dj | } New Bork State Cullege of Agriculture At Gorunell University Ithaca, N. B. Library Country cousins; short studies in the nat Cornell University The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003400276 TREE-TOADS., COUNTRY COUSINS SHORT STUDIES IN THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES BY ERNEST INGERSOLL AUTHOR OF “ FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING” “KNOCKING ROUND THE ROCKIES” “HE ICE QUEEN” ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1884 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved. Wedicated TO MY FATHER NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. id hges substance of the greater part of this book has been printed hereto- fore in various periodicals, and is now republished by the kind permis- sion of the proprietors of The Century, St. Nicholas, The Manhattan, The American Naturalist, Appleton’s Journal, Science News, The Field (London), The Current, The Congregationalist, and Good Cheer. In all cases, however, the articles have been carefully reviled, and to some of them extensive additions have been made. It is hoped that the result. will contain not only some entertainment, but also helpful suggestions for those who take delight in out-door studies. New Haven, Conn., August 1, 1884. CONTENTS. IL PAGE My First TREE-CHOPPING . .. .. . 1 1 ee ee ee ee we AB II. A Wet Day WITH THE BirRDs. . flee hie deeb) con Ge Betsy Ms) op ddck ie Il. Tue Least oF THE MAMMALS . ‘ Be) ads 2 yy gl eS See ae ey ee BR IV. BIRDS OF THE BROOKSIDE OTE ag he el Sa al SORE ae sa a Be V. WinTER Work FoR NATURALISTS . .........~. eae 49 VI. A Mopen FIELD-NATURALIST . 2. 1...) ee ee ee eee FE VIL. NATURE IN WINTER-QUARTERS. ©. 1. 1 6 1 ee ee ee . 58 VIL. Av A SEa-SIDE LABORATORY . ©. 1 ewe ee ee ee ee IX, RATTLESNAKES IN Fact AND Fancy. . . 2. 1 1 ee ee ee ee ee 90 X. “Mine Oyster’s” BatTLE oF LIFE. . . . . . 1 1 wee ee ee 1B 10 CONTENTS. XI. SEA-STARS AND THETR MISCHIEF aorta fe XII. PERIWINKLES AND OTHER OYSTER-PESTS XIII. Tue History of A Mancrove Key. .. . XIV. Tae PoMPANO-SHELLS . . ae hand a fir € XY. A Practica, View oF DEVIL-FISHES, . XVI. ELK ANTLERS . XVII. A CHAT ABOUT Bos WHITE . XVIII. SEALS AND SEAL-HUNTING IN THE NortTH ATLANTIC . XIX. THE: CAVERNS AT LURAY AND AT PIKn’s PEAK . XX. Tue ABALONE AND ITs UTILITY XXI. ‘Tur SHELL-MONEY oF THE Native AMERICANS . INDEX . PAGE 119 . 187 150 156 . 161 . 168 . 1% . 182 . 203 . 221 » 227 . 249 ILLUSTRATIONS. paer Tree-toads. . Frontispiece “Bright Dots of Goldfinches ” 15 The Great Carolina Wren . , 26 The Retreat of the Towhee. 29 Blarina—the Short-tailed Shrew . 33 Skull of a Shrew (magnified), showing Character of the Teeth re) Neosorex—the Long-tailed Shrew 37 “The Edge of a Brook in the Country” 40 ‘‘Pebbly Shallows just above the Cata- ract”’. 45 Brook Blossoms 48 Moths . ‘i 53 Trying its Wings . 7 54 The Struggle for Existence in Winter . 59 Thick-shelled Paludine . . .. . 62 Partridges in Winter . 69 A Vigilant Hare 7 After a Sleet Storm 73 The Fox’s Winter Prey . 75 Alexander Agassiz . 79 Materials for Laboratory study 89 A Typical Rattlesnake eye 93 Head of the Copperhead — upper and under views . 95 Head of the Serica: and face views ant, 42:0) GA a8 95 Cranium of Crotalus, with Muscles con- cerned in the Venom Stroke. . 108 PAGE Bones of the Upper Jaw. . 108 Relation of Temporal Muscles to the Gland . 104 Oyster’s Egg, sevaudely after Fertili- zation 2 es ye) @ TS Egg three Hours after Fertilization . . 114 Egg at a Later Stage . . 114 Egg in its Final Stage ‘ 114 First Appearance of the Embryo . 115 An Oyster One Year Old, showing Em- bryonic Shell at the Apex, and Lines of subsequent Additions . . 115 The Slipper Limpet . 118 Star-fishes (lower figure showing under side and ambulacre) 121 Egg of the Star-fish, after Fertilization . 124 An Egg nearly ready to Hatch 124 An Embryo Star-fish at an early Stage, seen edgewise . 124 A more advanced Embryo, swimming by Rows of Cilia along the Protuber- ances bord . 125 A Young Star-fish . - 125 Dining upon an Oyster . . 129 Reproducing four lost Arms . 183 Shell of Fulgur carica ; . 188 A ‘‘Sea-necklace ”—Egg-cases of Folgur 140 Sycotypus canaliculatus . . 144 Purpura lapillus . 145 12 PAGE Lunatia heros, with Outline of Expand- ed Foot. . 145 Egg-capsules of the Drill - 145 Ilyanassa obsoleta . . 146 Tritia trivitata . . . 146 Urosalpinx cinerea . 146 Blue, or Soft-shelled Crab—Callinectes hastatus . 147 Common Shore Crab—Cancer irroratus 147 At the Margin of a Mangrove Key . 154 Shell Mounds, Fort George Island . 155 Pompano-shells . Be . » 158 Under Surface of the Common Squid— Loligo pealei . . 162 The Giant Squid faseatoatias of New- foundland . . 164 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Argonaut Cuttle, or Paper Nautilus 167 A Wapiti ‘‘ Bull” and “Calf”. . 169 Elk Antlers of Regular Growth . 171 An Irregular Pair of Horns » 172 Extinct! . . 174 ‘The Harbor-seal . 183 Panic-stricken by a Sword-fish . 187 A Harp-seal Mother and her Little (ORG. 6 we * 8 we 4 wn ww 4 188 The Hooded Seal—Cystophora cristata. 191 Floating onan Ice-pan . . ... . 193 A ‘Seal Meadow,” or Herd upon the TOG: cs ei Ba) ae Ae ee ae 4 9D The Sealing-fleet entering the Ice. . 197 Dragging Bundles of Pelts . . 200. The Abalone, fully Expanded . . 228 COUNTRY COUSINS. I MY FIRST TREE-CHOPPING. I HAVE cut down my first big tree to-day, and am the possessor of my first axe. These two important events came about in this way: Opposite my house is a small grove of splendid trees. One of them, a fine, large, red oak, was badly decayed near the roots, and would surely fall in some high wind next winter. So my neighbor, who is never so -happy as when he can get me hard at work out-of-doors, said he would give me the tree for three dollars, if I would cut it down and bring it across to my own domain without asking any help. “T suspect there are three cords of wood in that tree,” said the Doctor, “and I'll lend you an axe.” I accepted, and this afternoon we went at it. “T guess we'd better grind the axe a bit,” the Doctor remarked, finger- ing its already keen edge. ‘A good woodsman always minds that his axe is sharp. I knewa man once who would chop four cords of wood a day all winter long; he never wasted a blow, and each time he struck he half buried his axe, but it was ground every day.” Accordingly, I turned the grindstone behind the barn while the Doc- tor, in his great green dressing-gown and New Hampshire moccasins, held the axe. By-and-by I began to think he was too scrupulous about that edge, and hinted as much. “Do you remember Franklin’s story about the speckled axe? It is in one of his early letters.” I did not, and the Doctor repeated it. He pointed no moral—he is not the kind of a man to do that—but I kept on turning in silence until he brought the edge to his idea of perfection. Then he swung. it through the weeds, and it cut them off as a new sickle might have done. 14 AN UNGOVERNABLE AXE. The tree was nearly eight feet in circumference, where I was to cut it, close to the ground. It was straight, and pretty tall, but leaned well out over some low, clear ground, upon which I proposed to drop it, or “fall it,” as most luambermen would say, in a confusion of the verbs “to fell” and “to fall.” On that side it was very solid, but on the upper side a deep cavity had been eaten in, which I thought would lessen my labor immensely. Laying aside my coat, I struck a blow at the tough bark; the axe sank deeply through it into the white sap-wood. A second, and a triangu- lar chip flew out, while a flicker, uttering his shrill, healthy ery, darted from the topmost limb in sudden fright. A third blow easily dislodged a great yellow fragment and seemed to make a big gap. “Why, this is fun!” I said to myself. “Tl have it down in a few minutes.” But as I got farther into the brown heart-wood the chips grew smaller, and the constantly broadening cut seemed to deepen very slowly. Half an hour passed, and there was no sign of a tremble in the tree, or appar- ent approach to the hollow heart on which I had counted to help me. It was a cool September day, but the perspiration had by this time started plentifully, and I divested myself of collar and waistcoat. The Doctor lay stretched on the grass near by, his bushy gray head strongly printed against a splendid clump of golden-rod. “Go on,” he said, “ you’ve done the worst of it. You've got lines to guide your axe now!” It seemed to me that I needed something more than those lines to make my strokes go true. Nearly half the blows were wasted, because I could not hit precisely what I aimed at. Growing nervous, my axe once shied off and came within a hair’s-breadth of laying open my foot. With a sardonic grin the Doctor came to my assistance, and with practised hand cleared up some of the hackings with which I had disfigured the stump. ‘ “TJ had an uncle,” he said, pausing after a little, “who was a famons chopper up in the Mohawk Valley. When he was past seventy, he had a man working for him who thought himself pretty smart, and my uncle offered to ‘butt’ him.” “ What’s that?” I interrupted, thinking of negroes and rams. “Tn ‘butting, a man proposes to cut off the butt end of a prostrate tree-trunk while his rival is cutting through the diminished diameter at the upper end of a log’s length. My uncle beat the workman, in spite of his three score and ten.” THE TREE-FROGS. 15 After another spell at the axe, during which I began to make two cuts, one a few inches above the other, and to split off the intervening portion, a he thus saving work, I found si right arm in good Ae, rn Ry \ shape, but my left arm very tired, while I could not control the fingers of my left hand at all, but had to straighten them out one N \ “BRIGHT DOTS OF GOLDFINCHES.” : (atti by one with the other hand, as though they were attachments quite apart from my own anatomy.