UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
Received JlCnJ'' ,1900.
Accession No. Q / fa Q *7 . Class No.
Q *7
010UMI
UBRAlfY
ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS
SHORT STORIES
OF
OUR SHY NEIGHBORS
BY
MRS. M. A. B. KELLY
Author of "A Volume of Poems," " Leaves from Nature's Storybook," etc.
NEW YORK-:- CINCINNATI : CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
vt
JIOLOflft
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH.
W. P. 4
PREFACE.
IT has been my aim in arranging the lessons for this
volume to select chiefly such subjects, in the study of
zoology, as treat of the most familiar objects to be met
with in everyday life...
I have endeavored, also, to give so clear a description
of the form, color, and habits of each type under consid-
eration, that neither teachers nor pupils can be left at all
in doubt as to the identity of a specimen when they have
it in hand.
No one but a teacher can fully realize the joy and the
satisfaction of a child who brings to her a moth, a cater-
pillar, or some other form of insect life, and proudly places
it in the rank to which it belongs.
This assured success leads on to farther and farther
investigation, and awakens an enthusiasm and a desire to
become still better acquainted with the wonder world of
nature.
A few short blackboard exercises every day will soon
enable the child to master all the necessary technical
names and terms involved in the study of these lower
forms of life ; and it is far better to learn the right names
of things at the outset.
As far as it is practicable, each subject should be carried
on in the way of an object lesson ; and with a little
3
encouragement on the part of the teacher, every pupil in
the classroom will gladly take part in adding to the zoolog-
ical treasures of the school cabinet.
Inasmuch as insect life is supported almost entirely by
the products of vegetation (there being only a very few
insects that prey upon one another), I have thought it best
to give that subject a liberal space in this volume.
It is now an accepted truth that there are at least ten
insects to every plant, and that a large majority of them
are harmful to vegetation.
This being the case, it seems highly important that a
careful study be made both of the habits and of the hab-
itats of these swift destroyers of plant life.
For valuable suggestions, as well as for aid in points of
reference to the highest authorities, I am greatly indebted
to many leading investigators in this line of work. Prom-
inent among them are : Dr. L. O. Howard, United States
Entomologist; Dr. J. A. Lintner, New York State Ento-
mologist; Dr. A. S. Packard, Brown University, Rhode
Island ; Dr. Charles E. Beecher, Yale University, New
Haven, Conn. ; and Dr. D. S. Kellicott, Ohio State Uni-
versity.
Finally, that this volume may prove to be a helpful
guide both to the teacher and to the pupil in their study
of the more common types of animal life, is the sincere
desire of
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
\J The Isabella Moth 7
The Birth of a Young Lord 1 S
Phoebe's Family 22
Phoebe's Mate ' 2 9
Tent Builders 3
Real Gypsies 3 6
A Little Captive 4
tf Mr. Rana's Dinner 4 1
A Plain Story 5
The Mourning Cloak 5 1
A Gifted Family 5 6
A Vain Little Moth 6l
The Patched Coat 6 4
A Crusty Fellow ' 6 7
\/ Was it a Shadow? 72
Almost a Bird 76
If" 79
With Auger and Saw. Part L 8 4
With Auger and Saw. Part //. 88
V Four Pink Babies . 9 2
The Slug Fly and the Grasshopper 9 8
The Truth of It IO 3
"Rain Frogs" Io8
Moving Day. Parti. IJ 4
Moving Day. Part I L Il8
5
PAGE
\/ Growler's Prize 122
\J The Real Culprit ! 29
History of a Bug -. ?-. ..'' V-; .-,-... . f . 131
History of a Beetle 1^5
Dr. Leech i^g
/ A Divided Household. Parti. 143
A Divided Household. Part II. 149
Born in a Ditch !^
"I Told You So" 158
Always at Home 164
A Skillful Spinner 168
A Devoted Mother . 175
Lines to a Spider 179
Do You Believe It? 180
Winter Friends 182
The Chickadee 182
The Nuthatch 185
The Red-headed Woodpecker 187
The Golden-crested Wren 190
The Brown Creeper . . . 191
The Downy Woodpecker 192
Snow Tracks 196
The Ruffed Grouse 196
The Wood Mouse 198
The Chipmunk 200
The Red Squirrel . . 202
Reynard, the Fox, and Ranger, the Dog 203
The Weasel 205
The Northern Hare 207
The Muskrat 209
The Gray Squirrel 211
SHORT STORIES OF OUR SHY
NEIGHBORS.
THE ISABELLA MOTH.
ONE day, late in autumn, Ruth and her teacher
were walking in the fields.
All at once Ruth cried out, u Oh, see what a
queer furry worm! It looks like a wee bit of a
clothes brush moving about."
7
8
Her teacher smiled.
" It is not a worm," she said. " It is sometimes
called a ' wooly bear,' but it is more generally
known as a ' caterpillar.' "
" Where did it come from ? " asked
Ruth.
The Larva. j t wag hatched f rom an egg la j d by a
mother moth; and some day it will be a moth itself.
" We must call it the larva of the moth now ;
for that is its right name. When we speak of
more than one, we call them larvae.
" The word ' larva ' means ' a mask.' People
sometimes wear a mask to hide their faces. Just
so under this furry mask is hidden the form of
an insect with four wings."
" I wish I could see its wings," said Ruth.
" Let us take it home with us, and put it into
a glass-covered box; then we can watch for the
coming wings," replied her teacher.
But when she tried to pick it up, it rolled
itself into a little ball and slid from her hands.
Then she slipped a piece of cloth under it and
wrapped it up so that it could not get away.
" Now look at this caterpillar closely," said the
teacher, " and you will find that its body is
marked with twelve furry rings ; this fur is made
up of stiff, short hairs.
" The first four rings and the last two are quite
black; but the six rings that cover the space
between these are of a chestnut brown, a color
that some people call a 'tan red.'
" Because of these stiff, spiny hairs and of the
way in which it rolls itself up, it is often called the
'hedgehog caterpillar'; but when it lies out straight,
it is more than an inch long, as you can see. "
When they reached home they put their furry
friend into a large box filled with clover leaves,
dandelion, and plantain.
This was just what it liked, and it began eating
at once ; it had sharp jaws and it ate very fast.
Ruth and her teacher watched it from day to
day ; but after a few weeks it crept over its well-
spread table without offering to taste its food.
At last it crawled slowly away toward one side
of the box, rolled itself up like a ball, and fell
into a sort of sleep.
If it was asleep, it took a very long nap ; for
it was now late in the fall, and it did not wake
up again till the next spring.
And oh, what a hungry creature it was then !
Why, it ate and ate every soft, green leaf that
came in its way.
One day, Ruth placed a large, ripe, sour apple
among the leaves. It began at once to gnaw the
10
Larva on Apple.
smooth skin of the fruit; and it did not leave
off until it had eaten a space around the apple
as large as the width of its
own body. Then it turned
again to feast on the leaves,
as before.
But it soon grew tired of
its food and acted as if it
had not slept enough ; so it
wove a little blanket around
itself and again went to sleep. This warm cover-
ing that it made was oval in shape, and of a dark-
brown color.
And what is strangest of all, it was made of
the hairs of its own body, fastened together by a
silken thread which it spun out of a sticky gum
that came out of itself.
That was indeed a home-made cradle, strong
and warm and safe.
The teacher explained to Ruth that the cater-
pillar had spun for itself a
cocoon, as its cradle is
called, and that it was
now a pupa, a word which
means "baby." The Cocoon -
"What a sleepyhead this baby moth is," said
Ruth; "one would suppose that it might need
II
something more to eat. Now if there were two
or more of them, what would you call them ? "
" I would speak of them as the pupae," answered
the teacher.
"Larvae and pupae," said Ruth to herself;
" those are not very hard words to remember."
" If you could peep inside of its cocoon," said
the teacher, " you would find that it has cast off
its caterpillar skin, and that it is now a very black
infant, indeed. In fact, it changed its dress a good
many times before it spun
its cocoon ; and every new
dress was a warm, furry
robe like the one in which
you first saw it."
The Isabella Moth.
So the baby slept and
slept for nearly a month ; and then a strange thing
happened. For one bright morning in June it
awoke, and freeing itself from its prison cradle, it
came forth a moth; and behold, its baby days
were over !
It was not very strong at first, for its wings were
weak, and were pressed close to its body; but in
less than half an hour there was a great change.
The wings grew broader, while their color began
to deepen; and all four of them were of a yellow-
buff tinge, dotted here and there with black.
12
The front pair were marked with two or three
brownish lines ; but the hind pair were faintly
tinged with red.
The body of the insect was of a deeper yellow
than the wings, and was prettily marked with
three rows of black spots,, there being six spots
in each row.
Ruth looked at it carefully. " It has six tiny,
brown legs," she said. " And see its little short
feelers! They are as yellow as the
wings."
" Those feelers are the antennae of
the insect," replied the teacher, " and
when we speak of one of them, we
Antennae of a cal1 ^ tne antenna.
Moth. " You will not find that a hard word
to speak, after you have said it once or twice ; and
it is always better to call things by their right names.
" You will see that these antennae are round, and
almost smooth ; but the antennae of most moths
are feathered. They look like little plumes.
" Yet you can generally tell a butterfly from a
moth by the antennae ; for those of a butterfly are
threadlike, with a knob at the end. But both moths
and butterflies belong to the same great family l of
insects."
1 Lep-i-dop'te-ra, scale wing
" But where are the eyes ? " asked Ruth.
" This insect has so many eyes that it would take
you a long time to count them," said her teacher.
" There is an eye spot on each
side of the head ; and in each
eye spot there are at least three
thousand small eyes. These are
called compound eyes, and be-
sides these, there are two single
eyes on top of the head."
- No wonder then that it is so Antennae of a Butterfly '
hard to catch moths and butterflies," said Ruth ;
" they see everything ! "
" Look closely at the wings," said the teacher.
" You will never have a better
chance than now; for they are
growing stronger every
minute, and the insect
will soon fly away."
" Oh, how pretty
they are ! They
look as if they
were covered with
a mealy powder,"
Wing Scales of a Moth. . , ... .
said the little girl.
" They are covered with little scales that lap over
one another like the scales of a fish," answered the
14
teacher, " and they are made fast to the skin of the
insect by short, tiny stems ; you will see that the
whole body is covered with soft, downy scales, the
same as the wings.
" This pretty little moth has lost its caterpillar
jaws, and in their place there is a slender tongue ;
for now it will live on the juicy sweets of the
flowers."
As she spoke, the insect rose and floated lightly
away on its pretty buff-yellow wings.
" Ah, we have lost our queen," said the teacher ;
" she has gone to find her mate. I know she is a
queen because her wings are of a deeper yellow
than those of her mate.
" And now I will tell you why I call her a queen.
She was named in honor of Princess Isabella,
daughter of King Philip II. of Spain.
" This princess made a vow that she would not
change her linen for three years. She no doubt
had some good reason for it.
" At any rate, she kept her promise, and at the
end of that time, her linen must have become fully
as yellow as the wings of our little Isabella moth.
So I think she is very well named ; don't you ? "
" She is indeed," replied Ruth ; " and how strange
that all this time we have had a noble queen hidden
under the furry mask of a caterpillar J "
THE BIRTH OF A YOUNG LORD.
ONE very hot day in July, Mrs. Papilio l decided
to give a select party.
And it was very select, I assure you; for none
but the swallowtail family were invited.
Now this family are noted for their fine array,
there being over three hundred different styles of
dress among them ; and had all the guests that
were invited accepted, Mrs. Papilio's garden could
not have held one half of them.
The list was headed with the names of Lord and
Lady Asterias ; 2 so they came early.
I was glad of this, for it gave me a very good
opportunity to watch their movements; and so
pleased was I with their fine appearance that I
hardly cast a glance at any other member of the
party.
My lord and lady came sailing in upon their four
showy wings (the hind wings of each having tails),
and seated themselves at once near a bed of parsley.
My lord was gayly dressed in a black swallowtail
suit, banded with a double row of bright-yellow
spots ; and on each of the hind wings was a row
1 Pa-pil'i-o. The Latin name of the butterfly.
2 As-te'ri-as. The name of a peculiar species or kind of butterfly.
i6
of seven blue spots between the outer and the
inner line of yellow ones.
But this was not all ; for on the lower, inner edge
of the tailed wings was an eyelike spot of orange
yellow, having a black center.
-The Swallowtailed Papilio.
He also had a double row of bright-yellow spots
on his back that looked like gold buttons, and his
shining black head was adorned with the same
color.
Gold and black, black and gold, ah, it was a
fine suit indeed ! You should have seen it.
My lady was dressed in about the same style,
but she had not so many spots on her fore wings.
I saw, at a glance, that she was a good deal larger
than he ; and I thought that maybe there had not
been quite enough of the gilded band for both suits.
I noticed, also, that they each had six tiny legs,
and that the hind pair had small spurs.
The antennae were long and threadlike, and there
was a knob at the end of each ; they were not
feathered like those of the moth.
As soon as my lady lit on the parsley bed, she
folded all four of her wings together, so that they
stood upright on her back. Then she slowly opened
and closed them, as if trying to fan the hot July air.
Her mate lit very near her and did the same
thing. But they did not remain quiet very long;
for pretty soon my lady began to dart here and
there about the parsley bed.
Then she stopped quite still, as if to say, " This
is just the place for my eggs. I like it much better
than the carrot, the pars-
nip, the celery, or even
the sweet blossoms of the
phlox." Papili -
" Ah," said I to myself, "so you are the mother of
those hungry, pale green caterpillars that I find
creeping about my garden, are you ? I will watch
those eggs of yours, my lady."
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 2
i8
And I did watch them very carefully, but 1 did
not have to wait long ; for in a few days they were
hatched, and oh, what tiny things the young cater-
pillars were !
Why, it would have taken ten of" them, placed
end to end, to make one inch in length.
But these babies, like their parents, were clad in
fine array ; and they had a number of pretty suits.
Their first suit was black, banded with white
around the middle and bottom of the dress ; but as
they grew larger, this dress was cast aside for
another.
And so they kept on, till they got the fourth suit ;
and this last outfit was very fine indeed. It was
of an apple-green color, having black bands dotted
with bright-yellow spots, and was much more showy
than any of the other dresses that they had worn.
You would not wonder that they outgrew their
clothes so quickly, could you have seen them eat.
There was a very large family of them, about two
hundred in all; and with their sharp, hungry jaws
they were not long in laying waste that fine bed of
green parsley, you may be sure.
As each hungry baby had sixteen tiny legs, they
found no trouble in creeping about, here, there, and
everywhere.
I am obliged to say, right here, that they were
'9
not very good-natured children either, for when I
touched any one of them with a small stick, it
would thrust out, from behind its head, a pair of
orange-yellow horns.
And what was still worse, these horns gave
out such a bad odor that I was glad to get away
from it.
After a few days, they seemed to have lost their
appetite; and did not care to eat. So they crept
away to a clump of bushes near by.
Then I made a discovery. I found that each of
these infants, young as it was, knew how to spin.
It spun a silken thread, too. But where did it get
its silk ? I will tell you.
Each little spinner of this sort has, in the middle
of its lower lip, a tiny tube. This tube opens into
two long, slender bags inside of the spinner's body.
These bags are filled with a sticky fluid that flows
through the tube in a very fine stream ; but as soon
as the air strikes it, it becomes a strong, slender
thread.
And so these baby spinners have everything at
hand, quite ready for their work. As I could not
well observe them all, I watched one of them care-
fully ; and now let me tell you what he did.
First, he spun a small tuft of silk, and made it
fast to the twig of a low bush. Then he. put the
20
hooks of his hind feet into this tufted snare. Next
he spun a strong, silken loop, made up of many
threads, and glued the ends of it fast to the twig;
but the ends were not glued very closely together.
They were placed a little way apart, so as to make
the loop broad and roomy.
It really did look as if this wise little creature was
making a swing for itself.
But as soon as the loop was made
strong enough, he put his head
under it, and then worked it over
his back. In this way, he bound
himself in an upright position, close
to the twig.
How strange that of his own
choice he had become a helpless
Bound Chrysalis. . , , , , ir,i
prisoner, " bound hand and foot !
In about twenty-four hours, he cast off his apple-
green suit, and became a pupa, or chrysalis. Then
the skin of his body seemed to shrivel up, till it was
like a strong, hard case ; but it made a safe cradle
for the baby to lie in.
And just such a cradle was needed; for it was
now nearly October, and this tender infant must
remain bound to that twig through all the long
months of winter.
There would be no lullaby song to soothe it,
21
excepting such as the cold, wintry winds sing ; and
that is a very harsh song, as we all know.
" Will it ever come to life ? " I asked myself, as
I went from time to time and looked at the poor,
helpless thing hanging there in its silken fetters,
all alone.
But behold ! One day in the early part of June,
the dry hard pupa case burst open, and out came
a poor, feeble, little butterfly, with four limp, moist
wings.
Instead of sixteen legs it had but six; and in
the place of sharp, hungry jaws it had a slender
tongue.
Its great eyes seemed to be almost blinded by
the sudden bright light ; for, like the moth, it
had not only two simple eyes on the top of its
head, but it had the two large, compound eyes
as well.
It crept slowly up to the top of the twig, and
then the weak, drooping wings began to expand.
Broader and broader they grew, till at last they
were spread out firm and free.
And there, right before my astonished eyes,
rose up a beautiful creature, clad in shining black ;
and I knew by the band of golden spots on all
four of its wings that he was a young Lord
Asterias !
22
PHOEBE'S FAMILY.
MY first acquaintance with Phoebe began at
the garden gate, on the morning that she and her
mate called to look for lodgings.
I could see, at a glance, that their hearts were
set on having the broad beam that upheld the
roof of my balcony; so I made them welcome.
It was a bright spring morning, and I remem-
ber just how Phoebe was dressed.
She was clad in a sensible, dull, olive brown ;
her small crest was a trifle darker than her body,
and underneath she was of a yellowish white.
Her eyes were brown, but her feet, as well as
her bill, were black. The brown feathers of her
wings were edged with a dull white, and so was
the outer edge of the feathers of her forked tail.
Her mate was clad in about the same fashion,
only that the sides of his neck were darker.
It was a balmy morning in April when they
began to build their nest.
The whole front of the balcony was draped
with vines, so that when it was clothed with leaves
it made a heavy, thick curtain of green; and here
the nest was hidden, and secure from harm.
This nest was made of grasses and moss, plas-
Phoebe Birds and Nest.
tered together with mud, and was lined with bits
of down, hair, and shreds of wool.
Ah, it took many and many a weary flight to
gather the materials for that modest home.
Back and forth, back and forth, the happy couple
flew, bearing in their slender bills a scrap of moss
24
or a mite of down, till at last the whole thing was
finished, handsome and complete.
I placed a stepladder conveniently near, where
I could stand and look into the nest; for although
I had every reason to believe that Phcebe was a
painstaking and tidy little housekeeper, yet I rather
wanted to see the inside of her home for myself.
So one day, when she and her mate were not
there, I peeped in at the nest, and lo, there was
a small, cream-white egg, spotted on the larger
end with reddish brown ! I was very careful not
to touch it.
The next day I looked in again, and there was
another. And so, day after day, a new egg was
added to the number, till there were five of them
in all.
Then I noticed that Phcebe began to stay at
home a good deal; and if she did chance to go
out for a little airing, her mate always took her
place.
At length, one morning, I thought I heard a
low peep, and seeing that both of the birds were
away, I glanced in at the nest.
There I saw four tiny young birds, cuddled
down close together. I found that one of the eggs
did not hatch, and that it had been thrown out
of the nest to the porch.
But what a clamor there was among the young
ones when the old birds came back with food !
Why, they opened their mouths so wide that it
did seem as if their heads would split open. And
such dainty food as was brought to them !
There were no wriggling worms, and no stale
pieces that some other bird had discarded. No,
indeed! for Phoebe's children must have the freshest
meat in the market.
In order to secure
this, it must be taken
on the wing ; for the
couple belonged to the
family of flycatch-
ers, and woe to the
unlucky insect that
came within reach of
their open bills.
As for the parent birds, they usually bolted
their food at one mouthful, but the infants were
fed in not quite so hasty a manner.
And so they ate and ate, and grew stronger
every day, and when they were a week old, I
thought it was time to name them; so I gave
each of them a pretty double name.
I called one of them Fluff Wing ; another,
Feather Down ; a third, Brown Breast ; and because
Nest of Young Phosbe Birds.
26
the very smallest one of the family looked so much
like its mother, I called her Phoebe Junior.
Now, a better behaved family of children one
could not desire to see ; there was no confusion
whatever in the nest, and I never heard an angry
peep from one of them.
What was my surprise, then, on seeing them
when they were a little more than two weeks old,
all sitting in a row on the garden paling, while
both the father and mother were perched on a
low bough, chirping loudly, in a harsh, scolding
tone.
I ran to look into the nest, thinking that per-
haps some enemy had driven the family from home ;
but I saw nothing.
Finally, in about an hour, the young birds left
their perch, and flew toward the nest, a few paces
at a time ; for their wings were weak and their
flights were short, and they made several stops
before reaching home.
The next day, not hearing any sound from my
little neighbors, I peeped in again, and behold, the
nest was empty !
On the day following, Phoebe and her mate came
back, but the young ones were nowhere to be seen.
Thv*y at once began to clean and repair the nest.
They threw out bits of thread, down, hair, moss,
TJN
27 V2^j r ^
and other things that seemed to be in their way;
and then added a mite of down here, and a thread
of wool there, till the nest was all ready for -use
again.
Then Phoebe laid four small, cream-white eggs
like the others, and in due time her heart was made
glad by hearing the faint " peep peep " of four wee
baby birds.
Both parents seemed quite as proud of their sec-
ond brood as of the first, and were never weary of
cramming them with the rarest tidbits that they
could find.
And when the children were a little more than
two weeks old, they were driven from the nest to
the garden paling, and were taught to try their
wings, in the same way as the other brood.
A day or two later, the whole family disap-
peared ; and what is strangest of all, they went
away in the night.
Now, as Phoebe and her mate had occupied their
snug quarters all this time, free of charge, I thought
it was rather ungrateful of them to steal away in
such a manner as that.
But I have since learned that it is the habit
of this family of flycatchers, on the approach of
autumn, to forsake the nest at night, and travel
southward to a milder clime.
28
Who knows but that their little hearts are so
sad, at leaving the home in which they have been
so happy, that they can not well endure a final
leave-taking in the open sunlight?
I felt very lonely after they were gone, for I
never expected to see them again.
But behold ! when the genial sunshine and the
gentle raindrops of the next spring brought back
the swelling leaf buds of the boughs, I heard, one
day, a low chirp at the garden gate.
And then two little birds, clad in dull, olive
brown, flew in at the old nest on the beam ; and
I hailed their coming with delight.
One of them was Phoebe's mate, but the other
was a shy little creature, of a much smaller size
than the Phoebe that I had known, and let me
whisper a little secret in your ear Phoebe's mate
had come back with a second wife !
PHOEBE'S MATE.
THERE'S a little brown bird on that low, leafy
bough
Do you see ? Do you see ?
He is calling his mate, for I heard him just now
Say, " Phoebe " and " Phoebe."
I do wonder what secret he holds in his breast
Some good news it may be
For the shy little mate sitting there on her nest
His Phoebe sweet Phcebe.
He is brimful of joy, and he sings all the day;
But it seems strange to me
That this glad merrymaker finds nothing to say
But " Phoebe" just " Phoebe."
I should think she might weary of such a dull
song,
But not she, oh, not she ;
It is music to her through the whole summer
long,
Good Phoebe fair Phoebe.
30
By and by they will find some wee birds in that
nest,
He and she he and she;
And they'll cram them with tidbits, the choicest
and best,
And so proud will he be
That hell call her name twice where he calls it
once, now;
You will see, you will see,
If you '11 watch him some day when he sits on the
bough
With Phoebe his Phoebe.
TENT BUILDERS.
"THE gypsies are coming! The gypsies are
coming ! " cried little May, and she hurried into the
house, and took her station at the window.
"How do you know?" asked her brother, as
he slowly followed her to the window and looked
out.
" Because I can see their long, cloth-covered
wagons full of little stolen children."
" But how do you know they are stolen children ? "
he said.
" Because I have heard that gypsies do steal
children whenever they get a chance ; and I hope
they will not pitch their tents near our house, for
I am afraid of them."
" Why, little sister, we have had tent builders all
around our house for months, and I have never
heard you say a word
about it before."
" Tent' builders all
around our house ! " an-
swered his sister in
great surprise. " Where
are they, pray ? "
" Come, and I will
show you," he replied.
By this time the
gypsy wagon had passed
well out of sight, and
so the little girl was not
afraid to venture out.
, Her brother led the way to a large apple tree
that stood in one corner of the garden.
"Look up at those boughs," he said, "and tell
me what you see."
" I don't see anything but a lot of worms' nests,"
she replied.
" Those are not worms' nests," he answered.
Eggs, Larva, and Butterfly of Tent
Builders.
32
" Worms do not build nests like that. Those are
silken tents, and they are just as full as they can
be of the little workers that put them there."
" Then I want to see them," said she.
The boy took up a long pole having a brush at
the end of it ; this he dipped into a pail of strong
lime water, and thrust it into one of the nests.
Behold ! down tumbled a large family of cater-
pillars, each one of them nearly two inches in
length.
The heads of these creatures were black ; their
bodies were tinged with yellow, marked with finely-
crinkled black lines, and there was a whitish line
running the whole length of their backs.
On each ring of the body there was a black spot,
and in the middle of each spot there was a dot of
blue; then, too, every ring of the body sent out
thin tufts of soft, short hairs.
" You see these little busybodies wear gay colors,"
said the boy.
Little May looked at the squirming caterpillars
for a few moments, and then said, " How is it that
so many of them happen to be living together on
one apple tree ? "
" I will tell you," he replied.
" One day, a mother moth laid about four hundred
eggs around the end of a twig or branch ; these
33
eggs were crowded close together and formed a
solid ring. They were very pretty, too, for they
looked like little pearls.
" Then, to keep them warm and dry, she covered
them with a thick, dry varnish ; and no matter how
hard the rain came down,
her eggs could not get
wet.
" As soon as the leaves
of the apple tree began to
unfold, the wee babies came
out of their shells, as hun-
gry as they could be.
" Then they joined to-
gether and built a tent.
And do you notice that all
their tents are built in the
forks of the branches ?
That makes them more
secure.
" Now when they are not
eating, they hide themselves under this weblike
tent. Are they not wise little builders ?
" They crawl about all over the tree ; but, young
as they are, they never lose their way, for they spin
a silken thread as they go along, and this thread
guides them back to the tent.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 3
Tent.
34
" As they grow older and larger, they find their
tent too small; and then they build it out, so that
all can have plenty of room.
" These infants seem to know how to take care
of their health, too; for they have only two meals
a day, and not even the smallest baby among them
thinks of such a thing as eating between meals.
" And what is more, they will not venture out
when it rains ; they would rather go hungry than
get their bodies wet.
" But about the first week in June, this happy
family will begin to separate, one from another.
" Then they will wander about in a lonesome sort
of a way till they finally reach some sheltered place,
and then each one will weave for
itself a cocoon.
" This will be a sort of silken web,
and it would be a very frail affair
indeed, only that such cocoons are
held together by a thin paste ; but
when this paste becomes dried, it
looks like yellow dust.
" They will stay in these cocoons a little more
than two weeks, and then they will come out full-
grown moths."
" But how can they get out of a cocoon that is
woven of silk ? " asked the little girl
35
" Oh, they moisten one end of it so as to make
it soft, and then they can easily press through the
opening.
" And now would you like to see the mother,
herself ? " he inquired.
She followed him to his room, and he showed
her a small cabinet having a glass door. In this
cabinet were two moths, pinned one above the
other; but the female moth was much larger than
the male.
They were clothed in a color of reddish brown;
and each of the fore wings was crossed by two
dull, whitish lines that did not run straight across
the wings, but were a trifle slanting.
The upper portion of their bodies was tufted
with short, soft hairs. Some of these hairs were
brown, some were yellow; but the mother moth
had a few that were tinged with red.
May looked at the insects very closely; but
her brother noticed that she seemed to be dis-
appointed.
" Never mind," said he ; " these are only the
moths of the tent caterpillar; and now you shall
come with me and I will show you some real
gypsy moths ; and when I tell you all about them,
you will agree with me that they are rightly
named."
REAL GYPSIES.
LITTLE May's brother had another cabinet in
which there was a large collection of insects ; and
when he opened the door of this one, the little
girl again saw two moths.
" One of these moths is a gypsy queen," he
said. " Can you tell which one it is ? "
" I think it is the one that wears the soiled
white dress," replied the child ; " for it would be
just like a gypsy queen to wear such a dress
as that."
Her brother smiled. " You are right," said he.
" It is her mate that wears the coat of brownish
yellow, and he is much smaller than she. See
how prettily his hind wings are bordered at the
margin with brown."
" But they both have dark-brown lines on their
fore wings," said the girl, " and the fine fringe of
their edges is broken by, let me count, yes,
there are eight dark-brown spots along the edge
of each wing. Isn't it pretty ? "
u Very pretty," he said, " but I can plainly see
that you are not so well pleased with some of the
queen's finery."
" I do not call that finery" replied the girl.
37
" Her dress is of a dirty white ; and her antennae
are not so prettily feathered as those of her mate.
No, I do not like her at all.
" Besides I can not see why she is any more a
gypsy queen than the mother moth of the tent
caterpillar in the other cabinet."
"You are right," replied her brother. "She is
not a queen at all that is only a title that I
have given her. But she is a real gypsy moth,
and now I will tell you why she has received this
name ; and then you will see that she has a right
to it.
" Many years ago, a gentleman who was studying
the habits of moths brought a few eggs of this
kind to our country, from over the sea.
" One day, he laid them on the sill
of an open window, and when he
turned to look for them they were
gone.
" The wind had scattered them far
and wide ; and this proved to be a
great misfortune, as you will pres-
ently learn.
" The Qfypsy moth lays a large num-
r n i ,1 Gypsy Moth Eggs.
ber of cream-yellow eggs; and these
eggs she covers with soft hairs plucked from her
own body.
38
"She takes care to place them on the under
side of leaves, twigs, and branches, in such a way
that no harm can come to them ; and so nearly
every egg brings forth a caterpillar.
" Even those eggs that were blown away by
the wind soon hatched out ; and I now will show
you what the caterpillars were like."
Then little May saw, pinned fast to the back
of the cabinet, a somewhat shriveled-up larval
baby, nearly two inches in length.
It had a very black head ; and its body was
of a brownish yellow, having a pale-yellow line
running along the middle of the back. On each
side of this line was a row of spots, five of which
were blue, and the others were of a deep-crimson
shade. /
There were tufts of hairs all along
the sides of the body ; and although it was
clothed, for the most part, in bright colors,
it was an ugly thing to look at.
" These caterpillars," said her brother,
"are very hungry creatures; and they
travel about everywhere, devouring all the
tender, green things that they chance to
find.
"When they have stripped a twig or Lar j a s f
a branch of its leaves, they spin a slender, Moth.
39
silken thread and let themselves down to the earth ;
and then, like the true gypsies that they are, they
roam about till they find something to eat else-
where."
" But how can you
be so cruel as to pin
them fast ? " asked
the child.
" Oh, I never run a
pin through the body
of any insect while it
is alive, little sister;
that would be cruel
indeed.
" I put them in
a covered box and Gypsy Moths.
smother them with something that kills them in-
stantly; and when I am quite sure that they are
dead, I place them here in the cabinet as you see
them now ; and in that way I make a good use of
them.
" For by this means, I have been able to show
you a family of gypsies that are much more to be
feared than that small band of sun-browned men
and women who have pitched their tents in the
edge of the forest yonder.
" It is true, such people as those may now and
40
then carry off a few supplies from our gardens ;
but they will not destroy every green thing in their
way, so as to leave nothing behind them but with-
ered vines and leafless trees, as these gypsy insects
do."
Little May was silent for a moment, and then she
said, " These gypsy moths are very bad insects
indeed ; but after all, they do not steal their babies,
and our real, grown-up gypsies do."
And with that, she ran away to the attic to watch,
at a safe distance, that strange company of restless
rovers whose great-great-grandfathers, like those
of the gypsy moth, were born in a far-away land
beyond the sea.
A LITTLE CAPTIVE.
So, Madam, I've caught you at last ;
Pray, why did you venture so near ?
Your four dainty pinions are fast ;
Tis useless to struggle, my dear.
Ah, little you've gained, pretty one,
In breaking your self-woven chain,
To flaunt your fine robes in the sun
If you must a captive remain.
41
To sit in the heart of the flowers,
To drink of their honey and dew,
To flit amid rose-scented bowers,
Gay butterfly, this is for you.
'Tis yours in the sunbeams to sport
On bright, jeweled wings all the day ;
And since you're glad life is so short,
Here's freedom, my lady, away!
A Captive.
MR. RANA'S 1 DINNER.
A FROG and his mate that had lain rolled up in
their mud blankets all winter came up into the sun-
shine one spring day, and sat down on an old, mossy
log.
1 Ra'na, the family name of the frog.
42
Just before they leaped out of the water, the
female laid a number of dark, round eggs, inclosed
in a thin, gluey case.
This egg case of the frog swells out in the water
and looks like a mass of jelly. It takes about a
month for the egg of a frog to hatch out; and the
little creature that comes out of it is called a tadpole.
Just as soon as it is hatched, it begins to swim
about in search of food, and it is then very active ;
but it would quickly die
if it were taken out of
the water. It has a pair
of small, horny jaws with
which it feeds upon soft
animal food, as well as
upon the tender roots and
The Frog. . -
leaves of water plants.
Upon its upper jaw there is a row of very fine
teeth ; but the lower jaw is toothless.
Its wide mouth extends more than half way round
its head, and its two nostrils open upon the inside
of the head.
Just back of each bulging eye there is a round
patch of thin, tight skin that forms the eardrum.
This tadpole, or baby frog, is a queer-looking
creature ; it has a large head, a long flat tail, and no
limbs at all.
43
But it does not remain in this condition long; for
pretty soon it gets a pair of hind legs, and then a
pair of fore legs ; and as soon as its fore legs appear,
it has a tongue. Then it can see, hear, taste, and
smell.
Its hind legs grow very fast, and as they get larger
and larger, its tail becomes smaller and smaller, till
at last it disappears altogether.
Eggs, Tadpoles, and Frogs.
But the tail of a tadpole never drops off, although
some very ignorant people declare that it does. If
they would collect a few tadpoles and put them into
a wide-mouthed jar, they could easily watch their
growth, and then they would see for themselves that
the tail becomes a part of the young frog's body.
44
Now, as I have told you before, our baby frog can
not live out of the water. How, then, does he
breathe ? I will tell you.
On each side of his head there is a small tuft
that is made up of thin, horny plates. These tufts
are called gills ; and as the water passes through
these small gills, it is separated from the air that is
in it, and in this way the little tadpole gets all the
air that he needs to support life.
But as soon as he becomes a frog, he can no
longer live all the time under the water; for he is
then a changed creature, and instead of breathing
through gills, he has a pair of lungs.
So when he comes to the surface of the water for
air, he gets his first glimpse of the great world
around him ; and what a strange sight it must be !
But while frogs breathe through lungs, they also
breathe through the pores of the skin, which have
to be kept moist most of the time ; and if a frog is
left out of the water too long, he will die.
It takes about five years for these animals to get
their full growth, from the time they are hatched
from the egg; and as they become too large for
their skins, they pull them off over their heads.
Their cousins, the toads, do the same thing with
their warty hides ; and both toads and frogs have
been known to live to be ten or twelve years of age.
45
But toads, unlike frogs, can live all the time on the
land ; and they never visit the water except to lay
their eggs there.
Now let us see what became of our two friends
on the old mossy log.
Ah, well, they had not been sitting on the log
very long^ when they heard a loud noise that fright-
ened them, and in an instant they were back in the
water, and were lost to sight.
After awhile, they came up to the surface, and
leaped upon the log as before.
Then the largest one said, in a harsh, croaking
tone, "Well, I wonder what will happen next?
There seems to be no peace for us anywhere.
" If we had only tried to be contented when we
were tadpoles, how much happier we might have
been ; but young ones never know when they are
well off.
" For I remember well that I could hardly wait to
see the last bit of my tail disappear, I was in such a
hurry to put on this shining, spotted coat ; and now
that I have it on, see what trouble it brings me."
On each side of the frog's neck there was a
large sac which filled with air every time that he
spoke; and that is why his voice had such a
croaking tone. /
" What you say is very true," replied his mate ;
46
"but it does seem good to have a tongue in one's
head, after all."
There was no harsh, croaking sound in her
voice, for a mother frog has no air sacs in the
sides of her neck to produce it.
As she spoke, she darted her tongue out very
swiftly, and caught a large fly that went buzzing
past; and presently her mate did
the same thing.
Now the tongue of these ani-
mals is large, flat, and fleshy, and
is tied fast to the jaws in front, so
Jaw and Tongue of ^ wnen it is at rest, it points
backward, toward the throat.
But if an insect of any kind ventures too near,
out flies this very nimble member, and glues it
fast. For on the tongue of both the frog and
the toad, there is always a thick fluid that is as
sticky as glue.
But the poor frogs did not have a change to
enjoy their banquet very long; for not far away
there was a group of boys with a fishing basket
and a strongly woven net, and as soon as they
spied the frogs, they crept very softly towards
them.
" I wonder what a frog would do without its
head," said one of the boys.
47
" Or without its brain," said another.
At this, both frogs held up their heads and
listened.
" Did you hear that ? " croaked the larger one.
"What would I do without my brain, indeed!
Why, it is my brain that sets me to thinking.
" And as for my head, it is fully one third the
size of my body, so how could I do without
that ? "
Then he raised one of his short fore legs and
pointed towards his head with his four small fin-
gers; and at the same time, he stretched out his
very long hind legs, spreading apart the five
webbed toes on each foot as if getting ready for
a leap.
But before he was aware of it, both he and his
mate were caught in the fine meshes of a net,
and were dragged from the log.
As the boys were walking along with their prize,
they met their teacher on the way.
"What are you going to do with those frogs?"
said he.
" We shall broil their hind legs and have them
for our dinner," they replied.
At this, the male frog opened his wide mouth,
and gave such a loud croak that the boys dropped
their basket on the ground.
4 8
" If you will come with me," said the teacher,
" I will place a foot of one of your frogs under
my microscope ; then you can see the fine drops
of blood in the thin web that holds its long toes
together."
The boys were delighted; and very soon they
had the pleasure of seeing this web through a
glass that made even the smallest atoms
look very large.
The little drops of blood followed one
another in such a way that one of the
boys said, " Why, they look ever so much
like the fine grains of red sand that fall
from the upper part of an hourglass ! "
They were never weary of watching it;
but the teacher said that it would be cruel
to keep the animals out of the water too
Foot of a long, and that he thought they had earned
their liberty, and ought to be carried back
to the pond.
So they were placed in a tub of water, and
covered up carefully, till after dinner. ,
But when the cover of the tub was removed, be-
hold, the male frog was the only one to be found !
What could have become of the other? The
cover was put on so securely that neither of the
animals could leap out. But there sat the larger
49
frog, all alone, looking a good deal puffed up, and
quite stupid, withal.
Now, inasmuch as these animals have no ribs
at all, they sometimes look very lank, and at other
times very full.
As the boys stood staring at him in amazement,
one of them said, " Where is your companion,
my fat fellow ? " At this question, the frog drew a
film over his eyes, and pretended to be asleep.
Now, toads, frogs, and other animals of this class
have three eyelids; and this third eyelid that the
frog drew over his eyes is a very thin film indeed.
But his pretense of being sound asleep did not
aid him in the least; for the teacher said, " Ah,
Mr. Rana, I greatly fear that you will never see
the slimy waters of your native pond again. For
we shall not permit you to get a second mate till
we find out what you have done with the first one."
Then he caught him, and smothered him with
a piece of soft cotton soaked in ether, so that he
died quickly and without pain. And when his
stout body was opened, there lay his lifeless mate,
stretched out at full length in his stomach.
Now the truth is, that while we were all taking
our dinner, this greedy fellow happened to think
that it was about time for him to dine also.
And finding nothing nearer at hand, he seized
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 4
upon his helpless mate, and gulped her down,
without the least scruple whatever; but it is no
more than fair to say that had she been the larger
and stronger of the two, she would have devoured
him, instead of being eaten herself.
Ah, Mr. Rana, you no doubt greatly enjoyed
that dinner ; but it might possibly have taken away
the keen edge of your appetite, had you known
that it was to be your last meal !
I
The Common Toad,
A PLAIN STORY.
I'M a clumsy, awkward toad,
And I hop along the road
'Tis the only way we toads can well meander;
While in yonder marshy bog,
Leaps my relative, the frog,
Very near my aunt, the water salamander.
And if you should ever stray
Near a slimy pool, some day,
And along its grassy margin chance to loiter,
Do not pass it lightly by,
For it is the spot where I
Was born, a lively little tadpole in the water.
And although I take no pride
In my ugly, warty hide,
Yet they say within my head there is a jewel ;
But I hope you will not tell,
For you all know, very well,
That some boys (whom I could name) are very cruel.
I'm a homely, harmless thing,
I catch insects on the wing,
And in this, I serve you all, it is my duty;
And now tell me, which is best
To be useless and well dressed,
Or be useful, even though I have no beauty ?
THE MOURNING CLOAK. 1
IT was a very sunny day in March, just such a
day as one might mistake for April.
But April had not come yet ; for there were
1 Van-es'sa An-ti-o'pa, the name of a particular kind of butterfly.
patches of snow here and there upon the hilltops,
and the air was not without a touch of frost.
Yet it really did seem so much like spring that
many a shy thing peeped
out from its hidden nook,
as if wondering whether
the long, wintry months
were really over.
The little pussy cats of the
willow sat in double rows along
the stem, all ready to throw off
their scaly cloaks so as to make a
fine display of their soft, mouse-
colored fur.
And the squirrels and chipmunks
sported about as if they had never seen
a hard, crusted snowdrift in all their lives.
Far down in the meadow there was a
great heap of stones, from which the
snow had melted away; and even this
rough, hard pile held its share of win-
ter's hidden treasures, as you will
presently see.
For in a deep space between two large stones
there was the faint flutter of a tiny sash of gold.
Was it the gilded border of a fairy queen's mantle?
Ah, but there was another, and still another !
Pussy Willows.
53
And some of them had the edges badly soiled and
torn.
There were so many, in fact, that it looked as if
there might be a whole band of fairies shut up in
that strong, stone fortress.
And so it proved that a large troupe of fairy
beings had been caught in a November snowstorm,
and had fled to this stony refuge for safety.
And there they had remained during the long,
dreary winter, waiting for the warm breath of spring-
to float over their hiding place and set them free.
Now can you guess what this fairy circle was ?
I will tell you. It was nothing more nor less than
a family of butterflies that had hidden themselves
away during the winter, so as to come out and greet
the pale sunbeams of the early spring.
The helpless, almost lifeless little creatures were
very closely huddled together as if to keep one
another warm ; and they had no doubt found it
quite a safe stronghold for their winter quarters.
Each one had its wings folded closely together
above its back, as if it had settled down for a very
long nap.
The wings of this family of butterflies are of a
purplish brown above, prettily edged with a broad
band of buff ; and near this yellow edge there is a
row of pale-blue spots.
54
But the under part of the wings is of a much
darker color; it is of a dull blue-black, marked, here
and there, with a few faint streaks of a lighter hue.
It is perhaps on account of its somber shade that
this insect is sometimes called the mourning cloak.
Mourning Cloak Butterflies.
Not very many butterflies are able to live through
the cold weather ; but quite a number of this family
may often be found in midwinter, sticking fast to
the rafters of old buildings, and in the cracks of
stone walls.
55
When found in this way, they appear to be dead ;
but if they are placed in the warm sunshine, they
will soon show signs of life, and become as active
as ever.
They are very welcome visitors in early spring,
even though their pretty
wings are often somewhat
faded and torn.
A very close observer 1 of
insects and of their 'habits
tells us that this butterfly, if
disturbed, will often fold up
its legs and appear to be
dead. I wonder if it thinks
it will escape harm by doing
that!
Its larval babies are homely
things, and they are hungry
things too ; they feed on the
leaves of the poplar, the elm,
and the willow.
And like their parents, they huddle together as
closely as possible ; so closely, indeed, that it does
seem as if they would all feed on the same leaf if
they could.
Sometimes they crowd so thickly upon a single
1 Dr. J. A. Lintner, N. Y. State Entomologist.
Larvae of the Mourning
Cloak.
56
branch that they bend it dcwn very low with their
weight. So you may be sure that it does not take
them a great while to strip a tree of its green leaves.
These black, bristly creatures are marked with
very small, white dots ; and there is a row of eight
brick-red spots along the back.
As they creep along over the trees, they eat and
grow, and eat and grow, while all along their track
may be found their shriveled, cast-off clothing.
And now, should you chance to come across a
family of these ugly larval children, you need have
no fear of their black, bristly spines, for they will
not harm you.
And if you will gather a few of them, and feed
them on the leaves that they like best, they will
enter the pupa state after a time; and then, in a
little less than two weeks, they will all come forth,
each one clad in a mourning cloak.
A GIFTED FAMILY.
Do you know the brown thrasher? He is own
cousin to the mocking bird, and is a noted singer.
He wears a coat of cinnamon red, trimmed with
brown, and marked at the edges with lines of white.
His vest is of a somewhat lighter shade, and is
streaked with dark-brown lines.
57
When he is on the wing, he spreads out his
yellowish-red tail feathers like the rays of a fan.
He knows so many tunes, and can sing in so
many different voices, that he is often called the
brown mocker; and he sometimes gives such fine
evening concerts that he has won for himself the
title of " nightingale."
But he is not the real
nightingale that we read
so much about.
He belongs to the
thrush family, and is
the largest of them all ;
in fact, he is a brown
thrush, if you call him
by his real, plain, home-
spun name, leaving off
his titles.
You should see him
when the cherry trees
and the hedgerows are in blossom ! His throat is
so brimful of melody then, that it runs over; and
his gushing strains, so sweet and clear, may be
heard a half mile away.
A pair of these birds once made a nest in a
thicket of briers very near the ground. It was
built of small sticks, filled in with layers of dry
The Brown Thrasher.
58
leaves, and was lined with fine, threadlike roots;
but there was no mud plaster to make it firm and
strong.
These birds build so low that the rough winds
can not shake their nests, so they do not need to
make them very secure.
Within the nest the mother bird laid five
greenish-white eggs, dotted with reddish brown ;
they were prettily ovate in form, and were nearly
an inch in length.
Now it happened, one day, while the owners of
this small abode were away from home, that a large,
black snake took it upon himself to visit their quar-
ters, in search of fresh eggs.
He had hardly made his way through the tangled
briers when the two birds returned, and, finding the
intruder's head so near their open door, they flew
at him in a great fury.
They beat him with their strong wings, and
pecked at his head and eyes with their hard, horny
beaks, till he was forced to glide swiftly away
through the sharp, thorny briers that pierced and
stung him on either side.
Soon afterwards the mother bird took her place
upon the nest, and she did not leave it till the eggs
were hatched.
Her mate kept her constantly supplied with bee-
Fight between the Brown Thrashers and the Snake.
ties, crickets, and other insects, and I am afraid that
he stole a kernel of corn now and then from a newly-
planted hill. But the large number of insects that
he destroyed more than made amends for the theft.
V^TB'R^T^^
W OJf 'CO.U,
t "UNIVERSITY
6o
One day a man, who was strolling in the fields,
came upon the nest of small fledgelings, and carried
one of them home with him to raise as a pet.
The parent birds pursued him, scolding loudly,
but finally returned to the nest to look after the
others that were still left to them.
The young thrasher was put into a cage, and he
grew to be very tame, and had many cunning ways.
When a crust of bread was thrown into the cage,
he would pick it up and carry it to his saucer of
water and soak it well before eating it.
Like his parents, he was fond of crickets, beetles,
wasps, and all insects having a crusty, hard cover-
ing for their bodies.
One day a large wasp was dropped into his food
basket. He caught it, at once, and knocked and
thrashed it about till its wings were so broken that
it could no longer fly.
Then he threw it down on its back, and eyed it
very closely to see if it had a sting ; and, to make
himself very sure on this point, he took up the
insect's abdomen in his bill and gave it a tight
squeeze, so as to make the poison flow out, before
he ventured to swallow it.
Then he gulped it down with a relish, and turned
his pretty head from side to side, as if asking for
more.
6i
As he did so, there was a proud look in his
golden-yellow eye that seemed to say, " Oh, I am
a knowing fellow ; but it is not to be wondered at,
for I belong to a very gifted family."
A VAIN LITTLE MOTH.
I KNOW I must be a lovely creature, else why do
people call me the "beautiful wood nymph"?
Look at my pure white fore
legs, marked here and there with
brown spots.
See the dark, purple-brown
band that is set along the edge
of them. Is it not pretty?
This band has a narrow head-
ing of olive green, and there is a
slender, wavy line of white run-
ning through it.
You will see my hind wings
are of a rich yellow; and they, too, are edged on
the hind border with a deep, purple-brown band.
My finely-shaped yellow body is dotted with
small, pearly scales, and striped with narrow bands
of black.
I wear tiny white mufHers on my fore legs, but
The Wood Nymph
Moth.
62
my other legs, all four of them, are black, and so is
my head.
My antennas are very graceful because they are
so long and threadlike ; they are not feathered like
the antennae of most moths. Is it any wonder that
I am called beautiful ?
I was as handsome when I was a larval baby as
I am now, for I was clad in a pretty blue dress,
banded with twelve orange stripes, and each band
was dotted with black.
Are you quite sure that you did not see me when
I had on that dress ? You must have seen me then,
although you may not have known my name.
I used to visit your grapevine often and often in
those days ; for I was very fond of chewing the
young, juicy leaves, and sometimes my friends and
I would strip the vines bare.
Then we would go to the climbing creeper above
your doorway, and take a good nip at the leaves
and stalks of that.
We were as pretty a family of larval infants as
one would care to look at; our colors were very
bright, and our heads, as well as our feet, were of
a deep-orange hue.
But we did not always keep together on the
same leaves, and if you had looked for us almost
any hot day in August, you would have found us
63
resting, singly, on the under side of a cool, green
leaf.
Now it is the habit of some of our family, after
they have eaten all they need, to bore into the
stem of a plant, or sometimes into a piece of wood,
and make it their winter quarters. But I was too
wise to do that, for I wanted a still safer place for
myself.
So one night, late in September, I crept softly
down a slender vine and buried myself in the
ground. There I was, a helpless pupa, an under-
ground baby, without so much as a cocoon to
cover me. Was I not very brave ?
But it was the right thing to do after all, for I
slept there safely through all the cold winter, and
it was early in June before I awoke from my long
nap. Then I came up from the dark earth.
I was very weak and feeble at first, but it was
not long before I found myself sailing gaily about
in this handsome robe that I am wearing to-day.
And now I will tell you a strange thing about
some of my relations. There is quite a large
family of them, and they fed on the leaves of a
fine creeper that ran over the walls and windows
of a city church.
So when they had eaten and eaten till they were
satisfied, they crept inside the church and hid them-
6 4
selves under the edge of a soft, woolen carpet.
What a snug, cozy corner they had found, to be
sure!
Then with their sharp jaws they bit off some
threads here and there, and soon they had a fine,
warm place for their winter quarters.
But it turned out that this was not a safe place
for them at all ; they might better have gone down
into the cold earth as I did.
For in a very short time, the poor, helpless things
were discovered, and I have heard that not one of
them was left to tell the tale.
THE PATCHED COAT.
" WHAT an odd-looking coat you have on ! " said
a buzzing June beetle to a larval infant of the
common clothes moth.
" Yes, it is made up of a good many colors,"
replied the other ; " but you will not wonder at that
when I tell you that I was born in a rag bag."
" Born in a rag bag ? " said the beetle, and he
went flying and buzzing about the room for nearly
five minutes before he spoke again.
Then he came back, and lit on the soft, woolen
rug where the plump larval infant was at work.
" What in the world are you doing now ? " he
inquired.
" I am just setting a small gore into one side of
this open case in which I live ; for if you look, you
can easily see for yourself that it is a case, and not
a coat.
" The truth is, I
eat so much, and
grow so fast, that
my narrow quarters
will not hold me;
so, with my sharp
jaws I make a slit
here, and another
there, and weave
in a small patch
wherever it may be
needed."
" But pray, how
did you happen to
be born in a rag
bag ? " asked the
beetle.
" Because my mother chanced to lay her eggs
there ; she found a bag full of soft, warm, woolen
scraps, and she knew it would be a good place for
her babies.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 5
Larva and Pupae of Clothes Moth.
66
" And it was a good place, for as soon as we came
out of the shell, we found our food ready for us.
" So we gnawed and gnawed everything within
our reach, and covered our bodies with the bits
that were left.
" Some of these scraps were red, some were
white, and others were blue ; that is why my coat,
as you call it, has so many colors in it.
" But by and by, I shall get my growth ; then I
shall close one end of my case, and lie still, with
my head toward the open end, through all the long
winter.
" And when the spring comes, I shall change to
a pupa ; then I shall be a real baby moth, and in
about three weeks
from that time I shall
leave my close, nar-
row quarters, and be
a baby no longer."
" But how will you
get out of that hollow
case ? " inquired the
other.
" Oh, I have some small, sharp spines on my
body, and I can use them in creeping towards the
mouth of the case ; then I will crawl clear out of
it and leave it forever.
The Clothes Moth.
6;
" It will be of no further use to me, for when I
come forth I shall flit about on four tiny, buff-
colored wings. I shall look very pretty then, for
on my forehead there will be a thick, silken tuft of
orange yellow.
" At nightfall I will dart about, here and there,
into dark closets where I can find some thick,
winter dresses hanging up, or some soft, woolen
blankets packed away ; and maybe I shall get a
chance to creep in among some nice -warm furs or
feathers ; and when I find as good a place for my
eggs as my mother found for hers, I shall lay
hundreds of them."
With that, she bit off some bright, fuzzy threads
of the woolen rug, and went on with her mending.
And the June beetle flew round and round, and
made a loud whizzing noise, as much as to say,
" I do wonder ! "
A CRUSTY FELLOW.
I KNOW where a clear crystal stream flows through
a deep gorge in the mountains. Sometimes it
passes over high rocks, and then dashes down like
white sea foam to its stony bed below.
At other places, where the rocks are not so high,
it falls in thin sheets, or in shining, silvery threads.
68
It is a pretty stream, and I often wander along
its banks; for I am acquainted with some queer
little people that dwell there, and they live right
in the water, too.
There is one strange fellow, in particular, that I
want to tell you about. But he hides himself in
The Crayfish.
deep holes and under stones during the day; so
one must understand this sly trick of his in order
to find him at home.
Let me tell you how he looks. His body is long,
and somewhat flattened, and he is clad in a stiff,
horny coat that is very hard and strong.
69
But his coat never becomes very ragged ; for he
grows so fast that he has to put on a new one every
year.
And very often he has a hard time in pulling the
old coat off ; for the new, thin garment is already
there, fitted closely to his body. Its color is of a
light, yellowish brown, at first, but after a time it
grows darker.
And now I hope you will believe me, when I tell
you that this fellow has no less than five pairs of
walking legs and six pairs of swimming legs.
And, what is more, should he chance to lose one
of his legs, he would have another in its place, in
the course of a year.
But he needs them all, every one of them, as I
can plainly prove to you.
His swimming legs are generally called swim-
ming feet, and sometimes they are called "swim-
merets." The word " swimmeret" means "a little
swimmer."
The swimming feet, when not in use, are almost
entirely hidden under his large abdomen, which is
made up of many plates that end in a wide fin at
the tail.
His mate has small, leaflike plates at the end of
her swimming feet, and these are edged with a fine,
hairy fringe.
She lays a large number of eggs which she car-
ries about attached to this fringe.
It seems a little odd that this creature should
have ten walking legs besides his ten swimmerets ;
but he is not built like a fish, and he would soon
become tired of swimming about all the time.
His first two legs are the largest, and each one
of them ends in a long claw that is divided like a
pair of nippers.
And what a tight pinch he can give with those
nippers ! The tiny fishes in the stream know all
about it ; and they dart away in terror, the moment
they get a glimpse of him.
But this is not all, for he has five pairs of jaw
feet besides; so he is well armed to seize upon the
weaker animals in the water, and he seldom goes
without a good dinner.
He likes to make a meal of small fishes, water
snails, larval babies, and the like.
He also has two pairs of antennae, and the out-
side pair is very long ; he can move them up and
down, and turn or curve them at his will. This long
pair he uses to feel with ; and the small antennas
are used to hear with.
But his compound eyes are the queerest of all ;
for they are set on two pegs, and he can push them
out or pull them in, as he pleases.
Now this curious fellow is called the crayfish, or
crawfish, though he is really a crab fish; for he is
own cousin to the common crabs that are found
along the seashore.
Have you ever seen a soft-shelled crab?
When the salt-water crabs first shed their coats
they are called " soft-shelled crabs " and are gathered
in large numbers for food.
But they do not all shed their coats every year,
as has been proved ; for a full-grown crab of this
sort was once found covered with oyster shells of
five years' growth. So it is plain that he must have
worn the same coat for five years, at least.
The salt-water crab of this kind has one of the
hands much larger and stronger than the other.
He uses either or both of them for feeding himself,
but with the larger one he digs in the sand.
Now within the body of a crab there are found,
at certain times of the year, two hard balls, that
are of the nature of lime; they are often called
"crab's stones," and sometimes, "crab's eyes."
But in some strange manner the substance of
these balls is changed, so as to form the hard, out-
side covering of the animal's body.
And it is just in this way that the small crusty
fellow in the mountain streams gets a new coat for
himself every year of his life.
WAS IT A SHADOW?
ONE sunny afternoon in summer
time, a water boatman and a skater 1
chanced to meet on the surface of a small
pond. Now both of these insects belong
to the water bug family, and that is why
J . . } The Water
they happened to be traveling by water, Boatman.
instead of going about by land.
" Halloa, friend Skipjack ! " shouted the boatman,
" would you like to take a trip with me to the bot-
tom of this pond ? "
" Thank you, I am not a swimmer," replied the
other, "so I do not care to go tcx the bottom, so
long as I can stay on top."
" Oh, I see," answered the boatman ; " my long, hind
legs were made for j swimming, and your sprawl-
ers, for skating ; so it
is just as well for
each one to stick to
his trade."
He had hardly
spoken the last word
when he made a dive
forthebot-/' torn and was out of sight in an instant.
1 One of the Hy-drom'e-tra, a water bug.
73
As soon as he was gone, the skater began to
move backward and forward with great speed ; and
as he darted about in the bright sunshine, he looked
like a long shadow made up of slender legs !
The under part of his body was covered with a
soft, plush coating, so that the water could not
touch him at all ; and he could skip about every-
where for hours at a time, without so much as
wetting his feet.
There were plenty of tiny insects all about him
that he could seize and devour at his leisure ; so
what good reason had he for running the risk of
going down to the bottom of the deep?
It was not very long before a whole swarm of
whirligigs came dashing by; these insects belong
to the water beetle family.
Their bodies are of an oval form,
and of a bluish black color; and they
are well named "whirligigs"; for they are
hardly ever quiet and still for a moment
. The Whirligig.
m their lives.
So they went gliding and circling about over
the surface of the pond, and finally each one of
them gathered a bubble of air in the tip of his
abdomen, and plunged to the bottom.
" Well, well," said the skater, " so I am left alone
again, and I am glad of it."
74
And he had very good cause for being glad,
too ; for if he had touched those creatures with so
much as a single toe of his foot, they would have
thrown out all about them a very disagreeable
milky fluid.
The Water Beetle and Larva, and the "Water Tiger."
Pretty soon there was a slight ripple on the
water, and in a moment more, up came a large
diving beetle to the surface.
His body was also oval in shape, and so flat,
75
above and below, that he looked like a little boat
as he sped along over the waves.
The skater watched him a few moments, and
then said, " Pray, Mr. Diver, have you seen any-
thing of my friend, the water boatman, in your
travels ? "
"Yes," replied the other. "I saw some young
water tigers running about after him, only a short
time before I came to the top."
"Water tigers?" said the other. "What are
they ? "
" They are very hungry larval infants, with
strong, sharp jaws, and they live at the bottom of
the pond, where they can find plenty to eat. And
a fine time they have of it, too. I was once a baby
tiger myself, so I ought to know all about that kind
of life.
" Many and many a time have I snipped off
the tails of the little tadpoles, and of the young
fishes ; and I would not mind even now to get
hold of"
The skater gave a sudden jerk backwards, and
when the diver looked around, he was nowhere to
be seen.
"Well, that seems a little strange," said he.
" Can it be possible that all this time I was talking
with a shadow ? "
ALMOST A BIRD.
Do you see that large, green worm creeping
upon the tomato vines ? Its thick, stout body
is fully three inches in length.
It is an ugly thing
to look at, but it will
not hurt you ; that
sharp horn upon its
tail can not harm
you in the least.
See those whitish,
slanting stripes along
the sides of its body.
They make quite a
pretty trimming for
V its green coat, do
they not?
The Tomato Worm. J
Take it home with
you, and put it into a panful of earth. Cover it over
with tomato leaves or the leaves of the potato; it is
quite as fond of one kind as of the other.
But you must look after it once in a while ; for
as soon as it has eaten enough of the leaves it will
bury itself at the bottom of the pan.
There it will build an earthen cocoon and be-
77
come a pupa; and its pupa case will be of a
reddish-brown color.
It will have a long, slender tongue case, bent
down from the body so as to touch the breast and
shaped somewhat like the handle of a pitcher.
Think of a little creature having
so long a tongue that it has to be in--
closed in a separate case, even in its
babyhood !
When the long winter is over, it will
waken from its sleep. Then a poor,
weak moth, with feeble, crumpled
wings, will make its way up from the
soil in the pan.
Push a stick down into the soil, so
as to lend it a helping hand. It is the
most that you can do for it, and that
is quite enough. It will soon creep Pupa Case of the
. . IT- Tomato Worm.
to the top of the stick, and when its
wings become dry and strong, it will need no
farther aid from you.
Have you ever seen a humming bird ? Well,
your little moth will look very much like one. In
fact, it is often called a " humming-bird moth."
This insect has a stout body ; and on each side
of the body are five round, orange-colored spots en-
circled with black.
Its wings are narrow and pointed, of a gray
color, and marked with dark lines; but the fore
wings are longer and broader than the hind ones.
The Humming-Bird Moth.
Its tongue is a good deal longer than its body;
and when not in use, it is coiled up like the spring
of a watch. No wonder that it needed a separate
case for itself !
79
This tongue is for sucking up the sweets of
flowers ; and as the insect flits around among the
pretty blossoms, it makes a low, humming noise.
It chooses the early morning hour, or the even-
ing twilight to go in search of its food; and then,
if you watch it very closely, you may see its long-
tongue, as it darts it quickly into the sweet blos-
soms of the honeysuckle, the morning-glory, and
other flowers having deep, tubelike throats.
"Almost a bird," you will say to yourself, as you
watch its movements; and you will wonder more
and more that so beautiful a creature could ever
have lain hidden away under the ugly larval skin
of a "green tomato worm."
"IF."
TABBY, the house cat, lay on a soft rug by the
open door, looking wistfully toward the top of a
small cherry tree that stood close at hand.
" There is a robin's nest in that tree," said she
to herself, " and there are some young birds in it.
What a tender morsel one of them would make
for my breakfast, if "
Just then the housemaid chanced to spy the
keen eyes of the cat directed toward the tree, and
8o
The Robin's Nest.
she gave her a sound box on the ear that sent hei
flying into the back yard.
But Tabby was not to be cheated out of a good
meal by such treatment as this ;
and she stole softly back toward
the foot of the tree and crouched
low down in the grass, so that she
was almost hiddeafrom sight.
"I will wait," she said, "till one
of the old birds flies down from
its perch, then I will pounce upon
it, and begin my breakfast on that,
and if "
All at once a large, heavy stone came whizzing
through the air and barely missed hitting her on
the head.
With a loud " m-e-ow " she bounded away, and
hid herself
in one cor-
ner of the
fence.
Now this
nest on the
bough was
Tabby - well built
of mosses, straws, and dried stems, plastered to-
gether with mud, and was lined with soft grass.
8i
And when it was all complete the mother bird laid
within it four small eggs of a greenish-blue tint.
By and by, the eggs hatched out, and then there
was a nest full of little children, and oh, such appe-
tites as they had !
Both Mr. and Mrs. Robin were early risers ; for
they knew that the fat cutworm and his family were
in the habit of coming up out of the ground during
the night, in order to feed on the tender stalks of
the cabbage, the beet, and other garden plants.
Mr. and Mrs. Robin.
So away they would sail on soft wings, the father
bird saluting the sky, as he skimmed the air, with
a song of the sweetest melody.
The heads and wings, as well as the tail feathers
of these birds were of a dark brown, but their plump,
glossy breasts were of a pale, yellowish red.
Everybody that saw them stopped to admire them,
and to listen to the sweet notes of their morning hymn.
Pretty soon they would come flying back to their
leafy home, bearing in their yellow bills some choice
tidbit for the little ones in the nest.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 6
82
Beetles, grubs, moths, caterpillars, and cutworms,
by the hundred, were carried to that young family
every day ; and yet four tiny hungry bills were
always open, calling for more.
So they grew and grew, and pretty soon the little
nest was too small to hold all of them together;
and one day, as \orie of them was crowded to the
very edge of the nest,\he tumbled out and fell to
the ground.
Alas, alas ! Tabby's watchful eyes beheld the
mishap. " Now is my chance," she said, and in a
moment she was on the spot.
As she moved her tail from side to side, she
looked very fierce indeed, almost as fierce as her
wild cousins, the tigers and the lions, that roam the
forests in search of their prey.
Suddenly she made a spring to seize the helpless
baby bird with her sharp claws.
This was more than the terror-stricken parents
could endure, and sweeping down from the bough,
they hovered above her form and dealt her several
hard blows with their wings.
Then they pecked her body with their sharp
bills, and pulled tufts of hair out of her head.
It was hard, very hard, for her to yield up her
prize ; but the birds fought her so furiously that
she was glad to escape ; and with a cry of rage
83
and pain she leaped away, leaving many tufts of
her soft fur behind her.
The housemaid, hearing the clamor made by
the old birds, came to the door, and saw the
helpless infant lying on the ground. She took it
up tenderly and replaced it in the nest, where it
soon cuddled down as happy and contented as if
nothing had happened to it.
When the parent birds found that their darling
was unharmed, they flitted about from bough to
bough, and chirped their gratitude and delight ;
but it was a long time before they would leave
their little home unguarded.
When one of them went away in search of food,
the other would remain on the bough to watch
their treasures.
It was not many days, however, before the young
birds began to try their wings; and one morning
the whole family flew away from their leafy home,
and did not come back.
As for the cat, she had learned a useful lesson ;
for when the parent birds returned the next
spring, and took possession of their old quarters,
Tabby never so much as cast a glance toward the
tree.
" I will not go near them, 5 ' she m-e-owed to
herself ; " for if I do " here she stopped, licked
8 4
her paws, and rubbed very tenderly a bare place
on the side of her head.
Ah, Tabby, it will take you many a day to
comb and smooth your fur, before that bald spot
will be covered ; and even then, you will never
look as sleek and fine as you did before the battle!
WITH AUGER AND SAW.
PART I.
" WHY do you speed along in such haste ? " said
a stout-bodied sawfly to her cousin, the horntail
fly, as they both chanced to be going in the same
direction.
" Pray do not ask me to
travel at your sluggish pace,"
replied the other. " I am
on my way to that tall elm
yonder; for I want to bore
into its trunk, and hide my
The Horntail Fly. . .
eggs there, and this bright
July morning is just the time for it."
" I am going to that very tree myself," said the
sawfly ; " but I shall make a slit in one of the leaves
for my eggs, which I am sure will be much easier
to do than to bore into the hard trunk of a tree."
"That is as you like," answered the other. "I
work with an auger, and you with a saw ; and it '
is a good thing that each of us prefers his own
tools." And with this short answer she sped on,
out of sight.
And now let us
watch her, as she
busies herself on the
trunk of the tree yon-
der. Her head is
large, her body is
round and long, and
she has long, narrow
wings.
At the end of her
body she has. a sharp
needle or auger, with
which she can bore through both the bark and
the wood of a tree.
It does not take her very long to do her work
either, for she has already made several holes, and
into each hole she has pushed a small egg.
Now, Mrs. Horntail's infants will be ugly, white
grubs, with small, round, horny heads, and pointed,
horny tails. They will each have six legs, and such
sharp jaws that they can gnaw their way anywhere
through the tree.
Larva of the Horntail Fly.
86
They will feed on its sweet sapwood ; and when
they have eaten so much that they can eat no
more, they will make for themselves, each, a silken
cocoon, ancKlnto that they will weave some of
the small chips that they have chewed. Then they
will go to sleep.
And when at last they have finished their nap,
they will cast off their pupa skins, break open their
cocoons, and crawl up to the very end of their
burrows.
Then they will
soon gnaw away
the bark, and
come out with
four smoky-brown
wings.
And what is
strangest of all,
insects of this
kind have been
known to remain so long in the pupa state that
after a tree was cut down and the wood was planed
and polished, and made into furniture, they gnawed
their way out of it.
But the horntail fly is not the only insect that
works with an auger ; and although her sharp borer
is a full inch in length, she has a sly enemy that
The Ichneumon Fly.
carries one from three to four inches long. 1 And
what do you suppose she does with this long tool ?
She hunts around for a time till at last she finds
the tree in which Mrs. Horntail's larval children
are hidden. Then she thrusts in her auger, here
and there, and slyly pushes an egg into each
hole.
And when her babies hatch out, they creep about
through the body of the tree till they find a fat
young horntail.
Then they have no farther to look for their
dinner. It is all ready for them ; and you may
be sure that they do not wait to be invited, but
seize upon it at once.
They soon make themselves fast to the skin of
the helpless infant and feast on him to their hearts'
content ; and no matter how much he may wriggle
and squirm, they do not loosen their hold till the
meal is finished.
Ah, Mrs. Horntail, you would not have sailed so
proudly away, could you have seen what the end
might be !
Possibly your family may live to flit about in the
warm sunshine of a pleasant July day ; but your
enemy has marked the tree, and she is on your
track.
1 The ich-neu'mon fly.
88
WITH AUGER AND SAW.
PART II.
AH, here comes the other wise little carpenter,
bringing two sharp saws along with her. She has
taken her own time ; but she is here at last. And
what a pretty little busy-
body she is !
Look at her closely,
and you will see that
both her head and her
The Sawfly. . . ,
thorax are ot a glossy
black ; but the other parts of her body are of a
steel blue, spotted with yellow.
Her four thin wings are of a smoky brown ; her
legs are stout, and of a blue-black color, and her
feet are of a pale yellow.
Does she not resemble a hornet ? Well, she
belongs to the same great family 1 as the hornet ;
so it is no wonder that we can trace a family
likeness.
But the hornet has, at the end of her body, a
very sharp sting; while the sawfly carries a pair
of keen-edged saws instead.
See, she is using them now to make a slit in
1 Hy-men-op'te-ra, membrane wing, or thin wing.
8 9
that leaf; and when it is done, she wnTxirop an
egg into it.
And because she has made a hole in the leaf,
the sap will not flow smoothly along as it did
before, but it will gather there. And after a time
there will be a hard lump, like a knob, in that
place ; and wherever she places an egg, there will
be just such a swelling or knob.
Inside of each lump there will be a squirming,
larval baby, clad in pale, greenish yellow, with a
black stripe running all along its back.
And what active little creatures they will be !
Each one of them will have no less than twenty-
two strong legs, so it
will not take them long
to strip the leaves from
that tree.
And what is more,
should you chance to
touch one of them ever so lightly, he will spirt
from the sides of his body a jet of fluid right into
your face.
Now when these hungry creatures have feasted
for a long time, they will crawl down from the
tree and bury themselves under the dry, fallen
leaves.
And there, in a thick brown cocoon, each small
Sawfly Larvae.
90
infant will stay, snug and safe till spring. Then
it will break open its pupa case and push hard
against one end of its cocoon, till it opens like a
little lid, and^out it will come, a four-winged saw-
fly, having a body nearly an inch in length.
The body of the male is longer and narrower
than that of the female ; and there is no saw at the
end of it. The males of bees, hornets, ants, horn-
tails, and all other insects of this kind have neither
sting nor borer at the end of the body.
But both males and females have two pairs of
jaws, one for biting and cutting the leaves and
twigs of plants, and the other for sucking the
sweet juices.
There are many curious insects that belong to
this large family, and among them is one that is
named the gallfly. It is a very small insect, having
a body not over a quarter of an inch in length.
Have you ever seen a little brown ball fastened
to a twig, or to the leaf of a plant ? I hope you
did not try to bite it, thinking it was a nut. Let
me tell you how these little balls happen to be
found in such places.
A mother gallfly lays her eggs in a leaf or stem,
something after the manner of the sawfly, and these
nutgalls are the homes of her larval infants.
As soon as these larvae are hatched from the
egg, they begin to feed on the soft pulp within
the ball; and as they increase in size they cast
their skins till they reach the pupa state.
Finally they escape from this pupa case and
gnaw a little hole through the shell of the nut ;
then they come forth with wings into the great
world outside.
And now that you
know how these lit-
tle brown nuts are
formed, I am quite
sure that you will
examine them very
carefully should you
chance to come up-
on them in your
walks.
If you will look
at some of them
closely, you will find the open door through which
the winged insect came.
So you see, these little mothers that we find fly-
ing about everywhere are really very wise, and they
are worth our careful study.
The fields and forests are alive with them, for
they are ever on the wing, and we have only to keep
our eyes open in order to learn all their secrets.
V
Gallnut on Oak Leaves.
FOUR PINK BABIES.
THERE was a great stir in the cottage of Dame
Dutton ; for it was the first day of April, and the
good dame never allowed that day to pass (unless
it chanced to fall on Sunday) without a general
upheaving and overturning of everything that was
movable under her roof.
" I will begin at the pantry first," said Mistress
Dutton ; " for if my sense of smell does not deceive
me, there is a mouse hidden away in that cake cup-
board."
So, with sleeves rolled to the elbow, and with her
longest bib apron tied snugly about her, she pro-
ceeded to attack the cake cupboard, without farther
delay.
" Bless me ! " cried the dame, as the first whisk of
her broom brought down a large, black spider, and
with it the fine gossamer web that had been woven
with so much care.
" Bless me ! who would have believed it, and I so
particular about cobwebs, too."
But after the cobwebs (together with all the vic-
tims that had been snared by them) were lying
in loose tufts on the pantry floor, Mrs. Dutton felt
that she had a still greater work to do.
93
For now there was
no possibility of a mis-
take ; she certainly did
sniff the strong odor of
a mouse, and she felt
quite sure that the lit-
tle thief was not far off.
Nor was she mis-
taken ; for while she
stood there, prying and
peeping into this corner
and that, up jumped a
mouse, almost into her
very face, and scam-
pered away to an oppo-
site corner of the room.
Mrs. Button gave a little scream, and for a
moment it was hard to tell which was the more
frightened, she or the mouse.
Then she gained courage to make a search along
the wooden cleat of the pantry shelf and could
she believe her own eyes there, in a snug, cozy
corner, were four, wee baby mice.
Poor little things ! they were so young that they
had, as yet, no furry coat like their mother's; and
the color of their naked bodies was almost as pink
as the gay ribbon on Dame Dutton's Sunday cap.
Up jumped a Mouse."
94
And their eyes, well, they had no eyes, so far
as she could make out.
There were^wo mites of eyelids that looked like
little warts, but the whole family seemed to be as
blind as a nest of young kittens ; and everybody
knows that young kittens do not get their eyes
fairly open till they are nine days old, at least.
What funny-looking little creatures they were!
They were both
sightless and hair-
less ugh !
But these ugly-
looking babies
were very precious
in the sight of the
mother mouse, as
you will present-
j y
The Four Wee Baby Mice.
must not suppose that she ran away like a coward
to return to them no more.
Ah, no indeed, she could not do that ; she simply
hid herself away for a moment, as if planning what
it was best to do next. It was most pitiful to see
her trembling there in the corner.
There was a quiver in her pretty, silky ears, in
the short, stiff hairs about her pointed snout, and
even her long, smooth tail shook with terror.
95
Oh, how her poor heart did flutter lest some
harm should come to the helpless infants that she
loved so well.
She had felt so secure in that dark cake cup-
board, and she had worked so very hard to get inside.
Why, she had gnawed and gnawed for more than a
week, before she had been able to make a hole large
enough for her own little body to pass in and out.
Now that small opening was her own private
door the little door of her bedroom; and it was
so very small that she had never dreamed that any
eye but hers could find it.
She had used her front teeth for a chisel, in cut-
ting the doorway, and very sharp teeth they were
too, I assure you.
There were four of them in all two on the
upper, and two on the under jaw ; and the more she
used them, the stronger and sharper they grew.
Many and many a night when she had been
gnawing at the doorway, she had heard the foot-
steps of Dame Dutton approaching the pantry.
Then she had sped away in terror, not 'daring to
return to her work till almost morning. Poor soul !
Do you not feel sorry for her ? I do.
I think Dame Dutton must have felt a little
sorry, too ; for she just stood stock still and looked
at her.
\
After awhile the timid, trembling creature seemed
to gain a little courage ; and so, very cautiously she
crept towards the nest, that little home that held
her treasures.
Then she stopped, and fixed her bright little eyes
on the tall giant standing so very near her.
But suddenly she made a dash toward the nest,
and seizing one of the babies by the nape of the
neck, just as a cat catches up her kittens, she held
it firmly be-
tween her teeth,
and scampered
away with it as
fast as her legs
could carry her.
The Mother and her Baby Mouse. J
Could you
have looked closely at her soft, tiny feet, you would
not wonder that she sped away so nimbly.
She had four finger toes, and a bit of a thumb
besides, on each of her fore feet ; while each of her
hind feet had five toes ; and each toe was armed
with a sharp nail.
Ah, such feet as hers were not made to stumble ;
they were almost as swift as wings !
She was gone but a moment, and then her
pointed snout appeared at the open door again.
In a twinkling she sprang to the shelf, and rush-
97
ing to the nest, the second baby mouse was rescued
in the same manner as the first.
A third time she came back, and growing a little
bolder each time, she made directly for the nest,
and disappeared, in a flash, with the third infant.
" Now I will test your brav-
ery, Mrs. Mouse," said Dame
Button ; so she slipped a stiff
piece of cardboard under the
ne"st, and held it tightly in
her hand.
The mother mouse returned,
flitted a few paces forward,
saw that the nest had been re-
moved, and then stopped quite
still, but shaking and panting
with fright.
" Help, help ! " peeped the
small pink baby, in plain
, -, i Feet of the Mouse.
mouse language ; and this
was more than the mother love could bear.
The poor frightened heart beat so loud and so
fast that it shook her whole body.
Very slowly she crept along the shelf, and finally
she flattened herself out in a sort of humble way,
as if begging the huge giant to spare her little one.
Then with one bold effort, she gathered herself
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 7
9 8
up, gave a quick jump, caught her peeping treasure
from the nest, and was out of sight in an instant.
" Well," said Mistress Button, as soon as she
had recovered from her astonishment, "well I
never! And I always so particular about mice,
too."
THE SLUG FLY AND THE GRASSHOPPER.
A MOTHER slug fly that had been darting about
in the sunshine all day, finally settled down among
the green leaves of a pear tree.
Like the horntail fly, she
was armed with a sharp-
pointed auger ; and with
this auger she cut several
slits in the under part of
the leaf.
The Slug Fly. .
I hese slits were in the
form of a half circle, and in each one of them she
placed an egg. After that, she flew away and gave
no further heed to it.
She was a very small insect, so small, indeed,
that her body was not more than a quarter of an
inch in length.
But she was really quite pretty ; for she was of
a glossy-black color, and her four thin wings were
99
very clear, and were veined with brown; while
across the middle of the first pair there was a
wide band of a somewhat smoky hue.
It was a warm day in June; and as she darted
about in the sunlight, her wings looked as if they
had caught some of the bright tints of the rainbow.
" What a beautiful creature you are ! " said a
large green grasshop-
per. " I think I must
get a little nearer to
you, where I can see
you better."
, The Grasshopper.
And she gave such
a long leap that she went clear over the head of
the slug fly and landed on the other side of her.
" Bless me ! " said the fly ; " what very long legs
you have, my friend."
" Yes, my hind legs are very long ; they are made
for leaping about, as you can plainly see."
" And what very, very long antennae," said the
other. " They must be nearly twice as long as
your body, I am sure."
At this the grasshopper turned her antennae
back, till they extended way beyond her long hind
legs.
" Wonderful ! " said the slug fly. " What a pity
that you have not wings like me."
IOO
"Wings?" $aid the other; "you had better use
your eyes."
And with that she displayed two long, straight
wing covers, and two thin hind wings that were
hidden under them.
" Who would have thought it ? " said the slug
fly. " But tell me, my friend, what were you
digging into the ground for, just before you came
here?"
" I was hiding my eggs there," replied the other.
" You did not see my wings, and you may not
have seen the sword at the end of my body ; but
I always carry one with me wherever I go.
" It was with this sharp sword that I made a hole
in the earth, and put my eggs into it. Then I
smeared them all over with a thick glue ; for as
soon as the glue hardens, it will form a strong
case for them.
" And now I have covered up the hole in the
ground carefully, and have left them there ; for I
know they will be safe and warm through all the
long winter."
" Now what will your babies be like ? " inquired
the other.
" They will be like me, only their wings, at first,
will look like little scales. But they will feed on all
the green things that come in their way till they
lot
have shed their skins six times ; then their wings
will be as large as mine."
" What a fine time they will have eating those
skins!" said the slug fly.
" Eating their skins ? " replied the grasshopper.
" Whoever heard of such a thing ! My family
never eat their skins. Why should they do such
a thing as that, with plenty of green leaves all
about them?"
Now the grasshopper belongs to the same great
family l as the cricket, the locust, the katydid, and
other insects having straight wing covers ; the
mother straight wing lays the eggs, and the father
straight wing makes all the music.
And this class of insects do not have a wormlike
form, even when they are first hatched from the egg.
" Well," said the slug fly, " my family do eat their
skins, and they are very fond of them, too. They
shed their coat five times before they are full-
grown ; and they always feast on every one of
their cast-off skins excepting the last."
" What must the children of your kind be like ? "
said the grasshopper, and as she spoke, she let fall
a dark-brown fluid from her jaws.
" Oh, they are beautiful creatures," replied the
other.
1 Or-thop'te-ra, straight wing.
102
\
" They are covered, at first, with a soft, sticky
slime, of a pretty olive shade ; but when they get
their fifth coat, it is
very dry and of a
yellow tint, and as
Larva of the slug Fly. there is no slime
upon that, they do not care to eat it.
"And such*' nimble little creatures you never
saw ; for although they are not quite half an inch
in length, they have no less than twenty short legs
apiece.
" So they creep about upon the green leaves of
the pear and of the cherry tree, and with their
sharp jaws they cut out all the soft parts of the
leaf. But they are so dainty that they will touch
neither the veins nor the skin of a leaf, no matter
how tender it may be."
" Dainty ! " said the grasshopper. " A creature
that will eat
its own skin
ugh ! "
The slug fly
paid no heed to
this remark, but
r^. Pear Leaf with the Slug Fly Eggs and Larvae.
went on : " The
larval babies of my kind are called slugs'; and they
are very shy little creatures, with small brown heads.
103
Should you ever meet them, you will know them
by this : They have a way of swelling out the
fore part of the body, so as to hide their modest
heads completely.
" But you will have to look for them pretty soon ;
for my eggs will hatch out before long. And after
the babies have eaten all they need, they will leave
the pear tree and creep down into the ground.
" There each one will make for itself an earthen
cocoon ; and when it awakens from its long winter's
sleep, it will come up into the air and sunshine.
" Then it will have four handsome wings like
mine ; and it will be even more beautiful than
when it was a slimy larval infant."
" More beautiful ! I should hope so," said the
grasshopper ; and she let fall a whole mouthful of
brown fluid, and gave a leap that sent her clear out
of sight.
THE TRUTH OF IT.
" A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing
Through the long, sunny months of gay summer and spring,
Began to complain when he found that at home
His cupboard was empty and winter had come."
WE have all heard the sorrowful tale ; how the
poor, starved cricket went to a very stingy old ant,
and begged for food and shelter; and how the
104
ant met him with harsh words, and finally turned
him out of doors.
It is a very interesting story, indeed ; but I am
afraid that it is not true, for it does not agree
with the history of the cricket family.
The fact is that most all crickets die on the
approach of winter. There are only a very few
among them that live till spring ; and these either
hide themselves under stones, or else they creep
into some hole in the ground that is warm and
dry.
It is true that some of them do sing through
the long sunny months of summer, and even until
quite late in the fall.
But it is the father cricket that makes the music;
and he delights in it.
He rubs the inner edges of his outside wings
together with great glee ; and he will keep up his
shrill music for hours and hours at a time.
It is a way that he has of talking to his wife;
and she never seems to grow weary of it. But
she takes no part in his tune ; for her wings are
not formed like his, to make music.
Many "of these insects are clothed in black; and
it does seem a little strange that so cheerful a
chirper as the father cricket should be clad in
mourning array.
105
But he had no choice in the matter; so he may
as well be merry and make the best of- it.
The mother cricket has at the end of her small
body a fine-pointed piercer, as sharp as a needle ;
and late in the autumn she makes holes in the
ground and places her eggs in them.
Sometimes there are as many as three hundred
eggs in one mass ; but she takes no farther care of
them, for she knows that she has left them in a
safe place to hatch
out.
There is another
kind of cricket that
is clad in ivory white,
with a few yellow
, til The Cricket.
tints about the body.
This cricket makes music, too, and it is often of a
very harsh and noisy kind.
But his wife does not always dress in pure white;
for sometimes she wears white on a part of her
body, while the other portions are tinged with
green or with yellow.
She pierces holes in the twigs and steins of
plants and pushes her eggs into them, even to the
very pith. Then, like the ground cricket, her work
is done ; for very soon after these insects have laid
their eggs, both the males and females die.
IOO
It is true that there will be a large family of
baby crickets in the spring ; but such babies are,
in no way, helpless. They all know just what to do.
They will not be wormlike larval babies, either;
they will look just like their parents, only that
the wings of young crickets are at first nothing
but tiny scales.
Young Crickets feeding on Squash.
As soon as they come out of the shell they will
begin to eat. They will feast on the juicy roots
of the melon, the squash, che potato, grass, and
other green things that come in their way.
As these insects become larger and larger, they
cast off their baby clothes till they get their seventh
suit.
Then they are full-grown crickets, with a pair of
long, slender antennas and four straight wings. But
to;
the two outside wings are not used for flying;
they are used as covers both for the under wings
and for the sides of the body.
There are some kinds of crickets that, if they
chance to get into a room where they find a woolen
carpet or a woolen garment of any kind, will soon
destroy it.
They have even been known to gnaw holes in
boots and in shoes that were made of thick, heavy
leather.
A gentleman who was very fond of the cricket's
clear, sharp notes, opened his window, one evening,
so that he might go to sleep with the sound of their
music in his ears.
But when he awoke in the morning, he found
that quite a number of them had entered his room
during the night, and had eaten several large holes
in a new suit of clothes that was hanging upon the
back of a chair near the window.
The shrill creak of the cricket late in the
autumn does sometimes sound a little sad; but
there is no good reason for supposing that it is a
song of complaint.
He generally finds enough to eat as long as he
needs it; and crickets are not above devouring
other insects, in case they fall short of the green,
juicy stems and leaves of plants.
io8
So I think you will agree with me that if a bold,
hungry cricket should chance to call at the door
of a well-to-do ant, she had much better divide her
store with him, than to run the risk of being eaten
herself.
"RAIN FROGS."
WILLIE and James were on their way to school.
It had rained very hard during the night, and there
were little pools of water standing all along the
roadside.
Suddenly James called out, " Oh, brother, come
here, and look at these queer little frogs that have
just rained down. Some of them have quite long
tails, and others have no tails at all. I wonder if
there are any more like them in the clouds," and he
looked upward toward the sky.
" Let's take a few of them to school," said Willie.
So they gathered quite a number of the little
animals and put them into one of their dinner pails,
which they had emptied for that purpose.
When the teacher saw what the boys had brought
to school, she was greatly pleased, and promised
them a little talk upon the subject ; and this is what
they learned that day about "rain frogs," as they
are often called :
109
Some of these animals were young toads that
had been hatched from eggs that the mother toad
had laid in a small stream of water not far away.
Toads never go near the water except to lay their
eggs, and these are deposited in long chains. From
each egg, a very small, jet-
black tadpole is hatched ;
for toads have to pass
through the tadpole stage
the same as their cousins,
the frogs, and when they
finally leave the water,
,, , . . Toad's Eggs.
their skin is so very ten-
der that they can not endure the heat of the sun.
So they go down into the moist earth, and re-
main there during the hottest part of the day ; but
if they hear heavy raindrops falling upon the
ground, they come up at once to enjoy the cool-
ing shower; and that is why Willie and James
found so many of them along the roadside that
morning.
As they grow larger, they shed their warty skins,
and a very queer figure they cut, too, as they pull
their loose brown coats off, over their heads. Just
before this coat is cast off, it becomes quite dry,
and its color looks faded and dull.
Presently it begins to split down the back, and
110
soon after that, small rents appear upon the under
side of it.
At about this stage, the poor toad looks ragged
enough ; but he pays no heed to that, for he well
knows that he has a fine, new garment hidden
away, underneath. So he proceeds to get rid of
the old one as soon as possible.
He twists and turns
his body, and uses
first a hind leg, and
then a fore leg, till at
last he is entirely free
from his old worn-
out suit; but he seems
to be very tired after
the struggle that he
has made.
And what is queerest of all, he rolls the old
garment up into a small bundle and swallows it,
without so much as a drink of water to rinse it
down.
He does not even chew the hard, dry morsel, for
he has not a tooth in either jaw.
Toads can dart out their tongues very quickly
to catch an insect on the wing; and they are
quite as fond of small worms and caterpillars as
of the winged dainties that come in their way.
The Common Toad.
Ill
One day a toad chanced to see a large number
of small insects flying about a panful of sour dough
that had been set out near the chicken coop.
So he hopped along till he came to the pan, and
then he hopped into that, and rolled himself over
and over in the wet dough.
The Newt (Male and Young in the Water, Female on the Bank).
When he was well covered with it he jumped
out, and sat very still for awhile; it was not
long before the insects began to swarm about
him, and behold ! his plan was a success ; for all
he had to do was to dart out his tongue and
gulp them down as fast as they came along.
112
But what about the other little " rain frogs " that
the boys had collected that morning ?
Behold ! they were not frogs at all ; they were
small red newts, or efts ; and they are sometimes
called " land salamanders."
These creatures have a body about two inches
in length, and the tail is nearly as long as the
body.
They are very shy, harmless little things, and
they live near the water in cool, damp places. So
when the ground becomes hot and dry they bury
themselves in the same manner as the toads; but
after a shower they come to the surface in large
numbers.
In winter they coil themselves up in the earth,
and remain there till spring returns.
They are playful creatures, and will run, and
chase one another about, as lively as kittens.
Some of them are of a dull, red color, and others
are of a bright, orange red, sprinkled with black
dots.
They feed on insects, worms, and snails, and are
far more helpful than harmful in the world.
Most of them are born in the water, and when
first hatched they have the tadpole form.
They are cousins to the water salamanders, so
often seen in creeks and small ponds.
H3
But the water salamanders have the back of a
deep-olive shade, and the under parts of a rich,
orange yellow studded with black dots ; while along
the sides are small shining spots of flame. Some of
them are very beautiful.
These harmless creatures are often found in
small streams in Ireland ; and many of the peas-
ants believe that if you venture to look down too
closely into the water at them, they will leap into
your throat and
raise a large fam-
ily of young ones
in your stomach.
And they claim
that the only rem- The Water Salamander -
edy for this evil is to find a stream of water run-
ning directly toward the south, and to lean over
it with the mouth wide open, till the animal jumps
out into the stream.
Now we shall not believe such foolish stories as
these ; neither shall we believe that frogs, newts, or
any other living creatures " rain down " from the sky.
For if we use our eyes and study the habits of
these shy neighbors of ours, we shall find that
each particular kind has its own work to do, and
that every living thing about us was created to
act its part in the world.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 8
H4
MOVING DAY.
PART I.
" DEAR me ! " said a very old worker ant, as she
bit off a piece of soft earth, and rolled and smoothed
it with her feet. " Dear me ! my teeth are nearly
worn out now, and this roadway is not half done yet."
" Just look at me ! " said a
nimble young ant, as she stood
up on her hind feet and bit off
a mite of hard sand above her
head.
" And just look at me ! " said
a large drone, as he spread four
thin wings, and flew out at the
Drone.
open door of the ant-hill.
" Yes, you have a fine time of it, Mr. Drone,"
said the old ant; "but any of us could do that, if
we had wings."
As she said this, a long line of little ants ran
across the roadway, and each one held in her jaws
a small, white roll.
Little girl, little boy, you and I have often seen
small ants running about in this way, but we did
not dream that these tiny white rolls were wee
larval babies, did we ?
Neither did we know that the nimble little ants
that were carrying them about were the nurses of
the family. And what faithful little
nurses they are !
When the weather is fine, they
carry the infants up into the sun-
light ; but if the sky grows dark, or
if a few drops of rain fall, they seize
them at once, and take them down
into the little bedrooms below.
They pet them, too, and lick them with their
little rough tongues, and feed them, from their own
mouths, with food which they make ready for them.
Now the queen and the drones are the only ants
that have wings ; and that is why the old ant said
to the drone, " We could any of us do that, if we
had wings."
The upper two wings
are hooked fast to the
lower pair ; they are
much larger than the
lower two, and com-
pletely hide them when the insect is at rest.
But the queen has no use for her wings after she
goes down into the earth ; so she unhooks them
from her body, and lays them aside; and sometimes
the worker ants take them off for her.
'Then she goes about laying eggs ; and as fast as
she drops them, the workers follow her and take
care of them. These mites of eggs are of a yel-
lowish white, and are somewhat oval in form.
It takes but a month for the eggs of some
kinds of ants to hatch out ; but there are other
kinds that require a much longer period. For
sometimes the eggs are laid in the fall, and they do
not hatch out until the next spring ; and even after
the insect enters the pupa state, it often remains
inclosed in its pupa case for six or seven weeks.
Now there were a good many larval babies in
this ant-hill. The eggs were laid late in the fall
before ; and now that spring had come,
and they were all hatched out, it made
a large family for one house.
So it happened, one day, that the same
wise old ant who had spoken first, said :
" There are too many of us here."
" What is to be done about it ? " asked
another.
" We must look for new quarters," said
Ant's Leg. she.
As she spoke, she drew one of her fore feet
through her jaws, two or three times.
Now old as she was, she was a very neat creature,
in all her habits, She carried a small hairy brush
H7
on each fore leg, and as soon as she found a mite of
dirt upon her body, she brushed it off; and when
she wanted to clean the brush, she drew it through
her mouth in the way that I have told you.
That was a good example to set for the others,
too ; for some of the younger ants, who were watch-
ing her, began to brush themselves, without delay.
The Ants' Moving Day.
Now it was not many days after this, that a long
line of ants marched out of the door at the top of
the hill, and went away to live in a new nest.
Busy workers went down under the ground to
make new rooms and roadways ; a double line of
nurses hurried along after them. Some of these
nurses carried in their jaws a small, white, legless
larval infant, while others carried the pupa cases ;
and it was not long before there was plenty of room
in the old nest that they had left behind.
Many new lines were formed as they went to and
fro, and each active little ant seemed to have its
own particular work to do.
In fact, they did just as all people do who are
11$
moving; some of them carried a load of valuables
to the new home, while others returned, empty-
handed for more.
MOVING DAY.
PART II.
" WE have left our good little cows behind us,"
said the wise old ant. " Who will go after them ? "
Just at that moment there came
a large number of workers running
with all speed towards the new
home, each with a tiny green in-
A Plant Louse. . . .. . ^i
sect in its jaws. 1 nese green insects
are the ants' cows.
The ants had built their new quarters near the
roots of a tree ; there the fine, tender rootlets ran
down into their nests ; and here the workers
stopped, and let fall their light burdens.
Now these "good little cows " were nothing more
nor less than a family of small green plant lice.
These insects belong to the bug family ; 1 and al-
though they are such tiny things themselves, they
have some relations that are of large size, and that
make quite a noise in the world.
1 He-mip'te-ra : this w^rd means half wing; the upper wings of
these insects are thick at the base.
Some of them do a great deal of harm, too, as
you will learn when you read the story about the
squash bug.
At a certain time of the year there are some
plant lice that have wings ; but these tiny " green
cows " have none.
Their bodies are small ; but they have very long
antennae, long, slender legs, and a beak that is
three-jointed.
With this strong, horny beak they are able to
suck the juice from every part of a plant, even from
the topmost leaf, to the very roots. And sometimes
they will cling to a twig or a root with their beaks,
and throw up their legs, as if they were having a real
frolic among themselves; and if they are touched
or disturbed in any way, they will resent it with a
speedy kick.
Now the juice that they suck from the plants
soon turns to honey within their small bodies ; but
they do not store it up, as the honeybees do.
At the end of their bodies there is a small opening
from which this sweet honeylike fluid is continually
dropping.
Ants are very fond of this sweet fluid, and when
it does not fall fast enough to please them, they will
pat the lice with their antennae and coax them to
give out more. This is their way of milking the cows.
120
They take very good care of their cows too ;
they stroke them, and keep them clean, and will
not allow any harm to befall them.
They carry them down into their nests, and
place them near the sweet, juicy roots of the
plants, where they will be sure to have plenty to
eat. In fact, they look upon these plant lice as
their own property.
Is it any wonder, then, that the old ant was un-
easy because they were left behind ?
We often read in books of travel about different
kinds of ants that do very wonderful things.
Some of them wage war on their neighbors and
make prisoners of them ; they will even carry off
the larval babies of their weaker neighbors and
bring them up as slaves.
And there is another kind that builds large
mounds, and makes smooth pavements around
them. And there are still others, so very wise
that they know how to plant seeds and to harvest
their crops.
In Africa there is a kind called the driver ants,
and they are well named ; for they march in great
armies, and drive everything before them.
But we need not go to foreign countries in order
to study the knowing ways of these little insects ;
for we may find them here, all about us. We
121
may look for them in trees, in decayed stumps,
and under stones ; while we can see their small
hillocks thrown up all along the wayside.
A gentleman who wanted to see these insects
at work in their underground homes, once visited
An Ant Nest, with Underground Passages.
an ant-hill, and carried with him a large pane of
glass.
He pressed a sharp edge of the pane down
through the center of the hill ; and then, with a
spade, he scraped away one half of the hill and
went away and left it tor a short time.
122
The ants seemed to be greatly distressed at first ;
but after awhile they all gathered into that part of
the nest that was left unharmed,
Then the gentleman went close to the hill, and
looked through the glass.
There he saw roadways, halls, and rooms, both
large and small ; and through these, there were
hundreds of busy worker ants, running about in
all directions, each one performing its own task
in its own way.
Now why may not you and I surprise these
knowing little creatures on some moving day ?
And when they become quietly settled down in
their new quarters, we, too, can put a pane of
glass into the front door of their underground
home, and see for ourselves how they manage
their household affairs ; for it is always better to
use our own eyes, so far as we are able, than to
depend upon the stories that are told to us by
others.
GROWLER'S PRIZE.
Two large falcons lived in the top of a tall pine
tree. Their home was built in the fork of the tree,
and was securely made; but, to say the least, it was
a very rough and homely abode.
123
It was built of coarse sticks and leaves, and was
lined with dry, loose bark.
Within the nest were five quite large eggs of
a dirty bluish color, blotched with brown. The
female bird guarded these eggs with so much care
that she would scarcely leave them, even for a few
moments at a time.
So her mate had to provide food for her, as well
as for himself, and it kept him constantly on the
wing; for the mistress of the house had an excel-
lent appetite, and she wanted the very best thing
that could be found in the market.
Mr. Falcon was a strong, fine-looking fellow, with
a bold, dashing air about him, upon which he really
seemed to pride himself.
In fact, it may as well be told first as last,
Mr. Falcon's common, everyday name was "chicken
hawk " ; and you have no doubt heard of him many
a time; for he was a fierce highway robber by
trade, and he understood his business well.
He was dressed in a thick, heavy suit of bluish
gray, with a dark head covering. He wore white
about his throat ; but his breast and his sides were
handsomely flecked with light, yellowish red.
His rounded tail was marked above, with four,
very dark, brown bands ; while the under part and
the tips of the tail feathers were white.
clad in about
sharp, curved
they both went
His mate
was even
Chicken Hawks larger than
with their Prize, he, and was
the same attire, and oh, what
claws they had ! So when
proudly soaring through
forest and field, it is no wonder that the smaller
and weaker birds about them quaked with fear.
Mr. Falcon sat on a bough near the nest, dress-
ing his plumage with great care. At length, he
said to his mate, " I am going out, my dear ; what
would you like for your dinner?"
" I have been thinking," she replied, " that a nice
125
chicken pie would not come amiss." And as she
spoke she snapped her curved, horny bill several
times, as if she could already taste the flavor of
the fine treat in store for her.
" I am getting very tired," she added, " of frogs
and squirrels and field mice, and as for a grass-
hopper or a cricket, I fairly loathe the sight of
one."
" Very well/' answered Mr. Falcon, with an assur-
ing tone, "very well; have what you like," and he
stretched his long, narrow wings, and was off in
a jiffy.
Now it so happened that a mother hen and her
brood of half-grown chickens were also ranging the
fields that day in search of a good dinner.
There had been a little shower the night before,
just enough to moisten the earth; and it had
brought to the surface of the ground many a fat
prize in the shape of a grub or a worm.
So there was a rich repast spread out for that hun-
gry family, and what was best of all, they did not
even have to scratch for it !
Grasshoppers, crickets, angleworms, and grubs,
all on one bill of fare, that was a luxury indeed !
Now who could expect the watchful mother hen
to turn away from such a feast as that, in order
to gaze upwards at the clouds. But it might have
126
saved her a vast amount of trouble and of fright
if she had done so.
For see ! there is a dark form swooping down
with noiseless wings just above her head. Sud-
denly she becomes aware of the danger, and her
feathers are so ruffled that she looks twice her
natural size.
" Cluck ! cluck ! " she calls in her very sharpest
tones of command ; and her frightened family
understand, too well, that signal of alarm, for they
have heard it before.
Not less than three of their number have already
been seized and borne away by the terrible claws
that are now reaching down after another.
Hither and thither they run, in all directions,
not knowing, in their fright, which way to go ;
and there seems to be no means of escape for
them.
The terror-stricken mother clucks and calls, and
seeks for a hiding place, in vain.
Alas, has she discovered the danger too late ?
For now the fierce talons of the robber are about
to fasten upon another of her luckless brood.
" Bang! bang! " what a cloud of smoke ! But it
clears away, and there stands a hunter with a gun
in his hand.
But he did not bring down the bold robber, after
127
all; for do you not hear that shrill screech of de-
fiance as he disappears from view ?
With all possible speed, the old hen and her
chickens hasten back to the barnyard, well content
to dine on the simplest fare, rather than to risk
their lives for the more choice tidbits of the field.
On the top of an old stump, in the middle of a
quiet stream, sits the falcon, perfectly composed,
with not so much as one feather of his fine plumage
out of place.
A mother duck and her young ones are moving
quietly about on the surface of the water, entirely
unconscious of danger. Their webbed feet are
made for swimming, and they enjoy it. All at
once the mother discovers her enemy, sitting there
so still, on the old stump.
She gives the alarm, dives to the bottom, and in
a twinkling, every little duckling disappears with
her. She swims away from her family, quite a
little distance, and then comes to the top, hoping
the falcon will make a dash at her, instead of at the
little ones.
But he is too wise a bird for that ; he has watched
these swimmers, many a time, and he understands
their ways.
He knows that the ducklings can not swim very
far under the water, and that they will soon come
128
to the surface for air, very near the place where
they went down ; so he keeps his eye on the spot.
For he says to himself, " Since Mrs. Falcon has
been cheated out of her chicken pie, nothing less
than a nice plump duckling can fill its place." And
he patiently watches his chance.
Pretty soon up comes a small, downy head ; then
another, and another.
The mother duck tries, but all in vain, to attract
his attention to herself; for he suddenly leaves
his perch and sweeps down till he almost touches
the water with his wings. Then he stretches out
his long claws. But again is heard the " bang !
bang ! " of a gun.
And when the smoke clears away this time, there
lies the wounded falcon, struggb'n^ to rise from the
water; but he finds himself helpless, with a broken
wing.
Just at this point comes a loud "quack, quack,"
that sounds exactly like a mocking laugh, and the
old duck and her brood make swiftly for the shore.
" Here, Growler," calls the hunter, and with a
glad bound the dog springs into the stream and
brings his prize to land.
The hunter carries it home and carefully removes
the skin in order to prepare it for his cabinet, for
he is a collector of birds.
I2 9
And there sits Mr. Falcon now, mounted on his
perch, with outstretched wings, and as I glance up
at him, he stares fiercely at me, with two immovable
glass eyes.
As for his body, that was thrown to the dogs;
and when Growler seized upon his share of it,
there was a low, husky chuckle in his voice as
he said to himself, " Ah, this is a chicken pie worth
having."
A Groundbird's Nest.
THE REAL CULPRIT.
IN a low, grassy meadow, one morning I found
Such a soft, little, snug, mossy nest;
And within it, four eggs of the shade of the
ground,
Ah, but wait till I tell you the rest.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 9
130
First, a nimble red squirrel ran down from a tree,
But he did not peep in at the nest ;
He just cracked a few nuts and winked slyly at
me,
Ah, but wait till I tell you the rest.
Next, a shining, green snake crept so near, that
alas,
I had fears for that snug little nest ;
But he glided away through the tall meadow
grass,
And, but wait till I tell you the rest !
Then I heard the soft tread of a shy meadow
mouse,
But she swiftly sped on, past the nest,
In her search of sweet nuts for her winter store-
house,
And, but wait till I tell you the rest.
For at last, a young truant from school passed that
way,
And his quick eye discovered the nest;
And now a poor mother bird cries all the day,
Shall I leave her to tell you the rest ?
HISTORY OF A BUG.
Do you know the difference between a bug and
a beetle? Some people do not; and they call every
insect that chances to come in their way a bug.
Now a bug has a slender, horny beak that is
made for sucking fluids; sometimes it is used for
sucking up the juice of a plant, and sometimes for
drawing out the blood of an animal.
Bugs are very troublesome creatures ; and most
of them give out a bad odor. All the lice that are
found, either upon animals or upon plants, belong
to the bug family.
There are a few kinds of bugs that have no wings
at all ; but the greater part of them have two wing
covers; and underneath these are two very thin
wings that are used in flying.
The hind part of each wing cover is quite thin
and clear ; while the fore part is so thick that the
light can not shine through it.
The larval babies that hatch from the eggs of a
bug are very much like the full-grown insects,
excepting that their small wing pads look like little
scales upon the top of their backs ; but they eat and
grow, and cast off their skins from time to time,
till they soon become as large as their parents,
132
Here is a bug that I found upon the leaf of a
squash vine in the garden. The leaf was wrinkled
and withered ; and when I looked at it closely, I
discovered that it was full of fine holes.
What was the cause of it ?
Ah, Mr. Squash Bug could answer that question,
if he could only speak through that sharp, horny,
sucking tube that now lies bent
backward beneath his breast.
It is well that I caught him this
bright autumn day, for to-morrow
he might have hidden himself away
in a wall or fence, and there he
would have taken a long winter
nap.
Let us look at him. His body
is rather more than half an inch in
length, of a rusty, black color above, and of a dirty,
yellow shade beneath.
Surely, he has no good reason for being proud of
his coat, and what an odor !
On each side of the head there is a large com-
pound eye, and on the back part of his head there
are two small, single eyes that shine like glass. His
two-jointed antennae are quite long, as you can see,
and there is a knob at the end of each of them.
Now look at his wing covers. They are placed
7he Squash Bug.
'33
crosswise upon his back, so as to overlap each other
at the tips ; and the soft, thin wings that lie under-
neath them are placed crosswise in the same way.
Do they not remind you of the flaps of an enve-
lope ? I think they look something like the under
side of an envelope after it is sealed.
This bug has six legs, with a sharp claw at the
end of each ; and if you handle him roughly, you
will soon find that he can give you a good nip with
those claws ; but you need have no fear, it can not
harm you.
The upper part of the abdomen is black, and has
a soft, velvety look; and see, it is marked quite
prettily along each side with dots of yellow.
And now let us find out how this insect happened
to be feasting upon the leaves of the squash vine in
our garden.
Here is its family history: Quite late in the
season, last fall, a number of the squash bug family
left the vines, and hid themselves away in a safe
place, where they seemed to go to sleep ; and there
they stayed, without any food to eat, all winter.
But when spring returned, and the vines put
forth their tender leaves again, these bugs came
out of their hiding places and began to feast upon
the leaves.
Their appetites were very keen, as you may sup-
R
THK
'34
pose, and they greedily sucked the juice of every
leaf as they went along.
After they had feasted about a month, the mother
squash bugs began to lay their eggs. These little
eggs were round in shape, and quite flat ; and they
were laid in patches, here and there, upon the under
side of the leaves, at night.
In order to make them secure, these careful moth-
ers glued them fast, with a gummy fluid from their
own bodies. It was not many days before the
young bugs were hatched out, and what homely
little things they were !
They had short, round bodies that were of a pale-
ash color; and the joints of their large antennae
were quite flat.
They ate and ate, and grew very fast ; and after
casting off their skins a few times, they became as
large as their parents.
For a few days, they lived together in little
families; but they soon left the leaves on which
they were hatched, and went from vine to vine, in
search of more juicy food, while all the leaves
that they left behind them became withered and
brown.
Now, as you can well understand, these insects
are among the most harmful of all the bug family ;
but since we have learned so much concerning their
135
habits, there is no good reason why we should not
get rid of them.
If we are careful to watch our vines as soon
as the young leaves put forth, we shall find the
bugs before they have begun their feast ; and if
we closely examine the under parts of the leaves
every morning, we shall find the bunches of eggs
that the mother squash bugs so carefully glued to
them the night before ; and in this way, it will not
take us very long to clear our vines of these unwel-
come visitors.
HISTORY OF A BEETLE.
Now that we have taken a look at a bug, let us
also take a look at a beetle ; then we shall know
whether bugs and beetles are as nearly alike as
many people suppose them to be.
Here we have a " May bug," as it is generally
called ; but if we examine it, we shall find that it
is not a bug at all.
This insect is nearly an inch in length.
It has no sucking beak, for it needs none ; it has
two sets of strong, horny jaws, instead. These jaws
are for cutting and biting the roots, stems, and
leaves of plants ; for there are only a few beetles
136
that live upon animal food, and such beetles usually
prey upon other insects.
Look at it closely, and you will see that its jaws
are made to move sidewise, and not up and down,
like your own.
Its body is oval in form, and of a chestnut-brown
color; but all beetles do not have this oval form.
Some kinds of beetles have the body quite flat, and
some of them have very beautiful col-
ors, as well.
Its stiff, hard, wing covers meet in
a straight line upon its back ; they
do not lap over at the tips, like the
wing covers of a bug.
Do you see that little wedge, where
The Beetle. . . . . . . ,.
they are joined together at the base ?
It looks like a small gore set in there to hold the
wings in place.
You can easily see that these wing cases are well
sprinkled over with little dots, as if they had been
pricked, here and there, with a fine needle ; and
there are three rough lines, running the whole
length of each cover.
Underneath these wing covers are two, thin,
silky wings, folded crosswise, and what a pretty
shade of brown !
When these light wings are spread, then away
137
goes the beetle, darting about here and there in the
twilight, and making a loud, buzzing sound with
its wings, that is not at all pleasant to hear.
Have you noticed its pretty vest? See, it is
clothed with a yellowish down.
Well, well, so our noisy May beetle comes out in
quite a fine spring suit, after all !
Its antennae are many-jointed, and there is a
knob at the end of each one of them ; and you can
plainly see that each knob is made up of three
leaflike joints, as well.
Notice its two large, compound eyes. On the
back of its head there are two simple eyes; but
these are so small that you will have to look closely
to find them.
Now look at its six long legs; they are well
clothed with hairs, and each leg has a strong,
double claw at the end of it.
When beetles of this kind light upon a tree, they
cling to the leaves with their sharp claws. They
belong to a class known as the tree beetles ; and it
does not take a swarm of them very long to strip
both the twigs and the branches of trees entirely
bare of their foliage.
Did you notice three, jagged, toothlike points on
the fore legs of this insect? Let me tell you what
they are used for.
138
The mother beetle makes a hole in the earth,
and sometimes this hole is six inches in depth ; and
she uses her strong, jagged fore legs for digging.
In this hole she places her eggs, and very often
there are as many as fifty or more of them ; then
she flies away and leaves them, for she knows they
will be safe.
Soon after the eggs are laid, both the father and
mother beetle die ; they do not hide away and sleep
through the winter as some other in-
sects do.
Now let us see what becomes of the
eggs that the mother beetle has placed
Larva of the in the ground with so much care. In
about fourteen days, there comes forth
from each egg a little, soft grub, having a round,
white body and a small, brown head ; and when
this grub is at rest, it lies curled up, in the form
of a half circle.
These larval babies are provided with six legs,
and with a mouth that is armed with strong jaws,
and oh, how greedy they are for something to eat !
During the warm, summer months they remain
very near the surface of the ground, and gnaw the
roots of every green thing that they can find ; but
as cold weather comes on, they go down deeper
into the earth.
139
There they remain till the warm springtime re-
turns ; then they cast off their skins, and come up
to the surface of the ground again for food.
These hungry creatures spend as many as three
summers under the soil, in this way, before they
have eaten all they want.
And then they go down still farther into the
earth, as if they could not bury themselves deep
enough ; and there they enter the pupa state.
And when the springtime again rolls round, they
creep up, for the last time, from the cold, damp
earth ; and casting aside their pupa skins, they come
forth, active, brown-winged, buzzing May beetles,
like their parents before them.
Many of these insects are often seen flying about
in the month of June ; and then they are commonly
called " June bugs."
But they all belong to the same family, and every
one of them is a destroyer of plant life.
DR. LEECH.
ONE half holiday, three school boys went to a
small pond to catch some fish.
After they had fished awhile without getting
so much as one nibble at the hook, they threw
146
Sucking Plate
of Leech.
off their clothing and plunged into the water for
a bath.
Finally one of the lads swam out to an old
stump that stood near the middle of the pond
and climbed up on the top.
He had not been there very
long, when his back, arms, and
legs began to tingle, as if he
had been stung by some small
insect ; and he soon found that
his body was covered in places
with tiny little things that
looked like flat worms.
He was terror-stricken, and
so were his mates, and they
all ran towards home as fast
as their legs would carry them.
-Now the fact is, this old
stump was the headquarters of
Dr. Leech and his large family of young ones ; and a
more bloodthirsty set of creatures was never known.
Indeed, they are often called bloodsuckers, and
that is a good name for them.
The leech is an ugly, thick-skinned worm, having
a very flat body that tapers at each end. Its color
is generally dark, thickly mottled with light-brown
dots.
Jaw of Leech.
The Leech.
This creature has a sucking plate at each end oi
its body; and when it fastens itself upon the skin
of any other animal, it is very hard to make it
loosen its hold.
Its mouth is in the center of the forward plate,
and is armed with three small teeth that are
notched like the sharp edge of a saw.
So when the sucking plate has stretched the skin
smooth and tight, the fine, sawlike teeth press down
hard upon it,
until three deep
cuts are made,
in the form of
a triangle. 1
Then the
leech draws the
blood into its
stomach, and holds right on, till it has filled it-
self full. It is said that one of these creatures can
eat enough at one meal to last a year.
With such a savage animal as that in the pond,
it is no wonder that the lads caught no fish ; for
these hungry worms fairly drain both the frogs and
the fishes of their very lifeblood ; and when they
can not find anything better, they will devour one
another.
1 A figure bounded by three lines and having three angles.
Cocoons of the Leech.
I 4 2
This leech worm lays about a dozen eggs in a
gluey band that encircles the upper half of its body.
When all the eggs are laid, the worm withdraws
itself from the band, which then closes up, forming
a strong sac. This sac is the cocoon ; it is oval in
shape, about a quarter of an inch in length, and
contains from six to sixteen eggs.
The egg cases of the leech may of f en be found
in mud banks, and also in old Jogs and stumps that
are in the water.
The baby bloodsuckers stay in their slimy cradles
nearly a month ; and then they begin to push hard,
with their heads, against the walls of their cocoons,
till some weak point gives way, and lets them out.
They are very thin little things at first, not a
tenth of an inch in length, and no thicker than a
fine thread. But they know well how to use their
teeth, as the poor lad that visited the old stump
that day could testify.
In winter, they are not seen ; for they bury them-
selves under water, deep in the mud, till spring re-
turns ; then they come up more bloodthirsty than
ever.
But we must give these ugly worms the credit of
doing some good in the world ; for they were for-
merly much used to draw out the impure blood of
people who were sick,
A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD.
PART I.
WHAT a noisy din and bustle there is in the
domain of the queen honeybee to-day ! I wonder
what it all means. We will wait a little while and
maybe we shall be able to learn more about it.
Ah, now I understand it; the bees are getting
ready to swarm. Let me explain.
When honeybees swarm, a large number of them
fly away from the hive, and the queen bee goes
with them.
Now this queen and her subjects have a nice,
large hive under that old apple tree in the garden ;
and one would suppose that they might all dwell
together there in peace and harmony. But not so ;
for this morning there came a thin, piping sound
from one of the cells, and there is just where the
trouble began.
144
The moment the queen bee heard the sound, she
said, " Ha, that is the voice of a young queen, I
know it well, and I will not stay in this
hive any longer ; for one queen in a
hive is enough."
As she spoke, she darted a sharp
piercer out of the end of her body, two
or three times.
Now, strange to say, a queen bee will
sting another queen to death, through
jealousy and spite; but she never puts
A Bee's sting. f ort h h er s ti n g to harm anything else.
Do you want to know how the queen bee looks ?
Like all insects, her body is made up of rings ; her
abdomen is long and slender and her wings are short.
Besides her two, great, compound eyes, she has
three single eyes, and a long, slen-
der tongue for lapping up sweets.
But she never stores up the
sweets that she gathers ; for she
does no work. She is mistress of
the hive, and she lays all the eggs.
She is a born queen ; for when
she was an infant she lived on
better fare than the other larval
babies in the swarm. Is she to be blamed, then,
that she will not divide her realm with another ?
Head of a Bee, show-
ing Compound Eyes,
Simple Eyes, and
Antennae.
145
Ah, she will forsake the hive before she will do
that; and when she goes away, more than half of
her subjects will follow her. But what if she
should die ?
If there were more royal babies in the cells, a
young queen would take her place. But should
there chance to be none, then the bees would take
a common larva and feed it with royal fare, and it
would grow up to be a queen ; for a household of
Queen. Drone. Worker.
this kind can not exist without a queen to lay
its eggs.
The rich, sweet food that is fed to the queen
larvae is called " royal jelly."
" Come, come," says a busy little wax worker, " we
must make all the haste that we can, for there will
be plenty of new comb to build up."
She has her wax baskets already filled ; they are
on the under part of her abdomen.
Every time she eats a morsel of food, a portion
of it is changed into oil ; this oil soon hardens and
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 10
146
forms thin scales of wax upon the rings of her
abdomen and on the under side of her body.
These rings are her wax baskets.
How strange that the oil upon the inside of her
body should find its way to the outside and harden
into wax!
But it is still more strange that after she has
changed other portions of her food into clear, sweet
honey, she should be able to draw it up from her
stomach, back into her mouth again, so as to store
it away in the white cups of the comb.
Now when the baskets of the little wax maker
are full, what does she do?
On her hind legs there is a small, hairy brush or
scraper, and with this she scrapes the wax from her
baskets and passes it forward to her jaws with her
fore feet.
Then she chews it, and makes it very soft, and
when she draws it through her mouth, it comes out
like a white satin ribbon; then it is all ready to be
worked into honeycomb.
If you examine a piece of the comb, you will see
that it is made up of a double row of cells, placed
back to back, in such a way that it forms quite a
thick middle wall of wax between the two rows.
This wall is the base of the cells ; and here the
little bee first begins to work with the fine strip of
147
Honeycomb,
showing dif-
ferent cells.
white, ribbon-
like wax that she
has chewed and softened
so carefully in her small
jaws.
The cells are quite deep, and are
six-sided in form ; they are set very
closely together, and they look some-
thing like long, waxen boxes laid
down upon their sides.
Do you suppose that you could
ever learn to make a set of boxes like
that ? And yet, the little brown bee
makes them very easily with her
sharp jaws, without any one to teach
her how.
In every hive there are more busy
little wax makers than you can count.
Their bodies are not so large as those
of the queen; but their wings are
larger and stronger than hers.
148
And they need just such strong wings as they
have ; for they must fly, far and wide, in search of
sweets to make their clear honey, and to furnish
wax for the comb.
These busy little creatures are well named the
" workers " in the hive, since they both make the
cells and fill them with honey for their winter store.
But the cells are not all of the same size ; neither
are they all used for the same purpose.
Some of them are made for holding honey; others
are for the queen bee to lay her eggs in ; and
others, still, are for storing a kind of food called
beebread.
This beebread is a sticky mass that the bees
make of a fine dust, called pollen, which they gather
from flowers ; the bread is of a dark-brown color,
and is not sweet to the taste.
The queen bee lays her eggs in three separate
sets of cells, placing one egg in each cell.
She first lays some eggs in the small cells that
are used for hatching out workers ; then she lays
some more eggs in a set of larger cells that are
built for hatching out thick, stout-bodied bees called
" drones."
These drones have no stings, and they do not
gather honey. They are the father bees in the hive;
while the queen bee is the mother.
149
Finally she lays a few eggs in some large, flask-
shaped cells that are built on the edge of the comb.
When the comb becomes old, these cells are dark-
colored, and they look like large peanuts hanging
there.
These are queen cells, and there are not very
many of them ; but all of the other cells are smaller
than these, and are made six-sided, as I have told
you.
A DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD.
PART II.
So the little wax worker was right. There will
be a good deal of new comb to be made ; but she
will have thousands of helpers all around her.
And there will be thou-
sands of others, carrying
baskets of pollen for bee-
bread, on which the lar-
val babies are reared.
-^ . . r Leg of Worker.
Between the joints of
each hind leg there is a small space, hidden by
short, stiff hairs ; and these are the little baskets
that hold the pollen.
When a busy worker comes out of a deep flower,
she looks like a dusty miller, only the dust that
clings to her body is often quite yellow; but she
has a little tuft of hairs on one of her legs, and
with this she brushes the pollen from her body and
stores it in her baskets, where it belongs.
Oh, she starts out for her day's work well pre-
pared, as you can see, and she never loses her
baskets on the way, either.
Now in every hive or colony of bees there are
more worker cells than any other kind. For it is
the busy workers that make up the col-
ony; and among these there are a great
many that act as nurses in the hive ;
and it is these nurse bees that take
charge of the larval babies, and feed
them when they are hungry.
As these baby bees lie curled up in
their cells, they look like little white
Larva of Bee. / ...
worms ; and when they are in need of
food the nurses chew some beebread very fine and
soft, and feed it to them from their own jaws.
But when they have eaten all they want, they no
longer lie curled up in the cell; so when the. nurses
see that these larval babies have straightened out
their small bodies, they put a thin cap of wax over
each cell, and then each baby spins a silken cocoon
about itself, and goes to sleep, in its pretty waxen
cradle.
It takes about twenty-one days for a worker bee
to hatch from the egg; and then it casts aside its_
silken wrap, gnaws open the waxen cover, and
comes out with four thin wings.
It takes only sixteen days for the young queens
to hatch out ; but the drone bees are about twenty-
four days in hatching.
Sometimes the worker babies have to struggle
very hard to come forth ; but the nurse bees always
help the royal infants out.
When a young bee first comes out of its cell,
both its body and its wings are of a very pale-
brown shade, and it seems to be rather weak in
its legs ; but it begins at once to creep about over
the comb, and when it comes to a cell that con-
tains honey, it stops and takes its first meal of the
sweet food.
Many of the honey cells are left open a week or
more after they are filled ; for the bees will not cap
them over with wax until they know that the honey
in them is " ripe," or ready to be sealed up. So it
is always easy for the young bee to find an open
cell where it can eat all it wants.
But it does not feed upon the stored honey very
long; for in a day or two it has the full use of its
wings, and then away it goes to gather sweets from
the flowers, just like the older bees.
I 5 2
And it is well that it begins its work at once;
for the length of a worker's life is but a few
months at most, and some of them live only a few
weeks. . But a queen bee has been known to live
four or five years.
As for the drones, the greater number of them
are driven out of the hive by the workers ; and
as they can not gather honey, they are left to
starve ; and if they attempt to return to the hive,
the workers often fall upon them, and sting them
to death.
Do you not pity these poor father bees ? I do.
But the busy workers are very eager to store up
a good supply of honey for their winter use ; and
they will not share this precious store with the
drones.
A great many bees in the hive die during the
winter; but the queen bee begins to lay her eggs
very early in the spring, and these eggs hatch out
so fast that the number in the hive is soon as large
as ever.
She wanders about over the comb in search of
cells that the workers have prepared for her eggs;
for she does not lay eggs in every empty cell that
comes in her way.
She knows at once which are the egg cells, and
when she comes to one of them, she lowers the tip
153
of her abdomen into it, and drops an egg; and
she goes from cell to cell, laying about three thou-
sand eggs a day.
And so the hive is always full ; for a large num-
ber of young bees come out of the cells every day
during the hatching season, which lasts through the
warm summer months.
But as soon as a young queen is hatched out, the
old queen leaves the hive, and a large number of
subjects follow her,
as we find them doing <
now ; and should a
number of young
queens be hatched
out at the same time,
only one would be
permitted to remain
with the colony.
The others would be taken out, and put into
other hives that had lost their queen, or into a
newly-formed colony made from a swarm that was
too large for one hive.
For new swarms may be hived very easily, if they
can have a queen among them to lay the eggs.
But we have already learned that one queen is
enough ; and if the new queens are not removed
as soon as they come out of their cells, the ruling
A Bee Hive.
154
queen will seek them out, and sting them to death.
And on this account, the owner of a beehive keeps
a very close watch over the royal cells, in the hatch-
ing season, and examines them every few hours of
the day.
But see ! our queen has gathered her subjects
around her in a black, buzzing mass, on the limb
of an old apple tree.
They are planning now which way they will go.
And perhaps they will fly away to the woods, and
make their home in a hollow tree or stump ; then
they will become " wild bees."
So we will spread a white cloth under the apple
trees. Bees have a very keen sense of sight, and
they will notice the cloth at once ; then we will
put some honeycomb in an empty hive, and set
the hive down on two small blocks upon the white
cloth.
This will give the bees a chance to go in at the
bottom of the box; they will be glad enough to
move into a new house where there is some nice
honeycomb to begin with.
But if they are too long about it, we will saw off
the limb on which they rest, and let it go to the
ground, very gently ; then they can peep in at the
open door of the new hive.
But these insects have such a strong sense of
155
smell that they do not need to see the honeycomb,
for they can smell it afar off.
So the old queen and the new one will be
neighbors, after all ; but each one will control her
own household, and there will be no more cause
for war.
BORN IN A DITCH.
Do you see that elegant dragon fly winging her
way through the air? How she loves the light of
the sun !
Her head is very large, and she has two enor-
mous compound eyes, as
you can plainly see.
But she does not move
them ; for insects are not
able to roll their eyes about
as you do.
TT . .- . . The Dragon Fly.
Her beautiful wings are
so finely veined that they look as if they were made
of clear, thin gauze ; while all four of them are
barred across the center with a rich, golden brown.
Now she stops and lights on the top of a tall reed
that grows by the border of the ditch.
See, she pushes the end of her body down into
the water, and glues a bunch of little, yellow eggs to
1 5 6
the root of the reed. Now her work is done, and
away she flies.
A few weeks later, these eggs will hatch out.
What will her infants be like ? They will not look
like her, I can assure you ; for the larval babies of
the dragon fly are ugly things to behold.
It is true, each baby has a very large head, two
large compound eyes, and
a pair of single eyes, be-
sides ; but it has six,
sprawling, spiderlike legs,
and no wings at all.
Moreover, the lower
part of the face is covered
with a mask; under this
mask is hidden a fierce
pair of jaws that resemble
two sharp hooks.
These greedy creatures
creep about the pond or the ditch in which they
live, and feed upon other larval babies.
They look so innocent and so harmless under
this mask, that their poor victims seem to have no
fear of them whatever.
But woe betide the young tadpole, or the tiny
baby fish that crosses their path ; for it will be
snatched up in an instant.
Larva and Eggs of the Dragon
Fly.
157
So they eat and eat, and become so stout that
they have to shed their coats many times.
At last, some small wing pads appear; then the
larvae change to the pupal form ; and after a time,
they crawl up to the top of a reed, or of a stem, and
burst open the pupa skin.
Then they are all ready for a life in the sunshine
and in the open air ; and, oh, how swiftly and grace-
fully they go sailing about on their rainbow-tinted
wings ! J"
The dragon fly has some cousins whose small
wings are still more beautiful than her own. These
insects belong to the same great family. 1
They are called lacewings ; but they give out
such a disagreeable odor, when disturbed, that no
one cares to go very near them. They are not fond
of the sunshine ; they like better to dart about in
the twilight or even in the light of the moon.
The dragon fly is sometimes called the devil's
darning needle ; and some foolish people are really
afraid of her, lest she may " sew up " their ears.
But you need not fear to take her in your hand.
She has no sting at the end of her body ; and if she
should chance to give you a sharp nip with her
jaws, it would not harm you in the least.
It will be only a quick, little pinch, that you will
1 Neu-rop'te-ra, nerve wing.
I 5 8
hardly feel at all ; but you must handle her very
carefully, or she may bite off the end of her own
body in trying to escape.
It is generally better to place such an insect as
this under a glass dish, and look at it carefully from
the outside. Then no harm can come to it; for
you may regard it as your friend ; and when you
see it flying about in the hot sunshine, you may
know that it is in search of other insects that de-
stroy your plants and flowers.
Therefore we will all look upon this handsome
creature with a feeling of real friendship, even if
she was born in the bottom of a slimy ditch.
"I TOLD YOU SO."
A PAIR of handsome bluebirds were hopping
briskly about, side by side, along the furrows of a
newly plowed garden.
They had been so busily engaged in picking up
choice tidbits from the freshly turned soil that
neither of them had spoken a word for several
minutes.
Both of these birds were showily clad in bright,
azure blue, and both of them wore white on the
under parts.
159
But the glossy plumage of the male was a trifle
darker than that of his mate; and the reddish-
brown tint of his fore neck and sides was a little
brighter than hers ; the feet, as well as the bills of
both birds, were black.
At last Mrs. Bluebird broke the silence.
"I can not see," said she, "why you object to
Bluebirds.
making the nest in that old, hollow stump; for I
am sure it is as cozy a place as we can find."
Mr. Bluebird swallowed several fat, wriggling lar-
vae, before he made any reply.
Then he cleared his throat a little and said, " But,
my dear, have you forgotten the jays and the crows
that we saw in that neighborhood yesterday?
"Then, too, there are the rats and weasels that
are prowling about there all the time. No, I am in
i6o
favor of taking possession of that fine martin box
under the bough yonder; it is roomy and safe, and
think of the time that will be saved in building
the nest."
"Yes, and be driven out of it by the English
sparrows as soon as it is made," answered Mis-
tress Bluebird, in a short, querulous tone.
" I never can be happy a moment in that martin
box," she continued; "and if I have to go over there
against my will, I am quite sure that not one of my
eggs will ever hatch out."
There was a little more sharp discussion between
them, and then both birds rose from the ground
and flew directly toward
the old, mossy stump.
The mistress of the
household had gained
the day, and the work
of building soon began.
The nest was not
very tastefully built ;
but it was lined with
some soft grass, a few feathers, and a bit of wool,
and was quite comfortable.
Not long afterwards, there were five light-blue
eggs laid within it, and everything seemed to go
well.
Bluebirds' Nest.
But before the mistress settled down to steady
domestic care, the happy couple must needs go
forth together for a little outing ; so away they sped
to their old luncheon quarters in the garden.
But who is this that comes peeping into their
door while they are away ? Is it some ill-bred
country cousin ?
He is clothed in blue; but his body is nearly
twice the length of the bluebird, and is of a light,
purplish shade, while his wings are of a still
deeper tint, barred with black lines, and tipped,
here and there, with white.
He wears a jaunty tufted cap on his head, a
patch of white down at the throat, and a narrow
black collar that is quite high in the neck behind.
The twelve feathers of his rounded tail are
barred with black lines, and tipped at the ends
with white.
He is very handsomely dressed, but what
manners !
For, without waiting for an invitation, he flies
straight in at the door! And what can he be
doing there so long, with no one to entertain
him ?
Now he comes out, lights on the top of the stump,
and utters a shrill cry, "jay- jay- jay," as much as
to say, " Yes, that is my name. I am the thief that
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 1 1
162
sucked those little blue eggs, and left nothing but
empty shells behind ! " and away he goes to break
up some other home.
By and by, the owners of the nest return. The
mother bird enters the house at once, while her
mate alights on the
stump, and warbles a
low, soft tune.
But what is all this
bustle about ? Mis-
tress Bluebird flies
swiftly out at the
door, and in an agi-
tated tone calls her
mate to "just come
and look here ! "
Then she goes back,
and he darts in after
her, and then they both come out again, and cast
quick, searching looks all around them ; and pretty
soon they return to the nest, to make themselves
sure that there is no mistake about it.
But it is too sadly true. Some winged robber has
stolen into their quiet home and left nothing be-
hind him but empty shells. It is hard to believe
it, but there is no chance for doubt ; so they must
seek new quarters and begin all over again.
The Blue Jay.
Now they fly to the open door of the martin
house, and this time Mistress Bluebird raises no
objections ; for she is so mute with grief and
disappointment that she is willing to go any-
where.
They soon build another cozy nest, and again
five light-blue eggs are laid within it; and the
little housekeeper at once settles down to her
duties.
Her mate goes forth on glad wings and brings
her all the rare morsels that he can find, and gives
her, now and then, a kiss in the bargain.
Finally there comes a faint "peep, peep" from
fiv* tiny bills, and then who can be happier than
the joint owners of that household ?
Mistress Bluebird seems to have almost entirely
forgotten her sorrow ; and as for the master of the
house, he warbles a song so full of melody that it
does seem as if he must have a real Swiss music
box hidden away under his glossy breast.
His wife responds with a low, happy chirrup, and
says, " How glad I am that we chose this martin
box; it is just the place for us, so roomy and so
safe, withal."
And he tries to keep down a sly, liquid chuckle,
as he replies, " I told you so, my dear; I told you
so!"
164
ALWAYS AT HOME.
ONE morning, a noisy drone honeybee was buzz-
ing about among some sweet clover blossoms, when
all at once he came upon
a slow-plodding snail.
" You poor thing," said
he; "how I do pity you!"
" Pray why do you pity
me ? " answered the snail,
" I have no need of your
pity."
" Because I never see you
without that heavy burden
on your shoulders; and I am
sure it must take you at least
a whole week to get across
this small patch of clover,
while I go over and over it
many times a day.
" Just look at my four
light wings now ! Is it any
wonder that I know all about this field of clover ? "
At this the snail stretched out two long horns.
In the end of each horn was an eye ; and she
wanted to see for herself the drone's gauzy wings.
The Honeybee.
i6 5
" Your wings are very good," she said, " but I am
better off without them ; for I can travel as fast as
I care to with one foot."
" Only one foot, and no wings at all ? " said the
drone. " Really I pity you now more than ever.
But tell me, how long have you carried that heavy
shell on your back ? "
" Longer than I can well remember," answered
the snail, "for I was born in it."
" Born in it ? " said the drone, in a tone of great
surprise. " You do
not mean to tell
me that you went
about with a house
on your back when
you were a mere
The Snail.
infant ? "
" It was not so large then as it is now," replied
the other, " for at first it had but one small room at
the top. But as I grew larger, I built more rooms,
till now my little house is large enough ; for it is
five stories high.
" I do not find it heavy to carry about either, for
I am used to it ; and when I am tired, I have only
to creep backwards into my house and rest myself."
" But how can you gather honey and other sweets
from the flowers ? " asked the drone.
1 66
" I do not live upon honey, as you do," replied the
snail. " Both my tongue and my upper lip are
covered with fine, sharp teeth ; and with these I
scrape up and eat the soft part of green leaves and
other juicy plants that come in my way."
The drone was silent for a little time, and then
he said: " But I do not see how you happened to be
born in the very top of that house of yours."
" I will tell you," said the snail. " My mother
laid a number of small, white eggs in the earth ; and
when the babies hatched out, they each had a little
home of their own, like the top of this house of
mine ; and as they grew older, they made it larger,
as I have done."
" Well, well," said the other, " so the top of your
house was built first ; and you have never been
away from home in your life, how stupid that
must be ! For my part, I love a life on the wing,
and I never grow tired of it never. But what
will you do with yourself when winter sets in ? "
" I can pour out from my body a sticky fluid that
will dry and make a thick, strong door for my
house ; and I will stay inside of it, snug and safe,
all through the cold winter, and when I want to
come out I can push the door open with my foot."
The drone went buzzing about for a long time;
then he came back with another question.
i6 7
" Now what would you do," said he, " if an enemy
should come to your door? "
" My enemies can not harm me," said she ; " for I
can dodge quickly back into my house, and close
the door with a soft, pink curtain that I have."
" I wish I had a house to hide in," said the
other ; " for I have no sting at all in the end of my
body, such as the worker bees have in' theirs, and if
they choose, they can fall upon me at any time and
sting me to death."
" Why should they do such a cruel thing as
that ? " asked the snail.
" Because they are too stingy to share their honey
with me," said the other.
" But why do you not gather honey for yourself? "
" Oh, that is not my trade. I was not made to
gather honey, and I do not know how ; so I like to
fly about in the sunshine, and "
The poor drone did hot have time to finish his
sentence ; for at that moment, two small worker
bees chanced to spy him.
The snail quickly drew in her horns, and when
she looked out again, the drone lay dead and
helpless on the ground.
"So much for being always on the wing," said
she. " For my part, I would rather stay at home
all the days of my life."
1 68
The Garden Spider.
A SKILLFUL SPINNER.
HAVE you ever watched the cunning spider as she
makes the strong silken nest for her eggs and spins
her pretty lace snares in the corner of your room or
across the windowpane ?
As you see her at work, you may wonder what
use she can possibly have for so many legs ; for
there are eight of them in all, and if you look
at them closely, you will see that they are many-
jointed, and covered with stiff hairs.
Ah, the poor fly that is caught in her snare would
explain it to you, if he could only speak ; for, as
she glares at him with her eight beadlike eyes, she
i6 9
weaves him a shroud, at the same time, with her
eight busy feet.
Her third pair of legs are the shortest, and with
these she holds the helpless insect and turns him
over and over, upon his face and upon his back,
just whichever pleases her best; in fact, she seems
to use these short legs in the place of hands.
The silken thread with which she shrouds the
fly is drawn from some small tubes upon the under
side of her abdomen, very near the
end.
These tubes are the spinnerets,
or spools, out of which flows a
clear, sticky fluid. She draws out
- . Spinnerets.
this fluid in a very fine stream and
guides it with her hind pair of feet. The air dries
and hardens it at once, and it then becomes a fine,
silken thread.
When the spinning tubes are kept apart, many
single threads may be formed ; but when they are
held close together, they are all blended into one
band.
As she pulls it out, not "hand over hand"
exactly, but " foot over foot," she winds it round
and round the body of the poor fly, till it can not
help itself at all.
Then she hangs it up in her web, to suck its
juices whenever she gets hungry. If anything
touches her web, she knows it at once ; and
draws in all her feet towards her body, so as
to tighten the threads of her snare.
So you see she does have use for every one of
those eight bristly legs of hers, after all.
You have already learned that the body of an
insect is divided into three parts ; but if you look
closely at a spider, you will see that the head is
joined to the thorax, without any neck between
them.
So we may not speak of the spider as an insect.
There are a few insects that have not a very long
neck, but their heads are not set closely to the
thorax like that of the spider.
The eyes of a spider are usually eight in number;
and they are placed on the top of the head in two
rows, with four eyes in each row. Spiders can not
move their eyes ; but they have so many of them
that they can look in all directions at once.
The mouth parts of a spider consist of an upper
and a lower lip, and two pairs of strong jaws. The
two upper jaws are placed side by side ; and the
two lower jaws are set close together in the same
way.
The upper jaws are curved, and are quite stiff
and horny. These jaws are the spider's fangs; and.
I/I
at the base of each fang there is a small sac that is
filled with poison.
The lower pair of jaws is smaller than the upper
pair, and not quite as strong.
On each side of the lower pair of
jaws there is a five-jointed member
that looks something like a spider's
leg, only it is very much shorter ; these
are its feelers, and with these short
. . . A Spider's Jaws.
feelers it seizes its prey.
At the end of each bristly leg, there is a claw,
well covered with stiff hairs ; and with these hair-
covered claws the spider can creep up a very
smooth wall.
But if it wants to get down from a high wall, or
from the branch of a tree, it fastens one end of a
thread there, and then lets itself down to the
ground.
Nearly all spiders build snares;
but the mother spider makes a
much better net than that of her
lH\ u ' r UT|||/////j mate. Once in awhile a father
and a mother spider may be found
A Spider's Foot. ,. . ,-, it ,-,-
living in the same web ; but this
does not often happen.
Young spiders spin very small webs, but their
work is perfect.
Many of the webs that we see are round in
form ; and the spiders that make them are called
orb weavers, because the word " orb " means " circle."
And now let us learn something about the work
of the little orb weaver.
When this spider finds a good place for her orb,
she first spins some strong lines to make a frame-
work; this framework often has four sides, and
sometimes it has even more, and the lines of
which it is spun are made up of five or six silken
threads.
Then across this framework, she spins a few
strong lines, from corner to corner. Now her
foundation is laid ; and from its center, she spins
a number of fine threads, and fastens the end of
each thread to the sides of her framework.
These fine threads stretch out from the center
of the web, somewhat as the spokes of a wheel
reach toward the hub; but they are not always
the same" distance apart from one another. These
threads are called the rays of the web.
Now she begins at the center again, and spins a
thread across the rays ; and as she goes round and
round toward the outside lines of her framework,
she glues her threads to each fine ray. These
threads are called spiral lines, because they wind
round and round.
173
But her web is not yet complete ; for she must
now spin some more spiral lines in the spaces be-
tween those that are already done, and these last
threads that she spins are covered with small gluey
specks that look like little beads.
Ah, it is these small, sticky beads that hold the
poor insects fast when they chance to light upon
the snare.
And now Mistress Spider is ready to take her
place on the web, where, with head downward, she
awaits her prey. It will not be very long before a
fly or a moth will venture to step upon one of the
silken threads.
Then it will struggle to free itself, and the gluey
beads of the fine spiral lines will melt upon its
wings or upon its legs, and Mistress Spider will
see to the rest.
She has already woven her egg case ; it is a
round silken cocoon, and she guards it with great
care. Sometimes it is made fast to the corner of
a window near where she spins her web.
Some spiders carry the, cocoon about with them;
and when the young spiders are hatched out, they
ride about upon their mother's back.
Spiders molt, or cast off their skins, six times
before they become full-grown ; so when they get
their seventh suit, that is the last.
174
Many spiders hide themselves away during the
winter months ; and that is why they are so often
seen spinning their webs so early in the spring.
Although most spiders do not live more than
a year, yet some
kinds have been
known to live
much longer.
The spiders that
we see about us, in
outhouses, in gar-
den, and fields, are
harmless creatures;
they will not bite
us ; and even if
they should nip us
with their small
jaws, it would do
us no harm.
And they can
build rafts and
sail upon the water; and they can throw out
threads upon the air and make little balloons that
will carry them up as high as the top of a tall tree.
They can even build silken bridges across
streams ; and do many wonderful things, as we
shall find out if we watch them.
Spider Balloons,
175
A DEVOTED
MOTHER.
AND now let me tell
you about a very large
spider named the ta-ran'-
tu-la.
She lived in a wooden
box, having a glass cover ;
but she did not stay there
from choice, for she was a
prisoner.
When she was at home, she
led a wandering life and ran
about over rocks and stones in
the woods and fields in search of her
prey.
She has some relations that live in
holes in the ground, and that line the walls of
their underground homes with silken curtains
of their own spinning. And there are others
Tarantulas.
among them that close the top of their holes with
a round trapdoor that is both lined and hinged
with strong silk.
Both the body and the legs of this tarantula
were covered with short, stiff hairs of a dark-brown
color; and the joints of her legs were so clear that
they looked like thin scales of mica.
Like all other spiders, she was an ugly hunch-
back ; for the head and body were joined together
without any neck between them.
On the top of her head were eight, beadlike eyes,
arranged in double rows ; and she had strong,
sharp jaws, with a poison fang at the base ; and
hidden within her head was a small poison gland.
She knew well how to use her ugly jaws; for
when a living insect was thrown into her cage she
would pounce upon it fiercely. Then she would
tear its wings from its body, and crush it between
her jaws without farther delay.
One day a dead and withered locust was given
her; and when she saw that it was hard and dry,
she carried it to her dish of water and soaked it
well before she tried to eat it. How could she
know that dry crusts are made softer by being
soaked in water?
Very soon after this, Mrs. Tarantula began to
spin some soft white threads across the inside
177
cover of her box. These threads she fastened,
here and there, with a little tuft of silk, so that
the whole thing looked very much like a patch of
thin, dotted muslin, only that it was finer and
more glossy.
This was the foundation of her cocoon ; and
when it was well laid, she deposited her eggs
there, and inclosed them with a closely-spun cov-
ering.
The cocoon was nearly round in form, and as
white and glossy as a white satin cushion.
When it was completed, she placed her body
over it, and stretched out her eight long legs, so
that her feet pressed closely against the founda-
tion lines of her egg case.
From that time, she would neither eat nor drink,
and if she ever slept at all, it ' must have been
with one eye closed, and the other seven eyes
wide open.
It was in vain to try to tempt her with large juicy
insects, or with any other rare dainties of the kind ;
for her motherly heart was -dead to everything in
the world excepting the care of that precious egg
basket.
Every day the cocoon increased in size ; and
every day the faithful sentinel that guarded it
grew weaker.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 12
And finally, after she had fasted for two whole
months, she was no longer able to hold herself
upon the nest ; and one day she fell to the bottom
of the box, too weak and helpless to move a limb ;
and in a few hours more this devoted mother spider
was dead.
I am sorry to tell you that the eggs did not
hatch out ; the young spiders within the cocoon
must have died through the lack of warmth that
their mother's body would have furnished them, if
she had remained alive.
But had they lived, there doubtless would have
been a very large family of them ; for the tarantula
spider lays as many as one hundred eggs at one
time.
And had this mother spider been permitted to
hatch her brood in her own nest, instead of in a
close wooden box, it is very likely that she would
not have died ; for some spiders of this kind
have been known* to reach the age of seven or
eight years.
The home of this tarantula was in the southern
part of the United States ; but such spiders are
often brought into northern markets, concealed
among clusters of fruit, and so they may some-
times be seen and studied far away from their
native haunts.
179
LINES TO A SPIDER.
PRAY, busy, hunchback friend, where did you learn
To spin that pretty web ? One
To copy such fine lace, so
//#;z^- woven, I might say, but
need not spurn
rare, complete,
that your feet
Spun out, instead, the wondrous warp and woof;
And with what cunning /J% , skill behold
the proof
In these strong silken ^v* threads, that
stretch across,
From side to center, bright as shining floss.
i8o
How innocent you seem, how modest, shy;
I'm sure I should be caught were I a fly ;
For when with luring tone you whispered low,
" Please walk into my parlor," I should go.
Weave on, weave on, my patient, hunchback friend ;
For soon your work, like mine, will have an end.
But in your cunning craft I claim no share ;
For I but spin a tale you spin a snare.
DO YOU BELIEVE IT?
ONE day in summer time, I saw some boys very
busily at work on the edge of a little stream.
As I came upon them, I noticed that they were
putting some long, white horsehairs in the water,
and were trying to keep them down with a large
stone.
When I asked them why they did this, one of
the lads promptly replied, " Why, don't you see ?
We are going to raise some hair snakes."
" Do you believe that you can do it ? " said I.
" I know it," he answered, and went on with his
work.
Now it is plain that some ignorant person had
told these boys that hair snakes were produced in
that manner ; for say what I might to the contrary,
the lads would not listen to me.
The truth of the whole thing is this: The hair
worm for it is not a snake lives mostly in the
bodies of certain insects, such as the water beetle,
the grasshopper, and the cricket;
because the eggs of the worm
are taken, by accident, into the
stomach of the insect with its
.... -The Hair Worm.
food and drink.
But both the eggs and the worm have been
known to pass through water pipes into the faucets
of dwelling houses ; and although such worms will
not live in the human stomach, yet it is far better
that drinking water should be carefully filtered
before it is used.
I once saw a large grasshopper give a sudden
leap, and then fall helplessly over upon his back. I
picked him up by the head ; when, lo, his head sep-
arated from his body !
As I held it up in my hand, there hung from it a
very slender hair worm, several times the length of
the insect. The worm had lain coiled up within
his body, and had gnawed at his vitals until he died.
When these worms become full-grown, they leave
the body of the insect and go to the water, where
they lay their eggs in a long chain.
182
And it is at such times that we often see them
in the water, looking like real hairs from the tail
of a horse.
A strange thing about them is that they may be
left in the hot sunshine till they are completely
dried up, and until they appear to be dead ; but if
placed in water for a short time, they will come to
life, and be as active as ever.
I have walked along the borders of that little
stream many a time since that day, and have always
found the heavy stone on duty, holding the horse-
hairs down.
But alas! if those simple-hearted lads live long
enough, they will find that their labors were in
vain ; for those hairs were never so much alive as
when they were actively employed in brushing off
flies and other insects from the poor horse's back
and sides.
WINTER FRIENDS.
I. THE CHICKADEE.
Do you know the little titmouse
In his brownish-ashen coat,
With a cap so black and jaunty,
And a black patch at his throat ?
WHY yes, of course, we all know him ; for he is
the brave little chickadee that always has a word of
183
cheer for us, even in the coldest winter weather;
and he is no more afraid of the ice and snow than
we are.
His body measures about five and a half inches
The Chickadee.
in length, from the point of his short, black bill to
the tip of his tail.
He wears a black, jaunty cap upon his head ; but
from the base of his bill there is a narrow white
band that runs all along the sides of his neck. His
pretty wings are also edged with white, while his
slender legs are of a light-blue color.
1 84
And what an active, noisy little creature he is !
His loud twitter is full of sharp notes, but it can
not well be called a song.
His mate wears a suit very much like his own,
and she is quite as lively as he.
In summer time, she builds a nest of soft grasses
and wool, and within it she lays six small, white
eggs, marked with specks of red.
This nest is usu-
ally made in a 'knot
hole on the limb or
trunk of a tree ; some-
times it is a hole that
a squirrel or some
other animal has dug
out and left.
But if the little
chickadees can not find a hole of this kind, they will
cut one in the tree, with their strong, sharp bills.
These birds like to flit about among the ever-
green trees in winter, where they can pick up seeds,
or draw forth a larval insect from its hiding place
under the loose bark of the trunk.
So you see, these small winter visitors are our
friends ; for they feed upon the hungry larvae that
destroy the fruit and foliage of our gardens and
fields.
The Chickadee's Nest.
185
And now, in return for this good service of theirs,
let us scatter a few crumbs here and there, upon
the snow-covered ground. They will not be long in
finding out where the feast is spread, and their
little hearts will be gladdened at the sight; and
I am sure that our hearts will be gladdened too,
when we hear their sharp twitter of joy and surprise
at such unexpected good luck.
II. THE NUTHATCH.
Do you know the pretty nuthatch in his suit of ashen blue,
With his dainty bib of white, and his hose of modest brown ?
You may hear him sing, sometimes, though his notes are harsh
and few ;
But you'll know him when you see him, by the black upon his
crown.
This bird is a boon companion of the little chick-
adee ; and they are often seen hopping about, side
by side, trying to pick up an honest living wherever
they find it.
The nuthatch is fond of rooming upstairs ; so, in
springtime, he finds a hole in the top of a tree, and
there he helps his little mate build her nest.
Then she lays from four to eight white, rose-
tinted eggs, specked with brown.
Under the bark of the tree, and among the
cracks, he finds many a rare tidbit, such as the
i86
V
eggs and the larvae of different insects ; so he
often comes creeping down the tree, head foremost,
in his search for them.
Sometimes he finds a small, broken acorn that
has a plump grub
inside of it; this he
will crowd tightly
into a deep crack of
the bark, so that it
will stay secure ; and
then he can easily
pick out the choice
morsel that he loves
so well, when he
wants it.
But if his mate is
confined to her nest,
he will carry the rich
prize to her, instead
of eating it himself.
Is he not generous ?
He is a cheerful
little fellow, and sings quite as merrily among the
branches of the leafless woods in winter time, as
when he is sitting in some leafy bower on a bright
summer day.
But when the trunk of the tree becomes smooth
The Nuthatch on a Tree Trunk,
1*7
and slippery, from frozen rain, then our little nut-
hatch has quite a hard time of it ; for he can not
very well make his way along the smooth, icy surface
of the trunk, neither can he get at the fat larvae that
are so safely shut in beneath their icy covering.
Then it is, that you may see him flying about the
door, the barn or other outhouses, in search of a
crumb to satisfy his hungry craving for food.
If he happens to find a fallen nut, he will soon
break it open by means of the quick, hard strokes
of his bill. But it is not the nut inside of the shell
that he cares so much about ; he knows when there
is a fat maggot within it, and wants to get at that !
It is because of this habit of hammering, or
hatching, the shells of some kinds of nuts, that he
has received the name of " nuthatch."
III. THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.
Do you know that stylish fellow that stands rapping at the door
Of the helpless larval infants in that tree ?
Now he turns his head and listens, then raps louder than before,
Just as if to say, " Why don't you answer me ? "
That is the handsome red-headed woodpecker.
He is clad in a suit of bluish black, trimmed with
bands of white.
i88
He wears a white vest, also, but his head and
neck are clothed in crimson red. Is he not a
beautiful bird ?
With his strong bill he raps loudly upon the
trunk of the tree ; and as soon as he hears the
larval insects within be-
gin to move, he says to
himself, "Ah, yes, I
knew I was at the right
door, glad to find you
all at home."
Then he forces an
entrance with his bill,
and darts in his long,
barbed tongue.
He brings out a fat
morsel every time; and
the thievish jays that
are searching about in
vain for something to
satisfy their hungry
, , crops, look upon him
Red-headed Woodpeckers.
with envy. If he were
a smaller bird, they would pounce upon him, and
rob him on the spot. But they are afraid of him,
so they leave him alone.
His mate wears quite as fine a suit as his own ;
1 89
in fact, these red-headed woodpeckers are very
handsome birds, clad in a three-colored plumage
of red, white, and black, glossed over with a rich
shade of steel blue.
They make their nests either in the body or in
the limbs of a tree, and they do not line it with hair
and moss, as most birds do ; but they make it very
smooth. In this nest, the mother bird lays six pure
white eggs.
In winter time, they may be seen flying from tree
to tree, and they are always very careful indeed not
to chill their feet by lighting upon the snow-covered
ground.
They are fond of making a dinner of larval
insects; but they often seem to be quite as well
pleased when they come upon a ripe, sweet apple,
or a fine, juicy pear. They are easily contented,
you see, and take whatever they can get.
They know, too, how to open the husks of the
ripening corn with their sharp, wedge-shaped bills ;
for they like the rich milk that they find within its
kernels.
But as these birds feed largely upon the insect
world, we must look upon them as our friends ; and
so we will permit them to share with the chicka-
dee and the nuthatch the scattered crumbs that
fall from our table.
i go
IV. THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.
Do you know another bird with a black and golden crest,
And a suit of olive green that is edged with brownish gray ?
There is white upon his forehead, and there's white upon his breast.
For he loves the gayest colors, and he wears them every day.
This beautiful golden-
crested wren is often found
in winter upon
evergreen trees,
such as the spruce,
the cedar, and the
pine.
He is generally in
search of the larval in-
sects that lie hidden
away under the scales
of the evergreen
cones ; and he may always
be known by his fine, golden
crest.
The body of the golden-
crested wren is fully four
inches in length, and his
mate is very nearly the same size.
She likes to build her nest upon the leafy branch
Golden-crested Wrens and Nest.
of an oak; but sometimes it may be found upon
the bough of a fir tree.
The little, round nest of this wren is very neatly
made. It is covered entirely over with moss ; but
there is a small hole at the side of the nest for an
entrance. It is lined with soft down, and within it
the mother wren lays from six to eight pure white
eggs, specked with red.
V. THE BROWN CREEPER.
Do you know the little creeper, in his
garb of reddish brown,
Having narrow bands of white upon his
earlaps and his crown?
With the feathers of his tail finely edged
with brownish yellow,
And a vest of silky white, do you
know this dapper fellow?
He is another boon compan-
ion of the chickadee ; and he is
well named, as you would say,
could you see him creeping
round and round a tree, in his
journey toward the top. The Brown Cree P er -
The truth is, he finds so many good places on the
way to lunch at, that he can not well pass them by;
for the bark of the tree is filled with choice dainties.
1 92
And very often this bird will build a nest
between a piece of loose bark and the body of the
tree, where he can have a well-spread table always
at hand.
His mate lays six small, grayish eggs, spotted
with light brown ; and the baby creepers that are
hatched from them very quickly learn the ways of
their parents, and travel up and down the tree as
soon as they can leave the nest.
VI. THE DOWNY WOODPECKER.
Do you know a little bird that in mourning shades is dressed,
Black and white upon his wings, black and white upon his head
Underneath, a bib of white on his pretty throat and breast ;
While above, upon his nape, gleams a shining bow of red ?
This is the suit that the downy woodpecker
wears, and his mate is clad in about the same style,
except that she does not wear the flaming red
ribbon on her neck.
These birds are fit companions for the others
that I have told you about, for they do not seem to
mind the cold weather in the least.
Both the male and the female are carpenters by
trade ; so they will not content themselves with
a deserted nest. They build a snug little home of
their own.
193
They generally select a fruit tree of some sort,
and they seem to like a cherry tree as well as any.
The male begins the work by cutting a round
hole in the body of the tree with his strong bill ;
and when his
good little
mate sees that
he is getting
tired, she turns
in and helps
him.
They build
a roomy nest,
sometimes a
foot or more
in depth, and
leave the door
of the house
just wide
enough for
each of them
to pass in.
Like all car- Down y woodpeckers.
penters, they make a good many chips ; and these
they carry away, and then scatter them at quite a
distance from the tree so that no one will find out
where their nest is hidden.
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 13
194
The bottom of the hole is made very smooth,
and upon this, six pure white eggs are laid. This
curious house is very neat and comfortable, but the
dear little builders are not always permitted to
enjoy it, as you will see.
For now I am obliged to tell you something
very bad about the house wrens.
These birds will often watch the little wood-
peckers till they have made quite a large hole in
the body of a tree ; and then they will drive them
away from it, and take possession themselves.
The poor little birds fight for it as long as they
are able, but they are finally forced to give it up.
I am very sure that their little friends, the chick-
adees, would help them defend it if they could ; for
they are not mere " summer friends," as you have
already learned.
Do you know the house wren and his mate ?
They are small birds, having a body not over
five inches in length from the point of the beak
to the tip of the tail.
* You would hardly believe that such little crea-
tures could rob other birds of their nests, would you ?
But the house wren does not belong to our list
of winter friends, although he has a cousin, called
the winter wren, that remains with us through all
the long, cold winter.
195
The body of this little bird is hardly four inches
in length. He is dressed in a plain, dark-brown suit,
having a few black lines across the back; and these
lines are touched here and there with dull white.
Besides this, there are a few other small spots of
white upon his body.
In his tail, which is
short and erect, there
are twelve feathers.
These birds may
often be seen about
the dooryard, or fly-
ing about the barn
and outhouses, in
search of crumbs, lar-
vae, or anything that
will keep them alive
through the cold
months of the winter ;
and however hungry
they may be, they keep up a cheerful twitter
through it all.
Now I have made you acquainted with only a
very few of the little birds that stay with us dur-
ing the winter months. But all of these are our
friends; for they help us destroy the worms and
insects that infest our gardens and orchards.
The Winter Wren.
196
And should they come hopping about your door
when the boughs are withered and bare, and the
fields are covered with snow, I am very sure that
you will not drive them away.
SNOW TRACKS.
I. THE RUFFED GROUSE.
Ir is midwinter, and the earth is covered all over
with a counterpane of snow.
The silvery rills and
streamlets glide along be-
tween their flowery banks
no more ; for they are
locked up in
strong, icy fet-
ters, and Jack
Frost carries the
key.
Here and there
a clump of weeds
or grasses rises above the drifted snow, and a
few frozen apples hang from the leafless boughs.
But the birds with their keen eyes have spied the
tops of the weeds, and they are going to make the
most of them.
The Ruffed Grouse.
Here is a hungry fellow, clad in modest brown,
with flecks of a lighter shade upon his raiment.
In his broad tail there are eighteen reddish-brown
feathers, tipped with gray.
He combs his hair straight back from his fore-
head, and wears a dark-colored ruff of broad feathers
around his neck.
When he has plenty to eat he is a large, fine-
looking fellow ; but what a lean and bony creature
he is now ! He can find no insects, no ripe leaves,
and no rich, oily seeds such as he feeds upon in
summer time.
So he picks up whatever he can find, with a
thankful heart, and only wishes he could get
more.
When spring returns, he will sit upon the trunk
of a fallen tree, and drum loudly with his wings ;
while his mate will find a close thicket of bushes
and there she will make her nest.
This nest will be built of loose leaves, and within
it she will lay from eight to twelve large, yellowish-
white eggs. When her young ones are hatched out,
she will lead them from place to place, where they
can find plenty of berries and tender buds to eat ;
and if she fears any danger, she will give a loud
cluck, in the same way that a mother hen calls to
her chickens.
198
Then every one of the brood will hide from
sight, in an instant, and it will be impossible to
find them.
The name of this bird is the ruffed grouse,
although it is often called a " partridge."
What do you suppose happened to some birds
of this kind a few days ago ? There came a
dreary, stormy night, and the poor things had
nowhere to sleep, so they made their bed in a
deep snowdrift, thinking that it would keep them
warm.
And so it might have done ; but it rained during
the night, and froze to a sheet of ice, and there
were the helpless creatures locked within their
bedrooms behind a strong, icy door! Was not
that pitiful?
Now the very next time that you wish yourself
a bird, with nothing to do but to fly from tree to
tree, remember how much your feathered friends
often suffer with cold and hunger outside, while
you have comfort and warmth within.
II. THE WOOD MOUSE.
Here are some tiny tracks that wind in and out
among the forest trees, making little zigzag lines
upon the surface of the snow.
199
At the foot of some of these
trees, and sometimes higher up in
the trunk, there are deep holes ;
and here the wood mice have
stored away nuts and other choice
tidbits for winter use.
How much wiser of you, little
white foot, had you put your goodies
all in one place ; for see, there are large tracks
mixed up with yours, and I greatly fear that you
will find some of your storehouses empty.
It is a very easy thing to select the nuts that
you have tried to crack, because you make such
bad work of getting at the kernel.
If you were sharp, you would not gnaw a hole
at both ends of the hard shell ; there is no use in
doing that. You had better watch the squirrel
and for more reasons than one.
He knows enough to gnaw a hole at the large
end, then he can turn the shell up-
side down and let the kernel
drop out.
But it will soon make very
little difference to you ; for
there is a mottled owl in that
tree yonder, and nothing can
The Wood Mouse and the Owl. please him better than an
2OO
early breakfast of field mice. He can wait, for he
wears his thick, tufted ear muffs, and he does not
mind the cold weather at all.
III. THE CHIPMUNK.
The chipmunk leaves his tracks on this snowy
counterpane, too ; but there are not very many of
them, for his bar-
rels and bins are
pretty full, and he
has no need to
" browse " around
in the winter for
something to eat.
He is too good a
The Chipmunk.
provider for that.
His home is built down deep in the ground, with
a strong stone wall at his door, so that no robber
can get in and molest him.
But whenever there comes a warm springlike day,
he seems to find it out at once, and up he comes to
see what is going on above ground.
Here he is now, whisking his round, narrow tail,
and scampering lightly about upon the crusted
snow, as happy as a boy on skates.
His eyes are large and bright ; his small ears
stand up erect; and he has a very pointed snout.
201
He is clad in a rust-colored suit, striped with
black and yellowish-white lines. He wears thin
black whiskers, and there is a small black spot
upon his nose.
He is lively enough now ; but when he first came
up out of his burrow he seemed to be very glad
indeed to sit still and sun himself upon that old
maple stump.
But you should see the chipmunk family during
the early fall ; then they are all busily at work
gathering nuts and other winter stores.
They have a small pouch inside of each cheek ;
and the nuts that they gather are carried inside of
this pouch ; and when the pouch can hold no more,
they will take still another nut between their strong
front teeth. In this way they are able to carry as
many as four nuts at a time.
Once in awhile the young ones will dart off and
chase one another along the fences and stone walls ;
but the careful mother soon calls them back with a
sharp, quick chirp. This means that they must stay
with her and finish their work.
Late in the fall the whole family disappear and
go down into the safe burrow which they have
made in the ground. They have food enough to
last them till spring ; and then they will come forth
again, as full of fun and frolic as ever.
202
IV. THE RED SQUIRREL.
Ah, here are some tracks that look a good deal
like those of our little chipmunk.
They were made by the chickaree, or red squirrel.
He has received the name of " chickaree," because
he makes such a loud chattering noise as he runs
briskly about from tree
to tree.
Both his head and
his body are quite
as large as the chip-
munk's, but his nose is
less pointed. His round,
broad ears are covered
with short hairs, and he
wears thin, black whiskers that are a trifle longer
than his head.
His long, flat tail, as well as the upper part of his
body, is of a deep, reddish brown ; but his throat,
his chin, the inside of his legs, and all the under
part of his body are white.
This red squirrel lays up large stores for his win-
ter use ; and as he has no cheek pouch like the
chipmunk, he carries the nuts between his front teeth.
Both he and his mate may be seen in autumn
getting nuts, seeds, the bark of trees, and food of
The Red Squirrel.
203
that kind, which they carefully hide away either in
hollow stumps or under logs and brush heaps.
They are not very timid animals ; and sometimes
they will steal into storehouses, where there is plenty
of grain, and make a nest there for their winter
quarters.
These little squirrels are more brave than the
chipmunk family, and they do not hide themselves
so closely away in winter time.
But the two animals are very nearly related, as
you can see by their form and by .their style of
dress ; in fact, they have been called half-brothers.
V. REYNARD, THE FOX, AND RANGER, THE DOG.
Here are the footprints of two cousins ; but
they are not very much alike either in their dress
or in their habits.
One of them is named Reynard, the fox.
He wears a coat of reddish yellow; his nose and
his ears are pointed, and he has a bushy tail that he
may well be proud of.
His cousin is Ranger, the dog, and these snow
tracks show that they have been running a swift
race.
The dog's master is not far off; for listen, there
is the crack of his rifle, and now poor Rey-
2O4
nard leaps, limping away, with the dog following
close upon his heels.
If he can only get back to his den in the rocks,
he will be happy ; for home is the best place, after
all, for anybody that is in trouble.
Reynard and Ranger.
As he speeds on, he leaves a bloody trail all the
way behind him ; but the dog has the best of it, and
Master Reynard's handsome fur coat will soon be
in the .market, and it will fetch a good price, too.
As for his worthless carcass, the crows will be
glad to pick that ; for their hungry " caw caw " is
already sounding in the distance.
205
Ah, Master Reynard, we might feel just a little
sorry for you, if you had ever shown any pity for
others ; but you have not.
You are fond of stealing chickens, and of killing
birds and mice ; but like all other robbers, you do
not like to be hurt yourself.
But then it is your nature to hunt for game ; and
you have no other way of getting a living. So,
when we come to think it all over, we do pity your
sad fate, after all.
VI. THE WEASEL.
But Reynard is not the only sly thief that leaves
his footprints upon the snow ; for the nimble-footed
weasel has been abroad too. There is no mistaking
the marks of those short feet.
And if these tracks were to be followed up, they
would no doubt lead to some poultry yard not far
away; for he is very fond both of eggs and of
young chickens and birds.
He wears a white coat in the winter, with a tip
of deep black at the tail ; but when summer comes,
he will put on a fine suit of reddish brown, with a
yellowish-white vest to set it off.
In other words, the white hairs that make up his
winter coat fall out; and as fast as they fall, the
206
reddish-brown hairs grow in to take their places ;
and when winter comes again, the dark hair falls
out, and the white hair grows in.
Animals that shed their coats in this way can
easily hide away from their enemies. In winter
The Weasel and the Bird.
their white fur can not well be seen among the
snowdrifts ; and in summer their brown coats are
readily hidden by the low brushwood of the forest.
But as I have said before, the weasel is very
nimble of foot, and is not easily caught at any sea-
son of the year.
He has a very long, slim body, a small head, and
207
a pointed snout; and when he. is peering about, in
search of prey, he curves his neck, in a snakelike
manner that makes him look very ugly indeed.
This animal has many accomplishments. He is
a swift runner and climber, a good swimmer, and I
once saw a tame weasel that could dance.
VII. THE NORTHERN HARE.
Here are the tracks of the soft-footed creature,
the hare, and she also changes her garments to suit
the season ; for now she is clothed in white.
And this color, like the weasel's, often helps her
to hide herself away from her enemies ; for she can
conceal herself in a bank of snow very easily.
Her summer coat of brown hair shields her in
the same way ; for when she hears an enemy on her
track, she leaps into a thicket of low bushes, and
then it is not an easy thing to find her.
This timid, innocent creature makes her home in
hollow stumps, in brushwood, and in holes in the
earth, where she always prepares a nice, warm bed
for herself and her babies to lie upon.
Hares are harmless creatures ; and as they turn
back their long, soft ears, and look at you with their
great eyes, it almost seems as if they were trying to
ask you to befriend them.
208
It is true that our garden plants sometimes bear
the marks of their sharp, chisel-like teeth ; but they
will not stray far from the shelter of the forest if
they can find any juicy thing to feed upon there.
They wander about at night, in search of food,
and their long hind legs, and broad, furry feet
enable them to pass very swiftly over the snow-
^ ^ . _^ ; ^ covered earth ;
sometimes they
hunt under the
snow, to find
the leaves and
the berries that
are hidden there.
When they
hear a noise,
they stamp upon
the ground with
their hind feet,
and then leap into a thicket of bushes and hide
themselves.
But the hare family have some enemies from
which they very seldom escape ; these are the hawk,
the owl, and the weasel.
So when these poor creatures wander about on a
cold winter night in search of a bud or a leaf to
keep them from starving, they are likely to be
The Northern Hare.
209
seized upon at any moment by one of their fierce
enemies, and destroyed on the spot. Is it any
wonder that they are so timid ?
VIII. THE MUSKRAT.
The fur-clad builders of those grass-roofed huts
along the creek, yonder, have also left the marks
of their feet upon this snowy counterpane.
These are the hardy muskrats whose front doors
open into the water. They have stout, thickset
bodies, and are not quite as large as the hares.
They have very small eyes and small ears.
They are homely animals, clad in coats of coarse,
dark-brown fur, filled in with shorter, finer hair.
Their long, scaly tails are quite flat, and are almost
naked.
They are not afraid of the water, for their feet
are webbed and well made for swimming. In fact,
they are very fond of diving and swimming ; and a
large number of them will often make a quick
plunge at once, and play about together in the
water for hours at a time.
When they go to their huts, they swim very near
to them, and then dive down under the water and
go in at the entrance.
They go about at night in search of food, and
KELLY'S SHY NEIGH. 14
210
they generally gnaw the roots and stems of plants
that grow along the edge of the stream on which
their homes are made.
But they can not always find what they like best
in winter time, and then they must eat such food
as falls in their way.
It is plain that they have made more than one
The Muskrat.
visit to that old apple tree that stands on the edge
of the forest; for the frozen fruit lying upon the
ground bears -the marks of their sharp teeth.
One might suppose that eating so many hard,
frozen apples would give them all the toothache ;
but since there are no juicy roots and grasses for
them to feed upon, they must take whatever they
can find, or starve.
But these animals are used to hard fare ; their
211
homes are built of sods and coarse grass, and they
have no soft, warm beds inside, such as the birds
make up in their nests.
And yet, they are wise enough to build their huts
so high that should the water of the stream rise
above their low, mud floors, they can climb up into
the loft and nest there. The mother muskrat often
has as many as six babies in one nest, and she and
her young family generally sleep upstairs.
IX. THE GRAY SQUIRREL.
And now we come upon the tracks of a gray
squirrel, and what very long leaps he has taken !
But his footprints were all made in the daytime ;
for he loves his warm nest too well to go forth into
the darkness of a cold winter's night.
His nut bins are generally not very well filled ;
but even if he does run short of stores in the win-
ter, he never seems to grow lank and lean like his
cousin, the red squirrel.
It may be that his large, bushy tail gives him a
well-fed and thrifty appearance ; for " fine feathers
make fine birds," we are told.
There is a large family of animals called rodents.
" Rodent " means " a gnawer," that is, an animal
that gnaws the food upon which it feeds, such as
212
the wood and the bark of trees, the hard shells of
nuts, and things of that kind.
Now our handsome gray squirrel belongs to this
family of rodents ; and so do the red squirrel, the
chipmunk, the mouse, the hare, and the muskrat.
These rodents are armed with strong teeth ; and
their four front teeth are very sharp. There are
two of these teeth in each jaw; and they are
shaped like the edge of a chisel.
The more these chisel-shaped teeth are used, the
sharper they become ; and they never wear out, for
the growth is always being renewed from the roots.
No wonder, then, that these animals are so fond
of nuts ; for they carry four strong nutcrackers
with them wherever they go.
Do you know the gray squirrel when you see
him ? He wears whiskers that are longer than
his head, and his nose is somewhat blunt, like
that of the red squirrel.
His cheeks, his nose, and his pretty round ears
are of a yellowish-brown color; and there is a
stripe of the same shade along his sides. There
is also a dull stripe of brown running from the
top of his head to his tail. His neck, sides, and
hips are of a light gray color, and most of the hairs
in his long tail are gray.
In summer weather, these gray squirrels make
2I 3
nests for themselves in the forks of a tree ; their
nests are made of small twigs and of leaves, and
are lined with moss.
These light, airy nests are their summer homes ;
but when winter comes on, they seek a more secure
shelter in the deep hollow of some decayed tree.
Sometimes as many as five or six baby squirrels
may be found in these holes
in early springtime, and when
caught, they are very easily
tamed.
If they are put into a cage,
having a wheel inside of it
that will roll round and round
whenever they climb upon it,
they will keep it moving an
hour at a time.
In fact, they seem to be
quite as happy when confined
in their wheeled cages as they are when leaping
among the leafy branches of the forest trees.
But they never lose the habit of laying up a store
of food for winter use ; and when food is placed in
the cage, they eat a portion of it, and hide the rest
of it away under the straw matting of the cage.
Are they not much wiser than some people in
thus storing up a morsel for a rainy day?
The Gray Squirrel.
214
Now we might go on, and follow these snow
tracks for miles and miles, and find in every foot-
print an interesting story of the little animal that
made it.
But since I have guided you so far on the way,
I am quite sure that you will be able to pursue the
rest of the journey by yourselves.
It will take you a long time to come to the end.
In fact, I am afraid that you will never quite
reach it. But whether you thread your way
through the pathless forest in the long, bright
days of summer ; whether you wander beside the
margin of some small river or pond ; or whether
you follow the curious tracks that are left upon
the newly-fallen snow, I do not believe that you
will ever grow weary of the journey. For every
day will afford you new sights and fresh scenes
that will amply repay you for all your toil and
trouble.
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Easy Steps for Little Feet . . . . . . .25
Johonnot's Book of Cats and Dogs .'."'.- . . . .17
Johonnot's Grandfather's Stories . . . . . .27
Rickoff's Supplementary First Reader .... .25
Wood's Companion First Reader . . . . . .18
For Second Reader Grade
Baldwin's Fairy Stories and Fables 35
Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories Retold 35
Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans . . . , .40
Golden Book of Choice Reading ..... .30
Johonnot's Stories of Heroic Deeds 30
Johonnot's Friends in Feathers and Fur . .30
For Third Reader Grade
Baldwin's Old Greek Stories 45
Baldwin's Old Stories of the East 45
Eggleston's Stories of American Life 50
Kelly's Short Stories of our Shy Neighbors ... .50
Standard Book of Tales ....... .50
Johonnot's Stories of our Country ..... .40
Johonnot's Stories of Other Lands 40
Johonnot's Neighbors with Wings and Fins ... .40
Johonnot's Curious Flyers, Creepers, and Swimmers . . .40
McGuffey's Familiar Animals ...... .50
Holbrook's 'Round the Year in Myth and Song ... .60
Carpenter's Geographical Reader Asia 60
Copies of any of the above books will be sent prepaid to any address, on
receipt of the price by the Publishers :
American Book Company
NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO
(IQ)
Supplementary Reading
FOR INTERMEDIATE GRADES
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe $0.50
Guerber's Story of the Greeks . .' . . . . '- . .60
Guerber's Story of the Romans . . . . . ... .60
Guerber's Story of the Chosen People . . . . . .60
Clarke's Story of Troy . . . . . ... . .60
Clarke's Story of Aeneas
Clarke's Story of Caesar . .
Clarke's Arabian Nights . . 6C
Johonnot's Stories of the Olden Time 5*
Johonnot's Ten Great Events in History . . . . . .54
Johonnot's Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs .... .54
McGuffey's Living Creatures of Water, Land, and Air . , .50
Dana's Plants and their Children . . . . . . ,65
Readings in Nature's Book .65
Geographical Reader and Primer 60
Monteith's Popular Science Reader . . . . . . .75
Seven American Classics (Standard Series) .... .50
Seven British Classics (Standard Series) ..... .50
Herrick's Chapters on Plant Life 60
Treat's Home Studies in Nature .90
Johonnot's Glimpses of the Animate World . . . . 1.00
Cooper's Animal Life . . . . . . . .1.25
Johonnot's Geographical Reader . . . ' . . .1.00
Van Bergen's History of Japan ...... 1.00
Shepherd's Historical Readings ...... 1.00
Skinner's Readings in Folk-Lore 1.00
Copies of any of these Supplementary Readers will be sent prepaid to any
address, on receipt of the price by the Publishers :
American Book Company
NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO
Important New School Books
READING
Baldwin's School Readings by Grades.
First Year . $0.25 Sixth Year .... $0.50
Second Year . .35 Seventh Year .... .50
Third Year . .45 Eighth Year 50
Fourth Year f .45 Combined Fourth and Fifth Years . .70
Fifth Year . . .45 Combined Sixth and Seventh Years .80
SPELLING
Patterson's American Word Book ..... .25
ARITHMETIC
Baird's Graded Work in Arithmetic Four Books.
Milne's Mental Arithmetic ....... .35
GEOGRAPHY
Natural Elementary Geography . . . . . . .60
Natural Advanced Geography ......
ENGLISH
Metcalf and Bright' s Language Lessons. Part I. . . .35
The Same. Part II. . . . '. . . . .55
Metcalf s Elementary English 40
Metcalf s English Grammar for Common Schools . '. .60
HISTORY
McMaster's School History of the United States . . 1.00
PENMANSHIP
Spencerian Penmanship, Vertical Edition.
Shorter Course, Nos. i to 7 .... Perdoz., .72
Common School Course, Nos. I to 6 . " .96
Curtiss's Vertical Copy Books, 6 numbers . . .96
Ward's Graded Lessons in Penmanship and Spelling.
Small Numbers, I to 6 : . . . Per doz., .72
Large Numbers, I to 6 . . . .96
MUSIC
Natural Advanced Music Reader 1.00
Betz's Gems of School Songs 70
Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on
receipt of the price by the Publishers :
American Book Company
NEW YORK * CINCINNATI * CHICAGO
(49)
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW
AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS
WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN
THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY
WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH
DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY
OVERDUE.
JUN 8 1936
JUN 10 193fi
*
LD 21-100m-7,'33
