 33 Pharaoh’s Horses

Ex 344 Christmas Chimes

Ex 35 Hosea

Ex 36 Isaiah

Ex 37 Prophets

Ex 38 Prophets

Rx 39 Can’t You Talk?

Ex 40 Mother and Child

Ex 41 St. Cecilia

Ex 42 Madonna

Ex 43 Lost

Ex 44 Countess Potocka

Ex 45 The Brook

Send money order, express order, or registered letter. Do not send checks for small amounts. If abso-
lutely necessary to send stamps, send 1’s, 2’s or 5’s, but do not send stamps unless necessary. Address,

THE PERRY PICTURES CO., Box 18, Malden, Mass.

TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON.
76 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

A large publishing house in Chicago who
sell their books exclusively through agents,
are desirous of having two permanent rep-
resentatives in each state to look after their
interests. If any of our readers wish to
make considerable money they should ad-
dress the Providence Publishing Co., W,
Caxton Building, Chicago, Ill.

ALL NATURE send

IT You Have :

$1.00, and receive Volume VI., bound in red
cloth, gilt top, and stamped in gold on
binding.

the last five num-
bers of BIRDS AND

A. W. MUMFORD, Publisher.
203 Michigan Ave., - CHICAGO, ILL.

Wanted, For Sale,

— AND —

Exchange.

Advertisements inserted under this head-
ing for three cents per word, each insertion.
Cash must accompany advertisement. If
you have anything to sell or exchange, or
wish to purchase anything, an ad. in this
column will bring about the desired result.
Try it next month and see for yourself.

ANTED—COLLECTORS to send 15c. for my
Ornithologists and Oologists’ Manual. 100 pages.
Prices all eggs and skins of Birds, and contains full
list, and information on these subjects. Absolutely
invaluable. W. F. WEBB, Mgr., Albion, N. Y.

OR SALE—Prehistoric Indian Relics and Chinese
Jades. Prof. W.O. Emery, Crawfordsville, Ind.

ANTED—AGENTS among Teachers and Pupils

to sell my Natural History Collections. Collec-

tions of every nature for young Naturalists. 40 varie-

ties of Curios, 75c; 50 varieties of Minerals, $1.00;

25 varieties of shells, 50c. Many others. W.F. WEBB,
Mgr., Albion, N.Y.

WANTED—Minerals, shells, specimens of birds

eggs, and other objects of general interest for
the Elkhart Academy of Sciences, and the Elkhart
Normal School and Business Institute. Also books,
magazines, journals, charts, almanacs, manuscripts
and autographs for the library. The names of the
donors and the articles donated, will appear in the an-
nual catalogue. Correspondence soiicited. Address,
Dr. H. A. MUMAW, B.S., M. D., Elkhart, Ind.

$1,000 SALARY PER YEAR!

L adies or Gentlemen We have shared the general pros.

perity of the country, and we now
need one or two permanent representatives in each
state to look after our interests, manage our agents,and
attend to collections. This position involves no canvass-
ing and is a bona fide weekly salaried position, with all
expenses paid, tothe right party. It is mainly office
work conducted at your own home, with an occasiona!
trip out among the agents. No investment required.
Also three salaried vacancies in the traveling Jepart-
ment. Enclose references and self-addressed stamped
envelope to PROVIDENCE C0. W Caxton Bldg., CHICACO.

LASS BOOK FREE—To introduce our New Reci-
tation Record (Class Book), we will send postpaid
one copy and 25 Term Report Cards, on bristol card,
on receipt of 25cents in stamps. This is the regular
price for cards alone. Money returned if unsatis-
factory. Our new Illustrated School Supply Cata-
logue mailed free. The Oliver Adams Pub. Co.,
Dept. F, 24-26 Adams St., Chicago.

Watons

DIAMONDS,
JEWELRY,

At Lowest Prices.
Catalogue mailed free on Application.

SILVERWARE,
ETC.
B.G.UHER & CO. 121 Dearborn St. Chicago, III.

When calling, please ask for
Bons : MR® GRANT.
Whenever you need a book,
LIBERAL Address MR. GRANT.
DISCOUNTS | Before buying Books, write for

quotations. An assortment of
catalogues, and special slips of
booksiat reduced prices, will be sent fora10-cent stamp.

F. E. GRANT, Books,” Nev' fone"

Mention this advertisement and receive a discount.

(| =~ NOT A PENNY
e @) yy) Before You See It.

14-carat, gold filled, doubie hunt-
ing case watch, with your Mone
ogram engraved, American
stemwinder and setter, jew-
elled escapement, sent C.O.
D., $5.97, with privilege of
examination before paying ;
if not satisfied,order express
agent to returnit; state your
correct address and the
nearest express Office, also
initials; mention ladies’ or
gents’ size wanted. Address

EAGLE WATCH CO., Dept. B, 66 Maiden Lane, New York.

FERNS.

Che Sern Bullettit, | Weiss eieane Sionta

be read by everyone interested in any phase of fern
study. Portrait and biography of John Williamson,
author of the first American fern-book,in January
number. Reliable information about our native
ferns. Ferns identified free. 28 pages quarterly,
illustrated; 15 cents acopy; 50 cents a year.

THE FERN BULLETIN, Binghamton, N.Y.

‘LACE

CURTAINS

These beautiful Royal Lace Parlor Curtains are of the newest Savoy
design, three yards long, 36 inches wide, are washable and will lasta
2 life time. You can get two pairs of these choice curtains, (same design
== as in cut), and four beautiful Sash Curtains (one yard square each) FREE by selling our GREAT

* COLD REMEDY and HEADACHE CURE. Cures Cold in One Day! Relieves Headache at Once! We
“ will give the curtains absolutely free to anyone taking advantage of the
a every person selling six boxes of our Tablets. If you agree tose
2 write to-day and we will send the Tablets by mail postpaid. When sold, send us the money and
< we will send four Sash Curtains, unhemmed, so they may be made to fit any window. together
with our offer of two complete pairs of Royal Lace Parlor Curtains, enough to furnish a room,
same day money is received. This is a grand opportunity for ladies to beautify their homes with
fine Lace Curtains of exquisite design. All who have earned them are delighted. Address:
NATIONAL MEDICINE CO., 1010 Chapel St., New Haven,Conn. Box 79

6

FREE

reat offer we send to

only six boxes at 25 cents a box,

MARINE SHELLS

AND CURIOS.

Twelve shells and curios for 50c, all
good peccuneds: Collections of choice
: shells from 25c. to $1, sent postpaid and
safe arrival guaranteed. Allare correctly named and
are perfect. My illustrated catalogue will be mailed
free with each order. Send for descriptive circular.

J. H. HOLMES, Dunedin, Fla.

A Skin of Beauty is a Joy Forever.

R. T. FELIX GOURAUD’S ORIENTAL
CREAM, OR MAGIOAL BEAUTIFIER.

Removes Tan, Pimples,
Freckles, Moth Patches,
Rash, and Skin diseases,
and every blemish on
} beauty, and defies de-
tection. It has stood the
test of 50 years, and isso
harmless we taste it to
be sure it is properly
made. Accept no coun-
terfeit of similar name.
Dr. L. A. Sayre said toa
lady of the haut-ton (a
patient): ‘‘As you ladies
will use them, I recom-
mend ‘Gouraud’sOream’
as the least harmful of
all the Skin prepara-
: tions.” For sale by all
Druggists and Fancy-

Goods Dealers in the U. S., Canadas, and Europe.
FERD. T. HOPKINS, Prop’r, 37 Great Jones St., N.Y.

as Beautifies
the Skin.
No other cos-

Purifies as well
metic will do it.

Under this general title
has recently been issued
a collection of five stand-
ard volumes of unex-
ampled interest and
value. No other collec-
tion so happily covers the
whole field of pedagogical
literature or meets so
fully and _ satisfactorily
All the Actual Needs
of the Public School
Teacher. The Library
Contains: — The Theory
and Practice of Teach-
ing, The Teacher in Lit-
erature, Practical Lessons in Science, Practical
Lessons in Psychology, The Manual of Useful
Information. Each volume is in itselfa complete
study of the subject of whichit treats and taken
together they form a set of five of the most help-
ful, useful and valuable books ever published for
the use of teachers. They are endorsed and
recommended by leading Educators every-
where and every teacher who wishes to keep
thoroughly up to the times should have these
books. Handsomely printed on heavy paper
and elegantly bound in uniform style in twilled
silk cloth with gilt back and side stamps,
marbled edges, boxed or sold separately. The
regular price for this set is $6.00, but for the
next 60 days we are going to make a Special
Offer Price of only $3.00. Thisisa grand offer
that every teacher should not fail to accept.
Single volumes $1.25. Send for our large illus-
trated catalogue, quoting lowest prices on books,
FREE. Address all orders to

THE WERNER COMPANY,
Publishers and Manufacturers. Akron, Ohio.

KINDERGARTE

The Working Teacher's Library

3 East 14th Street,

Play with the Birds.

The birds we mean are litho-
graphed. They are on fifty-two
finely enameled cards in natural
colors—enclosed in case, with full
directions for playing.

This beautiful ‘‘ Game of Birds’’ has
just been published, and if there is
anything neater, nicer or more novel
we haven’t seen it.

It’s so new—so interesting—you’ll
certainly like it. Send 2-cent stamp
for free sample card.

What better gift can you make
your friends, young or old? It enter-
tains the whole household, and so
reasonable, too—only 35 cents, post-

- paid.

We will send as Special Offer,
BIRDS AND ALL NATURE one year
and the game all for $1.60. Address

A. W. TUPMFORD,

203 MICHIGAN AVE., - - CHICAGO.

ESTABLISHED 1857.

Sh PS
~

KAEMPFER'S ~

“Bird Store.

88 STATE ST. @pieago.

OPP. MARSHALL FIELD & CO.
TAXIDERMY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES.

Stuffed Birds and Animals

And a Full Line of Taxidermists’ Supplies.

A $3599 Watch

in appearance,and the best GENUINE GOLD
FILLED watch in the world for the money
ouble hunting case,stem wind and stem set,
aly superbly engraved. STANDARD
AMERICAN ruby jeweled move-

ment absolutely guaranteed for

Z%25 YEARS

» Cut this out and send itto us with
BS your name and address and we
will send the watch to you by ex-

press for examination, you ex-
Y amine itat the express office and if

as represented pay express agent
our special introductory price,

a $5.95, and itis yours. Only one
watch to each Customer at this price. Mention in your letter
whether you want GENTS’ OR LADIES’ SIZE and order to-day as
we will send out samples at this reduced price for 60 days only

R. E. CHALMERS & CO. 352-356 Dearborn St. Chicago.

and SCHOOL SUPPLIES

We ee

pd ad ad f
J. W. SCHERMERHORN & CO.,
New York.
Catalogue No. 50 sent on request.

Sg ee oa a a re ee oe oe ee ee ee Seo sess,

NOW READY.
Kotelmann’s School Hygiene.

Dr. Kotelmann’s treatise was first published in 1895, and forms part of
the great ‘‘Handbuch der Erziehungs und Unterrichtslehre fiir hdhere
Schulen’’ (Handbook of the Principles of Education and Instruction for
Higher Schools), edited by Dr. A. Baumeister. It at once attracted the atten-
tion of specialists in different countries by reason of the masterly way in
which it combined comprehensiveness with clearness and brevity, and scien-
tific accuracy and moderation with an interesting, forceful, and, above all,
practical mode of treatment. The present translation is made not from the
treatise published in 1895, but from a copy revised and enlarged by the author
especially for this edition. The number of illustrations has been nearly
doubled; and the additions to the text, aside from the alterations, consist partly
of descriptions of the new illustrations and partly of an account of the inves-
tigations that have been made since the original was written.

The treatise is not merely or even mainly a treatise on school sanitation
and infectious diseases, as the title might suggest to many, but rather a scien-
tific discussion of the conditions of mental activity and health, and, in general,
of the physical basis of education for both teachers and pupils. The reader
will find here a competent treatment of many of the most substantial topics
discussed in this country under the head of Child Study.

“This book by Kotelmann is the best outline for the teacher. The book is written in an

admirably concise style, and by the aid of numerous tables a vast number of important facts
and principles are presented.”—Pror. W. H. H. BuRNHAM, in The Pedagogical Seminary.

Cloth, 16mo, pp. 300, $1.50.

C. W. BARDEEN, Publisher, Syracuse, N.Y.

Standard

es
wi School |} The
= Cy e e
Y 22 years of age. Ga f iforn la
aX : Limited
23d y 1
Peat paar Chicago to Los Angeles in only
ct 234 days;
Fs 7A ;

Pullmans, Dining Car,

OD OD IND OD D903 9O3]9HDIDOS)

[ana ae Mines Sipe ipeepeeemenaysh eee ie a

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Modern methods combined with all that
has proven practical by years of experi-
ence.

ELOCUTION, DELSARTE,
DRAMATIC ART, LITERATURE,
JOURNALISM, MUSIC.

Special Gourses
For Teachers, Saturdays and evenings.

Lawyers, Clergymen, and others at all
times.

Send for Illustrated Catalogue.
HENRY M. SOPER, Pres.,

STEINWAY HALL,
17 Van Buren St., Chicago.

G® Soper’s Recitation Books, 25 cents each.
Pp

Buffet-Smoking Car (with Barber
Shop),

Observation Car (with Ladies’
Parlor),

Vestibuled and electric-lighted
throughout.

Four Times a Week,

Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays
from Chicago.

Santa Fe Route

General Passenger Office,
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway,
CHICAGO.

SOS OS 68H 65606265 626526

OD 9ODINDWD ND90D OD ODI9BINBOD9O3939030390D
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if Office of
- Board of Education,

HERBERT B. HAYDEN, Supt.
Core

can CounciL BLUFFS, Iowa, Oct. 8, 1808.
W. E. Wart, President.
DEAR StrR—It is indeed a pleasure to bear
testimony to the educational value of so beauti-
ful a production as the CHARTS OF NORTH
AMERICAN BIRDS, issued by the Nature
Study Publishing Co., of Chicago.

We have recently ordered a supply of these
Charts; for the Schools of this city. Our
teachers are already finding them a most
sage basis for Nature Study and Language
work.

__ They inspire a love for the birds and through
this, a love for all Nature. The children are
eager to tell about the birds with which they
are acquainted and are very ready to look up
information concerning those that are new to
them. All this adds a new spirit and zest to
the Language work in those rooms in which
the Bird Charts have been used. Asa basis for
Information Lessons they are also of great value.
The color-photography process gives us the
most beautiful representation of our North
American birds of which I know. I consider
the set invaluable. Cordially given,
HERBERT B. HAYDEN,
Supt. City Schoels.

WHAT TWO ORNITHOLOGISTS AND AUTHORS
OF BIRD LITERATURE
SAY OF OUR

Charts of North American Birds.

_Tamin receipt of the CHART mentioned in your

jetter, and it is indeed beautiful. Every bird lover

_ should render you the gratitude of his heart that your

Company has done such wonderful things in this line.

I wish that every school in the land might havea
copy. Very sincerely yours,

Mexico, Mo. JAMES NEWTON BASKETT.

I find it impossible to express to you the great
t eee your CHARTS OF NORTH AMERICAN
IRDS give me. They are superb. They will be
certain to find a ready sale, and will be no less certain
_ to smooth the path of every beginner. The daring of
your enterprise since its inception has been a con-
tinual marvel to me. The world already blesses you

.

for this undertaking, for you are helping to make it
better. Yours a truly.
" Oberlin, Ohio. LYNDS JONES.

Nature Stupy Pus. Co.,
203 Michigan Ave., Chicago.

itp

READ WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING

ABOUT OUR

-GHARTS OF NORTH AMERIGAN BIRDS,

1726 N St., Washington, D. C.
October 29, 1898.

NATURE STUDY PUB. CO.,
Chicago, Ill.

GENTLEMEN:—The package of Charts
is just to hand, and I hasten to express
my high appreciation of them for ed-
ucational purposes. I think I should
have gone wild with joy if I had seen
such pictures when I was a schoolboy,
and now I should like to see the set of
Charts in every public school and
kindergarten in the United States.
They combine beauty and utility ina
high degree, should be immensely
popular, and make the study of birds

a great pleasure. I do not see how

entertainment and instruction could
have been move happily or effectively
combined.

Yours truly,

DR. ELLIOTT COUES,
Editor of Osprey.

Joliet, Uil., Nov. 9, 1898.
Dear Mr. Watt:

It gives me pleasure to tell you that
the Nature Study Chart you left is
giving us all the results you claimed
for it. Interest in all bird life, in their
homes, habits, and their preservation
has been aroused in the children.

The conversations upon the birds
furnish excellent material for language
work. I have a most creditable paper
on the Blue Jay from a boy who has
always dreaded ‘“‘ compositions.”

Very truly yours,
Kate A. HENDERSON,
Supt. Joliet Pub. Schools.

We These charts contain 18 sheets heavily-coated manilla paper and two cover sheets, including 142
individual Bird Plates, and representing 49 species of Birds’ Eggs, mounted on a tripod holder. For
; — descriptive circular and methods of introduction, address

‘i gi: yee Chart Department, Nature Study Publishing Co. Chicage,

, Bound Volumes Birds and All Nature |

VOL. VI. NOW READY.

E HAVE just issued Volume VI of Birps anp ALL
NATURE and are now prepared to fill orders for this
beautiful book promptly. All who have purchased the
previous volumes will be especially desirous of securing —
this volume to make the set complete to date.

For Holiday or Birthday Gifts, nothing more attractive, appro-
priate or appreciable can be selected. These volumes delight the
young and are invaluable because they teach them how to distin-
guish the different Birds, Animals, Flowers, Plants, Insects, etc.,
that are common to various sections of the country. They also
inculcate a love for Nature. Teachers greatly value them, and
everybody who is selecting a library—interested in Art or Natural
History—will greatly enjoy and admire them.

Certainly no periodical and probably no book on Birds
ever before found anything like such favor with the
public.—Zvening Post (New York),

These pictures are so natural that it almost seems as if
the creature represented is going to start out of the page
-and escape.—Chicago Record.

These books are printed on fine quality paper, nicely bound in red cloth, half
‘morocco, and full morocco, with gilt top and cover neatly stamped in gold,
Each volume contains an index.

VOL. I includes January, 1897, to June, 1897. 230| VOL. IV includes July, 1898, to December, 1898.
pages, 60 colored illustrations. _ 244 pages, 48 colored illustrations,

VOL. Il includes July, 1897, to December, 1897. | VOL. V includes January, 1899, to May, 1899,
24¢ pages, 60 colored illustrations. 244 pages, 40 colored illustrations,

VOL. III includes January, 1898, to June, 1898. | VOL. VI includes June, 1899, to December, 1899.
244 pages, 48 colored illustrations. 244 pages, 40 colored illustrations. }
Volume VI contains a variety of natural subjects.

° Vol. VI, also Vols. I, II, II, IV, or V—cloth, $1.50; half
PRICES vf morocco, $1.75; full morocco, $2.00. ch ‘

Vols. I and II combined, or Vols. III and IV, or V and VI—
cloth, $2.50; half morocco, $3.00; full morocco, $3.50.

Special Offer. The six volumes in red cloth, sent prepaid,
for $7.20.

All orders will be filled immediately on receipt of price, aid sent prepaid.

A. W. MUMFORD, Publisher, bite
203 Michigan Ave. CHICAGO. ‘

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