er i Hy a 1 Mil ai: Th te iw a wp A tow i it Ltn al i a, ui e) er : bi at in iy au f vi i = en : i it aT pe! i i) ea © a ir * : el f ty ei on %, \ ee ik eee te (iH roo een Me ; Thy i i oF J a y ; pe ee ia 1 , i ’ n a if i T! : @ i uy yw : a ; 7 i WW iy a J a Pt } 7 i) TOR OF i ; l (Ope tibet ey ee i i A i} : t U 1 i 1 i om ‘ i i Tie: i : ‘ Ay ta y 1 Ta ' i : ii La oat i i : | ary iv 1 : Wy } r Dieu! i i d ne AP a’ H i rn i 10h r Pt) tee ‘ y 4 ; ql i i r i L if i t eee Uh 1 hi be ; ah ey a , , ! , i Lore ‘e i i i . my ian hg : ; ’ ina | | det b i > ; 7 i 7 Fi a : ; mi fl / Tse | m he", ) a ht ee Ve) ie iF - : ; > } ao MoM © a af ; ms 1 7h eis 7 r ee f fi i) Th. = ud Pi . i mi \ joo p 70 a tt 4 : fr ean Vea a i ia “ues P i LM y ath : py a Whey AAPA ae 5p) 1a We iy iad Nd ql aif ee NEN ee Mie OY Sn etn AATEC RL ABS ke Th eR CRS ote sae ted a aN SS Sa ge TA ee Be eae. Dep ener trae bs |S) a wan 1 Reve th as, eis Spe Ae OR atts ic SS hie : = pan pe nin pk Ba eahhe ie ‘s - < A ~ ee ie ol ate in = Settee Be PN ("4 : ; FEBRUARY, 1899. _ The beautiful is as useful as the useful.—Victor Hugo. Wee aso Al NATURE CONTENTS. GINGER (By Dr. Albert Schneider) [Illustration] SAP ACTION (By Fred. A. Watt) . : : EMERSON AND THE WOODPECKER STORY CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM [Illustration] ~. : ‘ WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN (By Emily C. Thompscn) GEOGRAPHIC TURTLE [Illustration] Fé NOSES (By W. E. Watt) . . + pe = Sh . _ WHITE IBIS (By Lynds Jones) [Illustration] RWSOL OT Pog ey THE HELPLESS (By Elanora K. Marble}. ~ : of fp oe F EBRUARY ° ° ° © a IRIS [Illustration] . Aree THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS . PEACOCK (By Anna R. Henderson) OWLS (By John Winthrop Scott) DUCK MOLE | [Illustration] HIBERNATION OF ANIMALS P a ; CAPE MAY WARBLER (By Lynds Jones) [Illustration] SNOWFLAKES (Poem by John Vance Cheney) ‘ ‘ A TIMELY WARNING . ° . ; A WINTER STUDY (By Olive Thorne Miller) FIVE LITTLE WOODMEN (By E. F. Mosby) NUTS [Illustration] ; : ‘ - EDIBLE PINE a BLACK WALNUT BUTTERNUT << fost: “Sora is EDITED BY C. C. MARBLE. ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. \ , Wisma’ CS: mij NAY * 1 IZ; (a Publish \ Brite JECT 5 49 Ae ee i EY a Pyk so > oat nt ; ; ~ et a by Nature Study Pi b. Co, oy yea ee eet metered ab Chicago Post Office as second-class matter. ~ 7 5 Doan woe kN Gein na ale PANS ata TENE ate Si Pe ee cu eR eto yee pet sh Re a I a I Fre pra a” he ab Cayton earns TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF PUBLICATION : PRICE. The subscription price is one dollar and fifty cents a year, payable in advance, Single copy fifteen cents. POSTAGE iS PREPAID by the publishers for all subscriptions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. 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Cameron, writing of remedies for unsuccessful marriage, says, ‘‘ what all parents can do for wiser marrying of the rising generation is to TEACH PHYS1tOLOGY and the wise direction of natural in- stincts, remembering that more wrong-doing, disease and suffering result from ignorance and so-called innocence than could ever come of knowledge of these sub- jects;’’ but parents cannot teach what they don’t Know, and this is the knowledge that our book provides better than any other. They do a double duty to them- selves and posterity by learning and imparting the laws of hereditary and prenatal influences, of scientific mating and right living. Too often the currents of life are poi- soned at their source, and unmentionable miseries en- tailed to the third and fourth generation of them that know not good from evil. 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School proper- ties rented and sold. -.-SPECIALISTS A SPECIALTY. Applicants for educational positions will find it to their advantage to enroll with the oldest Teachers’ Agency in the United States. Circulars free on appli- Schermerhorn’s Teachers’ Agency, 3 East 14th St., New York City. JoHn C. ROCKWELL, Manager. cation. BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. Vor Vv: FEBRUARY, 1899. GINGER. Zingtber officinale Roscoe. DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER, , Northwestern University School of Pharmacy. ‘“‘And ginger shall be hot i’ the mouth, too.’’ HE well-known spice ginger is | the underground stem (rhzzome ) ofan herbaceous reed-like plant known as Zingiber officinale. The rhizome is perennial, but the leaf and flower-bearing stems are annual. The stems are from three to six feet high. The leaves of the upper part of the stem are sword-shaped; the lower leaves are rudimentary and sheath-like. The flowers occur in the form of conical spikes borne upon the apex of stems which bear only sheath-like leaves. The ginger plant is said to be a na- tive of southern Asia, although it is now rarely found growing wild. It is very extensively cultivated in the tropical countries of both hemispheres, particularly in southern China, India, Africa, and Jamaica. The word ginger is said to have been derived from the Greek “Zingiber,” which again was de- rived from the Arabian ‘‘Zindschabil,” which means the “root from India.” It is further stated that the word was derived from Gingi, a country west of Pondecheri where the plant is said to grow wild., True ginger must not be confounded with “wild ginger,” which is a small herbaceous plant (Asarum canadense) of the United States. The Jong, slender rhizomes of Asarum have a pungent, aromatic taste similar to ginger. Ac- 49 — Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, I1., 3. cording to popular belief this plant has a peculiar charm. Friends pro- vided with the leaves are enabled to converse with each other, though many miles apart and speaking in the faint- est whisper. The early Greeks and Romans made extensive use of ginger as a spice and asa medicine. During the third cen- tury it was apparently a very costly spice, but during the eleventh century it became cheaper, owing to extensive cultivation, and was quite generally used in Europe. Dioscrides and Pli- nius maintained that this spice was derived chiefly from Arabia. The noted traveler and historian, Marco Polo (1280-1290) is said to have been the first European who saw the wild- growing plant in its home in India. As early as the thirteenth century a considerable number of varieties of ginger were under cultivation, which received distinctive names as Beledi, Colombino, Gebeli, Deli, etc., usually named after the country or locality from which it was obtained. At the present time Jamaica supplies the United States with nearly all of the ginger, and this island is, there- fore, known as “the land of ginger.”’ Cochin-China and Africa also yield much ginger. In Jamaica the process of cultivation is somewhat as follows: During March and April portions of rhizomes, each bearing an ‘‘eye” (bud), are placed in furrows about one foot apart and covered with a few inches of soil. The lazy planter leaves portions of the rhizomes in the soil from year to year so as to avoid the necessity of planting, such ginger being known as “ratoon ginger” in contradistinction to the ‘plant ginger.” The planted gin- ger soon sprouts, sending up shoots which require much sunlight and rain, both of which are plentiful in Jamaica. The field should be kept free from weeds which is not generally done for several reasons. In the first place pulling the weeds is apt to loosen the soil about the rhizomes which induces the development of “ginger rot,” per- | haps due to a fungus. Secondly, the Jamaica ginger planter is naturally lazy and does not like to exert him- self, /Lhe careful: planter burns “the soil over before planting so as to de- stroy the seeds of weeds. In brief it may be stated that ginger is planted, tended, and gathered much as _ po- tatoes are in the United States. As soon as gathered the rhizomes are freed from dirt, roots, and branches and thrown into a vessel of water pre- paratory to peeling. Peeling consists in removing the outer coat by means of a narrow-bladed knife. As soon as peeled the rhizomes are again thrown into water and washed. The object of keeping the “roots” in water and wash- ing them frequently is to produce a white article. Tothisend bleaching by means of burning sulphur and chlorine fumes has been resorted to. Some ginger, especially that of Jamaica, is dusted over with powdered lime; this colors the ginger white very effectively. The bleaching processes also serve to destroy parasites which may infest the ginger before it is thoroughly dried. The drying or curing of ginger is done inthe sun. A piece of ground is leveled and laid with stone and cement. Upon this the rhizomes are spread from day to day for from six to eight 50 days. At night and during rains they are placed under cover. The small planter does the curing upon mats of sticks, boards, palm or banana leaves raised somewhat above the ground, Very frequently the drying is done upon leaves placed directly upon the ground. Not by any means all the ginger upon the market is peeled. The Jamaica ginger usually is; the African ginger is usually unpeeled, and hence dark in color; the Chinese ginger is usually partially peeled. Peeling makes the product appear whiter and hastens drying very materially, but much of the ethereal oil and active principle is thereby lost since it occurs most plentifully in the outer coat. The ginger crop impoverishes the soil very rapidly; every few years a new field must be planted. Forest soil is said to yield the best crops and in Jamaica thousands of acres of forest are annually destroyed by fire to pre- pare new ginger fields. Ginger ap- pears upon the market either whole or ground. Unfortunately the ground ar- ticle is oftentimes adulterated; for in- stance, with sago, tapioca, potato, wheat, and rice starch, with cayenne pepper, mustard, and other substances. Ginger has been an important com- mercial and household article ever since the first century of our era. Poets and prose writers of the past and present have praised ginger and the many preparations having ginger in their composition, because of their aromatic pungent taste and stimulating effect. The opening quotation from Shakespeare indicates the properties of ginger. That it was a highly-valued spice during the time of Mandeville (1300-1372) is evident from a quota- tion from his “travels.” “Be alle that contree growe the gode gyngevere (ginger), and, therefore thidre gon the Marchauntes for Spice- tye. Green ginger pickled in sugar was a) > FROM KCEHLER’S MEDICINAL-PFLANZEN GINGER. highly prized during the middle ages. There are a number of beverages which contain ginger. Gingerade is water charged with carbonic acid gas and flavored with ginger, being almost identical with ginger-pop. Ginger- beer is prepared by fermenting cream- ot-tartar, ginger, and sugar with yeast and water. Ginger-ale is supposed to be identical with ginger-beer. These ginger drinks are all refreshing, but I believe my readers will agree that there is usually too much ginger pres- ent; the hot, burning sensation in the mouth is not very pleasant. It may be that the trouble lies in taking too much of the drink at a time. In my estimation ginger as used by the baker is most appreciated and here again I believe my readers will agree with me. Who has not heard of gin- ger-bread? This sweet cake flavored with ginger is not by any means of re- cent origin. The great English bard Chaucer sang its praises long ago (1328-1400): ‘They fette him first the sweete wyn, And mede eek in a maselyn, And roial spicerye ’ Of ginge breed that was full fyn.”’ Shakespeare also must have valued this bread very highly, for in the play, ‘‘Love’s Labor Lost,” he says: ‘An I had but one penny in the world thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread.” Ginger-bread is often made into fan- ciful shapes. Cats, dogs, horses, ele- phants, and men are cut out of the rolled dough and then baked. Many of my readers are perhaps familiar with some of the beautiful playtime songs of Alice Riley and Jessie Gay- nor. The following are the words of one of these songs, entitled, ‘The Ginger-bread Man.” It describes the ginger-bread man very beautifully in the first verse. His awful fate, evidently in the hands of a small cannibal, is very graphically described in the second verse. I regret being wholly unable 53 to supply the music. Here are the words by Alice Riley: “Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger-bread man, The round little, brown little ginger-bread man, He has sugary eyes and a sugary nose, And he’s sweet from his crown to his sugary toes, Is this dear little, queer little ginger-bread man, This dear little ginger-bread man. ‘‘Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger-bread man, The poor little, sad little ginger-bread man, For he lost his poor arms, and he lost both his feet, And he lost his poor head, it was so good to eat, And his vest buttons tasted uncommonly sweet, Ah, poor little ginger-bread man.,”’ Gingersnaps are very much liked by many. I used to demolish them by the pound until someone whispered in my ear that ‘bad eggs were used in making them.” Since then my ap- petite for gingersnaps has lessened. I hope what that man said is not true. Gingernut is another cake containing ginger and sweetened with molasses. At the present time ginger is not very extensively used as a medicine. The powder or tincture is effective in some forms of indigestion. It is used to correct a bad breath, in tooth-ache, as a gargle and mouth-wash, in colic, and in dysentery. Ina German work on pharmacy I find that it is recom- mended in catarrh of the stomach and for ‘“Katzenjammer.” It will not be necessary to explain what Katzenjam- mer means. Explanation of plate: A, plant about natural size; 1, flower bud; 2, flower; 3, outer floral parts separated; 4, longitudinal section of flower; 5, nectary with the rudimentary and perfect stamens; 6, pistil and rudimentary stamen; 7, upper end of style with stigma; 8 and 9, ovary in longitudinal and transverse sections. SAP ACTION. FRED. A. WATT. N order to understand this subject we must first ascertain the condi- tions under which sap is first pro- duced, what it is, and how it circu- lates. To do this we must first know some- thing of the structure of those parts of the tree which serve as channels, or ducts, and those other parts which gather the sap and dispose of the waste after it has completed its mission. To begin with, the tree is composed of small structures, too small for the naked eye to distinguish. Each struc- ture is, at least for atime, a whole in itself, containing solid, semi-solid, and fluid parts which differ in their chemical nature. These structures are the cells, and when a large number of them are united in close contact they form a cel- lular tissue through which the sap passes from the roots to the leaves, and from the leaves to the growing parts of the young tree, or shoot. This cellular tissue is superseded by another tissue which is much stronger and which takes up the work of the | cellular tissue, when the tree becomes | too large to be supported by the weaker form. It is more solidly formed and is composed of elongated cells which are joined together in a series with their ends overlapping. This is known as woody fiber. The cellular tissue now exists in the tree stem only in the pith, and in the medullary rays which we may see in the grain of any hard wood, | radiating from the pith. With the statement, then, that these tissues form the timber, and that the bark and roots only present a modifica- tion of the same structures, we will pass to the tree as we see it with the naked eye. If we saw the trunk of a tree, of any considerable size, squarely in two, we find three forms which differ in solidity, rigidity, and appearance; namely, the | heart-wood, sap-wood, and bark. The heart-wood is the firm, solid wood sur- rounding the center of the tree, athe the heart-wood, while the bark forms the skin or outer covering for the whole. Trees grow from the center outward, hence the present sap-wood will in time become heart-wood and be cov- ered by a new layer of sap-wood, and the present heart-wood is simply sap- wood which has become solidified by the deposit within its tissues of resin- ous and other matter secreted by the tree. It is now useless for sap-carrying purposes and seems to exercise only the function of supporting the tree in its position. It is through the outer, younger layer or sap-wood that the sap ascends. Now, if we examine the end of our stick more closely we see a series of rings, clearly marked, circling from the center of the tree and ranging in size from the tiny one which encloses the pith, to the large one which forms the outer surface next to the bark. They are caused by a constant annual deposit and outward growth, by which a layer is added to the outer surface of the sap-wood each season. Hence, by counting these we may determine the age of the tree. Less distinct rings may appear but they will not deceive us as we know that they are caused by a cessation of growth, which may have been caused by drouth. As a general rule these rings are more distinct in trees inhabiting a climate where vegetation is entirely suspended by the cold after each layer is formed. In warmer regions they are not so distinct. This is especially in- teresting when we study the fossils of trees which in many cases show a great difference in climatic conditions in the early ages from those we have at the present time. The layers of bark are much thinner than those of the wood and are not so readily distinguished. They are formed from the interior so that the oldest are on the outside. The older ones fall off, however, so that we cannot trace sap-wood is the softer wood outside | as many rings in the bark as we can in 54 the wood, although one is formed in | each for every season that the tree lives. The roots of the tree spread out un- derground and are the agents through which the tree derives most of the moisture so necessary to its growth. They absorb moisture only at their extremities and usually spread to just | such an extent that the water which falls off the outer branches of a tree | during a rain, falls exactly where the tender rootlets can gather it up at once and hurry it back up the trunk of the tree. In ground that is springy, or naturally moist, the roots do not depend so much on the rainfall but reach out after moisture wherever it exists in the soil. Spring seems to give a new impulse to life, especially to vegetable life, which always responds promptly to the genial rays of the sun. During the winter, in our climate, the cells which form our trees are contracted by the cold and when the warm days cause them to resume their natural size, a small vacuum is formed in each cell, which the first warm days proceed to enlarge by thawing only the trunk and branches of the tree, leaving the roots below embedded in frozen soil from which but little moisture can be drawn, while evaporation draws moisture from the trunk and branches with irresistible force. A warm rain now comes, thaws out the soil, and sets the juices therein contained in motion. An immediate rush of sap up the trunk of the tree is the result. It clears out the pores or channels, as a spring freshet clears out the water courses, it rushes into the branches, and the branches re- joice) sand put: on itheire livery. of green; it rushes out through the por- ous surface of the limbs and rises in the air in the form of vapor, while that which does not escape becomes charged with life and returns down a devious pathway and lays the foundation for another season’s growth. But why should the sap ascend the Eneer This is only one of many questions that the tree will not answer and no one else ever hasanswered. If wetake a strip of blotting-paper and insert one 55 end of it in an ink-well, the ink imme- diately begins to climb up the blotting- paper by means of the force known as capillary attraction. Here, says the seeker for truth, is the reason for the ascent of sap, and many profound au- thors have agreed that he is right. Others claim, however, that he is wrong, while still others think he is only partly wrong and that this force has something to do with it. If we cut the roots from a tree and insert the stem in water we will soon find that this force is not the sole cause for the ascent of sap. Another student has made experiments with the force called diffusion, and claims that this explains the rise of sap to such remarkable heights; but diffusion does not work fast enough and hence must be thrown aside. Another finds that water is im- bibed through fine porous substances with great force and that air can thus be compressed to several atmospheres, and this force is affirmed to be the one at work in our trees. But the fact that the amputation of the leaves and branches checks the ascent is brought forward and this theory falls to the ground. The fact that liquid films have a tendency to expand rapidly on wetable surfaces was next advanced, but the objection to the first theory met it at once. Another interesting theory is now brought forward and has the advantage of practical demonstration, that is, an artificial model was made through which water ascended. It is based on the principle that water will pass through moist films that air will not penetrate, on the fact that evaporation takes place under right conditions with force enough to cause something of a vacuum, and also on the elasticity of the cells. The model was constructed of glass tubes, closed at one end with a piece of bladder, and joined together in series by means of thick-walled caoutchouc tubing; the top which represented a leaf was a funnel closed by a bladder. This artificial cell chain was filled with water, mixed with carbolic acid to keep the pores from clogging, and was set up with its base immersed. The fluid evaporated through the membrane at the top of the funnel, which drew up more from the cells below, the space so caused being continually filled from the base. This isan interesting experi- ment and is said to solve the question, but it is open to the same objection, that a tree will not absorb fluid and carry it for any length of time after the roots are cut off. I regard it, how- ever as a long stride in the right direc- tion. To what source, then, must we look for an explanation of this process? I think it is a fact that the small, new root-fibers imbibe fluid with consider- able force, but it is undoubtedly a fact that they soon lose this force when de- prived of the leaves; that the leaves great force, which the above experi- ment plainly indicates; and I cannot consistently dismiss the idea that cap- illary attraction has something to do with it. If we also add to this the the- ory that the swaying of the stems and branches by the wind is continually changing the shape and size of the cells and is thus driving the juices wherever an opening will allow them to travel, thus bringing the elasticity of the tree to our aid, we have again advanced. But the principle of life is not dis- covered. Whenever it is we may find it to be a force much greater than any we have so far examined, and which may even cause the overthrow of all theories heretofore advanced. EMERSON AND THE WOODPECKER STORY. with the aid of evaporation, exert a O squirrel works harder at his N pine-nut harvest than the car- penter woodpeckers in autumn at their acorn harvest, says John Muir in the December Adantic, drilling holes in the thick, corky bark of the yellow pine and incense cedar, in which to store the crop for winter use; a hole for each acorn so nicely adjusted as to size that when the acorn, point fore- most, is driven in, it fits so well that it cannot be drawn out without digging around it. Each acorn is thus carefully stored in a dry bin, perfectly protected from the weather, a most laborious method of stowing away a crop, a gran- ary foreach kernel. Yet they never seem to weary at the work, but go on so diligently they seem determined that every acorn in the grove shall be saved. They are never seen eating acorns at the time they are storing them, and it is commonly believed that they never eat them or intend to eat them, but that the wise birds store them and protect them solely for the sake of the worms they are supposed tocontain. And be- cause these worms are too small for use at the time the acorns drop, they are shut up like lean calves and steers, each ina separate stall, with abundance of food to grow big and fat by the time they will be the most wanted, that is, in winter, when insects are scarce and £6 stall-fed worms most valuable. So these woodpeckers are supposed to be a sort of cattle-raiser, each with a drove of thousands, rivaling the ants that raise grain and keep herds of plant lice for milk cows. Needless to say, the story is not true, though some naturalists even believe it. When Em- erson was in the park, having heard the worm story, and seen the great pines plugged full of acorns, he asked (just to pump me, I suppose): “Why do woodpeckers take the trouble to put acorns into the bark of the trees?” ‘For the same reason,” I replied, ‘that bees store honey and squirrels nuts.” “But they tell me, Mr. Muir, that wood- peckers don’t cat acorns,’ “Yes! they. do,’ I said. “I have seen them eating them.. During snowstorms they seem to eat little besides acorns. I have re- peatedly interrupted them at their meals, and seen the perfectly sound, half-eaten acorns. They eat them in the shell as some people eat eggs.” “But what about the worms?” “TI sup- pose,” I said, ‘‘that when they come to a wormy one they eat both worm and acorn. Anyhow, they eat the sound ones when they can’t find anything they like better, and from the time they store them until they are used they guard them, and woe to the squirrel or jay caught stealing.” ‘OZIS-OJTT 64 WOASSOdO DNILVE-dVvyo *930N3I0S GVOV 'IHO “109 WOH4 ‘ODVOIHD "09 ‘ANd AGNLS SYNLYN *668t LHOINAdOD THE CRAB-EATING OPOSSUM. HE crab-eating opossum (Phélan- der philander) is one of the largest of the family. The body is nine and one-half inches long, and the tail nearly thirteen inches. It has a wide range, extending throughout all of tropical America. It is numerous in the woods of Brazil, preferring the proximity of swamps, which furnish it with crabs. It lives almost exclusively in trees, and de- scends to the ground only when it wishes to forage. While it proceeds slowly and awk- wardly on the ground, its prehensile tail enables it to climb trees with some facility. This opossum readily entraps smaller mammals, reptiles, and insects, and especially crabs, which are its favorite food. It preys upon birds and their nests, but it also eats fruit, and is said to visit poultry yards and to cause great devastation among chickens and pigeons. The young of the crab-eating opos- sum differ in color from the old ani- mals. They are completely naked at birth, but when they are sufficiently de- veloped to leave the pouch, they grow a short, silky fur of a shining nut- brown color, which gradually deepens into the dark brownish-black color of maturity. All observers agree that the little creatures escape from the pouch and, moving around and upon the mother’s body, afford a charming spec- tacle. The pouch is formed by two folds of skin, which are laid over the un- formed young attached to the mammae. The opossum is extensively hunted on account of the havoc it works among poultry. The negroes are its enemies, and kill it whenever and wherever they can. The flesh is said to be unpalatable to most white persons, for two glands im- parc a very strong and repellent odor | of garlic to it, but the negroes like it, and the flesh repays trouble of the pursuit. The opossum, however, is not easily killed, and re- sorts to dissimulation when hard pressed, rolls up like a ball, and feigns to be dead. To anyone not acquainted with its habits, the open jaws, the ex- them for the | 59 tended tongue, the dimmed eyes would be ample confirmation of it, but the experienced observer knows that it is only “’possuming,” and that as soon as the enemy withdraws it will grad- ually get on its legs and make for the woods. It is said that the opossum was for- merly found in Europe, but now only inhabits America. Nearly all of the species live in the forest or in the un- derbrush, making their homes in hol- low trees, holes in the ground, among thick grass and in bushes. All are nocturnal in their habits and lead a solitary, roving life. The opossum lives with its mate only during the pairing time. It has no fixed habita- tion. In captivity it is the least inter- esting of animals. Rolled up and mo- tionless, it lies all day, and only when provoked does it make the slightest movement. It opens its mouth as wide as possible, and for as long a time as one stands before it, as if it suffered from lockjaw. The opossum can hardly be classed among the game animals of America, yet its pursuit in the South in old plan- tation days used to afford the staple amusement for the dusky toilers of the cotton states. It was the custom, as often as the late fall days brought with them the ripened fruit and golden grain, for the dark population of the plantation, sometimes accompanied by young “massa,” to have a grand 'pos- sum hunt @ la mode. We would de- scribe the method of taking it, were it the policy of this magazine to show ap- proval of a most cruel practice. Hap- pily the custom, through change of circumstances, has fallen into disuse. The specimen of this interesting animal which we present in this num- ber of Brrps AND ALL NATURE was captured, with its mother and five young ones, ina car load of bananas, having traveled all the way from the tropics to Chicago in a crate of the fruit. The mother and young were kept alive by eating the bananas, an- other proof that the crab-eating opos- sum does not feed exclusively upon animal food. t WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN. EMILY C. THOMPSON. T is natural that at this time our | thoughts should turn toward two of our great national heroes. This month is to us not merely the month of February, marking one of the twelve divisions of our calendar year, but it is a continuous memorial of two of our revered statesmen. We read all we can about our glorified dead, we search the words spoken by them, we visit the places where they toiled for us, and we scan even their homes trying to form a picture of their lives. We do even more. We presume to imagine their thoughts and conjure up the very ideas which might have oc- curred to them as they stood in these spots now hallowed by memories of them. It is a fascinating occupation to fathom the characters of truly great men and contemplate their attitude toward various subjects. Sometimes mere conjectures are the fruit of our toil. At other times sure conclusic ns are reached from facts which are brought to light. Stories galore are told of both Lincoln and Washington, which help us more vividly to picture their natures. The question in which we are interested could easily be an- swered if we knew these men, but still as we are acquainted with the mani- festations of their characteristics we can answer it almost as satisfactorily. Did Lincoln and Washington love nature? Could they appreciate her beauties, and did they evince an inter- est in her creations? Lincoln in his log-cabin home, split- ting rails, working on the farm, hunting coons, driving the horses and cattle, must have found a glorious opportunity - to become acquainted with this great mother of ours. The son of a pioneer who, with his great covered wagon, cat- tle, family, and household belongings, wanders over the country, whose only neighbors for hundreds of miles are the . birds in the woods, the rabbits in the field, and the fish in the stream, the son of such a man certainly sees nature as 60 few of our city-bred, World’s Fair, Paris Exposition young people, can imagine it. Lincoln was content with these, his neighbors. Never do we hear sighs from him and wishes that his lot might be exchanged for that of an- other, even it his lot was toilsome and lonely. Who can tell but he thus im- bibed his love for pure freedom unde- filed and his lofty conceptions of this life in its relation to this world and something beyond? We cannot doubt that the great, tall, clumsy lad had a real love in his heart for the little feathered and furry friends about him, and not simply a love for the beautiful, ones, but what is far higher a feeling of sympathy even for the ugly and a genuine tender solici- tude for all. Even when the youth became a man perplexed by business and _ political problems his natureremained unaltered. Once when a party of his friends on a judicial circuit stopped to water their horses, Lincoln was not there. His companion on the way was asked of his whereabouts. He replied that the last he had seen of Lincoln he was hunt- ing around for a bird’s nest, two of the former occupants of which he held in his hand. The wind had blown the tiny nestlings from their snug little home and the greathearted man was trying to find the nest for the wee, help- less chirpers. The same great heart which felt the human cry of pain as keenly as the bewildered cry of the little birds gave its last throb to restore little black nestlings to the warm com- fort of free homes protected by law. There is an amusing incident, told probably as a “good one’’ upon the politician, but which has more than an amusing side to us. Lincoln was one of a party of ladies and gentlemen, dressed in their best, journeying along a country road. Their attention was arrested by the distressed squealings ofa pig. There it was by the roadside, caught ina fence. Of course a general laugh followed. To the astonishment of all Lincoln, clad as he was, dis- mounted from his horse and released the poor animal. He could not see even an occupant of the pigsty suffer without feelings of sympathy. We expect different stories of Wash- ington, a different attitude toward nature and animals, just as the nature of the man was different. Visit Mt. allowed himself the luxury of an ele- | gant coach and six. Varied are the feelings with which one views the estate of our first presi- dent. It is almost impossible in the midst of all this beauty to realize that it was the same man who enjoyed this _ peaceful home of luxury and spent that Vernon and at once you feel his rela- | tion to the natural world, a love and keen appreciation of the beautiful in | nature, with a thorough conviction that where man tampers with the rough beauties of nature a severe orderliness, precision, and care must be manifested. Seated upon his front veranda, Wash- ington beheld every day a scene of beauty, one gaze at which stays with a awful winter at Valley Forge or crossed the Delaware amid the floating ice. The quiet restfulness of Mt. Vernon must have been a haven of peace to the valiant soldier who faced the en- _emy so bravely, to the statesman who toiled so assiduously for his country, and to the heart of human sympathy | returning even from the cities of 1776. stranger for months and for years. | The green of his own lawn ending abruptly not far away with the decline | of the bluff, the tops of a few trees farther down just. visible, and the blue waters of the Potomac bounded in the distance by the bluff of the opposite bank; to the right a carefully mowed lawn sloping away in natural terraces to the bank of the river; to the left a small sward and orchard; behind the house a large green plot. It is to the left of the beautiful, sunny, open space behind the house that the garden is found. Every visitor must spend a few moments there, admiring the hedges, the neatly-trimmed boxtrees, the regular formal designs, and inci- dentally bidding ‘'Good-day” to the saucy little squirrel who scampers about the paths. It is an interesting spot as revealing what Washington considered the beauty of scenic gardening. Washingtonissaid to have loved noble horses and to have taken great pridein his stables. He always drove white horses with hoofs painted black. Of | dogs, too, he was exceedingly fond and | kept an accurate account of the pedi- | gree of every animal belonging to the estate. Usually he drove in a car- riage drawn by a span while his family | came next in a larger vehicle drawn by four horses. At the foot of a gentle slope about midway between the house and the boat-landing is the tomb of the Wash- ington family. The very aged, gray resting-place has been exchanged for one of more modern design. An open vault in front with a protection of iron grating and other chambers extending into the earth form the tomb. It is with awe that the visitor approaches the open vault to gaze upon the gray sarcophagiof George and Martha Wash- ington standing out in bold relief | against the dark gray walls and back- ground. Few are the letters sculptured upon the stone caskets, but above in the wall behind them isa square slab bearing the words: “I am the resur- rection and the life; he that believeth on me shall not perish but have ever- lasting life.” It is touching to see the tributes which have been paid to this great man, the trees planted in his honor, the monuments erected to his memory, but none is more touching than the un- conscious tribute which nature herself is giving. The tomb is silent and cold. One thinks of the sterner qualities of the dead, when a bit of color catches the eye. There above the sarcophagi _ in a corner of the inscribed tablet nes- On state occasions he | tle two little yellow birds, a fitting tribute of Mother Nature to her love and trustfulness in one of her noblest sons. England holds the honor of having first formed societies for the prevention 61 of cruelty to animals and of having first legislated for its punishment. THE GEOGRAPHIC TURTLE. AP and mud-turtle (Walaco- M clemmys geographicus) are the more common names by which this animal is known; and as it is a characteristic species of the waters of Illinois and occurs in countless num- bers in lakes, rivers, and flood-ground pools, it may be assumed that most of our readers have met with it. It is exceedingly common in the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, where it is often confounded with quite another species. It is the only species seen by Mr. F. M. Woodruff on the shores of Lake Michigan, whence he has frequently chased it to the water and caught it in his hands. It is timid and inoffensive in disposition, always sliding from bank or log when approached, and even when captured shows none of the ferocity of the snapper. The great strength of its jaws, unsurpassed in massiveness by any of our turtles, would enable it to inflict serious wounds, and it is not a little surprising to find such efficient weapons of offense unaccompanied by special ruggedness of temper. Our streams and lakes, with their numerous sandy shores, and their abundance of animal and vegetable life, would seem to form an ideal hab- itat for these reptiles. Their food con- sists ordinarily of fishes, frogs, and mollusks, crayfishes, aquatic insects, and vegetation. They trouble fisher- men at times by devouring fishes which they have caught on trot-lines or in set nets. They are not rapid swim- mers. An animal once within reach of their jaws must be very quick to escape capture. The eggs are white and are provided with a rather tough shell. They bury their eggs in sand on the shore and leave them to hatch by the sun’s heat. A gentleman who had a pet turtle which he kept in a tank tells some in- teresting things about its appetite. During the early spring he fed him on 62 bits of meat, either raw or cooked. Having no teeth, he swallowed these whole, gulping them down with large quantities of water. Outside of his tank he would carry food in his mouth for hours at a time, but apparently was unable to swallow it with his head out of water. He always aimed well, and snapped up bits of meat as carefully and as quickly as if they had been bits of life that might escape him. hen a morsel was too large to be swallowed whole, he held it down firmly with his fore feet and pulled bits off with his mouth. His owner once gave him a fish so large that it took him three hours to eat it, and in all that time he never removed his foot. Rival turtles and swift currents had probably taught him this bit of discretion in the days of his freedom: “One* time he put twenty small fish averaging three inches in length into his tank, thinking this would be a treat for him and would save the trouble of feeding him for some time. A treat he evidently considered it, for within half an hour he had disposed of the entire lot. This excited the admiration of the gentleman’s boy friends, and the next day they brought in sixty small fish. At the end of the second day the turtle looked about with an Oliver Twist-like air, which plainly called for more. When there was any percep- tible difference in the size of the fish it always ate the largest one first. It ate grasshoppers and dragon-flies, tadpoles, and little frogs—animal food of any kind. It would eat eggs as readily as meat. This voracity of appetite ac- counts for much of the destruction of young fish life in our lakes and streams, where these turtles are extremely abundant. In the Philippines, it is said, there -ives a turtle that climbs trees. The feet are strongly webbed, and each has three sharp claws. *ODVDIHD ''09 ‘8Nd AGNLS S3YNLYN HILAL OIHAVUDOUD ; d ‘6681 LHOINAdOD ah iad : ByL: Abed 1 ey me Ms NOSES. Ww. EK. WATT. HE Rev. Sam Jones says of a trained bird dog that he once | saw in the tall grass jumping up to get signals from his mas- ter’s hand, moving to the right or left, or lying down without a word spoken: ‘When I saw the faithfulness of that animal in carrying out the wishes of its human master I was ashamed of myself in the presence of the dog.” A hunting dog is busy with eye and ear. Every nerve seems strained to catch the slightest indication of game. But those who know, the dog best know he is mainly occupied with his nose. That delicate organ dilates and adjusts itself constantly to every breath of air. The bird dog knows of the presence of a game bird before he can see it. He scents its location at long range. Efe sis* trained. to. “‘stand*. when’ he recognizes the scent. With one paw lifted, his nose and tail stretched out to their greatest reach, he points his master to the spot where the game is to be found. At the word of command he moves cautiously forward towards the bird, and when his master is ready another word causes the dog to ‘‘flush” the bird, or make it take wing. The hound upon the track of fox or deer has remarkable power, not only of following the exact track made by the pursued animal, even when some hours have elapsed since the game passed that way, but his scent is so keen that in many instances he is able to tell, when he comes upon such a track, which way the deer or fox was running. Sometimes the hound “takes the back track,” but the best dogs are usually so positive in this sense that they make no mistakes as to which way the animal has traveled. It is common knowledge, but none 65 the less marvelous, that an ordinary dog is usually able to follow his mas- ter by scent alone through the crowded streets of the city or across fields where a thousand fragrant flowers and grasses seem to arise on purpose to baffle him. This marvelous power is not con- fined to dogs. Many other animals possess it ina remarkable degree. The keenness of this sense in deer, ante- lopes, and other wild ruminants is so well known that hunters despair of ever approaching them except from the side which gives them the wind in their faces so that their own peculiar scent may be carried away from the extremely sensitive nostrils of their game. The hippopotamus has this sense highly developed and can dis- cover his human enemy without get- ting sight of him or hearing his ap- proach. The polar bear climbs upon an ice- berg and sniffs afar the dead whale floating his way, although still miles toward the horizon. The camel in the desert is often saved from death by the keenness and accuracy of his olfactory organs, which tell him the direction he must take to fill his depleted reservoir with water. _ The North American Indian smells as keenly as he sees, for he can not only detect the presence of human be- ings by his nose alone, but also surely tell whether they are of his own or the suspected white race. In the Massa- chusetts Asylum for the Blind was a mute girl named Julia Brace, who knew her friends and acquaintances by the peculiar odors of their hands. Not being able to see them or converse with them, she was compelled to dis- tinguish them by the sense of smell alone. So remarkable were her y $ powers that she was regularly employed | in assorting the clothes of the pupils as they came from the wash, that oper- ation not being far-reaching enough to remove the signs which were known to, her alone’ \ The ‘case. of James Mitchell, who was deaf and blind from his birth, is remarkable, for he could detect the approach of a stranger in | this way. Those who have made a thorough study of the subject claim that there is a peculiar odor belonging to every class of living beings, and each is sub- divided so that each order, family, species, race, and variety is distinct. Furthermore every individual is dis- tinct from the rest of his kind in the odor given off so profusely and uncon- sciously in most instances. Horses seem to be somewhat less keen than dogs in noting odors, for a horse which is accustomed to but one groom and will not consent to attend- ance from another may sometimes be deceived by having the new groom dress himself in the clothes of his predecessor. Insects possess this sense to such a degree that flies have been the means of locating a dead rat under a floor by their settling over the body in large | numbers, although there was no chance | Just where the | for them to reach it. organs of smell are in insects has been disputed among scientists. Lubbock is inclined to the opinion that they are located in the antenne and palpi, though some contend that insects smell as the air is taken in at the spiracles or breathing-holes which are scattered over their bodies. That fish have this sense to some extent is attested by fishermen who use essential oils upon their bait and secure readier attention from the in- habitants of the water. But fish seem to be less capable of smell than even the reptiles upon land who are not considered at all remarkable in this respect. To make up in some sort for this deficiency there are some kinds of fish which have four nostrils while all other animals that smell at all seem content with but two as a rule. Only those animals having a back- bone are equipped with noses that are Sir John | 66 unquestionably adapted to smelling, but insects, crabs, and mollusks per- ceive odors toa limitedextent. Some of them are readily deceived by odors similar to those they seek. Lubbock calls attention to the fact that the car- rion fly will deposit its eggs on any plant that has a smell similar to that of tainted flesh. We are unable to say just what the nature of a smellingsubstance is which makes it so perceptible to our olfac- tory organs. Many things, both or- ganic and inorganic, have the power to affect us in a way which cannot be perceived by the organs of taste nor touch. The upper third of the interior of the human nose has the soie func- tion of recognizing them. We have almost no names for the various smells, but they are as distinct as day and night and arouse within us the most intense feelings. We are not only without names for smells, but we are far from being agreed as to the qualities of them. To one person the odor of sweet peas is delightful, while to another it is quite the reverse. Sometimes we consider a smell pleasant merely because of the associations it brings. The odor of pine lumber is grateful to one who has spent a season in the lumber districts where sawmills abound; and so the smell of an ordinary lumber pile gives pleasure to one’ where to another it is somewhat disagreeable. The sense of smell is one that tires most readily. After smelling certain odors for awhile one loses temporarily the power to notice them at all. The sense does not tire as a whole, but it merely becomes inoperative with re- spect to the odor continually present. Almost any perfume held to the nose soon loses its charm, and is only effec- tive again after a temporary absence. But while one perfume is not sensed a new one presented to the nostrils is eagerly appreciated, showing the sense to be fatigued only with regard to what has been there for some time. The owner of a large rendering estab- lishment in a city was called upon bya committee of citizens who objected to the smells arising from his plant. He went out with the committee to inspect the premises and declared with evident honesty that he could detect nothing disagreeable in the air nor any sort of a scent that did not properly bélong to | Those who | a rendering establishment. work where there are strong and dis- agreeable odors soon become so accus- | tomed to peculiar smells that they do | not notice them at all, although they are keen to detect any unusual odor, as when the liquor in a tanner’s vat has not in it the proper admixture of ma- | terials. All the lower animals seem to be positive as to the direction of the | source of any scent, but man is power- | less in the matter. He merely knows an odor is present, but is unable to tell without moving about whether it comes from one side of him or another. A blindfolded boy cannot tell which side | of his nose is nearest to a suspended | orange. be dissolved or scattered through the atmosphere to be breathed. Whether such substances are divided and used | up in giving out odors is still a ques- tion. Some of them, as the essential oils, waste away when exposed to the air, but a grain of musk remains a grain of musk with undiminished power after years of exposure. The experiment is such a delicate one in connection with the musk that it has never been settled to the satisfaction of science. Substances which scatter themselves readily through the air are usually odorous, while those which do not are generally without smell. But many of these when transformed into vapors, as by the application of heat, become strongly odorous. Bodies naturally in the gaseous state are usu- ally the most penetrating and effective as odors. Sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen are examples of these. College boys sometimes procure from the chemical laboratories of their institutions materials which are used | with telling effect on the social func- | tions of higher or lower classes; in one instance a banquet wasclearedof guests | by the conscienceless introduction of chemicals just before the festivities were to have begun. Efforts to intro- duce powerful gases as weapons in war existing | 67 have failed because the effect is not confined to the enemy. Gases which are offensive are not always positively harmful, but asa rule those which offend the nose are to be avoided. Some deadly gases do not affect the sense of smell atall, as in the case of earth damp which stupefies and kills men in mines and wells without warning. But the nose is a great de- tector of bad air, especially that of a noxious character, and sewer gas as well as other poisonous airs which bring on the worst types of fever are offensive to one who is not living all the time within their range. But a small part of the mucous membrane of the nose is the seat of this important sense. The olfactory cells are not as easily examined and traced in their connections as are the end or- gans of the sense of taste. Yet the _ anatomist finds in the structure of the To affect this sense a substance must noses of the flesh-eating animals suffi- cient indications of their superiority over man in the exercise of the sense of smell. The peculiar development of the membrane and the complicated structure of the nasal cavities in the re- gion occupied by the cells which are supposed to connect with the extreme divisions of the olfactory nerve are all that one would expect from the differ- ences in endowment. Aside from peculiar powers of smell there are other endowments of noses which are remarkable. The common hog has a snout that is easily moved and has great strength. He can take down a rail fence with it quite as skill- fully as a boy would do it. He can turn a furrow in the soil in search of eatable roots,and when the ground is frozen toa considerable degree of hard- ness he pursues his occupation with un- abated zeal and no evident embarrass- ment. The fresh-water sturgeon has a large eristle in his nose which boys some- times convert into a substitute for a rubber ball. His nose is a useful in- strument in securing food from the mud in the river bottom. The rhinoc- eros has a fierce horny protuberance rising from his nose which is valuable to him in war. Indeed some are equipped with two horns, one behind the other. The female rhinoceros with one horn guides her calf with it, causing him to move ahead of her, but the female of the kind with two horns does not use them upon her offspring at all except in anger, and her calf is content to follow her in feeding. On the coast of California is a large seal called the sea elephant which is notable because the adult male has a proboscis fifteen inches in length when in ordinary temper, but under excite- ment it is noticed to extend itself con- siderably beyond its ordinary length. The shrew, the tapir, and the horse also possess something of a proboscis which is useful in feeding. But the elephant is the greatest ani- mal as to the development of this or- gan. Insect-eating animals have snouts of gristle, but the organ of prehension of the elephant is composed almost en- tirely of muscles of the most varied and curious structure. Cuvier counted twenty thousand muscles in an ele- phant’s trunk, and then gave up his un- finished task. This great mass of muscular endow- | ment McCloskie says has improved his intelligence which is not so great as is popularly supposed. ‘Observation shows the elephant after all to be rather a stupid beast; it is the monkey, the fox, and the crow which are credited by the Hindoos with brute-cuteness, whilst the highest measure of ration- ality evinced by the elephant is when he plucks off the branch of atree, using it as a whisk to drive off flies that tor- ment him. It seems that he is very much afraid of flies, willtake fright at a mouse, and is always timid and sus- picious, none of these being traits of a large mind.” with the highest emotions of man. As cats are transported into the seventh heaven by the presence of their favor- ite weed and rats are similarly affected by rhodium, so man carries a perfume in his pocket-handkerchief for his own delectation or that of his friends, and in many instances weaves into his wor- ship certain rites in which the burning of incense and the offering of a sweet savor has a prominent part. The Es- 68 kimo shows his appreciation of his or- gan of smell by putting it forward to touch that of his triend whom he meets on terms of special endearment. Antony Van Corlear’s large and ru- bicund nose is gravely recorded by Irv- ing to have been the means of bring- ing a great boon to the early inhabit- ants of New Amsterdam because when he fell asleep in a boat one day, the ef- _fulgence of the sun at high meridian fell upon his shining feature, was re- flected into the deep with such an un- diminished power that the beam came into violent contact with a sturgeon, and, by causing the death of the fish at a time when the Dutch were willing to experiment a little in the matter of gus- tation, thus introduced the habit of eat- ing this excellent fish to the founders of a great commonwealth. That the near neighbors of the Amer- ican Dutch also held the nose in high esteem is attested by the fact that when among the American Eng- lish any of their divines in one of their interminable sermons came upon a series of unusually great thoughts and carried the congregation into the heights of sacred felicity they acknowledged the divinity of the oc- casion by “humming him through the nose.” Much of their singing also was given an unction otherwise impossible to it by their peculiar nasal attitude while worshiping by use of the psalms. While the nose is a most prominent feature of the countenance and the beauty of the face depends largely upon that member’s appearance, there s no one who can say just what shape the nose should have to be most beau- tiful. Socrates proved his nose to be _ handsomer than that of Alcibiades be- The nose has been connected always | cause it was better adapted to use. As the nose is used for smelling and the eye for seeing, Socrates maintained that the handsome eyes and nose of the polished young Greek were less useful and less adapted to the purposes for which such organs exist, and therefore the bulging eyes and violently turned- up nose of the philosopher were held to be more beautiful than those of Al- cibiades. COPYRIGHT 1899 FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES WHITE IBIS. ele); fi 4 J STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO $40 Life-size CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO., NOT BESS ne THE WHITE IBIS. (Guara alba.) LYNDS JONES. HE white ibis might well serve as the text of a symposium upon the evils of plume-hunting to supply the constant demand of the millinery trade. Suffice it to say here that this species, in common with many other members of its family, and many other birds as well, has decreased to the point of almost complete extermi- nation within the last fifteen years from this cause alone. Surely it must be true that the living bird in its natural environment is far more pleasing to the zsthetic sense than the few feathers which are retained and put to an un- natural use. As lately as 1880 the white ibis was decidedly numerous in the various rookeries of the southern states, wan- dering as far north as the Ohio river, and touching southern Indiana and southern Illinois. Two were seen as -far north as southern South Dakota. They are now scarcely common even in the most favored localities in Louisi- ana and Texas, being confined to the gulf states almost entirely, and even there greatly restricted locally. Like many of their near relatives, the herons, the ibises not only roost to- gether in rookeries, but they also nest in greater or less communities. Before their ranks were so painfully thinned by the plume-hunters, these nesting communities contained hundreds and even thousands of individuals. But now only small companies can be found in | out-of-the-way places. The nest is built upon the mangrove bushes or upon the broken reeds and rushes in the swamps, and is said to be rather more carefully and compactly built than are the herons’ nests. The eggs are three or four, rarely five in number, and are laid about May 1 in many localities, later in others. They appear large for the bird. In shape they are usually rather long ovate, and in color are gray or ashy-blue, irregu- larly and rather heavily blotched and spotted with reddish and umber browns of various shades. Some specimens are very pretty. The story of their great abundance, persecution, rapid decline, and almost death, if written, would read like some horrible nightmare. Confident in the apparent security of their ancestral gathering-places, they fell an easy prey to the avaricious plume-hunter who, from some vantage-point, used his almost noiseless light rifle or air-gun with deadly-effect, tallying his victims by the hundred daily. We are some- times led to wonder if there is anything so sacred as money. We might be able to derive some comfort from the thinning ranks of many of our birds, perhaps, if we could be sure that when these were gone the work of extermination would cease. But when one species disappears an- other, less attractive before, will be set upon, and thus the crusade, once begun, will finally extend to each in turn. This is not theory but fact. Nor will the work of extermination cease with the demand for plumes. Not until repeated refusals of offered plumes have impressed upon the mind of the hunter the utter futility of further ac- tivity in this line will he seek some other occupation. It is a shame upon us that killing birds should ever have become an occupation of anyone. A strong public sentiment against feather adornments will yet save from destruc- tion many of our native birds. Can we not arouse it? ‘TIE FIELPEESS: ELANORA KINSLEY MARBLE. S the nesting-season of our feath- al ered friends approaches the mind naturally reverts to the grief in store for so many of them. Notwithstanding the efforts of the several Audubon societies, the humane journals, and in rare instances earnest pleas from the pulpit, fashion decrees that the wearing of bird plum- age, and the birds themselves, is still de rigueur among women. The past season, certainly, showed no diminu- tion of this barbarous fashion—a_ hu- miliating thing to record—and so the beautiful creatures will continue to be slaughtered, not by hundreds or thou- sands, but by millions upon millions, all for the gratification of woman’s van- ity and a senseless love of display. Alas, that the “fair” sex in whom the quality of mercy is supposed to exist in a high degree, should still wear above their serene brows—often bowed in worship—the badge of inhumanity and heartlessness. That mothers who have experienced all the pangs as well as joys of motherhood can aid in break- ing up thousands of woodland homes by wearing the plumage which makes the slaughter of these birds one of com- mercial value and necessity. Soon ac- counts will be published of the fabulous sums to be gained by the heron hunt- ers, and in order to supply the demand for the filmy, delicate azgrette to adorn my lady’s bonnet, the nesting colony of these snowy egrets will be visited by the plume-hunters and the work of slaughter begin. Love and anxiety for their nestlings will render them heed- less of danger, and through all the days of carnage which follow, not one parent bird will desert its nest.. Fortunately the birds are instantly killed by the bul- let, else, stripped of the coveted plumes they will be thrown in a heap, there slowly to die within sight and hearing of their starving, pleading little ones. These have no value for the plume- hunter, and so off he goes with his spoil, leaving thousands of orphaned ~] i) nestlings to a painful, lingering death. And all this for a plume, which, in these days of enlightenment marks the wearer either as a person of little edu- cation, or totally lacking in refinement of feeling. It is trite to say that moth- erhood no more than womanhood neces- sarily implies refinement in the individ- ual, but surely in the former, one would, in the nature of things, expect to find engendered a feeling of tender pity for any helpless animal and its offspring. It is this phase of the question which particularly appeals to people in whom love, as_ well as compassion for all helpless creatures is strong, not a senti- ment newly awakened, or adopted as a fad. That genuine love for animals is inherent and not a matter of education the close observer, I think, will admit. Not that a child cannot be brought to recognize, when caught in any act of cruelty to some defenseless creature, the wanton wickedness of his act, but that no amount of suasion can influence him to treat it with kindness for love's sake rather than from the abstract moral reason that it is right. How can this love for animals exist in a child who has never known the joy of possessing a household pet? In whose presence an intrusive dog or cat is ever met with a blow, or angry command to “set out?’ When somebody’s lost pet comes whining at the door, piteously pleading for a kindly pat, and a morse] to eat, and is greeted witha kick, or pos- sibly a bullet, under the pretense that the exhausted, panting little animal might go mad? How can a child who has witnessed these things view a suffering | animal with any other feeling but calm indifference, or a brutal desire to inflict upon it additional pain? In his esti- mation every dog is subject to rabies, and every cat infested with fleas. Paternal apathy in this direction may, to some extent, be remedied by the child’s instructors, especially in the kindergarten, where the foundation of character is supposed to be laid. But even there the teacher will fail in arous- | ing a feeling of compassion in a natur- ally cruel child’s mind, unless her own sympathies are genuine, and not as- sumed for the time or place. .Here more than anywhere else, it seems to me, intelligence, if not love, should prompt the teacher to familiarize her- self with the treatment necessary not only to the well-being but to the happi- ness of the little captives held for the purpose of nature-study in her class. As spring opens, thousands of would- be naturalists, stimulated by nature- study in schools, will, no doubt, begin their universal search for birds’ eggs, not from any particular interest in sci- ence, but as they collect stamps or marbles, simply to see how many they can get. In this way millions of birds are destroyed with no thought beyond the transitory triumph and pleasure of getting them. This egg-collecting should not be encouraged by the teach- ers. On the contrary every boy should be told that a ¢vwe naturalist does not slaughter animals, or rob birds’ nests promiscuously; that he is the first to remonstrate against wanton waste of life; that he does not take eggs of com- mon birds at all, and never empties a nest unless of a rare bird, and some- times not always then. These argu- ments will prevail among a few who have the real naturalist’s instinct, but to the many who either do not know, or do not care, about the cruelty they in- flict upon the parent birds in thus rob- bing them of their treasures, another appeal must be made. Picture the family life of the innocent little crea- tures—a lesson indeed to people of larger growth; how they guard their nests with almost human care and wis- dom, and how they cherish their young with as faithful and self-sacrificing love as parents of human families. Impress upon their young minds how many days of toil ‘the mother-bird, aided by her mate, spent in building the nest which they purpose to rifle, of her joy and pride when the first egg was depos- ited, and all the patiently borne days of brooding which followed. Surely a boy not wholly depraved would be moved by such a recital, and thus thou- sands of birds be saved, and through their influence, protected. In this way, too, might not the whole question of slaughtering birds for millinery pur- poses be solved, for what mother or sis- ter could turn a deaf ear to the re- proaches of a child, or to pleadings from young lips for more humane treat- ment of their feathered friends? That the small boy is not without wit, and quick to perceive the differ- ence between precept and practice, the following anecdote, I think, will aptly prove: She was smartly dressed, and when she met one of her scholars bearing off a nest in which were five pretty little speckled eggs, she did not hesitate to stop him. “Vow are a wicked, boy, she ex claimed indignantly. ‘How could you rob the birds of their nest? No doubt, at this very minute, the poor mother Is hovering about the tree grieving for the loss of the eggs which you carry.” “Oh, she don’t care,’ replied the urchin, edging off with a derisive smile, “she’s on your hat.” ’ FEBRUARY. The old, old wonder of the lengthening days Is with us once again; the winter’s sun, Slow sinking to the west when day is done, Bach eve a little longer with us stays, And cheers the snowy landscape with his rays; Nor do we notice what he has begun Until a month or more of days have run, When we exclaim: ‘‘ How long the light delays!”’ So let some kindly deed, however slight, Be daily done by us, that to the waste Of selfishness some light it may impart- Mayhap not noticed till we feel the night Is less within our souls, and broader-spaced Has grown the cheerful sunshine of the heart. —Samuel Francis Batchelder. THE. IRIS. N botany this is the generic name of | a number of beautiful plants be- longing to the natural order of lridaceé. The plants have a creep- ing rootstock, or else a flat tuber, equi- tant leaves, irregular flowers, and three stamens. They are represented equally in the temperate and hotter regions of the globe. The wild species of iris are generally called blue-flag, and the cul- tivated flower-de-luce, from the French fleur de Louis, it having been the device of Louis VII. of France. Our .com- monest blue-flag, zis versicolor, is a widely distributed plant, its violet-blue flowers, as may be seen, upon stems one to three feet high, being conspicuous in wet places in early summer. The root of this possesses cathartic and diuretic properties, and is used by some medical practitioners. The slender blue-flag found in similar localities near the Atlantic coast, is smaller in all its parts. A yellowish or red- dish-brown species, resembling the first named in appearance, is found in Illinois and southward. There ares pthkee) native species which grow only about six inches high and have blue flowers. They are found in Virginia and southward, and on the shores of the great lakes; these are sometimes seen as garden plants. The orris root of commerce is the product of Iris Florentina, 1. pallida, and J. Ger- manica, which grow wild in the south of Europe; the rhizomes are pared and dried, and exported from Trieste and Leghorn, chiefly for the use of perfum- ers; they have the odor of violets. The garden species of iris are numerous, and by crossing have produced a great many known only by garden names. The dwarf iris, /, pumila, from three to six inches high, flowers very early and makes good edgings to borders; the common flower-de-luce of the gardens is /. Germanica; the elder-scented flower-de-luce is /. sambucina. These and many others are hardy in our, climate, and readily multiplied by divi- sion of their rootstocks. The mourn- ing or Crape iris is one of the finest of the genus, its flowers being very large, dotted and striped with purple on a gray ground. The flowers of most of the species are beautiful. Some of them have received much attention from florists, particularly the Spanish, English, and German, or common iris, all corn-rooted species, and all Euro- pean. The Persian iris is delightfully fragrant. The roots of all these species are annually exported in considerable quantities from Holland. The roasted seeds of one species have been used as a substitute for coffee. THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. HE language of flowers is a study | . at once interesting and inno- cent, cultivating, as it does, a taste for the works of nature, filling the soul with the sweetest emo- tions and presenting to view one of the most enchanting phases of a beautiful world full of wonders. Following are a few of the best-known flowers and the sentiments which they represent: Sweet alyssum, worth beyond beauty; apple blossom, preference; bachelor’s button, single and selfish; balm, sym- pathy; barberry, sourness; candytuft, 74 indifference; carnation pink, woman's love; Chinese chrysanthemum, cheer- fulness under misfortune; clematis, mental beauty; columbine, folly; red clover, industry; dahlia, dignity; white daisy, innocence; faded leaves, melan- choly; forget-me-not, remembrance; jonquil, affection returned; lily of the valley, return of happiness; myrtle, love in absence; pansy, you occupy my thoughts; moss rose, superior merit; red rose, beauty; white rose, 1 am worthy of love; sunflower, haughtiness; yellow rose, infidelity. IRIS COPYRIGHT 1899, DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO., NEW YORK THE PEACOCK. ANNA R. HENDERSON. S THE rose among flowers, so is the peacock among the feath- ered tribes. No other bird has so many colors in its plumage. Its huesare all beautiful; the brilliant blue and black, | shot with gold, of the eyes of the tail, the satin-like peacock blue of its neck and breast, the shining green of its | back, each feather with its tiny eye of brown, the clear brown of the stiff fan | that supports its tail, the soft gray down that clothes its body—all are fit | robing for this royal bird. his regal movement; so graceful, so dignified, that one seems disposed to believe the legend of India, his native home, that he contains the metamor- phosed spirit of a peerless prince. | have said that his step is kingly, yet I am often disposed to yield to the | opinion of an old man who declared | that the gait of the peacock is queenly, much like that of a beautiful and grace- ful woman with a long train. Certain it is, that nothing else can make such | an addition to a green lawn as a pea- - cock, stepping lightly along, keeping his brilliant feathers swaying just above the grass. My West Virginia home has many beauties of nature, shady dells where waters sparkle, pastures that slope toward the shining Ohio, lofty trees that give shade to sleek cat- tle and spirited horses; but amid all these charms we have always rated highly the gorgeous peacocks which | have so long adorned its grounds that it has become known as the ‘Home of | the Peacocks.” Though now sadly di- minished by poachers and _ hunters, there were many years in which scores of them, sometimes nearly a hundred, strutted around our rural home. The peacock’s tail does not assume | full length and beauty until his fourth | The feathers begin to | grow in January, and by early spring | or fifth year. are long, and then his season of strut- ting begins; and he spends a large part _ of every day in this proud employment. Each peacock has his favorite place of strutting, and frequents it day after day. Open gateposts are much sought after; and our front gateposts have always been favorite resting-places on sunny afternoons, where these beauties seemed posing to order. For many seasons a very handsome one strutted in front of our sitting-room window. Some of the family slipped over its neck a cord on which hung a silver dime, which shone on its blue feathers. Alas for his majesty! Strut- ting in the road one day, a horse shied ; | at him, and its owner threwa stone and In keeping with his kingly raiment is | killed the beauty. The peahen, a meek-looking matron with a green neck and long gray feath- ers, is very secretive as to a nest, and seeks an orchard or wheatfield. When the little gray brood, from three to five in number, are a few weeks old she brings them to the yard. Peafowls scorn the shelter of a house and roost in the loftiest trees. Near our home are some tall oaks and under them they gather on summer evenings, and, after many shrill good-night cries, fly upward to the high limbs. In cold weather they do not come down until late in the day. Sometimes | on snowy days they get so weighted with snow that they cannot fly up, and so settle on the ground, and their long feathers freezing, have to be cut loose. In June or early July their feathers be- gin to drop, and to secure them they must be plucked. Though so docile as to frequent the porches, they do not like to be caught, but take to the wing, so a rainy day is selected, when their feathers are weighted with water, and they are soon chased down. After be- ing plucked they are unsteady in gait and hide in the bushes for days. Peafowls have a strong home-feeling and when taken away are hard to re- tain; as they wander off, striving to re- turn. They are enemies to young chickens, and are exasperating to the good housewife, as they are hard to drive away, performing a circle and re- turning. The peafowl is almost as good a table fowl as the turkey. OWLS. JOHN WINTHROP SCOTT. IRDS that fly in the night and whose wings move so smoothly through the air that they make no noise act much like the bur- glar that gets into your house quietly when you are asleep to steal your | money. But the owl is not a burglar. He is the friend of man. other bird that does the farmer so much good as the owl. The owl comes out in the dark to get the small animals that are out at that time stealing things from the farmer. So we may call the owl the night watchman of the farm. He sometimes comes out in the day- time, but most owls prefer the night or at least a dark day. The owl has been called a wise bird for the same reason that some men are thought to be wise—he looks wise. One reason he looks so steadily at you that you think he is studying you is be- cause the light is so strong in the day- time that his sight is bad. is not as wise as he is said to be. He does some foolish things as well as other birds. more foolish than any other bird would be in the same place. One owl was known to sit for more than a half day | under a leaking water tap. The water fell at the rate of twenty drops a min- ute right down upon the owl’s head, and yet he was not wise enough to | move out of the wet. Puffy, a tame young owl, caught and ate a two-pound pullet. An old hen afterwards took a fancy to his perch. She went in and-gave the little owl a sound whipping, and after that shared the perch with him. He never forgot the lesson the hen had given him and always treated her well. notice by making believe they are something besides owls. They can move their feathers so as to change their looks entirely. The great horned owl sometimes makes himself a fright- ful mass of feathers a yard wide, and There is no | But the owl | In fact he is sometimes | } at other times he seems to bea very slim bird, too thin for an owl. Puffy once got away from his master. He flew to the top of a stump and sat like a stake for an hour while his master looked all round the place for him without knowing there was a bird on the stump in plain sight. Owls draw the feathers away from their mouths in an odd way when they eat, and when walking softly to steal upon a mouse tuck up their feathers as a lady lifts her skirts. Owls are fond of mice. A boy who had a half-grown barn owl tried him one day to see how many mice he would eat. The first four mice went down the owl’s throat very quickly. Then number five and number six were eaten ina short time. Number seven did not go down quite as rapidly and number eight was slower still. Num- ber nine was taken greedily, but the owl could not swallow it. The tail hung out of the owl’s mouth for awhile before it could be fairly counted. Then no more were eaten till about three hours after, when the owl was pleased to take four more mice. The gopher is a small animal that does damage to growing things. It digs up corn after it is planted, and it enaws the roots of fruit trees so as to hurt them badly. Owls catch gophers | and eat them. This is one reason why All owls are not too stupid to learn. | the farmer likes the owl so well. Barn owls sometimes roost with pigeons, but they are good friends. We know they ~ do not eat the pigeons because owls swallow their food whole and have to throw up the bones afterwards, and it is known that the owls living with the pigeons throw up bones of rats and | mice but not of pigeons. Owls have a way of hiding from | 78 Sometimes so many mice have come upon the farms in England that it looked as if everything would be eaten up by them. But a great many owls always came when the mice were so thick and helped the farmers save their crops. One owl was seen to make, in thirty min- utes, seventeen trips to her young with | food. A gentleman living in the West when | there was so much damage done by grasshoppers found that the owls were living on them and not eating much of any Other kind of food. The only way he cculd tell what the owls had for supper was to shoot an owl once in awhile and see what was inits stomach. twenty-two other insects, and one mouse which it had just taken. Screech of them had other kinds of insects. A rabbit, a weasel, a mink, or evena skunk is good eating for the owl. And there are times when one owl will make a meal of another owl of smaller size. A large red-tailed hawk was once put | into a garret where there was a snowy owl. and partly eaten by the owl. great horned owl and a little screech owl were shut up in a hay loft together. The wings of the big owl were cut so There is a saying among country peo- ple who wish to seem wise: “I wasn’t brought up in the woods to be afraid of owls.” The hoot owl has so many wild notes in his voice that it is not at all strange that he scares people who have not been brought up in the woods. Be- | fore he sends out his proper hoot he | sometimes seems to try to frighten One barn ow! had thirty-nine locusts, | everybody out of the forest with his awful shrieks. Sometimes several hoot | owls get together in the night to hold owls and burrowing owls usually had | more than two dozen locusts,and some | a concert One of them seems to tell a funny story and all the rest break out with ‘shouts of he-he-he-he-hi-ht-hi-hi-ha- ha-ha-ha, and then they become as solemn as any other owls, and the still- ness of the night is perfect until another | owl has a droll story or song to set the | That night the hawk was killed | A tame | he could not fly. After about a week | they both became one owl, and that | owl threw up the claws, beak, bones, | and feathers which had once been use- ful to the little screech owl. Owls sometimes catch partridges and quails. This is not so bad, for they pick out the weak birds that are not | well, and so keep disease from spread- ing among the fine birds. A hunter once shot a bob white so that it was | not killed but could not fly. He and his dog were chasing the bird in the grass along a fence hoping to catch it. An owl saw the wounded bird and thought it belonged to him because it | was not well. He came out of the woods very swiftly and picked up the bob white right before the eyes of the hunter. In woods where there are panthers one will often hear in the night fearful cries that make it seem as if some wild beast were about to jump down from | some tree near by to kill the one who | is out so late. Most of these cries which frighten people so are made by hoot owls. But it is not easy to tell whether the sound comes from a_ hoot owl or from the throat of a wild cat. 79 rest a-shouting at. The owl is brave. One that weighed less than six ounces once fought a nine- pound rooster. A teamster in Maine once went to sleep on top of his load while his horses ate their oats beside a forest road. When he pulled the blanket away from his face an owl pounced down upon it, perhaps think- ing his white skin was a rabbit, and tore his cheeks fiercely. He was much frightened, having just awakened. But he caught the ow! and killed it after a short struggle, and called himself lucky because his eyes were not put out by the bird. If the owl is a sober and wise bird he forgets all about it when he woos his mate. Such awkward dancing and foolish boo-hoo-ing is never seen ex- cept when the owl is trying to choose a mate for life. But he makes up for his awkwardness when there are eggs to sit upon, for the owl is the best hus- band a bird ever had. When there is room in the old hollow where the nest is he will sit on the eggs with his wife and help her hatch the puffy little owl children. Owls are the best of parents, too, for they will risk their own lives freely to protect their young. If their nests are robbed and the old birds can find where their young ones are caged they will come daily with food for them though they are in great danger in do- ing so. They lay their eggs earlier than other birds, and often the falling snow covers the back of the sitting bird. The warmth of her body melts it so that water runs gently down through the nest and forms icicles that hang below and glisten in the sunshine to tell of the faithful conduct of the mother owl. Small birds, as a rule, hate owls, and they delight in gettinground these great awkward fellows whenever they can catch them by day and doing all they can to hurt their feelings. Bird-catch- ers sometimes catch small birds be- cause they are so fond of teasing owls. An owl is caught and tied to a tree. The tree is covered with sticky stuff called bird lime. As soon as a little bird sees the owl in the tree he cries to his friends and they come in great crowds to tease the owl. But the small birds find their desire to torment ends in their own capture, for they cannot get away from the bird lime until the trapper comes along and gathers all the little birds that are hanging to the sticky limbs and twigs about the big bird they were trying to tease. THE DUCK MOLE. E ARE indebted to Dr. George Bennett for the first good de- scription of the duck mole ( Or- nithorhynchus anatinus) which was an object of wonder to naturalists long after its discovery. This enthus- iastic investigator traveled to Australia for the sole purpose of observing the animal. Up to that time little was known of it. We simply knew that the duck mole lives in the water and was persistently hunted by the natives, as it yielded a savory flesh and laid eggs. The latter discovery was made by Caldwell in 1884. The duck mole is about two feet in length, six inches of which are in- cluded in the tail. The males are larger than the females. The legs are very small, all four feet being five-toed and webbed. All the toes are very strong, blunt, and excellently adapted for digging. The middle toes are the longest. The tail is flat and is broad at the end, the extremity being formed by long hairs. It is abruptly cut off, and in old animals is either entirely naked beneath or covered with a few coarse hairs. In young animals it is quite hairy. The adult animal has only four horny teeth in its two jaws, of which the upper front tooth is broad and flat and resembles a grinder. The fur of the duck mole consists of a coarse outer coat of a dark brown color with a silvery-white surface tinge, 80 and a very soft, grayish inner fur, sim- ilar tothat of the seal andthe otter. A peculiar fish-like odor is given forth by the fur, especially when it is wet. ‘The Australians, however, are very fond of the flesh of the animal in spite of its disgusting odor. The duck mole is said to be fondest of calm spots in rivers filled with aquatic plants and the banks of which are shaded by the dense foliage of trees; and it constructs more or less complicated burrows in the banks. A tunnel about eighteen feet long terminates in a large. chamber, both the chamber and its approaches being strewn with dry aquatic plants. The chamber usually has two entrances, one below the surfaceof the water, and the other about twelve inches above. The duck moles are seen at all times in the rivers of Australia, especially during the spring and summer. They emerge from their retreats at dusk, though they sometimes also appear in the day time, searching -for food. When the water is clear, the observer can follow with the eye the move- ments of the animal as it dives and re- appears above the surface. It likes to stay near the shore, amidst the mud, searching for its food between the roots of the plants, where insects abound. The mollusks which it captures in its forays it stores temporarily in its cheek- pouches and then consumes them at greater leisure. *ODVOIHO “090 “8Nd AGNLS JYNLYN ‘Sg *SODUDIDS “pRedY "1D "JOO WOIy ‘668L LHDINAdOO ae ” “On a beautiful summer evening, says Bennett, “I approached a small river in Australia, and as I knew the predilection of the duck mole for the hour of dusk, I tried to obtain a glimpse of one. With a constant grasp on our guns, we patiently stood onthe shore. It was not long before we saw a black object appear near us - on the top of the water, the head be- ing raised but little above the surface. We stood motionless, lest we should scare the animal, carefully observing and following its movements, for one must be ready to shoot just as the duck mole reappears after diving. Only a shot in the head is effective, as the loose, thick fur will not allow a bullet to penetrate it readily. We wounded one which gave evidence of severe in- jury and sank immediately, but soon rose again. When the dog brought it to us we found it to be a fine male. Several minutes after it had been brought out of the water it apparently revived, and, instantly rising to its feet, staggered toward the river. About twenty-five minutes later it turned over several times and then died. As I had heard much about the danger of being pierced by its spur even when the ani- mal is mortally injured, I put my hand near the so-called poisonous spur at the first grasp. In its violent exertions to escape the animal scratched me slightly with its hind paws and also with its spur, but despite the roughness with which I seized it, it did not wound me intentionally. I had also been further told that the duck mole lay on its back when it wished to use the spur, which statement will not be received as at all probable by anyone who knows the animal in ever so slight a way. I put it in this position, butit only strove to regain its feet without attempting to wound me by using its spur. Inshort, I tried in every way to induce the an- imal to make use of its spur as a wea- pon, but in vain; and I am perfectly convinced that the spur has another function than that of a weapon. The natives characterize the spur as ‘mis- chievous,’ that being with them a word which in general conveys the idea of dangerous or poisonous character; yet they use the same expression in speak- | 83 ing of the scratches inflicted by the an- imal with the hinder feet, and they are not at all afraid of seizing aliving duck mole. Whenthe queer creature runs along the ground, it produces an im- pression of something unnatural, and its strange shape easily startles a timid person. Cats instantly take flight at its appearance, and even dogs, which are not specially trained, stare at it, prick their ears, and bark, but are afraid to touch it.” On another voyage Bennett discov- ered a burrow containing three young ones, upon which the hair had already grown, and which he could observe for some time. When he found the nest with the young ones and placed them on the ground, they ran to and fro, but did not make such savage attempts to escape as did the old ones. The na- tives, whose mouths watered at the sight of these fat young animals, said that they were about eight months old, and added that the young duck moles were fed milk by their mother only during their early infancy and later were given insects, small shells, and mud. At evening Bennett’s two little pets emerged from their cage at dusk and usually ate their food; then they began to play like a couple of young dogs, attacking each other with their beaks, lifting their fore paws and climbing over each other. They were very lively. Their littleeyes gleamedand the apertures of the ears opened and closed in remarkably rapid succession. As their eyes stand quite high on their heads they cannot see very well straight ahead, and therefore are apt to come into collision with near-by objects. The young animals survived only five weeks. The duck mole lays several soft- shelled eggs. The eggs are hatched in the nest. The newly-hatched young are small, naked, blind-and as helpless as those of the pouched animals. Their beaks are short. In the zodlogical garden at Mel- bourne duck moles have occasionally been kept of late years, but none have, thus far, reached Europe or America alive. Brehm says that the duck mole is the last among the known mammals. THE HIBERNATION OF ANIMALS. ATURE presents no greater or more curious phenomenon than the habit of certain animals to conceal themselves and le dor- mant, in a lethargic sleep, for weeks and months. It is known that in per- fect hibernators the processes of nature are interrupted during the period of this long insensibility. Breathing is nearly, and in some animals, entirely suspended, and the temperature of the blood even in the warmer blooded ant- mals, falls so low that how life can be maintained in them is a great mystery. A variety of Rocky Mountain ground squirrels, when in perfect hibernation, says an observer, has a temperature only three degrees above freezing point | of water, and when taken from their burrows are as rigid as if they were not | only dead, but frozen. Buta few min- utes in a warm room will. show that | they are not only alive, but full of life. | As to the suspension of breathing in hibernators, the fact is proved suffi- ciently in the instances of the raccoon and the woodchuck. When they have laid themselves away for the winter sleep they roll themselves up comfort- ably and press their noses in such a position against their hinder parts that it would be an absolute impossibility for them to draw a breath. It is gen- erally supposed that the bear rolls itself up in this way and does not breathe, but the holes melted in the snow beneath which the animal fre- quently stows itself, under a covering of leaves, prove that it does breathe while in its lethargy. The marmot family produces the soundest winter sleepers. When the marmot is in its peculiar state of hiber- nation the electric spark will not rouse it. The most noxious gases do not affect it in the slightest. Ifits temper- ature is raised above that at which the ‘animal breathed in its natural state it will die almost immediately. Our own familiar wild animals, the bear, the raccoon, and the woodchuck —the so-called ground-hog—are classed as perfect hibernators, because they store no food for winter, but have acquired or provided themselves with 84 a thick, fatty secretion between the skin and flesh, which, it is supposed, supplies them with sustenance. As a matter of fact, although dormant ani- mals absorb fat, it does not enter into their digestive organs. Food intro- duced into the stomach of a hibernat- ine /animal,.-of areptile, vby force or artificial means, will be found un- digested at all stages of its lethargy, for it invariably goes into its peculiar state on an empty stomach. That is one of the mysteries of the phenome- non, not so great, however, as the fact that bears and woodchucks produce their young during their winter sleep. The male bear is frequently roused from his sleep and is found by the woodsman roaming about in mid-winter, but they have never known, they say, a female bear to be killed after the sea- son for hibernation has set’ in. Squirrels are only partial hiberna- tors, from the fact that they work all summer and fall storing great quanti- ties of food to supply them when hun- ger wakes them up during the winter, some of them, no doubt, spending very little time in a lethargic sleep. The common land tortoise, no mat- ter where it may be, and it is a vora- cious feeder, goes to sleep in Novem- ber and does not wake up again till May, and that curious animal, the hedgehog, goes to sleep as soon as the weather gets cold and remains in un- broken slumber six months. Batsvdit” the ~ becinning) -on 7 cold weather, begin to huddle together in bunches in hollow trees, dark corners in deserted houses, and in caves and crevices in the rocks. They gradually lose all sensibility, and continue ina comatose state until the return of gen- uine warm weather. When yousee the first bat of the season fluttering at nightfall you can be sure that warm weather has come to stay. The little hooks at the end of one of the joints of each wing are what the bat hangs itself up by when it goes to sleep, whether for a day or for months. When the bats are clustering for hibernation one of the number hangs itself up by its hooks, head downward, and the others cling toit. It is on record that sixty bats have been found in one cluster, the entire weight of the lot being sustained by the one bat clinging with its hooks to whatever it had fastened them to at the start—a weight of at least ten pounds. The position of the central bat in sucha cluster would be like that of a man hanging by his thumb-nails and supporting the weight of fifty-nine other men. So completely is anima- tion suspended in the bat during the cold months that no test yet applied has induced it to show the least sign of life. Torpid bats have been inclosed by the hour in air-tight glass jars and not a particle of oxygen in the jars has been exhausted when they were taken out, showing that the bats had not breathed. As cold drives certain animals, in- sects, and reptiles to a state of torpid- ity, so heat and lack of water bring about the same condition in others. The animal or reptile that hibernates, or goes to sleep in cold weather, ar- ranges its body so that it will conduce to the greatest warmth, while those that estivate, or become torpid in warm weather, place themselves in positions that show that they want all the cool- ness the climate will permit. The ten- ric, a tropical animal, carnivorous and insectivorous, becomes torpid during the greatest heat, and lies on its back with its body drawn to its greatest length, and its limbs spread wide apart. Snakes estivate in the South, all kinds together, just as snakes hibernate in the North, but instead of rolling them- selves in great balls, as the northern snakes do, they lie singly, and stretched to their full length. Want of water will cause the com- mon garden snail to go into a state of the most complete and curious lethargy. This is the snail of the genus Limax, not the larger one of the genus Helix. In the latter the phenomenon of hiber- nation is especially remarkable. In November the snail forms just a soft, silky membrane across the external opening of its shell. On the inner sur- face of that it deposits a coating of carbonate of lime, which immediately hardens the gypsum. This partition is again lined with a silky membrane. The «snail then retires a little further into the shell and forms asecond mem- branous partition, retiring again and again until there are six of these parti- tions between the snail and the lime- coated door at the entrance of the shell. In the recess behind all these partitions the snail lies torpid until May. All this time it lives without motion, without heat, without food, without air, without circulation or the exercise of any of its functions. If this snail is prevented from hibernating for several seasons by keeping it in a warm room, it will gradually waste away and die. A case is known where several snails of this genus were shut in a perforated box without food or water. They re- tired into their shells and closed them with athin membrane. They remained so for three years, but revived when put into torpid water. They had been driven into torpidity by drought. The blood of this animal is white. j It may be of interest to state in con- nection with these animals who pass half the year, or less, in sleep, that there are several species of fish, reptiles, and insects which never sleep during their stay in this world. Among fish it is now positively known that pike, salmon, and gold-fish never sleep at all. Also that there are several others of the fish family that never sleep more than a few minutes during a month. There are dozens of species of flies which never indulge in slumber, and from three to five species of serpents which the naturalists have never been able to catch napping. Apollo has peeped through the shutter, And awakened the witty and fair; The boarding-school belle’s in a flutter, The two-penny post’s in despair. The breath of the morning is flinging A magic on blossom and spray, And cockneys and sparrows are singing In chorus on Valentine’s day. —Praed. THE CAPE MAY WARBLER. (Dendroica tigrina.) LYNDS JONES. HERE is hardly another group | of birds that yields so satisfac- tory returns for earnest study as the American wood warblers. All shades and patterns of color are theirs, from somber to brilliant, from the plain- est to the most intricate and exquisite pattern. Almost all degrees ot vocal ability are found among them, from the simple twitter of the Tennessee to the wild thrilling challenge of the Louisiana water thrush or the ventrilo- quial antics of the yellow-breasted chat. Many bird students, it is true, regard the group as too difficult for any but the professional ornithologist to at- tempt; and that may be true of the fe- males and of the autumnal plumages of the young, but the spring males are a constant inspiration and delight to one who admires variety in beauty. It may be objected that the small size of the warblers renders their field study difficult, even if the foliage does not prove a serious hindrance. One must remember, however, that most small birds are not wary and that they may be closely approached, so that, with a good field-glass (and every bird- student should use one) their colors and the pattern of their dress can readily be made out even in the lower tree tops, where many of them feed. Foliage is always in the way, but even that can be circumvented by patience and perse- verance, The study of adult males in spring is greatly aided by the fact that each species, with some exceptions, has one or more patches of color peculiar to itself. Thus in the Cape May warbler the ear patches are rufous. Other spe- cles possess rufous colors, but none of them in this place. The Cape May warbler belongsamong theless common species,but may be com- mon for a day or two during the height of the migration. It is very fond of or- 86 chards where it feeds among the foliage, snatching an insect here, a larva there, and cleaning the bundle of eggs from the leaf over yonder with an untiring energy. They also associate more or less with the other warblers in the woods. They are of great value to the fruit grower. This species is found from the At- lantic coast west to the plains and north to Hudson’s Bay, passing thé winter in the tropics. It breeds from northern New England to Hudson’s Bay and probably in northern Minnesota. The nest is built in a low bush in a wooded pasture or open woodland, said to be partially pensile. The nest and eggs are not readily distinguishable from those of several other warblers. The males sing frequently from their perch on the topmost twig of a spruce tree, thus misleading one as to the where- abouts of the female and nest. The song resembles somewhat that of the black and white warbler, but is rather less wiry. It cannot be represented on paper. The tongue of this bird is worthy of special notice. It is cleft at the tip, and is provided with somewhat of a fringe. This character is not peculiar to this species, but is found in some honey creepers and in at least one for- eign family of birds, thus suggesting, at least, the relationship of the warblers as a group. It might be asked, what is the significance of this character as regards feeding-habits? Apparently nothing, since the feeding-habits and food do not differ from those of other warblers not having the cleft tongue as greatly as the tongues themselves dif- fer in structure. It is apparently an aberrant character developed some- what at random among groups nearly related, or perhaps a remnant of struc- ture. FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. CAPE MAY WARBLER. COPYRIGHT 1599, . NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO. Life-size. SNOWFLAKES. Falling all the night-time, Falling all the day, Silent into silence, From the far-away; Stilly host unnumbered, All the night and day Falling, falling, falling, From the far-away,— Never came like glory To the fields and trees, Never summer blossoms Thick and white as these. To the dear old places Winging night and day, Follow, follow, follow, Fold them soft away; Folding, folding, folding, Fold the world away, Souls of flowers drifting Down the winter day. —John Vance Cheney. A TIMELY WARNING, HILE a British brig was gliding W smoothly along before a good breeze in the South Pacific, a flock of small birds about the size, shape, and color of paroquets set- tled down in the rigging and passed an hour or more resting. The second mate was so anxious to find out the species to which the visiting strangers belonged that he tried to entrap a spec- imen, but the birds were too shy to be thus caught and too spry to be seized by the quick hands of the sailors. At the end of about an hour the birds took the brig’s course, and disappeared, but towards nightfall they came back and passed the night in the main-top. The next morning the birds flew off again, and when they returned at noon the sailors scattered some food about | the decks. become so tame that they hopped about the decks, picking up the crumbs. That afternoon an astonishing thing hap- By this time the birds had | | sea. pened. The flock came flying swiftly toward the brig. Every bird seemed to be piping as if pursued by some little invisible enemy on wings, and they at once huddled down behind the deck- house. The superstitious sailors at once called the captain of the brig, who rubbed his eyes and looked at the barometer. A glance showed that something was wrong with the elements and the brig was put in shape to out- ride a storm. The storm came down about twenty minutes after the birds had reached the vessel. For a few min- utes the sky was like the waterless bot- tom of a lake—a vast arch of yellowish mud —and torrents of rain fell. Why it did not blow very hard, no one knows; but on reaching port, two days later, the captain learned that a great tor- nado had swept across that part of the The birds left the vessel on the morning after the storm and were not seen again. A WINDOW STUDY. OLIVE THORNE MILLER. NE of the best places to study () birds is from behind the blinds of a conveniently-placed win- dow, where one can see with- out being seen. My window one July looked into the tops of tall spruce trees, relieved here and there by a pine, a birch, ora | maple. This was the home ae the | most fascinating and the most bewild- | ering of feathered tribes, the warblers, and a rugged old spruce tree was a favorite ‘Inn of Rest” for every bird in the vicinity. In all the years that I have known birds I have carefully avoided becom- ing interested in warblers, so tiny, so restless, so addicted to branches, so every way tantalizing to study. But here, without intention on my part, fate had opened my windows into their native haunts, even into the very tree-tops where they dwell. strives in vain who strives with fate.” After one protest I succumbed to their charms. My principal visitor was a beauty, like most of his distinguished family, having a bright yellow head, set off by a broad black band beginning at the throat and running far down the sides, and he bore the awkward name “black- throated green warbler.” A bewitching and famous singer is_ this atom in black and gold. And not only is his song the sweetest and most | winning, but the most unique, and— what is not generally known—the most varied. The song that has been oftenest noticed, and is considered characteris- the upper | “He | tic of the species, is sometimes syllabled | as “trees, trees, beautiful trees,” times as “hear me Saint Theresa.” But in my intimate acquaintance with some of the family that July I noted down from my window alone eight dis- SOmMmeE- | tinctly different melodies. My special little neighbor, who spent hours every day in the old spruce, sang the regula- tion carol of his tribe, but he also in- dulged in at least one other totally un- like that. Those two I have heard and seen him sing, one directly after the other, but he may have had half a dozen arrangements of his sweet notes. Sometimes the mate of my spruce- tree neighbor appeared on the tree, going over the branches in a business- like way, and uttering a loud, sharp aged oy one One morning there suddenly broke out in the old spruce a great clatter of “tick-et! tick-et!” in the voice of a nestling. I snatched my glass and _ turned it at once upon a much-excited warbler, my black-throated green. He was hopping about in a way unusual even with him, and from every side came the thread-like cries, while the swaying of twigs pointed out a whole family of little folk, scrambling about | in warbler fashion and calling like big- ger bird babies for food. They were plainly just out of the nest, and then I studied my spruce-tree bird in a new role, the father of a family. He was charming in that as in every other, and he: was evidently a “good | provider,” for I often saw him after that day going about in great anxiety, looking here and there and every- where, while a small green worm in the beak told plainly enough that he was seeking his wandering offspring. During the remainder of the month I frequently saw, and more frequently heard, the little family as they followed their busy parents around on the neigh- boring trees. One day I noted the singer flitting about the top of the spruce, singing most joyously, and almost as con- stantly as before the advent of the nestlings, while the mother was hurry- ing over the lower branches of the | same tree, collecting food for one youngster. Suddenly the song ceased, and the tiny papa joined the family party below, and addressed himself with his usual energy to the business | of filling that greedy mouth. Over and under and around and through the branches he rushed, every few seconds returning to stuff a morsel into the always hungry mouth, till he | actually reduced that infant to silence, and then he slipped away, returned to his tree top, and resumed his lovely | “tee-tee-tweetum!”’ Somewhat later I heard the baby black-throats at their practice, droll, quavering attempts to imitate the mu- sical song of their father. They soon mastered the notes, but the spirit was as yet far beyond them. This happy life went on before my window till, almost at the end of July, a heavy fog swept in one evening from the ocean, and when, the next day, a cool north wind blew it back whence it came, it seemed to take the whole tribe of warblers with it. August was now upon the threshold, and in the bird world at least ‘‘Summer like a bird had flown.’’ FIVE LITTLE WOODMEN. EK. F. MOSBY. UT of the woods they come, vis- &) iting our homes wherever they see a standing invitation in the shape ofa tree. But each one has his preferences. One likes the evergreens best, another the bare trunk where it is easy to break the bark, and still another likes a fresh tree like the magnolia, glossy and full of life even in winter. birds? Yes; and the small downy woodpecker comes first, and in all weathers. The other day after a sun- rise of gold and a splendid rainbow arch, swiftly blotted out by a black storm with scudding rain and flying leaves, I caught sight of a tiny downy, You have guessed these are | in the very heart of all the uproar of | the elements, busily pecking his way up a tree near my window. On an- other winter day, sunny and calm, he came flying overhead with a loud rat- tling note that spoke of good cheer in most neighborly fashion. Itisa family, at the very least, that visits us. There are variations in size, if I mistake not, and one day a pair arrived together; the female with her glossy black velvet crown almost as handsome with her broad white satin stripe down the mid- dle, and black and white markings, as her mate, who, indeed, only outshines her by the lovely band of red on the head or nape of his neck, as you choose to call it. I fancy she is the more anx- ious housekeeper. At least, it was her persistent call-note, rather sharpin tone, that drew me from my lounge to watch her quick movements on the bark, and it is she that more quickly takes flight. He seems never disturbed by his in- quisitive human neighbors, nor even the impudent sparrows—though he can send these to the right about if he pleases—and his tap, tap, tap, like a small drummer on the tree-trunk, is always pleasant to hear. I am glad to know they both havea cozy little home, a hole on the southern side of a tree, where the sun shines on good days, and fancy them tucked into round balls of feathers, only to be distinguished by the red on top, and comfortably asleep, when neither pleasure nor necessity in- vites them abroad. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is also a winter guest, but he is far more timid than the downy, and I have often seen him routed by the sparrows or scared off by a sudden sound. The male is very gay in plumage, with much mottled yellowish brown on back, conspicuous white stripes on wings, beautiful clear yellow and black in front, scarlet on his head and cardinal at his throat. The female has a white throat and cardinal or black cap. I have noticed one with a cardinal cap that had little black feathers sticking here and there like an emery bag. They are very full of fun, even riotous in play, and shout, in their summer home—the woods of the north —but they are very quiet when winter- ing with us, and often flit away without a sound. Of the nuthatches, the pretty white- breasted one with his soft bluish-grey coat and shining black head, is our fa- miliar resident and the red-breasted an occasional winter companion. They are charming little birds, not spe- cially musical, though their call 1s vigorous and friendly, but very pretty and gentle, and awakening perpetual wonder and admiration at their feats as acrobats, running as lightly head down- wards as in a natural position, and show- ing equal swiftness and grace in every movement, whether with aid of wings or without. They never seem in the least afraid of us, but raise their softly rounded heads and look at us with a most delightful confidence. The brown creeper is like a bit of the trunk in his brown tints, mottled as if in mimicry of the play of light and shadow on the bark. He is as truly a tree-creature as ever Greek fable de- vised, and can so flatten himself, when alarmed, against a tree that no inch of his light breast is visible, and it is difficult, indeed, to recognize him as deusepafate. being, Eley Is) ithe, one species found in America of quite a large Old World family, and has some odd characteristics. First, his long tail, used to aid him in climbing, is rather curved and stiff and generally worn by constant use. His bill is also curved, so that the profile of his figure is likea relaxed bow as he works his plodding way up the side of the tree, diligently seeking insects, eggs, and larve, in the minute crevices of the bark. Hesticks his little nest, made, of course, of bits of dead wood, bark, and twigs, between the tree and a strip of loose bark, very like a part of ‘the tree ‘itself, and the eggs are spotted and dotted with wood colors, brown in different shades, and lavender. Altogether his life is a tree- study; the tree is to him home, model, hunting-ground, hiding-place, and ref- uge. He never descends by creeping, but when he wants to search a lower part of the trunk, he flies to the base, and begins it all over again. In the summer fir-wood, farther northward, it is said he sings, but in winter-time we hear only a faint squeak, a little like one bough scraping against another. The black-and-white creeping warb- ler is very like our sober brown creeper in habit, but he, like most of his gay brethren, is only a summer guest. In his place we have Carolina chickadees and golden-crowned kinglets—and even, by good luck, an occasional ruby- crowned. All these tiny creatures have the most charming and airy ways of flitting from bough to bough, swinging lightly irom the ~utmost-send soir bough, daintily dropping to unex- pected resting-places, and rarely paus- ing for a second’s breathing-time any- where. The Carolina chickadee is said to have a longer note and more varied repertoire than his northern cousin, yet whenever I have heard him in winter weather, there is the same silvery and joyous tinkle of showering Chick a-dee- dee-dees from the pretty gray and black- capped flock that I have heard in Mas- sachusetts. Perhaps the variations are more evident in his summer singing. I have left the kinglet for the last, but it is hard to do justice to this lovely little bird that, if the food-supply be all right, will often elect to stay with us in winter rather than migrate to Mexico. His colors are exquisite, olive-green bordered by darker tints that throw the green above and the yellow-tinted white below into fine relief; a brilliant crown of reddish-gold, bordered by black and yellow, and every feather preened to satiny smoothness. He gleans his food merrily, singing or calling softly to himself as he works. His nest is built in the far northern forests, sometimes swinging as high as sixty feet, and woven of pale green mosses, lined with strips of the silky inside back and down for the many nestlings. _ = _ ay ey air , 6 A oe — Au ry oS. eT por he iter partes oe 0s rc ae haat Et ey Se \ ‘ : ws i sutter-nut. Butter-nut in husk. Edible pine. Cocoa-nut. Cross section Black Walnut PLATE URL Black Walnut. PRES. BY CUNEO BROS. NATURE STUDY PUB. CO,, CHICAGO. THE COCOA-NUT. ¢ HE fruit of the cocoa-nut palm, (Cocos nucifera), which is the most useful tree of all its tribe to the natives of the regions in which it grows, is one of the most valuable and important of commercial products. On the Malabar and Corvo- mandel coasts of India the trees grow in vast numbers; and in Ceylon, which is peculiarly well situated for their culti- vation, it is estimated that twenty mil- lions of the trees flourish. The wealth of a native in Ceylon is estimated by his property in cocoa-nut trees, and Sir Emerson Tennent notes a law case in a district court in which the subject in dispute was a claim of the twenty-fifth twentieth part of anacre of palms. The tree is very beautiful and lofty, grow- ing to a height of from sixty to one hundred feet, with a cylindrical stem which attains a thickness of two feet. It terminates in a crown of graceful | leaves. The leaf sometimes attains a length of twenty feet, consists of a strong mid-rib, whence numerous long, acute leaflets spring, giving the whole, as one traveler described it, theappear- ance of a gigantic feather. The fruit consists of a thick external husk orrind of a fibrous structure, within which is the ordinary cocoa-nut of commerce. The nut has a very hard, woody shell, inclosing the kernel, within which again is a milky substance of a rather agree- able taste. The cocoa-nut palm is so widely dis- seminated throughout tropical coun- tries that it is impossible to distinguish its original habitat. It flourishes with equal vigor on the coast of the East Indies, throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific, and in the West Indies and tropical America. It is most at home, however, in the numerous small islands of the Pacific Ocean. dissemination is accounted for by the shape of the fruit, which, dropping into the sea from trees growing along the | shores, would be carried by the tides Its wide | 95 and currents to be cast up and to vege- tate on distant coasts. The uses to which the various parts of the cocoa-nut tree are applied in the regions of their growth are almost end- less. The nuts supply a considerable proportion of the food of the people, and the liquor enclosed within them forms a pleasant and refreshing drink. The liquid may also be boiled down to sugar. When distilled it yields a spirit which is known as “arrack.”’ The trunk yields a timber which is known in com- merce as porcupine wood, and is used for building, furniture, and firewood; the leaves are plaited into fans and baskets, and for thatching roofs of houses; the shell of the nut is employed as a water vessel, and the outer husk or rind yields the fiber which is used for the manufacture of ropes, brushes, cord- age and the like. Cocoa-nut-oil is an important article of commerce. It is obtained by pressing or boiling the kernels, which are first broken up into small pieces and dried in the sun. It is estimated that one thousand full-sized nuts will produce upwards of twenty-five gallons ofoil. The oil is a white, solid substance at ordinary temperature, with a peculiar rather disagreeable odor. Un- der pressure it spreads into a liquid and a solid, the latter being extensively used in the manufacture of candles. Within late years the oil has also been manufactured into cocoa-nut but- ter, retaining, however, in a greater or less degree a distinct flavor of the nut. The monkeys and orang-outangs are very expert in destroying the tough outer covering of the cocoa-nut, though quite two inches thick. They insert their teeth into the tapering end of the nut, where the shell is very uneven, hold it firmly with the right foot, and with the left tear the covering to pieces. Then thrusting a finger into one of the na- tural apertures they pierce a hole, drink the milk, break the shell on some hard object and eat the kernel. THE BLACK WALNUT AND BUTTERNUT. TT? black walnut (Juglans nigra) is found in the rich, deep soils, from western Massachusetts, west to southern Minnesota and southward to central Texas and northern Florida. It is not found along the gulf or Atlantic coasts to any extent, but abounds west of the Allegheny mountains, especially in the Mississippi Valley. The tree grows rapidly and to a great size, one speci- men on Long Island having attained a circumference of twenty five feet. The wood is dark-colored, becoming almost black when properly seasoned, and was formerly extensively used for cabinet work, inside finish, gun stocks, and many ornamental purposes; itis not in so much demand at present, as other cheaper woods may be had which seem to answer the purposes quite as well, but it is still numbered among our val- uable forest productions. The nut? has Stliing our Pills. We mean what we say & will givethis beautiful tea : cones oN YS Set absolutely free if you comply with the extraordinary offer wesend ieee to every person taking advantage of this advertisement. To quickly introduce our Vegetable Pills, asure cure for constipation, indigestion & torpid liver, if you agree to sell only six boxes of Pills at 25 cts. a box write to-day and wesend Pills by mail, when sold send us the money & we send you one dozen Silver plated tea spoons together with our offer of a 56 p ece china tea set same day money is received. This is a liberal inducement to every lady in the land and all who received the spoons and tea set for selling our Pills are delighted. AMERICAN MEDIOINE COMPANY, Dept. S 3Q WEST (3th St.. NEW YORK OITY. 8 ip es Shah Ate wi : i) : Zi pote P aie 9 Ve = 7 » " ee READ WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING 6 ae ae , ABOUT OUR teiye ma 7} . ‘ ® “ itt Office of 1726 N St., Washington, D. C. ee ; October 29, 1808. _._ Board of Education, | y ature stupy Pus. co, ¥ 5 HERBERT B. HAYDEN, Supt. , Chicago, Ill. eke ote CZ GENTLEMEN:—The package of Charts ape . s is j express ieee Counci1, BLUFFS, Iowa, Oct. 8, 1898. 8 yest fo ‘hard, ae dil hasten to exp Biri W. E. Wart, President. my high. appreciation of them for ed- ae. DEAR Sir—It is indeed a pleasure to bear | cational purposes. I think I should Ns testimony to the educational value of so beauti- z s # f _ fula production as the CHARTS OF NORTH have gone wild with joy if I had seen _ AMERICAN BIRDS, issued by the Nature | such pictures when I was a schoolboy, . ae Study Publishing Co., of Chicago. ; f fag We have recently ordered a supply of these and now I should like to see the set of Be Charts for the Schools of this city. Our Charts in every public school and Bese, ; teachers are already finding them a most : : ‘ted § _- inspiring basis for Nature Study and Language | kindergarten in the United States. - work. They combine beauty and utility in a re , They inspire a love for the birds and through Y y | y Bee y 1 } b _ this, a love for all Nature. The children are high degree, should be immensely KS eager to tell about the birds with which they popular, and make the study of birds ae are acquainted and are very ready to look up ta - h = sy information concerning those that are new to | @ great pleasure. o not see how them. All this adds a new spirit and zest to | entertainment and instruction could- _ the Language work in those rooms in which h ] fescue ay the Bird Charts have been used. Asa basis for | have been more happily or effectively “ Information Lessons they are also of great value. | combined. + ae The color-photography process gives us the Yours truly eos most beautiful representation of our North : * eee bis cf npes : Sor I consider |- DR. ELLIOTT COUES, ~~ _. the set invalua‘le. ordially given, i “ sy HERBERT B. HAYDEN, Editor of Osprey. 8 ee Supt. City Schools. : WHAT TWO ORNITHOLOGISTS AND AUTHORS Joliet, I11., Nov. 9, 1898. " ere OF BIRD LITERATURE Sa . py Epa Dear Mr. Watt: a : , It gives me pleasure to tell you that Charts of North American Birds. | ,. Nature Study Chart you left is ast Se rece at ie, CAs once An Your siving us all the results you claimed “itis, ‘ utiful. ver. ird . : ° . . . “Should reuder you the gratitude of his heart that your for it. Interest erat life, in their ch Ww . Reine that overs raehigor in the land “aight have a homes, habits, an their preservation > Sig RE Wery Mnceroly, YOHss, has been aroused in the children. hs : Mexico, Mo. JAMES NEWTON BASKETT. The conversations upon the birds : Ps3 I find it impossible £0 express Mo MERICAN | furnish excellent material for language See RTH AMERICAN ‘ a a" eee ae cuper, They Wits fe work. I have a most creditable paper mg j no SS Cc Reha, to smooth the path ofevery beginuer., The daring of on the Blue Jay from a boy who has ~ pee A> 5 n s in io - ; ae ph ay Pioaatrniarval.to me. The world already blesses you always dreaded compositions. _ . for this undertaking, for youste helping. ko make it Very truly yours, §: Eee nN Oberlin, Ohio. mun, Go, WYNDS JONES. Kate A. pevereae Re Ko eo UB. Co., J : , ‘ea N Ks rat Michigan Ave., Chicago. Supt. Joliet ie - - ools ip Sh ptt _ These charts contain 18 sheets heavily-coated manilla paper and two cover sheets, including 1 ae individual Bird Plates, and representing 49 species of Birds’ Eggs, mounted on a tripod holder. or Oe _ descriptive circular and methods of introduction, address Si fa as ‘Chart Department, Nature Study Publishing Co., Chicago. cary fad ve. e3 se a Oe . a * . “ a ‘ : : i$ 3 mannan AS INTERESTING AS FAIRY TALES inne ; Stories of Starland, trechhdrens Astronomer, This is a most charming book cn a most interesting subject, and — is written especially for children by a skillful astronomer and oS delightful author. Older children and adults express pleasureand profit in reading this book. Pa Fully illustrated and handsomely bound in cloth, with illus. _ minated cover. PRICE, POSTPAID, FIFTY CENTS. — BIOGRAPAY FOR CAILDREN. 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